Myanmar court jails seven soldiers

Reuters journalists' appeal rejected

FE Team | Published: April 12, 2018 00:24:55

Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to "10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area" for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in northwestern Rakhine state last September, the army said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.
The military said in a statement published on Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing's office Facebook page that seven soldiers have had "action taken against them" for "contributing and participating in murder".
The massacre was being investigated by two Reuters journalists - Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 - who were subsequently arrested in December and are still behind bars facing charges of violating the country's Official Secrets Act.
The Rohingya men from the northern Rakhine village of Inn Din were buried in a mass grave in early September after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors and soldiers. Reuters published its story on the murder in February.
The murders were part of a larger army crackdown on the Rohingya, beset by allegations of murder, rape, arson and looting, unleashed in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces in late August. The United Nations and the United States described it as ethnic cleansing - an accusation which Myanmar denies.
AFP adds: A Myanmar court on Wednesday rejected a motion to drop a case against two Reuters journalists arrested while investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, even as seven soldiers were given lengthy sentences for their role in the killings.
Reporters Wa Lone, 32 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27 were detained in December and accused of violating the country's Official Secrets Act for possessing material relating to security operations in conflict-hit Rakhine state.
The two reporters have been held in Yangon's Insein prison since their arrest while facing hearings to determine whether the case will go to trial, with 17 out of 25 witnesses having given testimony.