‘I Am Going to Bring Them to Court Some Day FOR JUSTICE’ – Former Teenage Political Prisoner Soe Lwin

[rice] glue for weeks. At the age of 29, having spent his entire youth behind bars, Soe Lwin was finally released. Although he “lost everything” to the military regime, Soe Lwin says he has no regrets about what they did all those years ago – it was the right thing to do.

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Soe Lwin’s story is published in Burma Link’s book “Lives on the Line: Voices for Change from the Thailand-Burma Border.”

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Family of political prisoners: “We were kids. We weren’t murderers”

When I was growing up, we did not have much money. My father did politics [as a member of NLD – National League for Democracy]. In 1990 national elections, the first ten people were arrested. My father was one of them. He was imprisoned for three years. Since then, he has been active in politics. I was in grade four [at the time]. Around eight or nine years old.

About a little over a year after my father was imprisoned, my mother was also arrested. I am not really sure for what reason. They [people] say, she got arrested because she sang a song and explained its meaning in her class to her students. They came and arrested her in the morning. It’s a song from the student movement. [She was sentenced for] two years. She served for 1 year and 9 months.

After my mother was released, I was imprisoned. After my father was released, my mother was imprisoned. My mother was released, and I was imprisoned for my political activities.

I was between 13 and 14 years old. I was arrested on April 24, 1994, after I finished my 8 standard examinations. I had [already] been arrested before examinations, but I was released to take the examinations, then, after my exams were done, they put me back to prison.

My case was like what’s happening today. There was a group of us students. We opposed tuition classes. We demanded more careful teaching at school. We collected signatures from people and distributed letters to support us. We went on the streets handing out pamphlets. And we got arrested. There were 15 of us.

We were kids. We weren’t murderers. I was only fourteen. They can’t put kids in prison. We were kids just handing sheets of papers like others were doing. We weren’t murderers or bad kids or doing drugs or stealing. We were good kids going to school. We were just asking to teach us right.

 

Interrogation: “There were worms and dead ants. But we had no choice. We drank it”

The MI (Military Intelligence) said, ‘They are just kids and it will not take long,’ and that they just have a few questions to ask. But my father did not listen to the MI. He put some clothes, a mosquito net, and blankets for me in the car. As soon as I got into the car, they blindfolded me and handcuffed me. Then, they took me away to the interrogation center.

For the first few days, they left us with easy questions. But on the fourth day, they put each of us in separate individual rooms. Girls and boys were separated. And that was when they started beating, kicking, and hitting us. [There were] 15 of us.

Then… At one night, I was awoken by them at around, I thought, 2 am in the morning. I got up. They blindfolded me. I thought we walked for about an hour. I could not see a thing. They sat me at a place I could not see. Then, they asked me the following questions: ‘Would you like to continue attending school?’ ‘Tell us the truth.’ ‘Does your father do politics?’ I told them ‘I don’t know.’ I kept saying ‘I don’t know.’

It came to me the next night. I was blindfolded and they took me to that place. They kept asking the same questions. Then, that was when they started hitting me. I was blindfolded, so, I could not see a thing. They kept hitting me. I kept saying ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ It was in the early morning that night that they took me back to my cell. I knew they were interrogating others as well.

They came and took me away like the past nights again and again. It was on the eighth day, I think, I am not sure, I don’t quite remember now anymore, that they stopped giving me water. They interrogated us, but they could not get any information, so they stopped giving us water.

We had to drink the bathroom water, the water that is used to clean the toilet in the restroom. The toilet water was in a clay pot. In the water pot, there were worms and dead ants. But we had no choice. We drank it.

They did not know we were drinking water from the toilet at first. Within a day, they stopped giving us water for the toilet when they found out we were drinking it. The interrogation and beating continued for over two weeks. After two weeks, things got worse.

 

From bad to worse: “I did not even know one of my friends died”

The interrogation continued. I was still blindfolded. Questions were asked from different directions. I thought the questions came from several people because the voices and the tone of them were different for each question.

Then, someone kicked me from the side. I didn’t know who it was since I was blindfolded. I went unconscious. When I woke up, I was in my cell and that was when I realised one of my ribs was broken. They also dripped melted-plastic-hot-drips onto my body. They continued the interrogation for days. I also lost one of my teeth from the punching and kicking. There was kicking, beating, punching and they treated us as they wanted. One of us died. A male student. He died at the interrogation centre.

No one knew. I did not even know one of my friends died from the interrogation. We found out the death of our friend at the hospital. They kept us over 40 days at the military interrogation center. Then they sent us to prison. But, prison did not accept us. There were back and forth negotiations between the MI, court and prisons. The court said it will not accept us unless the wounds are healed because we were kids, and MI should not beat kids. So, they took us to the hospital.

No doctors came to treat us. We were put in a room with other prisoners. We were in a bad shape. I, for example, kept throwing up chunks of blood. I was unable to use my hands. But they did not give me any medical treatment until my mother arrived. They did not want to pay for the medical fees for me, for us. My mother paid for me. I was in a bad health condition when my mother arrived, I needed immediate medical attention.

After I got better, they brought us to court and they sentenced us. We were brought to court. We had no say. They read our sentences from a sheet and that was it. [They sent me] to Myeik prison. After one month there, they sent me to Insein prison.

We were sentenced at that court for 14 years. We found out about another 10 years [sentence] at Insein Prison. Total of 24 years. Myeik prison sentenced us for 14 years. We thought that was our sentence. When we arrived in Insein Prison, they asked me, ‘What is your sentence?’ And I said, ‘14 years.’ But they said, ‘No, you are sentenced for 24 years.’ I was shocked. >>> Read the full story on Lives on the Line

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Soe Lwin’s story is published in Burma Link’s book “Lives on the Line: Voices for Change from the Thailand-Burma Border.”

[/fusion_fontawesome]Buy paperback (delivery from the U.S.)

[/fusion_fontawesome]Buy eBook (instant download)

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