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Ex-Inmates Describe Torture In Burma
A painting in the office of a political prisoner advocacy group depicts mistreatment of inmates in Burmese prisons.
(By Ellen Nakashima -- The Washington Post)
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He spent the first nine years in the infamous Insein Prison, in a dim cell eight feet by 10 feet.
Leaning forward during the interview, he drew a tight circle in the air with his hand to illustrate the size of his cell. Then he rose to his feet and turned his back, extending his right arm behind him. He pretended to flick a lighter, demonstrating how his jailers would light his cheroot cigar without facing him.
"The guard wouldn't even look at me because military intelligence was watching," he said. "They were so afraid of letting me have contact with others -- not even a cat, not even a bird."
In 1991 his parents and sister were allowed to see him, but no one else outside his family, and never for more than 15 minutes every two weeks, he said. He was hooded when he was taken to and from the meeting point, to prevent any other human contact. In 1998, he was transferred to Sittwe Prison in remote Rakhaing state, 350 miles from Rangoon. Visits became almost impossible.
Min Ko Naing was released in November 2004, unexpectedly and without official explanation.
He said in the interview that he believed the country's military rulers were unlikely to relinquish power any time soon. So since his release, he and other activists have urged the government to cooperate with them on social programs to raise incomes and help reverse what are among Asia's worst outbreaks of AIDS and malaria.
The government has so far shunned the proposals. Some Burmese who have been in contact with the former prisoners have themselves been jailed recently.
The information minister, Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan, said his government respects the rights of all people in Burma, which the rulers call Myanmar.
"The people of Myanmar are enjoying human rights no less than the people of other countries," Kyaw Hsan said in an interview. "There is a high level of human rights in our country. But all people have to abide by the rules and regulations of the nations." People's rights can be curtailed only if they act in a way that "affects the stability and security of the state and the national interest," he said.
Myo Myint did not know Min Ko Naing. But he knew of him. And he knew they shared the same goals.
A handsome, six-foot-tall son of a Burmese army captain, Myo Myint followed his father into the service. But then a land mine blew off his right arm and leg. He said that his long convalescence gave him time to reflect on atrocities he had seen fellow soldiers commit and that he began to see the bleakness of the government.
In 1989, he met Aung San Suu Kyi, the charismatic opposition leader whose fledgling party, the National League for Democracy, was beginning to attract legions of followers. Myo Myint became an official in the party's youth wing.
