Myanmar govt official arrested for remarks about Suu Kyi

Official Aye Min Soe from Salin Township’s National League for Democracy office filed a complaint against Tun Min Lat, deputy officer-in-charge for the township’s planning office, at the Salin Township Police Station.

Tun Min Lat, who has a Facebook account under his name, posted the offensive remarks about Suu Kyi on June 18, calling her ‘Kalar Ma’, meaning ‘dark-skinned woman’ or ‘mother of the dark skinned’.   

“We first wanted him to apologise publicly for that and not to do it again. But people from the township repeatedly called us and insisted [that we penalise him], so we had to make a decision through a executive committee meeting at the party office to open a case against him. Today, police came to acquire a witness testimony from Thein Aung, chairman of the Minbu District NLD office,” said MP Thet Khaing from Salin.

“We first discussed just accepting an apology from him. But later, we opened a case against him because the public called for action against him,” said MP Tin Aung Tun.

The arrest took place amid brewing conflicts over the naming of Muslims in the area. Buddhist extremists last weekend took to the street, lamenting the NLD's call for Rohingya Muslims to be referred to as the ‘Muslim community in Rakhine’.