[The following translation of a letter from an Acehnese refugee in a Malaysian gaol which was passed on to Tapol by the Acheh/Sumatra National Liberation Front office in Sweden.]

Firstly we would like to apologise to our seniors if there is any fault in this letter. We would briefly like to remind you that it has been four months that we have been detained in this solitary-confinement at the Bukit Aman Police headquarters. We are not well because we are forced to sleep on bare cement floor wearing only our underwear all the time. We were given only a handful of rice in this confinement where no light can penetrate through.

All the 27 of us are still yet to recover from the wounds and beatings when they arrested us on April 10, whereby during the process some of us suffered broken ribs, fractured arms and bleeding heads.

When we were first brought to this solitary confinement, we were tortured and interrogated every day and night. They beat us like wild animlas. In fact, at one time they even stuffed our genitals with a barbecue stick (like matchsticks). This is our second letter that we have sent you through our contact-man, the ..... .... who brought you this letter. We hope that you would keep this secret. Please reply through him and send us some supplies together with the latest information about our struggle, and also some money. Thank you.

On behalf of the 27 Achenese refugees, Hasanuddin Yunus.

[The accompanying letter from the ASNLF explains that these men escaped from Linggeng Detention Centre during the forcible repatriation by the Malaysian government on 25 March this year, but were re-captured by the Malaysian police and jailed in solitary confinement at the Bukit Aman Police headquarters until today - Tapol.]