Myanmar military arrests 10 workers for garment factory strikes

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The detained include 2 members of a banned union.

Myanmar’s junta authorities have arrested 10 workers from Yangon region for incitement to riot, state-controlled newspapers reported Thursday.

Reports said two members of the outlawed Action Labor Rights group were arrested along with workers from two garment factories between June 14 and 17.

The Action Labor Rights members were identified as Thandar Soe Lin and Pyoe Myat Thin.

The workers came  from Shwepyitha township’s Hosheng Myanmar garment factory and Sun Apparel Myanmar in Hlaingtharya township.

The factory workers were fired and arrested for taking the lead in demanding a 17% pay rise to the equivalent of U.S.$2.70 a day.

An Action Labor Rights union official, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told RFA the arrests of workers on political charges when they were only calling for better pay is a violation of labor rights.

“These workers were not doing anything political, and they were demanding their rights because the wages are low,” the official said. 

“Junta arrests of protesters demanding their rights is a violation of the rights of weak grassroots workers, and protects oppressive employers.”

Newspapers reported that two more union members, Thuzar – who goes by one name – and Thurein Aung have gone into hiding and authorities are trying to find and arrest them.

Thuzar is accused of inciting workers to riot and organizing a protest at the two factories on June 12 and 13.

The union official told RFA the two fugitives do not plan to leave Myanmar.

Action Labor Rights is a Yangon-based union that has been calling for protection of the rights of workers who have been suffering from various problems since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

Another trade union leader, who also declined to be named, said the junta had already clamped down on other trade unions.

“The workers were charged with Article 505 only. But those who are part of groups declared to be illegal organizations are charged with Article 17 (1),” he said, referring to a law on membership of illegal groups that carries a maximum three year prison sentence.

“Ït becomes alarming to the other [unions]. It hits many birds with one stone.”

On March 1, 2021, a month after the military coup, the junta’s Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population declared 16 trade unions and organizations active in labor issues to be illegal groups.

RFA News

At least 10 dead in Myanmar junta airstrikes on Sagaing village

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An aerial assault targeting a village in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township on Tuesday afternoon killed at least 10 civilians, including a Buddhist monk, according to local sources.

The attack on Nyaung Kone, a village located less that 10km southwest of the town of Pale, took place at around 3pm and also destroyed a monastery and more than a dozen houses, the sources said.

Seven of the victims were killed in a house directly in front of the monastery. They included the monk and four of his relatives, as well as a man and his nephew who were also staying in the house, locals told Myanmar Now.

Some of the people killed by the airstrikes on Nyaung Koneon June 27 (Supplied)

The three remaining victims were in other houses in the area, they added.

One of the deceased was among six people who were taken to the hospital after the attack, while the other nine were killed instantly, locals said.

According to a member of the Yinmabin District People’s Defence Force (PDF), which helped to evacuate the village after the attack, some of the bodies were still burning when resistance forces arrived on the scene.

“One person had their face completely blown off. Some of the bodies were on fire, which we had to drag out of the burning buildings,” he said.

The victims, including 47-year-old monk Kyaw Myint Tun, were all aged between 18 and 65, according to PDF sources.

A man who survived the attack told Myanmar Now that it came completely without warning.

“We didn’t even hear the aircraft as it approached. There was just a whooshing sound when it was already too close for us to get away, followed soon after by a bang,” he said.

A piece of shrapnel from that first blast pierced a pole in his house near where his son was sleeping, the man said. Grabbing his son, he ran into the washroom to take shelter, but then fled towards the monastery, thinking it would be safer, he added.

It was while he and other family members hid inside a tunnel near the monastery that he heard more bombs being dropped from a fighter jet, as well as machine gun fire, he said.

“I think they were incendiary bombs,” said the man, describing the intense fires that broke out immediately after the second attack.

Another local said that houses near the monastery burned down within minutes of being hit. He added that the explosions left five craters, each about a metre and a half deep, in the ground.

The man said he didn’t know why the village was attacked, as there were no armed groups based there or in the surrounding area.

“We really didn’t think they would attack us, as we weren’t involved in the resistance movement. I couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. Now I don’t want to sit and wait for them to come kill me. Give me a gun and I’ll fight back,” he said.

Most of the village’s 300 households were still displaced on Wednesday amid rumours that a second assault was planned, sources there said.

Zaw Htet, a spokesperson for the Pale Township PDF, denounced the attack as “an inhuman act” by the junta’s air force.

“I wouldn’t complain if they were going after a military target, but this was a purely civilian village,” he said.

Another airstrike was also reported later the same day at Chin Pyit, a village located about 25km northwest of Nyaung Kone. Two people were injured in that attack, according to sources.

A map shows where airstrikes were carried out by Myanmar’s military in Pale Township on June 27

Myanmar’s military has relied heavily on its total control over the country’s airspace to target opponents of its rule since it seized power more than two years ago.

Its indiscriminate use of fighter jets and attack helicopters imported from Russia and China has been widely condemned for taking a heavy toll on civilians in conflict areas.
In a single incident on April 11, more than 160 people, including dozens of children, were killed in the village of Pa Zi Gyi in Sagaing’s Kanbalu Township, sparking international outrage.

Myanmar Now News

UN rights expert urges bolder action by Indonesia, ASEAN against Myanmar junta’s violence

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Speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday, a United Nations (UN) expert called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to exert more pressure to end the Myanmar coup regime’s violence and human rights abuses. 

ASEAN—a bloc of ten countries that includes Indonesia and Myanmar as members—initially treated the February 2021 military coup and violent crackdown on protestors in Myanmar as a crisis. The bloc convened an emergency meeting and reached a “five-point consensus” calling for an immediate end to violence, and dialogue between the military and its opponents.

In the intervening years, however, the coup regime has reneged on the terms of the consensus, and other ASEAN members have taken few actions to compel the regime to abide by them. 

In his remarks in the Indonesian capital, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, underlined Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s previous observation that there had been little progress in realising the terms of the consensus due to the coup regime’s obstruction. 

“President Widodo described the situation in Myanmar as ‘unacceptable’ and called for the military to end the use of force, release political prisoners, and restore democracy,” Andrews said.

Indonesia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the regional bloc. Under Indonesia’s leadership, ASEAN was expected to take a harder line against the Myanmar junta than under the Cambodia’s chairmanship last year.

However, ASEAN members including Indonesia continue to allow Myanmar’s coup regime to represent Myanmar in most of the regional bloc’s dialogues, and have refrained from suspending its membership or divesting its authority to host conferences attended by the other members. 

One such conference, known as the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, will be hosted jointly by the Myanmar military regime and the government of the Russian Federation. 

ADMM-Plus—which will be attended by defence ministry officials from all ASEAN member states as well as China, India, and Russia—is scheduled to convene two more times in 2023. Its purpose is to plan and carry out training exercises aimed at strengthening coordination among the member states’ military forces in responding to terrorist attacks. 

The Myanmar military currently classifies groups that formed to oppose its seizure of power in 2021—including the publicly-mandated National Unity Government, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, and the People’s Defence Forces—as terrorist organisations. 

Andrews condemned ASEAN’s legitimisation of the Myanmar coup regime and continued  acquiescence in its role in the regional bloc, particularly in defence-related meetings. 

“ASEAN defends this by claiming that these meetings are merely technical and are not in breach

of its prohibition on Myanmar political level participation in its meetings,” he said. “This is not acceptable. The junta should not be invited to attend any ASEAN meeting. At a minimum, ASEAN must not allow Myanmar military personnel to participate in these or any other defence meetings.”

Andrews emphasised that it was Indonesian officials’ initiative that spurred other ASEAN members to meet in Jakarta two months after the 2021 coup and draft the five-point consensus in order to hold the junta to account.

“Indonesia should show leadership, alongside other ASEAN countries and not attend if the

invitations to the junta military personnel are not rescinded. These types of actions not only undermine the credibility of ASEAN but also serve to legitimise the junta and prolong the suffering of the Myanmar people,” he added.

Andrews recommended other actions that Indonesia, as current ASEAN chair, can carry out in order to help bring Myanmar’s humanitarian crises closer to a resolution. 

Among the recommended actions were working directly with humanitarian and civil society organisations, instead of the junta, in delivering emergency aid to the victims of Cyclone Mocha, and continuing to support programs and initiatives to help Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees. 

“Our current course of action in response to the crisis in Myanmar is simply not working and a change of course is imperative,” he said. “This change will require vision and leadership, and I believe that Indonesia is positioned to provide that leadership and help forge a path forward to end the nightmare that life has become for millions in Myanmar.”

Myanmar Now News

Human Rights Situation weekly update (June 15 to 21, 2023)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from June 15 to 21, 2023

Military Junta troops arrested over 240 local civilians from Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, Okpho Township, Bago Region and Sagaing Township, Sagaing Region and used them as human shields from 15th June to 21st June. Military Junta troops launched an airstrike and dropped bombs in Moebye, Shan State and Tamu Township, Saging Region. 3 civilians were burned and killed by Military Junta’s soldiers in Sagaing Region.

The Military Junta strictly forbidden the “Flower Strikes” that were held on 19th June. The Military Junta arrested the peaceful protesters who participated in Flower Strike throughout the whole country. The Military Junta also arrested the people who post wishes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday on social media. The Military Junta tortured and killed (7) civilians at interrogation.

Five men die during military interrogation in Bago

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Five men taken into junta custody for suspected involvement in an attack on a police station in Bago Region’s Waw Township died during interrogation, according to local sources.

Members of the military reportedly notified the men’s families in late May of their deaths, but Myanmar Now learned of it this week through members of a local resistance force.

The victims included Myint Thein, 60, and Kyaw Myint Thein, in his 50s, both from Kyone Pa village, as well as three men in their 50s from Boe Sabei village: Tin Myo Khaing, Win Zaw Htay and San Shay.

Myanmar Now has been unable to make contact with the police or the family members of the men to verify the dates of both their arrests and their deaths. The men were among 30 people detained following Operation Nan Htike Aung, an ambush of the Nyaung Hkar Shay police station carried out by Waw Township People’s Defence Force on April 27.

At least two of the five men were said to have been arrested immediately following the assault on the site, and had been missing ever since.

One police officer was killed and two were injured in the resistance operation.

Only the body of Kyaw Myint Thein was permitted to be viewed by his family members. Relatives of the other four victims were not told the cause or time of death of their loved ones.

“The families don’t even know when exactly they died,” the spokesperson of the Waw Township People’s Defence Force said. “The military only returned the body of Kyaw Myint Thein. The families of the other victims still haven’t seen the dead bodies. The police only told them that they had died.”

Ten of the locals arrested following the police station attack were released in the days and weeks that followed and eight more were sent to military-controlled courts for hearings. With five reportedly dead, seven others remain unaccounted for, the resistance spokesperson added.

Junta scouts have been deployed across Waw Township—a strategic location separated from Mon State by the Sittaung River, and through which the Yangon-Mawlamyine highway runs. The military has built posts in the township along the western banks of the waterway, fearing advances by ethnic resistance forces in Bago, Mon State and Karen State.

Serious battles between the military and anti-regime groups have broken out in eastern Bago and in Mon State’s Kyaikhto Township, which also includes territory in which the Karen National Union (KNU), a powerful anti-junta ethnic armed organisation, is active.

The Waw People’s Defence Force spokesperson explained that the military had declared the township as a “red zone,” and had fortified its presence there fearing KNU forces would cross the Sittaung River to attack them.

Myanmar Now News

Woman killed by artillery shell after ambush on junta forces in Kani

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An elderly woman was killed and two others were injured after junta troops opened fire on Kani, Sagaing Region, with light and heavy weapons on Monday, according to local sources.

The incident occurred soon after resistance forces carried out an ambush in the town’s Ward 3 that left several police officers dead, the sources said.

The deceased victim, who was in her 60s, and another woman were working outside when an artillery shell exploded nearby, a local man told Myanmar Now. The third victim was a 12-year-old boy, he added.

“I heard a boy was hit by shrapnel at his school. There was fighting outside of town and the women were in their fields when they were hit,” he said.

It’s believed that the shells were fired from an army outpost on the Shwe See Khone Pagoda Hill, which is located west of the town’s police station and also near a school, a hospital, and several government buildings.

The shooting began shortly after around 20 police and soldiers were ambushed while patrolling near the Gyo Pin Tha Pagoda in Ward 3 on Monday morning.

According to a statement later released by Battalion 30 of the Yinmarbin District People’s Defence Force (PDF), which claimed responsibility for the attack, a G3-type gun, ammunition, and 200,000 kyat in cash were also seized from the junta troops.

The junta’s information officers did not respond to requests for comment on the ambush and subsequent shelling, and the regime has yet to release a statement.

According to locals, there are at least 100 soldiers stationed in Kani, which is also occupied by a large number of members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia.

Last week, resistance forces raided a Pyu Saw Htee base near the village of Kan Zee in Chaung-U Township, which is located southeast of Kani on the opposite side of the Chindwin River.

Twelve people were detained in that raid, which was carried out on June 13, according to a Monywa District PDF Battalion 5 officer.

“There were no junta personnel at the base when we raided it, only a few Pyu Saw Htee members and their dependents. We also seized some items that they looted from the public,” said the officer.

All 12 of the detainees—who included eight women and two boys, aged 2 and 10—were later transferred to the local anti-junta administration team, he added.

Soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members based in Kan Zee have been accused of terrorising residents of neighbouring villages by  firing at them at night with light and heavy weapons.

Myanmar Now News