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
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- UN chief: Discussing humanitarian aid corridor from Bangladesh to Myanmar
- Rodrigo Roa Duterte makes first appearance before the ICC: confirmation of charges hearing scheduled for 23 September 2025
- Myanmar junta troops massacre 11 villagers, most too old to flee, residents say
AN OPEN LETTER FROM 567 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS CALLING FOR LEADERS OF THE ETHNIC RESISTANCE ORGANIZATIONS NOT TO ENGAGE WITH MYANMAR’S STATE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL
/in Press Releases and Statements26 September 2022
The undersigned Civil Society Organizations urge the Ethnic Resistance Organization not to attend the military sham Peace Dialogue, a sham intended as a way to distract and exit from their own political, military, and economic crisis.
The armed conflict currently unfolding must be understood clearly as a battle between the military and the people. Min Aung Hlaing led-terrorist military has ignored the will of the people in the election and attempted to stage a coup since February 1, 2021 and arrested the elected members of parliament. Since they refused to accept the result of the 2020 November General Election, which was accepted by the international community as a free and fair election and in which the people freely cast their votes, they became merely a terrorist organization which no longer has legitimacy domestically and internationally.
In order to take power the military cruelly tortured and killed peaceful protesters who protested against their unlawful actions according to democratic practice. Therefore they are regarded as merely a terrorist organization according to international and domestic laws.
It is evident that the terrorist military council is targeting civilians across the country every day. The terrorist military is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by torching villages, looting civilian properties, burning civilians alive, including children and women, mass killing, raping women, shelling civilian sites with artilleries, and inflicting aerial attacks and bombardments on civilian sites, religious buildings, schools and IDP camps.
As the terrorist military council violated the ASEAN’s five-point Consensus and ignored the international community, they not only failed to receive any recognition from the international community but were isolated and prevented from attending ASEAN summits and related minister-level meetings.
As the terrorist military council can no longer defeat the people’s resistance, they are creating a sham peace dialogue using ethnic armed organizations in order to mislead the international community, including ASEAN.
This terrorist military council (formerly Myanmar Tatmadaw) dictated and influenced peace dialogues using the 2008 Constitution; not a single genuine peace and political agreement has been achieved under this military. Again, the invitation to ethnic armed resistance organizations by the military group firmly holding the 2008 Constitution is not a genuine attempt to find a peaceful political resolution and build a Federal Democratic Union to meet the political aspirations of ethnic armed organizations. Instead, it is evident that it is a sham dialogue intended to divide and rule the resistance groups, namely the Spring revolution forces, the people and ethnic armed organizations.
Therefore, attending this sham dialogue is not only against the will of the people resisting this terrorist group, but will also lend legitimacy to this terrorist military council. In addition, it will further delay the process of building genuine peace and federal democracy, and also place further obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people most in need. Worse, sham talks will permit and encourage further crimes against humanity committed by the terrorist military group.
The military group led by the terrorist Min Aung Hlaing continues to kill their own people. He is currently facing criminal charges in the International Court of Justice for allegedly committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It is imperative to learn from Myanmar’s history that this terrorist group is not a worthy political dialogue partner for peace and to make efforts to remove them from Myanmar’s political arena entirely. Hence, we call on ethnic armed organizations – that have been consistently struggling for democracy, federalism, and peace – to avoid attending sham political and peace dialogues (either publicly or secretly) held by the terrorist military group and join with people who are fighting to totally remove the military from politics.
Note – out of a total of 567 organizations endorsed the letter, only 281 organizations have been identified for security reasons.
Signed by
Strike Column
Student Union
Civilian killed and burned during junta raid on Sagaing village
/in NewsA PDF fighter was also found dead following the attack on the Myaung Township village of Na Bet late last week
Regime forces killed a civilian and a member of a local People’s Defence Force (PDF) during a raid on a village in Sagaing Region’s Myaung Township late last week, according to resistance sources.
The raid, carried out by a military column of around 100 troops, began early Thursday morning, when Na Bet, a village located about 10km southwest of the town of Myaung, came under heavy artillery fire.
The bodies of the two victims were discovered the next day, said Nway Oo, the spokesperson for the Civil Defence and Security Organisation of Myaung (CDSOM), a coalition of local resistance groups.
“We managed to get the body of the PDF member back, but we couldn’t retrieve the body of the civilian as it was in the middle of the village. The soldiers burned it as they left,” he said.
The junta column in question was said to be stationed in neighbouring Myinmu Township. It began its attacks in Myaung Township on Wednesday, forcing residents of the area to flee, local sources reported.
According to Nway Oo, the PDF member was scouting the area when he was captured after being spotted by the soldiers.
“He tried to flee by crossing the river, but the soldiers chased him in a boat. He was shot once in the head,” said the CDSOM spokesperson.
The dead PDF member was identified as 25-year-old Htet Wai Aung. The identity of the other victim could not be confirmed because he had been burned beyond recognition, according to Nway Oo.
On Friday, after leaving Na Bet, the junta column divided into two groups—one heading south towards the Kyauk Yit police station and the other north towards the village of Let Yet Ma, according to local sources.
The CDSOM urged civilians in southern Myaung Township to leave the area amid rumours that the military is going to carry out clearance operations there.
The group said that a total of seven people have been killed in the township since the beginning of the month, including three who died after a camp for displaced civilians in the village of Zee Kyun came under heavy artillery fire on September 1.
Myanmar Now News
Junta shelling kills two children, injures several in Myanmar’s Rakhine state
/in NewsFighting between the military and the ethnic Arakan Army is intensifying in the region.
Military shelling in Myanmar’s Rakhine state over the past four days has claimed the lives of at least two children and injured several others, residents said Monday, as clashes ramp up between junta troops and ethnic insurgents following a two-year lull.
Late on Sunday evening, junta troops from the 9th Military Operations Command (MOC-9) in Kyauktaw township fired shells into Na Ga Yar village, killing 7-year-old Maung Gyi and injuring a man named Kyaw Sein, a resident told RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity.
“A shell fired by the military fell right on the house at about 11 p.m. and went through the roof,” the resident said. “That was the only one that fell on our village, but around 30 shells fell along the banks of the [nearby] Kyauktaw river.”
The boy, who is also known as Moung Ko Naing, was buried on Monday and Kyaw Sein is currently receiving medical treatment, the resident said. Some inhabitants of Na Ga Yar have fled to nearby villages, he added.
Separately, residents told RFA that a seven-year-old from Buthidaung township’s Ah Twin Hnget Thay village was killed and two residents of North Tha Bauk Chaung village were wounded on Sept. 23 when the 8th regiment of the junta’s Buthidaung Township Border Guard Force fired shells toward Tha Bauk Chaung village. Additional details of the incident were not immediately available.
The incident in Na Ga Yar came just four days after a shell fired by MOC-9 injured four members of a family in the same village, sources said.
Residents reported additional civilian casualties resulting from junta attacks since the weekend.
A man staying at the Thein San Guest House in Kyauktaw’s Ywama ward was injured by a stray bullet on Saturday, while a 21-year-old woman and her two children were injured on Monday when a shell fired by a junta naval boat exploded in Minbya township’s Khaung Laung village, sources said.
Of the shelling on Monday, residents said that the clash erupted after members of the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) intercepted two naval vessels traveling upriver from the capital Sittwe to Minbya between Khaung Laung and Laung Shay villages.
“Two Z-craft [boats] came up from Sittwe at about 9 a.m. When they approached our village, [a helicopter] arrived, hovering above. Soon afterwards, we heard the sound of fighting as the vessels approached Khaung Laung village,” said a resident of nearby Thut Pon Chaung village.
“I think the AA fired at the navy. Both vessels were hit. We heard the gunfire. The aircraft also returned fire.”
The Thut Pon Chaung resident said junta troops were firing from the river between Khaung Laung village to Minbya, and a military unit stationed at Kyein Taung Pagoda in Minbya also fired shells into the area.
Pe Than, a former lawmaker and veteran politician in Rakhine state, condemned junta troops for attacking civilians.
“What we have seen is that as the fighting throughout Rakhine state has intensified, the junta is targeting residents, regardless of whether there are any clashes nearby,” he said.
“The military is doing whatever it wants in the villages. More people are becoming displaced by fighting. It’s like the Myanmar proverb ‘burning down the barn because the mouse cannot be found.’”
He urged residents of the state to “keep their eyes and ears open at all times” as the fighting between the two sides is “likely to become even more severe.”
Growing conflict
Fighting between Myanmar’s military and the AA, which resumed in July after a two-year lull, has intensified and is spreading southward through Rakhine state, sources in the region told RFA last week.
What began as intermittent clashes two months ago in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw township and across the border to the northeast in neighboring Chin state’s Paletwa township has since spread to the central Rakhine townships of Buthidaung, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw, and is now expanding to Toungup township in the state’s south-central region, according to residents.
More than 10,000 residents have fled their homes in townships including Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Mrauk-U in the more than two months since the resumption of fighting.
Neither the AA nor the junta has released any news regarding the situation in Rakhine. Attempts by RFA to reach the junta’s spokesman in the state went unanswered on Monday.
The AA recently announced that it had captured the junta’s 352 Light Infantry Battalion camp on Sept. 10 and its Border Guard Station near milepost No. 40 along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh on Aug. 31. The AA claimed that “many junta soldiers were killed” and many others were captured, along with weapons and ammunition.
On Sept. 20, Junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw that the military is trying to recapture the two locations.
Junta shelling has killed three children and three adults and wounded 18 people since fighting resumed in Buthidaung, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Minbya townships.
Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
RFA News
Child killed as military shells village during Ayeyarwady River crossing in Kachin State
/in NewsA junta column fires artillery into a village in the attempted advance, but loses more than 20 soldiers to an ambush on its boats, a resistance spokesperson says
A nine-year-old boy was killed when the Myanmar army fired heavy artillery into a village along the Ayeyarwady River last week in Kachin State’s Shwegu Township, according to a member of the resistance.
On September 22, a unit of some 100 soldiers from the junta’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 78—under the supervision of Light Infantry Division 88—attempted to cross the river in boats from the village of Kyun Taw to Moe Sit, on the opposite bank, when they came under attack.
The Kachin People’s Defence Force (KPDF) chapter from the town of Myohla, more than 20 miles northwest of Moe Sit, ambushed the column from their position in the village at around 2pm. The military forces still in Kyun Taw responded by firing artillery in the direction of the resistance.
Several of the junta’s shells hit the village of Moe Sit, killing nine-year-old Zwe Naing Moe. A Myohla KPDF spokesperson told Myanmar Now that the boy was hiding when he was hit by one of the blasts.
Four other civilians were reportedly injured in the attack, including a local teacher who lost his leg. Further information about the villagers who were wounded was not available at the time of reporting, as most of Moe Sit’s residents had fled. At least one home was also burned down.
During the one-hour battle, the resistance forces destroyed multiple boats and killed an estimated 27 soldiers, according to the Myohla KPDF spokesperson.
“[The military] fired both automatic weapons and heavy weapons as soon as they started crossing the river and we managed to sink three of their ferries. So many of them died although some jumped into the water, swam away and escaped,” he said.
Shwegu_tsp.png
Map of Shwegu Township showing the locations of Myohla town and the villages of Kyauk Ta Lone, Kyun Taw and Moe Sit along the Ayeyarwady River
The IB 78 column had left the village of Kyauk Ta Lone in western Shwegu days earlier and had since been occupying Kyun Taw.
Starting on the morning of September 23, the remaining 80 junta troops based in Kyun Taw began searching homes in the village, causing more locals in the area to flee.
The Myohla KPDF withdrew from Moe Sit due to the proximity of the Myanmar army soldiers.
“The junta force is still inside the village [of Kyun Taw]. We decided to withdraw so that more villagers would not be harmed,” the resistance force’s spokesperson said.
Local anti-junta defence forces have repeatedly attacked military vessels travelling along the Ayeyarwady River sending reinforcement troops into Kachin State.
Serious battles have also been taking place in Katha Township, located across the Sagaing Region border with Shwegu Township in Kachin State.
A resistance alliance led by the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front clashed with a junta unit from Light Infantry Battalion 309 near the township’s administrative centre on the same day as the heavy fighting along the Ayeyarwady River in Shwegu.
Myanmar Now News
Prosecuting Burmese Perpetrators of Serious Human Rights Violations in Jakarta
/in Member statementsPRESS RELEASE:
*Prosecuting Burmese Perpetrators of Serious Human Rights Violations in Jakarta*
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court Holds First Hearing into Law 26 of 2000 concerning the Human Rights Court
Jakarta 26 September 2022: The Constitutional Court in Jakarta has held its first hearing into whether the law governing the Human Rights Court can be changed, allowing a case to be brought in Indonesia against perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Myanmar.
Salai Za Uk Ling, Deputy Executive Director of the Chin Human Rights Organisation said “more and more states are permitting universal jurisdiction cases such as the Rohingya genocide case in Argentina and the case in Turkey against the Myanmar junta. This is a golden opportunity for Indonesia to position itself at the leading edge of positive change.”
The Indonesian constitution upholds the universal protection of rights, asserting that “everyone has the right to recognition, guarantee, protection, fair legal certainty, and equal treatment before the law. [Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution].
The 1945 Constitution protects human rights regardless of citizenship status.
On September 7, 2022, a group leading figures submitted an application to the Court to remove the phrase “by an Indonesian citizen” from Article 5 of Law Number 26 of 2000 concerning the Human Rights Court. This stipulates “the human rights court is also authorized to examine and decide cases of gross human rights violations outside the territory of Indonesia, which are committed by Indonesian citizens.”
According to the petitioners, Article 5 clearly violates the universality of the 1945 Constitution. It also limits Indonesia’s role in realizing world peace and upholding the rule of law, as the Constitution stipulates.
The Constitutional Court Session was attended by Marzuki Darusman (Petitioner I) and Sasmito, Chairman of Aliansi Jurnalis Independen, AJI, (Petitioner III) along with 17 Attorneys for the Petitioners.
The Preliminary Examination was broadcast live on the Constitutional Court’s Youtube channel: Sidang Perkara Nomor 89/PUU-XX/2022. Senin, 26 September 2022. – YouTube
The next hearing by the Constitutional Court on this petition will be held on 11 October.
Ends
The legal team for the petitioners included the Human Rights Universality Team (U-HAM), THEMIS Indonesia Law Firm; LBH-PP Muhammadiyah; LBH-Pers on behalf of the Petitioners: Marzuki Darusman, Busyro Muqoddas, and AJI-Indonesia.
For further information please contact:
Ibn Syamsu, Themis Indonesia (082228682201)
Gufroni, LBH-PP Muhammadiyah ( 085714158130)
Ade Wahyudin, LBH Press (085773238190)
Thousands of civilians displaced by Myanmar army attacks on Khin-U villages
/in NewsA junta unit attacked by the resistance with explosives returns to torch area villages, forcing locals to flee their homes
Thousands of villagers have been displaced by recent military assaults on Sagaing Region’s Khin-U Township, according to local sources.
Members of the anti-junta resistance said that a 70-soldier column in western Khin-U and a 200-soldier unit in the east have been perpetrating the attacks.
The first column targeted villages along the highway connecting Khin-U with Ye-U Township, which lies to the west. On Wednesday at 10am they arrived at the community of Thagara Myo Thit, some eight miles from Khin-U’s administrative centre.
A clash with local defence forces broke out at the village’s entrance, with no casualties reported by the resistance, who were forced to withdraw.
A guerrilla fighter from one of the groups that participated in the battle said that Myanmar army soldiers then set up a base in Thagara Myo Thit after torching at least three homes.
The following morning, half of the column reportedly continued on to neighbouring Gway Kone, more than one mile away, where more homes were burnt.
Khin-U_10_.Jpeg
Displaced locals from eastern Khin-U township
The defence force member who spoke to Myanmar Now said that on Tuesday, an alliance of resistance groups had carried out three attacks with explosive devices targeting a four-vehicle military convoy along the highway to Ye-U.
“There were so many junta casualties,” he said. “I think they came back for revenge.”
The troops belonged to the column now operating in western Khin-U.
One of the trucks was destroyed after being hit with six makeshift bombs and left behind in Inpat village, two miles from Ye-U. The remaining three vehicles were also destroyed after being attacked near Thagara Myo Thit, Gway Kone and Kan Thit villages, according to an officer in the Khin-U People’s Defence Force (PDF).
Two of the vehicles were later retrieved by the junta, but two were abandoned by the roadside, he added.
By Thursday, locals in multiple villages along the highway had fled the military raids.
Khin-U_4.Jpeg
Displaced locals from eastern Khin-U township (Supplied)
The larger junta column operating in eastern Khin-U, which borders Mandalay Region, began its raids on Tuesday, with junta ships travelling along the Ayeyarwady River attacking the villages of Ka Bwat and Yone Pin.
“We heard last night that the military was coming, so we fled into the woods. There isn’t anyone left behind in the village and we heard gunshots all day yesterday,” a displaced resident of Ka Bwat said on Thursday.
According to a statement by the Khin-U PDF, some 7,500 civilians from 2,000 households had been displaced from Ka Bwat to the surrounding forests.
In Yone Pin, most of the residents also fled, but 10 locals were arrested by the arriving Myanmar army troops, according to the Khin-U PDF officer, who did not have further information on their whereabouts or condition at the time of reporting.
Allied resistance forces attacked the junta unit leaving Yone Pin for Ka Bwat on Thursday to join the column already occupying the community. They reportedly killed six troops and injured an unspecified number of soldiers who were then transported by the military to Mandalay.
“They buried the dead soldiers in a valley near Ka Bwat village and the injured soldiers were taken to Shwe Kyin, which is located to the east of the river,” the PDF officer said.
The junta has not released any information on its recent activities in Khin-U.
Myanmar Now News