[ad_1]
By AFP
When Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai was shot useless by Myanmar troops as he lined anti-military protests in 2007, his video digital camera disappeared, together with the final pictures he filmed.
On Wednesday, 16 years and a secret journey out of Myanmar later, the digital camera and its contents had been handed again to his household, who hope the footage will maintain clues to the ultimate moments of his life.
Nagai had travelled to Myanmar to cowl monk-led demonstrations in opposition to the then-junta for APF Information, a small Tokyo-based company that specialises in reviews from hazard zones.
He was killed on September 27, 2007 after troops opened hearth on demonstrators close to Yangon’s well-known Sule Pagoda, bringing renewed worldwide consideration to the generals’ brutal crackdown.
A photograph of Nagai mendacity on the highway, a soldier in fight uniform and sandals standing over him and holding a gun, received a Pulitzer prize in 2008.
Nagai’s sister Noriko Ogawa mentioned on Wednesday she was “thrilled and crammed with pleasure” to have retrieved her brother’s digital camera.
She had given up hope of ever seeing the footage, she mentioned, after Myanmar authorities ignored her request to return it to her.
“I feel my brother was ready for today too,” she mentioned.
“I wish to carry it to his grave.”
No one has been charged in relation to Nagai’s loss of life and Myanmar officers claimed the killing was an “accident”.
However an post-mortem carried out in Japan confirmed that Nagai was doubtless shot useless from shut vary – round one metre.
Footage retrieved from Nagai’s digital camera was proven to media for the primary time on Wednesday on the Overseas Correspondents’ Membership of Thailand in Bangkok.
It exhibits an enormous crowd of demonstrators singing songs in downtown Yangon, dealing with off in opposition to police and troopers carrying wicker riot shields and rifles.
Some hoist flags bearing the peacock image of Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nationwide League for Democracy.
Protesters bow earlier than a line of saffron-robed monks and a younger baby is seen amassing used plastic water bottles from the group.
A convoy of inexperienced military vans crammed with troops then arrives on the scene to jeers and cries from the demonstrators.
Nagai turns the digital camera on himself and factors to the vans.
His final phrases within the footage are: “The military has simply arrived. The military is over there. They’re closely armed.”
‘Reveal the reality’
The digital camera was obtained by journalists from Myanmar information outlet Democratic Voice of Burma.
Its chief editor Aye Chan Naing mentioned he couldn’t go into element about how they obtained the digital camera, with the intention to shield sources in Myanmar, which is as soon as once more beneath army rule.
We “acquired it from an excellent citizen who is aware of what is true and what’s mistaken”, he mentioned.
The outlet obtained the digital camera earlier than the army’s newest coup in 2021 that has plunged the nation into turmoil.
Since then at the very least 170 journalists have been arrested within the junta’s crackdown on dissent, in accordance with the United Nations, and dozens of impartial media retailers — together with DVB — have been banned.
They embody Japanese journalist Toru Kubota who spent three-and-a-half months in jail final 12 months after being detained close to an anti-government rally in Yangon.
Ogawa mentioned her household would submit the footage to authorities in Japan as “proof” in opposition to the Myanmar army’s assertion that her brother’s killing was an accident.
“We are going to proceed demanding that Myanmar’s authorities reveal the reality… At the moment, I need the world to deal with Myanmar once more,” she mentioned.
[ad_2]
Source link
