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
The Human Rights Foundation of Monland Condemns Rising Cases of Arbitrary Arrests & Calls for Immediate End to Sentencing of Political Prisoners
/in Member statements8 February 2022
The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) condemns the ongoing arbitrary arrest of innocent civilians and subsequent outlandish sentencing of political prisoners by the military junta. By the end of 2021, over 2500 people in target areas of Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi regions were unlawfully arrested and detained. Over the last week alone, HURFOM documented 19 arbitrary arrests. Arbitrary arrest is a human rights violation as it deprives civilians of their liberty to live protected under the law with the right to legal counsel.
According to the Dawei Political Prisoners Network, three Dawei women who were arrested on suspicion of associating with local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) were sentenced on 4 February 2022 to nine years each in prison. Daw Aye Aye Khaing, a 51-year-old Tailor, Daw Mya Mya Lwin, a 52-year-old market vendor, and Daw Mya Mya Soe, 34, were arrested in August 2021 and charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code and Section 52 (c) of the Anti-Terrorism Law. They were sentenced and charged during closed-door military court hearings which the press and general public are denied entrance to. The lack of transparency speaks to the levels of corruption the regime is capable of.
Eight women political prisoners from Dawei Prison, including these three, who were arrested on suspicion of associating with PDFs, were sentenced to between two and nine years in prison each by the junta-run court in Dawei:
Daw Aye Aye Khine, 9 years
Daw Mya Mya Lwin, 9 years
Daw Mya Mya Soe, 9 years
Ma Theint Theint Zin Phu, Dawei Tech University Student, 2 years and continued trial
Ma Lin Myat Moe, 2 years
Ma Hnin Hnin Yu, 2 years
Ma Myat Myat, 2 years
Daw Thet Thet Htwe, 2 years
A family member of one of the women told HURFOM: “It is too much to be sentenced to nine years in prison on terrorism charges. They are not terrorists.”
Following their failed coup, the military junta has struggled to maintain control as the civilian population has spearheaded a powerful Spring Revolution in pursuit of safeguarding their fundamental rights and freedoms.
The continuation of arbitrary arrests and abductions is the result of the junta’s failed efforts to detain democracy activists in an attempt to stifle the pro-democracy movement. This will not succeed. Nothing can quiet the voices of the people in Burma whose long-time struggle for peace and freedom will outlast the junta’s incessant violence.
HURFOM calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and for the military junta to be held accountable by the international community for their mass crimes against humanity and unjust treatment of innocent civilians. The leaders of the failed coup, and those complicit in the junta’s crimes must be held responsible and punished according to the rule of law for their actions through international accountability mechanisms.
Media Contact
Nai Aue Mon, HURFOM Program Director
Email: info@rehmonnya.org
Signal: +66 86 167 9741
Human Rights Situation in Myanmar: Post-Coup(January31- February 6)2022
/in HR SituationThe junta is deeply unpopulation in Myanmar and has been for many years. Since their attempt at seizing power, they have become even more disliked. In studies conducted, confidence in Myanmar’s ‘leadership’ dropped 60 points in 2021 with a record number of people stating they don’t feel safe walking alone at night. The gallup poll found this drop in confidence to be the largest gap of any country in the last 15 years.
The international community has rightfully so been accused of ‘sitting and watching’ Myanmar’s economic, political, and social turmoil. Over 1500 people have been killed, thousands more unlawfully detained and evading arrest. Alongside record numbers of Tatmadaw soldiers defecting, the pr-democracy is alive and well in Myanmar. Yet, rather than willfully intervene to stop the violence and hold the junta leaders responsible, it seems that very often, the global actors have turned the other way.
As Rohingya human rights and democracy activist, Wai Wai Nu, stated so well in her appropriately tired editorial, The World Has Failed to Stand with Myanmar, the failure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to act on the situation inside the country represents a “historic lack of support.” Since 1 February, the UNSC has met only behind closed doors and failed to engage with civil society groups who have been vocal in their calls for action and accountability.
The messaging has been clear from the people, and yet surprisingly the United Nations Special Envoy, Dr Noeleen Heyzer made comments during an interview with Channel News Asia suggesting power sharing with the Myanmar junta. Civil society rejected her comments. She should support solutions by the people who have made clear that their path forward does not include a dialogue with a regime with blood on its hands. A global arms embargo must be supported, alongside sanctions and an immediate referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
According to the Karen National Union, the Myanmar military has continued attacking the Karen National Liberation Army in a series of air and ground strikes which have led to the displacement of thousands of villagers. Women, children and the elderly remain extremely vulnerable and at risk. Naw K’nyaw Paw of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) expressed concern over the attacks, citing the many difficulties displaced people have been forced to contend with. KWO also documented two harrowing cases of a woman and child dying due to indiscriminate fire by the military junta. On 29 January, mortar shelling killed a 3-month old baby and a 20 year old woman. The next day, more firing destroyed a woman and injured an elderly woman who was struck on her head and chest.
The Karen Human Rights Group estimates over 100 000 people newly displaced between April 2021 and January 2022. The ongoing airstrikes have prevented villagers from being able to safely return home. The Tatmadaw has also cruelly scattered landmines throughout civilian areas, burned their homes and stolen livestock and their possessions.
KAYAH (KARENNI)
In January of this year alone, at least 45 people were killed by the military junta in Kayah (Karenni) State. Rights organizations including the Karenni Human Rights Groups have documented state-wide atrocities and condemned them in the harshest terms calling these attacks ‘inhumane’ and expressing commitment to prosecute perpetrators in the future. Among the victims, six died when they were shot at with airstrikes and four died while suffering from heart failure during artillery firing. Several other bodies found had evidence of serious trauma, including head wounds and visible lacerations. Men, women and children killed have been found in the ditches, and on the road. Almost 200 people in Kayah (Karenni) State have been murdered by the junta.
The Myanmar military has denied all involvement in the attacks and deferred responsibility without evidence to the civilian armed defense forces and Kayah (Karenni) based ethnic armed organizations. Clashes between the regime and joint Karenni forces have displaced almost 200 000 people. The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force stated that their forces have administrative control over 90% of territory in the State.
SAGAING REGION
Homes belonging to innocent villagers in Sagaing region are being burned to the ground by the Myanmar junta. On 2 February, more than 400 homes were razed by junta soldiers who accused residents of harboring civilian armed defense forces. One village said his whole village of Mwe Tone is now completely gone as 220 of the 265 homes were scorched. Witnesses recounted what’s left as ‘a pile of ashes.’ When the arson began, residents had no time to grab their belongings or livestock.
This attack is only the latest in a brutal onslaught of offensives which have taken place in Sagaing region over the last year. The displacement and indiscriminate attacks have made villagers more resentful and have garnered stronger support for anti-coup forces.
Hundreds of homes razed amid scorched earth campaign in Myanmar’s Sagaing region
/in NewsPro-junta forces have torched more than 1,000 homes in four villages over five days.
Junta troops and pro-military militiamen in Myanmar’s Sagaing region burned down more than 700 homes in Pale township over the weekend, according to sources, amid a scorched earth campaign that has left some 1,100 buildings destroyed in four neighboring villages over the span of five days.
On the evening of Feb. 4 soldiers and members of the Pyu Saw Htee militia entered the villages of Hlaw Gar and Kine Twin, sending inhabitants fleeing, residents told RFA’s Myanmar Service. Villagers who hid near the area said they saw fighters from the two groups loot homes before setting them alight, destroying around 500 of 1,000 homes in Hlaw Gar and some 200 of 260 in Kine Twin.
“They burned down the homes in Kine Twin village … and then they moved north. Pyu Saw Htee forces entered Hlaw Gar village around 10:30 p.m. and raided the homes. They seized the property they wanted and transported it to Inn Ma Htee village, where the military is training Pyu Saw Htee members,” said a villager from Hlaw Gar, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
“Around 1 a.m., Pyu Saw Htee members in plainclothes started burning the homes. The military soldiers wearing uniforms extinguished the fire,” he added, suggesting that troops did not want to be seen carrying out arson.
Sources told RFA that residents remain too frightened to return to the area because junta troops had left “secret monitors” to watch civilian movements.
They said the weekend arson was the latest in a series of burnings in response to a Jan. 23 attack by local anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) militiamen on the military camp used to train members of the Pyu Saw Htee in Inn Ma Htee village.
Within the space of five days, the military and pro-junta militia members have razed buildings in four villages lying within six miles of each other. At least 400 structures were burned on Jan. 31 in Mwe Tone and Pan villages, which lie just northwest of Hlaw Gar and Kine Twin.
A 40-year-old resident of Kine Twin village who lost his home over the weekend told RFA he had been on the run for five days straight.
“I have had to temporarily flee the village since the [PDF] attack on Inn Ma Htee village. Finally, I decided not to return and ran for my life,” said the villager, who declined to be named.
“The people [of Kine Twin] are now staying in nearby villages or in the woods. They fled on their carts with their cattle and are now sheltering under trees. … The weather is so cold. It is very challenging for elderly people. No one has slept for days.”
The resident said that the refugees feel insecure and afraid that they will be targeted by airstrikes, which the military increasingly employs against villages it sees as friendly to the PDF.
The bodies of 11 people were discovered in Myinmu township’s Padoke Tine village on Feb. 4, days after the military carried out an airstrike on a graduation ceremony for PDF recruits with five helicopters, killing some 20 civilians, sources told RFA last week.
A PDF member from Pale township told RFA that the recent incidents show that the military will use whatever means it can to crush anti-junta forces.
“I think they are trying to secure the villages around In Ma Htee village. I think they are burning down homes in all the villages where they think PDF forces are hiding,” he said.
“This is brutal, and they are victimizing the local citizens. But they will pay for what they have done. … We are always waiting for the right time to strike back at them.”
On the evening of Feb. 5, PDF forces led an attack on the police station in Pale town center and engaged with security forces. The following morning, the military fired artillery on villages in the surrounding area that they accuse of providing haven to PDF fighters, sources told RFA on Monday.
Residents said that more than 10,000 people from the villages of Nyaunggone, Kangyi, Phoe Kone, Nyaung Kan, Ywa Tha, Leik Kone, Yahtin, Aye Gone, Mya Gone and Yoe have fled their homes since Jan. 31.
“The shelling blast from the junta troops’ artillery fire burned homes. After the fire, people in town were too afraid to stay. They packed up their valuables and took shelter in nearby monasteries,” said one resident of Pale town.
Later, around 30 soldiers arrived in Pale town and nearby villages and arrested those who remained or took them for interrogation, said Phoe Thar, a member of the Black Panther PDF group.
“We heard they fired guns, beat the adult males and seized mobile phones, but I heard those who got arrested were released after a while. They spread the military columns and cleared the nearby area. All the people from the villages on their operation route have fled. Some villages are deserted now.”
Repeated attempts by RFA to reach junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on reports that the military and Pyu Saw Htee fighters had been setting homes on fire in Pale township went unanswered over the weekend and on Monday.
On Sunday, the junta announced that security forces and troops from the Sagaing regional command division were working together in response to the attacks on the Pale police station.
According to the research group Data for Myanmar, which documents the impact of armed conflict in the country, junta forces have burned down at least 3,379 homes from 126 villages and townships in nine regions and states in the year since the military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup. More than 1,400 of the homes are in Sagaing region, the group said.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
RFA News
Telenor has shared sensitive customer data with military since the coup: industry sources
/in NewsThe revelation comes as Telenor prepares to finalise the sale of its Myanmar unit to a military-linked company later this month
Norwegian telecoms company Telenor, a leading operator in Myanmar serving more than 18 million users, has complied with multiple requests from the military junta for sensitive user data since last year’s coup, according to industry sources.
The junta-controlled Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) made at least 200 requests to Telenor over the past 12 months for information, including records of calls, call locations and the last known location of a number, a source with inside knowledge of the situation told Myanmar Now.
The company complied with all of these requests, as well as with instructions to shut down specified mobile numbers, the source said.
Myanmar Now has seen a number of the MOTC’s recent requests to Telenor. Some were for the one-month call histories of customers, while others asked for four- to six-month call histories.
Each request included multiple numbers, with some requests numbering in the hundreds. The 200+ requests therefore impacted thousands of Telenor customers.
The ministry cited Myanmar’s 2013 Telecommunications Law in its requests to the company. Article 77 of the law allows the ministry to suspend services, intercept communications, and temporarily control services in “emergency situations”.
According to the source, Telenor complied with all of the ministry’s requests despite concerns that they were based on information obtained by the junta through torture.
“We can generally say that the mobile numbers mentioned in the data requests were extracted during the interrogation of political detainees. So we can say that these numbers really are blood-stained,” the source said.
In response to questions from Myanmar Now regarding the company’s sharing of personal data, Telenor confirmed that the company has received directives from the military junta, and implied their compliance with those requests.
“Violating or not complying with directives issued under the existing legal framework, would have severe and completely unacceptable consequences for our employees,” Telenor communications director Cathrine Stang Lund said.
Myanmar Now asked Telenor if they were aware of any individuals arrested, tortured or killed after the company had shared data with the junta, and whether they had taken any steps to protect customers targeted in junta directives. Telenor did not respond.
It is not uncommon for authorities to ask mobile service providers for customers’ data. In Telenor’s 7th Sustainability Briefing, published before the coup, the company disclosed it had received 327 data requests from the authorities between 2014 and December 2020 and complied with 217 of them.
The company wrote that “the data disclosed were related to life-or-death situations such as murder, drug and missing person investigations.”
On February 14, 2021, Telenor stated that they would no longer disclose directive from authorities and Telenor Myanmar did not make a sustainability briefing in 2021.
In most cases, data requests made before the coup were approved by different ministerial departments.
“Now the military doesn’t make any reference to other government departments. Even when it does, it only refers to the Ministry of Home Affairs,” the source said.
Under Myanmar’s military-drafted 2008 Constitution, the Ministry of Home Affairs is one of three ministries under the direct control of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Some of the data requests made by the military in the first few weeks after last February’s military coup were related to the phone numbers of well-known actor Kyaw Thu, his wife Shwe Zee Kwat, and popular rock singer Lynn Lynn. All three had been charged with incitement and spreading rumours shortly after the military takeover.
The military authorities also raided the Yangon office of Kyaw Thu’s Free Funeral Service Society, seizing office documents and property.
A mobile number posted by Lynn Lynn on a Facebook page using his real name, Htwe Lynn Ko, on February 8 of last year was shut down by Telenor at the request of the military authorities. Lynn Lynn had been using social media to raise funds for state employees taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule.
Kyaw Thu and Lynn Lynn have both managed to evade arrest together with their families and are now in exile outside of Myanmar.
Lynn Lynn said he and his wife, popular singer and actress Chit Thu Wai, hid with their two daughters in separate locations until they were able to leave the country.
The couple actively supported the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy, during its election campaigns. They are also personally close to the party’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained by the junta since the coup.
Lin_lin.jpg
In 2014, Lynn Lynn was a judge in a national ringtone competition Telenor held before their network launch.
Like many activists and journalists since the coup, Lynn Lynn primarily used Telenor, which was widely trusted, and boycotted mobile operators linked to the military junta.
“I feel sad that an organisation like Telenor, headquartered in the city that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, is sharing personal data with a terrorist military junta,” said Lynn Lynn.
The Shwe Byain Phyu Group, which has a long history of serving military-owned MEHL, is to be the majority owner of the new partnership that will acquire Telenor’s Myanmar operation
‘Alarming’ revelation
A spokesperson for activist group Justice for Myanmar called on the Norwegian government to urgently investigate whether Telenor has aided and abetted crimes committed by the military by sharing data, and said it must also ensure remedy for victims.
“It is alarming that Telenor has been sharing call and location data with the terrorist military junta, with full knowledge of how this endangers Myanmar people’s lives,” said Yadanar Maung, the group’s spokesperson.
“The junta has been conducting mass arrests, torture and murder since its attempted coup, and these acts amount to crimes against humanity. By sharing data, Telenor’s cooperation with the junta in its brutal crackdown makes the company complicit in these international crimes,” she said.
Myanmar Now reported last week that Telenor’s sale of its Myanmar subsidiary will becompleted by February 15.
Internal documents seen by Myanmar Now from the junta’s Post and Telecommunications Department under the Ministry of Transport and Communications indicate that the buyer will be Investcom Myanmar, a company that has not yet been registered.
The documents state that Shwe Byain Phyu, a military-linked gems and petrol conglomerate, will be the majority owner of Investcom Myanmar.
Shwe Byain Phyu Telecom is a registered company in Myanmar. Until it changed its name on November 3, 2021, it was registered as Shwe Byain Phyu Manufacturing Co Ltd.
The company recently acquired a 49-percent stake in Investcom Pte Ltd, a company created by the Lebanon-based M1 Group that was registered in Singapore after Telenor announced last year that it was selling its Myanmar unit to the M1 Group for $105m.
On January 30, on behalf of the 168 civil society organisations in Myanmar, the Norwegian Forum for Development and Environment sent a letter to the Norwegian prime minister demanding a stop to the sale of Telenor Myanmar to M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu on human rights grounds.
Lynn Lynn also appealed for the sale to be called off.
“I expect Telenor Group management would sympathise with the Myanmar public’s struggle for democracy,” he said.
Telenor explained the company’s legal and human rights predicament as a reason for the sale of their Myanmar unit.
“Telenor is facing a conflict between local law and international law, employee safety and human rights principles which makes continued presence in Myanmar impossible for Telenor Group,” Cathrine Stang Lund said.
Myanmar Now News
Soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militiamen murder four, burn hundreds of homes in Sagaing
/in NewsThe mob also looted several villages and carried the stolen goods away on several trucks, locals said
Junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militiamen murdered four people, burned hundreds of homes, and looted villages during a three-day rampage through Sagaing Region’s Pale Township last week, local residents have told Myanmar Now.
The mob of about 100 members of the junta’s forces entered the village of Min Taing Pin firing their guns at around 11am on Thursday, bringing with them and then killing four captives who had their hands tied, two residents there said.
They then raided homes and detained around 100 people, including 15 who were elderly, inside a local school. One woman named Htay Kyi was reportedly beaten while being detained.
The soldiers then ransacked and looted houses, a jewellery store and mobile phone shops. “It was nothing more than a massive robbery,” one of the residents said.
“They started firing shots even before they entered the village,” he added. “Some people started running but others didn’t because the other junta forces that came into the village before didn’t cause much trouble. It’s just so bad this time.”
The second villager said that the soldiers and militiamen stole around 700 million kyat ($393,000) worth of cash and gold from the jewellery store and around 45 million kyat in cash and phone top-up cards from a money exchanger.
The soldiers broke down doors to enter houses, the second villager said. “They took rice, oil and food supplies for the most part. They also broke into three mobile phone shops and took every single phone, set of earphones and power bank. They even broke open the safes.”
After the robberies, the junta forces loaded the stolen goods into seven military trucks and carried them away.
“Nothing is left in Min Taing Pin,” said a person who is helping residents who fled the village. “They ransacked all the jewellery shops and garment shops. The village is nothing but a huge pile of garbage now. They took all the valuables.”
Residents did not know the names of the four captives who were killed, but recognised them and said they were from the nearby villages of Inn Kan and Ohn Hnauk. Soldiers shot the four of them to death and burned their faces before leaving the bodies outside of Min Taing Pin.
“They burned the bodies before they left the village so we wouldn’t be able to identify them,” the man helping the displaced villagers said.
Both he and the two Min Taing Pin villagers said the junta’s forces detained five women in their early 20s, and that others they spoke to believe the women were raped because they heard them screaming.
“The girls were hiding when the military arrived but they were found and taken by the military,” he said. “I don’t want to say their names for their own safety. Some said they heard the girls screaming. I didn’t hear them though as I was trying to flee.”
Myanmar Now was unable to gather further information about the women or verify what happened after they were detained.
123_0.Jpeg
Houses torched
After spending the night in Min Taing Pin, the junta forces marched to the nearby villages of Kaing Twin and Hlaw Kar on Friday evening. All three villages lie along the road connecting Pale to the Magway Region township of Gangaw.
As in Min Taing Pin, they robbed houses and businesses in Kaing Twin and some of them carried the loot away on ten military vehicles to a village called In Pin Htee, where Pyu Saw Htee is known to be active.
The soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members then began setting fire to houses.
“Almost the entire village of Kaing Twin is lost,” said a man who lives in Pale Township. “We are trying to get there to investigate. We still don’t know the exact number of casualties or amount of damage.”
It was a similar story when the junta’s mob later marched a mile north to the village Hlaw Kar. Hlaw Kar has 800 houses, while Kaing Twin has 400– and a total of 800 houses were burned down across the two villages, a Hlaw Kar resident said.
The fires began in Hlaw Kar village at around 1:30am on Saturday morning and soldiers set fires again at 7am, he added. “The village burned the whole night. All the pigs and cows died in the fire. Even when we went back to check after the military left, three houses were still burning.”
He and others found remnants from bottles used for molotov cocktails and wooden torches used to start the fires, he said. “I think they used the torches to spread the fire from one house to another. It’s just so cruel.”
Another Hlaw Kar local said that Pyu Saw Htee members started fires and the soldiers took pictures of themselves pretending to put out the flames before torching more houses. They did the same thing in Kaing Twin, he added.
“The Pyu Saw Htee came into our village first and then they started torching the houses. Then, the junta forces arrived, took photos and torched more houses,” he said.
On Saturday, the soldiers and militiamen travelled to nearby Ingyin Su village, which has a population of around 1,000.
Myanmar Now News
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS REJECT UN SPECIAL ENVOY’S PROPOSAL OF “POWER SHARING”
/in Press Releases and StatementsRaise alarm at her misinterpretation that the “military are in control”
247 civil society organizations reject UN Special Envoy, Dr Noeleen Heyzer’s, proposal that those defying the military must negotiate a power sharing as a solution to the current political, human rights and humanitarian crisis created by the terrorist military junta.
In an interview with Channel News Asia, the Special Envoy discusses finding “commonalities”, a political transformation requiring process and a “need to negotiate what this power sharing could look like”. Her comments have been met with strong reactions.
We further raise alarm at the comments she made during her interview in which she claims that “The military is in control at this particular time”.
These statements could set a dangerous precedent, that those who take control through brutal means – massacring, killing, raping, arresting, torturing, burning villages and people, targeting civilians using airstrikes and shelling – be welcomed to share power. Such suggestions send a signal to the military that the UN is willing to act as a broker for their power despite the grave crimes they have committed, and further embolden them to commit atrocities with total impunity.
The youth who are continuing to call for an end to the military’s terror are not being unrealistic in their efforts to see their human rights and fundamental freedoms protected. Their calls reflect the principles laid out in the UN Charter and deserve the full support and respect of UN mandate holders.
In addition, it is not required of revolutionary movements to end in a power sharing agreement with those that have committed genocide and continue to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. History has shown us that coups around the world have failed, and revolutions have succeeded. Those who have committed grave international crimes must be held accountable, not offered more power, a seat at the table and legitimacy by the international community. This will only embolden them to continue to commit grave crimes with total impunity.
It has been over a decade since the military initiated their political process of power sharing. This consisted of unelected military officials holding 25% of the seats in parliament and control over key ministries that were integral to the governance of Myanmar, under a military-drafted 2008 Constitution that undemocratically ensured their place in the corridors of power.
They stole the wealth of the people of Myanmar for decades during the military dictatorship and throughout the military orchestrated political process of the past decade. They exploited natural resources, while continuing to commit war crimes against people who live in resource-rich ethnic areas.
For over 70 years the military has waged a fierce war against ethnic peoples, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. While sharing limited power with the National League for Democracy, they committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against ethnic people and genocide against the Rohingya.
The Special Envoy should advise the UN Security Council to immediately refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court so that these grave crimes committed by the Myanmar military can be investigated and prosecuted. Offering them a seat at the negotiating table is not in accordance with the “will and interests of the people of Myanmar” as adopted in resolutions at the UN General Assembly.
The Special Envoy’s misinterpretation that “the military is in control” could not be farther from the truth. Over the past year, Myanmar people’s revolutionary movement has successfully prevented the military from grabbing power over the country, despite all its brutal efforts. The military are, however, conducting fierce airstrikes in ethnic areas where they are losing territorial control; shooting and shelling people forcing them to flee across the border into neighboring countries, threatening international peace and security; burning bodies including children and staff of international organizations in an attempt to instill terror. These are not acts of a military who are in control.
International experts on Myanmar have previously stated in response to UN officials inaccurately suggesting that military has “taken over” or that it has an “iron grip on power”, that “Misinterpretation leads to misrepresentation, misrepresentation leads to misunderstanding, and misunderstanding leads to mistakes”. We could not agree more.
Such mistakes have been a persistent problem for the UN in Myanmar as outlined in the Rosenthal report, which found that systemic and structural failures rendered the UN impotent in the face of the Rohingya genocide. The UN must not make the same mistakes, and once again, fail the people of Myanmar.
If the Special Envoy is genuinely committed to a “Myanmar-led process” and engaging “directly with and listen carefully to all those affected by the ongoing crisis”, she must understand the root causes of the current crisis and genuinely listen to the calls of the people of Myanmar. Their calls have been clear. The military must never rule.
The UN Special Envoy and other mandate holders, as well as UN agencies, funds programs and entities, must support the calls of the people of Myanmar and their efforts towards a future federal democratic Myanmar. They must respect their will and work to ensure that the military is never again allowed to have power.
For further information, please contact:
Signed by Myanmar CSOs and Supported by Regional and International CSOs:
Download PDF file in [English]