Myanmar
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Second suspect arrested in case of Ko Ni’s killing
A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the high-profile assassination of Ko Ni, a top legal adviser for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Burma’s President’s Office announced Friday night. The man, named Aung Win Zaw, 46, is accused of being an accomplice of Kyi Linn, who was arrested after allegedly shooting dead Ko Ni at close range with a pistol in the compound of Rangoon International Airport on Sunday evening. Police apprehended Aung Win Zaw on a bridge over the Salween River in Karen State at 4:20 p.m. on Monday, but his arrest had not been announced until now. Police arrested Kyi Linn, 53, outside the airport compound within minutes of the killing. Police officers and a former fellow prisoner have told Myanmar Now that two suspects had committed crimes together in the past and served lengthy prison sentences in Obo Prison in Mandalay for smuggling Buddha statues to neighbouring countries. They were released in a presidential amnesty in 2014, the sources said. Kyi Linn also served an earlier sentence for the same crime in the late 1980s. Aung Soe, 51, a former fellow inmate at Obo Prison, had told a Myanmar Now reporter on Monday evening — a…
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As Thein Sein exits, his reform legacy gains mixed reviews
Shortly after newly elected President Htin Kyaw completed a swearing-in ceremony in Burma’s parliament on Wednesday morning, the country’s new leader, a “proxy” of National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, headed to the Presidential Residence in Naypyidaw. In its stately diplomatic hall, Htin Kyaw met outgoing President Thein Sein. An aired video recording of the hand-over ceremony shows Thein Sein, silent and emotionless, give his presidential sash to his successor and quickly exit the building. It was a quiet event that marked the end of the historic and tumultuous five-year presidential term of Thein Sein. He was believed to have been handpicked by former military supremo Than Swe to carry out Burma’s democratic transition under quasi-civilian rule. Thein Sein’s presidency has drawn mixed reviews, with most observers acknowledging its dramatic democratic reforms, while many criticise its continued repression, outbreaks of communal violence and conflict, and limited socio-economic progress. ‘Myanmar Spring’ “This was ‘Myanmar Spring, Burma Spring’,” Zaw Htay, the director of the President’s Office, said in a recent interview, favourably comparing Thein Sein’s reforms and smooth handover of power with the violence that followed the “Arab Spring” revolutions in the Middle East. “The president had to accommodate…
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‘Rohingya calendar’ men appear in court
Five people who were sent to jail for their involvement in printing a calendar that stated that Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic-religious minority in Burma made a brief appearance at Rangoon’s Pazundaung Township Court on Tuesday. On 23 November the men – two Buddhists and three Muslims – were fined US$800 each under the 2014 Printing and Publishing Law’s Article 4, which bars individuals from publishing materials that could damage national security and law and order. The following day they were sent to Rangoon’s Insein Prison after also being charged with the Penal Code’s Article 505 (b). The charge, which carries a prison sentence for publishing information that may “cause public fear or alarm,” was widely used during junta rule to incarcerate political prisoners. At Tuesday’s hearing, a police officer who acts as plaintiff in the case told the judge that police are still seeking a Muslim man named Aung Khin for allegedly ordering the printing assignment. Judge Nay Aung Myi set the next hearing date for 9 December before the defendants were quickly taken back to jail. [related] Kyaw Kyaw, the Buddhist owner of the publishing house, was led away handcuffed. Asked what he thought of the case, he only said, “I don’t know. I don’t know.” The government denies the…
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Pro-nationalist sentiment dismissed on election day
In both Burma and abroad, the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) landslide election win is seen as a victory of the people over the military and its ruling political elite. It’s a price the army had to pay after subjecting the population to decades of repression. The public’s message was a clear call for democratic change, a mandate for which was given first and foremost to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet, the crushing defeat of the military-backed governing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) also signals another message – it was an outright dismissal of the extremist nationalist “Buddhist” movement called Ma-Ba-Tha. It had been whipping up nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment. In the run-up to the elections the group – which enjoyed the support of President Thein Sein’s government – launched relentless campaigns against the NLD and Suu Kyi, while endorsing the USDP. Authorities looked the other way as the monks concocted a toxic mix of religion and politics, acts that directly violate the constitution. The monks pointed out that Suu Kyi had a foreign spouse and that her NLD party objected to Ma-Ba-Tha’s four ‘race and religion’ laws. They spread fear among the public, saying that the Buddhist-majority…
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Myanmar public dismisses Buddhist nationalism with a ballot
In both Myanmar and abroad, the National League for Democracy’s landslide election win is seen as a victory of the people over the military and its ruling political elite. It’s a price the army had to pay after subjecting the population to decades of repression. The public’s message was a clear call for democratic change, a mandate for which was given first and foremost to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yet, the crushing defeat of the military-backed governing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) also signals another message; it was an outright dismissal of the extremist nationalist “Buddhist” movement called Ma Ba Tha. It had been whipping up nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment. In the run-up to the elections the group – which enjoyed the support of President Thein Sein’s government – launched relentless campaigns against the NLD and Suu Kyi, while endorsing the USDP. Authorities looked the other way as the monks concocted a toxic mix of religion and politics, acts that directly violate the constitution. The monks pointed out that Suu Kyi had a foreign spouse and that her NLD party objected to Ma Ba Tha’s four ‘race and religion’ laws. They spread fear among the public, saying…
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