By Paolo Affatato
MANDALAY, Myanmar – When on the evening of Feb 14 a commando of ten armed men arrived at the rectory of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in the village of Kangyi Taw (in the Shwe Bo district of the Sagaing region), Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, a 44-year-old priest of the Archdiocese of Mandalay, fearlessly confronted the ten militiamen who threatened him.
They had first threatened and silenced two women, teachers and parish workers, who were on the church premises and were helping the priest to organize classes for the children of the parish’s about 40 Catholic families.
In the Sagaing region, affected by the clashes between the Burmese army and the resistance forces, the state system has collapsed, there are no public services and education is only guaranteed by spontaneous initiatives such as those of the parishes.
It is the two women who were present at the events and are now in a protected place for security reasons who tell the details of the incident. Their testimony, which Fides has received, has already reached the Ministry of Justice of the National Unity Government (NUG) in exile, on which the People’s Defense Force (PDF) depends, which controls the territory in the so-called “liberated areas”, i.e. those taken from the control of the military junta by the opposition forces.
The men who attacked Father Donald, the women reported, were in an evident abnormal mental state, either due to alcohol or drugs. They came from the neighboring village. It is not clear why they attacked the priest with such violence, whom the leader ordered to kneel. Father Donald watched them and replied with the gentleness and inner peace that characterize him as a man and priest with an upright conscience: “I only kneel before God”. And then he continued quietly: “What can I do for you? Is there a matter we can discuss?”.
One of the men responded to his words by striking him from behind with a dagger that was still in its sheath. However, with this weapon he accidentally hit the leader of the armed group. The leader, who was already in a state of drunkenness and rage, which was also due to Father Donald’s reaction, pulled out a knife and angrily attacked the priest, repeatedly stabbing him brutally in the body and neck. Father Donald did not utter a word or complain. He endured the senseless violence without reacting, like an innocent man, “like a lamb to the slaughter,” as the witnesses report. The other men stood by and watched the murder being carried out. The repeated blows to the throat almost severed the head from the body, which sank in a lake of blood. After the crime, the group of men left the scene.
The women raised the alarm and called the villagers, who, in shock and tears, took the lifeless body with them. The soldiers of the People’s Defence Force were then alerted, who tracked down and arrested the attackers. The two women’s testimonies were recorded and sent to the Government of National Unity, which stressed in a statement that it was “deeply saddened by the murder of Father Donald Martin, a priest from Mandalay” and that it would “commit itself to punishing the alleged murderers according to the law”.
“The People’s Defence Forces (PDF) of Shwebo district arrested ten suspects on the same day” and began the relevant investigations, the statement continued. “The accused belong to a local defence group,” the text said. “As it is known that they belong to the armed forces, the Government of National Unity and the Ministry of Defence will take legal action”, applying the law provided for the military. “The National Unity Government,” it concludes, “strongly condemns attacks on civilians, including religious leaders, by any organization.”
As the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP) explains, in the areas controlled by the resistance – which constitute a kind of “parallel state” – “there is no definitive legal framework to guide governance, administration and legislation.” In some liberated areas, “there is a judicial system with district judges who establish a procedure and, in some cases, apply their own legal framework.”
On the other hand, in the current context, it is difficult to draft and implement completely new laws, so in many liberated areas, national laws are still applied. However, efforts are being made to selectively enforce laws that are “consistent with international human rights standards” enacted and amended by the army for Myanmar in recent years, with a focus on laws enacted by the country’s successive military juntas that “give the authorities excessive power and disproportionate punishments”.
The AAPP points to the need for “comprehensive judicial reform” and a “fair and just system” in which no authority (judges, administrative bodies, local police officers and other armed groups), regardless of their status, “is above the law”.
It is pointed out that, meanwhile, anyone accused of a crime must have the opportunity to defend themselves. Currently, in the liberated areas, a district judge has the power to impose the death penalty. If the accused is sentenced to death, he has de facto no right of appeal. – Agenzia Fides
