(Staff article from the AL JAZEERA on 10 March 2021.)
The NLD’s Zaw Myat Linn (The Principal of “SUU Vocational Institute” and NLD’s Vocational
Education Official) died in custody after he was detained in Yangon at about
1:30am (19:00 GMT on Monday), said Ba Myo Thein, a member of the dissolved
upper house of parliament.
“He’s been
participating continuously in the protests,” Ba Myo Thein said. “Now the
relatives are trying to retrieve the body at the Military Hospital.” Neither
the military nor the police responded to calls for comment.
Zaw Myat Linn, who ran a vocational institute in Myanmar’s biggest city, is the second NLD official to have died in custody in recent days. Khin Maung Latt, who worked as a campaign manager for an NLD MP elected in 2020, died after he was arrested on Saturday.
Myanmar was
plunged into crisis on February 1 when the army detained the government of
elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in a coup. Protests have taken
place on an almost daily basis since and many civil servants and private sector
workers have walked off the job as part of a mass civil disobedience movement.
The resistance
to military rule has prompted an increasingly harsh crackdown from the security
forces, and people have also been arrested during a nightly curfew and internet
blackout that has now been enforced for 24 nights.
More than 60
protesters have been killed in the crackdown and nearly 2,000 detained, said
the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which has been tracking
arrests since the coup.
Maung Saungkha,
an activist and Zaw Myat Linn’s friend, said his family was summoned to
retrieve his body and was not told how he died. His wife said Zaw Myat Linn had
a large wound to his abdomen, and the military had said he hurt himself climbing
over a fence while trying to escape, The Irrawaddy newspaper said. Their deaths
have raised questions about whether the military is torturing and killing
detainees.
U Zaw Myat Lin,
aged 46, (NLD, Vocational Science Institute) was arbitrarily arrested from his
home on the night of March 8 2021 and ruthlessly tortured to death by Myanmar
military and police. His family was contacted to collect his unrecognizable
body at the Military Hospital the next morning.
We have seen the devastating pictures of his body. It
appeared that during the interrogation, his face and mouth were poured with a
highly corrosive chemical solution or boiling water. His teeth are missing, the
tongue is melted and skin on his swollen face is peeling off. It is reported
that part of his stomach has melted and missing. The abdomen is cut open. There
are significant bruises on his flanks. It is also reported parts of his
intestines and internal organs are missing or are in pieces.
It is beyond our
comprehension to understand what kind of mind committed this kind of gruesome
act. It is worse than the psychopaths in horror movies. Our deepest condolences
to his family, and other families around the country suffering the same fate.
