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
- Myanmar military regime enters year 5 in terminal decline
- Myanmar junta bombs Rohingya Muslim village killing 41, rescuers say
- Myanmar’s junta cuts filmmaker’s life sentence to 15 years as part of wider amnesty
- Close The Sky
- International condemnation of the escalating humanitarian crisis and rights violations in Myanmar
Myanmar Junta Refuses ASEAN’s Request to Meet Suu Kyi
/in NewsMyanmar’s military regime has officially turned down the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy’s request to meet detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta’s Foreign Ministry said.
Erywan Yusof, Brunei’s Second Minister of Foreign Affairs, was appointed as ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar in August in an effort to mediate the country’s political crisis. He has been trying to visit Myanmar since then as part of agreements made between the military regime and the regional bloc to resolve the issues Myanmar had been facing since the junta’s February 1 coup.
Earlier this month, the envoy proposed a four-day visit from October 11-14 and requested to meet with all stakeholders in the country, including ousted State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Last week, the junta refused to allow the meeting with Suu Kyi and Erywan Yusof has since insisted on it.
On Thursday, the regime’s Foreign Ministry said that as Myanmar has been prioritizing peace and tranquility in the country, it will be difficult to accommodate requests that go beyond existing laws, meaning that a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is impossible.
“In this respect, the special envoy and international community need to show some understanding about the situation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The statement added that Myanmar has demonstrated flexibility in every possible way to facilitate the visit and that the special envoy should use his first trip to meet with relevant parties and to build trust and confidence between the special envoy and Myanmar, a reference to the junta’s plan to allow Mr Yusof to meet with people and politicians close to the regime.
So far, Erywan Yusof has yet to respond to the junta’s statement, which didn’t even mention Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Although the regime has yet to offer an official reason for why the special envoy can’t meet Suu Kyi, its spokesperson told the media that it was “because she is facing some charges.”
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, faces 11 cases – including sedition and corruption – filed against her by the junta.
However, the regime’s refusal to allow Mr Yusof to meet Suu Kyi could lead to coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing being excluded from an upcoming ASEAN summit at the end of the month. Some members of the regional bloc have expressed their frustration at the junta’s refusal to comply with an existing and agreed roadmap to peace. ASEAN foreign ministers are set to discuss excluding the coup leader from the summit at a meeting today.
If Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing is excluded, it will be a huge embarrassment to the regime, which has desperately been seeking official recognition from other countries, especially those in ASEAN, as Myanmar’s rightful government. The regime is regarded as an outcast by much of the international community, especially in the west, for its coup and subsequent brutality in killing over 1,000 peaceful anti-regime protesters.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has already shunned the junta, after postponing a virtual meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers last week at the last minute. Reuters reported that the postponement was to avoid signaling recognition of the regime by being in the same online room as the junta’s Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin.
Irrawaddy News
Weekly Update on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar: Post-Crop (4 October – 10 October 2021)
/in HR SituationA grave milestone was passed in September – by the end of the month, almost 100 people had been killed by the senseless violence of the Myanmar junta, including a toddler and several seniors. ND-Burma members are risking their lives to document the ongoing human rights abuses which are being carried out by the regime. The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) has provided regular on the ground updates which highlight the urgency of the atrocities taking place. Compounded with an Internet shutdown, civilians are fleeing. Those attempting to return to retrieve belongings from their villages risk being killed in the crossfire. Under the cover of darkness, the junta has proven they are more likely to commit widespread, systematic violence. In Chin State and Magway region, the state-sponsored crackdown is intensifying as the flow of information is being prevented and weaponized.
In addition, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland has observed an increase in arbitrary arrests and abductions, particularly of young people. Targeted violence against women and girls is also on the rise, with the whereabouts of women human rights defenders and journalists unknown. Checkpoints and warrantless raids are exacerbating an already worsening situation. Weak justice systems and a complete lack of trust in the junta has made it harder for locals to have any hope in their well-being.
Despite the mounting evidence and atrocities being committed, the international community continues to be slow to act. There are many lessons to be learned over the decades of support from the civil war in Myanmar, and yet intentional leaders continue to be seemingly mystified by the junta’s lack of willingness to compromise or negotiate. The delay in meaningful consequences has only emboldened the regime to perpetuate human rights violations with impunity. Countries including India and Russia are still providing highly advanced weapons to the junta which are being used to destroy and demoralize civilian livelihoods. Between February and September 2021, 206,000 people were displaced internally due to armed clashes and insecurity.
Victories such as the Burma Bill which was introduced by New York Democratic Party representative Gregory Meeks is part of a greater effort by Myanmar’s civil society organizations which sanctions against those responsible for the attempted coup. The bill notably calls on the UN and the US government to classify the miliary’s persecution of the Rohingya, a genocide. The French Senate also announced a resolution to recognize the National Unity Government as the formal, legitimate government.
CHIN STATE
The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) documented several cases of ongoing assaults against civilians in Mindat, Thantlang and Hakha, including a civilian who was shot and injured and injured by the junta when he attempted to deliver food to a family member in Thantlang. The majority of residents have fled, though those trying to return to retrieve belongings are being shot at and turned away. The arrests, and deaths of civilians are ongoing as part of the junta’s war on terror.
KACHIN STATE
The Myanmar junta has sent reinforcements to Kachin State as clashes between the Kachin Independence Army intensify. Fearful villagers have abandoned their homes and left to seek safety in monasteries and neighbouring areas. The regime is continuing their senseless violence.
KAYAH STATE
According to the Karenni Human Rights Organization (KHRO), over 200 civilians, including 30 volunteers assisting displaced villagers were arrested by the junta. The youngest detainee is only 15 years old, and the oldest a senior who is over 50 years of age. Aid workers in Kayah State have been targeted for their efforts to support IDPs. Last month, junta soldiers shot at a vehicle attempting to deliver food rations. Fifty homes in Kayah were destroyed during a three-day rampage spree by the junta who shelled and looted civilian properties. An elderly civilian was also killed in his home. Since May, over 130 000 have been displaced in the State.
Junta detains three teenagers in Sagaing during hunt for NLD members
/in NewsSoldiers took the children when they unable to find the people they wanted to arrest
Junta forces have arrested three 15-year-olds in Sagaing Region after being unable to find the people they wanted to arrest during raids targeting National League for Democracy (NLD) members, locals said.
The children were among 13 civilians detained in the town of Htigyaing on Thursday and Friday, just days after two abandoned police outposts in the area were burned down by fighters from the People’s Defence Force (PDF).
Two of the teenagers were arrested in the town’s 4th ward on Friday while playing video games after junta forces raided the house of an NLD supporter who goes by the name of Phoe Thae and were unable to find him, a source close to the NLD said.
On the same day, the wife and 15-year-old daughter of Hpone Kyaw, another NLD supporter in 1st ward, were taken into custody when he could not be found during a raid on his house, the source added. Of those arrested on both days, five were female and eight were male, he said.
The detainees were taken to the Htigyaing Township police station for interrogation, according to locals, who did not know the names of the children who were detained.
“They searched the whole town,” said a Htigyaing resident. “They especially targeted the NLD members and accused them of having connections to the PDF.”
On Wednesday, soldiers raided the house of an ousted NLD lawmaker named Maung Maung in Kanni village, which lies within the township of Htigyaing. They also raided the house of his mother and the house and grocery store of his sister in the village of Tonelone.
They were unable to find Maung Maung but stole 150,000 kyat and some jewelry from his house and stashed it at a local monastery where they were stationed, two Htigyaing locals said.
Soldiers also ransacked Maung Maung’s house and his mother’s, destroying furniture, and ransacked his sister’s shop.
“They ransacked and destroyed the entire store,” another local said. “They pushed over the shelves in the store and took a generator.” They also stole three bags of rice, some batteries and clothes.
Local police could not be reached for comment.
On Saturday, soldiers raided the village of Aletaw, one of the places where PDF fighters burned down a police outpost.
The Htigyaing PDF said in a statement the same day that junta soldiers have been riding in civilian trucks and passenger buses. The group warned civilians not to travel in trucks or buses between October 9 and 15 as it was planning attacks.
Over 30 local administrators have resigned in Htigyaing in recent weeks after the PDF threatened to assassinate them if they continued to serve the junta.
Myanmar Now News
Junta Deploys Thousands of Reinforcements to Upper Myanmar For Clearance Operations
/in NewsBy THE IRRAWADDY 8 October 2021
The Myanmar military has deployed at least four battalions of reinforcements – around 3,000 soldiers – to the country’s most restive regions to conduct clearance operations against civilian resistance forces, according to local civilian armed groups and a source close to the military.
In addition, one of the junta’s most notorious commanders – Lieutenant General Than Hlaing, the chief of the Myanmar Police and the regime’s Deputy Home Affairs Minister – has also been assigned to the military’s North West Command based in Monywa, Sagaing Region.
Sagaing, along with neighboring Magwe Region and Chin State, is where junta forces are facing the fiercest opposition from civilian resistance forces.
Lt-Gen Than Hlaing, along with another Lieutenant General, will lead the military’s operations against local People’s Defense Forces (PDF), a former army captain, who defected from the military after the February 1 coup, told The Irrawaddy.
Brigadier General Phyo Thant, the former commander of North West Command, was reportedly detained by the military regime earlier this week, after his plan to defect and take refuge in an area controlled by an ethnic armed group was exposed, according to a source close to the military.
Rumors are already circulating that the Brig-Gen was tortured to death during his interrogation.
The new mission comes after the equivalent of two infantry battalions of junta soldiers have been killed in Sagaing, Magwe and Chin State in the last four months alone. Between June and September, 1,512 regime troops died in fighting with civilian resistance forces in those areas, according to Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government.
Lt-Gen Than Hlaing has earned notoriety for commanding lethal crackdowns against peaceful anti-coup protesters and striking civil servants.
One of his victims was his own brother. Lt-Gen Than Hlaing’s younger brother Ko Soe Moe Hlaing, a veteran pro-democracy activist, was tortured to death in May while in military custody in Bago Region.
An estimated 1,000 junta reinforcements were deployed last week to Shwe Taung Oo, a residential area for former military personnel located near Monywa, a leader of the Kani-PDF told The Irrawaddy.
Another 100 junta troops deployed four days ago at a monastery near the border with Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region. Residents from nearby villages have fled their homes out of fear at the presence of regime troops. The soldiers are believed to be preparing to raid Kani Township, added the Kani-PDF leader.
“We have already planned for potential fierce fighting with the regime. We youths are prepared to die in battle as we can’t live under military dictatorship anymore,” the Kani-PDF fighter told The Irrawaddy on Friday.
Although there have been no clashes in recent days, junta forces are still raiding throughout Sagaing and Magwe.
On Friday morning, 100 regime troops searching the forest in Magwe’s Gangaw Township for resistance fighters opened fire randomly, a leader of the Yaw Defense Force (YDF) told The Irrawaddy.
Some 500 junta reinforcements have deployed to Gangaw and hundreds of them are searching villages in the north of the township for PDF’s. Helicopters are reportedly supplying them with heavy weapons and ammunition.
On Thursday, junta troops used 15 detained villagers as human shields while marching through the north of Gangaw Township, a result of regime soldiers being ambushed with landmines so often.
Over 40 soldiers were killed on Tuesday, and 30 injured and five vehicles and an armored car damaged, when the YDF ambushed a military convoy of 50 vehicles travelling from Monywa via the Pale-Gangaw Highway.
A video shows the convoy being attacked with landmines detonated by YDF fighters.
“We will respond as best we can if they [junta forces] raid us,” said the leader of the YDF.
Kale-PDF claimed to have killed 12 junta soldiers with landmines on Thursday in two ambushes targeting a regime convoy travelling on the Kale-Gangaw Highway in Sagaing Region.
On Monday, the Pale-PDF ambushed a military convoy of more than 80 vehicles, including armored cars, carrying junta reinforcements from Monywa to Pale Township in Sagaing Region.
Some 500 regime reinforcements have also arrived in Pinlebu Township, Sagaing Region since late September, after junta forces suffered almost 40 casualties in two intense firefights with the local PDF.
Around 300 troops have been deployed in rural areas of the township and over 9,000 residents of 10 villages have fled their homes due to junta raids, the spokesperson of the Pinlebu-PDF told The Irrawaddy on Friday.
The Pinlebu-PDF said it is concerned about the prospect of villagers being caught in the crossfire in clashes between civilian resistance fighters and junta forces.
Internet and mobile phone services have been blocked by the regime since the second week of September in most townships in the areas where PDF’s are most active.
Junta forces have used heavy explosives, jet fighters and helicopters in the clashes with civilian resistance fighters, as well as burning down villages and bombarding the residential areas of towns.
Irrawaddy News
Weekly Update on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar: Post-Coup (27 September to -3 October 2021)
/in HR SituationEight months have now passed since the attempted coup in Myanmar. Every day, the country plunges deeper and deeper to a point of no-return. The value of the local currency is at an all-time low and internet shutdowns in 25 townships have stifled the already deteriorating human rights situation. Against the backdrop of darkness, the junta is more emboldened to commit grave violations. The junta has cut off internet access in several townships in northwestern Myanmar including Gangaw, Htilin and Myaing in Magway Region, and Falam, Kanpetlet, Matupi, Mindat, Paletwa, Tedim, Thantlang and Tonzang in Chin State.
Chin State, Kayah State and Sagaing region have been primary targets for the Tatmadaw as emerging civilian defense forces show no signs of abating. In several cases documented by ND-Burma affiliate member the Chin Human Rights Organization, two senior civilians were killed by the junta when their car came under attack by the regime while trying to retrieve their possessions after fleeing. Another was found dead, with a bullet wound to his head.
The National Unity Government (NUG) has called for a ‘defensive war’ against the illegal junta. The NUG made the announcement earlier in September following months of a brutal onslaught of violence perpetrated by the regime in an attempt to squander dissent. A devastating projection by the UN Food Program says Myanmar is on-track for ‘extreme deprivation’ with 1.2 million jobs lost since the coup.
An ongoing displacement crisis in Myanmar is a contributing factor to the grave sense of loss civilians are reeling from. Over 200 000 people fled their homes in the first six months of 2021. Since February, an estimated 2 million have been impacted by the crisis and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance including food, shelter and medicine. The surge in COVID-19 cases and a deepening distrust has done little to curb fears and anxieties.
If one thing is abundantly clear in the time that has passed, it is that the junta has failed in their unjust attempt to seek legitimacy. Citizens reject the powers of the regime who only know how to rule through force. The international community and United Nations has a responsibility and moral obligation to declare the junta what it is – an unlawful, terrorist organization.
The ongoing violence in Chin State has forced thousands to neighbouring borders to seek safety. Those who remain face the prospects of arrest, torture and death if confronted by the junta. After fighting broke out in Thantlang following an ambush by the Chinland Defence Forces, casualties had not been confirmed. Civilians in the region said gunfire could be heard for approximately 30 minutes. After the ambush, the junta responded by open firing on the town where 18 homes were destroyed. A pastor was killed and nearly all the residents fled.
The bodies of several civilians found in Kanpetlet of Chin State were discovered with bullet wounds. Two of the bodies were burned and thrown into a ditch. The Internet shutdown in much of the State has made it more plausible for the junta to evade responsibility for their crimes.
KAYAH STATE
The junta is also continuing to violate civilian rights by laying landmines in civilian areas of Kayah State. As a result, innocent villagers are being severely injured and killed while traveling in town. The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force has defused approximately 30 junta-planted landmines and unexploded artillery shells.
Intensified fighting in Kayah State led to two civilians being killed during clashes in Demawso Township. Soldiers have been setting fire to villager homes and ransacking their belongings. Around 200 soldiers continue to occupy the area.
SHAN STATE
Global Charity Warns Thousands of Displaced Myanmar Children Facing Starvation
/in NewsBy THE IRRAWADDY 4 October 2021
A large proportion of more than 76,000 children in Myanmar who have been forced to flee their homes since the February coup could go hungry as their families share a single meal per day, Save the Children has warned.
Citing the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, the charity said on Monday that around 206,000 people have been displaced by violence since the coup.
Of them, 76,000 are children and many are sheltering in forests during torrential rain under tarpaulins without enough food, it reported.
“While the world’s attention has moved on, a hunger crisis is unfolding in Myanmar,” Save the Children said. “Children are already going hungry and very soon they will start to succumb to disease and malnutrition.”
Myanmar is seeing growing popular resistance to military rule in response to attacks on peaceful protests.
The junta has retaliated with brutal raids on villages suspected of harboring resistance fighters while torching houses and making arbitrary arrests, particularly in Sagaing and Magwe regions, Chin and Kayah states.
While the displaced people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and food, delivery of aid is often blocked or restricted by the junta.
A volunteer at a displacement camp in Kayah State said hunger was a huge concern for displaced families.
“In the beginning, they received public donations or from charities that were helping people in the camps. But now donations are limited because people are being prevented from going to the camps. Some rice bags were donated and every family got just five cups. That’s not much for a family of seven people to live off,” the volunteer told Save the Children.
In Kayah State, around 22,000 people fled their homes in September alone, according to the UN, which said more than 79,000 people, including around 29,000 children, are displaced in the state.
Earlier this year, the World Food Programme estimated that the number of children in the country going hungry could more than double to 6.2 million this year, up from 2.8 million in February.
Irrawaddy News