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
- On International Women’s Day, the Network for Human RightsDocumentation – Burma Calls for the Recognition of Women’s Contributions to the Pro-Democracy Movement
- INTERVIEW: Why an Argentine court filed a warrant for Aung San Suu Kyi’s arrest
- Myanmar junta bombs rebel wedding, at least 10 killed
- Press Statement: Argentine Court’s arrest warrants are welcome progress towards justice
- OPEN LETTER: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL MUST TAKE CONCRETE ACTION TO SUPPORT THE MYANMAR PEOPLE’S EFFORTS TO BUILD A RIGHTS-PROTECTING FUTURE
Tortured teashop owner loses hearing after more than four months in detention
/in NewsThe man and his wife have both been held in Mandalay’s Obo Prison since their arrest in early July
The owner of a teashop in Mandalay Region’s Sintgaing Township has lost his hearing and some of his eyesight due to torture at the hands of his interrogators, according to a source close to his family.
Min Thu Tun, 32, was arrested at his teashop in the village of Ohn Pin Chan on July 6 on suspicion of involvement with anti-regime forces active in the area.
He is currently being held in Mandalay’s Obo Prison, where he faces charges of incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code and illegal possession of weapons under Sections 5 and 6 of the Weapons Act.
His condition has greatly deteriorated since he was arrested together with his wife and five others, including his 12-year-old son and employees of his teashop, according to the family contact.
“He has gone deaf and his eyes have also been badly injured. They said his eyesight is not very good. He got all those injuries from being tortured,” the source said, citing someone who saw Min Thu Tun at an in-prison court hearing in October.
The family was taken into custody following a clash between junta forces and local resistance fighters near Mandalay International Airport in the nearby town of Tada-U. One soldier was killed in the shootout and one member of the Sintgaing People’s Defence Force (PDF) was arrested.
During a raid carried out after the clash, regime forces reportedly discovered explosives in a hut near Min Thu Tun’s Shwe Kyal Zin teashop.
Min Thu Tun, his wife Tin Nwe Hlaing, and three other suspects are still being held by the junta, but the couple’s son, Aung Swan Pyae, and one other boy have since been released after initially being charged with possessing explosives.
Tin Nwe Hlaing, 32, is also suffering from health problems, according to the family contact.
“She has a stomach disease. The rice they serve in prison is of poor quality, causing her to have frequent stomach pains. It’s really worrying,” he said.
“Their child is being looked after by their relatives. It’s so sad to see a family being torn apart,” he added.
No details were available about the condition of the three other detainees, Sai, Htet Wai Yan, and Min Min Soe.
The next court hearing is expected to be held at a special court inside Obo Prison on November 19.
Myanmar Now attempted to contact the regime’s information officer and Sintgaing’s central police station for information regarding the cases against the detainees and their condition in custody, but did not receive a response.
Neither Min Thu Tun nor Tin Nwe Hlaing have received adequate treatment for their health issues, according to the source close to the family.
“They’re not guilty in the first place. I just want to request the military council to release them as soon as possible,” he said.
Myanmar Now News
Weekly update on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar: Post-Coup (November 8-14) 2021
/in HR SituationDetained veteran student activist, U Kyaw Min Yu (Ko Jimmy), a member of the 88 Generation Students Group was arrested at the end of October where he later suffered a violent interrogation in military custody. He was then charged with high treason and terrorism. The five charges he faces could see him face 30 years in prison if convicted, with the possibility of the death penalty.
Former NLD Chief Minister, Nang Khin Htwe Mying, 67 was found guilty on five separate charges in a military court. She was handed a maximum of 15 years for each case – which brought the total to 77 years in prison.
U Win Htein, who has been sentenced to two decades in prison for sedition by the junta, is an 80 year old patron of the NLD in declining health who was transferred from a Naypyitaw detention centre to Obo Prison in Mandalay.
As more charges are laid, ousted politicians are still being detained and family members taken hostage in their place. Win Myint Hlaing, 51, who represented Taungdwingyi Township in Magway’s regional legislature was taken away with his brother on 8 November and has not been heard from since.
Meanwhile, since the attempted coup, the junta has continued to crackdown on former government officials who have rejected the regime and remained loyal to the NLD. Over the last 90 days, the military has seized approximately 70 properties of NLD lawmakers and other party members who have joined the National Unity Government or People’s Defense Forces.
Despite all the efforts to weaken the resistance movement and Spring Revolution, efforts to dismantle the junta have not wavered. The arrests and targeted assaults on the people’s freedoms are only signifying the fragility of the junta and their desperate attempts to eliminate competition to appear stronger. People continue to overwhelmingly reject everything that the military stands for.
CHIN STATE
Satellite imagery showed the devastation and destruction perpetrated by the military junta in Chin State where homes and churches were burnt to the ground. The regime continues to deny their involvement but photos and testimonies from survivors speak the truth.
As resistance forces continued to fight to defend their territory, the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) in Mindat township stated that over a week and a half, a Myanmar military convoy was repeatedly attacked and nearly 60 soldiers were killed.
The wave of atrocity crimes in Chin State has led to challenges documenting evidence of the war-path left behind by the Myanmar junta. An ongoing internet shutdown has made it even harder. Organizations are taking huge risks to attempt to collect critical documentation.
KACHIN STATE
Communities in Kachin State are reeling from the aftermath of targeted airstrikes by the military junta. Livelihoods have been forcibly put on hold as the regime’s presence evokes fear and uncertainty. Since March, multiple airstrikes have displaced thousands. Many displaced villagers have left the IDP camps and returned home, fearing that they would contract the COVID-19 virus in close quarters. Yet many of their needs remain unmet as conflict and the pandemic, as well as inflation, has put basic items out of financial reach for local people.
SHAN STATE
Shan State is among the many areas which continues to be faced with the brutality of the junta as ongoing offensives threaten their survival. In the last two days, scorched earth tactics forced nearly 40 000 residents in Shan State and Sagaing region. In Pekon township, southern Shan State there were 10 000 people from 20 villages seeking refuge.
Villagers also reported the rape of a local elderly woman in northern Shan State after soldiers stole food from her home. The 62-year old was in her home with another woman when three soldiers approached her home. After one left to feed the livestock, the soldiers returned and raped the woman.
Myanmar Junta Troops Rape Chin Mother: Media
/in NewsMyanmar’s junta soldiers gang-raped the mother of a baby in front of her husband in Tedim Township, Chin State, on Thursday night, according to the Chin media.
The alleged incident in Akllui village on the Kale-Tedim highway involved the 27-year-old mother and three soldiers while her husband, 34, was forced to crouch in the toilet, the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) for Kalay, Kabaw and Gangaw reported. The group said it received a victim’s report and was investigating the case.
The husband was injured in the head after being hit with rifle butts and plates.
Two of the soldiers returned to the house and raped the victim again later that night, the CDF said.
The three soldiers took a phone, power bank, 18,000 kyats (US$10) and golden earrings, according to the Zalen news outlet, quoting a relative. The couple and their three children have been evacuated to a safe location, according to the CDF.
On Thursday night, at least five houses were raided and looted by regime forces stationed in the village, according to the media. The junta forces left the village on Saturday.
The CDF condemned the attack on the ethnic Chin woman, saying it insulted the whole community.
The civilian resistance group has vowed to take revenge on the regime forces for its sexual abuse of women.
Sisters 2 Sisters, a group raising awareness on excessive force and sexual violence by regime forces, condemned the rape.
The group, which promotes solidarity in fighting systemic oppression, said all sexual violence during conflict is a war crime and a crime against humanity, breaching international humanitarian law.
It said the soldiers responsible must be punished.
On Nov. 7, a junta soldier raped a 62-year-old woman after asking the victim for vegetables at a village in Kutkai Township, Shan State. Myanmar’s junta confirmed the rape case on Nov. 11.
Irrawaddy News
Myanmar Junta Releases US Journalist After Ex-Diplomat’s Intervention
/in NewsMyanmar’s junta released and deported the US journalist Danny Fenster on Monday, three days after sentencing him to 11 years for incitement, contacting an illegal organization and breaching visa regulations.
The regime’s spokesman confirmed the 37-year-old’s deportation after his release from Yangon’s Insein Prison.
The release followed the former US diplomat and ex-New Mexico governor Bill Richardson’s meeting with the regime’s leader Min Aung Hlaing.
On Monday, the Richardson Center tweeted that Fenster’s release was secured following a private humanitarian visit by Richardson and negotiations with Min Aung Hlaing.
The tweet said “We are so grateful that Danny will finally be able to reconnect with his loved ones, who have been advocating for him all this time, against immense odds.”
It was posted with a picture of Fenster and Richardson at the airport in Yangon.
Fenster, the managing editor of the online news site Frontier Myanmar, was arrested on May 24 at Yangon’s airport shortly while boarding a flight to Malaysia. He was held in Insein.
“We are relieved that Danny is finally out of prison – somewhere he never should have been in the first place,” said Frontier editor-in-chief Thomas Kean.
Before working for Frontier Myanmar, Fenster was with Myanmar Now after joining The Irrawaddy for a few months.
On Friday, the US State Department condemned the sentence as an unjust conviction of an innocent person.
Fenster is the third foreign journalist to be detained by the junta. Two freelancers, Robert Bociaga from Poland and Yuki Kitazumi from Japan, were detained before Fenster’s arrest. Both were later freed and deported.
Since the military takeover, the regime has targeted journalists with arrests, lawsuits, raids on newsrooms and violence in an attempt to suppress coverage of the junta’s lethal crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters.
Around 100 journalists have been detained by the regime since the coup. Around 50 of them remain in prison.
Irrawaddy News
Man dies in junta custody after soldiers detain him because they couldn’t find his nephew
/in NewsThe body of Ye Aung, 33, had numerous head injuries when his family came to collect it
A man who was detained when soldiers were unable to find his nephew during a raid in Mandalay Region last week died in junta custody within hours, with his body showing signs of severe injury when his family went to collect it.
Ye Aung, 33, was taken from home to the village of Kyauktada, Madaya Township, on Friday afternoon when troops arrived searching for his 24-year-old nephew, who is a protest organiser in the village.
The family has said they do not want to disclose the name of the protest leader, who has been in hiding for several months. Soldiers also took the protest leader’s 48-year-old father, Myint Aung, who has not been heard from since.
“They both were taken at around 4pm and Ye Aung’s family was notified the next morning that he had died,” a Kyauktada villager told Myanmar Now. “I heard he was sent to the interrogation center. The family had to go there to take his body back home.”
Ye Aung’s body showed signs that he had been badly beaten in custody; he had numerous injuries on his head, said the villager. Ye Aung left behind his baby and his wife, who had given birth just a few days before he was detained.
Neither of the two men who were taken took part in the underground movement against the dictatorship, the villager said.
Soldiers destroyed furniture and took computers, mobile phones and money from the house while arresting Ye Aung, locals said.
Myint Naing’s family are reportedly in fear for his life as they heard that he was also sent to the interrogation center.
Locals from Mattaya said that the military has conducted frequent raids on villages within the township since early November and arrested several teachers taking part in the Civil DIsobedience Movement (CDM).
Local resistance forces in the township have launched ambushes against military units.
On Friday a bomb exploded at a security checkpoint on the road leading into the township, killing a military captain, a private, and three police officers, said local news reports and the Madaya People’s Defence Force (PDF).
Then on Saturday soldiers arrested a married couple, both teachers, who were taking part in the CDM. The couple were beaten at their home before being taken away to an undisclosed location.
“I think teachers have become their favourite targets lately. We still haven’t heard anything about the teacher couple,” said a Madaya local.
In early October 35-year-old Thein Zaw was detained by junta forces in Madaya and his body was found near his village three days later.
Myanmar Now News
Weekly Update on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar: post-Coup (November 1-7) 2021
/in HR SituationWorsening military offensives in conflict-torn Chin State has left thousands without homes and enough food to survive. The increased presence of military junta soldiers is depriving civilians of their rights to live safely. Places of worship, including predominantly churches in the Christian minority state, have been burned to the ground with local religious leaders targeted. On 4 November, over 500 civil society organizations, including ND-Burma, called on the United Nations Security Council to impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar, given the gravity of the situation and likelihood of war crimes being perpetrated by the junta.
In the wake of the brutality, Chin armed defences forces have stood their ground. They have bravely fought back to protect their people, and their State’s territory. Even amid casualties, Chin soldiers have not been deterred as they face the onslaught of the junta’s violence and their highly advanced weaponry. ND-Burma affiliate member, the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), has continued to report tirelessly on the human rights violations being committed. Civilians of all ages have been killed and endlessly tortured with many succumbing to their wounds or barely surviving. Among those murdered by the junta, a 70 year old retired teacher was fatally struck by artillery rounds which were intentionally fired in Mindat township on the afternoon of November 3rd. Three other civilians were injured in the explosion.
In the harrowing nine months which have now passed since the coup, thousands have been displaced. Arbitrary arrests are ongoing, and testimonies of the junta’s brutal interrogation tactics – of which few live to speak of their experience – exhibit the lawlessness that is the institution of the Tatmadaw. Pursuing violent acts is the only way that the junta has ever known to control civilians. Nonetheless, appeals to the international community are ongoing for action. The junta is neither credible nor capable of protecting the many who are displaced and increasingly vulnerable. It is with the utmost urgency that calls from civil society organizations, human rights defenders and civilians themselves on the ground be listened to.
Rights groups are continuing to publish reports with evidence of large scale abuses taking place. Overwhelming evidence pushes for the regime to be held accountable for the crimes that they have committed. Among the many lessons in the months since February 1, the most severe has been that the international community has acted too slowly. The economic and humanitarian crisis demands a response that protects the people and holds the junta accountable.
CHIN STATE
Abductions in Chin State are widespread. The numbers of those killed in custody of the junta are growing, and pose yet another threat to civilian safety and security. CHRO reported that of seven detainees taken on 1 November, one person has been killed. Two had been killed previously while taken hostage by the regime in Hakha township in May.
The burning of over 200 homes in Thantlang due to artillery shelling by the Myanmar junta was denied by the regime who claimed it was villagers who set their homes on fire. It is clear that the attacks on Thantlang were pre-meditated and coordinated in an attempt to weaken the bases of Chin defense forces and further demoralize innocent civilians.
Amid the ongoing violence, several embassies have voiced their concern to the atrocities taking place, including the United States and Sweden. It is important that their words also be met with action.
KAYAH STATE
The junta’s use of human shields is forbidden by Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions and yet the terrorist regime continues to target civilians by forcing them to lead in combat and through unfamiliar territory. In Kayah State, locals have been used as human shields at least four times. Civilians abducted from their villages are rarely heard from or seen again as families are left without any information about their whereabouts or condition.
The Karenni National Defense Force said that the junta divisions of the 66ht, 77th and 88th battalions are conducting operations against Karenni armed groups. A soldier from one of the civilian defense groups witnessed 19 detainees being forced to lead soldiers as human shields, which forced them to abandon their attack. The National Unity Government has called for people’s defence forces to make sure their every single act of revolt is directed toward justice.
SHAN STATE
Clashes in southern Shan are fueling displacement as the junta burns down homes in local villages, which has recently forced approximately 300 people to flee. Three hour clashes between Kayah State based People’s Defence Forces, ethnic armed organizations and the military junta sent many seeking shelter in temples, churches nearby.