6/9/22, 9:46 AM Meet Myanmar’s Blue Shirts – The Diplomat simpler role. After three years as Myanmar’s de facto leader, she has become entangled with her old foe. Under NLD rule, Myanmar has seen a genocidal slaughter against the Rohingyas in Rakhine state along with attacks on press freedom. At best she has remained silent as her once looming moral stature disintegrates in the West. But the Myanmar public has rallied around its champion. Director and human rights activist Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi has denounced censure of Suu Kyi – even while government prosecutors pursue military complaints against him. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. In late May, activists waited for the director to arrive in a police truck at Insein township court, where two Reuters journalists were sentenced to seven years for their reporting on the atrocities in Rakhine state before being freed under a presidential amnesty on May 7. Despite suffering from liver cancer, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi has been denied bail and there are concerns he may die in prison. He criticized the military in a series of Facebook posts, triggering an officer to file complaints under go-to clauses for shutting down such speech: Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law, which covers online defamation, and Article 505(a), which criminalizes statements that might cause military officers to “disregard or fail” in their duties. “The Tatmadaw is suing people unjustly,” said a 19-year-old student outside the hearing. “Yes, I want there to be justice,” added a 22year-old activist also new to the free speech movement. https://thediplomat.com/2019/06/meet-myanmars-blue-shirts/ 4/8