Some people rid themselves of bad memories by denying them. Not Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner in Myanmar. He feels it important to remember every detail of his incarceration to ensure others behind bars aren't forgotten. To keep their experiences alive he has built, at the back of his house, a replica of a cell at Insein prison, where he languished for seven years.
It is a museum with everything from biographical information on political prisoners to drawings of torture techniques used by guards to punish their captives. Maps on the wall show the locations of the country's 39 prisons, including Insein, on the outskirts of Yangon, and graphic pictures show what can happen to people who oppose the regime. Chess pieces carved out of soap tell how these people pass their time, and bags made from plastic scraps show the ingenuity of bored prisoners.
The desolate museum is a stark reminder that more than 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars in Myanmar, even though the focus of the international community is for the military junta to release just one: opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
'Only Aung San Suu Kyi is under International eyes,' says Bo Kyi, 38, who has lived in the Thai town of Mae Sot since his exile in 1999. 'Everybody asks for her release. We should not forget the other political prisoners.'
According to Amnesty International there are about 1,300 political prisoners in Myanmar, although Mr Kyi puts the figure above 1,500. The Myanmar government says there are none.
From his base in Mae Sot, Mr Kyi runs the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (Myanmar), an organisation that gathers information on political prisoners in the country and pushes for their release. He has been busy during the past couple of months following the detention of the Nobel Peace laureate in the wake of violent clashes on May 30 between government and pro-democracy forces that led to a crackdown on her National League for Democracy (NLD).
