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Mizzima:Torture-the Myanmar Traditi



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                Torture ? the Myanmar Traditional Culture


Kanbawza Win


 Myanmarese or Myanmar, as they like to be called, is able to maintain
its long tradition of torturing its prisoners.  In fact, this culture of
torture was practised even before they set up their first kingdom in
1044 AD when a strongman, the blacksmith Maung Tin De, was tortured and
finally put to death because the king was afraid of him. The king had
married his sister without first obtaining the strongman?s consent.
Dr.A.Judson, an American missionary who translated the Holy Bible into
Burmese and whose Burmese/English dictionary is still used today, was
tortured by the Burmese king  Bagyidaw because he was suspected of being
an English spy (like some of the Burmese Generals of today, the king
could not differentiate between American and British.)

 Nowadays the Burmese Generals relish the maintaining of this cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners, and it is routinely
practised during interrogation, and detainees are forced to make
confessions or expose information.  In this way the Junta hopes to teach
a lesson to others that such treatment will be given if they dare to
oppose it.  Torture in Burma is pervasive, long-term and endemic.

 However, torture is not confined only to Burma.  It is worldwide, as
more people than ever around the globe are subjected to beatings, rape,
electric shock and other forms of torture implemented by the state
itself.

 In launching a global campaign against torture last year, Amnesty
International said that it had evidence of the practice in more than 150
countries. In more than 80 countries, people have died as the result of
torture.

 The Burmese Generals have devised a superb technique of mental torture,
which they have used gleefully against the dissidents, whom they label
as ?Enemies of the State?.  The supposed opponents were arrested
unexpectedly in the middle of the night, and a few minutes of
questioning always resulted in months if not years of imprisonment.
Once arrested or transferred to another location, the victims were put
into gunnysacks tied at the top, to be sat upon by soldiers on moving
trucks.  Inmates were threatened constantly with being shot, which keeps
them constantly awake and makes it impossible for them to sleep.

 It will really be a Herculean task to document all the details of the
incidents of physical abuse meted out to the supposed enemy.  Meals were
served in which rice was usually mixed with sand so that the prisoner
could not eat, and even if he was able to eat, he would have stomach
pain and diseases of the digestive system would result.

 Pins were also pushed under the fingernails.  But the common method was
to put prisoners naked in the open, to be feasted on by anopheles
mosquitoes that carry malaria; once they got sick, no medical treatment
was given until the patient died.  In this way they could give the
justification that the prisoner died of a common disease.

 Simple drops of water on the head for hours turn into horrifying and
deafening sounds to the victims, a practice borrowed from Hollywood
films.  This was also a favourite method.  Plastic bags were placed over
the victims? heads until they suffocated. Then they were released for a
time to recover.  The prisoner was placed in an empty barrel and pushed
around by trucks for hours.  Hot iron rods pierced the flesh of the
thighs.  Sometimes a rat was placed in a pot that was attached to the
prisoner?s stomach. The pot was heated and the rat dug into the stomach
in a desperate attempt to escape, creating a living hell for the
prisoner.

 To break the will of the prisoners they were kept without food and
water for days; if that did not work, all four limbs were stretched out
and tied to four corners of the tortured table for hours.  However, one
of their favourites was solitary confinement in small cells for
prolonged periods.  They were put in the dark room for days, making them
virtually blind.  However, if the prisoner still believed in democracy
and human rights he was hung upside down with his legs tied to the
ceiling and his heels were beaten slowly with an iron rod.  Such
prisoners usually became insane, and after a certain time they were send
to the lunatic asylum in Tadagale.

 Some details of torture techniques are well documented by human rights
organizations, including beatings with fists, combat boots or rifle
butts, severe enough to cause permanent injury.  Prisoners were shackled
both in the cells and in work camps. Other methods include cigarette
burns, the application of electric shocks to the genitals, fingertips,
toes, ear lobes and elsewhere; stabbing; being forced to stand in an
abnormal position for long hours, e.g. ?riding the motorcycle?, standing
with arms outstretched and legs bent for prolonged periods, the
?helicopter?, suspension by the wrists or feet from a ceiling fixture
and then being spun around; deprivation of light and sleep, denial of
medicine, food, exercise and water for washing; ?the iron rod? ? having
iron or bamboo rods rolled up and down the shins until the skin is
lacerated.
 Now that the matter of forced labour is known internationally and the
International Labour Organization (ILO) has taken action, most of the
prisoners (better known as ?Yebet? ) were regimented into hard labour
for months if not years.  They are usually taken to remote areas where
neither their relatives nor religious or social workers can be seen to
help them.  Such prisoners were condemned to die a slow death.  They
were often put into chains even while working, and most of them died in
isolated parts of the country where medical facilities are
non-existent.  More often than not, bullock yokes were tied to their
necks in pairs, as if they were bulls, ploughing muddy fields.  The
majority of these ?Yebet? prisoners collapsed in the mud.  Then they
were removed to isolated areas, never to be fed but left alone to die of
slow starvation.  Some of them were not even buried, while the majority
of them lay in unmarked graves.  A rough estimate by the human rights
groups put their numbers at 40,000 since the military junta took power
in 1988.

 Some prisoners had been forced to work as porters for the army,
carrying ammunition and other supplies in front-line areas.  Of these
victims the ones who managed to escape gave consistent accounts of
extra-judicial execution, beating, lack of food and medicines and poor
conditions.

              Most of these prisoners had only a few days of their
sentences left to serve when they were taken to the front.  Moreover,
some prisoners were forced to work as unpaid labourers for the
infrastructure development projects throughout Burma.  Porters who
attempted to escape, those who could no longer carry heavy loads and
those who asked for more food and water were subjected to torture,
sometimes to death and ill treatment, including gang rape (mostly by the
Burmese army on ethnic women serving as porters).

This barbaric treatment of ethnic and democracy groups has been
continuing with more intensity, and there have been confirmed reports of
rape, torture and killings unabated.  Ethnic women have to serve as
porters by day and sex slaves by night.

 What is most lamentable is that no one knows how long the
international     community will look on while the Junta carries on such
atrocities.





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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#FF6600"><font size=+2>&nbsp;&nbsp;
Torture ? the Myanmar Traditional Culture</font></font>
<p><font color="#FF6600"><font size=+2>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#FFCC33">&nbsp;</font><font color="#009900">
Kanbawza Win</font>
<br>&nbsp;
<p>&nbsp;Myanmarese or Myanmar, as they like to be called, is able to maintain
its long tradition of torturing its prisoners.&nbsp; In fact, this culture
of torture was practised even before they set up their first kingdom in
1044 AD when a strongman, the blacksmith <b>Maung Tin De</b>, was tortured
and finally put to death because the king was afraid of him. The king had
married his sister without first obtaining the strongman?s consent.&nbsp;
Dr.A.Judson, an American missionary who translated the Holy Bible into
Burmese and whose Burmese/English dictionary is still used today, was tortured
by the Burmese king&nbsp; <b><font color="#000000">Bagyidaw</font></b>
because he was suspected of being an English spy (like some of the Burmese
Generals of today, the king could not differentiate between American and
British.)
<p>&nbsp;Nowadays the Burmese Generals relish the maintaining of this cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners, and it is routinely practised
during interrogation, and detainees are forced to make confessions or expose
information.&nbsp; In this way the Junta hopes to teach a lesson to others
that such treatment will be given if they dare to oppose it.&nbsp; Torture
in Burma is pervasive, long-term and endemic.
<p>&nbsp;However, torture is not confined only to Burma.&nbsp; It is worldwide,
as more people than ever around the globe are subjected to beatings, rape,
electric shock and other forms of torture implemented by the state itself.
<p>&nbsp;In launching a global campaign against torture last year, Amnesty
International said that it had evidence of the practice in more than 150
countries. In more than 80 countries, people have died as the result of
torture.
<p>&nbsp;The Burmese Generals have devised a superb technique of mental
torture, which they have used gleefully against the dissidents, whom they
label as <b>?Enemies of the State?.</b>&nbsp; The supposed opponents were
arrested unexpectedly in the middle of the night, and a few minutes of
questioning always resulted in months if not years of imprisonment.&nbsp;
Once arrested or transferred to another location, the victims were put
into gunnysacks tied at the top, to be sat upon by soldiers on moving trucks.&nbsp;
Inmates were threatened constantly with being shot, which keeps them constantly
awake and makes it impossible for them to sleep.
<p>&nbsp;It will really be a Herculean task to document all the details
of the incidents of physical abuse meted out to the supposed enemy.&nbsp;
Meals were served in which rice was usually mixed with sand so that the
prisoner could not eat, and even if he was able to eat, he would have stomach
pain and diseases of the digestive system would result.
<p>&nbsp;Pins were also pushed under the fingernails.&nbsp; But the common
method was to put prisoners naked in the open, to be feasted on by anopheles
mosquitoes that carry malaria; once they got sick, no medical treatment
was given until the patient died.&nbsp; In this way they could give the
justification that the prisoner died of a common disease.
<p>&nbsp;Simple drops of water on the head for hours turn into horrifying
and deafening sounds to the victims, a practice borrowed from Hollywood
films.&nbsp; This was also a favourite method.&nbsp; Plastic bags were
placed over the victims? heads until they suffocated. Then they were released
for a time to recover.&nbsp; The prisoner was placed in an empty barrel
and pushed around by trucks for hours.&nbsp; Hot iron rods pierced the
flesh of the thighs.&nbsp; Sometimes a rat was placed in a pot that was
attached to the prisoner?s stomach. The pot was heated and the rat dug
into the stomach in a desperate attempt to escape, creating a living hell
for the prisoner.
<p>&nbsp;To break the will of the prisoners they were kept without food
and water for days; if that did not work, all four limbs were stretched
out and tied to four corners of the tortured table for hours.&nbsp; However,
one of their favourites was solitary confinement in small cells for prolonged
periods.&nbsp; They were put in the dark room for days, making them virtually
blind.&nbsp; However, if the prisoner still believed in democracy and human
rights he was hung upside down with his legs tied to the ceiling and his
heels were beaten slowly with an iron rod.&nbsp; Such prisoners usually
became insane, and after a certain time they were send to the lunatic asylum
in Tadagale.
<p>&nbsp;Some details of torture techniques are well documented by human
rights organizations, including beatings with fists, combat boots or rifle
butts, severe enough to cause permanent injury.&nbsp; Prisoners were shackled
both in the cells and in work camps. Other methods include cigarette burns,
the application of electric shocks to the genitals, fingertips, toes, ear
lobes and elsewhere; stabbing; being forced to stand in an abnormal position
for long hours, e.g. ?riding the motorcycle?, standing with arms outstretched
and legs bent for prolonged periods, the ?helicopter?, suspension by the
wrists or feet from a ceiling fixture and then being spun around; deprivation
of light and sleep, denial of medicine, food, exercise and water for washing;
?the iron rod? ? having iron or bamboo rods rolled up and down the shins
until the skin is lacerated.
<br>&nbsp;Now that the matter of forced labour is known internationally
and the International Labour Organization (ILO) has taken action, most
of the prisoners (better known as ?<b>Yebet</b>? ) were regimented into
hard labour for months if not years.&nbsp; They are usually taken to remote
areas where neither their relatives nor religious or social workers can
be seen to help them.&nbsp; Such prisoners were condemned to die a slow
death.&nbsp; They were often put into chains even while working, and most
of them died in isolated parts of the country where medical facilities
are non-existent.&nbsp; More often than not, bullock yokes were tied to
their necks in pairs, as if they were bulls, ploughing muddy fields.&nbsp;
The majority of these <b>?Yebet?</b> prisoners collapsed in the mud.&nbsp;
Then they were removed to isolated areas, never to be fed but left alone
to die of slow starvation.&nbsp; Some of them were not even buried, while
the majority of them lay in unmarked graves.&nbsp; A rough estimate by
the human rights groups put their numbers at 40,000 since the military
junta took power in 1988.
<p>&nbsp;Some prisoners had been forced to work as porters for the army,
carrying ammunition and other supplies in front-line areas.&nbsp; Of these
victims the ones who managed to escape gave consistent accounts of extra-judicial
execution, beating, lack of food and medicines and poor conditions.
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Most of these prisoners had only a few days of their sentences left to
serve when they were taken to the front.&nbsp; Moreover, some prisoners
were forced to work as unpaid labourers for the infrastructure development
projects throughout Burma.&nbsp; Porters who attempted to escape, those
who could no longer carry heavy loads and those who asked for more food
and water were subjected to torture, sometimes to death and ill treatment,
including gang rape (mostly by the Burmese army on ethnic women serving
as porters).
<p>This barbaric treatment of ethnic and democracy groups has been continuing
with more intensity, and there have been confirmed reports of rape, torture
and killings unabated.&nbsp; Ethnic women have to serve as porters by day
and sex slaves by night.
<p>&nbsp;What is most lamentable is that no one knows how long the international&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
community will look on while the Junta carries on such atrocities.
<br>&nbsp;
<br>&nbsp;
<p>&nbsp;</html>

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