Myanmar protesters being tortured, disappearing: UN
It condemns rising death toll and warns that security forces are still arbitrarily detaining people
GENEVA : Detained protesters in Myanmar are facing torture and hundreds have disappeared, the United Nations (UN) said yesterday decrying surging deaths since the Feb 1 coup.
"The death toll has soared over the past week in Myanmar, where security forces have been using lethal force increasingly aggressively against peaceful protesters," UN human rights office spokesman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.
In total, she said, the office had corroborated that a total of 149 people had died in the crackdown on protests since Feb 1 but stressed that the actual number was surely much higher.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 180 people have been killed, including 74 on Sunday alone.
In addition to the killings, Ms Shamdasani warned that security forces were continuing to arbitrarily arrest and detain people throughout the country, with at least 2,084 people currently being held.
"Deeply distressing reports of torture in custody have also emerged," she said.
The office had determined that "at least five deaths in custody have occurred in recent weeks", she said, adding that "at least two victims' bodies have shown signs of severe physical abuse indicating that they were tortured".
In addition, "hundreds of people who have been unlawfully detained remain unaccounted for and have not been acknowledged by the military". This "amounts to enforced disappearances".
Her comment came after security forces escalated the use of lethal force against anti-coup protesters, despite international appeals for restraint.
The families of dozens of people killed in demonstrations against military rule in Myanmar held funerals for their loved ones yesterday as more protesters defied security forces and at least one man was shot dead.
MOURNERS
Hundreds of young mourners spilled out onto the streets at the funeral of medical student Khant Nyar Hein who was killed in Yangon on Sunday, the bloodiest day of the protests.
"Let them kill me right now, let them kill me instead of my son because I can't take it any more," the teenager's mother was seen saying in a video clip posted on Facebook.
Mourners chanted: "Our revolution must prevail."
Some families said security forces had seized the bodies of loved ones but they would still hold a funeral. - AFP, REUTERS
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