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 National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum 2024
- Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 1 to 7, 2024)
- Red Cross chief calls for greater aid access after visit to Myanmar
- Over 67 killed by airstrikes in Arakan State since Sunday; ICRC requests humanitarian access during visit to Naypyidaw
- Myanmar junta airstrikes kill dozens, including prisoners, rebels say
Cover Jobs Offer Some Protection for Myanmar’s Lone Reporters
/in NewsWASHINGTON —
One works as a teacher. Others pretend to be students and shopkeepers. In Myanmar, their day jobs help mask their real profession as journalists.
With the space for independent journalism all but eliminated since the February 2021 military coup, some journalists still working inside Myanmar are using cover jobs as a form of protection.
The trend underscores both the resiliency of Myanmar media and the threats posed by the country’s military, analysts say.
Since the military overthrew the civilian-led government over three years ago, the junta has cracked down hard on independent media, with over a dozen outlets banned and even more journalists jailed.
The risky environment prompted entire outlets to flee into exile and forced some journalists to stop working entirely. But some reporters decided to stay in Myanmar, where they report underground at great risk to their safety.
“We can be arrested by the military at any time,” one journalist secretly working inside Myanmar told VOA. They requested anonymity for safety reasons.
“Since the coup, I have already told people around me that I will no longer work as a journalist,” said the reporter. Instead, they use the cover of being a student studying foreign languages.
Another journalist in Myanmar said they convinced people in their town “that I abandoned journalist work.” A job as a teacher helps hide that they still work as a reporter.
From Exile, Myanmar’s Media Navigate Risks to Get News
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Like all the journalists inside Myanmar who spoke with VOA for this article, they requested their identity be hidden for safety reasons.
With a history punctuated by periods of military rule, Myanmar’s media already had a playbook for creative ways to continue reporting and stay safe.
The trend of cover jobs is the latest sign “that Myanmar journalists do not want to give up easily,” a journalist who fled Myanmar after the coup and is now based in Bangkok told VOA.
Despite being outside Myanmar, they requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
In 2023, Myanmar ranked second in the world in terms of the number of journalists jailed over their work, with at least 43 behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ.
Journalists in Myanmar say they believe the arrests are intended to silence media.
“The junta wants the country to be in darkness, and they don’t want the world to know the real situation in the country,” the teacher-journalist said. “This is the reason why the junta tries to arrest journalists.”
The targeting of journalists parallels the military’s repression of the entire population. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says the military and its affiliated groups are responsible for over 4,500 deaths, and that more than 20,000 people are currently detained for resisting the coup.
Myanmar’s military did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, says media inside the country take big risks.
“Journalists literally take their lives in their hands to do their work in Myanmar,” Andrews told VOA shortly before the third anniversary of the coup.
“The level of courage and commitment demonstrated by journalists working in Myanmar is just stunning and inspiring,” he said.
As recently as January, a journalist named Myat Thu Tan was shot and killed while in military custody in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
A third journalist still inside the country said reporters “are the most wanted persons.”
That journalist, who also asked for anonymity, is pretending to be a student studying foreign languages.
Among the numerous challenges of working undercover is a sense of isolation. The fear of being discovered by the military means they sometimes don’t even talk to other reporters in the country.
“Local journalists live in silence, so it is difficult to know each other,” said one of the journalists, with a cover as a student.
Keeping a secret life for years at a time is also exhausting, experts say.
“They have to hide themselves from friends and family. They have to basically create an entire second life while trying to very subtly do their part in the revolution against the military,” Oliver Spencer, a Chiang Mai-based expert on press freedom in Myanmar, told VOA.
The journalists, however, say being able to keep reporting inside Myanmar makes it worth it. The journalist who works as a teacher said they get a better sense of public opinion.
“If there are no journalists in the country, the junta will surely do what they want,” they said.
Voa News
Food Shortage in Sagaing Rice Basket as Myanmar Junta Raids Force 50,000 to Flee
/in NewsSome 50,000 people have been displaced in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo District since Myanmar junta troops resumed deadly attacks on their villages last month, according to residents and volunteers helping displaced people.
The total number of residents displaced since the 2021 coup now exceeds 70,000 in Shwebo, where rice fields are lying fallow amid a growing food shortage.
A junta unit calling itself the Ogre Column has been raiding the district’s townships of Shwebo, Ye-U, Khin-U, Taze and Depayin since a ceasefire was agreed in neighboring Shan State in January.
Over 20,000 people displaced by junta raids between 2021 and December last year remain homeless. Over 20,000 more were displaced when junta troops raided their villages in January.
Junta forces have deployed the notorious “four cuts” strategy – designed to cut off food sources, funds, information and recruits – in the resistance hotbed of Sagaing.
On Wednesday, around 30,000 people from some 40 villages in western Taze fled when the regime called in airstrikes and infantry reinforcements, a member of the Shwebo District people’s administration told The Irrawaddy.
The junta onslaught came after the People’s Defense Force (PDF) seized and torched the Kan Htoo Ma village police station, between Taze and Ye-U towns, where around 30 junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militias had been deployed.
Shwebo District is a rice-growing area where the country’s most popular variety, Shwebo Pawhsan, is cultivated. However, junta raids have disrupted summer paddy cultivation, sparking food shortages.
“These days, we spend more time fleeing from our homes than sleeping there. We can stay at home no more than five days in a month. And then we live in constant fear that soldiers will arrive in the village at any time. This is the time to grow summer paddy, but we can do nothing,” said a displaced villager from Ye-U Township.
Locals in Taze Township said they are unable to grow summer paddy due to the raids, adding they dare not sleep in their homes as junta troops tend to come at night.
“People flee because junta troops kill, rape, amputate and burn alive civilians during their raids,” said a member of a support group for displaced people in Depayin Township.
“And with the cold season not yet over, the cold nights mean displaced people need blankets. They also need food.”
Junta air raids in Taze Township killed a 60-year-old man and injured two travelers and a local woman on Feb. 14-15.
On Monday, junta troops backed by airstrikes clashed with local resistance fighters on the border of Taze and Ye-U, said information officer Ko Htoo Kant Zaw of the People’s Defense Comrades.
In Shwebo Township, Pyu Saw Htee militias from Myinsee village killed a three-year-old boy, a 25-year-old pregnant woman, three women aged 52, 62, 75, and a man, 62, on Feb. 15-16, according to local resistance groups.
Myinsee is one of eight junta-armed Pyu Saw Htee villages in Shwebo Township.
Ogre Column troops killed 14 civilians including a pregnant woman during raids in Ye-U, Khin-U and Depayin townships between early January and Feb. 12, according to residents. One resistance fighter was also killed in Ye-U.
The Shwebo raids involve troops from Light Infantry Battalion 708 based in Yangon Region’s Taikkyi Township, Infantry Battalion 11 based in Ayeyarwady’s Pathein Township, No. 8 Basic Military Training Depot based in Shwebo town, and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militias.
Shwebo District suffered fewer raids during the anti-regime Operation 1027 offensive from November to early January in northern Shan State. However, junta forces intensified their attacks on Sagaing villages after the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance agreed to a ceasefire with the regime in Shan State in mid-January.
Irrawaddy News
Infants, Pregnant Woman Slain as Myanmar Junta Continues War Against Its People
/in NewsWarning: Graphic content
At least 39 people – including children, women and senior citizens – were killed in Myanmar over the past eight days by junta forces, according to local media and resistance groups.
Most of those slain were civilians, and they were killed by indiscriminate bombing or extrajudicial killings, an analysis by The Irrawaddy found.
The war crimes occurred in Bago, Mandalay and Sagaing regions as well as Mon and Shan states from Feb. 14 and 21.
On Wednesday, as clashes between the regime and anti-regime forces broke out in and around Kale town in Sagaing Region, regime forces randomly shelled residential wards of the town.
Three civilians were killed and another injured in the bombing, according to local media reports quoting residents.
On Monday, junta forces detained and killed three members of a People’s Defense Force and five other civilians – including three teens aged 14 and 15 – during a raid on a resistance sentry camp near Sakarpin village in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township, the Madaya Township People’s Defense Group told local media.
Junta propaganda Telegram channels reported that the people were dead when junta troops clashed with them. They said military security forces found the eight bodies during an attack on PDF forces stationed at a monastery near the village.
Photos taken by local residents show all eight victims had their arms tied behind their backs.
Six more civilians – including three senior citizens aged 62 and 75, a three-year-old boy and a woman who was five-months pregnant – were killed by regime forces and allied pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia members from a junta military base in Myin See village in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township on Feb. 15 and 16.
All the victims were killed while they were in huts near their farms in the township, a member of the Shwebo Township Defense Force told The Irrawaddy.
On Wednesday, a junta helicopter gunship used 81mm explosives and a machine gun to bomb and strafe three villages on the east bank of the Sittaung River in Bago Region’s Yedashe Township even though there was no fighting in the area, reports said.
During the attacks on residential areas, four people – including two children aged eight and 10 – were slain and five others were injured, the Yedashe Township PDF Daung Minn Thar said.
Photos show one child was hit by machine gun fire in the neck and the other in the head.
The country’s oldest ethnic revolutionary group, the Karen National Union, said that the junta continued artillery and airstrikes as well as drone strikes on civilian targets in villages in its territory in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi Township and Mon State’s Ye Township, killing at least four people and injuring many others.
The junta attacks also destroyed many homes and schools and killed livestock, which are a vital source of income for residents of the villages.
On Monday, regime forces and allied Pa-O militia members used mortars and drones to bombard a convoy of internally displaced persons in southern Shan State’s Hsihseng town, killing seven civilians, the Pa-O National Liberation Army, an anti-regime ethnic revolutionary group, said.
Two civilians, including a six-month-old infant, were killed, and seven others injured in Hsihseng Township on Saturday as regime forces and a pro-junta Pa-O militia based in Ban Yin town shelled two nearby villages with more than 40 bombs.
The bombs also destroyed civilian homes. The regime deliberately attacked civilian targets even though there were no clashes or PNLA bases in the villages, the ethnic army said.
On Feb. 14, a junta aircraft also bombed a small village in Hsihseng township five times, killing two residents and injuring eight more, the PNLA said, adding that no fighting was occurring in the area. Photos show civilian homes were destroyed.
As of Wednesday, 4,569 people – including pro-democracy activists and civilians – had been killed by regime forces since the Feb 1, 2021 coup, according to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Irrawaddy News
UN condemns airstrikes on Karenni primary schools
/in NewsThe U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released a statement condemning airstrikes on two primary schools in Demoso Township of Karenni State that killed four children, ages 12-14, and three adults on Monday, Feb. 5.
“UNICEF strongly condemns any strikes against schools and places of learning, which must always be safe spaces for children,” the statement said.
It added that attacks on schools are a “grave” violation of children’s rights and may be a violation of international law. Schools, and other places of learning, should always remain a safe place for children, according to UNICEF.
“We join their strong condemnation of any strikes against schools and places of learning,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General.
The Karenni Interim Executive Council (IEC) and National Unity Government (NUG) accused the military of deliberately targeting children. Both groups have called for international justice and accountability.
Regime media denied the military carried out airstrikes on Feb. 5 and accused DVB of spreading false information. Pro-military channels on the social media platform Telegram confirmed that airstrikes took place, but claimed that the military was targeting the People’s Defense Force (PDF) and Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) members working at the schools.
DVB News
Human Rights Situation weekly update (February 1 to 7, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Feb 1 to 7, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Tanintharyi Region, and Kayin State from February 1st to 7th. 4 children died and 10 children were injured by the bomb dropping airstrike of Military Junta in Demoso Township, Kayah State on January 5th. Military Troop arrested over 300 civilians and used them as human shields from Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Mandalay Region, and Kayin State. A female political prisoner from Mandalay O Bo Prison died from a lack of medical treatment and care.
Over 8 civilians died and over 30 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 12 underaged children were injured and 9 died when the Military Junta committed abuses.7 civilians were injured and 1 died by the landmine of Military Junta.
Infogram
Junta troops seize over 300 villagers in central Myanmar
/in NewsDuring the raid, troops shot dead a woman fleeing the village, villagers said.
One woman died and over 300 villagers were detained after a junta raid in central Myanmar, residents and an armed resistance member told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
Troops shot 21-year-old Khin Soe Wai while she fled her village in Mandalay township, locals said.
Over 50 soldiers stormed Kan Swei village following a clash with local resistance forces on Sunday. Mandalay and Myingyan People’s Defense Forces attacked junta troops with drones only half a mile away.
After shooting Khin Soe Wai, villagers said the column occupied the village’s monastery, interrogating more than 100 villagers on Tuesday and burning down three homes.
Troops took more than 30 of them to a village in nearby Natogyi township.
After arriving in Na Nwin Taw Bo, soldiers arrested over 300 more villagers, who have not been released yet, Myingyan-based defense forces member Bo Moe Kyo told RFA on Wednesday.
“On the fifth, a woman from Kan Swei who ran away was shot dead,” he said. “About 150 villagers in Kan Swei were detained in the monastery. They were beaten and tortured. About 30 of them were taken by the junta troops.”
Since the raid, some 5,000 residents from eight villages in Myingyan township and Natogyi township have been forced to flee due to the junta column, he said.
“Na Nwin Taw Bo was raided by the column again. There were no casualties. But they arrested everyone they met: children, adults and women,” he said. “More than 300 villagers were arrested. They are still being held as hostage.”
Calls by RFA to Mandalay’s junta spokesperson Thein Htay to learn more about the raid went unanswered on Wednesday.
In January, four women and five men from Mandalay region’s Myingyan township were arrested and killed by junta troops.
As of Feb. 6, over 4,400 people across the country have been killed since the military seized power three years ago, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
RFA News