ND Burma

UN Secretary General: Act Now To Prevent Famine in Rakhine State

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Burma Campaign UK is urging UN Secretary General António Guterres to travel to Bangladesh to negotiate the opening of aid and trade routes into Rakhine State, Burma.

In November the United Nations Development Programme warned of impending famine in Rakhine State.

  • 2 million people face starvation.
  • 95% of the population will be living in ‘survival mode’
  • The state is expected to produce only 20% of the food it needs.
  • There is already a crisis, with well over 600,000 people displaced.

The aid and trade embargo imposed by the Burmese military on areas of Rakhine State which it no longer occupies is a deliberate tactic to use starvation as a tool of oppression.

Rakhine State (also known as Arakan State) is in western Burma, bordering Bangladesh in the North. The largest ethnic group there are Rakhine, but many ethnic and religious minorities live there, including the Rohingya.

The Arakha Army, mostly made up of ethnic Rakhine people, has been fighting to free the state from Burmese military rule and has taken over large parts of the state. The Burmese military have used every tactic they can to try to weaken resistance to their occupation of Rakhine State. They have launched indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery attacks, exploited ethnic and religious tensions to try to divide and rule, and placed strict restrictions on aid and trade, including medicines, seeds and fertiliser, into the areas where they have lost control.

By spring 2025 it is predicted the state will only produce 20% of the food it needs. This is on top of well over 600,000 people who have already fled their homes and jobs (1). Around 250,000 of those are Rohingya, many of whom have fled not just attacks by the Burmese military, but also attacks by the Arakha Army. The Burmese military-imposed trade embargo is creating mass unemployment, and blocking essentials like medicine and agricultural supplies.

The personal intervention of the UN Secretary General provides the best hope of garnering momentum for the significant changes in approach that are required. A business-as-usual approach to this crisis, delegating responsibility to UN agencies or envoys, will not work. It hasn’t worked in the past regarding previous crises. There is no evidential basis to believe this time will be any different.

Trying to negotiate with the Burmese military to allow greater humanitarian access and lift trade restrictions into the areas of Rakhine State now administered by the Arakha Army will not succeed in alleviating this crisis.

The Burmese military is already placing some of the most severe restrictions and conditions on humanitarian aid seen anywhere in the world. These restrictions violate international law. The Burmese military will attempt to leverage the maximum advantage from the process of negotiations, forcing UN and other agencies to submit to extreme conditionality for the sake of limited access.

Instead, a humanitarian corridor from Bangladesh needs to be opened. This should already have happened months ago in response to the growing number of internally displaced people.

“Two million people face starvation, but with political will this is preventable,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Preventing an impending crisis like this is exactly what the role of the UN Secretary General is for. The United Nations and international community have a track record of failing to act to prevent crises in Burma. Will the UN Secretary General António Guterres allow famine to happen in the same state where the UN failed to act on warnings of Rohingya genocide?”

Burma Campaign UK has launched a petition to UN Secretary General António Guterres calling on him to travel to Bangladesh to open negotiations for aid and trade corridors into Rakhine State.

Burma Camping UK

ND Burma

Sold to China

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Trafficking of women from throughout Burma to be forced brides in China

This report, based on interviews with 187 female trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT between 2019 and 2023,

reveals that the demand for brides continues to be the main factor fuelling trafficking of women from Burma to

China, and that women from throughout Burma are being trafficked for this purpose

Number of bride trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT in 2019 tripled from the previous year, before decreasing

due to border closures and travel restrictions as a result of the Covid pandemic and escalated conflict after the

2021 military coup in Burma

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during which time women began being trafficked to Chinese-run cyber scam

centers in northeast Shan State.

Over half of all bride trafficking survivors came from states and regions of Burma not adjoining China, unlike in

previous years, when most survivors came from Kachin or northern Shan State.

Most of the survivors were recruited in person, by relatives or “friends” linked to the extensive trafficking

networks that have developed across Burma and China as a result of decades of bride trafficking. Many brokers

were themselves originally trafficked as brides to China.

Most women were offered well-paying jobs at factories or farms in China to lure them across the border before

being forced to be brides. Increased smuggling of workers from Burma to meet factory labour demands in China’s

eastern industrial zones has been useful for traffickers, both as a pretext to entice women across the border, and

enabling them to prey on those already in China.

Sold_to_China_EngDownload
ND Burma

Civil Society Position Paper on ASEAN’s Goal of a Myanmar-Owned and -Led Solution

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Recommendations to ASEAN and Its Member States

(1) Move beyond the 5PC to achieve a Myanmar people-led and people-centered solution to the

crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s “Myanmar-owned and -led” approach must be backed by genuine

political will that aligns with and supports the collective aspirations of the people of Myanmar.

(2) Cease all pressure on Myanmar’s revolutionary forces and civil society to join any processes

to engage or compromise with the illegitimate military junta, and support a locally led political

consultation process that entirely excludes the junta.

(3) End all engagements, including economic and military engagements, with the military junta

and engage formally with the legitimate representatives of Myanmar.

(4) Publicly denounce and end all support for, or plans to support, the military junta’s sham

election.

(5) Provide humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in collaboration with

legitimate stakeholders and civil society groups through cross-border channels.

(6) Join the ongoing international and Myanmar people’s efforts to hold the Myanmar military

accountable under international law for its commission of war crimes, crimes against

humanity, and genocide.

ND Burma

ASEAN must support Myanmar federal democracy building and justice seeking

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ASEAN must support Myanmar federal democracy building and justice seeking

Myanmar civil society urges ASEAN to pursue Myanmar people-led solution to crisis

Today, the Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF (Myanmar NOC) launched the Civil Society Position Paper Addressing ASEAN’s Goal of a “Myanmar-Owned and -Led Solution,” endorsed by 260 civil society organizations. The Position Paper provides a critical analysis of ASEAN leaders’ decision to maintain the dead-on-arrival Five Point Consensus (5PC), explicates the requirements of a genuinely “Myanmar-owned and -led solution” to the country’s crisis, and offers key recommendations to ASEAN.

Since its adoption in April 2021, ASEAN’s 5PC has proven extremely harmful to the Myanmar people in its futile attempt to address the junta-caused crisis in Myanmar. Despite repeated calls from Myanmar, regional, and international civil society to move beyond the 5PC, on 9 October 2024, ASEAN leaders announced their decision to “maintain the 5PC as the main reference to address the political crisis in Myanmar.”

In that decision, ASEAN leaders hypocritically claimed that their goal is “to help the people of Myanmar to achieve an inclusive and durable peaceful resolution that is Myanmar-owned and -led,” while in reality ASEAN continues to fail to align with the people’s efforts and sacrifices to dismantle military tyranny and establish an inclusive federal democracy. In recent months, ASEAN has allowed the junta to represent Myanmar, lending the junta false legitimacy as if it were a state authority. ASEAN has also continued to enable the junta’s access to cash, arms, and aviation fuel—thereby deepening ASEAN’s complicity in the junta’s atrocity crimes against Myanmar’s peoples.

This Position Paper responds directly to ASEAN’s October 2024 decision in which ASEAN leaders also stated their intention to accelerate “informal consultations” in the name of “an inclusive and durable peaceful resolution that is Myanmar-owned and -led.” ASEAN’s course of action clearly aims to impose quick-fix solutions for its state-centric approach to stability, which will only keep Myanmar trapped in a cycle of violence and military tyranny. Any involvement or engagement of the junta for the future of Myanmar is untenable and contravenes the reality on the ground where townships covering 86% of the country’s territory are not under stable control of the junta.

The reality is that the only path to an inclusive and sustainable peace in Myanmar is by completely dismantling the criminal military institution and establishing civilian-led federal democratic governance that ensures equal power-sharing and guarantees human rights for all. It is therefore in ASEAN’s best interest to support the people’s will and efforts to achieve these goals.

The Position Paper proposes six key recommendations to ASEAN for concrete actions that genuinely support the people of Myanmar. First and foremost, ASEAN must move beyond the 5PC to achieve a Myanmar people-led and people-centered solution to the crisis. This means unequivocally supporting the Myanmar people’s goals to fully dismantle the criminal military institution and establish an inclusive federal democracy. To do so, ASEAN must cease all pressure on Myanmar’s revolutionary forces and civil society to engage or compromise with the illegitimate military junta; stop any plan to support the junta’s illegal sham election; recognize Myanmar’s legitimate representatives, including the National Unity Government, Ethnic Resistance Organizations, and federal units; and support a locally led political consultation process that entirely excludes the junta.

Kyi, Secretary of Queers of Burma Alternative, member of the Myanmar NOC, said: “The military junta has been waging a systematic nationwide campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar for nearly four years, including airstrikes, massacres, and sexual violence. In the face of the military’s horrific violence, the people of Myanmar have made their demands of ASEAN unmistakably clear. It’s time for ASEAN to live up to its own pledges regarding the principles of democracy and human rights enshrined in its own Charter, and to stand firmly on the side of the Myanmar people. ASEAN must support the people’s efforts to dismantle military tyranny for good and establish a federal democracy where equality, dignity, and justice are a reality for all peoples of Myanmar.”

Bo Bo, Executive Director of Generation Wave, member of the Myanmar NOC, said: “ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus (5PC) has completely failed to provide any solutions to the military junta-caused crisis. The junta has blatantly disregarded the 5PC and only escalated its violence, ramping up its international crimes against civilians across the country as a tactic to defeat the democratic resistance movement against its tyranny. By continuing to rely on the failed 5PC, ASEAN has severely undermined the people’s efforts for a sustainable peace, ultimately resulting in a complete lack of trust from the Myanmar people. ASEAN must immediately move beyond the 5PC, end all engagements with the military junta, and unequivocally denounce the junta’s plans for a sham election.”

Mulan, Head of Blood Money Campaign, member of the Myanmar NOC, said: “Over the past year, the military junta has escalated its airstrikes targeting civilians across the country, and ASEAN has only deepened its complicity in these atrocities. According to Amnesty International, between January and June this year, at least two shipments of aviation fuel reached the junta after being transported through Vietnam, a member state of ASEAN. Meanwhile, the Myanmar military is facing allegations of atrocity crimes at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and in Argentina. ASEAN must stop aiding and abetting the junta’s atrocity crimes against the people. Instead, ASEAN must join current international efforts to hold the Myanmar military accountable under international law, in addition to supporting federal democracy building in Myanmar.”

Download the full position paper here.

For more information, please contact:

About the Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF: Myanmar National Organizing Committee for the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum (ACSC/APF) comprises 18 civil society organizations: Action Committee for Democracy Development (ACDD); Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP); Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization; Blood Money Campaign (BMC); Creative Home (CH); Equality Myanmar (EQMM); Generation Wave (GW); Generations’ Solidarity Coalition of Nationalities (GSCN); Justice & Equality Focus; Kyae Lak Myay; Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma); Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica; Progressive Voice (PV); Queers of Burma Alternative (QBA); Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network (RMCN); Women Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar (WAC-M); Women’s League of Burma (WLB); and Yangon Medical Network (YMN).

Download PDF in English.

ND Burma

The Airstrikes after the journey to the China of the Junta Military Leader

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Operation 1027 was a coordinated military attack against the junta on October 27th, 2023. It was carried out by the Northern Brotherhood, which includes the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.

Several months later, the Three Brotherhood Alliance held three meetings to negotiate with China on January 11 and to discuss a ceasefire with the agreement of Haigeng in Northern Shan State. However, the military junta continued to attack with heavy artillery and launched airstrikes on the townships of Northern Shan State.Due to the military’s activities, the Northern Brotherhood Alliances and some revolutionary forces announced “The Second Wave of Operation 1027” on June 25, 2024, four months after the ceasefire. The military junta increased the frequency of airstrikes that began in the second wave (see Graph-1).

The junta visited China most recently from 5th to 10th November to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion Meeting. This was the first time traveling to foreign countries since the attempted coup on 1 February 2021. The Burma Army has perpetrated 306 airstrikes in nine States and Divisions from November 10th to 30th after the return from China.

ND Burma

The Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma Releases New Briefing Paper,‘Attacks from the Air’ on Human Rights Day

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10 December 2024

On Human Rights Day, the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma) releases its latest briefing paper, “Attacks from the Air,” which includes cases of airstrikes throughout the month of November 2024 in Kachin, Karenni and Shan States. ND-Burma condemns all forms of violence against innocent people and calls for immediate action by the international community to ensure the protection of civilians living in constant terror and fear of attack by the Burma Army.

Desk research compiled by ND-Burma in English and Burmese, combined with data from our members, found twenty-five incidents of airstrikes took place in November in these specific areas, leading to 25 adults killed and ten children, 74 wounded, including 23 adults and 51 children. There were at least 77 damaged properties, including a church, monastery, hospital, tea shop, five office buildings, and six vehicles. The junta perpetrated all of the airstrikes.

Airstrikes are increasing throughout the country as the regime is weakened by an ongoing lack of morale and defections. Significant gains by the armed revolutionary groups have also led to historic defeats and the reclamation of land and territory belonging to ethnic people. Attacks from the air are regularly deployed by the Burma Army to isolate and target civilians. Vulnerable and unprotected, the military’s actions in attacking displaced and conflict-affected groups reveal their cowardice and blatant disregard for human life.

The airstrikes documented in the briefing paper occurred during the early hours of the morning and evening when traumatized civilians were attempting to rest. Temporary shelters and camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) were targeted with airstrikes, as were local teashops. Women and children were among those killed and wounded, as families continue to suffer immense devastation and loss from the junta’s relentless attacks. 

ND-Burma welcomes the International Criminal Court’s application to file an arrest warrant for war criminal Min Aung Hlaing for his long-standing crimes against the long-persecuted Rohingya. Every individual has the right to life, live free from harm, and have fundamental rights and freedoms upheld and protected. The military junta is not above the law, and this pivotal step towards justice must lead to an end to the dictatorship so that peace can prevail in Burma. 

It is vital to acknowledge and pursue pathways of transitional justice for reparations for communities who have suffered immensely under authoritarian rule. The cases included in ND-Burma’s briefing paper of airstrikes and bombs deployed upon civilians are to be taken seriously by the international community, including ASEAN and UN bodies, which must end all and any existing ties with the illegitimate junta. Global stakeholders must fund human rights defenders to ensure their meaningful work can continue as they inform communities of their human rights and give them the courage to resist oppressive regimes. 

The future belongs to the people of Burma. 

For more information:

Nai Aue Mon

Signal: +66 86 1679 741

San Htoi

Signal no: +66649369070

Download briefer : https://bit.ly/3VuZCfn

The Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma) consists of 13 organisations representing a range of ethnic nationalities, women, and former political prisoners. Since 2004, ND-Burma member organisations have been documenting human rights abuses and fighting for justice for victims. The network has nine full members and four affiliate members.