Description

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

BURMA: Use of torture in ordinary criminal cases

Much of the human rights advocacy concerning the use of torture in Burma is centred on cases of political detainees. These cases rightly deserve close attention and study. However, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is aware that most victims of torture in Burma are not political prisoners but, as in other parts of Asia, poor citizens accused of ordinary criminal offences. The perpetrators do not discriminate. Victims range from teenage girls to the elderly.

Recently the AHRC obtained the details of a case of two young male victims who were tortured at a police station in an urban area during September 2009, over an alleged robbery. For reasons of their security, it cannot divulge the facts of this case, including the name of the police station and the officers involved. In this extract of their account, all identifying details have been omitted, but the allegations of torture are as they made them. According to the first:

"I was interrogated by eight police for three days. They said to give back what I had robbed. They covered my face with a sarong and then four or five of them assaulted me. They hit me on the cheeks and punched me in the face. They hit me with batons over a hundred times on my ankles, finger and elbow joints, shoulder blades and head. They made me stand on my tip-toes then put something with sharp points under my feet and made me hold a pose like I was riding a motorcycle, for about two hours. They prodded my back with a baton. During this time they were drunk.”
29.10.2009