Junta announces corruption charge against ousted minister hated by nationalists

Aung Ko played a key role in abolishing Ma Ba Tha under the NLD government

Thura Aung Ko seen in Naypyitaw during an interview with Myanmar Now in December 2020 (Myanmar Now)

The military council will pursue corruption charges against an ousted minister who played a key role in outlawing the anti-Muslim hate group Ma Ba Tha under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, state media reported on Saturday.

The junta accused Thura Aung Ko, the NLD-appointed minister of religious affairs, of awarding religious titles to individuals in exchange for bribes, a statement in the Burmese language version of The Mirror said.

Aung Ko received 10 million kyat (more than $7,000) in July last year and 30 million kyat in March, the statement alleged. It also suggested that he had been given a Ford Everest Titanium luxury vehicle worth more than 100 million kyat ($70,000) in December 2019 by a businessman.

The anti-corruption commission has filed lawsuits against the minister at Mayangone and Mingaladon police stations in Yangon under Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law, violations which are punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the statement added.

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The move makes Aung Ko the first NLD cabinet member to be charged with corruption by Min Aung Hlaing’s junta since the February 1 coup.

The anti-corruption commission did not respond to calls from reporters seeking comment on the lawsuit.

A former Brigadier General in the army, Aung Ko also used to be a member of the central executive committee of the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

He was appointed Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs in 2003 under the military regime, and was included in a list of officials subject to visa bans and asset freezes by the European Union that same year.

Like other USDP figures who were embraced by the NLD government after the 2015 general election, he was close to former general Shwe Mann. Shwe Mann was arguably State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest military-linked ally, and at one time the third most senior member of the military government prior to 2011.

Although Aung Ko did not win a parliamentary seat in the 2015 general election, the NLD government appointed him Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture.

As the man responsible for outlawing the anti-Muslim Patriotic Association of Myanmar – better known by the Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha – in May 2017, he drew the ire of Buddhist nationalists.

The group held frequent demonstrations in recent years to support the military and was behind numerous hate-speech campaigns against the country’s Muslim minority.

In March 2017 the State Sangha Committee, the country’s highest religious authority, also imposed a one-year preaching ban on the ultranationalist monk Wirathu after he praised the assassins of highly respected Muslim lawyer Ko Ni on social media.

In response, followers of Wirathu and other ultranationalists held protests in Yangon and Naypyitaw against Aung Ko, accusing him of favouring Islam over Buddhism and calling for both his resignation and the overthrow of the NLD administration.

During an exclusive interview with Myanmar Now late last year, Aung Ko explained how he managed to disband Ma Ba Tha and its rebranded Buddha Dhamma Charity Foundation both through religious authorities and legal procedures.

Wirathu was charged with sedition in May 2019 in relation to a speech he gave earlier that year, in which he made lewd comments about State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. After nearly 18 months in hiding, he turned himself in to the police just days before last year’s general election.

Aung Ko also faced pressure from the military for his criticism of the police force.

At an interfaith event in Yangon in January 2020, he suggested that fugitive nationalists like Wirathu remained at large because the civilian government did not have authority over the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees the police.

Military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun called on the government to take action against him in February 2020 regarding this remark, and accused him of defaming the military.

Both Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint have been held mostly incommunicado since the February 1 coup, only appearing for court hearings via live video.

Many of the NLD’s chief ministers have also been charged under a law that bars causing fear or alarm to the public and inciting people to commit offences against the state. Other cabinet members remain under house arrest.

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Myanmar becomes a nation without newspapers

The closure of Myanmar’s last independent newspaper marks a new milestone in the country’s political descent

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 18, 2021

Staring March 17, the country no longer has a single independent newspaper in publication.

Years from now, March 17, 2021, will be remembered as the day that Myanmar’s brief era of press freedom—however partial and imperfect it was—well and truly died.

As of this day, the country no longer has a single independent newspaper in publication. On Wednesday, The Standard Time (San Taw Chain) joined The Myanmar Times, The Voice, 7Day News and Eleven in suspending operations in the wake of last month’s military coup.

It was less than a decade ago that the quasi-civilian administration of former President Thein Sein began slowly lifting restrictions on Myanmar’s long-suppressed press.

As overt censorship became a thing of the past and new licenses were issued, the number of news outlets proliferated, in the surest sign of confidence in ongoing political and economic reforms.

Now only online news media remain as the last lifeline for millions of citizens desperate for reliable sources of information amid the military-induced freefall.

With this in mind, the new regime is acting to sever this last connection as it moves to plunge the country into darkness.

“The situation for press freedom is only going to get worse as they cut off the internet,” says political analyst Sithu Aung Myint, before adding: “The country no longer has democracy or an ounce of freedom.”

Piling pressure on news media

It took 10 days for the regime’s Ministry of Information to start making Orwellian demands. On February 11, it issued new instructions to the Myanmar Press Council, “urging” news media to “practice ethics” and stop referring to the “State Administration Council” as a junta.

Citing provisions in Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, the junta’s arbiters of truth claimed that the regime came to power by legitimate means because a state of emergency had been duly declared.

Newspapers, journals, and websites that persisted in using language that suggested otherwise were not merely wrong, but were also violating media ethics and inciting unrest, the ministry insisted.

Eleven days later, on February22, the coup maker himself, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, warned the media that their publishing licenses would be revoked if they continued to use words that didn’t meet with his approval.

But on February 25, in a show of defiance, some 50 news outlets declared their intention to keep reporting on the situation as it unfolded, and to describe the regime and its actions as they saw fit.

The arrests begin

Two days later, the junta began targeting the most vulnerable and essential participants in the whole news-making process: reporters.

On February 27, five journalists covering the junta’s crackdowns on anti-dictatorship activities were arrested and later charged with incitement under section 505a of the Penal Code.

Myanmar Now’s multimedia reporter Kay Zon Nway was one of those arrested that day. She was doing her job of documenting the brutal assault on protesters in Yangon’s Sanchaung township when she was apprehended while fleeing the regime’s forces as they lashed out at everyone in sight.

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Police arrest Myanmar Now journalist Kay Zon Nwe covering protests in Yangon on February 27, 2021. Credit: YE AUNG THU / AFP

The four others—Aung Ye Ko from 7Days News, Ye Myo Khant from Myanmar Pressphoto Agency, Thein Zaw from AP, and Hein Pyae Zaw from ZeeKwat Media—were reporting near Hledan when they were taken into custody.

All five are now in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison awaiting trial on charges based on the ludicrous notion that they were somehow responsible for the mayhem that they were merely there to witness, at great risk to their own lives.

Under recent amendments to section 505a, they now face up to three years in prison for the crime of sharing what they saw with their fellow citizens.

According to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and last updated on March 8, as many as 33 journalists have been arrested or targeted for arrest since the February 1 coup.

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A policeman chasing a journalist holding a camera in Yangon on February 26, 2021.

Taking action against news organizations

The regime hasn’t just put individual journalists in its sights; as its efforts to end resistance to its rule continue to escalate, it has also moved to neutralize entire new organizations.

On March 8, the Ministry of Information announced that it had revoked the publishing licenses of Myanmar Now and four other outlets—7Day News, Mizzima, DVB and Khit Thit media.

7Days News stopped printing the following day, and a day later, Eleven announced that it would also be suspending its operations, at least until April 18.

By that time, two other well-known local publications, The Myanmar Times and The Voice, had already shut down shop for various reasons.

That left only The Standard Time, which for the past week has been the only print newspaper in the country not controlled by the regime. And now it, too, is gone.

All of this is just another chapter in Myanmar’s long and often troubled news media history.

After Myanmar gained independence in 1948, private daily newspapers flourished in the country. Published in Myanmar, English, Chinese and Hindi, these publications were part of a vibrant culture that cherished the free exchange of ideas and information.

But that came to an abrupt end in 1962, when the former dictator General Ne Win seized power and put most daily newspapers under government control. After his 1973 constitution was ratified, privately owned dailies were effectively banned.

It wasn’t until nearly 40 years later, in late 2012, that the state-owned media’s monopoly on daily news ended under the Thein Sein government.

Now this fleeting moment of relative freedom is past, and Myanmar has returned to the dark days of an uprising that was brutally crushed, ushering in an even darker era of absolute military rule.

“I wasn’t a journalist in ‘88, but in my 12 years in this profession, this current situation is the worst. It’s not just a matter of being afraid to go out to report; now you can be arrested just for being a person in media,” one female reporter who asked to remain anonymous remarked.

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As trying as these times are, however, they have more than proven the true value of press freedom as a weapon in the fight against oppression.

“Help the news media so that the local and international community know the people’s bravery, sacrifices, and the atrocities that the dictators have committed,” Sithu Aung Myint, the political analyst, wrote on social media recently.

“Take record of incidents yourself,” he added, reminding his readers that in this age of citizen journalists, we all have a responsibility to act as witnesses.

But even with so much courage and commitment on full display, it’s difficult not to see this day as a chilling sign of things to come.

Reflecting on what the loss of Myanmar’s last news publication means for the country, Sithu Aung Myint concluded: “As a nation without newspapers, we are now in the dark ages.”

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

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Regime’s forces threaten to shoot into people’s homes unless residents remove roadblocks

Some have complied with the order but others say they are leaving the barricades up

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 17, 2021

Police and soldiers patrolled neighbourhoods in Yangon and Mandalay on Wednesday and threatened to shoot into people’s houses unless locals removed defensive roadblocks they had set up amid spiralling one-sided violence.

A video of the coup regime’s forces making the threats through a loudspeaker circulated on social media and residents from several different neighbourhoods later told Myanmar Now they had received similar threats.

“The next time we see barricades on roads, we will turn this entire residential quarter upside down and shoot,” a voice said in the video.

The regime’s forces came to Khaymarthi Road and Nweni Road in Yangon’s North Okkalapa township in the afternoon to demand the removal of barricades, residents there told Myanmar Now.

“We did not remove the barricades, so they are still on the roads,” one resident said. “We only set up the barricades in our quarter. If they didn’t not shoot, we wouldn’t need barricades. But now they’re shooting, so it is more appropriate for the people to block the roads.”

A woman living in Hlaing Tharyar township, which this week witnessed the biggest massacre so far by regime forces since the February 1 coup, said locals removed the barricades from major roads after soldiers threatened to shoot into people’s homes.

She then saw military trucks driving around the township, she added.

On Wednesday morning the regime’s forces detained people and forced them to clear sandbags and other barricades on major roads elsewhere in Yangon, according to social media posts by people who said they were detained.

The junta’s security forces made similar threats in South Okkalapa, Thingangyun and Tamwe townships in Yangon and Manawramman Quarter in Mandalay, residents said.

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

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More than 300 students detained in Tamwe in early March hit with 505a charge

Families and lawyers are still being kept in the dark about the status of court proceedings against them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 17, 2021

University students and young people have been playing a leading role in the nationwide protests against the military coup on Februrary 1. (Myanmar Now)

The regime has charged more than 300 students who were detained at a protest in Tamwe on March 3 after keeping their families in the dark about their status for two weeks.

They were detained as police and soldiers used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to attack a march organised by the University of Yangon Students’ Union and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

At least five were injured by rubber bullets during the attack. Police initially detained 389 people but last week released 50 who are under the age of 18.

The students have been charged under section 505a of the Penal Code, which the junta recently amended to give prison sentences of up to three years for causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees.

Lawyers say they have been unable to obtain an exact list of names of those being held and that police have been evasive regarding the case.

“The person in charge of the case was not present. We were told that he went to the court,” one of the lawyers said. “We can’t reach him via phone, so we followed him to Tamwe court, but there was no one at the court except security.”

Parents have been informed about the charges but not the details of the court proceedings, the lawyer said.

Because the military junta has shut down mobile internet, court proceedings have been adjourned as video conferencing is not available. In-person hearings were stopped last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We, the Students’ Union, do not believe in their judicial process and therefore we do not recognize these court proceedings as legitimate,” a student activist said, requesting anonymity. “The Students’ Union will continue to fight to topple the military regime.”

Among those detained on March 3 was Wai Yan Phyo Moe, Vice President of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

Three members of the central executive committee of the Yangon University Students’ Union were also arrested. They are Phone Htet Naung, Aung Phone Maw, and Lay Pyay Soe Moe.

The majority of those detained are from various universities in Yangon, with 176 being students of Yangon University. A few are from universities in rural areas of Myanmar.

Hundreds of other students have also been arrested at protests in Mandalay and Magway, on February 28 and March 7. Only 19 of them have been released.