(Bangkok) – Myanmar security forces have arbitrarily detained thousands of people and, according to numerous credible sources, have subjected large numbers to torture, beatings and other ill-treatment since the coup. Military state of February 1, 2021, Human Rights Watch said today.
Burma the military and police often hold detainees in police custody for long periods, in overcrowded and unsanitary interrogation centers and prisons. Detainees are often held incommunicado, unable to contact relatives or a lawyer. The victims, including a 17-year-old boy who spoke to Human Rights Watch, described beatings, burns from lit cigarettes, prolonged stressful positions, and gender-based violence.
“Since the February 1 coup, Myanmar authorities have resorted to torture without fear of reprisal,” said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The sheer brutality of the beatings and abuse shows how the Myanmar military authorities will silence anyone who opposes the coup.
The 17-year-old said he was beaten for days while blindfolded and forced into a pit and then buried up to his neck in a mock burial. The army arrested him in early May during a night raid on his home and accused him of being the leader of a protest group. He said he was hit on the head with the butt of a rifle during the arrest, blindfolded, and then taken to an interrogation center at a location he could not identify. Over the next four days, military interrogators repeatedly beat him with a bamboo stick filled with cement, and squeaked the rod against his shins during interrogation, he said.
“On the third day, they took me to a wooded area about an hour from where the interrogation was located,” he said. “They forced me to lie down in a pit while I was blindfolded and my hands tied. They also planned to hit my head with a pickaxe, and I thought I was going to be buried alive when they started covering me with dirt.
The boy said he and the others arrested with him were denied food and water for four days and drank toilet water to survive. Authorities held him in the interrogation center for a total of seven days before transferring him to Insein prison. There, the authorities finally recognized that he was a child and sent him to a juvenile detention center. He was eventually released after signing a false confession, he said. Human Rights Watch found his statement credible due to several similar accounts of others arbitrarily detained by the military.
Other sources interviewed said security forces often transported detainees to police stations or military interrogation facilities, where they would be beaten and forced to stand, kneel or lie in stressful positions for hours.
Han Thar Nyein and Nathan Maung, both journalists, were arrested on March 9 and taken to Ye Kyi Ai interrogation center, near Insein commune, where authorities tortured them for two weeks. Committee to Protect Journalists reported. The journalists were severely beaten, burned with cigarettes on their stomachs, thighs and buttocks, and forced to kneel on blocks of ice during interrogation. The authorities then transferred them to Insein prison, where both were charged under article 505A of the penal code for “spreading false news”.
On June 14, the authorities fall all charges against Nathan Maung, who has now left the country. However, Han Thar Nyein remains in detention and faces up to three years in prison for this charge. All charges against Han Thar Nyein and other journalists arrested following protests since the coup should be dropped and they should be immediately released, Human Rights Watch said.
Police arrested Yuki Kitazumi, a Japanese journalist, on April 19, and detained him at Insein Prison. After his release and deportation to Japan on May 15, Kitazumi told Human Rights Watch that other prisoners he was held with told him they had been brutally tortured in an army-run detention center. before being sent to Insein prison. Kitazumi said he described acts of torture, including beatings during interrogations that lasted for days, and the ban on sleeping.
Kitazumi said the experience had affected him heavily mentally. “There have been times when I have become unstable, because there is no one to stop you from thinking negatively, and no friends,” he said.
On April 17, police arrested a woman she accused of being involved in a series of bombings against security forces during house searches in Yangon. Local media reported that the woman was taken to a police station in Yanking Town, where she was severely beaten during interrogation, including on her genitals, causing severe injuries.
The woman was then taken to an interrogation center in Shwe Pyi Thar commune, where she was again beaten. By the time she arrived at the Shwe Pyi Thar Interrogation Center, she was having vaginal bleeding due to her injuries, and she could not easily eat or eat. urinate, according to her cellmate – who also described to Human Rights Watch how she was molested, threatened with a gun and slapped during her own interrogation at another police station in Sanchaung County.
Under international human rights law, the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is prohibited in all circumstances. Articles 330 and 331 of Myanmar’s penal code expressly prohibits the use of torture during interrogation and states that anyone “willfully causing serious bodily harm for the purpose of extorting the victim” will be punished with a prison term of up to 10 years and a fine.
According to the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 870 people died since the coup. Of those killed, at least 22 died of torture in detention. “The number of people tortured to death in detention is probably higher than confirmed,” the group said in a statement. declaration issued June 11.
“The Myanmar military authorities cannot be trusted to undertake serious investigations into allegations of torture, let alone prosecute the police and military aggressors,” Maung said. “The United Nations and the governments concerned should publicly demand an end to the torture and other ill-treatment of detainees and make it clear to the military that non-compliance will mean redoubled efforts to impose additional targeted sanctions on senior officials. army and police and military-owned businesses. . “
