Statement on the Detention of the Journalists who Came to Report on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking Ceremony

Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF) | July 10, 2017

Date – June, 27th, 2017

The Palaung State Liberation Front PSLF/TNLA condemns the Myanmar military for detaining journalists who were performing their responsibility of conducting media reports at the PSLF/TNLA’s public drug-burning ceremony that commemorated the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

United Nations General Assembly resolution 42/112 of 1987 established 26 June as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking – in other words, the international day to end the misuse of drug and illegal drug trade. Consequently, every nation in the world has been accelerating drug eradication, and holding public ceremonies on every 26 June for drug education and to destroy and burn drugs.

In the past years, although PSLF/TNLA annually destroyed and burnt confiscated drugs on Ta’ang National Revolution Day, due to the increasing of military offensives of the Myanmar military in the Ta’ang region, we have decided to burn drugs that we seized from the years of 2015 to 2017 on this special day.

The Myanmar military has detained journalists from DVB media and Irrawaddy media together with their taxi drivers when they were traveling back from the ceremony. They are not still not released.

We, the PSLF/TNLA, strongly condemn the Myanmar military for detaining the journalists and disrupting media freedom. Simultaneously, we urge the international community, media agencies, human rights organizations and the public to join hands and stand for their release.

News & Information Department

Palaung State Liberation Front – PSLF/TNLA