MYANMAR’S SUU KYI FACES NEW CHARGES AS VIOLENCE CONTINUES

Fri 04 February 2022:

Military government in Myanmar has filed an eleventh corruption accusation against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the latest in a series of charges against the Nobel laureate, who faces a prison sentence of more than 150 years.

The new case was announced on Thursday, as the military allegedly conducted further attacks on civilians in the northern Sagaing district, burning up to 400 houses and causing thousands of people to escape.

According to the military’s media team, police have filed a new corruption accusation against Aung San Suu Kyi for allegedly accepting $550,000 as a donation for a charity foundation named after her mother.

The statement didn’t say when the court proceedings would start.

According to a local monitoring group, Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, has been held since the February 1 coup, which sparked large protests and a brutal assault on dissent, killing over 1,500 civilians.

She’s already been sentenced to six years in prison for inciting military retaliation, violating COVID-19 guidelines, and violating a telecommunications statute, though she’ll be housed while she fights additional accusations.

Each charge of corruption carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Aung San Suu Kyi is already on trial for violating the official secrets act, as well as various other corruption-related accusations, alongside detained Australian researcher Sean Turnell.

The military administration stated this week that she will stand trial again in mid-February on charges of manipulating the country’s election commission during the 2020 elections, in which her party defeated a military-aligned competitor.

The military has retaliated against those who have opposed the coup since last year.

On Thursday, reports surfaced that government forces had burned down hundreds of homes in two villages in the country’s northwestern region this week, ostensibly in search of members of an armed anti-coup militia.

The same attacks were reported by Radio Free Asia’s Myanmar service in the northern region, with up to 10,000 people forced to abandon their homes.

In counterinsurgency operations, Myanmar’s army has a reputation for using arson as a tactic.

Troops in Myanmar’s embattled Sagaing region burned down more than 400 homes in two villages they accuse of providing a haven for anti-junta forces, forcing an estimated 10,000 civilians to flee, residents said.https://t.co/aPsCpTiCkp

— Radio Free Asia (@RadioFreeAsia) February 3, 2022

Troops are believed to have burned down as many as 200 villages in a brutal 2017 campaign in western Rakhine state that drove more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya villagers to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh.

The army has been accused of crimes against humanity and genocide for its actions against the Rohingya, which also included the killings and rapes of civilians.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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