My name is Bo Kyi. I come from the Southeast Asian country of Burma, which has been ruled by a brutal military dictatorship since 1962 and has been racked by civil wars since 1948. I, and many of my fellow Burmese people, served (and some continue to serve) as political prisoners of Burma's ruling military junta, the ironically-named State Peace and Development Council.
Since 1999, the year I escaped from Burma, I have been the Joint-Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), an organization based on the Thailand-Burma border. The AAPP was formed by former political prisoners who fled from Burma to avoid re-imprisonment. Like other members of AAPP who work, and also live, in our compound, I served time in prison for my political beliefs. Altogether I completed two consecutive sentences and spent over seven years behind bars. I endured beatings, torture, insufficient nutrition, withholding of medical treatment, and substandard living conditions.
My crime? I was the head of a student union that called for a change to democratic rule in Burma, and that participated in the nation-wide, non-violent, pro-democracy movement that culminated in August of 1988. I was among many student leaders and activists who were jailed. My friends were among the thousands who, instead of facing prison, were killed.
In 1999, a year after I completed my multiple sentences, I fled to neighboring Thailand, like over 10,000 student activists had done before me. Many thousands more of my colleagues remain inside Burma where they continue the struggle for democracy and human rights.
My mission now, and the greater mission of the AAPP as an organization, is to document the suffering of democracy activists in the gulags of the military regime and to expose these abuses to the civilized world.
Recently, the Washington Post published a major article on torture in Burma. This article described how political prisoners are treated in Burma. At present, there are over 1,100 political prisoners in Burma, including 12 elected members of parliament. The world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, is also in detention. All these prisoners have been arrested for working for freedom and democracy. At least 80 political prisoners have died in prisons and interrogation centers due to torture and denial of medical treatment. Most of those arrested and detained have been subjected to torture.
I have tried to document in detail some of their stories in a report, entitled 'The Darkness We See,' which details the torture inflicted on political prisoners in Burma and shows the physical and psychological effects of torture. The report contains interviews with 35 former political prisoners who were tortured physically and psychologically in some of the country's 43 prisons.
It is clear that torture is the state policy of the military junta. Torture is used by the military regime to try and break the will of political activists and create an overwhelming climate of fear.
Despite the heavy sentences and harsh treatment that political prisoners receive, it is not as difficult as you might think to become a political prisoner in Burma. Simply try to exercise your basic human rights or advocate for the basic rights of others, and you're likely to find yourself facing seven years of hard labor or isolation and, of course, torture. All basic rights - including freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of association, freedom of worship and freedom of movement - are denied or severely limited by the military regime.
Overall, the human rights situation in Burma today is still quite bad and will never improve under the hands of the junta and its leading general, Than Shwe. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic nationalities live as internally displaced persons in the jungles and mountains. More than two million people live in neighboring countries as refugees. Forcible recruitment of children into the Burmese military continues, and Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world.
Modern forms of slave labor, as well as forced relocations in which villages are burnt to the ground by the Burma Army, have become a common practice of Than Shwe's regime, occurring not only in rural areas, but also in the capital city of Rangoon and other major cities. The Burmese military continues to use rape as a weapon of war in ethnic minority areas. Burma is the second largest producer of heroin, and may be one of the largest producers of amphetamines in the world. According to Parade Magazine, Than Shwe is the third worst dictator in the world, after Kim Jong Il of North Korea and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
I feel very fortunate that I am able to share the experiences of my people with the American people. The U.S. government has been one of the greatest supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's democracy movement. One of the most important and valuable actions of the United States has been to implement sanctions on Burma through the 2003 Burma Freedom and Democracy Act. The U.S. has also been at the forefront of efforts to bring Burma to the United Nations Security Council.
Being in the United States, I feel I am among friends and allies. As someone who has suffered personally at the hands of Burma's military junta, I ask you to "use your liberty to promote ours." Tell your Congressional representatives and President Bush to renew sanctions on Burma and bring Burma to the UN Security Council, travel to the Thailand-Burma border and befriend the thousands of Burmese refugees who have resettled here in America.
I thank you for the friendship and support that many Americans have extended to me, and look forward to welcoming you to a free and democratic Burma, one day in the future, as friends in my people's struggle for freedom.
It is clear that torture is the state policy of the military junta. Torture is used by the military regime to try and break the will of political activists and create an overwhelming climate of fear.
Bo Kyi is the Joint-Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, an organization based on the Thailand-Burma border. He received an award from the Italian Section of Amnesty International in 2001 for his work promoting human rights in Burma and has testified in front of Congress. He will be speaking at Tufts University tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Cabot 205.
