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
Attacks from the Air:Airstrikes Perpetrated by the Military Junta in Northern Shan State, Kachin State and Karenni State in November 2024
/in Briefing Papers, ND-Burma's ReportsThis briefing paper by the Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma) will analyze the impact of the airstrikes perpetrated against innocent civilians by the military junta in Northern Shan State, Kachin State and Karenni State throughout November 2024.
Desk research compiled by ND-Burma in English and Burmese, combined with data from our members, found twenty-five incidents of airstrikes took place in November in these specific areas, leading to 25 adults killed and ten children, 74 wounded, including 23 adults and 51 children. There were at least 77 damaged properties, including a church, monastery, hospital, tea shop, five office buildings, and six vehicles.
ND-Burma has several members operating on the ground in the locations included in this analysis, including the Pa-O Youth Organization, the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand and the Ta’ang Students and Youth Union. Of the twenty-five cases, fourteen were also documented by ND-Burma organizations. Their ongoing documentation efforts are critical to collecting further evidence needed to hold the military junta accountable for its crimes.
The deployment of the airstrikes has resulted in many long-term challenges for those targeted, including a lack of adequate shelter, food and medical supplies. The worsening offensives have also led to obstacles in the safe delivery and provision of humanitarian assistance, which the military routinely attempts to intercept and sabotage.
The junta deliberately denies urgently needed aid to the communities they have bombed, both aerially and in on-the-ground attacks. Concerning the vast majority of attacks on civilians, especially from the air, the military regime is the perpetrator of these attacks.
Airstrikes are frequently carried out late at night and early in the morning when there is little warning or time to flee. The junta has violently targeted displaced populations in temporary shelters, internal displacement camps, homes, villages, schools, places of worship, and clinics. Survivors have expressed anxiety, trauma and suffering over the uncertainty and indiscriminate nature of the targeted assaults against them.
The junta has also destroyed entire livelihoods as villages are devastated from the skies. What food, livestock, and materials remain are often raided by military forces in the aftermath of their attacks. The ongoing suffering and plight of civilians have worsened due to the lack of a coordinated and urgent response by the international community.
The future belongs to the people of Burma.
For more information:
Nai Aue Mon
Signal: +66 86 1679 741
San Htoi
Signal no: +66649369070
Civil society support for the application by the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing
/in Member statementsTo: Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court
CC: Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
9 December 2024
Subject: Civil society support for the application by the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing
Your Excellencies,
On the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime, we, 174 Myanmar civil society organizations, have the honor to address Your Excellencies to express our unequivocal support for the investigation regarding the Situation in Bangladesh and Myanmar,[1] namely crimes against humanity, including deportation and persecution, perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya population.
We commend the Office of the Prosecutor for its landmark application for an arrest warrant, dated 27 November 2024, against Min Aung Hlaing, the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar military, for his criminal responsibility for crimes committed between 25 August and 31 December 2017.[2] This application represents a monumental step toward justice and accountability, not only for the Rohingya but for all peoples of Myanmar. We eagerly anticipate further applications for arrest warrants in the near future and strongly urge the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (the Court) to issue an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing without delay.
For decades, the Myanmar military has engaged in a systematic campaign of violence and persecution against the Rohingya, employing physical violence, propaganda, and institutionalized discrimination. In 2017, this culminated in a brutal campaign of genocide, forcing more than 750,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh.[3] Today, an estimated 1 million Rohingya remain in refugee camps in Bangladesh, living in extremely precarious conditions.[4]
The situation in Myanmar remains dire. In Rakhine State, the Rohingya continue to endure grave persecution at the hands of the Myanmar military, which has carried out airstrikes on Rohingya villages,[5] blocked humanitarian aid,[6] and forcibly conscripted Rohingya civilians for military service, using them as frontline fighters and human shields,[7] with unchecked impunity. The Rohingya continue to face conditions akin to apartheid,[8] living in confined villages and internment camps under constant threat of violence and deprived of basic rights and freedoms, including access to food, healthcare, education, and employment.[9] This reality underscores the Myanmar military’s ongoing genocide and other international crimes against the Rohingya.
For decades and continuing today, the Myanmar military junta has targeted not only the Rohingya, but also other ethnic and religious minorities, as well as civil society organizations, pro-democracy activists, and human rights defenders, with “widespread and systematic” atrocities and human rights violations—emboldened by decades of complete impunity.[10] Since staging an illegal coup attempt on 1 February 2021, the military junta has intensified and expanded its violence against all peoples across Myanmar, killing more than 6,025 people and arbitrarily arresting more than 27,797.[11] Over the past three and a half years, the military has destroyed at least 105,314 civilian homes by arson[12] and launched more than 3,292 airstrikes—many targeting civilian areas, including internally displaced person camps, schools, medical facilities, and religious infrastructures.[13]
To prevent further atrocities and ensure justice for the Rohingya and all other communities in Myanmar, it is imperative that Min Aung Hlaing and others responsible be held accountable without delay. We recall the declaration of the National Unity Government of Myanmar, pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute, granting the Court jurisdiction over international crimes committed in Myanmar since 1 July 2002.[14] We therefore call for further investigations by the Office of the Prosecutor into the Myanmar military’s commission of international crimes against the people of Myanmar since 1 July 2002, including the ongoing mass atrocity crimes committed nationwide since its attempted coup of February 2021.
In conclusion, while respecting the Court’s final decision, we reiterate our full support for the Office of the Prosecutor’s application for an arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing. We also look forward to further investigations by the Court and subsequent cases thereat related to the Myanmar military’s commission of genocide against the Rohingya, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Myanmar. The issuance of an international arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing would send a powerful message—not only to the Rohingya, but to the tens of millions of people in Myanmar who continue to suffer from the military’s crimes—that international criminal law is a vital tool for achieving justice and accountability, and that justice will prevail in their lifetimes.
We commend the Court and the Office of the Prosecutor for their steadfast commitment to securing justice for the Rohingya, and eagerly await further applications for and the issuance of arrest warrants related to the Situation in Bangladesh and Myanmar forthwith.
Sincerely,
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 174 Myanmar civil society organizations, including eight organizations that have chosen not to
disclose their names
Download the letter in PDF.
[1] https://www.icc-cpi.int/situations/bangladesh/myanmar
[2] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-application-arrest-warrant-situation-bangladesh
[3] https://apnews.com/article/rohingya-migration-bangladesh-myanmar-boats-c03221ad9bf90a9467bf4030b961dbd3
[4] https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/bgd
[5] https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/rakhine-village-attack-03182024051323.html
[6] https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/how-near-total-absence-humanitarian-access-impacting-lives-myanmar
[7] https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/10/myanmar-military-forcibly-recruiting-rohingya
[8] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/11/myanmar-rohingya-trapped-in-dehumanising-apartheid-regime-2/
[9] https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/24/myanmar-no-justice-no-freedom-rohingya-5-years
[10] https://www.ohchr.org/en/2021/03/statement-thomas-h-andrewsun-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-myanmarunited; A/HRC/39/CRP.2, paras. 97, 607, 1369
[11] https://aappb.org/?p=30445
[12] https://web.facebook.com/data4myanmar/posts/pfbid0D5PsxfLXDmhyQbhWu6EWvWaYLodmTamaYDZa9AW3wt6Y74QupCy9vwRuV3LYwnNzl
[13] https://progressivevoicemyanmar.org/2024/10/09/aerial-attacks-carried-out-by-the-military-council-5/
[14] https://x.com/NUGMyanmar/status/1428739347717648389
Human Rights Basic 4 signs Cartoon Animation
/in Cartoon AnimationHuman Rights Cartoon Animation
/in Cartoon Animation, NewsProject and Budget Annual Report 2023
/in ND-Burma's ReportsThe objectives of the 2023 projects were to enhance the systematic documentation of human rights
abuses in Myanmar and bring grassroots attention to the human rights violations happening on the
ground. ND-Burma provided training in numerous areas through the ND-Burma network.
International criminal court seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief
/in NewsProsecutor says 2017 Rohingya crackdowns were suspected of being committed by the army, police and civilians.
Updated at 1:47 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2024
The International Criminal Court, or ICC, issued an application for an arrest warrant on Wednesday for Myanmar’s army chief who now heads its junta, in connection with violence against the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, its prosecutor said.
Myanmar’s military conducted a sweeping crackdown on Rohingya communities in 2017 after Rohingya militants attacked police posts on the border with Bangladesh.
Thousands of people were killed when the military cleared and burned Rohingya communities. The violent campaign forced more than 740,000 people to flee to Bangladesh.
The United States and other countries said the attacks by Myanmar’s military against Rohingya civilians was genocide. U.N. investigators concluded that the military campaign had been executed with “genocidal intent”.
“After an extensive, independent and impartial investigation, my office has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Senior General and Acting President Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services, bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement.
“My Office alleges that these crimes were committed between 25 August 2017 and 31 December 2017 by the armed forces of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw, supported by the national police, the border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civilians.”
Radio Free Asia was not immediately able to contact Myanmar’s military for comment.
In 2022, the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, rejected all of Myanmar’s objections to a case brought against it by Gambia that accuses it of genocide against the Rohingya minority.
Myanmar’s military regime had lodged four preliminary objections claiming the Hague-based court does not have jurisdiction and that the West African country of Gambia did not have the standing to bring the case over mass killing and forced expulsions of Rohingya in 2016 and 2017.
The ICC seeks to establish individual criminal responsibility for international crimes. The ICJ is concerned with state responsibility.
RFA attempted to contact the military council’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, by telephone regarding the ICC prosecutor’s statement, but he did not respond.
Instead, the military council issued a statement on its Viber news network, asserting that “Myanmar is not a member state of the ICC and therefore does not recognize its statement.”
‘Could open the door for us’
Rohingya and rights groups welcomed the move.
“This is great news for us,” said Mohammed Jubair, acting chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, a Rohingya rights advocacy group based in the sprawling refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh along the border with Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
“We want arrest warrants for everyone involved in the Rohingya genocide, not just the military leader,” he told BenarNews, an affilate to Radio Free Asia, on Wednesday.
“Bringing them to justice will also send a strong message to prevent such crimes in the future,” he said. “This could open the door for us to return to Myanmar.”
“The application for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing is long overdue and will be celebrated across Burma,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK.
“For decades, the Burmese military has been allowed to get away with violating international law without facing consequences. Justice is slowly closing in on the generals, but there is still a long way to go,” she said.
“We can expect bluster and defiance from the Burmese military in response to the application for an arrest warrant, but in truth it will send shockwaves through the military, because their sense of impunity is finally being eroded.”
security forces.
Tun Khin, president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, called it a day of celebration “not just for Rohingya, but for everyone from Burma.”
“This is not only about seeking justice and accountability, but also an acknowledgement of the crimes committed against us, which were ignored for so long. We must never forget that this was a preventable genocide, with ample warnings given, which the international community chose to let happen for the sake of a so-called reform process which was always a sham.”
Myanmar’s military and the then-government, led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, defended the 2017 crackdown in Rakhine state as a legitimate response to attacks by insurgents on Suu Kyi and her government were ousted in a February 2021 coup by Min Aung Hlaing.
She and hundreds of pro-democracy colleagues and supporters are in prison, while war between anti-junta forces and the military has spread across large parts of the country, including Rakhine state, where Rohingya have again been subjected to violent attacks.
RFA News