Thousands in Myanmar mourn slain Muslim lawyer

Ko Ni, a legal adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, was shot in the head on Sunday afternoon as he waited outside the airport while holding his grandson.

Supporters carry the coffin of Ko Ni, a prominent member of Myanmar's Muslim minority and legal adviser to the ruling National League for Democracy party, on January 30, 2017, one day after he was shot dead in Yangon, Myanmar. Mg Nyi Nyi/ReutersShow less

YANGON // Thousands of mourners gathered on Monday to bury a top Muslim lawyer and adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi who was gunned down outside Yangon airport in what the ruling party said was a political assassination.

Ko Ni, a legal adviser to the National League for Democracy, was shot in the head on Sunday afternoon as he waited outside the airport while holding his grandson.

His killing sent shockwaves through both Myanmar’s already hard-pressed Muslim community and the ruling party in a country where political killings are rare.

Police have not said what prompted the murder, but Ko Ni, 63, was a prominent Muslim figure who spoke out against the increasingly vocal anti-Islamic sentiments of Buddhist hardliners and criticised the powerful military’s grip on power.

Distraught relatives were joined by senior NLD figures, imams, Buddhist monks and members of the public who crammed into a Muslim cemetery on the outskirts of Yangon on Monday afternoon.

“This is a very cruel and ugly tragedy,” said Moe Zaw, 37, a Muslim mourner.

Both the NLD and Ko Ni’s family suspect he was targeted because of politics.

“We strongly denounce the assassination of Ko Ni like this as it is a terrorist act against the NLD’s policies,” the NLD said, describing him as an “irreplacable” aide to Ms Suu Kyi.

A taxi driver who tried to stop the gunman was also killed. The attacker, named by police as 53-year-old Kyi Lin, was arrested at the scene.

A harrowing photo circulating on social media showed what appeared to be the moment the gunman, standing behind Ko Ni as he held his grandson, took aim.

His daughter Yin Nwe Khaing said she brought her young son to greet his grandfather at the airport, adding her father had made enemies because he had been a prominent Muslim voice.

“As we are from a different religion there were many people who didn’t like and hated it. I think that also could be a reason [for his murder],” she told DVB TV.

Ko Ni had just returned from a government delegation visit to Indonesia where regional leaders were discussing sectarian tensions in Rakhine state.

Myanmar’s army has waged a crackdown on the mainly Muslim Rohingya community which has prompted tens of thousands of them to flee the area.

Ko Ni had previously criticised religious laws pushed by Buddhist nationalists.

Myanmar’s border regions have simmered for decades with ethnic minority insurgencies but it is rare for prominent political figures to be murdered in Yangon – the country’s booming and largely safe commercial hub.

However in recent years Myanmar has witnessed a surge of anti-Muslim sentiment, fanned by hardline Buddhist nationalists.

Around five per cent of Myanmar’s population is Muslim.

Ms Suu Kyi has herself faced criticism for not fielding a single Muslim candidate during the 2015 elections, a move which analysts said was to appease Buddhist hardliners.

She has also faced international censure for her failure to criticise the crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Since the launch of the crackdown in October at least 66,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, alleging security forces are carrying out a campaign of rape, torture and mass killings.

Suu Kyi and the military have denied allegations of abuse.

Senior NLD leaders, including party patron Tin Oo, visited Ko Ni’s family before the funeral.

“Losing that kind of person is great loss for the country, for democratic forces and for us [the party],” Mr Tin Oo said, describing the killing as an assassination.

* Agence France-Presse