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
- Open letter from Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations to ASEAN to End Myanmar Military’s Violence, Advance Accountability and Operationalize Cross-border Humanitarian Aid
- Press Release – Rights-Based Reform: ASEAN Five Years on from the 5-Point Consensus
- Rights-Based Reform: ASEAN Five Years on from 5-Point Consensus
- [Open Letter] SEANF must remove membership of junta-controlled Myanmar National Human Rights Commission
- President Win Myint freed in broad Myanmar prisoner amnesty
Nearly 500 cases of sexual assault against women in Myanmar’s conflict
/in NewsRights groups say that the data reflects only cases they have verified and the true number is likely to be much higher.
Nearly 500 cases of sexual assault have been documented against women during Myanmar’s civil war, although the true number is likely much higher, women’s rights groups said Wednesday.
In the aftermath of the military‘s Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat, civilians have been caught in the crossfire of battles between the junta and ethnic armies or community-led defense groups.
On Wednesday, Thailand‘s Women’s League of Burma, or WLB, said that women have endured some of the worst treatment since the takeover, including arrest, torture, sexual assault and even murder.
“Incidents of sexual violence are also on the rise, with women being abused in front of their husbands and family members — situations marked by extreme inhumanity,” said WLB Secretary General Moon Nay Li. “Some women are gang-raped by soldiers, while others are killed.”
The WLB said that between Feb. 1, 2021, and June 2024, it had documented 492 cases of sexual assault against women, including at least 13 cases where women were raped and then killed.
It said that its data reflect only the cases the group was able to verify and that the true numbers are likely to be much higher — potentially twice the rate reported prior to the coup.
WLB‘s report came weeks after a column of more than 100 junta soldiers attacked villages in war-torn Sagaing region’s Budalin township on Oct. 23, including Sai Pyin Lay village, where more than 50 young female hostages were allegedly sexually assaulted over the course of three days, according to a source familiar with the incident.
“During those three days, the soldiers summoned each woman repeatedly, subjecting them to rape and sexual assault,” the source told RFA Burmese, adding that the alleged perpetrators were soldiers from the junta’s No.33 and No.77 Light Infantry Divisions.
Zu Zu May Yoon, the founder of the Women’s Organization of Political Prisoners, told RFA that women arrested for protesting the coup have also faced sexual assault during interrogation.
“In interrogation centers, women are subjected to severe abuse, including being penetrated with batons in their private areas,” he said. “During interrogations, junta authorities reportedly burn pens with matches to release scalding ink and then apply it to these areas. Such acts reflect the extreme brutality of the military.”
Women who are assaulted rarely report the abuse due to shame and various threats, he added.
As a result, some women suffering from severe physical and mental trauma ultimately feel forced to flee their communities for safety elsewhere.
RFA has been unable to independently verify reports of sexual assaults by the military. Attempts to reach Major General Zaw Min Tun, the military junta’s authorized spokesperson, for comment went unanswered Wednesday.
Civilians and People’s Defense Forces
A resident of Sagaing told RFA that the junta has “increasingly targeted women” in the region with “threats, rape and killings.”
“Women face daily intimidation, and in Sagaing, numerous cases of rape have been reported since the [conflict] began, averaging at least one incident per month,” said the resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
But sources in the region told RFA that it isn’t just junta soldiers who are committing crimes against women.
In August, a 14-year-old student was raped by a resident of Sagaing’s Yinmarbin township, according to a family member of the victim who said that while a case was filed with authorities, the perpetrator has yet to face punishment.
“In terms of law enforcement, I must say that it is very weak,” said the family member, who also declined to be named. “The incident took place two months ago, but hasn’t been prosecuted or brought before the Department of Justice. Victims of these crimes are like orphans, unsure of who to turn to for help.”
According to a list compiled by the Ministry of Women, Youth and Children Affairs of the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, there have been 258 reported cases of sexual assault against women since the coup, with more than half of them committed by junta troops.
“Of the 258 reported cases, 148 were committed by the military junta’s troops,” said NUG Minister Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe. “We have meticulously documented these cases and are collaborating with the United Nations to ensure justice. The remaining cases include 89 committed by civilians and 33 by [armed opposition groups].”
The minister added that in cases where members of the People‘s Defense Force of civilian paramilitary groups aligned against the junta under the shadow government are responsible, the NUG’s Ministry of Defense “will take action under martial law,” while crimes committed by civilians will be addressed under civil law.
However, she acknowledged that in some areas controlled by the armed opposition, instability has “led to delays in the legal process.”
Non-conflict abuse
Meanwhile, women’s rights groups warned that the threats faced by women are a concern “not only in war zones,” but also in non-conflict areas, and that “perpetrators must be prosecuted and held accountable.”
Last month, international labor group the Business and Human Rights Resource Center said in a report that abuse against women is far from rare in Myanmar’s manufacturing sector, as a deteriorating economy leaves them more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, abuse and violence.
The group documented 155 cases of abuse in Myanmar factories, linked to 87 international companies, between Dec. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, with 37% of them gender-based incidents including “verbal, physical and sexual abuse and harassment, often for not meeting unreasonable production targets.”
An economy in free-fall since the military ousted an elected government has exacerbated the problem of exploitation for many in Myanmar as factory owners and supervisors know that employees are increasingly desperate for cash as inflation erodes living standards, labor activists told RFA.
At least 1,853 people have died in military custody, including 88 children and 125 women, since Myanmar’s military coup – many after being tortured – a U.N. report on the situation of human rights in the country said in September.
Sexual violence is also common in detention, the U.N. report said, “including rape, and sexualized torture or ill-treatment, including forced nudity in front of others.”
RFA News
Two women killed in airstrike on Oakkan village, Kawlin Township in northwest Myanmar
/in NewsOn 21 October, at 10:30 am, two women were killed in an airstrike launched by Myanmar’s junta on Oakkan village, located in the western part of Kawlin Township, Sagaing Region. Kawlin Info, a local news monitoring group, confirmed that several other villagers were injured in the bombing.
“The bomb hit the centre of Oakkan village, resulting in the deaths of two women, with reports of injuries. Further details are still being gathered,” said an official from Kawlin Info Group.
Shortly after the initial attack, another airstrike occurred at 11:00 am in the western part of Kawlin.
Oakkan village is a thriving community, home to both local residents and people displaced by conflict in Kawlin town. The village serves as a hub where villagers and displaced individuals live and trade together.
“There has been no fighting in the area, so this is clearly an attack targeting civilians. Rescue teams are enroute, but we’re still awaiting further details,” said Ko Thae Gyi, head of the People-To-People Group, which assists refugees fleeing violence in western Kawlin.
While clashes between military forces and local defence groups have taken place in areas bordering Kawlin and Wuntho in recent days, the western part of Kawlin Township has remained conflict-free.
This attack comes less than a month after military forces carried out an airstrike on Oakkan village on 30 September, which resulted in the deaths of four people, injuries to others, and significant damage to homes.
Mizzima
Political prisoner dies due to lack of adequate medical care in Myanmar’s Dawei Prison
/in NewsThe Political Prisoners Network of Dawei District has reported the death of a political prisoner, U Ye Aung (aka) Ko Chin, due to insufficient medical treatment while incarcerated in Dawei Prison, Tanintharyi Region.
U Ye Aung, aged 62, suffered a stroke while detained and was transferred to Dawei Hospital on 27 September after his condition worsened. Despite receiving treatment, he passed away on 17 October, according to a statement from the Political Prisoners Network.
A resident of Ohnpin Kwin village in Yebyu Township, Dawei District, U Ye Aung was serving a 10-year sentence under Sections 50 (j) and 52 (a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
According to Ko Thaik Tun Oo, a member of the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM), the lack of adequate healthcare facilities in district prisons has been a longstanding issue.
He highlighted that only central prisons are equipped with hospitals, while district prisons, like Dawei, have only small clinics with insufficient medical personnel to handle emergency cases.
“The healthcare system in prisons is in a dire state. Even central prisons do not have enough skilled doctors to provide proper care, and district prisons face even greater shortages. All prisoners should have access to the same level of medical care, but that’s not the reality,” he said.
The inadequate medical care in prisons has resulted in the deaths of 15 political prisoners in 2024 alone, including Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, the former Chief Minister of Mandalay Region, according to data compiled by PPNM. The previous year, 17 political prisoners died due to similar reasons.
Since the military coup, a total of 27,563 people has been arrested on political charges as of 22 October, 2024, with 21,020 still in detention. Of those, 9,473 have been sentenced to prison, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Mizzima
Patterns of Military Oppression In 2023-2024
/in ND-Burma Members' Reports, NewsSince its coup in February 2021, the military have perpetrated a more than three-year long terror campaign, resulting in widespread and systematic human rights violations committed against the civilian population. The military has failed to consolidate power and territorial control in the aftermath of its February 2021 coup and has reacted to calls for democracy and rule of law with violent tactics that recall Burma’s decades-long history of military-perpetrated violence and repression. According to observations by our organization, the so-called armed forces both disregard the existence of human rights norms, and relish in dehumanizing a civilian population.
The scope and scale of the atrocities committed by the military junta make their documentation a challenging one, but consequentially, all the more necessary. In this report, AAPP looks to examines the range of military tools and tactics inflicted between January 1, 2023 to July 29, 2024, that has resulted in patterns of military oppression, violence and human rights violations perpetrated across the country in a widespread and systematic manner. Whilst these tools and tactics have been used by the military throughout its history, in this reporting period, these patterns of violence have been re-applied in a distinct and increasingly brutal ways, in a desperate attempt to exert control over a country in which, the military are increasingly losing control.
The report comes at a critical moment in the long arc of resistance against the military junta, which as a result of such resistance efforts, has been considerably weakened. The past year and a half has seen a fundamental undermining of the junta’s strength, due in part to the concerted offensives launched by armed resistance groups, namely Operation 1027 in October 2023 and the consequential successes across the country throughout the first seven months of 2024. Ethnic groups have joined forces in achieving a shared common goal – ending the military junta’s rule and with it an end to the human rights violations and likely war crimes and crimes against humanity it has and continues to commit throughout its history.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners AAPP
Sexual abuse and violence worsens in Myanmar factories: activists
/in NewsWomen in the garment sector are increasingly vulnerable to pressure and exploitation as the economy deteriorates.
Myanmar garment factory worker Win Lae was shocked when she heard that colleagues at the Chinese-owned factory where she used to work were being offered money in exchange for sex with Chinese technicians and buyers.
“Some workers are really poor and the news was spreading – when they offered 300,000 kyat (US$143) for a night, it’s a huge amount for female workers. It’s still happening,” said the former worker, who asked to be identified as Win Lae, of her time at the factory owned by the Dongxin Garment Co. Ltd.
A company official denied that any such exploitation was going on at the factory in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon but labor activists say such abuse is far from rare in Myanmar’s manufacturing sector as a deteriorating economy leaves women more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, abuse and violence.
International labor group the Business and Human Rights Resource Center said in a report this month that women in Myanmar’s garment sector face “dire and repressive working conditions”.
The group documented 155 cases of abuse in Myanmar factories, linked to 87 international companies, between Dec. 1, 2023, and June 30, with 37% of them gender-based incidents including “verbal, physical and sexual abuse and harassment, often for not meeting unreasonable production targets.”
An economy in freefall since the military ousted an elected government in February 2021 has exacerbated the problem of exploitation for many in Myanmar as factory owners and supervisors know that employees are increasingly desperate for cash as inflation erodes living standards, a labor activist told Radio Free Asia.
“It’s easy to take advantage of the garment workers. They use poverty,” said the activist who declined to be identified in fear of reprisals.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Center also reported evidence of sexual harassment and assault at the Dongxin factory.
Workers in another factory complained that the manager was “matchmaking” female workers with men back in China, raising fears of human trafficking when she began taking them with her on visits to China, the labor group documented from worker reports.
Other cases the group documented included male supervisors groping women and expressing sexual or romantic interest and angry supervisors mistreating workers.
But Dongxin’s human resources manager, Tin Ni Lar Htun, denied that such behavior was taking place at the factory.
“We don’t have any problems like that,” he said. “If we did have those problems, we would fire the workers who committed them according to the labor law.”
‘No leverage’
Win Lae described various pressures put on workers that made them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse, including being forced to work through the night, ostensibly to fill orders.
“There are no arrangements or sleeping areas for the operating workers. If they take a rest, they can only rest in the technicians’ room and they then have the opportunity,” Win Lae said, referring to more senior technical staff taking advantage of women workers.
Win Lae also said that peer pressure and pay-offs facilitated sexual exploitation.
“The supervisor gets paid to persuade another operator. She gets pocket money if another operator sleeps with the technician,” said Win Lae, who said she was also laid off after raising an issue of unfair pay with her coworkers.
There were few options in Myanmar’s factories for women to complain, said the labor activist, especially given an influx of smaller brands and a departure of well-known companies vulnerable to public pressure.
“For many Japanese and Chinese brand companies, we don’t have any leverage and we can’t reach them,” the activist said. “The only way is the legal process, and you know, the legal process here in Myanmar, it’s terrible.”
Since the 2021 military takeover, 16 major labor unions have been banned, and workers have reported both factory management and junta authorities suppressing dissent more aggressively.
The International Labor Organization’s Commission of Inquiry for Myanmar late last year found “far-reaching restrictions on the exercise of basic civil liberties and trade union rights.”
Many women victims of sexual exploitation, abuse and violence see no choice but to suffer in silence.
“They pretend nothing happened at work because they don’t want to lose their jobs, even if they’re feeling stressed or traumatized,” the labor activist said.
“The companies should take that kind of problem seriously and respond. The brands and companies have full responsibility for that.”
RFA News
Open letter from Myanmar civil society organizations to ASEAN to move beyond the Five-Point Consensus and support Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy
/in Member statements, Press Releases and StatementsTo: ASEAN Leaders
H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam
H.E. Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia
H.E. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia
H.E. Sonexay Siphandone, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
H.E. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia
H.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines
H.E. Lawrence Wong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore
H.E. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
H.E. Phạm Minh Chính, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
CC: H.E. Duwa Lashi La, Acting President of Myanmar
7 October 2024
Subject: Open letter from Myanmar civil society organizations to ASEAN to move beyond the Five-Point Consensus and support Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy
Your Excellencies,
Last week, the military junta in Myanmar unleashed a barrage of lethal, indiscriminate airstrikes across Shan, Karen, and Karenni States and Sagaing Region. Of extreme concern, in Lashio, northern Shan State, the junta conducted four consecutive days of airstrikes, which killed at least six civilians. Last month, from 1 to 7 September, the junta launched airstrikes targeting civilians in Chin, Shan, and Karenni States and Magwe, Sagaing, and Mandalay Regions—killing at least 40 people, including a dozen children.
The utter silence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in response to these ongoing atrocity crimes by the illegal military junta against the people of Myanmar, once again, highlights its continued failure to address the dire human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. It is imperative that ASEAN change course immediately.
We, the undersigned 240 Myanmar civil society organizations, call on ASEAN to show its political leadership, commitment, and genuine will to support the well-being of the Myanmar people by implementing the following recommendations at the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits in Vientiane under Laos’ chairship. These recommendations were put forth during the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum (ACSC/APF) by the Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF, comprising 15 civil society organizations, and partner organizations. We further call on the international community, particularly the United Nations and ASEAN’s dialogue partners, to assist ASEAN with effectively implementing these recommendations:
Since the Myanmar military’s illegal coup attempt in February 2021, Myanmar has stood at a pivotal juncture in its history. Over the past three and a half years, the military junta has perpetrated a multitude of grave human rights violations and mass atrocity crimes across the nation, including massacres, torching and pillaging of entire towns, and lethal airstrikes against civilian communities and places where they take refuge. There have been over 2,400 airstrikes by the military since February 2021. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the military’s violence has displaced more than 3 million people—likely a gross underestimation of the true magnitude of displacement.
Despite the military junta’s extreme violence, the people’s revolution has persistently worked towards establishing a federal democracy. Over three and a half years, the people’s revolution has advanced and is now winning on the ground. Today, the Myanmar military junta does not have effective control of the country. Townships covering 86% of the country’s territory and including 67% of the national population are not under stable junta control.
Your Excellencies,
Myanmar is moving forward. Now is the time for ASEAN to seize this most critical opportunity and take immediate and decisive action to support the Myanmar people’s revolution for federal democracy and durable peace in Myanmar, as well as for peace and stability in the region.
As clearly recognized in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Statement on the Escalation of Conflicts in Myanmar on 18 April 2024, the political, human rights, and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is not merely an internal affair, but one that requires a resolution for “peace, security, and stability in the region,” which ASEAN has vowed to protect. Without swift action, Myanmar’s neighboring countries and ASEAN Member States will continue to face an influx of refugees, loss of commercial interests, and irreparable reputational damage. We believe that ASEAN has a clear obligation to act to prevent the junta from continuing its campaign of violence and from destabilizing the entire region.
We reiterate our calls and remain at your disposal to provide further information, as well as to assist and collaborate with you for effective implementation of the stated recommendations.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 240 organizations including 45 organizations who have chosen to not disclose their name:
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