Aung Kyaw Naing, Aung San Suu Kyi’s former bodyguard, died as a result of abuse by the military. His body bears obvious signs of a broken jaw, a caved-in skull and swelling on the torso indicating broken ribs and tow puncture wounds. No signs of gunshot wounds. Growing tensions between the media and the military.

Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The body of Burmese freelance journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, better known as Par Gyi, who was shot dead by the government, bears signs of torture dating back to the hours preceding his death. The was revealed by Ma Thandar his wife, as she outlined the results of the autopsy on her husband's body which was exhumed yesterday from the Kyaikmayaw cemetery, Mond State, in the south-east of Myanmar.

"I could not see the gunshot wounds -  said his wife - but his face was unrecognizable his jaws and teeth were broken, and there were obvious signs of torture".

According to the medical report, the body had a broken skull, two small penetration marks that looked to have been caused by a sharp object and not by gunshots. Several ribs and an ankle also appeared to have been broken.

Lawyer Robert San Aung, the legal representative of the family, said that Par Gyi probably died "as a result of torture," because "there are no signs of gunshot wounds on the body."

Since 2011, Myanmar has begun a slow process of emancipation, after more than 25 years of brutal military dictatorship. However, the story of the murdered journalist raises serious questions about the real changes of the government army, still seen as the "hard power" in the country and also responsible for violence and abuse against civilians, as is the case in Kachin State in the north.

In September Aung Kyaw Naing - who during the 1980s was a bodyguard of Aung San Suu Kyi - was arrested by the military while covering clashes between the army and Karen rebels in Mon State. After his wife's constant demands for information, the army announced last week that he was killed after trying to steal a soldier's gun during an escape attempt.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, media and military are increasingly at loggerheads with regard to the provision of information on security, increasingly seen as a "sensible" subject. In recent months, four journalists and the editor of a magazine were sentenced to 10 years with hard labor in prison, for reporting information on a plant in the central division of Magwe.

 

 

• MYANMAR
• JOURNALIST
• torture
• military
• press
• freedom
• prison