YANGON, Myanmar – A rights group called on Myanmar’s government Friday to drop all charges against six men who face up to two years in prison for printing a calendar that used quotes to support the country’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, condemned the “absurd” charges in a statement saying that the case “appears to be part of a campaign to strike the term ‘Rohingya’ from the country’s vocabulary.”
Five of the accused –publisher Kyaw Kyaw Wai and his associates — were taken into custody late last month over a calendar that used what it said were the words of former Myanmar prime minister U Nu to debunk the official view that the Rohingya are not a real ethnic minority.
While the five had previously been arrested and fined $800 earlier in November, the sixth man, Aung Khin, has been in hiding ever since 19 policemen reportedly raided his home at around 2.30 a.m. on Nov. 20.
The calendar has angered Buddhist extremists who regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and insist that they should be referred to as “Bengalis”.
The six men are charged with violating Section 505(b) of the penal code, under which a conviction for producing a document with “intent to cause… fear or alarm to the public” can be punished with a two-year term.
The statement Friday criticized the section for its wording being “overly broad” and its history of being “used as a tool of repression against political activists, human rights defenders, and others.” (Courtesy of Fulton News)
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