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
- 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
- Over 67 killed by airstrikes in Arakan State since Sunday; ICRC requests humanitarian access during visit to Naypyidaw
- Myanmar junta airstrikes kill dozens, including prisoners, rebels say
Human Rights Situation weekly update (April 22 to 30, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from April 22 to 30, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Magway Region, Kachin State, Kayin State, Rakhine State, Chin State, and Mon State from April 22nd to 30th. Military Junta Troop committed to arresting the civilians and blackmailing the 2nd batch of Military Service in the Yangon Region, Mandalay Region, Magway Region, and Ayeyarwady Region. Military Junta arrested and used the local civilians as human shields in Magway Region, Kachin State, and Rakhine State.
Over 20 civilians died, and over 70 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 4 underaged children died, and 7 were injured when the Military Junta committed abuses.
Infogram
Video shows rebel group sentencing own fighters to death for ‘abuse of power’
/in NewsFootage of public spectacle provides a rare look at how the ethnic army metes out justice to its own.
The video opens with an overhead shot of 10 individuals wearing blue jumpsuits on a stage adorned with banners in Chinese and large loudspeakers before slowly pulling back to reveal hundreds of spectators – several of them clutching brightly colored umbrellas to keep the sun off their faces.
But this is not a performance. The images captured in northeastern Myanmar’s Kokang region, in Shan state near China, show a public trial in the capital Laukkai by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, of members of their own ethnic army accused of “abuse of power.”
Among them is a 36-year-old district commander and two other guerrillas who the ethnic army said in a statement on Thursday it had executed following the trial on April 24. The remaining seven fighters received prison sentences, the MNDAA said.
The highly produced three-minute video provides a rare look at how the rebel army metes out justice to its own in the Kokang region after it captured Laukkai on Jan. 4.
The group is one of three ethnic militias making up the Three Brotherhood Alliance – along with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army – that has dealt the junta’s military forces a series of defeats since late last October. Their offensive has turned the tide in the civil war that broke out after the military overthrew a democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup d’etat.
In the video, which features a rousing, militaristic soundtrack, onlookers snap photos with their cellphones while officials in fatigues read out the alleged crimes of the 10 soldiers and their punishments. Within the crowd are families with young children, as well as groups of students with their instructors.
EU condemns executions
At the conclusion of the trial, the soldiers are led away in arm and leg shackles with signs hung around their necks identifying them as criminals in bold Chinese characters.
Three of the signs sport red Xs on them, marking those condemned to death. These men are made to stand in vehicles as they are driven through Laukkai to a field on the outskirts of the capital.
The next segment shows the three being led into the field before the picture fades to black. An order is heard and shots ring out, although no execution is shown.
In a statement on Thursday, the European Union condemned the executions “in the strongest terms,” calling them “an inhuman and degrading punishment that represents an ultimate denial of human dignity.”
The EU added that upholding the rule of law in accordance with international standards is an “effort integral to the aspirations for federal democracy.”
Attempts by RFA to contact MNDAA spokesperson Lee Kyar Win for additional information went unanswered.
Kokang has long been in China’s orbit, and many of its residents are ethnically Chinese. In the mid-20th century, Kokang served as a base for Myanmar communists, before the Communist Party of Burma collapsed in 1989.
In recent months, China had expressed increasing frustration with organized crime rings that had been allowed to operate in Kokang by junta-aligned forces. An estimated 120,000 people are being held in Myanmar against their will. Chinese nationals have both been trafficked by these groups and fleeced by them.
In its statement, the MNDAA said that the district commander who was sentenced to death had been involved in the kidnapping of two Burmese drivers, more than 10 Chinese nationals and six Vietnamese nationals between July and September of 2023. He also took part in the murder of two Chinese nationals, it said.
The other two fighters sentenced to death had served in the Logistics Department of Brigade 311 and were convicted of the theft and sale of weapons, as well as their involvement in “deadly kidnappings.”
Of the remaining seven soldiers, a deputy battalion commander of an MNDAA-aligned militia force and the deputy commander of Battalion 191 were sentenced to 15 and 20 years in prison, respectively. The other five were sentenced to terms ranging from two to five years in prison.
The MNDAA publicly executed four people on May 2, 2023, after convicting them of kidnapping and murdering Chinese nationals in Shan state’s largest town, Lashio.
RFA News
Junta wields fear as a weapon with killing of civilians in Myanmar’s Sagaing
/in NewsNew data shows the military killed nearly 90 people in the region in the first quarter of 2024.
Junta troops arrested and killed nearly 90 civilians in northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region during the first quarter of 2024, according to data compiled by RFA Burmese, including several elderly villagers and others who were unable to flee military raids.
A stronghold of the rebellion, the Sagaing region has put up some of the stiffest resistance to junta rule since the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat, and has also endured some of the military’s most brutal atrocities during the country’s three years of ensuing civil war.
Observers told RFA that the military is attempting to create public animosity towards rebel forces in Sagaing, where its troops have suffered heavy losses in recent months.
Now, new data compiled by RFA shows that junta troops arrested and killed at least 86 civilians in nine Sagaing townships on the 101 days between Jan. 1 and April 10, or nearly one a day.
The townships of Kawlin, Shwebo and Taze suffered the highest number of casualties over the period, according to the data, which does not include civilians killed by fighting, airstrikes and heavy artillery.
In one of the latest incidents, a combined force of junta troops and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militiamen raided Shwebo’s Shar Taw village on the evening of April 6, arresting and executing nine civilians, residents told RFA.
‘They killed indiscriminately’
A woman from Shar Taw said she was irreparably traumatized by the capture and killing of the villagers as they fled indiscriminate shooting by junta forces.
“I was going crazy that day, darting through gunfire and shells with the children,” said the woman who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “At times, I’ve contemplated ending my own life. It feels like there’s no escape.”
The victims from Shar Taw included seven villagers aged between 50 and 90, and two people between the ages of 20 and 30, she said.
Two of the victims – both in their 80s – were burned to death in their homes and four others were shot dead in the village. The junta convoy detained a father and son, and a third man, and executed them after leaving Shar Taw.
The woman told RFA that the junta attacked her village entirely without prompting.
“Without doing anything to them, they make problems with us, killing people,” she said. “They killed indiscriminately, even those who have never seen a gun in their lives, those struggling to make ends meet, the mentally ill, and those who rely on their neighbors for support.”
Fear as a weapon
According to the list compiled by RFA of civilians arrested and killed in the first quarter of 2024, 22 people died in Kawlin, 19 in Shwebo, 14 in Taze, 10 in Monywa, seven in Khin-U, six in Kanbalu, five in Tabayin, two in Ye-U, and one in Kani. Three of the victims were women and the rest were men.
A member of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF, in Shwebo told RFA that the junta is intentionally killing civilians in a bid to stir up public animosity towards the rebellion.
“We [rebels] are constantly on the move, mirroring their mobility, which leads to regular confrontations,” said the PDF member, who also declined to be named. “When the junta forces face defeat, they unleash their fury on civilian areas like villages, resorting to arson and destruction.”
Kyaw Win, executive director of Burma Human Rights Network, said he believes the military is also using fear as a weapon to fight back against an increasing number of rebel attacks on its forces – particularly in Sagaing and Magway regions.
“Sagaing and Magway are at the forefront of the resistance against the junta’s army,” he said, adding that the military’s “manpower is dwindling” after suffering “significant losses” in the two regions. “While setbacks have occurred elsewhere, these regions appear to be under intensified targeting. The brutality serves to instill fear and dissuade people from challenging their authority.”
Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun and Nyunt Win Aung, the junta’s minister of social affairs and spokesperson for Sagaing region, regarding the arrest and killing of civilians, went unanswered Wednesday.
Legal experts and human rights activists have noted that the arrest and killing of civilians in conflict areas constitutes a grave offense punishable by death, as stipulated in both the Myanmar Armed Forces Act of 1959 and the Geneva Convention.
RFA News
Junta recaptures key border base, but Karen rebels say fight isn’t over
/in NewsThe two sides are fighting for control of Myawaddy, a major trade hub on the Thai border.
Myanmar’s military has reclaimed a key base in Myawaddy, a trading hub on the Thai border, after it fell to rebels earlier this month, an official with an ethnic Karen militant group said Wednesday. But he called its withdrawal “temporary” and said it has no intention of entering into peace talks with the junta.
Myawaddy, in eastern Kayin state across the border from the Thai city of Mae Sot, has been the focal point of fighting between the Karen National Liberation Army, or KNLA, and the junta in recent weeks, amid a wider civil war in Myanmar that followed the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat.
On April 10, the KNLA – the armed branch of the Karen National Union, or KNU – and its allies captured the junta’s Infantry Battalion 275 compound in Myawaddy. It was the last junta base in the town, which effectively fell under rebel control.
In response, the junta launched a state-level offensive named “Operation Aung Zeya” to recapture Myawaddy, through which US$1 billion worth of trade flows annually.
While the KNU claimed last week that the KNLA had destroyed military vehicles and killed more than 100 junta troops marching enroute to Myawaddy, the military and members of the pro-junta Border Guard Force, or BGF, reclaimed the battalion compound on Tuesday, KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee and residents told RFA Burmese.
“The junta re-entered the No. 275 Infantry Battalion base,” the KNU spokesperson said in an exclusive interview with RFA on Wednesday. “They took down the Karen national flag and replaced it with the junta flag.”
Peaceful withdrawal
A businessman with ties to both the junta and the BGF told RFA that the two forces held negotiations and took up positions in Myawaddy, which they will jointly administer.
“In Myawaddy, the joint forces of the junta and the BGF are patrolling and they have cleared the area near No. 275 Infantry Battalion,” said the businessman who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“We also received information that the junta and the BGF will jointly manage Myawaddy, while the KNU and the [anti-junta People’s Defense Force] had to withdraw their troops and take positions outside the town,” he said.
A resident of Myawaddy, who is close to the joint forces of the KNLA, told RFA that the rebel withdrawal took place peacefully.
“Fighting was suspended in order to stop the junta reinforcements from overrunning Myawaddy town,” he said. “The battle isn’t about fighting with guns, it is concerned with the business and rights of each group.”
Attempts by RFA to contact Major Naing Maung Zaw, the head of the BGF in Myawaddy, and Colonel Min Kyaw Thu, the junta’s minister for security and border affairs in Kayin state, for information on the military and security situation in Myawaddy went unanswered Wednesday.
Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told AFP on Tuesday that junta troops had retaken the battalion base, although they did not have full control of Myawaddy.
‘Studying their capabilities’
The KNU’s Padoh Saw Taw Nee said that the KNLA had maneuvered to “strategically avoid the trap laid by the military junta” and withdrew its troops from Myawaddy, stressing that there was no agreement made between the KNU and BGF to do so.
“If we took immediate action without consideration strategically, we would have fallen into the junta’s trap,” he said. “It is true that our troops are no longer in the downtown of Myawaddy … and we understand that the public is unhappy about this news. That is logical.”
Padoh Saw Taw Nee said the joint forces under the KNLA had not withdrawn from the area and maintained control of bases formerly occupied by junta battalions 355, 356, and 357 in the hills near Myawaddy.
“We will take all possible action against them – it’s our most important mission,” he said. “We are studying their capabilities before we actually fight them.”
The KNU spokesperson acknowledged that the KNLA had taken losses in its efforts to take Myawaddy in recent weeks, but said casualties are part of “the nature of war.”
“Nothing comes free,” he said. “We had to pay a lot, with the sacrifice of lives, but the more we lose, the more valuable our rebellion becomes.”
Padoh Saw Taw Nee said the people of Kayin state had suffered far greater losses because of the junta.
“We respect and appreciate the losses of people, and we ask that they don’t lose hope,” he said.
No talks without conditions
Some 3,000 civilians have fled the fighting in Myawaddy, which also prompted around 200 junta troops to take shelter at a truck depot near Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2 – one of two bridges which regulate both people and goods between Myawaddy and Thailand’s Mae Sot.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee told RFA that the KNU desires peace as much as any group in Myanmar, but it will never enter into ceasefire talks with the military unless three conditions are met.
“First, they [the military] must agree to leave politics completely,” he said.
“Second, they must face justice during the transition period – he [junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing] should not get immunity for the offenses they committed. And third, they must accept a new constitution that is suitable for the establishment of a federal democratic union.”
On Tuesday, Thailand’s Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said his country is ready to act as a mediator in the conflict in Myanmar and help bring about a comprehensive resolution to fighting between junta forces and rebel groups.
Speaking during a visit to the border in Mae Sot, Parnpree revealed that initial discussions had already taken place with various parties in Myanmar, including the military government and ethnic groups, some of which are armed, and that Thailand was also looking to enlist support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Junta troops have killed at least 4,927 civilians since the military seized power three years ago, according to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
RFA News
Human Rights Situation weekly update (April 15 to 21, 2024)
/in HR Situation, NewsHuman Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from April 15 to 21, 2024
Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Kayin State, Kayah State, and Shan State from April 15th to 21st. Military Junta Troop used chemical toxic bombs in Kayin State. Military Junta and police were shot in Myitkyina Prison in Kachin State and 4 people including 2 political prisoners died. Military Junta Troop also opened cases for the youths who did not want to attend the Military Service and also arrested the mother as a hostage in Paungde, Bago Region.
Almost 20 civilians died, and over 10 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 3 underaged children died, and 2 were injured when the Military Junta committed abuses. 5 civilians from Sittwe died in the land mines of the Military Junta Troop in Rakhine State.
Infogram
Karen rebel forces attack stranded Myanmar junta troops on Thai border
/in NewsJunta sends in airstrikes to support 200 junta troops trapped by a river across from Mae Sot.
Gunfire, artillery and exploding bombs could be heard early Saturday around Myawaddy, a Myanmar city on the Thai border across from Mae Sot, as an ethnic Karen army closed in on about 200 junta troops stranded near a bridge between the two countries, according to the Thai military and a Radio Free Asia reporter on the scene.
The clash comes after the Karen National Liberation Army, an armed branch of the Karen National Union, on April 10 captured most of the junta’s Infantry Battalion 275 stationed outside of Myawaddy.
But 200 junta soldiers were left stranded at the customs compound at the No. 2 Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge across the Moei River that links the two countries.
The setback is the latest in a series of battlefield losses suffered by the junta as various rebel groups push the military back across the country amid the country’s three-year civil war that was sparked by the junta’s coup in February 2021.
The clashes started at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Thai soldiers keeping watch along the river and local residents said. The fight centered around the customs house at the bridge as the rebels apparently were intent on wiping out the remaining junta troops, they said.
“The KNU opened the charge first, the junta troops fought back,” a Thai soldier who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity told RFA.
Several days ago, the junta announced “Operation Aung Zeya,” aimed at retaking Myawaddy, a key city on a major trading route with Thailand.
As the sun rose Saturday morning, the Myanmar Air Force deployed several sorties of Y-12, MiG-29 and MI-35 attack helicopters amid periodic exchanges of gunfire. Some residents at the bridge watched the planes with binoculars as a few stray rifle bullets whistled by, prompting them to duck.
Smoke billowed into the sky following each artillery shell and bomb explosion.
The casualties on both Karen and junta soldiers as well as civilians were not immediately known.
An ambulance was seen driving in and out of the neighborhood near Thailand’s Yepu Hill overlooking the casinos in Myawaddy.
Several hundred people — mostly from Myanmar — working near the river were moved by truck to a livestock ranch a few kilometers north of the No. 2 bridge for safety. Thai authorities gave them food and medical services. Residents also brought aid to a checkpoint near the shelter. Most media were not allowed to enter the camp
Thailand’s foreign ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation with Thai security agencies on the ground on high alert.
“Thailand has been and will continue to provide further humanitarian assistance if necessary and will do our utmost to ensure the situation along the Thai-Myanmar border area returns to normalcy,” Nikorndej Balankura, the ministry spokesman said in a statement.
RFA News