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U.S. imposes sanctions on Myanmar military leaders over Rohingya abuses

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States announced sanctions on Tuesday against the Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and other leaders it said were responsible for extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims, barring them from entry to the United States.

The steps, which also covered Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy, Soe Win, and two other senior commanders and their families, are the strongest the United States has taken in response to massacres of minority Rohingyas in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

It identified the two others as Than Oo and Aung Aung, both brigadier generals.

“We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Pompeo said a recent disclosure, first reported by Reuters in May, that Min Aung Hlaing ordered the release of soldiers convicted of extrajudicial killings at the village of Inn Din during the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in 2017 was “one egregious example of the continued and severe lack of accountability for the military and its senior leadership.”

“The Commander-in-Chief released these criminals after only months in prison, while the journalists who told the world about the killings in Inn Din were jailed for more than 500 days,” Pompeo said.

The Inn Din massacre was uncovered by two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who spent more than 16 months behind bars on charges of obtaining state secrets. The two were released in an amnesty on May 6.

The U.S. announcement came on the first day of an international ministerial conference on religious freedom hosted by Pompeo at the State Department that was attended by Rohingya representatives.

“With this announcement, the United States is the first government to publicly take action with respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military,” said Pompeo, who has been a strong advocate of religious freedom.

“We designated these individuals based on credible information of these commanders’ involvement in gross violations of human rights,” he said.

SANCTIONS CONDEMNED

A spokesman for the Myanmar military, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, said by phone the military had not ignored the accusations, citing internal probes. One army-led investigation in 2017 exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities. Another is ongoing.

“Right now we have an investigative committee … to conduct a detailed investigation,” he said. “They should value these facts.”

He said the soldiers had been lawfully released.

Myo Nyunt, a spokesman for the ruling National League for Democracy Party, condemned the decision to impose sanctions.

“This kind of action happened because they don’t understand the real situation of Myanmar,” he said. Myanmar’s leaders had not ignored human rights concerns, Myo Nyunt said.

A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. U.N. investigators have said Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.”

The State Department has so far stopped short of calling the abuses genocide, referring instead to ethnic cleansing and a “well-planned and coordinated” campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities.

“He (Pompeo) has not come to the point at which he has decided to make a further determination. Generally our policies are focused on changing behaviour, promoting accountability, and we have taken today’s actions with those goals in mind,” a senior State Department official told reporters, asking not to be identified.

The military in Myanmar, where Buddhism is the main religion, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.

A declaration of genocide by the U.S. government could require Washington to impose even stronger sanctions on Myanmar, a country where the United States has competed for influence with regional rival China.

The senior State Department official said Washington hoped the latest steps would strengthen the hand of the civilian government in Myanmar in its effort to amend the constitution to reduce military influence in politics.

“Our hope is that these actions … will help to further delegitimise the current military leadership, and can help the civilian government gain control of the military,” he said.

The Trump administration had thus far imposed sanctions on four military and police commanders and two army units involved in the abuses against the Rohingya and had been under pressure from the U.S. Congress to take tougher steps.

A United Nations investigator said this month Myanmar security forces and insurgents were committing human rights violations against civilians that may amount to fresh war crimes.

Reuters

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Rights Groups Hit Myanmar Military Over Mounting Rakhine Deaths in Custody

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Rights experts are again criticizing the Myanmar military for possible international law violations after reports that another civilian died in custody amid fighting between national forces and the Arakan Army (AA) in western Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states.

According to RFA’s reporting, at least 14 persons died of injuries they received while in military or police custody or detention between March and July during the ongoing armed conflict. Seven were from Rathedaung township, six were from Mrauk-U township, and one was from Kyauktaw township.

Government soldiers have been rounding up men and boys in villages close to battles zones on suspicions of supporting the AA, an ethnic Rakhine military that is fighting for greater autonomy in the state, then holding them in detention and interrogating them.

The latest civilian to die at the hands of soldiers was Zaw Win Hlaing from Shwe Tun Phyu village in Mrauk-U township, who was arrested by soldiers on June 19 as he returned home from another village and was subjected to five days of interrogation. After he died on Monday, his mother told RFA’s Myanmar Service that her son said he was beaten with rocks while in custody.

Human rights groups at home and abroad have called on Myanmar forces to stop arresting, detaining, and torturing civilians suspected of being members of the AA or having connections to the rebel army. They say such detentions and deaths in custody by soldiers violate international human rights treaties.

Min Lwin Oo, a Myanmar lawyer with the Asian Human Rights Commission, said the Myanmar military gets away with abusive treatment of civilians by saying that its armed conflicts are internal issues in which other nations should not intervene.

“Claiming them as domestic issues that require no foreign intervention, they have been doing whatever they want,” he said.

“It has not been easy to refer the cases to the ICC [International Criminal Court] because the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] quickly covered up the [crimes] it had committed,” he added. “But it is likely to face increased pressure and restrictions on the military leadership’s financial flows and arms imports.”

Rights groups and United Nations officials have called for the international tribunal to try military forces responsible for committing suspected acts of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine as well as abusing other ethnic minorities in war zones in Kachin and northern Shan states.

‘More evidence will come’

Between December 2018 to the present, the Myanmar military has detained more than 90 civilians during the current conflict with the AA in Rakhine state, 36 of whom are still under investigation. Eight others have been released, while 45 have been charged, and three have been sentenced, according to figures released by government forces.

Myanmar military spokesmen Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said earlier this week that if a person is tortured by troops, he or she can report it to the government’s information team which will set up an investigation group to look into the matter.

Myanmar is not a signatory of the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT) that 170 other countries have signed, though the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has recommended that President Win Myint join the accord, said commission member Tin May Htun.

“More evidence will come out as the military violates more rights abuses,” said Nickey Diamond, a Myanmar human rights specialist at Fortify Rights. “The international community is now putting pressure on them.”

“There are also war crimes [soldiers committed] during fighting with the AA,” he said. “Arbitrary arrests and killings amount to war crimes.”

MNHRC member Yu Lwin Aung agreed.

“Torture constitutes a human rights violation,” he said. “But it’s a little hard for us to point fingers since we don’t know exactly what has happened. … We are still gathering all the information we need and considering presenting it at the commission’s meeting in order to decide what to do.”

‘We want the truth’

Arakan National Party (ANP) vice chairwoman Aye Nu Sein said local politicians want to know the truth about what happened to those who died in detention.

“We want the truth to be revealed,” she said. “We’d like to help too, but who do we complain to, and who would take action if we did?”

The ANP, which represents the interests of the ethnic Rakhine people in the state, has issued a report urging investigations and punishment of those responsible for war-related killings under relevant laws.

In response to the comments by rights groups, Zaw Min Htun said the military can’t look into every accusation that comes its way.

“We can’t take action on every single issue,” he said. “International organizations have respectful conventions, but sometimes it’s like the fox in a fable accusing you or your father or your grandfather. In that sense, we can’t do anything, but we’re doing our best.”

In an interview with RFA last week, Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said she was particularly worried about military atrocities that might occur during an army-imposed internet shutdown in the Rakhine conflict zone.

“The internet is down, somebody ordered it to be shut down, and … there is a clearance operation going on right now. We have to remember that those who are involved in this clearance operation — the security forces — are the exact same people that have been involved in past clearance operations and have not been held accountable,” she said.

Reported by Wai Mar Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar and Nandar Chann. Wrisince March 2019. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Rakhine Deaths in Detention:

According to RFA’s reporting, at least 14 civilians have died while in military or police custody or detention since March 2019 during the Rakhine conflict. Here is a brief summary of each case:

March 14:  Hla Maung Win, 23
He was detained as he traveled to Mrauk-U Hospital to be treated for malaria. He was unconscious when the vehicle carrying him was stopped along with the driver and eight passengers. The driver who was later freed said Myanmar soldiers detained and questioned them. Hla Maung Win’s body was later returned to his family by men wearing police uniforms. RFA’s calls to police and the military about the case went unanswered.

April 10:  Zaw Myo Htun, 25, Thein Tun Sein, 40, and Maung Than Nu, 45, from Letka village, Mrauk-U township
They were arrested with 24 other villagers for questioning by the military. They died on Apr 11, 14, and 21,  respectively. The Myanmar Army later said one died of respiratory problems, another of drug addiction, and the third of suicide.

May 2:  Than Ge Aung, Zaw Lat, Than Oo, Kamwe Che, Tun Shwe Win, Maung Win, Aung Lin Zaw 
Six died on the spot, and another died later from injuries after the Myanmar military shot detained men in a school compound in Kyauktan village, Rathedaung township. They were among nearly 300 villagers who were detained and questioned for allegedly having connections with an Arakan Army training camp nearby. The military said the soldiers had to open fire when some of the detainees tried to attack the guards, despite the firing of warning shots. Other witnesses denied there had been warning shots and said the chaos broke out when a mentally disturbed man had started yelling at night.

May 26:  Kyaw Hlaing, 43
He was among three men from Letka village in Mrauk-U township who were arrested by the military while they were collecting firewood on May 22. On May 25, the three men were transferred to the police station. Kyaw Hlaing died the next day from injuries he sustained during the questioning by the military, according to his relatives. His daughter said he had a badly swollen face and injuries to his body when she had seen him in the hospital. The military has not commented on the case.

June 24:  Nay Myo Tun, 23, a carpenter from Pauktaw Byin village, Mrauk-Oo  township 
According to the military, he was arrested on June 20 along with seven others on suspicion of being members of the Arakan Army. The men were questioned at the Kyauktaw township police station. Nay Myo Tun’s family members heard from villagers that he had died in custody and that his body was in the mortuary of a local hospital. They subsequently retrieved his body. The military has not commented on the circumstances of the death.

July 1:  Zaw Win Hlaing, 28, from Shwe Tun Phyu village, Mrauk-U township
He died on July 1 following his arrest by the military on June 19. He had been transferred to police custody on June 24 and was subsequently sent to a hospital. Zaw Min Hlaing’s mother, who saw him at the medial facility, said her son told her he had been tortured during questioning. He said soldiers put rocks into a sarong (longyi) and hit him on the back and knees, and poked knives in his calves. He was taken to Kyauktaw Hospital after a court hearing on June 25, and because he was vomiting blood was later moved to Sittwe Hospital where he died on July 1. A military spokesman said he was unable to comment on the claims of torture. He said the military has rules preventing the torture of detainees.

 

RFA News

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Investigator: UN, International Community Fail to Hold Myanmar Accountable for Crimes Against Rohingya

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GEVENA, SWITZERLAND – A U.N. investigator says the United Nations and international community have failed to hold the government of Myanmar accountable for decades of persecution and repression against the minority Rohingya Muslims. The report from the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar is under discussion at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

More than one million Rohingya refugees have fled to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh to escape violence, persecution and death in Myanmar. U.N. investigator Yanghee Lee says she is concerned the international community is beginning to overlook their situation.

“They are subject to a human rights crisis, responsibility for which lies with Myanmar. It is entirely their responsibility to bring about all necessary conditions for all the people they forcibly drove out to return and they are entirely failing to do so. The remaining Rohingya in Myanmar continue to be denied their rights and are persecuted by authorities, making returns from Bangladesh impossible at this time.”

Last year, Myanmar established an independent commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Rakhine state, where the military conducted a brutal crackdown against Rohingya Muslims about two years ago.

Rohingya ethnic minority from Myanmar walks past rice fields after crossing the border into Bangladesh near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Sept. 1, 2017.
FILE – Rohingya ethnic minority from Myanmar walks past rice fields after crossing the border into Bangladesh near Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf area, Sept. 1, 2017.

Lee said the commission has not demonstrated its capacity to bring justice to victims. She said accountability for the Rohingya cannot be achieved in the domestic arena.

“I reiterate what I have now said many times, that the international community must ensure justice is brought about. I am disappointed that nine months following the resolution establishing it, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar is still not functioning. There is a real risk that there will be a gap in investigations into the most serious international crimes and violations of international law in Myanmar,” said Lee.

The Human Rights Council established the investigative body in September to collect and analyze evidence of serious crimes and violations committed in Myanmar since 2011.

Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Kyaw Moe Tun, said the special rapporteur’s accusations are discreditable and counterproductive. The ambassador is urging the council to remove Yanghee Lee as special rapporteur and replace her with someone he said is more fit to occupy that position.

Instead of naming and shaming his country based on groundless allegations, he said the council should work with Myanmar in a constructive manner to find a durable solution.

ND Burma

Young Man Accused of Ties to Arakan Army Dies Following Interrogation by Myanmar Military

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A young man has died after being detained and interrogated by Myanmar’s military on suspicion of being a member of the ethnic Rakhine Arakan Army (AA), according to his family members, who said he was repeatedly tortured while in custody.

Zaw Win Hlaing, 28, from Shwe Tun Phyu village, in war-ridden Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township, died on July 1—a day after being sent to a hospital in the Rakhine capital Sittwe, his mother Thein Nu Sein and brother Win Hlaing told RFA’s Myanmar Service on Tuesday.

He was arrested by the military on June 19 as he returned home from Mrauk-U’s Waitharli village and subjected to five days of interrogation, they said, before being transferred to the Kyauktaw Township Police Station on June 24.

On June 25, he was transferred to the Kyauktaw Hospital after he lost consciousness from suffocation while being tried at the Kyauktaw Township Court on charges under Myanmar’s Anti-Terrorism Act, and on Sunday was sent to the Sittwe Hospital for urgent care after vomiting blood, but died a day later, his family members said.

Thein Nu Sein told RFA that during a visit with her son in detention he told her “not to worry about me” because “I don’t think I will make it.”

“I asked what they did to him and he said that they repeatedly beat him on the back with bags of stones,” she said.

“They also broke his knees. I saw that they had pierced his ankles with knives.”

Win Hlaing told RFA that his brother was in fine health before he was detained.

“All of his injuries were a result of beatings he received while in custody,” he said.

“I believe that the military should be held responsible for his death. I would like to appeal [to the authorities] to punish the military, which has been arresting innocent civilians for no reason.”

Zaw Win Hlaing’s family members dismissed the military’s allegations that he was a member of the AA.

Their claims were backed up by Khine Thuka, a spokesperson for the AA, who said Zaw Win Hlaing’s death amounted to a “war crime.”

“He was just a young man who had no ties with our troops,” he said.

“The military is targeting civilians and these kinds of offenses eliminate the prospect of ethnic unity and reconciliation.”

Last week, two of nine civilians detained by the Myanmar military on June 22 were tried in Kyauktaw on suspicion of attacking an army column as members of the AA and told the court they had been severely beaten while questioned in jail, according to their relatives and members of the group Rakhine Human Rights Protection who attended the hearing.

‘File a complaint’

On Tuesday, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun of the military’s Information Committee confirmed to RFA that Zaw Win Hlaing had been transferred to the police station in Kyauktaw to face charges in court after the military “completed its investigation.”

“There are accusations that he died as the result of torture during the investigation,” he said, adding that he was unable to comment on the claims.

“All citizens have rights—if [his family members] believe he was treated unjustly, they have the right to file a complaint with the relevant authorities.”

Zaw Min Tun said the military has clear rules preventing the torture of detainees, with no exceptions.

Yu Lwin Aung, a member of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, told RFA that the death of any detainee as the result of torture during detention amounted to an “undeniable violation of human rights.”

“They could raise the question of why he was detained in the first place,” he said.

“But even if a detainee is proven to be the enemy, torture and beating deaths while in custody are completely unacceptable.”

In Geneva on Tuesday, Yanghee Lee, the U.N. independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that were signs of fresh atrocities in Rakhine state.

“The conflict with the Arakan Army in northern Rakhine State and parts of southern Chin State has continued over the past few months and the impact on civilians is devastating. Many acts of the Tatmadaw [military] and the Arakan Army violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes, as well as violating human rights,” Lee said.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Reparations Working Group Workshop in Yangon

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Reparations Working Group Workshop
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Men Detained by Myanmar Army Show Signs of Abuse While in Custody in Rakhine State

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Nine civilians detained by the Myanmar military on suspicion of attacking an army column appeared on Tuesday in court in war-ridden Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township, with two of them accusing soldiers of torture and rights abuses while in custody, their family members and a rights group said.

Myo Hein Swe and Soe Maung Than, residents of Tin Htein Kan village, were arrested along with seven others near Waitharli village on June 22 as suspected members of the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine Army fighting Myanmar forces for greater autonomy in the state. They were apprehended following an AA attack on security forces with remote-controlled mines on a road near the village.

When the pair appeared for their trial in Kyauktaw Township Court, they said they were maltreated during questioning in the jail where they are being held, according to their relatives and members of Rakhine Human Rights Protection who attended the hearing.

Maung Thein Hla, father of Myo Thein Swe, who said he hardly recognized his son in court because his face was badly swollen and bruised, blamed the injuries on possible beatings.

“My son’s face is badly swollen, his eye sockets are bruised, and his eyes are reddened,” he said. “I barely recognized him when I first saw him.”

“The judge asked during the testimony how they got these injuries,” he said. “They all answered that they got the injuries after being kicked and hit with gun butts and beaten by soldiers.”

Members of Rakhine Human Rights Protection noted that four of the detainees trial had facial injuries.

Myo Hein Swe and Soe Maung Than, another detainee who appeared in court, had serious injuries and received medical treatment at Kyauktaw Hospital after the trial, they said.

Their family members said doctors took X-rays of the men because they complained of chest pain and other aches.

Myat Tun, director of Rakhine Human Rights Protection, said that the abuse is a clear rights violation.

“This is totally unacceptable,” he said, adding that torture of civilians by authorities violates the United Nations resolution on torture.

“This is a violation of that mandate and of human rights,” he said. “If they were arresting the young men as suspects, they would have to transfer them to local police after conducting proper interrogations within 24 hours.”

Myat Tun also appealed to authorities to discontinue the arbitrary arrest and torture of civilians in the conflict zone and said his group would submit a complaint letter and photos of the detainees’ injuries to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, per a request from their family members.

Commission member Yu Lwin Aung said such complaints are usually referred to the relevant ministries to resolve.

“[But] if it is a very serious case, we investigate it ourselves,” he said. “Afterwards, we send a report with advice and recommendations to the relevant ministry. This is our regular procedure.”

‘The truth will come out’

AA spokesman Khine Thukha accused the Myanmar military of forcing Myo Hein Swe and Soe Maung Than to say they were members of the ethnic army.

“These two young men were traveling to town to withdraw some money,” he said. “But the Myanmar military arbitrarily arrested them along the way and tortured them. They forced them to say they were AA members.”

“They keep committing these arbitrary arrests and torture in contrast to their stated goal of unity for ethnic groups in the country,” he added.

Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said the truth about the torture allegations will come out in court.

“The truth will come out during the trial,” he said. “Whether it was the military or security forces or the police force arresting them, they are supposed to interrogate them properly after the arrests.”

“They will be submitting their own evidence from interrogations to the court,” he said. “The detainees may testify about their experiences in detention during the trial. The judge will cross-examine their testimonies.”

In a related development, Rakhine state lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously supported a motion to petition the Myanmar government to resume internet service in eight townships in Rakhine and one township in neighboring Chin state affected by the fighting.

On June 20, the government ordered four telecom providers to temporarily suspend the service to areas where fighting has occurred as a security measure.

Rakhine state lawmaker Hla Thein Aung, who submitted the motion on Monday, said the service disruption could lead to more violence in the region.

Domestic and international rights groups as well as Yanghee Lee, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also took aim at the government’s move, saying that the cutoff of mobile data networks would hamper the communication of civilians, prevent journalists from reporting on the conflict, and affect monitoring in conflict zones in Rakhine and Chin states.

Fewer conflicts during cease-fire

Also on Wednesday, the Myanmar military said there had been fewer conflicts with ethnic armed groups in the past six months during a unilateral cease-fire it declared late last year, though skirmishes continue to occur.

Besides Rakhine state, government forces have been battling ethnic armies mainly in Kachin and northern Shan states, where more than 107,000 civilians have been displaced.

In December, the Myanmar military declared a four-month unilateral cease-fire in five of its military command regions in a bid to breathe life into the country’s teetering peace process, though it excluded Rakhine state. The armed forces later extended the cease-fire for two additional months.

The ethnic armies oppose military demands that they lay down their arms and form a single army, and not secede from the federal union that Myanmar seeks to create once peace is established.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said government forces engaged in hardly any clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin state, though soldiers had skirmished with the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and its armed wing, the Shan State Army-South, and the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and its armed wing, the Shan State Army-North, during the first four months of the cease-fire in Shan state.

“In general, we have had fewer clashes and almost no fighting with KIA,” he said. “We fought with the RCSS/SSA and SSPP during the first four months, but in the last two months, fighting against these two groups decreased.”

Myanmar forces also had several clashes with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in the past two weeks, Zaw Min Tun added.

TNLA spokesman Major Mai Aik Kyaw confirmed that fighting between the two sides picked up in June.

“We had clashes in Kutkai, Mongpon, Namsang, and Kyaukme in June,” he said. “The government army built military camps and had recruited more troops during the past six months. We had to attack the government army because it entered our territory.”

Because the number of battles has decreased, some internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been living in temporary camps have been able to return home, Zaw Min Tun said.

“[The] military has allowed IDPs to travel in some regions and supported them,” said San Aung, spokesman for the Peace-talk Creation Group (PCG) based in Kachin state’s capital Myitkyina.

“We can’t close [entire] camps because each camp has people from different villages,” he said. “Although people from one village can return home, we can’t shut down the camps because there are still other IDPs from other villages in them.”

Some ethnic groups said that the Myanmar military’s cease-fire has largely failed because it has made little political headway in the country’s peace process.

“The government army has declared a cease-fire for six months, but hasn’t done anything politically to improve the situation, so the peace process has not seen any developments,” said Sai Laik, joint secretary of the Shan National League for Democracy Party (SNLD). “It has been a waste of time [because] it depends on the political desires of both sides.”

“The military seems to have blocked the door of the peace process” he said. “The way for peace talks is blocked because there are restrictions like having a single army and refraining from seceding from the Union.”

Reported by Kyaw Htun Naing and Wai Mar Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

 

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