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MYANMAR-POLITICS-MILITARY
BBC journalist ‘missing’ as junta crackdown triggers Yangon exodus
YANGON, March 19, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A Burmese journalist with the BBC’s
Myanmar language news service went “missing” on Friday, as civilians fled the
coup-hit country’s largest city after the junta’s deadly crackdown on
dissent.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung
San Suu Kyi on February 1, triggering a mass uprising that security forces
have sought to crush with a campaign of violence and fear.
The junta has also gone after the country’s press corps, revoking the
licenses of five independent local broadcasting services, raiding newsrooms,
and arresting journalists working to cover the news.
On Friday, the BBC’s official press Twitter account released a statement
on its “missing” journalist, Aung Thura.
“We are extremely concerned about our BBC News Burmese Reporter, Aung
Thura, who was taken away by unidentified men,” it said.
The British broadcaster said he disappeared around midday, and that it was
doing everything it could to locate him.
“We call on the authorities to help locate him and confirm that he is
safe,” the statement added.
Local media outlet Mizzima also said that one of its reporters, Than Htike
Aung, was “arrested” in the capital Naypyidaw on Friday, according to its
official Facebook page.
The two reporters were together when they were taken.
Since the coup, more than 30 journalists have been arrested, according to
the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.
Among the detained is Thein Zaw, a photojournalist with the Associated
Press, who has been charged with “causing fear, spreading false news or
agitating directly or indirectly a government employee”.
– ‘Turn into a pile of ash’ –
Even as security forces have deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and live
rounds to quell dissent, demonstrators across the country have pushed on to
demand a return to democracy.
On Friday, at least two more protesters were killed in a small trading
town in northeastern Myanmar, a funeral home employee told AFP by phone.
He added that more had died, but “we have not picked up the bodies because
there is still shooting”.
In neighbouring Kayah state, a bystander was killed when security forces
opened fire on a protest, a rescue worker told AFP.
The fresh violence brings the death toll in Myanmar since the coup to near
230, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
monitoring group.
Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital and commercial hub, remains one of the
key spots of unrest — with the junta imposing martial law over six townships
this week.
The move effectively puts nearly two million people under the direct
control of military commanders.
But much of Yangon has descended into chaos, with security forces
patrolling and opening fire randomly in residential areas — like Tamwe and
Thaketa, both hard-hit protest areas, on Friday.
A Facebook video shot by a Tamwe resident — verified by AFP — showed
dozens of soldiers and police opening fire repeatedly and slowly stalking
down a street as they shouted at people to “come out”.
“We will turn your whole quarter into a pile of ash!” they threatened. “Do
you want to see your whole quarter turned into a pile of ash?”
Several terrified residents told AFP they have either left Yangon already
or are planning to leave for rural areas.
“I no longer feel safe and secure anymore — some nights I am not able to
sleep,” a resident near one of the districts where security forces have
killed protesters this week told AFP.
“I am very worried that the worst will happen next.”
One resident told AFP he feared being shot by security forces, who had
been threatening people if they did not clear barricades.
“We are like house rats searching for something to eat in another person’s
kitchen,” said one man who described the fear of leaving his house this week
to get milk for his two children.
Mobile data across Myanmar has also been down since Monday, plunging those
without Wifi into an information blackout.
Foreign ambassadors — including the US and former colonial power Britain
— said Friday in a statement that the “brutal violence against unarmed
civilians… is immoral and indefensible”.
– Preparing for refugees –
Across the Myanmar border in Thailand’s Tak province, authorities said
they were preparing shelters for an influx of potential refugees.
“If many Myanmar people flow across the border because of an urgent case,
we have prepared the measures… to receive them,” said provincial governor
Pongrat Piromrat.
He said Tak province would be able to support about 30,000 to 50,000
people, though he confirmed that no one appears to have flooded across the
border yet.
About 90,000 refugees from Myanmar already live along the porous border,
fleeing decades of civil war between the military and ethnic armed groups.
The junta has repeatedly justified the power seizure by alleging
widespread electoral fraud in November’s elections, which Suu Kyi’s National
League for Democracy (NLD) party swept in a landslide.
BSS/AFP/RY/1910hrs