Myanmar Police Burned Notes of Reporters' Arrest

Myanmar police officer, Tim Htwe Oo, who was a member of a security detail that arrested two Reuters journalists, told a courtroom that he burned the notes he made of the incident at the time. However, he gave no explanation for his actions.

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The police second lieutenant read from a notebook to recall information related to the arrest of the journalists, according to Reuters. While he affirmed that those details were based on original notes he had written, he also said, under cross-examination by the defense, that he had burned all of his original notes.

Defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung said, “Only the police will know the reason for that.”

Htwe Oo was the latest prosecution witness to provide evidence at the Insein district court in Yangon, which will rule on whether reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be convicted in accordance with Myanmar's colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

Lone and Soe Oo told relatives that they were arrested on Dec. 12 by police officers in Yangon after having received some documents at a restaurant by two officers they had never met before, according to Reuters. They provided coverage of the Rohingya Muslim crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

After the proceedings ended for the day, Reuters released a statement saying “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are journalists who perform a crucial role in shedding light on issues of global interest.” It added “We believe that the ongoing court proceedings will demonstrate their innocence and they will be able to return to their jobs reporting on events in Myanmar. We are grateful for the expressions of support for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and continue to call for their prompt release.”

An army crackdown on the minority Rohingya Muslims inside Myanmar has resulted in the exodus of some 688,000 to Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.

The world body has described Myanmar's campaign against the stateless Rohingya as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appealed to Myanmar authorities to end the violence.