Friends in High Places.(World Affairs)(Burma; human rights activist)

Byline: Kendyl Salcito

When knowing English could save your life.

Umyint Aye, a 56-year-old Burmese human-rights activist, had already been jailed for two weeks in Rangoon when incoming prisoners began to describe the abuse of monks in the streets.

The holy men were being tied to lampposts by government soldiers, beaten with rifle butts and bamboo rods, and dumped at their family homes. Aye is now determined to make sure the world hears about these events. But his own story is just as dramatic -- for opposite reasons. Aye has spent several stints in the notorious Insein Prison. This fall, however -- even as monks were being brutalized around the country -- the government let him go after 70 days and a few bamboo swipes to the back.

A stark pattern has emerged from the recent crackdown: certain activists got better treatment than run-of-the-mill protesters and many monks. Turns out the ruling generals are more concerned about world opinion than one might think: activists with close foreign ties or strong English skills got the soft treatment.

These tactics complicate protesters' efforts to promote their cause abroad. Last year the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPPB), based in Mae Sot, Thailand, published a book detailing state torture methods, which it claims have killed 138 activists since 1988. But even though AAPPB leaders, including its joint head, John Glenn (named after the astronaut), have all spent time in Insein Prison, none has ever faced the most extreme tortures, like waterboarding and electric shocks or tiny unlit "punishment cells." One senior Western diplomat says "international notoriety" convinced the generals they "don't help their ...