Junta uses corruption allegations to expand legal case against Aung San Suu Kyi 

Junta uses corruption allegations to expand legal case against Aung San Suu Kyi 

An ex-convict businessman says that he gave the State Counsellor more than $550,000 in cash when ‘there was no one around.’ 

Maung Weik (first from left) is pictured near State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the opening ceremony of a government housing built by his Say Paing Company. (Maung Weik/ Facebook)

The military council announced on March 17 that it would attempt to charge State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since Myanmar’s February 1 coup, with corruption.

The junta’s move is linked to new allegations against Aung San Suu Kyi by businessman Maung Weik. The owner of the Say Paing construction and development company, Maung Weik was formerly imprisoned on drug charges and is known to have close relationships with members of the military’s inner circle.  

Military-run media aired a recorded statement made by Maung Weik alleging that he had given Aung San Suu Kyi more than US$550,000 in cash-filled envelopes on the four occasions he met her between 2018 and 2020. 

“There was no one around when I gave her the money,” he said in the video statement. 

 

 

Under Myanmar’s earlier military regime, Maung Weik maintained ties to several generals, including former intelligence chief Khin Nyunt.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on drug charges in 2008, but was released in 2014 while the country was led by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.  

 

 

Upon his release, Maung Weik founded Say Paing–a construction company–and ran various business ventures through his connections to military officials.  

Maung Weik’s wife is also the niece of military-appointed Vice President Myint Swe, who was also the former chief minister of Yangon under the former military administration. 

The coup council announced on March 11 that the now-ousted National League for Democracy’s (NLD) Yangon Region chief minister Phyo Min Thein had given Aung San Suu Kyi $600,000 and more than 11 kilograms of gold. The announcement provided no reason as to why the money and gold were allegedly given to the State Counsellor by the chief minister. 

A top NLD figure told Myanmar Now that the funds in question were donations to build a pagoda. 

“They’re trying to fabricate this and ruin [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] reputation, but the public already clearly knows it’s not true. There’s no need to say anything else,” the official said. 

The junta has also accused the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation and an affiliated project, the La Yaung Taw Academy, of losing public funds. The foundation was founded by Aung San Suu Kyi and named after her late mother. 

According to the military council, the land lease for the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation’s headquarters, located on Yangon’s University Avenue, is not commensurate with the market price for land in the area. It argues that the country had lost more than 1 billion kyat (more than $700,000) in public funds as a result.

The junta declared that from 2013 to 2021, more than $7.9 million in donations from foreign NGOs, INGOs, companies and individual international donors flowed into the foundation’s three foreign currency accounts.

Also under investigation by the junta is the La Yaung Taw Academy in Naypyitaw, which trains young people in environmental conservation and horticulture in association with the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation. The military said the rate at which the land for the project was purchased came at a discount of at least 18 billion kyat (more than $12.7 million), which was subsequently a loss to the state. 

It also reportedly included some plans—such as the construction of a museum—that used funds in a way that strayed from the project’s, and the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation’s, original aims.

“The construction of a building with finance from the foundation for the chair of the foundation has deviated from the foundation’s objective,” the March 17 announcement in the military-run newspaper said. 

Prior to the corruption allegations, the military council had hit Aung San Suu Kyi with four charges at the Zabuthiri Township court in Naypyitaw.

She has been accused of violating Section 505(b) of the Penal Code for incitement, which carries a sentence of two years in prison; Article 67 of the communications law for possession of unauthorized items; an import-export charge for owning walkie-talkie devices; and a charge under the Natural Disaster Management Law for not following Covid-19 measures during the 2020 election campaign period.

The military council has not allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to meet with her legal team. 

“I’ll most likely see her via video conferencing on March 24 for the next hearing,” lawyer Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now. 

The military council has only allowed lawyers Yu Ya Chit and Min Min Soe to take on Aung San Suu Kyi’s case, ignoring the requests of more established legal experts, including Khin Maung Zaw and Kyi Win, to be granted power of attorney.

 

 

A village under siege after a day of deadly violence

Chaunggyi, about 100km north of Mandalay, was tense on Tuesday, a day after coming under brutal assault by regime forces

 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 17, 2021
A resident of Chaunggyi, in Mandalay region’s Thabeikkyin township, is seen after being shot by soldiers on March 15. (Supplied)

Chaunggyi, a village in Mandalay region’s Thabeikkyin township, was in a state of fear on Tuesday as regime forces continued to pressure residents a day after inflicting a deadly crackdown.

At least five people were reported dead in the village, located about 100km north of Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay, following Monday’s brutal assault.

The attack began in the afternoon, when soldiers in five army trucks heading south from the town of Thabeikkyin opened fire in Chaunggyi and other villages in the area.

“They mainly hit Chaunggyi and two nearby villages as they were passing through,” a member of a local aid group told Myanmar Now.  

One of the five who died instantly was a 15-year-old girl.

“The girl was shot in the chest. She was killed in her own home,” said the aid worker, adding that around 25 others suffered injuries, some of them life-threatening.

Reinforcements sent

The soldiers who carried out the initial attack were soon joined by reinforcements sent north from Singu, according to local sources. 

Residents of Nweyon, a village in Singu township, attempted to block the military vehicles as they headed towards Chaunggyi, but soon came under fire themselves, the sources said.

Those who had been shot in Chaunggyi remained in the village overnight without medical care amid fears of facing further violence.

“We were afraid to send the injured to the hospital last night. We were also afraid to go to Mandalay. We didn’t send them to a hospital in the city until this morning,” a resident of Nweyon told Myanmar Now on Tuesday.

“One person who was shot in the groin was in terrible condition,” she said, adding that the victim’s family had no money to pay for hospitalization.

There were also around 14 arrests in Chaunggyi and an unknown number in neighbouring villages, local sources said.

Threats and intimidation

A day after their unprovoked attack, the soldiers returned to Chaunggyi on Tuesday to recover some lost property. 

“They said they came back to search for a gun and some bullets they left behind yesterday,” said a Chaunggyi villager.

“They found the gun, but not the bullets. They told us we had five hours. If we didn’t find the bullets in that time, they said they would shoot the entire village,” he added.

They found the bullets at around 5pm on Tuesday and returned them to the soldiers, who were stationed just outside the village.

Meanwhile, the villagers said that a monk who negotiated with the soldiers for the release of those who had been detained has not returned since he was sent to collect them.

“Our monk spoke with them and they promised to release those they had arrested from the village. But the car that went to fetch them hasn't come back,” said Chaunggyi resident Cho Tuu.

Although Singu and Thabeikkyin both have military bases, voters in the two townships overwhelmingly supported the National League for Democracy in last year’s election.

 

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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Three teenagers among six killed by regime’s forces in Myingyan on Monday 

Police and soldiers shot at rescue vehicles and the houses of residents who tried to save injured people during the crackdown, witnesses said 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 16, 2021
Twenty-year-old Yadanar Htoon was killed during the March 15 crackdown in Myingyan (Supplied)

The coup regime’s forces murdered three teenage boys as they attacked anti-military protesters in the town of Myingyan in Mandalay region on Monday, a doctor and residents said. 

Yan Myo Aung, 16, Aung Myo Zaw, 17, and Tun Ye Naing, 18, were among six people killed in the town and at least 20 fatalities nationwide that day. The other victims from Myingyan were Hla Soe, 53, Yadanar Htoon, 20, and Kyaw Saw, 26. 

Three of the six were confirmed dead on Monday afternoon and another one passed away in the evening at a makeshift outdoors clinic, where doctors on strike from government hospitals were attending to wounded protesters. 

Two more were added to the list of fatalities later in the evening, when the junta’s forces told their family members to come and retrieve the bodies from the Myingyan Hospital. 

“I think two injured people that the military had taken to the hospital died on the spot,” a doctor told Myanmar Now. “One was shot in the head and another one was shot in the left side of the chest. I think the soldiers took the bullets out [of their bodies].”

Myingyan Hospital had been closed because medical staff there joined the Civil Disobedience Movement but it has now been taken over by police and soldiers, the doctor added. 

Just four nurses and one military doctor are working at the hospital, and no patients go there anymore because the entrance is guarded by armed forces, the doctor added. 

At least another 17 people were injured in Monday’s crackdown in Myingyan, and five of those are in critical conditions, said another doctor. 

Yan Myo Aung, the 16-year-old who died, had just finished high school last year and was living with his mother, residents said. 

His mother had been unable to stop him from participating in anti-coup protests because he was so passionate about doing so, a resident who went to his funeral told Myanmar Now.

Aung Myo Zaw had finished 10th grade and was looking forward to the Covid-19 pandemic ending and schools reopening. He was the youngest in a family of seven, all of whom have been participating in anti-coup demonstrations, a relative said.  

Tun Ye Naing was one of the breadwinners in his family and worked delivering cheroots - traditional cigarettes - to local traders, one of his neighbours said.

A protester who was with him at Monday’s rally said he had heard from others who witnessed the killing that a member of the junta’s forces hit Tun Ye Naing’s head against a wall after he was shot and told him he was hard to kill before dragging him away.

“I don’t know if it’s true but there was a blood stain on the wall,” the protester said. “We didn’t see exactly what happened because we were running. We only saw that he was taken away on a truck.”

He was brought to the Myingyan Hospital and his family members retrieved his body at around 7:30pm with the help of charity organizations.

Yadanar Htoon, the 20-year-old victim, is survived by a 3-year-old son and her husband.

Hla Soe, meanwhile, was not participating in the protest when he was killed. He was a vendor and was shot as he tried to close the window of his shop after hearing gunshots, a local resident said. 

During the attack, the junta’s forces fired continuously, making it impossible for rescuers and protesters to carry away wounded people. Vehicles being used in the rescue effort were shot at, residents said.  

The junta’s forces also shot at the houses of residents who helped rescue injured protestors. 

According to estimates by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 183 people have been killed nationwide since the uprising against the coup began. 

The coup regime has also arrested, charged or sentenced more than 2,100 people so far, the association said.  

 

Myanmar Now

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UN warns of ‘looming threat’ to Myanmar’s poorest as food and fuel prices spike in wake of coup 

Many in Myanmar may soon be unable to put enough food on the table if trends continue, World Food Programme official says 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 16, 2021
Opponents of the coup hold a candlelit vigil in Yangon on February 21 for protesters who have been killed and detained (Myanmar Now)

Rising food and fuel prices pose a “looming threat” to the poorest in Myanmar as the political unrest caused by the February 1 coup begins to affect supply chains, the United Nations has warned. 

The organisation’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that there had been “steep hikes” in the prices of staple goods in northern Rakhine state, with the average cost of cooking oil increasing 27% from January to February.  

The price of pulses in Maungdaw has jumped 15%, while rice prices have spiked by as much as 35% in some townships in Kachin state, such as Bhamo and Putao. Nationwide, rice prices have gone up by an average of 3%, the WFP said. 

And the price of fuel has increased 15% nationwide, which in turn may lead to further food price increases as the cost of transportation balloons. The problem is more severe in northern Rakhine, where petrol prices have jumped by 33% and diesel by 29%.

The WFP collected the data from 250 traders and shops across 70 townships nationwide. 

“These rising food and fuel prices are compounded by the near paralysis of the banking sector, slowdowns in remittances, and widespread limits on cash availability,” the WFP said in a statement. 

The programme’s Myanmar Country Director, Stephen Anderson, said the price increases were “troubling”. 

“Coming on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, if these price trends continue they will severely undermine the ability of the poorest and most vulnerable to put enough food on the family table.”

The WFP is stockpiling food to enable it to keep helping over 360,000 people in Myanmar, most of whom live in displacement camps.

Many parts of Myanmar’s economy have been brought to a standstill by strikes amid a massive popular uprising against the military regime. Foreign trade has virtually halted and banks have been forced to close their branches as employees refuse to work under the dictatorship.  

 

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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