Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay has criticized Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, for repeating allegations yesterday that Myanmar had released seven soldiers from prison days after they were convicted for the murder of 10 Rohingya men last year.
SR’s comment on social media. An example of making public statements and reports based on unverified information. She #shared #wrong #information.
— Zaw Htay (@ZawHtayMyanmar) April 19, 2018
In her tweet, Lee attempted to highlight the irony in Myanmar releasing the seven soldiers who perpetrated the Inn Din massacre while continuing to hold the Reuters reporters who exposed the massacre in prison.
Where is justice? 7 Tadmadaw guilty of Inn Dinn massacre released but the 2 #Reuters journalists remain in prison? https://t.co/C440g02kRn
— Yanghee Lee (@YangheeLeeSKKU) April 18, 2018
This claim was based on a report by Myanmar broadcaster MNTV yesterday appearing to televise the release of the seven soldiers in Sittwe, Rakhine State.
However, the special rapporteur was apparently unaware that the Myanmar government, through Zaw Htay, had already denied the MNTV report.
Lee’s tweet attracted immediate criticism from Twitter users, who accused her of spreading fake news and not deleting her tweet quickly enough.
Lee’s previous criticisms of Myanmar’s human rights record, including her accusation that the military’s crimes against the Rohingya “bear the hallmarks of genocide,” have long made her a lightning rod for Myanmar nationalists and supporters of the military.
In Dec. 2017, Myanmar banned her from entering the country, forcing her to report from refugee populations outside Myanmar’s borders.
Today, nearly a day after her original tweet, Lee apologized for sharing news that was “not true or verified.”
Really sorry if the content in my tweet re media news is not true or verfied. Sincere apologies! https://t.co/jHvUbyNwxo
— Yanghee Lee (@YangheeLeeSKKU) April 19, 2018
Some Twitter users responded with praise for her admission of error, while at least one insisted that the original MNTV report was true, and that the soldiers have, in fact, been released, despite what Zaw Htay has said.
Myanmar’s military announced the sentencing of the seven soldiers to 10 years in prison each on April 11, saying they were guilty of murder. It has denied all other accusations of rights violations.
On Tuesday, Myanmar released more than 8,000 prisoners in a presidential amnesty in honor of the Thingyan holiday. Most of the freed prisoners were drug offenders, though 36 were political prisoners. An estimated 90 political prisoners remain in Myanmar prisons, including Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
