ND Burma

Human Rights Situation weekly update (February 1 to 7, 2023)

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From February 2 to 7, the Military junta beheaded two civilians from Demoso, Kayah state, and Monywa, Sagaing region. On first January, the military junta arrested two civilians from Mayangone, Yangon, one from Sagaing for taking records and photos of the Silent Strike Protest. They also arrested some civilians from Naypyidaw for sharing about the Revolution on Social Media. Political prisoners from Yangon Insein Prison and Mandalay O-bo Prison got beaten and brutally tortured.

Forced Labour

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ND Burma

Food seller killed at interrogation centre in central Myanmar

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Soldiers arrested the man along with his wife, who is still detained in Magway Region

A man was killed at an interrogation centre in Magway Region last week, a day after he and his wife were arrested by soldiers in the river port town of Chauk, according to a local urban guerrilla group.

Kyaw Tint, 50, and his wife, Tin Mar Ni, were arrested on the evening of February 1 by a group of about 15 soldiers at their home in Chauk’s Ward 5. They were taken to an interrogation centre, where Kyaw Tint died the following morning, according to Payta, deputy leader of the Chauk Guerrilla Force (CGF).

The arrested couple sold beans and nuts for a living and had a son and two daughters, according to the CGF.

“We can’t say anything for sure, as we couldn’t see what actually happened inside the interrogation centre. But it was a certainty that they would be tortured there,” said Payta, citing local people’s accounts. 

The interrogation centre, referred to as Na Ga 60 by junta soldiers, is located on Pyihtaungsu Road, which connects Chauk and Seikphyu townships via the Anawrahta Bridge on the Ayeyarwady River. The town of Chauk serves as a river port for transporting petroleum from the nearby Singu-Chauk oil fields.

An officer from a Chauk Township social welfare group confirmed that Kyaw Tint’s body was taken to the cemetery via the Chauk Township Hospital and cremated, but details on his arrest and interrogation are still unavailable.

According to Payta, Kyaw Tint’s body was cremated at the Myaynigone Cemetery. His wife was still detained at the interrogation centre at the time of reporting.

Khin Maung Yi, a member of the Chauk Myoma Market Committee who lived in Chauk’s Ward 10, was also arrested in the area in late January, according to Payta.

“This is not a transparent judicial process. They tortured a man to death. This is not something that can become the norm. This is not only violating human rights but also just downright cruel,” Payta said.

Myanmar Now is still attempting to contact the victims’ relatives regarding the case.

A similar incident took place in the same area in October 2021, when Phyo Wai Tun, the 40-year-old owner of the Tun Lin Zabu hostel, was arrested on suspicion of helping to fund the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF) and was killed during interrogation. Only his ashes were returned to his family.

Some 20 soldiers from Infantry Battalion 13 came to detain Phyo Wai Tun and his two brothers in the village of Gway Pin, some 20km southeast of Chauk, at around midnight on October 30, 2021. They beat the brothers brutally for nearly an hour in their home before taking them away, and there has been no word from Phyo Wai Tun’s brothers since the arrest. 

Pro-junta propaganda channels on Telegram have circulated a claim that Kyaw Tint was taken in for questioning because he was found to have sent funds to the PDF, and that he died of a heart attack during questioning. 

At least 2,951 people have been killed by the military council in total, and a large number of arrests for alleged funding of resistance groups have taken place in the two years since the coup.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 13,829 people are currently detained in Myanmar for political activities, of whom 2,317 have received prison sentences.

Myanmar Now News

ND Burma

Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State & Tanintharyi Region (January 2023)

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The first month of the year in Southeastern Burma and country-wide proved equally disastrous as those prior. Despite the multiple calls to the international community for action as the junta commits endless atrocities, they seemed to fall upon deaf ears. Across January 2023, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) documented dozens more malicious attacks against civilians. While these crimes are occurring, the regime is shamelessly continuing with their plans to hold ‘elections’ later this year. HURFOM fieldworkers reported on early cases of civilians already being bribed to vote for the military.


The Mon State Junta Administration General Administration Department (GAD) has been conducting several meetings in each township in Mon State for all levels of Administrators to operate an accurate census and prepare for the upcoming juntarun election:


“They seem like they are preparing for the election. The Mon State junta is conducting election-related activities such as instructing each level of GAD staff to collect the numbers of the population in the whole state and training the polling station officers to hold the General Election,” said a source close to HURFOM.

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ND Burma

Human Rights Situation weekly update (January 22 to 31, 2023)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions in January 22 to 31, 2023

From January 22 to 31, military junta airstrikes in Chin State, Kayah State, and Sagaing Region.They arrested three locals as a hostage, including children and a woman from Thabeikkyin township in Mandalay region.They arrested and killed civilians until now.

ND Burma

Three killed as junta troops raid villages east of Muu River

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Hundreds of houses were also torched in a series of unprovoked attacks carried out in two Sagaing Region townships

Myanmar’s military has killed at least three civilians and torched hundreds of houses in a series of raids carried out along the eastern bank of the Muu River in Sagaing Region in recent days.

Sources in the area said the raids began when a column of around 150 soldiers occupied both eastern and western Maubin villages in Shwebo Township on Saturday.

By the time the junta troops left on Monday, more than 300 houses had been destroyed, according to one resident.

“All of our relatives’ houses were lost in the fire. Even my father’s two-storey brick house was completely destroyed,” he said.
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Smoke rises from Ingynnpin, a village in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township, on January 30 (Supplied)

Smoke rises from Ingynnpin, a village in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township, on January 30 (Supplied)

Residents also found the charred remains of two men in the ashes of a haystack, he added. The victims were identified as Kan Htoo and Myint Than, both in their 50s.

A volunteer helping the displaced villagers said they were even chased into the woods as they fled the approaching army column.

“They fired machine guns at the fleeing civilians. They killed a cow and caught one villager,” said the volunteer, adding that the soldiers also burned down farm huts used by villagers to hide.

On Monday, the junta troops proceeded to Ingynnpin, a village about 5km to the north, where they killed and burned a local man in his 50s named Khin Maung Myo.

Arson attacks were reported on four villages in the area before the regime column moved on to Yone Su, in Khin-U Township, on Tuesday.

A resident of Maubin said that thick smoke could be seen rising from Yone Su on Tuesday afternoon, visible from more than 5km away.

“They started torching that village in the morning and the ashes are falling even here. We can also hear gunshots,” he said.

Residents of Yone Su have yet to return to the village to assess the damage, as it was still occupied by soldiers as of late Tuesday, locals told Myanmar Now.

There were no reported clashes in the area ahead of the recent attacks. Sagaing Region is regarded as a stronghold of forces fighting the regime that seized power two years ago today. 

Myanmar Now News