ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
Recent Posts
- Open letter from Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations to ASEAN to End Myanmar Military’s Violence, Advance Accountability and Operationalize Cross-border Humanitarian Aid
- Press Release – Rights-Based Reform: ASEAN Five Years on from the 5-Point Consensus
- Rights-Based Reform: ASEAN Five Years on from 5-Point Consensus
- [Open Letter] SEANF must remove membership of junta-controlled Myanmar National Human Rights Commission
- President Win Myint freed in broad Myanmar prisoner amnesty
Almost 100 Civilians Tortured to Death by Myanmar Regime Since Coup
/in NewsMyanmar’s military regime has tortured to death at least 95 people in interrogation centers and prisons since last year’s coup, said rights groups who called on the international community to help end the junta’s atrocities.
Among those tortured to death were National League for Democracy officials and members, student activists, young resistance fighters, peaceful protesters, striking civil servants, politicians and bystanders.
In a joint statement released on International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 14 local rights groups including the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, Equality Myanmar, the Women’s League for Burma and the Ta’ang Civil Society Organization, stated that the junta has used horrific methods of torture on political detainees in order to terrorize opponents of military rule.
“It is now common practice for the military to torture, to extract information and enact revenge, before summarily executing with gunshots,” said the joint statement.
The statement added that it has documented evidence of torture through first-hand testimony that reveals the use of guns, clubs, knives and pliers on detainees by junta forces.
Mock executions and burials, forcing detainees to assume stress positions, deprivation of food and water for days, being forced to drink toilet water, beatings on genitals and threats of sexual assault and rape are among the forms of torture used by the regime.
In one instance, almost 30 residents of Mon Taing Pin Village in Sagaing Region were slaughtered by regime troops in May after being captured in a monastery. Their bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied. The victims’ throats had been cut or they had been burned to death.
“We call attention to the historic use of torture by the military junta as a direct result of the impunity it enjoyed for decades. Hollow threats by international governments and regional blocs must end,” the 14 rights groups said in their statement.
They called on United Nations (UN) member states, as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to put much more political pressure on the junta.
International actors must refuse engagement, dialogue, or participation in activities which lend legitimacy to the regime, and implement a comprehensive global arms embargo, more targeted financial sanctions against military conglomerates and other pro-military business interests and support the work of accountability mechanisms, such as the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Burma (IIMM), added the rights groups.
The groups also called on the UN Security Council to refer cases of torture to the International Criminal Court, to end the physical and mental torture of political prisoners.
Irrawaddy News
Weekly Update 20 jun – 26 Jun 2022
/in HR Situation#ASEAN has failed the people of #Myanmar – again. ASEAN has had multiple opportunities to lead with integrity and discipline while responding to the multiple crises in Myanmar. Instead, they have turned their backs on principles of democracy and made excuses for the authoritarian tyrants who single-handedly derailed prospects for peace in the country.
Married couple tied up and shot by Myanmar forces in Tanintharyi region
/in NewsLocals say a local pro-junta militia was also involved in the killings in Dawei district.
Two people in their sixties were tied up and shot dead at close range by junta forces and their allies at a village in Myanmar’s southwestern Tanintharyi region on Sunday as revenge attacks by troops and their militia allies increase.
Around 15 troops, and militia members from a nearby village entered Kadakgyi village in Launglon township, Dawei district, according to an official from the Democracy Movement Strike Committee (DMSC), Dawei district. The official identified the married couple as Thaung Win and Win Aye (nicknamed Mi Kyone). He said militia members from Pande village took part in the killings.
“They came into the village and cuffed the couple’s hands behind their backs. The couple were shot dead in the street. I could not see any badges, but there were military intelligence and military-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee members,” the official said.
The two villagers were shot in their heads, eyes, stomachs and backs, the official told RFA, adding that the bodies had been taken to a morgue.
The couple had been involved in the anti-regime movement and supported young protesters, the official said.Junta forces and their militia allies looted houses after the killings. CREDIT: Democracy Movement Strike Committee, Dawei district.
Local residents said the junta forces raided five houses in Kadakgyi village and took money and valuables after killing the couple. They say the troops and militia destroyed homes and belongings that were not claimed by villagers.
The military council has not released a statement about the incident and calls to a military council spokesman by RFA went unanswered on Monday.
The DMSC statement said six civilians had been shot dead and two injured by junta forces and Pyu Saw Htee groups between June 16 and 26.
There has been a rise in attacks involving pro-junta militia in Tanintharyi recently.
The Soon Ye (Kite Force) militia is thought to be behind the shooting deaths of three villagers in Launglon township on April 28 and another killing on the road between Dawei and Launglon on May 3.
The day before the second killing, the militia wrote on Facebook that it had the addresses of anti-coup protesters and would harm their families if they did not stop their activities.
At least 2,021 people have been killed in Myanmar since the coup on February 1, 2021 to June 24 this year, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). Figures gathered by Data for Myanmar between February 1, 2021 and April 28, 2022 show that 27 people had been killed in Taninthary, the sixth highest level of 15 regions.
RFA News
Three men found dead after attack on Myanmar military convoy
/in NewsJunta forces travelling north to Tamu in Sagaing Region detained the three victims after being hit by a series of explosions
Three men who were abducted after an attack on a military convoy in Sagaing Region’s Tamu Township last Thursday were found dead the following day, according to resistance sources.
The men, who were all in their late 20s, were travelling between the villages of Khum Mun Nun and Yan Lin Hpai, about 20km south of the town of Tamu, when several explosions hit the convoy in the same area, the sources said.
“They were taken hostage soon after the attack and were interrogated all night until they were shot dead in the morning,” an officer of the Tamu People’s Defence Force (PDF) told Myanmar Now.
The victims were identified as Pao Tin Thang and Hao Len Mang, both from Yan Lin Hpai, and Sei Kho Thang, a resident of Khum Mun Nun.
Their bodies were discovered near Nan Mun Tar, a village about 2km from Khum Mun Nun, on Friday morning, local sources reported.
According to the Tamu PDF officer, the 13-vehicle convoy was heading north from Kalay Township when it was hit by a series of explosions on Thursday.
“We managed to land direct hits on two of the military vehicles, which were thrown into the air,” he said, adding that around 15 of the roughly 100 troops travelling with the convoy were killed.
Myanmar Now has been unable to independently confirm these figures.
The Tamu PDF officer said that regime forces fired a number of random shots after the incident, but no other casualties were reported.
The next day, the convoy continued on to Pan Thar, a village about 15km from Tamu, after leaving Khum Mun Nun in the morning, according to the Tamu PDF officer.
Troops stationed in Tamu also later arrived in Pan Thar following attacks on members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia based in the village, he added.
Tamu Township, which borders India, has seen frequent attacks on regime forces sent into the area to suppress local resistance groups.
Local residents said that the three men killed last week were among many civilians displaced by the conflict and forced to flee across the border into India.
Myanmar Now News
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
/in Multimedia, News, Video NewsTwo more civilians brutally murdered near Letpadaung copper mining project
/in NewsThe men, believed to have been captured by junta troops, are found dismembered following a Myanmar military raid on a nearby village in Sagaing’s Salingyi Township
Locals found the mutilated bodies of two men near the Letpadaung copper mining project in Sagaing Region’s Salingyi Township on Wednesday morning following a military raid on a nearby village.
The deceased were identified as Tin Soe, 50, and Pwa Gyi, 40, of Moe Gyo Pyin village, which was attacked by a column of some 70 junta soldiers on Tuesday.
“Tin Soe was decapitated and both of Pwa Gyi’s hands were cut off from the wrist,” said a villager who saw the bodies. “There were also so many knife wounds on Tin Soe’s body… Intestines were also falling out of Pwa Gyi’s stomach.”
Locals said that it was likely that Tin Soe and Pwa Gyi were killed by the same military unit that raided and shelled Moe Gyo Pyin.
“It seems that they were captured inside the village, taken outside, and then tortured and killed. I think they were killed in the same place where they were found,” said the local man, referring to a field located near Moe Gyo Pyin.
Villagers cremated the bodies on Wednesday morning.
Moegyoepyinnorth_village.jpeg
Smoke is seen rising from Moe Gyo Pyin village on June 21 following (Supplied)
An officer in the Young People’s Force, a Salingyi-based resistance group, said that in retaliation for the military’s assault on Moe Gyo Pyin, they had ambushed three junta police outposts guarding the Letpadaung mining project, the fenced boundary of which is located just across the road from the village. It is jointly operated by China’s Wanbao Mining and the military conglomerate Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL).
“We attacked them because they torched Moe Gyo Pyin, unprovoked,” he said, adding that an estimated two-thirds of the village’s 280 households were destroyed in the raid.
A local in the Letpadaung area said he saw the village burning at around 4pm on Tuesday, and that the attacks by resistance fighters began soon after.
“The defence forces attacked them from Se Te Zee Taw, located south of the copper mining project, as soon as smoke started coming out of the village. We also heard gunshots and heavy artillery shells coming from there,” he told Myanmar Now.
The soldiers reportedly took hostages in Moe Gyo Pyin but later released them. They also raided Se Te Zee Taw—eight miles away—where they occupied a monastery and held some 20 villagers as of Wednesday morning.
Since military assaults in the Letpadaung area intensified last month, thousands of locals from at least 15 villages have been displaced.
In late May, two men from Salingyi’s Ywar Thar village who had fled the junta offensives were found murdered after being detained by Myanmar army soldiers. Severe injuries indicated that they had been tortured.
They were identified as employees of the Myanmar branch of Wanbao subsidiary Yangtse Copper Co Ltd, which jointly operates two other copper mines with UMEHL: Sabetaung and Kyisintaung, known as the S&K mines.
A coalition of local resistance forces active in Salingyi and neighbouring Yinmabin Township released a joint statement in April calling on the Wanbao and Yangtse companies to halt their operations at the Letpadaung and S&K mining sites by early May, accusing them of propping up the coup regime.
A column of around 100 junta troops has since been stationed near the Yangtse Copper Co office and linked to assaults on multiple villages in the area, as well as ongoing clashes with guerrilla forces.
Myanmar Now News