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

Published on Mar 6, 2021

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.

Myanmar Now

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Win Htein to be tried by tribunal of two judges, says his lawyer

Announcement came as court postponed the 82-year-old’s third hearing, meaning his request for bail on health grounds was not considered

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Win Htein arrives for the opening ceremony of the second session of the Union Peace Conference in 2017 (EPA-EFE)

Detained National League for Democracy party stalwart Win Htein is to be tried by a special tribunal of two judges following an order from the military-controlled Supreme Court, his lawyer said on Friday.

“It was just one judge before, and now there’s two,” Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now.

“District judge Ye Lwin will serve as chair, and deputy district judge Soe Naing will be a member of the tribunal,” she added.

Win Htein faces up to a 20-year prison sentence for sedition under section 124a of the Penal Code.

His third hearing, scheduled for Friday, was postponed, with the court citing the internet shutdown as the reason because it made video conferencing impossible, Min Min Soe said.

“The arguments will be presented at the next hearing, we applied for bail but since they’re setting up a tribunal for the lawsuit, that will be discussed at the next hearing as well,” she said.

At the second hearing on March 5, Win Htein requested an independent judgement, a meeting with his lawyer, and bail due to his health issues, but the court said those requests would be heard on March 19.

Win Htein, 82, uses a wheelchair and suffers from breathing problems that means he often requires an oxygen tank. He also suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Min Min Soe was allowed a brief call with her client on Friday to tell him that his hearing had been postponed until April 2.

Aye Lu, the chair of the Ottara district administration council in Naypyitaw, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Win Htein. Ottara district is where the NLD’s temporary headquarters are located.

Aye Lu filed the charge on February 4 and Win Htein was arrested that evening at his home in Yangon. He has been kept in the Naypyitaw detention center and denied visits from his lawyers.

He was detained after giving media interviews in the wake of the February 1 coup in which he said military chief Min Aung Hlaing had acted on personal ambition when seizing power.

On Wednesday the military council announced that it was investigating Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption, on top of other charges announced since her arrest.

Many other NLD leaders, party members and MPs have been arrested or are the subject of warrants.

Kyi Toe, a senior figure in the NLD, was arrested on Thursday night in Hledan, Yangon.

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Op-ed

Seeking justice in the wake of Myanmar’s coup

The country’s military leaders have acted with impunity for decades, but now there is a mechanism to bring them to justice

Lin Htet

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Nationwide protests against the coup have been responded with murders, torture and mass arrests by the military regime. (Myanmar Now)

On March 8, U Ko Ko Lay, a 62-year-old teacher, bled to death on a street in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina. He had been shot in the head while protesting the military coup of February 1. That same night, U Zaw Myat Lynn, an official from the National League for Democracy, was taken from his home in Shwepyithar on the outskirts of Yangon and tortured to death. The list keeps growing.

In the more than six weeks since Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power, images of soldiers and police officers shooting, beating, and arresting protesters have flooded social media and Myanmar and international news outlets. So far, the regime’s forces have killed well over 200 people (more than half of them in the past week) and seriously injured many more. The junta has also arrested nearly 2,200 people, some of whom, like U Zaw Myat Lynn, have died in custody.

Each day, Myanmar human rights organizations update lists with names, dates, locations, and causes of death. Around 600 police and a handful of soldiers have decided they do not want to be involved in such actions. They have left their posts and even joined the anti-coup movement.

Many soldiers, police officers, and commanding officers are acting with impunity now. But they can face prosecution, not only in Myanmar’s courts but also internationally. Like any country, Myanmar is subject to international law. Because of its history of atrocities, most recently against the Rohingya people, Myanmar is also already subject to special international legal proceedings that apply to the current situation.

The most relevant is the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). The IIMM was created in 2018 after the Myanmar military’s brutal campaign against the Rohingya people, but it applies to the whole country. Its mission is to investigate “international crimes” from 2011 to the present.

International crimes are generally defined as “widespread and systematic” in nature, involving many victims and locations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

In keeping with its mandate, the IIMM is collecting information on the current situation. In a statement released on February 11 (available in Myanmar here), it highlighted the “use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the detention of political leaders, members of civil society and protesters.”

More recently, on March 17, the IIMM also called on recipients of illegal orders to share this evidence so that those ultimately responsible for these crimes can be held accountable.

"The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions. They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed,” the head of the IIMM, Nicholas Koumjian, says in the statement (available in Myanmar here).

The crimes the IIMM investigates could be tried in Myanmar courts, courts in other countries, or international courts. International crimes are crimes that are so serious that they are considered to be against the international community, and are therefore not limited to courts in one country.

In other words, an international crime committed in Myanmar—for example, widespread and systematic attacks on civilians—can be tried in a court in another country or in an international court.

The Myanmar military is used to getting away with murder. Decades of well-documented killing, rape, and torture of civilians in ethnic minority areas have gone unpunished. No one has ever been tried for the killing of protesters during previous mass uprisings against military rule in 1988 and 2007.

But this time may be different. On March 4, the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement that “the killing of peaceful protesters by Myanmar’s security forces should be independently investigated as possible crimes against humanity.”

The IIMM is already set up and working. It provides a mechanism for just such an investigation. Those doing the shooting should be aware of this.

For further information:

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) on Facebook

International Accountability Mechanisms for Myanmar (learning materials in English, Myanmar, and Karen)

Lin Htet is a pen name for a team of Myanmar and international writers

Lin Htet

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At least eight killed in junta’s bloody crackdown in Aungban, Shan State

A resident said armed forces used drones to monitor the crowd before opening fire on them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Men carry a wounded protester in Aungban, Shan State, on the morning of March 19 (Supplied)

At least eight anti-coup protesters were killed in Aungban, southern Shan State, during an attack by the military junta on demonstrations on Friday morning, according to the Aungban Free Funeral Service Society.

Sixteen military trucks carrying more than 100 policemen and soldiers arrived at the protest site at around 9:00 a.m. and began shooting at protesters. Seven died at the scene, and another protester who had been shot in the neck was taken to Kalaw Hospital and died by 11:00 a.m.

All eight victims were men.

The body of the man who died at the hospital was sent to his family’s home, but those who were killed at the protest site were taken away by the junta’s armed forces, a representative of the Free Funeral Service Society told Myanmar Now.

Aungban resident Nay Lynn Tun told Myanmar Now that police and soldiers had destroyed the doors of nearby homes in order to arrest people, and that at least 10 people had been detained.

“Initially, police arrived at the site. When the crowd surrounded the police, armed soldiers arrived at the site and began firing,” he told Myanmar Now. “In the coming days, if we cannot gather to protest, we will do it in our own residential areas.”

Since March 13, around 300 volunteer night guards have watched over these residential areas to protect locals from the dangers posed by the junta’s nighttime raids. These forces use drone cameras to monitor the activities of the night guards from 3:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. every day, Nay Lynn Tun said.

He added that hours before Friday’s crackdown, military and police had also used drone cameras to monitor the gathering of protesters in Aungban.

Over the last week, at least 11 protesters have been arrested in Aungban. Only three-- the protesters who were minors-- were released.

South of Shan State, in the Kayah State capital of Loikaw, two pro-democracy protesters were also shot with live ammunition by the regime’s armed forces on Friday. One, 46-year-old Kyan Aung, was shot in the lower abdomen and died from his injuries. The other wounded protester was a nurse, according to eyewitnesses.

According to a March 18 tally by the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 224 people have been killed across the country by junta’s armed forces since the February 1 coup. Thousands more have been arrested.