China said Thursday tensions in Burma had taken a turn for the better and called on the international community to aid UN efforts at mediation between the junta and its opponents. "We believe that the situation there is relaxing and turning in a positive direction," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference. Students Tortured By Saw Yan Naing
October 11, 2007 The Irrawaddy Magazine Members of the 88 Generation Students and other detainees who have been arrested by authorities are now being tortured in Insein interrogation center and other detention facilities. Some have been tortured to death and others have been hospitalized in serious condition, according to sources. A source close to authorities in Insein prison told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that many prisoners are tortured and some are now hospitalized in serious condition, including Min Ko Naing, a prominent student leader. The source requested anonymity for his safety.
Monks in Hell
By Kyi Wai/ Rangoon
October 11, 2007
The Irrawaddy Magazine “Due to the lack of food and the extreme highs and lows of temperature, some monks and laypeople felt like they were suffocating. Others simply died.
“The conditions were terrible. We each had no more than a small patch of cell to sit on,” lamented Burmese monk U Sandar Vaya, looking pale and weak and somewhat older than his 33 years. U Sandar Vaya was arrested along with hundreds of other Buddhist monks at midnight on September 26. The Burmese military authorities had started arresting demonstrators that day, detained them in five locations around Rangoon—the Government Technology Institute (GTI) in Insein, the police quarters in Kyaikkasan, and police detention centers in Hmawbi, Thanlyin and Aung Thapyay, according to those people who were later released. One police official estimates that there would have been at least 1,000 monks and laypeople per detention center. U Sandar Waya said he was incarcerated with 500 other monks and 200 civilians in one room of the GTI. The authorities gave them each only one bowl of drinking water in the first two days, later increasing the ration to three bowls. The guards didn't allow the detainees to wash and there was no toilet, only plastic bags for sanitation. “The room was filthy and it stank,” says U Sandar Waya. Another Buddhist monk who was recently released confirmed that about 700 monks and laypeople were detained in a hall some 9m by 21m (30 ft x70 ft). “Even though the room could be considered a rather wide area, we were so jam-packed that it was hard to breathe,” he said. The monk, who asked not to be identified, said the guards took each monk in turn from the room and forced him to take off his robe. They were made to put on laymen’s clothes. The authorities provided only one meal per day – a lunch at 2 p.m., which monks can't eat as their Buddhist vow allows them only to eat in the morning. On the concrete floor of the room the guards poured wet sand and, as a result, some detainees became weak and sick very quickly. While in detention, some monks continued to protest against the regime, but many others became too weak to do so. “More than a dozen monks and other people died,” claimed a layman who was released on October 5. “And almost all the detainees got sick. "It really was hell," he said. “I could do nothing for a young novice who was dying beside me. We asked for help from the security guards, but they didn't do anything until they came to take away his dead body.”
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