Pastor whose sermon caused spike in Covid-19 cases gets three months in prison

David Lah told his followers that Christians were protected from the virus, then dozens who attended his event tested positive

Khin Moh Moh Lwin

Published on Aug 7, 2020

Preacher David Lah appears at Mayangone Township Court on May 20, 2020. Photo: Sai Zaw/ Myanmar Now

The controversial Christian pastor David Lah and his colleague, Wai Tun, were sentenced to three months in prison on Thursday for defying a ban on gatherings aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

The Mayangone township court jailed the men under section 30 of the Natural Disaster Management Law following a two-month trial with testimony from 20 witnesses.

The event led to a drastic spike in Myanmar’s relatively low number of Covid-19 cases; at least 72 people tested positive for the virus after either attending the event or coming into contact with those who did.

The pastor had told his followers that good Christians would not get infected. “I can guarantee that if a person lives according to the Bible... they will not be infected with this disease,” he told a crowd.

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The men organised a gathering at the Hebron Brethren Assembly Hall Church in April and live-streamed prayers and gospel songs from the event on social media.

Authorities also charged Kwe Wah and Rev. Ray Gandi - but the current status of their cases is unclear.

Journalists have been denied access to most of David Lah and Wai Tun’s hearings and officials have refused to share information about the four men’s cases.

The pastor and Wai Tun will have time already served deducted from their sentences, meaning they will be free later this month. The law carries a maximum sentence of one year plus a fine.

On his Facebook page, David Lah says he was born in Myanmar but based in Toronto, Canada, and that he travelled the world to give sermons.

The men were originally charged under a different section of the same law that carries a three year sentence, but the court downgraded the charge at the last minute.

When journalists asked why judge Moe Swe changed the charge, a media officer at the court replied: “Because they failed to comply with the directive of the General Administration Department of Mayangone Township.”

Myanmar has so far reported 357 Covid-19 cases, of which 305 have recovered and six have died.

Khin Moh Moh Lwin

Khin Moh Moh Lwin is Reporter with Myanmar Now.

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Mindat IDPs return home during temporary ceasefire

More than 80 percent of IDPs come back to the Chin State town, but few are expected to stay beyond the two-week ceasefire

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

Locals who had fled fighting in Mindat, Chin State returned home after a ceasefire was agreed to between the regime military and the local People’s Defence Force (PDF), according to a committee working with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the township.

After one week of negotiations involving local leaders and religious figures, the two forces agreed to a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday. The agreement is only valid until July 4.

More than 20,000 locals have been displaced from Mindat since mid-May by clashes. More than 80 percent have returned home in recent days, the Mindat Township IDP Management Committee has stated.

They had been taking shelter in 80 villages in the region, according to Lawrence, a representative of the committee.

“There’s only a little more than 1,000 IDPs left in the villages,” Lawrence told Myanmar Now.

The majority of the IDPs returned to check on the condition of their homes, many of which were raided when the junta’s armed forces took over Mindat town.

Lawrence noted that this is the season in which Mindat farmers typically cultivate konjac, and the displacement has interrupted their livelihoods and food security.

A member of the anti-coup Mindat Township People’s Administration Team said that while the majority of IDPs have returned following the temporary ceasefire, only a few are expected to stay.

After three consecutive days of clashes in April, the military asked the local defence group to meet with them for negotiations, but the two sides were not able to come to an agreement. Clashes resumed on the night of May 12.

On May 13, the military council imposed martial law in Mindat, and began carrying out raids. They officially seized the town on May 15.

The military council’s armed forces attacked villages sheltering IDPs, including firing heavy artillery at an IDP camp despite the display of a white flag. They also blocked routes through which rations and medical supplies could be sent to the displaced persons.

According to information provided by Mindat’s IDP management committee, by the third week of June, seven people, including a six-day-old baby, a seven-month-old baby, a 13-year-old child, a pregnant woman, and three other adults had died due to a lack of healthcare during their displacement.

A local man who was involved in the negotiations between the regime’s armed forces and the PDF said that the temporary ceasefire was made with these conditions in mind.

“The elderly are struggling a lot. So are the sick and disabled,” he told Myanmar Now.
“Unidentified thieves were destroying the town and people’s homes. People are losing their homes and livelihoods. The entire town became a ghost town. So religious figures from all backgrounds joined hands to pray and plan to bring the town back to life.”

For the period of the ceasefire, both the Mindat PDF and the military agreed to stop carrying out armed searches of people, shooting weapons, pressuring or threatening departmental staff or those involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement, and to allow vehicles carrying aid to IDPs to pass through the town.

Military vehicles stationed on the town’s two main roads—Shwe Aung Thar and Htin Chaung—have since retreated, and some trucks have come to the town to provide supplies, locals said.

Mindat

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Multiple hospitals turn away Meiktila girl with gunshot wound

Seven hospitals in Meiktila and Naypyitaw refuse to admit a 14-year-old shot in the thigh before she is able to get treatment

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

The 14-year old girl is seen being carried on a stretcher by medical volunteers on Wednesday night (Supplied)

A 14-year-old girl from Meiktila with a gunshot wound to the thigh was turned away from multiple hospitals on Wednesday before finally being admitted to the 1,000-bed Naypyitaw General Hospital the following day.

The girl was shot in Gway Taukkon village in Mandalay’s Meiktila Township at around 9pm on Wednesday. She was walking back home from her parents’ betel nut shop, according to a family member. The relative added that it was not clear who fired the shot, or from where.

A local charity group, the Pyithayar Social Association, took the girl to seven hospitals that night in both Meiktila and more than two hours away in Naypyitaw, but none would admit her.

They included the military hospital and public hospital in Meiktila, the general hospital, the 200-bed hospital and the Sangha Hospital in Naypyitaw’s Lewe Township, and the 1,000-bed general hospital and the military hospital in the city of Naypyitaw.

Both the Meiktila and Naypyitaw military hospitals told them that they could not admit the girl because she was a civilian and not a soldier; other hospitals refused on the grounds that there were no anaesthetists on duty or that they lacked surgical equipment.

Thura Lwin Oo, an official from the charity group, said that the Naypyitaw General Hospital urged them to take the girl to another hospital as they were overcrowded with Covid-19 patients.

“If a patient is transferred from one hospital to another, the first hospital must give us a letter of referral, but they just did it verbally. They just told us to go to some other hospitals, so we were forced to waste time on the road all night until dawn,” he said.

On Thursday morning, Thura Lwin Oo posted about the situation on social media in a plea for help.

“I was afraid she would have to have her leg amputated if we took any longer. Her thigh was no longer bleeding, but I was afraid something would happen because the bullet was still inside,” he said.

On Thursday morning, the charity group was able to make contact again with the general hospital in Naypyitaw.

“We had to call them again. When we arrived in Naypyitaw last night, no one answered the phone,” Thura Lwin Oo explained on Thursday. “This morning, I called the hospital again and they told me to come back.”

At the time of reporting, the girl’s condition was stable.

Since the February 1 coup in Myanmar, health workers have been widely participating in the general strike as part of the Civil Disobedience Movement aimed at toppling military rule.

Public hospitals and clinics have been operating with fewer staff as a result of the strike, with some health workers providing care privately or in community-run clinics.

The junta has claimed that military doctors and nurses have been filling in at public hospitals in order to provide regular services. The military council announced on Wednesday that hospitals in Meiktila District were operating as usual.

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Tanker carrying jet fuel due to arrive in Yangon on Saturday

It is unclear who will take delivery of the fuel, but it can be used for military aircraft

Myanmar Now

Published on Jun 25, 2021

The tanker is due to arrive in Yangon on Saturday

A tanker ship carrying airplane fuel is scheduled to arrive in Yangon on Saturday after departing from Singapore’s Jurong Island on Tuesday, according to data from several marine tracking websites.

The Panama-registered tanker SANTYA is loaded with Jet A1 fuel, which can be used both for commercial aviation and military aircraft, documents seen by Myanmar Now showed.

Activists from Justice for Myanmar last month condemned a similar shipment of fuel made by PetroChina International Singapore and said the company was “complicit in atrocities.”

It is unclear which company is supplying the new shipment and how much fuel will be delivered. The PetroChina shipment was 13,300 tonnes.

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Since seizing power on February 1, the coup regime has launched numerous indiscriminate airstrikes in Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Karen states, displacing tens of thousands of civilians in its bid to crush armed resistance to its rule.

The tanker is likely to discharge its cargo at Yangon’s Thilawa Port, which has terminals for bulk carriers and oil tankers.

According to the marine tracking website FleetMon, the ship is operated by ENEOS Ocean Shipmanagement and previously called at Thilawa in April and May from Singapore.

A representative from ENEOS declined to comment on the shipment on Wednesday.

Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung called on ENEOS to “immediately halt the shipment.”

“It is reckless of ENEOS to ship jet fuel to Myanmar while the illegal military junta is in power, conducting indiscriminate airstrikes, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with total impunity,” Yadanar Maung told Myanmar Now.

The spokesperson for the activist group pointed out that ENEOS is largely owned by Japanese financial institutions who have a duty to stop the company “from contributing to grave human rights violations in Myanmar.”

Industry sources told Myanmar Now that the current shipment may have been arranged by Brighter Energy, a joint venture between Thailand’s PTT and Myanmar’s Kanbawza Group.

They speculated that it also could have been set up by either Myat Myittar Mon Company, which is owned by the chair of Myanmar Petroleum Trade Association, or Puma Energy Asia Sun, a subsidiary of Puma Energy, which is majority-owned by the global commodities giant Trafigura.

Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the sources’ suggestions.

Puma Energy, based in Singapore, started distributing aviation fuel under the name National Energy Puma Aviation Services as a joint venture with the state-owned Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise in 2015.

On February 11 the company said it had suspended its operations in Myanmar following the coup for safety reasons, leaving its local partner to take over.

The company also suspended petrol sales at Myitkyina airport in late May, saying its trucks were having difficulties reaching the area.

The airport has been used by the military to launch airstrikes against the Kachin Independence Army, which recently attacked several trucks it suspected of carrying jet fuel.