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 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
- Women in Karenni State face increasing levels of violence
UN: ‘Wanted for mass murder’ posters target Myanmar’s top general
/in News“Wanted” pictures of Min Aung Hlaing, the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar military who oversaw atrocities against the country’s Rohingya population, were posted around New York overnight, as part of Amnesty International’s campaign for accountability in Myanmar.
World leaders, including representatives from Myanmar’s government, are meeting in New York this week for the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Accountability for the atrocities committed against the Rohingya and Myanmar’s other ethnic minorities is expected to be high on the agenda. The UN Human Rights Council is currently discussing the establishment of an evidence preservation mechanism which could see Min Aung Hlaing and other suspected perpetrators come closer to prosecution.
Amnesty International’s posters have been plastered on sidewalks in 30 locations around the city, including iconic landmarks.
“Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is responsible for overseeing crimes against humanity in Myanmar. He was top of the chain of command during the Myanmar army’s vicious campaign of murder, rape, torture and village burning which forced hundreds of thousands from their homes,” said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“His army has also committed war crimes against ethnic minority civilians in northern Myanmar, where conflicts continue to rage. We want world leaders to have his face in their minds this week when they discuss next steps for accountability.
“For too long Min Aung Hlaing has managed to stay out of the spotlight and escape international attention, despite overseeing the horrendous crimes against the Rohingya. It’s time to expose those responsible for these atrocities, and make sure they are held to account.”
The posters put up around New York overnight read: “Wanted for mass murder – Don’t let him get away with it”, and also include harrowing quotes from Rohingya survivors.
“I heard the baby cry, then they shot, then nothing,” one Rohingya woman, 45, said. She was referring to her seven-month-old granddaughter who was murdered by soldiers in August 2017.
More than 80% of northern Rakhine State’s Rohingya population have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to seek safety since military operations began on 25 August 2017.
Command responsibility
Amnesty International’s research shows that many of the crimes committed against Rohingya women, men and children were planned and orchestrated at the highest levels in the Myanmar military. At the very least, the Myanmar military’s command structure means it is inconceivable that Min Aung Hlaing and other senior military officials would not have been aware of what was happening on the ground in northern Rakhine State, yet they failed to take action to prevent or stop the crimes, or to punish those responsible.
In fact, top military commanders, including Min Aung Hlaing, travelled to the region before or during the ethnic cleansing campaign to oversee parts of the operation and documented their visits in Facebook posts.
Amnesty International also identified specific military units operating under the direct command of the Senior General’s War Office which were on the ground in northern Rakhine State from August 2017 and responsible for many of the appalling abuses against the Rohingya. Amnesty International has also implicated these same units in war crimes and other human rights violations against ethnic minority civilians in Kachin and Shan States in northern Myanmar.
Amnesty International is calling for the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court without delay.
“World leaders must commit Min Aung Hlaing’s face to memory,” said Kumi Naidoo.
“He and his fellow commanders were in command of forces that committed shocking crimes under international law – it’s time they faced justice.”
Amnesty International
US Accuses Myanmar Military of ‘Planned and Coordinated’ Rohingya Atrocities
/in NewsWASHINGTON — A US government investigation has found that Myanmar’s military waged a “well-planned and coordinated” campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Southeast Asian nation’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
The US State Department report, which was released on Monday, could be used to justify further US sanctions or other punitive measures against Myanmar authorities, US officials told Reuters.
But it stopped short of describing the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity, an issue that other US officials said was the subject of fierce internal debate that delayed the report’s rollout for nearly a month.
The report, which was first reported by Reuters, resulted from more than a thousand interviews of Rohingya men and women in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh, where almost 700,000 Rohingya have fled after a military campaign last year in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
“The survey reveals that the recent violence in northern Rakhine State was extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents,” according to the 20-page report. “The scope and scale of the military’s operations indicate they were well-planned and coordinated.”
Survivors described in harrowing detail what they had witnessed, including soldiers killing infants and small children, the shooting of unarmed men, and victims buried alive or thrown into pits of mass graves. They told of widespread sexual assault by Myanmar’s military of Rohingya women, often carried out in public.
One witness described four Rohingya girls who were abducted, tied up with ropes and raped for three days. They were left “half dead,” he said, according to the report.
Human rights groups and Rohingya activists have put the death toll in the thousands from the crackdown, which followed attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security forces in Rakhine State in August 2017.
UN Report Found “Genocidal Intent”
The results of the US investigation were released in low-key fashion – posted on the State Department’s website – nearly a month after UN investigators issued their own report accusing Myanmar’s military of acting with “genocidal intent” and calling for the country’s commander-in-chief and five generals to be prosecuted under international law.
The military in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, where Buddhism is the main religion, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.
US Senior State Department officials said the objective of the investigation was not to determine genocide but to “document the facts” on the atrocities to guide US policy aimed at holding the perpetrators accountable. The report, however, proposes no new steps.
One of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would be up to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo whether to make such a “legal” designation in the future and did not rule out the possibility.
A declaration of genocide by the US government, which has only gone as far as labeling the crackdown “ethnic cleansing,” could have legal implications of committing Washington to stronger punitive measures against Myanmar. This has made some in the Trump administration wary of issuing such an assessment.
The International Criminal Court last week said it had begun an examination of whether the alleged forced deportations of Rohingya could constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Asked whether the new US findings could be used to bolster such international prosecution, the State Department official said no decision had been made on seeking “judicial accountability” over the Rohingya crisis.
The Trump administration, which has been criticized by human rights groups and some US lawmakers for a cautious response to Myanmar, could now face added pressure to take a tougher stand.
Sarah Margon, director of the Washington office of Human Right Watch, said: “What’s missing now is a clear indication of whether the US government intends to pursue meaningful accountability and help ensure justice for so many victims.”
The United States on Monday announced it was almost doubling its aid for displaced Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh and Myanmar, with an extra $185 million.
“The stories from some refugees show a pattern of planning and pre-meditation,” the report said, citing the military’s confiscation in advance of knives and other tools that could be used as weapons.
About 80 percent of refugees surveyed said they witnessed a killing, most often by military or police, according to the report.
“Reports of mutilation included the cutting and spreading of entrails, severed limbs or hands/feet, pulling out nails or burning beards and genitals to force a confession, or being burned alive,” the report said.
Later on Monday, the Public International Law and Policy Group, a Washington-based human rights law firm contracted by the State Department to conduct the refugee interviews, issued a companion report saying it provided 15,000 pages of documentation of “atrocity crimes.”
The State Department’s investigation was modeled on a US forensic examination of mass atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region in 2004, which led to a US declaration of genocide that culminated in sanctions against the Sudanese government.
Any stiffer measures against Myanmar authorities could be tempered, though, by US concerns about complicating relations between civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the powerful military which might push Myanmar closer to China.
The US government on Aug. 17 imposed sanctions on four military and police commanders and two army units but Myanmar’s military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, was spared. Further targeted sanctions have been under consideration, officials said earlier.
The Rohingya, who regard themselves as native to Rakhine State, are widely considered as interlopers by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and are denied citizenship.
Irrawaddy News
UK’s Hunt Says Pressed Suu Kyi on ‘Justice and Accountability’ for Rohingya
/in NewsNAYPYITAW — Myanmar must ensure there is “no hiding place” for those responsible for crimes against its Rohingya minority if it is to avoid a lasting stain on the country’s reputation, Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said on Thursday.
Hunt told Reuters he pressed Myanmar’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, on the importance of holding the armed forces accountable for any atrocities, adding that if that did not happen within the country other options should be considered, including referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“If there isn’t accountability through domestic processes the international community will not let it rest at that,” Hunt said in an interview at the end of a two-day visit to the former British colony previously known as Burma.
“We need to be absolutely clear that there can be no hiding place for anyone responsible for these kinds of atrocities.”
Myanmar’s main government spokesman, U Zaw Htay, was unavailable for comment.
United Nations-mandated investigators have said Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya with “genocidal intent” in an operation in Rakhine State, in the west of the country, that drove more than 700,000 refugees across the border to Bangladesh.
The investigators called for commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and five generals to be prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Myanmar has rejected the UN findings as “one-sided.” It says the military action, which followed militant attacks on security forces in August last year, was a legitimate counterinsurgency operation.
Myanmar has launched several domestic probes that have largely dismissed allegations made by Rohingya refugees. In July, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appointed a commission chaired by retired Filipino diplomat Rosario Manalo to investigate the allegations of human rights violations.
Reuters case raised
Hunt said he had witnessed a “climate of fear” during a visit to Rakhine, where he was taken to empty centers built by Myanmar to house Rohingya the government says it is ready to welcome back. Refugees needed to see “accountability and justice” for atrocities to feel confident enough to return, he said. “If there isn’t accountability and justice, this will be as big a stain on Burma’s history as the Khmer Rouge are for Cambodia.”
Asked whether he would support referring Myanmar to the ICC, Hunt said there were “a number of different options.”
In separate comments on Twitter, Hunt noted an ICC referral would need the support of the UN Security Council “which it may not get so we need to look at other options too.”
A Security Council referral would need nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the permanent members Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France. Diplomats say Russia and China are unlikely to agree to such a move.
The ICC declined to comment. On Tuesday, the ICC prosecutor said her office had begun a preliminary examination into whether alleged forced deportations of Rohingya from Myanmar into Bangladesh could constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
During his trip, Hunt visited a group supporting political prisoners in Yangon and met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital, Naypyitaw. The military declined Hunt’s request for a meeting, he said.
Hunt said he was “extremely concerned” about the case of two Reuters journalists who were arrested last December while investigating a massacre in Rakhine.
Reporters Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted this month under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Hunt said he raised specific concerns with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi about the conviction and asked her to consider giving them a pardon.
“She indicated that the judicial processes would probably need to be concluded before that could be considered, but I did put that squarely on the table as something I hoped she would consider,” he said.
“This is a critical moment for Burma as one of the newest democracies in the world to show that its court system is effective and there is due process, and I think there are a number of grounds for concern that that didn’t happen in this case.”
Irrawaddy News
U.K. Says Myanmar May Need to Be Referred to ICC over Rohingya
/in NewsLONDON—British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday that the international community should consider referring the treatment of Rohingya in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) unless those responsible are tried and held accountable in the country.
“If there is not going to be accountability and justice in Burma, then the international community needs to look at all options including ICC referral,” Hunt said on Twitter, posting during his visit to Myanmar.
“The latter would need the support of the Security Council, which it may not get, so we need to look at other options too.”
Irrawaddy News
Myanmar: UN Fact-Finding Mission releases its full account of massive violations by military in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States
/in News18 September 2018
GENEVA (18 September 2018) – The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar on Tuesday released the full 440-page account of the findings of its 15-month examination of the situation in three states in Myanmar. The report also makes dozens of recommendations, including to the United Nations and the international community and to the Government of Myanmar. It reiterates the Fact-Finding Mission’s call for the investigation and prosecution of Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and his top military leaders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“Peace will not be achieved while the Tatmadaw remains above the law,” Marzuki Darusman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission stated. “The Tatmadaw is the greatest impediment to Myanmar’s development as a modern democratic nation. The Commander-in-Chief of the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing, and all the current leadership must be replaced, and a complete restructuring must be undertaken to place the Tatmadaw under full civilian control. Myanmar’s democratic transition depends on it.”
Following the release of its 20-page report to the Human Rights Council of its main findings on 27 August 2018, the Mission has now released its full report, unprecedented in its scope. The full report establishes the clear patterns of violations by the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, across the country, and the legal analysis on which the recommendations are based.
The three members of the Fact-Finding Mission will present their report to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday morning.
Drawing on 875 detailed interviews conducted in locations in five countries, the report illustrates, in graphic detail, the violent modus operandi that is the hallmark of Tatmadaw operations against its own people. The Mission was struck by how similar the Tatmadaw operations and conduct were in all three States.
“During their operations the Tatmadaw has systematically targeted civilians, including women and children, committed sexual violence, voiced and promoted exclusionary and discriminatory rhetoric against minorities, and established a climate of impunity for its soldiers,” said Marzuki Darusman. “The full findings we are releasing today show why, in our report to the Human Rights Council, we insist that the perpetrators of the gross human rights violations and international crimes, committed in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States must not go unpunished. They also show why the top generals should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in Rakhine State. I have never been confronted by crimes as horrendous and on such a scale as these.”
The report sets out in extensive detail its findings on the extreme violence perpetrated against the Rohingya in Rakhine State since 25 August 2017, in what the Tatmadaw referred to as ‘clearance operations’. It documents in unsparing detail how the Tatmadaw took the lead in killing thousands of Rohingya civilians, as well as forced disappearances, mass gang rape and the burning of hundreds of villages.
Through first-hand testimony from hundreds of victims and witnesses, the report provides harrowing details of some of the most serious mass-killings that took place during the ‘clearance operations’. These operations – including those in Min Gyi (known in Rohingya as Tula Toli), Chut Pyin and Maung Nu – involved planned and deliberately executed mass killing in which “dozens and, in some cases hundreds of men, women and children were killed”, the report says.
The report also details how the Tatmadaw perpetrated similar patterns of violations in numerous other villages. The Mission has corroborated Tatmadaw ‘clearance-operations’ in a total of 54 locations, and received first-hand accounts of additional operations in a further 22 locations.
“The horrors inflicted on Rohingya men, women and children during the August 2017 operations, including their indiscriminate killing, rise to the level of both war crimes and crimes against humanity”, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, another member of the Mission. “The crimes themselves, and the manner in which they were perpetrated, were found to be similar in nature, gravity and scope to those that have allowed for genocidal intent to be established in other contexts,” she added.
The report reveals a pattern of rape and other forms of sexual violence committed on a shocking scale. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Rohingya women and girls were brutally raped, including in public mass gang rapes. Many victims were then killed or mutilated. This represents a particularly serious pattern of orchestrated and condoned sexual violence. The report concludes that “rape and sexual violence are part of a deliberate strategy to intimidate, terrorise or punish a civilian population, and are used as a tactic of war.”
The experts also expressed grave concern at the conviction and imprisonment of two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. “These journalists have engaged in legitimate work investigating the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya men in Inn Din, an incident we have now independently corroborated,” commented the experts. “While the Reuters investigation brought this incident to light, regrettably it is just the tip of an iceberg of violent mass killings, others of which are detailed in our report.”
The report includes satellite images, setting out detailed analysis that corroborates information provided by victims and witnesses. The images show the transformation of much of northern Rakhine State over the past year, with at least Rohingya 392 villages razed to the ground, providing irrefutable documentation of the scale of destruction perpetrated.
Further satellite imagery shows that the burning has been followed with the clearance by bulldozers of large areas of land. “Through this process, many Rohingya villages have been rendered unrecognisable, devoid of all structures, trees and vegetation”, the report states. “Now, new security structures, infrastructure projects, and new villages, almost exclusively built for other non-Rohingya ethnic communities, are being constructed where Rohingya homes once stood.” In this light, the report casts serious doubts over plans for repatriation: “In the current circumstances, returns are not possible,” it says.
The report further details how the extreme violence perpetrated against the Rohingya in 2017 and their mass expulsion can only be properly understood against a backdrop of decades of institutionalised oppression and persecution affecting the lives of the Rohingya “from birth to death”. This includes the denial of legal status and identity; restrictions on freedom of movement, access to food, livelihood, health and education; and restrictions affecting private life such as marriage and birth. The Mission has also investigated thoroughly the 2012 violence between the ethnic Rakhine and the Rohingya, with a focus on the events in Maungdaw, Sittwe and Kyaukpyu. It concluded that the 2012 violence was not purely “inter-communal,” as asserted by the authorities, but actively instigated, through concerted hate campaigns, with the involvement of the Tatmadaw, the Police, other State institutions and many figures of authority.
The Mission also documented serious human rights violations by the Tatmadaw against ethnic Rakhine communities, including forced labour, sexual violence, killings and forced evictions. “Human rights violations against ethnic Rakhine communities have largely gone unnoticed,” underlined the experts, calling for further investigations into violations against them.
Although their violations are nowhere near the same scale as those by the Tatmadaw, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) operating in Kachin and Shan States have not escaped scrutiny by the Mission. The report concludes that ethnic armed organizations have carried out extrajudicial killings, failed to take precautionary measures to protect civilians during attacks, destroyed property and forcibly recruited civilians, among other abuses.
Although international attention has focused overwhelmingly on the situation in Rakhine State, the report also sets out the findings of its detailed investigation into violations perpetrated in the northern states of Shan and Kachin. The report finds that the actions of the Tatmadaw in both Kachin and Shan States since 2011 amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
While the conflict in the north is ostensibly between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups, civilians in Kachin and Shan are targeted, often simply for belonging to the same ethnic group as the Tatmadaw’s opponents. Through specific case studies, the Mission establishes the patterns of behaviour of the Tatmadaw in the northern States.
“As in Rakhine, civilians are targeted for killings, rape, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, forced labour, torture and ill-treatment, and persecution based on ethnic or religious grounds,” said Chris Sidoti, the Fact-Funding mission’s other member. “To date, the long-standing conflicts in the north of Myanmar have received inadequate international attention. We hope our report will raise awareness of the critical situation in Kachin and Shan. We are seriously concerned that fighting is continuing in these regions, with new allegations of serious violations against civilians continuing to emerge.”
The report also finds a prevalent pattern of destruction of civilian homes and property in the north. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Kachin and Shan, and many continue to live in dire conditions in displaced persons’ camps.
The report also investigated the rampant hate speech in Myanmar disseminated through public pronouncements, religious teachings and traditional and social media including Facebook. “The Myanmar authorities have emboldened those who preach hatred and silenced those who stand for tolerance and human rights,” the report notes. “By creating an environment where extremists’ discourse can thrive, human rights violations are legitimised, and incitement to discrimination and violence facilitated.”
“The Tatmadaw acts with complete impunity and has never been held accountable for the violations of international law it is consistently involved in,” the report concludes. The report calls on the United Nations Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, or to establish an ad hoc international criminal tribunal. It also calls for targeted individual sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes against those who appear most responsible, and an arms embargo on Myanmar. The experts identified six individual senior commanders as most responsible, including the Tatmadaw Commander in Chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing. An unpublished list containing additional names will be given to the High Commissioner for Human Rights who will be able to share it at her discretion with any competent and credible body pursuing accountability.
“Addressing situations like that in Myanmar touches on the very purpose of the United Nations,” the experts noted, emphasising the imperative for the organisation to continue its important work in country. “We call on all the competent organs and agencies of the UN to step up to the task, and to act with urgency and in accordance with the principles of human rights.”
“The international community has failed. Let us now resolve not to fail the people of Myanmar again,” they added.
ENDS
Media products including videos, slideshows, satellite imagery and analysis and infographics are available at the Mission’s websitewww.ffmmyanmar.org
The full report will be available on the report page or download here
Marzuki Darusman, lawyer and human rights campaigner and former Attorney-General of Indonesia, is chair of the fact-finding mission. The other two members of the fact-finding mission are Radhika Coomaraswamy, a lawyer and former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict; and Christopher Sidoti, international human rights lawyer and former Australian Human Rights Commissioner.
Contact information: Nathan Thompson, consultant.thompson@ohchr.org +41 76 691 0799
Report of the Independent International Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar – A/HRC/39/64
Report of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar – A/HRC/39/CRP.2
UN Human Rights Council
Human trafficking on China border can only be addressed by ending Burma Army offensives and war crimes
/in Member statementsStatement on # Myanmar’s Anti-Trafficking in Persons Day
Human trafficking on China border can only be addressed by ending Burma Army offensives and war crimes
statement by# KWAT
September 13, 2018
Read more