By Tin Tin Maw
About the Author
Ma Tin Tin Maw was born in 1970 in Bassein, southwest of Rangoon. During the I988 uprising, she was a second year student at Rangoon University and a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU).
After the military coup in September 1988, Ma Tin Tin Maw returned to her hometown and served as an ABFSU township organiser. She also joined the NLD's Election Campaign Committee as an ABFSU representative.
In July 1990, Ma Tin Tin Maw was arrested by Military Intelligence and spent more than a month in an Interrogation Centre. She was sentenced in September 1990 to three years imprisonment under the Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provision Act and was released from Bassein Prison in September 1992.
July 1990 It was about ten o'clock at night when officers from the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), Special Branch and the township police arrived at my home, searched the house and confiscated a number of documents. They then arrested me for distributing anti-State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) pamphlets in Bassein, the city in which I was living at the time.
I was sent to a police station near Bassein because there was no room for me in the nearby Interrogation Centre at Military intelligence Service Unit 4 (MI-4). When I arrived at the police station I saw that there were more than 20 other students being held there. They took me to the women's cell, and I was forced in after initially refusing to enter. The cell was filthy and full of prostitutes, and the foul smell of the uncovered toilet in the corner filled the small room.
That night I was interrogated for the first time. Officers from police Special Branch asked me questions the whole night and I wasn't allowed any sleep. Most of the questions focussed on whether or not I was responsible for bringing the anti-SLORC pamphlets to Bassein. Captain Tin Myint Htun from MI-4 was present throughout the session. Special Branch stopped the interrogation early the next morning, and two female officers escorted me back to the stinking cell. Just before I was taken back to the cell, Captain Tin Myint Htun threatened me.
"If you refuse to tell the truth here, it won't be easy for you. We can always take you to our Interrogation Centre where we're able to squeeze water from stones."
My parents found out that I was in custody through a prostitute who had been released. Although my family was able to send me food, the authorities wouldn't permit them to see me. I also had to bribe the police so that I could wash myself in the cell. One day when I was in the cell I looked through the bars and saw a friend of mine in the police station. He was required to report twice a day at the police station because he had been involved in politics. He saw me in the cell and when we said hello to each other, a police officer shouted at me to stop talking. The officer later covered the cell bars with posters so I couldn't see through them into the station.
I spent nearly a week in police custody and while I was there I learnt much about the level of corruption in the police department.
One evening a week after my arrest, I was ordered to gather my possessions. A car from MI-4 had arrived and I was taken from the cell and told to get into the vehicle. There was an officer sitting at the driver's seat and I wasn't sure if he was a captain or a major. The officers ordered me to sit in the back along with two soldiers. After we passed though Bassein, the soldiers handcuffed me and placed a hood over my head and I immediately complained.
"We don't want you to know where we're going," one of the soldiers replied.
"I know where we're going! I was born here!" I shouted.
"We're going to MI-4."
"We're just treating you the same as everyone else."
When the car stopped, two female officers took me into a building and carried out a full body search. They also confiscated all my possessions. At that time I heard six tolls from the fire watch, so I knew it was six o'clock in the evening. They then lead me through the building and we soon stopped and I heard the sound of a door unlocking. After removing my hood, they pushed me into a cell and locked the door.
I looked around the cell which was about nine-foot square. It was cold and the floor was concrete. There was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a ceramic chamber pot in one corner. There was also a bed that was just half-a-foot off the floor.
As soon as I lay down on the bed, I heard the door unlock. I suddenly stood up and I saw a solider standing at the entrance. He told me that I had to move into another cell and as we walked out he ordered me not to look around but to keep looking straight ahead. When I tried to look around, pretending that I didn't understand what he had said, he punched me in the head. The soldier then threw me into a dark cell and when he locked the door I couldn't see anything. Nothing else happened that night.
The next morning, a woman came and took me to a bathroom for a wash. I later found out that she was the wife of solider. After I washed, I was sent back to my dark cell and at noon a solider opened the door and threw me a plate of rice and curry along the floor. While I was desperately trying to catch the plate, the soldier quickly shut the door. Hungry and in complete darkness, I ate all the food even though the rice was sour and the curry tasteless.
In the evening of the third day someone opened the door and I was ordered to turn my back to them. They then blindfolded me and dragged to another room. After ten minutes, someone ordered me to sit on a chair and I realised that an interrogation was starting. My interrogator spoke Burmese with a strong accent and I thought that he was probably from one of the many ethnic minority groups, and he asked me the same questions that I had been asked by Special Branch. He then read out the supposed testimony of one of my friends who was also arrested over the pamphlets and I immediately realised that they were attempting to trap me. After the MIS interrogated me for six hours, a soldier took me back to my dark cell.
The next day I had a headache and I was ill from the cold. That evening a soldier came, blindfolded me and took me from my cell. We walked for about 15 minutes and then walked up three steps into a room. I was about to be interrogated by the MIS for a second time. My interrogator, a different man from the first session, read out a fist of the members of the Irrawaddy Division All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and then started asking me questions.
"Do you admit that you're a member of the ABFSU?" When I said nothing, he threw something hard at my face. It hit my upper lip which then began to swell.
"Why did you join an illegal organisation?"
"The ABFSU is not an illegal organisation," I replied.
"I joined the union because I was a student. In 1989, General Khin Nyunt allowed Min Zay Ya to form a student union and...."
"This is Irrawaddy Division under General Myint Aung!" he interrupted.
"You may be able to form a union in Rangoon, but don't even think about it here."
"There is only one Burma! The same rules should apply to all!" I shouted.
The officer then slapped me a number of times and other officers punched me on my back. I only then realised that there were a number of soldiers around me. After that, he threatened that I shouldn't forget that I was a virgin. This terrified me more than the beatings.
By the fifth day I was sick with a temperature. I banged on the door of my cell and shouted that I needed some medicine. I heard some officers laughing outside and one of them asked me what was happening. I told them I was sick with a fever and asked for a blanket, some medicine and hot water.
"What fever is that? Love sickness?" the officer replied.
I was angry but too weak to respond. At about midnight an officer came and put the hood over my head and pulled me from the cell. He said that I could have everything I wanted if I answer the truth, however I wasn't able to reply because I was too sick from my fever. The officer pulled me along while asking me questions.
"Who did Ko Ko Gyi meet with when he came to Bassein?" Ko Ko Gyi was the Vice-Chairman of the ABFSU.
"I can't remember," I replied, "I'm dizzy and I have a high fever."
He then ordered me to sit on the floor and lean against the wall. I heard him tell someone to bring a cup of coffee and some medicine. After about 15 minutes someone handed me some medicine and a cup of coffee. I asked the officer to take off my hood but he refused. While I was drinking the coffee, he continued to ask me questions but I can't remember them, or what I answered.
After taking the medicine, I thought I felt better. Then the officer asked me, "Do you know what that medicine was you just took?" I was suddenly terrified and angry with myself as I had no idea what the medicine was.
Another officer said, "The medicine you took heightens your sexuality."
I cried and screamed and tried to remove the hood from my head. The officers then took me back to my pitch-black cell and I remember crying the whole night until I lost my voice.
Over the next few days they didn't ask me any questions, and later I found out that they were busy with newcomers. During this time, I could hear doors being opened and closed near my cell and the sounds of shouting and beatings. Sometimes I would hear someone complaining next door. In my dark, unlit cell, time passed very slowly. All I could do was eat my two meals a day and listen to all the activity around me, and I realised that the newcomers were frequently being pulled in and out of their cells.
After spending nearly a month in the Interrogation Centre, Major Maung Win, the commander of MI-4, came and met with me.
"What do you think of our military coup in September 1988?" he asked me.
"From what I know, all the senior government officers were arrested in the I962 military coup," I began. "But in 1988 the SLORC protected the senior BSPP government officials instead of arresting them."
He asked me many other questions, but I don't remember them all. Then a solider led me into a hall and ordered me to sit on a chair. Five minutes later Daw Tin Tin Aye, our township judge, and two other men entered the hall and sat in front of me. They asked me to sign a confession and inquired whether or not I was injured. I showed them my swollen upper lip but they didn't write anything about it on my confession.
The next evening I was sent to Bassein Prison. I was subsequently sentenced to three years imprisonment and was released in September 1992.