MYANMAR DEFENDS SUU KYI’S SILENCE
She doesn’t want to insult judiciary over verdict to jail journos, says official
AGLOBAL outcry over the jailing of two Reuters journalists has been met with silence from Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a stony response that an official defended yesterday as a reluctance to criticise the judiciary.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested while reporting on atrocities committed during the bloody expulsion by the military of some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims last year.
A court here on Monday found them guilty under the Official Secrets Act and handed them each seven years in prison, sparking outrage from the United Nations, European Union and United States, as well as media and rights groups.
Suu Kyi’s silence on this case and the verdict — the sternest test in recent years to free speech in the country — has shredded her reputation even further. Later, the wife of Kyaw Soe Oo, Chit Su Win, 23, made an emotional appeal to Suu Kyi to free her husband.
She broke down in tears as she asked the Nobel laureate to release her husband, the father of their 3-year-old daughter.
“I want my husband to come back. I cry when my daughter asks me why her father is not with us. She asks: ‘Does he not love me?’”
But Aung Hla Tun, a former Reuters journalist who now works for the government as deputy minister of information, defended Suu Kyi’s reticence.
“Criticising the judicial system would be tantamount to contempt of court,” he said.
“I don’t think she will do it.” A whistleblowing policeman had corroborated the defence argument that the reporters had been entrapped by police, who handed them documents over dinner shortly before their arrest. But the judge chose to ignore the testimony.
Lawyers for the pair will appeal the verdict although the lengthy process could take months, if not years. The country’s president, a close ally of Suu Kyi, could also pardon the reporters but experts say any intervention is unlikely.
While the case horrified the West, domestically it garnered little public attention.
State-backed media barely mentioned the verdict yesterday although other papers stood in solidarity with the reporters.
A publication called 7Day Daily branded it a “sad day” for Myanmar and carried a large black rectangle on its front page.
The English version of the
Myanmar Times ran a full frontpage photo of Kyaw Soe Oo, calling the verdict “a blow to press freedom” although its Myanmarlanguage sister paper was more muted, simply urging the overhaul of obsolete laws.
On Facebook, comments were overwhelmingly stacked against the reporters, accusing them of bias and some even calling for a harsher sentence. Offline here, sympathy was easier to find.
“I feel sorry for the journalists,” said businessman Thet Aung Htike. “I hope the president will give them amnesty.”