Myanmar military using torture to hunt down opposition leaders, released American reveals

An American citizen and journalist who was recently released from a Yangon prison recently revealed that Myanmar’s military is using torture to extract information from detainees on the whereabouts of senior opposition members and activist leaders. In an interview with CNN Business, Nathan Maung, who was detained for more than three months in Myanmar before being deported to the United States earlier this month, said that he endured two weeks in a secretive military-run interrogation centre in the country’s biggest city Yangon. He even went on to describe his time in the facility as “hell” and said that he prepared himself to die there, believing the soldiers would kill him. 

Aftermath of military coup

Maung is one of more than 6,200 people arrested since Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup on February 1, according to the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and embarked on a bloody crackdown on dissent and on any perceived opposition to its rule. Since February, mass street protests have been suppressed with deadly force. 

Several media outlets have reported that detainees in Myanmar have been subjected to torture during interrogation and held out of contact with family members. Some have reportedly even died while in custody, their bodies showing signs of brutal torture. Despite months of escalating violence, Myanmar military junta, on the other hand, has said that it is using restraint against what it called “riotous protesters,” who it accuses of attacking police and harming national security and stability. 

Prison guards threatened to rape 

Maung, co-founder and editor in chief of the Myanmar online news site Kamayut Media, was arrested on March 9 after security forces raided his office. He was released because of his American citizenship. While speaking to the media outlet, the 44-year-old said that he was beaten, denied water for two days and food for three. He even claimed that he was handcuffed and blindfolded for nearly the entire two weeks he was imprisoned in Yangon. 

“They kicked our face, hands and shoulder, all the time. For every answer, they beat us. Whatever we answered - whether correctly or incorrectly - they beat us. For three days, non-stop," he said. Maung added that the facility had five houses and one big house. Within the building, he said, that there were four interrogation cells. Maung went on to reveal that his blindfold was removed on his final day there so he got a look at the room and the buildings. 

In the room there is a CCTV camera, there is no bed, only a small table and a chair, Maung said. His colleague Hanthar Nyein bore the brunt of the torture because of his Burmese national, Maung added. He said that Nyein was “badly treated” and was made to kneel down on the ground for like two days. His skin was burnt with a cigarette, he said. 

Maung believes the soldiers were pressuring Hanthar Nyein to hand over his phone password, which would give them access to his encrypted communications and phone records with high profile opposition and activist leaders. He said that for days Nyein held out from revealing the password, offering them false numbers in the hope his phone would automatically lock anyone out of using it. However, the final straw came when the guards threatened to rape him.

Maung said that Nyein couldn’t stand for this and so he surrendered his password after which the soldiers stopped beating him. Maung's phone broke during the arrest. The beatings stopped for him on the fourth day, he said, when the soldiers discovered he was a US citizen. Maung said he meditated to help get through the mental and physical trauma. "That's the only thing that saved us from the hell," he said.

Media workers forced to exile

After 15 days, Maung said he was transferred to a detention centre adjoining Myanmar's Insein Prison, an overcrowded penitentiary of about 10,000 inmates that has a reputation for ill-treatment and terrible conditions. For two more weeks, he was kept in a large cell with about 80 other people - all student activists, protesters, and NLD members, he said. Then he was moved to solitary confinement, where he stayed until his release on June 14. 

Maung said he believes he was arrested because the military saw him "as an enemy”. According to reports, he was one of at least 88 journalists arrested since the military takeover as part of a crackdown on independent media. Many media workers have been reportedly forced into exile abroad or have fled to rebel-controlled areas in the jungles. Those who remain in the cities have gone into hiding, and swap safe houses every few days to avoid arrest.

IMAGE: AP