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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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Analysis: Meeting with junta chief leaves UN Special Envoy with blood on her hands
/in NewsNoeleen Heyzer’s visit, which Min Aung Hlaing attempted to leverage for political legitimacy, was a failure, contributor Thuta Zaw writes
UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer, photographed wearing a green sarong and smiling as she shook the hand of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, has experienced a major backlash in the days that have followed their August 17 meeting.
Since her appointment to the role by UN Secretary General António Guterres in October 2021, Ms Heyzer has been attempting to sit down with Myanmar’s internationally shunned murderer-in-chief, a move she achieved on a surprise visit to Naypyitaw last week.
Myanmar is known for its “colour politics,” in which green represents the military and red is associated with the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD), whose elected administration was ousted in the February 2021 coup.
Was Heyzer’s own green attire selected in ignorance or was it a gesture intended to placate Min Aung Hlaing?
It can be said, after all, that there are no coincidences in politics.
A calculated colour choice does not seem to be out of the realm of possibility for Heyzer, who has in the past come under fire for comments seen as conciliatory to the junta, which has been violently crushing dissent nationwide since its attempted seizure of power last year.
While civil society and rights groups have repeatedly called on the international community to isolate and refuse to recognise the coup regime, Heyzer insisted in a January interview that the military be “included in talks to resolve Myanmar’s crisis,” describing the armed forces as being “in control” in the country.
Positions such as this, as well as any international engagement, have been used by the military council to further its claim to legitimacy.
In a press conference held just hours before their August 17 meeting, coup council spokesperson Zaw Min Tun strategically described the event as a discussion between the UN Special Envoy and “the current government of Myanmar.”
Heyzer issued a statement that day insisting that “UN engagement does not in any way confer legitimacy.”
A bitter junta responded by calling the press release “one-sided” and claiming that it had “created misunderstandings about Myanmar.” The military council released its own 28-page statement in Burmese on August 19, detailing the conversation between Min Aung Hlaing and Heyzer, which reportedly began with a claim by the coup leader that he was “taking responsibility to lead the Myanmar Government.”
Only the Special Envoy herself knows how she responded to this, but if she had announced in advance that her official visit would not be accompanied by an acknowledgement of legitimacy, the meeting arguably would not have taken place.
In any case, it was not a successful one. In his own administration’s recollection of events, Min Aung Hlaing appears to have systematically rejected all of Heyzer’s requests.
Relaying what were described as two key demands from the UN Secretary General, Heyzer called on the military to cease its airstrikes and arson attacks on civilian homes.
The junta chief claimed that the aerial attacks targeted insurgents, implying that they would continue, and he denied that his armed forces had burned villages, just as he denied that his troops had done so in the terror inflicted on Rohingya communities in northern Rakhine State in 2017.
Heyzer also raised the issue of Rohingya refugee return, while avoiding using the term “Rohingya,” according to the junta’s statement. That decision may haunt her should she choose to visit the camps in Bangladesh housing hundreds of thousands of displaced Rohingya, as she has said she plans to do.
Min Aung Hlaing also went on to dismiss Heyzer’s request for a moratorium on executions after last month’s junta-sanctioned killing of four political prisoners, including two well-known democracy activists.
Myanmar junta executes four political prisoners
Two of Myanmar’s most prominent dissidents were among the four reportedly executed inside Insein Prison on Saturday
Inquiring about detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Special Envoy asked that the State Counsellor be allowed to return home from a Naypyitaw detention centre, where she is facing a total of 17 years in prison—six of which were handed down just one day before Heyzer’s visit.
The coup leader stated that Suu Kyi was already being granted “special privileges,” describing her cell as a “home-like arrangement.” Meanwhile, inside sources have described it as a 13-by-14-foot building within the jail walls, exposed to the elements.
“Although we could take more serious action against her, we have been lenient on her,” Min Aung Hlaing reportedly said.
The Special Advisory Council-Myanmar (SAC-M), a team of international experts who have been calling for the international prosecution of the military chief for crimes against humanity, acknowledged in an August 19 statement that Heyzer’s meeting was a “minimum requirement of her mandate,” but that it was “clear that nothing of significance will come from it.”
“We can only imagine how awful it must have been for the UN Special Envoy to meet with murderer-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, and the revulsion she must have felt at having to shake his blood-soaked hand,” SAC-M member Chris Sidoti is quoted as saying.
At the very time that Min Aung Hlaing was using the Special Envoy’s visit to defend both his claim to power and his military’s continued campaign of terror, locals in Sagaing Region’s Yin Paung Taing village were uncovering the bodies of civilians killed in a three-day junta siege on the community that left some 18 people dead.
There are no coincidences in politics.
With no gains to speak of, perhaps the most notable lesson from Special Envoy Heyzer’s visit to Naypyitaw is that in extending a hand to the junta, one’s own risks becoming stained with blood.
(This commentary was translated from Burmese and edited for clarity and brevity.)
Myanmar Now News
A Brief History of the UN’s Failed Missions in Myanmar
/in NewsLast week’s meeting between UN special envoy Noeleen Heyzer and the Myanmar junta chief ended without any breakthrough, becoming yet another failed UN mission to the country, one of many involving the world body’s diplomats and military rulers of Myanmar since 1990.
Rather, regime chief Min Aung Hlaing took the meeting as an opportunity to personally vent his discontent at the UN, as well as to lecture the envoy, according to a transcript of the meeting the regime released on Friday in response to the envoy’s statement, which the regime said was “one-sided” and “created misunderstanding about Myanmar.” In her statement after the meeting on Aug. 17, the envoy outlined the discussion and said the meeting didn’t in any way confer legitimacy on the regime.
According to minutes of the meeting, Min Aung Hlaing expressed his displeasure at the world body’s refusal to recognize the regime’s representative, among other things. He also told a barefaced lie, claiming that “Myanmar has gained stability”, which he said made it hard for him to understand why the UN has issued many statements expressing concerns about the country. He told Heyzer that it would be more appropriate to make comments on Myanmar only after gaining an understanding of the real situation in the country, and criticized her decision to take a flight from Yangon to Naypyitaw, saying she missed an opportunity to see the situation on the ground by traveling in a car. Plus, contradicting mounting evidence, he denied his troops were torching civilian homes.
In short, the envoy returned from Myanmar barehanded after enduring an hours-long dressing-down on various topics from Min Aung. She was given a low-grade reception and used by the junta to promote its legitimacy, something it has been internationally denied. She outdid her predecessors, however, by prompting the regime to release a transcript of the meeting, which was unprecedented.
The meeting between the UN special envoy and Myanmar regime leader was the UN’s latest attempt to mediate peace in the country, which has been consumed by conflict sparked by the military coup last year.
But it failed, just as all the world body’s previous efforts in the country did, especially those dealing with the country’s military rulers over the past more than 30 years.
The UN has appointed a series of envoys on Myanmar since 1990, when the country was under military rule after the failed pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
It started with Japanese diplomat Sadako Ogata, who was appointed as an independent expert by the UN Commission on Human Rights.
Her successors included Malaysian businessman Razali Ismail and Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari, who tried to create a dialogue between then junta chief Than Shwe and detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Razali, who served from 2000 to 2006, made 12 visits and Gambari traveled to Myanmar at least four times. But both failed to bring tangible results.
When the Malaysian diplomat quit in 2006, he told The Irrawaddy, “It is best to conclude that I have failed.” Some of the UN envoys brought with them conflicts of interest that tainted the public’s perception of them. Rumors circulated that some UN envoys took “boxes of presents” from the generals. Some Myanmar people called Gambari “kyauk yu pyan,” which means “one who takes gems and then leaves,” according to The Associated Press.
A Malaysian company headed by Razali, IRIS Corp, even clinched a business deal with the military government, selling high-tech passports to the regime.
Then came Heyzer’s predecessor Christine Schraner Burgener. In September last year, shortly before her term as the UN Secretary General’s special envoy on Myanmar was to end, the Swiss diplomat tweeted that her efforts to facilitate an “all-inclusive dialogue in the interest of the people were not welcomed by the military.” In other words, she confessed that her months-long attempts, in the wake of the takeover, to persuade the coup leaders in Naypytaw to engage in dialogue to settle the political and social turmoil caused by the coup had failed.
Heyzer began her duties in December 2021. Unlike her predecessor, she was invited by Min Aung Hlaing to visit the country. But like all the envoys before her, she failed the Myanmar people.
Her failure highlights one of the UN’s historic problems: its lack of muscle, especially in dealing with such a repressive country. It has now been 32 years that the UN has failed the Myanmar people by sending one envoy after another. It must take harsher approaches to the regime. If not, the world body will merely be a thing of ridicule, not only among Myanmar people but to Min Aung Hlaing himself.
In the wake of the meeting, the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), a group of former UN experts on the country, urged Heyzer to engage more with Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) instead. While meeting with Min Aung Hlaing may have been essential to the special envoy in attempting to fulfil her mandate, it said, “It is clear that nothing of significance will come of it.”
SAC-M member Yanghee Lee, a former UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, said Heyzer must now be looking forward to formally engaging with the NUG, which was formed by the elected lawmakers of the ousted National League for Democracy and their ethnic allies, and commands the loyalty of the vast majority of Myanmar people.
“She must go the extra mile to find a solution acceptable to the peoples of Myanmar,” Lee said.
Topics: junta, Military, Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, regime
Irrawaddy News
Workers from hotbeds of resistance to Myanmar junta say they face discrimination
/in NewsMore than 100 laborers from Sagaing and Magway regions were fired from factories in Yangon.
More than 100 workers from two regions in Myanmar where resistance to the military regime has been particularly strong have been fired from their jobs in Yangon industrial zones, while those who remain working face widespread discrimination in the workplace, labor union representatives and workers said.
There are 29 such zones in the Yangon region that employ hundreds of thousands of Burmese, the vast majority of whom are young women who work in garment factories.
But Moe Sanda Myint, president of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar, a trade union, told RFA that factory owners have been told not to employ workers with identification cards indicating they come from Sagaing and Magway, areas where fighting between the military and opposition forces has been fierce.
“We found out from the workers that the employers are implementing the directives of the Ministry of Labor regarding this issue of the [ID] cards,” she said.
“Rumors were flying that workers holding these registration cards would be fired because of those directives, and some workers have reported this to us. We learned that there were cases of those who had actually been fired,” Moe Sanda Mying added.
Myint Kyaing, the junta’s labor minister, told RFA on Aug. 17 that reports of the firings were false.
“That news is not true; it’s wrong,” he said.
Myint Kyaing said that the Information Ministry would clarify the issue at a press conference in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw that day, but RFA later learned that didn’t happen.
Most of the fired workers are from textile factories and shoe factories in Hlaingtharyar, Shwepyitha and South Dagon township industrial zones of Yangon.
A worker who was fired from a shoe factory in the South Dagon Industrial Zone, said 15 people, including those from Magway and Sagaing identified by the numerical prefixes on their ID cards, were fired at the same time in July.
“There was a clerk in our section who told us to bring our registration cards the next day, so we did as she requested,” she said. “After that, she said those whose cards began with No. 5/ [for Sagaing] and No. 8/ [for Magway] were to be temporarily suspended. She said they would be called back when the situation calms down.”
The worker, a native of Yesagyo township in Magway, said she was suspended only six days after she got the job at a shoe factory.
Another woman fired from a garment factory in the Shwepyithar Industrial Zone (2) said she was fired without any compensation on July 21.
“We were sacked straight away just after one warning,” she told RFA. “I’m angry with them as I have to look for another job now, and I feel I was fired unfairly as I didn’t get any severance pay. The factory asked me to sign a document and fired me, just like a transaction.”
The woman from Magway’s Myothit township also said a worker whose ID card indicated he was from Ayeyarwady region was fired along with her but later was allowed to resume work.
Situation has worsened
Most of the workers who were fired said that they did not receive any compensation, and employers often forced them to make it appear as though they left their jobs voluntarily.
Additionally, garment factories in Yangon’s industrial zones are no longer accepting job applications from Sagaing and Magway regions, the online news outlet Mizzima reported on Aug. 9, citing a garment factory worker as the source.
A worker who quit his job at a garment factory in the Hlaingtharyar Industrial Zone at the beginning of August said the violation of workers’ rights by factory owners has worsened since the military coup in 2021.
“Friends I used to work with tried to avoid me,” he said. “My section leader didn’t ask me to do any work, and there were even times when I wasn’t given any work for a whole week. Later, I got depressed, and I quit my job.”
Trade union and labor leaders who previously intervened to resolve workers’ disagreements with their employers fled their homes because of the insecurity that followed the coup, workers said.
The workers also said that their situation is worse than before because individuals and organizations which used to intervene on their behalf have been weakened.
A resident of Sagaing’s Myaing township said ID card holders have been subjected to stricter checks than those from other regions and provinces, and that employers discriminated against workers from the region.
An employee of one company, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said he has been checked more than others when he travels to other towns.
Those who have been refused hotel accommodations told RFA that when they provided their names to be registered as tourists, they were told that people from Sagaing were not welcome.
Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
RFA News
Six students die in Yangon blast
/in NewsSome locals say the group may have been planting a mine for a resistance group.
Six Burmese high school students were killed in an explosion at around 5 p.m. on Saturday at a house in Yangon’s Kyimyindaing township.
They were aged between 16 and 17 and were all boycotting classes organized by the military council.
Five of them were identified as Aye Min Myat, Thae Naing Min, Kyaw Zaw Lin, Moe Hein Kyaw and Than Htike San. The other’s identity is not yet known.
A local, who did not wish to be named for safety reasons, said the blast happened near a drink shop on Pont Pyoe Yae street around 100 yards (91 meters) from the local police station.
“It was about 1,000 yards (914 meters) away from where I live and we could hear it clearly,” the local said.
“The children went to play football at around 4.30 p.m. There is a shop called Phyoe Wai where they gather to play. The shop sells Kaung Yae [a local alcohol] and cold drinks.”
“The parents were taken to see the bodies on Saturday and they are trying to get them back.”
Another local told RFA she had watched the children grow up.
“I don’t know if they were UG [underground] or not,” the local said.
“I saw their scattered bodies picked up and taken away in zipped bags. The families have not seen the children and nobody could go near the incident. The mine explosion even shook my home. Locals don’t know who planted the mine,” she told RFA.
Nearly 100 junta troops arrived after the blast in vehicles and boats. Another anonymous local said the troops took the bodies away for investigation. Locals said Phyoe Wai, the 22-year-old shop owner ran away.
Residents said the street was blocked until Saturday morning and some houses in Set San Ward were searched by troops.
On Saturday some residents from the ward were arrested, but the exact number is not yet known, a resident told RFA.
A recent blast in the area was caused by a bomb being tested in a school by members of the Pyu Saw Htee, a pro-government militia, but a leader of the local Dark Shadow anti-junta group, Chan Nyein Thu, said some of the young men who died in this blast may have been helping anti-government forces.
“I knew one of the young men in the group and in the past he had asked for mine-making materials so he seems to have been helping out. Some people said he was a Phu [a member of Pyu Saw Htee] when his picture appeared online. I posted it back on my account saying he is not Pyu, but UG,” he said.
“I have tested [a mine] and it accidentally exploded. If a mine explodes while being tested, only two things can happen, losing your life or being arrested,”, the Dark Shadow leader told RFA.
On April 27, junta troops arrested and shot at 14 young members of Dark Shadow in Kyimyindaing, killing one man.
Civil Disobedience Movement member, Capt. Lin Htet Aung said most anti-government protesters who make mines do not have adequate equipment.
“UG are hiding and carrying out their moves and have to set the mines in rooms,” he said. “If they have to plant a mine, the ammunition is inside and there are models of how to put it in a mine. But they only use materials available in their neighborhoods so there are accidental blasts and some mines can’t be touched when they are activated. Some mines also need to be deactivated. In other words, inadequate materials in production have become dangerous for them.”
RFA has not been able to verify whether any of the six youths was UG or whether they were planting a mine.
RFA News
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY: WITHDRAW THE MANDATE OF THE UN SPECIAL ENVOY
/in Member statements, Press Releases and StatementsUN General Assembly: Withdraw the mandate of the UN Special Envoy
CSOs condemn the UN Special Envoy’s meeting with war criminal Min Aung Hlaing
We, the 864 undersigned organizations, call on the UN General Assembly to withdraw the mandate of the Special Envoy on Myanmar. We also call on the UN Secretary-General to show his serious commitment to resolving the devastating human rights and humanitarian crises in Myanmar by assuming a personal role on Myanmar and taking decisive action.
The first visit of the current UN Special Envoy (UNSE) to Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, which took place from 16 to 17 August 2022 was the latest evidence of the historical ineffectualness of the mandate over a decades-long approach that has continually failed. The UN must immediately end its business-as-usual approach towards Myanmar. The long history of the UN’s attempts at peace-brokering with Myanmar’s military through Special Envoys has never catalyzed into meaningful results, but has instead lent legitimacy to perpetrators of international atrocity crimes — and has permitted worsening human rights and humanitarian crises.
The current wait-and-see approach of the UNSE, and by extension the UN, towards the junta has not yielded results — as has been repeatedly proven for decades. On the contrary, these “visits” and “dialogues” have emboldened the military — and the current illegal junta — to continue to commit escalating atrocity crimes against the people. It also undermines the united struggle of the people of Myanmar, thereby violating the UN’s own ‘do no harm’ approach.
We call on the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and UN Member States to end the mandate of the UNSE at the upcoming session in September 2022. Additionally, the UNGA must formulate concrete actions which centered on accountability, and which reflect the will and demands of the people of Myanmar.
CSOs have previously rejected the current UNSE’s proposal of power-sharing settlements as a solution to the political, human rights and humanitarian crises inflicted on the whole country by the terrorist junta. We are dismayed that the UNSE failed to take into account key recommendations put forward by CSOs during their February and April 2022 meetings, which were reflective of Myanmar people’s aspirations for a genuine federal democracy free of the military.
During these meetings, CSOs also called for the UNSE’s mandate to be “transformed and updated to focus on accountability and transitional justice,” as its current formulation is vague and inadequate to address the present Myanmar crisis. The current UNSE’s mandate resulted from the 72nd session of the UNGA in 2017 to address the Rohingya crisis. Thus, it does not reflect the magnitude or complexity of the current crises. The UNSE has failed to acknowledge or act on this key recommendation, rendering the mandate ineffectual.
CSOs also emphasized their concerns that the UNSE’s proposed trips to Naypyidaw to meet with the junta’s leadership could be manipulated by the junta in its efforts to gain legitimacy from the international community. Such visits could give the appearance of recognition and acceptance by the UN and, by extension, the international community. We note that CSOs were not consulted prior to the UNSE’s recent trip.
As CSOs warned and expected, on 17 August the military junta showcased its meeting with the UNSE as an official meeting with the “current Myanmar government” with photos of the UNSE shaking hands with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. The UN must now repair the considerable damage it incurred by allowing the UNSE to be exploited for junta propaganda.
We are also deeply disappointed to note the absence of a reference to the National Unity Government (NUG) – the legitimate government of Myanmar – in the UNSE’s statement after the meeting, despite pledging an inclusive process with all stakeholders to resolve the ongoing crisis. We are also alarmed by the timing of her meeting with the junta, which followed the extrajudicial executions of four political prisoners in July and the sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to six more years in prison merely two days before her visit. The UNSE’s visit not only suggests that the UN is prepared to let these crimes go unabated and unpunished, but that it will maintain its ‘wait-and-see’ approach, freeing the junta to continue its relentless terror campaign and atrocity crimes against the people of Myanmar.
The UNSE further failed to secure meetings with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other arbitrarily detained parliamentarians elected in the November 2020 general elections while in-country. At the same time, it is of grave concern that the UNSE has repeatedly failed to acknowledge the root cause of the current crisis: the military junta’s failed power grab and its horrific international crimes meted out in frustration since — acts that the UN itself has found to comprise of probable war crimes and crimes against humanity. We note that the failed coup attempt and the ongoing airstrikes and heavy military attacks against civilians, among other critical matters, were not mentioned in the UNSE’s statement. Given the UNSE’s engagement with CSOs, who provided updates on the ground situation and clear recommendations, these intentional omissions undermine the important work of other UN mandate holders including the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, each of whom has also referred to the NUG in their reporting.
We also note that the UNSE left out mention of the NUG in relation to humanitarian aid provision. We consider this intentional given that the humanitarian forum mentioned in the UNSE’s statement was proposed by the NUG together with some Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs). This exclusion was both unethical and an appeasement to the junta; furthermore, it breaches the humanitarian principle of impartiality.
The junta continues to weaponize humanitarian aid by blocking the delivery of humanitarian assistance and by attacking humanitarian actors. These acts amount to war crimes and violations of the Geneva Conventions. We again press that channeling humanitarian assistance through the junta will support their corrupt agenda, fuel the further weaponization of aid, and cause irreparable harm to the people of Myanmar. CSOs have urged the UNSE to push for effective aid delivery – taking a solidarity-based approach with the people – particularly through cross-border channels with local humanitarian groups. Such calls must be heeded.
The junta is a terrorist organization under Myanmar’s domestic law and by international definition. The UN must exercise its mandate provided by the UN Charter to protect the people of Myanmar from the junta’s escalating violence. It must also work directly with the NUG as the legitimate government, the National Unity Consultative Council, EROs and CSOs to meaningfully and immediately address and resolve the catastrophic crisis in Myanmar, while disengaging from the junta. As the people of Myanmar asked in protests staged during the UNSE’s visit: “How many dead bodies UN need to take action?”
We reiterate the call for justice and accountability. The military junta, responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, must be held criminally liable, not rewarded with recognition or engagement.
The UNGA must withdraw the mandate of the Special Envoy. In its place, the UN Secretary-General must take personal leadership on Myanmar for the sake of the people, and to repair the UN’s own reputation and standing. At the same time, the UN Security Council must refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or establish an ad hoc tribunal to secure accountability.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 864 organizations, including 320 groups who have chosen not to disclose their names:
***We have received overwhelming support for the letter. Below are list of additional organizations that have signed-on to the letter after its sent
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As junta squeezes courts, Myanmar’s lawyers are forced to face their worst fears
/in NewsEven as they face threats to their own safety and freedom, some lawyers remain committed to representing political prisoners
Mei Aye, a lawyer who visits Yangon’s Insein Prison at least twice a week for court appearances, has a ritual that she follows on the days that she has to pass through the gates of Myanmar’s most notorious detention centre.
The first thing she does is tell someone she trusts about her unfinished business. And then she makes a point of saying goodbye to all her loved ones, mindful of the fact that she might not see them again for a very long time.
She says she does this as a way of dealing with the crippling anxiety she often feels about the perils of her job defending political prisoners. This is because she knows all too well how easily she, too, could end up behind bars.
“I have to do these things in case I don’t get to come home from work one day. I never know when I will be taken away to an interrogation centre,” she explains.
As a defence attorney with 10 years of experience, Mei Aye is no stranger to prisons, which she says hold no real terror for her. But interrogation centres are another matter—she has seen too many of her clients after they have emerged from them not to live in fear of what happens behind their closed doors.
Many are badly bruised or scarred, she says, and some even have open wounds that testify to the brutality of the regime’s techniques for extracting information.
“I’m not a doctor, so I can’t really say how serious their injuries were. But I could see that they had been really severely beaten. And I am afraid of having to face the same fate,” she says.
Currently working on 28 political cases, Mei Aye deals with clients facing charges that range from incitement to terrorism and possession of explosive devices. In the eyes of Myanmar’s military, that makes her an object of suspicion, too.
She says her anxiety lifts only after the court hearings have begun. But as soon as they end and she starts preparing to leave the prison, the feeling of dread returns. And it stays with her for at least the next two days, filling her mind with vivid images of what might await her.
“I keep seeing the same scene over and over again: soldiers kicking the door open, rushing in, and torturing me in my own home. I sometimes find myself wondering how many blows I would be able to take,” she says of her state of mind during these periods.
But there is nothing irrational about these fears. While there is no official count, members of Myanmar’s legal community say that at least 20 lawyers have been detained since last year’s coup to face charges related to those of their clients.
‘Worse than ever’
Since seizing power in February 2021, the military regime headed by Min Aung Hlaing has taken over all three branches of government—executive, legislative, and judicial. Under its rule, the independence of judges has ceased to exist.
In February, a year after the military takeover, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) reported on the total collapse of Myanmar’s courts as instruments of justice. Among the issues it addressed were the treatment of lawyers—especially those representing political dissidents.
“Lawyers are often threatened in front of judges and are actually arrested in courtrooms for asking witnesses questions about torture and ill-treatment their clients have experienced or for requesting fair trials,” the report said.
Lawyers_protest.jpeg
Lawyers join an anti-coup demonstration in Yangon on February 8, 2021 (Myanmar Now)
According to a retired judge who served under Myanmar’s previous military regimes, the situation now is worse than it has ever been. While the courts have never been free or fair under military rule, it was never normal in the past for lawyers and judges to face such persecution, he said.
One major constraint facing lawyers involved in political cases is that the charges against their clients are usually laid by members of the police force. This puts lawyers at risk of provoking people who have the power to arrest them.
“Lawyers can’t avoid questioning the plaintiffs, who are usually police in these cases, if they are going to defend their clients’ rights. The police don’t like that, so they often pressure and threaten to arrest those lawyers,” said the former judge.
Some of the lawyers now behind bars represented high-profile figures from the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government, as well as prominent dissidents.
This includes Ywet Nu Aung, a Mandalay-based lawyer who was arrested in April following a hearing for Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, the deposed chief minister of Mandalay Region. Now being held at Obo Prison, where she was first taken into custody, she faces a life sentence on terrorism charges.
Ywet_nu_aung.jpeg
Ywet Nu Aung is seen in front of the Dakhina District Courthouse in Naypyitaw in 2019 (Myanmar Now)
In June, three more lawyers were arrested in Monywa, including Moe Zaw Tun, the defence attorney for Myint Naing, a member of the NLD’s central executive committee who served as Sagaing Region’s chief minister until his arrest just days after the military takeover. Moe Zaw Tun also represented Wai Moe Naing, a Monywa-based protest leader detained since last April after being hit during a protest by a vehicle driven by regime forces.
Tin Win Aung, another lawyer who defended Wai Moe Naing, was arrested at Obo Prison on June 29 along with two other Mandalay-based lawyers. During his interrogation, he suffered multiple injuries, including a broken arm, according to sources close to the victim.
No one else to turn to
With so many reports of lawyers being locked up, it is little wonder that some avoid prison courts altogether, while others have gone into hiding. And this has had the desired effect of further isolating critics of the regime.
“They think they can hold onto authority if they can cut off all support for protesters who have become political prisoners,” said Mei Aye.
It is for this reason alone that Mei Aye refuses to stop her work, which she knows perfectly well is not likely to achieve any meaningful justice as long as the junta remains in power.
Since moving to Yangon in 2018, she has worked as a legal advisor for various organisations and offered her services free of charge to individuals arrested for political offences. Many of her clients have had no one else to turn to.
Mei Aye vividly recalls one case in particular. She said she received a call at around 11pm one night several months after the coup. At the other end was a panic-stricken woman whose first words were, “Please help my son. He’s been taken by the military.”
At the time, there was a 10pm curfew in place, and the woman knew that if she left her home to seek help, she would also be arrested. So she called Mei Aye, who had posted her telephone number on social media, and described what had happened just moments earlier.
“She didn’t know what else to do. She had just witnessed her son being beaten and dragged away. Lawyers don’t usually get emotional in front of clients, but I cried. I couldn’t stop my tears, because we both felt the same helplessness,” she said.
The next morning, the woman called again. She asked Mei Aye to come to the South Okkalapa police station, where her son was being held along with seven other youths.
When she reached the police station, Mei Aye saw a group of exhausted-looking mothers who had been forced to stand for hours as they repeatedly asked the officers on duty for permission to see their detained children.
In the end, their persistent requests were denied, and even Mei Aye was not allowed to see the prisoners she had agreed to represent. However, she was told that she could send them food and clothing, which made their mothers immensely happy, as it indicated that, if nothing else, their sons were still alive.
Another reason lawyers have been in the crosshairs of the regime is that they have often served as the only means for prisoners to communicate with the outside world.
This is why Khin Maung Zaw, the lawyer who leads the legal team defending a number of Myanmar’s ousted civilian leaders, including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, has been ordered not to speak to the media.
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Lawyer Khin Maung Zaw (Myanmar Now)
Even lawyers who are not under gag orders know that they are at risk if they convey messages from their clients, as they can also be charged with “incitement through spreading false news” if they disclose information about the treatment of prisoners or any other information the regime wants to conceal.
Verdicts ‘from above’
Since the coup, most political cases have been tried in “special courts” set up inside prisons. These makeshift “courtrooms” typically consist of curtained-off spaces in large halls or other prison buildings, usually about 10”x10” in area and with little more than a table and two or three chairs for furniture.
With thousands of trials to conduct against its opponents, the regime has also reduced the role of the people involved in its legal proceedings to the bare basics. Lawyers are allowed to attend hearings only to maintain the pretence of due process.
Judges play an even more perfunctory part in the junta’s sham justice system. They never intervene when prison officials or intelligence officers eavesdrop on conversations between lawyers and their clients, and they invariably pass judgments that are predetermined and “directed from above.”
Lawyers say that judges simply read out verdicts that arrive in sealed envelopes, eliminating the need to actually adjudicate in cases that rarely have any merit to begin with.
“Some judges like living under a dictatorship. They can just do as they please. They no longer feel any need to examine cases,” said one lawyer who has taken part in several post-coup trials.
The treatment of prisoners is also routinely ignored by judges. According to Mei Aye, many of her clients have appeared at hearings covered in cuts and bruises after brutal interrogation sessions, but judges simply turned a blind eye to this obvious evidence of abuse.
“I would submit a request for the judge to acknowledge and record the injuries of the defendants inflicted by the authorities, but they would never respond to those requests. Some judges even told me to stop bringing it up,” she said.
But as bad as Myanmar’s ordinary courts have become, they are still not as arbitrary or oppressive as the military tribunals that handle cases in areas that have been placed under martial law.
These tribunals have been empowered to preside over cases involving alleged violations of 23 separate provisions of the Penal Code. The proceedings are heavily guarded by junta troops, but the accused lack even the most basic legal protections. All cases are handled by military lawyers and military judges, who decide on the fate of defendants who are denied any say in their own defence.
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An anti-coup protest is seen in Yangon on February 8, 2021 (Myanmar Now)
It is under such circumstances that a total of 119 dissidents have been sentenced to death over the past year, including 42 in absentia. Among them were 88 Generation leader Ko Jimmy, former MP Phyo Zeyar Thaw, and anti-coup activists Aung Thura Zaw and Hla Myo Aung, who last month became the first prisoners to be executed in Myanmar in more than three decades.
To boycott or not
Given the regime’s total control over the justice system, some believe that lawyers should simply refuse to have anything to do with it.
“They should boycott a system that lies to the international community and oppresses civilians,” said Kyi Myint, a legal expert who is also a well-known political analyst.
Others, however, argue that not much should be expected of lawyers and others who work in the country’s courts, as they have long operated in a climate of fear that has effectively stripped them of any ability to act independently.
“The person who is most responsible for addressing this situation is the one at the top. As long as he continues to submit to the rulers’ will, this problem will not go away,” said the retired judge who spoke to Myanmar Now about the worsening position of legal practitioners under the current regime, referring to chief justice Tun Tun Oo, who also served under the ousted civilian administration.
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An anti-coup protest is seen in Yangon on February 8, 2021 (Myanmar Now)
For Mei Aye, however, fear has not been the determining factor in her career, as much as it has affected her life. What matters most, she said, is how she can best serve her clients—and through them, her country.
With regard to the latter, she said that she supports the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which she sees as a highly effective means of denying the junta legitimacy and any real hold on power. But she hasn’t joined the movement herself, she said, because she feels that in her case, it would be taking the easy way out.
As a lawyer who mostly handles pro bono cases for political prisoners, she would personally not have much to lose by giving up her job, unlike many others who have joined the CDM. The real losers, she said, would be those in need of any support they can get after sacrificing their own freedom for the future of Myanmar.
“I don’t take on cases because I have any faith in this country’s judiciary. I do it because I need to check on my clients and keep a record of what is being done to them,” she said.
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