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The Nightmare Returns: Karen hopes for peace and stability dashed by Burma Army’s actions

April 26, 2018/in News

Myanmar policeman describes ‘trap’ to arrest Reuters reporter

April 20, 2018/in News

YANGON (Reuters) – A Myanmar police chief ordered officers to “trap” a Reuters reporter arrested in December, telling them to meet the journalist at a restaurant and give him “secret documents”, prosecution witness Police Captain Moe Yan Naing told a court on Friday. Moe Yan Naing gave details to the court of the hours leading […]

The Nightmare Returns: Karen hopes for peace and stability dashed by Burma Army’s actions

April 26, 2018/in News

Myanmar policeman describes ‘trap’ to arrest Reuters reporter

April 20, 2018/in News

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The Nightmare Returns: Karen hopes for peace and stability dashed by Burma Army’s actions

April 26, 2018/in News

On March 4th, the Burma Army began the largest and most coordinated deployment of troops into Karen State’s Mutraw (Hpapun) district since 2008. More than 1,500 Burma Army troops have now crossed into Karen National Union (KNU) controlled areas of Mutraw’s Luthaw township, breaching the terms of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and provoking multiple clashes with the Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA) 5th Brigade. Troops serving under the Burma Army’s Southern Command have indiscriminately targeted civilians while more than 2,400 villagers have been forced to flee their land and homes. The majority of those displaced by the Burma Army’s current operations had only recently returned to rebuild their villages, farms, and livelihoods following decades of widespread armed conflict.

The KNU and Burma Army are both signatories to the 2015 NCA, which prohibits the expansion of military infrastructure and troop reinforcements in ceasefire areas. However, since March 4, at least eight Burma Army battalions have entered Luthaw, without prior agreement3 from the KNLA, and begun constructing a military operations road to connect their military bases at Ler Mu Plaw and Kay Pu. If the road is built, Indigenous Karen villagers may be permanently displaced from their homes and ancestral village territories.

The 2012 bilateral ceasefire and 2015 NCA gave people a sense of hope that, perhaps, peace was at hand. The Burma Army’s renewed attacks and road construction activities have shattered this hope by once again forcing people from their land and into hiding in the forests. On April 5th, Burma Army troops shot and killed 42-yr-old Saw O Moo in the Ler Mu Plaw area of northwestern Luthaw. Saw O Moo was a local villager and Indigenous Karen leader. At the time of his death he was travelling home from a community meeting to coordinate humanitarian assistance for villagers displaced by the Burma Army’s military operations.

KPSN’s findings show that the Burma Army has repeatedly breached the terms of the 2012 and 2015 ceasefire agreements in Mutraw District. The Burma Army is again taking advantage of the ceasefire to accomplish what it was unable to do during earlier periods of widespread armed conflict: expand and upgrade its military infrastructure and capability to seize and control Indigenous Karen people’s lands. The Burma Army’s actions undermine local people’s efforts to build genuine lasting peace, protect their natural and cultural heritage, and facilitate the return of refugees and IDPs to their ancestral lands.

Karen Peace Support Network KPSN

Myanmar policeman describes ‘trap’ to arrest Reuters reporter

April 20, 2018/in News

Moe Yan Naing gave details to the court of the hours leading up to the Dec. 12 arrest of Wa Lone, 32, and Reuters colleague Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who had accompanied him to the meeting, and said the police had arranged a “set up”.

The court in Yangon has been holding hearings since January to decide whether the pair will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

They had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, during an army crackdown that United Nations agencies say has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Seven soldiers have been sentenced to “10 years in prison with hard labor in a remote area” for participating in the massacre, the army said this month.

Reuters was unable to immediately obtain a comment from lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung as the proceedings were ongoing. Myanmar police spokesman Police Colonel Myo Thu Soe could not be reached for comment.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay was not immediately reachable for comment. He has previously told Reuters that under Myanmar’s constitution the courts were independent and has declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing proceedings.

“GET WA LONE”

In his testimony, the police captain said he had been interviewed in November by Wa Lone about police operations in Rakhine state. He was one of two officers from the paramilitary 8th Security Police Battalion who the police identified in December as “allegedly involved in the case”.

Moe Yan Naing said he had been under arrest since the night of Dec. 12 and had been told to testify on Friday as a prosecution witness.

He said that earlier on the day the Reuters reporters were arrested he was picked up from his post in Yangon and taken to Battalion 8’s headquarters on the northern edges of the city.

When he arrived, he said he found himself among a group of several other Battalion 8 policemen who had given interviews to Wa Lone. They were interrogated by a police “information team” about their interactions with the Reuters reporter, he said.

Moe Yan Naing told the court that police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko, who led the internal probe, ordered police Lance Corporal Naing Lin to arrange a meeting with Wa Lone that night and hand over “secret documents from Battalion 8”.

“Police Brigadier Tin Ko Ko gave the documents to Police Lance Corporal Naing Lin and told him to give them to Wa Lone and said that when Wa Lone comes out of the restaurant, the Htaunt Kyant regional police force has to entrap him and arrest him,” said Moe Yan Naing.

“Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko told the police members, ‘if you don’t get Wa Lone, you will go to jail’,” said Moe Yan Naing in a raised voice.

Reuters was not immediately able to reach Tin Ko Ko for comment.

DINNER MEETING

The reporters have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers at a restaurant in northern Yangon by two policemen they had not met before, having been invited to meet the officers for dinner.

Neither policeman has given testimony so far during the court proceedings.

Previous police witnesses have said the reporters were stopped and searched at a traffic checkpoint by officers who were unaware they were journalists, and were found to be holding documents relating to security force deployments in Rakhine.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in custody since Dec. 12.

Senior U.N. officials, Western nations and press freedom advocates have called for their release and diplomats from several embassies were among those attending Friday’s hearing.

REUTERS

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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“GET WA LONE”

DINNER MEETING

ND Burma

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