Journalist Died During Army Interogation
transmitted from Media Defense - Southeast Asia
Maesot-based freelance journalist Ko Par Gyi died during interrogation at a
military command. He was arrested by soldiers while he was covering armed
conflicts in Mon State, southeastern Burma. The government army said he was
shot as he attempted to flee. The statement said he was killed on Oct. 4, and that his body had been properly buried near a village. Ko Par Gy or known as Ko Aung Kyaw Naing was a freelance photo journalist in Myanmar.
Ko Par Gy was arrested by Burmese army at the end of September in
Kyaikmaraw Township while covering the news of fighting between DKBA and
government troops. Par Gyi was a former aide of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in
1988-1989 and his wife was also a former political prisoner. His whereabouts as
well as his fate is still unknown.
His wife Than Dar said local authorities,
police and soldiers of Light Infantry Battalion 208, based in Kyaikmayaw, had apprehended the journalist in the town in late September
or early October, and he had not been heard of since.
“I was very worried about whether my
husband is still alive or not,” she said during a press conference held in
Rangoon on Tuesday (7th October) afternoon where she was being supported by human rights
activists.
“They [the army] should show him in public.” Than Dar said.
Mon State Border Affairs Minister, Htay
Myint Aung told to The Irrawaddy that the police had apprehended Aung Kyaw Naing
and then handed him over to local army commanders. “That’s all I know about
that story, he is being detained at the base of battalion 208,” he said.
Than Dar said she visited the battalion 208
base with the help of the Mon National Party, where an army captain claimed his
men had detained the journalist and then handed him over to the Border Affairs
Ministry. A recent visit to the military’s Southeastern Command in Moulmein had
neither helped to clarify the situation.
Than Dar said a police corporal at
Kyaikmayaw Police Station had told her privately that he had seen Aung Kyaw
Naing in custody of the army, and that he appeared to have been beaten.
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