ND Burma

Human Rights Situation weekly update (May 22 to 31, 2024)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from May 22 to 31, 2024

Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Rakhine State, Chin State, and Mon State from May 22nd to 31st. In Yangon Region, the fully aged youths do not get the recommendation letter for traveling and the Military is threatening and showing the power that the people have to pay if do not want to get the Military Service and will shoot if they try to flee or evade. The Military Junta is sending letters to the youths for Military Service in the Bago Region and Mandalay Region and arresting them, therefore, youths are fleeing and trying to escape. Military Junta beat and arrested a youth from Ayeyarwady Region who refused to get the Military Service. The military Junta is arresting the youths who are qualified to get the Military Service around Myanmar.

Over 10 civilians died, and over 20 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. A civilian died, and 5 were injured by the land mines of the Military Junta Troop.

What is the Truth (Cartoon Animation)

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အမှန်တရာဆိုသည်မှာ(What is the Truth) ကို ND-Burma မှ Animation အနေဖြင့် ယနေ့ထုတ်ပြန်လိုက်သည်

လူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာလူသားချင်းစာနာသည့် ဥပဒေကို ဆိုးဆိုးရွားရွား ချိုးဖောက်ခံရသူ များနှင့် ၎င်းတို့၏ မိသားစုများသည် ထိရောက်သည့် ကုစားပေးမှုများကို ခံစားပိုင် ခွင့်ရှိသည်။ ထိုအထဲတွင် ၎င်းတို့ခံစားခဲ့ရသည့် ချိုးဖောက်မှု အဖြစ်မှန်နှင့် မည်သူက ကျူးလွန်သည်၊ ချိုးဖောက်မှု ဖြစ်ပွားခြင်း၏ အရင်းခံအကြောင်းတရားများနှင့် ဖြစ်နိုင်ပါက အတင်းအကြပ် လက်စတုန်း ဖျောက်ဖျက်ခံရသူများ မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ဖျောက်ဖျက်ခံရသည် (သို့မဟုတ်) ၎င်းတို့၏ အဆုံးစွန်ဆုံး ဖြစ်ခဲ့သည့် ကံကြမ္မာနှင့်ပတ်သက်ပြီး သိခွင့်ရှိရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။

ထိုအခွင့်အရေးကို နိုင်ငံအတော်များများတွင် တရားရုံးများက ဥပဒေချမှတ် ပြဌာန်း၍ အသိအမှတ် ပြုထားသကဲ့သို့ နိုင်ငံတကာ တရားစီရင်ရေး ယန္တာရားများကလည်း ပြဌာန်း အသိအမှတ်ပြုထား သည်။ ၎င်းနှင့်ပတ်သက်ပြီး အဓိက ပါဝင်ရမည့် အင်္ဂါရပ်များကို ကောင်းမွန်စွာ ပြုစုဖော် ပြထားချိန် တွင်ပင် အမှန်တရားသိရှိပိုင်ခွင့်နှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ ဆက်လက် တိုးတက်ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေပြီး ဥပဒေ စနစ် အမျိုးမျိုးအောက်တွင် ထူးခြားကွဲပြားသည့် လက္ခဏာများအဖြစ် ဖြစ်ထွန်းနေသည်။

ND Burma

Mass arrest in Myanmar’s Rakhine State ends in interrogations, beatings

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Villagers say at least three people died as a result.

Myanmar’s junta detained hundreds of villagers in Rakhine State, including children, over suspected links to ethnic minority insurgents and beat at least three people to death, residents told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.

The security sweep appeared aimed at preventing the Arakan Army insurgent force making more advances after a string of recent gains and stopping them from closing in on the state capital of Sittwe, residents said. 

“The junta soldiers ordered all villagers to gather and they’ve been detained all day since yesterday,” said one resident of Byian Phu village, which is several kilometers north of Sittwe.

“Now, the men have been taken in military vehicles. The women and children were gathered in the cemetery,” said the villager, who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.

Another villager said three people were beaten to death while junta soldiers interrogated them

RFA could not verify the villagers’ accounts and telephone calls to Rakhine State’s junta spokesperson, Hla Thein, to seek information went unanswered. 

The Arakan Army has seized junta bases in Rakhine and Chin states since a ceasefire between the junta and one of Myanmar’s most powerful insurgent groups ended in November.

Residents have accused junta troops of carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilians, recruiting members of the persecuted RohingyaMuslim minority and detaining  civilians hostage on suspicion of supporting groups fighting  the junta that seized power more than three years ago. 

As the Arakan Army gets closer to Sittwe, residents said the junta has increased security, arresting and interrogating more people.

About 100 junta soldiers conducted the raid on Byain Pyu  at noon on Wednesday, iand checked lists that households are meant to keep of overnight visitors, a monitoring system made stricter since the army seized power again in a 2021 coup.

Soldiers also went from house to house to search for anyone hiding from them, residents said. Some people were beaten and taken away, along with valuables discovered in their houses, residents said. 

Another villager, who also declined to be identified for safety reasons, told RFA that at least three men were beaten to death by the junta soldiers.

“Men were being interrogated near the tea shop at the market. They were beaten and interrogated one after another. One of my relatives died there,” the Byain Phyu resident said. “It is said that two or three more people died. The bodies have not been returned.” 

In northern Rakhine State, the Arakan Army captured Rathedaung and Ponnagyun townships in March and Pauktaw in January, leaving only Sittwe and Maungdaw, near the border of Bangladesh, under junta control. 

While insurgent forces in several parts of the country have made significant gains since late last year, seizing numerous junta camps, villages and towns, no group has captured a state capital.

The junta has arrested 425 civilians in Rakhine State  since November, the Arakan Army said in a statement on Monday. Fighting in the state had killed 268 civilians and wounded 640, it said. 

RFA News

ND Burma

Human Rights Situation weekly update (May 15 to 21, 2024)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from May 15 to 21, 2024

Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Chin State, Rakhine State, and Shan State from May 15th to 21st. Over 200 men from Magway Region, Yangon Region, and Shan State were arrested for 2nd batch of Military Service and blackmailed. Military Junta Troop and staff who work for the Military collected money from the cars and passengers and also were getting money for making NRC cards (National Registration Citizenship).

Over 20 civilians died, and over 50 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 8 underaged people died and 5 were injured when the Military committed Human rights abuses. A civilian also died by the landmines of the Military Junta.

ND Burma

CRISIS IN RAKHINE: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL MUST CONVENE URGENT SPECIAL SESSION ON MYANMAR

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19 May 2024: The Rohingya people in western Myanmar are again at risk of genocide. The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council must address this risk and the worsening human rights emergency in Myanmar generally, by convening an urgent special session, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).

This weekend, Rohingya remaining in Buthidaung township, northern Rakhine state, have reported being targeted with coordinated killings, large-scale arson attacks and shelling, beginning on Friday 17 May. 200,000 people are reported to be displaced with unconfirmed numbers of casualties. Credible sources cite Arakan Army soldiers as committing the attacks. The Arakan Army claimed on 18 May that its forces had seized the last remaining Myanmar military junta bases in Buthidaung township, which borders Bangladesh. The Human Rights Council must convene an urgent special session to address the crisis.

The Arakan Army has been one of the most effective armed groups opposing the vicious Myanmar military following the attempted coup in February 2021. Since last October it has succeeded in defeating the military throughout much of northern Rakhine state and southern Chin state in western Myanmar. It has also joined other resistance forces in freeing large areas of north-east Myanmar. Now, however, it seems to be turning its guns on the defenceless Rohingya people to complete the genocide undertaken by the same military it has opposed. The Arakan Army is bound by obligations under international humanitarian law and is required to investigate possible violations of international humanitarian law by troops under its command.

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) reported to the Human Rights Council in 2018 that war crimes, crimes against humanity and possible genocide were committed against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine by the Myanmar military in 2016 and 2017. As a result, 750,000 Rohingya refugees sought shelter in Bangladesh, where they remain today along with 300,000 other Rohingya who fled earlier military campaigns. Around 600,000 Rohingya are still in Myanmar.

The events of 2016 and 2017 are subject to a continuing investigation at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the Genocide Convention. In January 2020, the ICJ issued an interim ruling, finding a real and imminent risk of further irreparable harm to the right of the Rohingya in Myanmar to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts, and, pending its final decision, it indicated a series of binding provisional measures to protect those rights. Four and a half years later, Rohingya in Myanmar remain subject to persecution and denial of their rights and continue to be at serious risk of genocide.  

The ICC has been investigating the forced displacement of Rohingya to Bangladesh since 2019 but it has not yet taken any action against the leaders of the Myanmar military who were responsible then and who are responsible now for continuing atrocities. 

The situation in Myanmar is shifting significantly. The Myanmar military junta does not have effective control of the country and has a rapidly diminishing influence in Rakhine. The military junta remains by far the primary source of violence and instability and grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. This includes the military’s destruction, by burning and shelling, of entire towns seized by resistance forces since October 2023.

The Human Rights Council should use the special session to adopt a resolution calling on all parties to comply fully with the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ and to uphold international human rights and international humanitarian law in Myanmar at all times. The Council must also expedite efforts to address the accountability deficit in Myanmar and identify ways to use the extensive evidence already collected by the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, including by calling on the Security Council to refer the whole situation in Myanmar to the ICC or through the establishment of a special international criminal tribunal for Myanmar.

Download the English version of the statement: SAC-M PR HRC special session ENGLISH

ND Burma

About 30 Rohingya killed in clashes between Myanmar junta, insurgents

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Thousands are fleeing a township after the Arakan Army ordered them to leave.

About 30 members of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority have been killed in clashes between junta forces and ethnic minority Buddhist insurgents, residents of Rakhine State said on Saturday, raising new fears that the persecuted Muslim community is being caught in the middle of increasingly bitter fighting.

Twelve Rohingya civilians were killed in junta airstrikes targeting fighters from the Arakan Army, or AA, in Buthidaung township on Friday.  Later in the day, the Arakan Army bombed  a school where Rohingyas were sheltering with drones, killing 18 of them, residents said.

About 200 people were wounded, a Buthidaung Rohingya resident who identified himself as Khin Zaw Moe told RFA.

“People are scared. The casualties may be even higher,” he said. “The exact number is not known due to the difficulty in communicating.”

Rohingyas from about 20 villages were sheltering in the high school when it was attacked, he said. It was not clear why the Arakan Army bombed the school.

RFA tried to telephone the AA spokesman, Khaing Thukha, and the junta’s Rakhine State spokesperson, Hla Thein, but could not get through to either of them. 

The AA, who are battling the junta for self-determination of the Buddhist ethnic Arakan community in the state, said in a statement on Saturday its forces had captured all junta bases in Buthidaung. It did not mention Rohingya civilians.

Rohingya, who have been persecuted for decades in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, are getting caught up in the war between the AA and junta forces, human rights workers  say.

Both sides have pressed Rohingya into their ranks and at the same time have accused Rohingya of helping their rivals. Both the AA and junta forces subjected members of the Muslim minority to violence, residents and rights workers say.

Another Rohingya resident of Buthidaung said the AA burned down homes in eight neighborhoods of the town although he didn’t know how many of the homes had been destroyed.

Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin told RFA that tens of thousands of Rohingyas had fled from their homes after the AA ordered them to leave the town by 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Another township resident told RFA on Saturday that AA fighters had rounded up thousands of Rohingya near Buthidaung prison. 

RFA was unable to confirm any of the accounts because telephone lines and internet links were down.

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled from a Myanmar military crackdown in 2017, in response to a series of attacks on the security forces by Rohingya insurgents. Most of those refugees are sheltering in camps in southeast Bangladesh, where they joined hundreds of thousands who fled earlier abuses.

More than half a million Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, many of them in camps for the internally displaced. Rohingya activists estimate the Rohingya population of Buthidaung to be around 200,000. 

RFA News