Myanmar military storms Mizzima’s office in a third raid on local media in two days

No staff were arrested, and Mizzima has stated that it will continue ‘to fight against the military coup’ and to restore democracy and human rights in Myanmar.

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 9, 2021

Mizzima’s newsroom is pictured following a raid by security forces on Tuesday (Supplied)

The Myanmar military raided the office of news outlet Mizzima in the Star City compound in southeastern Yangon on Tuesday afternoon, the publication’s editor told Myanmar Now.

Editor-in-chief Soe Myint said no staff were arrested when the military’s security forces broke into his newsroom.

“We have not been using the office since the coup [on February 1]. There wasn’t even any sign post indicating our office was there,” Soe Myint said.

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Mizzima was one of five local media outlets whose publication licenses were revoked by the military council on Monday night.

After the junta’s announcement, Mizzima said in a statement that it would continue publishing and broadcasting as independent media in order “to fight against the military coup and for the restoration of democracy and human rights” in the country.

Established in 1998 in Delhi, India, the formerly-exiled media organisation had returned to Myanmar in 2012. It publishes bilingual online publications in Burmese and English and a weekly English magazine. In 2017, Mizzima received a digital TV channel license for broadcasting.

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Mizzima was the third media house to be raided by security forces in recent days. Myanmar Now’s office in downtown Yangon was searched on Monday afternoon and Kamayut Media was raided on Tuesday afternoon. Kamayut’s cofounder Han Thar Nyein and editor-in-chief Nathan Maung were also arrested.

After the coup, the military threatened news organizations not to refer to their takeover of the government as a “coup,” nor to describe the military as “the regime” or “the junta,” declaring such terms as violations of publishing laws.

Since the military coup, at least 35 journalists have been arrested by police and soldiers while doing their jobs. Only 19 have been released from detention.

Ten journalists, including Myanmar Now’s own reporter Kay Zon Nway, are facing charges under the Penal Code that carry a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison.

Kay Zon Nway was arrested while livestreaming a protest in Yangon late last month. She is being held at Insein prison and has been remanded to custody until March 12.

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Relatives of detained Myanmar Now reporter express concern about her condition

Family members say they have not been permitted to meet with Kay Zon Nway since her arrest in late February

Myanmar Now

Published on May 24, 2021

Relatives of a Myanmar Now journalist who has been in detention for nearly three months say they are growing increasingly worried about her well-being.

Kay Zon Nway, who was arrested in late February while reporting on an anti-coup protest in Yangon, has been charged with incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code. She faces a three-year prison sentence if found guilty.

Family members say they have been denied permission to meet with her and are concerned that her health may be at risk due to harsh conditions inside Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, where she is being held.

“She has been suffering from nervous-system problems, so I am sure she has not been well,” said a relative who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.

“I heard she is angry, distressed, and hurt because she believes she has not committed any crime,” the relative added, citing reports that the family has received from prisoners who met the reporter prior to their own release.

“She asked the released prisoners she met in jail to tell us that she could not sleep at night because of the heat and mosquitoes,” the relative said.

Kay Zon Nway previously shared a cell with several inmates, but she was separated from them late last month after she was accused of staging a hunger strike. According to her lawyer Nilar Khine, she was actually fasting for Ramadan.

She is currently being held in an 8’x12’ cell with one other female inmate.

Her family has been sending medication to help her deal with gastric and nervous ailments, the relative said.

No one in the family has seen her since March 12, when she appeared online briefly during a court hearing held via video link.

Her next hearing, which will be held at a prison court in Insein, is scheduled for June 3.

The plaintiff in the case is deputy police major Win Naing from the Sanchaung police station in Yangon. Testimony from witnesses for the prosecution will be presented at the hearing, her lawyer said.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 48 journalists are still in detention since being arrested in the wake of the military’s February 1 coup.

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Four killed as military shells a Catholic church near Loikaw

The shelling came after local resistance fighters ambushed a convoy of soldiers travelling to southern Shan State as reinforcements

Myanmar Now

Published on May 24, 2021

Four people were killed when the military fired shells at a church

Four people died and eight were critically injured as the coup regime’s forces bombed a Catholic church near the Kayah State capital of Loikaw in the early hours of Monday morning.

The Tatmadaw fired artillery shells at the church in Kayan Tharyar village at around 1am, shortly after its troops were ambushed on a nearby road by local resistance fighters.

People who fled the shelling were chased by soldiers firing guns and hid in nearby caves, a local resident said.

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The ambush came as soldiers travelled from the Kayah capital Loikaw to reinforce troop numbers in Moebye, southern Shan State.

Civilians-turned-fighters from the Karenni People’s Defense Force (KPDF) said they killed at least 20 members of the regime’s forces in Moebye on Sunday and another 26 outside the nearby town of Demoso. They also captured four soldiers.

Their members attacked the reinforcements from Loikaw with guns, delaying them on their way to Moebye.

“The KPDF ambushed them near the Kayan Tharyar village and the reinforcements did not arrive at Moebye in time,” the local resident said.

Soldiers then entered the village and began shooting. “So the locals got scared and ran to the church to hide,” the resident added.

Rescue workers on Monday were unable to send the eight people injured in the shelling to the hospital in Loikaw because there was still fighting along the six-mile stretch of road that leads there, a local resident told Myanmar Now.

No further details about the four people who died were available at the time of reporting.

The military council’s spokesperson could not be contacted for comment about the killings at the church.

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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Suu Kyi says NLD will ‘continue to exist’ regardless of junta ban

The party leader made the comments via her lawyers at her first in-person court hearing since she was detained

Myanmar Now

Published on May 24, 2021

Demonstrators hold banners depicting Aung San Suu Kyi during an anti-coup protest in Yangon in February (EPA-EFE)

Aung San Suu Kyi insisted in a message to the public via her lawyers on Monday that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party will continue to exist even if the coup regime disbands it.

The deposed leader made the remarks during an in-person meeting with her defence team, the first she has been allowed since she was detained when the military toppled her government on February 1.

The meeting took place ahead of a court hearing inside the Naypyitaw Council Office compound in the capital city on Monday morning. Her previous hearings were all held via video link.

"She said she was praying for everyone to get well. She passed the message that the NLD party was founded for the people and it will continue to exist as long as the people are there,” said defence lawyer Min Min Soe.

On Friday the junta-appointed election commission chair, Thein Soe, suggested the NLD should be disbanded and its leaders prosecuted as “traitors” during a meeting with representatives from political parties in Naypyitaw.

The military has repeatedly suggested, without evidence, that the NLD’s massive landslide victory in last year’s election was the result of widespread voter fraud.

Suu Kyi’s meeting with her lawyers lasted about half an hour. They were allowed to talk alone but were under surveillance, according to Min Min Soe.

“Nobody came in and we could meet her privately. But there were CCTV cameras,” she said.

Khin Maung Zaw, who is head of the defence team, told journalists after the hearing that Suu Kyi does not know exactly where she is being detained.

In late February NLD sources told Myanmar Now she had been taken from her home in Naypyitaw to an undisclosed location. Before then, the military kept her at her house on Myebon Thar street in Zabuthiri township.

Suu Kyi appeared to be in good health but has only been allowed to “eat and sleep” and has been cut off from the outside world completely, according to her lawyers.

Min Min Soe said Suu Kyi was not wearing flowers in her hair–as she has done throughout her political career–during Monday’s meeting.

No arguments were heard during the hearing that followed; the judge simply scheduled the next hearing for June 7. The deposed State Counsellor complained to court officials about the duration of the meeting with her lawyers but received no response from them, the defence team said.

The 75-year-old faces a total of six charges; five in Naypyitaw and one in Yangon.

She is accused of illegally importing walkie-talkies, of defying Covid-19 regulations while campaigning in last year's election, and of violating the Telecommunication Law.

The regime also hit her with a charge under a section of the 1923 Official Secrets Act that bans handling or sharing state information that is “useful to an enemy.”
On Monday the cases of detained president Win Myint and Naypyitaw Council chair Myo Aung were also heard and they were allowed to meet with their lawyers.