Deaths in custody raise questions about police interrogation

Five cases have come to light in the past year of men dying behind bars in Myanmar.

Published on Jan 24, 2019

Daw Aye holds a photo of her son, Aung Aung, who died last year after 14 days behind bars (Photo: Kay Zon Nway/Myanmar Now)

Police in Yangon were investigating the theft of a car battery when they arrested Aung Aung, a 28-year-old taxi driver, one night in September last year. After 14 days behind bars, he was dead.

His mother, Daw Aye, is convinced he died because he was beaten by police interrogators. He is one of at least five people to lose their lives in the past year shortly after being arrested.

After police detained Aung Aung, along with two of his passengers, Daw Aye spent the following day at the police station waiting to meet with him.

When she was finally allowed to meet him the next day, she told Myanmar Now, his body was bruised and he was struggling to move.

“Somebody had to hold him because he couldn’t stand,” she said.

For rights activists, cases like these demonstrate that the Myanmar Police Force, despite assistance from the European Union and the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, has done little to reform itself since the end of direct military rule.

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) says it has asked the government to take action against those responsible in Aung Aung’s case, but Daw Aye has been left in the dark about the progress of the investigation.

After he was transferred to Insein Prison ahead of his court hearing, Aung Aung felt able to talk openly to his mother about what happened at the police station,” Daw Aye said.

“He said they cuffed his hands behind his back and hit his chest with batons. He was also shocked with a Taser gun. Then they made him kneel down and kicked his back,” she added.

Even though Aung Aung could still barely walk, she said, he was sent to his court hearing. But as soon as he emerged from the prison van at the courthouse, he collapsed. He died three hours later.

The captain of Thanlyin police station, U Myat Soe, has been transferred to another region since Aung Aung’s death, according to MNHRC.

Police at Thanlyin station declined to comment on the allegations of violence when contacted by Myanmar Now.

Others who have died in police custody in the past year include a vendor who was detained in June in Yangon’s Hlaing Thayar township and a man arrested in the Ayeyarwaddy delta for stealing a fishing net.

In another case in 2017, a 52-year-old man arrested on suspicion of rape in Mandalay Region died after three days in custody. Five police officers were interrogated after the death, but police said they were not ready to give an update when contacted by Myanmar Now.

‘Investigate with torture’

U Maung Soe, a former police colonel who served as a police spokesperson under U Thein Sein’s government, told Myanmar Now that many officers see using violence during interrogation as normal.

“Our officers still hold on to the old belief that police should investigate with torture. That’s why unwanted problems still happen,” he said.

Another thing driving problematic interrogations is that police are under pressure to present a case at court within two weeks for most minor offences, he added.

“That’s why officers force suspects to confess during interrogation, so they can file the case on time,” he said.

Police colonel Aung Myint Soe of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told Myanmar Now that stress and low salaries drive police misconduct.

Myanmar’s police force needs twice the number of officers it has now, he said, meaning officers are compelled to take on high caseloads for low pay.

“If they really want to reform our police force, the most important thing to do is to solve their livelihood problems,” he said. “This is the only way.”

He added that despite appearances, police who commit crimes are not completely unaccountable. Some officers have been quietly charged and sentenced without the media or the public finding out, he said.

While there are no centralised statistics on allegations of police violence, rights groups have begun collecting data in recent years. The Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters says it is aware of 11 cases of police torture in Yangon and Ayeyarwaddy regions in the past 12 months. The MNHRC says it handled 29 such cases in 2018.

“These cases should not have happened,” said U Yu Lwin Aung, a commission member. “I am now planning to send a separate advisory report to the department of home affairs. We can’t accept torture and beatings in this modern age,” he said.

‘Invincible’

Myanmar’s police are under the control of the ministry of Home Affairs, which is still run by the military as per the 2008 constitution. And many top leaders in the police are former military men, with those from non-military backgrounds seeing few chances for promotion.

This, say rights advocates, is a major barrier to reform.

One of those is Aung Soe Htike, a small business owner and former journalist who was wrongfully arrested and allegedly beaten while in police interrogation in November.

He is seeking the prosecution of the men he accuses of beating him and making him sit in stress positions, and he hopes to prevent police wrongfully detaining and abusing others.

“The police force is infamous for setting traps to arrest people,” he told Myanmar Now.

Maung Soe, the former police colonel, said police are taught 70 rules for good conduct. The key to reform, he said, is getting officers to abide by them.

“The members of the police force need to follow the rules and regulations,” he said. “If they do, the police force will be invincible.”

(Editing by Joshua Carroll)

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Htet Khaung Linn

Htet Khaung Linn is a Senior Reporter with Myanmar Now.

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Win Htein to be tried by tribunal of two judges, says his lawyer

Announcement came as court postponed the 82-year-old’s third hearing, meaning his request for bail on health grounds was not considered

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Win Htein arrives for the opening ceremony of the second session of the Union Peace Conference in 2017 (EPA-EFE)

Detained National League for Democracy party stalwart Win Htein is to be tried by a special tribunal of two judges following an order from the military-controlled Supreme Court, his lawyer said on Friday.

“It was just one judge before, and now there’s two,” Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now.

“District judge Ye Lwin will serve as chair, and deputy district judge Soe Naing will be a member of the tribunal,” she added.

Win Htein faces up to a 20-year prison sentence for sedition under section 124a of the Penal Code.

His third hearing, scheduled for Friday, was postponed, with the court citing the internet shutdown as the reason because it made video conferencing impossible, Min Min Soe said.

“The arguments will be presented at the next hearing, we applied for bail but since they’re setting up a tribunal for the lawsuit, that will be discussed at the next hearing as well,” she said.

At the second hearing on March 5, Win Htein requested an independent judgement, a meeting with his lawyer, and bail due to his health issues, but the court said those requests would be heard on March 19.

Win Htein, 82, uses a wheelchair and suffers from breathing problems that means he often requires an oxygen tank. He also suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Min Min Soe was allowed a brief call with her client on Friday to tell him that his hearing had been postponed until April 2.

Aye Lu, the chair of the Ottara district administration council in Naypyitaw, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Win Htein. Ottara district is where the NLD’s temporary headquarters are located.

Aye Lu filed the charge on February 4 and Win Htein was arrested that evening at his home in Yangon. He has been kept in the Naypyitaw detention center and denied visits from his lawyers.

He was detained after giving media interviews in the wake of the February 1 coup in which he said military chief Min Aung Hlaing had acted on personal ambition when seizing power.

On Wednesday the military council announced that it was investigating Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption, on top of other charges announced since her arrest.

Many other NLD leaders, party members and MPs have been arrested or are the subject of warrants.

Kyi Toe, a senior figure in the NLD, was arrested on Thursday night in Hledan, Yangon.

Myanmar Now

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Op-ed

Seeking justice in the wake of Myanmar’s coup

The country’s military leaders have acted with impunity for decades, but now there is a mechanism to bring them to justice

Lin Htet

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Nationwide protests against the coup have been responded with murders, torture and mass arrests by the military regime. (Myanmar Now)

On March 8, U Ko Ko Lay, a 62-year-old teacher, bled to death on a street in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina. He had been shot in the head while protesting the military coup of February 1. That same night, U Zaw Myat Lynn, an official from the National League for Democracy, was taken from his home in Shwepyithar on the outskirts of Yangon and tortured to death. The list keeps growing.

In the more than six weeks since Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power, images of soldiers and police officers shooting, beating, and arresting protesters have flooded social media and Myanmar and international news outlets. So far, the regime’s forces have killed well over 200 people (more than half of them in the past week) and seriously injured many more. The junta has also arrested nearly 2,200 people, some of whom, like U Zaw Myat Lynn, have died in custody.

Each day, Myanmar human rights organizations update lists with names, dates, locations, and causes of death. Around 600 police and a handful of soldiers have decided they do not want to be involved in such actions. They have left their posts and even joined the anti-coup movement.

Many soldiers, police officers, and commanding officers are acting with impunity now. But they can face prosecution, not only in Myanmar’s courts but also internationally. Like any country, Myanmar is subject to international law. Because of its history of atrocities, most recently against the Rohingya people, Myanmar is also already subject to special international legal proceedings that apply to the current situation.

The most relevant is the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). The IIMM was created in 2018 after the Myanmar military’s brutal campaign against the Rohingya people, but it applies to the whole country. Its mission is to investigate “international crimes” from 2011 to the present.

International crimes are generally defined as “widespread and systematic” in nature, involving many victims and locations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

In keeping with its mandate, the IIMM is collecting information on the current situation. In a statement released on February 11 (available in Myanmar here), it highlighted the “use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the detention of political leaders, members of civil society and protesters.”

More recently, on March 17, the IIMM also called on recipients of illegal orders to share this evidence so that those ultimately responsible for these crimes can be held accountable.

"The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions. They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed,” the head of the IIMM, Nicholas Koumjian, says in the statement (available in Myanmar here).

The crimes the IIMM investigates could be tried in Myanmar courts, courts in other countries, or international courts. International crimes are crimes that are so serious that they are considered to be against the international community, and are therefore not limited to courts in one country.

In other words, an international crime committed in Myanmar—for example, widespread and systematic attacks on civilians—can be tried in a court in another country or in an international court.

The Myanmar military is used to getting away with murder. Decades of well-documented killing, rape, and torture of civilians in ethnic minority areas have gone unpunished. No one has ever been tried for the killing of protesters during previous mass uprisings against military rule in 1988 and 2007.

But this time may be different. On March 4, the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement that “the killing of peaceful protesters by Myanmar’s security forces should be independently investigated as possible crimes against humanity.”

The IIMM is already set up and working. It provides a mechanism for just such an investigation. Those doing the shooting should be aware of this.

For further information:

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) on Facebook

International Accountability Mechanisms for Myanmar (learning materials in English, Myanmar, and Karen)

Lin Htet is a pen name for a team of Myanmar and international writers

Lin Htet

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At least eight killed in junta’s bloody crackdown in Aungban, Shan State

A resident said armed forces used drones to monitor the crowd before opening fire on them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Men carry a wounded protester in Aungban, Shan State, on the morning of March 19 (Supplied)

At least eight anti-coup protesters were killed in Aungban, southern Shan State, during an attack by the military junta on demonstrations on Friday morning, according to the Aungban Free Funeral Service Society.

Sixteen military trucks carrying more than 100 policemen and soldiers arrived at the protest site at around 9:00 a.m. and began shooting at protesters. Seven died at the scene, and another protester who had been shot in the neck was taken to Kalaw Hospital and died by 11:00 a.m.

All eight victims were men.

The body of the man who died at the hospital was sent to his family’s home, but those who were killed at the protest site were taken away by the junta’s armed forces, a representative of the Free Funeral Service Society told Myanmar Now.

Aungban resident Nay Lynn Tun told Myanmar Now that police and soldiers had destroyed the doors of nearby homes in order to arrest people, and that at least 10 people had been detained.

“Initially, police arrived at the site. When the crowd surrounded the police, armed soldiers arrived at the site and began firing,” he told Myanmar Now. “In the coming days, if we cannot gather to protest, we will do it in our own residential areas.”

Since March 13, around 300 volunteer night guards have watched over these residential areas to protect locals from the dangers posed by the junta’s nighttime raids. These forces use drone cameras to monitor the activities of the night guards from 3:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. every day, Nay Lynn Tun said.

He added that hours before Friday’s crackdown, military and police had also used drone cameras to monitor the gathering of protesters in Aungban.

Over the last week, at least 11 protesters have been arrested in Aungban. Only three-- the protesters who were minors-- were released.

South of Shan State, in the Kayah State capital of Loikaw, two pro-democracy protesters were also shot with live ammunition by the regime’s armed forces on Friday. One, 46-year-old Kyan Aung, was shot in the lower abdomen and died from his injuries. The other wounded protester was a nurse, according to eyewitnesses.

According to a March 18 tally by the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 224 people have been killed across the country by junta’s armed forces since the February 1 coup. Thousands more have been arrested.