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.
NUG to report Myanmar military atrocities in Chin State to international courts
/in NewsThe underground civilian administration is investigating and documenting junta massacres of civilians with the aim of bringing cases before the ICC and ICJ
Two ministers from Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) said in a press conference on Thursday that their administration was gathering information on crimes committed by the junta in Chin State to submit to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Dr Sasa, the Minister of International Cooperation, said that the NUG is working collaboratively on the process with the Independent Investigative Mechanism Myanmar (IIMM) to share their documentation with the courts.
“We are doing all of these procedures along with the IIMM. We are also going to submit the evidence gathered by us and the IIMM to not only the ICC and the ICJ but also to other places such as Brazil, Australia and Germany where we can get international jurisdiction,” he explained.
Minister of Human Rights Aung Myo Min said that the violations would also be reported to the UN Security Council with the aim of convincing the body to approve sanctions on arms exports to the Myanmar junta.
“The NUG is filing reports and trying to bring about stronger action [against the junta], such as preventing airstrikes and stopping the imports of weapons and airplane fuel,” he said.
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Among the crimes being investigated by the NUG is the massacre of 10 civilians in southern Chin State’s Matupi Township earlier this month after they were used as human shields by the military.
Relatives of two of the victims spoke at Thursday’s press conference, explaining how their loved ones were tortured and killed by Myanmar army troops, and cited eyewitness reports from those who recovered their bodies on January 8 and 9.
The discovery has led to renewed calls for the military to be held accountable for possible war crimes against civilians
They said that the deceased were found blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs and with knife wounds to their necks and bodies.
“How could they be that cruel? They weren’t even resistance fighters. They were just innocent civilians. How will I ever be able to cope with this?” Thidar Htwe, whose husband Paw Va Htoo was among those murdered, said.
The youngest of the victims was La Nang, a 13-year-old boy. He was abducted and later killed while accompanying his brother on an errand to buy fuel, according to his father, Joseph.
“We waited three days for his return, because we hoped he would be spared as he was just a child. It is heartbreaking. I don’t think I will be able to withstand this pain,” Joseph said.
The military sent massive troop reinforcements to Matupi Township in early January, and serious clashes have been taking place between the military and the Chinland Defence Force across the state.
Similarly, the entire population of the Chin State town of Thantlang was displaced due to a military offensive and occupation of the area last year. Some 700 houses and seven religious buildings were destroyed over a three-month period ending in December.
Minister Aung Myo Min said that these acts were clearly war crimes, and that investigators had gathered sufficient evidence implicating both the military leaders who ordered the attacks and the troops who carried them out.
Citing figures compiled by the Chin Human Rights Organisation, the NUG stated that some 892 people had been arrested and 182 people killed in Chin State from the period following the February 1 coup until the end of 2021.
Some 50,000 Chin State residents were also displaced from their homes last year, and around 30 senior citizens died as a result of the forced relocation.
Similar rights violations have taken place in neighbouring Sagaing Region, where the military burned 11 civilians to death in Salingyi Township’s Done Taw village in December of last year.
The NUG is also planning to bring an international legal case against the Myanmar army for the Christmas Eve massacre of more than 30 people outside Moso village, in Karenni State’s Hpruso Township. The troops set fire to the victims’ bodies and the crime scene.
Myanmar Now News
More than 100 homes destroyed in second junta attack on Gangaw Township village
/in NewsMore than 80 percent of the houses in the Magway Region village of San Myo have been burned by the military
The military raided and torched San Myo village in Magway Region’s Gangaw Township on Tuesday, destroying more than 100 homes in the second attack on the community in less than one month, locals said.
Two junta columns began targeting the village at around 1pm, according to Nway Oo, an officer in a local anti-coup defence force. The troops involved—around 100 personnel, including members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee network—had been occupying the nearby villages of Kyauk Pyoke and Myauk Khin Yan before clashing with the resistance a half mile north of San Myo.
“The local defence force tried to defend against the columns but eventually had to retreat due to the difference in firepower. The military then started torching the village,” Nway Oo told Myanmar Now.
He said that the Myanmar army soldiers also fired heavy artillery at the resistance fighters, and that some of the shells landed in San Myo.
Less than 40 homes in the village of 210 households were left undamaged following the attack, a local said.
“Over 100 houses were lost [this time],” a local man said on Wednesday, unsure of the exact number of homes that were destroyed, since residents were forced to flee when the troops arrived.
He confirmed to Myanmar Now that the junta had fired shells, rifles, and thrown handmade explosives, such as molotov cocktails, into the village, and that two villagers were injured.
“They also threatened the head monk of the village, saying that they would burn the monastery down if the villagers did not support the military,” the local man said.
“A similar thing happened not too long ago, so just over 30 houses have been left unburned now. The fire had not gone out yet until this morning,” he added, referring to the previous military assault on San Myo on December 21, when junta forces burnt more than 30 homes and shops to the ground while looting others.
Defence force member Nway Oo said that the soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members responsible for Tuesday’s attack had also carried out an air raid on Hnan Khar village on December 17.
He added that more than 10,000 people had been displaced due to the military’s airstrikes and raids on villages in the region.
Myanmar Now News
Human Rights Situation in Myanmar: Post-Coup (January 10-16)2022
/in HR SituationThe Myanmar military’s war on the people has continued unabated and without international action for the last eleven months. Innocent civilians including women and children remain caught in the crossfire. Over the last week, worsening offensives in Karen and Kayah(Karenni) State have forced thousands more civilians to flee where they are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Inside Myanmar, key aid routes remain blocked. The regime has targeted first responders since the beginning of the attempted coup, and have not hesitated to intercept food deliveries and have even burned supplies intended for the most vulnerable.
Civil society organizations have boldly continued to document the widespread human rights violations taking place on the ground. Evidence of the junta’s crimes are essential for ensuring justice for the thousands of victims at the highest possible level of international jurisdiction. Civilians must not be targeted or used as human shields. They must be permitted safe passages to flee and aid must not be blocked. By failing to adhere to basic norms and protection for civilian life, the junta is responsible for crimes against humanity and those amounting to war crimes.
Despite a visit by Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is not in agreement on how to engage with the terrorist junta. Cambodia, who is the current chair of ASEAN, postponed a meeting with the foreign ministers citing travel concerns. However, observers were quick to note that it likely signals something quite the country – rather the brewing disagreement over inviting any junta representative.
The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) was among those to condemn the visit by the Cambodian Prime Minister who came to Myanmar while the junta forces were launching airstrikes in ethnic areas. “Prime Minister Hun Sen undertook an ill-advised and contested visit to Naypyitaw to meet with Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing on 7 and 8 January 2022.” said SAC-M in a statement released on 11 January.
The voices of the people in Myanmar cannot and will be silenced. It is time the international community took action and responded to their calls for protection, safety and justice.
Civilians in Karen State have been forced to flee worsening offensives as the junta continues to deploy air and ground strikes in local villages. According to ND-Burma member, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, sources from the Karen National Liberation Army Brigade 6 forces, landmines planted by the junta battalions were found in some Mae Htaw Thale village in Kawkareik Township houses. “We just discovered the Burmese soldiers have planted landmines under the homes, inside the rooms, and yards. As a result of the landmines, many conflict-affected IDPs have been unable to return to their homes. The junta battalions burned down an estimated 65 houses. Because of losing their residences and the Burmese laying landmines in civilian areas, it has been challenging for them to return.”
The Karen Peace Support Network reported on 13 January at 1AM, the military junta “conducted deliberate and indiscriminate airstrikes on Shwe Nyaung Bin located between the border of Bridge 1 and Bridge 5 of the Karen National Union controlled area. A civilian was killed and three were severely wounded from the attack.”
These attacks have prompted calls from Karen civil society and allied human rights groups for international action, including sanctions and the halting of aviation fuel which supply the military jets.
KAYAH (KARENNI) STATE
Ongoing airstrikes in Kayah (Karenni) State have forced the majority of people living in the capital city of Loikaw to flee. The attacks were launched on 8 and 9 January after intense clashes followed between resistance forces and the military junta. Civilians reported being hesitant to flee because they could hear helicopters hovering and the status of the town has been described as ‘deserted’ while the junta continues to threaten a full-blown offensive if anti-coup forces do not surrender. Offensives have forced over 150 000 people across the State to flee to neighboring Shan State or close by villages. Loikaw was hit with more airstrikes launched by the military junta on 12 January as fighting continued.
The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) has called for protection for civilians affected by the ongoing military offensives. In an appeal to the international community, the KNPP made clear that the regime is deliberately targeting civilians by burning their homes, and buildings in their villages. Electricity and water have been cut off by the junta in Loikaw on the weekend.
KAREN STATE
The Karenni National Progressive Party announced that they are committed to exposing the junta’s widespread human rights violations by creating a documentary. One quarter of the population in conflict-torn Kayah (Karenni) State has been forcibly displaced by the Myanmar military’s violence. The junta has committed serious violations which have forced the most vulnerable to the brink of survival.
Over the weekend, the Kayah (Karenni) capital city of Loikaw was violently assaulted by junta armed forces in clashes which killed at least four civilians and displaced over 1000. The civilian armed resistance in Kayah (Karenni) State has been met with brute force from the Myanmar military. The ‘scorched-earth’ tactics being used are indicative of a worrying tactic of the junta to eliminate opposition, even at the cost of innocent civilian lives.
Girl, 7, Among Three Civilians Killed as Myanmar Junta Bombs Camp for War Displaced
/in NewsThe Myanmar junta’s indiscriminate aerial bombing killed three civilians including a 7-year-old girl in a displacement camp in Kayah State’s Hpruso Township early on Monday.
The junta extended into northern Hpruso the air raids and artillery attacks it has been conducting against the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force—an armed group resisting the military junta—in Demoso and the state capital Loikaw since early this month.
The three victims—a 7-year-old girl, an 18-year-old woman and a man in his 50s—were killed when at least two helicopter gunships dropped four bombs at around 1:15 a.m. on Monday, according to a Hpruso resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
They were from Moso Village, where the charred bodies of at least 35 civilians were found on Dec. 24 after a raid by junta soldiers. Residents of Moso and nearby villages are taking shelter at the displacement camp, which hosts some 600 people.
The 7- and 18-year-olds were sisters. The girl suffered serious stomach wounds and the older sister’s body was severed in two. The man was struck in the back by shrapnel that pierced his chest, said the resident.
He added that there was no fighting between the junta and resistance groups in Hpruso’s Ree Khee Buu Village, where the IDPs were taking shelter at the time of the airstrikes. Junta aircraft had been seen continuously hovering above the villages and towns in the area, he said, adding that more than likely the junta was capturing drone footage.
More civilians were displaced in the western part of Hpruso following the Moso incident and the continuous artillery attacks in nearby areas, with more than 6,000 locals having been forced to flee, according to the Hpruso resident.
The junta has intensified its airstrikes in Myanmar’s smallest state, where many of the some 300,000 population have taken up arms to fight against the military dictatorship, following the junta’s lethal crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protesters in the wake of the Feb. 1 coup. More than half of Kayah State’s population has been internally displaced since May.
The junta attacked with aircraft in Loikaw’s Nanmekhon town and Monglon ward, following shootouts in Monglon on Sunday morning that inflicted heavy casualties on the junta troops, said the Demoso Township’s People’s Defense Force (PDF), which took part in the fight.
After more than a week of junta attacks from both air and ground, over half of Loikaw’s residents have fled their homes and are seeking refuge in nearby Shan State and in central Myanmar towns.
U Htay, a Loikaw resident, said, “We have seen fighter jets firing into empty homes after [earlier] airstrikes on Jan. 8, Jan. 12 and Jan. 16, as many people have left the capital since last week. The aircraft circle above the town all the time,” he said.
The military junta’s Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services released a statement on Sunday stating that during their “security operations”, regime forces cracked down on local PDF groups with artillery and aircraft in Loikaw’s Monglon ward and Nanmekhon town on Sunday afternoon.
It said, “The Tatmadaw [Myanmar’s military] attacked the terrorists with the air supporting fire and artillery fire,” accusing the PDFs of taking refuge in homes in Mongla ward, distributing ammunition in Nanmekhon and recruiting people.
Residents were leaving despite the junta setting up many military checkpoints in Loikaw and strictly checking people in and out of the capital.
U Htay also planned to leave his home on Monday, as the artillery fire could be heard continuously. He was among those who stayed in the town until Monday hoping the conflict would cease. The junta has also cut off electricity and Internet communication in the capital, forcing him to flee and leave behind all his possessions.
“The capital is now becoming a ghost town with no movement there. The situation is going back to the era where we had to fear everything,” he added.
Irrawaddy News
‘Nowhere is safe’ – two children among six killed as junta bombs camps sheltering civilians in Karenni
/in NewsThe two sisters were sleeping when shrapnel tore through the walls of their shelter
Two children who were sisters were killed along with a man in his 50s when a junta attack helicopter bombed a camp for displaced people in Karenni State’s Hpruso Township on Tuesday morning, a volunteer there told Myanmar Now.
The camp, which is near the village of Ree Khee Bu, holds some 700 people who fled a military massacre in the village of Moso last month.
The camp volunteer said the young victims were 12-year-old Caroline, who was also known as Khine, and 15-year-old Maria Corrette, who also went by the name Chaw Su.
A 51-year-old man named Andrea who was sleeping in the same shelter as the girls also died when a barrage of shrapnel tore through the walls, the volunteer said.
“The shrapnel hit the building where the girls were sleeping… their bodies were completely ripped apart and flew everywhere,” she said. “The man was sleeping near the fireplace as he was not feeling well. He got hit as well.”
Another two bombs exploded in a different area of the camp where buildings were under construction.
“There was no battle at all but the helicopter was hovering around for a long time last night,” the volunteer said. “We went out to check but we didn’t see anything. It was very loud.”
The bomb that killed the sisters and the man exploded about 120 feet from the camp and left a five–foot-deep crater, she added.
“I know they’re ruthless but why come after harmless displaced people? They only came here because they thought it would be safer,” she said.
Between 30 and 50 people from Moso village were massacred and burned by junta soldiers on December 24.
The Moso villagers have now fled the camp in the wake of the bombings, and are in need of blankets, warm clothes, and water.
“There’s no safe place in our state anymore,” the volunteer said. “We’re planning to arrange safe places for this many displaced villagers but we don’t know who would be able to sponsor us. We’re just trying to think positively at the moment.”
On Sunday three young men who were volunteering at a camp in Nan Mel Khone, Demoso Township, were killed when junta helicopters dropped bombs at around 6pm, according to the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force, a local armed resistance group.
Military controlled newspapers on Monday published a claim by the junta that the military used artillery and air strikes in Karenni because of the presence of “terrorists” in the area.
The junta has not commented on the airstrike in Hpruso.
Aung San Myint, second secretary of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), whose armed wing is one of the groups fighting the junta’s forces in the state, called for foreign countries to enforce a “safe zone” in the area.
“We need to declare the area as a safe zone according to each civilian’s right to live and to the collective rights of the entire ethnicity,” he told Myanmar Now. “The international community can no longer regard what’s happening here as a civil war. They need to intercept as soon as possible,”
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Over 200,000 people have been displaced in recent months in southern Shan and northern Karenni states.
There has been intense fighting in and around the Karenni capital Loikaw since January 7. The junta has attacked the town with fighter jets and cut off its water and electricity supply.
Myanmar Now News
Soldiers kill and burn villagers during rampages throughout Myaing
/in NewsSome 800 junta troops in several columns are taking part in the onslaught, with local resistance groups saying they are unable to fight back
Hundreds of junta soldiers have rampaged through villages in central Myanmar’s Myaing Township in recent days, killing and burning civilians, destroying homes, and forcing thousands to flee, locals and resistance fighters have said.
The entire populations of 15 villages in the northern part of the township have been displaced by the onslaught, which began last week on Monday, a People’s Defence Force (PDF) leader who goes by the name Cross told Myanmar Now.
And there have been more raids in other areas of Myaing, with a total of roughly 800 soldiers marching in separate columns through the Magway Region township in an effort to crush resistance to the dictatorship.
Locals found the remains of three people who had been burned after soldiers raided Latyetma village on Tuesday, Cross said.
“We can’t even tell if they’re male or female; only the bones are left,” he said. “We found them near the cemetery in the west of the village.”
The soldiers detained around 200 of the villagers but released them the following day. About five of the freed detainees had been beaten, Cross said, adding that the village was now deserted.
“The displaced villagers still don’t dare to come back,” he said.
Soldiers camped in the village until Friday and robbed and ransacked houses, he added.
“Some phone shops were also robbed,” he added. “They took packs of rice and a lot of houses were destroyed.”
A Myaing-based anti-junta guerilla group called Shwe Dar Bo said on Monday that the soldiers had stolen valuables, destroyed several houses and tortured residents who had taken shelter in monasteries.
There have been several clashes between local resistance fighters and junta forces in the south and west of Myaing in recent months. Last week was the first time junta troops have entered villages in the northwestern part of the township, the PDF leader said.
Soldiers stationed themselves in the village of Linkataw for two days from January 14 and destroyed two houses there, a local told Myanmar Now. One belonged to a member of the National League for Democracy and another to a teacher taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement, the local added.
“Some people were taken as guides when the column left,” they added.
The column headed south towards the villages of Kyikan and Taw on Sunday morning. On the same day, a separate column raided Paungte village, which is close to Latyetma.
In the west of the township on Sunday morning, soldiers raided the villages of Tha Dut, Nyaungbin Lay, and Wei Taung, said Cross.
“Tha Dut village was torched–25 houses in the western part of the village were destroyed in the fire,” he said on Sunday evening. “We still don’t know what exactly happened to the villagers. They’re still torching houses in Nyaungbin Lay village. The two villages are next to each other. We can still see the smoke coming out of the villages.”
He added: “They are torching the northern part of Wei Taung village. I heard they are even trying to burn the petrol plants.”
Chaung Sone village, which has a population of nearly 700 and is located in the north of Myaing, was also torched and robbed by soldiers, he said. “The entire region is displaced. We can’t start attacking them as their reckless firing of artillery shells could hit the shelters of the displaced locals.”
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Khun Chaint, a Myaing PDF officer who leads fighters in the south of the township, said the raids were aimed at flushing out PDF positions.
“They’re looking for PDF camps for the most part,” he said. “They’re firing artillery shells and abducting civilians and using them as human shields. So we can’t do much.”
Myanmar Now has been unable to gather details about casualties from the recent raids. Myaing is one of numerous townships in central and northern Myanmar where internet access was cut off last year.
The township is home to some 300 villages, and its residents have continued to stage protests against the junta almost a year after the coup and despite the military’s murderous crackdowns on expressions of defiance.
Myanmar Now News