Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition

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The Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma Releases
Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition

1st  October 2025

For Immediate Release

Today, the Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma) releases its latest briefing paper, Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition, which calls for the condemnation and immediate rejection of the election plans proposed by the Burmese military junta. Burma’s future of political and federal democracy faces significant threats. Ongoing preventable deaths mirror the military’s brutal history, while an election—expected to be a sham with violent suppression of opposition—is unavoidable.

Civil society organizations have warned election monitors to pay close attention, as moving forward could lead to even more troubling times. Analysts and election monitors have also cited the election as a ‘sham’ and warned that the lead-up and aftermath will be marred by violence. The election plans pose life-threatening risks to civilians as the junta aggressively attempts to regain lost territories through airstrikes, drones, and shelling.

“The sham election is the latest illegal and unjust attempt by the military junta to claim its misplaced legitimacy. The people of Burma have been clear — they do not accept the junta as any legitimate ruler, and they do not accept any process filled with corrupt tactics to guarantee a biased victory. The sham election effort must be widely condemned and rejected by all international stakeholders. This is not due process, and this is certainly not democracy,” said Nai Aue Mon, Program Director at the Human Rights Foundation of Monland.

Worryingly, the junta has begun weaponizing the rule of law and leveraging its forced conscription efforts to silence dissent and employ violent tactics to coerce civilians into supporting the election. Several people have already been apprehended and charged under the recently reformed draconian election law. Against the backdrop of the junta’s latest selfish bid for legitimacy, attacks have escalated in ethnic areas, particularly those where the regime is desperate to regain lost territories.

Furthermore, ND-Burma calls for strategic and meaningful efforts to continue supporting the initiatives set forth by revolutionaries and rights-based groups, as well as the National Unity Government, in condemning the junta and actively countering and disengaging from the junta’s propaganda. International human rights organizations and businesses working in Burma must also extend their support to pro-democracy groups, including emerging federal bodies.

Local organizations working on the ground in Burma have earned the trust and credibility of their communities and can attest to the junta’s mockery of legal and justice systems. The regime merits neither recognition nor credibility.

For more information:

Name: Nai Aue Mon

Signal: +66 86 1679 741

Name: San Htoi

Signal: +66 649369070

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The Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma) comprises 13 organizations representing a diverse range of ethnic nationalities, women, and former political prisoners. Since 2004, ND-Burma member organizations have been documenting human rights abuses and advocating for justice on behalf of victims. The network has ten full members and three affiliate members.

Bombs to Ballots: Myanmar Junta’s Bloody Race for Recognition Exposing the junta’s campaign of terror to stage a sham election

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Exposing the junta’s campaign of terror to stage a sham election

As the junta continues to illegally and unjustly expand their military through forced conscription, the upcoming 2025 sham election is yet another calculated attempt by the junta to bolster its legitimacy. Civil society organizations have widely condemned these efforts, describing them as ‘political theatre’[1] and ‘laughable.’[2] Analysts and election monitors have cited the election as a ‘sham’ and have warned that the lead-up and aftermath of the election will be plagued with violence.[3] Burma Campaign UK noted that the election is simply the junta’s latest attempt to ‘rebrand, renew, and try to convince the people of Burma and the international community that reforms are finally happening.’[4] In reality, the sham election plans pose life-threatening risks to civilians as the junta aggressively tries to regain lost territories through airstrikes, drones, and shelling.

While the junta rushes to compile voting lists and demonstrate voting machines, conflict persists across the region, with millions in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Regional leaders, including those from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), are being consistently advised not to be misled by the junta’s tactics but to instead support the revolutionary movement on the ground, led by local stakeholders and grassroots leaders.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing violence amid the junta’s relentless assaults. The military attacks are intensifying as the election approaches, with the junta trying to reclaim territories and bases lost to the armed resistance. While the regime has announced its planned areas to hold elections in 102 townships on 28 December,[5] ethnic resistance and armed groups largely control much of the indicated territory, including in Shan and Rakhine States.[6] The junta has also announced that polls will only be held in 172 of the 228 eligible townships nationwide at unspecified dates in January 2026.[7] Burma has a total of 330 townships in which conflict has been active in 70% of them.[8]

The constituencies cover 56 townships nationwide where the regime’s administrative and security structures have broken down.[9] With 57 registered political parties, only six will participate in the election, as four parties have been dissolved for allegedly failing to meet the junta’s voting criteria. [10] On 14 September, the junta stated that it wouldn’t hold elections for three parliaments in 10 of the 14 townships in Rakhine, which is controlled by the Arakan Army.[11] This has led to further concerns over implementation and the validity of any ballots cast amid the ongoing turmoil, including daily airstrikes on displaced communities by the junta.

Bombs to Ballots-smallDownload

Rakhine School Massacre Met With Chorus of Condemnation

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A chorus of condemnation both from Myanmar and abroad has greeted the junta’s bombing of two private schools in Rakhine state’s Kyauktaw Township on Sept. 12 that killed 20 youngsters.

The ethnic United League of Arakan (ULA) on Saturday blasted the arial massacre as a war crime.

The ULA, whose armed wing the Arakan Army (AA) has seized most of Rakhine, also urged the international community to take “effective and decisive action against the brutal regime.”

In the small hours of last Friday, a regime jet dropped two 500-lb bombs on the two private boarding schools of Pyinnya Pan Khinn and Amyin Thit in Thayat Tabin in AA-controlled Kyauktaw Township.

The airstrikes killed 20 students aged 15 to 21 and injured 22 others while destroying school buildings as well as civilian homes nearby, the ULA said.

“We strongly condemn the regime’s war crimes and crimes against humanity as the regime continues to commit heinous acts of mass killing against innocent civilians across the country with impunity,” the rebel group added.

The group vowed to submit the evidence of the regime’s war crimes to international organization and “seek tirelessly to ensure justice for the crimes committed against a generation of Arakan youth.”

“We will take strong retaliatory measures against those who committed, ordered or were involved in these crimes,” it added.

Overseas, UNICEF expressed “extreme concern” over the massacre.

The UN children’s agency said the attack “adds to a pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State, with children and families paying the ultimate price.”

“Children are losing their lives in the very spaces meant to protect them—their homes, schools, and neighborhoods,” it said in a statement, calling for an end to violence against children and for schools, dormitories, homes, and the essential services they rely on to be safeguarded.

The statement declined to name the perpetrator of the attack, and instead called on “all parties” to uphold their obligations under international law to protect civilians including children.

From Jan. 8 to Aug. 25, the regime conducted four airstrikes on AA-held towns and villages, killing 89 civilians, including 28 family members of junta soldiers held prisoners of war, according to ULA.

In May, the regime used cluster bombs to attack a school run by civilian National Unity Government (NUG) in Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, killing 22 schoolchildren aged seven to 16 and two volunteer teachers. Another 102 people, mostly schoolchildren and teachers, were injured.

The regime denied responsibility for the airstrike, while junta-backed pro-military lobbyists claimed the attack targeted “terrorists” who were manufacturing bombs in the school.

Between January 2023 and August 2025, the regime conducted 3,402 airstrikes that killed 3,689 people including 546 children, according to the parallel National Unity Government (NUG).

The airstrikes also destroyed 289 schools, 112 clinics and hospitals, and 512 religious buildings.

Irrawaddy News

22 People, Mostly Children, Dead in Junta Airstrike on Boarding School in Rakhine

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A Myanmar junta airstrike on a private boarding school in Thayat Tabin Village in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township on Friday killed 22 people, mostly schoolchildren, according to local media reports and residents.

Kyauktaw town has been controlled by the AA since January last year.

During the airstrike, which occurred at 1 a.m., two 500-pound bombs struck the Pyinnya Pan Khinn High School and a nearby area.

Two local Rakhine media outlets reported in the evening that the death toll had reached 22, after four more schoolchildren died of severe injuries, adding to the 18 students and neighborhood children who were initially reported by the AA has having died in the strike.

Photos show that one of school’s buildings was totally destroyed and many nearby were badly damaged.

“As we get updates, the fatalities are increasing. Now, at least 20 have been killed,” a member of a social welfare association told The Irrawaddy.

Local residents said no ground clashes were reported in the area at the time of the bombing.

Located on the Yangon-Sittwe Road, Thayat Tabin Village is home to a number of private schools and hostels.

Pro-junta social media accounts alleged the AA was training its troops in the village.

On Aug. 25, a junta airstrike on the Daing Kyi neighborhood in Rakhine’s Mrauk-U killed 14 people, including three young children and three teenagers, and injured 18.

Since January, at least 106 people have been killed in junta airstrikes on Mrauk-U, Ramree, Rathedaung and Kyauktaw townships in the state, according to the AA.

The AA has captured 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State since November 2023. The state capital Sittwe, Manaung and Kyaukphyu remain under junta control, though the AA has seized most of the rural areas in Kyaukphyu and Sittwe townships.

The AA has expanded its operations into neighboring regions and states, including Magwe, Bago and Ayeyarwady, but the regime recently launched a counteroffensive seeking to regain control of its lost territories in those areas.

According to the AA, intense fighting continues on Rakhine’s borders with Ayeyarwady and Bago regions, and in the foothills of the Rakhine Yoma mountain range.

Irrawaddy News

Press Release : ‘Solidarity in the Struggle,

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The Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma Releases
‘Solidarity in the Struggle,’ An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Burma:
January – June 2025

3 September 2025

For Immediate Release

Today, the Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma releases its first biannual report of the year, ‘Solidarity in the Struggle,’ which documents the human rights situation in States and Regions of ND-Burma members during the first half of the year.

According to documentation by ND-Burma members, from January to June 2025, there were 320 documented cases of human rights violations through 188 events across 12 regions and states in Burma. Of these, 158 were committed by the military junta, five by the security forces (mainly police officers), eight by various militias, seven by Ethnic Revolution Organizations (EROs), one by the People Defence Force (PDF), and nine remain unidentifiable.

The ongoing crimes committed by the military junta have created a worsening atmosphere of fear in Burma, where civilians are worried about their daily survival. The rise in airstrikes, in particular, has increased uncertainty. ND-Burma members all expressed concern for the communities in their targeted areas, which have endured immense suffering. With the situation far from improving, the international community is urgently called upon to respond to the crisis in Burma, including the escalating humanitarian emergency that has displaced over 3 million people.

“Every day, people in Burma are just trying to survive as the junta unleashes airstrikes, indiscriminate artillery attacks, and arbitrary arrests. The suffering is real and continues to grow. As human rights defenders, we persist in documenting these abuses because the voices of survivors must be heard. The world must act now to stand with the people and ensure the junta is held accountable. Justice and accountability are long overdue, and we urge global actors to take urgent action to hold the junta responsible for its crimes,” said Nai Aue Mon, Program Director at the Human Rights Foundation of Monland.

The time to act is now. Global stakeholders must clearly tell the junta they are criminals and therefore must face long-awaited consequences for their many crimes. The people of Burma overwhelmingly reject the terrorist junta, and the international community must support their calls for action by calling for an urgent referral to the International Criminal Court and implementing targeted sanctions on aviation fuel.

For more information:

Name: Nai Aue Mon

Signal: +66 86 1679 741

Name: San Htoi

Signal: +66 64 195 6721

Solidarity in the Struggle

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An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Burma: January – June 2025

This report documents human rights violations by ND-Burma members and affiliates from January to June 2025. The figures presented are totals collected by our partners across each state and region. Our findings will be contextualized with desk research alongside cases documented by ND-Burma members. The injustices committed by the junta are undeniable and require a coordinated, effective international response. 

ND-Burma and its partners use case studies, interviews, relevant partner reports, and eyewitness testimony to document the total number of human rights abuses committed by the Burmese Army, its junta-backed militias, including various security forces, and all Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs), as well as People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) in Burma. However, it is important to note that the military junta carried out the overwhelming majority of the crimes and violence recorded in this report. 

ND-Burma members have observed the Burmese military increasing their assaults on civilians with greater ferocity and brutality. The member organizations of ND-Burma work closely with local communities in both urban and rural areas to monitor the human rights situation on the ground. Although ND-Burma is committed to examining the specific aspects of human rights, the broader conflict continues to intensify.

The victims of the human rights violations reported by ND-Burma and its partners under the Controlled Category List serve as a stark reminder that each number signifies a human life uprooted, irrevocably changed, or extinguished by the Burma Army’s four-cuts campaign and civil war. We honour each one of these human rights victims.  ND-Burma regularly produces reports to highlight the human rights situation across the country, focusing on the atrocities occurring in our members’ regions and states. Despite facing significant threats, they remain dedicated to sharing evidence of the crimes in pursuit of justice and accountability.

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