Day: March 23, 2022

Myanmar’s junta denied a request by ASEAN envoy Prak Sokhonn to meet with deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his three-day visit despite its pledge to grant him access to all political stakeholders, he said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the airport in Phnom Penh after returning home from his first official trip to Myanmar, Prak Sokhonn said he had personally asked to arrange a sit-down with the detained Nobel Peace laureate, but junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said it was impossible due to her ongoing trial.

“Min Aung Hlaing claimed that in the future he will consider requests [to visit] not only Aung San Suu Kyi, but also other people,” said the envoy, who is also the minister of foreign affairs for current ASEAN chair Cambodia.

The leader of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested by the military after its Feb. 1, 2021, coup and is now languishing in prison, facing a raft of charges by the junta.

Following a meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on Monday, Prak Sokhonn had been scheduled to meet with Su Su Lwin, the wife of former President Htin Kyaw and a member of the NLD for Yangon’s Thongwa township, but she canceled the talks citing health reasons, in what appeared to be a backtrack by the party. The NLD’s Central Working Committee later told RFA that only Aung San Suu Kyi can speak on its behalf.

The lesser-known opposition People Party said in a statement that a delegation of its leaders — including 88 Generation student group veteran Ko Ko Gyi — met with Prak Sokhonn on Tuesday to discuss possible resolutions to the crisis. The party, which has far fewer supporters than the NLD and is unlikely to mount any serious electoral bid, called for ASEAN pressure on the junta to release all political prisoners, prevent further casualties, grant wider access to humanitarian groups, and hold a dialogue with a diverse set of political players.

The junta claims its coup was justified because the NLD used voter fraud to orchestrate a landslide victory at the polls but has yet to present evidence of its allegations. Security forces have killed at least 1,700 people in the nearly 14 months since and arrested more than 9,870, mostly during peaceful anti-junta demonstrations.

At the conclusion of an emergency ASEAN meeting in April last year, Min Aung Hlaing agreed to allow an ASEAN envoy access to all stakeholders in Myanmar as part of a Five-Point Consensus to end the political crisis in his country. Observers say that the NLD must have a seat at the table if there is to be any hope for a resolution.

Failure to deliver

Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry attempted to present Prak Sokhonn’s visit as a success in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“The visit was undertaken amicably and productively with meaningful outcomes, which reflects Myanmar’s support for Cambodia’s efforts in moving forward the implementation of the [Five-Point Consensus] and serves to strengthen regional stability as well as the credibility, unity, and centrality of ASEAN and its community building process,” the statement said.

Prak Sokhonn acknowledged to reporters that the junta had failed to deliver on several other key promises it made at last year’s ASEAN gathering, including an end to violence, improved access for aid groups and multiparty talks. 

But he also suggested that the nation’s various power brokers are “more committed to confrontation than negotiation.

“After listening to all parties, none are prepared to start a dialogue for a ceasefire,” he said. “I have urged Naypyidaw to be extremely patient and to refrain from using military forces when they are not necessary. I also asked [the junta] to deploy police when dealing with civilians instead of the military, which should only be used to accomplish military objectives.”

The envoy added that junta representatives will not be extended invitations to ASEAN meetings unless progress is made on the consensus.

Little progress made

Cambodian social analyst Van Bunna told RFA that Prak Sokhonn’s visit to Myanmar had accomplished little.

“They are far from what [the ASEAN envoy] had hoped to achieve,” he said, noting that ASEAN operates on a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of its member states and that the Five-Point Consensus is non-binding.

“ASEAN hasn’t taken a strong stance on Myanmar because its members all have different views on the issue. A few countries are in favor of the junta government as some leaders don’t value democracy.”

Van Bunna said that Min Aung Hlaing will take advantage of the fractured approach by ASEAN “to delay resolving the situation,” while the international community’s focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will allow the junta to “buy more time to stay in power.”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, went further to say that Prak Sokhonn’s visit had “grant[ed] the junta a public relations windfall that undermines the limited regional pressure being placed on Myanmar.

“At every step of the way as ASEAN chair, the Cambodian government has played the game crooked, with a clear tilt to the side of the junta at the expense of imprisoned NLD politicians and civil society activists,” he said.

“Prak Sokhonn’s mission shows why the concept of ‘ASEAN centrality’ in the Myanmar crisis is failing based on a lack of real political commitment to compel hard choices from Myanmar’s generals.”

Translated by Samean Yun and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Villagers in two northern provinces of Laos who will be displaced by the Luang Prabang Dam along the Mekong River want more compensation than is being offered by local authorities and the project developer.

The U.S. $3 billion, 1,460-megawatt dam will be built by Thailand’s Xayaburi Power Company Ltd. and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam Power Corp. The project is being financed by the Luang Prabang Power Company Ltd., a consortium of the Thai and Vietnamese power companies and the Lao government.

Dam construction was planned to begin in 2020 and end in 2027, but the developer is assessing how the project will affect the nearby town of Luang Prabang, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The hydropower project will be one of several cascading dams built on the Mekong, as the Lao government pursues its controversial economic plan to become the “battery of Southeast Asia,” exporting electricity from more than 50 large and small-scale dams on the river and its tributaries.

Power purchase agreements for the sale of electricity generated by the Luang Prabang Dam to Thailand and Vietnam have yet to be signed.

In the meantime, residents of Nga district in Oudomxay province and Chomphet district in Luang Prabang province say authorities are shortchanging them for the land and other property they would lose to the project.

Oudomxay officials offered 100 million kip (U.S. $8,500) per hectare of farmland to locals, said a Nga district resident, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

“The offer is less than what we are fighting for, and the new homes [offered] would be worth less than our current homes are,” he told RFA on Monday. “That has been the disagreement between the authorities and us, the villagers, for some time now.”

Another villager in the district who will lose his farmland to the project said that he and others have demanded 150 million kip (U.S $12,800) per hectare.

“So far, the dam developer and the authorities haven’t responded to our demand,” he said. “If the demand is not met, then we won’t give up our land to the project.”

Oudomxay province Governor Bounkhong Lachiemphone held a meeting on March 14 with the chiefs from 12 villages to be affected by the project and those responsible for compensating and relocating people displaced by the Luang Prabang project.

The dam developer said the project would flood a dozen villages on the bank of the Mekong River in Nga district, including Lath Han, Khok Phou, Yoiyai and Phonsavang villages, and that 1,263 households would need to be relocated.

The governor advised the chiefs to talk with residents about how the dam would help to reduce chronic poverty among villagers.

But a village chief who attended the meeting said that the new homes the project developer has built for villagers forced to move do not have an enclosed ground floor, as do their current homes.

“Members of our village are not happy with that,” he said. “Our people would be poorer, [so] I proposed at last week’s meeting that the authorities and the dam developer enclose the lower level as well.”

The village chief also asked that a new Buddhist temple, roads, a school, and power-generating and water facilities be built in the resettlement village.

An official from the provincial Energy and Mines Department said that the current compensation rate stands. The government is now waiting for the dam developer to clear the land for the resettlement village, the official said.

‘We’ll be poorer than before’

The hydropower dam also will affect residents of Houei Yor village, Chomphet district, in Luang Prabang province.

One villager said residents expected to receive 70 million-100 million kip per hectare of farmland, depending on how far the land is from the main road.

“Most of us are not pleased with the offers, and we’re demanding higher compensation between 130 million-150 million kip per hectare,” he said on Tuesday.

An official from the province’s Natural Resources and Environment Department told RFA on Jan. 19 that authorities already had established the location for the two resettlement villages and were looking for agricultural land that the displaced villagers could work.

“Farmland in this area is scarce because it’s mountainous,” he said. “We might be able to provide only 0.7 hectare of land instead of one hectare for each family.”

A resident who will lose his rice field to the project said that amount of land is not enough to raise goats, pigs and cows or to grow papaya and banana.

Another villager said he is worried about having enough food to eat.

“We’ll get less land, so we’ll produce less food,” he said. “We’ll be poorer than before.”

The project’s potential impact on the cultural history of the region is another potential complication.

The dam will sit about 16 miles north of the city of Luang Prabang, the once royal capital of Laos that lies in a valley at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Known for its Buddhist temples, including one that dates to the 16th century, the town of roughly 60,000 people was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

An official at the World Heritage Site Department in the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism said that the dam developer must do a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) as required by UNESCO, the U.N. education, scientific and cultural organization.

“We’re also required to report the findings of the HIA to UNESCO,” the official said. “We want to make sure that the town of Luang Prabang will not lose its status as a World Heritage Site.”

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

A Vietnamese court on Wednesday sentenced independent journalist and activist Le Van Dung to five years in prison for discussing political and socioeconomic issues in online videos, his lawyer told RFA.

In a trial that lasted a little more than two hours, Dung admitted to making the videos prior to his arrest in June. But his lawyer argued with the prosecution’s stance that the videos violated anti-state propaganda laws, specifically Article 88, a controversial law used to target dissidents.

“The trial started at 8:30 this morning and ended around 11,” one of his lawyers, Dang Dinh Manh, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service. “The sentence is five years in jail and five years’ probation. They wanted to stick him with up to six years in jail.”

According to Manh, the trial finished quickly because of Dung’s admission.

“He affirmed that he had exercised the right to free expression, so what he said in the videos were not violations of law, but they said they made a number of violations, such as bewildering the public and offending state agencies or leaders,” Manh said.

Manh maintained that he and the other lawyers on the defense argued that what Dung said in the videos is protected under Vietnam’s constitution, which grants the right to free expression. They also said Article 88 is unconstitutional and violates international agreements signed by Hanoi.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in June said that Article 88, along with the similarly worded Article 117, is too broad and vaguely written, making it impossible to determine which activities are allowed and which are prohibited.

Dung’s wife, Bui Thi Hue, was not allowed to attend her husband’s trial. Though it had been announced that the trial was public, security forces said she could not get in without proper authorization.

“I think my husband is innocent. That five-year verdict, even if it were only five days, it would be very unjustifiable,” she told RFA.

Nguyen Van Son received an 18-month suspended sentence from the court for helping Dung hide prior to his arrest.

A day before the trial, New York-based Human Rights Watch in a statement called for Vietnamese authorities to immediately drop what it called the “politically motivated charges” against Dung.

“The Vietnamese penal code provision on propaganda seeks to intimidate people with the threat to shut up or be locked up,” the group said.

Independent media is illegal in Vietnam, which ranks 175th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

On 21 March 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a formal determination that Myanmar’s military committed genocide against the Rohingya population in 2017. He described the attacks as “widespread and systematic”, “with a clear and premeditated intention to destroy the Rohingya population.” This went beyond the U.S. government’s previous findings that the military had committed ethnic cleansing in the process of driving over 740,000 Rohingya across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

The determination comes five years after the fact, in a case that was broadcast in real time, and documented by human rights observers who were able to use commercial satellite imagery to prove that entire villages had been razed. Interviews of refugee women found so much rape and gang rape that it could only have been official government policy.

The determination has no immediate legal impact on Myanmar’s military, which in February 2021 staged a coup d’état and ousted the democratically elected government that a few months before had shielded the military, defending its actions before the International Court of Justice.

But the designation does have other important policy ramifications.

Does it obligate the United States to do anything?

In a legal sense, the designation is nothing more than symbolic, which begs the question why it could not have been made sooner. It does not commit the United States to do anything, including increasing aid and support for third country resettlement of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The United States will provide the original ICJ plaintiff, The Gambia, an additional $1 million to continue their lawsuit. More importantly, it will provide The Gambia with the documents and evidence that it used to make the determination, which could be important if they then move to refer the case to the International Criminal Court.

The designation comes just over a year into the Biden administration, which wants to draw a clear distinction from its predecessor and reinforce the government’s commitment to human rights and democratic values.

Myanmar’s military junta has been in power now for almost 14 months. In that period, they have killed over 1,700 people and arrested 13,000. The army has waged an all-out war against its population, razing thousands of homes.

As Blinken noted: “Since the coup, we have seen the Burmese military use many of the same tactics. Only now the military is targeting anyone in Burma it sees as opposing or undermining its repressive rule.”

Coming on the heels of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the genocide declaration signals a change in the U.S. resolve to stand up to aggressive authoritarian regimes. Not imposing costs early on only emboldens further aggression.

The Tatmadaw got away with genocide in 2017 with nothing more than diplomatic opprobrium, which emboldened it to stage the coup d’état in February 2021. Likewise, the Russian invasion of Crimea in the Donbas in 2014 went unanswered, and emboldened President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in 2022.

What does it mean for the Rohingya?

For the Rohingya, it is a validation, and an important acknowledgement of the wrongs committed against them. It will increase expectations that perpetrators will eventually be held accountable. This has to be a real morale boost for the beleaguered population.

The designation doesn’t have any immediate impact on the more than 900,000 refugees living in Bangladesh. But it does pave a way for them to assert their rights to return home when conditions allow them to return with safety and legal protections.

Obviously the ruling matters for Bangladesh, which seeks the soonest possible repatriation of the refugees.

Will it influence the international community?

The designation could help usher in a necessary new wave of sanctions on Myanmar’s junta. While U.S. sanctions against Naypyidaw thus far have been more encompassing than anyone else’s, they have not put sufficient pressure on the military. A new round of sanctions could target the banking system, more cronies of the military leadership, and the Ministry of Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Notably, Blinken referenced an arms ban twice in his speech, though it is unlikely that China or Russia would allow the U.N. Security Council to impose one. Perhaps, it will help galvanize support for a ban on jet fuel.

The designation is perhaps an opportunity to pull Japan, Australia, Singapore, and South Korea –all of whom who were quick to sanction Russia, but have resisted sanctioning Myanmar – on board. It also creates a moral imperative for corporations to cut their business ties to Myanmar, in general, and with military-backed corporations, in particular. Shareholders may turn a blind eye to a forcible change in government; genocide is a whole other matter.

The designation is also an important gesture to Indonesia and Malaysia, who both led ASEAN’s condemnation of the junta and took in substantial numbers of refugees. The plight of the Rohingya is an issue the public in both countries cares about.

Both Jakarta and Putrajaya continue to condemn the junta’s failure to implement the Five Point Consensus, ASEAN’s road map for restoring democracy in Myanmar. The genocide designation gives them and other like-minded states another tool to prevent Cambodia from using its position as the group’s chair to fully embrace the junta.

What does it mean for Myanmar?

The designation does have some impact on the worsening quagmire in Myanmar.

First, it’s important to note the difference in positions on the U.S. designation: one by a responsible stakeholder, the other by a pariah.

The opposition National Unity Government welcomed the designation and reiterated its policy on the Rohingya, committing itself to “the safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable return of the Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons, and to comprehensive legislative and policy reform in support of citizenship, equality in rights and opportunity, and justice and reparations.”

This reinforces the NUG’s commitment to establishing a federal democracy and further legitimizes them. The NUG had previously dropped its objection to the ICJ case moving forward and pledged cooperation with the court.

Unsurprisingly, the junta’s statement was dismissive, a blanket denial of “any genocidal actions” that accused the United States of interfering in the “internal affairs of a sovereign state.” They remain impervious to international criticism.

But does it have any bearing in terms of an off-ramp for the conflict?

On the one hand, it will convince Min Aung Hlaing and the other junta leaders that they need to prevail to escape accountability. Things just got more existential for them and they are likely to escalate the violence. 

More importantly, they will message this through the ranks, in order to stave off more defections from their depleting forces: we hang together, or we hang separately.

On the other hand, it could convince more officers to cut their losses and defect. The costs of being tied to a regime that is committing atrocities against an unarmed civilian population, while decimating the economy, is already causing plummeting morale and defections. The U.S. determination could help in that calculus. If the officers are looking for yet one more reason to sever ties to the senior military leadership, this could be it, even if they themselves willingly participated in and supported the operation against the Rohingya.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or BenarNews.

President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the G-20 summit in Bali in October, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia said Wednesday, amid reports of attempts by Western governments to oust Moscow from the group over its invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing meanwhile backed Moscow on the matter, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying that no member of the Group of Twenty leading economies had the right to strip another of its membership.

Putin’s attendance at the G-20 summit in Bali would “depend on many things, including the COVID situation that is getting better,” Russian Ambassador Lyudmila Vorobieva said.

“So far, his intention is, he wants to come [to the G-20 summit],” she told a news conference in Jakarta, when asked about the prospect of Russia being booted from the group.

The envoy acknowledged that many international organizations “are trying to expel” Russia, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), and said the West’s reaction to its invasion of Ukraine was “disproportionate.”  

Vorobieva said the G-20 was not the right platform to discuss the conflict in Ukraine.

“The expulsion of Russia from this kind of economic forum will not help economic problems to be resolved. On the contrary, without Russia, it would be difficult to do so,” she said.

“We really hope that the Indonesian government will not give in to … pressure that is being applied not only to Indonesia but also so many countries in the world by the West,” she added. 

Ukraine earlier this month urged Indonesia, this year’s president of the G-20, to include discussions on the invasion during the upcoming summit in Bali.

But Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Indonesia’s stance was “that the G-20 forum should focus on global economic issues.”

“The G-20 was formed as a premier forum for economic issues,” he told BenarNews last week.

Vorobieva’s made her remarks a day after the top U.S. national security official indicated that Washington would lead an effort to put pressure on Russia to be excluded from international forums over its invasion of Ukraine.

“On the question of the G-20, I will just say this: We believe that it cannot be business as usual for Russia in international institutions and in the international community,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.

“As for particular institutions and particular decisions, we’d like to consult with our allies, consult with our partners in those institutions before making any further pronouncements,” he said.

In March 2014, the United States and other powers indefinitely suspended Russia’s membership in the G-8 after Moscow annexed Crimea; In 2017, Russia permanently withdrew from the grouping.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden was heading to Brussels to participate in the summits of NATO, the G-7 and the European Union where he plans “to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed” to Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” Sullivan said.

He also said Biden would consult with NATO on China’s ties to Russia and the question of Beijing’s potential participation in the conflict in Ukraine.

“The administration is worried Beijing will provide economic or military help to Moscow,” Sullivan said.

‘True multilateralism’

China, meanwhile on Wednesday, claimed that Russia could not be kicked out of the G-20.

“The G-20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. It brings together major economies in the world, including Russia, which is an important member of the group,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

“No member has the right to strip another member of its membership.  … [The G-20] should practice true multilateralism …”

For its part, Indonesia had voted for a U.N. General Assembly resolution that condemned Moscow’s military strike on Ukraine. But, at the same time, Jakarta has not directly criticized Russia or used the word “invasion.”

After Moscow launched the invasion on Feb. 24, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo posted on Twitter – without referring to Russia or Ukraine: “Stop the war. War brings misery to mankind and puts the whole world at risk.”

Hikmahanto Juwana, a professor in international law at the University of Indonesia, said Western members of the G-20 may boycott the Bali summit if Putin attends.

“[T]hey definitely don’t want to be there if Russia attends. Australia just said they won’t attend if Russia does,” Hikmahanto told BenarNews.

“The absence of other member countries will undermine Indonesia’s credibility,” he said.

According to Hikmahanto, Russia’s expressed intention to attend the summit was intended to forestall American participation.

“Now Russia is playing chess, making such a statement so that America won’t attend. This spells failure for the G-20,” he said.

Teuku Rezasyah, a lecturer in international relations at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, said Putin should be allowed to attend the summit, even it means risking a boycott.

“Everyone wants to hear what Putin has to say because right now he is the center of global attention,” he said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Myanmar military regime courts have sentenced three reporters to jail this week, amid an ongoing legal crackdown on journalists and others who publicly express their opposition to the junta, relatives of those imprisoned and work colleagues said.

Ye Yint Tun, a reporter at the Myanmar Thandawsint (Myanmar Herald) was handed a two-year prison sentence on Wednesday a family member told RFA. Authorities arrested him on Feb. 28, 2021 while he was covering a protest in Pathein, Ayeyarwady region, and charged under Section 505A and Section 505(b) Myanmar’s Penal Code.

The Myanmar junta’s special court in Insein Prison in Yangon sentenced Hanthar Nyein, an editor at Kamayut Media, to two years in prison with labor on Monday, while the Zabuthiri Township Court in Naypyidaw sentenced Than Htike Aung, a Mizzima editor, to two years in prison. Both were charged under Section 505A of the Penal Code.

Section 505A prohibits causing fear, spreading false news and agitating crimes against a government employee — all nonbailable offences punishable by up to three years in prison. Critics say it serves as a legal catch-all for bringing criminal charges against a broad range of individuals deemed to pose a challenge to the military regime’s authority.

Myanmar’s State Administration Council, appointed by the country’s military after it seized power in the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, added the new section to create new offenses and expand existing ones that target individuals who speak critically of the coup and the military, and those who encourage others to support the Civil Disobedience Movement, a broad coalition of opponents of military rule.

Section 505(b) criminalizes publishing or circulating “any statement, rumor or report, with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offense against the state or against the public tranquility.”

“In Myanmar, media freedom has never been guaranteed fully. Now, the media freedom in the country is completed gone. This case is proof for that,” said an editor from Mizzima who is a colleague of Than Htike Aung.

“The authorities are arresting, attacking and interrogating the news media, viewing the journalists as their enemy,” said the woman who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

She also said that if independent media stopped operating and broadcasting the news, the military council would fully control the narrative and publish only its propaganda.

‘Ongoing persecution of journalists’

Court attorney Zaw Min Hlaing said the regime is charging anyone who obstructs its interest under Section 505A, accusing them of damaging reputation of the state and the military.

“They are charging anyone who wrote pieces critical of the members of government, the military or the state,” he told RFA.

“They are charging organizations that could hinder their work under Section 505(A),” he said. “If the journalists report the truth and it seems detrimental to their interest, they frame it as an offense against the state.”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the military regime had no reason to charge and sentence Hanthar Nyein and Than Htike Aung.

“This is more of the ongoing persecution of journalists and the efforts by the military to censor any sort of news that they don’t control,” he told RFA.

RFA could not reach Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the military council, for comment, though he previously said at a news conference after the coup that the junta was taking action under the law regarding people from the media.

Authorities arrested Than Htike Aung on March 1, 2021 while he was covering the court trial of the Win Htein, the then top leader of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), at Dekkhinathiri Township Court in Naypyidaw. Since then, he has been detained in the capital’s prison.

Similarly, Han Thar Hyein was arrested on March 9, 2021 during a raid by military authorities on Kamayut Media’s office in Yangon. At the time, authorities also arrested the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Nathan Maung, who was released in June 2021 after they found out that he is a U.S. citizen.

They were charged with dissemination of information or “fake news” that could agitate or cause security forces or officials to mutiny,” an offence that carries a maximum three-year prison term.

Nathan Maung said that he and Hanthar Nyein had been tortured while in the detention center.

‘Journalists as the enemy’

In March 2021, the junta cancelled the operating license of Mizzima News, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), 7Day News, Myanmar Now and Khit Thit News. Two months later, it terminated the license of Kachin state-based Myitkyina News Journal.

At least 108 journalists have been arrested since the military coup, though many have been released. According to Reporters Without Borders, about 57 journalists remain in prison and three have been killed after the coup.

“Unfortunately, the Myanmar junta sees journalists as the enemy, and it is continuing to search for and hunt down journalists who are still operating in the country, arresting them, abusing them, and then sentencing them to prison,” Robertson said.

Journalists in Myanmar are risking their lives to do their jobs, said an official at the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based rights organization.

“Since Feb. 1, 2021, journalists in Myanmar have not been able to do their jobs freely,” said the official who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “Now, it has gotten worse. The journalists have to take huge risks to report.”

Reporters and editors who remain in the country are doing an admirable job, but they not only could go to jail for their work, they also could lose their lives, he said.

Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.