Monday, October 1, 2007

How Japanese photo journalist was killed

Burma Digest has filed a report on how Japanese photo journalist Kenji Nagai was gunned down by a Burmese soldier.

"Before junta switched off entire Internet system in Burma, phtos of junta soldiers’ shooting and beating on peaceful demonstrators were spread widely all over the world within minutes of the incidents.

"So junta ordered its soldiers to kill any civilian journalist taking photos of soldiers shooting at demonstrators.

"On the fateful day, as the late Japanese journalist Mr. Kenji Nagai wearing just an old shirt and short-pant was taking photographs from the edge of a big crowd of demonstrators.

"He unfortunately looked very much like a fair-skined Burmese, or a Burmese with Chinese mixed blood.

"When soldiers started to shoot, he was pushed over by the crowd, and fell on the road. A soldier saw him holding a camera, and shot at him point-blank directly.

"Once he had killed Mr. Nagai, the soldier went ahead to chase after a new victim.

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Burma arrests four journalists, including Japanese corresondent 
 
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association have called for  the immediate release of Min Zaw, the Burmese correspondent of the Japanese daily Tokyo Shimbun, and three young Burmese journalists, who are apparently being held incommunicado by the security forces. 

Their arrests bring the number of journalists detained in Burma to 10. At least a thousand people have been arrested since  demonstrations began a month ago. 
 
"One reporter killed, five others arrested and about 10 injured or harassed - the toll from the media's attempts to cover the  pro-democracy demonstrations mounts by the day," the two organisations said.

"The international community must do something to 
stop the repression and must demand the unconditional release of the detained civilians." 
 
The Japanese deputy minister who is due to arrive in Burma to  investigate the murder of Japanese video reporter Kenji Nagai must also intervene with the authorities to get Min Zaw released as soon as possible, Reporters Without Borders and the BMA added. 
 
Min Zaw, 56, was arrested at his Rangoon home on 28 September. The Associated Press reported that the authorities confiscated his mobile phone but let him take his medicine for diabetes and high blood pressure with him to prison.

His family said all he did was cover the pro-democracy demonstrations. According to the AP, he is the 
son-in-law of leading journalist Sein Win, who is the correspondent of the Japanese agency Kyodo and a former AP reporter. 
 
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar, of which Min Zaw is a  member, yesterday called for his release in a letter to the authorities. Several other correspondents of foreign news media, including Reuters and Agence France-Presse, have been physically attacked or prevented from working during the past month. 
 
The news website Irrawaddy reported that three other Burmese journalists - Kyaw Zeya Tun, 23, who works for the newspaper. The Voice, Nay Lin Aung, 20, who works for the weekly 7 Day News, and an as yet unidentified female journalist employed by Weekly Eleven News have been missing for several days.

It is believed they were arrested when the military dispersed demonstrations. 

A colleague of Kyaw Zeya Tun confirmed to Reporters Without Borders and the BMA that he has disappeared. 
 
According to Burmese human rights organisations, at least a thousand people have been arrested since 19 August, the date of the first demonstration. 
 
Reporters Without Borders and the BMA have learned from local sources that military censorship department, known as the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, is harassing editors to get them to bring out  issues of their newspapers and magazines containing propaganda articles.

Most privately-owned Burmese publications have not appeared or have been closed since the start of the crackdown.