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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Political prisoners shot, beaten to death in Mandalay, Hpa-an crackdowns
/in NewsRecent incidents inside some of Myanmar’s most notorious prisons point to harsher repression and deepening tensions
Two of Myanmar’s most notorious detention centres carried out brutal crackdowns on political prisoners over the past week, signalling the junta’s determination to impose harsh penalties on detained dissidents.
On Sunday, two political prisoners were beaten to death and 13 others were injured during a clash inside Mandalay’s Obo Prison, according to a lawyer familiar with the situation.
A day later, at least two political detainees were shot and another 60 were injured after prison authorities moved to crush a protest at Hpa-An Prison in Karen (Kayin) State, sources there reported.
Both incidents appear to be related to moves by prison authorities to mix political prisoners with ordinary prisoners convicted on criminal charges.
This was more clearly the case in Hpa-An, where political prisoners staged a sitting protest after they were ordered to leave a ward normally reserved for inmates whose charges are related to their political activities.
According to prison sources, the prisoners were forcibly moved to another ward and attacked with sharpened bamboo sticks and slingshots if they failed to follow orders.
Gunshots were also heard coming from the direction of cells holding political prisoners, but it could not be confirmed at the time of reporting whether any of them had been shot.
What triggered the crackdown at Obo Prison was less clear, but the approach taken by prison authorities there was equally heavy-handed.
“We don’t know how it started, but we do know that prison authorities, including the prison superintendent, beat the political prisoners using metal batons,” said a lawyer with contacts inside the prison.
According to the lawyer, two prisoners were confirmed dead, and 13 others were sent to the prison hospital to receive treatment for their injuries.
Other sources have told Myanmar Now that political detainees are routinely harassed at Obo. This includes claims of officials firing guns to terrorise the prisoners.
There have also reportedly been tensions between political prisoners and criminal convicts, with prison authorities siding with the latter in disputes.
A friend of one inmate said that there were also other serious issues contributing to the tense situation at the prison, including unclean drinking water and a lack of healthcare.
Hpa-An_prison.jpeg
Hpa-An prison in Karen State (Karen Information Center)
Crowded prisons
Tensions have been high at many prisons in Myanmar, in part due to overcrowding caused by the massive influx of political prisoners into the country’s penal system since last year’s coup.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), nearly 11,000 people regime opponents remain behind bars more than a year after the military takeover.
Some of the political prisoners currently being held at Obo Prison were transferred there two months ago following a riot at Monywa Prison. Guards reportedly discharged their weapons to end a fight that had broken out there between political detainees and criminal convicts on April 3.
At least 20 of the political prisoners involved in that incident were placed in isolation cells, while 150 were transferred to Obo and Myingyan prisons, sources reported.
According to one source at the prison, inmates incarcerated for resisting the return of military rule make up more than half of Monywa Prison’s roughly 900 detainees.
On June 1, there was another incident there involving two female prisoners who were slapped by a warder for arguing with each other. Other prisoners were not happy about the way the situation was handled, a prison source said.
There have also been complaints from female prisoners about restrictions related to taking showers and the presence of male officers during searches of the female ward.
The prison’s new superintendent, Wai Min Latt, has also been criticised for his policies. On May 23, he imposed a new rule against reading after 9pm, and he has also been accused of “terrorising” prisoners.
According to one inmate, officers from the military’s Northwestern Regional Command, based in Monywa, visited the prison in late May to meet with convicted murderers.
This could not be confirmed, and the reason for the alleged visit could not be ascertained.
Restricted access
There were also signs of trouble at Insein Prison in April. In the third week of the month, more than 100 political prisoners, including student leaders, were transferred to detention centres in other parts of the country, according to prison sources.
The reason for this move was not clear, but it came weeks after Khant Thu Aung, the chair of the Yangon University of Economics Students’ Union, was beaten for refusing to sit in position after he was transferred to a ward for criminals.
Khant Thu Aung, who was sentenced in February to three years in prison for incitement, was also denied permission to receive letters, according to a relative.
Lawyers claim that nearly 90 prisoners were beaten—some to the point of unconsciousness—for refusing to leave their cells and singing an anti-dictatorship song
In July of last year, the military was called in to crush a protest at Insein Prison after inmates began chanting anti-dictatorship slogans. According to AAPP, the protest began in two wards for female prisoners and then spread to the rest of the prison.
Days later, in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19, the junta released more than 4,200 inmates from prisons around the country. Almost none, however, were political prisoners.
In December, around 90 political prisoners inside Insein Prison were beaten and placed in solitary confinement for taking part in a nationwide Silent Strike by refusing to leave their cells, according to their lawyers.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which monitors prison conditions around the world, has come under fire for its lack of an effective response to the situation in Myanmar.
The sister of one injured inmate being held in Hpa-An Prison said that she has called the ICRC office in Yangon repeatedly, but has yet to receive any information about her brother.
“They said we had to visit their office in person, and we did exactly that, but we still don’t know anything,” she said.
Jacequeline Fernandez, the communications manager for ICRC Myanmar, said that the organisation has been hampered in its efforts to gain access to prisons due to restrictions that have been in place since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to monitor the situation of the prisoners and provide humanitarian aid for them as we are not allowed to visit the prisons in person,” she said.
“ICRC can, however, help the prisoners find their relatives according to the policies of the ICRC’s programs,” she added.
Myanmar Now News
Myanmar junta’s plan to execute political leaders greeted with outrage and warnings
/in NewsExecuting veteran activist Ko Jimmy and NLD MP Phyo Zayar Thaw will only add fuel to the fire already engulfing the country, say regime opponents
The Myanmar regime’s announcement on Friday that it will go ahead with the execution of two prominent leaders accused of treason and terrorism was greeted over the weekend by a loud chorus of condemnation.
At a press conference on Friday, junta spokesperson General Zaw Min Tun said that appeals against the death sentences imposed on Ko Jimmy, a veteran of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, and Phyo Zayar Thaw, a hip-hop artist and National League for Democracy (NLD) MP, had been rejected, paving the way for their execution.
The two men, who were sentenced to death in January for allegedly plotting to carry out attacks on regime targets, have been in military custody since their capture late last year. Two other men, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, are also set to face execution for murdering military informants, Zaw Min Tun told reporters.
The announcement came as a surprise in a country where it has been decades since a death-row prisoner has actually been put to death.
In a joint statement signed by nearly 200 civil society organisations, Norway-based legal analyst Min Lwin Oo noted that the haste with which the appeals were rejected was “unprecedented”.
“Normally, the appeals process for death sentence takes up to three to five years through different courts and at least four to five years to go through state leaders. Such a fast-track process is unprecedented,” he was quoted as saying in the statement, which was releasedby the umbrella group Progressive Voice of Myanmar.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), one of the signatories of the statement, a total of 114 political prisoners, including two minors, have been handed death sentences by the regime.
Kyi Myint, another legal expert who is also a well-known political analyst, told Myanmar Now that the move would likely ignite a major backlash against the regime.
“There will be unimaginably big repercussions and serious acts of revenge,” he said. “They will be even more hated by the public.”
He also pointed out that because last year’s military coup violated Myanmar’s 2008 constitution, the current head of the regime, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, could also be accused of committing treason.
“This is all the more heartbreaking because the real traitors of the country are planning to execute innocent people for treachery,” he said.
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) also warned that executing two of the country’s best-known political dissidents would only provoke outrage among activists and ordinary citizens alike.
“If they actually go ahead and hang them, the military will face even greater resistance. They need to understand that the more they try to instil fear in Myanmar’s people, the stronger the people’s movement becomes,” said Aung Myo Min, the NUG’s minister for human rights.
On Saturday, the Myanmar Defence Force, an armed resistance group based in Sagaing region, echoed this sentiment with a statement warning that it would take “appropriate action” if the executions are carried out.
‘They want people to be scared of them and bow to them’, one lawyer says of the recent announcement that 19 people have been sentence to death
There was also widespread international condemnation of the move.
At a press briefing on Friday, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, called the planned executions a “blatant violation to the right to life, liberty and security of person, as per Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Saying the UN chief was “deeply troubled” by the news, Dujarric also reiterated his calls for “the immediate release of all political prisoners in Myanmar.”
According to AAPP figures, 10,903 people arrested since last year’s coup remain behind bars.
France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also weighed in on what it called the regime’s “abject decision” to reinstitute the execution of convicted prisoners.
“The violation of the de facto moratorium regarding the death sentence that has existed for more than 30 years in the country represents a major setback,” it said in a statement released on Saturday.
Meanwhile, on Monday, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price tweeted that “The United States strongly condemns the Burmese military regime’s reported plans to execute pro-democracy and opposition leaders, exemplifying the regime’s disregard for human rights and the rule of law.”
Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zayar Thaw were both found guilty by junta-controlled courts of violating sections 49a, 50i and 50j of Myanmar’s Counterterrorism Law. The regime claims they were in possession of weapons at the time of their arrest and had also instructed others to carry out acts of terrorism.
The junta stepped up its use of the death penalty last year as part of its effort to crack down on anti-coup protests. However, judicial executions have rarely been carried out during Myanmar’s decades of military rule.
Myanmar Now News
Press Release: Regarding Stated Execution of 4 Sentenced to Death Political Prisoners
/in Member statementsJune 6, 2022
On June 3, 2021, the junta council announced they intend to carry out the execution of death row detainees Jimmy (aka Kyaw Min Yu), Phyo Zayar Thaw, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, heretofore given by military courts. Though announced, information regarding the status of the military court, location of the trials, and specific information on the nature of the trial, were not given to family members of each of the condemned political prisoners. The junta council has been destroying every facet of the judicial system in Burma.
Since the beginning of the coup, the junta council has been killing people across the country, burning towns and villages, as well as looting and stealing belongings of the people every day. The council’s statement on the execution of the political prisoners violates domestic, and international law, and is a blatant attempt to audaciously murder.
The execution announcement openly mocked the worlds’ efforts to abolish capital punishment. This calculated act uses political prisoners as hostage, to threaten a population resisting the military coup. As well as to bargain with international actors, who put pressure on the junta council to return democracy to Burma. The UN and others in the international community bare responsibility to help prevent the use of hostages in unjustified executions.
In accordance with our organizations belief that there can only be a true national reconciliation when there are no incarcerated political prisoners, we see the recent statement as a junta attempt to challenge and destroy future national reconciliation, including the stability of our country.
A junta council working to carry out an execution like this, is an unforgiveable act, and clear proof of utter disregard for the will of the international community who wish to return Burma to democracy, as well as to ASEAN who wish to resolve the issue through the 5-Point Consensus.
Therefore, we, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), strongly urge all at the UN, ASEAN and other international actors to take a stand and put political pressure to halt the announced executions.
Assistance Association of Political Prisoners
Download link for 06.06 AAPP Release on Recent Death Penalty Statements
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND CONCERNED ORGANIZATIONS CALL FOR ENDING 4 BURMESE ACTIVISTS EXECUTIONS
/in Member statements, Press Releases and StatementsMyanmar’s junta has stated that it will execute a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, a prominent democracy activist and two civil society members in the country’s first judicial executions in the last few decades.
A military panel sentenced four people, including former National League for Democracy (NLD) Member of Parliament Phyo Zeya Thaw and democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, for alleged “terrorism” while Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw are the other two who faced death sentenced earlier.
The four men did not receive a fair trial. “First of all, it’s not a fair trial because they lost their legal rights to defend at the military tribunal. They also lost their rights to legal counsel during the appeal process,” said Min Lwin Oo, a Myanmar legal expert based in Norway, adding that “Normally, the appeals process for death sentence takes up to three to five years through different courts and takes at least four to five years to go through state leaders. But such a fast-track process is unprecedented.”
“Two other men, who were convicted and sentenced to death for killing a woman they alleged was an informer for the junta in Yangon, will also be executed”, said Zaw Min Tun, adding that no date had been set for the executions.
If the executions go ahead, Phyo Zeya Thaw, Ko Jimmy, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw will be the first political dissidents to be executed in the country in the last few decades.
Since last year’s coup, the military regime has handed down death sentences to 113 people for their roles in the armed resistance to the junta, according to VOA’s Burmese Service, but none of these sentences have been carried out.
The junta’s decision to “move towards executing two prominent political leaders will be like pouring gasoline on the fire of popular anti-military resistance in the country,” said Phil Robertson, a deputy director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
At the United Nations on Friday, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “We are deeply troubled by the Myanmar military’s decision to proceed with the execution of two pro-democracy activists after they received death sentences. This is a blatant violation of the right to life, liberty, and security of person as per Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
The junta accused Phyo Zeya Thaw of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five police officers.
A hip-hop pioneer whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for founding an anti-junta youth activist organization and his leading role in Saffron Revolution, an anti- junta movement led by Buddhist monks. He was elected to parliament in the 2015 elections, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule.
Ko Jimmy, who rose to prominence during Myanmar’s 1988 student uprising against the country’s previous military regime, was arrested in October 2021. The arrest was based on an arrest warrant alleging he had incited unrest with his social media posts.
Nearly 16 months after the military launched its nationwide campaign of violence and terror in an attempt to illegally seize power, the military has killed over 2,000 people, including women and children and detained over 12,000.
Having so far failed to impose its rule over the territory and population, the military continues to intensify its cruel and brutal attacks against the people of Myanmar with indiscriminate airstrikes, shelling, massacres, burning down of villages, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence. In addition, the military continues to manipulate for military gain, impede or block humanitarian aid to over 880,000 displaced people across the country while attacking medical facilities and medical and humanitarian workers.
Despite the brutal violence, the Myanmar people have continued to resist the military, steadfastly demonstrating their courageous will and defense of their democracy.
Over 400,000 civil servants who have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement refuse to work under the military, while others carry out general strikes and street protests. Boycott of military products and refusal to pay electricity bills continues and self-defense forces and formation of new autonomous local administrations alongside the existing parallel administrations in ethnic areas mar the military’s desperate attempts to assert administrative and territorial control.
We, the following organizations and world citizens condemn the order of execution and call for Phyo Zeya Thaw, Ko Jimmy, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw be given JUSTICE and respect before the law. We also call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, end of violence and for establishment of GENUINE PEACE and FEDERAL DEMOCRACY in Myanmar.
…
6 June 2022
Contact person:
Dr. Laddawan Tantivitayapitak <drjobladdawan@gmail.com>
Boonthan T. Verawongse <bverawongse9@gmail.com>
or <acfod.bangkok@gmail.com>
Weekly Update : 30 May – 5 June 2022
/in HR Situation#HRVs in Eastern Myanmar are depriving civilians of their humanity. As revealed last week in reports by @amnesty @HURFOM and @khrg, the incessant violence against innocent people by the military junta must end. Humanitarian aid needs to be permitted through trusted orgs & human rights defenders.
Nearly 100 homes torched and three civilians killed in Myanmar military raid on Sagaing village
/in NewsA local source described the column behind the raid as possessing advanced weaponry and speculated that it may be a ‘special operations force’ moving through the region
A junta attack on a village in Sagaing Region’s Wetlet Township on June 2 left some 97 homes burned and three people dead, according to locals who spoke to Myanmar Now two days after the assault.
The civilians’ bodies were found the evening following the raid inside the charred remains of homes in Kyauk Taing village. Among them was a 60-year-old paraplegic man who residents identified as Pho Khe.
Dr Naing Aung, a parliamentarian for Wetlet ousted in last year’s coup, said that one of the other bodies belonged to a man who appeared to have suffered head injuries and bruising, and was disfigured beyond recognition.
He told Myanmar Now that villagers believed the third body, also burned, belonged to a woman named Aye Nu, whose age was not confirmed at the time of reporting.
“I think she ran into the junta column while trying to flee. They killed her and crushed her under a motorcycle, and put a pile of wood on top which they burned,” he said.
The 70-soldier military column that carried out the attack moved north from Kyauk Taing hours after the raid, reportedly heading to the village of Myin Thei. It is believed they also set fire to homes in that community, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify the extent of the damage.
Thousands of locals from seven area villages including Kyauk Taing and Myin Thei had been displaced by troop movements and assaults in the region.
The column in question departed Wetlet town on May 28 and subsequently raided the villages of U Ti Kone, Tei Taw and U Yin Thar before targeting Kyauk Taing, engaging in several clashes with local anti-junta defence forces along the eastern shore of the Muu River during the period in question.
Dr Naing Aung said that the soldiers were in possession of advanced weaponry, including artillery shells, anti-drone weapons, and sniper rifles, and appeared to be highly trained in combat.
“I think that this column is a special operations force. They’re completely different from the ones we have seen before. They used different tactics, as well,” he said.
Junta officials did not respond to calls for comment.
Monitoring group Data for Myanmar has stated that, as of April, some 11,470 homes had been burned by the military and their allies since the February 2021 coup, and that more than half of these houses were in Sagaing.
In press conferences, military council spokesperson Zaw Min Tun has repeatedly denied that the junta’s forces are responsible for the attacks, instead accusing resistance groups of setting the fires.
Myanmar Now News