U Myo Yan Naung Thein (in green) attends a hearing at Kamaryut Township Court on November 17. Photo: Nyan Zay Htet / The Myanmar TimesU Myo Yan Naung Thein (in green) attends a hearing at Kamaryut Township Court on November 17. Photo: Nyan Zay Htet / The Myanmar Times
“There was not any instruction from the Senior General [Min Aung Hlaing]. I sued him because of the reports from my colleagues and [because] he insulted our armed forces,” said U Lin Tun, the deputy director general of the Tatmadaw’s Yangon Cantonment Area and complainant in the case.
He insisted that the military was accepting of, and welcomed, criticisms that were constructive in intent and fact-based.
U Myo Yan Naung Thein, secretary of the NLD’s Central Committee for Research and Strategy Studies, is facing trial under article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law for allegedly defaming Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing and the security forces under his control. The criticism of the commander-in-chief’s handling of last month’s violence in Rakhine State came in the form of an October 14 Facebook post.
“He [U Myo Yan Naung Thein] wrote the post and incited the public not to respect, to hate intensely and to rupture fealty toward the government, including military forces,” U Lin Tun said during the latest hearing at Kamaryut Township Court on November 25.
Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the director general of the police force and Rakhine State’s security minister were all defamed by the Facebook post, U Lin Tun contends.
The Yangon Cantonment Area official is apparently particularly sensitive to the Tatmadaw’s image: He was also the complainant in a case earlier this year against 7Day Daily that accused the newspaper of abetting “mutiny” in a story it published that quoted former general Thura U Shwe Mann. That suit was eventually dropped.