Today, we at Jewish World Watch are celebrating a momentous and long-awaited human rights victory: Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been released from prison in Myanmar (also known as Burma) after being imprisoned for more than 500 days! Despite recently losing their final appeal before the Supreme Court, in a surprising turn of events, President Win Myint pardoned the two men as part of Myanmar’s New Year’s amnesty custom.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were honored for their reporting, bravery, and sacrifice with a Pulitzer Prize last month. “I’m really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues,” Wa Lone told reporters as he exited the prison. “And I can’t wait to go to my newsroom.”
“I can’t wait to go to my newsroom.”
The two men have become a symbol of the intractability of the Myanmar regime in the face of mounting evidence of its role in perpetrating genocide and other mass atrocities against the Rohingya population, which suffered decades of persecution and statelessness before the Tatmadaw began an annihilation campaign that caused more than 750,000 people, mostly women and children, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in squalid, overcrowded camps to this day. Ann Strimov Durbin, JWW’s Director of Advocacy and Grantmaking, recently visited the camps as part of JWW’s efforts to bring awareness to and identify means of supporting the survivors of the world’s newest genocide.
The two Reuters journalists were arrested while uncovering a massacre of 10 men related to the August 2017 crackdown by the Myanmar security apparatus, known as the Tatmadaw, against the Rohingya Muslim minority population of North Rakhine state. They were falsely accused and imprisoned for violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, despite evidence during the trial demonstrating that documents had been planted on them during a meeting with police officials.
Since their incarceration began, JWW has adamantly called for their unconditional release and exoneration. JWW staff and our constituents brought the plight of the journalists to numerous elected officials, on several occasions being the first to alert policymakers of the journalists’ rights-effacing imprisonment. With our assistance, several electeds worked together to create a letter calling the violations perpetrated against the Rohingya peoples genocide and demanding the journalists’ immediate release.
Many organizations and government officials maintained steady and unfaltering pressure on Myanmar to see this day come to fruition. We stand in solidarity with Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their families, inspired by the sacrifices they have made to speak truth to power. Today marks a highpoint for press freedom in a time when it is increasingly threatened through violence or suppression.
We also hope that this is a sign of goodwill on the part of the Myanmar regime — a small step towards accepting some level of accountability for the atrocities to which the Rohingya have been subjected. Until now, the Tatmadaw and civilian leadership have denied any wrongdoing and refused to cooperate with any investigative or justice-seeking mechanisms. Whether their release marks a one-off capitulation or a turning point for the Rohingya as a whole, JWW and our supporters will continue fighting as fiercely as ever for the dignified survivorship of the 1 million Rohingya currently in the camps of Cox’s Bazar and the hundreds of thousands that remain vulnerable in North Rakhine. We are emboldened by this important victory, but the endgame remains the finding of a solution to the purgatorial situation the Rohingya currently face in the camps; restoring their dignity and rights; developing a sustainable and rights-respecting plan for their lives moving forward; and, making sure that justice is served.
The field of genocide and mass atrocity awareness and prevention has few tangible victories, but this is one. We are a community committed to shining a light on situations that most people would rather not think about. We are a community compelled to empower affected populations to move from merely surviving to thriving. Let today’s success remind us that if we refuse to stand idly by and ring the alarm as loudly as possible, those who abuse power will be forced to listen.
You can support the Rohingya people by urging your Senators to support the Burma Human Rights and Freedom Act (S.1186).
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