Ko Kyi Toe (40): “I heard voices from the trucks screaming: we are still alive!”

Ko Kyi Toe’s Voice

Ko Kyi Toe is 40 years old and comes from Rangoon. We meet in NuPho refugee camp around the 2010 elections.
“On 16 March 1988, my sister started marching with students, Tada Pyu (White Bridge). They marched peacefully. But the military regime blocked the streets. The students said: we are peaceful, we can avoid the military. But they were beaten and tortured. Their clothes were taken off and they were drowned in the river. My sister was not beaten, she managed to escape and told me about it all. I have been interested in politics since that day.”

 Ko Kyi Toe tells more about the student protests in 1988.
“It was June 1988 and the students started marching into Rangoon. At night, there were more arrests. In my streets, the stray dogs would bark, so we would be warned and usually saw the troops coming. I ran away when they came. I went to my brother’s house, which was close to Rangoon. I went back home in August. I saw many students killed. Many bodies were in the streets. Everybody who got caught, was injured or killed by the regime. Everybody was put on trucks. I heard voices from those trucks, screaming: we are still alive! They just threw everybody on the trucks with the dead bodies. Many people were buried alive. People who were injured, but alive, were all buried with the dead people.”
“They first put them all in mass graves. Later, they buried them up again: they dug them up with machines and burned all the bodies. Thousands.”
“Every five minutes trucks came with people and bodies. First they drove to the military camp and then to the cemetary. I lived close to the military office and saw everything. From that day, I believed and saw the military regime just causes problems. Only when we kick them out, will we have peace.”
What happened to you at that time?
“On 19 July 1989, it was Martyr’s Day and we remembered Bogyoke Aung San’s assassination. I was a member of Ahkatha, the basic student union. We marched to the Shwedagon Pagoda. We were attacked by the military. We dispersed. There were 19 students left. They marched on but were caught. Sixteen boys and three girls were arrested, including me. I was sent to an interrogation centre and from there to Insein prison.”
“Inside Insein prison there are ‘private prisons’: rooms used as interrogation rooms. I was interrogated there on 20 July. I did not suffer like some others. We were not tortured because it was an emergency situation. They simply did not have enough time for that. We had to stand in the so-called motorcycle position. If we moved, the beat us. But we did not get any electrical shocks or anything like that.”
“On 29 July, sixteen of the nineteen were sentenced. Three boys, they were about 13 years old, were released. Three girls and thirteen boys were sentenced to five and seven years in prison. I got five years. In Insein prison.”
Can you tell us more about your time in prison?
“In January 1990, I was transferred to Thayarwaddy prison in Bago. We were forced to work in a forced labour camp. We refused and were beaten up. I got unconscious. They took me to a room where there were many leprosy patients. Ninety people were beaten. We had to crawl on all fours, in lines of five. We were later ordered to paint the prison, in summer. We refused again. We did not want to paint, because we were no criminals. We did not want to decorate the place were innocent people are being kept. So they beat us again.”
“A colleague was punched by a prison officer. Others stood up for him and demonstrated at this treatment. The prison officials took ten of us and beat them up.

We had to stand in this position (Ko Kyi Toe shows us): on our heels, bent in the knees, with the hands in your neck, head down. Then they beat us.
I pretended I was unconscious. But they just continued and kicked my head and face. All my body parts were broken. When I was released, I showed my injuries and my back to my mother. She had a heart attack when she saw my injuries…”
“Some prisoners were beaten until they died. This is a problem for the authorities, so they had to be careful.”
Ko Kyi Toe stands up and demonstrates walking in leg chains: the chains are around the ankles and keep the feet about 30 centimetres apart. He wiggles in front of us.

“I wore legchains, so could not walk properly. I was very weak and had to be supported by prison officers when I was moved. Upon reaching my cell, they kicked me to the ground.”
“At night, the wind came in my cell. It was very cold. I could not sleep because I was afraid of the cold and paralyses. I slept on the ground, without a mattrass. There was no toilet. I could not move because of my injuries. Later, as a form of exercise, I did ‘sit-ups’ with my legs. When I had gone to the toilet, I would check my faeces. Often, there was blood in my stools. Then I would be depressed: I knew I was bleeding again inside and I was unhealthy again.”
“There were maggots which came out of the toilets. They bit me. Every morning, I would get one cup of water. This was for washing, brushing teeth, etc. In total I got five cups of water a day. But I found a dead rotting rat in this drinking water. There was no toilet paper and we would tear little bits of our longyis to use for cleaning ourselves. We could not wash these, they were dirty, but we did not have enough water to do this.”
“Everybody had scabies. There were too many people, it was dirty and the circumstances were unhygienic. There were more scabies in Insein than in Thayarwaddy.
When they wanted to medically treat us, they just injected us with a needle. Many people had HIV; the needles were not clean and they used the same on many people.”
Ko Kyi Toe was released on 10 October 1992. In 1996 he moved away and hid in the countryside. During the 2007 uprisings, he distributed statements with Min Ko Naing and had to escape the country. He left Burma in February. On 15 January 2008, Ko Kyi Toe arrived in NuPho refugee camp in Thailand.
“I am here with my wife and my child. They came a few months after I escaped. I want to resettle with my family in a third country now.”
Do you have a message for the people?
“I want to ask the international community not to accept this military regime in Burma. Their elections are no solution. As long as this regime is there, there will be no peace. The civil war will not stop.”
http://burmavoices.com/2011/02/ko-kyi-toe-40-i-heard-voices-from-the-trucks-screaming-we-are-still-alive/#more-1283