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 still bombing towns despite earthquake crisis, rebels say
- PRESS STATEMENT: CIVIL SOCIETY CALLS FOR DISASTER RELIEF FOR EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS AND AFFECTED COMMUNITIES IN MYANMAR
- AAPP Launches its New Report on Justice, the Judiciary and the Weaponization of Law to Repress Civilians in Burma
- Junta offensives leave 4 dead, thousands displaced in northwest Myanmar
- Open letter: Special Envoy’s conflicts of interest signal urgent need for investigation and complete end of mandate
Evidence of an escalation in brutal atrocities committed by Myanmar military – Myanmar Mechanism Annual Report
/in NewsGeneva, 13 August 2024 – There is substantial evidence that brutal war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military have escalated at an alarming rate across the country, according to information collected and analysed by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (Mechanism) and detailed in its Annual Report released today.
The Report focuses on the period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 – a time when armed conflicts increased across Myanmar as the challenges to military rule intensified.
During this time, the Mechanism collected significant evidence of more intensive and violent war crimes, such as aerial attacks on schools, religious buildings and hospitals where there was no apparent military target, and physical mutilations against people detained during the armed conflicts, including beheadings and public displays of disfigured and sexually mutilated bodies.
“We have collected substantial evidence showing horrific levels of brutality and inhumanity across Myanmar. Many crimes have been committed with an intent to punish and induce terror in the civilian population,” said Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Mechanism.
The Mechanism is also investigating the unlawful imprisonment, including arbitrary detention and manifestly unfair trials, of perceived opponents of the military junta. Thousands of people have been arrested and many tortured or killed in detention. There is abundant evidence of systematic torture, including severe physical and mental abuse such as beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and sleep deprivation. There is also evidence of gang rape, the burning of sexual body parts and other violent sexual and gender-based crimes committed in detention. The victims include people of all genders and ages, including children.
“No one has been held accountable for any crimes, which emboldens perpetrators and deepens the culture of impunity in the country. We are trying to break this cycle. I believe the Mechanism has made considerable progress in building criminal cases against those most responsible for these crimes,” said Koumjian.
The findings in the Report are based on information and evidence collected from more than 900 sources, including more than 400 eyewitness testimonies, and additional evidence such as photographs, videos, audio material, documents, maps, geospatial imagery, social media posts and forensic evidence.
While the vast majority of information collected by the Mechanism concerns crimes committed by the Myanmar security forces, there is also credible evidence of crimes committed by armed groups which are fighting against the military. This includes summary executions of civilians suspected of being military informers or collaborators.
While the Mechanism is working hard to investigate the high volume of crimes committed since the military takeover in February 2021, it also maintains its commitment to the investigation of earlier crimes committed against the Rohingya during the Myanmar military’s 2016 and 2017 clearance operations. In particular, the Mechanism has analysed the movements of military units, the resettlement practices and policies intended to attract the migration of non-Rohingya people to Rakhine State, and the quantities and qualities of weapons possessed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army at the time of the clearance operations.
The Mechanism has shared these analyses, along with a vast volume of evidence, with authorities working on ongoing cases concerning the Rohingya at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and in Argentina. The Mechanism is proactively sharing evidence that may be relevant to the proceedings and is also responding to targeted requests from these authorities for specific information and analysis.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM or Mechanism) was created by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and other violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011. It aims to facilitate justice and accountability by preserving and organizing this evidence and preparing case files that can be used by authorities to prosecute individuals in national, regional and international courts.
For more information visit iimm.un.org or contact iimm@un.org
iimm
Human Rights Situation weekly update (Aug 8 to 14, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Aug 8 to 14, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Tanintharyi Region, Mandalay Region, Chin State, Shan State, and Kachin State from August 8th to 14th. The staff from the head of the Prison which work under Military Junta, were beating and torturing the political prisoners from Myaungmya Prison, Ayeyarwady Region, and Thayawaddy Prison, Bago Region. The Military Junta and administrators from wards and villages made lists of the physically and mentally disabled people for the Military Service in Mandalay Region. They threatened that they would arrest the relatives of the people who fled from the Military Service.
About 30 civilians died, and over 50 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks. An underaged child died and 4 were injured when the Military Junta committed abuses.
Infogram
Human Rights Situation weekly update (Aug 1 to 7, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Aug 1 to 7, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Mandalay Region, Shan State, Chin State, and Rakhine State from August 1st to 7th. The Military Junta is making lists and arresting youths for batch 4th of Military Service in the Yangon and Ayeyarwady regions. The Military Junta arrested over 100 local civilians in Sagaing Region and Rakhine State.
Over 30 civilians died, and over 40 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks. 3 underaged children were injured when the Military Junta committed abuses.
Infogram
Myanmar Garrison Town Sees Exodus as Junta Faces Humiliating Loss of Its ‘West Point’
/in NewsHundreds of residents of Pyin Oo Lwin – a garrison town in Mandalay Region – have been fleeing since Thursday due to fears of an imminent attack by an ethnic army and allied resistance forces, residents say.
Family members of military personnel stationed in the town, which is home to the Defense Service Academies – Myanmar’s West Point – and other military training schools, were among the first to start fleeing the town about 70 kilometers east of the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, residents say.
Hundreds of vehicles were seen jamming the eastern entrance to Mandalay on Thursday as the exodus from Pyin Oo Lwin accelerated, witnesses said.
The garrison town has been under threat since the fall of the headquarters of the junta’s North Eastern Military Command in Lashio, the capital of northern Shan State, to the Brotherhood Alliance and allied resistance groups coordinating Operation 1027.
Operation 1027 resumed in northern Shan State on June 25.
Operation 1027, a coordinated offensive by the Brotherhood Alliance of three ethnic armies and allied People’s Defense Force (PDFs) units under the command of the National Unity Government, began in October last year. It succeeded in capturing most of northern Shan State before a Chinese-brokered ceasefire brought it to a halt.
The operation resumed in June and expanded to northern townships of Mandalay Region, where alliance member the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and PDFs captured Nawnghkio, which borders Pyin Oo Lwin, and two other towns in northern Mandalay.
The TNLA and its resistance allies are clashing with regime forces near the border of Pyin Oo Lwin and Nawnghkio townships, resistance groups say.
The junta’s garrison town is their next target if the TNLA and its allies continue their coordinated offensive in Mandalay.
Zin Yaw, a former soldier who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), described Pyin Oo Lwin as the last target for resistance groups from northern Shan State seeking to enter Mandalay City.
Linn Htet Aung, a former captain in the junta’s military who joined the CDM, predicted that the garrison town would fall to resistance forces quickly. “Pyin Oo Lwin will fall in a short period of time after it is attacked because the town is designated only for military training schools, not for combat,” he said.
He also said that several regime officers, including lieutenant colonels, from junta bases in Pyin Oo Lwin have recently contacted People’s Embrace – a group formed by former soldiers who joined the civil disobedience movement – for help defecting.
A businessman helping residents of the town escape said most of those fleeing are going to Mandalay, Naypyitaw and Yangon. “Most are rich people and family members of the regime’s military personnel. But I am only providing relocation services to civilians, not people related to the military regime,” he added.
The junta has sent combat troops from other regions of Myanmar to defend the town, an analyst closely monitoring Operation 1027 said, explaining that its military personnel in the town are not combat troops. Many are instructors and students at military training schools and defense academies, he said.
One resident of the town said she and her family are staying to safeguard their property. “We have decided not to leave because we are worried that our property will be stolen by thieves. Many of my neighbors also decided to do the same. So, I am digging a bomb shelter at my house,” she said.
The junta on Thursday dismissed news reports that relatives of regime personnel and other residents were fleeing the garrison town as fake news. It accused independent media of fanning instability in Pyin Oo Lwin.
Leaked documents, however, tell a different story. Letters from the junta’s Mandalay Region Settlement and Land Record Department leaked on Thursday instructed township offices in Pyin Oo Lwin and Patehigyi, which is adjacent Mandalay city, to develop plans to relocate their staff and remove important documents due to security concerns.
Regime troops have been deployed in residential wards of Pyin Oo Lwin and some have taken position at the University of Technology – also known as Yatanarpon Cyber City – on a main road linking Pyin Oo Lwin and Mandalay city, where the headquarters of the junta’s Central Command is based.
In early April, Mandalay PDF attacked the junta’s Defense Service Academy at Pyin Oo Lwin with 107mm rockets. The junta admitted that the resistance attack killed four people and wounded 12 more, including cadets at the academy.
Mandalay PDF and allied resistance groups recently launched attacks on regime targets in Patheingyi township in Mandalay city. The PDF groups and its allies have seized over 35 regime bases and outposts, including the headquarters of the junta’s Air Defense Battalion at Madaya township next to Mandalay city.
In July, the TNLA, Mandalay PDF and other allies took control of Singu town and the ruby town of Mogoke in northern Mandalay Region.
Irrawaddy News
Myanmar junta bombs sleeping village killing seven, rebels say
/in NewsMany people were wounded in the latest air attack in the strife-torn Mandalay region, residents said.
The Myanmar junta’s air force bombed a village in a strife-torn central region killing seven people as they slept, an insurgent group said on Thursday, the latest deaths in what opponents of the junta say is a deliberate campaign to target civilians in areas under rebel control.
Forces of the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup are increasingly relying on air power to strike back at insurgent forces who have made significant gains on the ground in several parts of the country since late last year.
In the central Mandalay region, pro-democracy fighters in the Mandalay People’s Defense Force and allied Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, ethnic minority insurgents have captured dozens of junta positions, including the gem-mining town of Mogoke, over recent months.
But the junta has responded with deadly retaliation from the air, in a campaign the junta’s enemies say is aimed at killing civilians in a bid to warn the population off support for the rebels.
In the dead of night on Tuesday, the junta’s air force launched an attack on Mandalay region’s Payaung Taung village in a strike that appeared to be timed to catch villagers asleep in their beds to maximize casualties, the Mandalay force said in a statement.
“Seven people were killed when a bomb was dropped at night, four women and three men,” said a resident of the area who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
“There were also many injured people but we don’t know the details yet.”
Radio Free Asia could not reach the junta main spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, by telephone to ask about the incident.
The Mandalay People’s Defense Force released photographs of the victims but it said it could not identify them.
The junta’s air force launched strikes on two villages in the Mandalay region’s Singu township on Aug. 4, killing 13 people and wounding 19, the group said.
Junta spokesmen have denied targeting civilians.
A three-party alliance of insurgent forces, including the TNLA, this week called on neighboring China to intervene with the junta to press it to stop attacking civilians.
The insurgents have little in the way of anti-aircraft weapons to defend against junta jets.
According to data compiled by the RFA, airstrikes and heavy weapon attacks by junta troops have killed about 2,000 civilians and wounded nearly 4,000 since the 2021 coup, up to May.
RFA News
Some 5,000 Rohingya who fled recent fighting waiting to cross to Bangladesh
/in NewsThe minority Muslims left their homes in western Myanmar as fighting between the junta and insurgents intensified.
Approximately 5,000 minority Rohingya Muslims attempting to flee from this week’s fighting in western Myanmar have been waiting for several days near the Naf River for an opportunity to cross into Bangladesh, residents said.
Intense combat in Rakhine state’s Maungdaw township between ethnic insurgent Arakan Army and Myanmar military junta forces have caused thousands of Rohingya to leave the township’s administrative center and surrounding villages in search of safety.
More than 1,500 Rohingya have arrived in camps in Bangladesh over the last several days, a Rohingya resident of Bangladesh identified as Mahmud Hussain told Radio Free Asia.
“About 500 are detained by the Bangladesh Border Guard force,” he said. “They are kept in one place. More than 1,000 people have arrived in the camp.”
About 1 million stateless Rohingya refugees live in tightly packed border camps in Bangladesh. Most fled there in 2017 to escape violent crackdowns in Rakhine state that were blamed on the Myanmar military.
But more Rohingya have been seeking refuge in Bangladesh lately as security has deteriorated in Rakhine state.
People are being charged 800,000 kyat (US$150) to be carried across by boat from Maungdaw to Bangladesh, according to Hasan, a 25-year-old Rohingya man who spoke to RFA earlier this week.
On Monday, homemade rockets, artillery and drones were fired at Rohingya on a riverbank, leaving dozens of people dead.
Witnesses who spoke to RFA put the death toll as high as 200, although RFA was unable to verify those estimates.
Several Rohingya told Radio Free Asia that the Arakan Army, or AA, were responsible for the attack. The AA denied in a statement on Wednesday that their troops fired the weapons.
Maungdaw city flashpoints
The AA has recently made gains in its fight for control of Maungdaw township – part of a wider civil conflict that has consumed much of the country since a 2021 military coup.
Residents on Thursday told RFA that junta troops continue to fight fiercely to defend their positions.
“The AA is attacking at four or five places in Maungdaw city,” one resident said.
Thousands of civilians are trapped in the city’s junta-controlled neighborhoods. In villages near fighting taking place outside of the city, AA troops have been escorting people – most of them Rohingya – to safer areas, residents who requested anonymity for security purposes said.
Various armed groups, including the AA and some smaller groups aligned with the junta, have been using Rohingya residents as human shields in the recent fighting, according to Rohingya rights activist Mamud Kasein.
“The current situation is very terrible,” he said. “All armed groups are concerned with these crimes. International organizations must protect these civilians.”
RFA was unable to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha, junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun and Rakhine state Attorney General Hla Thein on Friday.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Yangon didn’t immediately reply to an email sent Friday asking for comment on the numbers of Rohingya attempting to cross into Bangladesh.
RFA News