https://arab.news/44sts
The latest report from UN investigators on Myanmar is one of the most harrowing yet. It documents the systematic use of torture by the junta’s security forces in prisons and interrogation centers across the country. What is especially horrifying is that children are among the victims. Some are targeted with electric shocks and sexual violence. Others are arrested as proxies for their parents, brutalized to extract information or as a warning to entire communities.
This is not just another story of a repressive regime. These are gross violations of international law and, in some cases, they amount to crimes against humanity. Torture of detainees has long been a feature of authoritarian rule, but what is happening in Myanmar is now widespread, coordinated and openly documented. It is meant to terrorize the population into submission at a time when the junta is losing control of much of the country to armed resistance.
The first key questions that arise from this report are simple: what exactly does it reveal and why does it matter?
Investigators gathered testimonies from survivors and defectors, detailing practices including electric shocks to the genitals, burning with heated metal rods, the pulling out of fingernails and prolonged beatings. Victims described being forced to kneel for hours on sharp objects or having plastic bags tied over their heads until they nearly suffocated. The accounts also show that women and girls are subjected to sexual assault in detention as a method of humiliation and coercion.
