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.
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Third day of ‘nonstop’ raids on townships as junta focus turns to Sagaing
/in NewsSources say Tabayin, Ye-U and Ayadaw have been pounded by air and by land.
UPDATED at 7:58 p.m. EDT on 2022-08-11
Myanmar’s military pounded the Sagaing townships of Tabayin, Ye-U and Ayadaw with a third day of attacks by air and land, residents and anti-junta fighters said Thursday, following a vow by the junta to restore the embattled region “to its original state.”
Sources in Ye-U township told RFA Burmese that the military used helicopters to strike the village of Kaing Kan three separate times on Wednesday after engaging with anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitaries and suffering heavy losses.
“They were shooting from two Mi-35 combat helicopters. They mainly fired at places where people were fleeing the war, like monasteries and schools,” said a resident of Kaing Kan, who declined to be named for security reasons. “There were many injured.”
“Earlier, there was an armed clash between a local PDF unit and junta forces somewhere between Ywar Meik Thar village and Kaing Kan village. About 30 soldiers who got separated from the column were killed in the clash, and that’s when they began the attack from the air.”
The resident said several people were trapped in Kaing Kan during the airstrikes and their status remains unclear.
The air raids on Kaing Kan followed military attacks from Aug. 8-10 on Su Tat village in nearby Tabayin township, where a resident told RFA his was among around 500 homes destroyed by troop arson.
“The adults are very much depressed. Some women were crying and laughing, going crazy. As for the men, their spirits are quite low. They have lost houses and everything, which they had built with their life savings,” said the resident, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Everything has turned to ashes. The feeling is indescribable. The army that is supposed to protect the country is burning villages. It is so mean and despicable. It wouldn’t be so bad if they had taken away all the things in the houses. Burning the houses leaves nothing for us.”
The resident said this was the second time that the military had set fire to his village since a raid in June, when 165 homes were razed.
Representatives of the three-township Ayadaw-Myinmu-Chaung-U Revolutionary Alliance of PDF units said eight of their men were killed in a clash when they encountered junta troops near Ayadaw’s Kan Yin village on their way to Myinmu.
Sai Htoo of Ayadaw Township PDF said the deaths were among a number of casualties on both sides during nonstop clashes in recent days.
“The other day, the military killed eight of our men who had joined a meeting with the Ayadaw-Myinmu-Chaung-U Revolutionary Alliance. They were brutally murdered — put in a car and the car was blown up,” he said.
“There’s been fighting every day lately and there were casualties on both sides. They are attacking us from the ground as well as from above. They’re increasingly relying on airpower.”
Sources in Sagaing told RFA that fighting in the region since Aug. 8 had forced more than 12,000 civilians from nearly two dozen villages to flee their homes.
A report by the Irrawaddy online news journal said that at least 29 civilians and PDF fighters have been killed in junta raids from Aug. 1-8 on Tabayin, Myinmu, and Monywa townships.
Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun and the junta’s spokesman in Sagaing Aye Hlaing for comment on the situation in the region went unanswered Thursday.
Region under attack
Earlier this week, junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said in an address that Sagaing has seen the most clashes of any region in the country since the military assumed control of Myanmar in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, with 4,026. He vowed that the military will “restore the region to its original state,” without providing details.
Nay Zin Lat, a former Sagaing lawmaker, said he expects fighting there to intensify now that the military is focusing its efforts on the region.
“I heard that they are sending reinforcements to many townships in Sagaing region that are militarily important,” he said, noting that there has been an uptick in troop movements in Kanbalu township.
“I’m sure the fighting will become more intense very soon. There will be more frequent confrontations. The local civil defense forces will have to protect their families and relatives when junta troops come raiding and burning their villages. The more the troops act [this way], the more confrontations there will be.”
Residents of Sagaing told RFA that internet bandwidth has been reduced and, in some cases, entirely cut off in the region since March of this year.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced on Aug. 3 that 866,000 people had joined the ranks of Myanmar’s refugees since the coup, bringing the total number to more than 1.2 million, or more than 2% of the country’s population of 54.4 million.
Of the new refugees, some 470,000 were forced to flee their homes in Sagaing, where clashes between junta troops and the armed opposition are among the deadliest and most frequent in the nation.
Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Updated to include local media reports on the number of dead.
Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the name of the village targeted by the military as Kone Thar. The village is named Kaing Kan.
RFA News
Woman killed, son injured, in shelling of Chin state village
/in NewsResidents fled the village and were unable to retrieve the 55-year-old’s body.
A 55-year-old woman was killed and her son was injured when a shell hit a village during fighting between junta forces and local militia in Hakha city, the capital of Myanmar’s Chin State.
Local residents told RFA Wednesday’s battle broke out between the Hakha Chin Land Defense Force and the military’s Ka La Ya 266 battalion near the city’s ministerial residences.
A local, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, told RFA an artillery shell landed on a house in Hniarlawn village, 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Hakha city.
“She was hit by the artillery shell and died on the spot while she was cooking in the kitchen,” the resident said. “One of her sons was wounded in the hand. Her body has been left there for now because everyone has fled to the forest.”
Calls by RFA to Military Council Spokesman Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered on Thursday.
This is not the first time fighting has affected Hniarlawn village, which houses more than 600 people in over 100 homes.
Last month, 22-year-old Salai Manliansan was shot dead by junta troops there, according to residents.
Battles break out daily in Chin state, causing many locals to flee their homes and set up makeshift camps in the jungle.
UNICEF says the state, in the west of the country, has the highest poverty rate of all Myanmar’s regions but aid has been slow to arrive.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week 866,000 people had become refugees in Myanmar in the 18 months since the Feb. 2021 coup. There are now more than 1.2 million internally displaced persons across the country, or more than 2% of the total population.
RFA News
Urgent Statement on Political Prisoners and Prison Conditions Across Burma
/in Member statementsAugust 9, 2022
At present, news on prison conditions in the country is under a blackout. The outside world is likely unaware of the real situation inside prisons – of human rights violations, torture, and murder.
Monitoring Inside Prisons by Military Security Affairs Forces and Police
The terrorist junta have ordered Military Security Affairs Forces (SAF) and police forces, to directly manage the prisons, as well as closely monitor the prisoners with strict rules to prevent information from getting out.
Prisons Visits Banned
In many of the places, including Yangon, and Obo (Mandalay) Prison, political prisoners have been denied visitation access by relatives since the terrorist junta seized power. As a result, prisoners are deprived of food, medicine and of contact with the outside.
Transfer of Political Prisoners to Different Prisons; Torture and Extortion
During the month, political prisoners have also been transferred to other prisons. In Monywa Prison, political prisoners were transfered twice in July and August, to Myingyan Prison, Nyaung Oo Prison, and Shwe Bo Prison. We also know that on August 5, more than 120 political prisoners from Insein Prison were transferred to Tharrawaddy Prison.
Last July, around 100 political prisoners from Hpa-an Prison were transferred to other places, including Insein Prison. Among the political prisoners transferred, members of the Hpa-an Student Union were beaten and tortured on a daily basis.
In Magway Prison, political prisoners were beaten daily without reason, both the family members and prisoners faced challenges because they were not informed before of the transfer to another prison.
Political prisoners are also forced to do hard work such as carrying sewage and sacks of rice. In addition, they are beaten by a group of other prisoners without cause, until they were severely injured and made to sleep near the putrid sewage. If political prisoners refuse to do this, there are unfair demands like how much money they must pay. Whilst criminal prisoners are ordered to beat political prisoners.
Increased COVID-19 Infections Within Prisons
Increasing numbers of prisoners are catching COVID-19, they are being isolated without medical treatment. Around 50 political prisoners are infected in Obo Prison. Since they are not allowed to see relatives, they find it difficult to get medicine and food. At least three political prisoners are in serious pain and life-threatening condition.
Hunger Strikes
Political prisoners who have been sentenced to death, as well as families, are concerned, they are victims of severe mental stress following the execution of four political prisoners including two prominent activists. Particularly since the terrorist junta force’s announcement that “more death row prisoners are to be executed”. Following this, there have been reports that political prisoners in some prisons are on hunger strike.
We are particularly concerned about the danger to these lives due to solitary confinement, and the severe beatings of political prisoners. There is, therefore, an urgent need to reveal the true situation. AAPP has been told that since a hunger strike in Obo Prison on August 4 and August 5, two gunshots were heard from the prison. Families of the detained are worried.
We, AAPP, strongly condemn these human rights violations, torture, and killings concealed within the prisons. We urge the United Nations, international governments, human rights organizations monitoring the political situation, the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as ASEAN member states to demand the genuine prison conditions, as well as take action to prevent such targetted and widespread human rights violations.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Download link for statement 08.09 Statement on Current Situations in Prisons_AAPP_9 August 2022
Junta troops burn 500 homes, displace thousands in Sagaing
/in NewsVictims of the attacks include an 80-year-old woman found burned to death after failing to escape.
Junta forces stepped up their attacks in Myanmar’s hard-hit Sagaing region in the first week of August, torching nearly 500 homes in 10 villages and causing at least 5,000 people to flee, local sources said.
The attacks in Sagaing’s Tabayin and Ayadaw townships included air raids and ground assaults and appeared especially to target large and well-built homes, but houses were burned in every village through which troops passed, one source said.
Around 180 out of nearly 200 homes were destroyed on Aug. 4 in Tabayin’s Kaing Kan village alone, one resident told RFA on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“Troops entered the village at 9:00 am, burning down the bigger and nicer houses as they came in. But houses have been burned down in every village that they entered,” RFA’s source said.
“They think that anti-junta resistance will stop when the people are repressed and have to struggle for their living instead of engaging in opposition activities. I believe that this repression will fail, though,” he added.
Locals said that four bodies, including the body of a woman, were discovered near a drain outside Kaing Kan village following the attack but had not yet been identified.
In Ayadaw township’s Min Ywa Gyi village, heavy shelling by junta forces preceded the burning of homes during weekend attacks, one village resident said on Monday, also declining to be named because of safety concerns.
“The [ruling] Military Council set fire to the houses. This is their usual tactic,” he said. “The troops came by helicopter, shelled the village with heavy artillery and then burned the houses.
“As far as I could see yesterday, no fewer than 200 houses had been burned down,” he added.
Myanmar military forces are at war with People’s Defense Force (PDF) units created to oppose junta rule, “but instead they are destroying civilians’ lives and homes, which isn’t fair,” he said.
Woman burned to death
Local sources said that Daw Shin, an 80-year-old woman, was found burned to death in Min Yaw Gyi after failing to escape the military raid and that local defense groups were busy Sunday clearing landmines left behind by junta troops, with those displaced by the fighting seeking shelter in a nearby monastery and with charity associations.
Calls seeking comment from a Military Council spokesman rang unanswered Monday. But a member of Tapayin township’s People’s Defense Force told RFA that the more junta forces repress the local people, the more the people will fight against junta rule.
“We are not scared by these brutalities,” he said. “If there were 100 people resisting before, 300 people will come out now, and the more violent the junta troops become, the more the people will rise up against them.”
Also speaking to RFA, Nay Zin Lat—a regional MP from Kanbalu township for the National League for Democracy, which was overthrown in a Feb. 1, 2021 military coup—said that military leaders are trying to rule Myanmar’s people through fear.
“They are limited in their ability to attack the PDF forces on the ground, so when they find they can’t do it, they just torture the local civilians, who have nothing to do with the PDFs.
“By doing this, they are trying to cut local contacts with the PDFs and spread fear among the people so that they will end their support for the fighters. This is the cruelest treatment imaginable,” he said.
RFA News
TIME FOR THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION REPRESENTING THE PEOPLE OF MYANMAR
/in Member statementsDate: August 7, 2022
In recognition of the 34th anniversary of the 8888 Revolution Day on 8 August 2022, the CSO Working Group on Independent National Human Rights Institution (Burma/Myanmar)[1] (abbreviation “Working Group”) and 32 Myanmar civil society organizations signing below pay tribute to and honor people of different religious communities, ethnicities, and classes who sacrificed their lives for federal democracy and human rights in Myanmar, and it is time to establish a new human rights commission that will uphold, protect and promote human rights in line with international standards.
The military junta has systematically and deliberately committed violent offensives and mass human rights violations against the people across the country every day since its coup attempt on 1 February 2021. Within 551 days of the attempted coup, over 2,000 innocent people, including children, have been killed by the military, with the actual number is likely to be higher. Likewise, the junta murdered four democracy activists who had been unjustly sentenced to death by its puppet court. More than 11,900 civilians have been detained by the junta for opposing the attempted coup. At the same time, residents of ethnic minority areas and central Myanmar are living in psychological and physical insecurity as a result of the junta’s airstrikes, indiscriminate shelling, unlawful arrests, unlawful killings, massacres, plunder, destruction and arson of their villages with severe violations of their right to life, right to livelihood, right to movement and right to safety. Under the junta’s control, Myanmar’s judicial system is void of independence and justice, and people need independent and fair mechanisms to inform and report rights violations.
Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) was established as a national human rights institution under the quasi-civilian government led by U Thein Sein in 2011. Due to its failure to align with international standards, including the Paris Principles which guides national human rights institutions, and its lack of independence, the MNHRC has lost the trust of international and local human rights organizations as well as the public. Despite repeated demands by civil society organizations to denounce the military’s attempted coup since 11 February 2021, the MNHRC has ignored the demands and continues to stand with the military junta, which has committed grave human rights violations. Even worse, the MNHRC members have extorted money from the detainees during their pretentious military approved prison inspections.
The MNHRC shamelessly attends regional and international human rights forums and conferences, representing Myanmar to the international community as a propaganda tool of the junta.
In its stance, activities, and existence, the MNHRC undermines the federal democratic revolution in Myanmar. There is clearly a dire need to replace the MNHRC with a new national human rights commission that can promote and protect human rights independently and fairly in accordance with international standards. Only then a newly established national human rights commission can represent Myanmar people’s desire for human rights and federal democracy on the international stage.
A human rights commission bill was drafted by the Working Group and submitted to the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), and National Unity Government (NUG) on December 6, 2021 in order to fulfill this necessity. The members of the Working Group will continue to strive towards the establishment of the Union Human Rights Commission.
We, the undersigned civil society organizations, jointly call for the MNHRC to be dissolved and for a new Union Human Rights Commission to be established by the NUG. We call on the people of Myanmar to participate in condemning the MNHRC, one of the supporting pillars of the military junta, in order to achieve a new national human rights commission that respects and follows human rights standards.
For more information please contact:
The Statement was initiated by CSO Working Group on Independent National Human Rights Institution (Burma/Myanmar) which consists of 20 civil society organizations from diverse backgrounds. Following 32 Myanmar civil society organizations endorsed the statement.
Endorsed by
Additional endorsement after release of the statement
[1] Working Group was formerly known as the CSO Working Group on Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Reform, founded in 2019. The Working Group currently consists of 20 civil society organizations from diverse backgrounds to reflect the new mission of establishing a new national human rights institution that is in line with the Paris Principles.
Download PDF in English I Burmese
Hundreds killed, thousands forced to flee since coup in Myanmar Tanintharyi region
/in NewsViolence has risen sharply in the southern region since the start of the year, a research group says.
At least 214 civilians have been killed and 89 injured in southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region in the 18 months since the country’s military seized power in a coup, according to local research group Southern Monitor.
The group said in a statement on Thursday that since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, at least 17,415 people in Tanintharyi – the home region of junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s parents – were forced to flee their homes, while 93 homes were destroyed in arson attacks over the same period.
The dead included those killed by junta troops as well as victims of retribution attacks by the armed opposition for their alleged role as informants for the military regime, it said.
Southern Monitor’s information officer told RFA Burmese that the number of civilian deaths in Tanintharyi has risen sharply since the beginning of 2022, with the months of April and June being the deadliest.
“Violent incidents in Tanintharyi region have increased significantly in 2022. People died in an increasing number of battles as well as in bombings and landmine incidents,” said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Another worrying trend is the killing of civilians. It can be said that killings by both sides have increased quite a bit.”
He said most of the assassinations and civilian deaths occurred in Tanintharyi’s townships of Launglon and Yebyu.
At least 93 houses were razed in Tanintharyi since the coup, according to Southern Monitor – 33 in Palaw township, 30 in Thayetchaung township, 18 in Tanintharyi township, six in Dawei township, three in Yebyu township, two in Launglon township, and one in Myeik township.
A spokesman for the anti-junta Democracy Action Strike Committee (Dawei) told RFA that most of the fires were started by the junta troops and pro-military Pyu Saw Htee militia fighters raiding villages.
“A military column would come and a battle with PDFs would occur. When [the military] couldn’t proceed any further, they’d set fire to a nearby house,” said the spokesman, who also declined to be named, citing security concerns.
In Launglon, they just set fire to the houses, even though there were no clashes. One of the houses burnt down was owned by a former Dawei District Protest Committee member. At the time of the incident, he was a member of the committee. There were also cases when the Pyu Saw Htee and the military came together and just burned down a house for no reason.”
According to the Dawei Political Prisoners Network, as of April 29, there were 221 political prisoners in detention in Tanintharyi, two of whom have been sentenced to death by the junta.
Military crackdown
Residents of the region told RFA that the armed resistance in Tanintharyi started in earnest in August 2021 in response to the military’s violent crackdowns on civilians.
A spokesman for the Palaw Township People’s Defense Force said most of the fighting in Tanintharyi region, up until recently, had been caused by military clearance operations. He claimed that the armed resistance was not responsible for starting any clashes.
“The fighting we have here began when they entered the area,” said the spokesman, who also asked to remain anonymous.
“We’re not in a position to attack them yet because we are still in a state of preparation. The PDF has not launched any offensives, except one.”
According to the list compiled by Southern Monitor, from June 2021 to July 2022, there were 133 battles and at least 141 attacks using landmines. Most of the attacks took place in the townships of Dawei, Launglon, Thayetchaung, Palaw and Tanintharyi.
Attempts by RFA to reach junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the violence in Tanintharyi went unanswered Thursday.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced Wednesday that the number of people displaced by violence in Myanmar had ballooned to 866,000 from 346,000 prior to the coup.
It said most of the refugees are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, but the junta has yet to announce any plans to address the problem.
Written by Joshua Lipes.
RFA News