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The 2013 picture of Zaw Zaw Latt holding an assault rifle, which he posted on Facebook.

By Joshua Carroll 
July 16, 2015

A Muslim interfaith activist has been arrested after posting online a photo of himself holding a gun during a visit to conflict-torn Kachin State in 2013, his friends have said.

Zaw Zaw Latt, who is also a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, was apprehended in Mandalay on Tuesday evening by plain-clothes officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, a friend and fellow activist told DVB on Thursday.

Known only be the name of Shine, the fellow activist said Zaw Zaw Latt is being held under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, which prohibits interaction with groups declared illegal by the government. He added that the activist was invited for a meeting at a café near the Mandalay Palace moat before being led away in handcuffs.

Section 17(1) has been criticised by rights groups as a tool for stifling dissent.

“The police tried to take him and he refused,” said Ki Ki, a friend who witnessed the arrest. “They were all pulling him.” A struggle ensued, he added, as Zaw Zaw Latt held hands with one of his colleagues, but officers eventually prised the two apart.

But his friends say the picture is being used as a pretext to arrest him because of his activism. Shine said he believes the real reason the activist was arrested is because of his work promoting dialogue between Buddhists and Muslims.

“For the last two months there have been lots of online attacks against him,” he said. “Extremists don’t like him being close with the Buddhist community. He has a beard and is standing next to monks in pictures.”

He added that Zaw Zaw Latt, who works alongside monks at a Mandalay-based interfaith group called Thint Myant Lo Thu Myar [translates as ‘People who want to live in harmony’], tried to calm rioters during inter-communal violence in the city last year.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group that tracks political prisoners in Burma, said it was looking into the arrest.

Zaw Zaw Latt “made a mistake” by posting the picture of himself with such a weapon, said Shine, but he added that the post was harmless. “Burmese people, we have never seen a real gun … When we get the chance to hold one, we want to just for posting,” he said.

The assault rifle in the picture is thought to be an MA-1, a Burmese-made version of the Israeli Galil rifle.



The Criminal Investigation Department, a special arm of the police force, could not be reached for comment on Thursday, nor could the NLD.
A local Rohingya imam in Paungdok, Arakan State (Lux Capio Photography)

April 23, 2015

Regional lawmakers called on leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to act to avoid further tragedy in Burma’s Rohingya crisis on the eve of the 26th ASEAN Summit in Malaysia.

Intergovernmental body ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) released their latest report on Thursday, concluding a visit to Burma, officially known as Myanmar, earlier this month. APHR said that the country’s Muslim Rohingya are at serious risk of atrocity crimes, defined by the UN as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression.

“Between the Rohingya crisis, anti-Muslim violence and human rights abuses against ethnic minorities, we found that nearly every risk factor for atrocity crimes identified in the UN Framework for Analysis of Atrocity Crimes is present in Myanmar today,” said APHR in an open letter to ASEAN leaders that coincides with the report.

The delegation to Burma witnessed what it called an “alarming” proliferation of hate speech and extremist language, which it said is likely to worsen before the upcoming election, expected to be held in November.

Many Burmese refuse to use the word “Rohingya”, instead using the term “Bengali”, a trend which Shwe Maung, a Rohingya member of Burma’s parliament and part of APHR, calls “particularly troubling”.

Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law means that Rohingyas are not recognised as citizens of the Buddhist majority state. 2012 saw scenes of terrible violence between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and the Muslims in the area, causing thousands of Rohingyas to flee their homes.

Discrimination and confinement to abysmal camps have left the group vulnerable, with many pushed to take to the seas, usually under the watch of traffickers, in hope of a better life.

APHR says this exodus represents the highest number of sea-borne asylum seekers since the Vietnam War.

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project told DVB that the crisis is likely to particularly affect Malaysia, the hosts of the ASEAN meeting that starts on Friday.

“Malaysia is the most affected country in the region, bearing the brunt of the Rohingya maritime exodus, and this is not a matter of internal affairs. Sooner or later, Malaysia will have to deal with tens of thousands of stateless Rohingyas who are there to stay, since Myanmar is unlikely to ever let them return. A humanitarian emergency is already developing in Malaysia, with no education for refugee children and little access to health care,” she said.

The failure of ASEAN states to take action has deepened the crisis, says APHR, and leaders are called upon to take a number of measures to prevent escalation and the committing of atrocity crimes, including: the deployment of monitors to the country ahead of general elections later this year; the acknowledgement and protection of those fleeing Rakhine [Arakan]State; and urging Burma’s government to reject the “Race Protection” legislation, which many see as an instrument to repress and control the Rohingya minority.

“The crises in Myanmar, including the persecution of Rohingya, anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence, and systematic abuses against other ethnic minorities, are not only a problem for Myanmar—they are a problem for all of ASEAN,” according to the open letter.

However, Lewa points out that it is unlikely that ASEAN states will choose to pressure its neighbour to address the crisis, given the bloc’s commitment to a laissez-faire approach. “It would be in the best interest of ASEAN countries, and Malaysia in particular, to raise the Rohingya ethnic cleansing situation in Rakhine and put pressure on Myanmar. However, it is doubtful that this issue will be put on the agenda in view of ASEAN principle of non-interference in member states’ internal affairs,” she said.

As the crisis threatens to weaken the region to extremist ideologies, as well as straining economic relationships and threatening Burma’s political transition, APHR are clear in their conviction that the ASEAN states are responsible not only for adopting safeguards to reduce regional insecurity, but for preventing a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Local Rohingyas stand on a road in Aung Mingalar, Sittwe (Lux Capio Photography)

By Alex Bookbinder
March 16, 2015

The recent re-sentencing of three prominent Rohingya community leaders in Arakan State and the ongoing detention of two others points to the uneven application of the rule of law in the restive region, their lawyer claims.

The trio – Ba Tha, Kyaw Myint, and Kyaw Myint’s son, Hla Myint – were sentenced by Sittwe’s Appellate Court to eight years in prison on 27 February for their alleged role in inciting violence against government officials, and remanded into custody on 8 March.

Their sentencing stems from an incident that occurred in April 2013, when a delegation visited the Rohingya village of Thet Kay Pyin near the state capital of Sittwe to forcibly register its inhabitants as “Bengalis.” Another Rohingya community leader, Kyaw Khin, was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison on the same day and is currently in hiding, according to a statement issued by Thailand-based watchdog Fortify Rights.

The officials’ arrival at Thet Kay Pyin, on 26 April 2013, prompted a group of some 200 villagers to demonstrate against the registration process, spearheaded by Burma’s Ministry of Immigration and Population as part of a contentious “citizenship verification” process that was paused in February 2015.

The Burmese government does not recognise the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 “national races”, and most Rohingya reject classification as “Bengali”, a term they consider pejorative that implies origins in neighbouring Bangladesh. The trio were sentenced to one and a half years in prison in May 2013, but were released as part of a presidential amnesty in October 2014.

At Thet Kay Pyin, the villagers defiantly chanted, “Rohingya! Rohingya! Rohingya!” in protest, and the demonstration turned violent. Although the circumstances under which violence broke out remain disputed, government officials allegedly sustained injuries after coming under attack by incensed villagers.

Two other individuals charged by the authorities in May 2013 – Suleyman Begum and Muhammad Hashim –remain in prison after being sentenced to three and a half years on charges relating to robbery, intimidation and disturbing civil servants. On 27 February, five additional years were added to their sentences.

According to Hla Myo Myint, a Rangoon-based lawyer representing the Thet Kay Pyin prisoners, the re-sentencing of the three community leaders was prompted by allegations that they abetted the rioters by compelling them to reject registration as Bengali, a charge the trio deny.

“There’s no rule of law. It’s all bias of race in conflicts,” Hla Myo Myint told DVB. He claims that the evidence presented by the prosecution was accepted blindly by the court, and relied heavily on the testimony of one policeman, which he classified as “tainted.”

The eight-year sentence was passed down after the defendants were found guilty of violating three sections of Burma’s Penal Code: 147, 333, and 395, for rioting, causing “grievous injury” to a public servant, and “dacoity,” or banditry, respectively.

Burma’s penal code is a piece of colonial-era legislation that was penned back in 1861. Its outdated statutes give the authorities sweeping, arbitrary prosecutory powers, offering the accused few avenues for recourse or a meaningful appeals process. Across Burma’s justice system, 90 percent of charges end in conviction, and free legal counsel is not a legally enshrined right.

Hla Myo Myint feels that his clients were arbitrarily singled out due to their prominence in the community. He claims that the authorities have no way of knowing who was responsible for starting the conflict, leading them to slap his clients with trumped-up charges in an attempt to stifle further dissent.

Three years of the sentence justified under Section 395 for “dacoity”, for example – a term that originally referred to roving bands of thieves in colonial India – was passed down because the mobile phone of an immigration official went missing during the riot, he claims.

Bias by the ethnic Arakanese [Rakhine Buddhist] judges overseeing the cases – who many feel are likely to be prejudiced against Rohingya plaintiffs – has made a mockery of justice, he feels. “The real problem is the evidence in the case, the justification for punishment. They don’t have any evidence,” he said. “But Thein Aung, the appellate court judge, is Arakanese, and he is sensitive towards the Rohingya. He can change the primary order, and give punishment.”

The government has demanded that stateless Rohingyas currently possessing “white cards” that provide them with temporary identification turn them in at the end of the month, a factor that has contributed to heightened tensions across the state. Despite their non-citizen status, voting rights – facilitated by the possession of “white cards” – have been among the few privileges afforded to Rohingyas by Naypyidaw in recent years, albeit out of self-interest as their votes offset popular support for Arakanese nationalist parties in the 2010 polls.

Hla Myo Myint – an ethnic-Burman Buddhist with close ties to the opposition National League for Democracy – has forged a career taking on contentious cases. He has represented farmers embroiled in land disputes in the Irrawaddy Delta and leading monks in the 2007 “Saffron Revolution” uprising against military rule. In 2009, he represented Aung San Suu Kyi after an American citizen, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside residence, prompting the authorities to extend her house arrest for an additional eighteen months.

It is exceedingly rare for lawyers in Burma to advocate on behalf of Rohingya clients, owing to their pariah status both in and out of the corridors of power.

But Hla Myo Myint feels that to deny anybody counsel on the grounds of ethnicity would amount to a dereliction of duty. “I’m an advocate, and because I follow the ethic of an advocate, I will take every case. I have no choice. Ethically, I am obligated,” he said.

He intends to bring the Thet Kay Pyin prisoners’ case to Burma’s supreme court in Naypyidaw, but it remains to be seen if the case will be re-opened. As far as he is concerned, however, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be. “I have good legal grounds for revision,” he said.

Members of Arakan State's two largest political parties, the ALD and the RNDP, pictured at a ceremony in Rangoon in June 2013 when they merged to form the Arakan National Party. (PHOTO: DVB)

March 13, 2015

The Union Election Commission (UEC) has announced an enrolment deadline of 30 April 2015 for those who wish to form new political parties to contest this year’s general election.

The UEC said would-be party leaders must apply for permission to form their party no later than 30 April, a date set to allow sufficient time for the next steps of party registration and election campaigning.

According to the Political Parties Registration Law, a minimum of 15 persons must sign any application to establish a political party. All must be at least 25 years of age. Citizens, naturalized citizens and temporary certificate holders may apply, though members of a religious order, members of insurgent groups and foreigners may not.

Seventy-one political parties are currently registered with the UEC across Burma.

The UEC’s chairman, Tin Aye, announced late last year that general elections will be held at the end of October or beginning of November 2015. In response, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told reporters that the government must ensure “not only free and fair, but timely elections” if Burma is to progress on the path to democracy.

President Thein Sein subsequently stated on 1 March during his monthly radio address to the nation that the 2015 general election will be held in the month of November.

The campaign period ahead of the election is another matter to be resolved. While the UEC maintains that a 30-day period for campaigning is ample, several political parties, including the ethnic-based Federal Democratic Alliance, have stated that 60 days is required to allow each candidate to conduct an effective campaign drive.

No mention has yet been made about the registration of independent candidates or a timeframe for the formation of coalitions.

In November, the UEC began compiling new voter lists for the 2015 general election after last year’s census uncovered a gaping discrepancy in the actual versus the predicted number of people in the country.

The March census tallied 51.4 million people within Burma, as opposed to 60 million, an officially held figure that had been cobbled together by projected birth rates and disparate demographic studies.

The UEC is now tasked with calculating how many people are eligible to vote in this year’s election. The commission said in November it would take eight months for it to construct a new list, likely to be very different from the one used as recently as the 2012 by-elections.

A woman washes a statue of Buddha at the Uppatasanti Pagoda in Naypyidaw. (Photo: DVB)

By Sonya Carassik Ratty
March 5, 2015

The four bills forming the “Race Protection” package are a distraction from Burma’s real political and economic challenges, and should never have reached parliament, says Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the groups say that that the bills risk an increase in violence in the country “at a time of a disturbing rise in ethnic and religious tensions, as well as ongoing systematic discrimination against women,” and would contravene Burma’s responsibilities under international law.

The four bills – namely the Religious Conversion Bill, Monogamy Bill, Population Control Healthcare Bill, and Buddhist Women’s Marriage Bill – were drawn up on President Thein Sein’s urging, after 100,000 signatures were made to a petition organised by the conservative Buddhist monkhood group Ma-Ba-Tha last year.

Speaking to DVB on Tuesday, Sam Zarifi, ICJ regional director for Asia and the Pacific, said of the proposals: “They are absolutely distracting from what parliament should be looking at, especially in an election year, and from what the political debate in the country should be about.”

To many observers, the Race Protection package is an attempt to exert control over the Muslim community in Burma. A focal point of religious tensions, Arakan State has seen severe bouts of violence between the Muslim Rohingya population and Rakhine Buddhists, which has displaced more than 100,000 people in recent years, according to data from Human Rights Watch.

In response to a question about defusing the tensions in Arakan State (also called Rakhine State), Zarifi said that what is needed is to ensure that people: “who have violated the law by engaging in attacks and assaults on other people are brought up on charges, and are properly investigated and then given the proper jail sentences. That is absolutely not happening.”

But many in Buddhist-majority Burma claim that the laws are necessary to prevent further racial and religious violence in the country. Last year, as the Speaker of the Union Parliament Shwe Mann recommended the drafting of the bills, monk Ashin Parmouhka told DVB: “If you want to see peace and an end to religious and racial conflict in Burma, these laws must be adopted. If you want more conflicts and unrest in the country, then don’t adopt the laws.”

Last month, the upper house passed the Population Control Healthcare Bill, which limits child births to one baby per mother every three years, with more than 100 supporting votes, 10 objections and four abstentions. It is now due to be discussed in the lower house, or pyithu hluttaw.

Speaking at the time, MP Hla Swe, said: “I believe that a population which is too high can be no good in terms of health. It is dangerous when there is no balance between resources and birth rate, and therefore childbirth should be limited to one per three years.”

Tuesday’s Amnesty International/ICJ statement said that, along with the Monogamy Bill, this piece of legislation on reproductive rights needs serious revision before it should even be considered.

“The incendiary rhetoric of the past few years – talking about overbreeding and a population time bomb – have been used to justify attacks, particularly on the Muslim Rohingya population,” said Zarifi.

“It is crucial for any bill that addresses these issues to clarify that it’s not intended to be used, and will not be used, in a discriminatory fashion,” he added.

In January, 180 women’s groups, networks and civil society organisations voiced their oppositionto the proposed package in a signed statement which they delivered to parliament. Khin San Htwe of the Burmese Women’s Union (BWU) said that they “are concerned with the bills as they serve to directly or indirectly control and limit the rights of women.”

However, when talking to DVB on Tuesday, Ashin Parmoukha asserted that women would in fact benefit from the laws. “We demanded that parliament approves the Race Protection laws to bring about equal rights for the Burmese women who are married off to men from other religions, who are coerced to convert into that religion through physical violence and abuse.”

He is unwavering in his support for the legislation. “Our race and religion will be protected and so our country will stand firm.”

Zarifi disagrees, arguing that the proposals are not in the national interest, and in reality distract from the “huge number of very significant human rights and political and economic issues right now … that haven’t been addressed for decades.” He went on to cite issues of budgetary distribution, environmental degradation and poverty reduction as being more deserving of political attention.

All people suffer under such poor governance, he says, using Arakan State as an example. “It’s a very wealthy state, but all of the people there – regardless of their religion and ethnicity – haven’t benefitted sufficiently from the natural wealth. In fact, in many cases they have suffered from the central government’s development projects. These are the real issues in Rakhine State alone that need to be addressed,” he said.

The Burmese government stand accused of conducting a discriminatory campaign of population control against the Rohingya community in Arakan State. (PHOTO: Marta Tucci)


By Shwe Aung
February 19, 2015

A bill which limits child births to one baby per mother every three years was passed by the upper house (amyotha hluttaw) of Burma’s parliament on Wednesday.

The Population Control Healthcare Bill constitutes one part of a controversial four-proposal package that has been tabled in parliament, commonly referred to as the “Race Protection Bill”.

Hla Swe, an MP in the amyotha hluttaw, said: “I believe that a population which is too high can be no good in terms of health. It is dangerous when there is no balance between resources and birth rate, and therefore childbirth should be limited to one per three years.”

A petition by the conservative Buddhist monkhood group Ma-Ba-Tha last year received 100,000 signatures in favour of the Race Protection package, President Thein Sein subsequently ordered the drafting of four bills, namely the Religious Conversion Bill, Monogamy Bill, Population Control Healthcare Bill, and Buddhist Women’s Marriage Bill.

Many observers see the Race Protection bills as attempts to subjugate and control the Muslim community in Burma. Recent bloody confrontations between Muslims and Buddhists have led to a rise in nationalism among Burmese Buddhists across the country. Human Rights Watch say more than 100,000 people have been displaced by communal violence in Arakan State in recent years.

This Population Control Bill, drafted by the Attorney General’s office, was introduced to parliament at the end of the previous legislative session.

Aung Kyi Nyunt, a National League for Democracy MP, and Zone Hle Thang of the Chin Progressive Party argued against the bill in the upper house on Wednesday, but it was passed with more than 100 supporting votes, 10 objections and four abstentions.

The bill is now set to be debated in the lower house.

Last month, 180 women’s groups, networks and civil society organisations voiced their oppositionto the proposed race protection package in a signed statement which they delivered to parliament.

Speaking to DVB last month, Khin San Htwe of the Burmese Women’s Union (BWU) said that the BWU “are concerned with the bills as they serve to directly or indirectly control and limit the rights of women.”

She added: “Based on our study of the provisions in the bills, we conclude their purpose was to legally control the female population rather than to protect them.”

The women’s group’s statement has highlighted that in many respects, the proposals would be unconstitutional. It also points out that many of the laws would be in contravention of international legislation, including the Convention Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR).

The latest report from Human Rights Watch has criticised Burma's Human Rights Record in 2014 (Photo: File photo of monks and police, DVB)

January 31, 2015

Human rights in Burma saw serious setbacks in 2014, according to the latest report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Progress made since President Thein Sein took power in 2011 has derailed, with the international community not meeting its responsibility to shore up the reform process, the Washington-based rights group says in its World Report 2015, released on Thursday.

The country has seen “significant slowdowns and in some cases reversals of basic freedoms and democratic progress.”

“After two years of steady if uneven progress, Burma’s human rights situation was a car crash in 2014,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The HRW analysis of Burma shines a spotlight on the repression and persecution of Burma’s 1.1 million strong Rohingya Muslim minority, the majority of whom live in Arakan State in the country’s west.

The report also accuses both prominent anti-Muslim group the “969 Organisation” and the government-backed The Association for the Protection of Race and Religion or Ma Ba Tha as it is commonly known, of inciting violence in the country.

In January 2014, the United Nations claimed that it had “credible evidence” to suggest that over 40 Muslim men, woman and children had been killed in a massacre at Duchira Dan [Du Char Yar Tan] in northern Arakan State.

In its World Report, HRW said Burmese government-led investigations into violence in the area were “below international standards” as they “did not include impartial investigators.”

The subsequent expulsion of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from the region, and later the country as a whole, is also condemned.

HRW notes that the on going ethnic conflict in the northeast of the country, despite the nationwide ceasefire negotiations, has involved reported shelling of populated violence.

Internal displacement is endures across Burma, with an estimated 350,000 people who remain internally displaced in the east of the country, with more than 110,000 refugees residing in nine camps on the Thai side of the border.

Some of the previous progress made on relaxation of media control by the state has been undone by increased intimidation of the press in 2014.

Journalists have been jailed, and the freelance reporter Par Gyi was killed by the army – attempts to investigate his death suffered serious government obstruction.

The report also criticises the situation of freedom of expression and assembly in Burma, pointing out that there are over 230 confirmed political prisoners or individuals who face charges for assembly and expression of views. The number of those arrested under the Peaceful Procession Law while protesting against widespread illegal land grabs has also risen.

Despite rhetorical commitment to reforms on the international stage, change has been inconsistent, with the slated 2015 elections being called into question with the cancellation of by-elections in 2014.

There is also serious governmental reluctance to enact much needed constitutional reforms, with the army keen to maintain their hold on power. HRW says, “The Burmese Defense Services, or Tatmadaw, rejected constitutional amendments, and senior military leaders in numerous speeches vowed to safeguard the existing constitution as one of the military’s core duties.”

Thein Sein reneged on his pledge to US President Obama to establish an office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the country and has objected to international pressure to allow independent human rights monitoring and reporting.

The HRW report reads that despite these serious threats to human rights, international aid and development support from all major donors to Burma has increased.

“The army is still calling the shots on major issues, while the government seems confident it has satisfied other countries to keep the aid and investment dollars flowing,” said Brad Adams.

Monk Ashin Wirathu, pictured in Mandalay in 2014. (PHOTO: Steve Tickner)


By Aye Nai
January 24, 2015

On 23 January, DVB interviewed Wirathu, the controversial and outspoken Buddhist monk from Mandalay who is at the forefront of the 969 movement in Burma. Following a speech last week in which he called UN Rapporteur on Human Rights Yanghee Lee a “whore”, he has faced condemnation both at home and abroad. We asked him if he had any regrets.

Q: The United Nations (UN) has called for political and religious leaders to condemn your comments about Special Rapporteur Human Rights to Burma Yanghee Lee. What is your response to this?

A: In response to the UN’s call, I would like to urge our political and religious leaders to oppose any representative from a foreign country interfering with our sovereignty. I would say, ‘Do not let them determine our future’.

Q: Do you regret making the comments?

A: ‘Regret’ means feeling sorry for doing or saying something wrong. I was defending our religion: the sasana, and I should be glad that I succeeded in making this particular comment. I am delightfully proud.

Q: According to commentators and observers, you promote Islamophobia and hate speech. Are you focused on the Rohingya issue? Or the Islamic issue?

A: I am against Jihadism but not against all Muslims. The Rohingya are Jihadists and so are the Islamic extremists and those plotting to conquer our country under the 786 banner. My activism is focused against them, but not the people who live in peace.

Q: There are rumours circulating on social media that officials from the Religious Affairs Department visited the New Masoyein Monastery on 22 January and informed the abbot that you are to face charges for your remarks. Do you know if that is true?

A: It was true that religious affairs officials visited the monastery. They came around 11:30am on Thursday. But I do not know what they discussed. The abbot has not yet told me anything.

Q: Do you think they came to discuss your comments amid all the international pressure?

A: Well, that is what people are speculating. But I was afraid to talk to the abbot, and I don’t know what they discussed as the meeting took place in his room.

Q: How would you like to respond to the UN statement [condemning your comments]?

A: I would like you to tell them that Burma’s stance on the Rohingya issue is not just about how the government feels about it, but our whole country. The entire national race shares the same sentiment. If [the UN] would like to see peace and coexistence in Burma, they must never use the word ‘Rohingya’, which is a bogus ethnic group.

Wirathu (PHOTO: DVB)


By Aye Nai
January 23, 2015

Officials from the government’s Religious Affairs Department in Mandalay have rejected rumours that they plan to sue controversial Buddhist monk Wirathu after he called the UN’s Special Human Rights Rapporteur Yanghee Lee a “whore”.

According to rumours circulated on social media, officials from the department visited the New Masoyein monastery in Mandalay – where Wirathu resides – on Thursday, when they informed the abbot Kethara Biwunsa of their intentions to sue the nationalist monk for his comments.

It was reported that the controversial monk, renowned for his firebrand anti-Mulsim rhetoric, was to be sued under Article 295(a): Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.

Wirathu was previously indicted for inciting religious hatred in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was freed in 2010 under a general amnesty.

Kyaw Hlaing, deputy-director of the Religious Affairs Department in Mandalay Division, said that while he and other officials did visit the monastery, they did not to talk about bringing legal action against Wirathu but discussed an upcoming Buddhist ceremony.

“We were at the monastery by invitation from the abbot to discuss an event planned for 2- 3 February to award academic monks who have passed exams,” said Kyaw Hlaing.

“We don’t have a plan to sue Wirathu as claimed by social media reports.”

In a phone interview with DVB on Friday, Wirathu said that officials were at the monastery in the morning of the day before, but that he did not know what they discussed with the abbot.

“They came to the monastery around 11:30am on Thursday – I have not yet spoken to the abbot and he has not told me anything.” said Wirathu.

“There is speculation that the officials are planning to sue me. I don’t know what they discussed because the talks were held privately,” he added.

The UN has condemned the monk’s slurs, which they alleged are sexist and insulting.

The Religious Affairs Department has been involved in some high-profile cases as religious incidents have spiralled in post-dictatorship Burma. Philip Blackwood from New Zealand is facing charges in court after being arrested for “insulting religion” and “hurting religious feelings” last year for posting on Facebook a picture of Buddha wearing headphones as part of a nightclub promotion.

Last year, Religious Affairs Minister Hsan Hsint was ousted from his position following a botched raid on the Mahasantisukha Monastery in Rangoon. He was found guilty of sedition and criminal breach of trust and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment.
Buddhist monk Wirathu, pictured at Tamwe on Friday, 16 January 2015. (PHOTO: DVB)

By Democratic Voice of Burma
January 19, 2015

Controversial nationalist monk Wirathu lambasted the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, in a speech on Friday at the Kyeikkasan Grounds in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township. He called her a “whore” for her alleged bias towards the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

“We have already made public our Race Protection Law, but without even studying it, this bitch [Burmese: kaungma] keeps on complaining about how it is against human rights!” he shouted to hundreds of supporters on Friday afternoon.

“Can this whore really be from a respectable family background?” he thundered, to which the audience responded, “No!”

“Don’t assume you are a respectable person, just because you have a position in the UN,” he continued. “In our country, you are just a whore.

“If you are so willing, you may offer your arse to the kalar [racist term meaning ‘blacks’]. But you will never sell off our Arakan State!”

The UN had not responded to the insult at the time of press.

On Friday morning, a group of some 500 monks and lay supporters, led by hardliners Wirathu and Parmaukkha, marched from Kyay Thon Pagoda, near Shwedagon Pagoda, to Tamwe Township east of the city centre, holding placards reading “UN decisions cause problems in Burma – we don’t want that!”

Among the marchers were members of the Arakan National Network, which has condemned the UN’s call for Burma to grant citizenship to members of the Rohingya community who were born in the country.

Wirathu’s speech coincided with Yanghee Lee’s press conference in Rangoon on Friday when she concluded a 10-day trip to Burma, her second official visit to the country.

“Fundamental rights are not hierarchical – they aren’t conditional upon one another. They’re inalienable,” said Lee on Friday. “You can be assured that in all my meetings with government interlocutors, I use the word ‘Rohingya’. The rights of Rohingya people must be protected, promoted and upheld.”

In December, the UN General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution, drafted by the European Union, that called on Naypyidaw to extend citizenship rights to the Rohingya and remove the mobility restrictions placed on them. The resolution also urged an investigation into rights abuses in Arakan State, equal access to essential services, and reconciliation between Buddhist and Muslim communities in the region.


Yanghee Lee, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma, speaks at the Sedona Hotel, 16 January (Photo: DVB)

By Alex Bookbinder
January 16, 2015

Concluding her second official visit to Burma on Friday evening, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma, Yanghee Lee, urged the government to redouble efforts to improve the country’s still-worrisome human rights situation.

“Based on all the information I have gathered, I feel assured that in some areas the Government is continuing to progress in its reform programme,” she said. “However, in some areas I have not observed progress since my last visit… In the area of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, positive gains risk being lost. Indeed, the possible signs of backtracking I noted in my first report have gained momentum in this area.”

Over the course of her ten-day trip, following up on an earlier trip to the country in July, she met with a wide cross-section of political and civil society actors, including activists, journalists, ethnic and religious leaders, and government officials. She visited Insein Prison in Rangoon, where she met with prominent activists arrested in December for protesting the Chinese-backed Latpadaung copper mine in central Burma.

She travelled to Burma’s restive Arakan State, the site of resurgent communal clashes since 2012 and home to more than a million Rohingya Muslims, most of whom are denied citizenship rights and essential services, and who are subject to severe mobility restrictions. She subsequently visited Lashio, near the front lines of resurgent fighting in northern Shan State and the site of interreligious violence last year.

Her visit to Burma was met with protests from Buddhist nationalist sympathisers, who deplored her support for the rights of Burma’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority to citizenship, mobility, and self-identification.

“Yes, I have been greeted with several protests, and I am informed that there will be another protest today, later on, waiting for me,” she told journalists at Rangoon’s Sedona Hotel before her departure from the country. “I would like to see this as an improvement in the ability to voice opinions and views.”

On Friday morning, a group of some 500 monks and lay supporters, led by hardliners Wirathu and Parmaukkha, marched from Kyay Thon Pagoda, to the east of Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, to Tamwe Township east of the city centre, holding placards reading “UN decisions cause problems in Burma – we don’t want that!”

Among the marchers were members of the Arakan National Network, which has condemned the UN’s call for Burma to grant citizenship to members of the Rohingya community who were born in the country.

In December, the UN General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution, drafted by the European Union, that called on Naypyidaw to extend citizenship rights to the Rohingya and remove the mobility restrictions placed on them. The resolution also urged investigation into rights abuses in Arakan State, equal access to essential services, and conciliation between Buddhist and Muslim communities in the region.

“Fundamental rights are not hierarchical – they aren’t conditional upon one another. They’re inalienable. You can be assured that in all my meetings with government interlocutors, I use the word ‘Rohingya’. The rights of Rohingya people must be protected, promoted and upheld,” Lee said.

Echoing the sentiments of other high-level UN envoys to Burma over the past year – including UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and his deputy, Haoliang Xu – Lee claimed that an undue focus on terminology has stalled progress on fundamental issues relating to humanitarian access and the acquisition of citizenship.

“There’s many complexities involved in this, and I’m bringing to the public’s attention that the fixation on the word has paralysed any forward movement,” she said. “That does not mean negating one word or the other, because it is a fundamental right for people to self-identify.”

While she praised some recent developments in Arakan, including the resumption of front-line health care by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in December, she claimed the situation in the troubled state “remains at crisis stage,” and that humanitarian access is “still minimal and high risk.”

She also noted that, while some of the inhabitants of Myebon Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp were granted citizenship through the government’s pilot “citizenship verification” programme, their living standards have not improved as they remain subject to onerous mobility restrictions.

“They remain inside the camp with minimum food rations, limited access to health care and to other essential services,” she said. “The despair that I saw in the eyes of the people in the Myebon IDP camp was heartbreaking.”

Although she was promised access to the latest draft of the government’s “action plan” for Arakan – a leaked earlier draft of which stirred outrage, as it called for the deportation en masse of those failing to acquire citizenship through the verification process – she claims it “has not yet been delivered” to her.

“I stress that international human rights norms must be at the centre of a solution in the Rakhine [Arakan] State,” she said. “Collective punishment of the entire Muslim population of the Rakhine State for the deeds of a limited number of perpetrators from the violence in 2012 is not the answer.”

(L-R) US Ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas Harvey address the media at the US Embassy in Rangoon, 16 January 2015. (PHOTO: Alex Bookbinder/DVB)

By Alex Bookbinder
January 16, 2015

A delegation led by US Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski concluded a six-day trip to Burma on Friday, urging Naypyidaw to address concerns about the depth and pace of political reforms.

“At the forefront of this dialogue is whether the [Burmese] government can maintain trust that the reform process is moving forward,” Malinowski said at a press conference in the US Embassy in Rangoon. “How can it earn the trust of its own people, first and foremost?”

The delegation – which included Ambassador Derek Mitchell and senior officials from the Departments of Defense, State, and USAID – met with civil society groups in Rangoon and Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, before taking part in a “bilateral human rights dialogue” with governmental officials in Naypyidaw, the first such meeting to be held since 2012.

Although Malinowski deemed the delegation’s interactions with its Burmese counterparts to be “extremely constructive and productive”, his assessment of the country’s overall human rights situation and reform process was decidedly less rosy.

Malinowski expressed particularly strong concern about the religious demagoguery that has engulfed Burma over the past few years, claiming that the use of religion to “divide people” was “extremely dangerous”, particularly in the run-up to nationwide polls scheduled to occur later this year.

“This is really playing with fire, and is exposing the country to dangers that it is not prepared to handle,” he said.

The delegation discussed a package of four controversial laws pending approval by parliament that would place limits on religious conversion and interfaith marriage with the government and civil society leaders. The delegation also urged the government to end indefinite detention of stateless people – primarily Rohingyas – in Arakan State and quickly establish “non-discriminatory” pathways that would allow them to obtain citizenship.

“The question, we suggested, in assessing citizenship, should not be, ‘What is your race?’ it should not be ‘What is your color?’ [or] ‘What is your religion?’ It should be, ‘What are you prepared to do to help build this country?’” he said. “That is the way to build what everybody in Myanmar says is their goal: national unity and national peace.”

On Thursday, two days after the delegation’s departure from Kachin State, fighting erupted in the jade-mining centre of Hpakant, displacing more than 1,000 civilians. To Malinowski, this latest round of hostilities exemplifies the mistrust that has stalled Burma’s peace process. “It reinforces the imperative of bringing this conflict to an end through a ceasefire and political dialogue, something we have been encouraging for some time,” he said.

High on the delegation’s agenda was addressing Naypyidaw’s limitation of humanitarian access in conflict-affected regions of the country, particularly in areas of Kachin and northern Shan States controlled by ethnic armed groups. He claimed the government explicitly committed to fulfilling its obligations to protect civilians under the Geneva Conventions, but maintained that it “need[s] to ensure that that principle is reflected in practice,” also calling on the military to submit to civilian oversight.

“Whoever you blame for this conflict, whatever your interpretation for why this is happening, IDPs [internal refugees] should not be punished,” he said.

He also urged the government to speed up the release of prisoners of conscience and address pervasive land issues affecting vast swathes of the country. He singled out repressive laws that place limits on public protest, noting that they are not in line with international standards. “In our view, it is not in Myanmar’s interest – it is not in any country’s interest – to be known as a country that imprisons people solely for engaging in peaceful protest,” he said.

Malinowski assumed his current position in April 2014, after 13 years as the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. In June last year, he led another delegation of senior US Treasury, Defense and State Department officials to Burma, which focused on peace and reconciliation in southern Burma and the sanctions regime on targeted individuals maintained by the United States.

US delegation meets with Burmese officials in Nyapyidaw to discuss human rights on Wednesday (Photo: US embassy, Rangoon)

January 14, 2015

A US human rights delegation is meeting with Burmese government officials on Wednesday in Naypyidaw for the first of two days of talks, spearheading the continued scrutiny of the human rights situation in Burma by Washington.

The delegation, led by Tom Malinowski, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, will engage in talks with Thein Sein’s government on “rule of law, freedom of speech, religious tension and conflict, protecting minorities, the situation in Rakhine [Arakan] State, and democratic and military reform,” according to a statement from the US embassy in Rangoon.

The discussions will “provide an opportunity to review progress, discuss challenges, and find ways to cooperate to improve the human rights situation in the country,” the statement says.

Malinowski is due to hold a press conference at the US embassy in Rangoon on Friday.

Representatives from civil society groups focusing on political prisoners, human rights, women’s rights and disabled rights issues met with the delegation on Tuesday in advance of the official talks for a fact-finding meeting, Aung Myo Min, executive director of Equality Myanmar, told DVB after attending the event.

Speaking about Tuesday’s meeting, Aung Myo Min said, “We mainly discussed political prisoners and democratic transition. Most of the questions the delegation asked us were about prisoners of conscience. We talked about the Political Prisoner Affairs Committee, and also reviewed human rights issues in Burma.”

He characterised the meeting as “frank and open”, saying that it saw the delegation seeking data and information from a “collection of the voices of civil society.”

Aung Myo Min said that that the increasing human rights violations, particularly the detention of peaceful protestors, needs to be prioritised, tellingDVB, “The main issue is the misuse of both old and new laws.”

He highlighted the abuse of Article 505(b) (defamation of the state) and Article 18 (peaceful assembly law) as particularly problematic, adding, “We want to abolish this kind of law and make sure everyone has the right to enjoy and practice freedom of association and freedom of assembly, as mentioned in our own Constitution.”

The group of US representatives have also visited Internally Displaced People camps in Burma’s northern Kachin State.

In remarks made at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, USA, earlier this week, the Obama administration’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power said that while the US has gone some way to ease sanctions and reintroduce diplomacy, Burma is “still a long way away from being a rights-respecting democracy,” adding that “the civilian government is still subordinate to the military.”

She highlighted the continued constitutional bias towards the military.

Power paid particular attention in her comments to the ongoing conflict in Arakan State and the plight of the Muslim Rohingya community, denouncing the lack of accountability for the violence and acknowledging the role of “extremist monks” in exacerbating tensions.

She was especially critical of newly proposed legislation that would see Rohingyas being made to renounce their ethnic identity in order to receive recognition as Burmese citizens.

Power identified the role of the US in encouraging reform as incentivising progress; “Shining a bright light on the government’s shortcomings”; and targeting individuals such as Aung Thaung, the Burmese businessman who has been on the receiving end of US business sanctions.

She said that the US “still have great hope for Burma’s future”, mentioning the country’s youth who, having now experienced the freedom to talk about the hardships they have encountered, are “not likely to give that right up without a struggle.”

Rohingya women stand in front of their makeshift home in an unregistered Rohingya refugee camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

By Sonya Carassik Ratty 
January 12, 2015

A new US$18 million project agreement has been signed between the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Bangladeshi government to support refugees from Burma, the vast majority of whom are Rohingya Muslims.

The project will provide humanitarian assistance to Undocumented Myanmar [Burma] Nationals (UMNs) and vulnerable host communities in two districts of Cox’s Bazaar, a city in the southeastern corner of Bangladesh, close to the border with Burma and “one of the least developed districts in Bangladesh,” according to Peppi Siddiq, IOM project development officer.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern for the welfare of up to 500,000 undocumented Burmese migrants in the region, over 99 percent of whom are Rohingyas from neighbouring Arakan State in Burma who have fled persecution and violence. The Burmese government do not recognise the Rohingya people as a native ethnic group of the country, leading many observers to refer to them as “stateless”.

Both UMNs in Bangladesh and the host populations are extremely vulnerable, with below national average access to health care, clean water and sanitation, and a very high prevalence of malnutrition. Speaking to DVB on Monday, Siddiq said that while “the needs difference does not vary much between the two different populations,” the Burmese refugees to the area “have very limited access to the formal economy and hence their livelihood options are limited”.

According to IOM the focus of the project, currently supported by the US, British and Swedish governments, is to provide humanitarian aid to those who need it most, and to facilitate Dhaka’s coordination of the provision of humanitarian services for UMNs in the area.

The three-year project will also target the health of its beneficiaries using mobile medical teams, as well as strengthening government health services and working to improve health referrals. The water and health infrastructure in these areas will also receive investment, with the provision of deep tube wells and latrines in the makeshift settlements holding the displaced peoples, as well as in the host communities who are struggling to cope with the influx of people to the area, IOM said.

Rohingya refugees also face violence within Bangladesh and have been accused of participating in communal violence in the Cox’s Bazar area. High tensions and conflict between different groups have led to restrictions by law enforcement on the movement and interactions of Rohingya people.

UNHCR has highlighted the frequent and dangerous attempts by people from Arakan State and Bangladesh to travel to other countries by sea, including Thailand, Malaysia and even Australia, in search of a better life.

“This intervention has been carefully planned and supports the Government of Bangladesh’s National Strategy on Myanmar Refugees and Undocumented Myanmar Nationals and the local population,” said Sarat Dash, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Bangladesh. “This support is very significant and we thank the Government and the international community for their faith in IOM to provide sustained humanitarian assistance.”

Protestors wait for UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee at Sittwe airport on 8 January. (PHOTO: DVB)

By Ko Htwe
January 9, 2015

The United Nations’ Special Human Rights Rapporteur to Burma Yanghee Lee met with MPs and community leaders in Myebon, Arakan State, on Friday to hear about the challenges for the co-existence of Buddhist and Muslim communities.

“Regarding challenges, we told her that trust is an important essence,” said Pe Than, a lower house MP from Myebon Township. “Co-existence only comes after trust-building, and the UN’s persistence with their call to accept the term Rohingya is detrimental to our citizenship verification programme.”

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution at the end of last year urging the Burmese government to provide full citizenship and the right to move about freely to Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State.

The Burmese government denies the existence of the ethnic group Rohingya, insisting that the people are “Bengalis” who migrated to Burma from neighbouring Bangladesh. The government has indicated it would consider citizenship for members of the community who self-identify as Bengali.

Pe Than said they urged Lee to help build understanding between the two communities rather than press the Rohingya identity issue.

Following her meeting with the Arakanese group, Lee visited Rohingya residents in a nearby displacement camp.

Zaw Zaw, a Muslim in the camp, said the residents told her of their hardships and unfulfilled promises on the part of the government.

“There are people in the camp who were awarded citizenship [after accepting the term Bengali], and we did this because the government promised to allow us to travel freely,” Zaw Zaw said. “But to date, we still cannot travel freely anywhere and continue to be confined in this 30-acre [4,000 sq.m.] camp.”

Yanghee Lee, who is visiting Burma for the second time, was met with protests by Arakanese nationalists when she landed at Sittwe airport on Thursday.

In September, Reuters reported that the Burmese government had announced that some 40 Rohingyas were among 209 displaced Muslims in Arakan State who accepted the term ‘Bengali’ and were granted full citizenship under the pilot citizenship-verification programme.

File photo of Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons)

December 29, 2014

Burma’s pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has requested Western nations to resist imposing economic sanctions on her country, but called on them to urge the Burmese government to enter into dialogue with her party and other opponents.

Asked to respond to suggestions that the US and EU have hinted at reimposing economic sanctions, Suu Kyi said, “I don’t like going backwards, I like going forwards. So I think that rather than reintroducing old methods, I think what would help greatly is if everybody seriously put their minds to doing whatever they can to encourage negotiations to take place. I think that is the key. That is the doorway to the future.”

Speaking on BBC’s Radio 4 on Friday, she said the international community has been “over-optimistic” in its expectations for Burma, and that the process of economic and political reform under President Thein Sein is “not going as well as people hoped it would.”

With regard to the international community, Suu Kyi said, “They have not lost interest in Burma. They still want Burma to have a happy ending, but they think that they’ll get a happy ending simply by insisting that it is a happy ending. And that’s not how things happen.”

She criticised the Thein Sein government and the military, saying, “The executive is not that keen on genuine reforms – that is how we see it – because they do not want to amend the Constitution. Unless you want to amend the Constitution, then we cannot get on the genuine road to democracy.”

Under the current 2008 Constitution, opposition leader Suu Kyi is barred from running for the presidency or vice-presidency under Article 59(f) because her children have foreign citizenship.

Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has spent the better part of the past year campaigning nationwide for constitutional reform, with an amendment to Article 436 at its helm. Article 436 states that changes to the charter must have the support of at least 75 percent of parliament. The NLD and other critics say that this effectively grants the Burmese military veto power over any constitutional change because it is appointed 25 percent of all seats in both houses of parliament. Observers say amending 436 could open the door to other constitutional changes, including lifting 59(f), allowing Suu Kyi to seek the presidency.

In her interview with BBC’s John Bercow on Friday, the NLD chairperson played down her own personal ambitions of becoming president of Burma. However, she appeared to revel in comparisons made between herself and freedom fighters Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

Full BBC interview here.

Riot police prepare to clear villagers out of the path of a bulldozer at Latpadaung copper mine site in Sagaing Division on 23 December 2014. (PHOTO: Han Win Aung)

By Aye Nai and Colin Hinshelwood
December 23, 2014

International watchdogs and Burmese activists have voiced distress and disdain over the Burmese police handling of protestors at the controversial Latpadaung copper mine site, where a woman was killed on Monday.

Local villager Ma Khin Win, was shot dead and several other local protestors were injured both with live ammunition and rubber bullets in separate incidents on Monday and Tuesday.

David Mathieson, the senior researcher on Burma at the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointedly blamed the Burmese authorities for their “abject failure” to resolve the land dispute at the mine site near Monywa in Sagaing Division.

“Ongoing protests at Latpadaung demonstrate the abject failure of the government and the 2013 Investigation Commission to resolve this vexed land dispute peacefully, and the distain both government and companies have to meaningfully consult with and fairly compensate villagers who have had their land forcibly seized by a project that will barely benefit them,” he said on Tuesday.

Mathieson noted that the protestors should not have resorted to violence in frustration, following a report by DVB that villagers had fired stones from slingshots at the police prior to the gunfire.

“Despite their understandable frustration, there should be no resort to violence on the part of the protestors,” the HRW spokesman said.

He added that the tragic killing of Ma Khin Win “shows the police still have a long way to go in deploying the correct use of force during protests.”

Amnesty International also weighed in, calling for a “comprehensive and independent investigation” into the 50-year-old farmer’s death, and noting that this week’s violence is the latest in a series of heavy-handed tactics employed by police when dealing with protestors in the Latpadaung area. The London-based rights watchdog also called for the mining project to be closed down until outstanding issues are resolved.

“The Myanmar authorities must ensure a comprehensive and independent investigation into this killing and other allegations that police fired on protestors at the Latpadaung copper mine. Those responsible must be held to account,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty’s director of global issues.

“While we are aware of reports that some protestors threw stones at police, the resort to firearms raises very serious questions about how the police have handled this situation.

“Under international human rights standards, law enforcement officials must apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms. Intentional lethal use of firearms may only be used when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. The Myanmar authorities must immediately establish whether police violated these standards while policing the demonstration against the Latpadaung copper mine yesterday,” she said.

Gaughran called on the Burmese authorities to respect people’s right to peacefully assemble and stage protests.

“This latest incident is one of many serious human rights concerns surrounding the Latpadaung copper mine,” she said, noting that many locals have been forcibly evicted from their homes by the government since the project was initiated more than 10 years ago.

The Amnesty International chief called on contractors Myanmar Wanbao to “immediately halt all construction at the mine until adequate safeguards are put in place to prevent further human rights abuses.”

Meanwhile, Burmese activist Nay Myo Zin, a former military officer, said he believed Ma Khin Win was shot with live ammunition and called for a “thorough independent investigation” into the incident.

“Judging by the exit wound [in the back of her head], I assume Ma Khin Win was shot with live ammunition,” he told DVB on Tuesday.

“From what I know, there are specific procedures to follow in crowd control, such as when to issue warnings and when [police] are authorised to use live ammunition, which should be as a last resort, and even then, they must aim below the knee,” he said.

Former political prisoner and activist Mee Mee of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society said she visited two villagers at Monywa Hospital on Tuesday and that both bore injuries consistent with bullet wounds.

“One villager suffered a bullet through the arm while the other got shot in the leg,” she said. “They did not receive any assistance from the security forces at the scene, but were later brought here [to the hospital] by fellow villagers on motorbikes.”

“I don’t know much about weapons, but this sure wasn’t rubber bullets they were shot with,” she added.


    • Rohingya Exodus