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.
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Urgent Statement on the Extrajudicial Murder and Brutal Crackdown in Pathein Prison
/in Member statementsDate; Jan 8, 2023
AAPP issues this statement to bring attention to the gross human rights violations perpetrated by the military junta. On the evening of January 5, 2023, a dispute occurred between prison authorities and political prisoners. Eight political prisoners were called out and brought from the compound. Their hands were tied behind their back, and they were savagely kicked and beaten with batons. Following brutal torture several political prisoners were severely injured some of whom are in critical condition, and at least one political prisoner was killed. AAPP strongly condemns these severe crimes of extrajudicial murder and torture in a crackdown.
In Burma since the coup, rule of law and any judicial system have collapsed. The pillars of military rule – judges, soldiers, police, and prison guards are being used by the junta to abuse and torture political prisoners. In fact, in every prison, political prisoners are intentionally tortured and violated.
On January 5, 2022, there was an altercation between political prisoners and prison guards. Prison personnel used excess force to crackdown with brutal beatings on political prisoners who were severely beaten with hands tied behind their back. One political prisoner was killed, and several critically injured. Looking at these events, the torture and extrajudicial killings in Pathein Prison are crimes under the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT).
Junta authorities including Pathein Prison Superintendent Nay Min Htet, Pathein City Surveillance Police Station Officer Myint Aung, and Police Station Officer Kyaw Oo, are responsible for Pathein Prison. Those who ordered crimes be perpetrated in Pathein Prison, as well as all other relevant prison officers who personally carried out the violations are responsible and must be held to account.
AAPP condemns these extrajudicial killings and brutal torture which occur daily under military rule and will strive to achieve justice for all political prisoners whose rights have been violated.
We urge the international community to provide protection from the daily perpetrated human rights violations, extrajudicial killings and brutal torture. The junta is committing international crimes, but such cases cannot be handled within the domestic judiciary system – international judiciary mechanisms must hence take action for accountability.
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984)
Article 2
2.2 No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as justification of torture.
2.3.An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
For More Information
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Email, info@aappb.org
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Inmate killed, 8 in critical condition following crackdown at Myanmar Prison
/in NewsPolitical prisoners had protested after guards beat an inmate found with a mobile phone.
Prison guards in Myanmar on Friday shot and killed a political prisoner and wounded more than 60 other people – including eight critically – after inmates protested their beating of the victim a day earlier, Radio Free Asia has learned.
The incident at Pathein Prison is the latest in a string of more than 15 violent crackdowns on protests by political prisoners – which authorities termed “riots” – in the nearly two years since Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup.
On Thursday night, guards discovered a mobile phone in the possession of Wai Yan Phyo, a prisoner of conscience serving 28 years on undisclosed charges, according to sources in Pathein Prison and others assisting political prisoners at the facility.
Following the discovery, guards pulled Wai Yan Phyo – also known as Mae Gyi – and two other inmates from their cells and beat them throughout the night before returning them on Friday morning, the sources said.
Tun Kyi, a leading member of a rights group known as the Former Political Prisoners’ Society, said that when the three men explained what had happened to them to their fellow inmates and demanded they be released, authorities refused, sparking a protest by other political prisoners. Guards responded by beating and opening fire on the protesters, he said.
“At around 9:30 a.m., police and prison staff together restrained about 60 prisoners [angering other inmates]. After that the shooting occurred,” Tun Kyi said.
“Wai Yan Phyo was hit in the head by three bullets and died on the spot. The main reason was that he was taken out [of his cell] because a mobile phone was found in his possession and [the guards] tortured him all that night,” he added.
Among the wounded were Pho La Pyae, Win Min Htet, Soe Yu Kyaw, Wai Zaw Lat, Aung Tun Myint, Kyaw Ye Aung, Ye Thway Ni and an eighth man who is yet to be identified, Tun Kyi said. The eight are in critical condition, suffering from gunshot wounds and other injuries.
According to Tun Kyi, the wards housing political prisoners at Pathein Prison are now under heavy security.
Later on Friday, the junta’s information team issued a press release which said that police and prison officials had “undertaken security measures to control a riot” at the complex that was “started by inmates angered over the investigation of an inmate discovered with a mobile phone.”
The statement also blamed the death and injuries on “a clash” between the two sides. Two police officers and nine prison staff were also injured in the incident, it said.
Responding to reports of the incident, Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) referred to authorities’ treatment of Wai Yan Phyo and the two other inmates as “torture,” and called it “a serious and blatant violation of human rights.”
String of prison crackdowns
In August, RFA learned that authorities had violently cracked down on at least 15 peaceful protests by political prisoners since the military coup in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, as well as Mandalay’s Ohbo Prison, Tharrawaddy Prison, Kalay Prison, Pathein Prison, Bago Prison and Pyay Prison, based on an analysis of local news reports and interviews with family members of political prisoners.
Authorities killed at least seven prisoners in a single incident at Kalay Prison in March last year, which residents of the area said was the result of a “crackdown on those protesting ill-treatment” at the facility.
A former political prisoner at Insein Prison told RFA that Myanmar has a unique history of prison protests – with prisoners fighting against military rule from inside the walls of detention.
After the junta executed four prominent activists in July – the first judicial executions in more than 30 years – prisoners on death row are experiencing renewed trauma and fear about their own fates, he added.
According to AAPP (Burma), authorities in Myanmar have killed more than 2,700 civilians and arrested nearly 17,000 others since the coup – mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. While authorities have released some 3,500 people, nearly 13,400 have been sentenced to prison or remain in detention.
Translated by Kyaw Min Htun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
RFA News
Myanmar junta sentences teacher to death on murder, terror charges
/in NewsNearly 100 people have been handed the death penalty for opposing the regime that seized power nearly two years ago
A junta-controlled court sentenced a primary school teacher to death last Friday for his alleged role in the killing of a suspected military informant in Ayeyarwady Region’s Myan Aung Township more than a year ago, according to sources.
Kaung Khant Kyaw, 25, was sentenced after being found guilty of murder and terrorism in connection with the shooting death of Win Myint Aung, also known as Gyat Gyi, in the Myan Aung village of Thapyay Kone in October 2021.
A participant in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule, Kaung Khant Kyaw was arrested weeks after the killing and charged under Section 302(1)b of the Penal Code and Section 50e of the Counter-Terrorism Law.
An elected MP from Ayeyarwady Region condemned the sentence, calling it “absurd.”
“Handing death sentences to CDM teachers and students is just destroying the country’s future. It’s absurd that a group of power-hungry people is punishing innocent, educated youths,” said the lawmaker, who did not want to be named.
According to Kyaw Ye Lwin, a member of the Basic Education General Strike Committee’s secretarial team, Kaung Khant Kyaw was not permitted to meet with his family during his trial.
“Everyone’s extremely worried because they said no one would be allowed to see him again. The family is still trying their best to see him,” he said, adding that only one lawyer was allowed inside the court during sentencing.
He added that Kaung Khant Kyaw would likely be transferred from Hinthada Prison, where he was held during his trial, to Pathein Prison now that a sentence has been handed down.
The family is planning to appeal the sentence, he said.
Kaung Khant Kyaw is the first schoolteacher to be sentenced to death since the February 2021 coup. Nearly 200 others are currently in junta custody, according to Kyaw Ye Lwin, who described the sentence as a “threat” to others taking part in the CDM.
On Sunday, seven educational organisations released a statement condemning the military’s imposition of the death penalty on its opponents.
It also called for an end to the regime’s unlawful arrests and urged the international community to take action against the junta for its brutal suppression of dissent.
At least five other CDM education staff members, including a teacher named Swan Yee Htet who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, were also arrested in Myan Aung.
According to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a total of 97 people have been sentenced to death by the military council as of December 30, 2022.
Myanmar’s junta pardons more than 7,000 prisoners
/in NewsThe Independence Day amnesty includes a former National League for Democracy minister, authors and journalists.
UPDATED AT 4:44 p.m. ET on 01-04-2023
Myanmar’s military rulers ordered the release of 7,012 inmates, including some political prisoners, in an Independence Day amnesty Wednesday.
Detainees held in prisons and police stations across the country had their sentences reduced in accordance with Section 401 of the Penal Code, according to junta news releases received by RFA.
Wednesday marks the 75th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule and the junta held grand ceremonies to commemorate the event in Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw.
Lawyers, who wished to remain anonymous, told RFA some political prisoners had already returned to their homes early Wednesday, while families of others were still waiting outside prisons.
Minister of Religious Affairs under the National League for Democracy-led government, Thura Aung Ko, was released from Yangon’s Insein Prison Tuesday night. He had been serving a 12-year sentence for alleged corruption. Police officers and soldiers took him to his home in Yangon, his daughter wrote on her Facebook page.
The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 2020 elections but the NLD-led government was overthrown in a February, 2021 coup. The junta has arrested many party members along with the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison, and President Win Myint who faces 12 years behind bars.
Neither Suu Kyi nor Win Myint were included in the amnesty.
Writers freed
Among those released from Yangon’s Insein prison were authors Than Myint Aung and Htin Lin Oo, a Yangon lawyer, who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons, told RFA.
Than Myint Aung is a well-known fiction writer who also worked for many charities in Myanmar. She had been serving a three-year sentence for alleged incitement. Htin Lin Oo was also sentenced to three years in prison for sedition.
Poet Myo Tay Zar Maung, who had been sentenced to two years for sedition, was freed from Yamethin Prison north of Naypyidaw Wednesday.
Journalists Kyaw Zeya, Ah Hla Lay Thu Zar, Lway M. Phoung, Pyae Phyo Aung, Sai Ko Ko Tun and Ye Tun Oo were also among those set to be freed as was Naing Ngan Lin, the social affairs minister for Yangon region under the NLD-led government.
Thu Zar, who was arrested by the junta in September 2021 and sentenced to two years, described her release as bittersweet.
“No other journalists have been released from Insein prison. Since many journalists are still in prison, I can’t be fully happy with my release,” she told RFA.
In spite of the Independence Day amnesty, and one on National Day last November, the junta continues to target opposition politicians and real or alleged pro-democracy activists. More than 16,800 have arrested since the coup, according to Thailand-based monitoring group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). Ahead of Wednesday’s amnesty, it said 13,375 political prisoners were still being held.
Little to celebrate
Wednesday’s events to mark the diamond jubilee anniversary of Independence Day were substantial, and held under tight security. In Yangon, festive markets and fairs were put on in Shwedagon Pagoda, People’s Square and Maha Bandula Park in the city center.
But several residents of Myanmar’s largest city chose to boycott the festivities, telling RFA that national independence means little to a people living under military rule.
“Both last year and this one, I’ve been overwhelmed by the idea that our country has not yet truly gained independence,” said one Yangon resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal.
“I will regard and embrace a day as one of independence only when citizens can go about freely and enjoy full democracy in our country. But for now, I only have a very dim memory of the history of Independence Day that I learned in books. To me, it’s just another day.”
An official from the Dagon University Students’ Union told RFA that the heavy security presence at Wednesday’s anniversary events reflected Myanmar’s current state of insecurity and lack of freedom.
“It seems to me that there is no honor in [junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing] celebrating Independence Day in a festive manner after he robbed the country of its power in a coup,” the official said.
“No matter how many celebrations [the military leaders] organize, they know that they themselves are not free. The … many layers of security indicate that the people do not accept them.”
In his New Year’s Day speech, even Min Aung Hlaing admitted that although Myanmar would be celebrating its 75th year of independence on Wednesday, the country had not yet experienced “true independence.”
Few changes expected in 2023
Political analyst Than Soe Naing noted that only the junta and its followers marked Independence Day with festivities, while the rest of the country’s inhabitants chose to mourn the lost of their right to self-determination.
“Only a few followers of the military rulers received titles awarded by the junta and portrayed today as an Independence Day celebration but, due to the military’s aggression throughout the country, the number of refugees from conflict in Myanmar has increased to 1.5 million,” he said.
“In other words, it is a time when the people of Myanmar have lost their right to enjoy independence and are facing all sorts of problems, and it is also a time when they are choosing to fight back.”
Anti-junta activists told RFA they have little hope that the rights violations they experienced during the last two years of military rule — including arrests, killings and the torching of residential homes — will change in 2023. The junta’s plan to hold a general election this year will do little to alter that expectation, they said, because it will be neither be free nor fair.
Ahead of Wednesday’s celebrations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that if the junta wants to see an independent Myanmar, it should hand power back to the country’s people.
“Today, Burma’s military regime stands in the way of democratic progress and the will of the people,” he said. “The military regime must end its violence, release those unjustly detained, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and recognize the desire of the people for a genuine and inclusive democracy in Burma.”
Translated by Myo Min Aung and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Mike Firn and Joshua Lipes.
This story has been updated to include reactions to the junta’s general amnesty, expectations for Myanmar in 2023, and a statement by the U.S. Secretary of State.
RFA News
Imprisoned NLD religious affairs minister among thousands freed in amnesty
/in NewsThura Aung Ko is released from Yangon’s Insein Prison some 10 months after being convicted of corruption by Myanmar’s military regime
The Myanmar junta released former religious affairs minister Thura Aung Ko from Yangon’s Insein Prison on Tuesday night in an amnesty ahead of the country’s January 4 Independence Day, according to a relative of the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) official.
The ex-general was among more than 7,000 prisoners who were said to have been freed in the move.
Aung Ko was arrested on February 1, 2021, the day of the military coup, along with several other members of the NLD’s cabinet. He was sentenced in March of last year to 12 years in prison for alleged corruption, an accusation that the military regime levied against many of the NLD’s top leaders—including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint—in an attempt to neutralise its political rivals.
On the same day that Aung Ko was sentenced, the military reduced his prison term by half.
While in custody in Insein, he was reportedly in poor health and required medical attention for anaemia and an enlargement of his heart.
A relative of the former government minister, who turned 75 on Wednesday, confirmed to Myanmar Now that as of Tuesday night he had returned to his family residence.
“I think he is feeling much better because he is back home now,” said the relative, who did not disclose further details regarding Aung Ko’s release.
Despite Aung Ko’s military background and his earlier role as a central executive committee member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party—the army’s political proxy—Aung Ko angered his fellow generals by backing the NLD’s calls for amendments to Myanmar’s military-drafted 2008 Constitution.
He was also scorned by members of the military for his role in abolishing Ma Ba Tha, an ultranationalist group led by hate-preaching monk Wirathu, who was arrested in November 2020 during Aung Ko’s tenure as minister for religious affairs.
Outside_obo.jpeg
People wait outside Obo Prison in Mandalay on Wednesday to see if their incarcerated loved ones are among those released in the January 4 amnesty (Supplied by CJ)
The junta said in a Wednesday announcement that it would free a total of 7,012 inmates from jails across the country for “the peace of mind of the public, being considerate of social circumstances, and in commemoration of the country’s Independence Day.”
Individuals convicted of charges related to terrorism, the use of explosives, unlawful association, corruption, murder or drugs would not be among those released, the junta said in state media.
According to local media reports, Than Myint Aung, who served as an NLD-appointed member of Yangon’s municipal committee, was also freed from Insein Prison, as was renowned author and former information officer for the NLD Htin Lin Oo. They were arrested on the day of the coup and sentenced to three years for incitement.
Several other anti-regime activists convicted of incitement by military-controlled courts were reportedly included in Wednesday’s amnesty, but Myanmar Now was unable to obtain further information about these individuals at the time of reporting.
Reporting by Han Thit and Sa Tun Aung.
Myanmar Now News
Human Rights Violations Documented
/in NewsInfogram