49 TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT Fortify Rights documented how Myanmar authorities beat and threatened Rohingya residents to accept the NVC, and beat, threatened, and deprived Rohingya prisoners of food in order to force them to accept NVCs.129 For example, a 32-year-old Rohingya man from Maungdaw Township, whom the authorities charged and imprisoned with “illegal border crossing” in 2015, told Fortify Rights: Prison guards beat me in the face and on my chest. I was bleeding . . . I kept refusing [the NVC]. They did not feed me. They stopped feeding me for not taking the NVC . . . They [forced me to take the NVC] in June 2017. [The immigration police] took a photo [of me] and told me I had to take [the NVC]. After I refused to take the NVC, they stopped feeding me food in prison. I was hungry.130 The authorities released the man from prison on April 18, 2019 after he accepted the NVC. During his time in prison, he witnessed prison guards torture and kill other detainees: “[The prison guards] tortured many people. I was very lucky. I know some people who died. I saw people die in front of my eyes from torture.”131 A Rohingya farmer, 62, from Maungdaw Township, imprisoned for three-and-a-half years, told Fortify Rights how authorities threatened to kill him if he refused to take the NVC card: I was imprisoned because I was accused of being a terrorist. I am only a farmer, not a terrorist. I was in prison for 42 months. I was put in prison with five other Rohingya men. One of the five men died in prison because he was beaten to death . . . I was also beaten. I was beaten so badly that I lost [some of] my teeth . . . I was beaten everywhere—my head, back, chest, and all over my body. All my clothes were red with blood. I threw up blood when they beat me . . . In jail, I was threatened to take the NVC. One [officer] told me, “If you don’t accept the NVC, we will kill you.”132 He went on to tell Fortify Rights: “I feel very sad that I had to accept the NVC. I didn’t want to. It is not for Rohingya people . . . We are indigenous to the Myanmar land. If I did not take the NVC, I would have either been kept in prison, killed, or imprisoned again upon my release.”133 Another Rohingya man, 33, imprisoned in 2014, told Fortify Rights how the authorities tortured him in prison and predicated his release on accepting the NVC, saying: In 2014, authorities came to our village and took me and some other men away. I don’t know why I was arrested. They burned me and beat me. See my arms and my legs still have scars. They burned me with an iron rod. It was so painful. I was screaming . . . Before I was released from prison, I was forced to take the NVC. I didn’t want an NVC. I had to take it. The prison authorities said, “If you don’t take the NVC, then you’ll have to stay in prison for many more years.” I was scared.134 129 Fortify Rights interview with A.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 4, 2018. Fortify Rights interview with B.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 30, 2018. Fortify Rights interviews with D.D. and D.E., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, March 10, 2019. Fortify Rights interview with F.B., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 16, 2019. Fortify Rights interview with F.H., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 17, 2019. Fortify Rights interview with G.C. Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 18, 2019. Refugees International also documented cases of Rohingya having to take NVC once they are released from prison. See, Refugees International, Abuse or Exile: Myanmar’s Ongoing Persecution of the Rohingya, April 2019, p. 15, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/506c8ea1e4b01d9450dd53f5/t/5cdc 6b489b747a1e0f237fe4/1557949259439/Bangladesh+FINAL.pdf (accessed August 23, 2019). 130 Fortify Rights interview with G.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 18, 2019. 131 Ibid. 132 Fortify Rights interview with A.C., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, November 4, 2018. 133 Ibid. 134 Fortify Rights interview with F.H., Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, June 17, 2019.