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
- Junta targeting rebel-held areas in northern Myanmar with airstrikes and artillery
- Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 8 to 14, 2024)
- 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
Myanmar Military Regime Bombs Kayah State Capital From the Air
/in NewsMyanmar’s military regime launched air strikes on Loikaw, the capital of Kayah State, on Saturday and Sunday, forcing thousands of local residents to flee their homes.
Fierce clashes broke out between resistance groups and junta troops in the town on Friday. Residents of at least three of 13 wards in Loikaw have fled since Saturday and more are fleeing, according to humanitarian groups helping the displaced people.
“Around 2,000 people were evacuated on Saturday and Sunday. We evacuated them together with the Red Cross Society. Nearly half of the town has fled the fighting. Though the fighting took place in Mong Lone, Pan Kan and Ywa Tan Shae, people from the other parts of the town have also fled out of fear,” a charity worker told The Irrawaddy on Sunday.
People who remain in the town are staying in their homes, and businesses have also closed, he said. While his group is helping to evacuate displaced people to churches, many others have also fled the town on their own, he said.
“People don’t go out because helicopters were hovering. The town is deserted. Those who were not able to flee in time remain in their homes. But we are evacuating people at their request. We pick them up at their homes when they phone us,” he added.
Six civilians were killed in Friday’s fighting as junta troops attacked civilian targets, said the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF). The following day, the regime shelled several wards in Loikaw as junta jets dropped bombs.
Some residents have fled to Shan State, Mandalay, Naypyitaw and other towns, but some are only taking shelter at local churches in Kayah.
Local administrators in Nyaungshwe in southern Shan State at the border of Kayah State have warned locals not to shelter displaced persons from Kayah, and displaced people were also not allowed to enter Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State, according to the Shan State-based news agency Shan Herald.
Junta troops and local People’s Defense Force (PDF) members clashed in Loikaw, and junta helicopters were hovering over the town on Sunday morning.
“Many people remain in the town, though others are fleeing. We have not yet fled. We have packed things up, and got the car ready to flee. If the situation is OK, we will move tomorrow. But we heard gunfire today, and choppers were hovering,” a resident of Mong Lone ward told The Irrawaddy on Sunday.
More than half of Kayah State’s 300,000 population have already been displaced by fighting following the February coup, and the majority of Loikaw’s some 150,000 residents are fleeing the junta’s weekend aerial attacks, according to locals.
A Loikaw resident told The Irrawaddy on Monday that “the town is deserted and many more, including my family, are planning to leave today and tomorrow.”
Junta attacks from the air were also heard in Demoso, Shardaw and Moebye and Pekhon towns. Helicopters could be heard hovering above Hpasawng Township, said the Loikaw resident.
At least 30 junta soldiers including a lieutenant died and many more were injured in Saturday’s fighting, according to the KNDF. The group said it shot down a gunship and destroyed an armored vehicle in the fighting, and also seized weapons and ammunition from the regime.
Junta troops also clashed with resistance groups in Demoso on Sunday, and at least 10 junta soldiers died in the fighting despite air support.
“Some 20 junta soldiers are believed to have been injured, and at least 10 are thought to have died. The regime fired artillery and also carried out aerial attacks. One of our comrades died and three were injured. One of them had to have one of his kidneys removed. He is stable now,” a KPDF spokesman told The Irrawaddy.
Some civilian houses were damaged in the junta shelling and air strikes and junta troops also deliberately set some houses on fire to cremate their colleagues’ bodies, said the spokesman.
“Junta troops burnt the bodies of their fellows in civilian houses. We have found three charred bodies of junta soldiers,” he said.
The KPDF said it had also seized weapons and communications devices from the regime in the Demoso fighting. The military regime, according to Loikaw residents, has intensified its attacks in Loikaw, deploying helicopters to regain road access to other parts of Kayah State via Loikaw. Resistance groups have blocked road access since last month, preventing the regime from sending reinforcements and food supplies.
Irrawaddy News
Junta troops kill four teens after coming under attack near Tanintharyi village
/in NewsLocals say the four youths—three of whom were minors—were shot at close range shortly after being detained on Friday
Soldiers who came under attack from resistance forces in Tanintharyi Region’s Thayetchaung Township on Friday shot and killed four youths suspected of belonging to the People’s Defence Force (PDF), according to local sources.
The four victims, who ranged in age from 14 to 19, were returning home from a construction site where they were working when they were detained by soldiers, the sources said.
“They were wrongly accused of being PDF members and shot in the head at close range. They were very scared since they were just kids,” said a local man who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.
The incident reportedly occurred shortly after noon on Friday following clashes that broke out several hours earlier in the village of Kin Shey between resistance forces and members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia group.
When two military trucks carrying reinforcement troops approached the village from the north at around 11:45am, they came under attack from local resistance fighters using handmade explosives, according to a PDF member.
“The construction workers were going home from work when they ran into the military. They were wrongly accused of having perpetrated the bomb attack,” said the PDF member.
The victims were Khant Zin Htwe, 14, Aung Thet Phyo, 17, Ye Zaw Hteik, 17, and a 19-year-old man who could not be identified at the time of reporting.
According to the PDF member, two middle-aged men were also shot by regime forces and had to be hospitalised.
After the initial attack—which is believed to have injured four junta troops—two more military trucks arrived and soldiers began making arrests, he added.
A local resident told Myanmar Now that the soldiers fired a number of shots as they went through the village interrogating its inhabitants. At least one person was taken away with his hands tied behind his back, he added.
Kin Shey is located about 18 miles northeast of the town of Thayetchaung in Tanintharyi’s Dawei District. Many of those living there have already fled due to security concerns, residents said.
The Pyu Saw Htee group that attempted to enter the village on Friday was accused by locals of beating and detaining a monk and four other civilians, including two women, in the nearby village Saw Phyar in early October.
Local resistance groups, as well as Brigade 4 of the Karen National Liberation Army, have been active in fighting junta forces in Thayetchaung’s Taung Pyauk region since the shadow National Unity Government declared the start of a “resistance war” in September.
According to local media reports, more than 4,000 civilians have been displaced in Tanintharyi’s Dawei, Myeik, Tanintharyi, Yebyu and Palaw townships since the fighting began.
Myanmar Now News
Myanmar military helicopter attack on populated village kills 5 people
/in NewsSources said the military fired indiscriminately into the village in response to a militia attack the day before.
Military attacks in Myanmar’s Sagaing region killed at least 15 people this week, including four siblings aged 5-26 who died when a missile fired from a helicopter struck their home, sources said.
The two Mi-35 attack helicopters on Jan. 4 launched six rockets and fired machine guns into Gahe village, part of Indaw township in Sagaing, a northwestern region that has been a hotbed of resistance to the military regime that overthrew Myanmar’s elected government nearly a year ago.
The attack on Gahe was the first time the military used heavy weapons against the village, a resident of Gahe village, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told RFA’s Myanmar Service.
“Our village was a peaceful place and they attacked us for no reason,” she said
“We used to go out and watch the planes when they passed by, but now we wouldn’t dare doing anything like that. One of the helicopters shot explosive rockets at us and the other used a machine gun,” she said.
Of the six rockets fired into the village, five exploded. The attack killed four siblings aged 5, 9, 13 and 26, and a 30-year-old woman.
Only the body of the 30-year-old could be buried properly. The bodies of the siblings could not be recovered. They died when one of the rockets exploded in their house and it burned to the ground with them inside, sources said.
Additionally, one of the five people wounded in the attack was a child who fled into the jungle and has not yet received medical treatment, they said.
Sources estimate that 800 people from Gahe and the surrounding villages have been displaced due to fighting between the military and local militias, called People’s Defense Forces (PDF), who oppose the military’s ousting of Myanmar’s democratically elected government almost a year ago.
In addition to the five deaths in Gahe, another 10 people were killed on Thursday in Kalay township, which is located in the western part of Sagaing on the border with India, when they returned to their villages after fighting there had seemingly died down, sources said.
“The people returned to the village believing the situation had cooled down. Then the soldiers came back all of the sudden and shot everyone they saw and at least 10 were killed,” a resident of Kalay told RFA.
Only two of the people killed in the attack have been identified, and the bodies have not yet been recovered. Nearly 10 houses in nearby Ingyun and Hakha Lay villages were also reported to have been set on fire Thursday.
After the attack in Gahe, the military continued conducting operations near the village and were still firing heavy weapons in the surrounding area, another resident of Gahe told RFA on condition of anonymity.
“I think they attacked our village thinking there were PDF members in the village. There are no PDFers here,” she said.
“This kind of thing has happened before in Htigyaing. We heard about 70 people lost their lives there” she said, referring to a township adjacent to Indaw.
Many villagers fled their homes and took refuge in monasteries in Nar Naung and Kyawywar villages, another villager told RFA.
“Some villagers have gone to be with their relatives but most of us are in monasteries because the soldiers came into the village the other day and spent the night there,” she said.
“When we left the village, we heard gunfire and small explosions. We were all scared and went to the monastery to take shelter,” she said.
One day prior to the helicopter attack, PDF members attacked two military vehicles about 10 miles away from Gahe.
RFA tried to contact Maj. Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the military junta, but he did not respond.
Airstrikes against villages have happened frequently over the past year, an officer with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed group that has been fighting the military since before the coup, mostly in nearby Kachin State, told RFA.
“The armed clash occurred outside the village, not inside the village, but the army just fired back without knowing the target, and the villagers had to suffer,” Col. Naw Bu said.
“The Sagaing region is close to us. Our No. 26 Battalion is in the area. When there are movements in the area, there is some kind of confrontation. So, when that happens, they use airstrikes,” he said.
Naw Bu said that the KIA has not launched attacks in the Sagaing region but has retaliated against military action in Kachin state. The military usually responds with airstrikes, he said.
According to data compiled by RFA based on statements by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), there were 597 armed clashes in Sagaing region in the five months from June to November 2021, and a total of 274 civilians and 1,137 junta soldiers were killed over the same period.
The number of civilians killed by both sides in Sagaing through early December 2021 totaled at least 414, based on NUG monthly statements and reports from local media.
According to the Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, more than 75,250 people have been displaced by clashes in Sagaing region in the nine months from the coup until the end of October.
Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
RFA News
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OF MYANMAR AND CAMBODIA CONDEMNING HUN SEN’S SUPPORT OF THE MYANMAR MILITARY JUNTA
/in Press Releases and Statements4 January 2022
We, the undersigned civil society organizations of Myanmar and Cambodia, strongly condemn Hun Sen for supporting the criminal military junta in Myanmar and demand an urgent coordinated international response to immediately halt the junta’s campaign of terror.
The Myanmar military junta has been using extreme violence to terrorize the people across the country since its attempted coup on 1 February 2021. The people of Myanmar continue to resist strongly, succeeding at pushing back the military junta who has failed to gain effective control of the country after eleven months. Yet, the junta continues to commit inhumane acts of violence especially in ethnic areas – amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
As of today, 1,398 people have been killed, including at least 100 children and 11,328 people have been illegally detained according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Those in detention face torture, murder, and deprivation of food and water. Women have been raped and gang-raped inside and outside prison. Properties have been robbed and destroyed by junta soldiers. Since February, over 280,000 civilians have been internally displaced. Towns and villages have been burned or blown away by artillery shelling and airstrikes. Medical facilities and medical workers have been attacked. Humanitarian aid has been blocked and destroyed, unable to reach those desperately in need of assistance.
Recently on 24 December 2021, the junta arrested approximately 40 innocent villagers near Moso Village in the western part of Hpruso Township in Karenni State including women and children, put them in vehicles while their hands tied behind their backs and burned them alive. Similar massacres took place at Dontaw Village in Salingyi Township in Sagaing Region on 7 December, where 11 civilians were burned to death. Before this, the junta massacred at least 40 civilians over four different inhumane incidents in Kani Township, Sagaing Region in July.
While the atrocities were being committed in Karenni State, since 15 December, the terrorist junta has started shelling using heavy weaponry at Lay Kay Kaw and surrounding areas in Karen State and later with the use of airstrikes – jets bombing the area indiscriminately. This has displaced more than 10,000 innocent civilians, half of whom fled to Thailand to take refuge. Some Thai villagers also had to relocate, as some houses on the Thai side of the border were destroyed by the Myanmar junta’s artillery shelling.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new Hyatt Regency Hotel in Phnom Penh on 15 December 2021, Hun Sen publicly revealed that his highest priority in 2022 while Cambodia serves as chair of ASEAN is to support the return of Myanmar to fully functioning member of ASEAN under the illegal military junta. Hun Sen plans to visit Myanmar on 7 January 2022, for talks with the leader of the murderous junta, Min Aung Hlaing – a move that would only serve to embolden the military junta to continue their campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar. Hun Sen’s plan to act unilaterally in addressing the multidimensional crisis in Myanmar is utterly insufficient, as Hun Sen should know well from the Cambodian experience. Ending the Khmer Rouge required a concerted international and UN response, it was not left in the hands of only one man.
The escalating violence being committed by the junta against the people of Myanmar amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes, amidst an ongoing genocide against the Rohingya since 2017. Hun Sen must not condone and applaud such inhumane acts and should know well of the pain and immense suffering of genocide on a nation, given the millions of Cambodian people who were victims and survivors of genocide committed by the tyrannical Khmer Rouge. Hun Sen must not lend legitimacy to the genocidal junta, and he must not forget the suffering of millions of Cambodians who faced genocide.
Hun Sen reiterated that a solution for Myanmar cannot be achieved without negotiating with those who are currently in power, but ultimately power lies with the people of Myanmar who have declared in the strongest terms that they have no desire to see negotiations with this criminal military junta who are committing atrocity crimes.
Hun Sen referenced the Civil Disobedience Movement and the National Unity Government of Myanmar as guerrilla fighters or shadow government. The people of Myanmar hereby declare in the strongest terms that they take the utmost exception to his references and take them as the worst insult possible.
While ASEAN’s decision in October 2021 to exclude junta leader Min Aung Hlaing from the annual regional summit was unprecedented and a step in the right direction, ASEAN must take further decisive steps to resolve the intensifying crisis in Myanmar. The recent incidents of extreme violence in Karen and Karenni States and Sagaing Region clearly show there must be an urgent and stronger coordinated international response. We urge the UN, ASEAN, and international community at large to take concrete actions to end the junta’s campaign of terror against the people and hold them to account through international accountability mechanisms.
The root cause of the crisis in Myanmar is the military junta. It has caused not only immense suffering of the people of Myanmar but has also posed a threat to regional peace and stability. Hun Sen, ASEAN and the international community must realize that the Myanmar military junta has no genuine intention to comply with ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus and that ASEAN alone is ill-equipped to tackle the crisis in Myanmar.
ASEAN must recognize the legitimate government of Myanmar, the National Unity Government, work in coordination with the UN and the NUG and demand the military junta to immediately halt its terror campaign against the people. ASEAN’s credibility is at stake, and it must put effective pressure on the Myanmar military junta to end its relentless violence and support the people of Myanmar in their endeavor to establish a federal democracy.
In addition, ASEAN member states must cut all business ties with the Myanmar military junta and stop all programs and activities that lend legitimacy to the junta as these would be complicit in the junta’s crimes against humanity and war crimes.
ASEAN, as well as the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, that has backed the ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, must ensure that Hun Sen does not act alone in 2022 – lending legitimacy to the Myanmar military junta and further emboldening them to cause more harm to the people. This would be an insult to the people of Myanmar and Cambodia and further jeopardizing ASEAN’s already-diminishing credibility during the Cambodia tenure as chair of ASEAN in 2022. Human rights violations and atrocity crimes committed by Hun Sen and Min Aung Hlaing must be rectified and democracy and human rights must be restored to the peoples of Cambodia and Myanmar.
The people of Cambodia are in their own tireless struggle for full-fledged democracy and protection of human rights, currenting calling for free and fair elections in 2022. The people of Myanmar stand in solidarity with the people of Cambodia who want to overcome an oppressive authoritarian leader, who routinely denies and violates their human rights. The people of Myanmar categorically reject the terrorist military junta’s announced plan of elections in 2023 – just as they have been defiantly and categorically rejecting its bloody coup attempt for the past eleven months.
The undersigned CSOs from Myanmar declare in the strongest terms that Hun Sen is not welcome in Myanmar and the undersigned Cambodian CSOs declare that Hun Sen’s views are his own and do not represent the will of the Cambodian people.
For further information, please contact:
Signed by:
Supported by:
မြန်မာဘာသာဖြင့်ဖတ်ရန်။
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Human Rights Situation of Myanmar: Post Coup (December 27 to 2 January)2022
/in HR SituationOn 1 January, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reported that since 1 February, 1393 people had been killed, 11, 296 arrested and over 8000 are still being unlawfully detained. In December alone, according to the National Unity Government, over five dozen civilians were murdered and tens of thousands were displaced by the junta’s violence. The Women’s League of Burma reported that nearly 100 women were among those killed by the regime in 2021.
Prospects for peace for the people of Myanmar appear more distant now, than in recent times. The turmoil and terror spurred by the military junta since the failed February coup have squandered hopes and dreams of young people, and perpetuated a growing feeling of instability. Despite the junta’s fear mongering, the spirit of civilians, revolutionary fighters, human rights defenders and people of all ages, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds has not been broken.
The resilience seen over the last 11 months speaks volumes to the strength and courage citizens have embodied and exemplified. Yet, in the midst of the devastating times and harrowing levels of violence, the international community has countlessly been too slow to act. Dozens of statements were accompanied by condemnation but no action. Closed door meetings with the UN Security Council failed to meet the moment of crisis and urgency being made from the ground.
As the year came to an end, the conflict in Myanmar’s ethnic areas did not ease. Quite the contrary, airstrikes and ground attacks saw the forced internal displacement of thousands. Women, children, and the elderly were among those without adequate shelter, food or clothing while they were fleeing for their lives to the borders of neighboring countries, including Thailand. In Karen State, on December 23 and 24, the junta launched three airstrikes in surrounding villages of Lay Kay Kaw. The Karen National Union (KNU) has emphasized that there is a ‘high possibility that [the attacks] will happen again.’ The KNU, in addition to civil society organizations, have urged for collective action to the atrocities in Myanmar which are ongoing, systematic and widespread.
A New Year is a renewed opportunity for action and accountability. The international community must not fail the people of Myanmar who have been more than patient. Time must not be wasted, and true, meaningful steps towards holding the junta accountable for their endless crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
KAREN STATE
Violence in Karen State has been increasing throughout the year periodically and more so recently since the end of December 2021. According to the Karen Peace Support Network, , the number of IDPs and refugees to date has fluctuated as Thai authorities only allow war victims to cross into Thailand when they hear gun fire. After a while, those who had fled were pressured to return to Karen State.
The updated numbers of refugees in Thailand is currently around 5000 who are sheltering in various places in the country. However, ground reports suggest significant pressure from Thai authorities for those fleeing violence to be sent back. It is unlawful, and harmful to send innocent civilians fleeing a war zone back into an environment that is unsafe.
ND-Burma member, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, reported that fighting between the Karen National Liberation Army of Brigade 6 in Dalee village took place on 31 December. At least 60 households, and an estimated 240 villagers fled to nearby KNU controlled areas.
SAGAING REGION
More attacks by the military junta are creating rampant displacement amidst Internet cuts and blocking urgently needed humanitarian aid. On 28 December, more homes were burnt to the ground in Kale Township, Sagaing. Ongoing airstrikes and ground attacks left 20 civilians dead, and displaced thousands more. Civilian defense forces are actively fighting with the Myanmar military who is retaliating against innocent villagers in response.
Residents of Ye-U village were found ‘burnt beyond recognition’ following airstrikes a few days earlier. Among the seven people killed, two included women. Some of the bodies were half buried near a home that had been destroyed. In the relentless assaults across the country, Sagaing region is among those which have been hit the hardest as civilian casualties continue to grow, adding a horrifying layer of devastation to the current crisis.
SHAN STATE
In Shan State, Pekon Township, two villagers who were abducted by the junta and forced to guide soldiers died in custody. The two men, aged 67 and 49 were among 19 villagers taken hostage at the end of October. The two victims had stayed behind during a raid on their village to take care of the elderly residents. Their bodies have not been returned to their families as clearance operations, including theft and arbitrary arrests, have left the region in shambles.
Reports of more civilians being tortured in military custody included a teacher, and a couple who were members of the National League for Democracy who were killed in military custody. These awful atrocities are being violently committed in areas where resistance forces against the regime are most active.
Pakokku man accused of funding PDF dies in junta custody
/in NewsThe man was in prison for more than a month before his family learned that he had been arrested and was reportedly in poor health
A man who was arrested in October on charges of financially supporting the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF) died in prison last week, according to a source close to his family.
Relatives of 43-year-old Myo Naing, a resident of Pakokku in Magway Region, were notified of his death last Monday, just weeks after they learned of his whereabouts, the source said.
He had been transferred to Pakokku Prison less than two weeks earlier and was said to be facing three charges under Myanmar’s Anti-Terrorism Law at the time of his death.
“They said he felt a sharp pain on the left side of his chest and collapsed. He was sent to the out-patient department and was going in and out of consciousness on his way to the hospital. He died 15 minutes after arriving at the hospital,” said the source.
The victim’s family was later notified by the Prison Department that he had died due to pre-existing health conditions, according to the family friend, who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.
“They said he had pre-existing health conditions, but I’ve never heard anything about him having any health problems or being admitted to a hospital,” he said.
On Tuesday, the day of Myo Naing’s funeral, the Prison Department issued another notice stating that there were no external injuries on his body.
“The notice also said that he had been charged with possession of weapons. There were three charges against him, but that’s all his family knows,” the source added.
Members of the victim’s immediate family were not available for comment.
On Thursday, the anti-regime Pakokku People’s Revolution Committee of released a statement saying that the military must take full responsibility for Myo Naing’s death.
According to a member of the committee, Myo Naing was arrested by armed and plainclothes junta personnel at a tea shop in mid-October, but his family did not learn that he was in prison and in poor health until December.
“We spent three weeks trying to get information about him at the local police stations, but didn’t get any answers, so we just assumed that he was being held at the interrogation centre,” the committee member said.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed a total of 1,398 people since seizing power on February 1 of last year, including many who have died during interrogation.
Myanmar Now News