3/10/2012

Ex-Inmates Describe Torture In Burma






A painting in the office of a political prisoner advocacy group depicts mistreatment of inmates in Burmese prisons. (By Ellen Nakashima -- The Washington Post)



RANGOON, Burma -- Min Ko Naing spent nearly 16 years in solitary confinement. Not even his jailers would make eye contact with him. Myo Myint was repeatedly stripped, shackled and beaten while spending much of the same period in prison, also for challenging Burma's military rulers. During one interrogation, he recalled, he was kept naked for four days while being bludgeoned with canes. During another, he was lashed for hours to a seesaw, head down, until he blacked out. Each man had passed more than a third of his life in prison when both were released in 2004. Min Ko Naing, 44, remained in Burma, under scrutiny of the secret police. Myo Myint, 43, fled to a small town just over the border in Thailand. Their testimony, provided in separate interviews last month, highlights the psychological and physical abuse endured by political prisoners in Burma, which is ruled by a military junta. More than 1,100 people remain in jail for seeking democratic reform, according to Amnesty International. The two men's accounts reveal how determined they remain to press for social change despite torture inside prison walls and only the remote prospect for a shift in power outside them.


Myo Myint now works with a group advocating prisoner rights. Min Ko Naing is urging the government and its opponents to set aside political differences to ease the country's deepening poverty and treat spreading disease.


It was not possible to independently verify the two men's accounts, but their descriptions of conditions in the prisons were similar to those provided by other former Burmese inmates.


Min Ko Naing organized a national student union in the 1980s to press for democracy. But in August 1988, Burmese security forces smashed the movement, killing thousands of students and workers demanding an end to military rule. In 1989, when he was plucked off the street by men in a red pickup truck, he became one of his country's most famous political prisoners.


Though Min Ko Naing is now at constant risk of being rearrested, he agreed to meet a foreign journalist because, he said, he wanted to emphasize his hope for national reconciliation. "There were so many bitter experiences," he said during the interview behind closed doors in a private room in central Rangoon. "My individual life and experience was bitterness."


But he refuses to dwell on the past. "We've glimpsed the light of the Buddha's teachings," he said, referring to other former student activists. "Forgiveness and loving kindness can conquer the hatred. Our aim for all citizens of our country is to leave our individual sacrifice and individual suffering for the past."


Min Ko Naing's voice is deep but soft, his dark brown eyes sober. When he explains his views, he ticks off the points on slender fingers. When he wants to summon a memory, he presses a thumb to his forehead.


Throughout his time in prison, Min Ko Naing said, he was kept in a cell apart from others, watched by unseen military agents and denied even a book or a pen. "There was no human contact," he recalled, then switching from Burmese to English for emphasis: "Nothing."


He spent the first nine years in the infamous Insein Prison, in a dim cell eight feet by 10 feet.


Leaning forward during the interview, he drew a tight circle in the air with his hand to illustrate the size of his cell. Then he rose to his feet and turned his back, extending his right arm behind him. He pretended to flick a lighter, demonstrating how his jailers would light his cheroot cigar without facing him.


"The guard wouldn't even look at me because military intelligence was watching," he said. "They were so afraid of letting me have contact with others -- not even a cat, not even a bird."


In 1991 his parents and sister were allowed to see him, but no one else outside his family, and never for more than 15 minutes every two weeks, he said. He was hooded when he was taken to and from the meeting point, to prevent any other human contact. In 1998, he was transferred to Sittwe Prison in remote Rakhaing state, 350 miles from Rangoon. Visits became almost impossible.


Min Ko Naing was released in November 2004, unexpectedly and without official explanation.


He said in the interview that he believed the country's military rulers were unlikely to relinquish power any time soon. So since his release, he and other activists have urged the government to cooperate with them on social programs to raise incomes and help reverse what are among Asia's worst outbreaks of AIDS and malaria.


The government has so far shunned the proposals. Some Burmese who have been in contact with the former prisoners have themselves been jailed recently.


The information minister, Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan, said his government respects the rights of all people in Burma, which the rulers call Myanmar.


"The people of Myanmar are enjoying human rights no less than the people of other countries," Kyaw Hsan said in an interview. "There is a high level of human rights in our country. But all people have to abide by the rules and regulations of the nations." People's rights can be curtailed only if they act in a way that "affects the stability and security of the state and the national interest," he said.


Myo Myint did not know Min Ko Naing. But he knew of him. And he knew they shared the same goals.


A handsome, six-foot-tall son of a Burmese army captain, Myo Myint followed his father into the service. But then a land mine blew off his right arm and leg. He said that his long convalescence gave him time to reflect on atrocities he had seen fellow soldiers commit and that he began to see the bleakness of the government.


In 1989, he met Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic opposition leader whose fledgling party, the National League for Democracy, was beginning to attract legions of followers. Myo Myint became an official in the party's youth wing.


In August 1989, Myo Myint was arrested and sent to Insein Prison. The following year, inmates there went on a hunger strike, demanding that political prisoners be released. The jailers broke the strike. Myo Myint recalled that they forced him to lie facedown for more than seven hours while they stood on his remaining arm and leg, beating him with a wooden rod.


Other times they made him squat on his one good leg for four hours a day, blindfolded.


The prisoners called the tiny, darkened isolation cell at Insein the "military dog cell," Myo Myint recalled during an interview in Mae Sot, a Thai town on the Burmese border. Once, he said, he was left in that cell for a month. He could not see anything, only the hand of the prison guard passing him a stale portion of fish paste.


"You didn't know if it was day or night," he said.


Another time, he recalled, he was stripped, blindfolded and forced to perch on a four-foot-high stool, handcuffed to the seat. Then the guards kicked it out from under him, punching him and beating him on the back and hips with canes.


What sustained him throughout his three terms in prison over nearly 15 years, he said, was his belief that one day Burma's internal strife would end. "Many people made sacrifices," he said. "I myself, I lost my leg. Many people lost their parents, their children. . . . Only having reconciliation and a democratic government, that is what I wanted."


Upon his second release, in 1997, he set out to support those who were still inside. Using his prison contacts, he smuggled food and letters into the jail. Within one month, he was caught and taken to a military intelligence center. There, he said, he was starved and beaten until he suffered rectal bleeding.


Myo Myint was released for the final time in May 2004 and again resumed his underground efforts. But every two days, an intelligence officer would visit his home, warning him to stop, he said. Last March, after he was interrogated for an entire day and threatened with arrest yet again, Myo Myint decided it was time to leave. He used his old military ID card to slip across the border into Thailand. He now works in Mae Sot for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, documenting the number of political prisoners still behind bars.


A report issued last month by the assistance association said the type of abuse experienced by Min Ko Naing and Myo Myint is widespread. Based on interviews with 24 former political prisoners, the report said torture is used to "break down" political activists and instill fear in the public.


At night, Myo Myint said, he still wakes up sweating and shaking. It could be a dog barking that jars him from sleep. It could be a memory. The images of tortured prisoners haunt him.


"I know exactly how they feel, how they suffer," he said. "As long as they are behind bars, I cannot ignore that. So I work for them."


Nakashima reported from Mae Sot, Thailand.









Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 3, 2006



No comments:

တီးမယ္

PALI ZI. CHAU’ CHE’ PALI OU: GYI PALI ZI. NJAN: HSIN

PALI ZI. CHAU’ CHE’  PALI OU: GYI  PALI ZI. NJAN: HSIN
[Stuff and nonsense – lies] [Wheeler, one who deceives in an endearing way] [Using deceits as scaffolding]

Maung Thar Kyaw

The Statement, dated October 30th, and with the Place mentioned as: Sane Lai Kan Thar, the name of the State Guest House: ‘from 13:00 to 13:55 Daw Aung San Su Kyi [ASSK] came to see Union Minister U Aung Kyi, as she was invited by the Government of the Republic of Myanmar’ was issued.

At the Meeting the discussion dwelled on the situation where ‘the State is providing necessary assistances [meaning Constitution Amendments, for example, I guess]; and, in order to have economic development views on the importance of freedom of trade, and free circulation of currencies were also discussed’. And also, ‘the progress of the State’s undertakings to obtain perpetual peace initiatives with ethnic armed groups and the people that should be included in the amnesty were discussed’. Meetings in the future shall convene is agreed.

Details of the entire Meeting were not disclosed, as usual. This is the fourth time such Meeting had taken place.

After the Third Meeting between the two factions the Statement mentioned that the President was considering Amnesty, to join hands in controlling the flow of the Irrawaddy River, to bring in into legal folds of the people who are undergoing armed rebellion; and peace and rule of law were discussed.

After meeting with Aung Kyi twice ASSK met the President Thein Sein in August in Naypyidor. Soon afterward, over 200 so-called political prisoners were released under Amnesty Order. So-called political prisoner because the Governing clique consistently mentioned there is no political prisoners in Myanmar though there are plenty. There is some truth in the government’s claim that there is no political prisoner because no one was arrested under political issues but rather on criminal charges - for example: currency law, or disturbing public tranquility, etc.

ASSK met with Aung Kyi nine times under the previous military government but there was no substantive result whatsoever came out.

The Government came into existence on January 31, 2011 under the caption of the Government of the Republic of Myanmar with its President elected by the Union Parliament, a former military officer General Thein Sein. Many opinionated this General is a Dove – a soft liner, and his Deputy President Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo [Shit Loane], another ex-General is a Hawk – a hard liner; all baloney; they all are one liner, i.e. for the prosperity and welfare of the Armed Forces, meaning the top and upper echelon of the Army, under the guise of democracy.

New Guise needs, of course, new format and that new format is what the new government is formatting or formatted by the military junta before the State Power was transferred and implementing it as planned. Whether former SG Than Shwe is pulling the string from behind or is he still involved in day to day affairs are all irrelevant, though his State managed private office near Oatparta Thati Pagoda in Naypyidor is hooked with Online TV honing in onto the proceedings of the Union Parliament. He knows or he is privy to know who is behaving or misbehaving in the Union Parliament but whether he is watching the TV is something yet to be known or playing his favorite games.

The Executive, Judiciary, and Legislature were formed and on March 30th the State Power was transferred; the military junta SPDC was dissolved. The Ministry of Interior had given warnings to NLD Chairman Aung Shwe and Secretary ASSK in the last week of June to stop all its political activities as NLD is no political party according to the Party Registration Law of the Union Election Commission. The Ministry warning emphatically mentioned that NLD’s actions were intentionally motivated against the Law.

On top of that Union Election Commission had warned with a letter dated April 5th to all 37 Registered Political Parties not to communicate with illegal political entities. Presumably, political circles as well as diplomatic community considered the warning was directed towards NDL.

Though the new government’s changing color is visible it is still noticeably unruly. The disregards of public opinions as well as international barrages remain as the hallmark of the Thein Sein’s Administration.

Disregarding its own Ministry’s Order Thein Sein allowed Minister Aung Kyi to parley with ASSK and even invited her to Naypyidor and received her exclusively where all political leaders from the Registered Political Parties are treated shabbily at the same occasion.

The Constitution was amended proposed by the Union Election Commission regarding the Membership where criminals cannot be party members or a political entity cannot register if its members are serving criminals. That phrase has now been erased for the sake of NLD. That amendment had made eased NLD to avoid the issue of abandoning its own jailed members when and if they apply for Party Registration.

The antagonistic political ogres of Burma are, on the visual body politics, in cordial relationship. One is, up to recent past, enjoyed full support of China and now trying its best to veer off to get into the western orbit. The other ogre has, from the very beginning to present, receives consistent and absolute no-matter-what support from the western camp. It has four Radio stations providing overwhelming support in high volume of propaganda just for one person, viz. Radio Free Asia and Voice of America [two US outfits], BBC [British outfit], and Democratic Voice of Burma [EU outfit] beaming into Burma where people are socket in with one line to support, day in and day out, every day. This ogre is the western group’s horse of Burma and Thein Sein Administration wants to ride along with that horse to the winning post. Is consistent propping up necessitate a leader to become an icon? Yes, it is, at least in Burma, it has been proven!

Within a couple of days NLD will decide whether to register and the outcome is quite predictable: ‘if ASSK is promised to contest in the upcoming By-election then NLD will allow to Register by ASSK regardless of party or public opinion’. Does it mean: ‘if she is not allowed to contest in the upcoming By-election’ then NLD will not be permitted to register by ASSK? Quite likely so, as all the past behaviors indicated that: ‘person is superior to policy’, and the ‘party is dispensable’.

So far, there is no knowledge that the outcome of the Aung Kyi-Su Kyi Meeting had agreed whether ASSK will be allowed to contest in the election. If that is the case the amendment of the constitution will be a major issue. At the end of the day, one faction will sure to swallow the other like python. No on

e knows, which one will come out as the python and which one is Mai Dwe Lay.

Maung Thar Kyaw

Taiwan, November 3, 2011.



OUR COUNTRY -----

Burmese society is unique. With extended family system Burmese are laid back, or rather happy go lucky.
Sayar-Dagar relationship, or, the bond between the Sanghas and laymen is deep rooted and has been part of the culture from the time immemorial.

Elderly people spend time at pagodas or the monasteries sharing merits or family gossip, or whatever, and, that is how, unlike the Western society, members of the Burmese society do not need much of psychiatrists’ assistance.

Quiet time, alone, communicating with the Lord Buddha is part and parcel of our heritage we all enjoy tremendously. Visiting pagodas had never needed permission from the authorities.

see all

http://uk.geocities.com/kabarmakyay/Our_Country.pdf

Are these happening in Burma!

As long as one enriches him/her-self in the decadences the sky is the limit, as the junta would not bother them, that’s the saying goes in present context of Burma.
Thinzar Win, a Model, could do pretty well on Catwalk and other walks such as Burmanization of Bikini, for example. Just kicked off the blouse and the jeans and leave only bra and the underwear, that becomes Bikini, as simple as that. Look!



Here she is, Thinzar Win, on the right.

Could you still think you are looking at Burmese girls who are posting for this photo in Rangoon? If you think the junta is to be blamed for all decadent aspects, then, your thinking may be inconclusive.

Shwedarling.com, a website for dating and mating prevails in today’s Burma. In 1988 no one could dream that Burma would be at this stage today but it has advanced so fast and so vast.

Infested with nouveau riche in the ngathalau’ economy decadences are abound; instead of tea break at usual hour at or around 4:00 PM now the nouveau riche have new past time at 3:30 PM or so – “Time to squeeze Pau’ Si” at Karaoke bars that are mushrooming through out Burma!

Junta’s policies may have pushed urbanites to that corner but it is just a plain excuse. Getting along by going along is a sin, by all means.

Here is another exhibit to think of!

Moe Hay Ko, another Model, good at Catwalk as well as other walks – bed walk [?] smooching somewhere in the quiet corner!

These girls really have come out of Burmese cocoon – hi ri. u’ ta’ pa. [Shame and fear of sinning] for sure.

Mind you dear reader – the decaying culture of the people is unfathomable, especially the urbanites, the sponsors of such decadences, and, contemplate what reforms would be needed for our beloved country. Mind you, the tiger would never change into vegetarian out of pity for animals!

Salamani Kantchalar!

Burma was under absolute monarchy from 1044 AD until 1885 AD and was under different dynasties. The Monarchs yearned to possess White Elephant; i.e. to claim as the Owner of the White Elephant or Sin Phyu Shin, or, if they have more than one White Elephant, then, Sin Phyu Myarr Shin!

One White Elephant-crazy king even commanded to retrieve a dead elephant floated down the river that had resemblances of White Elephant and kept in his palace and claimed he was the Sin Phuy Shin.

White Elephant is considered to represent the power and glory of the Owner and the White Elephant would appear, according to the myth, only if the Ruler of the country has strong Power and Glory.

Burma has dictators since 1962: viz. Ne Win, Saw Maung, Than Shwe; and, all of them seem to believe that they were the royalty somehow or other. The last dynasty, Koane Baung, ended with His Majesty King Thibaw. The prophecy had it that there would be 13 Koane Baung kings to reign Burma. Thibaw was the 11th and two more kings are yet to reign. Ne Win presumed he was the 12th Koane Baung King! Saw Maung seemed to have believed that he was the reincarnation of King Kyan Sit Tharr of the Pagan Dynasty, and, Than Shwe believes he was the reincarnation of King Thar Lun.

During Thar Lun Than Shwe’s reign, a White Elephant was sited in the jungle of Rakhine State. With pomp and pageantry the White Elephant was brought to Rangoon, the then Nay Pyi Daw and kept in the highly decorated pavilion that befits only to the royalty with special elephant guards, etc., so on and so forth. All the necessary arrangements were carried out by MI and its Chief Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt who believes he was the reincarnation of Bayint Naung of Taungngoo Dynasty, though he never got to the top most spot of the junta’s ivory tower. The propaganda mill was fanning at high speed that the current rulers of Burma have highly auspicious power and glory so much so that the White Elephant was presented by the Nats [Resplendent being worthy of veneration].

Within a few months after the White Elephant had settled in at the newly built pavilion a Bangladeshi, or, to be more exact, a Chittagonian, or better known in Burma as Khortaw Kalar showed up at the Bangladeshi Embassy in Rangoon, claiming that the elephant at the Pavilion was his elephant that was herded away by the Burmese while grazing in the jungle and requested the Bangladeshi Ambassador to reclaim the elephant from the Burmese junta on his behalf. To cut the story short the Ambassador along with the Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MI officers went to the Pavilion with the Khortaw Kalar and demanded to prove his claim.

There, Khortaw Kalar stepped out and bellowed: Salamani Kantchalar!

At the very instant the ‘Command’ was heard the White Elephant lifted up his trunk and trumpeted a very loud noise. The ‘Command’ was given for the second time and the White Elephant responded in the same manner again. Then, Khortaw Kalar commanded in more Khortaw words: the White Elephant was under complete spell of commands – sitting, kneeling, etc. Now, the claim was proven to be true and the negotiation was but started. MI ended up paying US $ 100,000.00 from the State coffer as demanded by the Khortaw Kalar for the White Elephant that was supposed to have been presented by the Nats due to the power and glory of the rulers of Burma.

Khortaw did not stop then and there. He added there are four more such elephants in his possession and they were up for sale if the price is right. MI arranged a delegation to accompany the Khortaw to his native village in the no-man’s land between Bangladesh and Burma to inspect the so called White Elephants. There, the delegation found two more White Elephants out of the four and agreed to pay US$ 200,000 a piece.

Burmese delegation could not just take the two elephants away they bought; they need the Khortaw to release the two in the Rakhine jungle for them to herd them back to Burma later as though it was naturally sited. Thus, the usurper royalties of Burma got three White Elephants at a price of US $ 500,000.

Some one got excited regarding the Salamani Kantchalar and traced back how it came into existence! In the anal of Burma there was a time when a Shan Prince by the name of Sao Han Pha, better known as Tho Han Bwa reigned Burma. He was a tyrant by all means; conceited and insolent, and very much anti-Buddhist religion. During his rein many Monks were tortured, killed and extradited to far away places and forced them from learning Buddhist scripture. Tho Han Bwa was the Daman daye [impediment endangering the teachings of Buddha] of his time. Under Tho Han Bwa, some aspects of Buddhist incantations had changed; for example: Buddhan Tharanan Gitsarmi, Dhaman Tharanan Gitsarmi but Sanghan Tharanan was turned into Gunsarmi, and Buddhan Puzaymi, Dhaman Puzaymi, and Sangan had turned into Pu-Jail-mi, just like recent events under Daman daye Thar Lun Than Shwe.

Many Burmese fled to far away places, including Burma-Bangladesh border to fight back Tho Han Bwa and/or other tyrants. There, they deployed Khortaws to attend their elephants. Khortaws were taught to learn ‘Commands’ in Burmese but it was very difficult for the Khortaws to learn the necessary commands for the elephants. By virtue of wits a Burmese gave a ‘battle command or a battle cry’ for the elephants: “Sarr Lho. Ma Nyee Kanazoe Thee”, in rhyme with the actual command. That, Khortaw could learn with not much difficulty. As the time woes on the command Sarr Lho. Ma Nyee Kanazoe Thee had resonance into Salamani Kantchalar!

Ne Win who presumed to be the 12th Koane Baung, Saw Maung who presumed to be the reincarnation of King Kyan Sit Tharr of the Pagan Dynasty, and the cagey sly fox Khin Nyunt who believes he was the reincarnation of Bayint Naung of Taungngoo Dynasty had all but ended badly. Now we have to see how Than Shwe who believes he was the reincarnation of King Thar Lun ended? Is it to believe that those who sit on such chairs excrete such excreta?

As a matter of fact, the real Owner of the White Elephants or the Sin Phyu Myarr Shin actually was the Khortaw Kalar of Bangladesh!

By the way,
All the Usurpers,
Ne Win, Saw Maung, Than Shwe are mere “Suu Yauts”!


bX-31gb9w