BURMA: Torture in Burmese prisons and deaths of democracy activists behind bars are the subjects of two reports launched in Dublin last night with financial assistance from Irish Aid, a division of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Launching the reports, Minister of State for Development Co-operation and Human Rights Conor Lenihan stressed the Government's commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights for the "long-suffering people" of Burma. "Clearly the reports make grim reading and are a reminder to us all that we must redouble our efforts to highlight the situation in Burma and to work for change there.
"Ireland takes a consistently strong position on Burma, including in the European Union framework and at the United Nations."
The Government remained "deeply concerned" about the continued detention without charge of democracy activist and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The reports are published by the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPB) in association with the campaigning group Burma Action Ireland.
The Darkness We See chronicles a series of allegations of torture and ill-treatment in Burma's interrogation centres and prisons. Eight Seconds of Silence reports on the deaths of political prisoners in Burmese jails (copies can be obtained by phoning 087-2222-543).
Mr Lenihan welcomed AAPB joint secretary Bo Kyi, who travelled from Thailand, where he lives in exile, to attend the launch. Kyi became politically active as a student at Rangoon University in the late 1980s, after a number of his fellow students who were involved in a fracas with local residents were shot dead by police.
He was arrested for the first time in March 1989 with Min Ko Naing, the most prominent Burmese opposition leader after Aung San Suu Kyi. On that occasion he managed to escape and continued his activities as part of an underground network.
He was arrested again a year later and claims he was beaten while awaiting trial. A military court sentenced him to three years' imprisonment for his activities. At the time he was an executive committee member of the All-Burma Federation of Student Unions and led several demonstrations calling for the release of student activists from prison and legalisation of the student unions.
His health suffered under the prison regime and by the time of his release in January 1993, he says, he was suffering from heart disease and back pain. He was arrested a third time in July 1994 and given five years' hard labour.
"I was forced to lie on my stomach on the ground while interrogators stepped on me and whipped me with a rubber cord about one inch in diameter," he told The Irish Times.
"I was held in solitary confinement from November 1997 until May 1998. I was released in October 1998 on completion of my sentence but remained under intense surveillance until I fled the country in September 1999. As a result of brutal treatment . . . I am unable to undertake physical work and can not sit or stand for prolonged periods."