Burma's junta released 80 monks and 149 women believed to be nuns rounded up last week in a crackdown on the biggest anti-government protests in nearly 20 years.
In the first sinister glimpses inside the detention machine, a relative of three released women said those being interrogated were divided into four categories: passers-by; those who watched; those who clapped and those who joined in.
The monk, in his mid-20s but too nervous to give any more details of his identity, said he and 79 brethren were returned to their Mingala Yama monastery in Rangoon shortly after midnight.
The remaining 16 of 96 arrested during a raid on the monastery - among hundreds arrested in similar swoops on at least 15 Buddhist centres in Rangoon - were expected to be freed soon, he said.
The monk said they had been held at a former government technical institute in northern Rangoon's Insein district and subjected to verbal, but not physical, abuse.
"We were forced to change into civilian dress before they interrogated us," the monk said. "They questioned us day and night but we were fed two meals a day."
On the night of the raid, the monks were removed by officials who said they were being taken to an early morning "charity breakfast", the freed monk said. "We were told a lie," he said.
People living near some of the raided monasteries reported monks being hit, kicked and beaten as they were carted off in trucks. Hundreds were detained and a diplomat who visited the Ngwe Kya Yan monastery said there were signs of "severe beating" at the gates.
The 149 released women, most of whom had shaven heads, suggesting they were Buddhist nuns, had been moved from the Insein technical institute to the Kyaikkasan racetrack three days before they were freed this morning.
The monks have reported six of their brethren killed in the raids and clashes with riot police and soldiers.
A photograph posted on the exile Democratic Voice of Burma website shows the body of a monk lying in a ditch, although there has been no way to confirm any of the rumours sweeping across Rangoon of monks being beaten and killed.
The junta insists it dealt with the protests with "the least force possible" and said only 10 people were killed in the restoration of order. Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were killed and 6,000 detained in the crackdown.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Canberra believed at least 30 people had died and 1,400 placed in detention.