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
- 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
- Defying a Dictatorship
- Open Letter: The UNHRC Must Reject the Junta’s Sham Election Results to ConsolidateIllegitimate Rule and Advance Accountability
2 local women killed, 2 injured in Mongngawt Myoma Market bombing
/in NewsTa’ang Women’s Organization
Last night, October 20, Mongngawt Township, controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (PSLF/TNLA), was reportedly targeted by airstrikes.
At 8 p.m., the Mongngawt Myoma Market was airstrike bombed by the Terror military council, killing 2 locals, injuring 2 others, and burning down at least 10 houses and 5 shops, according to a local man from Mongngawt.
“It wasn’t a police station that was hit, it was in the market, it was raining last night, and people were just trying to put out the fire. The market caught fire, and 2 people were killed, 2 were injured, and houses were also damaged,” he told TWO.
Two women, 29-year-old Thura Rein and 54-year-old Daw Lin Lin, who were standing at the market, died of burns. The injured were 19-year-old Wai Yan Zaw, who was hit in the left thigh, and 53-year-old U Mona, who was injured in the head and abdomen.
Similarly, at around 12 noon on October 19, an airstrike bomb was dropped near the monastery in Loi Pein Village, Mong Ngao Township, damaging the monastery shelter and the monastery building.
On October 8, two 500-pound bombs and four rocket-propelled grenades were dropped on Manlon and Talon Wards, killing two people, injuring one man and one woman, and damaging 18 houses.”
Source : TWO
Junta Intensifies Airstrikes Across Shan, Hitting Four Townships in First Week of October
/in NewsThe Myanmar military junta has escalated its aerial attacks in Shan State, carrying out airstrikes on at least four townships — Mongkut (Mogok), Namtu, Hsipaw, Mantong, and Namhsan — during the first week of October. The strikes resulted in civilian casualties and widespread damage, according to reports from locals and the Ta’ang (Palaung) National Liberation Army (TNLA).
In Mongkut (Mogok), a junta aircraft dropped bombs on the western part of the town near the Shan–Mandalay border on October 1, injuring two civilians. Residents said the airstrike hit the road leading to Yay Htwet Gyi. The same area was previously bombed on September 16.
In Namtu, four displaced persons were killed and at least five others injured when the military council bombed Ward 8 on October 2. Many of the victims were families displaced from Kyaukme and Nawng Ping. The TNLA confirmed it was the first airstrike on Namtu since the group seized control of the town. On the same morning, junta jets also attacked the TNLA’s Infantry Battalion (130) camp in nearby Mantong Township.
In Hsipaw, junta aircraft launched multiple strikes between October 2 and 4. Bombs hit the Kumadra Hotel in San Hpeik village, a former police station in Manhe village, and later that night, a monastery, a school, and several homes in Zat Su ward. TNLA reports said four bombs dropped on October 4 damaged 13 houses, Basic Education High School (2), and the Banda Monastery in Kyaung Su village.
In Namhsan, a junta jet bombed Zei Kon Huong village around noon on October 4, killing two children — Maung Zay Yar Aung (10) and Maung Htun Myo Aung (13) — and injuring nine others, including six children.
A political activist from northern Shan State said the renewed air and ground offensives are tied to the junta’s plan to hold elections on December 28. “The military has reportedly retaken Kyaukme and is now preparing to advance on Hsipaw, Namtu, Manton, Namkham, Kutkai, and Hsenwi,” he told SHAN.
Observers note that the recent wave of airstrikes marks one of the most concentrated aerial campaigns in Shan State since Operation 1027, as the junta seeks to regain control of key towns ahead of the planned election.
Shan News
Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition
/in Press Releases and StatementsThe Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma Releases
Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition
1st October 2025
For Immediate Release
Today, the Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma) releases its latest briefing paper, Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition, which calls for the condemnation and immediate rejection of the election plans proposed by the Burmese military junta. Burma’s future of political and federal democracy faces significant threats. Ongoing preventable deaths mirror the military’s brutal history, while an election—expected to be a sham with violent suppression of opposition—is unavoidable.
Civil society organizations have warned election monitors to pay close attention, as moving forward could lead to even more troubling times. Analysts and election monitors have also cited the election as a ‘sham’ and warned that the lead-up and aftermath will be marred by violence. The election plans pose life-threatening risks to civilians as the junta aggressively attempts to regain lost territories through airstrikes, drones, and shelling.
“The sham election is the latest illegal and unjust attempt by the military junta to claim its misplaced legitimacy. The people of Burma have been clear — they do not accept the junta as any legitimate ruler, and they do not accept any process filled with corrupt tactics to guarantee a biased victory. The sham election effort must be widely condemned and rejected by all international stakeholders. This is not due process, and this is certainly not democracy,” said Nai Aue Mon, Program Director at the Human Rights Foundation of Monland.
Worryingly, the junta has begun weaponizing the rule of law and leveraging its forced conscription efforts to silence dissent and employ violent tactics to coerce civilians into supporting the election. Several people have already been apprehended and charged under the recently reformed draconian election law. Against the backdrop of the junta’s latest selfish bid for legitimacy, attacks have escalated in ethnic areas, particularly those where the regime is desperate to regain lost territories.
Furthermore, ND-Burma calls for strategic and meaningful efforts to continue supporting the initiatives set forth by revolutionaries and rights-based groups, as well as the National Unity Government, in condemning the junta and actively countering and disengaging from the junta’s propaganda. International human rights organizations and businesses working in Burma must also extend their support to pro-democracy groups, including emerging federal bodies.
Local organizations working on the ground in Burma have earned the trust and credibility of their communities and can attest to the junta’s mockery of legal and justice systems. The regime merits neither recognition nor credibility.
For more information:
Name: Nai Aue Mon
Signal: +66 86 1679 741
Name: San Htoi
Signal: +66 649369070
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma) comprises 13 organizations representing a diverse range of ethnic nationalities, women, and former political prisoners. Since 2004, ND-Burma member organizations have been documenting human rights abuses and advocating for justice on behalf of victims. The network has ten full members and three affiliate members.
Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition Exposing the junta’s campaign of terror to stage a sham election
/in Briefing Papers, ND-Burma's ReportsExposing the junta’s campaign of terror to stage a sham election
As the junta continues to illegally and unjustly expand their military through forced conscription, the upcoming 2025 sham election is yet another calculated attempt by the junta to bolster its legitimacy. Civil society organizations have widely condemned these efforts, describing them as ‘political theatre’[1] and ‘laughable.’[2] Analysts and election monitors have cited the election as a ‘sham’ and have warned that the lead-up and aftermath of the election will be plagued with violence.[3] Burma Campaign UK noted that the election is simply the junta’s latest attempt to ‘rebrand, renew, and try to convince the people of Burma and the international community that reforms are finally happening.’[4] In reality, the sham election plans pose life-threatening risks to civilians as the junta aggressively tries to regain lost territories through airstrikes, drones, and shelling.
While the junta rushes to compile voting lists and demonstrate voting machines, conflict persists across the region, with millions in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Regional leaders, including those from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), are being consistently advised not to be misled by the junta’s tactics but to instead support the revolutionary movement on the ground, led by local stakeholders and grassroots leaders.
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing violence amid the junta’s relentless assaults. The military attacks are intensifying as the election approaches, with the junta trying to reclaim territories and bases lost to the armed resistance. While the regime has announced its planned areas to hold elections in 102 townships on 28 December,[5] ethnic resistance and armed groups largely control much of the indicated territory, including in Shan and Rakhine States.[6] The junta has also announced that polls will only be held in 172 of the 228 eligible townships nationwide at unspecified dates in January 2026.[7] Burma has a total of 330 townships in which conflict has been active in 70% of them.[8]
The constituencies cover 56 townships nationwide where the regime’s administrative and security structures have broken down.[9] With 57 registered political parties, only six will participate in the election, as four parties have been dissolved for allegedly failing to meet the junta’s voting criteria. [10] On 14 September, the junta stated that it wouldn’t hold elections for three parliaments in 10 of the 14 townships in Rakhine, which is controlled by the Arakan Army.[11] This has led to further concerns over implementation and the validity of any ballots cast amid the ongoing turmoil, including daily airstrikes on displaced communities by the junta.
Rakhine School Massacre Met With Chorus of Condemnation
/in NewsA chorus of condemnation both from Myanmar and abroad has greeted the junta’s bombing of two private schools in Rakhine state’s Kyauktaw Township on Sept. 12 that killed 20 youngsters.
The ethnic United League of Arakan (ULA) on Saturday blasted the arial massacre as a war crime.
The ULA, whose armed wing the Arakan Army (AA) has seized most of Rakhine, also urged the international community to take “effective and decisive action against the brutal regime.”
In the small hours of last Friday, a regime jet dropped two 500-lb bombs on the two private boarding schools of Pyinnya Pan Khinn and Amyin Thit in Thayat Tabin in AA-controlled Kyauktaw Township.
The airstrikes killed 20 students aged 15 to 21 and injured 22 others while destroying school buildings as well as civilian homes nearby, the ULA said.
“We strongly condemn the regime’s war crimes and crimes against humanity as the regime continues to commit heinous acts of mass killing against innocent civilians across the country with impunity,” the rebel group added.
The group vowed to submit the evidence of the regime’s war crimes to international organization and “seek tirelessly to ensure justice for the crimes committed against a generation of Arakan youth.”
“We will take strong retaliatory measures against those who committed, ordered or were involved in these crimes,” it added.
Overseas, UNICEF expressed “extreme concern” over the massacre.
The UN children’s agency said the attack “adds to a pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State, with children and families paying the ultimate price.”
“Children are losing their lives in the very spaces meant to protect them—their homes, schools, and neighborhoods,” it said in a statement, calling for an end to violence against children and for schools, dormitories, homes, and the essential services they rely on to be safeguarded.
The statement declined to name the perpetrator of the attack, and instead called on “all parties” to uphold their obligations under international law to protect civilians including children.
From Jan. 8 to Aug. 25, the regime conducted four airstrikes on AA-held towns and villages, killing 89 civilians, including 28 family members of junta soldiers held prisoners of war, according to ULA.
In May, the regime used cluster bombs to attack a school run by civilian National Unity Government (NUG) in Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, killing 22 schoolchildren aged seven to 16 and two volunteer teachers. Another 102 people, mostly schoolchildren and teachers, were injured.
The regime denied responsibility for the airstrike, while junta-backed pro-military lobbyists claimed the attack targeted “terrorists” who were manufacturing bombs in the school.
Between January 2023 and August 2025, the regime conducted 3,402 airstrikes that killed 3,689 people including 546 children, according to the parallel National Unity Government (NUG).
The airstrikes also destroyed 289 schools, 112 clinics and hospitals, and 512 religious buildings.
Irrawaddy News
22 People, Mostly Children, Dead in Junta Airstrike on Boarding School in Rakhine
/in NewsA Myanmar junta airstrike on a private boarding school in Thayat Tabin Village in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township on Friday killed 22 people, mostly schoolchildren, according to local media reports and residents.
Kyauktaw town has been controlled by the AA since January last year.
During the airstrike, which occurred at 1 a.m., two 500-pound bombs struck the Pyinnya Pan Khinn High School and a nearby area.
Two local Rakhine media outlets reported in the evening that the death toll had reached 22, after four more schoolchildren died of severe injuries, adding to the 18 students and neighborhood children who were initially reported by the AA has having died in the strike.
Photos show that one of school’s buildings was totally destroyed and many nearby were badly damaged.
“As we get updates, the fatalities are increasing. Now, at least 20 have been killed,” a member of a social welfare association told The Irrawaddy.
Local residents said no ground clashes were reported in the area at the time of the bombing.
Located on the Yangon-Sittwe Road, Thayat Tabin Village is home to a number of private schools and hostels.
Pro-junta social media accounts alleged the AA was training its troops in the village.
On Aug. 25, a junta airstrike on the Daing Kyi neighborhood in Rakhine’s Mrauk-U killed 14 people, including three young children and three teenagers, and injured 18.
Since January, at least 106 people have been killed in junta airstrikes on Mrauk-U, Ramree, Rathedaung and Kyauktaw townships in the state, according to the AA.
The AA has captured 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State since November 2023. The state capital Sittwe, Manaung and Kyaukphyu remain under junta control, though the AA has seized most of the rural areas in Kyaukphyu and Sittwe townships.
The AA has expanded its operations into neighboring regions and states, including Magwe, Bago and Ayeyarwady, but the regime recently launched a counteroffensive seeking to regain control of its lost territories in those areas.
According to the AA, intense fighting continues on Rakhine’s borders with Ayeyarwady and Bago regions, and in the foothills of the Rakhine Yoma mountain range.
Irrawaddy News