A Shooting Incident at Insein Prison,Burma, in 1947

On 9 February 1947, a detachment of armed police was called into the Insein Central Gaol in the northern suburbs of Rangoon to quell a serious disturbance. The police fired into the rioting prison wards, killing four inmates—a further prisoner died of heart failure—and wounding three others. The inspector-general of prisons, Burma, the superintendent of the Insein Gaol, and the district superintendent of police were subsequently suspended from duty. This paper examines the background to the Insein Gaol shootings, the incident itself, the government-ordered enquiry into the shootings, the government's response to the enquiry's report, and the final fate of the three senior prison and police officials. The paper sets the Insein prison shootings, in all their aspects, in the context of the fierce struggle between the Burmese nationalists and a weakening British administration in the final months of colonial rule.