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
- Junta targeting rebel-held areas in northern Myanmar with airstrikes and artillery
- Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 8 to 14, 2024)
- Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum 2024
- Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 1 to 7, 2024)
- Red Cross chief calls for greater aid access after visit to Myanmar
Myanmar Junta’s Prisoner Amnesty: No Political Dissidents Released
/in NewsThe Myanmar junta’s Union Day prisoner amnesty has seen only convicted criminals released from jail rather than political dissidents.
The regime released 814 criminals on Saturday on the condition that if they are convicted of another offense in the future, they will have to serve the remainder of their previous sentence in addition to any new one. Seven Sri Lanka nationals were also released and deported under the amnesty.
“It is sad that prisoners of conscience were not released. The regime still holds them because it dare not release them,” said one former political prisoner from Mandalay.
Up to February 11 this year, 9,087 people have been detained for anti-regime activities since last year’s coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). 703 of those have been convicted and imprisoned, with 45 of them, including two teenagers, given the death sentence.
The AAPP said the actual number of people detained or arbitrarily killed by the regime could be higher.
A lawyer acting for anti-coup activists detained in Yangon’s Insein Prison said that the regime wants to give the international community the false impression that it has released dissidents. “But at the same time, it [the amnesty] sends an explicit message to the opposition forces inside the country that the junta won’t release political prisoners,” he added.
On Saturday, 96 prisoners from Insein Prison, 40 prisoners including a Chinese national from Mandalay’s Obo Prison, 13 from Bago’s Pyay Prison, 70 from prisons and labor camps in Mon State and 21 from Rakhine State were released.
Ousted Karen State chief minister Daw Nan Khin Htwe Myint had her jail sentence commuted by half by the junta. The 67-year-old was detained after the coup and sentenced to 80 years in prison in December for corruption, sedition and violation of the military-drafted 2008 constitution.
The regime also closed the cases of 46 individuals detained for having alleged ties to the Rakhine ethnic armed organization the Arakan Army, which was once labelled a terrorist group by the Myanmar military.
Among those released were 23 villagers from Lekka Village in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U who had been detained since April 2019 under the Counter-Terrorism Law. Twenty-seven people from Lekka Village were originally detained, with three of them dying during interrogations. It is unclear if the remaining detainee from Lekka is still being held.
The military regime has detained elected lawmakers since the coup, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. Over 1,500 people have been killed by the junta since the military’s takeover.
The regime spent at least 9 billion kyats (around US$5 million) on a grand military review in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw on Saturday to mark the 75th anniversary of Union Day, according to sources in the capital. The All Burma Federation of Student Unions staged a protest against the event on Saturday in Yangon, calling on the people to root out the sham Union system.
The civilian National Unity Government (NUG) also held a virtual event to mark Union Day and the signing of the Panglong Agreement on February 12, 1947 between the then Aung San-led Burmese government and some of the country’s ethnic minorities.
Kachin Independence Army chief of staff General Gam Shawng Gunhtang delivered an address to the NUG’s virtual event, urging the NUG to take a leadership role in realizing the commitments made in the Panglong Agreement and calling on ethnic minority groups to cooperate.
Irrawaddy News
Human Rights Situation in Myanmar: Post- Coup (February 7-13)2022
/in HR SituationIn the months that have passed since, mounting fears have arisen over the safety and security of Telenor’s 18 million customers. Telenor’s departure could put thousands in danger with the threat of data getting in the hands of the junta. A petition was widely circulated which called for Telenor Group and the Norwegian Government to immediately halt the sale of the company. Additional concerns included the proceeds earned which will only support the regime and embolden them to continue their assaults on the civilian population.
The failure of Telenor Group to comply in line with basic human rights standards led to the Norwegian Forum for Development and Environment submitting a complaint against the leadership of Telenor to the police. A top judge is among those who have suggested that Telenor board members and Norwegian authorities may be ‘aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.’ Data must be safeguarded!
The junta’s voice does not represent the people of Myanmar. And yet, the International Institute of Communications, a group with a reputation for laundering for the Myanmar junta, invited the military’s telecom regulator to speak on a panel regarding citizen protection. Journalists were barred from the event in further evidence of a lack of transparency.
After over one year, the voices of the people in Myanmar are louder and more clear than ever. They are not to be represented by any member of the unlawful, terrorist junta.
Displaced villagers in Karen State are fearful for their futures which remain uncertain against the backdrop of unrelenting conflict. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are being forced to seek refuge and live along the banks of the Moei river along the Thai-Myanmar border. Local organizations have estimated that the attacks by the military junta have led to 10 000 villagers from Lay Kaw Kaw and nearby villagers (as many as 4000) being forced to flee.
Thailand’s assistance to those seeking safety a sbeen limited. At the end of January 2022, the government closed Mae Kon Ken village, a temporary village. Since then, the needs of those displaced have been exacerbated exponentially.
KAYAH (KARENNI)
Over 170 000 people have been displaced in Karenni (Kayah) State, with the military junta controlling less than 10 percent of the State as a result of sharp resistance by opposition forces. At least 120 000 are seeking shelter in buildings and forests throughout Karenni (Kayah) State. In a joint briefing paper released by the Karenni Human Rights Group and ND-Burma, The World Must Know, it was concluded that despite repeated calls by civil society organizations and international bodies to the military junta to immediately cease their assaults on civilian lives, the atrocities are incessant.
Yet another Karenni (Kayah) IDP camp was struck by artillery firing by the military junta in Demawso Township. The attack led to one civilian injury, and several buildings being destroyed. Now, once again, the IDPs have been forced to flee amid mounting stress over the safety of designated camps. This comes as Internet and phone blackouts have been worsening in Karenni (Kayah) State. Communication blackouts have been intentionally imposed by the military junta to make it more difficult for civilians to access information on the situation and where to seek safety.
In January 2022 alone, at least 45 people were killed by indiscriminate firing by the military junta.
SAGAING REGION
Approximately forty civilians were killed in less than two weeks by the junta in the conflict-torn Sagaing region. Those killed include women and children in four townships. Between January 28 and February 6 alone, over 38 villagers were killed during military raids. Amid an ongoing scorched earth campaign, 5000 more residents were forced to flee on 10 February following homes raided and burned down in four villages in Mingin and Taze townships. During the raid, almost all of the homes in Moktha Village (178 out of 200) were burned down.
On 4 February, bodies of elevan civilians were found after the junta deployed an airstrike on a PDF base during a graduation ceremony. The attack killed nearly two dozen civilians. The harsh conditions of the weather and unsettling fears of attacks has left civilians traumatized and have particularly made for additional hardships for the most vulnerable, including the elderly.
Bodies of four civilians found in Sagaing after soldiers burn down two villages
/in NewsAnother seven villagers are still missing following the attacks last week
Local resistance fighters discovered the bodies of four civilians in a rural area of Sagaing’s Mingin Township last week after junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militiamen burned down two nearby villages.
Three of the bodies, one of which had been burned to ashes, were discovered by a stream in Ngar Nandar village, which is close to the neighbouring villages of Mauk Tet and Mote Thar.
The junta’s forces torched most of the 300 houses in Mote Thar and Mauk Tet early on Thursday morning, sparing only around 80 homes that belonged to supporters of the military, a local woman said.
Around 1,000 people have been displaced from the villages and are in need of food supplies, she added.
The raids came a day after local People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters killed three during an attack on a military outpost in nearby Sana Pyin village. The PDF fighters seized an MA-2 light machine gun and a carbine rifle in the attack.
The four villagers killed by the junta’s forces were identified as Naing Soe Lin, a 21-year-old vegetable seller, as well as three volunteer village guards named Kaung Min San, 18, Than Min Soe, 24, and Naing Zaw, 28.
Naing Soe Lin’s body was found with a bullet hole in the forehead near Mote Thar, which is where he lived.
His wife has gone missing and his house has been burned to the ground, said the local woman, who is a member of the anti-junta People’s Administration Team for Mingin Township.
“We don’t know if Naing Soe Lin’s wife was killed in the fire or abducted by the junta’s forces,” said a 28-year-old villager from Mote Thar.
The other three bodies were found together. Than Min Soe’s body had been burned on a haystack, while the bodies of Kaung Min San and Naing Zaw were found with bullet wounds in their eyes.
Local defence force members made the discovery when they travelled to Mote Thar and Mauk Tet to assess the damage from the fires on Thursday evening.
Photos showed that one of the guards had a kyat-coin wide bullet on his right eye. The other person was seen to have lost all his teeth and his right eye was muddled with blood.
Than Min Soe, who villagers believed was burned to death, leaves behind a four-year-old son. Naing Zaw leaves behind a three-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.
The villages of Mote Thar and Mauk Tet that were torched
Mote Thar and Mauk Tet were torched by a unit of around 200 soldiers who have been based in the nearby villages of Taung Phyu and Pan Set along with Pyu Saw Htee members.
Seven villagers, including Naing Soe Lin’s wife, are still missing after the attacks.
Mingin.jpeg
The Mingin People’s Administration Team believes the soldiers had help from informants with local knowledge, since they knew which houses belonged to people with military personnel in their families.
Junta information officers did not answer calls seeking comment on the arson attacks and the killings.
Last last month soldiers set fires in three other villages in Mingin–Bin, Western Bin and Onnabote– and used 37 civilians as human shields, including elderly people, breastfeeding mothers and children.
In July last year junta forces in Mingin captured 57 PDF fighters at once with the help of Pyu Saw Htee members.
Myanmar Now News
13-year-old boy killed by artillery fire in Mindat
/in NewsThe boy was hit as he and his family were fleeing an approaching military convoy travelling along the Mindat-Matupi road
A 13-year-old boy was killed in Chin State’s Mindat Township on Monday after he was hit by an artillery shell fired by regime forces travelling on the Mindat-Matupi road, according to local resistance sources.
The victim, eighth-grade student Mg Hung Ki, died while he and his family were trying to flee junta troops approaching their village, the sources said.
“His family’s house was on the side of the road, so they ran down into a valley to hide. That’s when one of the military’s artillery shells hit him,” said Yaw Marn, the spokesperson for the Mindat chapter of the Chinland Defence Force (CDF).
“He died instantly,” he added.
Several houses were also destroyed in the attack, according to the CDF Mindat spokesperson.
The forces that opened fire on the village were part of a convoy of more than 70 military vehicles, including two tanks, that has been going back and forth along the Mindat-Matupi road since early January.
The convoy has faced repeated attacks from resistance forces. At least 20 regime troops were killed as it was returning to Mindat from Matupi in late January, according to Yaw Marn.
“The junta convoy was on its way back from Matupi when it was hit by a series of explosions,” he said, adding that the soldiers retaliated by firing indiscriminately into nearby villages.
“They just blindly opened fire along the way. So many shells fell into villages,” he told Myanmar Now.
It took the convoy 16 days to travel from Matupi to Mindat—a journey that can usually be made in a single day—due to the constant harassment by resistance fighters, he said.
When the convoy finally reached Mindat at around 8pm on Tuesday, troops from Light Infantry Battalion 274 fired heavy artillery in the direction of villages north of the town, according to Yaw Marn.
“It felt like the earth was shaking,” he said, noting that the sound could be heard more than 30km away.
Mindat.jpg
Nearly 10,000 civilians have been displaced in Mindat Township due to the fighting, according to local relief groups. Most are said to be experiencing severe shortages of food and medicine.
The military, which cut off internet access in the township several months ago, has also disrupted food supply chains in an effort to bring the area under its control.
The township has been under martial law since May 13.
According to a statement released by the United Nations Secretary General’s country representative for Myanmar on February 7, at least 114 minors between the ages of 3 and 17 have been killed by the military since last year’s coup.
Myanmar Now News
The Karenni Human Rights Group and The Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma Release a New Joint Report Calling for Accountability for Human Rights Violations Committed in Karenni (Kayah) State
/in Press Releases and Statements9 February 2022
For Immediate Release
Today, the Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG) and the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma) with supporting data from a local Karenni women’s organization release a new briefing paper, “The World Must Know,” which finds evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by the military junta in Karenni (Kayah) State. We condemn the ongoing escalation of targeted attacks against civilians and call for an immediate cessation in violence.
Fighting in Karenni (Kayah) State began intensifying in May 2021. Throughout the year, Myanmar’s smallest state faced increasing military offensives which isolated the civilian population and forced over one quarter to flee for safety. The ‘Christmas Eve massacre’ on 24 December 2021, truly revealed the horrors the military junta was capable of when approximately 40 villages were arrested and set on fire in vehicles where they were burned alive. Indeed, the world must know the crimes the military has committed and the unlawful means which they have adopted to terrorize innocent people.
“The acts by these soldiers are not comparable to anything – they are not human. There are no words for the crimes they have committed which are so far outside the bounds of law. The world must know the cruel acts which have taken place in our Kayah State,” said the sister of one of the victims of the Christmas Eve massacre in an interview with ND-Burma.
Civilians are continuing to flee terrifying conditions in their homelands which have forced them to abandon their livelihoods. Thousands have been internally displaced and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Rather than respond to the needs of local people, the regime has deployed airstrikes on IDP camps and taken concrete steps to deliberately further intimidate them. These atrocities are being perpetrated by the junta in a blatant disregard for the rule of law.
The international community must take action to hold the military junta accountable for their crimes. A failure to respond with serious repercussions sends a signal to the junta that they are invincible. Since attempting to harbor power in a failed coup last year, the generals have made it very clear that they have no interest in preserving the rights and freedoms of citizens.
Coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing, is a war-criminal guilty of mass crimes including those which amounts to genocide. He, and other high-level officials must be prosecuted at the maximum level to send a strong message that widespread human rights violations are a crime and those responsible will be held accountable.
For more information:
Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma
NDBoffice@protonmail.com
Karenni Human Rights Group
banya1978@protonmail.com
Karenni Human Rights Group is a civil society organization dedicated to reporting the current situation on the ground in Karenni state and the human rights abuses committed by the Burmese junta.
ND-Burma is a network that consists of 13-member organisations who represent a range of ethnic nationalities, women and former political prisoners. ND-Burma member organisations have been documenting human rights abuses and fighting for justice for victims since 2004. The network consists of nine Full Members and four Affiliate Members as follows:
Full Members
Affiliate Members:
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“The World Must Know”
/in Briefing Papers, ND-Burma's ReportsThe Myanmar Army has a long history of brutal repression. For over 70-years, civil war has been raging in the country. Despite long-standing attempts for dialogue with the international community, civil society organizations, and ethnic revolution groups (EROs), the regime has consistently failed to listen to the voices of those existing outside of its deeply flawed architecture. The junta has endlessly violated international laws and perpetuated atrocities against civilian populations.
One year ago, on 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military toppled a short-lived democratic period. The military arrested the nation’s elected leaders and attempted a coup on the basis of unproven claims of electoral fraud. These actions were illegal and reflective of the junta’s greed through a deliberate attempt at seizing power. Immediately after, the military junta ignited a campaign of violence against unarmed, innocent civilians, committing grave systematic human rights violations.
Since the failed coup, countless protesters have been shot, civilians killed in their own homes, and resistance fighters hunted down. Millions have been pushed to the brink of poverty as economic stability plummets. The rule of law and fundamental freedoms have been desolated.
Karenni (Kayah) State is among the many states and regionns in Myanmar which has been overwhelmed by expanding military operations. This joint briefing paper produced by the Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG) and the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma), in conjunction with data and insights from a local women’s organization who prefers to remain anonymous for security reasons, will provide summary analysis of the situation in Karenni (Kayah) State. The synopsis of the events from the beginning of 2021 to January 2022 are contextualized with interviews from ND-Burma conducted with victims of the junta’s attacks.