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Oct-15-2012 23:01printcomments

Tortured to Death in Burma - Extremely Graphic!

The Rohingya people of Burma are being slaughtered and nobody of political import in the west cares.

Murdered man from Anaung Pyin Village, in Ra Tha Taung Township, Burma
Wrists of a murdered man from Anaung Pyin Village, in Ra Tha Taung Township, Burma, show signs of torture.

(SITTWE / SACRAMENTO) - Any time a person is murdered it is a tragedy; but when a human being is tortured to death, it is more than a tragedy; it is a blemish of unrelenting shame upon the entire human race.

No such treatment of prisoners under restraint is ever acceptable, though one can understand from the example set by world leaders like former U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who both favored the legal torture of prisoners, how people could get the wrong idea.

As the bloodshed in Myanmar continues, most media in the west and the U.S. in particular, ignores it as if it is not taking place.

This is a chilling reality and a condition, as grotesque as at sounds, that is greatly appreciated by war crime governments.

Naturally, these entities want the media to avoid the stories that make a government look bad, and the moment the media does this, and it started without question long, long ago... they become nothing but an instrument of the government. By not following and reporting certain stories, they remain in lock step as agents of the U.S. and other governments. And remember when in doubt they always say it is over 'national security' and that is like the war criminal's hall pass.

Free media complicates the plans of illegal power brokers.

In Sri Lanka, Rwanda and other places notoriously dangerous for reporters, the governments abduct and generally murder the press, but Burma had no such issues to contend with.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that this longtime military junta-turned 'democracy' has no free media and accordingly, there are very few cameras on the ground covering what is taking place.

For the media, ignoring death is the same as causing it. They claim to report the news, yet these agencies pick and choose and they do it in part to spite Muslims because that quite sadly, is part of the U.S. agenda, and the mainstream media and press are the tools that ensure the process takes place as planned. Ignoring a conflict of ethnic cleansing is inexcusable. This can not be overstated.

Also understand that people in Burma go to great lengths and risk their lives getting photos that have been seen here exclusively on Salem-News.com and that is because they trust us and they know we care and will follow through and publish this material to the best of our ability. We have done the same thing for other countries facing terrible violence from their governments.

This image shows one of the latest victims of the ethnic violence sweeping this nation. Burma as it has historically been known, was viewed for decades as a pariah state.

In a new mode supposedly toward democracy, we learn that this democracy only applies if you happen to be of the correct religion, meaning Burma is a state of apartheid like South Africa used to be, and Israel is today; where one set of laws governs the 'correct' religion and a second harsher set of laws govern the minorities.

The Rohingyas are not in many cases, even recognized by their own government in Myanmar.

Laws for only one religion are one part of the grim reality those there on the ground face.

Today Burma is cutting business deals with the U.S. government in an attempt to "become a democracy" while side stepping its responsibility to bring a voice of reason to the displacement of more than 90,000 Rohingya Muslim people.

This type of image is hard to see but it is an example of what the Rakhine Buddhists are doing to the Muslims in Burma; a population they have co-existed with for hundreds of years.

It is clear by a simple cursory look that this man was the victim of immense torture and the scars and open wounds that are found all over his body are clear signs of the brutality he was forced to endure while still alive.

This week we reported that teams of police are invading Muslim villages and raping women who are home alone.

Rape and torture are widespread problems and in fact it was the rape of a Rakhine Buddhist woman allegedly by Rohingya men, that started the current bloodshed.

My contact who sent these images to our newsroom, lives in Sittwe which is a hotbed of violence in Burma.

Villages large and small as we have shown in many photos in recent weeks, have been burned to the ground which of course leaves scores of people homeless.

The Rakhine Buddhist population is trying to force the evacuation of those Muslims who are not killed. This is not conjecture or theory, sadly. Even the president confirmed this week that he will not back a program to aid the Muslims of Burma, or Myanmar as the case may be.

The battle cry among the Rakhine has been that the Royingyas are 'illegal immigrants from Bangladesh' and this is not true, and it is even more complex and sad because Rohingyas have fled for Bangladesh expecting to find safety and refuge for their families, only to learn that they will have to return to Burma.

Images of men standing with their children begging authorities to allow them to remain in Bangladesh are among the saddest images ever captured on film.

We have shown very recent photographs of young Rakhine men riding motor scooters with machetes in their hands, blades alternately gleaming in the sun and revealing the ruddy brown color of what appears to be blood on the blades.

This man shown here is dead as a result of too much torture. That's a hell of a statement isn't it? 'Too much torture'...

We do not know his name but we can imagine how difficult the last weeks of his life were. We do know that this man was from Anaung Pyin Village, in Ra Tha Taung Township.

The government arrested him after the outbreak of violence. From what we have been told, he was held for the last part of his life, in Sittwe jai.

Here, we are told, the man had been tortured since his arrest by police and Rakhines; pulled away from whatever family and friends he may have had, and his life has been something akin to a horror movie ever since.

Through consistent torture and a lack of medication he passed away on 13th October 2012.

There are problems in any group of people when they are kept under a system of excessive control, and then suddenly allowed to have free will. There is always a majority and a minority and I don't need to tell you who usually comes out at the losing end of these deals.

One classic example of a place that could not handle political freedom is Bosnia-Herzegovina, where the fall of Communism led to the disintegration of relationships between Muslims and Christians.

We can learn from these things, government leaders can call for change and still do business, but today when the U.S. is involved, the business deal trumps the humanitarian crisis in terms of importance.

Of course Hillary Clinton won't end up like this man, nor will the famous opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, this will not be their fate, though their actions and their silence helped kill this man and all of the others.

The scars and the exaggerated signs of torture like the one you see here will never find their way onto the bodies of those political leaders who globe trot effortlessly, always while remembering to look away from the violence and concentrate on the money.

Yet the scar reaches out so far from this poor man's remains.

It is important for our readers to understand that this is one more of those Salem-News.com topics that will only get much larger over time.

Like Sri Lanka, and Rwanda, and Palestine, we are only given super basic information from the mainstream media; there is so much critical data that must be released and it is sad that Salem-News.com is seemingly out here on our own waving this flag and hoping and praying for someone to notice; someone who cares to make a difference.

The same political leaders I reference here will at some point in the future, have to explain why they remained silent as the most heinous and disgusting acts were committed.

They could have made a difference, but the Rohingya population was abandoned by these female political leaders who of all people, should have considered the suffering they indirectly signed off on. The worst problem is that there is no end in sight at this point and the violence has now spilled into Bangladesh where innocent Buddhist people have been attacked, killed and had their own villages destroyed by fire.

I don't see the value in everyone remaining tight lipped over the attacks on the Rohingyas and perhaps others now agree. I think they will definitely live to regret it, which is a far cry more than this man will ever know.

We live in an age when torture and enforced disappearances of political opposition members is totally inexcusable, yet commonplace. Our Human Rights Ambassador William Gomes is constantly reminding us of the vast number of human rights violations that take place in a long list of countries, it isn't just Burma but this is one of the worst examples.

I suppose some will call the reprisal attacks in Bangladesh poetic justice... but I would not. There is an inherent yet apparently unavoidable tendency of man to resort to violence with more violence, but all it ever brings is in fact more violence.

I think we're seeing a simple and predictable result of the U.S. and world decision to ignore the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims and the horror currently taking place, was a consequence that could have been avoided.

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)

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