Wednesday, July 18, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Irrawaddy Parliament Warns Lawmaker Accused, Cleared of Embezzlement

Posted: 18 Jul 2018 08:30 AM PDT

IRRAWADDY REGION, Pathein — The Irrawaddy Region Parliament has warned a local lawmaker who collected money from residents seeking to connect their village in Einme Township to the power grid.

Locals filed a complaint with the regional chapter of the National League for Democracy after learning that the village was connected with government funds.

U Aung Kyaw Myaing, one of two lawmakers who represent Einme in the local legislature, asked for 10 million kyats ($6,971) from the electrification committee of Nyaunggon Chaungpya village in March.

In Myanmar it is common for rural villages to collect money from residents to get themselves connected to the national grid, as the government can only supply power to a certain number of villages per year because of budget constraints.

The villagers share the costs of the equipment and the local electricity department sets the transformers and installs the power cables.

The money is collected from the villagers and managed by a committee composed of administrators and respected community members.

U Aung Kyaw Myaing said the money would be given to the region and township power supply departments to set up the transformer. But he reportedly returned the money after locals filed the complaint.

Ko Thura Soe, a freelance reporter, visited the village to investigate the allegations of embezzlement. U Aung Kyaw Myaing allegedly tried to bribe him so that he would not write about him. But the reporter filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The commission launched an investigation and sent a letter to the Irrawaddy Region Parliament in April suggesting that it take appropriate action against the lawmaker.

"U Aung Kyaw Myaing received 10 million kyats by abusing his power as a lawmaker. Though there is no supporting evidence against him for misappropriation of money, he intervened in rural electrification work, which is against the ethics of a lawmaker. Appropriate action should be taken against him because of mismanagement and for causing public misunderstanding," the letter said.

The local Parliament launched its own investigation in response.

"We will make U Aung Kyaw Myaing sign that he will not do such things in the future. The Irrawaddy Region Parliament will convene soon, and we will make him sign then," U Aung Kyaw Khaing, the local legislature’s speaker, told The Irrawaddy.

U Aung Kyaw Myaing said he kept the money only because the relevant official at the Einme Township power supply department was traveling at the time.

"The village had to incur costs for power cables. So the village electrification committee collected money to give to the power supply department. I kept the money because the official was on a trip then. Later, the electrification committee members had an argument because the money was given to me without the decision of the committee at a meeting. So I returned the money to them and asked them to give the money [to the department] themselves," said U Aung Kyaw Myaing.

"I have no comment about the leaders asking me to sign," he added.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Irrawaddy Parliament Warns Lawmaker Accused, Cleared of Embezzlement appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Rakhine State to Open University of Distance Education Branch in Maungdaw

Posted: 18 Jul 2018 08:00 AM PDT

YANGON — Led by Chief Minister U Nyi Pu, the Rakhine State government plans to open a branch of the University of Distance Education in strife-torn Maungdaw District in order to help local people access higher education.

As of Wednesday, more than 40 people — mostly Rohingya Muslims — had applied to study in the 2018-19 academic year.

Since late last year, military clearance operations aimed mainly at the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have caused nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, creating the world's largest refugee camp. The UN Security Council described the mass exodus and devastation in Maungdaw as "ethnic cleansing" after a delegation of council representatives visited the area earlier this year.

After the violence erupted, trade, education and travel in the area was brought to a halt. These have since resumed as the situation on the ground begins to return to normal. While basic education schools have re-opened in the region, however, university learning has been banned for Muslim students since 2012 communal rioting erupted across the state between Rohingya and Arakanese. But Rakhine officials say the situation regarding higher education will end this year with the launch of a local branch of the University of Distance Education.

U Khin Aung, head of the Maungdaw Township Education Department, confirmed to The Irrawaddy over the phone that nearly 90 students had requested application forms since July 13 and about 40 had submitted initial applications. The university will offer Bachelor of Arts degrees in two majors — Myanmar literature, and history. Students will not be offered Bachelor of Science degrees or be able to major in English.

According to U Khin Aung, some Buddhist Arakanese and members of sub-ethnic groups have also applied for admission to the university. The University of Sittwe will determine who is granted admission, and will be responsible for grading the students' work and issuing the necessary documents. Instructors from the university will be assigned to teach in Maungdaw and if necessary teachers from Yangon Division could be transferred temporarily to the township.

The education official said higher authorities in the state government had not explained the choice of Maungdaw as the location for the new branch of the university.

"As government employees we are following orders here and are temporarily accepting applications at the township education office," U Khin Aung said.

While the government is gearing up to graduate a new class of local Grade 11 students who passed the 2017-18 matriculation exams, it's unclear where they will be able to study in Maungdaw, as there is still no university campus or other such facilities in the area.

U Khin Aung said, "I can't say exactly whether the government will construct new buildings for university students. I assume they will address the issue based on the size of the student population."

Some Arakanese and Muslims have speculated that university students could attend lectures at the Basic Education High School (BEHS) buildings in Maungdaw town, though the education official downplayed the idea. According to the Maungdaw Education Department, 87 "Bengali" students and 238 Arakanese students from Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships passed the Grade 11 matriculation exam last year. "Bengali" is a contentious term referring to Rohingya. It seeks to brand them as Bangladeshi immigrants who have been in Myanmar illegally since being brought to the country by the British during the colonial era.

U Ni Mal, a Hindu leader in Maungdaw, said his community was unaware of the plan to open a branch of the University of Distance Education, saying there was only one Hindu university student in the area that he was aware of.

U Kyaw Kyaw Win, an Arakan National Party (ANP) Upper House lawmaker for Maungdaw constituency, said the government had yet to release any information regarding the plan, but speculation was mounting in the community. He said the surprise move could have both positive and negative impacts on the community in the near future. One potential advantage for poor students, he said, was that they could avoid financial hardship by attending university close to home instead of traveling hundreds of miles and paying monthly rent to lodge in hostels in the state capital, Sittwe.

"It's too early to say whether it's good or bad, as we have received very limited information," he said.

A Rohingya from downtown Maungdaw told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity that Muslim students had been banned from traveling to Sittwe to study since 2012. The Immigration Department refused to issue the necessary travel permits to Rohingya university students, several hundred of whom are now sheltering in neighboring Bangladesh with their families, he said.

"Students prefer studying in the capital Sittwe rather than studying here, as they can observe the diverse community and other cultures there," he said.

The post Rakhine State to Open University of Distance Education Branch in Maungdaw appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Sixteen Straight Years of Price Increases: the Facts and Figures

Posted: 18 Jul 2018 05:49 AM PDT

YANGON — The Myanmar Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased every year since 2001 and was Asia's third-highest last year, according to World Bank Open Data.

The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of a basket of consumer goods and services.

The index shows positive and negative price changes experienced by the average consumer in eight major categories — food and beverages; housing; clothing; transportation; medical care; recreation; education; and communication — along with some other goods and services.

An increase in the CPI is a measure of inflation, showing how much more consumers are spending on goods and services. A decrease means the economy is experiencing deflation — a sustained decrease in the prices of goods and services.

According to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the International Financial Statistics database, Myanmar's CPI has never declined. In other words, people in Myanmar are constantly having to pay more and more for their daily goods and services. Myanmar's CPI more than tripled between 2005 and 2017.

Explore The Irrawaddy's interactive graphics to see how Myanmar's CPI index has climbed in recent decades.

Myanmar's Consumer Price Index (1990-2017)

Myanmar CPI's index is higher than those of Thailand and Cambodia, according to World Bank data. Explore the interactive line chart to compare the CPIs of the three countries over time.

Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand's Consumer Price Indexes (1990-2017)

Myanmar's Inflation Rate (2013-17)

The post Sixteen Straight Years of Price Increases: the Facts and Figures appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Govt Touts Early Success of New Drug Reporting Department

Posted: 18 Jul 2018 05:42 AM PDT

YANGON — The Home Affairs Ministry has opened 22 drugs cases based on tipoffs since the government launched the Drug Abuse Reporting Department last month to encourage the public to inform on dealers, the President’s Office announced Tuesday.

In a statement, the office said the government has stepped up its anti-narcotics efforts with the public’s help. It said that as of Saturday it had received tips on four cases in Yangon and the others from Mandalay, Sagaing and Tanintharyi regions and Kachin and Shan states.

It said the ministry has arrested a total of 34 suspects in the cases and seized drugs, including 95 grams of heroin, 2,600 grams of raw opium, 10 grams of processed opium and about 9,300 tablets of illicit stimulants.

President U Win Myint announced the creation of the Drug Abuse Reporting Department on June 26 at a ceremony to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Naypyitaw. His office provided telephone and fax numbers and an email address on its Facebook page for the public to file reports.

The president also called on the public to report information related to the abuse of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances, ensuring informants that their identities would be protected and offering them rewards.

"Indeed, what we want are big cases like gangs and drug lords. So far we haven't received such cases," said U Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the President's Office.

He said the size of the cash rewards promised by the president would be based on a proportion of the value of the illicit assets seized in each case, as determined by the Home Affairs Ministry, and would be tax exempt.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Myanmar government launched a new national drug control policy in February aimed at contributing to safe, secure and healthy communities by addressing all aspects of the drug problem.

In May, the UNODC said illicit drug production was still rampant in Myanmar’s conflict-torn regions, with supplies being smuggled to nearby countries but also reaching as far as Australia.

The post Govt Touts Early Success of New Drug Reporting Department appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Peace Conference Adopts 14 More Basic Principles, Only 1 Economic

Posted: 18 Jul 2018 05:02 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — The third session of the Union Peace Conference ended with 14 more basic principles adopted as Part II of the Union Accord, only one in the economic sector.

The addendum for the economic sector in Part II of the Union Accord reads: "Region/State governments have the right to draw up and implement economic projects that benefit the people. In drawing up the projects, it is to be in accord with the Union economic development policies and projects, and consideration must be made toward not adversely affecting the adjacent states and regions."

"It did not come easily to even get this one principle approved by all stakeholders. There was a heated discussion," said Nang Khin Aye Oo, a politician from the Karen People's Party who participated in the economic sector discussion.

Eight economic principles were agreed to in Part I of the Union Accord, signed in May of last year.

Weeks before the Union Peace Conference, representatives of the government, Parliament, Tatmadaw, ethnic armed organizations and political parties laid out 16 proposed principles for discussion at the economic sector working committees of the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee. The principles largely involved federally based economics and development.

The principles were debated early this month at working committee discussions and the UPDJC secretariat said that 11 of them were brought to the committee for approval. But the UPDJC only agreed to share one of the proposed principles at the UPC.

The Irrawaddy learned that the other 10 principles were not agreed to due to Tatmadaw objections, mostly citing that the principles were already stated in the military-drafted 2008 Constitution or existing laws and procedures.

The proposed principles included the Union and state/regional governments being allowed to draft policies for private sector businesses, intending to increase transparency and responsible business practices.

Other rejected considerations regarded issues such as fair revenue sharing between the Union and state/regional governments; full rights to draft a budget and raise revenue and expenditures; subsidiary principles for regional authorities; and macroeconomic stability and a macroeconomic monitoring program.

In regards to fair revenue sharing, the Tatmadaw rejected this principle and cited that it was already stated in Part I of the Union Accord. It added that revenue sharing would be carried out in accordance with the Constitution, without stating which Constitution it was referring to.

Despite a lack of options for raising concerns over the agreed principles, key negotiators, delegates and observers of the conference told The Irrawaddy that this was simply a way to continue moving the peace process forward.

Some of the delegates expressed that they hoped more principles would have been discussed and signed, as it was fewer than the 37 that were agreed upon and signed last year.

U Nyan Win, the spokesman of the National League for Democracy party, echoed that “this is to keep the process moving." He told The Irrawaddy on Monday that this conference and signing the Part II of the Union Accord is "a key for peace, and it cannot be skipped."

The post Peace Conference Adopts 14 More Basic Principles, Only 1 Economic appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Japan to Fund $77M Neuro, Cardio Hospital in Yangon

Posted: 18 Jul 2018 03:46 AM PDT

YANGON — A new hospital specializing in neuro and cardio care will be built in Yangon capable of carrying out advanced heart disease and neurosurgical operations thanks to a 8.66 billion yen ($76.6 million) grant from Japan.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is providing the grant, announced on Wednesday that a ceremony officially launching the New Yangon Specialist Hospital project would be held on Friday.

The seven-story hospital will be built at the corner of Pyay and Min Ye Kyaw Swar roads in downtown Yangon, in the vicinity of Yangon General Hospital, one of the country’s top referral hospitals.

"This project will make it possible to enhance patient-centered medical and health care services for cerebral and cardiovascular diseases in Myanmar by providing more treatment on inpatients and outpatients and reducing the wait time for treatment and surgery," JICA said in a statement.

It said the building would also host teaching facilities and four departments to be relocated from Yangon General Hospital: neurosurgery, neuro medicine, cardiac surgery and cardiology. It added that the government of Myanmar was responsible for procuring the necessary equipment for the facilities.

The hospital is currently being designed by a consultant hired by the Ministry of Health and Sport. Construction is expected to begin in February.

The post Japan to Fund $77M Neuro, Cardio Hospital in Yangon appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

From Cloud Seeding to Vehicle Curbs, Indonesia Fights Pollution Ahead of Asian Games

Posted: 17 Jul 2018 09:55 PM PDT

JAKARTA — As Indonesia prepares to host thousands of competitors and fans at next month’s Asian Games, pollution concerns have flared following a spell of unhealthy air in Jakarta and forest fire hotspots near the second venue, Palembang, in South Sumatra.

Traffic congestion in Indonesia’s sprawling capital of 10 million consistently ranks among the world’s worst, and it has long struggled to boost air quality, regularly rated as unsafe by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Organizers of the Asian Games, set to run from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2, drawing nearly 17,000 athletes and officials and more than 100,000 spectators, said they were working with city officials to tackle the pollution.

“It is expected that there will be better air quality at Asian games competition venues,” the organizers said in a statement on Tuesday.

Strategies being considered include wider curbs on private cars depending on whether their license plate numbers are odd or even, creating special lanes for the sports event, and building gardens.

Indonesia is following a path blazed by other large Asian cities, such as Beijing, which adopted traffic curbs and closed factories to improve air during the 2008 Olympics.

Jakarta’s average score on the Air Quality Index (AQI) had exceeded 100 in the last week, said Budi Haryanto, an environmental health expert at the University of Indonesia.

“Air quality is unhealthy, and this with the odd and even vehicle plate policy,” he told Reuters.

By 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the air quality in Jakarta stood in the “unhealthy” range at 171, the Real-Time AQI Index showed.

“Since athletes need to give their maximum performance for the competition, a better AQI is a must,” said Haryanto, who felt the optimum would be less than 50.

Lung function is affected after over two months of daily exposure to an index reading below 200, Haryanto said, but gasoline emissions, a frequent pollutant in Jakarta, can be linked to cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, besides cancer.

Fire Hot Spots

The smaller city of Palembang generally has cleaner air than Jakarta but can suffer the ravages of forest and land fires, sometimes blanketing the area in a thick haze.

“The primary pollutant sources in Jakarta are mostly traffic and industry, while in Palembang it is mainly from peat land burning,” said Hsiang-He Lee of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.

“Now is the peak of the burning season.”

Indonesia’s weather authorities are monitoring 12 fire “hotspots” in South Sumatra, they said this week.

Authorities are looking into the possibility of cloud seeding to combat the hotspots by triggering rainfall in dry areas with flares of salt shot into suitable clouds.

The strategy was successful in 2011, when Indonesia hosted the Southeast Asian Games in Palembang but would depend on weather conditions, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman of the disaster management agency.

Erick Thohir, head of the Asian Games organizing committee, told reporters last week he understood concerns over the haze but believed efforts to control the fires were proving successful.

The post From Cloud Seeding to Vehicle Curbs, Indonesia Fights Pollution Ahead of Asian Games appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Thailand’s Rescued Cave Boys to Address Media Today

Posted: 17 Jul 2018 09:52 PM PDT

BANGKOK — The 12 Thai boys and soccer coach who were rescued from a flooded cave will be discharged from the hospital and hold a news conference today to satisfy huge media interest in their story, a government official said.

“We want to reduce public curiosity,” government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told Reuters on Tuesday.

The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach were safely brought out of the Tham Luang mountain cave complex near the border with Myanmar last week after a perilous rescue operation that drew global media attention and hundreds of journalists to the scene.

The boys and their coach have been in a hospital in the northern town of Chiang Rai since they were rescued.

The authorities have been concerned about the impact of sudden fame and media attention on the boys’ mental health, so today’s news conference will be carefully controlled.

Journalists will submit questions in advance that will be vetted by a psychologist. Approved questions will be put to the boys by a moderator.

“We arrange it so that, after that, the boys can go back to their regular lives,” Sansern said.

The boys and their coach had planned to explore the cavern for about an hour after soccer practice on June 23. But a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels, trapping them.

Two British divers found them on July 2 squatting on a mound in a flooded chamber several kilometers inside the complex. Rescuers then had to work out how to get them out through the tunnels, some of which were full of fast-flowing floodwater.

Their dramatic story is already set for a retelling by Hollywood, with two production companies looking to put together movies about the boys and their rescue.

Passakorn Bunyalak, deputy governor of the province of Chiang Rai, said the boys would be sent home after the news conference and he was requesting their parents and journalists to hold off interviews for about 30 days.

“At this early stage, we are trying to get media not to bother the boys,” he told Reuters, adding that they were protected by Thailand’s Child Protection Act.

An article in the act protects those under 18 from media coverage that would cause emotional and reputational injury.

The post Thailand’s Rescued Cave Boys to Address Media Today appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

British Caver Says He Has Been Approached by US, British Lawyers over Musk’s Comments

Posted: 17 Jul 2018 09:33 PM PDT

MAE SAI, Thailand — A British caver who helped rescue 12 boys from a Thai cave said on Tuesday that he has been approached by British and American lawyers and will seek legal advice after Tesla CEO Elon Musk directed abuse at him on Twitter.

“I’ve been approached by British lawyers, American lawyers. I haven’t decided what to do next yet,” Vern Unsworth told Reuters in Mae Sai town in Chiang Rai province, about 3 km (2 miles) from the cave where the boys and their coach were trapped for 18 days.

However, Unsworth has said he is considering legal action against the billionaire entrepreneur, who is chief executive of the electric car maker Tesla Inc.

“I can’t let it go. There’s too much out there already,” Unsworth told Reuters in an interview. Asked which law firm he would hire, he said: “I don’t know yet. I have to take advice.”

Unsworth declined to identify who had approached him.

Tesla spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk could not be reached for comment.

Musk’s spat with Unsworth started last week, after rescue teams rejected Musk’s offer of a mini-submarine created by his rocket company SpaceX to help extract the youth soccer team and the coach from the labyrinth of partly flooded passages.

“It just has absolutely no chance of working,” CNN quoted Unsworth as saying about the submarine.

Musk responded on Twitter on Sunday saying: “We will make one (video) of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problem. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”

The Tweet was later deleted.

Unsworth said he hadn’t flatly denied Musk’s accusation because he was waiting for legal advice.

Asked why he thought Musk would make such a comment about him, he said: “I don’t know.”

A police officer in the Chiang Rai, where Unsworth has lived for seven years, said that no charges or complaints had ever been filed against Unsworth. The officer declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Family Upset

Unsworth, 63, said he hadn’t actually met Musk face to face when Musk visited the cave during the rescue.

He said he felt sorry that the squabble with Musk had detracted from the successful end to the rescue mission.

“It’s taken a bit of the pleasure out of what’s happened, what we’ve achieved, for me anyway,” he said, adding that it had upset his ex-wife and daughter back in Britain. “It’s very much upset my daughter,” the caver said, his voice breaking.

Shares of Tesla Inc fell more than 3.5 percent on Monday, knocking almost $2 billion off the company’s market value.

Several analysts and investors, requesting anonymity, told Reuters that Musk’s comments were adding to their concerns that his public statements were distracting him from Tesla’s main business of producing electric cars.

The “Wild Boar” team was rescued last week by a group of foreign and Thai divers through a network of narrow passages and chambers. The boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach are expected to leave hospital on Wednesday.

Unsworth was the first foreigner called to the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand after relatives noticed the boys had not come out after setting out to explore the cave complex on June 23 following soccer practice.

He said he has lost count of how many times he has been inside the 10-km (6-mile) long Tham Luang cave.

“It has been my third home for the past six years,” he said.

Two British divers who were asked by Unsworth to join the mission were the first to discover the boys.

Unsworth said he brought his knowledge about the cave to the rescue mission but added that he “no idea” what the diving conditions were like because he is not a cave diver.

He said he will fly from Thailand to London on Thursday, where he will stay for around three weeks.

The post British Caver Says He Has Been Approached by US, British Lawyers over Musk’s Comments appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Police Focused Interrogation on Rohingya Story: Reuters Journalist

Posted: 17 Jul 2018 09:27 PM PDT

YANGON — A Reuters reporter on trial in Myanmar said the police questioning after he and a colleague were arrested in December centered on their reporting of a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, not on secret state documents they are accused of obtaining.

Wa Lone, 32, also said the police deprived him and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, of sleep for more than two days, and placed black hoods over their heads while transporting them to a secret detention site where they were held incommunicado for two weeks.

In hours of testimony, delivered over two days before a court in Yangon, Wa Lone also described what he called the police “trap” to arrest him. His account was the most comprehensive challenge heard so far to the prosecution’s accusation that the two journalists were detained at a routine traffic stop and found to be holding secret documents from an unknown source.

“During the whole interrogation, they didn’t ask with interest about the secret documents found on us, but they probed our reporting of Maungdaw, Rakhine,” Wa Lone told the court. “I hadn’t slept for many hours but they kept interrogating me. I was exhausted.”

At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the village of Inn Din in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations agencies say led to more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh last year.

The Reuters journalists are on trial for allegedly breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The case has attracted global attention, with many governments calling for the reporters’ release in what has come to be seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar.

“We've Got Them, Sir"

Describing the night of their arrest on Dec. 12, Wa Lone told the judge and a courtroom packed with family members and diplomats that he and Kyaw Soe Oo were handcuffed by a group of men in civilian clothing outside a restaurant where they had just met a police officer who handed them some documents.

As they were driven to a police station a man who appeared to be in charge called a police lieutenant colonel – whose name was visible on the man’s phone screen – and told him, “we’ve got them, sir”, Wa Lone said.

Defense lawyers have previously said the evidence put forward by the prosecution showed the journalists were arrested in a sting operation by the police that was aimed at interfering with their reporting.

Myanmar police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe did not answer calls seeking comment on Tuesday. Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung also declined to comment after the hearing.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay has declined to comment throughout the proceedings, saying Myanmar’s courts are independent and the case would be conducted according to the law. He did not answer calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

Throughout his testimony Wa Lone insisted on his innocence, saying he was only carrying out his work as a journalist.

“I am a young person who has always tried to contribute to the development of the country,” he said. “I’ve only ever worked for media organizations, and have never worked in other types of organizations. I am not a spy.”

He said police had accessed his phone and found photographs of the 10 men killed at Inn Din and his call logs to sources in the village. One of the investigators told Wa Lone they would probe the killings after they discovered the information on the phone.

Six days after the journalists were arrested, the military said in a statement that security forces had found a mass grave in Inn Din and had launched an investigation. In the weeks that followed, the army made a rare admission its soldiers were involved in the murders and said it sentenced seven unnamed soldiers to 10 years in jail.

The authorities have told Reuters that the sentencing was unrelated to the case against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

Reporting Criticized

Wa Lone told the court that during the interrogation, an officer offered a “negotiation” over the journalists’ arrest if they agreed not to publish the massacre story – an offer he said he rejected.

Wa Lone also said the police criticized their reporting, questioning why they were writing about the Rohingya.

“They said, ‘You are both Buddhists. Why are you writing about ‘kalars’ at a time like this? They aren’t citizens,'” Wa Lone said, quoting the interrogating officers. “Kalar” is a derogatory term used to describe people of South Asian origin, especially Muslims.

At one point during the two weeks he was held at the detention site Wa Lone said the reporters were driven to a secluded spot while hooded, making him fear for his life.

In cross-examination, prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung asked whether Reuters benefited from the reporters’ work, what currency the reporter was paid in and whether the articles Wa Lone wrote were sent to Reuters headquarters in the United States.

The prosecutor also asked whether Wa Lone had been aware that he was found in possession of secret documents related to the security forces. The reporter said he had not been aware of the nature of the documents handed to him minutes before he was arrested.

Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the hearing until July 23, when the cross-examination will continue.

The post Myanmar Police Focused Interrogation on Rohingya Story: Reuters Journalist appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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