Bangkok, Sept. 13, (dpa/GNA) - A report published on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch has shed light on the extent of abuse and torture carried out by Myanmar’s military rulers.
Scores of activists and civilians who opposed the 2021 military coup in the South East Asian country have been locked up, tortured, and killed, according to the report.
The report details the deaths of six detained activists between May and July. Human Rights Watch said it relied on witnesses and other sources.
“The six deaths Human Rights Watch documented are just the tip of the iceberg of suffering and torture of those detained by Myanmar’s military and police,” said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Given the junta’s cruelty in all aspects of its rule, there’s little surprise that no evident action has been taken to investigate deaths in custody and bring those responsible to justice.”
Myanmar has been in political turmoil since a military coup on February 1, 2021, overthrew the country’s democratically elected civilian leaders and returned the country to military rule.
The former de factor leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is currently held in solitary confinement and has already been sentenced to 20 years in jail for corruption, electoral fraud, incitement and breaching Covid-19 rules.
According to rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 2,260 people have been killed and more than 15,000 people arrested since the coup.
Myanmar’s military has reportedly been using torture, abuse, arrest and crackdowns, including the burning of houses and villages, to stop the protests and anti-coup activities.
Among the six victims Human Rights Watch documented, one is a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Suu Kyi. Zaw Myat Linn, 46 years old, was a community leader and an NLD local official in Yangon.
He was taken from his home in Yangon at night on March 8, 2021. The next morning his family received a phone call that he had died in custody and that they may collect his body.
Photographs of Zaw Myat Lin’s body seen by dpa show that his tongue was deformed, teeth were missing, and his facial skin was peeled off. One side of his body was bruised and surgically stitched up.
The other victims included in the report were Khin Maung Latt, 58, and Than Tun Oo, 48, both from Suu Kyi’s NLD party, as well as 43-year-old Khet Thi, 52-year-old Tin Maung Myint and 55-year-old Kyaw Swe Nyein, all of whom had joined and led protest movements after the coup.
Five died within 24 hours of being arrested and interrogated, while Kyaw Swe Nyein died two months after his arrest, according to the report.
Maug told dpa that even though the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has said that at least 690 people have been killed shortly after being taken into custody, the report only covers six deaths because “witnesses were still very afraid to speak about it and as we know, arbitrary arrests and night raids in the country are ongoing.”
Maug added that the cases in the report “are shocking but not surprising. Since the coup, Human Rights Watch has widely documented the ill-treatment of detainees and many former detainees have told me how they were tortured or badly beaten by the junta security forces during their arrest or during interrogation.”
GNA