Suu Kyi must free journos

Suu Kyi must free journos

No country and leader in modern times has risen to the top and plunged to the bottom of world respect so quickly. In just a year, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar have gone from respect to disfavour in most of the world. Last August, the country started an ethnic cleansing campaign against its Rohingya minority that even a UN official called genocide. Now, it has sunk lower with the prosecution of two men for a crime that really has to be called "news reporting while Burmese".

Last week, a judge ruled that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo must go on trial. The two men are reporters for the London-based Reuters news agency. They were arrested while gathering information on a story that was embarrassing to Suu Kyi's government. The government alleges that the two men violated the Official Secrets Act.

There are many troublesome details about this trumped-up case. But arguably the worst concerns the law itself. The Official Secrets Act is a remnant of colonialism. No Myanmar official or parliamentarian had a hand in it. The Act was written entirely by English masters, and used against Myanmar citizens throughout the entire era that the British controlled Burma.

Suu Kyi's administration has used this law that symbolises colonial suppression for good reason. No current Myanmar law criminalises the actions of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. In fact, under the constitution and regulations that made the world admire Myanmar in the past decade, the reporters' actions are legal -- as they are in any country ruled by law instead of repression.

The reporters were the first to discover the bloody slaughter of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a Rakhine state village during the purge that began last August. The effective forced expulsion of about 700,000 Rohingya from their villages is well known. The methods used by the tatmadaw -- the Myanmar army under the command of Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing -- have slowly emerged and horrified everyone who learns about them.

The army massacre at Tula Toll village was horrendous. Soldiers dug a large grave and forced the Rohingya men and boys into it. The troops and non-Muslim villagers then beat and finally shot all 10. The grave was covered over -- a metaphor for hundreds if not thousands of terrible crimes against humanity performed to force the Rohingya exodus, including murder, beating, systematic rape, and the burning of entire villages, crops and animals.

In fact, the story of the massacre did get out. But the report humiliated Suu Kyi and her military ally Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing. It seems someone had to pay for their embarrassment. With no contemporary law to fall back on -- present-day Myanmar supposedly has a free press -- the government decided that exhuming and employing a disused law written by foreign controllers was less humiliating than the embarrassment of a massacre report.

This is a serious failure by a government under well-deserved close scrutiny by the world. From the United Nations on down, there is strong scepticism that Myanmar under the regime of Suu Kyi is serious about taking its place in an orderly world. Under the generals for 50 years, Burma was a cruel dictatorship. Largely thanks to Suu Kyi's admirable actions, it took on the trappings of modern government, working towards democracy, with rule of law.

That vision no longer is a fit description for the government of Nay Pyi Taw. The murderous expulsion of the Rohingya disabused the world of the idea that Myanmar symbolised a democratic miracle. The 700,000 survivors remain perched on the edge of genocide at the border.

The arrest, detention and order for the trial of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are disappointing actions that show an unnecessarily ruthless streak by the government of Suu Kyi. As the first step of redemption for its recent unacceptable actions, the Myanmar government must free the two journalists.

Editorial

Bangkok Post editorial column

These editorials represent Bangkok Post thoughts about current issues and situations.

Email : anchaleek@bangkokpost.co.th

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