Secret film finds Burma's vanished monks
![Buddhist monks march through the streets of Rangoon in mid-September, 2007. [Reuters]](http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200811/r312735_1378982.jpg "Buddhist monks march through the streets of Rangoon in mid-September, 2007. [Reuters]")
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Buddhist monks march through the streets of Rangoon in mid-September, 2007. [Reuters]
Norman Hermant
Last Updated:
A hidden camera has provided a rare glimpse inside Burma's mental health system, used to incarcerate opposition figures and politically active monks.At one hospital where activities were filmed by a Burmese video journalist, there are hundreds of patients, and not enough supplies to go around.
The head nurse explains that clothes and shoes are needed.
She also acknowledges criminals are held there, confined because of their mental condition.
It appears from the film that some of the criminals in the hospital are monks.
Shaven
The footage shows they are allowed to keep their heads shaven but are forced to give up their robes - although some defy that rule.
It is not known how many were rounded up after the monk-led Saffron Revolution, crushed by the military junta in September 2007.
Many observers have long suspected that Burma's junta has confined political monks to mental institutions to treat what the regime claims is a sickness.
Bo Kyi, of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), told Australia Network's NewsHour:
"After the September revolution, some monks were sent to mental hospitals, also other activists.
"The military regime regard them as the crazy man or something."
The video of monks in the mental institution appears to be confirm of reports that opposition groups have been receiving for years.
Bo Kyi says: "Because we cannot go to mental hospitals, it's really difficult to collect information.
"But definitely we knew that monks were in hospital because of their participation in the monk struggle and the other sorts of protests."
Silence
That kind of treatment has helped the regime silence political opposition, particularly from Buddhist temples and monasteries.
Generous donations also ensure some toe the line.
But some monks will speak out.
"There will be other monks who will appear again," says one - unafraid of the risk of years in prison or a mental hospital, just for speaking to a journalist.
"They won't be afraid to die.
"If there is any grime, there will be someone who will clean that grime."
