Canada Asia Work. Group:3/6 Burma R

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Canada Asia Work. Group:3/6 Burma Report

CAWG Brief on Burma (Part 3 of 6 parts)

Detention, Imprisonment, Torture and Summary Execution

As indicated above, hundreds of cases of detention, imprisonment,
torture and summary execution have been documented in the Union of
Myanmar in 1993. Rather than repeat the work of groups such as Amnesty
International, this report will briefly note four important areas: (1)
the continued existence of the most gruesome forms of torture by
agents of the Union of Myanmar government, whether military or
civilian; (2) the continued concern around the condition of Insein
Jail, Yangon, and other jails and detention centres in the country;
and the arrest, detention and imprisonment (3) of those who have
sought peacefully to influence the work of the National Convention on
the new Union of Myanmar constitution and (4) of religious leaders
opposed to SLORC.

(1) Rather than producing individual story after individual story
(which number in the thousands) about torture and murder of tribal
minority peoples or political dissidents (whether in prisons or in
military operations against civilian populations), many of which are
readily available from a variety of sources, let simply be noted the
incredible and horrible variety of tortures that have been employed by
agents of SLORC: blinding of persons by shining of lights directly
into the eyes; bullets placed between the fingers and then the fingers
squeezed, breaking all the bones; peeling fingernails or pulling out
teeth with pliers; tying a person's hands behind the back, suspending
the person from a ceiling fan and then turning the fan on; a funnel
placed in the mouth and boiling water poured down the funnel;
suffocation with a towel which is placed over the face and on which
water is poured continually; cutting the face with razor blades and
salt/chillies/lemon juice put on the wounds; women are raped and then,
using rifle butts, bottles are driven into the vaginas; pubic hair is
set on fire.[26] These are but a few of the methods of torture that
are used. Despite the Union of Myanmar government's denials, they are
well documented by a variety of sources. The Union of Myanmar's
refusal to become a party to the United Nations Convention against
Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
is understandable considering the forms of torture that continue to
take place in Myanmar.

(2) Many of these tortures have taken place in Insein Jail, Yangon,
and other jails around the country. The UNCHR Special Rapporteur has
been especially mandated to investigate prison conditions in Myanmar.
However, such investigation is nearly impossible as SLORC has severely
controlled the Special Rapporteur's access to prisons and any
prisoners who had actually been tortured would share that information
with the Special Rapporteur only at the risk of their lives. Indeed,
SLORC has given the Special Rapporteur access to high-profile
political prisoners who have been relatively well-treated but not to
the vast majority of prisoners who are often subject to torture and
terrible living conditions. It is those who have escaped from
imprisonment in Myanmar who tell the true story.

For example, a political prisoner released from Mawlamyine (Moulmein)
Prison in January 1993 describes conditions there:

There were 300 people on one floor, all in one room. We had only three
buckets of water per day, and in the corner was the only toilet. We
had to sleep in rows, 150 in each row. There was very little room to
move. . . . I had shackles on the whole time, during the day and
night. The chain goes through the ankles to the belt [round the wrist]
and down the other ankle. Only political prisoners have shackles on
the whole time. . . . I had sores on my legs.[27]

Death in custody is not uncommon, either from torture or the extremely
poor health conditions. Dysentery is common and health care minimal.

(3) Many of SLORC's arrests and detentions in late 1992 and throughout
1993 were of those who criticized the proceedings of the National
Convention. Indeed, at least two members of the Convention have been
arrested, Dr. Aung Khin SINT and his assistant, Than MIN, both members
of the National League for Democracy. They were arrested on 4 August
1993 and charged under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act 5(j) and
Section 17/20 of the Registration of Printers and Publishers Law; in
addition, Dr. Sint was charged under the Burma Official Secret Act,
Section 5(1)(4). Both are charged with writing letters criticizing
SLORC positions at the Convention and distributing them to the
delegates. The Union of Myanmar government's own description of Sint's
and Min's offenses, in answer to the Special Rapporteur's inquiry
about their arrest, is telling: "Both were found to have instigated
the delegates attending the National Convention by surreptitious means
to cause disruption and disorder among the delegates. Both of them
distributed leaflets in May 1993 fraudulently under the name of 'monks
and laity'".[28] In other words, SLORC is unwilling to accept any
major dissent from the positions it is putting forward at the
Convention.

Since the arrest, neither Sint nor Min have been allowed to see
visitors. On 15 October 1993 in Insein Court Dr. Sint was sentenced to
20 years in prison for writing the letters; Than Min was sentenced to
38 years for distributing them. (It should be noted that Dr. Sint is
an eminent physician, a former secretary of the Burma Medical
Association. After the army entered the compound of Yangon General
Hospital on 10 August 1988 and killed four medical personnel who were
treating those wounded in the demonstrations, Dr. Sint sent a letter
of protest to the government on behalf of the Burma Medical
Association.) At the same time that Dr. Sint was sentenced, the
well-known short story writer, Ma Thi DA, a doctor and NLD organizer,
was also sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. At her trial, according
to witnesses, all people allowed into the courtroom, including Dr.
Da's parents, were handcuffed.[29] Amnesty International and other
groups have documented many other arrests of those seeking to
influence the results of the National Convention; many of those
arrested are also members of the National League for Democracy.[30]

(4) Buddhist monks opposed to SLORC arrested in 1990 and earlier
continue to be held in Insein prison and elsewhere. The Burmese
Buddhist monk, Dr. Ashin Siri OKKANTHA, after a seven month visit to
Myanmar (November 1992-May 1993) reported at least five senior monks
imprisoned by SLORC. They include Bandanta TILAWKABIWONTHA, 60, from
Insein Ywama Monastery and Professor of Buddhist Philosophy, Rangoon
Sanga University, in Insein prison; Bandanta PANITARLINKARA, 60,
Mahabodi Monastery, Yangon, in Insein prison; Bandanta
KAWVIDABIWONTHA, 67, Masoeyein Monastery, Mandalay in Mandalay prison;
and Bandanta YARZADAMABIWONTHA, 60, New Masoeyein Monastery, Mandalay,
in Mandalay prison. Buddhist monks disrobed by SLORC often continue to
be regarded as monks by the people.[31] It is reported that Insein
Prison contains a section reserved for Buddhist monks and Christian
pastors.

Other Cruel and Unusual Punishment

SLORC's many cruel and unusual punishments have already been
documented by many sources. They include the kidnapping of thousands
of men, women and children, from the very young to the very old, from
all ethnic groups (including Burman), to serve as porters and
labourers for the military; sexual violence against both women and
men; selling of tribal women into prostitution in Thailand; the wanton
killing of children; and the use of human beings as mine sweepers.
There are also allegations of the use of AIDS as a weapon of war, that
is, encouraging HIV+ soldiers deliberately to infect women from tribal
minority groups during military operations.[32] The UNCHR Special
Rapporteur as brought many of these concerns to the Government of
Myanmar without results. The Myanmar government simply denies that the
offenses take place. However, all reliable documentation indicates
that there has been no improvement in the situation in 1993 and that
the offenses continue to take place on a major scale.[33].

There continue to be reports of the use of human beings as mine
sweepers. A Karen woman (age 43) from Pa'an Township, Thaton District,
describes the procedure:

[The Burmese] force us to work at the army camps and to cut bamboo for
them, but most of all they make us sweep the road. We have to sweep it
whenever Army trucks are going to come along. They tell us to find the
land mines but we don't know how to, so we only sweep. Then they come
along to take away any mines. The mines are very big. . . . When a
mine explodes we have to pay a fine to the soldiers and they order us
to show them all the other mines. We can never find them, and when we
can't they torture us and say they'll kill us.[34]

SLORC's practice of kidnapping men and women of all ages to serve as
porters for the army is well known and the Special Rapporteur has been
especially charged to investigate the matter. The porters are clearly
kidnapped against their will and paid no remuneration nor given any
medical care; they are clearly slave labour. The loads are extremely
heavy and the work very dangerous; porters have also been used to walk
ahead of the troops as mine sweepers and have found themselves
unprotected in the midst of battles. Porters are forced to work until
they collapse. The following description of what one man saw when he
was portering in Pa'an District is typical:

At about midday, an old man in the group just ahead of me could no
longer carry his load. He told the soldiers that we was very weak and
begged them to let him rest. They hit him across the back of the neck
with a wooden stick, made of teak, and he fell down dead on the spot.
They then dragged him to the side of the part and just left him and
ordered us to march on.[35]

Throughout 1993, there were reports of decapitated bodies of porters
floating down the Salween River from SLORC-controlled areas. The
bodies are bayonetted or beaten. A villager 10 km. downstream from Saw
Hta estimated in mid-1993 that 200 bodies had floated past his house
in the previous five months: "They were all porters. I would say many
of them were Shan villagers because they were wearing the traditional
Shan pants. About a quarter of them were women. They are usually
without clothes. I think the women are raped before being killed".[36]

Throughout 1993, tourists visiting Kengtung, capital of Shan State,
have reported chain gangs of prisoners working under the most inhumane
conditions to construct a road between Kengtung and the Chinese
border. According to residents of Kengtung and the prisoners
themselves, they include high school and university students and other
political dissidents arrested in the violently-suppressed peaceful
demonstrations of 1988. The labourers are shackled together and forced
to do very heavy manual labour. Health care is minimal and many have
died from malaria and other diseases. Some are addicted to heroin. The
road itself will enable SLORC to increase its trade in opium, women
and consumer good with both China and Thailand.[37] Similar forced
labour has taken place in the construction of a railway near Loikaw,
Karrenni state, also by "criminals" who include political
dissidents.[38] There are also reports of hundreds of thousands of
people in the Irrawaddy Delta region being conscripted into forced
labour on an international airport at Bassein and a new military
airfield in Labutta Township.

Impunity

Theoretically, with the Union of Myanmar's signing of the four Geneva
Conventions of 1949 establishing minimum humane standards of conduct
in situations of internal and external conflict on 24 August 1992,
SLORC should now be controlling human rights abuses committed by
Myanmar military personnel. However, according to the Myanmar
government, such human rights abuses do not take place; therefore,
control is not needed.

As indicated above, the reality is quite different. Myanmar government
and military personnel are free to pursue human rights abuses with
impunity. Indeed, the perpetration of such abuses are the deliberate
policy of the SLORC government, for example, in the "four cuts"
military strategy. But even within SLORC-organized "strategic
hamlets", human rights abuses continue. Villagers in these settlements
who complain about violations of their human rights find themselves
accused of being insurgents and punished accordingly.[39] Whether in
Burman areas or SLORC-controlled ethnic tribal minority areas, SLORC
controls all levels of government. Legal recourse in the event of
human rights abuses is virtually impossible. Those who bring such
charges are immediately labelled "enemies of the Union" or
"terrorists". Amnesty International's assertion in 1991 that "no
political prisoner is guaranteed a free trial in Myanmar today"
continues to be true.[40]