Soldiers deployed in the Myanmar countryside twisted a young man’s skin with pliers and punched him in the chest until he could no longer breathe. “Your mom can’t save you now,” they taunted him.
This young man and a friend of his had been randomly arrested as they were cycling home. They were subjected to hours of agony in a community center turned into a torture center by the military.
Questions and blows kept raining down.
“It was nonstop – it was constant,” he said. I was only thinking of my mother. “
Since taking power in February, the Myanmar military has methodically and systematically tortured detainees across the country, the Associated Press (AP) found after speaking to 28 people arrested and then released in recent months.
Also drawing on photos, drawings and letters, in addition to the testimony of three former military leaders, the PA investigation sheds unprecedented light on a secret detention system that has pinned more than 9,000 people.
In our country, after being unjustly arrested, there is constant torture, violence and sexual assault. Even a prisoner of war must be cared for and treated according to the law. All that disappeared with the coup.
The Myanmar army, Tatmadaw, and police have killed more than 1,200 people since February.
While the torture took place mostly in military installations, the Tatmadaw also turned public spaces, such as community centers and a royal palace, into interrogation centers, the prisoners said.
The AP has identified a dozen interrogation centers across the country, in addition to prisons and police stations, from interviews and satellite images.
The prisoners came from all over the country, whether they were 16-year-olds or monks. Some were arrested for demonstrating against the junta, others for no apparent reason.
Several military and police units participated in the interrogations, but their torture methods were similar across Myanmar.
The PA chose to camouflage the identity of the prisoners to protect them from possible reprisals.
Inside the community center that evening, soldiers forced the young man to kneel on pebbles, stuck a gun into his mouth, and rolled a club on his shins. They slapped him with his own sandals.
” Tell me ! Tell me ! They shouted at him. “What should I tell you?” He replied.
He refused to scream. But his friend yelled for two when he found that it seemed to calm their torturers.
The young man thought he was going to die.
Since a long time
The Myanmar army has a long history of resorting to torture, especially before the start of the transition to democracy in 2010. While the torture observed in recent years has mainly occurred in regions with certain ethnicities, it is now back across the country, according to the AP investigation.
The army tortures detainees first for revenge, then for information.
The vast majority of the tortures described by prisoners were similar to those seen in the past: deprivation of water, food and sleep; electric shocks; and beatings administered with bamboo sticks filled with cement, clubs, or their fists or the prisoner’s shoes.
But this time around, torture in interrogation centers and prisons is worse than ever in terms of scale and severity, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which monitors deaths and arrests.
Since February, the group claims that security forces have killed 1,218 people, including 131 detainees who were reportedly tortured to death.
Torture often begins on the street or in the detainee’s home. Some die before they even arrive at the interrogation center, said AAPP deputy secretary Ko Bo Kyi, himself a former political prisoner.
“The army tortures detainees first for revenge, then for information,” he explained. I think in many ways the military has become even more brutal. “
Hide abuse
The army is trying to cover up the torture. A relative of the top military leader in western Chin state told the PA that soldiers covered up the deaths of two detainees who had been tortured by forcing a military doctor to falsify reports autopsy. IVs are sometimes attached to corpses to give the illusion that attempts have been made to treat and save the victims.
Inmates said that their torturers only hit parts of their bodies that could be hidden by clothing. Others said they were protected by rubber mats before being beaten, which would cause internal injuries but leave few visible marks.
Detainees who are released are usually released after signing false confessions or even documents that ensure they have not been mistreated. Others pay a bribe of several hundred dollars. The lucky ones are protected from the worst abuses by the contacts of their relatives.
Several prisoners were forced to swear allegiance to the army before being released. A woman was forced to sign a blank sheet.
Even women and children
A former captain who left the ranks of the Tatmadaw in April confirmed to the PA that the military has routinely used torture since taking power.
“In our country, after being unjustly arrested, there is constant torture, violence and sexual assault,” said former captain Lin Htet Aung. Even a prisoner of war should be cared for and treated according to the law. All that disappeared with the coup. […] The world must know. “
Lin Htet Aung revealed to the PA that soldiers are trained in interrogation tactics, both in theory and role-playing. The rules are simple, he said: get the information anyway you need.
Military officials went there with a single answer: “We have no intention of answering these far-fetched questions. “
Last week, possibly in an attempt to improve its image, the Myanmar military announced that more than 1,300 prisoners would be released and that the trials of 4,320 more would be suspended. It is not known, however, how many have actually been released and how many of these have already been re-arrested.
They kept telling us: “We here in the military interrogation centers have no laws. We have weapons and we can just kill you and make you disappear if we want – and no one will know anything. ”
Of the 28 prisoners interviewed by the PA, only six had not been tortured. Even women and children had been abused. Most of those who were not tortured report that other detainees were.
All the prisoners were questioned separately by the PA.
Those who were held in the same centers reported similar treatments and conditions, from interrogation techniques available to their cells, to meals – when they were being fed.
The AP sent photos of the detainees’ injuries to a forensic doctor from the Physicians for Human Rights group. The doctor concluded that the injuries of three victims were caused by clubs or sticks.
“You look at these wounds and they’re black and blue all over,” said Dr. Lindsey Thomas. It wasn’t just a pat. It looks like something systematic and violent. “
Hellish detention
Beyond the 28 prisoners, the AP interviewed the sister of a detainee who had reportedly been tortured to death, the family and relatives of current detainees, and lawyers representing detainees. The PA also obtained pictures that prisoners made of the interior of prisons and interrogation centers, and letters describing the harsh conditions and abuse.
Photos taken inside several facilities confirm descriptions of overcrowding and filth made by prisoners. Most of the inmates slept on cement floors, packed together so tightly that they could not bend their knees.
Some fell ill after drinking dirty water from a communal toilet. Others had to defecate in plastic bags or a community bucket. Cockroaches ran over them at night.
Medical aid was essentially non-existent. One prisoner described his unsuccessful attempts to obtain treatment for an 18-year-old fellow inmate whose genitals had been crushed with bricks and boots.
Even the youngest are no exception. A woman was jailed with her two-year-old toddler. Another, held in solitary confinement in a Rangoon prison, said officials admitted to her that the conditions of detention were intentionally degraded as much as possible to obtain public obedience through terror.
COVID-19 took advantage of these conditions to wreak havoc. One woman said her entire dorm was infected and her cellmate had died from the coronavirus.
The interrogation centers were even worse than the prisons, with cacophonous nights of screaming and crying.
“My play was terrifying,” said one man. There were blood stains and scratches on the walls. I could see the bloody handprints on the walls and the traces of vomit blood on the floor. “
The interviews clearly testify to the impunity enjoyed by the Tatmadaw.
“They tortured us until we gave them the answers they wanted,” said a 21-year-old. They kept telling us: “We here in the military interrogation centers have no laws. We have weapons and we can just kill you and make you disappear if we want – and no one will know anything. ” “