Friday, April 6, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Veteran Democracy Activist Faces Challenges in Bid to Launch New Party

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 04:23 AM PDT

YANGON — In the course of founding a political party with the intention of strengthening Myanmar's multiparty democracy, U Ko Ko Gyi has faced an unexpected challenge: choosing an acceptable name.

Relenting in the face of criticism of his original choice, the Four Eights Party, the veteran pro-democracy activist now says the organization will be registered as the Four Eights People's Party.

Early last year, U Ko Ko Gyi and his colleagues—who were among the leading members of the student-led 8888 Uprising in August 1988—started laying the groundwork for setting up the Four Eights Party, conducting multi-stakeholder consultations and setting up organizing committee offices in towns around the country.

When the party founders tried to register the organization with the Election Commission in December, they drew criticism from those who see the designation "8888" as a symbol of the struggle for democracy, and as such, as the property of the entire country. These critics say "8888" should not be available for use by a particular party. The organizers were accused of trying to appropriate the imagery and symbols of the historic movement.

The pushback over the name continues, as the party awaits the commission's approval for registration.

Last week, the commission told the organizers it was concerned about potential disputes that might arise over the name, and asked them to reconsider.

U Ko Ko Gyi said the party's original name was decided upon only after yearlong consultations with multiple stakeholders. Most of the party's founding members were actively involved in the nationwide democracy movement, he added.

U Ko Ko Gyi and other leading members of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society’s committee to found a political party attend a press conference on Dec. 17. (Photos: Myo Min Soe/ The Irrawaddy)

However, to accommodate the criticisms and suggestions, he said the party would re-register as the Four Eights People's Party.

"Some suggested adding something before or after 8888 [the original name]. In response to this, we have revised the name," he said.

He said he hoped the party will soon be registered by the commission, adding that if there are any more objections, the party will address them through legal means.

Other parties had used the iconography of 8-8-88 in their name, he said.

"I won't respond to disputes over the name anymore. I want to focus on educating the public about the party's policies and implementing them," U Ko Ko Gyi added.

The party's other priorities include getting former activists who are returning from exile involved in the country's transition, and the rehabilitation of former political prisoners and their families, he said.

If the party's registration is approved, the new party will serve as an alternative choice for voters.

U Ko Ko Gyi said his aim was to foster the development of political pluralism so that people have many choices.

During the transition from dictatorship to democracy, voters had backed a particular party with the aim of ending the unpopular military regime. Now, U Ko Ko Gyi said, there is a need to move toward the next stage in the country's democratization process, which involved giving voters the opportunity to refine their preferences.

"Democracy is about enabling people to make choices," U Ko Ko Gyi said.

After engaging in politics for nearly 30 years, the 56-year-old veteran politician said he aimed to play a more active role.

U Ko Ko Gyi rose to prominence during the student protests in 1988, which grew into a nationwide pro-democracy movement against the former military junta. He spent about 19 years in and out of prison before being released in 2012 under a presidential pardon.

"A political party has an official platform to state its opinions and suggestions. And if people give us a mandate, we can implement our thoughts and goodwill through policies and laws," he said.

He said there was a mistaken notion among the general public that the sole objective of political parties is to gain power.

Even without winning an election, a political party can monitor and make constructive criticism about the actions of the government, he said.

"Sometimes, the political terminology can sound very grand—'federalism', 'Constitution', 'electoral system'—but those are just arguments between politicians. To the general public, politics is the rice pot," he said.

The new party will work to provide services that improve people's daily lives, U Ko Ko Gyi said.

The post Veteran Democracy Activist Faces Challenges in Bid to Launch New Party appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Painting the Practice of Victim-Blaming in a New Light

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 04:10 AM PDT

Artist Chuu Wai Nyein will never shake the memory of the time her sister was sexually assaulted some eight years ago in Mandalay. A man groped her sister and ran away. Among Chuu Wai Nyein's many responses to the experience was a heightened interest in female identity and standing up for women.

In her new solo exhibition, "One-Ten-Hundred", many of the paintings depict half-naked women; it is the artist's answer to the widespread practice in Myanmar society of victim-blaming in rape cases. "I don't accept that women always need to dress modestly, or that there would be no [rape] if women wore modest attire," Chuu Wai Nyein said.

"I don't mean women should be able to go naked. But their dress has nothing to do with rape," she said.

Some of the works draw parallels between the court ladies of the Yadanabon Era and the current status of women in Myanmar. The Yadabanon Era refers to the reign of King Mindon in the mid- to late 19th century.

In Myanmar society, women are encouraged to wear modest attire, like their predecessors in the monarchical period, especially the Yadanabon Era, supposedly did. The era is widely considered the epitome of tradition in Myanmar and as a true Burmese cultural reference point for girls and women today.

But based on documents she has seen from the Yadanabon period, Chuu Wai Nyein believes the truth was far more complex.

"Women of the Yadanabon Era were not as I had imagined, and been led to believe. While their attire reflected the unique taste of the Yadanabon Era, I also found them to be free and fashionable," she said.

"It has probably been the mode of court ladies since time immemorial to wear revealing dress or go topless," Chuu Wai Nyein said. "But this is just my feeling, and not based on historical research. Maybe it is not historically accurate."

Two years after the sexual assault on her sister, Chuu Wai Nyein started to draw Myanmar women—their lives, the restraints upon them, the "glass ceiling," but also their confidence and courage.

She studied with famous painters in Mandalay and Yangon while attending Mandalay Technological University.

Her grades were good enough to get into a master's degree program at the university, but she chose to do a postgraduate degree in painting at the National University of Arts and Culture in Mandalay.

The engineer-turned-artist has held three solo exhibitions focusing on Myanmar women, and plans to hold both group and solo exhibitions this year and next in New York and France.

"There have been calls for women to wear modest attire. OK—we'll wear long-sleeved blouses and long pants. Can you guarantee women won't ever be harassed or raped?" the artist asked.

Chuu Wai Nyein's solo exhibition at Gallery 65 in Dagon Township, Yangon, runs through Sunday. Paintings are available for purchase for between $150 and $850.

The post Painting the Practice of Victim-Blaming in a New Light appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Agrees to UN Security Council Visit; Where, When to be Decided

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 03:29 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar has given the UN Security Council permission to visit the country, including conflict-torn Rakhine State, after blocking its requests for months.

U Myint Thu, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the government has agreed to let the UN Security Council visit. But he added that critical details including exactly where and when they would travel had yet to be worked out, and that Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN in New York had been put in charge of those negotiations.

"They proposed a trip to come here last month.” U Myint Thu said. “We agreed to let them come.”

The ministry said delegates from neighboring countries, permanent member states of the Security Council and Singapore, as the current ASEAN chair, would join the trip.

The UN has been asking Myanmar to allow the visit since militant attacks on several security posts in northern Rakhine triggered a massive clearance operation by the military that has driven nearly 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. The operation has generated widespread reports of arson, rape and murder by Myanmar’s security forces. The UN has called it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, which the military denies.

The UN wants to send a team to northern Rakhine to investigate the alleged rights abuses. But Myanmar has repeatedly denied its requests, claiming the area was too insecure.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry now says the government wants to accommodate the UN.

"To be cooperative, we will let them come to our country and we will help them with the trip. We will try our best to help them with the trip," U Myint Thu said. "Based on their request, we will negotiate about when they will come and the people they want to meet," he said.

He said the delegates would also visit Bangladesh, where most of the refugees are sheltering in sprawling camps near the border.

The post Myanmar Agrees to UN Security Council Visit; Where, When to be Decided appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Placing Spotlights Casts Shadows

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 02:08 AM PDT

Last Friday, media releases all over the English and Burmese-speaking internet reverberated with the news that top human rights lawyer Amal Clooney will join the legal team for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's ongoing court case.

I see at least two tiers of issues going on here, recognizing that there are many others (such as the military's cause of national security and the impunity that accompanies it, and the shameful layers of disinformation in Rakhine State).

The first is personal, the need for a timely resolution and for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to be returned to their families as soon as possible. The second is more political and relates to the way issues of political freedoms transpire in Myanmar courts and the role local lawyers are enabled to play.

The first issue is self-evident: There is no good argument justifying the prolonged incarceration of the two journalists, who have been wrongfully prosecuted under archaic laws simply for reporting the news. Yet a tension emerges with the second issue: how cases of such international interest proceed in Myanmar and how the country's lawyers can go about their jobs.

Reuters' recruitment of Amal Clooney instantly elevates the case further into global exposure. For those of us who have not been privy to Reuters' strategy meetings, we can only imagine it forms part of a mission to draw more attention to the case and place additional pressure on the Myanmar government, as we will hear back from the court next week.

I am a dedicated fan of Ms. Clooney, but her involvement in this way jars with me. Some further questions need to be asked: Has the current legal team requested outside help to argue the case? Were other senior lawyers in Myanmar approached to take this case and did they refuse to do so? I ask these questions because the recruitment of a foreign lawyer risks reinforcing a misplaced assumption widely held by numerous observers in the rule of law space that local lawyers are inept at their jobs.

I spent most of 2017 living in Myanmar and researching how particular local lawyers mobilize for justice, as part of a thesis for my own studies in law. I went to central Myanmar, where I lived with a team of dedicated lawyers and activists who advocate for farmers in land-grab cases. I went to the north, near the Chinese border, where lawyers rally against military power by representing ethnic minorities embroiled in criminal proceedings. Around Yangon, I observed the daily rhythm of law offices where lawyers act for unaccompanied minors, vulnerable women and the homeless.

The fragmentation of political issues across the country leads to varying specialties for activist lawyers. Lawyers in Myitkyina aligned with the Kachin ethno-nationalist movement know the nuances of the Unlawful Associations Act far more intimately than their colleagues in Yangon. Lawyers working across the dry zone who operate in tandem with civil society organizations to advocate for farmers' rights know the law of trespass extremely well. I would expect that there are numerous senior lawyers who have acted in Official Secrets Act cases — the law under which the two journalists have been charged — several times before.

Of course, the lawyers I met arguably represent the sector's elite. It would be a stretch to claim they are representative of Myanmar's legal profession at large. Following the military takeover in 1962, the practice of law fell swiftly into decline. Legal education deteriorated. The bar association lost autonomy. The lawyers who speak truth to power in activist communities across the country do so in spite of decades of adverse structural conditions. In some ways they are the exception to the rule: They have been able to educate themselves when the legal education has been deficient, through mentoring relationships with the profession's elders, and opportunities for career development with local and regional civil society initiatives.

These lawyers and their mentors are no strangers to grave personal risk. Many of them, or members of their immediate community, have been political prisoners. Most of them are embedded in the pro-democracy movement. Throughout the career metamorphoses of the democratic transition, some veteran activist lawyers have entered political office and now occupy seats in the state-level and national-level legislatures as NLD representatives. One politician who I met, aged in her early thirties, juggles a position in the state-level legislature with taking land rights cases pro bono in her spare time.

I include these narratives because we too easily forget the toils and quiet victories of local lawyers when our eyes turn, star-struck, to a foreign import. Some may think it is terrific Ms. Clooney is drawing more attention to the case. But I wonder, looking into the long-term ramifications, if she could be better placed to play a different role.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's legal team have argued for the case to be dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Should this eventuate, it is more likely than not that Ms. Clooney will receive credit for their achievement. Yet it is the lawyers on the local team who have done the legwork up until this crucial moment and who shoulder all of the personal risk for their involvement in the case.

These perceptions matter because, despite millions in donor funding pledged toward strengthening rule of law in Myanmar, many foreign consultants still know very little about the lawyers in the country who have fought for political freedoms all their lives. Ms. Clooney's inclusion in Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo's legal team risks unwittingly sustaining tiresome and out-of-touch beliefs that there are no lawyers in Myanmar who are equipped to successfully advocate for justice and political freedoms of their compatriots. I would tell those tempted to think so that there are plenty.

This article was originally published online by Tea Circle on April 5.

The post Placing Spotlights Casts Shadows appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

UN Humanitarian Affairs Team Visits Strife-Torn Maungdaw in Rakhine State

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 12:47 AM PDT

YANGON — The deputy emergency relief coordinator of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) visited northern Rakhine State on Thursday to meet with Buddhist and Muslim communities and hear their concerns.

Maungdaw District Deputy Director U Ye Htoo said Ursula Mueller arrived in the morning with a nine-member team and immediately headed for Kai Gyee village in the south, home to a community of ethnic Mro, a sub-group of the state’s majority Buddhist Arakanese.

Six locals from the village were killed by suspected Muslim Rohingya militants in early August, after which some 50 Mro families fled the Mayu mountain range for the surrounding lowlands.

A few weeks later, on Aug. 25, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked nearly 30 border police posts and a military base in northern Rakhine. The Myanmar military then launched a massive clearance operation targeting Rohingya communities that sparked widespread reports of arson, rape and murder and has driven nearly 700,000 Rohingya to neighboring Bangladesh. The UN has called the military’s actions a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, and rights advocates have urged the UN Security Council to refer the country’s army leaders to the International Criminal Court.

After her visit to Kai Gyee, Mueller travelled to Pan Taw Pyin village, on the outskirts of Maungdaw town, to meet with a Muslim community, and then on to the village of Shwe Zar, a mixed community of Arakanese, Rohingya and Hindus that largely escaped last year’s violence, and a refugee reception camp at Hla Phoe Khaung, near Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh.

OCHA Myanmar spokesman Pierre Peron sent The Irrawaddy a brief statement on the trip via email in lieu of answering specific questions.

It said Mueller visited a camp for Rohingya displaced by communal violence in 2012 in the state capital, Sittwe, and that she met with both Buddhist and Muslim communities, local government officials and humanitarian aid partners on the same day.

"The deputy emergency relief coordinator listened to the concerns of people in all communities and discussed ways to improve humanitarian assistance, protection and essential services, as well as livelihoods and job opportunities for all people in need," the statement said.

Her itinerary suggests the OCHA team did not reach parts of northern Maungdaw that saw the worst of last year’s violence, nor other villages in the area that survived at least partly intact, including Ngan Chaung, Nga Sar Kyu and Nga Khu Ya.

A Muslim resident of Ngan Chaung told The Irrawaddy by phone that villagers were being prevented from leaving without a recommendation letter from the village head.

"We have been stuck here for almost seven months. We have no access to health care in town, no freedom of movement and no education for schoolchildren," he said.

The man said the village was spared the arson attacks of late 2017 but added that nearly 5,000 residents had fled fearing arrest, leaving only about 700 people behind.

During a government-led tour of Maungdaw for local journalists last week, one villager told The Irrawaddy that he was fined 200,000 kyats ($151) by border police for traveling without a permit. He said his village receives regular humanitarian assistance from the government and international aid agencies, but not enough to make up for the income they are losing out on because of the curfews and travel restrictions.

The relative calm of recent months was abruptly shaken on Wednesday when a Mro woman was hacked to death by unidentified men while she and seven others were fishing and foraging for edible plants near Kha Maung Seik Town.

Though Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in November to repatriate the Rohingya who have fled across the border since last year, the returns have yet to begin.

The post UN Humanitarian Affairs Team Visits Strife-Torn Maungdaw in Rakhine State appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Students Fined Over Anti-War Performance

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 12:13 AM PDT

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — The Pathein Township Court in Irrawaddy Region on Wednesday fined eight of nine students who were sued by the Myanmar Army for defamation more than a year ago.

The Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw, sued nine students for defamation in January last year after they staged a drama that was critical of military clashes with ethnic armed groups during a peace discussion at the Pathein Hotel in Pathein, the capital of the Irrawaddy Region.

The students performed a satirical comedy in which a news agency called 'Oxygen' interviewed the supporters of conflict in Myanmar. The drama was deemed to mock those who held protests in favor of the Tatmadaw.

"We did not want to harm either the military or ethnic armed groups," lead organizer of the drama Ko Aung Khant Zaw told The Irrawaddy in January last year. "The message of our drama is that we don't want wars."

Two students were fined 50,000 kyats each, and six others were fined 30,000 kyats each. The ninth student Myo Ko Ko failed to appear in court, and the Pathein Township Court will issue an arrest warrant for him.

"The judge assumed that the script we recited during the drama did not directly refer to soldiers and their families (but was instead simply an anti-war message). So, he only imposed a fine on us," said Ko Aung Khant Zaw.

After four months of trials at the Pathein Township Court, the judge decided to charge only lead organizers Ko Aung Khant Zaw and Ko Myat Thu Htet for defamation and acquitted the seven others.

Then, the army appealed to the Pathein District Court, which overruled the verdict of the township court. The township court then heard the case again and imposed a fine.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Students Fined Over Anti-War Performance appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Heritage Building Demolished to Make Way for US$500-Million High-Rise

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 10:28 PM PDT

YANGON — A British colonial-era building that appears in the Yangon City Heritage List has been torn down by a developer to make way for a construction project in Yangon's Bahan Township.

The building, named The Mayor's Residence, in the 13-acre compound of the now-defunct Myayeik Nyo Hotel was demolished in February by Zaykabar Company, which is developing a US$500m project on the site comprising 12 buildings with heights ranging from 382 to 412 feet.

The project on military-owned land has been suspended until the Yangon government approves its proposed safety measures for a 92-year-old reservoir nearby.

Company chairman U Khin Shwe told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the old building needed to be demolished to pave way for the project.

"It no longer exists," said the tycoon.

As the name suggests, the Mayor's Residence was once home to Yangon's mayors. The last resident was U Aung Thein Lin in the early 2000s.

The city municipal body, the Yangon City Development Committee, started a survey in 1996 to list buildings with heritage value across the city; as of 2001 it comprised 188 structures—mostly religious and British colonial-era buildings. The criteria for their selection was to be architecturally significant; more than 50 years old; and not under private ownership.

The demolished residence was on the list along with the Mayor's Guest House, another British colonial-era Heritage-listed building in the same compound.

The Mayor's Guest House is seen in a picture likely taken in the early 2000s.

According to Myayeik Nyo Project director U Tun Win Han, the Guest House remains intact, but the residence was destroyed during the site-clearing process.

"We are now using it as an office," he told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Yangon possesses many historical buildings constructed during its long, magnificent history. The city has the largest collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century colonial architecture in Southeast Asia.

According to the Yangon Heritage Trust, an NGO advocating for heritage protection, the project area was known as Mount Pleasant during the British colonial days. Many mansions belonging to high officials, including the Mayor's Residence and the Mayor's Guest House and the residence of the manager of Chartered Bank, were located there.

The YHT estimates that both listed buildings are believed to have been built before 1920, based on their designs.

Screenshot of YCDC's Yangon City Heritage List.

Both U Khin Shwe and U Tun Win Han insisted that the residence was no longer a Heritage building as it had been through several heavy renovations.

"The roof and floor were replaced in the early 2000s. It was heavily damaged during Cyclone Nargis in 2008. So we renovated the entire building. That's why it is no longer a Heritage building," U Khin Shwe said.

Yangon Heritage Trust said the demolition of the Heritage-listed Mayor's Residence was a "total mistake."

"It is on the publicly announced list. But when it comes to Heritage buildings, we haven't got any strict and precise process to ban tearing them down," said YHT director Daw Moe Moe Lwin.

Myanmar has a Heritage Building Protection Law, which was enacted in 2015. The law dictates that any building more than 100 years old is qualified to become a Heritage building.

But the law can be applied to the buildings listed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture. So it's unclear whether the demolition of the Heritage building listed by the YCDC is against the law.

The YCDC was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.

Daw Moe Moe Lwin of YHT rejected Zaykabar's excuse.

"You can't simply tear down a Heritage building because it was renovated. It doesn't reduce the value!" she said.

The post Heritage Building Demolished to Make Way for US$500-Million High-Rise appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Vietnam Jails Prominent Human Rights Lawyer, Five Other Activists

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:52 PM PDT

HANOI — Vietnamese human rights lawyer and activist Nguyen Van Dai was jailed for 15 years on Thursday, his wife said, along with five other activists who were given prison terms of seven to 12 years.

Dai, 48, was charged in a Hanoi court with activities “aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” at a tightly guarded trial in the communist country.

“I’m very disappointed with the trial and strongly protest it,” Dai’s wife, Vu Minh Khanh, said. “He is innocent and he pleaded innocent at the trial. He will continue to fight and will appeal the verdict”.

Despite sweeping reforms to its economy and showing openness to social change, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and has zero tolerance for criticism.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States was “deeply troubled” over the conviction of the six, adding that people had a “right to the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly.”

She said in a statement that Washington was concerned about “a disturbing trend of increased arrests, convictions and harsh sentences of peaceful activists” in Vietnam and urged the country to “release all prisoners of conscience immediately.”

Commenting on the trial, foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang told reporters on Thursday that Vietnam’s efforts to promote human rights was “widely recognized” by the international community.

“In Vietnam there is no such thing as a ‘prisoner of conscience,' and there’s no such thing as people being arrested for ‘freely expressing opinion,'” Hang said.

In March 2013, Dai and others formed the “Brotherhood for Democracy,” which conducted anti-government activities to “build multi-party democracy” in Vietnam, according to a copy of the official indictment against Dai seen by Reuters.

“The Vietnamese government should thank them for their efforts to improve the country instead of arresting and putting them on trial,” Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams said.

Dai had been awaiting trial since his arrest in December 2015. He previously served four out of five years of a prison term he received in 2007 for “anti-state propaganda."

Hundreds of police were posted outside the court during Thursday’s trial and a planned march by families of the detained activists was stopped.

Hanoi-based activist Nguyen Chi Tuyen said police arrived at his house as the trial began and followed him for the entire day.

“They followed me to my office, invited me to coffee, waited outside my office, followed me back home, and now they’re waiting outside my house again,” said Tuyen, who added that police had put glue in the lock of the house of a fellow activist to stop him going out.

“They did it at night,” Tuyen said. “He had to break it to get out."

The post Vietnam Jails Prominent Human Rights Lawyer, Five Other Activists appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Philippines’ Duterte Cites ‘Genocide’ in Myanmar, Says Will Take Refugees

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:40 PM PDT

MANILA — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday “genocide” was taking place in Myanmar and he was willing to accept Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing from it, though Europe should help too.

The United Nations and rights groups say some 700,000 people, most of them Rohingya, have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August last year when Rohingya militant attacks on the security forces sparked a military crackdown.

The United Nations and several Western countries have said the Myanmar action constitutes ethnic cleansing but Myanmar rejects that. It says its security forces have been conducting legitimate operations against "terrorists."

Duterte, in a wide-ranging speech to farmers and agriculture officials at the presidential palace, touched on various issues including his recent decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court over its decision to open a preliminary investigation into his bloody war on drugs.

Drawing the ire of officials in Myanmar, Duterte then expressed sympathy for the Rohingya and offered to help.

“I really pity the people there,” Duterte said. “I’m willing to accept refugees. Rohingyas, yes. I will help but we should split them with Europe.”

He also mentioned the inability of the international community to resolve problems in Myanmar.

“They can’t even solve the Rohingya. That’s what genocide is, if I may say so,” Duterte said.

Myanmar has rejected any suggestion genocide is taking place and its government spokesman, Zaw Htay, said Duterte’s comments did not reflect the real situation.

“He doesn't know anything about Myanmar," Zaw Htay told Reuters. “The usual behavior of that person is to speak without restraint. That's why he said that.”

Duterte’s comments were broadcast live on television and later included in a transcript of his speech, issued by his office.

Such a denunciation by a Southeast Asian leader of a neighbor is rare.

Both the Philippines and Myanmar are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations, which has long upheld a convention of withholding criticism of fellow members.

Duterte did not refer by name to Myanmar leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been heavily criticized abroad for failing to stand up for the largely stateless Rohingya, only saying: “That woman, she is my friend.”

The post Philippines' Duterte Cites 'Genocide' in Myanmar, Says Will Take Refugees appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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