Monks File Lawsuit Over Letpadaung Crackdown

A group of monks filed criminal and civil suits against Home Affairs Minister Lt.-Gen. Ko Ko on Mar. 11, alleging that he was responsible for a crackdown at the Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Division in 2012, where more than 100 monks and others were injured when police used smoke bombs containing the incendiary agent phosphorous.

The monks’ family members filed the complaint against the minister and the chief of the Myanmar Police Force, Maj.-Gen. Zaw Win, at the Salingyi Township police station. Whether police there will accept the case remains unknown, according to U Aung Thane, a lawyer and member of the Myanmar Lawyers’ Network.

“They just took the paper and did not say anything except that they will report it to higher officials and get back to the families,” U Aung Thane said at a press conference in Yangon on Mar. 16.

U Tikha Nyana, a monk who suffered severe burns to much of his body during the early morning raid on Nov. 29, 2012, told The Irrawaddy that due to his health condition, filing a lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators took more than two years.

“I was in hospital for one-andhalf years, and am still trying to get back to normal again,” said the 66-year-old monk, who was flown to Bangkok to receive treatment after the crackdown. —Nyein Nyein & Andrew D. Kaspar