NLD’s chief minister for Yangon slammed by own party for disobeying Covid-19 restrictions

An NLD official said Phyo Min Thein breached government rules by attending a religious ceremony

Published on May 27, 2020

Phyo Min Thein meets with the Botahtaung Pagoda board on May 23, 2020. (Facebook)

Yangon’s chief minister and several other regional officials are facing criticism for attending a religious event over the weekend despite a nationwide ban on large gatherings to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Both Phyo Min Thein and the NLD-led Yangon regional government posted photos to Facebook on Sunday of him and several other officials gathered at the Botahtaung Jetty.

“This goes against the government’s own instructions,” Monywa Aung Shin, secretary of the NLD’s central information unit, told Myanmar Now.

Two members of the Yangon Covid-19 Response Committee were also present at the ceremony, where they took a boat to the mouth of the Yangon river to push a raft of offerings out to sea in a Buddhist rite of giving.

Renovations at the Botahtaung pagoda have been paused due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The giving ritual is generally performed before renovations can start or resume on a given pagoda.

Stay-at-home orders have been eased in Botahtaung township, where the ceremony was held, but a ban on gatherings of five or more people remains in place, as do orders to avoid crowds and to wear a mask at all times when outside.

The federal ban on gatherings was imposed on March 13 and remains in effect until the end of May. It explicitly includes religious gatherings, and several high-profile arrests have been made in recent weeks of people violating the ban by attending religious events.

But Phyo Min Thein denies the gathering at the pagoda was a religious ceremony. He insists he was there on regular government business and that those in attendance broke no laws or Covid-19 restrictions.

Even so, the Yangon government Facebook post described the event as a ceremony. It included the recitation of mantras and prayers. Phyo Min Thein’s wife, Khin Mi Mi Kywe, was in attendance dressed in traditional religious clothing. No one wore party uniforms.

“We were just doing prerequisite work before pagoda renovation could resume,” Phyo Min Thein told Myanmar Now.

He said that, when they began moving statues from one of the shrines, a crowd of people showed up unexpectedly to watch.

The health ministry and the Covid-19 committee are allowing construction projects to resume if workers follow health guidelines.

Phyo Min Thein said it was necessary to resume renovation on the pagoda now, while it’s still closed to visitors, and that doing so will help stimulate the economy.

Naing Ngan Lin, an NLD MP who chairs the Yangon Covid-19 Response Committee, also attended the event. He told Myanmar Now that, while more people showed up than expected, they were simply resuming work in accordance with government policies.

“We stopped renovations on the Botahtaung pagoda when the Covid-19 outbreak began. Now that we can resume government duty we are continuing the renovations,” he said. “We did our best to comply with the health guidelines.”

Moe Moe Suu Kyi, head of Yangon’s immigration ministry and a member of the Covid-19 committee, also attended. She could not be reached for comment.

Several MPs disagreed with the attendees.

“Was this a completely necessary event?” asked Nay Phone Latt, Union MP for Thingangyun township. “If you’re not allowing others to do this, you shouldn’t do it either. It’s not right.”

“It’s like they’re indicating they can set the rules but they don’t need to follow them,” said May Soe, Union MP for Botahtaung township.

Dagon township MP Kyaw Zay Ya said the event made it seem as if the government was telling the public “do as I say, not as I do.”

The photos received widespread condemnation on social media.

Other members of Phyo Min Thein’s cabinet in attendance included advocate general Khin Myo Kyi, border affairs minister Aung Soe Moe, Yangon mayor Maung Maung Soe, regional government secretary Soe Soe Zaw and others.

It is not the first time Phyo Min Thein has come under fire for seeming to ignore the threat of Covid-19.

He and other officials were criticised for standing too close to one another when passing out food rations to the poor just before Thingyan.

State counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi wrote in a Facebook post just after the event that "ministers are not immune to the virus," though she did not mention Phyo Min Thein by name.

Preacher David Lah was arrested last week for holding church services in April in Yangon. A ward administrator in Insein township charged Lah on behalf of the Yangon government for violating section 25 of the Natural Disaster Management Law. Lah remains in custody at Insein prison.

In early May, 12 Muslim men were sentenced to three months in prison with labour for gathering to worship in April at a house in Mandalay.

And some of the more than 100 people who attended the funeral of a monk in Yayphyu township, in the Dawei district of Tanintharyi region, on April 12 were charged with defying a government order under section 188 of the Penal Code. They received fines of 100,000 kyat ($71) each.

Chan Thar

Chan Thar is Reporter with 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.

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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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.