On December 9 three members of the Burmese organisation «Assistance Association for Political Prisoners» (AAPP) released the report “The Darkness We See: Torture in Burma’s Interrogation Centers and Prisons” at a press conference in the Rafto House, Bergen. Cho Cho, Kyaw Maung and Kaythi Aye Bergen told their own stories of political imprisonment. 82 year old Mr. Bjørn Simonnæs was also invited to draw a historic line between his own experiences as a prisoner of war during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway 60 years ago to the systematic torture of political prisoners in Burma today. (16-DEC-2005)
There are more than 1.100 political prisoners in Burma today. Six political prisoners are known to have died of torture so far this year. The report tells of maltreatment of inmates in Burmese prisons and interrogation centres: people are kept in chains for months, they are given electrical shocks, whipped with iron chains, burned with cigarette-stubs, and sometimes beaten to death.
Former political prisoner, Kathy Aye, told us that she was arrested during a demonstration in support of giving Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize.
– We live in fear every second. This does not stop when we are released. The regime kept pushing me to inform them about a friend of mine who was active in the democracy movement. They kept me under close surveillance all the time. I had to flee the country to avoid betraying my friend!
Bjørn Simonnæs spent two years under German Imprisonment during WW2. His «crime» was that he tried to escape to Great Britain. Mr. Simonnæs was sent to Germany and spent two years in prison. He was released due to severe illness, and because the Germans thought he would die anyway. After hearing the story of Burmese political prisoners, he states that political prisoners in Burma are treated with even greater brutality than what he himself experienced from the Nazis.
The AAPP report urges the UN Security Council to raise the Burmese issue, and asks Secretary General Kofi Annan to intervene personally. The secretary of AAPP, Ko Tate, says:
– We are pleading for the UN to take a meaningful action. If not now, when?
The chairman of the Rafto Foundation, Mr. Arne Liljedahl Lynngård, received the report on behalf of the human rights network in Bergen.
– Norway has awarded Aung Sang Suu Kyi with both a Nobel Peace Prize and a Rafto Prize. We are obligated to speak out for those suffering for their belief in human rights and democracy in Burma. Norway should support an international push led by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and South Africa’s 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu to place Burma on the UN Security Council agenda, Mr. Lynngård says.
Aung Sang Suu Kyi was awarded the Rafto Prize in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize the year after. Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for a total of 10 years and 51 days since 1989. The Rafto Foundation was one of the co-founders of the Norwegian Burma Committee. NBC was established as The Norwegian Burma Council at the initiative of a group of Norwegians and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 2, 1992 following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.
More info: www.aappb.org
