Covering Myanmar as A Korean Reporter

Young-mi Kim, War Correspondent

Recently, I have gathered Myanmar reporters and formed a company to continue to cover Myanmar by gathering reporters in secret, who were kicked out during a military coup in February. They are currently getting paid and contributing directly to Korean media along with videos. One afternoon, urgent news came from Myanmar. “Eagle was captured by the soldiers this morning.” At that moment, I thought, ‘Oh, my!’. Eagle is the chief cameraman working for our company. For security, we never use real names. Eagle and photojournalist Butterfly went to a village outside Yangon today. I hurriedly asked around in Yangon and found out that Eagle was being held at the police station. Fortunately, Butterfly was late for the interview, so only Eagle was taken to the police station.

If you're holding a camera, you're sure to get caught being a journalist. Currently, in Myanmar, news gathered as a journalist are subject to 505(a) of the Criminal Code and unconditionally prosecuted for spreading fake news and illegal incitement. At Insein Prison in Yangon, about 70 journalists are now imprisoned for these charges. Eagle used to work as a video journalist for an influential media outlet in Myanmar. After a coup, he was kicked out and he has been working with me about three months. He is a great cameraman who works so hard to film even in such a difficult circumstance and amazed me every time. I had to release him anyhow. Our company has hired a local lawyer in advance in case the reporters are arrested. The lawyer acted quickly. I contacted wife of Eagle’s phone number, which I had secured beforehand and shared various know-hows and ran directly to the police station. After one night in nerve racking atmosphere, Eagle was released around 5pm the next day. Luckily, Eagle was filming with his cell phone without a camera that day, and when the soldiers attacked, he quickly threw away his cell phone.

Thanks to the lawyer's help, he was released quickly without exposing his identity as a journalist. Eagle, who had only spent one night at the police station looked quite shocked. It was because of the violence he suffered at the time of his arrest and the violence suffered by other detainees who were with him. Recently people in Myanmar suffer from severe torture and brutal interrogation at police stations. Fortunately, the lawyer acted quickly and Eagle was not tortured. But the sounds of torture coming from the next room and the fear of when it would be his turn left Eagle out of his mind. He asked me, "Do you know what the detainees need the most and the most valuable items for them?" To this question he said "soap." It is said that the military does not provide soap purposely to people who have been captured. It is a technique that the military enhances control over them by limiting the most basic necessities. Eagle showed severe anxiety, saying he was afraid that when such power might come upon him again.

The words of a truck driver who actually spent a week in the police station were terrifying. He is a truck driver in Mandalay and was arrested by police officers when he had just parked his car in an alley to load goods. “I still don’t know why I was arrested,” he said. “They beat me with no reason without asking or explaining,” he explained the situation at the time of the arrest. He suffered various tortures at the police station. The torture he suffered the most was the string. “The police came in with a smile holding a small string for box wrapping. “I had no idea what’s that for at first,” he said. The police choked the truck driver with the string. And he said that they loosened the string a little when it was enough to run out of his breath. It went on several times. He said he wanted that the police would give it a little more power to kill him. He thought that the only way out of the pain was to get killed. However, the police tightened the string only enough not to die.

After the torture, he was locked up in a corner of the detention center. “I drank water from the toilet bowl. The police did not give us water,” he said. He was released a week later and returned home, suffering from severe thirst. He was often thirsty, as if he had eaten very salty food. He drank a lot of water frequently and then put his head in the basin and drank water. It was a torture trauma. He was not actually thirsty, but the aftereffect of torture and detention were revealed that way. The military ostentation their power by controlling the water that humans need the most to survive.

I have met many torture victims from around the world. They were basically people with strong beliefs in religion or thought. However, the victims of torture in Myanmar had a distinctive aspect. Up until just four months ago, they were so ordinary citizens. The psychological shock seemed to be many times greater when they were taken away and tortured without being armed by their thoughts and beliefs. The aspect of torturers was also different. Usually, torture is a cruel act to make them confess a certain fact. However, Myanmar’s military junta uses it to show off their control rather than to use it for such purpose. Myanmar's state-run TV main news often releases the real names and faces of the victims, full of signs of torture.

In the case of Wei Mo Naing (26) - dubbed as Panda - a young leader who was active in Monywa came out on the news severely beaten in the face just one day after being arrested. Usually, any dictatorship denies torture, if possible, for fear of international condemnation if it is known that torture is practiced. Even if the torture victim is exposed to the outside world, they sent out the victims only after the wound is healed. However, as if boasting about torture, the Myanmar military broadcasts the face of the torture victim with full of scars on the air. This is a kind of public psychological warfare. It is a warning to stop pro-democracy protests by ostentation their power and stirring up fear among the people. It's a kind of "trophy" effect using the fear of torture.

The torturer says the same thing. The police I interviewed said, "We don't care whether they are guilty or not. I just did what I was told to do,” he said. He also confessed that he felt the joy of having the imperial power while he tortured. There were numerous torture victims during the Yushin rule, the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980, and the June democracy movement in 1987. The vivid testimonies of torture victims in Myanmar get me on a time machine to go back to those days. It was like meeting the leaders of the student council in the 1980s and the demonstrators of the June uprising of Korea at Myanmar.

It is said that student organizations have been actively created at each university in Myanmar for the past 5 years. Based on those organizations, they continue to lead pro-democracy protests in each region. The youth leaders representing the organization stand out. Waymonaying in Monywa also formed a ‘Strike Committee’ by combining Monywa University’s student council and citizens. As such, the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar are led by young generation MZ. They have enjoyed democratization over the past decade and know what freedom and equality are. It was the student union organization and the strength of the youth leaders that led the resistance protests immediately after the military staged a coup. They are very much similar to our past struggle for democracy. During the interview, I could see Korea in the old days once again.

After being released from the arrest, Eagle is now on a month-long relaxation to his mother's home with a special consolation fund. He must overcome the arrest trauma to continue the news gathering. In this way, we can guarantee the right to know of the people around the world by covering the vivid and latest news in Myanmar. It is the reality faced by reporters in Myanmar today to ensure that the accurate news can be released even under the military control. We may be able to give a helping hand in accomplishing such a daunting task. That’s because we are the ones who still remember the desperation and the painful memories of the dictatorship.