This is no fiction

_ by Bitter Flower

Imagine you have two sons. They are handsome, intelligent and loving. You watch them grow up for years with pleasure and hope. But now, the younger one is in jail for taking part in a peaceful demonstration. They put him in a cell worse than a mediaeval dungeon. They beat him up day and night. They deprive him of sleep, water, food and medicines. He is paralyzed. He is seriously ill. He can’t walk. He has heart condition. 

(Thet Win Aung)

The other son was also taken away, or to be precise, kidnapped, only the other week, by means of deception by your local authority. He was released from prison a year ago. They don’t tell you where he is being detained and how he is doing. You know he was detained for 15 years for no particular reason. His health is not good either. But you are not allowed to give him vital medicines he used to take everyday for his survival. You are in your late sixties and early seventies. So is your partner. 

You know that your sons are innocent. They are not terrorists or of any violent denomination. They don’t go and attack anyone – not even verbally. They have never held even a pencil in anger in their lives. They just want democracy, freedom, peace and prosperity for the country.

 A faceless local official come and tell you that your younger son is now dead in a jail hundreds of miles away from home. He doesn’t tell you how your son died. You take the first plane available to see your dead son. When you get there after a strenuous journey with broken heart, they tell you that you can’t take your beloved son home. You must not bury him in a normal way either. You can only see his remains half an hour before the funeral. You must cremate him straight away and you must not take his ashes home.  

You come home empty handed, not even with the ashes of your dear dead son in your hand. There is still no news about the other son. You hear news that he is to be sent to prison again for life. 

Meanwhile, you hear that as part of the global effort to crackdown on ‘terrorist’ activities the Australian government is planning to train the agents who tortured your son to his slow death. Then you remember that your sons were also labeled terrorists by his killers. You also hear that the Indian government is also selling weapons to your son’s killers in exchange for gas.  

And would you think to yourself ‘what a wonderful world’? Just ask Win Maung and his wife Mya Aye, the parents of 34-year-old political activist Thet Win Aung who died in Mandalay Jail on 16 October 2006.