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MYANMAR-UNREST-MEDIA-RIGHTS-REUTERS-ROHINGYA,LEAD
Reuters reporters jailed for seven years in Myanmar ‘state secrets’ case
YANGON, Sept 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Two Reuters journalists accused of
breaching Myanmar’s state secrets law while reporting on a massacre of
Rohingya Muslims were jailed for seven years Monday, fuelling international
outrage a week after the army was accused of genocide.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who have been held in Yangon’s Insein
prison since their arrest in December, were charged with violating the
Official Secrets Act, a draconian British colonial-era law which carries a
maximum sentence of 14 years.
The case has sparked an outcry among the international community as an
attempt to muzzle reporting on last year’s crackdown by Myanmar’s security
forces on the Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.
Army-led “clearance operations” drove 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh,
carrying with them widespread accounts of atrocities — rape, murder and
arson — by Myanmar police and troops.
The reporters denied the charges, insisting they were set up while exposing
the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine village of
Inn Din in September last year.
They had told the court they were arrested after being invited to dinner by
police in Yangon, who handed them documents.
As they left the restaurant, the pair were detained for possessing
classified material.
But Judge Ye Lwin was unmoved, also choosing to disregard a whistleblowing
policeman’s testimony that corroborated their version of events.
“The culprits intended to harm the interests of the state. And so they have
been found guilty under the state secrets act,” he told the packed Yangon
court.
“They are sentenced to seven years in prison each,” he said.
Kyaw Soe Oo’s wife Chit Su Win wept after the judge delivered the verdict,
collapsing on the ground in tears as she filed out of the sweltering
courtroom along with other shell-shocked family members, reporters and
diplomats.
The handcuffed pair, both Myanmar nationals with young children, gave brief
but defiant statements on the court steps.
“The government can detain us in the prison but… don’t close the ears and
eyes of the people,” Kyaw Soe Oo said.
Wa Lone, whose wife gave birth to a baby daughter less than a month ago,
gave a defiant “thumbs up” to the massed ranks of reporters.
“We will face it (the verdict) with stability and courage,” he said, before
the duo were bundled into a waiting police van and taken back to the
notorious Insein prison. – ‘Genocide’ –
Defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said an appeal would be lodged as soon as
possible against the verdict, which Reuters denounced as based on “false
charges”.
“Today is a sad day for Myanmar… and the press everywhere,” Reuters
editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement, adding that the outcome
was “designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press”.
The UN in Myanmar, the US and the European Union condemned the verdict and
reiterated calls for the reporters’ release, while rights groups added their
voices to the chorus of outrage.
The ruling “sends a stark warning to other journalists in the country of
the severe consequences that await should they look too closely at military
abuses”, Amnesty International’s Tirana Hassan said in a statement. “This
amounts to censorship through fear.”
Frederick Rawski of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) described
it as a “miscarriage of justice” following a “grossly unfair” trial, citing
the lack of evidence and fair trial rights violations.
The army has published its version of events at Inn Din village, conceding
the Rohingya men were killed while in custody but saying it was a one-off
case of abuse by a mixture of security forces and ethnic Rakhine locals.
Monday’s ruling comes a week after the release of an explosive United
Nations-led study into abuses in Rakhine, accusing Myanmar’s army chief of
heading a campaign of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity” against the
Rohingya.
It also strongly criticised de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi for
failing to use her moral authority to stand up for the stateless minority.
The same day, Facebook shut down the pages of Myanmar’s army chief Min Aung
Hlaing and other military top brass, in what the company said was a bid to
prevent them from further fanning “ethnic and religious tensions”.
As calls mount for Myanmar’s military leaders to face an international
tribunal, they have remained defiant, insisting last year’s crackdown was a
proportionate response to attacks by Rohingya militants on border posts.
But Suu Kyi’s reputation as a defender of human rights has been shredded by
her refusal to speak out against the military for its handling of the
Rohingya crisis or in support of the jailed reporters.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1614 hrs