Statement of clarification by Three Brotherhood Alliance on an unjust long-term imprisonment against innocent civilians by Pyin Oo Lwin District Court in Mandalay Region due to Myanmar Army’s pressure
No: 11/2020
11 August 2020
We have learnt from the Burmese media that Pyin Oo Lwin District Court has sentenced the four accused men to 35 years in prison by the date of 6 August 2020 for allegations that they have committed the acts of the attack on a toll gate of the Pyin Oo Lwin bypass and the Myanmar Army’s Defense Services Technological Academy (DSTA) in Pyin Oo Lwin Township, Mandalay Region.
Our Three-Brotherhood Alliance of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (PSLF/TNLA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNTJP/MNDAA) and United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) unavoidably launched the offensive assault to defend ourselves due to the military situation on 15 August 2019. We effectively implemented the operation with our intention. All the troops who attacked the Defense Services Technological Academy (DSTA) and the toll gate as a part of that operation are now serving under their mothers’ organizations alive and well.
We hereby clarify that Kyaw Soe Maung (aka) Arno, Moe San (aka) Aike San, Tun Yin (aka) Aike Inn, and Tun Pae have been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment according to Criminal Case No. 210/19, the Anti-Terrorism Law Section 50 (I) and 20 years in prison under Section 50 (I) / 54 of the Anti-Terrorism Law is a miscarriage of justice.
The four wrongfully convicted men are not totally members of our own forces but they are ordinary innocent civilians who have no tie to our military operations. We are very concerned about the lives of these four innocent civilians in danger. We strongly condemn heinous acts of the Myanmar Army for the arbitrary arrest of innocent civilians and long-term imprisonment with racial hatred and raise a question concerning the judiciary under the NLD democratic government. We would like to point out that the relevant court should review the verdict and do justice to those who have been unjustly sentenced to long prison terms.
On the other hand, the Myanmar Army has been committing war crimes such as arbitrary arrest and detention against innocent civilians for various reasons, imprisonment, and forced confessions, which are their common sabotage acts in the territories of non-Burmese peoples. The wrongfully conviction and imprisonment against non-Burmese ethnic peoples and civilians by racial prejudice and discrimination is an act of a fascist regime that the Union Government should never conduct. We call for an immediate end to such horrendous acts and clarify that the four men wrongfully convicted are never involved in the abovementioned military operation.
Three Brotherhood Alliance
