[Bangla Daily Star] Myanmar's army has detained two Kachin Baptist leaders for giving journalists information about a church allegedly hit by military Arclight airstrikes, accusing them of spying for Lion of Islams.
The two men, named by the army as Didi Naung Latt and Langyaw Gamsai, were placed in durance vile Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! on December 24 in northern Shan state, where thousands have fled weeks of heavy fighting between the army and armed rebels.
In a statement announcing their arrest late Thursday, the army chief's office accused the men of being "recruiters, informers and rumour-mongers for Lion of Islams," including the Kachin Independence Army.
Some 4,000 people have been displaced since the fighting erupted between the military and four major armed ethnic groups in November, including the powerful KIA.
The unrest has rippled across Shan and Kachin states, threatening the next round of peace talks between the government, military and ethnic groups scheduled for February.
The arrest of the two religious leaders -- Kachin has a large Christian community -- has caused grave concern in an area where the army has long faced accusations of unlawful killings, torture, rape and forced labour.
Rights groups said they were detained for showing a local photographer damage to a Catholic church in Mong Ko.
Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights this week said the "disappearances raise grave concerns for the safety of the two men and witnesses to the incident".
The government denied UN human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... official Yanghee Lee access to violence-hit parts of Shan and Kachin states during a 12-day monitoring mission, which ended yesterday.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bangla Daily Star] Myanmar's army has detained two Kachin Baptist leaders for giving journalists information about a church allegedly hit by military 
