Military guilty of felony over killing of journalist, 1990 MPs say
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The military should protect people and their property not shoot journalists, a strongly worded statement from a group of MPs who won seats in the 1990 election said.
The October 27 statement denounced the military for the “illegal” killing of reporter Aung Kyaw Naing, saying the crime was also a violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution, which the military itself drafted in 2008.
An immediate investigation into the killing must be held and the perpetrators of the crime must be identified, the statement said.
The military arrested Aung Kyaw Naing (also known as Par Gyi) in Mon State at the end of September and shot him dead on October 4, the statement said. He was buried without any announcement that he had been killed. The military admitted he had been killed on October 23, after relatives asked about him.
The statement also called the arrest of Aung Kyaw Naing “suspicious”.
People’s lives are in danger because the military is above the law, the statement said. The 1990 MPs won seats in that year’s election but were prevented from taking them because the junta ignored the results of the election. They formed a group earlier this year.
Around 1,000 people staged a peaceful protest near Sule Pagoda in Yangon city centre on Sunday, calling for a probe into the death.
The demonstrators came from more than 30 organisations including farmer unions, student unions, worker unions, 88 Generation Peace and Society, youth organisations and women’s rights organisations, denouncing the military statement over the death of Par Gyi.
Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi from the 88 Group and political activists like former army captain Nay Myo Zin and Moe Thwe gave speeches during the protest.
“Cases like Par Gyi’s happened intentionally. The Army's statement seems controversial. We learnt from his wife there is a fraud in the case. In our country, there seems to be many violent acts like the breakup of monks’ protest in Letpadaungtaung copper mine project areas. It is like making it easy for those holding weapons to bully innocent people. That’s the problem. Myanmar’s constitution also stipulates that if a serviceman commits a crime, the case can be dealt with only by a military court, not any other court,” said Min Ko Naing.
Nay Myo Zin described the killing of Par Gyi ‘destructive’ to the rights of a citizen, blaming the army’s statement for lack of substance - there were no signature and letter number.
“I have learnt that our administrative mechanism and defence organisation do not regard the lives of our citizens even as a leaf,” the former army captain commented.
Zaw Yan, an activist for farmers, said: “Killings are carried out not only by the military but also by police. Due to acts of the authorities, our citizens are imprisoned or killed. But in the case of Par Gyi, he was from the media, from the 88 generation and from a security guard for Aung San Suu Kyi. So, his case has attracted more attention. There were a lot of people in Myanmar who were killed or whose rights were violated”.
