Thursday, July 27, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Press Council Says Military Will Not Pressure Judge in Detained Journalists’ Case

Posted: 27 Jul 2017 08:12 AM PDT

YANGON — The Myanmar Army affirmed that it would not put pressure on judges handling the case of three journalists detained in Shan State and facing charges under the Unlawful Associations Act, according to a Myanmar Press Council member who met with military personnel on Thursday.

Myanmar Journalism Institute's Executive Director, U Thiha Saw—who is also a member of the Myanmar Press Council, the body tasked with negotiating with the authorities—described his discussions with army officials to The Irrawaddy.

"What they told me is, the army has specifically learned that the case was not carried out aggressively. At the moment, the cases are already handled by the courts and the police. So, the army will not pressure or weigh in on the judiciary's role. The judiciary will decide on what they think is justifiable, regarding the case," he said.

U Thiha Saw said the army typically opens a court case if they feel that an individual's conduct violates the existing laws, and therefore, "they [the army] will not drop the charges against the three journalists."

The Irrawaddy's Lawi Weng, also known as U Thein Zaw, and U Aye Nai and Pyae Bone Aung from the Democratic Voice of Burma, were arrested on June 26 in Namhsan Township on their way back from covering a drug-burning ceremony held by the ethnic armed group the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) to mark the United Nations' International Day Against Drug Abuse.

The trio—and three men who drove them through the TNLA area—were charged under Article 17(1) of the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for contacting the TNLA and were placed in detention in Hsipaw prison.

Free speech advocates, press members and rights groups have denounced the move by the military and cited it as a threat to press freedom and an attempt to intimidate journalists for doing their jobs.

On Thursday, one day before the reporters' court hearing was scheduled to take place at the Hsipaw Township Court in northern Shan State, Amnesty International called for the immediate release of the three journalists.

In the statement, Amnesty International accused the Myanmar authorities of using "a slew of draconian laws to intimidate, harass, arrest and imprison critics and media workers," for years.

"This is a clear attempt by the authorities to intimidate journalists and silence their critical coverage," the statement said. "It is exactly in northern Shan State and the other ethnic areas wracked by conflict, where appalling human rights abuses are rife, that independent journalism is needed the most," it added.

James Gomez, Amnesty International's Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific said that the current authorities have been using the same patterns of repression for which Myanmar was notorious in the past, and that many hoped the days of repressive legal barriers to silence criticism had ended.

"The farcical charges against these journalists must be dropped immediately," Gomez said in the statement. "They have done nothing but carry out their work peacefully."

Htet Naing Zaw contributed to this report from Naypyidaw.

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Influential Artist Honored 70 Years After Death 

Posted: 27 Jul 2017 08:06 AM PDT

Western drawing techniques came to Myanmar late in the Konbaung Dynasty (1752-1885), and artist U Ba Nyan later played a key role in sharing these techniques with Myanmar artists.

Born in 1897 in Irrawaddy Division's Pantanaw Township, U Ba Nyan was the first Myanmar artist to go to the Royal College of Art in London in 1921, during the colonial period. He had drawn the portraits of the King George V and colonial governors such as Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler, Sir Reginald Hugh Dorman-Smith, and Sir J.A Maung Gyi.

Though U Ba Nyan had drawn many paintings depicting the landscapes and lifestyles of Myanmar, most of them were bought by the British and lost during World War II. Few of his paintings can be found today.

Luckily, there are still six paintings which will be hung at the National Museum at a commemorative art exhibition from July 26-30 to mark the 120th anniversary of U Ba Nyan's life.

Portrait of U Ba Nyan's father, U Ba Oo, completed in 1933.

During the exhibition, more than 500 paintings by at least 300 artists will grace the national museum to commemorate U Ba Nyan, who is regarded as influential in the country's art history.

"It was U Ba Nyan who brought Western techniques to Myanmar. Our masters and Myanmar's legendary artists such as U Ngwe Gaing, U Ba Kyi, U Thein Han and U Aung Khin were U Ba Nyan's students. So, it is undeniable that U Ba Nyan is the master of entire Myanmar art world," academy-winning director and artist Soe Moe said.

Artist Ni Po Oo, secretary of the committee organizing the exhibition, said: "The academic painting technique which is commonly used by Myanmar artists today was systematically brought by U Ba Nyan from London. Though we could not learn directly from him, we inherited his techniques from his students, passed down from generation to generation."

U Ba Nyan's self-portrait.

U Ba Nyan also drew portraits of influential figures such as Sir Paw Htun, Sir Ba Oo and Shan saophas.

He died in 1945 in the village of Ka Toe in Mon State's Moulmein while fleeing World War II, and his death went unnoticed.

Though U Ba Nyan is a significant figure in Myanmar's art history, many argue that he did not get the honor he deserved. His name was resurrected again only after some local artists in Moulmein came to the village of Ka Toe to repair U Ba Nyan's tomb in a small graveyard a few years ago.

The ongoing art exhibition is the first of its kind to be held on a grand scale in his remembrance, more than 70 years after his death.

An officer's wife, Daw Mya May.

His six paintings have been kept at the National Museum and are now on display with the permission of the Ministry of Culture. Among the paintings are a European landscape, a portrait of his father U Ba Oo, his self-portrait, a Buddhist monastery, an individual known simply as "the chubby man," and an officer's wife, Daw Mya May.

His oil painting of his father U Ba Oo (1933), done with heavy use of chiaroscuro and impasto techniques, is regarded as one of his masterpieces.

Director Soe Moe is however not satisfied with the frames of some of the paintings. "To be frank, the frames spoil the splendor of the paintings. The frames should be better. And the canvas is loose in the frame, and in that case the paint might chip. The way the paintings are fixed into the frames is risky, and parts of the paintings are mildewed."

A "chubby man."

Other paintings will be on sale for prices ranging between US$100 and US$1,500. More than half of the proceeds will be donated to the funds for casting bronze statues of U Ba Nyan to be put respectively in Ka Toe village, the National Museum and the National University of Arts and Culture.

His artistic career spanned just 15 years, from 1930 when he came back from London to Myanmar, until his death in 1945. But during this short time, U Ba Nyan was able to revolutionize Myanmar's artistic sphere.

His paintings, now more than 80 years old, will be hanging at the National Museum until Sunday.

European landscape.

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Girl, 12, Escapes From Kidnap, Rape Ordeal

Posted: 27 Jul 2017 06:13 AM PDT

YANGON — A 12-year-old former housemaid visiting Yangon to testify against the family who allegedly tortured her has escaped a 20-day ordeal of kidnap and rape to return to her home in Mandalay.

The girl from Myittha Township worked at the house of a retired lieutenant colonel of the Myanmar Army in Yangon's Mayangon Township for more than one year.

She is suing the lieutenant colonel and his family for allegedly abusing and torturing her. The court heard how she was sent back to her home in Mandalay after the wife of the lieutenant colonel forced another housemaid to knock six of her teeth out with a pestle.

"I have had my four upper teeth and two lower teeth knocked out by another housemaid. The wife of the house owner asked her to hit me with a pestle. Her husband also kicked me in the face. I was also hit with pans in my back, and slapped as well," the girl told The Irrawaddy.

On discovering her injuries, the girl's parents worked with human rights activists to file a complaint at Bayintnaung police station in Yangon in January.

On July 4, the girl returned to Yangon to testify against her former employers. Accompanied by her grandmother, she arrived at the Aung Mingalar Express Bus Terminal, and the pair spent the night at a nearby monastery.

When the grandmother woke up, the girl was missing. A man in his 20s had abducted her at knifepoint, said the girl, and held her for 20 days.

"He threatened to kill me. He took me to a room in a house in Pale Township. I was raped. I can identify him," she told The Irrawaddy.

She managed to leave the house, she explained, and worked at a local eatery until she had enough money to return to Mandalay on July 25.

Lawyer U Robert San Aung of the Myanmar Lawyers' Network said lieutenant colonel U Myint Htwe of Yangon Region Police Force would investigate the abduction and rape, adding that the network would cooperate with the police to find the rapist.

Bayintnaung police station has opened a case against the retired lieutenant colonel and his family for the torture of their former housemaid.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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New Chair for UN Fact-finding Mission

Posted: 27 Jul 2017 05:32 AM PDT

YANGON — The UN Human Rights Council has replaced the chairwoman of a team investigating allegations of killings and rape by Myanmar's security forces, it said on Thursday, amid concerns over her perceived bias.

Indian Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaising was initially named to chair the fact-finding mission, which has a focus on the western state of Rakhine that is home to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority.

Council president Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli had decided to replace Jaising with Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney-general of Indonesia who has previously conducted rights investigations on North Korea, the council said in a statement from its headquarters in Geneva.

Jaising was appointed to lead the panel in May, after a resolution passed by the Human Rights Council in March calling for a team to be sent to look into the abuse claims.

The panel's two other members, Harvard-trained Sri Lankan lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy and Australian consultant Christopher Dominic Sidoti, remain in place.

Myanmar has said it will refuse visas to the commissioners, arguing the mission would aggravate tension in Rakhine.

"As in all such cases, the mission will make it a priority to reach out to and engage constructively with the government and other relevant interlocutors," the council said.

"The Human Rights Council reiterates its hope that the government of Myanmar will grant the mission unfettered access to affected areas."

The statement did not give any reason for the change of personnel, but a UN official told Reuters Jaising agreed to step down after the council president raised concerns about public comments she made that could be seen as indicating bias.

The official requested anonymity, in the absence of authorization to speak to reporters.

The panel was formed after the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights said Myanmar security forces probably committed crimes against humanity, and possibly, ethnic cleansing of Rohingya civilians.

Rohingya militants killed nine border guards in October, sparking a response in which the army was accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes, sending an estimated 75,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Many in Myanmar see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although about 1.1 million of them live in Rakhine and say their roots in the region go back generations.

'Perceived Bias'

The UN official and a human rights advocate familiar with discussions around the mission told Reuters that Jaising's comments had stirred concern among UN officials in Geneva that she would not be considered impartial.

After her appointment, Jaising was quoted by broadcaster Al Jazeera as saying the Rohingyas' situation in Myanmar "is especially deplorable because they face the risk of genocide."

"If there's any perceived bias…it undermines the credibility of the mission before it has started," said the UN official.

Jaising declined to comment when contacted by telephone on Thursday.

The panel will meet in Geneva in August, the statement said, and is expected to give a verbal update on its progress to the Human Rights Council in September before a final report in March.

Darusman is a veteran UN human rights investigator, having served as special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea and taken part in a landmark Commission of Inquiry on the North.

He also chaired a UN panel of experts on war crimes committed in the final months of Sri Lanka's long civil war.

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News Analysis: Critical Shifts in Rakhine Politics

Posted: 27 Jul 2017 12:54 AM PDT

YANGON – In early 2016, the Arakan National Party (ANP) expelled six senior members for opposing its party nominee for Rakhine State's chief minister, but the dust seemed to have settled until the deputy speaker U Phoe Min died of gastric cancer on June 17.

The vacant position looked destined to be filled by the ANP—which won 23 of the 47 state parliament seats—but by exactly whom became the source of tense competition, resulting in party rifts and the dismissal of the victor.

Surprise Candidate

On July 13, the ANP steering committee listed criteria for possible candidates: a central executive committee (CEC) member with a "reasonable" level of education who was faithful to the party and would follow its policies.

Eventually, the contest dwindled from four hopefuls to the winner, U Aung Win of Myebon Township, who stood against the National League for Democracy (NLD) candidate U Boe Nwe of Munaung Township and, unexpectedly, ANP lawmaker U Mya Than.

U Mya Than told The Irrawaddy over the phone that independent regional minister for agriculture and livestock U Kyaw Lwin recommended him on the basis of his legal acumen and experience. He served as a director in the attorney general's office for decades before entering politics, and currently assists the state House Speaker U Kyaw Zan Hla on legal matters. Four lawmakers told The Irrawaddy they felt he was the most appropriate person for the position.

But U Mya Than was barred from contesting on behalf of his own party as he is not a CEC member. Regional minister U Kyaw Lwin surprised parliamentarians, too, as he endorsed a candidate from the party that fired him in early 2016, when he accepted the role of regional minister from the NLD. The sacking was reportedly in response to the NLD refusing to appoint an ANP member as chief minister.

U Mya Than told The Irrawaddy every lawmaker has the right to compete for a seat, adding that his party did not directly tell MPs to avoid the contest. With those convictions, he ran for deputy speaker.

Cracks Appear Between Lawmakers

Before July 17, the Rakhine parliament was comprised of nine NLD seats, three Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) seats, one independent seat, 12 seats reserved for the military, and 21 ANP seats—down from 23 after the death of Phoe Min and the dismissal of U Kyaw Lwin. Naturally, the presumption was that U Mya Than would vote for himself.

On July 14, 45 votes were cast, with one legislator on leave, according to lawmakers. In a result that astounded many in the parliament, U Mya Than won with 19 votes, while ANP nominee U Aung Win got 17, NLD nominee U Boe Nwe got six, and three were invalid—a deliberate act of abstention, according to several lawmakers.

ANP secretary U Tun Aung Kyaw supposed some ANP legislators voted for U Mya Than.

"It would not have happened if U Mya Than stepped aside from the contest," he said. "We are now facing strong criticism from people saying we are a party of disharmony… such a result is quite embarrassing."

U Tun Aung Kyaw conceded that some ballots from the USDP and NLD also favored U Mya Than. He considered that U Mya Than, whose son is a captain in the military, may have attracted votes from the entire bloc of army representatives.

Regional minister U Kyaw Lwin said some ANP lawmakers told him to nominate U Mya Than, who got four USDP and NLD votes, six from the military representatives, and nine ANP votes, according to a Facebook post from the minister. Sources inside the parliament supported the claim that ANP legislators voted against their party's candidate.

"Other candidates also got army representatives' secret votes.  I don't want to write this down on Facebook," said U Kyaw Lwin.

Dismissal and Resignation

The ANP expelled U Mya Than on July 17, accusing him of violating party regulations and disrupting party unity, said U Tun Aung Kyaw. But the dismissal stirred arguments among the 30 CEC members, including 13 Union lawmakers in Naypyitaw.

Lower House ANP legislator U Pe Than of Myebon Township vented his disagreement with the dismissal on Facebook. Banishing U Mya Than, he wrote, was not in line with party principles, and chastised the party board for executing the decision without seeking the advice of its Union lawmakers. He said the party could have penalized U Mya Than in accordance with its code.

"If similar cases happen in the future, it could be lead to a big problem," he said.

Adding to the turmoil, Upper House ANP lawmaker Daw Htoot May posted her resignation letter on Facebook on July 24, admitting she had become unsatisfied with ANP policies.

She has since joined the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), a party that disbanded before the 2015 election to help form the ANP and now aims to battle against it in the 2020 election.

Observers from the Rakhine community, including Thailand-based political analyst U Wong Aung are predicting that the ANP will have problems in the 2020 general election if it cannot resolve its current infighting.

"Driving out party members based on emotion is deeply concerning," said U Wong Aung.

With the election in mind, the Union Election Commission (UEC) officially recognized the ALD as a political party on July 18. The ANP argued to the UEC that the ALD flag and logo were too similar to their own and could confuse voters, but their objection was rejected.

The ALD flag (left) concerned the ANP, which argued it was too similar to its own flag (right).

Return of the ALD

The ALD and Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) merged into the ANP in order to prevent vote splitting in the 2015 election—a gambit that paid off, as it won 45 out of 77 seats it contested. But the new incarnation strained after the formation of its CEC.

To the chagrin of some of its members, the ANP released a statement in January 2016 refusing to "join any government organization" but to "stand as an opposition party for the interests of Arakan people" after the NLD chose one of its own for the state minister post. Six former ALD members were then expelled for holding a press conference protesting the announcement.

Soon after, the ANP released a second statement warning that any of its MPs-elect who accepted an offer from another party to serve in a ministerial post or other leadership position without informing the party would be expelled.

In September 2016, former ALD members announced they were leaving the ANP and the merger dissolved.

Prominent ALD member U Myo Kyaw said the purpose of his party's reemergence is to restore the pride of the Arakanese within the region and before the international community because, he said, the current actions of the ANP are shaping the Arakanese people into a villain on the international stage.

"We just want to prevent Rakhine from going into the wrong political direction," he said. "For example, there were a lot of protests instead of seeking options to solve the problems [in the state]. Eventually, the international community thought of us as barbaric."

U Myo Kyaw explained that his party is focused on achieving a democratic federal Union, regional stability, security in border affairs, collaboration with the NLD, resource sharing with the Union government, and gaining a "reasonable" percentage of youth representatives in the executive committee of the party.

"We are rich in resources and sell exports everyday but we have no idea how much income we get daily," said U Myo Kyaw, referring to the Union government's control of the regional budget.

The strength of the ANP in the state parliament after the 2015 general election compared to now.

'Tougher Than 2015'

The ANP will not repeat its 2015 electoral success in 2020, especially in southern Rakhine, according to Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association (KRDA)'s coordinator U Tun Kyi.

The ALD has a strong foothold in the southern townships of Myebon and Ramree, he said, and its headquarters is based in the northern township of Kyauktaw. Other seats such as Thandwe, Taungup and Gwa are strong constituencies of the NLD, he added.

U Myo Kyaw said it was premature to reveal his party's strategy, but he did suggest it would target its strongest areas.

ANP lawmaker U Pe Than forecasted vote splitting for the 2020 election, expressing concerns that even the NLD could possibly steal some seats in prominent ANP constituencies.

But U Tun Aung Kyaw, the ANP secretary, was confident for his party, saying that as an established party, it would echo the NLD's robust performance in 2015, when it won many Union and regional seats.

"The 2020 election will be a tug of war between maturity and political enthusiasm," said U Wong Aung. His statement reflects a common battle among Arakanese voters between that of nationalism against a more flexible, liberal approach.

KRDA coordinator U Tun Kyi said the young, educated Arakanese of today would see how the "opposing policies" of the ANP would turn out over the decade. He added that many voters do not comprehend ANP's policies but balloted for the party on nationalist sentiments.

"ANP can win, but it will be tougher than the 2015 election in the southern constituencies," he said.

U Wong Aung believes the ANP should make reforms during the coming party conference, including the development of precise policies and the involvement of the younger generation in leadership roles. He added that if the party "drags its feet," it would face "greater challenges."

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Myanmar Asks WHO to Help Fight H1N1 Virus

Posted: 27 Jul 2017 12:20 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — Myanmar's government requested help from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday after the H1N1 influenza killed six out of 20 confirmed cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The ministry sent an official report to the WHO, outlining its needs to help control the virus, said deputy director general of the Public Health Department Dr. Than Tun Aung.

"We asked WHO to provide medicatios as well as vaccines and funds for medical services if possible. We also asked for diagnostic tools and preventative things. They will give us these, and they won't neglect us," he told The Irrawaddy.

The deputy director general also said that the government would seek international assistance, including from the UN, China and the United States.

Union health minister Dr. Myint Htwe will hold a national level meeting on prevention and treatment of H1N1 influenza flu—often referred to as swine flu—with international medical experts and local and foreign physicians at the Nursing University in Yangon on Sunday in order to adopt short- and long-term plans.

"We've not yet decided whether or not to conduct vaccinations. The prevention rate of the vaccine is no more than 60 percent. And the government is short on its budget to buy and provide vaccines," said a health officer from Naypyitaw who asked for anonymity.

He said the meeting on Sunday would perhaps decide whether or not to conduct a vaccination campaign.

So far, 20 H1N1 cases have been confirmed—eight in Yangon, one in Irrawaddy Region's Pyapon Township, one in Pegu Region, and 10 in Chin State's Matupi Township.

Of them, five in Yangon and one in Matupi have died. Two children were admitted to Yankin Children's Hospital in Yangon on Wednesday after being suspected of contracting H1N1.

One of them was H1N1 positive and another was suffering from H3N2 seasonal flu, according to the health ministry.

Countries in the region including China and the Philippines have enquired about the H1N1 outbreak in Myanmar, stated the ministry, adding that it is carrying out checks at airports, seaports, and border gates to ensure the virus does not spread outside the country.

Dr. Than Tun Aung said the health ministry is working its hardest to prevent the virus from growing into a public health emergency.

"Whether the disease will become worrying depends on the people. If the people follow our instructions, it will have the least impact. But if they don't, it may spread more easily. If they go to crowded places like parties, they are more likely to contract the virus," he said.

The health ministry has also dispatched public response teams to places where H1N1 was discovered, and is keeping the hospital staff and patients under surveillance. It has also prepared to send the infected patients to a specialized hospital in Yangon's North Okkalapa Township.

"In case the patient dies, we prohibit those who had lived together with him or her from travelling. And we have to keep them under home medical surveillance. They also need to take care of themselves," said Dr. Than Tun Aung.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Four Dead in Bus Collision

Posted: 26 Jul 2017 11:08 PM PDT

YANGON — Four people were killed in a bus collision on the Yangon-Pathein highway in Pantanaw Township of Irrawaddy Region on Wednesday afternoon, local police confirmed to The Irrawaddy.

A Ye Aung Lan highway bus driving from Rakhine State's Thandwe Township to Yangon collided head-on with a Saydanar Shin express coach when the Ye Aung Lan bus tried to overtake another coach, according to the police official.

The Saydanar Shin coach driver and three other passengers on the same bus were killed instantly, said the official, adding that 13 passengers are receiving treatment at Pantanaw General Hospital.

Staff at Pantanaw General Hospital confirmed they had received several patients from a traffic accident, although they did not give an exact number.

The Irrawaddy was directed to call the hospital manager, but could not reach the manager for further comment.

Police have launched investigations into the crash under Penal Code sections 304(a) for causing death by negligence, 337 and 338 for causing hurt and grievous hurt by an act endangering the safety of others.

Locals wrote on social media that the two-lane highway is too narrow to overtake vehicles if there is a car in the opposite lane.

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Death, Lies, and Videotape

Posted: 26 Jul 2017 07:38 PM PDT

The shaky mobile phone footage of Myanmar Army soldiers questioning and beating men wearing civilian clothes shocked social media followers in recent weeks. Rights groups seized on the 17-minute long footage, claiming it demonstrated ongoing abuses by the military, or Tatmadaw, especially as government, military and ethnic armed groups leaders were meeting in the capital Naypyitaw for the 21st Century Panglong Peace conference in late May.

There is no denying the brute force impact of the footage, with soldiers striking handcuffed men with helmets, kicking them, and threatening them with sharp weapons, while demanding information, in Burmese, and through interpreters in Palaung, on suspected hidden weapons. Rights groups quoted in The New York Times claimed the footage was taken in recent days or weeks, yet it was determined subsequently to be two years old, pointing to the perils of premature social media posting of conflict reports.

The provenance of the film was soon under question after its initial Facebook appearance. The respected conflict journalist Lawi Weng of The Irrawaddy, citing sources from the Ta-ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), reported the footage was from an incident in Northern Shan State from 2015 (Lawi was recently arrested in Shan State by Myanmar Army soldiers and charged under the Unlawful Associations Act. He faces three years in prison if convicted).

The TNLA's political wing, the Palaung State Liberation Front released a statement clarifying that the footage was filmed on May 27, 2015, in Nampaka village, Kutkai Township involving troops from Light Infantry Division 88 and their Panshay militia allies. Four men in the video were arrested and held in detention until their release in May 2016. It was a rare and welcome announcement on May 31 this year from Myanmar's State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's office that the footage "is being investigated and if any abuses are discovered, actions will be taken against the perpetrators according to existing laws, procedures and regulations." These are likely hollow words: the civilian government has no control over military operations or justice, and its track record on investigations of abuses is dismal.

But the recent footage was by no means the first, or even the most graphic that has emerged over the past two years from Myanmar's many conflict zones. In early 2016, footage that appeared on social media purported to show Tatmadaw troops and Pyithu Sit (People's Militia) forces torturing men in a Ta-ang village called Say Kin on December 23, 2015. That footage was confirmed by Ta-ang civil society groups soon after the incident, but it didn't excite the same social media attention. In recent months, footage and photos have appeared on social media of dead men in northern Shan State, often with voices off-camera speaking Burmese. The specific location, date and people involved cannot be confirmed, given the widespread nature of conflict in the area and the difficulty of accessing and verifying the footage.

For many long-term observers of the armed conflict in Myanmar, the emergence of horrific footage is merely a cinéma vérité confirmation of consistent reports of atrocities perpetrated by the security forces against ethnic civilians, conforming to the culture of recreational sadism that has permeated the Tatmadaw's approach to counterinsurgency for decades. But it should not necessitate the release of home-video torture clips to bring attention to the almost daily abuses being perpetrated in the complex, multi-sided armed conflict in northern Shan State. Amnesty International released a detailed report on war crimes in Shan State at the same time as the video went viral, but it received lamentably little international media attention. The Ta-ang Women's Organization released a highly-detailed report in mid-2016 called 'Trained to Torture' on years of military abuses in northern Shan State, and the international community barely noticed.

The Shan video and its initial claims of being recently filmed demonstrates the perils of unfiltered information on social media, what in intelligence circles is sometimes referred to as 'stovepiping': the elevation of primary reports to prominence without the necessary verification and contextualizing. This phenomenon permeates the echo-chamber culture of conflict analysis in Myanmar, which has led to a number of cases of misreporting and over-dramatization of events. The Shan State video was but a small, recent example of stovepiping, but the communal tensions and repression of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State is infused with misinformation that often distorts the undeniable horrors of state repression and abuse of human rights. Stovepiping is perfectly suited to the rapid-fire demands of Facebook and Twitter, but it contributes to a lot of confusion.

During the security operation in northern Maungdaw Township responding to the attack by suspected Rohingya Muslim militants that killed nine Border Guard Police officers, the government refused access to the media, human rights researchers and humanitarian aid workers. Harrowing reports of widespread abuses including killings, torture and ill-treatment, and sexual violence, were backed up by satellite imagery that clearly showed extensive arson of Rohingya Muslims' villages. Around 75,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh, where they gave testimony to United Nations investigators, the media and human rights researchers.

Despite the indisputably sadistic nature of the security 'area clearance' operation, by denying access for investigators, the government is ultimately responsible for the resultant flood of fabricated photos, exaggerated reports, and clumsily produced videos that purported to show government abuses in Maungdaw. In one case in December last year, I was sent a number of photos claiming to show Myanmar Army killings in a Rohingya village in Rakhine State. All nine photos were crude fakes. A colleague simply reversed the images in a Google search, and we quickly determined they originated from photos of corpses and conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, southern Thailand and in one case, Myanmar police in Rakhine State in a photo shot in 2012. One of dozens of videos distributed during the months-long military operation in Rakhine State and flooded on YouTube was called "Rohingya Mujahideen Fight Myanmar Army in Maungdaw," which showed army helicopters and armored vehicles crossing terrain towards distant smoke plumes. But it wasn't Maungdaw. It was a Tatmadaw live-fire exercise near the central Myanmar city of Meiktila, crudely relabeled.

The government seized on some of the 'fake news,' taking a handful of the crudest ones, which showed men torturing a toddler in Cambodia, and using it to refute more credible reports of serious human rights violations. Official government Facebook pages, including from ministries under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, emblazoned 'Fake Rape' on posts to callously dismiss disturbingly wide-ranging reports of sexual violence perpetrated by security personnel against Rohingya women and girls. The clumsy, caustic and at times clearly desperate fake news produced around the world by Rohingya activists and their allies, or as part of an elaborate discrediting campaign from pro-government sources, was soon used as a shield by the government to reject reports of abuses. Rather than chalking up reports of abuses to fake news,  the government should have been aware that regardless of any exaggerations, the extent of state violence in Rakhine State clearly warranted strong condemnation, an appeal for restraint, and a commitment to a genuine investigation.

Much of the fabricated video and photos are desperate measures to raise awareness and compel greater pressure for intervention in the international community, but they have the effect of stoking outrage over the treatment of the Rohingya by many people in the wider Muslim world, and exciting even more extreme enmity against the already vilified Rohingya within Myanmar. The plight of the stateless Rohingya in Myanmar is irrefutably horrific and unjust especially since the violence in 2012, but its long and difficult improvement won't be helped if the misreporting and exaggerations of the past five years continues to frustrate an accurate assessment of the manifold miseries they are subjected to, and placed in context with the complex situation of all communities of Rakhine State.

The deplorable decision by the Myanmar government to deny visas to a United Nations formed fact-finding mission to investigate recent reports of abuses by the security forces, in all of Myanmar with special reference to Rakhine State (not, as so much media coverage has misreported, as just a probe into the recent Maungdaw violence) will likely fuel the production of more fabricated reports and multimedia to bolster exaggerated claims of abuses. The fact finders are advised to be vigilant in how they treat information coming out of conflict zones in Myanmar, and subject all reports to rigorous analysis, and be wary of information stovepiped direct to social media. Disinformation plays into the hands of government deniers and conflict actors wanting to divert blame. The government, and especially the Tatmadaw, have a great deal to hide in their brutal conduct in Rakhine State and war zones in the north, and disinformation should be determined and dismissed in the careful pursuit of accountability.

David Scott Mathieson is an independent analyst working on a range of peace, conflict and human rights issues inside Myanmar and for many years along the Thailand-Myanmar border. From 2006-2016 he was the Senior Researcher on Burma for Human Rights Watch.

This article originally appeared in Tea Circle, a forum hosted at Oxford University for emerging research and perspectives on Burma/Myanmar.

The post Death, Lies, and Videotape appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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