Detention and Torture in Burma

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

KHRG - Aug-99 Extract    khrg@xxxxxxxxx (Karen Human Rights Group)

Detention and Torture

"When the Burmese soldiers came to the village they ate our animals and
forced us to pay their taxes. If we didn?t give it to them, they came to
beat us and torture us. When they came the first time, they beat a man
in the village, tied his hands and his neck and cut his ears off. His
name was Kyaw Bu. They beat and tortured him together with Pa Par
Hlaing. Kyaw Bu is about 35 years old, and Pa Par Hlaing is about 30.
The Burmese came with a young boy who had joined them, and he said that
these two were Karen soldiers, but they weren?t. They are Taw Oak
villagers. But they beat them, cut their ears off and tortured them in
many ways. They beat them with the wooden pins we use to harness the
bullocks to the yoke. They beat them in Taw Oak, then they took them to
Ker Ghaw and the village headman went to vouch for them and secure their
release. He had to give a guarantee for them and they also had to pay
5,000 Kyats for each of them." - "Naw Sghee" (F, 25), Taw Oak village,
southern Pa?an district (Interview #16, 8/98)


Village elders are constantly faced with demands to provide porters,
other forced labourers, money, food and materials, and are supposed to
regularly report on KNLA movements in their area. Whenever an elder
fails to satisfy the SPDC in any of these roles he is usually beaten up
or arrested, detained and tortured, sometimes to death. In some parts of
Pa?an district the DKBA does the same to village elders who cannot meet
their random demands for money, food and materials. 

Usually when beaten or arrested the troops accuse him of being in
contact with the KNLA, but the real reason is generally just a failure
to comply with their demands. However, in many cases there is no way the
elder could possibly meet their demands; many villages simply no longer
have the money or food to continue supplying the SPDC, DKBA and KNLA all
at once. Many SPDC units receive few or no rations anymore, and have
been ordered to take their food from the villagers; the DKBA long ago
lost the cash salaries they received from SLORC, and many of their units
no longer receive food either, while some of their officers only joined
so that they could demand things from the villagers; and most KNLA units
have lost their supply lines and demand all their food from villagers.
All of this is happening at a time when the lack of rains has caused a
dismal rice crop throughout the district. The inability to meet demands,
particularly those of the SPDC and DKBA, is now causing many village
elders to flee their villages in fear of arrest and ordinary villagers
to flee in fear that their entire village will be punished.


"The Burmese stayed close to the village, and if the headman didn?t go
to report the Burmese would arrest him and put him in prison. The
Burmese didn?t really have a prison, it was a cell where they kept the
headman in stocks. One time the headman had to stay in that cell for 6
months." - "Pa Ler Wah" (M, 30), Kaw B?Naw village, Pa?an district
(Interview #33, 8/98)

"The Burmese tortured the village headman from Klay Po Kloh village, his
name is Po Ghay Wah. They put him in handcuffs and beat him, and they
interrogated him at the same time. They tortured him very badly because
they said that he was in contact with the KNLA soldiers. ? The Burmese
beat him very badly. They held him captive for 10 days. They covered his
face and tied his hands behind his back and made him follow them. He was
bound during the nights as well. They didn?t give him enough rice. They
gave him food only once a day." - "Saw Ghay Htoo" (M), Wah Mi Klah
village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #4, 9/98)


Many ordinary villagers are also arrested, detained and tortured on
suspicion of being in contact with the KNLA or related to KNLA or KNU
members. These suspicions are often unfounded and based on any random
accusation by another villager or by a DKBA or SPDC soldier who is eager
to impress his officer. Villagers arrested in this way can face summary
execution, indefinite periods of detention without formal charge at army
camps with forced labour and torture, or indefinite forced labour as a
frontline porter. Even after the troops realise that the villager or
elder is innocent, they will generally not release them until a village
headman or Buddhist monk ?vouches? for them, meaning he guarantees the
prisoner?s innocence with his life, and an expensive bribe is paid. The
families of detained villagers usually have to borrow up to 20,000 or
30,000 Kyats from relatives and other villagers to pay for the person?s
freedom, and then face years of debt trying to pay the money back.


"The name of the [DKBA] soldier who captured me was Neh Pa Htaw from
Battalion 999. He came with 20 other soldiers and they tied me up with
handcuffs and ropes. They tied me around the neck, feet and waist. I was
tied all over my body. They thought I was a member of the KNU. I was the
only one they captured, and they took me to Kway Sha. At Kway Sha I was
kept in a cattle pen with a thatch roof. I had to stay there on top of
the cattle dung. ? I had to stay in the lockup there and I had to cut
and remove stumps during the day, every day. At night time I had to go
back in my cell. They guarded me and forced me to work very hard. Of
course, there were some SPDC people among those who forced me to work. I
was forced to carry ammunition as a porter, and it weighed more than 2
mer [32 kg / 69 pounds]. ? They didn?t give me enough rice to eat. They
gave me food twice a day but the rice was not good, it was old and had
been eaten by insects." - "Saw Tee Kaw" (M), Pah Klu village, southern
Pa?an district, who was held prisoner for 3 months by DKBA and SPDC,
though he is only a villager (Interview #17, 9/98)

"It wasn?t long ago, no more than a month ago. ? They [SPDC troops] beat
me and Hsah Ku together. They hit me until my nose and ears were
bleeding. I couldn?t hear for a long time. They beat me with bamboo as
big as this, until the bamboo broke. They also beat Hsah Ku in the back
one or two times. Then one of them called me to go out into the forest
so they could shoot me dead. They ordered a man to shoot me dead, and he
tied me up tightly and then made me sit on a paddy dyke. The Burmese
beat me a few times and kicked me off the paddy dyke - it was very high,
as high as your waist, and I fell and hurt my head on the ground. Then
they picked me up and slammed my head against the ground again. ? Then
they found 3 guns, and after they found them they tied me up to a
betelnut tree and beat me. They hit my head against the tree until my
head was bleeding, and then they set me free." - "Saw Kaw Doh" (M, 19),
villager from just outside Myaing Gyi Ngu describing how SPDC troops
tortured him while trying to find hidden KNLA guns; this incident caused
him to flee and join KNLA (Interview #31, 4/98)

"They made a pregnant woman from Po Ti Pwa village follow them. She also
carried her daughter on her back. They took her to Maw Po Kay. They held
her there for 17 or 18 days but they have released her already. The
Burmese saw her making alcohol and they took her to follow them. I don?t
know what they did with her and I didn?t ask her about what they had
done. We have to be afraid of them." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 45), Wah Mi
Klah village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #4, 9/98)

"Then they told me, ?Mother, if you say to us that she is the wife of a
KNU, we will tie her up and force her to look for her husband.? I
whispered in my heart, ?Oh my God!?" - "Pi Hser Mo" (F, 50+), Pah Klu
village, southern Pa?an district, describing her interrogation by SPDC
troops about a friend of hers (Interview #19, 9/98)