A court in Yangon issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for a well-known nationalist publisher and former Tatmadaw officer who said in speech that it would be “cool” if government staffers died in bomb attacks.
Hla Swe, also known as ‘Bullet Hla Swe’, is wanted on charges of sedition relating to the August 3 speech, in which he spuriously implied the possibility of a US military invasion of Myanmar.
“If Americans bombed the secretariat building, president’s office, government offices or state counsellor’s office… just watch what would happen then,” he told a crowd during a protest against recent US sanctions against top military officials.
“Come and bomb,” he added. “Let all the people from the government and secretariat offices die, that’d be cool.”
Section 124a of the Penal Code punishes bringing the government into hatred or contempt with a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine.
The anti-Muslim monk Wirathu is wanted under the same law after making speeches attacking the government.
Rights advocates have raised concerns that the government has targeted him not for his hate speech against minority Muslims but for criticising the authorities.
A different Yangon court has accepted a separate complaint against Hla Swe for insulting religion at the same rally, where he said that the Prophet Mohammad would bomb the US embassy if they posted insulting images of him.
He was referring to a recent controversy in which the US embassy shared an image of a piece of environmentalist art that depicted the Buddha wearing a gas mask.
Mufti U San Aung, an Islamic scholar who filed the complaint, told Myanmar Now he took legal action because he feared Hla Swe’s speech could inflame tensions between Buddhists and Muslims.
“What I’m really concerned about is that both communities could somehow explode if this isn’t brought under control using the law,” he said.
Hla Swe, 59, also faced legal trouble in July after making disparaging remarks about a new political party set up by former Lower House speaker Shwe Mann.
Hla Swe retired from the Tatmadaw as a lieutenant colonel in 2006 and later became an MP for the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.
He is also the publisher of the ultranationalist Bullet News Journal.
