One injured as monks smash windows of cars blocking road for civil disobedience campaign

A crowd of protesters gathered outside a Yangon monastery to demand action against the attackers on Thursday morning

Published on Feb 18, 2021

At least four monks were involved in smashing the cars’ windows, witnesses on social media said (Facebook)

A group that included monks used metal sticks to smash the windows of cars that were blocking traffic as part of the civil disobedience campaign against military rule on Thursday, injuring one of the drivers in the attack.

The attackers damaged four vehicles on Kabar Aye Pagoda road in Yangon and beat one of the drivers, leaving him with wounds on his face, witnesses said.

Drivers across the city were staging a “broken down cars” campaign for a second day, blocking major roads or driving extremely slowly to prevent people from going to work.

It is part of wider efforts to shut down the military’s ability to govern with strikes and work stoppages.

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After the attack, a crowd of people including the owners of the vandalised cars gathered outside the nearby Shwe Kyin monastery in Bahan township, where the monks were last seen, to demand action against the attackers.

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Members of the crowd said that the attackers were not real monks, to which a monk from the monastery responded: “Don’t ever say the word fake monk.”

Another monk there denied anyone from his monastery had smashed the car windows or beat the driver and said the case should be reported to the authorities.

A police officer who had arrived at the scene of the attack earlier to take notes about the incident refused to go to the monastery with the crowd.

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Pyinnyawuntha, a member of the Patriotic Young Monks Union, an ultranationalist group, who vandalized the cars is a well-known participant in the pro-military rallies.

Witnesses reported on social media that at least four monks had vandalized the cars with metal batons. Photos posted on Facebook showed that one of the monks was Pyinnyawuntha, a member of the Patriotic Young Monks Union, an ultranationalist group.

Pyinnyawuntha was sentenced to a year in prison for incitement in June last year for joining an anti-government protest in Yangon in 2017. He was also charged under the Peaceful Assembly Law and fined 10,000 kyat for organising a protest supporting the formerly detained far-right monk Wirathu in January this year.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Yangon and elsewhere on Wednesday in what was considered the largest day of demonstrations against the regime since its February 1 coup.

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Man detained on suspicion of harbouring PDF fighters dies in Myingyan prison

The family of Maung Htay, 55, were not allowed a close look at his body before it was cremated

Myanmar Now

Published on Aug 10, 2021

Myingyan residents protest against the coup regime in March

A man who was jailed on suspicion of hosting resistance fighters in his home in Mandalay Region has died after a month in detention, his daughter told Myanmar Now.

Maung Htay, 55, from Kywe Chan village, passed away in Myingyan prison. Authorities told his family he died of heart problems, and later claimed he also had Covid-19, but the family say they don’t trust this explanation and were not allowed a close look at his body.

The prison notified the family about his death on Monday morning, said the daughter, who asked not to be named. When they arrived at the prison, they were only allowed to see his body from outside the morgue; officials said they could not go inside because of the risk posed by Covid-19.

But the family saw doctors and prison officers enter the morgue without any personal protective equipment, the daughter added.

“They could have notified us of his condition early on,” the daughter said. “I told them he wouldn’t have had to die if he had been hospitalised early. We saw with our own eyes that no one was wearing PPE.”

The family asked to be able to bring the body back to his village for a funeral, but prison officers refused, again citing the pandemic. Officials then cremated Maung Htay’s body at the Suu Chan Kone cemetery at around 3pm the same day, before the family was able to get a closer look at the body.

While it was true that Maung Htay had a heart condition, the daughter said, it was manageable and he was successfully treating it with medication before his arrest.

“Dad was on some medication for his heart but it was not full-blown heart disease. He didn’t get to see a doctor after they arrested him,” she said.

Maung Htay was detained on July 10 and the family had no contact with him after that and received no updates about his health.

“They should have notified us or even let him get treatment if he was sick. He didn’t deserve to die,” the daughter said, crying.

Maung Htay made his living breeding fish and leaves behind his wife, four adult children and a daughter in grade 11.

He spent six days at an interrogation center before he was sent to prison. Although he was arrested after being accused of harbouring People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters, he was charged with incitement under section 505A, according to his lawyer.

He was among around 80 Myingyan residents arrested by the junta in July, according to the Myingyan Public Movement Committee, a local anti-junta group.

Myingyan has been relatively calm compared to other areas of the country. There has been no fighting between the PDF and junta forces, and no killings of junta targets by guerilla groups.

But the military has nonetheless launched numerous raids on villages in the township, forcing many to flee, according to locals.

Moe Zaw, from Sone Ywar Kone village in Myingyan, died in late July, also after about a month in detention, according to his family.

He died at the Myingyan Public Hospital from injuries sustained during interrogation at Mandalay Palace, the family said.

“It’s not just in Myingyan or Insein. The healthcare in every prison all over the country is substandard,” said an official from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, who asked not to be named. “One might say they rigged the system that way so that people would die faster.”

The group says at least 36 people have been tortured to death in custody since the coup in February.

Myanmar Now could not reach a junta spokesperson for comment.

Arbitrary Arrests

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Blasts hit YMBA office and other downtown Yangon locations

An urban guerrilla group claimed responsibility for three blasts, but not for the attack on the Young Men’s Buddhist Association

Myanmar Now

Published on Aug 10, 2021

Several explosions, including one targeting the office of the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA), were reported in downtown Yangon on Tuesday afternoon.

On social media, the YMBA said that someone threw a handmade grenade at its office in Pazundaung Township at around 1:45pm. No one was injured in the attack, it added.

A local resident who spoke to Myanmar Now confirmed that there had been a loud explosion near the office at around that time. No further details were available at the time of reporting.

About 15 minutes later, local residents said they heard two more explosions near the intersection of Bogyoke Aung San Road and 51st Street, a short distance away from the first blast.

A group calling itself the Urban Guerrilla Revolution Force (UGRF) claimed responsibility for the second attack, along with two others on the same day.

A member of the group said that it had planted a total of five handmade bombs in downtown Yangon on Tuesday—two near a police station at the corner of Bogyoke Aung San Road and 51st Street, two near a traffic police office at the corner of Bo Aung Kyaw Road and Strand Road, and one more at the advertising office of a state-run newspaper on 50th Street.

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the group’s claims about blasts at the latter two locations.

According to a local vendor, police had blocked roads in Pazundaung, Kyauktada, and Botahtaung townships following the blasts and were questioning pedestrians.

The UGRF, which has vowed to overthrow the junta, has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings over the past two months.

Its targets have included a condominium project and other businesses owned by a civilian member of the ruling military council and several companies linked to the military, including telecoms provider Mytel and Music Zone KTV.

Bomb Blast

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Gunshots heard from Obo prison after inmates stage protest on 1988 anniversary

Prison officials have denied hurting inmates or putting them in isolation, but have vowed to punish the protesters

Myanmar Now

Published on Aug 10, 2021

Residents near Mandalay’s Obo prison heard protest chants followed by gunshots on Sunday

Authorities at Mandalay’s Obo prison say they will punish inmates who staged a protest there on the 33rd anniversary of the 1988 democratic uprising, amid reports that the ensuing crackdown involved gunshots and protesters were beaten and put in solitary confinement.

Chan Aye Kyaw, deputy director of the prisons department, told RFA that around 30-40 inmates started chanting slogans and singing songs at 9pm on Sunday and the protest lasted for roughly five minutes.

He rejected reports that the protesters had been injured and put in isolation. “We are trying to find out who was involved in the shouting and singing, that’s all,” he told the broadcaster. Prison authorities did not answer calls from Myanmar Now seeking comment.

Prison officials appear to have tried to drown out the protest by playing Buddhist sermons on CDs through loudspeakers.

“We heard them chanting at around 9pm,” said a man who lives near the prison, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Then the sound of Dhamma CDs came shortly after. Then there were two gunshots. It lasted for around 30 minutes. It all stopped after 9.30pm.”

On July 23, inmates at Yangon’s Insein prison staged a protest to demand better protection from surging Covid-19 infections, raising fears of a violent crackdown. It is believed that the virus is running rampant through Myanmar’s crowded prisons.

A doctor detained for opposing the junta died on Sunday after contracting Covid-19 in detention and being denied proper treatment, according to a colleague of his.

An officer from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, who asked not to be named, told Myanmar Now the junta was committing severe human rights abuses against prisoners, many of which went unreported.

“The military council is known for always keeping civilians in the dark so that they can get away with their abuses of power,” he said. “If they were doing things lawfully, they’d have no reason to block out all the media.”