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
- 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
- President Win Myint freed in broad Myanmar prisoner amnesty
- Rights Group Files Genocide Complaint Against Myanmar Junta Chief: Indonesian AG
- Releases‘Defying a Dictatorship’: An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Burma
Commend bravery, condemn betrayal
/in NewsLETTER | The Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma) commends the extraordinary bravery of Malaysian rescue personnel, the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Smart), who undertook humanitarian missions in earthquake-stricken Sagaing Region, Myanmar.
Operating in areas plagued by insecurity and militarised repression, their courage and commitment to saving lives stand as a powerful act of regional solidarity and moral clarity.
Despite significant restrictions imposed by the military junta, their successful rescue efforts remind us of what true humanitarianism looks like.
However, while we applaud the selfless actions of these individuals, we are deeply alarmed and disappointed by the diplomatic trajectory taken by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is reportedly planning to meet with junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, under the pretext of humanitarian coordination.
Such an act risks legitimising a regime that continues to commit widespread atrocities – including indiscriminate aerial bombings, mass killings, and forced displacement – even during Myanmar’s traditional New Year.
Far from pursuing peace, the junta has intensified its war against the people. To meet with its chief architect, without consulting or including legitimate stakeholders from Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, would be nothing short of a betrayal.
This approach flagrantly disregards Asean’s own Five-Point Consensus, especially the first point, which calls for an immediate cessation of violence. Not only has this condition never been met, but the military junta has also openly defied it.
Yet, instead of accountability, we see gestures of recognition and dialogue that embolden the perpetrators and further isolate the democratic forces on the ground.
More troubling still is Asean’s apparent outsourcing of its regional responsibility – mandated by the United Nations and supported by the international community – to a private individual, former Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Such actions are irresponsible and unethical. Myanmar’s crisis is not a business opportunity, nor can peace be brokered through personal relationships or economic self-interest. Thaksin’s history of close ties with Myanmar’s military elite makes his involvement all the more problematic and unacceptable.
A broad coalition of Myanmar’s legitimate democratic actors and ethnic resistance organisations – including the National Unity Government (NUG), Karen National Union (KNU), Chin National Front (CNF), and others – has strongly opposed this direction.
These groups have urged Asean and the international community to:
Malaysia’s current direction undermines decades of work for peace and justice in Myanmar. It also sends the wrong message to the people of Myanmar, other Asean nations, and those around the world who look to Malaysia as a moral and principled actor in regional affairs.
We urge Anwar and Aseam leaders to reassess this flawed and dangerous approach. Do not reward atrocity with diplomatic recognition. Do not hand over the fate of an entire nation to backroom deals and private interests.
Stand with the people of Myanmar, who continue to resist tyranny at tremendous cost. Their courage deserves more than token sympathy – it demands principled action.
Malaysiakini
MYANMAR: HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONDEMNS THE JUNTA, RESPONDS TO THE EARTHQUAKE, AND CALLS TO END SALE AND SUPPLY OF ARMS AND JET FUEL
/in Press Releases and Statements4 April 2025
Myanmar: Human Rights Council condemns the junta, responds to the earthquake, and calls to end sale and supply of arms and jet fuel
UN Security Council must follow up urgently to address the crisis
The consensus adoption of the latest resolution on Myanmar at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council reflects the international community’s collective condemnation of the Myanmar military junta’s relentless campaign of violence and atrocities. While the resolution represents progress in international efforts to hold the Myanmar military junta accountable for its crimes, it also underscores critical gaps in the global response to Myanmar’s worsening human rights and humanitarian crisis.
Condemnation of Junta’s Atrocities
The resolution unequivocally condemns the military junta for its escalating violence against civilians, including indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery attacks. It holds the junta responsible for Myanmar’s deepening crisis and for its atrocities, which have left millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and displaced over 3.5 million people inside the country. It leaves no doubt that the military junta has absolutely no international legitimacy and is the root cause of Myanmar’s deepening human rights and humanitarian crisis.
The resolution expresses deep concern over the junta’s ongoing human rights violations—including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, sexual violence, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure—that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law. It calls for an immediate cessation of all forms of violence and urges the military to release all arbitrarily detained persons.
Furthermore, the resolution highlights the plight of marginalized groups, particularly the Rohingya community, who continue to face systematic persecution and discrimination in their homeland of Rakhine State. It stresses the importance of addressing root causes of ongoing violence against Rohingya in Rakhine State and ensuring conditions necessary for their voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return.
Obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty
In a notable development, the resolution “recalls obligations of State Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty in relation to international humanitarian law and international human rights law” under Articles 6 and 7 regarding the prohibitions of arms transfer authorization and assessment of arms export.
This key call by the Council reiterates the fact that any and all transfer, sale, and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment is not merely a matter of business transactions between states but an international obligation of UN Member States to ensure these arms do not contribute to human suffering, conflict, or violations of international law.
Impacts of Earthquake
The resolution addresses the devastating impacts, destruction, and casualties caused by the earthquake on 28 March 2025. We welcome the Council’s call for the provision of “principled humanitarian aid” to all in need, “including through organizations already operating in affected areas, in line with the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence.”
As Myanmar faces yet another catastrophe amidst the already dire humanitarian crisis caused by the junta’s campaign of terror, we call the Council’s attention to the press statement by over 265 Myanmar, regional, and international organizations. It is imperative that disaster emergency relief be channeled through local community groups and frontline responders in collaboration with legitimate Myanmar stakeholders and civil society organizations.
Given the history of aid exploitation and weaponization by the Myanmar military and its airstrikes even in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, we underscore the crucial importance of preventing manipulation of aid by the junta for political or military gain.
At this critical time, the UN Security Council must convene an emergency meeting and intervene to protect affected communities and ensure that aid reaches those with the direst need, in particular through adopting a resolution under Chapter VII.
Shortcomings in International Action
Despite these strong condemnations, the resolution falls short in several key areas.
Transfer, sale, and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment: The resolution acknowledges the serious human rights and humanitarian implications of the continuous “sale, diversion and unregulated or illicit transfers of arms and jet fuel.” However, watered-down language as a result of concessions made to achieve consensus, the resolution merely calls for the cessation of “the illicittransfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment,” failing to recognize the need to end all sale and transfer of arms and weapons to end the ongoing violence.
The failure to take action to impose a comprehensive global arms embargo or sanctions on aviation fuel for military purposes may amount to aiding and abetting the military’s continuing international crimes. As recently as yesterday, the Myanmar military launchedairstrikes on Sagaing Region and Kachin State, breaching its hours-old ceasefire declaration.
Reports by UN experts, in addition to reports by civil society, have documented transfer of arms, aviation fuel, and military equipment from and through UN Member States—namely China, Russia, India, Singapore, and Thailand—to Myanmar since 2018 including following the Rohingya genocide, and in particular since the coup attempt. Acting on the Council and General Assembly resolutions that repeatedly call for prevention of the flow of arms to Myanmar, the international community must take urgent measures to cut the supply to and access of the junta to arms and aviation fuel without delay or risk complicity in its mass atrocity crimes.
ASEAN: We are disappointed by the Council’s continued support for “the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations” (ASEAN) in addressing the escalating crisis in Myanmar despite its failure to make any progress in this regard over the past four years.
ASEAN’s efforts, in particular its Five-Point Consensus and insistence on the so-called “inclusive dialogue”, have been ineffective and often harmful to Myanmar people’s struggle for a human rights-centered future. To date, ASEAN has failed to recognize and address the Myanmar military as the root cause of the ongoing crisis with serious consequences for regional stability and human security. It is yet to meaningfully and officially engage with legitimate stakeholders such as the National Unity Government (NUG), ethnic revolutionary organizations, and Myanmar civil society. Furthermore, as opposed to the supposed aim of resolving the crisis, many ASEAN Member States are implicated in the transfer of arms and military equipment to the Myanmar military, contributing to the exacerbation of the crisis.
ASEAN and the UN are accountable to the people of Myanmar regarding matters of their own country. The UN’s delegation of its responsibilities to the Myanmar people to ASEAN will only prolong the Myanmar military’s mass atrocity crimes and intensify civilian casualties and suffering. This underscores the obligations of the UN and the wider international community to end its irresponsible reliance on ASEAN and to assume leadership in addressing Myanmar’s crisis.
Calls for Urgent Action
Four years since the attempted coup, Myanmar remains engulfed in violence and suffering. The will and commitment of its people to resist the military remain steadfast as they continue their struggle for federal democracy and justice. The Human Rights Council must mobilize Member States to heed their calls to implement a full ban on arms and aviation fuel sales and transfer to the junta and ensure accountability through international mechanisms such as referrals to the International Criminal Court.
The international community must move beyond rhetoric and take decisive action to end impunity for atrocity crimes in Myanmar. Only then can there be hope for peace, justice, and a future built on respect for human rights.
For more information, please contact:
Myanmar military still bombing towns despite earthquake crisis, rebels say
/in NewsAn armed resistance movement against Myanmar’s military-run government criticised the junta on Sunday for conducting airstrikes on villages even as the country reels from an earthquake that has killed around 1,700 people.
The Karen National Union, one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armies, said in a statement the junta “continues to carry out airstrikes targeting civilian areas, even as the population suffers tremendously from the earthquake”.
The group said that under normal circumstances, the military would be prioritising relief efforts, but instead is focused on “deploying forces to attack its people”.
A spokesman for the junta did not reply to queries from Reuters about the criticism.
Myanmar has been locked in civil war with multiple armed opposition groups since a 2021 coup when the military seized power from the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Shortly after Friday’s devastating earthquake, military jets launched airstrikes and drone attacks in Karen state, near the KNU headquarters, according to the Free Burma Rangers, a relief organisation. Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan called for an immediate ceasefire to help aid distribution, following a virtual meeting with his ASEAN counterparts on the disaster.
“(Balakrishnan) called for an immediate and effective ceasefire in Myanmar which would facilitate the efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance and longer term national reconciliation, peace and reconstruction,” Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude quake was in an area held by junta forces, but the devastation was widespread and also affected some territory held by armed resistance movements.
On Sunday, the opposition National Unity Government, which includes remnants of the government ousted in 2021, said anti-junta militias under its command would pause all offensive military action for two weeks.
China, Japan and South Korea held the first trade talks in five years on Sunday, amid concerns over US President Donald Trump’s import tariffs.
Richard Horsey, the senior Myanmar adviser at Crisis Group, said some anti-junta forces have halted their offensives, but fighting continues elsewhere.
“The regime also continues to launch airstrikes, including in affected areas. That needs to stop,” he said.
The regime was not providing much visible support in quake-hit areas, he added.
“Local fire brigades, ambulance crews, and community organisations have mobilised, but the military – who would normally be mobilised to support in such a crisis – are nowhere to be seen,” Horsey said.
Reuters
Nationthailna
PRESS STATEMENT: CIVIL SOCIETY CALLS FOR DISASTER RELIEF FOR EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS AND AFFECTED COMMUNITIES IN MYANMAR
/in Member statements, Press Releases and Statements30 March 2025
Press Statement: Civil society calls for disaster relief for earthquake survivors and affected communities in Myanmar
Aid agencies must ensure relief is not exploited by the military junta
We—the undersigned 265 Myanmar, regional, and international civil society organizations—express our deepest sorrow for communities across Myanmar and Thailand devastated by the earthquake on 28 March 2025. As Myanmar faces yet another humanitarian crisis amidst the military junta’s intensifying campaign of terror against the Myanmar people, it is imperative that the international community immediately mobilize resources and direct disaster emergency relief to survivors and affected communities of the earthquake. This must be channeled through local community groups and frontline responders in collaboration with the National Unity Government (NUG), Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs), and civil society. We emphasize that these disaster relief efforts, through any implementing partners, must not be exploited, manipulated, or weaponized by the military junta for its political and military gain.
The earthquake on Friday—a severe 7.7 magnitude and the region’s most devastating in nearly seven decades—has caused over 2,500 confirmed deaths[1] and left communities across Myanmar shattered, homes and religious infrastructure destroyed, and tens of thousands of lives in peril. With hospitals overwhelmed, roads and bridges collapsed, and aftershocks threatening further destruction, immediate and unimpeded humanitarian assistance is crucial. Areas hit by the earthquake include Sagaing, Mandalay, Magwe, and Bago Regions, eastern and southern Shan State, and Naypyidaw. Most of these areas are under the effective control and administration of the NUG, EROs, and People’s Defense Forces. In affected areas under its control as well as under the resistance’s control, the junta will attempt to weaponize aid to attack and leverage gains over the resistance movement. Myanmar’s history provides stark warnings about the dangers of channeling aid through the military junta.
During Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the then military regime cynically weaponized disaster relief efforts to manipulate results of its sham referendum. International aid was obstructed from entering the country and withheld from desperate survivors to coerce their favorable vote for the military-drafted constitution in exchange for aid—all measures employed to secure its control and meddling in politics. Many local volunteers from the democratic movement were arrested and imprisoned by the regime for attempting to deliver assistance. This heavily delayed critical assistance and caused masses of civilian casualties. Once aid was finally allowed into Myanmar, the military regime and their officials diverted and misused it for personal and political gain, including benefiting constituencies with ties to the regime. This is but one example of the Myanmar military’s grotesque manipulation of human suffering for consolidation of political power and personal profit.
The military’s pattern of aid exploitation persists today, as evidenced by the junta’s obstruction and manipulation of relief efforts in response to recent natural disasters, namely Cyclone Mocha in 2023 and Typhoon Yagi in 2024, and its relentless commission of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against civilians across the country. Even after the earthquake on Friday, the military junta repeatedly bombed civilian areas in Chaung U Township in Sagaing Region, Phyu Township in Bago Region, and Naung Cho Township in northern Shan State—areas under its illegitimate declaration of state of emergency for natural disaster management. Earlier this month, the junta had already shut down seven private hospitals in Mandalay following an accusation of their employment of healthcare professionals from the Civil Disobedience Movement, severely limiting healthcare capacity in Mandalay, now torn by the earthquake. Against this backdrop, the junta has systematically imposed years-long internet and phone line shutdowns, coupled with an aggressive crackdown on VPN usage, significantly restricting the flow of information about the devastation inside Myanmar and hindering emergency response efforts. The junta’s callous contempt for human life, even in the face of widespread earthquake devastation, underscores its unsuitability to oversee aid—and more importantly, its willingness to manipulate any humanitarian response.
At this critical time, we welcome the NUG’s announcement of a two-week pause in its offensive military operations in earthquake-affected areas, effective today. However, the military junta has continued dropping bombs in earthquake-affected Pauk Township, Magwe Region, as recently as this morning. We look to the United Nations’ and ASEAN’s facilitation to ensure the junta ceases all military offensives, especially the immediate halt of ongoing airstrikes.
As communities across Myanmar mobilize to support one another amidst the devastation, we call on UN agencies, the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre), neighboring countries, international organizations, and the wider international community to collaborate directly with Myanmar’s legitimate stakeholders—namely the NUG and EROs—and civil society to ensure aid is not obstructed, manipulated, or weaponized by the junta. Aid can and must reach earthquake survivors and affected communities without delay through border-based channels which have proven the most effective. The NUG’s swift activation of the Emergency Operation Coordination Committees following the earthquake exemplifies its readiness and capacity to lead relief efforts in collaboration with ethnic and community partners. We commend the prompt and impactful responses to this disaster, particularly through crowd-funding efforts, including by the NUG and Myanmar Earthquake Response Coordination Unitcomprised of Myanmar civil society organizations, which have already provided essential support to affected communities.
We once again remind the international community, particularly aid agencies, that humanitarian assistance must be guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, do no harm, and operational independence. The UN Country Team must fully embody these principles in their action, remembering the hard lessons learned from past engagements on aid with the military junta and past military regimes. Disaster response to this latest catastrophe must prioritize collaboration with stakeholders who demonstrably value the lives, safety and well-being of the Myanmar people—the NUG, EROs, and civil society—while actively preventing the junta from obstructing or exploiting aid delivery. Failure to do so will deepen the already dire humanitarian crisis and guarantee further abuses by an illegal body notorious for its active destruction of human lives.
We urge the UN, neighboring countries, and the wider international community to remember Myanmar’s painful history of the military’s manipulation of aid in times of natural disasters, and act resolutely to protect affected and vulnerable communities from exploitation and further suffering. The people of Myanmar deserve aid that alleviates suffering—not aid weaponized against them.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 265 civil society organizations, including seven organizations that have chosen not to disclose their name.
Download the press statement.
AAPP Launches its New Report on Justice, the Judiciary and the Weaponization of Law to Repress Civilians in Burma
/in ND-Burma Members' ReportsToday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners launches its new report, highlighting the inherently repressive colonial legislation that has been amended, enacted and weaponized by the junta to systematically commit a campaign of terror and ongoing human rights violations against the people of Burma.
“The military junta is weaponizing its unjust law, using its interrogation camps, and prisons as the epicenter of its campaign of fear. This brutal strategy seeks to crush any resistance, while systematically employing torture to silence those who dare oppose them. We must strive to ensure that such atrocities never happen again within Burma’s territory. We believe that the NUG and ethnic groups who govern in their areas of control will not use existing laws, law enforcement agencies, and penal institutions to oppress the people.” (Ko Bo Kyi – Joint Secretary of AAPP)
The success of the Spring Revolution has been undeniable. As resistance groups take control of large swathes of territory across the country, it is imperative that the laws used in these areas take on a people-centred and human rights based approach, crucial to ensuring that these laws protect the fundamental freedoms of the people.
AAPP encourages all resistance groups, including Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs), to use this report as a foundation to review laws currently in use in their areas of control. It draws comparison between Burma’s domestic laws and the conditions within international human rights standards and other comparative domestic laws, to make suggestions for future legal and judicial reform.
Meanwhile, the situation on the ground makes it increasingly clear that junta rule can no longer continue. United Nations, ASEAN, and global leaders must place increased pressure on the junta to release all political prisoners who were detained under these repressive laws, including President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Only then will the country be on a path to a federal democratic state, where human rights are fostered and enjoyed by all.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
AAPP: info@aappb.org
File Download: law report.eng.ebook
Junta offensives leave 4 dead, thousands displaced in northwest Myanmar
/in NewsDisplaced residents are in critical need of clean water and medicine, aid workers said.
Read RFA coverage of these topics in Burmese.
Junta attacks on Thursday claimed four lives in northwest Myanmar, where tens of thousands displaced residents remain in desperate need of emergency aid, volunteers and locals told Radio Free Asia.
The offensives in the embattled Sagaing region have intensified since insurgent militias rose up against Myanmar’s military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, forcing tens of thousands from their homes and claiming thousands of lives through shootings, village burnings and bombings.
In the latest offence on Thursday, junta soldiers killed four residents in Sagaing’s Myaung town, leaving one injured.
“Today at 10 a.m., they were firing wildly with heavy weapons and circling the area with parachutes, looking for targets to drop bombs on,” said one resident on Thursday, declining to be named for security reasons.
Residents added they could not confirm the identities of the dead, but it was junta’s retaliatory move as junta forces clashed with a local militia a day before.
Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson Nyant Win Aung refused to comment.
According to data compiled by RFA, 3,531 people have been killed by heavy weapons since the coup, and another 5,007 have been injured.
As conflict between militias and junta troops escalates, tens of thousands have fled to safer areas, but they are desperately in need of supplies to survive and cope with water-borne illnesses.
More than 30,000 internally displaced people have been sheltering in Sagaing region’s Kale township, roughly 210 kilometers [130 miles] northwest of Myaung Township, since early February, and according to aid workers, they are facing “new challenges” with the hot season approaching.
“It’s the time when the weather gets really hot, so we’re helping as much as we can with shelter, access to water and food,” said one aid worker, who declined to be named for security reasons. “Mainly, people need medicine, shelter and drinking water.”
A lack of water sources has forced displaced people from nearly 30 villages to make due with unclean water, leading to skin diseases and diarrhea, he added.
Junta forces are frequently bombing villages around the township, preventing them from returning home.
On Jan. 31, for instance, junta forces bombed the Koke Ko Su Camp, a shelter for displaced people in Kale township, killing 11 people, including pregnant women, and injuring 15, according to residents.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Taejun Kang.
RFA News