Bangkok Post News (27/8/98) (r)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

News headlines;

1): Arrests end Burmese embassy protest

2): Marching to Rangoon drum

3): Burmese exiles tell of torture at hands of military

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<bigger>1): Arrests end Burmese embassy protest

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Police arrested 16 Burmese demonstrators in front of their embassy
yesterday, putting and end to a 23-day protest which began on Aug 3.

The move, which also forced three Thai protesters to leave the area,
followed the arrest of 14 Burmese over the weekend.

About 20 police from the Immigration Bureau and Yan Nawa station rounded
up the Burmese protesters and members of the Students Federation of
Thailand.

Pol Lt-Col Phadej Tarawong, deputy superintendent of Yan Nawa police said
the protesters were being held at the Immigration Detention Centre
because they had no evidence they had entered the country legally.

Pol Mau-Gen Kongkiart Abhaiwongs, commander of General Staff Division of
the Immigration Bureau, said the 16 were being interrogated and would
face deportation to Burma after completing the investigation within
days.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had an officer present
at the detention centre for those who wish to come forward to seek
assistance, sources said. But so far none had indentified themselves as
"persons of concern" to the agency.

	The demonstration gathered momentum following the arrest of 18 foreign
activists in Rangoon on Aug 9.

	The arrest of the protesters yesterday followed their refusal to move
back from the embassy vicinity, or to the other side of Sathorn Road.

	The decision came after consultations between Surin Pitsuwan, foreign
minister, and Sannan Kachornprasart, interior minister.

	Mr Surin had been personally reminded, in writing, by Ohn Gyaw, his
Burmese counterpart, of Thailand's commitment to the 1961 Vienna
Convention, specifically Articles 22 and 25. The articles require parties
to ensure the normal functioning of embassies and due respect for their
countries' dignity.

	Elaborating on Thailand's commitments, one official said Thailand had
ratified the convention soon after signing it in the early 1960s. In
addition, in a move that magnified its duty to protect foreign embassies,
Thailand in 1974 issued a Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act.



<bigger>2): Marching to Rangoon drum

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A regime not known for its respect for international law, human rights
and global efforts against drugs has cited a Geneva convention in its
efforts to end the embarrassment of a protest at the gates of its embassy
in Bangkok.


The capacity of Thai authorities to snap to attention when the Burmese
dictatorship utters a word of complaint is something quite astonishing.
Expressions of concern from the self-styled State Peace and Development
Council in Rangoon about the protest outside the Burmese embassy on
Sathorn road have, as usual, spurred the authorities into action.

	This time, the authorities have indicated a willingness to deport many
of the small number of Burmese protester for a variety reasons. The
immigration police, who are detaining many of the protesters at Suan
Phlu, have invoked the good old catch-all of illegal entry. The head of
the immigration police has said they would be deported following
completion of investigations into the possibility that they had violated
the laws of this land in other ways.

	It sounds all very serious, but what could he be talking about? Was he
referring to espionage, sabotage, terrorism or a conspiracy to violate
international law? Not quite. With an admirably straight face, the
immigration chief spoke of the possibility that the protesters had
obstructed our celebrated traffic. Or perhaps they had sought to
instigate unrest. Any mirth derived from the chief's comments should,
however, evaporate because there is a very real danger that the
protesters will be delivered into the hands of one of the most brutal and
disturbed regimes on this planet.

	By all accounts. The demonstration at the embassy was a small affair
involving perhaps dozens of protesters, among them Thais, and at no time
was the mission in danger of attack. The only incidents of violence were
provided by goons on motorcycles who hurled bottles and other objects at
protesters as they marked the 10th anniversary of the day in August when
the dictatorship slaughtered thousands of people who had turned out to
express their views. The motorcycle goons were able to make good their
escape in traffic that was strangely free of congestion.

	The reaction of the authorities was in no small part the result of a
diplomatic bombardment in which the regime invoked the 1961 Geneva
Convention, articles 22 and 25, no less. The convention provides for the
ensuring of the normal functioning of foreign embassies and due respect
for the dignity of the countries that they represent. That such a
diplomatic nicety should be invoked by a regime that has serious problems
in keeping its forces, of their proxies, and drugs such as heroin and
amphetamines, within its borders is odd, to say the least. But there is
nothing like important-sounding pieces of paper to spur the authorities
into action.

	The Foreign Ministry tried to convince the protesters to leave the
mission by telling them the internal problems of Burma could not be
solved in front of the gates of the embassy. They were advised to
appreciate the liberal attitude of the government and that they would be
harming their own cause by their failure to cooperate. Were that the
case, Rangoon would not have applied such pressure on Thailand to end the
protest. Was the government's attitude as liberal as the ministry
insists, the authorities would not have run immigration checks on
protesters nor threatened them with charges of obstructing traffic.

	The internal problems of Burma cannot be solved at the gates of the
embassy, but the protest does at least serve as a reminder of the
savagery of the newest member of the regional club in 1988 and of the
abominable way in which it continues to treat its people. Judging by its
diplomatic offensive, the junta has demonstrated clearly that it does not
want to be reminded of its own excesses.


<bigger>3): Burmese exiles tell of torture at hands of military

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The soldiers came in the middle of the night, said Ye Teiza. At least
home in Burma's capital and pounding on the door.

	"My heart was racing," he said. "I knew I was going to be arrested."

	Ye Teiza was a member of a student union campaigning for democracy and
an end to decades of military rule in Burma.

	Like 18 foreign activists caught handing out pro-democracy leaflets in
Rangoon last month, Ye Teiza said he was taken into the custody of
military intelligence.

	Most of the Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Filipino, American and
Australian activists said they were treated humanely. Sentenced to five
years in jail, they were immediatily deported to their home countries.

	In interviews with The Associated Press and in a soon-t0-be-punlished
book, Ye Teiza and eight other former political prisoners in Burma tell
far different tales of their own treatment. They detailed their accounts
of physical and psychological torture suffered at the hands of the
nation's military government.

	The book, "Tortured Voices: Personal Accounts of Burma's Interrogation
Centers", will be published by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front,
and anti-government exile group. It covers their arrests in the early
1990s. Reports from human rights groups say conditions haven't improved
since then.

	The military junta denies people are mistreated while under arrest.

	"Myanmar (Burma) is a land of strong Buddhist belief, and such inhumane
acts non-existent," said a government spokesman, who spoke on customary
condition of anonymity. He called the book anti-government propaganda.

	Nonetheless, the government gunned down 3,000 pro-democracy
demonstrators who were calling for and end to military rule in a
nation-wide protest in 1988.

	Ye Teiza, who lives now in Bangkok, and his colleagues say they were
brutalized and subjectd to torture until they named other democracy
activists and signed false confessions. Then, they say, they were given
sham trials and sentenced to long prison terms.

	Prisoners said they were kept in dungeon-like cells. At the hands of
successive squads of interrogators, they were beaten daily, threatened
with death, rape, subjected to electric shocks, and deprived of sleep,
food, water and using a toilet for days at a time.

	During questioning they were always blindfolded, the writers said. Some
were kept in shocks, while others had iron rods rolled over their shins.
They were forced to kneel on sharp stones until they bled, of stand on
their toes for hours with pins beneath their heels.

	People arrested by the regime, the authors said, enter the centres with
bags pulled pver their heads. Sightless, they were terrified by a
continuous wailing of people in excruciating pain.

	Naing Kyaw, an arrested student, wrote that with every question he was
hit, no matter how he answered. The interrogators never let prisoners
slip into unconsciousness, something many of them longed for.

	Ye Teiza said an officer told him: "We can kill you without any
problem."

	He eventually managed to flee Burma in 1997.

	



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