IHT : Freed detainees tell of abuse in Myanmar

Freed detainees tell of abuse in Myanmar

Reuters | October 4, 2007

YANGON, Myanmar: Despite gradually relaxing its grip on Myanmar's main city Thursday, the military continued to round up scores of people and interrogate hundreds more arrested during a crackdown last week on pro-democracy marches.

Although most are too terrified to talk, the monks and civilians slowly being freed from a makeshift interrogation center in north Yangon are giving a glimpse of the mechanics of the generals' dreaded internal security apparatus.

Their reports of verbal and physical abuse suggest that the head of the junta, Senior General Than Shwe, is paying scant regard to the calls for restraint delivered by the UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who flew back to New York to brief the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon.

"That is one of the top concerns of the international community," said Ban, who was to attend a meeting of the 15-member Security Council on Friday to discuss the crackdown in Myanmar.

People in the Kamayut district of central Yangon said soldiers had arrested scores of people Wednesday night for trying to impede a raid on the Aung Nyay Tharzi monastery a few days earlier and giving protection to fleeing Buddhist monks.

An additional 70 monks rounded up in arrests throughout the city a week ago were freed overnight from a government technical institute, following 80 monks and 149 women, who are believed to be nuns, released Wednesday.

One freed monk, who did not want his name published, said some detainees had been beaten when they refused to answer questions about their identity, birthplace, parents and involvement in the protests, the biggest challenge to the junta in nearly 20 years.

"The food and living conditions were horrible," said the monk, from the Pyinya Yamika Maha monastery in Yangon.

A relative of three women released Wednesday said detainees were being divided into four categories: passers-by, those who watched, those who clapped and those who joined in.

Official news media say 10 people were killed, including a Japanese journalist, in the crackdown, although Western governments say the true toll is probably far higher.

The body of the journalist, 50-year-old Kenji Nagai, shot to death near the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, was returned home Thursday for an autopsy. Its results could lead to Tokyo making good on a threat to scale back economic assistance to Myanmar, one of Asia's poorest countries.

Fears of a repeat of 1988, when the army killed an estimated 3,000 people in a crackdown lasting several months, were not realized, but even China, the junta's closest ally, made a rare public call for restraint.

Like Russia, a member of the Security Council that also wields veto power, China ruled out supporting any UN sanctions against the former Burma, a source of huge reserves of natural gas and other resources coveted by Beijing.

Singapore, the current chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said it "was encouraged by the access and cooperation" given by the junta to Gambari, who saw the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi twice during his four-day trip.

In New York, Ban said Gambari had been "assured" of another visit to Myanmar in November.

Gambari also met Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong of Singapore on his way back to New York, although the government of the city-state, one of Myanmar's biggest investors, declined to reveal all but the scantest details of their talks.