Esther Htusan is a reporter from Burma — or is it Myanmar? That’s the first question I ask her in our Q&A podcast. Her last name, incidentally, is pronounced TOO-sahn, same as the city in Arizona (which is convenient when talking to Americans). She lives in America now. Why? Because her reporting led to grave threats against her in her own country. It was wise for her to leave. In 2016, she was part of an Associated Press team that won the Pulitzer Prize.
Earlier this month, two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were released from that notorious prison in Rangoon after a year and a half. (I had a note here.) Why were they in there?
Burmese authorities have committed grotesque crimes against the Rohingya minority: mass rape, mass murder, “ethnic cleansing.” (I wrote about this in February 2018.) Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were on the case. Esther Htusan has been on the case as well — along with related cases. There are a great many ethnic minorities in Burma. Esther belongs to one of them (the Kachin).
Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the political heroes of this age, became civilian leader of Burma in April 2016. Is Esther surprised that The Lady (as she has been known) has presided over atrocities, and their attempted cover-up? No, not at all. She explains why in our podcast, and explains much else, too. Again, here.