[ALRC Press Release] BURMA/MYANMAR: Dossier of torture cases submitted to U.N. experts 27.08.

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A Press Release by the Asian Legal Resource
Centre

BURMA/MYANMAR: Dossier of torture

cases submitted to U.N. experts
(Hong Kong, August 27, 2010) The Asian Legal
Resource Centre on Wednesday submitted a special
dossier to a group of United Nations human rights
experts on recent cases of extreme, prolonged torture
by police officers in Burma.

The 66-page dossier, entitled "Recent complaints of

extreme torture and arbitrary detention in Myanmar
(Burma)", details the cases of Phyo Wai Aung, Nyi Nyi
Htun and Than Myint Aung at the hands of special units
attached to the Rangoon Divisional Police Headquarters
and Aungthapyay Interrogation Camp, also in Rangoon.

Each of the three men was accused of involvement in

planned bombings, bombings or attempted bombings,
although in Than Myint Aung's case the police later
changed the charges to completely unrelated offences.
At a trial inside prison he was sentenced to 15 years.
The other two men's cases are ongoing.

Each has alleged that he was illegally detained and

tortured constantly by police working on shifts for days
or weeks on end, during which time he could not sleep
and was not fed or given more than a few handfuls of
water.

The torture included being forced to stand naked or

partly naked for days at a time, sometimes blindfolded
or handcuffed, and being forced to kneel on gravel for
extended periods.

Police officers also allegedly repeatedly assaulted all of

the men with fists, boots and truncheons in all parts of
the body, ran truncheons along their shins, shoved a
truncheon into the anus of one, and tortured the

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[ALRC Press Release] BURMA/MYANMAR: Dossier of torture cases submitted to U.N. experts 27.08.10 18:53

genitalia of all three through various methods,

including with lit paper and by dripping hot wax or by
pouring hot water onto them.

As a result of the torture, Than Myint Aung had his

skull cracked in two places.

Basil Fernando, director of policy and programme

development at the ALRC, said that the seriousness of
the cases and the determination of the victims to have
their complaints heard despite the lack of domestic
avenues placed a special onus on international human
rights agencies to respond.

"Not only are the types of torture allegedly carried out

on these three persons highly systematized and utterly
inhumane, but the rest of the system is just as
systematic and inhumane in its denial of complaints
that such abuses have been committed," he said.

"The sheer barbarity of criminal justice in Burma is

shown in these cases not through the acts of torture
alone but through the fact that complaints of this type
of torture can even be heard in court without a judge
so much as lifting a finger in response," Fernando
remarked.

"Apparently, there is no court in the country that will

entertain these types of allegations seriously, and the
perpetrators know it, the victims know it, the lawyers
know it, the relatives know it, but still these people are
raising their voices with immense courage and trying to
be heard," he said.

"Whether or not the judiciary of Burma is deaf to their

calls, we cannot be, and we also must take
responsibility to ensure that others hear," Fernando
added.

The Hong Kong-based regional group has submitted the

dossier to the Special Rapporteurs on torture, on
human rights in Myanmar, on the independence of
judges and lawyers and also to the Working Group on
arbitrary detention, ahead of the next session of the
U.N. Human Rights Council from September 13 to
October 1.

The ALRC has also made a separate written submission

to the Human Rights Council on two of the three cases.

"Our staff in Geneva will be personally following up

with the experts and their staff about these cases
during the council, as well as with other concerned
persons and agencies there," Fernando said.

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[ALRC Press Release] BURMA/MYANMAR: Dossier of torture cases submitted to U.N. experts 27.08.10 18:53

Burma has not joined either the international Covenant

on Civil and Political Rights or the Convention against
Torture.

However, Fernando stressed, torture is under

international law a norm from which no country is
permitted to derogate, irrespective of whether it is has
joined human rights treaties or not.

For media inquiries:

In English: Basil Fernando, +852 2698 6339
In Burmese: Min Lwin Oo, +47 9843 4085

###

About the ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is

an independent regional non-governmental
organisation holding general consultative status with
the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights
Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to
strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and
human rights issues at the local and national levels
throughout Asia.

Posted on 2010-08-27
Back to [2010 AHRC Press Releases]

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