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.
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- International condemnation of the escalating humanitarian crisis and rights violations in Myanmar
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Beaten in prison for marking Martyrs’ Day, two Burmese inmates die
/in NewsOther inmates, including female prisoners, who participated were placed in solitary confinement.
Two Burmese political prisoners beaten by the ruling military junta’s prison authorities for participating in a ceremony marking Martyrs’ Day have died of their injuries, sources with knowledge of the situation said.
They were among four inmates authorities physically assaulted in Tharrawaddy Prison in Bago region on July 19 for marking the national holiday, RFA reported earlier.
The holiday marks the memory of renowned fallen figures within Burma’s independence movement, including Gen. Aung San, father of deposed and jailed former State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, seven other independence leaders, and one bodyguard who were gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon on July 19, 1947.
The holiday is marked annually by both pro-democracy groups and the military junta, which seized control of the elected government in a February 2021 coup and later sentenced Suu Kyi to 33 years in prison following trials that rights groups have condemned as shams.
The two inmates — Than Toe Aung, organizer of the National League for Democracy’s youth group in Yangon’s Thanlyin township, and Hla Soe from the town of Thone Sal in Bago’s Tharrawaddy (Tharyarwady) district — died after they were taken to the prison hospital, sources close to the prison told RFA on Monday.
The other two beaten inmates also received treatment in the prison hospital.
They were among the inmates in the men’s section of the detention center who held a saluting ceremony and discussion to commemorate Martyrs’ Day, while female prisoners in the women’s section wore black ribbons.
Solitary confinement
Because of these activities, prison guards placed 16 male inmates and 15 females to solitary confinement. Four of them were severely tortured and had required medical treatment in prison since July 21.
Prison authorities have not notified the victims’ families about their deaths, Nyo Tun, a former political prisoner and a friend of Than Toe Aung, told Radio Free Asia.
“The news that the two political prisoners have died came from not just one source, but from two or three from the prison,” he said.
Than Toe Aung, serving six years in prison for violating the Explosive Substances Act, died on Aug. 5 from severe head injuries.
Hla Soe, serving 20 years for violating the Counter-terrorism Law, died on Aug. 8.
Thaik Tun Oo of the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network said he was able to confirm the death of the two prisoners.
RFA could not reach the spokesman of Myanmar’s Prison Department for comment.
Prison guards have allowed some of the female inmates who participated in commemorating the holiday to return to their cells, while the situation of the men’s section remains unknown, said people close to the prison.
As of Aug. 14, more than 19,700 pro-democracy activists and civilians had been detained by authorities under the military junta since the February 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based rights group.
RFA News
Fire station raid triggers junta attacks in Budalin Township
/in NewsThe attacks come as resistance forces continue to hold the township’s fire department chief and others for helping the regime to target dissidents
Regime forces have begun carrying out raids in Sagaing Region’s Budalin Township following the capture late last week of fire department staff and their families by local resistance groups.
According to sources in the area, a column of around 100 soldiers based in the Depayin Township village of Saing Pyin started attacking villages north of the town of Budalin early Thursday morning.
This column was later joined by another of around 70 troops based in Ku Taw, a village in western Budalin Township. At around 11am, the two columns converged in Kin San, a village some 20km north of Budalin, the sources said.
“The two columns combined to make one large force that I think will now start searching for the firefighters,” a local with ties to a resistance group told Myanmar Now.
The raids have forced hundreds of civilians from Kin San and other villages in the area to flee, according to residents.
Last Sunday, anti-regime groups stormed a fire station in downtown Budalin and detained 21 people, including the township’s fire department chief, 12 firefighters and other staff, and eight family members.
The resistance groups said they targeted the fire department because of its collaboration with the junta in sealing off dissidents’ houses and arresting civilians, and for its failure to help put out fires set by regime soldiers.
The groups say the detainees are being held in a safe place as they face prosecution for their role in supporting the junta.
There were also reports that the army column from Saing Pyin is holding around 30 local villagers hostage. Myanmar’s military routinely uses civilians as human shields in areas where it faces attack from resistance forces.
“Many of the hostages were middle-aged people just going about their business when they were taken away. Some of them didn’t seem to think that the army posed a threat to them,” said the source close to local resistance forces.
Budalin is less than 40km north of Monywa, Sagaing Region’s capital and largest city, and the seat of the junta’s Northwestern Regional Military Command.
In late July, three student leaders were tortured and killed following a raid on their office in western Budalin Township. Sources say they were repeatedly stabbed in the chest before being put to death.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 1.6 million people have been displaced from their homes in Myanmar since the military seized power in February 2021, with Sagaing Region alone accounting for more than half of this figure.
Myanmar Now News
‘Dramatic increase’ in Myanmar war crimes: UN probe
/in NewsInvestigators say they are looking for evidence linking crimes to specific individuals, especially high-level officials
UN investigators said Tuesday they had gathered strong evidence of surging war crimes in Myanmar, including mass executions and sexual violence, and were building case files to help bring perpetrators to justice.
The Southeast Asian country has been ravaged by deadly violence since a coup deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021, unleashing a bloody crackdown on dissent that has sparked fighting across swathes of the nation.
The United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said it had evidence that Myanmar’s military and affiliated militias were “committing increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.”
It pointed among other things to indiscriminate aerial bombardments, the burning of villages and mass killings of civilians and detained combatants, as well as torture and horrific sexual violence.
The investigation team warned in its annual report that “the number of incidents bearing the hallmarks of serious international crimes” had surged since the coup.
“Every loss of life in Myanmar is tragic, but the devastation caused to whole communities through aerial bombardments and village burnings is particularly shocking,” Mechanism chief Nicholas Koumjian said in the statement.
“Our evidence points to a dramatic increase in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country, with widespread and systematic attacks against civilians, and we are building case files that can be used by courts to hold individual perpetrators responsible.”
‘Highest level of cruelty’
The IIMM was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes and prepare files for criminal prosecution.
While the team has never been permitted to visit Myanmar, it said it had engaged with over 700 sources and had collected “over 23 million information items,” including witness statements, documents, photographs, videos, forensic evidence and satellite imagery.
The team—already cooperating with the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court—said it “plans to accelerate its collection of evidence of the most serious international crimes.”
The investigators said they were particularly looking for “linkage evidence” demonstrating responsibility of specific individuals, especially high-level officials.
The IIMM report explained that military commanders have a duty under international law to prevent and punish war crimes committed by those under their command.
“Repeatedly ignoring such crimes may indicate that the higher authorities intended the commission of these crimes,” the report said.
It highlighted evidence of the use of child soldiers by “various armed actors,” and said it was seeing “more and more evidence concerning torture, sexual violence and other forms of severe mistreatment at numerous detention facilities.”
The evidence indicated that such crimes were “being committed with the highest levels of cruelty and harm to the victims, including rape with objects, other forms of humiliation, mutilation, gang or serial rape and sexual enslavement,” the report said.
The IIMM said it was also investigating rampant sexual violence committed during the bloody crackdown on Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority that in 2017 resulted in the displacement of nearly a million people.
“Sexual and gender-based crimes are amongst the most heinous crimes that we are investigating,” said Koumjian, saying these were “pervasive during the Rohingya clearance operations.”
Myanmar Now News
Human Rights Situation weekly update (August 1 to 7, 2023)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Aug 1 to 7, 2023
Military Junta Troops arrested almost 60 civilians and used them as human shields from Tanintharyi Region and Sagaing Region from August 1st to 7th. Military Junta Troops launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Pale Township, Sagaing Region on August 7th. Military Junta’s ships attacked with heavy and light artillery some villages which are located next to the Ayeyarwady River bank, between Katha Township, Sagaing Region, and Shweku Township, Kachin State. Military troops started targeting the youths and checked the civilians by going on the YBS buses in Yangon Region.
The head of the prison that works under the Military Junta, beat, and tortured the political prisoners from Thayarwaddy Prison and Dike-U Prison, Bago Region, and held them in solitary confinement. A child died and a person was injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. Local Civilians from Sagaing Region, Magway Region, and Mandalay Region left their places and fled from the Military Junta raiding.
Infogram
OPEN LETTER: SEEKING CONFIRMATION THAT MYANMAR MILITARY JUNTA MEMBERS WILL NOT BE PRESENT AT THE UPCOMING ASEAN-JAPAN SPECIAL MEETING OF JUSTICE MINISTERS (AJSMJ) AND ASEAN-G7 JUSTICE MINISTERS’ INTERFACE
/in Member statements, Press Releases and StatementsTo:
Government of Japan, Ministry of Justice
Ken Saitō, Minister for Justice
ken.saito@moj.go.jp
Office of the ASEAN-Japan and G7 Justice Ministers’ Meeting Organizing Committee
AJSMJ-Japan@i.moj.go.jp
International Division, Media Desk
MOJ-Itn-Conference10@i.moj.go.jp
Cc:
Government of Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hayashi Yoshimasa, Minister for Foreign Affairs
hayashi.yoshimasa@mofa.go.jp
Southeast & Southwest Asia Affairs Department
Yutaka Arima, Director
yutaka.arima@mofa.go.jp
International Cooperation Department
icdmoj@i.moj.go.jp
National Unity Government of Myanmar, Ministry of Justice
U Thein Oo, Minister for Justice
moj@nugmyanmar.org
National Unity Government of Myanmar, Ministry for Foreign Affairs
H.E Daw Zin Mar Aung, Minister for Foreign Affairs
mofa@nugmyanmar.org
National Unity Government of Myanmar, Representative Office – Japan office
Saw Ba Hla Thein
office.jp@mofa.nugmyanmar.org
4 July 2023
Subject: Seeking confirmation that Myanmar military junta members will not be present at the upcoming ASEAN-Japan Special Meeting of Justice Ministers (AJSMJ) and ASEAN-G7 Justice Ministers’ Interface
Dear Ministers and staff,
We are writing this open letter to you on behalf of 411 Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations working together to protect Myanmar people’s right to democratic representation internationally. We call on your ministry to publicly affirm your support for the people of Myanmar in relation to the upcoming ASEAN-Japan Special Meeting of Justice Ministers (AJSMJ) and ASEAN Law and Justice Ministers Interface with G7 Justice Ministers that you will host in Tokyo on July 6 and 7, 2023.
Specifically, we are seeking your confirmation that:
As you are aware, a democratic general election was held in Myanmar on November 8, 2020. In a landslide victory, the voters elected a government led by the incumbent National League for Democracy party. Independent national and international election observers unanimously concluded[i] [ii] [iii] that the election was free and fair, and the result represented the will of the Myanmar people.
Yet, on February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military launched an illegal coup attempt. Since then, an illegal and illegitimate military junta has seized multiple institutions of government, including domestic ministries and overseas embassies, and attempted to pose as the government of Myanmar. The junta refers to itself as the ‘State Administrative Council’ (SAC), even though it has neither the authority to hold government office nor effective control over the majority of Myanmar’s territories, which are under the administration of the democratic resistance movement and ethnic administration bodies.[iv]
Under the guise of the SAC, the military junta has launched a nationwide campaign of heinous crimes against the people of Myanmar in an attempt to suppress and control them. To date, the military has killed 3,744 people and imprisoned 19,312 more,[v] including the President, State Counsellor, elected members of parliament, journalists, pro-democracy activists, religious leaders and other individuals.
The remaining elected members of the government and parliament (the ‘Pyidaungsu Hluttaw’ in Burmese) formed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and then the National Unity Government (NUG) based on the mandate gained from the 2020 election results.
The military has committed massacres, indiscriminate airstrikes, artillery shelling, torture, sexual and gender-based violence and mass arson. As a result of these crimes, over 1.5 million people have fled their homes[vi] since the attempted coup and tens of thousands more have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. Such atrocities amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and these have been committed by the same military that stands accused of genocide and other gross crimes against the Rohingya before the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and in the universal jurisdiction case in Argentina.
The Myanmar military junta’s ability to gain and retain power depends on violence, coercion, access to funds, arms and other resources, and importantly, the blanket impunity it has enjoyed through the absence of overdue justice and accountability. Further, when foreign governments engage with the military junta as though it were a government, this risks significant harms for the people of Myanmar, including:
The Ministry of Justice has already taken steps to support the people of Myanmar when you publicly stated that your assistance to the Union Attorney General’s Office (UAGO) and the Supreme Court of the Union of Myanmar has been suspended since the military’s attempted coup in 2021.[vii] These efforts have been much appreciated by the people of Myanmar.
Meanwhile, we understand that the ASEAN-Japan Special Meeting of Justice Ministers (AJSMJ) is the first meeting of this type within the Ministry of Justice’s “Justice Affairs Diplomacy” initiative that aims to promote fundamental values such as the rule of law and respect for human rights in the international community. We also understand that the meeting will be held under the theme “Advancing ASEAN-Japan Cooperation to Promote the Rules of Law: Towards a New Phase Beyond the 50th Year of Friendship and Cooperation”.[viii] With these aims in mind, we request that you consider the following when confirming the participants in this meeting:
Thus, it would be an affront to democracy and the people of Myanmar to include military junta members in a meeting promoting the rule of law.
In consideration of the above, we kindly request that you ensure that Japan does not provide political support and false legitimacy to the Myanmar military junta by banning its representatives from the ASEAN-Japan Special Meeting of Justice Ministers.
Noting that other significant Japan-ASEAN meetings are also regularly scheduled by your ministry, we are seeking your confirmation that the people of Myanmar will be represented by their democratically elected government, the National Unity Government (NUG), and not by the illegitimate military junta, at all other ASEAN-Japan meetings which you will host.
This request echoes the recommendation of the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in Myanmar[xii] who urges that “Member States who support human rights, democracy, and the aspirations of the people of Myanmar publicly reject the SAC’s false claim as a legitimate government and instead recognize the NUG as the legitimate representative of the people of Myanmar.” Your decision to ensure that the people of Myanmar are represented by their democratically elected government, not the illegal military junta, would be in line with the Ministry for Justice’s decision to cut assistance to Myanmar following the junta’s attempted coup in 2021 as well as some recent decisions of ASEAN not to invite representatives of the military junta to high-level meetings.[xiii] [xiv]
The Government of Japan must take significant steps to hold the Myanmar military accountable for its heinous crimes and bring justice and accountability for the people of Myanmar. The people of Myanmar depend on powerful members of the international community such as the Government of Japan to take all necessary actions to ensure that they and their legitimate government receive the relevant political and technical support. Such key actions include banning junta members from joining internationally-recognized inter-governmental forums.
The democratically elected National Unity Government can be contacted via the details provided on their official website:https://www.nugmyanmar.org/en/. The Minister for Justice, U Thein Oo, can be contacted at moj@nugmyanmar.org and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E Daw Zin Mar Aung, can be contacted at mofa@nugmyanmar.org. The National Unity Government also has a representative in Japan, Saw Ba Hla Thein, office.jp@mofa.nugmyanmar.org, with whom we would encourage you to formulate a relationship if you have not done so already. If you require further information about the current situation in Myanmar, and/or assistance in distinguishing legitimate government representatives of Myanmar from illegal military junta members, we remain at your disposal to assist in this process.
We await your response with much anticipation and will continue to monitor whether your actions support the people of Myanmar or the brutal and illegitimate military junta.
Sincerely,
Ko Ye
Defend Myanmar Democracy
+66 816 490 228 (Signal)
communication@defendmyanmardemocracy.org
Khin Ohmar
Progressive Voice
info@progressive-voice.org
Myint Swe
Federation of Workers’ Union of the Burmese Citizen in Japan
+81 08041556099 | msfwubc@gmail.com
Saw Alex
+48 728 027 952 (Signal)
kolobee@protonmail.com
This letter is endorsed by 411 organizations representing Myanmar, regional and international civil society, including 214 organizations which have chosen not to disclose their names.
List of organizations:
Additional list
[i] Domestic Election Observer Organizations, Joint Statement by Domestic Election Observer Organizations, 29 January 2021,https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eLc0m-nFWorVCbucKBa8E9E2IsZo4_uW/preview
[ii] Reiner M. Antiquerra, John; Buenaobra, Maribel; Chung Lun, Lee & Vier, Amaël, The 2020 Myanmar General Elections: Democracy Under Attack – ANFREL International Election Observer Mission Report, Asian Network for Free Elections, 2021, https://anfrel.org/anfrel-releases-2020-myanmar-general-elections-final-observation-mission-report/
[iii] The Carter Center, Election observation mission, Myanmar, general election, November 8, 2020, Preliminary Statement, 10 November 2020, https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/peace_publications/election_reports/myanmar-preliminary-statement-112020.pdf
[iv] Briefing Paper: Effective Control in Myanmar, Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, 5 September 2022,https://specialadvisorycouncil.org/2022/09/briefing-effective-control-myanmar/
[v] Assistance Association For Political Prisoners (Burma), Daily briefing, 3 July 2023, https://aappb.org/?p=25481
[vi] UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific, Myanmar Emergency Update, 1 May 2023, https://reporting.unhcr.org/myanmar-emergency-regional-update
[vii] Government of Japan, Ministry of Justice, International Cooperation Department
Research and Training Institute, March 2023, https://www.moj.go.jp/content/001393749.pdf
[viii] Republic of the Philippines, Department of Justice, Japan to host special meeting of ASEAN justice ministers, October 2022https://www.doj.gov.ph/news_article.html?newsid=766
[ix] Aljazeera, US, UK, Canada sanction top Myanmar justice officials, 31 January 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/31/us-britain-canada-hit-top-myanmar-justice-officials-with-sanctions
[x] Aljazeera, US, UK, Canada sanction top Myanmar justice officials, 31 January 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/31/us-britain-canada-hit-top-myanmar-justice-officials-with-sanctions
[xi] Special Advisory Council Myanmar, The Myanmar Military is a Terrorist Organization Under Law, 14 December 2021,https://specialadvisorycouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SAC-M-Briefing-Paper-Myanmar-Military-Terrorist-Organisation-ENGLISH.pdf
[xii] Thomas Andrews, Illegal and Illegitimate: Examining the Myanmar military’s claim as the Government of Myanmar and the international response Conference room paper of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (A/HRC/52/CRP.2), 31 January 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/mm/2023-01-27/crp-sr-myanmar-2023-01-31.pdf
[xiii] Radio Free Asia, Cambodia Postpones First ASEAN Meeting Amid Differences Among Members, Voice of America, 13 January 2022,https://www.voanews.com/a/cambodia-postpones-first-asean-meeting-amid-differencesamong-members-/6395847.html
[xiv] The Straits Times/Asia News Network, Myanmar junta snubbed at Asean defense chiefs’ meet, The Inquirer, 23 November 2022,https://globalnation.inquirer.net/208753/myanmar-junta-snubbed-at-asean-defense-chiefsmeet
Download PDF in English I Burmese
Myanmar prison guards torture inmates marking Martyrs’ Day
/in NewsThey beat 31 political prisoners and locked them in narrow, dark cells.
Prison guards at Myanmar’s Thayarwady (Tharyawaddy) Prison have beaten 31 inmates for marking the country’s Martyrs’ Day and four are being treated for their injuries in the prison hospital, sources told RFA Friday.
Prisoners held a saluting ceremony on July 19, while women inmates wore black ribbons, said the sources close to the prison who didn’t want to be named for security reasons.
They said 16 men and 15 women have been locked up since then.
Martyr’s Day marks the July 19, 1947 assassination of nine Myanmar independence leaders, shot dead by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmar’s unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya.
Less than six months after the end of British rule, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday. It is marked annually by both the military regime and pro-democracy groups.
The prison ceremonies are thought to have been organized by Than Toe Aung, head of Yangon region’s Thanlyin township Youth Group of the National League for Democracy, the party which won a landslide victory in 2020 elections before being ousted by the military.
Than Toe Aung was hospitalized after interrogation, along with three others, Thaik Tun Oo, an official of the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network told RFA.
“Three days after Than Toe Aung was admitted to the hospital, three more were also admitted,” he said.
“We can confirm that they were severely beaten. Than Toe Aung is in critical condition. I heard he would be put in a locked cell after medical treatment.”
He added other political prisoners who have been locked in dark, cramped cells after interrogation include male dormitory inmates Yan Naing Soe; Hla Soe; Sote Phwar Gyi; Tarmwe Ko Zwel; ‘Dr Joe’; O Be; and a Letpantan township Civil Disobedience Movement captain who wasn’t named.
Women’s dormitory inmates who are still locked up after interrogation include Hnin Lae Nanda Lwin; Shun Ei Phyu; Nilar Sein; Su Yi Paing; Wut Yi Lwin; Aye Thida Kyaw; Yi Yi Swe; Lwin Lwin Nyunt; Sandi Nyunt Win; Aye Thet San; Shwe Yi Nyunt; Ya Min Htet; Htoo Htet Htet Wai; Myo Thandar Tun; and Moe Myat Thazin, according to the prisoners network official.
Another source close to the Tharyawady Prison told RFA other political prisoners are protesting against the locking up of their fellow inmates by boycotting the prison shop.
RFA contacted the Naypyidaw-based Prison Department by phone to get its comments on the case but there was no response.
There has been a series of brutal beatings and killings by prison guards since a jail break three months ago at the prison housing Myanmar’s ousted president, Win Myint.
On May 18, nine inmates escaped from Bago region’s Taungoo Prison, grabbing guns from prison guards and escaping into the jungle where they were met by members of a local People’s Defense Force.
Since then, political prisoners at Bago’s Thayarwady and Daik-U Central prisons and Myingyan Prison in Mandalay region have been beaten to death during interrogation or killed during ‘prison transfers’, according to family members and sources close to the prisons, who all requested anonymity to protect prisoners and their relatives.
More than 24,000 people, including pro-democracy activists, have been arrested since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). It says almost 20,000 are still being detained across Myanmar.
On August 1, 254 prisoners, including some political prisoners in Tharyawady Prison were released by the junta’s amnesty. But sources close to the prison say as many as 900 political prisoners are still being held there, awaiting trial.
RFA News