“They Kicked Our Face, Hands And Shoulder” – Freed US Editor In Myanmar

Myanmar security forces punched, slapped and beat a US journalist and kept him blindfolded for more than a week of interrogation, he said after being deported to the United States following three months in detention.

Nathan Maung, 44, editor in chief of the online news platform Kamayut Media, was detained on March 9 in a raid and freed on June 15. His colleague Hanthar Nyein, who remains in detention, had been tortured more harshly, as had other people he met in prison, Maung said.

“They kicked our face, hands and shoulder, all the time,” Maung, who was born in Myanmar, told CNN. “For every answer, they beat us. Whatever we answered — whether correctly or incorrectly — they beat us. For three days, nonstop.”

A military spokesman did not respond to a request by the Reuters news agency for comment on the account by Maung, which echoes those of some of the thousands of others who have been detained since the army overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February.

Myanmar’s military has said detainees are being treated in accordance with the law, but as the military struggles to consolidate control over a country in revolt, it has arrested journalists and begun to target lawyers defending political prisoners.

Security forces in Myanmar have arbitrarily detained thousands who rebelled against the military coup in February and subjected many to torture, beatings and ill-treatment, according to a June 22 report by Human Rights Watch.

“The first three to four days were the worst,” Maung told Reuters in a telephone interview from Virginia.

“I was punched and slapped several times. No matter what I said, they just beat me. They used both their hands to slap my eardrums many times. They punched my cheekbones on both sides. They punched my shoulders. I was not allowed to stand up. My legs were swollen. I could not move any more,” he said.

Maung, who was born in Myanmar and fled to the US as a refugee in the 1990s, said he was seized at Kamayut Media’s office and was taken for questioning about his publication, his role there and how it operates.

“They handcuffed my hands behind my back, tied my eyes with a cloth and covered that with another cloth,” he said.

“They did not allow me to sleep for about three or four days. Nonstop interrogation. There was no time to sleep,” he said. He said the beatings diminished on the fourth day, after they discovered he was a US citizen.