Hsipaw court returns items confiscated from 3 journalists
The trio – DVB’s Aye Nai and Pyae Phone Aung, and The Irrawaddy’s Lawi Weng – were arrested at a checkpoint while returning from TNLA territory.
The trio – DVB’s Aye Nai and Pyae Phone Aung, and The Irrawaddy’s Lawi Weng – were arrested at a checkpoint while returning from TNLA territory.
“The case has finally come to an end. This is such an auspicious day.”
Relief workers say that these internally displaced persons are urgently in need of blankets and warm clothing as the cold season sets in.
Lead Story News Peace Process Shan
“The IDPs are being repatriated as calm gradually returns to the area,” a Shan MP tells DVB.
The state government accuses the Shan army of contravening a state-level agreement outlining areas of control and prompting hostilities with Burmese troops.
Clashes between Tatmadaw troops and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) flared in three northern Shan State townships on Wednesday, the ethnic armed group has announced.
The formal withdrawal of charges in the high-profile “unlawful association” case involving three journalists and three others in Shan State’s Hsipaw Township was postponed on Monday, with the legal bureaucracy delaying their official exoneration for another several days.
In a surprise Friday announcement, the Tatmadaw said that it will be dropping charges it had brought against six journalists, including a high-profile “unlawful association” case it had brought against two reporters from DVB and one from The Irrawaddy news outlet.
Bail was denied for a second time on Friday at the fourth hearing in the case of three journalists and three other defendants facing charges at a court in Shan State under Burma’s Unlawful Associations Act.
The third hearing in the case of a trio of detained journalists and three civilians on charges of “unlawful association” was held on Friday, with two of the prosecution’s witnesses failing to appear before the court despite being scheduled to do so.
Three journalists and three other defendants facing charges under Burma’s Unlawful Associations Act were denied bail Friday at their second hearing in Hsipaw Township, Shan State, where the high-profile case continued and the defendants’ detention stretched into its sixth week.
The trial of three journalists and three other men accused of “unlawful association” with an ethnic armed group began in earnest on Friday, with a court in Hsipaw Township, Shan State, taking testimony from the case’s plaintiff, an army major.
A member of the Lower House of Parliament has submitted an urgent proposal to denounce the findings of Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma. The proposal was approved for further discussion by Lower House Speaker Win Myint.
Human Rights International Relations Lead Story News
UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee offered stern words for the Burmese government on Friday evening, urging it to reconsider its refusal to issue visas to a UN fact-finding mission tasked with probing alleged human rights abuses in Arakan State and elsewhere in Burma.
The judge apparently has to attend a training workshop on 21 July and is therefore unable to be in court that day.
Conflict Ethnic issues Lead Story News
Ethnic rebels refute allegations, and say the Burmese military is “spreading lies”. KIA spokesman says the campaign is a veiled threat against the local population.
A impromptu remand hearing was called today court for three journalists who were arrested last week in Shan State.
Legal experts suggest that the case brought against three detained journalists who are being charged under Burma’s Unlawful Associations Act lacks a sound basis upon which to pursue prosecution, given the specifics of the colonial-era legislation’s provisions.
The European Union on Monday urged Burma to protect journalists from “intimidation, arrest or prosecution” after several cases of reporters running into trouble with the law, including three detained by the army last week.
“All three journalists are in good health. What they really need is food. Aye Naing can eat the food here, but the two younger journalists cannot stomach it.”
The Irrawaddy’s Lawi Weng and DVB’s Aye Nai and Pyae Phone Aung, along with three civilians, were charged today under the Unlawful Association Act.
Three journalists detained on Monday have been formally charged for ‘Unlawful Association’ and have been thrown in prison just after noon today.
Ethnic issues Lead Story Military News
“Out of each three boys, they had to draw lots to determine which one would have to join the militia.”
Conflict Ethnic issues Lead Story News
One civilian was killed on Tuesday and hundreds more were displaced in northern Shan State’s Kyaukme district as fighting broke out between the Shan State Army-South, a nationwide ceasefire agreement signatory group, and the non-signatory Ta’ang National Liberation Army.
The market in the northern Shan State town of Namlan was devastated by fire on Sunday.
A local villager in central Shan state’s Monghsu Township was reported dead as the Burmese Army launched attack on the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) in the area on Wednesday, according[…]
The group also reportedly called for the Tatmadaw to release two villagers who were detained during a raid on a SSA-S facility in the village of Panpwe.
The Singapore-based hotel and flight booking agent has announced a list of its top ten Asian destinations that are seeing the fastest growth in visitors from Europe.
Conflict Lead Story Natural resources News
A new report alleges that a recent Burmese army offensive in Shan State was linked to coal-mining operations opposed by local people.
“They claimed that three or four villagers from Wanmai were abducted by the Palaung armed group [TNLA] and yet to return.”