Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Burma.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Burma. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Burma U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/burma/
[accessed 6 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The law prohibits
torture; however, members of security forces reportedly tortured and
otherwise abused suspects, prisoners, detainees, and others. Such incidents
occurred, for example, in prisons and in Rakhine State. Authorities generally
took no action to investigate incidents or punish alleged perpetrators. Security forces
reportedly subjected detainees to harsh interrogation techniques designed to
intimidate and disorient, including severe beatings and deprivation of food,
water, and sleep. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Bedding was often
inadequate and sometimes consisted of a single mat, wooden platform, or
laminated plastic sheet on a concrete floor. Prisoners did not always have
access to potable water. In many cases family members had to supplement
prisoners’ official rations, medicine, and basic necessities. Inmates also
reportedly paid prison officials for necessities, including clean water,
prison uniforms, plates, cups, and utensils. Medical care was
inadequate and reportedly contributed to deaths in custody. Prisoners
suffered from health problems, including malaria, heart disease, high blood
pressure, tuberculosis, skin diseases, and stomach problems, caused or
exacerbated by unhygienic conditions and spoiled food. Former prisoners also
complained of poorly maintained physical structures that provided no
protection from the elements and had rodent, snake, and mold infestations. Prison conditions
in Rakhine State were reportedly among the worst. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 11 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE
OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? The NLD
government’s push for the creation of a more comprehensive peace mechanism
continued to be hampered by military offensives against various ethnic rebel
groups, particularly in Shan and Kachin States, attacks by such groups
against security forces, and continued divisions among signatories and
non-signatories to a 2015 national cease-fire agreement. Reports of
indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and
other abuses by the military continued, as militant groups engaged in forced
disappearances and forced recruitment. Areas in the north remain riddled with
land mines planted by both militants and the army. Authorities at times
prevented aid groups from reaching populations affected by violence. Prison conditions
are frequently life-threatening. Australia
considering sanctions against Myanmar amid 'horrendous rapes, killings and
tortures' 9 News, nine.com.au,
19 September 2018 www.9news.com.au/2018/09/19/15/27/myanmar-rohingya-crimes-united-nations-report-australian-sanctions [accessed 21
September 2018] A fact-finding mission
established by the United Nations has documented atrocities committed against
minorities in Myanmar by the country’s military, the Tatmadaw. The official report
details incidents including public rapes of 40 people at a time so brutal
victims were killed or maimed, sexual torture of men and boys, people forced
back into burning homes to die and children killed in front of their parents. While some horrific
details of what has been going on in the country were revealed last month,
including women and children tied to trees by their hair or their hands and
raped, the entire report has now been released. We’ll Turn Your
Village Into Soil’: Survivors Recount One of Myanmar’s Biggest Massacres Jon Emont and
Niharika Mandhana, Photographs by A.M. Ahad for The Wall Street Journal, 11
May 2018 [accessed 11 May
2018] Security forces
went door to door, shooting anyone who emerged, including children, in a
Sunday afternoon massacre. On a Sunday
afternoon last August, Ahammed Hossain hid for four hours in a pond in his
village of Chut Pyin, screened by bushes and thorns. Around him, he recalled,
there was gunfire and the cries of men, women and children trying to outrun
the deadly force of Myanmar’s 33rd Light Infantry Division. About a quarter of
the village’s Rohingya Muslims, more than 350 people, died that day, Mr.
Hossain said, which would be one of the largest massacres by Myanmar‘s
security forces since the military initiated its campaign against the minority
group last year. The campaign’s death toll, estimated in the thousands,
compares with notorious ethnic killings of the recent past, including
Albanians targeted in Kosovo and deadly gas attacks against Kurds in Iraq. Rohingya crisis:
Muslim women reveal rape and torture inflicted by Burma military forces Lydia Smith, The
Independent, 11 December 2017 [accessed 12
December 2017] Rohingya women have
come forward with stories of sexual assault, beatings and torture at the
hands of Burmese security forces.
More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh to
escape an offensive by the Burmese military described as a “textbook example
of ethnic cleansing” by the United Nations.
Sunuara, 25, who only gave her first name, fled to neighbouring
Bangladesh after her village was attacked on 25 August. Sunuara, who was
eight months pregnant at the time, was tied to a bed and raped by nine men
for six hours, according to testimony provided to reporters with the Getty
picture agency. Roshida Begum, 22,
escaped from Tula Toli village in Burma at the end of August. The military is accused of petrol-bombing
her village and setting houses on fire, shooting anyone they saw on the spot. The soldiers shot
the young boys and threw babies and children in the river, she said, adding
that they took jewellery off the women and made them kneel up to their necks
in a pond. The military then
took groups of four or five women into houses and raped them, including
Roshida. She said her baby, who was 25 days old, was thrown to the ground and
killed. After the men were
done, she said they slit the women’s necks with machetes and set the house on
fire. Roshida survived and escaped, hiding in a paddy field until she came
across another woman - and together they crossed into Bangladesh. Report details
prison torture in Myanmar The nation, Yangon,
28 May 2016 www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Report-details-prison-torture-in-Myanmar-30286883.html [accessed 8 August
2016] The study of 1,621
ex-inmates found the authorities tortured political prisoners systematically
and extensively. The report describes deaths during investigation, in jail
and labour camps due to insufficient food and water, the lack of health care
and torture. Some political prisoners were used as porters in warzones. Around 67 per cent
said they suffered from inhumane treatment while 58 per cent said their human
dignity had been violated. After release there
was social discrimination, travel bans, lack of education and job
opportunities, financial difficulties, family problems, physical and mental
suffering and barriers to joining social organisations. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] BURMA ABUSES AGAINST
ROHINGYA
- A January 2014 incident in a Rohingya village called Du Chee Yar Tan in
Maungdaw township reportedly resulted in the killing of between 40 and 60
Rohingya villagers by security forces and Arakanese residents. One policeman
was also reportedly killed. The United Nations Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights conducted a short investigation under
restrictive government conditions and confirmed that a violent incident had
taken place, and estimated that dozens of killings had occurred. Two government
investigations and one by the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, which
were below international standards and did not include impartial
investigators, dismissed the incident as exaggerated. Journalists and
independent human rights monitors have not been given adequate access to the
area to investigate. Murder, Torture And
Political Prosecution By Extremist Buddhists Sparks Mass Exodus Of Myanmar’s
Rohingya Esther Htusan, The
Associated Press AP, Sittwe, 17 November 2014 [accessed 3 December
2014] Lewa said soldiers
and border guards in northern Rakhine state, where most of the estimated 1.3
million Rohingya live, are engaging in a “campaign to create fear and to get
them to leave.” She said that in
the last six weeks: — At least four
Rohingya men were tortured to death in northern Rakhine, in western Myanmar.
Lewa said security forces broke one victim’s leg and burned his penis during
interrogation, and that the pummeled body of another Rohingya was found in a
river. — Young men have
been grabbed off the streets and brutally beaten by border guards and
soldiers without any clear explanation. One photo snapped by cellphone shows
a man after he was allegedly smashed with the butt of a gun in the jaw,
cheekbone and stomach. — More than 140
people have been arrested in two dozen villages on what Lewa said appeared to
be trumped-up charges, ranging from immigration violations to alleged links
with Islamic militants. Burmese police
still torture detainees, UN told DVB, 10 September
2014 www.dvb.no/news/burmese-police-still-torture-detainees-un-told-burma-myanmar/44043 [accessed 16
September 2014] “The practice of
police torture in Myanmar [Burma] remains unchanged despite the efforts and
work of countless individuals across the globe,” read the statement, which
went on to detail six cases documented since January 2013. The group said
that there are “far more incidents” and that “the practice of torture by law
enforcement agencies has been standard operating procedure through the
interrogation process”. One case detailed
in the report was of a rickshaw driver arrested in July 2014 on charges of
stealing fuel. The man was reportedly tortured in custody as police tried to
obtain a confession. Upon his release, he was admitted to hospital and died
from his injuries on 7 July. The ALRC said that the man’s family was
threatened by authorities not to contradict official accounts of the ordeal. Myanmar army
accused of torturing Kachin civilians Australian
Broadcasting Corporation ABC Radio Australia, 10 June 2014 www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific/myanmar-army-accused-of-torturing-kachin-civilians/1324396 [accessed 10 June
2014] SMITH: We've actually
documented the torture of more than 60 civilians over the course of the last
three years, not only Myanmar army, but also the Myanmar police force and
military intelligence. Essentially,
what we're documenting is a systematic pattern that's emerged over the last three
years. All of the people that we
spoke to were beaten severely, they're questioned for information about the
Kachin independence army, which the Myanmar army is currently at war with.
Some of the methods of torture that are being used are particularly
brutal. One example involves a case
of eight Kachin farmers who were beaten severely over the course of many
hours, and then they were forced to lick their own blood off of the ground. We've documented cases of men being
forced to dig what they were told would be their own graves, and then the
authorities would release them afterwards, as a form of psychological
torture. Some detainees have been denied food, water and latrines or normal
sensory stimulation, such as sunlight. Police Torture
Leaves Teenage Boy Severely Injured Salai Thant Sin,
Myaung Mya Town, The Irrawaddy, 5 November 2013 www.irrawaddy.org/burma/police-torture-leaves-teenage-boy-severely-injured.html [accessed 6 Nov
2013] The family of a
14-year-old boy who was detained by police in Myaung Mya Town, Irrawaddy
Division, says that he was tortured so badly while in custody that he has
been unable to walk since his release more than a month ago. Khin Shwe, the
mother of Soe Lin, said police arrested her son as a suspect in the murder of
their neighbor Kyaw Wai, who was killed on July 23. During his detention, she
said that he was charged with murder at Myaung Mya Township Court and severely
tortured during police interrogation. “My child cannot
walk at all,” Khin Shwe told The Irrawaddy. “Someone has to put him on his
back and transport him if he needs to go somewhere. He has been like this
since the day he was released from the police station. He can’t stand up and
someone has to help him to do so.” She added, “He says
he can’t breathe properly. He said he felt like this after policemen put his
head under water as part of torture in custody.” Soe Lin told The
Irrawaddy by phone that police had subjected him to violent torture, burning
off his eyebrows, holding his head under water, pushing burning cigarettes on
his skin, forcing him to kneel for long periods of time, and depriving him of
food and water. A doctor in a
hospital in Pathein, the Irrawaddy Division capital, said he had examined Soe
Lin’s health condition and confirmed that he was unable to walk, or even
stand, by himself. Torture Persists in
Kachin State Seamus Martov, The
Irrawaddy, 2 Sept 2013 www.irrawaddy.org/z_kachin/torture-persists-in-kachin-state.html [accessed 13 March
2014] “I’m very happy to
be free now, but I cannot forgive them for what they did to me,” Brang Shawng
says. Though his bruises and cuts have healed, he has numerous scars all over
his body as a result of the brutal methods he says his interrogators used to
extract the false confession that he was a serving captain in the KIO’s armed
wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). When asked about
the extent of his injuries, Brang Shawng lifts up his shirt to reveal a scar
just above his navel. “This is where they cut me with a knife,” he recalls.
He then lifts his longyi to show dozens of similar scars all over his legs
and thighs, the result he says of being repeatedly poked with sharp objects. Brang Shawng’s
ordeal, which he says also included rubbing bamboo polls on his shins, has
left him physically unable to work or even carry out simple household chores
like carrying water from the IDP camp well just meters away from his family’s
hut. Perhaps even more debilitating are the regular headaches and memory loss
he now suffers from, an affliction he says was caused by his interrogators
repeatedly delivering blows to his head. His wife—whose very
public campaign to push for Brang Shawng’s release was, according to his
supporters, a key factor in obtaining his freedom—now worries about how she
will support her three children and her husband all on her own. Horrific Torture in
Myanmar Asia Sentinel, 15
May 2013 www.asiasentinel.com/society/horrific-torture-in-myanmar/ [accessed 13 March
2014] Christian human
rights group's four-week visit uncovers widespread abuse. Noting a new
"climate of openness" in Yangon and other cities, the report
nonetheless details horrific torture of Kachins including "some of the
worst accounts of human rights violations CSW has ever documented." One Kachin former
prisoner described the torture he endured during interrogation, including
being hung upside down for a day and a night, beaten and attacked with
knives. "They put a hand grenade in my mouth and threatened to pull the
pin ... then they put a plastic bag over my face and poured water over
it," he told the NGO. The wife of one
current Kachin prisoner described seeing her husband after he had been
tortured. She told CSW: "He was covered in blood, and his nose was
broken...An iron bar was rubbed along his legs. He was forced to engage in
homosexual sex ...He was told that as he was a Christian, he should kneel on
very sharp stones with his arms outstretched like Christ on the cross...He
was beaten on his hands and arms." Savage torture in
ordinary criminal cases Asian Human Rights
Commission, Press Release, 19 February 2013 www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1302/S00188/myanmar-savage-torture-in-ordinary-criminal-cases.htm [accessed 19
February 2013] 2b. The police who
detained the two accused denied them food, water and sleep throughout the
time of their interrogation, in order to weaken their ability to resist the
methods of torture used. These included repeated kicking, punching, slapping
and beating with fists, shoes, truncheons, sticks and various other objects,
while naked or mostly naked; hanging from the ceiling with hands cuffed
behind the back while also being assaulted; hitting genitalia, burning
genital hair with cigarettes; hitting the accused's forehead into the floor;
forcing into stress positions, including kneeling for long periods on sharp
gravel, and pretending to ride a horse; rolling a rod over the shins under
heavy pressure to cause the skin to peel from the bone; and, repeated
threatening to kill the accused if they did not admit to the crime. One of
the accused the police also hung by his tip-toes with a noose, and forced
needles through his tongue, causing him to swallow blood and have a sensation
of death. 2e. When one of the
accused could not tolerate the torture any longer and agreed to confess, the
police tutored him and then took him before a judge to record the confession.
He then refused to cooperate, denied the crime and said that he had been
tortured. Rather than responding to his statements by any attention to the
rights of the accused, the judge simply told the police to take him back.
After further torture when he again came to court he was brought before the
same judge, who this time did not ask him anything at all but instead helped
the police to record falsely that no injuries were visible on the body of the
accused, and required him to sign documents that amounted to a confession. 3a. The practice of
extremely brutal forms of torture is systemic. Officials at all different
levels of the police hierarchy, courts, administration and hospitals are
aware of its occurrence, are involved actively or are complicit and condone
it. Superiors do not prohibit the use of torture by subordinate officers but
delimit it by warnings not that it is illegal or a violation of human rights
but that if the torturers go too far and the victim dies then the police
officers will, despite their pretenses to the contrary, have trouble. Myanmar army
'torture' Kachin rebel suspects: UN Agence France-Presse
AFP, 16 Feb 2013 www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130216/myanmar-army-torture-kachin-rebel-suspects-un [accessed 17
February 2013] www.gulf-times.com/story/342419/Myanmar-army-torture-Kachin-rebel-suspects [accessed 19 July
2017] The United Nations
on Saturday raised concern over the Myanmar army's "arbitrary arrest and
torture" of men accused of being Kachin rebels, and urged further
efforts to end hostilities in the far north. Following a visit
to the prison in state capital Myitkyina, Quintana said he was
"concerned about the ongoing practice of arbitrary arrest and torture
during interrogation by the military of Kachin men accused of belonging"
to the KIA. The envoy, who was
speaking as he concluded a wide-ranging visit to Myanmar Saturday, said a
large military presence in Kachin has meant that "serious human rights
violations" continue. Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 21 January
2013] Burma showed signs
of change in 2012, but the government still failed to seriously address the
dire human rights situation in the country. The new government, dominated by
the military and former generals, has released hundreds of political
prisoners, enacted laws on forming trade unions and freedom of assembly,
eased official media censorship, and allowed the opposition to register and
contest by-elections. However, hundreds of political prisoners remain, ethnic
civil war and inter-ethnic conflict has escalated, and Burmese security
forces continue to use forced labor and commit extrajudicial killings, sexual
violence, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, among other abuses. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 POLITICAL PRISONERS - Political
prisoners continued to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment
and very poor prison conditions. In February, Htet
Htet Oo Wei, who was suffering from a number of health problems, was placed
in solitary confinement reportedly for making too much noise. She was denied
family visits and parcels. In February, authorities
in Yangon’s Insein prison placed political prisoner Phyo Wei Aung in solitary
confinement for a month, after he complained about fellow inmates bullying
other prisoners. In May, at least 20
political prisoners in Insein prison went on hunger strike to protest the
government’s limited release of such prisoners that month and to demand
better prison conditions. As punishment, seven were placed in cells designed
to hold dogs. In July, the Monywa
prison authorities in Sagaing division withdrew visitation rights to Nobel
Aye (aka Hnin May Aung), after she urged high-ranking officials to withdraw
recent public statements that claimed there were no political prisoners in
Myanmar. In October, 15
political prisoners in Insein staged a hunger strike in protest against the
denial of sentence reductions for political prisoners, in contrast to
criminal convicts. Some were reportedly deprived of drinking water and were
otherwise ill-treated. Eight of them were placed in “dog cells”. In October,
information emerged that U Gambira, a Buddhist monk and leader of the 2007
anti-government demonstrations, was seriously ill and being held in solitary
confinement. He had been suffering from severe headaches, possibly due to
torture he was subjected to in prison in 2009. Prison authorities were
reported to be regularly injecting him with drugs to sedate him. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=burma+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 25 December
2018] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61603.htm [accessed 21 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61603.htm [accessed 3 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – There are laws
that prohibit torture; however, members of the security forces reportedly
tortured, beat, and otherwise abused prisoners, detainees, and other
citizens. They routinely subjected detainees to harsh interrogation
techniques designed to intimidate and disorient. On December 1, the
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners - Burma (AAPP) released a
report on the "brutal and systematic" torture that the regime
inflicted on political prisoners. Based on the testimony of 35 former
political prisoners, the report gave graphic details of the physical,
psychological, and sexual abuse the regime metes on
dissidents, and identified by name many of the perpetrators. The report
detailed the kinds of torture the regime uses, including: severe beatings,
often resulting in loss of consciousness and sometimes death; repeated
electrocution to all parts of the body, including genitals; rubbing iron rods
on shins until the flesh rubs off; burning with cigarettes and lighters;
prolonged restriction of movement for up to several months using rope and
shackles around the neck and ankles; repeatedly striking the same area of a
person's body every second for several hours; forcing prisoners to walk or
crawl on an aggregate of sharp stones, metal and glass; using dogs to rape
male prisoners; and threatening female prisoners with rape. According to the
report, the ministers of home affairs, defense, and foreign affairs form a
three-person committee that oversees the detention of political prisoners
charged under the State Protection Act. The report also
indicated that during initial interrogations torture is conducted mainly by
MAS. Interrogation was also conducted by the Bureau of Special Investigations
and the Special Branch of the Burma Police, which is under the Ministry of
Home Affairs. Five political
prisoners died while in custody (see section 1.a.). On July 6,
journalist and former member of the NLD executive committee U Win Tin was
taken to a room in Insein Prison where prisoners
are debriefed prior to release, but instead of being released, was then
returned to his cell. Opposition sources believe that U Win Tin refused
attempts by authorities to coerce him to sign a false confession (see section
2.a). In June 2004 four
members of the NLD were taken into custody, interrogated, and forced to stand
on stools for three days. The 4 were forced to sign false written confessions
that led to prison sentences of up to 15 years for violating the Emergency
Provision Act of 1950, the Unlawful Association Act of 1908, and the
Immigration Act of 1947. The court ruled the three sentences would not have
to be served consecutively, but rather the defendants would serve the longest
of the three counts (seven years). The son of the most prominent member of
this group also was taken into custody and beaten by security agents before
being released. Reliable sources
reported that in February 2004, authorities at Insein
prison beat NLD member Khin Maung
Oo unconscious. Also in February 2004 there was an
unverified report that Rangoon policemen and firemen beat San Htay for unknown reasons. In July 2004 there was an
unverified but credible report that Maung Aye, a
theft suspect, died after being beaten while in police custody. The military
routinely confiscated property, cash, and food, and used coercive and abusive
recruitment methods to procure porters. Persons forced into portering or other labor faced extremely difficult
conditions, beatings, rape, lack of food, lack of
clean water, and mistreatment that at times resulted in death. During the year
there were new reports by NGOs and community leaders that the military
continued to commit abuses against ethnic minorities, including beatings,
rape, forced mine clearing, and forced labor against villagers in Bago Division, Karen State, Mon State, Shan State, and Tanintharyi Division. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/burma [accessed 21 January
2013] LONG URL
ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 11 May
2020] The judiciary is not
independent. Judges are appointed or approved by the junta and adjudicate
cases according to its decrees. Administrative detention laws allow people to
be held without charge, trial, or access to legal counsel for up to five
years if the SPDC concludes they have threatened the state’s security or
sovereignty. Some basic due process rights are reportedly observed in
ordinary criminal cases, but not in political cases, according to the U.S.
State Department’s 2008 human rights report. In May 2008, the junta extended
the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, who had served 13 of the past 19 years
under house arrest with no charges. The frequently used Decree 5/96, issued
in 1996, authorizes prison terms of up to 20 years for aiding activities
“which adversely affect the national interest.” The Assistance Association
for Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPPB) and Amnesty International estimate
that the number of political prisoners increased from 1,192 in August 2007 to
2,123 in September 2008. Among those, 700 to 900 were arrested for
participation in the 2007 uprising. Political prisoners are frequently held
incommunicado in pretrial detention, facilitating torture. Since the end of
2005, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been barred
from conducting independent visits to prison facilities. In April 2008,
authorities in Rangoon’s Insein prison enacted
regulations denying visitations rights for non–family members, effectively
putting an end to nongovernmental programs providing food and other aid to
inmates. Conditions at Insein prison have worsened
since prison guards shot and killed 36 inmates during the panic associated
with Cyclone Nargis’s landfall. Some of the worst
human rights abuses take place in the seven states populated mostly by ethnic
minorities, who comprise roughly 35 percent of Burma’s population. In these
border states, the military kills, beats, rapes, and arbitrarily detains
civilians. The Chin, Karen, and Rohingya minorities
are frequent victims. According to a March 2007 report released by the
Women’s League of Chinland, Burmese soldiers rape and beat Chin women with impunity and are
promised 100,000 kyat ($16,000) for marrying Chin women as part of a strategy
of “Burmanization.” All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced
Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st
Century- Myanmar (Burma)", http://gvnet.com/torture/Burma.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
