Mizzima News 

New Delhi - The Burmese military junta has banned the publication and distribution of 'Myanmar Nation' weekly journal after detaining its Chief-Editor and Manager last Friday.

The Censor Board instructed the publisher to stop publishing and distribution of the weekly journal which was to be distributed today, a source close to the journal told Mizzima on condition of anonymity.

"The Censor Board called our publisher yesterday and told him to stop publishing and distribution of our weekly journal and to convey this message to us. They also instructed us to close our journal office temporarily. We had to pile up the journal copies at our office after it was printed. We planned to start distribution today," he said.

"The Censor Board didn't send an official letter to inform us. We haven't yet received the official letter from the Censor Board. They just informed the publisher from whom we hired the publishing license to publish our journal. We received this ban order only through the publishing license owner. When we contacted the officials from the censor board to elaborate on their ban order they just told to us that they would deal only with the publishing license owner," he added.

Daw Khin Swe Myint, wife of U Thet Zin, told Mizzima that the local authorities told her that they would take away chief editor U Thet Zin and Manager U Sein Win Maung just to interrogate them and it had nothing to do with the journal's publishing. Now they have ordered us to stop publishing and distributing the journal.

"On the day they took away U Thet Zin, the official told us to continue our journal publication and the arrest and interrogation of my husband U Thet Zin and manager had nothing to do with the journal. We had to hastily finish our weekly publication. Then you can see what happened," she said.

The journal had printed 5,000 copies which cost Kyat 1 million.

"If we had stopped printing and publishing work on Friday, we would not have wasted so much manpower and money. We had to do hard work to finish the graphic designs and other necessary works. Now all the manpower and money we have spent are wasted," she added.

"They just said they would like to inspect the copies, nothing more than that. All the articles and materials printed in our journal have been cleared by the censor board. We can print only after getting clearance from the censor board. Now they have ordered us to stop at the distribution stage. We are surprised with the order," she also said.