Thursday, 18 February 2021, 5:11 pm
The Myanmar military junta has arbitrarily detained
journalists, threatened others into hiding, and dictated
proposed legislation that would severely curb media
freedoms, Fortify Rights said today. The junta arbitrarily
arrested or detained at least nine journalists since a
February 1
coup d’état.
“In
times of crisis like these, media freedom is especially
necessary,” said Ismail Wolff, Regional Director of
Fortify Rights. “
The junta evidently feels threatened
by the truth. Its repressive measures targeting a free and
independent media cannot stand.”
“We were kept in a
prison transport vehicle . . . We were detained at 8:45 p.m.
and let go the next day at around 10:30 a.m.,” one of the
Thousands of people from targeted ethnic minority groups in Myanmar flee into jungle after military coup
In recent weeks, thousands of Karen people have reportedly fled to the jungle to escape a military bombardment of their homes
16 February 2021 • 1:32pm
More than 200 Karen villagers have reportedly been made homeless since Sunday due to military shelling
Credit: David Eubank/Free Burma Rangers
Her head in her hands, an exhausted woman crouches on the muddy forest floor. At her feet, a barefooted infant stares into the distance with a furrowed brow, clutching the remains of a cheap snack. Another child stands in pink cartoon pyjamas – indicating a sudden flight from home.
Police shot 19-year-old woman in the head, injured others (YANGON, February 10, 2021)—The Myanmar military and police should immediately end any use of excessive force against peaceful protesters and ensure the right to peaceful assembly, said .
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On our radar
Aid on hold after Myanmar coup
The fallout from Myanmar’s 1 February coup continues, as the military clamps down on communications and humanitarian groups search for signs of how aid to nearly one million people may be affected. Authorities charged the country’s deposed de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, with allegedly importing walkie-talkies. The military also blocked Facebook, synonymous to the internet for many, and banned virtual private networks, or VPNs, used to circumvent local restrictions. A “civil disobedience” campaign pushing back against the coup has started, but some security forces have been instructed to use force against any protesters, Fortify Rights says, and authorities have arrested nearly 150 people since Monday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Aid groups are still debating how their already fraught relations
Synopsis
In the end, Suu Kyi, 75, could not protect her people, nor could she placate the generals. On Monday, the military, which had ruled the country for nearly five decades, seized power again in a coup, cutting short the governance of her National League for Democracy after just five years.
New York Times
In the years Myanmar was cowed by a military junta, people would tuck away secret photos of Aung San Suu Kyi, talismans of the heroine of democracy who would save her country from a fearsome army even though she was under house arrest.
But after she and her party won historic elections in 2015 and again last year by a landslide cementing civilian government and her own popularity within Myanmar Suu Kyi came to be viewed by the outside world as something altogether different: a fallen patron saint who had made a Faustian pact with the generals and no longer deserved her Nobel Peace Prize.