Wednesday, June 13, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

A Coffee and Cake Buffet? Yes!

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 07:57 AM PDT

YANGON — High tea has become increasingly popular in Myanmar over the past few years.

Most sets can be found at luxury hotels or upmarket tea houses at reasonable prices.

An average set can serve three people and usually offers a selection of cakes and pastries and — despite its single-minded name — a choice of coffee or tea.

Most sets cost about $15 and, if shared, also offers up a nice occasion to spend quality time with your favorite people.

The Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake Yangon has good news for high tea lovers — its Weekend Afternoon High Tea Buffet.

Some of the other desserts on offer.

Yes, it’s a buffet with a free flow of coffee and tea and a welcome drink of sparkling wine. It features a selection of Western and Asian finger food, sandwiches, salads, cakes and other savory snacks and desserts.

I loved their caffe latte. The staff said the hotel uses only a local brand called Sithar. It started out sweet and rich and gradually developed a slight and pleasant bitterness.

The chocolate cake and dumplings were awesome, and a cook was at the ready to fry up a crepe or pancake with the flavor of my choice.

Prawn salad.

The buffet is available every Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and costs $19 per person.

So if you have plans to catch up with long-lost friends or cousins and want some place quiet with a good vibe, great coffee and tasty cakes, the Chatrium Hotel's Afternoon High Tea Buffet is a good choice.

Please don't forget to book ahead. For more information and to make reservations, contact fb.chry@chatrium.com.

The post A Coffee and Cake Buffet? Yes! appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

With Camps Slated for Closure, IDPs Fear for Safety in Home Villages

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 07:47 AM PDT

YANGON – Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kachin and Shan states in northern Myanmar still do not feel it is safe to return to their homes, and forcing them to do so would be a violation of their rights, women's rights advocates said.

On June 2, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement announced plans to close IDP camps in Kachin, Shan, Karen and Rakhine states. Armed conflict in Kachin and Shan states in the country's north, and in Karen State in the southeast, as well as communal conflict in Rakhine State in the west, has forced IDPs to take shelter in more than 100 camps throughout the country.

"We are very concerned about the consequences of the ministry's announcement, as the IDPs will have to return to their homes, which they do not yet feel are fully safe," said Lway Poe Ngeal, general secretary of the Women's League of Burma (WLB). The WLB is an umbrella organization comprising 13 indigenous women's groups. Among other activities, it gathers information on IDPs and refugees across the ethnic states.

"Only when the fighting has ceased can the villagers return, even though the situation is not completely secure," she told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Since fighting resumed between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and government forces (known as the Tatmadaw), in June 2011, more than 130,000 IDPs have taken shelter at temporary camps in both government- and KIA-controlled areas, according to figures from the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

According to a statement from the KIO's News and Information Department released on June 9, 19 civilians have been killed and 47 injured by Tatmadaw shelling and landmines, and 450 villages have been destroyed during the seven years since the resumption of hostilities in Kachin and northern Shan.

The frequency of the clashes has increased in the past year. Between May 2017 and May 2018 alone there were 447 engagements between the KIA and Tatmadaw troops.

In late April, intensified fighting between the Tatmadaw and the KIA in Kachin's resource-rich Tanai, Hpakant, Injangyang and Mogaung townships displaced 6,041 villagers, who are now taking shelter at Kachin Baptist and Catholic churches, as well as Buddhist monasteries, in Tanai, Myitkyina and Hpakant.

Sr. Naw Tawng, a member of a local IDP relief committee in Tanai, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the IDPs there are still dependent on the state government's assistance, adding that his committee had not heard of any order from the state authorities requiring the refugees/IDPs to return to their homes.

"We were surprised by the Social Welfare Ministry's plan, as we don't see any arrangements being made to relocate the existing IDPs to a safer environment. Also, there has been no consultation with the local community on the ground," said Daw Doi Bu, a Kachin lawyer and outspoken former lawmaker for the Lower House from Injangyang Township, Kachin State.

"Many of the villages were taken over by Tatmadaw troops to house their deployments, and the villagers dare not go back when there are soldiers present," she told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Besides this, some 60,000 Ta'ang (Palaung) IDPs displaced by fighting between the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army South; and between the TNLA and the Tatmadaw, are still in need of humanitarian assistance.

"I am from northern Shan State and I have seen that those IDPs and refugees [displaced since 2012 by frequent fighting in the region] are not ready to go back to their homes," Lway Poe Ngeal said.

She added that according to the Ta'ang Women's Organization, more than 60,000 Ta'ang villagers have been displaced, and many have been forced to go back to their villages knowing there is no guarantee of their personal safety.

Many villagers who have fled the fighting — whether it is for a week, a month or three months — have no jobs or means of support in the camps, she said.

She added that these IDPs have been provided with little to no support, in terms of food or landmine awareness, either by the government or non-governmental organizations, partly due to travel restrictions imposed by the Tatmadaw.

The post With Camps Slated for Closure, IDPs Fear for Safety in Home Villages appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Tales of Myanmar’s Political Upheaval

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 05:36 AM PDT

YANGON — Like many people who came of age in the late 1980s in socialist Myanmar, Kyaw Zwa Moe has witnessed, and been directly involved in, dramatic shifts in the country's politics.

As a pro-democracy student activist, he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. He served his term and by the early 2000s found himself in Thailand, working as a journalist for The Irrawaddy. As veteran Swedish journalist and Myanmar expert Bertil Linter, who has known him personally for many years, recalled recently, Kyaw Zwa Moe developed a reputation for covering Myanmar-related issues with diligence and empathy. In 2013, he returned permanently to Yangon as senior editor of The Irrawaddy English edition.

What sets Kyaw Zwa Moe apart from many others who have lived through imprisonment and exile is his commitment to documenting and recalling his prison ordeal, along with the evolution of Myanmar's political situation and the lives of the many people he encountered along the Thailand-Myanmar border. His reporting continues amid the country's current democratic transition.

On Tuesday in Yangon, he officially launched his book, "The Cell, Exile and the New Burma", a selection of 37 of his journalistic works, comprising feature stories and essays written for The Irrawaddy from 2001-17.

Copies of 'The Cell, Exile and the New Burma' on display / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

The author describes the book as a reflection on Myanmar's unfinished struggle to achieve democracy, and believes it can be read as both a historical reference on the country's politics, past and present, and a creative work with literary qualities.

"While [the stories] were written over a span of many years, they can connect you with what and where Myanmar is today. They are aimed at local and international readers who want to understand more about the country's politics," he said.

Readers should not be put off by the book's serious subtitle: "A Political Education amid the Unfinished Journey Toward Democracy." While the political forces at work in Myanmar, today and in years past, can be discerned in every story, the book is not a series of dry lectures on "isms" and democracy. Rather, it is a collection of feature stories that illustrate the harsh realities of a political prisoner's life behind bars and bring you face to face with refugees, migrant laborers, ethnic armies, drug addicts, sex workers and other residents of border towns in Thailand and China.

In this book's pages you'll hear first hand from "long-necked" Padaung women on display in human zoos in Thailand who dream of escape and an education; a middle-aged Karen couple who lost six children in their decades-long flight from conflict and cling to a fragile peace; a would-be political assassin who describes his brush with history; an aging former driver as he recalls ferrying General Aung San to his historic 1947 summit in Panglong; and many others. If you are curious to learn more about the country's ongoing democratic transition, commentaries in the book will deepen your understanding of, for example, the delicate maneuvering that defines political life in Naypyitaw, where the efforts of the country's de facto leader, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to strike a deal with the powerful military on nearly every front could serve as an emblem for Myanmar's unfinished struggle to achieve democracy.

At Tuesday's book launch, which was attended by members of the international diplomatic community, political observers and journalists, political prisoner-cum-writer Ma Thida (Sanchaung) said she appreciated the book because without knowledge of the past, people can't aim for a better future.

Kyaw Zwa Moe discusses his new book at a launch event at Pansuriya in Yangon on Tuesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

"That's why we need to learn every single story of our country, not just about political prisoners and people in exile but also from others, with honesty," said the author, who has also penned a work about her prison days.

In short, "The Cell, Exile and The New Burma" is about Myanmar and its people, and how they have shaped and been shaped by their country's politics since 1988.

As historian and writer Thant Myint-U points out in his foreword, we are at a critical juncture in Myanmar's history. Therefore, this is a moment for reflection and introspection, for reassessing the recent past as well as the country's deeper history, and for trying to see developments from as many perspectives as possible.

"For these reasons, the publication of Kyaw Zwa Moe's book is very welcome and should be of interest to anyone trying to gain a better sense of Burma today in all its wonderful and often frightening complexity," he writes.

The book is now available at major bookstores in Yangon.

The post Tales of Myanmar’s Political Upheaval appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Man Arrested for Fake Facebook Post on ‘Shootout’ in Rakhine

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 05:13 AM PDT

YANGON — Mrauk-U Township police have brought a charge against the owner of the Facebook account named "Myat Thu Tun" for sharing false news about the conflict in Rakhine State under Article 68 (a) of the Telecommunications Law.

According to police, Mrauk-U resident Myat Thu Tun, also known as Poe Thiha, on Monday posted a false Burmese-language report on the social media platform reading: "Breaking news: 10:15 pm Maungdaw. At least 10 died in an exchange of gunfire as terrorist Kalars launched attacks near Kyee Kan Pyin. At least 10 died according to initial reports. Detailed reports coming soon."

In a separate post, he wrote: "Terrorists attack Maungdaw Inn Din police outpost. At least four police were killed."

Myat Thu Tun has reportedly worked for a number of news agencies over a period of almost 10 years.

"I posted what I wanted to because I had fought with my girlfriend. Just to commemorate the deletion of my account," he wrote in his final post before deleting the account.

Under Article 68 (a), it is a crime to maliciously communicate false information. The offense carries a maximum sentence of one year's imprisonment, a fine, or both.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Man Arrested for Fake Facebook Post on 'Shootout' in Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Govt Calls for Private Sector Cooperation in Promoting Tourism

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 03:57 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — Myanmar's Vice President Henry Van Thio said the government has financial constraints in promoting the country's tourism industry.

In his speech at the Myanmar Tourism Conference in the administrative capital of Naypyitaw on Tuesday, the vice president called for the cooperation of the private sector.

"The government has to work for the development of various sectors and it might be difficult for it to allocate enough funds for tourism promotion. Therefore, I'd like to urge the private sector to find solutions together," said Henry Van Thio, who is also the chairman of the central committee for national tourism development.

The vice president acknowledged that Myanmar should participate in international tourism fairs to attract international visitors, "but there are financial restraints."

"We need to advertise more that this country is pleasant to visit. On the other hand, hotel charges and transportation fees in Myanmar should be fair compared to prices in other countries. It is very important that we create value for money," said the vice president.

Local tour operators have told The Irrawaddy that they expect foreign arrivals to decline this year with vacationers in Western countries canceling their bookings following the unrest in northern Rakhine State.

On the other hand, tourist arrivals from Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, China and Thailand have been on the rise, said U Thet Lwin Toe, chairman of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association.

Myanmar is also taking steps to relax visa restrictions for Japan, China and South Korea, he said.

"We also need to think about how the visa on arrival system can create jobs for locals and adopt necessary policies," said U Thet Lwin Toe.

The association is also conducting a green season campaign—an initiative to attract foreign visitors during the rainy season, which is the off-season in Myanmar. The campaign, which was launched last year, is nowhere near a success, said U Thet Lwin Toe.

U Thet Lwin Toe called for tourism promotion campaigns targeted at fellow ASEAN countries, saying that visitor arrivals to ASEAN countries were dominated by intra-ASEAN travel, accounting for 42 percent of total international arrivals last year.

U Tint Thwin, director-general with the Hotels and Tourism Ministry, confirmed that arrivals from western countries have slightly declined due to unrest in Rakhine State.

"We explained the Rakhine issue at international tourism fairs, as well as on our websites and websites of tour companies. It may not be very effective but we can try to inform people about the true situation to a certain extent," he said.

Myanmar received more than 3.4 million visitors last year and welcomed 1.2 million in the first four months of 2018. It expects to receive 3.5 million to 4 million more through December.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Govt Calls for Private Sector Cooperation in Promoting Tourism appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Heavy Rains in Bangladesh Bring Death, Destruction to Refugee Camps

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 01:44 AM PDT

DHAKA — Several days of torrential rain have exacerbated the suffering of Rohingya refugees living in camps on hilly terrain in Bangladesh’s Cox's Bazar District, leaving at least one dead and damaging or destroying more than a thousand makeshift shelters.

Senior disaster management officials are supervising preparedness efforts as rescue teams stand by and public announcements continue to advise the roughly 1 million refugees in the camps, about 700,000 of who arrived since the latest outbreak of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August.

The hilly terrain in and around the camps has been making it difficult to find flat land on which to relocate at-risk families.

Md Shamsudduza, the Bangladeshi government’s refugee relief and repatriation additional commissioner in Cox's Bazar, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that more than 1,000 thatch or tarpaulin shelters in the camps have been completely or partially damaged. But he said authorities were now “less worried” because there have been no reported landslides.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), however, said the heavy rains that started Saturday have been triggering landslides and floods and that the situation in the camps was getting worse

"The situation in the camps is deteriorating as the rain continues. We are on high alert today for possible evacuations to higher ground as conditions may significantly worsen tomorrow," Manuel Pereira, emergency coordinator for the IOM in Cox’s Bazar, was quoted as saying in a press release on Tuesday.

The IOM said aid agencies have reported over 2,350 damaged or destroyed shelters.

The aid agencies also report that more than 21,500 people have been affected, a number expected to rise as the rains continue. Incidents are being mapped and shared on an interagency platform.

Local residents said they heard public announcements warning people to stay on flat land and to avoid shelters built on slopes.

"The announcement also asks guardians to keep their children away from flash floods," said Mohib Ullah, a Bangladeshi who often visits the camps for business.

On Monday evening, a 20-year-old refugee, Muhammad Ali, died after a log fell on him in the Balukhali camp and a 2-year-old boy, Sulatan Ahmed, was killed in the Kutupalong camp when a mud wall of a shelter collapsed, according to local police.

"Besides the two incidents, no causalities have been reported, and none due to landslides," said Cox's Bazar District deputy police chief Afruzul Haque Tutul.

But he said a number of fishing boats that had gone out to sea were still missing and the people onboard were feared dead.

According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the 24-hour weather forecast as of 6 p.m. Tuesday predicted that a southwesterly monsoon would continue to advance over Bangladesh. The monsoon is already over Chattogram, Barishal and Sylhet divisions.

A department report said the monsoon was currently “moderate to strong” over the north of the Bay of Bengal and that nearly 500 millimeters of rain have fallen in the Cox's Bazar area since Sunday.

"We can hardly go out of our house because the rain is so heavy," said Nurul Hoque, a Rohingya refugee In the Kutupalang camp.

In a statement from Geneva on Tuesday, the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said the rains were an early test for aid agencies helping the Bangladeshi government cope with the monsoon season in the camps.

It said torrential rains and winds of up to 70 kph have caused at least 89 reported incidents, including 37 landslides. The incidents have affected 11,000 people and caused several injuries and one confirmed death, it added.

The UNHCR said more than 1,000 shelters have been damaged, along with 10 water points, 167 latrines, one health facility, and one food distribution site.

The rains have also flooded the main road through the Kutupalong camp, temporarily blocking vehicle access to parts of the site.

Based on aerial mapping of the camps, the UNHCR estimates that up to 200,000 refugees could be at risk of landslides and floods and should be moved to safer areas. Of the 200,000, it says 41,000 are at high risk of landslides.

More than 14,000 high-risk refugees have been relocated so far.

"Saving lives is our priority. We must make sure people are safe,” said Alessandro Petrone, an IOM program manager. “Our other concern is funding. IOM and our partners urgently need financial support to meet the needs on the ground and to maintain and expand key humanitarian services and operations during this critical time."

The post Heavy Rains in Bangladesh Bring Death, Destruction to Refugee Camps appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Yangon-Dala Bridge Construction Stalled

Posted: 13 Jun 2018 12:31 AM PDT

YANGON — The Myanmar Port Authority under the Ministry of Transport and Communications has denied reports that it objected to the construction of a bridge across the Yangon River linking Yangon and Dala.

Managing director U Ni Aung of the Myanmar Port Authority (MPA) during a press conference on Monday denied reports that the Korea-Myanmar friendship project has been delayed due to objections of the MPA.

"We have no reason to object to the project," said the managing director. His department, however, is still negotiating with the Construction Ministry over the design of the bridge, especially the bridge clearance and the distance between the two piers.

According to the original design formulated by the Ministry of Construction in 2014, the clearance would be 49 meters and the distance between the two piers would be 251 meters.

The MPA has suggested the clearance be extended to 54 meters and the two piers be moved closer to the shore to create more space for ships to pass under the bridge.

"We have terminals along the river such as Asia World Port, Myanmar Industrial Port and others. There are quay cranes and you can't put them horizontally on the ship; you can only put them vertically. That's why we asked that the clearance be 54 meters," said U Ni Aung.

The Construction Ministry has replied that the design change may cost millions of dollars more, and that it is technically impossible to move the piers to the shore.

"We have agreed to keep the clearance at 49 meters," said U Ni Aung, "but ports will have to buy necessary cranes before the bridge project starts" so that they can carry them easily to their destination.

In addition, the close distance between the two piers could result in silting over time and make navigation difficult for ships, said U Ni Aung.

The bridge will be funded by a US$137.8 million loan from South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund, and the Myanmar government will invest an additional US$30.341 million, according to the Construction Ministry.

The project was presented under U Thein Sein's government but because of local objections and problems with compensation, it had been put off until now. So far, about 300 trillion kyats has been given to local residents as compensation, said the Construction Ministry.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Yangon-Dala Bridge Construction Stalled appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ivanka Trump’s ‘Chinese Proverb’ Tweet Mystifies China

Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:24 PM PDT

BEIJING — Ivanka Trump did not accompany her father to Singapore for his summit with Kim Jong Un, but in an apparent show of support, tweeted what she described as a Chinese proverb: “Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.”

That sounds like pearls of wisdom from a Chinese sage – except that many Chinese people do not think it is Chinese.

China’s social media has been abuzz with debate over the origin of the quote, screenshots of which have been widely shared among users on mainland China since Tuesday. Twitter is banned in China.

One user on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, said the saying originated from Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Another claimed it came from American novelist James Baldwin.

Quote Investigator, an internet website that looks at the origin of quotations, says the expression might have evolved from a comment in a periodical based in Chicago, Illinois, at the turn of the 20th century.

“Actually Western people like to make up Chinese proverbs, like us, as we Chinese people also make up lots of those,” said a diplomatic user on Weibo.

Ivanka Trump posted the tweet on the eve of the Singapore summit, but did not specifically refer to the meeting. Nor did she say what “it” was.

President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim on Tuesday in a luxury hotel on a resort island in Singapore, in a summit unimaginable just months ago.

Trump said he had formed a “very special bond” with Kim, while Kim described the summit as “a good prelude to peace”.

Kim was previously mocked by Trump as a “little rocket man” on a suicide mission, and the North Korean leader declared that Trump was a “US dotard."

The post Ivanka Trump’s 'Chinese Proverb' Tweet Mystifies China appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Trump, Kim Co-Star in US-Made Summit Film Mixing Propaganda, Hollywood

Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:16 PM PDT

SINGAPORE — When US President Donald Trump sat down to make the case for peace to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday, he rolled out what amounted to a movie trailer starring the two leaders.

Trump said he urged Kim and other North Korean officials to watch a four-minute video produced before the Singapore summit. Trump said Kim and other senior members of the North Korean delegation huddled around an iPad to watch the video, which appeared to draw more from the hype of Hollywood than the careful language of diplomacy.

“I think he loved it,” Trump said, referring to Kim, adding that he gave the North Koreans their own copy.

Kim’s late father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was a Hollywood film buff, with a special affection for director Steven Spielberg and actress Elizabeth Taylor and an extensive video library to match, according to defectors and intelligence agencies.

White House officials also arranged for the video to be played for reporters at Trump’s post-summit news conference.

The video was produced by the US government to help persuade Kim to make a deal, a White House official said. “An audience of one,” the official said.

The video mixes both Hollywood and propaganda film tropes that play over a pulsing orchestral score. It appears to be composed almost entirely of generic stock footage and old news clips, including images of Trump and Kim smiling. There is an English language version and one in Korean, the narrator having a South Korean accent.

At one point, it features a montage with babies and car factories, suggesting what a more prosperous future for North Korea could look like if it agreed to give up its nuclear arsenal. To illustrate the point, ballistic missiles are shown in reverse motion, pulling back into their launch silos.

“The past doesn’t have to be the future,” a narrator says as the video showed the demilitarized zone that has separated North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Then later, the narrator says, “a new world can begin today,” as an animated sequence suggests what the impoverished North Korea could look like from space if it was as brightly lit up at night as the far more prosperous South Korea.

Trump and Kim reached a broad agreement that North Korea would move toward denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, while the United States committed to providing security guarantees and suspending military exercises with long-time ally South Korea.

The video was created by the White House’s National Security Council to “help the president demonstrate the benefits of complete denuclearization, and a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Korean Peninsula,” White House spokesman Garrett Marquis said.

The credit on the video said it was produced by Destiny Pictures, which disrupted the morning of Mark Castaldo, who owns a Los Angeles-based production company with the same name, albeit with a different logo than the one in the video.

“We had nothing to do with that film,” Castaldo said in a telephone interview, adding he had awoken to a deluge of calls and emails from journalists around the world. “Propaganda, all that stuff, that’s not something we’d get involved in.”

Before he ran for president in the 2016 election, Trump was a businessman with a long career in entertainment, presenting “The Apprentice” reality TV show for several years. Despite 10 years as a casino worker in Las Vegas and Atlantic City before switching to film, Castaldo said he had never met Trump or worked in a Trump casino.

At times, the video appeared to address Kim directly, suggesting he could make a choice that would open North Korea to new investment and step into a starring role in a moment in history with Trump.

“Featuring President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un, in a meeting to remake history, to shine in the sun,” the narrator says. “One moment. One choice. What if?”

The post Trump, Kim Co-Star in US-Made Summit Film Mixing Propaganda, Hollywood appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Witness No-Show as Reuters Reporters Mark Six Months in Myanmar Detention

Posted: 12 Jun 2018 10:16 PM PDT

YANGON — A Myanmar police investigator failed to show up at court on Tuesday to testify as a prosecution witness against two Reuters reporters who were arrested in December and accused of possessing secret government papers.

Police Captain Myo Lwin, one of the officers who escorted the two journalists to the courthouse, said the key police witness Major Tin Win Maung was not present because the officer was “investigating two cases” in central Myanmar.

The police major conducted the inquiry after the journalists were arrested on Dec. 12. They have now spent six months in detention.

“Six months is too long, but we are not depressed … They can’t destroy us,” reporter Wa Lone told reporters after the proceedings were swiftly adjourned. “I will always be a journalist.”

In what has become a landmark press freedom case, the court in Yangon has been holding hearings since January to decide whether Wa Lone, 32, and his Reuters colleague Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the hearing until Monday, when he again summoned Major Tin Win Maung to appear.

Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung declined to comment after Tuesday’s proceedings.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay told Reuters by phone that Myanmar courts were independent and the case would be conducted according to the law. He said the two reporters were being treated fairly and their rights were protected.

In an interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK last week, Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said the two reporters “were arrested because they broke the Official Secret Act.”

“We cannot say now whether they were guilty or not. That will be up to judiciary,” Suu Kyi was quoted as saying.

At the time of their arrest, the reporters had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations agencies say sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

The reporters have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers at a restaurant in northern Yangon by two policemen they had not met before, having been invited to meet the officers for dinner.

Global advocates for press freedom, human rights activists, as well the United Nations and several Western countries, have called for the release of the Reuters journalists.

“Six months in jail for reporting the truth. Today, I reiterate the EU’s appeal for their immediate release,” Kristian Schmidt, the European Union’s representative in Yangon, said in a Twitter message.

The post Witness No-Show as Reuters Reporters Mark Six Months in Myanmar Detention appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)