Myanmar holding court martial after Rakhine grave probe

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Myanmar said its military was conducting a rare court martial following a probe into mass graves in crisis-hit Rakhine state, two years after a crackdown drove some 740,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

In February 2018, an Associated Press report alleged at least five mass graves of Rohingya in Rakhine’s Gu Dar Pyin village — a claim denied by the government, which said the bodies were those of “terrorists”.

But the military’s official website said Saturday that an investigation had found “weakness in following instructions” in Gu Dar Pyin, and that a court martial would “proceed in accordance with the procedures of Military Justice.”

No additional details were provided.

The report described grisly violence at the hands of soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes, who allegedly attacked villagers with guns, knives, rocket launchers and grenades before dumping bodies into pits and dousing them with acid.

Estimates from survivors in Bangladesh put the death toll in the hundreds, the report said.

Security forces claimed they were under attack by some 500 villagers, and that they had acted “in self-defence”, according to state-run media last year.

Rights groups say the military has done little to hold anyone accountable for abuses in Rakhine state.

© AFP

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UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar exposes military business ties, calls for targeted sanctions and arms embargoes

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Press Release: UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar exposes military business ties, calls for targeted sanctions and arms embargoes

Also audio version in Rohingya language available here: shorturl.at/qQ135

GENEVA (5 August 2019) – The U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar urged the international community on Monday to sever ties with Myanmar’s military and the vast web of companies it controls and relies on. The Mission said the revenues the military earns from domestic and foreign business deals substantially enhances its ability to carry out gross violations of human rights with impunity.

The report, for the first time, establishes in detail the degree to which Myanmar’s military has used its own businesses, foreign companies and arms deals to support brutal operations against ethnic groups that constitute serious crimes under international law, bypassing civilian oversight and evading accountability.

The Mission said the U.N. Security Council and Member States should immediately impose targeted sanctions against companies run by the military, known as the Tatmadaw. It encouraged consumers, investors and firms at home and abroad to engage with businesses unaffiliated with the military instead.

The Mission also called for the imposition of an arms embargo, citing at least 14 foreign firms from seven nations that have supplied fighter jets, armored combat vehicles, warships, missiles and missile launchers to Myanmar since 2016. During this period the military carried out extensive and systematic human rights violations against civilians in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine States, including the forced deportation of more than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya to Bangladesh.

“The implementation of the recommendations in this report will erode the economic base of the military, undercut its obstruction of the reform process, impair its ability to carry out military operations without oversight and thus reduce violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and serve as a form of accountability in the short-term,” said Mission Chair Marzuki Darusman.

The Mission’s report exposes two of Myanmar’s most opaque enterprises, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), both of which are owned and influenced by senior military leaders. Among them are Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Senior General Soe Win, both of whom the Mission previously said should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

MEHL and MEC own at least 120 businesses involved in everything from construction to pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, insurance, tourism and banking. Both companies, along with at least 26 of their subsidiaries, hold licences for jade and ruby mining in Kachin and Shan states. International human rights and humanitarian law violations, including forced labour and sexual violence, have been perpetrated by the Tatmadaw in northern Myanmar in connection with their business activities.

“Given the extent of Tatmadaw involvement in jade and ruby mining in northern Myanmar, businesses and consumers should conduct heightened due diligence to ensure that they are not purchasing, selling, trading or otherwise using gems produced or sold by enterprises owned or influenced by the Tatmadaw,” said Mission Expert Radhika Coomaraswamy.

The investigative report follows recommendations the Mission’s Experts made last year after documenting how Myanmar’s armed forces brutally violated the human rights of ethnic groups nationwide. The 2018 report focused heavily on “clearance operations” against the Rohingya in Rakhine State that began on 25 August 2017, when security forces killed thousands of Rohingya civilians, raped and sexually abused women and girls, and burned their villages to the ground.

The 111-page report, released Monday in Geneva, contains five annexes that list military businesses and foreign and domestic businesses that contribute to or benefit from the Tatmadaw and its operations.

While it is clear that Myanmar authorities must be held accountable for the human rights violations they perpetrated, the report emphasizes that concrete action must also be taken to address corporate responsibility to respect human rights in Myanmar.

The report details how 45 companies and organizations in Myanmar donated over 10 million dollars to the military in the weeks following the beginning of the 2017 clearance operations in Rakhine State. So-called “crony companies” with close links to the Tatmadaw later financed development projects in Rakhine State that furthered the military’s “objective of re-engineering the region in a way that erases evidence of Rohingya belonging to Myanmar.”

“Officials of these companies should be investigated with a view to criminal prosecution for making substantial and direct contributions to the commission of crimes under international law, including crimes against humanity,” Mission Expert Chris Sidoti said.

The report named two companies, KBZ Group and Max Myanmar, which helped finance the construction of a barrier fence along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border “knowing that it would contribute to the suffering and anguish associated with preventing the displaced Rohingya population from returning to their homes and land.”

The report found that at least 15 foreign firms have joint ventures with the Tatmadaw, while 44 others have some form of commercial ties with Tatmadaw businesses. These foreign companies risk contributing to, or being linked to, violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. At a minimum, they are contributing to supporting the military’s financial capacity. All companies doing business in or buying goods from Myanmar should conduct heightened due diligence to ensure they are not benefiting the Tatmadaw.

“The Mission’s findings from this investigation provide the international community with a more complete understanding of Myanmar’s human rights crisis; one that should compel the international community and individual States to take a coordinated multilateral approach to accountability, justice and ending the human rights crisis in Myanmar,” said Mission Expert Radhika Coomaraswamy.

“The revenue that these military businesses generate strengthens the Tatmadaw’s autonomy from elected civilian oversight and provides financial support for the Tatmadaw’s operations with their wide array of international human rights and humanitarian law violations,” said Mission Expert Christopher Sidoti.

Mission Chair Marzuki Darusman said: ”Removing the Tatmadaw from Myanmar’s economy entails two parallel approaches. In addition to isolating the Tatmadaw financially, we have to promote economic ties with non-Tatmadaw companies and businesses in Myanmar. This will foster the continued liberalization and growth of Myanmar’s economy, including its natural resource sector, but in a manner that contributes to accountability, equity and transparency for its population.”

The Fact-Finding Mission will present its final report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2019.

Download full report

The full report on the economic interests of the Myanmar military, its annexes, supporting materials and summary translations in Myanmar language, Jingpho (forthcoming) and Rohingya can be accessed at: https://www.ohchr.org/…/EconomicInterestsMyanmarMilitary.as…

Undermining Trust Building: Human Rights Situation During the Northern Ceasefire

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Undermining Trust Building: Human Rights Situation During the Northern Ceasefire (January 1 to April 30, 2019)

26 July 2019

For immediate press release

In late December 2018, amid ongoing and heavy armed conflict in Kachin and Shan states, the Burma army declared a four-month unilateral ceasefire in northern and north-eastern Burma. The announcement of the Burma army’s first ever truce was met with cautious optimism by ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and welcomed as a constructive gesture by many observers and analysts of the peace process.

However, despite this overture, the Burma army has continued to engage in armed clashes with EAOs in Kachin and Shan states, while establishing new military camps throughout the region. Indiscriminate gunfire, artillery attacks and aerial bombardments by Burma army soldiers against EAO positions over the initial four-month ceasefire and its renewal have led to villager deaths, injuries, displacement and increasing militarisation by Burma army forces.

During this period, ND-Burma organisations documented numerous human rights abuses against civilians, including extrajudicial killings; arbitrary arrest, detention and torture; sexual violence; landmine incidents; and indiscriminate aerial and mortar campaigns in civilian areas by Burma army soldiers, as well as violations against civilians by EAOs.

These ongoing offensives by the Burma army in Shan and Kachin states as well as the exclusion of the Arakan Army from the ceasefire despite heavy fighting in Rakhine and Chin states and the urging of their inclusion by its Northern Alliance allies, have marred the ceasefire’s implementation and undermined meaningful dialogue meant to reinvigorate Burma’s floundering peace process.

Without a sincere commitment to overtures of peace such as the northern ceasefire or other peace-related activities by the Burma army, there will be no genuine progress towards peace and an end to hostilities in Burma. The Burma army must keep their word for trust building to occur, and this extends to guarantees of non-recurrence of human rights violations towards conflict- affected communities. Without a sincere effort on the part of the Burma army, there will be no trust and no concrete progress in the peace process.

Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma

Media Contacts:

Ting Oo
+66 (0) 815956138 Advocacy Team

Lway Chee Sangar
+95 (0) 9791530451 TWO

ND-Burma is a network that consists of 12 member organisations who represent a range of ethnic nationalities, women and former political prisoners. ND-Burma member organisations have been documenting human rights abuses and fighting for justice for victims since 2004. The network consists of six Full Members and six Affiliate Members as follows:

Full Members:

  1. Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma
  2. Human Rights Foundation of Monland
  3. Kachin Women’s Association – Thailand
  4. Ta’ang Women’s Organization
  5. Ta’ang Students and Youth Union
  6. Tavoyan Women’s Union (TWU)

Affiliate Members:

  1. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
  2. Association Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
  3. Chin Human Rights Organization
  4. East Bago – Former Political Prisoners Network
  5. Pa-O Youth Organization
  6. Progressive Voice

Download Briefing Paper

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Undermining Trust Building: Human Rights Situation During the Northern Ceasefire

/in ,

Inlate December 2018, amid ongoing and heavy armed conflict in Kachin and Shan states, the Burma army declared a four-month unilateral ceasefire in northern and north-eastern Burma. The announcement of the Burma army’s

first ever truce was met with cautious optimism by ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and welcomed as a constructive gesture by many observers and analysts of the peace process.

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U.S. imposes sanctions on Myanmar military leaders over Rohingya abuses

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States announced sanctions on Tuesday against the Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and other leaders it said were responsible for extrajudicial killings of Rohingya Muslims, barring them from entry to the United States.

The steps, which also covered Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy, Soe Win, and two other senior commanders and their families, are the strongest the United States has taken in response to massacres of minority Rohingyas in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

It identified the two others as Than Oo and Aung Aung, both brigadier generals.

“We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Pompeo said a recent disclosure, first reported by Reuters in May, that Min Aung Hlaing ordered the release of soldiers convicted of extrajudicial killings at the village of Inn Din during the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in 2017 was “one egregious example of the continued and severe lack of accountability for the military and its senior leadership.”

“The Commander-in-Chief released these criminals after only months in prison, while the journalists who told the world about the killings in Inn Din were jailed for more than 500 days,” Pompeo said.

The Inn Din massacre was uncovered by two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who spent more than 16 months behind bars on charges of obtaining state secrets. The two were released in an amnesty on May 6.

The U.S. announcement came on the first day of an international ministerial conference on religious freedom hosted by Pompeo at the State Department that was attended by Rohingya representatives.

“With this announcement, the United States is the first government to publicly take action with respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military,” said Pompeo, who has been a strong advocate of religious freedom.

“We designated these individuals based on credible information of these commanders’ involvement in gross violations of human rights,” he said.

SANCTIONS CONDEMNED

A spokesman for the Myanmar military, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, said by phone the military had not ignored the accusations, citing internal probes. One army-led investigation in 2017 exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities. Another is ongoing.

“Right now we have an investigative committee … to conduct a detailed investigation,” he said. “They should value these facts.”

He said the soldiers had been lawfully released.

Myo Nyunt, a spokesman for the ruling National League for Democracy Party, condemned the decision to impose sanctions.

“This kind of action happened because they don’t understand the real situation of Myanmar,” he said. Myanmar’s leaders had not ignored human rights concerns, Myo Nyunt said.

A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. U.N. investigators have said Myanmar’s operation included mass killings, gang rapes and widespread arson and was executed with “genocidal intent.”

The State Department has so far stopped short of calling the abuses genocide, referring instead to ethnic cleansing and a “well-planned and coordinated” campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities.

“He (Pompeo) has not come to the point at which he has decided to make a further determination. Generally our policies are focused on changing behaviour, promoting accountability, and we have taken today’s actions with those goals in mind,” a senior State Department official told reporters, asking not to be identified.

The military in Myanmar, where Buddhism is the main religion, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing and says its actions were part of a fight against terrorism.

A declaration of genocide by the U.S. government could require Washington to impose even stronger sanctions on Myanmar, a country where the United States has competed for influence with regional rival China.

The senior State Department official said Washington hoped the latest steps would strengthen the hand of the civilian government in Myanmar in its effort to amend the constitution to reduce military influence in politics.

“Our hope is that these actions … will help to further delegitimise the current military leadership, and can help the civilian government gain control of the military,” he said.

The Trump administration had thus far imposed sanctions on four military and police commanders and two army units involved in the abuses against the Rohingya and had been under pressure from the U.S. Congress to take tougher steps.

A United Nations investigator said this month Myanmar security forces and insurgents were committing human rights violations against civilians that may amount to fresh war crimes.

Reuters

Rights Groups Hit Myanmar Military Over Mounting Rakhine Deaths in Custody

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Rights experts are again criticizing the Myanmar military for possible international law violations after reports that another civilian died in custody amid fighting between national forces and the Arakan Army (AA) in western Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states.

According to RFA’s reporting, at least 14 persons died of injuries they received while in military or police custody or detention between March and July during the ongoing armed conflict. Seven were from Rathedaung township, six were from Mrauk-U township, and one was from Kyauktaw township.

Government soldiers have been rounding up men and boys in villages close to battles zones on suspicions of supporting the AA, an ethnic Rakhine military that is fighting for greater autonomy in the state, then holding them in detention and interrogating them.

The latest civilian to die at the hands of soldiers was Zaw Win Hlaing from Shwe Tun Phyu village in Mrauk-U township, who was arrested by soldiers on June 19 as he returned home from another village and was subjected to five days of interrogation. After he died on Monday, his mother told RFA’s Myanmar Service that her son said he was beaten with rocks while in custody.

Human rights groups at home and abroad have called on Myanmar forces to stop arresting, detaining, and torturing civilians suspected of being members of the AA or having connections to the rebel army. They say such detentions and deaths in custody by soldiers violate international human rights treaties.

Min Lwin Oo, a Myanmar lawyer with the Asian Human Rights Commission, said the Myanmar military gets away with abusive treatment of civilians by saying that its armed conflicts are internal issues in which other nations should not intervene.

“Claiming them as domestic issues that require no foreign intervention, they have been doing whatever they want,” he said.

“It has not been easy to refer the cases to the ICC [International Criminal Court] because the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] quickly covered up the [crimes] it had committed,” he added. “But it is likely to face increased pressure and restrictions on the military leadership’s financial flows and arms imports.”

Rights groups and United Nations officials have called for the international tribunal to try military forces responsible for committing suspected acts of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine as well as abusing other ethnic minorities in war zones in Kachin and northern Shan states.

‘More evidence will come’

Between December 2018 to the present, the Myanmar military has detained more than 90 civilians during the current conflict with the AA in Rakhine state, 36 of whom are still under investigation. Eight others have been released, while 45 have been charged, and three have been sentenced, according to figures released by government forces.

Myanmar military spokesmen Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said earlier this week that if a person is tortured by troops, he or she can report it to the government’s information team which will set up an investigation group to look into the matter.

Myanmar is not a signatory of the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT) that 170 other countries have signed, though the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has recommended that President Win Myint join the accord, said commission member Tin May Htun.

“More evidence will come out as the military violates more rights abuses,” said Nickey Diamond, a Myanmar human rights specialist at Fortify Rights. “The international community is now putting pressure on them.”

“There are also war crimes [soldiers committed] during fighting with the AA,” he said. “Arbitrary arrests and killings amount to war crimes.”

MNHRC member Yu Lwin Aung agreed.

“Torture constitutes a human rights violation,” he said. “But it’s a little hard for us to point fingers since we don’t know exactly what has happened. … We are still gathering all the information we need and considering presenting it at the commission’s meeting in order to decide what to do.”

‘We want the truth’

Arakan National Party (ANP) vice chairwoman Aye Nu Sein said local politicians want to know the truth about what happened to those who died in detention.

“We want the truth to be revealed,” she said. “We’d like to help too, but who do we complain to, and who would take action if we did?”

The ANP, which represents the interests of the ethnic Rakhine people in the state, has issued a report urging investigations and punishment of those responsible for war-related killings under relevant laws.

In response to the comments by rights groups, Zaw Min Htun said the military can’t look into every accusation that comes its way.

“We can’t take action on every single issue,” he said. “International organizations have respectful conventions, but sometimes it’s like the fox in a fable accusing you or your father or your grandfather. In that sense, we can’t do anything, but we’re doing our best.”

In an interview with RFA last week, Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said she was particularly worried about military atrocities that might occur during an army-imposed internet shutdown in the Rakhine conflict zone.

“The internet is down, somebody ordered it to be shut down, and … there is a clearance operation going on right now. We have to remember that those who are involved in this clearance operation — the security forces — are the exact same people that have been involved in past clearance operations and have not been held accountable,” she said.

Reported by Wai Mar Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar and Nandar Chann. Wrisince March 2019. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Rakhine Deaths in Detention:

According to RFA’s reporting, at least 14 civilians have died while in military or police custody or detention since March 2019 during the Rakhine conflict. Here is a brief summary of each case:

March 14:  Hla Maung Win, 23
He was detained as he traveled to Mrauk-U Hospital to be treated for malaria. He was unconscious when the vehicle carrying him was stopped along with the driver and eight passengers. The driver who was later freed said Myanmar soldiers detained and questioned them. Hla Maung Win’s body was later returned to his family by men wearing police uniforms. RFA’s calls to police and the military about the case went unanswered.

April 10:  Zaw Myo Htun, 25, Thein Tun Sein, 40, and Maung Than Nu, 45, from Letka village, Mrauk-U township
They were arrested with 24 other villagers for questioning by the military. They died on Apr 11, 14, and 21,  respectively. The Myanmar Army later said one died of respiratory problems, another of drug addiction, and the third of suicide.

May 2:  Than Ge Aung, Zaw Lat, Than Oo, Kamwe Che, Tun Shwe Win, Maung Win, Aung Lin Zaw 
Six died on the spot, and another died later from injuries after the Myanmar military shot detained men in a school compound in Kyauktan village, Rathedaung township. They were among nearly 300 villagers who were detained and questioned for allegedly having connections with an Arakan Army training camp nearby. The military said the soldiers had to open fire when some of the detainees tried to attack the guards, despite the firing of warning shots. Other witnesses denied there had been warning shots and said the chaos broke out when a mentally disturbed man had started yelling at night.

May 26:  Kyaw Hlaing, 43
He was among three men from Letka village in Mrauk-U township who were arrested by the military while they were collecting firewood on May 22. On May 25, the three men were transferred to the police station. Kyaw Hlaing died the next day from injuries he sustained during the questioning by the military, according to his relatives. His daughter said he had a badly swollen face and injuries to his body when she had seen him in the hospital. The military has not commented on the case.

June 24:  Nay Myo Tun, 23, a carpenter from Pauktaw Byin village, Mrauk-Oo  township 
According to the military, he was arrested on June 20 along with seven others on suspicion of being members of the Arakan Army. The men were questioned at the Kyauktaw township police station. Nay Myo Tun’s family members heard from villagers that he had died in custody and that his body was in the mortuary of a local hospital. They subsequently retrieved his body. The military has not commented on the circumstances of the death.

July 1:  Zaw Win Hlaing, 28, from Shwe Tun Phyu village, Mrauk-U township
He died on July 1 following his arrest by the military on June 19. He had been transferred to police custody on June 24 and was subsequently sent to a hospital. Zaw Min Hlaing’s mother, who saw him at the medial facility, said her son told her he had been tortured during questioning. He said soldiers put rocks into a sarong (longyi) and hit him on the back and knees, and poked knives in his calves. He was taken to Kyauktaw Hospital after a court hearing on June 25, and because he was vomiting blood was later moved to Sittwe Hospital where he died on July 1. A military spokesman said he was unable to comment on the claims of torture. He said the military has rules preventing the torture of detainees.

 

RFA News