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
- Nearly 500 cases of sexual assault against women in Myanmar’s conflict
- Two women killed in airstrike on Oakkan village, Kawlin Township in northwest Myanmar
- Political prisoner dies due to lack of adequate medical care in Myanmar’s Dawei Prison
- Patterns of Military Oppression In 2023-2024
- Sexual abuse and violence worsens in Myanmar factories: activists
Imprisoned labour organisers released after signing junta pledge
/in NewsA group of workers and their supporters, who were arrested after demanding higher wages in the garment industry earlier this year, were freed this week after pledging not to participate in unlawful associations.
The 12 workers’ rights advocates included employees of the Hosheng Myanmar Garment Factory, employees of the Sun Apparel Myanmar factory, activists affiliated with the Action Labor Rights organisation, and the owner of a tea shop where they regularly met.
On June 14, several of the activists went to the general administration office in Shwepyithar Township, Yangon, to register a complaint about the dismissal of seven Hosheng Myanmar employees who had asked for a raise.
Junta authorities arrested the labor activists and their associates over the next several days, holding two at the Shwepyithar police station and transferring the remaining ten to Insein Prison.
Authorities initially brought charges against the detainees under Section 505(a) of the Myanmar Penal Code on incitement, under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, and under Section 40 of Registration of Associations Act.
However, the junta released the detainees on Monday after giving them a document to sign, according to Thurein Aung, a spokesperson for Action Labor Rights.
“According to the letter, if they engage in unlawful associations, they are subject to having their penalties doubled,” he said, referring to the document signed by the detainees.
“They had to sign it with their fingerprints,” he added.
Shortly after the labour activists’ arrest in June, a regime-controlled newspaper reporting the incident accused Thurein Aung and another associate of the Action Labor Rights organisation, Thuza, of incitement. Both have had to take precautions to avoid arrest in the intervening months.
It is uncertain whether the garment factory workers will return to their jobs at Hosheng Myanmar and Sun Apparel following their release.
“A complaint has been filed with the labour office regarding their dismissals and the case has been accepted. But investigations on the case haven’t started. I don’t know whether the factories will rehire them,” Thurein Aung said.
“We have appealed to Zara about re-employing them,” Thurein Aung said, referring to the flagship retail brand of the clothing company that sources clothes from the Hosheng factory.
Inditex, the parent company for several globally recognised clothing retailers including Zara, announced plans in June to make a “gradual” exit from Myanmar following international condemnation of the junta’s treatment of garment industry workers.
This year, after living through more than two years of inflation since the military coup, more workers began to demand an increase in the minimum daily wage from 4,800 to 5,600 kyat.
Authorities are required by law to readjust the minimum wage in Myanmar every two years, but the last adjustment occurred in 2018 during the administration of the National League for Democracy, when it increased from 3,600 to 4,800 kyat for an eight-hour workday.
The wage has remained the same under the military regime, as authorities have ignored the requirement to adjust the wage and suppressed protests organised in support of workers’ rights.
Myanmar Now News
Torture Inhumane Degrading Treatment
/in Cartoon Animation, Multimedia, News(က) နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေအရ ညှဉ်းပမ်း နှိပ်စက်မှုတွင် မည်သည့် အင်္ဂါရပ်များ ပါဝင်သနည်း။
ညှဉ်းပမ်းနှိပ်စက်မှုကို လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုတခုအဖြစ် မှတ်တမ်းတင်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် အောက် ဖေါ်ပြပါ အင်္ဂါရပ်လေးခု ထင်ရှားကြောင်း ဖော်ပြရပါမည်။
၁။ ရုပ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာအရသော်လည်းကောင်း၊ စိတ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာအရသော်လည်းကောင်း ပြင်းထန်စွာ နာကျင် စေခြင်း၊ သို့မဟုတ် ခံစားရစေခြင်း။
၂။ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ဖြင့် အနာတရ ဖြစ်စေခြင်း
၃။ ရည်ရွယ်ချက် အကြောင်းတခုခု ရှိခြင်း။
၄။ အစိုးရ၏ လုပ်ဆောင်ချက် တို့ဖြစ်သည်။
Human Rights Situation weekly update (August 22 to 31, 2023)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Aug 22 to 31, 2023
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Kachin State, and Kayah State from August 22nd to 31st. Military Junta arrested over 30 civilians including 2 children and used them as human shields in Kachin State. They also arrested, tortured, and killed over 20 civilians from the Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Kachin State, and Shan State. A woman from Wetlet Township was raped and killed by the Military’s Junta on August 26th.
The Head of the Prison who works under the Military Junta sued 33 political prisoners from Pathein Prison again with 2 more Penal codes. At least an underage child died and 4 were injured by the Military’s light and heavy attacks within a week. Civilians were forced to leave their places at least 6 times within a week by the Military Junta troops marching in the regions.
Infogram
Three civilians killed as military bombs, shells Karenni State
/in NewsThree local residents were killed and four sustained injuries in junta air and artillery strikes on villages in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Loikaw and Demoso townships on Thursday.
Military aircraft carried out an aerial attack on an internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camp near the village of Htee Hpoe Ka Loe on the Pon Creek in eastern Demoso Township, at around 7am. The attack injured two of the camp’s inhabitants and resulted in the death of one man in his 30s, according to a camp administrator.
“The patient was still alive when we saw him in the ambulance. He died from blood loss on the way to be treated,’ the camp administrator said.
One of the injured victims suffered a fractured femur and was in critical condition at the time of reporting.
Despite the lack of recent fighting in the area, the military also shelled the village of Saw Hki Daw, Loikaw Township using heavy artillery at around 10:30am, causing more civilian casualties, according to local sources.
Three shells exploded inside the village and a fourth fell on a nearby farm. A local man identified as Kuu Reh, 46, and a woman identified as Nyein Myar, 33, were killed.
The shelling injured another villager, reportedly a woman, and destroyed two houses in the village.
“The man died on arrival at the hospital and the woman died on the spot after the shell hit her house,” a local villager said.
The deceased man had been a member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a military proxy, according to the villager, and unlikely to have been targeted by the military under normal circumstances.
“Everyone just fled in panic when they started firing heavy artillery. Many still haven’t returned home,” he added.
According to local sources, a junta force based near Moebye, a town in southern Shan State’s Pekon Township on the Shan-Karenni border, carried out the shelling. However, Myanmar Now has yet to independently confirm which military units fired the shells or from which direction.
Junta aircraft also reportedly carried out an attack in western Demoso Township early on Thursday morning, but there were no civilian fatalities reported. The village’s name was withheld out of concern for the inhabitants’ safety.
A local woman in her 30s told Myanmar Now that villagers were unable to reach nearby bunkers for shelter when the aircraft started the raid at around 4:30am. Although she was some distance from where the bombs fell, she said she could feel the impact when they exploded.
“They dropped the bombs just now,” the woman said, speaking moments after the attack. “They dropped them three times. It was raining at the time.”
According to records kept by the activist group Progressive Karenni People’s Force, as of August more than 370 local people have been killed in Karenni State since the February 2021 coup.
Myanmar Now News
Aid needed for villagers displaced by clashes in northern Shan State
/in NewsAround 2,000 civilians are in need of food and accommodation after fleeing recent clashes between the military and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State, sources assisting the displaced communities said.
The displaced civilians inhabited eight villages located in Muse and Kutkai townships, where fierce fighting between the Myanmar Army and TNLA–an ethnic armed organisation–has been reported since Tuesday.
According to a statement issued by the TNLA, battles broke out in three places in the two townships on Tuesday alone, followed by junta airstrikes in retaliation for the assaults by the ethnic armed group.
The TNLA claimed that on that day, a column of around 100 junta soldiers belonging to Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) 420 and 417—part of the notorious Light Infantry Division (LID) 99—and members of the pro-junta Namhkam Myoma militia group approached Loi Tan Mein hill, where the TNLA has a base.
The junta’s advance set off fighting near the villages of Nar Htan and Seilant in Muse Township, the statement said.
As a diversion, TNLA members attacked other military units occupying the town of Muse in the morning and a base established inside Seilant in the evening, according to the group’s statement. Around 5:40pm on Tuesday, a junta jet carried out an airstrike, dropping eight bombs near the site of battle in Seilant, the TNLA said.
“We were fighting all night, till 1am this morning. I haven’t slept till now. We haven’t been able to seize their base yet,” a TNLA member involved in the battle told Myanmar Now on Wednesday.
At least ten houses were destroyed, and a man was injured by artillery shelling, the TNLA member said.
The military has been stationed in Seilant for about a month, during which TNLA forces have made repeated attempts to take over. Due to the fighting, all of Seilant’s civilian residents have fled the village and have been staying at temporary shelters in Muse as well as in nearby villages in Namkhan Township.
Community-based social welfare groups are assisting the displaced villagers at the temporary shelters. Volunteers told Myanmar Now they are in need of food supplies and other necessities.
“The number of displaced people is increasing, so there’s not enough rice, bedsheets, or blankets. They still need a lot of help,” said a volunteer who asked not to be named due to security concerns.
He added that the displaced villagers would not be able to return home as both army and anti-junta forces continued to carry out combat operations near Seilant.
There were additional reports of fighting between the TNLA and junta forces near the village of Hko Mone, Kutkai Township around 11am on Tuesday, which started when another junta column advanced into an area where the TNLA forces were active.
In response, TNLA forces attacked junta outposts in Nam Hpat Kar village north of Hko Mone around 6pm.
The junta forces continued their advance into Hko Mone the next day, fighting the TNLA at the same time. Shrapnel from an exploding shell killed a woman in Nam Hpat Kar on Wednesday, with the TNLA and the Myanmar army each assigning responsibility to the other for her death in public statements the next day.
According to TNLA spokespersons, a total of 21 battles with junta forces have been reported in the month of August.
Myanmar Now News
CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT ON THE VISIT OF HEAD OF OCHA TO MYANMAR
/in Member statements, Press Releases and StatementsCivil society statement on the visit of Head of OCHA to Myanmar
While noting efforts by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, to negotiate humanitarian access across Myanmar, including to Rakhine State following deadly Cyclone Mocha, we, the undersigned 513 civil society organizations, are concerned that Mr. Griffiths’ visit lacked substantive achievements and was used as propaganda by the military junta. We urge the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to officially engage and partner with legitimate stakeholders of Myanmar and civil society service providers to deliver humanitarian assistance.
As Mr. Griffiths’ end-of-visit statement affirmed, “it is critical for us to have the humanitarian space we need for safe, sustained aid deliveries around the country.” Principled humanitarian engagement must see OCHA and other UN humanitarian agencies cut ties with the illegal criminal junta which is weaponizing aid and is the root cause of human suffering in Myanmar. Rather, OCHA must immediately partner with legitimate governance actors that control large parts of the country and deliver aid through local service providers. This includes Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs), the National Unity Government (NUG), and civil society organizations who have been effectively providing essential services on the ground, including through cross-border channels. Such stakeholders have the access, legitimacy, capacity and, most importantly, trust from the people that the junta simply lacks.
Given that the visit happened three months since Cyclone Mocha devastated communities in Chin and Rakhine States, Sagaing Region and beyond, the junta has proven to have no intention to address the acute needs of affected communities. Rather, OCHA visit has become the military junta’s latest propaganda exercise to attempt to gain international recognition and legitimacy. We are alarmed that OCHA’s statement omits the fact that the cause of the escalating humanitarian crisis is the junta’s violence and atrocities, or that it is the junta’s weaponization of humanitarian assistance that is blocking access to Cyclone Mocha’s victims.
While the junta has restricted humanitarian access and prevented aid from reaching vulnerable communities affected by the natural disaster, it is also the perpetrators of a nationwide man-made humanitarian catastrophe. Its widespread and systematic campaign of arson, military offensives, extrajudicial killings, and aerial attacks on civilians are, according to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, strong evidence of “increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.” In addition to these heinous crimes, severe restrictions of humanitarian aid delivery, including targeting aid workers, are the junta’s collective punishment of a population that is rejecting its ongoing brutal attempt to grab power. In his recent report to the 53rd Session of the Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, outlines how “As part of its attempts to assert control, the military has imposed a range of legal, financial, and bureaucratic requirements on civil society and humanitarian activity that have severely reduced civic space and delivery of life-saving assistance.”
We further note OCHA’s recognition of the Myanmar military’s unconstitutional body of the “State Administration Council” in its statementwhich is inconsistent with the language used by the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly in their resolutions. It also legitimizes Min Aung Hlaing’s claim to be head of government by referring to him as the Chairman of the State Administration Council. We express serious concerns that OCHA’s current approach will embolden the junta to further its war of terror across the nation. Such actions risk exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, the very crisis OCHA is mandated to address and alleviate.
Despite the junta attempting to gain diplomatic legitimacy over this type of visit, OCHA must ensure substantial benefits are provided for the millions of people in dire need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the junta’s violence and atrocities. Access for OCHA staff to parts of Rakhine State and nearby areas is one issue at stake, but so is the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in central, southeast and northwest Myanmar, where the junta is launching non-stop deliberate attacks on civilians. In these areas, the junta does not have effective control and cannot grant access to affected communities. On the contrary, local governance and civil society actors have been effectively delivering assistance to affected communities, but must be supported by more resources.
OCHA must reflect on its current failed approach and take critical, concrete actions which truly serve Myanmar communities that are in dire need. To fulfill its mandate and principles to do no harm, OCHA must immediately pivot to delivering aid in collaboration or partnership with local humanitarian and civil society groups, ethnic service providers, diaspora communities, local administration forces of the Spring Revolution, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement, EROs, and the NUG who have been effectively providing life-saving services on the ground, including through cross-border channels.
The Myanmar military has a long history of weaponizing humanitarian aid and UN agencies have a long history of being criticized for complicity in military atrocities, all done in the name of access. OCHA can no longer afford to rehash failed models of humanitarianism, and thus tacitly giving credence and status to the illegal military junta. Rather, OCHA must be innovative and supportive of local service providers, as well as engage and collaborate with the legitimate stakeholders of Myanmar. This will ensure the most effective and widespread delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected communities suffering from international crimes committed by a brutal military junta.
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Signed by 513 Myanmar, regional and international organizations including 260 organizations who have chosen to not disclose their name: