Hell in the heart of Monywa

Trigger warning: This article includes descriptions of violent events that might be disturbing for some readers. In the centre of Monywa, Sagaing Region’s capital and largest city, is its city hall, a building that is now heavily fortified with bunkers and several layers of barbed-wire fence. It has been like this for more than three years now, ever since the military turned it into an interrogation centre for opponents to its rule. Anti-coup protests began in Monywa on February 7, 2021, less than a week after the junta seized power. A day later, the crowds swelled to the tens of thousands, prompting the regime to impose a curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than five people. This came as pro-democracy forces in the city, including members of the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society and a number of civil society organisations, were coalescing into the Monywa Township People’s Strike Committee. That same evening, junta forces attempted to arrest members of the Sagaing Region Youth Affairs Committee based in the city. After failing to detain any of the activists they were looking for, they took several people living in the area to the city hall for questioning. It was at this point that the seat of the city’s municipal government began its transformation into a notorious torture chamber. It did not assume this role immediately. But as the number of arrests overwhelmed the capacity of the city’s police stations, local regime authorities soon realised that they needed a dedicated interrogation centre. Junta troops seen in front of the General Aung San statue in Monywa after the coup in 2021 (CJ/ Lu Htu Nway Oo) At first, they considered using the base where the Northwestern Regional Military Command is headquartered. But that was in Ahlone, an area about eight miles north of downtown Monywa, which they deemed to be too far to transport so many detainees. And so they decided to use the city hall. The city hall is located on the Monywa-Ye-U highway (also known as the Bogyoke Highway), near a bronze equestrian statue of independence leader General Aung San. Soldiers surround the statue, watching everyone who passes nearby. The area around the city hall is relatively easy to secure because, despite being in the downtown core, it has few private buildings that could be used to carry out ambushes. Most that could pose such a threat, such as the eight-storey Hotel Chindwin, have been closed since the new interrogation centre was established. “Turning a building that used to be the pride and joy of the city into an interrogation centre is a disgrace,” said Soe Win Swe, founder of the Monywa-based Helpers for Perfect Democracy network, noting that the entire downtown area has become increasingly deserted since the coup. Inside the city hall from hell Around 60 junta personnel are believed to be working inside the city hall interrogation centre at any given time. They belong to the Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs, the Bureau of Special Investigation, and the Special Police Intelligence Force, all working under the supervision of a tactical officer. They have six military trucks at their disposal, while three double-cab patrol vehicles and four prison transfer vehicles are parked at the nearby Central Police Station. Among those who are interrogated here are People’s Defence Force (PDF) troops, members of urban guerrilla groups, public servants taking part in the civil disobedience movement, and people who donate money to resistance forces or assist them in other ways, such as by acting as scouts. A source close to people working inside the interrogation centre told Myanmar Now that it includes an “intelligence team” that identifies targets and an “arrest team” that decides whether force will be needed to apprehend them, or if they can be taken in by small groups of plainclothes officers. Sometimes they also conduct “hunting games,” infiltrating organised events by wearing disguises and rounding up protesters en masse, the source said. Police set up roadblocks to prevent protesters from approaching Monywa’s city hall (Supplied) Survivors of the centre’s interrogation methods said they ranged from psychological attacks and “light torture”—such as rolling spiked sticks over the shins of victims until they bleed, dropping hot wax onto their bodies, or tasing them—to more extreme forms of torture that routinely end in death. “We weren’t even sure if we were still human while we were in there. All we could think about was when we would finally be killed,” said one man from Salingyi Township who spent more than a week being interrogated inside Monywa’s city hall. Another victim, a man in his 50s, was arrested in early 2021 while returning to his home from a protest. At first he was taken to a house where, blindfolded, he was kicked and beaten. He was then moved to the city hall interrogation centre, where he was stripped naked and subjected to an even more brutal beating. When his tormentors saw that he had a tattoo of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, they poured scalding water over it. “The woman you worship is water in our hands now. There is no hope for losers like you,” they shouted. He was eventually released, but was soon arrested again following a raid on his house. Three years later, his family still has no idea where he is being held, or even if he is still alive. Gruesome deaths Nobody knows exactly how many people have been killed inside Monywa’s city hall since the coup. The military has stopped informing families when suspects die in custody, and it no longer hands bodies over to social welfare groups for burial. However, according to the news agency Voice of Myanmar, these groups received nearly 200 unidentified male and female bodies before the military started sending them directly to cemeteries. Some families never learn the fate of their loved ones, while others find out in ways that can only be described as heartbreaking. Last year, an 18-year-old PDF member was arrested while returning to his home in Monywa’s Chanmyawaddy Ward to see his ailing mother. He was taken to the city hall interrogation centre and was never seen alive again. “We didn’t even know that he had been killed. We only found out when we identified him in a photo taken by the social welfare group that retrieved his body from the morgue,” said the young man’s aunt. “Pardon me for saying this, but they even crushed his genitals,” she said, tearfully recalling the details of what the photo revealed. Demonstrators march in Monywa in the second week of March 2021 (Myanmar Now) Some victims live to tell their families of their horrific treatment. A father and son who are currently being held in prison narrowly escaped a gruesome death at the hands of their captors, according to a family member who spoke to Myanmar Now. “Their interrogators had poured diesel fuel over them in a field and had just set them on fire when a motorcycle crashed nearby. In the ensuing chaos, a soldier who took pity on them doused the flames and told them to go back to their cells, saving their lives,” said the relative, adding that neither victim has received treatment for their injuries. A woman from Salingyi Township said that her husband was arrested while taking tomatoes to Monywa to sell at the market. He was stopped while passing the city hall and accused of planning to plant a bomb. “We had to bribe the military to get him out. They said he was a bomber and beat him savagely, to the point that when he got back home, he couldn’t even remember his own children,” she said. One man, a welder accused of helping resistance forces to make weapons, said he was subjected to psychological torture during his interrogation. “They fired guns to threaten me, saying that they had killed the person next to me and that I was next if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to know. But I couldn’t see anything because I was blindfolded,” he said. Raping bodies and minds Many survivors of the interrogation centre also spoke of being sexually assaulted. One woman in her 20s said that she was denied sleep for three days while she was grilled relentlessly about her alleged ties to PDF groups, who she was accused of funding. During this time, she had a bag over her head and was groped repeatedly by her tormentors, who also threatened to rape her. “I couldn’t see them because of the bag over my head, but they kept squeezing my breasts, saying they would rape me if I didn’t tell them where the PDF troops were,” she said, speaking to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity. “I was only spared because they finally realised that I really didn’t know anything. But even then, they forced my legs apart and kicked me in the groin. I felt like dying,” added the woman, who is now a member of a resistance group. Many who are subjected to sexual violence are unwilling to speak about their ordeals. However, a former political prisoner agreed to share the story of a close friend who was detained at the Monywa city hall interrogation centre. A funeral procession is held in Monywa for Thinzar Hein, a 19-year-old nursing student who was gunned down by junta troops in March 2021 (Supplied) “A friend of mine was arrested while protesting. After she was released, she told me that the military found an intimate video of her with her boyfriend on her phone and used it torment her. At night, when they were drunk, they would say they wanted to do the same things with her that they saw in the video. They also threatened to share it online after she was released,” said the former political prisoner. “When she got out, she had to start taking sleeping pills to help with her insomnia. We had to talk her out of suicide and now she has run away from home and we can’t find her,” she added. The treatment of “effeminate” male prisoners was particularly brutal and humiliating, according to this source. Interrogators would taunt them by holding onto their penises, and sometimes shoved hard rods into their anuses, she said. One gay man named Thura was so severely beaten that he pleaded with female prison officers to help him. He was so despondent at their apparent indifference to his plight that he later killed himself, according to members of Monywa’s LGBTQ community. ‘Blood stains everywhere’ No one in Monywa is safe from the evil that now controls its city hall. Business owners in the city say they have been arrested just to extract hefty bribes from them. Residents of the area say they can hear screams and gunshots at night. Most steer clear of the city hall for fear of ending up inside, or worse. One young man was shot and killed recently while driving past a hospital near the city hall on his motorcycle. Following this incident, the authorities released a statement claiming that he was planting explosives. No evidence was provided. Meanwhile, prisoners are still dying or disappearing. According to the Monywa People’s Strike Committee, two prisoners who were appearing in court for a hearing—Marn Zar Myay Mon, a strike committee leader from Chaung-U, a town about 15 miles southeast of Monywa, and Aung Kyaw Zin, a member of a local PDF group—were sent to the Monywa city hall after they tried to stop police beating another prisoner. Once inside the interrogation centre, they were also assaulted. “Aung Kyaw Zin has already died and Marn Zar is dying from his injuries,” said a member of the Monywa People’s Strike Committee. A demonstration held in Monywa on March 13, 2021 (Myanmar Now) There are also concerns about the fate of seven other detainees who were taken from the city hall interrogation centre four months ago to be used as “guides” in resistance territory. They have not been seen or heard from since, according to sources. Even junta officials from other departments say they are appalled by what they have witnessed inside the city hall. “There are blood stains everywhere in there. We shouldn’t even think about using it as the city hall again in the future,” said a member of the local General Administration Department who visited the city hall recently. Soe Win Swe, spokesperson for the Sagaing Forum, an assembly of independent resistance groups operating in the region, agreed that the city hall could never return to its former function. Describing it as a “hell house” for those seeking a better future for the country, he called for it to be turned into a museum or memorial honouring those who suffered there—“to ensure that future generations never forget the junta’s atrocities.”

Hell in the heart of Monywa

Myanmar’s junta has transformed the city hall of Sagaing Region’s capital into one of the country’s most notorious interrogation centres

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