Burma : Explosions interrupt New Year's festival

Explosions interrupt Myanmar New Year's festival
Thu, 15 Apr 2010

Yangon - A series of explosions on Thursday in Yangon injured at least seven people and left one dead, initial police reports said.

Three blasts were reported in Mingalartaungnyunt township, near a popular lake in Yangon, at 3:10 pm (0840 GMT), said a policeman who asked to remain anonymous.

The area was packed with people enjoying the Thingyan Pandal festival, marking Myanmar's traditional New Year.

The festival, believed to of Brahmin origin, is accompanied by water splashing and the smearing of talcum paste on people's cheeks.

It comes at the peak of the hot season in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand which also celebrate their traditional New Year this week.

earthtimes.org

sadly , sounds familiar ...................

Casualties rise to 178 in Myanmar water festival bomb blasts
April 16, 2010

A total of 170 people were injured in a series of three bomb blasts in Myanmar's water festival activities in Yangon on Thursday afternoon, up from 94, while the death toll remained at eight, Friday's official daily New Light of Myanmar reported.

Among the injured 125 are men, 45 are women, and among the dead, five are male, three are female, the report confirmed.

The report described such terrorist attacks in the water festival as being "merely intended to tarnish Myanmar traditional culture and insult the public."

The authorities warned revelers in various regions across the country including the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon and Mandalay to remain vigilant against potential atrocities to help expose terrorists.

Source: Xinhua

english.people.com.cn


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Triple blast: Eight people were killed after three bombs exploded during a water festival in Yangon

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Festivities: The blast took place at a pavilion packed with people celebrating New Year

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Alert: Police block off the scene of the bomb blasts, which authorities are blaming on ethnic rebels

Eight people killed after triple bomb blast during Rangoon water festival | Mail Online

115 Rangoon Bomb Victims Still in Intensive Care
KYAW THEIN KHA
Saturday, April 17, 201

Out of 170 people injured in three bomb explosions on Thursday at a Rangoon pavilion celebrating the Burmese New Year, 115 people remain in intensive care, a state-own newspaper said on Saturday.

Statep-run newspapers said terrorists were responsible for the blasts, but no group was named.

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An ambulance at the scene of three bomb blasts at a water festival in Rangoon on Thursday. The government blamed terrorists for the attack, which occurred at a pavilion sponsored by the junta leader's favorite grandson.
(Photo: Reuters)

The blasts occurred at a pavilion sponsored by the grandson of the junta's leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe. CNN reported 20 people were killed. Other reports said 24 died.

The chairman of the township Peace and Development Council was reportedly injured.

State TV said on Friday that eight people died and 75 were injured, and it blamed “destructive elements” for the attacks.

The three bomb blasts struck the X2O pavilion near the Theinbyu driving track on Kandawgyi Lake in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township at 3 p.m. Rangoon General Hospital's Intensive Care Unit declined to provide any information when contacted by The Irrawaddy.

The X2O pavilion was sponsored by Nay Shwe Thway Aung, the favorite grandson of Than Shwe. At the time of the blasts, the sons of some military officials and township officials were celebrating in the pavilion and were reportedly injured in the blasts. The son of the Rangoon Commander of Military Region (4) was in the X2O pavilion at the time, said a Rangoon resident.

Nay Shwe Thway Aung was not in the pavilion at the time of the blasts, according to sources.

Rangoon residents said the SPDC Rangoon Division Command was responsible for security around the Nay Shwe Thway Aung pavilion and parking space in the area had been reserved for those celebrating the festival at the pavilion.

Following the blasts, security personnel reportedly fled from the scene, according to sources.

The United States condemned the blasts on Thursday, saying the explosions victimized innocent civilians.

“We condemn any kind of violence that victimized innocent civilians. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were the victims of this bombing,” said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

Tensions between the government and various ethnic groups have increased in recent months, and the country is also facing its first political election in 20 years sometime later this year. The country's most prominent political party, the National League for Democracy, recently decided not to contest in the election and faces dissolution.

The bombing was the worst incident of its kind since the bombing of two supermarkets and a convention center in Rangoon in May 2005, which killed 19 people and injured more than 160. The government said unnamed ethnic armed groups were responsible.

irrawaddy.org

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Originally Posted by Mid

170 people injured

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They weren't Thai ping pong ball bombs then.

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Originally Posted by Mid

The United States condemned the blasts on Thursday, saying the explosions victimized innocent civilians. “We condemn any kind of violence that victimized innocent civilians. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were the victims of this bombing,” said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

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So, they are going to stop using drones on innocent Pakistanis and Afghans then?

Rangoon blasts were grenade attacks: army engineer
Myo Thein
Wednesday, 21 April 2010

Rangoon(Mizzima) - Hand grenades lobbed into the X2O pavilion in Kandawgyi Park, Rangoon last week caused the three blasts during water-festival celebrations, according to an army engineer on the case.

A team of military engineers and crime-division police investigated the site of the attacks under the supervision of an army commanding officer and a police commander. Three hand grenades were thrown into the massive crowd in front of the pavilion and two detonators were found, an official who asked to remain anonymous said. “The grenades were thrown into the crowd. We found two safety pins. The pins were about 20 yards (18 metres) apart”, he said.

The bombs exploded at the X2O pavilion as the Rangoon Division No. 4 Military Region Commander Colonel Ohn Cho arrived on an inspection tour. He was reportedly hit by shrapnel in his abdomen by one of the three blasts, which killed 10 people and left 170 injured.

But, by April 18, just 50 patients remained in Rangoon Hospital, most of whom were in the hospital’s neurology department.

The army engineer explained the rationale behind the verdict: “We knew that there were around 300 or 400 people present during the incident … many people were dancing so we could assume the bombs could not be time bombs,” he said, without elaborating. “We heard boxes of cigarettes were thrown from the pavilion and that some people threw them back … So, we think criminals threw the grenades, mixing their actions with those of the box throwers.”

As the blasts went off when government officials were arriving at the pavilion, Mizzima asked the engineer if the attackers were targeting the officials. He could not exactly say.

mizzima.com

$1000 offered to catch Rangoon bomber
AHUNT PHONE MYAT
22 April 2010

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Paramedics load the injured onto ambulances
(Reuters)

A substantial reward has been offered by the Burmese government to the person who can pinpoint the culprit behind a series of grenade attacks in Rangoon last week that left 10 people dead.

Burmese media announced earlier this week that a tenth fatality had been confirmed, that of 19-year-old Soe Moe Htun, who had been in hospital since the blasts occurred on 15 April whilst thousands were celebrating the annual water festival. More than 170 were reportedly injured.

The Rangoon-based Biweekly Eleven News agency said today that a one million kyat ($US1,000) reward was being offered, a hefty sum in a country where the average annual wage is $US220.

According to sources in Burma, a graphic designer, Maung Maung Zeya and his son Sithu were also arrested and interrogated after taking photographs of the bomb site at the X20 pavillion, close to Kandawgyi lake in downtown Rangoon.

The two are accused of having links to foreign media, something eyed with great suspicion by Burmese authorities. Other foreign news correspondents had their camera’s memory cards seized by authorities.

State newspapers have pointed the finger at several opposition groups, including the Karen National Union (KNU) and the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF).

Rumours have also circulated that the attack was aimed at Nay Shwe Thway Aung, the grandson of junta supremo Than Shwe, who had been at the pavilion shortly before the incident.

“He arrived at the pavilion the day the blasts occurred; people were excited when they learned about his presence,” a Rangoon youth told DVB.

“He was later escorted back. The first bomb exploded after he left but not a lot of people were hurt. However, there were dead bodies and brains splattered all over the front of the pavilion when the second bomb went off.”

While the majority of news outlets have said the attack was carried out using grenades, to sources in the military said that bomb, made out of mobile phone handsets were used.

Military analysts said that such equipment is only available in the army but not among civilians.

dvb.no

‘Vigorous Warrior’ held for Rangoon bombing
6 May 2010

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Bombing victim is loaded onto an ambulance in Rangoon
(Reuters)

Police in Burma said Thursday they had arrested a man in connection with deadly blasts in a Rangoon park last month, blaming the attacks on a militant exile group opposed to the ruling junta.

A series of explosions on 15 April left 10 people dead and dozens wounded as thousands of people gathered for water-throwing festivities to mark the Buddhist New Year, in the worst attack in five years in Burma’s main city.

“This brutal act was committed by four terrorist murderers who are members of a group known as the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors,” Burmese police chief Khin Yi said.

One suspect was arrested while the others fled across the Thai border, police announced at a news conference in the remote administrative capital Naypyidaw.

Police said that three grenades had been thrown into the crowds. Another device, made with a beer can filled with explosive powder and attached by detonation wire to a mobile telephone, failed to explode.

Members of a movement calling itself the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades, stormed the Burmese embassy in Bangkok in 1999 and took 38 hostages.

Burma has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.

The latest attacks came as the country prepares for polls planned for the end of this year, which critics have dismissed as a sham due to laws that effectively bar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating.

Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was set to be dissolved at midnight Thursday under laws laid down ahead of the elections.

The NLD refused to meet a 6 May deadline to re-register as a political party, which would have forced it to expel its own leader, and boycotted the vote scheduled for later this year.

The military has ruled Burma since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades.

In May 2005, blasts at two Rangoon supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups.

Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government along the country’s eastern border, alleging they are victims of neglect and mistreatment.

In other recent attacks, a series of bomb blasts hit a controversial dam project in remote Kachin state last month, while a series of grenades exploded at a hydropower project in Bago Division.

In eastern Karenni state, a man being interrogated by police was reported to have detonated a bomb last month, killing himself and wounding four officers.

Burma’s police chief said in August last year that security forces had foiled a plot by a man sent by exiled pro-democracy groups to bomb Rangoon during a visit by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon the previous month.

Rights group Amnesty International in February called on the regime to end repression of ethnic minority groups ahead of the vote, accusing the regime of arresting, jailing, torturing and killing minority activists to crush dissent.

dvb.no

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Originally Posted by Mid

According to sources in Burma, a graphic designer, Maung Maung Zeya and his son Sithu were also arrested and interrogated after taking photographs of the bomb site at the X20 pavillion, close to Kandawgyi lake in downtown Rangoon.

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Rangoon photographer sent to Insein
YEE MAY AUNG
17 June 2010

A man who was arrested in April along with his son after photographing the aftermath of the Rangoon bombings has been sent to Burma’s notorious Insein prison.

Maung Maung Zeya, 55, and his son Sithu Zeya are yet to be convicted of any offense, but have been held in detention since their arrest on 15 April following the grenade attacks which left nine dead and hundreds injured.

The two are being kept in different cells in Rangoon’s Insein prison, which was built by the British and has housed hundreds of Burma’s pro-democracy luminaries. Maung Maung Zeya was transferred there from Bahan township police station on 14 June, while Sithu Zeya was moved there in May.

“I [visited] the two on Monday [14 June],” said wife and mother, Yee Yee Tint. “Maung Maung Zeya was detained in [Insein prison's] Ward 1 and Sithu Zeya in Ward 5.

“I was only allowed to meet them one by one. They are OK apart from Sithu complaining that he had to appear in court along with everyone and he couldn’t bear the cigarette smoke. [Maung Maung] will be brought to the court on 22 June and Sithu [tomorrow],” she said.

Biology student Sithu appeared in court earlier this month on two charges of breaching the Electronics Act and holding links to so-called ‘unlawful associations’, a label often used by the Burmese junta to tarnish exiled media and pro-democracy groups. Maung Maung has also been charged under the Unlawful Association Act, as well as the Immigration Act, and will begin his trial on 22 June.

Neither party is said to have had anything to do with the bombings; the charges stem from the Burmese government’s draconian press laws, which target media workers suspected to be providing material to exiled news outlets. Rangoon police chief Khin Yi told a press conference that the two were arrested for videoing the aftermath of the incident.

Yee Yee Tint said in May that her son had told her he had been beaten and denied food during the early stages of interrogation in April.

“Their initial [Immigration Act] charges are handed down by the immigration department,” Yee Yee Tint told DVB yesterday. “Sithu had previously been abroad with the passport, but [authorities] allege that he left Burma [illegally] from Myawaddy [on the border with Thailand].

“U Zeya [father] was faces the same allegations but his case is more serious as it was filed at the [Western Rangoon] Provincial Court,” having previously been filed at a lower township court.

Nine people died in the incident, which was the worst attack in Rangoon since 2005. It preceded a number of other bombings around Burma, focused mainly on controversial hydropower projects.

dvb.no

Rangoon bomb suspect put in solitary
KHIN HNIN HTET
9 July 2010

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Paramedics load the injured onto ambulances
(Reuters)

The man suspected by police to be behind the Rangoon bombings in April that killed nine has been placed in solitary confinement in Insein prison.

Phyo Wei Aung’s lawyer, Kyaw Ho, told DVB that his client has been barred from communicating with other inmates and is being denied his rights as a prisoner.

“[Phyo Wei Aung] said that he has been in the prison for more than two months already but is still being denied the rights granted to other inmates, such as playing football or chinlone [ball sport],” said Kyaw Ho.

“He was kept alone and not allowed to communicate with anyone, which is damaging his mental health. He asked me to submit an official request to the prison authorities to give him equal rights.”

Kyaw Ho continues to be deined access to a copy of the case file, rendering his own analysis of the incident and surrounding issues difficult to carry out.

“I still don’t know what is in the case file. I understood that he was arrested under accusations of the bombing but among the charges pressed on him are the Unlawful Association Act and the Immigration Act [for illegal border crossing]. I can only find out the real details when I look at the case file.”

Phyo Wei Aung is set to appear on court on 14 July. He is accused of being behind three separate attacks on the X20 pavilion in Rangoon on 15 April, as revellers celebrated the annual water festival. Nine people were killed and dozens injured. He was arrested by police on 23 April.

Police said that three grenades had been thrown into the crowds during the water festival. Another device, made with a beer can filled with explosive powder and attached by detonation wire to a mobile telephone, failed to explode.

A Rangoon-based graphic designer and his son were arrested after taking photos of the aftermath of the bombing, and are still being held.

dvb.no

Bomb Scene Photographer Sentenced to Eight Years
ZARNI MANN
Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A Burmese court on Tuesday sentenced photographer Sithu Zeya to eight years in prison for photographing the aftermath of the April 15, 2010 bomb blast in Rangoon.

Sithu Zeya received three years from the Mingalar Taung Nyunt Court for violating the Immigration Act and five years for violating the 1957 Unlawful Associations Act for contacts he made with illegal organizations, according to Aung Thein, his lawyer.

Aung Thein said the case will be appealed to a higher court because the evidence shown to the lower court was incomplete and there were insufficient witnesses.

“First, he was detained on suspicion of taking photos and video of the incident. We do not believe that these cases had sufficient evidence and witnesses, as these acts were brought up and he was charged after the interrogation,” said Aung Thein.

During interrogation, Sithu Zeya reportedly admitted his former relationship with an official from the exile media organization Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and that he attended media training in Thailand. These confessions were presented by the plaintiff to the court.

“In these kind of cases, they use confessions received during interrogation to build the case,” Aung Thein said.

Sithu Zeya was arrested on April 15 and sent to Insein prison after photographing the aftermath of the bomb blasts that shook the traditional New Year's water festival in Rangoon, killing 10 people and injuring 170.

His father Zeya, son of the late writer Saya Linyone, was then arrested at home on April 16. He is in Insein Prison and his case is still under investigation. According to his lawyers, Zeya was charged with violating the 1957 Unlawful Associations Act for contacts he made with the exile government and he is likely to be sentenced in January.

Phyo Wai Aung, who is accused of involvement in the bomb blast, is also in Insein Prison and his case is also still under investigation.

In a press conference held on May 6, Burmese police chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi said Phyo Wai Aung assisted the culprit before the blast and has had contact with the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors. His family members, however, reportedly dispute this and say he was at his work place when the incident occurred.

rrawaddy.org

Jailed DVB reporter in isolation cell
KHIN HNIN HTET
10 January 2011

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Police examine the scene of grenade attacks in Rangoon in April last year (Reuters)

A young DVB reporter recently sentenced to eight years in prison has been placed in solitary confinement in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison.

A source close to the prison said that it was Sithu Zeya’s lack of understanding about prison customs that meant he didn’t stand to attention when the institution’s director showed up.

The director, Win Naing, had visited his block after hearing reports that political prisoners, including Sithu Zeya, were assaulted by other inmates, and some left with serious injuries.

The 21-year-old was convicted in December last year by a Rangoon township court of illegal border crossing and holding ties to an unlawful organisation. He is facing a further charge under the Electronics Act, which can result in up to 20 years in prison.

He had been arrested after photographing the damage caused by the Rangoon bombings on 15 April, which left nine dead.

Sithu’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, also a DVB reporter, was arrested a day after his son and is still awaiting a verdict, but from a high-level court which could carry a more severe sentence.

Burma was last month ranked fourth in a list of global countries that imprison journalists. Nearly 20 DVB journalists are currently behind bars.

dvb.no

Young DVB reporter ‘tortured daily’
KHIN HNIN HTET
17 January 2011

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Aerial view of Insein prison in Rangoon city
(Google Earth)

A young reporter arrested following the Rangoon bombings in April last year and sentenced to eight years in prison is being tortured on a daily basis, a prison source claims.

Sithu Zeya, 21, was last week moved to an isolation cell in Rangoon’s Insein prison after apparently failing to abide by prison customs.

“He is taken out of his cell every 15 minutes and forced to do squats and crawls for not knowing the prison customs,” said the source, adding that this had stretched over nine days and was being sanctioned by the prison’s deputy chief, Thein Myint.

Seventeen other political prisoners in Burma’s most notorious jail have called on authorities to cease ill treatment of Sithu Zeya, a DVB reporter who was arrested after being caught photographing the aftermath of the bombings.

Continued refusals by prison staff to accede to the requests have resulted in demonstrations by the 17 political prisoners, who share the same ward as Sithu Zeya.

“The political prisoners…are now refusing to stand to attention, a daily routine in the prison every dusk and dawn,” said the source. “If their demands are not met in the next three days, they will shave their heads in protest, which is against prison regulations. They have informed the prison authorities that if shaving their heads doesn’t work, then they will go on hunger strike.”

Torture is rife throughout Burmese prisons, particularly among wardens looking to extract information from political prisoners.

Sithu’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, was arrested alongside his son on 23 April and is still awaiting a verdict. He has reportedly been told that he could walk free if he passes over information about other DVB reporters working inside Burma.

According to their lawyer, Aung Thein, the 21-year-old confessed to his charges of illegal border crossing and holding ties to an unlawful association whilst under torture.

Meanwhile, political prisoners in Insein’s Ward 5 are calling on authorities to look into issues such as lack of blankets, poor food rations and poor medical assistance.

dvb.no

Death sentence of torture victim condemned: AHRC
Thursday, 10 May 2012

(MIzzima) – The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has described the verdict of a court in Rangoon, sentencing a torture victim to death for his purported role in a bombing, as “farcical" and a "cut-and-paste” job, and has called for his release through the intervention of outside agencies. The sentence will be appealed.

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Phyo Wai Aung
Photo: AHRC

District Judge Aung Thein presiding over a closed court in the central prison on Tuesday convicted the accused, Phyo Wai Aung, in four cases concerning the bombing of at a water festival in April 2010.

The judge sentenced Phyo Wai Aung to death for abetting the murder of 10 people who died in the bombing, and to a total of 39 years in prison for a range of other offences.

Speaking after the issuance of the appeal, the director of the Hong Kong-based regional human rights group, Wong Kai Shing, said that the verdicts showed that Burma's judiciary was clearly set in the authoritarian practices of old and had not been affected behaviorally by recent political changes.

“As the court could reach this farcical verdict only by ignoring legal grounds and instead working on the basis of some orders from elsewhere, we have no choice also but to call for a review of the case and intervention by those authorities with the power to overturn the death sentence, and secure the release of the accused,” Wong said.

The court appeared to have just cut and paste its findings from one verdict to the next across the four cases, repeating the same points with little variation in contents, except as required for the specific elements of each charge, he said.

“For the sake of his life, the people in positions to be able to get Phyo Wai Aung out of prison need to do something now,” Wong added, pointing to a letter by the brother of the defendant expressing fears about his health due to liver disease, Hepatitis-B and tuberculosis.

Wong noted that the case highlighted the need for legal reform efforts in Burma to concentrate on the heavy reliance on confession in the handing down of guilty verdicts, which encouraged the police to torture clients to agree to give fabricated confessions.

“The use of confession as the means to obtain a conviction is from our study of the system in Burma very widespread and a cause for serious concern,” Wong said.

“In this case, the police tortured the accused for six consecutive days to have him agree to give a fabricated confession built around scraps of material and witness testimonies that they could pull together from here and there.”

“This forced confession constituted the basis for the guilty verdicts,” Wong noted, adding that once a confession was submitted to court it was very difficult for the accused to do anything about it, even if they denied or retracted the confession, as did Phyo Wai Aung.

Phyo Wai Aung’s lawyer, Kyaw Hoe, told Mizzima on Wedneday that he would file an appeal against the verdict issued by Judge Aung Thein of the Rangoon Region Northern District Court in Insein Prison.

“We are not satisfied with the verdict because the legal processes were unfair,” Kyaw Hoe said. “We told the court that he [Phyo Wai Aung] was tortured and forced to confess, so it [the confession] is not legal according to the law. But the court did not accept that… .”

A death sentence can only be carried out after the appeal period has expired, he said. Burma has not executed a prisoner since 1988.

On April 15, 2010, three bombs exploded at the X2O water festival pavilion on Kandawgyi Circular Road in Rangoon. Ten people died and about 170 were injured, in what was called the worst terrorist incident in Burma in decades.

Former Police Chief Khin Yi [now Immigration and Population minister] said in a press conference on May 6, 2010, that three members of the organization, Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW), based on the Thai-Burmese border, were responsible for the bomb blasts.

On April 23, police arrested Phyo Wai Aung at his home in Pazundaung Township in Rangoon and alleged that he abetted the bomb attack and was a member of VBSW.

The AHRC's campaign webpage for Phyo Wai Aung contains detailed information on the case and relevant documents in both English and Burmese: Phyo Wai Aung

mizzima.com

‘Rangoon bomber’ receives presidential pardon
NAW NOREEN
3 August 2012

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Phyo Wai Aung was sentenced to death for his suspected involvement in the New Year's bombing in 2010.
(photo provided by AAPP-B)

Death row prisoner Phyo Wai Aung, who was charged with plotting the New Year’s bombings in April 2010, has been freed by a presidential pardon this afternoon, according to his wife Htay Htay.

Prison officials arrived this morning at Insein township hospital where Phyo Wai Aung was being treated for liver cancer and read out the pardon letter, said his wife.

“Insein prison’s chief and officials arrived at [the hospital] and said that he was being released under the Act 401(1) [of the Criminal Procedure Code] and handed him the prison release form,” said Htay Htay.

Phyo Wai Aung is allegedly in the final stages of live cancer and paralysed below the waist.

He was released four days after United Nations’ Human Rights Special Rapporteur Thomas Quintana visited him at the hospital.

His lawyer Kyaw Ho said he is still going to submit an appeal to overturn his charges.

“The [act] 401 means he is being pardoned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was considered innocent of the crime [he was accused of]. There is a court hearing appointed for the appeal on July 14 and I am supposed to give a statement there,” said Kyaw Ho.

“It doesn’t matter if he was released or not – we are still to present our case to the court that he didn’t commit the crime.”

A special court inside Insein Prison’s compound sentenced Phyo Wai Aung to death on 8 May this year. He was convicted of several charges including killing the 10 people who died during the bombings in 2010.

Following the ruling, Quintana along with several international human rights’ organisations criticised Burma’s judiciary.

The Burmese government claims Phyo Wai Aung is a member of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, which stormed the Burmese embassy in Bangkok in 1999 and took 38 hostages.

Three separate grenade attacks hit the X20 pavilion in Rangoon on 15 April 2010 as revellers celebrated the Thingyan festival.

Initially, nine people were arrested in connection with the bombing; however, everyone except for Phyo Wai Aung has been released through amnesties.

Two of the nine who were imprisoned were video journalists Sithu Zeya and Maung Maung Zeya, who were reporting for DVB in the bombing’s wake.

Both of the VJs claim to have been tortured by their interrogators, who were trying to force a confession out the journalists while they were incarcerated.

Phyo Wai Aung’s family members made similar claims that he was forced to confess after being tortured.

dvb.no

Political prisoner accused of new year bombing dies
MIN LWIN
4 January 2013

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Phyo Wei Aung, pictured here on his hospital bed in Insein township, was sentenced to death for his suspected involvement in the New Year's bombing in 2010.
(DVB)

Phyo Wai Aung, who was falsely accused of masterminding a grenade attack at the Rangoon Thingyan festival in April 2010, and later tortured and sentenced to death, has died at his home early on Friday morning, less than six months after being pardoned.

The 33-year-old, who is considered a political prisoner by human rights groups, suffered health complications in prison, including hepatitis and tuberculosis, before being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in May last year, a few days after being sentenced to death.

Phyo Wai Aung was released under a presidential pardon in August; four days after UN Special Rapporteur on human rights Tomas Quintana visited him in hospital. It followed growing international condemnation over his arrest and mistreatment in custody.

He spent his last months in Insein hospital, where his condition quickly deteriorated and rendered him paralysed from the waist down.

“He got liver cancer because he was denied medical care while in the prison,” said his younger brother. “As he was already in the last stages of [cancer], there was nothing more the hospital can do. He was brought back home 18 days ago.”

He was first detained in April 2010 after a series of grenade attacks killed nine people and injured over 100 during Thingyan festivities in centralRangoon. Phyo Wai Aung says he was arbitrarily arrested and tortured into a confession.

“I was tortured by various methods,” he told DVB in an exclusive interview shortly after his release. “I was mostly beaten up – they’d told me to confess to the crime and would beat me if I didn’t. But then they’d still beat me even when I [talked].”

The Burmese authorities initially arrested nine people, including DVB journalists Maung Maung Zeya and Sithu Zeya, who were later exonerated of terrorism charges but jailed for their work with the news group.

Phyo Wei Aung is survived by his wife Htay Htay and two children. His funeral was held today at 1pm in accordance with Muslim tradition.

dvb.no