{"id":1195,"date":"2018-12-11T13:57:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T13:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/?p=1195"},"modified":"2020-09-23T12:33:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T05:33:48","slug":"mya-inv-2018-12-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/mya-inv-2018-12-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar: Free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Protect Media Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">One-year anniversary of the arbitrary detention of&nbsp;Reuters&nbsp;journalists<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>(YANGON, December 11, 2018)\u2014 The Government of Myanmar should immediately and unconditionally free two&nbsp;<em>Reuters&nbsp;<\/em>journalists sentenced to seven years in prison on politically motivated charges, said Fortify Rights today. December 12 marks the one-year anniversary of the arbitrary arrest and detention of Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>\u201cWa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo shouldn\u2019t spend another day in prison,\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights.&nbsp;<em>\u201cState Counselor Suu Kyi has the authority to free them and should do so immediately and unconditionally.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>On September 3, 2018, a Yangon court sentenced the pair to seven&nbsp;years in prison under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act in an apparent response to their investigation of a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/investigates\/special-report\/myanmar-rakhine-events\/\">massacre of 10 Rohingya men<\/a>&nbsp;by Myanmar security forces in northern Rakhine State in August 2017. In November 2018,&nbsp;<em>Reuters&nbsp;<\/em>appealed the conviction on behalf of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Yboj_pwZeyQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Wa Lone missed his daughter&#8217;s birth because Myanmar authorities jailed him for his work as a journalist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested the two journalists in Yangon around 11:30 p.m. on December 12, 2017. Earlier that evening, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo attended a dinner with police officials near the Battalion 8 compound north of Yangon. During the dinner, a member of the police force reportedly gave the journalists documents related to the situation in Rakhine State. The pair were investigating a massacre of Rohingya civilians in the village of Inn Dinn in northern Rakhine State.<br><br>From December 12 to 26, 2018, the authorities held Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo incommunicado at an unknown location, prompting worldwide calls for their release.<br><br>In April 2018, Police Captain Moe Yan Naing testified in court that Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko had ordered the officers to \u201centrap\u201d the journalists by planting \u201csecret\u201d documents on them. The Myanmar authorities later convicted Police Captain Moe Yan Naing of violating the &nbsp;Myanmar Police Force Maintenance of Discipline Law. The authorities charged him under Section 16(b), which prohibits police from neglecting \u201cto obey any general, local or other order issued in writing,\u201d and Section 22, which prohibits police from engaging in \u201cany act or omission which\u2026is pre-judicial to good order and police discipline.\u201d These violations carry sentences of up to one year in prison.<br><br>Police Captain Moe Yan Naing remains in prison today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SAI_1084-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Kyaw Soe Oo escorted by police officers out of Yangon court. \u00a9Mar Naw, 2018\" class=\"wp-image-1197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SAI_1084-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SAI_1084-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SAI_1084-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SAI_1084-1568x1045.jpg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Kyaw Soe Oo escorted by police officers out of Yangon court. \u00a9Mar Naw, 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On January 10, in response to the&nbsp;<em>Reuters&nbsp;<\/em>investigation of the Inn Dinn massacre, the Myanmar military admitted in a statement that security forces and villagers captured and summarily executed ten \u201cBengali terrorists\u201d\u2014a pejorative term for Rohingya Muslims\u2014and buried them in a mass grave near Inn Dinn, claiming that \u201cethnic Buddhist villagers were threatened and provoked by the terrorists.\u201d This marked the military\u2019s first admission of wrongdoing against Rohingya in Rakhine State since major military operations began in October 2016.<br>&nbsp;<br>On April 11, a Myanmar military court also reportedly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-myanmar-rohingya-military\/seven-myanmar-soldiers-sentenced-to-10-years-for-rohingya-massacre-idUSKBN1HH2ZS\">convicted seven soldiers<\/a>&nbsp;for their involvement in the Inn Dinn killings.&nbsp;An independent U.N. Fact-Finding Mission was \u201cunable to ascertain whether the rare soldiers convicted of serious crimes actually serve their sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>\u201cA free press is non-negotiable,\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;said Matthew Smith.&nbsp;<em>\u201cThe government fears and distrusts the media and is attempting to control it by force, regardless of basic human rights. This case is an affront to rule of law.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image-from-iOS-1-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Activists and media surround the police truck taking Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to prison after being convicted by a court in Yangon. \u00a9Cape Diamond 2018\" class=\"wp-image-1198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image-from-iOS-1-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image-from-iOS-1-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image-from-iOS-1-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image-from-iOS-1-1-1568x1176.jpg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Activists and media surround the police truck taking Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to prison after being convicted by a court in Yangon. \u00a9Cape Diamond 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In July, Fortify Rights&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortifyrights.org\/downloads\/Fortify_Rights_Long_Swords_July_2018.pdf\">published a 160-page report<\/a>&nbsp;detailing how Myanmar authorities made \u201cextensive and systematic preparations\u201d for attacks against Rohingya civilians that constituted genocide and crimes against humanity, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. Myanmar Army soldiers led massacres, mass rape, and mass arson attacks against Rohingya civilians. On September 18, the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission released a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/HRBodies\/HRC\/MyanmarFFM\/Pages\/ReportoftheMyanmarFFM.aspx\">444-page report<\/a>&nbsp;calling for an international criminal tribunal to investigate and prosecute senior Myanmar military officials for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.<br>&nbsp;<br>Last week, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ushmm.org\/information\/press\/press-releases\/museum-finds-compelling-evidence-genocide-was-committed-against-rohingya-warns-of-continued-threat\">United States Holocaust Memorial Museum<\/a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicinternationallawandpolicygroup.org\/rohingya-report\">Public Interest Law and Policy Group<\/a>&nbsp;each recognized that Myanmar authorities committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya in Myanmar.<br>&nbsp;<br>The U.N. Security Council should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or create an&nbsp;<em>ad hoc<\/em>&nbsp;tribunal to investigate and prosecute the full spectrum of atrocity crimes in Myanmar, including crimes in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states, said Fortify Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>\u201cImpunity for mass atrocity crimes reverberates internationally and is a detriment to the world,\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>said Matthew Smith.&nbsp;<em>\u201cJournalism is not a crime but genocide is, and it should be prosecuted in an independent and impartial international court.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One-year anniversary of the arbitrary detention of Reuters journalists","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"publications":[8],"strategy":[37],"country":[48],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - 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