12 September 2016•Update: 17 September 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar
A photojournalist who was attacked during a rally by nationalists protesting a former United Nations chief's role in a Myanmar government advisory commission on troubled Rakhine State has begun filing a lawsuit.
Myat Thu Kyaw, a photojournalist working for the Myanmar Press-photo Agency, says he was punched by the protesters while trying to capture an argument between them and Yangon residents seeking to play football Sunday.
“I was capturing the argument closely when one of the protesters punched me,” Myat Thu Kyaw told Anadolu Agency on Monday.
“I don’t know exactly who attacked me as I was surrounded by a crowd at that time,” he said.
Myat Thu Kyaw has already filed a police complaint on the attack, and began filing a lawsuit at the Bahan Township court on Monday.
The commission being protested was formed last month with Kofi Annan as chair to advise the government on the “complex and delicate issues” in Rakhine, but has since been attacked for having a foreigner at its helm.
Rakhine -- one of the poorest states in Myanmar -- had seen a rise in tensions between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Rohingya Muslims since communal violence broke out in mid-2012 that left nearly 100 people dead and around 140,000 people displaced, mostly Muslims.
A Bangkok-based media advocacy group, Southeast Asia Press Alliances, expressed concern Monday over attacks on press members in Myanmar as well as in other countries in the region.
“We are quite alarmed at hearing about this incident, which shows how intolerance is making the work of journalists more difficult and unsafe,” the group’s executive director, Edgardo P. Legaspi, said in an email to Anadolu Agency.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists to do their duty to relay information on public concerns, because many groups, not only in Myanmar, want the media to relay only their views,” he said.
On Sunday, around 400 people from nationalist groups -- including Buddhist monks -- gathered at Bo Sein Hman ground in Bahan in the commercial capital’s downtown area to call on the government to abolish the Kofi Annan-led advisory commission on Rakhine.
Such protests were once popular in Myanmar's cities, but with the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the former main opposition leader, now at the helm of the country -- following around 50 years of quasi-military governments and dictatorships -- their popularity appears to be plummeting.
During Sunday’s rally, protesters clashed with local residents, who accused them of wasting their time.
"It's a playground designed for residents to exercise. We only have Sunday off, but we can't play football because of these bastards," 32-year-old Maung Oo told Anadolu Agency after a fierce argument with the protesters. "A petition signed by residents is going to be submitted to the authority to stop such protests in the playground."
Police intervened to stop the two groups arguing after two photojournalists -- among them Myat Thu Kyaw -- were reportedly punched by the protesters for photographing the quarrel.
