Preacher and three others charged for defying ban on large gatherings

Covid-19

David Lah, who said faith in Christ protects against Covid-19, tests positive after event

Tin Htet Paing

Published on Apr 15, 2020

Zaw Ye Thwe

Published on Apr 15, 2020

Police charged a controversial Christian preacher and three others on Tuesday for defying a ban on large gatherings aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19.

Preacher David Lah, pastor Saw Kwe Wah, minister Ray Gandi and follower Wai Tun held events in Yangon just days after the ban was announced, according to the Yangon Covid-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee.

They face up to a year in prison under the 2013 Natural Disaster Management Law

On March 13 the president’s office, followed by every regional government in the country, banned mass gatherings until the end of April.

But the order did not clearly define how many people constitute a mass gathering.

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Yangon’s Covid-19 committee is still investigating the details of the events, committee member and Mayangone regional lawmaker Moe Moe Suu Kyi told Myanmar Now.

“According to information we’ve collected so far, they held (events) on March 14 and 15,” she said.

Khin Maung Aye, secretary of the Hebron Brethren Assembly Hall, confirmed to Myanmar Now on Monday that Lah gathered a group of between 15 and 2o people at the Mayangone church compound, live streaming the events online in March and early April.

Though popular in Myanmar, Lah’s sermons have been criticised by many - including Myanmar’s Christian community - as Islamophobic and anti-LBGT.

In recent gatherings streamed online, Lah preached to his followers: “I can guarantee, if you are walking the true path and have the whole of Christ in your heart, you will not get (Covid-19)."

Two of the four charged, including Lah, have since tested positive for Covid-19.

Lah’s Facebook page describes him as a Myanmar-born preacher and resident of Toronto, Canada who tours internationally preaching the gospel.

The city’s Covid-19 committee is still considering charging other attendees as well, Naing Ngan Lin, committee member and regional social affairs minister, told Myanmar Now.

The health ministry reported 22 new cases on April 13 and 14, 21 of whom attended or had close contact with attendees of the church events.

An April 12 report from the ministry’s epidemiology unit said six people tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a religious event thought to be organised by Lah, and that those six had been in close contact with about 60 others since the event.

Ten places in five townships have been locked down since Tuesday, including a Baptist church in Insein, according to the Yangon Covid-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee.

As of April 14, the National Health Laboratory found 74 positives among the 2,841 samples it had tested for Covid-19 - including four who have died from the disease.

In Yangon region, 58 people have tested positive.

Tin Htet Paing

Tin Htet Paing is Assistant Editor with Myanmar Now

Zaw Ye Thwe

Zaw Ye Thwe is Reporter with Myanmar Now

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Junta arrests two former NLD candidates from Rakhine State

The pair had previously been taken hostage by the Arakan Army while campaigning ahead of last year’s election

Myanmar Now

Published on May 13, 2021

Min Aung, Ni Ni May Myint, and Chit Chit Chaw (left to right) are seen in Sittwe on January 1 following their release from the Arakan Army’s captivity. (Myanmar Now)

Junta forces arrested two former National League for Democracy (NLD) candidates from Rakhine State in Yangon on Wednesday.

Ni Ni May Myint, an incumbent lower house NLD candidate for Rakhine’s Taungup Township in last year’s election, and Chit Chit Chaw, who ran for an upper house seat in the same constituency, had both been in hiding since the February 1 coup.

Ni Ni May Myint had returned to her home in Hlaing Township three days ago, and then moved to another location, according to her husband Lynn Naing.

He said that all he knew about the circumstances of his wife’s arrest is that she was with their four-year-old daughter when she was taken into custody.

“I was told that the police brought my daughter to my wife's sister’s house at around 5:30pm. That's all I know,” he told Myanmar Now, explaining that he and his wife have lived apart since she went into hiding.

“I don't know where she was arrested, either,” he added.

May Thi, the mother of Chit Chit Chaw, also said that she had few details about her 33-year-old daughter’s arrest, except that it took place at a house in Yangon’s Kamayut Township.

“We were staying at separate places. I only found out about the arrests when the news appeared online,” she said, noting that the regime has disclosed no information about where the women are being held.

“I want to know where they are being detained, at least,” she added.

The pair had previously been held captive for 79 days after being kidnapped, along with Min Aung, a sitting NLD MP, by the Arakan Army (AA) in Taungup while campaigning for last year’s November 8 election.

All three were released on January 1 following negotiations between the Myanmar military and the AA.

Min Aung, who led an anti-coup protest in Taungup when the military seized power a month later, has been detained since February 9.

“First the AA arrested them, and now the army has arrested them. They were not making any trouble for anybody. They [the military and the AA] arrested them just because they wanted to,” said Lynn Naing.

NLD central executive committee member Ba Myo Thein, the party’s Rakhine State vice-chair Soe Lay, and Moe Hsan Suu Kyi, the daughter of former Rakhine State chief minister Nyi Pu, have also been arrested by the junta in recent days.

The junta has arrested several thousand opposition voices since the coup, including civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and many of her party leaders, including president Win Myint, pro-democracy activists, celebrities, and anti-coup protesters.

Nearly 4,000 people remain in detention, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

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Resistance fighters forced to retreat again as regime soldiers overrun Sagaing village

No fatalities have been reported but there were several injuries on either side and one resistance fighter was arrested

Myanmar Now

Published on May 13, 2021

Myanmar military soldiers have overrun a village in Sagaing Region where resistance fighters were taking shelter after their stronghold in the nearby town of Chaung-U was crushed earlier this month.

The fighters were forced to once again retreat when hundreds of soldiers attacked Methekyo village with guns and rocket launchers on Thursday morning.

Villagers from Methekyo, which is two miles from Chaung-U and sits on the eastern side of the Chindwin river, had been helping the resistance fighters.

“The villagers allowed us to take shelter there and have been feeding us,” said a leader of the resistance force, speaking on condition of anonymity.

About 20 military trucks and four vans carrying at least 300 soldiers besieged Methekyo at around 4am, he said.

Members of the resistance force, mostly armed with hunting rifles, moved residents out of the village and then began trying to hold off the advancing soldiers.

“We evacuated the villagers when we saw that the forces on each side were not evenly matched,” the resistance fighter said.

He asked Myanmar Now not to disclose the size of the Chaung-U resistance force due to security concerns.

The clash lasted around half an hour. After the coup regime’s forces fired about six rounds from their rocket launchers, all the resistance fighters had to retreat. One young fighter was arrested.

“While we were retreating, a boy fell down and was left behind,” the resistance leader said. “The soldiers tied his hands with rope behind his back and beat him.” At least six regime soldiers were wounded in the clash, he added.

“The soldiers took all of our food supplies donated by the public and the weapons, including gunpowder, that we used to protect our town,” he said.

They also set fire to some houses, motorbikes and a building inside the village monastery while ransacking homes.

“They were smashing things as if we were ogres,” the resistance leader said.

A local rescue worker based in Monywa, about 25km from Chaung-U, said he and his team helped six resistance fighters who were shot in the arms or legs during the clash.

“There have been no people killed as far as we know. But we could not go inside the village,” he told Myanmar Now. “We stayed at a place where we could take wounded people out safely,” he told Myanmar Now.

On Wednesday afternoon, at least ten trucks carrying hundreds of soldiers drove to Monywa, he said, citing eyewitnesses. About eight military trucks and four vans of soldiers remained at Methekyo village, he added.

Soldiers were also stationed at villages neighbouring Methekyo and Chaung-U, according to locals in Monywa.

Regime forces arrested dozens on Wednesday after they overran a resistance stronghold in Mandalay’s Myingyan Township.

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DVB reporter from Pyay sentenced to three years in prison

Since the coup, nearly 50 reporters have been detained by the junta.

Myanmar Now

Published on May 13, 2021

Reporter Min Nyo is seen covering an anti-dictatorship protest before his arrest (Pyu Regional News)

Min Nyo, a Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporter from Pyay in Bago Region, was sentenced to three years in prison by a court inside Pyay Prison on Wednesday.

Like many other detained reporters, he has not been able to contact his family.

“He was sentenced to three years under Section 505a. We could only meet with his lawyers. He’s still not been allowed to meet his family since his arrest,” Moe Moe, Min Nyo’s wife, told Myanmar Now.

Section 505a of the Penal Code punishes “incitement” with a prison sentence of three years, changed from two years following the February 1 coup by the military council.

The charge has been used against public figures, parliamentarians, media personnel, and others who oppose the military junta.

Moe Moe said she would be filing an appeal.

On March 3, soldiers and police beat and arrested Min Nyo while he was reporting on a protest in Pyay.

The military council filed a case against him claiming he had contacted a fire department member by phone and incited him to take part in the Civil Disobedience Movement. The verdict was delivered on his eighth hearing.

The military council has only been holding hearings for detainees within courts inside prison, justifying the practice as related to Covid-19 prevention.

Salai Kaung Myat Min, secretary of the Myay Latt Journalists Network said that the military crackdown on journalists has not stifled the reporting of news.

“They’ll arrest and torture you, make you feel uncomfortable and paranoid in your own home while abusing their power. These are just the dictator’s tactics. But the media is trying their best in ways that they can, they are not slowing down,” he said, adding, “there’s no way their actions should hinder us.”

London-based Amnesty International requested the reporter’s release on the day of his sentencing.

“The conviction and three-year sentence handed down to Min Nyo shows the appalling situation faced by journalists in Myanmar, where they risk life and liberty to shed light on the military’s abuses. The military authorities are ruthless, determined to crush dissent by silencing those who seek to expose their crimes,” Amnesty International’s statement said.

On March 1, another DVB reporter, Aung Kyaw, was arrested in his home in Myeik, Tanintharyi Region.

Members of the military council’s armed forces have also taken away Nay Lin, editor-in-chief of the Voice of Myanmar journal, and reporter Shine Aung for “discussions” and cut off contact between them and with their family members.

Zarni Mann, Nay Lin’s wife, told news outlets that her husband was taken to court in Mandalay’s Chanmyatharzi Township on Wednesday.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has reported that since the coup on February 1, some 48 reporters, including one from Myanmar Now, have been detained.

Kay Zon Nway, who was charged under 505a after being arrested in Myaynigone, has been in solitary confinement in Insein Prison since April 28.

Among the detained reporters, some from international outlets such as Xinhua, AP and BBC have been released but the majority were still in prison at the time of reporting.

Wunna Soe, a reporter from Eleven media who was arrested while covering a protest in Meiktila on March 6, was released on bail on the same day.

The military council announced that the publishing licences from Myanmar Now, Mizzima, DVB, 7Day and Khit Thit were revoked on March 8. On April 29, Kachin-based 74 Media and Myitkyina Journal saw their licences revoked as well.