YANGON, Nov 15: A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced a journalist to two years in prison for her coverage of a protest over the lack of government relief for victims of a devastating cyclone, colleagues said on Saturday.
Ein Khaing Oo, who had been detained for five months, was sentenced on Friday after being convicted in a closed-door trial on charges of “disturbing tranquillity”, according to colleagues who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.
The case follows a string of recent long prison sentences given to critics of the ruling junta. Fifty opposition activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks have been sentenced in the last week.
Ein Khaing Oo, a reporter for the weekly Myanmar-language magazine Eco Vision, was arrested June 10 while covering a demonstration in front of a UN office by about 20 victims of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated much of the country in May. The protesters were seeking assistance because the government was not helping them.
The military junta was widely criticised for its slow response to the cyclone and for delaying international aid.
The official government death toll from the cyclone is 84,537. Some 2.4 million people were severely affected by the storm, with the total damage estimated as high as $4 billion.
In the past week, various Myanmar courts have sentenced more than 50 people to long prison terms for pro-democracy activity. Many were arrested in connection to protests last year.
The army crushed the demonstrations in September 2007. According to UN estimates, at least 31 people were killed and thousands of protesters detained.
Among the people convicted this past week were at least 30 activists for the opposition National League for Democracy, according to party spokesman Nyan Win, who said some were given to up to 16 years in prison.
Nine Buddhist monks were also sentenced to prison terms of up to eight years, Nyan Win said.
The human rights group Amnesty International says Myanmar now has more than 2,100 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the opposition party and has been under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 19 years.—AP
