Myanmar activists jailed over anti-war protests

YANGON: A court in Myanmar’s restive Kachin state has jailed three activists for defaming the military, their lawyer said on Saturday, as campaigners slammed the “chilling warning” the verdict sends critical voices in the country.

Lum Zawng, Nang Pu and Zau Jet had helped organise an anti-war demonstration in April in the state capital Myitkyina to highlight the plight of thousands displaced by fighting between the military and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The youth leaders were sentenced on Friday to six months in prison and fined about $320 each.

Kachin is in the grip of one of the world’s longest-running civil wars, as rebels have clashed with the powerful military for six decades over autonomy, ethnic identity, drugs, jade and other natural resources in the northeast.