Police set to charge three activists for Human Rights Day protest in Sittwe

Police set to charge three activists for Human Rights Day protest in Sittwe

Rakhine Youth New Generation Network members are latest to be targeted in crackdown against anti-war campaigners 

Thant Mrat Khaing
Published on Dec 14, 2020
The three activists from the Rakhine Youth New Generation Network being questioned by police (Oo Khaing Thein/Facebook)
The three activists from the Rakhine Youth New Generation Network being questioned by police (Oo Khaing Thein/Facebook)

Police said they would charge three Rakhine activists after they led a demonstration in Sittwe to mark international Human Rights Day last Thursday.

The activists from the Rakhine Youth New Generation Network (RYNGN) were told of the plans to charge them after being questioned at the protest. 

Than Hla, Naing Naing Htun and Khaing Myat Thu also observed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which falls on November 25, during the protest in the state capital. 

“We were told to sign some documents... They asked us what the purpose of the campaign was and said there’ll be a charge within 15 days,” said Than Hla.

 

 

About 30 people gathered at Point Beach for the protest, during which they also handed out free masks. 

Two police officers in civilian clothing visited RYNGN’s office in Sittwe the following day to check if the group is officially registered, said Oo Khaing Thein, a member of the group who attended the protest.

 

 

The protesters chose to focus on violence against women to highlight the plight of women amid fighting between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw, she added. 

“There’s so much abuse towards women who are facing the consequences of the armed clashes,” she said. “They are being abused even at IDP camps. We need to stop this and that’s why we had the campaign,” she said. 

Aung Mya Oo, the chief officer at Sittwe township No. 1 Police Station, declined to comment on the case.

Rights groups have warned in recent months that authorities are systematically targeting anti-war campaigners in Rakhine state. 

Four activists from the Rakhine State Students’ Union were charged with causing fear or alarm to the public in October after protesting against the regional government and the military. 

Thant Mrat Khaing

Thant Mrat Khaing is Reporter with Myanmar Now. He is based in Maungdaw, Rakhine State.

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

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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. 

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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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.

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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.” 

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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. 

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

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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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At least 20 soldiers killed and 1,000 villagers displaced during clash near Sagaing capital 

One resistance fighter was also killed in the clash near Monywa, the local People’s Defense Force said 

Myanmar Now
Published on Jun 24, 2021
The scene on Wednesday after eight homes were set on fire near the site of an ambush targeting a military truck (Supplied)

Local resistance fighters killed at least 20 soldiers and suffered one fatality during a clash at a village about 16 miles outside the Sagaing Region capital of Monywa on Tuesday.

The fighting started hours after about 50 regime troops arrived at Htayaw Kyin village in Yinmabin Township at around 8am and raided people’s homes, inspected their motorbikes and checked their phones. 

The military flew surveillance drones over the area later in the afternoon. Then at around 3pm, members of the local People’s Defense Force launched an attack against the soldiers. 

Regime troops retreated from the village during the attack but returned half an hour later when they encountered more resistance fighters outside, a PDF fighter told Myanmar Now.

“When the clash began, they went outside the village because they thought there would be fewer of us,” he said. “But when they saw there were a lot of us, they went inside and stationed themselves in the village.” 

The resistance fighters held their fire while the soldiers took cover in the village, allowing residents to flee, he added. “Once we guessed that there was enough time for everyone to be out of the village, we surrounded it.” 

The soldiers took cover in a high school, a monastery and a pagoda as the two sides exchanged fire for about three hours. 

“The pagoda was damaged–some pieces fell off,” the PDF fighter said. “There were even holes in the roofs of buildings in the village.”

Two military trucks came from Monywa to bring reinforcements but PDF fighters attacked them with explosives, causing multiple casualties, the PDF said. 

Survivors from among the reinforcements then went and set fire to eight houses near the site of the ambush, locals said. 

At 6:30pm, PDF fighters retreated, allowing the military to also retreat to a site about two miles from the village.

“Our members who were involved in the fight say at least 20 soldiers were killed in two locations,” the PDF fighter said.

One PDF fighter was shot in the head and killed while two others suffered injuries to their hands and legs, he added. 

The military deployed snipers and mortars during the clash.

“We’ll keep fighting until we succeed. We don’t accept the terrorist military at all, so we’ll just keep going,” the PDF fighter said.

On Wednesday morning, over 200 soldiers arrived at the village and took up posts at the school and the monastery.

“No one dares to go near the village. They’ve already destroyed a home along the road to the village,” a local resident said.

More than 1,000 people from Htayaw Kyin and nearby villages have been displaced by the occupying soldiers.

Villagers in Yinmabin Township were among the first to take up arms against the junta in April. 

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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