Politics
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Conflicting accounts of China’s influence on northern armed groups in peace conference
Members of a bloc of ethnic armed groups based along Myanmar’s northern border with China have given conflicting accounts of whether China persuaded them to attend a peace conference in the capital Naypyidaw. Gen Sumlut Gun Maw of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), speaking to local media, denied any Chinese pressure in his decision to attend. He said his aim was to re-establish lines of communication with the Myanmar military and government after several months of intense fighting in Kachin State. However, U Kyi Myint, secretary of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) based in Mongla in eastern Shan State, told Myanmar Now bloc members had been repeatedly urged to attend by Beijing as well as the provincial government in Yunnan, which borders Myanmar. He said senior Chinese officials persuaded them that, “We [the ethnic armed groups] need to discuss our aims at the conference so that everyone will know what our goals are. We will know what we can and cannot get only if we attend the conference. To not attend would be our loss.” The seven-member bloc that includes the KIA and the NDAA remains outside of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signed between the military and 10…
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Lawyers barred from questioning man who shot Ko Ni
Lawyers will not be able to cross-examine U Kyin Lin, the man who gunned down National League for Democracy legal advisor U Ko Ni in January last year, because Kyi Lin claimed his right not to be “examined as a witness” under Myanmar’s Code of Criminal Procedure. He will instead face questions under an ad hoc tribunal of judges, from which lawyers will be barred. Lawyers on both sides of the case fear this will weaken the legal weight and the credibility of his responses. Unlike with witness testimony, the responses won’t be taken under oath. The case has dragged on for more than a year and involved close to 80 witnesses. The man accused of masterminding the assassination, retired Lt-Col Aung Win Khaing, remains at large. Yangon Northern District Court judge U Khin Maung Maung informed Kyi Lin of his right to choose whether to face questions, as “the accused” in the case, under sections 342 (a) and (b) in a hearing on 5 July. Kyi Lin chose to avoid cross-examination. The tribunal will be chaired by judge Khin Maung Maung and will also include Yangon Eastern District judge U Myint Hand and Northern District deputy judge U Ohn…
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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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