Myanmar Soldiers, Aiming to Silence Protests, Target Journalists

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Richard C. Paddock
April 2, 2021

Covering a protest battle in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Three photojournalists have been shot and wounded while taking photographs of the anti-coup demonstrations.Credit...The New York Times

Ten days after seizing power in Myanmar, the generals issued their first command to journalists: Stop using the words “coup,” “regime” and “junta” to describe the military’s takeover of the government. Few reporters heeded the Orwellian directive, and the junta embraced a new goal — crushing all free expression.

Since then, the regime has arrested at least 56 journalists, outlawed online news outlets known for hard-edge reporting and crippled communications by cutting off mobile data service. Three photojournalists have been shot and wounded while taking photographs of the anti-coup demonstrations.

Two Former Myanmar Soldiers Say They Helped Kill Up to 180 Rohingya People

VICE 

by Joe Freeman
08 September 2020 

This is the first time former members of Myanmar's military have admitted mass atrocities against Rohingya and is seen as a "huge development" in human rights cases filed against the country's top generals.

Smoke billows above what is believed to be a burning village in Myanmar's Rakhine state as members of the Rohingya Muslim minority take shelter in a no-man's land between Bangladesh and Myanmar in Ukhia on Sept. 4, 2017. Photo: K.M. ASAD / AFP

Two former soldiers from Myanmar admitted to taking part in the killing of up to 180 Rohingya men, women and children during a crackdown on the Muslim minority in 2017, a prominent rights group said Tuesday, September 8, releasing explosive testimony that is unprecedented as it comes from onetime members of the deeply secretive military.

In video testimony obtained by NGO Fortify Rights, Private Myo Win Tun said he executed people during operations that started in August 2017 in northern Rakhine state and that one of his commanders ordered soldiers to “exterminate all kalar,” a derogatory reference to Muslims in Myanmar. He also admitted to rape.

“The Muslim men were shot on their foreheads and kicked into the grave,” he said, according to the transcript translation, which was also reported in the New York Times.

Myanmar soldiers admit role in Rohingya genocide directed by senior officers, rights group claims

South China Morning Post
Associated Press
8 Sep, 2020

• The comments appear to be the first public confession by soldiers of involvement in massacres, rape and other crimes against Rohingya Muslims

• More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 2017 to escape what Myanmar’s military called a clearance campaign

A Rohingya refugee carries her child in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo: Reuters

Two soldiers who deserted from Myanmar’s army have testified on video that they were instructed by commanding officers to “shoot all that you see and that you hear” in villages where minority Rohingya lived, a human rights group said on Tuesday.

The comments appear to be the first public confession by soldiers of involvement in army-directed massacres, rape and other crimes against Rohingya Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country.More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017 to escape what Myanmar’s military called a clearance campaign following an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group in Rakhine state. Myanmar’s government has denied accusations that security forces committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes.