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
No return home: Those who no chance to go back home from behind bars
/in NewsOver the past three years of this Spring Revolution, activists and civilians across the country have been arbitrarily arrested by junta in relation to the revolution, on a widespread and systematics scale. The junta has been detaining individuals in police station, interrogation centers, and prison under their control, torturing them physically, mentally, and sexually in various brutal ways.
The junta continues and conduct interrogation using brutal measures with no consideration for human dignity and without taking accountability for the subsequent injuries and deaths. From February 2021 to June 2024, a total of (1,853) people were kill after being arrested and detained under various circumstances across the country.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
UN SECURITY COUNCIL MUST TAKE IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION TO COORDINATE PROTECTION OF ROHINGYA AND OTHER ETHNIC MINORITIES IN MYANMAR
/in Member statements, Press Releases and Statements, ResourcesTo: Members of the UN Security Council
Copy: Members of the UN Human Rights Council
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
27 June 2024
Re: UN Security Council must take immediate intervention to coordinate protection of Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar
Your Excellencies,
We, 89 Myanmar, regional, and international civil society organizations, strongly urge the UN Security Council (UNSC) to immediately convene an emergency meeting and coordinate an intervention to halt surging violence and atrocities, and protect Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Rakhine State and across Myanmar. We call on the UNSC to urgently adopt a binding resolution with targeted economic sanctions, an arms and aviation fuel embargo against the junta, and a referral of the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or a creation of a criminal tribunal.
In recent months, the Myanmar military junta’s war of terror against Myanmar people and its fighting with the Arakan Army (AA) have resulted in horrendous human rights violations and international crimes in Rakhine State. Across the country civilian populations from Rohingya, Rakhine, Kaman, Chin, Mro, and other ethnic communities are suffering the constant reality of the junta’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, including airstrikes, artillery shelling, and massacres, with no end in sight. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported to the Human Rights Council on 18 June, “The military has lost control over a considerable amount of territory, so it is resorting to increasingly extreme measures.”
Reports indicate that, on 17 May, Rohingya homes have been targeted, looted, and torched, and four Rohingya civilians were beheaded by AA troops in Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State. Over 200,000 Rohingya civilians in Buthidaung Township—home to Rohingya survivors from 2017 genocide—have been forcbily displaced in consequence of the AA’s arson attacks, abductions, enforced disappearance, and other serious human rights abuses, as well as its intense fighting with the military junta. Amidst reports of blocked roads and extortion by AA soldiers, Rohingya have been displaced in open fields with no access to medicine, clean water, and adequate food. Many have lost direct contact with their families due to telecommunication blackouts imposed by the junta, and some have had their phones taken away by AA soldiers, leaving their families in the dark about their fates.
Atrocities against the Rakhine ethnic group by the Myanmar military junta are also pervasive. On 29 May, the junta brutally tortured and massacred at least 76 men, with knives, gunfire and beatings, and burned most of their bodies to destroy the evidence, during a raid of Byine Phyu Village, Sittwe Township, Rakhine State. Junta soldiers abducted hundreds of villagers, and held women and children captive, denying them food and water and raping them. Over 80 homes and a monastery were burned down. On 4 June, the junta launched a coordinated ground, air, and naval attack on Singaung Village in Thandwe Township, Rakhine State, killing dozens of people. Extreme violence and atrocities are set to continue in Rakhine State as the junta and the AA ordered civilians to evacuate their villages before latest clashes between them.
Since February, the junta has further systematically arrested, abducted, and enlisted by force ethnic youth from Rakhine State and refugee camps in Bangladesh to serve as frontline fighters, human shields, human minesweepers, and porters—including forcing them on frontlines to die. Hundreds of Rakhine youth have been arrested, held incommunicado, and forced to join the Myanmar military. Alongside them, thousands of Rohingya in villages and internment camps in Rakhine State have reportedly been forcibly enlisted or persuaded with offers of potential freedom of movement, money, rice, or national ID cards, to “fight for [their] faith”, or threatened with a humanitarian aid block. On the Bangladesh border, vulnerable Rohingya refugees have been kidnapped from camps and forced into the Myanmar military to fight the AA. Abductions were perpetrated by Rohingya militia groups—the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, and the Arakan Rohingya Army—groups reportedly partnering with the junta and denounced by Rohingya civil society and activists as unrepresentative of their community. Rohingya youth are being relentlessly forcibly recruited by the Myanmar military, the perpetrators of genocide against them.
In particular, the junta’s instigation of anti-AA protests and coercion of Rohingya recruits to participate in burning down Rakhine homes compound the plight of the Rohingya community. The acute vulnerability of the Rohingya continues to be systematically exploited by the Myanmar military and other armed groups to exacerbate inter-ethnic and religious conflict between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities, two major ethnic minorities in Rakhine State.
In addition, during times of heightened tension, hate speech against the Rohingya—including the use of terms such as “Bengali terrorists” and “Muslim terrorists”—and the portrayal of all Rohingya as collaborators of the junta have been rampant in statements by organizations, media, and individuals. Such sweeping descriptions of an entire ethnic group and their most predominant religion exacerbate ethno-religious conflict, and escalate public hatred against a severely persecuted ethnic minority of Myanmar.
Excellencies, the international community bears responsibility for the continuation of mass atrocities—massacres, torture, airstrikes, artillery shelling, sexual violence and other gross international crimes—against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities by the military junta, the main perpetrator, in Rakhine State and across Myanmar. After nearly one and a half years since the UNSC’s adoption of Resolution 2669, the junta has continued to massacre civilians. In the first four months of 2024 alone, the junta committed 46 massacres, killing 369 people. Furthermore, despite the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution calling on all states to refrain from the export, sale, or transfer of aviation fuel to Myanmar, UN Member States continue to supply the junta with aviation fuel, enabling them to carry out more airstrikes and other aerial attacks across Myanmar, exacerbating immense human suffering and mass displacement during the grave humanitarian crisis.
To uphold its mandate for international peace and security, the UNSC must convene an emergency meeting and coordinate an immediate intervention to protect civilians and stop the horrific violence against the Rohingya and ethnic minorities in Rakhine State and across Myanmar. Once again, we call on the UNSC to urgently adopt a new resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter that imposes targeted economic sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo against the junta, including a complete ban on all sales, transfers, and diversions of aviation fuel to Myanmar. This resolution must also refer the crisis in Myanmar to the ICC or create a criminal tribunal on Myanmar without delay.
Rohingya, Rakhine, and other ethnic minorities in Rakhine State and across Myanmar will continue to suffer unless and until ongoing crimes are halted by the UNSC’s immediate intervention.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 89 civil society organizations, including eight organizations that have chosen not to disclose their names due to the junta’s continued violence in Myanmar.
Download PDF in English I Burmese
In rare backtrack, junta says it will investigate senior monk’s shooting death
/in NewsThe military first blamed Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa’s death on anti-junta rebels
Myanmar’s military junta announced Friday that it would investigate the shooting death of a senior Buddhist monk, just one day after junta-controlled media denied responsibility.
Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa, the abbot of Win Neinmitayon Monastery in the Bago region, was shot dead Wednesday in his car as it left an airport in the central Mandalay region.
Television broadcaster MRTV announced initially that the abbot’s car was caught in a firefight between junta troops and guerillas from the rebel People’s Defense Forces, a grassroots militia formed by citizens opposed to military rule.
But another monk who was in the car with him said the attack on the car was carried out by junta soldiers.
On Friday, the junta’s chief minister for the Bago region visited the monks of the Win Neinmitayon Monastery and admitted that the military had published incorrect information.
The junta later announced that it would re-examine the incident and respond accordingly.
Related Story
Senior Myanmar monk shot dead by junta soldiers, colleague says
Dhammaduta Buddhist University and the Patriotic Myanmar Monks Union in Yangon released a statement Thursday expressing their condolences over the death of Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa.
The Samgha Samagga, a monk’s association in Mandalay, also released a statement condemning the shooting, labeling the incident as terrorism.
At the time of his death, Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa was 77 years old and had been a monk for 57 years. He also held many advanced Buddhist literature degrees.
RFA News
Human Rights Situation weekly update (June 15 to 21, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from June 15 to 21, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Kachin State, and Rakhine State from June 15th to 21st. The Military Junta used drones and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region and Mon State. The political prisoners from O-Bo Prison, Mandalay Region, and Kyaikmaraw Prison, Mon State, were relocated. The head of the Prison who works under The Military threatened, arrested, and tortured the female political prisoners, and over 80 people were injured in Daik-U Prison, East Bago Region. The Military arrested the civilians who sold and wore the flowers on the birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on June 19th.
Almost 20 civilians died, and over 20 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. The Military Junta arrested over 280 civilians within a week. 3 civilians died in the land mines of the Military Junta Troop.
Infogram
Collapse at notorious Myanmar rare earth mine kills 15 people
/in NewsBoom in unregulated mining is fueled by demand from China and beyond for minerals used in electric vehicles.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of 15 mine workers in northern Myanmar on Friday after a landslide at a rare earths mine, residents said, the latest deaths in an unregulated industry feeding surging demand for the minerals in China and beyond.
Thirty workers, most of them young men, were trapped in the Pang War mine in Kachin state when the collapse occurred at around midnight on Wednesday, a relative of one of the missing miners told Radio Free Asia.
“Fifteen bodies have been found so far. Two women were among them,” said the resident, who like other sources in this article declined to be identified for security reasons.
A Chinese national and 13 other workers were still missing on Thursday, residents told RFA.
The landslide was the second major disaster at the mine this month. A June 4 landslide killed more than 20 people, including three Chinese citizens.
There have been several other smaller landslides there since late May. Wednesday’s slide overtook a living area and facility where the minerals are processed, a Pang War miner said.
“Currently, it is the rainy season,” he said. “Over the past week, continuous rainfall has weakened the ground.”
Another Pang War resident told RFA that landslides weren’t a common occurrence during previous rainy seasons.
“However, due to the fragmentation caused by extensive digging, the mountains have weakened significantly and lost their stability,” he said. “Additionally, deforestation has exacerbated this situation.”
Elements for electric vehicles
A surge in the illegal mining of rare earth metals in northern Myanmar is being driven by demand from neighboring China for terbium and dysprosium – elements that are used in the production of electric vehicles, environmental activists say.
Pang War is in an area under the control of junta forces but the mining and the pollution it generates are largely unregulated.
RFA called Kachin state’s junta spokesperson, Moe Min Thein, for information on the landslide but he did not immediately respond.
Environmentalists say companies from China, where mining has become increasingly regulated due to safety and environmental concerns, fund the mining and ship the ore across the nearby border for processing and sale into global supply chains.
Chinese nationals are increasingly seen working at the mines, residents say. RFA contacted China’s embassy in Myanmar for comment but it did not reply by the time of publication.
The number of rare earth mines in resource-rich Kachin state grew by 40% between 2021 and 2023, the environmental group Global Witness said in a recent report. There are more than 300 mines in the state’s Special Region 1 of the township, it said.
There has also been an increase of fighting in the state between junta forces and the autonomy-seeking Kachin Independence Army, at times over access to resources and trade routes.
The fighting this year has displaced and killed civilians and comes as forces of the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup have faced setbacks in several parts of the country including Kachin state.
Environmental activists say all sides in Myanmar’s northernmost state seek profits from its resources, including from rare earths.
RFA News
Myanmar: a breakneck speed “disintegration of human rights,” says High Commissioner
/in News, Other Human Rights ReportsMr. President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
As we convene here in the Council, yet again discussing Myanmar, we are bearing witness to a country being suffocated by an illegitimate military regime.
Myanmar is in agonizing pain.
And the disintegration of human rights continues at breakneck speed.
This is a crisis emblematic of a decades-long legacy of military domination, the stifling of dissent, and division.
And right now, these very same dynamics are playing out in terrifying form with the Rohingya and Rakhine communities.
We are hearing stories of horrific war tactics, such as beheadings.
Midnight drone attacks.
The burning of homes as people sleep.
People being shot at as they flee for their lives.
The military has lost control over a considerable amount of territory. So it is resorting to increasingly extreme measures.
Forced conscription. Indiscriminate bombardment of towns and villages. Brutal atrocity crimes.
Mr. President,
I have just returned from a visit to south-east Asia.
I had the opportunity to hear from Myanmar civil society on the spiralling regional impacts of the crisis and the urgent need for leadership and influence to halt this catastrophe.
The Myanmar military continues to gain access to foreign currency and weapons it needs to sustain its campaign of terror, while international financial support for the people of Myanmar is meagre at best.
But I also witnessed a profound sense of hope. In my discussions with Myanmar civil society, human rights defenders and refugee communities, it was clear to see there is a new generation of young people from all ethnic communities leading the struggle to create an inclusive vision for the future of Myanmar.
In Malaysia, I met with representatives of almost all ethnic communities – together. A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to meet with Rohingya and other ethnic communities around one table. I was moved by their solidarity and shared hopes.
In Thailand, representatives of Myanmar civil society and human rights defenders from different communities and backgrounds were also united by a common sense of purpose. Their rejection of the military’s seizure of power and violence. Their demand for accountability. Their desire for a better future.
These young people have strong expectations of the international community. They seek for the extent of Myanmar’s suffering to be genuinely acknowledged and given the attention it deserves. They hope that funding will be made available to those on the ground to deliver humanitarian assistance and services directly to communities throughout the country.
They have risked their lives and livelihoods to help communities in need and resist the repression by the military.
And with them, a future is possible.
Mr. President,
We are witnessing a people’s revolution against decades of oppression and violence.
In some areas outside the military’s control, new local governance structures have emerged, supported by ethnic armed groups and activists alike. They are providing food, shelter, education and healthcare for hundreds of thousands who are otherwise receiving little to no humanitarian support.
And they are delivering critically needed protection services in the complete absence of a functioning public system.
The Karenni Interim Executive Council in Kayah State, for example, has created a local governance system, where seven members have been elected by the people to respond to the community’s needs.
I call on all anti-military armed groups to ensure the protection of civilians, defectors and surrendees at all times.
Mr. President,
The people of Myanmar must be spared more despair, more suffering, more fear.
Armed conflicts continue to rage brutally across the country, taking an increasingly grim toll on the lives of civilians. My Office is investigating several reported attacks against civilians in Rakhine State and Sagaing over recent days with large numbers of civilians allegedly killed — in airstrikes, naval artillery barrages and shootings.
I am very concerned about the situation in Maungdaw. The Arakan Army this weekend gave all remaining residents – including a large Rohingya population – a warning to evacuate.
But Rohingya have no options. There is nowhere to flee.
Following a similar pattern in Buthidaung, where Rohingya were ordered to flee, and then the town burned, I fear we are – yet again — about to bear witness to displacement, destruction and abuses.
The military also reportedly ordered evacuation of ethnic Rakhine villages around Sittwe, where they have been conducting mass arrests in recent days.
In another instance, the village of Byaing Phyu was reportedly emptied of its several hundred residents, as the military tried to identify men of fighting age who sympathised with their armed opponent, the Arakan Army.
Men were separated from women. Dozens of men were allegedly tortured, shot and killed. Multiple reports allege that at least five women were also raped and killed in the incident. Their village was burned. Hundreds of men taken away are now missing.
In a cynical move, the military has pressured and threatened young Rohingya men to join their ranks. Some reports have indicated thousands of Rohingya youth have been conscripted into the very same forces that displaced hundreds of thousands of their community in 2016 and 2017.
In response, the Arakan Army has exhorted Rohingya to fight with them against the military. They have targeted their communities by forcibly displacing residents. On multiple occasions, they have detained or killed men of fighting age who they suspected of taking up arms against them.
These tactics have brought back the shocking images and memories from 2017 of systematic terrorisation, persecution and forced displacement of populations. Today, sections of Maungdaw and Buthidaung have been alternately burned. Ethnic Rakhine houses and neighbourhoods were set alight, followed days later by the burning of Rohingya villages.
And tens of thousands of civilians from these communities have been forced to flee, among them entire Rohingya communities with no guarantees of finding safe haven. Over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are still living in limbo in dire conditions, with no prospect for durable solutions.
All this, in the face of binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice for the protection of Rohingya while it examines the case alleging genocide brought before it by the Gambia and other intervening Member States.
Accountability, including in proceedings currently pending before the International Criminal Court, is absolutely critical. The failures to ensure accountability in Myanmar’s past transition, are now allowing history to repeat itself and are haunting the present and the future.
Mr. President,
The situation in Rakhine State is – tragically – just one example of how this coup, which has resulted in three years of conflict, has brought pain and suffering to an entire country.
The attacks by the military have been, and continue to be, indiscriminate.
Since February 2021, at least 5,280 civilians, including 1,022 women and 667 children, have been killed at the hands of the military. At least 26,865 individuals have been arrested and 20,592 remain in detention.
There are now three million people internally displaced by these conflicts, the vast majority still without proper shelter. Without access to food or water. Without essential medicines and healthcare. And so many more of the cruel consequences of the military’s continued denial of humanitarian access remain invisible and under-reported.
Mr. President,
The violence must end. The attacks against civilians must end. The forced conscription must end. And the denial of humanitarian assistance must end.
I urge all parties to prevent the recurrence of the atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017.
I also call on countries in the region to ensure international protection, and provision of adequate shelter, support and long-term access to essential services to people fleeing the violence and persecution. Special provisions need to be made for human rights defenders, who are particularly exposed and often face transnational threats and refoulement.
Nobody should be forcibly returned to Myanmar at this time.
We need an urgent rethink of how we can respond collectively to this unmitigated crisis.
I had the opportunity to discuss this with the leadership of the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic and Malaysia as the current and future ASEAN Chair, as well as with Thailand as a near neighbour.
It is time to go beyond the ASEAN Five Point Consensus that has failed to stem the violence or restore democracy.
ASEAN’s efforts must be reenergised and backed by a consortium of influential States to develop a new roadmap that can restore the destiny of Myanmar to its people. This must factor in the new realities of local governance emerging on the ground that can provide building blocks towards a democratic future from the bottom up.
Myanmar’s people must have a place at the table. This means reaching out to the democracy movement and youth, involving them meaningfully in the resolution of this crisis.
The new generation in Myanmar – particularly the women’s leadership that has emerged – should be supported in a “visioning process” for the future of the country.
With more attention, more investment, more political will and more action, this situation can be turned around for a better tomorrow for the people of Myanmar.
Thank you.
OHCHR