[Security forces have responded to
protests with increasing ruthlessness, shooting people in the streets, raiding
homes and arbitrarily carrying out beatings and arrests.]
The police and soldiers had come to
arrest Mr. Shwe Win’s son, Ko Win Htut Nyein. When they found him, they beat
and handcuffed the 19-year-old before hauling him away. His offense, the family
was told, was taking videos of the police
at a protest in Mandalay the day before.
More than two weeks later, Mr. Shwe
Win is still searching for his son. The authorities say they have no record of
his arrest. “I felt so hopeless, like I had lost everything at that moment,”
Mr. Shwe Win said. “I still don’t know where my son is. I don’t want him to die
in their hands, and I worry that they will torture him.”
Since the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar,
millions of pro-democracy
protesters have joined demonstrations against the military and
participated in general strikes and a civil disobedience movement that
have brought
the economy to a virtual halt. Security forces have responded with
increasing ruthlessness, shooting people in the streets and arbitrarily beating
and arresting people
Politicians, journalists, students
and ordinary citizens have all been caught in the military’s clutches. Soldiers
and the police invade homes in the middle of the night, searching for opponents
of military rule. Many have gone into hiding. Some are arrested and released.
Others wind up missing, tortured or dead.
The military’s actions have sent a
chilling message: No one is safe.
“The scale of arrests since the
coup gives you a clear indication of where the military junta is taking the
country: a place with no space for critics or any political opposition to
exist,” said Mu Sochua, a former member of Cambodia’s Parliament and part of a
group of Southeast Asian parliamentarians who promote human rights.
As of Friday, the security
forces had killed more than 320 people and arrested or charged more
than 2,900, according to a group tracking arrests and killings. The youngest
victim, 6, was shot and killed on Wednesday while sitting on her father’s lap.
According to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, hundreds who were unlawfully detained have
disappeared. At least five have died in custody, and two appeared to have been
tortured, the agency said.
Among those in custody are the
country’s de facto civilian leader, Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, and hundreds of newly elected members of
Parliament, governors
and other officials associated with her party, the National League for
Democracy.
Like many of those arrested, Ms.
Aung San Suu Kyi has not
been allowed to speak with her lawyer. A court appearance Wednesday was
canceled.
As they carry out their arrests,
soldiers and the police steal money, mobile phones and car keys, victims and
witnesses said in interviews. Some protesters have said they were released only
after paying money to the police.
They are the lucky ones.
In Mandalay, Ko Myo Hein Kyaw, 24,
disappeared after his arrest at a protest. His family was informed Friday —
four days later — that he had died and that his body had been cremated.
In other cases, bodies have been
returned to families with visible injuries and little explanation.
U Zaw Myat Lynn, an activist with
the National League for Democracy who headed a vocational training center for
the party, was arrested around midnight on March 8. The next day, the police
directed his wife, Daw Phyu Phyu Win, to go to a military hospital to identify
his body.
She saw many bruises on his face,
she said in an interview.
The rest of the body was wrapped in
a cloth, but photos showed a wound to his abdomen, which was listed as the
cause of death.
The official autopsy report said he
had suffered the abdomen injury during an escape attempt when he jumped from a
height of 30 feet onto a fence. His wife believes he was stabbed to death.
“When I saw his dead body, I was
sure that they killed my husband after torturing him,” she said.
In the search for fugitives and
anti-coup leaders, one common tactic is for the police to arrest family members
and colleagues and try to extract useful information from them. Many of those
being hunted are elected officials who have gone into hiding, including members
of Parliament who have formed a group claiming to be Myanmar’s lawful
government.
U Sithu Maung, 33, is one of the
lawmakers, and has been the target of a weekslong manhunt.
At 9:30 on the evening of March 6,
soldiers and the police arrived at the home of one of Mr. Sithu Maung’s close
associates from the National League for Democracy, U Khin Maung Latt.
Mr. Khin Maung Latt was arrested,
and the next morning, family members were notified to pick up his body. The
family found bruising on his back and stitches in his scalp, Mr. Sithu Maung
said.
“It is such a big loss for me as he
was my colleague, comrade and like my real uncle,” he said in an interview from
hiding. “It was an assassination of a responsible citizen.”
That same night, soldiers and the
police raided the home of Mr. Sithu Maung’s parents, breaking down the door and
holding everyone at gunpoint, family members said.
When they failed to find Mr. Sithu
Maung, the police arrested his father, who ran out the back door, where the
security forces were waiting for him.
They beat his father and struck him
on the head with a gun, family members said. Ransacking the house, they took
two cellphones and $4,000 in gold and cash. When they left, they fired their
guns and threw a stun grenade into the street.
“This pattern of violence has been
seen across Yangon and other cities,” Mr. Sithu Maung said. “They come and
search for someone. If they cannot find that person, they commit violence and
take the family members of the person they targeted.”
The regime’s spokesman, Brig. Gen.
Zaw Min Tun, acknowledged at a news conference Tuesday that the security forces
had killed 164 people, but claimed they all died while attacking the police and
soldiers with Molotov cocktails and homemade smoke bombs.
The military did not comment on the
protesters who have died or gone missing after being detained.
Members of the public now commonly
call the security forces “terrorists”
for their brutal methods when carrying out arrests and shooting randomly into
crowds and homes.
In southern Myanmar, students from
Myeik University gathered for a protest when soldiers and the police arrived.
One student, Ma Thae Ei Phyu, 22, a philosophy major, was shot in the back of
the neck with rubber bullets from a few feet away.
“I tried not to fall down because I
know they have a habit of raping women and girls,” she said. “I didn’t want to
get arrested.”
The soldiers rounded up the entire
group of about 70 protesters and took them to a nearby air force base and beat
them with sticks, plastic pipes, chains and belts, said a teacher, U Nay Lin,
30, who was among those arrested. The beating left huge red welts crisscrossing
his back, a photo showed.
Mr. Nay Lin said a man with a
tattoo of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi on his chest received the worst beating of all.
Ms. Thae Ei Phyu was taken to a
hospital, where she received stitches for the deep holes in her neck caused by
the rubber bullets. She and most of the others were eventually released without
charges. Earlier this week, the junta also released more than 600 mostly young
protesters who had been detained in Yangon, in a seeming effort to appease the
movement.
“They tried to threaten us by
arresting and torturing us like this, but we aren’t afraid to die,” she said.
“It’s better to die than living under the junta.”