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.
At least 10 dead in Myanmar junta airstrikes on Sagaing village
/in NewsAn aerial assault targeting a village in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township on Tuesday afternoon killed at least 10 civilians, including a Buddhist monk, according to local sources.
The attack on Nyaung Kone, a village located less that 10km southwest of the town of Pale, took place at around 3pm and also destroyed a monastery and more than a dozen houses, the sources said.
Seven of the victims were killed in a house directly in front of the monastery. They included the monk and four of his relatives, as well as a man and his nephew who were also staying in the house, locals told Myanmar Now.
The three remaining victims were in other houses in the area, they added.
One of the deceased was among six people who were taken to the hospital after the attack, while the other nine were killed instantly, locals said.
According to a member of the Yinmabin District People’s Defence Force (PDF), which helped to evacuate the village after the attack, some of the bodies were still burning when resistance forces arrived on the scene.
“One person had their face completely blown off. Some of the bodies were on fire, which we had to drag out of the burning buildings,” he said.
The victims, including 47-year-old monk Kyaw Myint Tun, were all aged between 18 and 65, according to PDF sources.
A man who survived the attack told Myanmar Now that it came completely without warning.
“We didn’t even hear the aircraft as it approached. There was just a whooshing sound when it was already too close for us to get away, followed soon after by a bang,” he said.
A piece of shrapnel from that first blast pierced a pole in his house near where his son was sleeping, the man said. Grabbing his son, he ran into the washroom to take shelter, but then fled towards the monastery, thinking it would be safer, he added.
It was while he and other family members hid inside a tunnel near the monastery that he heard more bombs being dropped from a fighter jet, as well as machine gun fire, he said.
“I think they were incendiary bombs,” said the man, describing the intense fires that broke out immediately after the second attack.
Another local said that houses near the monastery burned down within minutes of being hit. He added that the explosions left five craters, each about a metre and a half deep, in the ground.
The man said he didn’t know why the village was attacked, as there were no armed groups based there or in the surrounding area.
“We really didn’t think they would attack us, as we weren’t involved in the resistance movement. I couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. Now I don’t want to sit and wait for them to come kill me. Give me a gun and I’ll fight back,” he said.
Most of the village’s 300 households were still displaced on Wednesday amid rumours that a second assault was planned, sources there said.
Zaw Htet, a spokesperson for the Pale Township PDF, denounced the attack as “an inhuman act” by the junta’s air force.
“I wouldn’t complain if they were going after a military target, but this was a purely civilian village,” he said.
Another airstrike was also reported later the same day at Chin Pyit, a village located about 25km northwest of Nyaung Kone. Two people were injured in that attack, according to sources.
Myanmar’s military has relied heavily on its total control over the country’s airspace to target opponents of its rule since it seized power more than two years ago.
Its indiscriminate use of fighter jets and attack helicopters imported from Russia and China has been widely condemned for taking a heavy toll on civilians in conflict areas.
In a single incident on April 11, more than 160 people, including dozens of children, were killed in the village of Pa Zi Gyi in Sagaing’s Kanbalu Township, sparking international outrage.
Myanmar Now News
UN rights expert urges bolder action by Indonesia, ASEAN against Myanmar junta’s violence
/in NewsSpeaking in Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday, a United Nations (UN) expert called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to exert more pressure to end the Myanmar coup regime’s violence and human rights abuses.
ASEAN—a bloc of ten countries that includes Indonesia and Myanmar as members—initially treated the February 2021 military coup and violent crackdown on protestors in Myanmar as a crisis. The bloc convened an emergency meeting and reached a “five-point consensus” calling for an immediate end to violence, and dialogue between the military and its opponents.
In the intervening years, however, the coup regime has reneged on the terms of the consensus, and other ASEAN members have taken few actions to compel the regime to abide by them.
In his remarks in the Indonesian capital, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, underlined Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s previous observation that there had been little progress in realising the terms of the consensus due to the coup regime’s obstruction.
“President Widodo described the situation in Myanmar as ‘unacceptable’ and called for the military to end the use of force, release political prisoners, and restore democracy,” Andrews said.
Indonesia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the regional bloc. Under Indonesia’s leadership, ASEAN was expected to take a harder line against the Myanmar junta than under the Cambodia’s chairmanship last year.
However, ASEAN members including Indonesia continue to allow Myanmar’s coup regime to represent Myanmar in most of the regional bloc’s dialogues, and have refrained from suspending its membership or divesting its authority to host conferences attended by the other members.
One such conference, known as the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, will be hosted jointly by the Myanmar military regime and the government of the Russian Federation.
ADMM-Plus—which will be attended by defence ministry officials from all ASEAN member states as well as China, India, and Russia—is scheduled to convene two more times in 2023. Its purpose is to plan and carry out training exercises aimed at strengthening coordination among the member states’ military forces in responding to terrorist attacks.
The Myanmar military currently classifies groups that formed to oppose its seizure of power in 2021—including the publicly-mandated National Unity Government, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, and the People’s Defence Forces—as terrorist organisations.
Andrews condemned ASEAN’s legitimisation of the Myanmar coup regime and continued acquiescence in its role in the regional bloc, particularly in defence-related meetings.
“ASEAN defends this by claiming that these meetings are merely technical and are not in breach
of its prohibition on Myanmar political level participation in its meetings,” he said. “This is not acceptable. The junta should not be invited to attend any ASEAN meeting. At a minimum, ASEAN must not allow Myanmar military personnel to participate in these or any other defence meetings.”
Andrews emphasised that it was Indonesian officials’ initiative that spurred other ASEAN members to meet in Jakarta two months after the 2021 coup and draft the five-point consensus in order to hold the junta to account.
“Indonesia should show leadership, alongside other ASEAN countries and not attend if the
invitations to the junta military personnel are not rescinded. These types of actions not only undermine the credibility of ASEAN but also serve to legitimise the junta and prolong the suffering of the Myanmar people,” he added.
Andrews recommended other actions that Indonesia, as current ASEAN chair, can carry out in order to help bring Myanmar’s humanitarian crises closer to a resolution.
Among the recommended actions were working directly with humanitarian and civil society organisations, instead of the junta, in delivering emergency aid to the victims of Cyclone Mocha, and continuing to support programs and initiatives to help Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees.
“Our current course of action in response to the crisis in Myanmar is simply not working and a change of course is imperative,” he said. “This change will require vision and leadership, and I believe that Indonesia is positioned to provide that leadership and help forge a path forward to end the nightmare that life has become for millions in Myanmar.”
Myanmar Now News
Human Rights Situation weekly update (June 15 to 21, 2023)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from June 15 to 21, 2023
Military Junta troops arrested over 240 local civilians from Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, Okpho Township, Bago Region and Sagaing Township, Sagaing Region and used them as human shields from 15th June to 21st June. Military Junta troops launched an airstrike and dropped bombs in Moebye, Shan State and Tamu Township, Saging Region. 3 civilians were burned and killed by Military Junta’s soldiers in Sagaing Region.
The Military Junta strictly forbidden the “Flower Strikes” that were held on 19th June. The Military Junta arrested the peaceful protesters who participated in Flower Strike throughout the whole country. The Military Junta also arrested the people who post wishes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday on social media. The Military Junta tortured and killed (7) civilians at interrogation.
Infogram
Five men die during military interrogation in Bago
/in NewsFive men taken into junta custody for suspected involvement in an attack on a police station in Bago Region’s Waw Township died during interrogation, according to local sources.
Members of the military reportedly notified the men’s families in late May of their deaths, but Myanmar Now learned of it this week through members of a local resistance force.
The victims included Myint Thein, 60, and Kyaw Myint Thein, in his 50s, both from Kyone Pa village, as well as three men in their 50s from Boe Sabei village: Tin Myo Khaing, Win Zaw Htay and San Shay.
Myanmar Now has been unable to make contact with the police or the family members of the men to verify the dates of both their arrests and their deaths. The men were among 30 people detained following Operation Nan Htike Aung, an ambush of the Nyaung Hkar Shay police station carried out by Waw Township People’s Defence Force on April 27.
At least two of the five men were said to have been arrested immediately following the assault on the site, and had been missing ever since.
One police officer was killed and two were injured in the resistance operation.
Only the body of Kyaw Myint Thein was permitted to be viewed by his family members. Relatives of the other four victims were not told the cause or time of death of their loved ones.
“The families don’t even know when exactly they died,” the spokesperson of the Waw Township People’s Defence Force said. “The military only returned the body of Kyaw Myint Thein. The families of the other victims still haven’t seen the dead bodies. The police only told them that they had died.”
Ten of the locals arrested following the police station attack were released in the days and weeks that followed and eight more were sent to military-controlled courts for hearings. With five reportedly dead, seven others remain unaccounted for, the resistance spokesperson added.
Junta scouts have been deployed across Waw Township—a strategic location separated from Mon State by the Sittaung River, and through which the Yangon-Mawlamyine highway runs. The military has built posts in the township along the western banks of the waterway, fearing advances by ethnic resistance forces in Bago, Mon State and Karen State.
Serious battles between the military and anti-regime groups have broken out in eastern Bago and in Mon State’s Kyaikhto Township, which also includes territory in which the Karen National Union (KNU), a powerful anti-junta ethnic armed organisation, is active.
The Waw People’s Defence Force spokesperson explained that the military had declared the township as a “red zone,” and had fortified its presence there fearing KNU forces would cross the Sittaung River to attack them.
Myanmar Now News
Woman killed by artillery shell after ambush on junta forces in Kani
/in NewsAn elderly woman was killed and two others were injured after junta troops opened fire on Kani, Sagaing Region, with light and heavy weapons on Monday, according to local sources.
The incident occurred soon after resistance forces carried out an ambush in the town’s Ward 3 that left several police officers dead, the sources said.
The deceased victim, who was in her 60s, and another woman were working outside when an artillery shell exploded nearby, a local man told Myanmar Now. The third victim was a 12-year-old boy, he added.
“I heard a boy was hit by shrapnel at his school. There was fighting outside of town and the women were in their fields when they were hit,” he said.
It’s believed that the shells were fired from an army outpost on the Shwe See Khone Pagoda Hill, which is located west of the town’s police station and also near a school, a hospital, and several government buildings.
The shooting began shortly after around 20 police and soldiers were ambushed while patrolling near the Gyo Pin Tha Pagoda in Ward 3 on Monday morning.
According to a statement later released by Battalion 30 of the Yinmarbin District People’s Defence Force (PDF), which claimed responsibility for the attack, a G3-type gun, ammunition, and 200,000 kyat in cash were also seized from the junta troops.
The junta’s information officers did not respond to requests for comment on the ambush and subsequent shelling, and the regime has yet to release a statement.
According to locals, there are at least 100 soldiers stationed in Kani, which is also occupied by a large number of members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia.
Last week, resistance forces raided a Pyu Saw Htee base near the village of Kan Zee in Chaung-U Township, which is located southeast of Kani on the opposite side of the Chindwin River.
Twelve people were detained in that raid, which was carried out on June 13, according to a Monywa District PDF Battalion 5 officer.
“There were no junta personnel at the base when we raided it, only a few Pyu Saw Htee members and their dependents. We also seized some items that they looted from the public,” said the officer.
All 12 of the detainees—who included eight women and two boys, aged 2 and 10—were later transferred to the local anti-junta administration team, he added.
Soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members based in Kan Zee have been accused of terrorising residents of neighbouring villages by firing at them at night with light and heavy weapons.
Myanmar Now News
On World Refugee Day, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland Calls for an Immediate End to the Targeting of Civilians by the Military Junta
/in Member statements, Resources20 June, 2023
On World Refugee Day, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) condemns the military junta’s ongoing violence perpetrated against innocent civilians in Southeastern Burma. Since the attempted coup on 1 February, the Burma Army has escalated its combat operations in HURFOM-targeted documentation areas of southern Karen State, Mon State and the Tanintharyi Region, resulting in a wave of internally displaced people and conflict-affected refugees. Their presence and indiscriminate attacks have made it increasingly challenging for them to access food, according to field reports from the HURFOM mobile documentation team.
The number of displaced individuals fleeing their homes in Thaton District, Mon State, Kawkareik District, Karen State, and at least five townships in the Tanintharyi region has rapidly increased in recent months. Meanwhile, the ongoing violence by the junta has caused a profoundly concerning humanitarian crisis across southeast Burma.
At least 480,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the region. Between 800 and 1,200 are affiliated with different rights-based groups, including the Civil Disobedience Movement. With no place to call home, they have sought temporary shelter in areas controlled by Ethic Revolution Groups, including Brigade 6 of the Karen National Union and resettlement sites under the New Mon State Party. Some have sought refuge along the Thai-Burma border and face increasing security threats and a lack of protection amid the escalating armed conflict.
Internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees face many challenges. They live in fear and anxiety, not knowing when the next civilian-targeted attack by the Burma Army will take place. More than 400 armed clashes have broken out between the junta forces and the Karen National Liberation Army-led joint armed resistance forces since the failed coup. The junta has increasingly used aerial attacks and artillery weapons, targeting the rural villages where IDPs are sheltering in bunkers or displacement camps. Even in some mixed-controlled areas between the NMSP and KNU, such as the western part of Brigade 6, that shares the border with the eastern Mon State, have experienced unexpected airstrikes.
Between May 7 to 9, although there was no armed conflict in the area on those days, the military junta deployed airstrikes to bomb six villages. The targets were Karen and Mon ethnic villagers and those affiliated with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) sheltering alongside locals in eastern Ye Township, Mon State. Due to this sudden aerial attack, at least three people died, and eight were seriously injured. The assault led an estimated seven-hundred villagers to flee their homes.
Along the Thai – Burma border, the situation has not improved. Many arriving on Thai soil urgently need medical attention or seek asylum in a third country. Those needing safety and protection from violence in Burma often do not have the required documents for travelling or staying in Thailand. The previous Thai government failed to condemn the coup or the junta’s violence. Community-based organizations have worked to close gaps in providing shelter, food, and water. However, many challenges remain.
Cross-border aid is vital to ensure that those suffering from the daily horrors of war can have their basic needs met with dignity. Therefore, HURFOM calls upon international donors, government bodies, policymakers, and UN agencies to act with clear, coordinated action and compassion by providing humanitarian assistance through cross-border channels. Aid distributed through urban routes in Burma, such as Yangon, is very high-risk. The junta has intercepted aid repeatedly, and the likelihood that these aid convoys will reach those in need is often unsuccessful. Cross-border support is the most effective, trusted, and reliable as border-based organizations have been doing so for decades.
HURFOM also calls upon neighbouring countries like Thailand and India to open their borders to those fleeing persecution in Burma, grant them food and protection, and promote accessible pathways so first responders can reach those in need.
The international community must support ethnic health organizations and their respective departments. This includes the Backpack Health Worker Team in Karenni State, Karen State, Mon State, and the Tanintharyi region, who have provided life-saving services for over three decades in each representative area for the refugees and IDPs.
And for ASEAN – as a collective civil society community, HURFOM has continued our calls to the current Chairperson, and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre(, the ASEAN arm of humanitarian aid, to explain the failure to deliver humanitarian assistance inside the country. Our key message is that any help facilitated through the AHA-Center, will not be able to effectively provide material or monetary aid as needed, especially with the support going through the junta. The AHA Center must revert its assistance through the cooperation and involvement of ethnic resistance organizations, service providers and NUG affiliates on the ground. Doing so otherwise risks further weaponization of humanitarian aid amidst their campaign of terror.
We want to encourage the international community and UN agencies to keep supporting these conflict-affected communities, ensure their fair treatment under international humanitarian law, and enable them to access urgent assistance such as through UNHCR.
As a human rights organization and documentation team, HURFOM remains committed to documenting human rights violations and advocating for international action in Burma. We believe in the fight to secure the rights of internally displaced people and refugees on the international stage to continue living with hope, which aligns with this year’s theme: “Hope Away from Home.”
Media Contact
Nai Aue Mon, HURFOM Program Director
Email: auemon@gmail.com
Signal: +66 86 167 9741
HURFOM was founded by exiled pro-democracy students from the 1988 uprisings, recent activists and Mon community leaders and youth. Its primary objective is restoring democracy, human rights and genuine peace in Burma. HURFOM is a non-profit organization, and all its members are volunteers with a shared vision for peace in the country.