Investigate a massacre, go to prison
Two Reuters journalists arrested in Myanmar while investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims have been found guilty of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are being held in prison in Yangon after being arrested in December, in a landmark case that has prompted international outrage and been seen as a test of progress towards democracy in the south-east Asian country.
(“Myanmar” was the choice of the generals, so I see using it as kind of like calling Senator Warren “Pocahontas.”)
Press freedom advocates, the United Nations, the European Union and countries including the US, Canada and Australia had called for the men to be acquitted.
The journalists were looking into the deaths of 10 Rohingyaat the hands of soldiers and Buddhist villagers in Inn Din, a village in the north of Rakhine state. After being invited to a dinner by officers, they were detained.
Prosecutors accused the men of obtaining secret state documents, in breach of the Official Secrets Act. The journalists said they were framed by police who gave them the documents during the dinner, and that they were targeted for their reporting. Kyaw Soe Oo said that while being investigated he was deprived of sleep, forced to kneel for hours and had a black hood placed over his head.
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Concerned by what was widely seen as a draconian attack by Myanmar authorities on the free press, dozens of journalists and activists marched in Yangon on Sunday in support of the men.
The verdict was condemned by human rights activists, the UN, the US and Britain.
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The verdict comes during a time of intense international scrutiny on Myanmar authorities following a damning UN report about the military’s treatment of the Rohingya, which it said amounted to ethnic cleansing. More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to bordering Bangladesh over the past year after a campaign of violence by the military.
Last week, the UN said Myanmar army generals should be investigated and prosecuted for “gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law”. In the report, which was rejected by the Myanmar government, de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi was criticised for failing to support the Rohingya.
She’s not supporting the journalists, either.
At least the US is still able to condemn these things. I would be afraid that our current government would give them some sort of achievement award for killing Muslims.
Heaven forbid the Burma generals sponsor cartoons! Listen to the crickets chirp when real life Muslims are ACTUALLY oppressed. Any howling mobs burning embassies in Cairo or Islamabad?
Of course not. Why would they care if muslims are being slaughtered? Just so long as no-one is doing anything that threatens to undermine the belief system, the leaders are happy with the believers being murdered. That sort of thing doesn’t threaten their power. Just like Christianity. “Onward, Christian soldiers!” but let’s keep the clergy safely at home, shall we?
The only way they’ll whip the mobs up is if the Buddhists start burning cartoon effigies of Mohamed.
As you say, crickets.