Reuters says reporters detained over Rohingya massacre probe
February 9, 2018
Reuters news agency has published a report by two arrested reporters on the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The news agency says they were arrested because of their investigation and called for their release.
Image: Reuters
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Two Reuters journalists currently in detention in Myanmar were arrested by authorities there because they were investigating a mass execution of minority Rohingya Muslims in the country's Rakhine state, the news agency has said.
Their report, which was released on Friday, details events surrounding the massacre, in which 10 Rohingya men from Inn Din village were hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors or soldiers in September 2017.
It contains graphic pictures of the victims before and after the massacre, along with interviews with Buddhists who admitted to setting Rohingya homes on fire and killing Muslims after Rohingya insurgents attacked security posts last August.
It is the first time that Reuters has publicly confirmed what the two journalists, Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were working on at the time of their arrest two months ago.
"The Reuters investigation of the Inn Din massacre was what prompted Myanmar police authorities to arrest two of the news agency's reporters," the report said, and called for their release.
The two men face up to 14 years in prison on charges under a colonial-era Official Secrets Act of possessing classified documents. Their next hearing is scheduled for February 14.
Human rights groups and diplomats from around the world have also called for their release, but the two have been denied bail.
A month after the journalists were detained, Myanmar's army issued a rare statement taking responsibility for the deaths but claimed that those killed were "Bengali terrorists," reflecting the regime's official stance that the Rohingya are interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.
The Myanmar government has faced international accusations of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign in Rakhine, with nearly 700,000 Rohingya fleeing the area since last August amid reports of atrocities committed by troops and vigilante groups.
Thousands of Rohingya have fled to neigboring BangladeshImage: picture-alliance/abaca
However, Myanmar authorities have denied that they are carrying out ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state, speaking instead of a "clearance operation" that is a legitimate response to insurgent attacks.
The country's de facto leader, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has faced international condemnation for her apparent inaction in the face of the widely alleged reports of atrocities committed against the Rohingya, which the United Nations says might amount to genocide.
Aung San Suu Kyi: From freedom fighter to pariah
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi had the global community rooting for her when she was the world's most famous political prisoner. But in recent years she was accused of standing by while soldiers massacred Rohingya Muslims.
Image: Reuters
Darling of democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated founding father Aung San, returned to her home country in the late 1980s after studying and starting a family in England. She became a key figure in the 1988 uprisings against the country's military dictatorship. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) was victorious in 1990 elections, but the government refused to honor the vote.
Image: dapd
Military rule
Suu Kyi spent 15 of the 21 years between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest. After 1995, the rights advocate was barred from seeing her two sons and husband, Michael Aris, even after the latter was diagnosed with cancer. Aris, seen here displaying an honorary doctorate awarded to his wife, died in 1999.
Image: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP
'The Lady'
Suu Kyi's determination to bring democracy and human rights to her country won her international renown, including the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was so popular that in 2011 famous French director Luc Besson made a biopic of her life starring Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh. Suu Kyi was often called the world's most famous political prisoner.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Seven Media/Doha Film Institute
Sworn in as lawmaker
Decades of campaigning finally paid off, and in 2012 Suu Kyi was allowed to run in free elections. She won a seat in parliament as Myanmar began its transition away from military government. After general elections in 2015, she became the country's de facto civilian leader, although officially she held the post of foreign minister and state counselor — a role akin to prime minister.
Image: AP
Persecution of the Rohingya
Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic group, had their citizenship revoked by Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government in 1982. Long persecuted, their plight intensified in 2016 when Myanmar's military began what it called "clearance" of illegal immigrants. Groups such as Human Rights Watch have described it as "ethnic cleansing." Thousands have died, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Image: Reuters/D. Siddiqui
Fall from grace
When she became state counselor in 2016, Suu Kyi set up a commission to investigate claims of atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi accused the Rohingya of spreading "a huge iceberg of misinformation," and said she was concerned by the "terrorist threat" posed by extremists. Her stance sparked protests in Muslim-majority countries around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/J. Laghari
Nobel no more?
Due to her handling of the Rohingya crisis, Suu Kyi was stripped of various honors and lost much of her international support. The Nobel committee was forced to issue a statement saying that her peace prize could not be revoked. Fellow Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called on Suu Kyi to "stop the violence." Suu Kyi said that outsiders could not grasp the complexities of the situation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A controversial election
In 2020, Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy party won the November 8 general election, with enough seats to form the next government. However, the military's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development party, claimed fraud and demanded a new election supervised by the military. With that came comments alluding to a possible coup. Supporters of the party also marched in protest.
Image: Shwe Paw Mya Tin/REUTERS
Military detains Suu Kyi
Myanmar's civilian leader, along with several of her political allies, were detained in an early morning raid on February 1, 2021 led by the military. The move came amid escalating tensions between the civilian government and army, which had been in control for decades.The junta claimed electoral fraud, announced a yearlong state of emergency and named a former general as acting president.
