The children in Myanmar locked up by the junta for the political beliefs of
Hiding in the mosquito-infested jungles of Myanmar in a makeshift tent with her father, her young world has been torn apart.
“I want to sleep with mummy, but the police have taken her,” she said in an audio clip recorded by her father, Soe Htay, on his phone and sent to CNN in early August.
He says his family is now paying the price for his activism. His wife and teenage daughter remain behind bars, and his youngest daughter says she was forced into a half sitting, half standing pose during the 18 days she was in detention — a stress position that the United Nations Committee Against Torture views as a form of torture.
The military has not responded to CNN’s detailed emails and texts about the girl’s detention and treatment.
But Soe Htay and his daughter are not alone.
In the months since the coup, the junta has waged a bloody campaign against its opponents, shooting dead protesters in the street and detaining thousands of doctors, activists, journalists, artists — anyone it deems an enemy.
Sometimes, the junta isn’t able to find its opponents. And increasingly, the military is going after another group of people to sow fear among the population and make them fall in line: the family members of dissidents, according to Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.
“It’s just horrific, it’s horrific, it’s outrageous, it’s completely unacceptable and the international community should be up in arms,” he said. “That’s the brutal reality we’re facing in this country and most importantly that the people of the Myanmar are facing.”
Cracking down on protests
In June, months after he had stopped protesting for fear of being shot by the military, soldiers came to his home in Myanmar’s central Mogok city to arrest him, Soe Htay told CNN from his jungle hideout.
They raided his house four times, but he had already gone into hiding with his two sons, he said, leaving his immediate family behind.
On the final visit in June, they arrested his wife and two daughters instead.
“This is a hostage-arrest,” he said. “Since they arrested my family when they couldn’t arrest me … my youngest daughter wasn’t even 5 yet.”
Su Htet Waing spent her fifth birthday in detention, said Soe Htay. She was let out on June 30 after 18 days as part of a mass prisoner release. Her mother and sister remain behind bars, sentenced to three years in prison, Soe Htay said. Local media reported the pair were charged with incitement — a common punishment leveled at pro-democracy activists.
While Su Htet Waing was detained she was forced into the half-sitting, half-standing position, which caused her “mental trauma,” said Soe Htay.
Andrews, the UN special rapporteur, said he has heard of many similar cases of children being brutally punished for the political views of their parents in the months since the military junta took control.
“The stress position is outrageous,” he said.
“I have seen reports of children being beaten, reports of children, of iron rods…
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