President’s office to seek investigation of possible conflict of interest on MEHL board

Office unaware military conglomerate’s board members also head port authority and customs department, will seek attorney general’s help

Nyan Hlaing Lin

Published on Jun 1, 2020

Customs department director-general Kyaw Htin speaks to department staff in 2017. (Photo: Ministry of Information)

Following reporting by Myanmar Now, the president’s office said it will investigate a possible conflict of interest among two board members of the country’s largest military conglomerate.

Kyaw Htin and Ni Aung, two retired military officials, both now serve on the board of directors at Myanmar Economic Holdings (MEHL).

Kyaw Htin, a former brigadier general, is also director general of Myanmar’s customs department. Ni Aung, a former major, is managing director of the Myanma Port Authority.

The potential conflict is perhaps starkest in a port project an MEHL subsidiary is the majority owner of.

Lann Pyi owns 51% of a joint venture with Ever Flow River (EFRG) called Hlaing Inland Terminal and Logistics (HITLC).

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HITLC is building a $43m inland port in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township that will include customs clearance and customs-bonded facilities.

Myanmar Now first reported on the potential conflict at HITLC on May 28, the day EFRG was listed on the Yangon Stock Exchange.

Asked on Saturday if their roles as the leaders of Myanmar’s ports and customs departments might conflict with their positions at one of the country’s largest conglomerates - one with large holdings in the import and export industries - president’s office spokesperson Zaw Htay said he would ask the attorney general’s office to investigate.

“We’ll ask for legal advice from the main legal advisory body,” he said in an online news conference. “Based on that, we’ll take legal action.”

He said both men had been on MEHL’s board since the company was formed in 1990 but that neither had ever attended a board meeting or taken an active role in the company.

MEHL was founded by the military in 1990 as the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings. Besides imports and exports, it operates companies that dominate Myanmar’s transportation, mining, alcohol and cigarette industries.

MEHL shareholders were initially classified into two groups: Type A consisted of the defence ministry and Type B included individual military units and personnel.

After the National League for Democracy (NLD) won landslide elections in 2015 but before they took power in the new civilian government in 2016, MEHL transferred its Type A shares into Type B shares, moving future profits from the public defence budget to the private hands of individual generals.

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A public document lists retired brigadier general Kyaw Htin as a member of MEHL’s board of directors.

Zaw Htay is one of many ex-military officials now holding top-tier posts in the civilian government.

So is Htun Htun Oo, the attorney general who will investigate the possible conflict of interest.

It is unknown if either hold shares in MEHL.

Under Myanmar’s Securities and Exchange Law, as a public company with more than 100 shareholders, MEHL is supposed to publish regular financial statements and information on its major shareholders. It must also include this information on its company register with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration.

It has so far done neither.

“Information on major shareholdings, dividends and financial statements needs by law to be made publicly available by MEHL,” said Vicky Bowman, director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business. “We all eagerly await access.”

A UN fact-finding mission in August 2019 urged all companies to sever ties with MEHL and any of its subsidiaries or partners, including HITLC and Lann Pyi Marine.

The military has increasingly turned to this vast business network to fund “the gravest crimes under international law” - including rape, sexual enslavement and torture - without civilian oversight in Myanmar’s ethnic states, the UN said.

“My working assumption is that dividends are payable to individual shareholders who are current or ex-members of the military, and not to the defence budget. But I haven’t yet seen the proof of this one way or another,” said Bowman.

Kyaw Htin was appointed director general of the customs department by the former Thein Sein government in March 2016, just as the NLD assumed power.

Htun Htun Oo was formerly deputy attorney general under Thein Sein and became attorney general after the NLD transition.

Then-president Htin Kyaw appointed Ni Aung managing director of the port authority in January 2017 and confirmed in December that year.

Nyan Hlaing Lin

Nyan Hlaing Lin is Senior 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.