Myanmar - The African Mirror

Dec

2021

The trials of Aung San Suu Kyi, from heroine to villain to convict

PUT on trial by the generals who overthrew her elected government in a coup that cut short democratic reforms she had fought for decades to bring about, Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison. The 76-year-old's sentence was later reduced to two years' detention in an undisclosed location after she was convicted of incitement and violations of a law on natural disasters in the first verdicts in more than a dozen criminal cases filed against her since the Feb. 1 military takeover. Just 14 months before the coup, she had…

Dec

2021

By The African Mirror

U.N. rights boss Bachelet denounces Suu Kyi conviction in ‘sham trial’

WORLD

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has denounced a four-year jail term handed down to Myanmar's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a "sham trial" and called for her immediate release. The conviction of Suu Kyi "closes yet another door to political dialogue" in Myanmar, where the military took power on Feb. 1, and "will only deepen rejection of the coup", Bachelet said in a statement in Geneva. A court jailed Suu Kyi for four years on Monday on charges of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions, said a source in a case that critics described as "farcical".…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi on trial, thanks people for birthday wishes

WORLD

MYANMAR’S deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi has thanked people for birthday greetings, in a message she sent through her lawyer while standing trial accused of crimes that could see her jailed for up to 15 years. "They made birthday wishes for her and told her about the countrywide and worldwide birthday-wishing events for her," Suu Kyi's chief lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said in a text message, describing the defence team's meeting with her. "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told the lawyers to convey her thanks and share her wishes for the people," he said, using the Myanmar honorific. Suu…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Songs, stories, pottery: Refugees preserve their heritage in digital archives

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

RINA CHANDRAN SOLIMA Khatun has been a refugee six times in her long life. She first left her home in Myanmar during the Second World War, and most recently in 2017 - when relatives had to carry her as they fled to Bangladesh with nearly one million other Rohingyas. Khatun - who is believed to be aged over 100 - lives along with some 700,000 Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong, the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Most fled religious and ethnic persecution in neighbouring Myanmar with few possessions. Khatun took a locket and a loda, a spouted brass…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

United Nations calls for halt of weapons to Myanmar

WORLD

MICHELLE NICHOLS THE United Nations General Assembly has called for a stop to the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to respect November election results and release political detainees, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The General Assembly adopted a resolution with the support of 119 countries several months after the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in a February 1 coup. Belarus requested the text be put to a vote and was the only country to oppose it, while 36 abstained, including China and Russia. "The risk of a large-scale civil war is real,"…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar protesters decry arrests, beatings as junta fights for control

WORLD

MYANMAR security forces fired shots and arrested about 30 people at an anti-coup rally in the country's second-biggest city yesterday, witnesses said, as protesters defy a months-long crackdown by a junta struggling to impose order. Chaos erupted in Mandalay, a hotbed of anti-military sentiment, when plainclothes police emerged from vehicles minutes into a protest, firing guns and beating demonstrators who fell as hundreds fled, according to four witnesses, who said they saw about 30 people arrested. "There are no words to describe their cruelty," Aung Pyae Sone Phyo, 21, a protest leader, told Reuters. "They used enormous force to crack…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Some 200 rights groups push for U.N. arms embargo on Myanmar

WORLD

MICHELLE NICHOLS MORE than 200 civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have called on the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar to help protect civilians peacefully protesting a military coup. Since the military seized power on February 1 and ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar has seen daily protests and a surge of violence with security forces killing hundreds of civilians. "Imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar is the minimum necessary step the Security Council should take in response to the military's escalating violence,"…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar rebels say they downed helicopter, pro-junta official killed

WORLD

AN ethnic rebel group in Myanmar said it had shot down a military helicopter yesterday as fighting in the country's northern and eastern frontier regions intensified following an army coup. Domestic media also reported that a junta-appointed local administrator had been stabbed to death in the main city, Yangon. Violence has spiralled since the February 1 coup, with at least 766 civilians reported killed by security forces and increasing confrontation with ethnic armies on Myanmar's fringes and junta opponents in the cities and countryside. The United Nations estimates that tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes to escape…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar seeks murder, treason charges against protest leader

WORLD

MYANMAR authorities are seeking to file charges of murder and treason against one of the main leaders of the protest campaign against military rule, according to the state broadcaster. Wai Moe Naing was arrested on April 15 when security men rammed him with a car as he led a motorbike protest rally in the central town of Monywa. Myanmar Television, in its main evening news bulletin, broadcast a list of charges being sought against him, including murder and treason, that it said had been filed with police. Wai Moe Naing, a 25-year-old Muslim, has emerged as one of the most…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

China, Myanmar and others criticised in report on rising religious persecution

RELIGION

PHILLIP PULLELLA VIOLATIONS of religious freedom are increasing and persecution takes place in more than 25 countries, with China and Myanmar among those that have the worst records, according to a report by a Vatican-backed charity. The Religious Freedom in the World Report, covering 2019-2020 and issued on Tuesday, said that in some countries, such as Niger, Turkey and Pakistan, prejudices against religious minorities led local residents to blame them for the COVID-19 pandemic and denial of access to medical aid. The 800-page report was prepared by Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), a worldwide Catholic charity that…