Kenju Nagai, Japanese Videographer, Killed by Government Forces During Myanmar Protests

As reported by the Irrawaddy News Magazine, the Myanmar Foreign Ministry says a man was "found dead following protests Thursday". A spokesman for a Japanese news service, quoted by a Turkish news site, further identifies him as Kenju Nagai, a 50-year old videographer for APF news. The spokesman said, ".. the passport bearing the name of our journalist, Kenji Nagai, was found with the body ...".

Unfortunately for the Myanmar Foreign Ministry, their soldiers and riot police were within camera range of at least two photographers they did not kill. Kenji Nagai was photographed alive just minutes before he was "found dead" by the soldiers and riot police. The record of Kenji Nagai's death at the hands of the military in Myanmar is on the net, in photos unattributable to anyone because the photographers know they will be imprisoned and possibly killed if they are caught. Using false names, they upload their photos to anonymous hosting sites, and e-mail them to expatriates with blogs, leaving us to connect the dots.

Photo one, found on a Burmese expatriate's blog, shows Nagai waving something at a Myanmar soldier, perhaps a video camera. He is alive, unarmed, lying on his back, defenseless. The soldier has an automatic assault rifle. As the blogger asks, "Who is making violent?"

Photo two, from the same blog, appears to have been taken moments later, from the same position. The soldier continues his pursuit of the protestors, accompanied by three men with helmets and batons. Nagai still lies on his back in the sandal-strewn street, but his arms are at his side and his head is turned. Was he shot by the soldier? Or was he beaten to death later, as another person claims.

Photo three, from gmhembree, an anonymous user on Flickr.com was taken from the relative safety of the upper floors of a building overlooking the scene. It shows Nagai's body lying in the street. The protesters are gone, leaving the street to the military. gmhembree comments, "This unfortunate man in the picture could not get away and police continued to beat him until he was dead. They launched the flare to produce smoke to try to prevent photos."

Photo four, also from gmhembree's Flickr pages, shows 6 riot police hauling Nagai's body towards their barbed wire barricades. "After regrouping, red-helmeted riot police carried the body off the scene and left it inside their barbed wire compound". (Associated Content's photo publishing system only allows three photos. You must click the link to see the fourth photo)

It appears that yes, the Myanmar forces found him dead after the protests. And as the pictures show, the Myanmar forces killed him.

Japanese National Killed in Protest in Burma, Irrawaddy News Magazine
Japanese killed in Myanmar a journalist, Turkish Press
Burman Blogger, Ko Htike
Flicker user, gmhembree