The wife of slain Myanmar journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, who was killed in military custody, has pledged to continue her fight for justice after his case was closed Tuesday without a resolution.
John Zaw, Mandalay, Myanmar June 24, 2015
The wife of slain Myanmar journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, who was killed in military custody, has pledged to continue her fight for justice after his case was closed Tuesday without a resolution.
On Tuesday, a court in Mon state’s Kyaikmayaw Township ruled that the journalist, who is also known as Par Gyi, was shot to death but failed to name anyone responsible. He was arrested in October 2014 while covering clashes between the military and Karen rebels in southeastern Myanmar’s Mon state.
While two soldiers were initially fingered for the crime, in May the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission released a statement saying that a military court had acquitted the pair.
Aung Kyaw Naing’s wife, Ma Thandar, said there were numerous flaws in the case after Tuesday’s verdict. Among the 11 witnesses who attended the hearing Tuesday, the ninth such hearing in a civilian court, were the two acquitted soldiers.
“The court decision is acceptable but the great challenge we are facing is that the military court had acquitted the two soldiers already even before the civilian court’s verdict,” Ma Thandar told ucanews.com on Wednesday.
“The military’s move let me down … but I will continue to fight for the truth and justice as my husband was innocent,” she said.
Ma Thandar also sent an objection letter to the defense minister and commander-in-chief.
“If I don’t receive a reply from them, I will do something after discussions with my lawyers and other advisers.”
Robert San Aung, a prominent human rights lawyer representing Ma Thandar, couldn’t be reached for comment but told the Irrawaddy that they intend to re-submit the case.
Aung Kyaw Naing was a former member of the democracy movement and acted as a security guard for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during mass protests in 1988.
He was gunned down as he tried to flee detention in the town of Kyaikmayaw in Mon state on October 4 of last year, according to a military statement.
A military statement at the time also alleged that Aung Kyaw Naing was not a journalist, but a member of the Klohtoobaw Karen Organization, the political wing of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army.
Aung Kyaw Naing’s body was exhumed from a shallow grave near Kyaikmaraw in November after an outcry that prompted authorities to allow the human rights commission to investigate.
Their report detailed bullet wounds to the skull, chin, torso and legs, but said there was no witness testimony that he was tortured.
The case has added to fears over the erosion of media freedoms won since the country began emerging from outright military rule in 2011.
An Amnesty International report on Myanmar released last Wednesday said Myanmar authorities are intensifying restrictions on media by using threats, harassment and imprisonment.
“What we are seeing in Myanmar today is repression dressed up as progress. Authorities are still relying on the same old tactics-arrests, surveillance, threats and jail time to muzzle those journalists who cover ‘inconvenient’ topics,” Rupert Abbot, Amnesty International’s Research Director for Southeast Asia and Pacific, said in a statement on June 17.