Aung San Suu Kyi's conviction and jail term

The story of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, and her fall from grace.

Aung San Suu Kyi's conviction and jail term

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• The story: Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has had a rough and turbulent life. Suu Kyi, 76, was detained since the desperate generals staged a coup and ousted her government on February 1, 2021, ending the Southeast Asian country's brief period of democracy. She was hit with a series of 'fake' charges, including violating the official secrets act, illegally importing walkie talkies and electoral fraud.
• From four to two: Myanmar's junta chief reduced the jail sentence of Aung San Suu Kyi to two years, after initially doling out four years for incitement against the military and breaching Covid rules. Former president Win Myint was also initially jailed for four years on the same charges, which the US has blasted as an "affront" to justice.

1. The junta chief Min Aung Hlaing later "pardoned" the sentences of both to "two years imprisonment"
2. They would serve their sentences under the house arrest they have been kept under in the capital of Naypyidaw
3. The incitement conviction related to statements Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party published shortly after the coup condemning the generals' takeover
4. The Covid charge is linked to last year's election, which the NLD won in a landslide, but the details are not clear with the government imposing a gag order on the court proceedings.
5. Journalists were barred from attending the special court hearings in Naypyidaw and Suu Kyi's lawyers were recently banned from speaking to the media.
6. A former chief minister was sentenced to 75 years in jail, while a close Suu Kyi aide was jailed for 20.
7. Suu Kyi also faces multiple corruption charges -- each of which carries a possible sentence of 15 years in prison.

• Amnesty's reaction: Amnesty International immediately condemned the original sentences against Suu Kyi. It said that the harsh sentences handed down to Aung San Suu Kyi on these bogus charges are the latest example of the military's determination to eliminate all opposition and suffocate freedoms in Myanmar. The UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the conviction "following a sham trial in secretive proceedings before a military-controlled court is nothing but politically-motivated". UK also criticised the sentence, adding "the arbitrary detention of elected politicians only risks further unrest".
• Coup was correct: The Myanmar military, which has dominated life in Myanmar for decades, has defended its coup, claiming fraud allegations in last year's general election. International pressure on the junta to restore democracy swiftly has shown no sign of knocking the generals off course, and bloody clashes with anti-coup protesters continue across the country.
• Suu Kyi's fall from grace: The world always stood by Suu Kyi in her earlier incarcerations by the junta. That is missing now. Aung San Suu Kyi was a global democracy icon when she was first arrested in 1989. Everyone cheered her; she got the Nobel in 91, India gave her the Nehru award in '93, other honours followed.

1. But then she became a regime enabler. She praised the Tatmadaw soldiers as 'my brothers', saying since her father was the father of the Burmese army, its soldiers were her brethren.
2. In her "Letters from Burma", there was no reference to the Rohingyas (who faced a violent genocide at the hands of the Tatmadaw). For her, they were "Bengalis". But the Rohingyas in Yangon and in Ketupalong didn't understand Bengali.
3. She was part of a trial a the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, in 2019. She outlined decades of tensions between Rakhine’s mainly Rohingya Muslim community and their Buddhist neighbours. She informed that these boiled over on 25 August 2017, when the country’s military – often referred to as the Tatmadaw - carried out a sweeping crackdown against Rohingya communities, in response to deadly attacks on police and security posts by separatists known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
4. The result was the exodus of more than 7,00,000 people to neighbouring Bangladesh, many of whom told UN-appointed independent investigators that they had witnessed targeted violence of extreme brutality. Numerous alleged human rights abuses took place, with the then UN human rights chief describing it as bearing all the hallmarks of a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. But Suu Kyi claimed that "Genocidal intent ‘cannot be only possibility'". It could not be ruled out that the Tatmadaw had used disproportionate force, while also suggesting that “surely, under the circumstances, genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis”. That led to her being labelled a "regime enabler" and losing face in the world.
5. The hearing, brought by The Gambia with the backing of the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, alleged that “…against the backdrop of longstanding persecution and discrimination, from around October 2016 the Myanmar military (the “Tatmadaw”) and other Myanmar security forces began widespread and systematic ‘clearance operations’ – the term that Myanmar itself uses – against the Rohingya group”.

• Rohingyas sue Facebook: The Rohingya refugees, members of an ethnic minority forcibly driven from Myanmar, filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook (through its parent, Meta) claiming damages worth $150 bn. Their lawyers say the social-media giant neglected to prevent incitements of violence against them. Facebook has said it was “too slow to prevent misinformation” in Myanmar, but also argued it is not liable for the effects. This is the first time an ethnic group has directly sued a tech major, and may be the harbinger of doom for some firms if the courts find merit. There is evidence that Facebook indeed ignored what happened on its platform while the coordinated violence against the Rohingyas was going on. Myanmar's military too is implicated in that incident.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the change in perception of the world about Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (2) What is the Tatmadaw? What did it do to the Rohingyas? Explain. (3) Why did Aung San Suu Kyi defence the Tatmadaw at the ICJ in 2019? Explain. (4) Why did the Rohingyas sue Facebook? Explain.

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