The BurmaNet News: Special Issue

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 "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: September 6, 1998
Special Issue: Student Political Prisoners

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) recently published a book,
<Tortured Voices: Personal Accounts of Burma's Interrogation Centers>, with
stories from nine former political prisoners.  With news of renewed student
protests inside Burma, these accounts offer a window of insight to the
risks that the students currently challenging the authorities are taking.

The text that follows includes the introduction to the book as well as
accounts of two prisoners' arrests and torture.  For more information or to
receive copies of the book, please contact ABSDF at lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
or 01-654 4984 (Thailand).

****************************************************************

CONTENTS:
==========
INTRODUCTION
MY INTERROGATION by Tin Tin Maw
THE STORM by Ye Teiza
****************************************************************

INTRODUCTION

The personal accounts of the nine former Burmese political prisoners in
this book reflect the strength and courage of those involved in the
pro-democracy movement in Burma. The testimonies are honest and harrowing
accounts of what occurs inside Burma's military Interrogation Centres and
reveal the perverted mentality of the brutal and paranoid military state
that rules Burma.

The contributors to this book were detained, interrogated and tortured by
Burma's Military Intelligence Service (MIS) for their belief in democracy
and universal human rights. Their accounts of what happened to them
immediately after arrest show the cruel and barbaric lengths to which the
Burmese military is prepared to go to extract information and false
confessions from opposition supporters.

Most of the former political prisoners in this book were detained for their
involvement in student unions, while others were held for being involved in
peaceful demonstrations or for their association with the National League
for Democracy (NLD). Each author tells a remarkably similar story of how he
or she was blindfolded and handcuffed when arrested, and then brutally
interrogated and tortured at an MIS Interrogation Centre before being
forced to sign a 'confession'.

The authors cite many similar methods of torture used by the MIS. They
include beatings, abuse, threats of death and rape, electrocution, sleep
deprivation, forcing people to stand or squat in uncomfortable positions
for long periods such as in the 'motorbike' position, rolling iron or
bamboo rods along a person's shins, pouring water over a person's head
covered in plastic, denial of food and water, denial of medical treatment,
forcing people to kneel on sharp stones and hanging by the arms and feet.

Following their interrogation and torture by the MIS, all the contributors
to this book were summarily tried and sentenced to long terms of
imprisonment. They were not allowed access to legal counsel and in many
cases were not even told what they had been charged with.

All but one were sent to the notorious Insein Prison in Rangoon, where most
political prisoners in Burma are sent at some time. The prison is infamous
for torture and cruelty to political prisoners and its appalling
conditions. After their release from prison, most of the authors eventually
fled Burma to the relative safety of the Thai-Burma border and currently
live in exile. A short biography of each author precedes his or her
personal account.

One former political prisoner, Moe Aye, has contributed an account of the
last days of Mr James Leander Nichols, who died in the custody of the MIS
in June 1996. Mr Nichols was the honorary consul to Denmark, Norway,
Finland and Switzerland when he died during his incarceration at Insein
Special Prison. Moe Aye was a prisoner at Insein at the same time as Mr
Nichols. Moe Aye saw him arrive at the prison, watched his condition
deteriorate as a result of the constant interrogation sessions, and was
there when the MIS took Mr Nichols away for the last time.

Moe Aye's account of Mr Nichols' last days has attracted substantial
international interest, particularly in Scandinavian countries. The account
is to be used as evidence in a lawsuit that Mr. Nichols' son, Bill Nichols,
is expected to bring against the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), formerly known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

Throughout Burma some 20 primary detention centres have been identified
where brutal interrogations and torture takes place. These centres include
the notorious Ye Kyi Aing complex outside Rangoon, and centres in Rangoon
and seven over divisions and states across the country-1. The MIS relies on
thousands of agents and informers to carry out surveillance not only on
political dissidents, students and members of the public, but also members
of the armed forces, expatriates and foreigners abroad who are actively
involved in Burma's pro-democracy movement.

The National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) oversees all of Burma's intelligence
agencies and is under the direct control of the SPDC. Under this national
bureau is the Directorate of Defence Services Intelligence (DDSI) which is
commonly known as the Military Intelligence Service. The MIS was
established in 1958 and throughout the Revolutionary Council and Burma
Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) periods from 1962-1988, it became the
means by which the regime eliminated opposition to military rule.

Even greater reliance was placed on the country's military intelligence
apparatus under the SLORC, and resources to the MIS have subsequently
increased. Since 1988 there have been reports that a number of countries
have provided training and assistance to Burma's intelligence services.
China has reportedly provided technical equipment and training, Singapore
is thought to be training members of Burma's 'secret police', and Israel's
intelligence agency Mossad is rumoured to also have provided training-2.

Under the SLORC, which renamed itself the State Peace and Development
Council in November 1997, the MIS has been responsible for most of the
reported arrests and investigations of political suspects. It has also
often been accused of brutality and using torture as part of its
interrogations. The units most often cited by human rights groups as
carrying out gross human rights abuses have been Military Intelligence
Service Unit 6 (MI-6), MI-7 and MI-14, all based in Rangoon, and MI-16 in
Mandalay.

The MIS uses both physical and psychological methods of torture. When
political prisoners arrive at an interrogation centre, the MIS first breaks
down their confidence and morale. The prisoners are treated like animals
and made to believe that they have no alternative but to confess what they
know. They are also not allowed to sleep from between three to seven days,
and are usually not fed for three days or given any water for two days.

Prisoners are also made to experience fear through various methods of
torture. This includes blindfolding prisoners or placing hoods over their
heads, and using fake screams from nearby rooms. Most prisoners admit they
experience more fear at MIS interrogation centres than during the beatings
and torture in prison.

One method used by the MIS to instill fear into prisoners is by playing
upon phobias. For instance, when the MIS interrogated a highly respected
businessman in his 60s, they knew that he was afraid of snakes. They
consequently forced him into a pit of snakes and he later recalled he was
absolutely terrified. A leader of the All Burma Basic Education Student
Union (ABBESU), Ye Maw Htoo, also suffers from a phobia of snakes. During
his interrogation the MIS told him to remove a hood that had been placed
over his head. To his terror he saw a snake moving towards his legs
preparing to bite him and he passed out.

The MIS would also tell a blindfolded prisoner to press a button and not
release it, and then tell the prisoner that he's holding a bomb. The MIS
would tell the prisoner that if he released the button the bomb would
explode. They would then leave the room. After hours of pressing the button
the prisoner's hands would shake, but he would dare not release the button.
Eventually, when the prisoner couldn't hold the button down anymore, he
would be forced to release it no matter what the consequences. However,
there was never any bomb. It was just way to instill fear in prisoners.
This method of torture was used on Nyi Nyi Htun, a member of the NLD Youth
in Tanyin Township in Rangoon. He was forced to confess to the bombing of
the Tanyin Oil Refinery compound in 1989, although he had nothing to do
with the incident. He was subsequently given the death penalty and he
remains in Insein Prison.

In July 1989, the SLORC cracked down on suspected members of the
underground network of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). There were 107
arrests in all, and the MIS selected a group of four of them, shaved their
heads, and forced them into pits in the ground. They were buried up to
their necks with only their heads above ground. They had read about this
torture in books and thought that the MIS would pour honey over their heads
and release red ants on them. However, a group of soldiers arrived instead
and began to kick their heads with their heavy combat boots.

Former prisoners tell of many other forms of torture. The well known and
respected general secretary of the People's Progressive Party (PPP), U Hla
Shwe, who is in his 50s, recalled that he was forced to stand on his toes
for hours during an interrogation. Sharp pins were placed under his heels
and eventually when he couldn't stand on his toes any longer, he was forced
to step down onto the pins. One prisoner who was arrested for having
alleged connections with the Karen National Union (KNU) was tortured in yet
another way. The MIS pulled a soft plastic bag over his head and then kept
pouring water over him. He said it felt like a bomb was exploding on his
head, and that his head was breaking into pieces and his ears were being
blown off.

Electrocution is another method of torture frequently used by the MIS. One
of the leaders of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), Myint
San, was told to press a button during his interrogation. Since he had a
hood over his head he couldn't see what it was. As he pressed the button he
received a series of electric shocks and his body twitched and shook all
over. Some prisoners would ask the MIS to make a phone call. A device,
which looked like a headset, would then be fastened over the prisoner's
head and a series of electric shocks would be delivered to him. According
to these prisoners, the torture felt like a pointed iron rod was being
driven through one's ear.

People arrested by the Military Intelligence Service are forced to call
their friends to arrange a meeting so the MIS can arrest more people. These
arrests can happen in broad daylight. Sometimes the wives of suspects are
also arrested, beaten and interrogated, and new-born babies or infants are
taken while their parents are being interrogated. Under such conditions a
political activist is forced to turn himself in and can't run away for fear
of reprisals against his wife, his parents, or his brothers and sisters.
For this reason, many people don't run away even if they are warned that a
government crackdown is imminent.

Prisoners are persuaded through various means to believe that their friends
have already confessed to certain things, and that they can therefore tell
their interrogators what they know about their friends. For instance, the
MIS makes a prisoner believe that his friend, who was probably arrested
along with him, has told them everything by making up stories from certain
bits of information. This has an effect even on the most resolute.
Prisoners then believe that their friends have become traitors and they are
likely to confess all of what they know.

In order to break down a prisoner's confidence the MIS is also likely to
tell the prisoner that they know all about him, using bits of information
from other prisoners and forcing him to confess to his supposed crimes.
Psychological torture is used in the latter days of the interrogation
process. When a prisoner is in bad shape from physical torture, the MIS
switch to using more psychological techniques so that the prisoner will not
lose consciousness. The MIS avoids letting a prisoner lose consciousness
because he or she is then not able to answer any questions and will have to
be sent out for medical treatment.

Many of these interrogation techniques and methods of torture are mentioned
in the personal accounts in this book. Over the past 35 years of military
rule in Burma, tens of thousands of people opposed to the military's
iron-rule have been detained, interrogated and tortured by the intelligence
agencies. There are currently up to 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, all
of whom would have been interrogated by the MIS upon their arrest and all
of whom would have their own stories of torture and suffering to tell.

****************************************************************

MY INTERROGATION
By Tin Tin Maw

About the Author

Ma Tin Tin Maw was born in 1970 in Bassein, southwest of Rangoon. During
the I988 uprising, she was a second year student at Rangoon University and
a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU).

After the military coup in September 1988, Ma Tin Tin Maw returned to her
hometown and served as an ABFSU township organiser. She also joined the
NLD's Election Campaign Committee as an ABFSU representative.

In July 1990, Ma Tin Tin Maw was arrested by Military Intelligence and
spent more than a month in an Interrogation Centre. She was sentenced in
September 1990 to three years imprisonment under the Section 5(j) of the
1950 Emergency Provision Act and was released from Bassein Prison in
September 1992.

July 1990

It was about ten o'clock at night when officers from the Military
Intelligence Service (MIS), Special Branch and the township police arrived
at my home, searched the house and confiscated a number of documents. They
then arrested me for distributing anti-State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) pamphlets in Bassein, the city in which I was living at the
time.

I was sent to a police station near Bassein because there was no room for
me in the nearby Interrogation Centre at Military intelligence Service Unit
4 (MI-4). When I arrived at the police station I saw that there were more
than 20 other students being held there. They took me to the women's cell,
and I was forced in after initially refusing to enter. The cell was filthy
and full of prostitutes, and the foul smell of the uncovered toilet in the
corner filled the small room.

That night I was interrogated for the first time. Officers from police
Special Branch asked me questions the whole night and I wasn't allowed any
sleep. Most of the questions focussed on whether or not I was responsible
for bringing the anti-SLORC pamphlets to Bassein. Captain Tin Myint Htun
from MI-4 was present throughout the session. Special Branch stopped the
interrogation early the next morning, and two female officers escorted me
back to the stinking cell. Just before I was taken back to the cell,
Captain Tin Myint Htun threatened me.

"If you refuse to tell the truth here, it won't be easy for you. We can
always take you to our Interrogation Centre where we're able to squeeze
water from stones."

My parents found out that I was in custody through a prostitute who had
been released. Although my family was able to send me food, the authorities
wouldn't permit them to see me. I also had to bribe the police so that I
could wash myself in the cell. One day when I was in the cell I looked
through the bars and saw a friend of mine in the police station. He was
required to report twice a day at the police station because he had been
involved in politics. He saw me in the cell and when we said hello to each
other, a police officer shouted at me to stop talking. The officer later
covered the cell bars with posters so I couldn't see through them into the
station.

I spent nearly a week in police custody and while I was there I learnt much
about the level of corruption in the police department.

One evening a week after my arrest, I was ordered to gather my possessions.
A car from MI-4 had arrived and I was taken from the cell and told to get
into the vehicle. There was an officer sitting at the driver's seat and I
wasn't sure if he was a captain or a major. The officers ordered me to sit
in the back along with two soldiers. After we passed though Bassein, the
soldiers handcuffed me and placed a hood over my head and I immediately
complained.

"We don't want you to know where we're going," one of the soldiers replied.

"I know where we're going! I was born here!" I shouted. "We're going to MI-4."

"We're just treating you the same as everyone else."

When the car stopped, two female officers took me into a building and
carried out a full body search. They also confiscated all my possessions.
At that time I heard six tolls from the fire watch, so I knew it was six
o'clock in the evening. They then lead me through the building and we soon
stopped and I heard the sound of a door unlocking. After removing my hood,
they pushed me into a cell and locked the door.

I looked around the cell which was about nine-foot square. It was cold and
the floor was concrete. There was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and
a ceramic chamber pot in one corner. There was also a bed that was just
half-a-foot off the floor.

As soon as I lay down on the bed, I heard the door unlock. I suddenly stood
up and I saw a solider standing at the entrance. He told me that I had to
move into another cell and as we walked out he ordered me not to look
around but to keep looking straight ahead. When I tried to look around,
pretending that I didn't understand what he had said, he punched me in the
head. The soldier then threw me into a dark cell and when he locked the
door I couldn't see anything. Nothing else happened that night.

The next morning, a woman came and took me to a bathroom for a wash. I
later found out that she was the wife of solider. After I washed, I was
sent back to my dark cell and at noon a solider opened the door and threw
me a plate of rice and curry along the floor. While I was desperately
trying to catch the plate, the soldier quickly shut the door. Hungry and in
complete darkness, I ate all the food even though the rice was sour and the
curry tasteless.

In the evening of the third day someone opened the door and I was ordered
to turn my back to them. They then blindfolded me and dragged to another
room. After ten minutes, someone ordered me to sit on a chair and I
realised that an interrogation was starting. My interrogator spoke Burmese
with a strong accent and I thought that he was probably from one of the
many ethnic minority groups, and he asked me the same questions that I had
been asked by Special Branch. He then read out the supposed testimony of
one of my friends who was also arrested over the pamphlets and I
immediately realised that they were attempting to trap me. After the MIS
interrogated me for six hours, a soldier took me back to my dark cell.

The next day I had a headache and I was ill from the cold. That evening a
soldier came, blindfolded me and took me from my cell. We walked for about
15 minutes and then walked up three steps into a room. I was about to be
interrogated by the MIS for a second time. My interrogator, a different man
from the first session, read out a fist of the members of the Irrawaddy
Division All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and then started
asking me questions.

"Do you admit that you're a member of the ABFSU?" When I said nothing, he
threw something hard at my face. It hit my upper lip which then began to
swell.


"Why did you join an illegal organisation?"

"The ABFSU is not an illegal organisation," I replied. "I joined the union
because I was a student. In 1989, General Khin Nyunt allowed Min Zay Ya to
form a student union and...."

"This is Irrawaddy Division under General Myint Aung!" he interrupted. "You
may be able to form a union in Rangoon, but don't even think about it here."

"There is only one Burma! The same rules should apply to all!" I shouted.

The officer then slapped me a number of times and other officers punched me
on my back. I only then realised that there were a number of soldiers
around me. After that, he threatened that I shouldn't forget that I was a
virgin. This terrified me more than the beatings.

By the fifth day I was sick with a temperature. I banged on the door of my
cell and shouted that I needed some medicine. I heard some officers
laughing outside and one of them asked me what was happening. I told them I
was sick with a fever and asked for a blanket, some medicine and hot water.

"What fever is that? Love sickness?" the officer replied.

I was angry but too weak to respond. At about midnight an officer came and
put the hood over my head and pulled me from the cell. He said that I could
have everything I wanted if I answer the truth, however I wasn't able to
reply because I was too sick from my fever. The officer pulled me along
while asking me questions.

"Who did Ko Ko Gyi meet with when he came to Bassein?" Ko Ko Gyi was the
Vice-Chairman of the ABFSU. "I can't remember," I replied, "I'm dizzy and I
have a high fever."

He then ordered me to sit on the floor and lean against the wall. I heard
him tell someone to bring a cup of coffee and some medicine. After about 15
minutes someone handed me some medicine and a cup of coffee. I asked the
officer to take off my hood but he refused. While I was drinking the
coffee, he continued to ask me questions but I can't remember them, or what
I answered.

After taking the medicine, I thought I felt better. Then the officer asked
me, "Do you know what that medicine was you just took?" I was suddenly
terrified and angry with myself as I had no idea what the medicine was.

Another officer said, "The medicine you took heightens your sexuality."

I cried and screamed and tried to remove the hood from my head.

The officers then took me back to my pitch-black cell and I remember crying
the whole night until I lost my voice.

Over the next few days they didn't ask me any questions, and later I found
out that they were busy with newcomers. During this time, I could hear
doors being opened and closed near my cell and the sounds of shouting and
beatings. Sometimes I would hear someone complaining next door. In my dark,
unlit cell, time passed very slowly. All I could do was eat my two meals a
day and listen to all the activity around me, and I realised that the
newcomers were frequently being pulled in and out of their cells.

After spending nearly a month in the Interrogation Centre, Major Maung Win,
the commander of MI-4, came and met with me.

"What do you think of our military coup in September 1988?" he asked me.

"From what I know, all the senior government officers were arrested in the
I962 military coup," I began. "But in 1988 the SLORC protected the senior
BSPP government officials instead of arresting them."

He asked me many other questions, but I don't remember them all. Then a
solider led me into a hall and ordered me to sit on a chair. Five minutes
later Daw Tin Tin Aye, our township judge, and two other men entered the
hall and sat in front of me. They asked me to sign a confession and
inquired whether or not I was injured. I showed them my swollen upper lip
but they didn't write anything about it on my confession.

The next evening I was sent to Bassein Prison. I was subsequently sentenced
to three years imprisonment and was released in September 1992.

****************************************************************

THE STORM
By Ye Teiza

About the Author

Ye Teiza was born in Lathar Township in Rangoon in 1971. He began his
political activism as a high school student during the 1988 pro-democracy
uprising and participated in demonstrations held on Rangoon University
campus before the general strike on August 8, 1988. A few days before the
general strike he was forced to leave his home because Military
Intelligence had come looking for him.

He joined the All Burma Basic Education Students' Union (ABBESU) after the
military coup in September 1988. He came to prominence in the ABBESU
because of his hard work and commitment, and was subsequently elected to
the organisation's Central Executive Committee.

Ye Teiza was arrested in August 1989 and was sentenced to four years
imprisonment under Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provision Act. He was
sent to Insein Special Prison and a week later was transferred to
Thayawaddy Prison, some 200 kilometres north of Rangoon, where he spent
most of his time in solitary confinement.

Ye Teiza was released from Thayawaddy Prison in 1992. He immediately began
to contact his colleagues and continued his political activities. However,
after participating in the December 1996 demonstrations in Rangoon, he
decided he could no longer remain in Burma. He subsequently left for the
Thai-Burma border and is now living in exile in Thailand.

IN CAME THE DEVIL

When I was working as a member of the central executive committee of the
All Burma Basic Education Students' Union (ABBESU), I mainly dealt with
political issues. I also faced many hardships and some days I wouldn't have
enough money to buy food and I had to go home and ask for money.

I remember one of those days very clearly. It was the evening of August 26,
1989. I came back from a student union meeting and hadn't eaten dinner so I
decided go home and ask for some money. It was about half past ten in the
evening when I got home. Fifteen minutes later while I was greeting my
mother, I heard three or four men calling out in front of our house.

"Are you going to open the door or will we have to break it down?" they
were shouting.

My mother looked extremely concerned. She glanced at me and then opened the
door. They kicked the door while my mother was opening it and entered the
house without taking off their boots. A sergeant came in followed by three
privates who took positions at the back of the house. Then two
plain-clothed officers and one army captain came in after them. I saw about
ten armed soldiers standing outside the house.

The captain, who had an accent, looked at me and then turned to my mother,
"We are going to take your son with us," he said. "We need to ask him some
questions."

"Did he do anything wrong?" asked my mother. "He's just a student."

"Do you know that your son is involved in forming a student union and
spreading propaganda against the government? That's why we are bringing him
in to ask him some questions."

As the captain spoke, the two plain-clothed officers handcuffed me behind
my back.

"Don't handcuff me," I began, "I'm not a criminal. You can bring me in and
ask me questions without doing all this."

One of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) officers then hit me in my
ribs, "Don't talk so much!"

The other officer put a hood over my head and I heard my mother crying,
pleading with them not to beat me. I also heard the captain with the accent
push my mother while shouting at her to stay away.

After that I couldn't see anything. The two MIS officers held me by my arms
and dragged me out of the house. They put me in an army truck that was
parked in front of our house. As soon as I was pushed into the back of the
truck, they ordered me to lie on my stomach on the floor and they then
started stamping their boots all over my head and body. During that time I
heard the captain ordering his men to search the house, and about an hour
later I heard the soldiers quickly return.

Then I heard the sound of my mother's crying and the truck starting up.

MY COMRADES

The officers were kicking and swearing at me all the way to the
interrogation centre. When we arrived I was taken from the back of the
truck and told to walk with my head lowered with the hood still on. I soon
stepped on a concrete floor and I realised that I was entering a building.
At one point they asked me to stop. They then opened a door and kicked me
into a room.

"Sit there!" someone ordered.

They slammed the door shut and left. I couldn't breathe properly in the
hood and my head and face were bathed in sweat. I was also still
handcuffed. A while later, I heard the door open and someone asked me to
stand up. I was taken to another room and as soon as we arrived they took
the hood off. Because I had the hood on for a long time, I was momentarily
blinded by the strong light in the room and it took me a while to be able
to see things properly. When I was able to see properly again, the sorts of
things that were going on in the room shocked and distressed me.

There were a number of my colleagues, who were hooded and handcuffed behind
their backs, being forced to kneel with their heads bowed. One student was
being forced to stand in a position of riding a motorbike and his knees
were shaking from exhaustion and pain. All of the students were filthy.

Two MIS officers were interrogating one of the students. "How did you
duplicate and distribute your documents?" one asked.

The student was kicked in his chest. "I don't know," he replied as he fell
down in front of me.

One of the officers grabbed his neck and took him where the other students
were kneeling down. Another officer turned to me and warned, "You are the
last one we need to interrogate. If you don't tell us the truth, you'll get
hurt more than the others."

I was then taken out of the room by the captain who had brought me from my
house.


THE BREEZE BEFORE THE STORM

After they showed me how they tortured my comrades, they took me into a
large room where an officer sat. The officer had quite a dark complexion
and looked strong.

"Captain Soe Kyi, what did you get as evidence from him?" he asked the
captain who accompanied me.

"I got nothing from the house," the captain replied, "but it's alright." He
then turned to me and said, "We have evidence, even though we didn't catch
you with it."

The officer in the room said his name was Captain Tun Aung Kyaw and that he
was from Military Intelligence Service Unit 14 (MI-14). I later found out
that he was one of the main officers responsible for investigations into
the student unions. He started asking me questions as he leafed through the
files in front of him. "Is your student union, the ABBESU, a legal
organisation?"

"As long as we students exist the student union will exist, so it legal."

"We, the government, do not recognise your union." 

"And we do not recognise the SLORC as a legitimate government."

"You all are young people," he continued, "Who taught you become involved
in politics and say these things?"

"No one did. We say things that reflect the present situation." "Who is
behind all your political activities?" he repeated.

"No one is," I replied. "Our political activities reflect our feelings."
"Do you think you will become a government minister by doing these things?"

"We are not doing this for ourselves. Throughout our history, no student
union has ever been involved in politics merely for the sake of winning
power."

Then Captain Tun Aung Kyaw asked me about the activities of our student
union and he grew angry when I failed to give him any information. "We have
many ways to make you tell these things!" he said. "Our superiors have told
us that we can kill you without any problem."

Captain Tun Aung Kyaw then issued some orders to Captain Soe Kyi who
grabbed my neck and took me into another room.

GATEWAY TO HELL

As soon as we came out from the room Captain Soe Kyi put the hood back over
my head, hit me across the face, and told me to keep my head bowed. He then
grabbed my hair forcing me to bow my head, and told me to walk. He was not
leading me, but was at my side telling me what to do. Although the floor
was level, they told me to bend down saying there was a bar in front me,
and to jump over a ditch. Sometimes they even asked me to squat like a
frog. They treated me like an animal.

Even when the MIS officers told me to bow and I did so, they would hit me
across the head with a stick and say, "You didn't bow properly!" Sometimes
they told me to step across something and I would do it, but they would hit
my shins and shout, "You didn't step across it properly!" They would also
ask me to jump and then trip me up, saying "You didn't jump properly!"
After they were satisfied with harassing me, they took me into another room.

When we got there they asked me to squat as though I was riding a
motorbike, and three officers began to ask me various questions. I refused
to give them any information so they beat me. They beat me when they asked
me questions and when I refused to answer them as well. The officers would
change shift and would keep asking me questions without ever giving me time
to rest, even at night. I fell to the floor many times from the beatings
and from the pain from sitting in the motorbike position. Whenever I fell
down the officers would kick me with their heavy boots and step on my toes
and fingers. They would then tell me to stand up again. Whenever I moved,
my wrists and my hands felt terrible pain from the handcuffs, which were
specially designed to tighten with any movement.

I was interrogated the whole night without being allowed any sleep. My
throat had become completely dry and I was extremely thirsty, so I asked
for some water. They told me to lie down on a long bench and they removed
the hood. They then covered my face with a thin cloth and slowly poured
water over my face. The cloth was soon soaked and I started to suffocate.
The MIS officer then asked me "Have you had enough water? Or would you like
some more?"

After they tortured me with the water, they put the hood back over my head
and told me to kneel down where they had placed some sharp rocks. While I
was kneeling on the rocks, they continued to interrogate me by kicking my
ribs and hitting me on my temples. Whenever they hit me the movement of my
body tore the skin on my knees which started to bleed over the rocks. I
asked them to move the rocks, and they told me to sit down on the floor
with my legs stretched out. They continued their questioning and then
rolled a stick across one of my shins. It was extremely painful. They
pushed and rolled the stick even harder and I was soon covered in sweat
from the pain.

When I was in the interrogation centre I was not given enough food or
water. When my union colleagues and I were fed together, the MIS guards
would lift our hoods to our mouths but wouldn't release our handcuffs. They
gave us husky-unrefined rice with rotten dahl soup in the cover of a big
cooking pot. My comrades and I had to bend over and eat the rice by sucking
it. Sometimes MIS guards would come in during our meals and kick us, saying
we were eating too slowly.

Before they sent my colleagues and I to jail, we had to spend a night in
one particular room in the interrogation centre. The room was wet, smelt
rotten and was full of garbage. They tied all our legs together with one
rope that was tied to bars at both ends of the room. With our legs tied
together, the rope would tighten if someone moved. As a result no one was
able to get any real sleep. To make matters worse, the guards also
frequently came into the room that night and shouted at us, "You bastards!
Aren't you asleep yet!"

In the morning we were sent to the police lock-up. Before we left, we were
able to see our interrogators, Captain Naing Win and Lieutenant Aung Din.
We had only heard their voices while they had been interrogating us over
the previous days. Now they took photos of us and asked us to sign some
documents which we were not allowed to look at. When I tried to look at the
documents, one of them hit me across my head and shouted, "You don't need
to look at that!"

THE POLICE LOCK-UP

We were then taken to a police lock-up, and after two days they put a hood
on me once again and handcuffed me from the back. They took me to another
room and asked me to squat in the motorbike position. Later on, an officer
came into the room and asked me questions about the Mandalay Division of
the ABBESU. When I refused to provide any information he got angry and
threatened me.

"You will know about me," he said. "I'm tougher than the people you've met
before. We could crush you students like sugarcane pulp after it's been
crushed for juice!"

They then tied my legs with a rope and turned me upside down. They started
kicking my ribs and kept asking me more questions, but I still refused to
answer them. They were getting angrier with me, so they untied me and told
me to sit in a chair. After that they placed a ballpoint pen, with angled
sides, through my fingers so some fingers were on top and others were
underneath. They then squeezed my fingers. The pain was so agonising that
my whole body shook.

When that was over, the officers reached for the electric bulb that was on
in the room and lowered it on top of my head. The light was excruciatingly
hot and my head began to heat up and I felt dizzy. They did these things
for the whole night and sent me back to the lock-up in the morning. I
couldn't see anything when I got back to the lock-up. My head was spinning
and my fingers were swollen.

We were not allowed to see our parents while we were in the lock-up. This
was because the authorities were afraid that our parents would see the
marks and bruises on our bodies and discover that we were being tortured.

>From the police lock-up we were taken to Insein Special Prison. I was later
transferred to Thayawaddy Prison where I was detained for three years,
mostly in solitary confinement.
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