by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, World
Yangon : Two Reuters reporters were jailed on Monday for seven years for violating a state secrets act during their reporting of the Rohingya crisis, a court said, in the case that has drawn outrage for its attack on media freedom.
The two journalists were being tried since 2017 for breaching Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act while investigating violence against the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state by the army, the BBC reported.
Reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on the night of December 12, after meeting with two police officers who, according to the defendants, handed them confidential documents, the Efe news reported.
Since then, both have been held without bail and have appeared 30 times before the court, which started a preliminary investigation on January 9 and formally filed charges on July 9.
The case has been widely seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar.
The journalists have maintained their innocence, saying they were set up by the police.
“I have no fear,” Lone, 32, said after the verdict. “I have not done anything wrong. I believe in justice, democracy and freedom.”
The two men, who both have families with young children, have been in prison since their arrest in December 2017.
“Today is a sad day for Myanmar, Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and press freedom anywhere,” said Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler.
Judge Ye Lwin told the court in Yangon the pair had “intended to harm the interests of the state”. “And so they have been found guilty under the state secrets act,” he said.
Lone and Soe Oo, 28, had been collecting evidence about the execution of 10 men by the army in the village of Inn Din in northern Rakhine.
During their investigation, they were offered the documents by two police officers, but were arrested immediately afterwards for the possession of those documents.
Authorities later launched their own probe into the killings, confirming the massacre took place and promising to take action against those who had taken part.
The BBC said that many would see this verdict as a crushing blow to freedom of the press in Myanmar and another setback for the democracy, three years after Aung San Suu Kyi’s party triumphed in free elections.
He said Lone and Soe Oo bowed their heads as the verdict was delivered. Wa Lone – who has missed the birth of his first child while being detained — protested his innocence once again as he was led away.
“We are extremely disappointed by this verdict,” Britain and the US have said, saying the court’s decision was “deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom”.
The UN’s resident and humanitarian co-ordinator in Myanmar Knut Ostby said the UN had “consistently called for the release” of the journalists and that “a free press is essential for peace, justice and human rights for all. We are disappointed by today’s court decision”.
“The outrageous convictions show Myanmar courts’ willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.
“These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Suu Kyi’s government.”
The verdict comes a year after the crisis in Rakhine state came to a head when a Rohingya militant group attacked several police posts. The military responded with a brutal crackdown against the Rohingya minority.
The UN has said leading army figures in Myanmar should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide.
Media access to Rakhine is strictly controlled by the government so it is difficult to get reliable news from the region.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : Describing the Rohingya refugee situation as one of the worst humanitarian and human rights crises of the past year, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for international action to ensure Myanmar is held to account for the crimes of its security forces.
Speaking at a Security Council session convened on Tuesday for the one-year anniversary of the start of the exodus of 720,000 Rohingyas to Bangladesh, Guterres also condemned the attacks by extremists against the security forces.
However, he added that nothing can ever justify the disproportionate use of force against civilians and the horrendous violation of human rights violations by the security forces.
Urging united action by the divided Security Council, Guterres cited a report issued on Monday by a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) fact-finding team and said the human rights abuses amounted to “the gravest crimes under international law”.
He thanked the Bangladesh government for its generosity in hosting the refugees and said more needs to be done by the world community as only 33 per cent of the $951 million UN appeal for assistance has been met and the the monsoon season looms.
The current crisis began in August 2017 with attacks on Myanmar security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which is led by Karachi-born Ata Ullah.
The Myanmar armed forces and vigilantes retaliated brutally against the Rohingyas starting an exodus that began on August 25.
Tariq Mahmood Ahmad, the British Minister of State for the UN, who presided over the Security Council session, said that it should be prepared to use all the tools it has to ensure justice for the Rohingyas.
The strongly-worded report by the UNHRC team headed by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darusman said that allegations of genocide against Myanmar officials should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to a special tribunal.
The Netherlands and Sweden backed the suggestion and asked the Security Council to refer the matter to the ICC.
But Russia and China countered saying that the situation required a non-confrontational approach and only a bilateral diplomatic solution involving Myanmar and Bangladesh would work.
Myanmar’s Permanent Representative Hau Do Suan said that his country did not accept the findings of the UNHRC team as it was biased.
However, he added that Myanmar does not condone human rights abuses and would take action against anyone guilty if there was evidence of their conduct.
He alleged that the ARSA had set up terrorist bases in some areas along the border with Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Permanent Representative Masud Bin Momen said that in the light of the UNHRC team’s report, it was imperative that the Security Council should act decisively.
He said that the Rohingyas could not return to their homes in Rakhine state unless they were assured of their safety.
For this, the Myanmar government should take several steps like curbing hate speech, allowing free access to UN agencies for relief operations and dismantling internal camps for Rohingyas and giving them freedom of movement.
Australian-born actor Cate Blanchett, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, spoke at the Security Council session about her encounters with Rohingya refugees who told her harrowing tales of their experiences in Myanmar.
She said that as a mother she was moved by the plight of the children she met as she saw her children reflected in them.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Yangon : Myanmar on Wednesday commemorated the 30th anniversary of the pro-democracy student protests that swept the nation in 1988, resulting in the death/imprisonment of thousands of people.
Several ceremonies across the country marked the People Power Movement or 8888 Uprising that peaked on 8.8.(19)88.
Yangon University displayed a makeshift prison cell as well as photos and films of the protests and political prisoners in remembrance of the movement, Efe news reported.
Some of the student leaders from the uprising delivered speeches at a function attended by over 1,000 people.
Another event in the city offered floral tributes to those who lost their lives.
The 8888 Uprising began in March 1988 as a student movement in Yangon against the socialist one-party state under dictator General Ne Win who drove his country into poverty.
The protesters also denounced government corruption, economic mismanagement and police brutality.
More than a million people from all walks of life, including monks and school children, protested against the government to demand a multi-party democracy.
The often-violent uprising — which included soldiers opening fire on protesters — ended in September 1988 after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council.
The uprising led to the resignation of Ne Win and the emergence of independent leader Aung San’s daughter and now de-facto Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who addressed the public at the time, to appeal for peace.
While many were in jail for decades, political prisoners were released in a 2012 amnesty and many now work as politicians and human rights activists.
It has only been in recent years that people have been allowed to openly commemorate the 8888 Uprising.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, World
Singapore : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday called for the immediate release of two Reuters reporters detained in Myanmar for probing the persecution of the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state.
Pompeo said on Twitter that he spoke to Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Kyaw Tin during a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and its partners in Singapore, reports Efe news.
“Today at @ASEAN ministerials, I spoke with #Burma’s Minister Kyaw Tin and raised US concerns about 2 @Reuters reporters detained in Burma for doing their job. They should be released immediately,” Pompeo tweeted.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been charged with securing state secrets illegally, for which they could face up to 14 years in prison.
The reporters were detained in December and a Myanmar court officially charged them on July 9 for breaching the archaic Official Secrets Act of 1923.
The reporters were investigating systematic attacks by the Myanmar army on Rohingya villages since August last year.
The offensive – that began after a series of attacks on government posts in the region by Rohingya rebels – had led to the exodus of 700,000 members of the community to Bangladesh, where they currently live in overcrowded refugee camps.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Naypyidaw : The World Bank has offered Myanmar $100 million in aid for development projects in the conflict-torn state of Rakhine, hit by violence in 2017 that led to the exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingyas, a Muslim minority community, to neighbouring Bangladesh.
The offer came during a three-day visit by the World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific, Victoria Kwakwa, to Myanmar, according to a statement released after the conclusion of her visit.
The World Bank “supports, in collaboration with the UN and other partners, to put in place the conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees,” read the statement.
The aid would be used in projects in Rakhine with a focus on job creation, micro and small-enterprise development and to ensure access to essential services for all communities, including repatriated refugees, Efe news reported.
During her meeting with Myanmar State Counsellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Kwakwa discussed the importance of inclusive and sustainable development for all communities in Myanmar.
The UN rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, had warned two days ago in Bangladesh that the return of the Rohingya refugees — whom Myanmar considers to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh — would be delayed as the situation in Myanmar was not yet favourable for their repatriation.
On November 17, Myanmar and Bangladesh had signed an agreement for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees living in the Bangladeshi refugee camps, which was scheduled in January.
The UN also signed an agreement with Myanmar in June to pave the way to recognize rights of the Rohingya community.
—IANS
