ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
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- 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
Six bodies found in boat carrying Rohingya drifting off Myanmar coast
/in NewsThere were 59 survivors although a baby has reportedly since died.
UPDATED at 9:45 a.m. EDT on 8-31-2022
Six bodies have been discovered along with 59 ethnic Rohingya survivors on a boat floating near an island off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady delta region.
Local residents told RFA the Coast Guard went to stop the boat on Monday after reports it had been drifting for several days in the sea near Gayatgyi island, which lies just off the coast.
One of the residents, who declined to be named for safety reasons, said that the Myanmar navy from nearby Ka Don was sent to arrest them.
“There were dead bodies on the boat. It seems the boat’s engine broke down and it floated in the sea for a long time and people died of starvation,” the resident said.
Residents said three men and three women had died, and there were 59 survivors. They said a child from the boat died after survivors were taken to the police station for Bogale township, but RFA could not verify this independently.
Bogale lies about 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Myanmar’s commercial center, Yangon.
RFA called Maung Than, who is minister of social affairs and the spokesman for Ayeyarwady regional military council, but calls went unanswered on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear where the boat had departed from and what punitive action may be taken against the surviving Rohingyas. In the past, Rohingya migrants have faced between three and six months in prison under Myanmar’s immigration law.
On June 21, local authorities arrested 28 Rohingya as their boat neared a village in Ayeyarwady region’s Kyaiklat township.
More than a million Rohingya Muslims used to live in the Buthidaung and Maungdaw areas on the northern tip of Rakhine State. Some 740,000 fled to Bangladesh to escape army scorched-earth operations in 2017 and live in squalid refugee camps there.
Of those that remained, hundreds were killed, including women and children and many villages were burned down.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, is investigating the military for genocide in a case brought by Gambia. The U.S. State Department has already labelled Myanmar’s actions as genocide.
Even though five years have passed since that crackdown, stateless Rohingya refugees are no closer to returning to Myanmar.
Hundreds of thousands more Rohingya remain in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, where their movements are more restricted. Zarni Soe, a human rights activist based in the state, told RFA last week that their situation may worsen amid renewed fighting between the Arakan Army and junta troops in the north of the state.
RFA News
Thousands flee fighting between Myanmar junta, Arakan Army in Rakhine
/in NewsThe latest clash was sparked by a military attempt to break through an AA position along a supply route.
More than 5,000 civilians fled from more than 10 villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state after fighting erupted Tuesday night between junta forces and the rebel Arakan Army (AA), residents told RFA.
The people, from Rathedaung township in the northwestern part of the state, were forced to leave their homes when a junta column attempted to break through an AA position along a supply route that goes through Ku Lar Chaung village, a resident of the area told RFA’s Burmese Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“There’s a place called Yay Soe Chaung Byuhar in the north of Rathedaung. The AA intercepted the military that came along this supply route yesterday,” said the source.
“We heard four junta soldiers were killed. And this morning, they came to get the bodies. We heard a lot of gunfire and explosions of heavy weapons this morning,” the source said.
RFA has not yet been able to independently confirm any casualties.
The Myanmar army has occupied most of the area since 2019, after a series of battles with the AA. More junta troops are now stationed in Ma Nyin Taung village near the battle site, sources said.
Thein Nu from Pyain Taw village told RFA that she and her family fled across the river about an hour after the fighting started at 7 p.m. She said the clashes lasted until around midnight.
“We escaped the fighting by crossing the river in a boat,” Thein Nu said. “We couldn’t worry about other families because we were so afraid. We just fled taking our children and the elderly.
“The river was so wide, but we just crossed it because we were scared. We were afraid that we’d be shot at from the air like in the past. We were also afraid that they might fire at us from a ship. A plane was circling in the air and we were frightened,” she said.
People in the area were also forced to flee fighting in 2019. They remained in refugee camps near Rathedaung for more than two years.
A fierce battle also broke out between the junta army and the AA in Rathedaung township on Aug. 13, and the Rathedaung-Maungdaw-Buthidaung road was closed indefinitely by the military.
Local villagers said the commander of the military’s light infantry regiments 536, 537 and 538, based in Rathedaung, demanded that the AA leave its camp in Pyar Chaung Gyi village on Aug. 25.
Residents also told RFA that the junta bombed suspected AA camp sites in the northern part of Maungdaw township, along the Let Pan and Wai Lar mountains on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.
They said the AA has also launched attacks on the junta military camp on Kha Moung Seik Byuhar hill since Aug. 25, and the junta side has suffered many casualties.
Neither side has released any information about the fighting.
AA spokesman Khine Thukha told RFA on Monday that the AA was defending civilians in the area.
“Whether the fighting will be more intense or not depends on the activities of the Myanmar army,” he said.
“If they launch more attacks, we will retaliate. The Burmese army has been targeting mainly the Rakhine people in Rakhine state and imposing various restrictions on the people,” Khine Thukha said.
The Myanmar military has opened up to 15 checkpoints along the Ann-Sittwe road and has strictly limited travel and the flow of goods, the AA said.
RFA tried to contact Hla Thein, attorney general of Rakhine and the junta’s spokesman in the region, about the situation, but he did not respond.
Pe Than, a former representative of the People’s Assembly in Rakhine, said the fighting might be more intense than it was two years ago.
“In the past, there were clashes, but it was not about capturing camps. Now, the AA side is gradually taking over the border guard camps and the Burmese military has been gradually retreating,” Pe Than said.
“The junta troops only have air support. They get their food rations only from the air. They can only fire their heavy weapons from afar. That’s all they can do. The ground troops are all surrounded. So this is no longer an ordinary battle. It’s meant to take over territory. It all started from the north,” he said.
The junta’s army and AA troops were engaged in the townships of Maungdaw and Mrauk U as well as in Paletwa township in Chin state and the fighting has gradually expanded, according to Pe Than. He said at least 10 junta camps, including border guard stations, have withdrawn.
After a truce that lasted a year and a half, fighting between the two sides erupted again in July. Residents said more than 10,000 people have fled their homes in Rathedaung township and more than 700 in Mrauk U township as a result.
In a statement Wednesday, the AA claimed that it had captured a military camp near milestone No. 40 near the Bangladesh border area despite heavy resistance.
It said fighting has been going on in that area since the beginning of August and that the military has fired about 300 to 400 rounds of heavy weapons into the area between milestones No. 34 and No. 39.
The statement also said that the junta has recently used helicopters and jet fighters to bomb the area.
The camp fell this morning at 9:12 a.m., the statement said, and 19 junta soldiers, including Police Capt. Soe Soe Paing, were captured or killed. The AA was also able to seize weapons and ammunition.
The AA acknowledged in the statement that it suffered some casualties but didn’t say how many. The AA said it discovered fresh graves of junta soldiers who had been killed in earlier clashes.
The statement also said that there was a skirmish Tuesday night on the road about 700 meters (half a mile) west of Ma Nyin Taung village in Rathedaung township and another clash Wednesday afternoon at a spot about 500 meters west of Myeik Wa village in Paletwa township of Chin state. Both sides suffered casualties, according to the statement.
RFA News
At least one civilian killed as clashes in northern Rakhine continue
/in NewsHeavy artillery fire and airstrikes were reported in northern Maungdaw Township following an attack on a junta base last Friday
A woman was killed on Saturday as fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) continued through the weekend in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township.
May Thar Sein, 60, died after an artillery shell fired by regime forces landed in the village of Min Gyi early Saturday morning, local sources reported.
The shell, which was reportedly fired by junta forces stationed in the nearby village of Kyein Chaung, killed May Thar Sein instantly, according to a man who lives in the area.
“She was getting some firewood from a pile near her house when the shell fell near her. She was killed on the spot,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Maungdaw_1.Jpg
A junta soldier in Maungdaw in 2018 (EPA)
Later the same day, there were also reports that the military had carried out an airstrike near the village of Hka Maung Seik, more than 30km to the north.
According to a resident of the village, two helicopters were used to carry out attacks in the area, where AA forces had mounted an assault on a tactical base the day before.
“The airstrike was between Nang Yar Kaing and Lay Myo Kayti, but closer to Kayti. We don’t know if anyone was killed or injured,” said the local, referring to two nearby villages.
Myanmar Now has been unable to find out more information about the aerial assault, which reportedly lasted about 30 minutes.
According to teachers at a school in Hka Maung Seik, the two sides clashed for about an hour from around 3pm on Friday, and again from around 2am to 7am on Saturday.
After a shell landed on the school’s staff residence, those staying there decided to flee, said a teacher who did not want to be identified.
“We left the school on our on motorcycles at around 6am, and it was around 9am when we arrived at the Kyein Chaung security checkpoint, where they would not let us pass,” said the teacher.
“We tried to tell them that we were teachers from Hka Maung Seik, but not only would they not let us pass, but they also threatened to shoot us,” he added.
Mingyi_village-Rakhine-2021_1.Jpg
The entrance to Min Gyi, where a woman was killed by a Myanmar army shell on August 27 (Myanmar Now)
However, soon after they started heading back towards Hka Maung Seik, the group of around 10 teachers heard the sound of heavy artillery as they approached the village of Yan Aung Pyin, which is located about 1km from Min Gyi.
“We decided to go into Yan Aung Pyin to avoid the shelling,” said the teacher, adding that he had also heard reports of casualties in Min Gyi.
The Min Gyi resident who spoke to Myanmar Now about May Thar Sein’s death said that a social welfare group that had come to collect her body was also turned away at the Kyein Chaung checkpoint.
“The township administrator said he’d send a car to retrieve the body, but it never arrived because it couldn’t get past the Kyein Chaung checkpoint,” he said.
The fighting that followed the attack on the Hka Maung Seik base reportedly began after junta reinforcements arrived in the nearby village of Min Kha Maung on Friday evening.
Before leaving later the same night, the column of around 50 soldiers took around a dozen villagers, including a former village administrator, hostage, according to a resident.
“They were taken to be used as human shields, but three of them managed to escape,” said the local, adding that the whereabouts of the remaining hostages was not known.
Neither the Myanmar military nor the AA have released a statement about the latest hostilities between the two sides, which have also affected parts of southern Chin State.
Myanmar Now News
Over 28,000 Homes Torched by Myanmar Junta Forces Since Coup
/in NewsBy THE IRRAWADDY 29 August 2022
Myanmar junta forces have burned down 28,434 houses in 645 locations since last year’s coup, with Sagaing Region suffering the heaviest damage, according to the independent research group Data For Myanmar.
Military regime troops have committed arson attacks in 11 states and regions, with Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin State bearing the brunt of the junta’s campaign against civilians.
From February 1, 2021 to August 25, 2022, some 20,153 houses in Sagaing Region were torched by junta forces. Magwe Region saw 5,418 properties burned down, while 1,474 houses in Chin State were destroyed. Another 1,400-odd homes were torched elsewhere in the country.
Despite the United Nation’s (UN) Special Envoy Noeleen Heyzer calling on coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on August 17 to cease air and artillery strikes on civilian targets and the torching of homes, regime soldiers have conducted arson attacks and airstrikes on more than 20 villages in Sagaing and Magwe in the last nine days.
Over a dozen civilians have been killed, while an estimated 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, according to local residents and People’s Defense Forces.
Data For Myanmar said that regime forces escalated their arson attacks in Sagaing in April, May and June of this year, torching over 12,000 houses. 27 out of 34 townships in Sagaing reported junta arson attacks.
Magwe Region also saw an escalation in regime arson attacks in August losing 1,300 houses, added Data For Myanmar.
The research group said that it used reports from the media, rights groups and refugee organizations to calculate the number of homes destroyed. However, the actual number of houses burned down may be higher than the reported figures, as many regime arson attacks have yet to be verified.
Junta forces have increased their arson attacks and airstrikes against civilian targets since September last year, when the civilian National Unity Government declared war against the regime.
In mid-August, the UN Special Envoy also called on the junta leader to end all forms of violence, to show full respect for human rights and the rule of law, and to allow full and safe humanitarian access to those in need.
But the Myanmar military has continued to commit atrocities including burning people alive, the arbitrary torture and killings of civilians, extrajudicial killings of resistance detainees, using civilian detainees as human shields, artillery and airstrikes on residential areas, looting and burning houses and acts of sexual violence.
Some 2,249 people have been killed by the regime up to August 26, while 15,239 people including elected government leaders have been arrested or detained, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group that monitors arrests and deaths by junta forces.
Topics: Chin State, Coup, Data for Myanmar, junta, Magwe, military regime, Myanmar Military, Sagaing, UN, United Nations
Myanmar’s Rohingya: Five Years of Crisis
/in NewsMyanmar’s military launched a ferocious crackdown against the country’s Rohingya Muslim population in 2017, driving more than 740,000 refugees into neighboring Bangladesh.
Here are the key dates in the five-year crisis:
Army operations
Early on the morning of Aug. 25, 2017 a shadowy Rohingya militant group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) stages coordinated attacks on dozens of police posts in Myanmar’s coastal Rakhine State, killing at least a dozen officers.
The army retaliates with operations in Rohingya villages, ostensibly to flush out insurgents.
It says it killed 400 militants but opponents say most of the dead are civilians.
The UN says at least 1,000 people were killed in the first two weeks of the military operations.
Refugee exodus
By Sept. 5 more than 120,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh, overwhelming its ill-equipped refugee camps.
There are already at least 200,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh from previous waves of violence.
Suu Kyi breaks silence
International anger mounts against Myanmar. Soldiers are accused of razing Rohingya homes and some world leaders allege “ethnic cleansing” has taken place.
In her first statement on the crisis, Myanmar’s civilian leader and Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi pledges on Sept. 19 to hold rights violators to account but refuses to blame the army.
Possible ‘genocide’
Bangladesh and Myanmar on Nov. 23 agree to start repatriating refugees.
But the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says conditions are not in place for their safe return and the process halts.
UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Dec. 5 warns of possible “elements of genocide” and calls for an international investigation.
Courts and sanctions
On Aug. 25, 2018, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees stage protests to mark the first anniversary of their exodus.
UN investigators call for the prosecution of Myanmar’s army chief and five other top military commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In November an attempt to repatriate 2,260 Rohingya fails as they refuse to leave without guarantees for their safety.
Reporters jailed
On Sept. 3, two Reuters journalists who are accused of breaching Myanmar’s state secrets law while reporting on a Rohingya massacre are jailed for seven years.
They will spend more than 500 days behind bars before being released on a presidential pardon.
US sanctions
On July 16, 2019, Washington announces sanctions against Myanmar’s army chief and three other top officers.
About 3,500 Rohingya refugees are cleared to return home but none turn up to make the journey on Aug. 22.
Legal challenges mount
On Nov. 11 Gambia files a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Myanmar of genocide for its treatment of the Rohingya.
Three days later the separate Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) green-lights a full investigation into the persecution of the Rohingya.
In the same week, a third case is filed by rights groups in Argentina under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Suu Kyi in court
On Dec. 11 Gambia lays out its case at the ICJ with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi personally leading Myanmar’s defense.
She refutes accusations of genocide, denying “misleading and incomplete” claims and insisting Myanmar is dealing with an “internal armed conflict”.
She admits the army may have used excessive force.
Court ruling
Delivering its ruling on Jan. 23, 2020, the ICJ orders Myanmar to take urgent steps to prevent alleged genocide and to report back within four months.
Coup d’etat
Myanmar’s military seizes power on Feb. 1, 2021,m ousting the civilian government and later waging a bloody crackdown on dissent.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is put under house arrest and later jailed for 17 years following a closed-door trial in junta court.
With several charges still hanging over her, the 77-year-old faces the possibility of decades behind bars.
US calls genocide
The United States on March 21, 2022 officially declares that the 2017 violence amounted to genocide, saying there was clear evidence of an attempt to “destroy” the Rohingya.
The ICJ rules on July 22 that the case filed by Gambia can proceed.
In the same month the junta executes four prisoners, the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.
Camp killings
On Aug. 10 two Rohingya community leaders are shot dead in one of the Bangladesh refugee camps, the latest in a string of killings in the settlements.
Rohingya sources tell AFP that ARSA is behind the shootings.
ARSA is accused of running narcotics, murdering political opponents and instilling a climate of fear in the camps.
META DESCRIPTION: A look at the key events that have unfolded since the Myanmar military launched a deadly crackdown on Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2017.
Topics: Coup, genocide, junta, Military, Myanmar, Refugees, regime, Rohingya, Suu Kyi
Irrawaddy News
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