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
- Junta targeting rebel-held areas in northern Myanmar with airstrikes and artillery
- Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 8 to 14, 2024)
- Myanmar National Organizing Committee for ACSC/APF ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum 2024
- Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 1 to 7, 2024)
- Red Cross chief calls for greater aid access after visit to Myanmar
More Magway villagers fall victim to marauding regime forces
/in NewsAt least two civilians were killed in separate incidents last week as the junta continues its efforts to crush opponents to its rule
Regime forces and members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee group murdered at least two villagers in Magway Region last week, according to local sources.
On Thursday, the charred remains of a man were found inside a house that had been set on fire in Hnan Khar, a village in Gangaw Township that has been largely deserted since it came under an aerial attack on December 17.
The body was believed to belong to 45-year-old Htwar Maung, one of three people abducted by regime forces in the area last week, local sources said.
Htwar Maung and another man, 60-year-old Pei Tone, were reportedly taken into custody together when military troops returned to Hnan Khar on Wednesday.
According to a village leader, Pei Tone was found alive near the house containing the burnt body.
“He was close to death when we found him. We couldn’t ask him anything, because he couldn’t speak,” said the village leader, adding that Pei Tone, who was said to be mentally disabled, had bruises covering his head and back.
The third person was identified as 50-year-old Than Ngwe, who was seen being taken away with his hands tied behind his back as the troops left the village later the same day.
Like Pei Tone, Than Ngwe was described by local residents as being mentally challenged. It is believed that he was taken as a human shield. Residents of Hnan Khar discovered nine bodies in the village after it had been occupied by regime forces in the wake of last month’s air raids.
Residents of Hnan Khar discovered nine bodies in the village after it had been occupied by regime forces in the wake of last month’s air raids.
Meanwhile, there were also reports that a 58-year-old man had been shot and killed in Zee Taw, a village located some 215km southeast of Hnan Khar in Pauk Township, during a raid by police and local Pyu Saw Htee members on Friday.
The victim, Myint Shwe, was reportedly killed at around 11am as he was returning home after working in his fields.
Pauk.jpeg
According to the leader of a guerrilla force active in Pauk Township, Myint Swe was murdered as he attempted to flee a group of 16 men on motorcycles who had entered the village minutes earlier.
“They were just going around Zee Taw shooting randomly when they ran into him. They shot him six times,” said the local guerrilla leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A woman who identified herself as a relative of the victim confirmed this account.
“I was feeding my children when they arrived. The Pyu Saw Htee were wearing hats to hide their identities and they drove away right after shooting him,” she said.
“They just ran into him by chance and shot him dead.”
Pyae Sone, a police defector who leads the Magway-based Myay Latt Guerrilla Force, was in the area at the time of the incident and said he later saw the victim’s body.
“He was such a simple person. He didn’t even know how to use a mobile phone, let alone take part in the revolution. He ran away in fear when he ran into them. They shot him until he was dead,” he said.
The Pyu Saw Htee group has been active in the area for months, terrorizing local villagers in an effort to suppress support for armed groups opposed to the junta that seized power last February.
In October, around 30 members of the group surrendered with their weapons to anti-regime forces in Magway after the military failed to protect them from attack.
Myanmar Now News
Junta forces and military-backed armed group terrorise Sagaing residents
/in NewsDisplaced locals from a Taze Township village say they heard the military fire both shells and guns before they saw smoke rising from the community
Displaced locals from Sagaing Region’s Taze Township said they saw smoke rising from their village on Sunday morning after a clash between local resistance forces and junta troops broke out there one day earlier.
The military occupied the village—Kar Paung Kya—after opening fire with heavy weapons on members of the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Taze.
According to a member of the Taze PDF, they clashed with more than 100 junta soldiers for 45 minutes after the resistance group launched an attack near Kar Paung Kya using explosives. The Taze PDF was forced to retreat after the military retaliated, he added, with the coup regime’s soldiers remaining in Kar Paung Kya.
“Some said they could see smoke coming out from the edge of the village. We don’t know anything for sure yet,” said a Kar Paung Kya local who would like to remain anonymous.
Locals said they heard the military firing both shells and guns near the village early Sunday morning before they saw the smoke.
“The military is still inside the village. They fired an artillery shell once in the morning and fired some 20 rounds of light weapons,” another Kar Paung Kya resident said.
Further details about the military’s activities in Kar Paung Kya were not known at the time of reporting.
Karpaungkya.jpeg
According to the Taze PDF member, a 22-year-old resistance fighter known as Myo Chit San was killed by the junta’s artillery fire on Saturday.
Kar Paung Kya’s 3,000 residents have been displaced for months after the military carried out more than 10 raids on the 700-household village since late August.
The Myanmar army torched several homes in Kar Paung Kya in October after occupying the community for a week.
One day before the clash near Kar Paung Kya, buildings in the town of Kyunhla—some 60km from Taze—were ransacked and torched by members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee network, two sources told Myanmar Now.
Among the sites targeted were homes in Pyinma Myaing ward, several tea shops, and a motorcycle in Sipin Zay Kone ward, as well as a goldsmith which was looted there, locals said.
One of the locals who spoke to Myanmar Now noted that the Pyu Saw Htee members appeared to be targeting the shops and houses owned by members or supporters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, whose elected administration was ousted in Myanmar’s February 1 coup.
“They torched the buildings because they believed they belonged to pro-NLD people,” the local man said. “The Pyu Saw Htee group has been terrorising the town for a long time. We don’t have any PDF groups present in the town of Kyunhla.”
He added that residents of the neighbourhood had to put out the blaze set by the Pyu Saw Htee as the fire department did not respond to the incident.
Members of the group were also seen firing shots in the town and threatening locals two days before the raid, with some residents speculating that the Pyu Saw Htee were testing out their weapons and shooting in the air, according to another local.
The individual added that the members of the group had also fired shots into the air until 1am after torching the buildings in Pyinma Myaing ward.
“They were doing so in order to make the neighbourhood residents believe that they had to open fire because there was a clash [between the resistance and the junta forces],” he said, noting that no such clash had occurred.
Myanmar Now tried to contact the Kyunhla central police station to comment on the locals’ accounts of the events, but the officer on duty refused to answer the calls.
Junta information officer Gen Zaw Min Tun said during a press conference on September 15 that the military had not formed the Pyu Saw Htee group nor had they provided them with weapons or training.
At least two villagers in Kyunhla Township were killed during the airstrikes by the Myanmar military in late-October.
Locals from several villages in the region had to flee on November 9 when the military fired shells to the west of the Thaphan Sate dam during a battle with the PDF just outside the township.
The Kyunhla Township PDF has stated that the military has carried out frequent raids on villages in the area and robbed civilians of their valuables and food supplies.
Sagaing Region quickly became a resistance stronghold against the junta following the February coup.
Myanmar Now remains unable to contact the military for comment on the ongoing offensive in northwestern Myanmar, nor has the junta addressed in state-controlled newspapers the crimes of which it is accused in the region.
Myanmar Now News
NEW THREATS FROM THE AIR
/in Member statements, ND-Burma Members' ReportsNew report maps out SAC war crimes in northern Burma
A new report by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) provides evidence, including detailed
maps, of war crimes by forces of the State Administration Council (SAC) regime in Kachin State and northern Shan State during the past six months.
“New Threats from the Air” reveals a new and deadly trend of airstrikes over populated villages in Kachin
State, in apparent retaliation for conflict losses along strategic transport routes. Five airstrikes in Putao,
Hpakant and along the Irrawaddy river killed two villagers and injured thirteen, including six children, in
the first few months of this year.
Maps show how SAC troops from the notorious assault divisions ID 33, ID 88 and ID 99, have fired artillery
shells directly into civilian areas. Thirteen shelling incidents during the past six months killed eight villagersand injured twenty, including six children.
Maps also provide evidence of ongoing confidence of impunity for sexual violence by SAC troops. A rape
attempt by a SAC soldier in Kutkai on April 12 took place only a few kilometers from where a soldier from
the same battalion raped an elderly woman in November last year.
The report documents thirteen incidents of indiscriminate shooting by SAC troops, injuring seven civilians
and killing eleven – including a seven-year-old boy killed in his bed in Myitkyina, when troops shot randomly into civilian houses following a bomb explosion in the town.
Twenty-three people have been arbitrarily arrested by SAC forces across Kachin State, including seven
who were severely tortured to make them confess to being members of the Kachin Independence Army
(KIA) or People’s Defence Forces (PDF). Dozens of villagers, including women, have been forced to walk
between SAC troops as human shields in Momauk, Hpakant and Namtu.
Ongoing fighting and SAC abuses have caused new displacement of over 5,700 villagers across northern
Burma during the past six months.
KWAT is calling urgently for increased diplomatic and economic pressure on the military regime to end
their atrocities, and enable the transfer of power to a democratically elected government under a new federalconstitution.
For more information:
Moon Nay Li (+66 855233791)
San Htoi (+95 9761113558
Download Report in [English] [Burmese]
Download Press release in [English] [Burmese]
UN Security Council Demands Answers Over Myanmar’s Christmas Eve Massacre
/in NewsThe United Nations Security Council has called for accountability for the Christmas Eve massacre in Hpruso Township, Kayah State, in which at least 35 people, including four children and two Save the Children staff, were killed in Myanmar.
Photos from a Kayah-based group showed the charred remains of bodies on burned trucks in the rural area.
Security Council president Abdou Abarry from Niger said in a statement that the global body condemned the slaughter and “called for the immediate cessation of all violence and emphasized the importance of respect for human rights and of ensuring safety of civilians”.
The statement added that members reaffirmed their support for the people of Myanmar and the country’s democratic transition.
The statement stressed “the need for safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to all people in need, and for the full protection, safety and security of humanitarian and medical personnel”.
The Security Council action on Myanmar is normally vetoed by permanent members Russia and China. In the wake of the Feb. 1 coup, the council failed to condemn the military takeover as both Russia and China, which maintain close relations with the military, blocked the move and insisted it was a domestic affair.
The human rights affairs minister in the parallel National Unity Government U Aung Myo Min said: “It also very important that justice is done for every crime the military regime has committed.
He said the lack of any rule of law in Myanmar meant the NUG was looking to the international courts to bring the junta leaders to justice. Delays in international action, however, pushed “the people to take matters into their own hands”, U Aung Myo Min added.
The massacre happened after a battle between junta troops and the Karenni Army and the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF), an alliance of resistance groups fighting the regime in Kayah State.
Junta soldiers detained villagers near Moso and killed and burned them along with seven vehicles and five motorbikes.
Four members of the Karenni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front, a border guard force which agreed a ceasefire with the former junta in 1994, were tied up and shot in the head while they were negotiating with junta forces for the release of the abductees, according to the resistance group.
The Security Council’s condemnations echoed statements from domestic civil society organizations, ethnic armed groups, Save the Children and Myanmar’s envoys to the UN.
The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths condemned the junta’s actions and called for a thorough investigation.
Armed resistance against the junta began in Kayah State in late May and nearly half of the state’s population of around 150,000 has been displaced by fighting. An estimated 187 people in the state had been killed by Dec. 26, said the Progressive Karenni People’s Force.
By Wednesday, at least 1,382 civilians have been killed by the junta and an estimated 11,254 have been detained with more than 8,000 still in detention.
The junta’s crackdowns and offensives against the civilians opposing the regime include indiscriminate shooting, launching artillery and frequent aerial bombardment.
The UN’s special envoy to Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, on Tuesday called for a New Year’s ceasefire.
Irrawaddy News
At least 61 civilians killed this month in clashes in Myanmar’s remote border regions
/in NewsMore than 40,000 people were displaced from the fighting in Kayah and Kayin states, and Sagaing and Magway regions.
More than five dozen civilians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced due to clashes between Myanmar’s military and anti-junta forces in four of the country’s remote border regions in December alone, according to local militias and an official with the shadow National Unity Government (NUG).
At least 61 people died and more than 40,000 fled fighting this month – the 10th since the military seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a Feb. 1 coup – in Kayah and Kayin states, as well as in Sagaing and Magway regions, sources told RFA’s Myanmar Service.
The deaths occurred as the result of four specific incidents, including the Dec. 7 massacre of 10 people in Sagaing’s Don Taw village, a Dec. 17 helicopter attack on Hnankhar and Mwayle villages in Magway’s Gangaw township, a Dec. 20 airstrike on Ye Myat village in Sagaing’s Yay-Oo township that killed seven, and a Dec. 24 fire in Kayah state’s Phruso township in which 35 people perished.
A spokesman for the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF), an armed ethnic group fighting against the military in Kayah state, said the military was responsible for the killing of civilians in December and said that such reckless actions suggest that the junta is “on the verge of collapse.”
“They are acting in the most violent way to frighten the people,” he said.
“But no matter what they do, how brutal they are, they will not see us surrendering in fear or receiving every blow with our heads bowed.”
The junta says voter fraud led to the NLD’s landslide victory in the country’s November 2020 election but has yet to provide evidence for its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 1,382 people and arresting 8,331 in the nearly 11 months since, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The military has also launched several offensives in the country’s remote border regions, battling ethnic armies and local branches of the prodemocracy People’s Defense Force militia that have formed to help protect residents. Many civilians have lost their lives in the crossfire, while reports of looting, torture, rape, and summary executions by junta troops are common.
Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun has acknowledged armed clashes between government troops and PDF militia fighters that he labels “terrorists,” but denies that any massacres of civilians have taken place.
Increasing number of refugees
In the meantime, the United Nations Security Council, U.S., Britain, Canada and other members of the international community have issued a series of statements condemning mass killings by the military and raising concerns about the high number of people who have been displaced by the violence.
A spokesman for the ethnic Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) recently told RFA that around 20,000 civilians from 10 villages had been forced to flee to refugee camps or into the mountains in the wake of what has been referred to as a massacre that took place in Kayah state’s Hpruso township on Dec. 24.
Meanwhile, fighting in and around Kayin state’s Lay Kay Kaw area since Dec. 15 has forced some 16,500 civilians to flee to makeshift camps along the banks of the Thaung Yin (Moei) River and into neighboring Thailand. Local media also reported in recent weeks that at least 4,000 civilians had fled their homes in Magway and Sagaing regions due to airstrikes by the military.
Sources estimate that in December alone, more than 40,000 people were displaced in Kayah and Kayin states as well as in Sagaing and Magway regions. Those displaced by the recent fighting join more than 500,000 refugees from decades of conflict between the military and ethnic armed groups who were already counted as displaced at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO.
Stronger response needed
Aung Myo Min, the NUG’s human rights minister, welcomed the global condemnation of the junta’s killing of civilians – including women and children – but called the response by the international community “weak.”
“Orders were deliberately given to kill a large number of people and the dead were innocent civilians and women and children,” he said.
“Such actions should be viewed as international crimes and therefore require greater international action and justice. But what we are seeing now is that [junta troops] are getting bolder and bolder as the international reaction is rather weak.”
He called on governments around the world to take “immediate and effective action” against the junta to prevent the further death of innocent people in Myanmar.
Political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe told RFA that despite condemnation, he expects the military will continue to label those who oppose it as terrorists and kill them.
“They have … branded mass uprisings as acts of terrorism and cracked down brutally, using extreme force,” he said.
“I see the military [continuing to portray] those who are being killed as terrorists. And that means the military will continue to follow this path.”
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
RFA News
Human Rights Situation in Myanmar: Post-Coup 2021 December 20-21
/in HR SituationDuring the holiday season, the people of Myanmar have been denied peace and protection in their homelands. Across the country, the military junta continues to terrorize the civilian population through unlawful arrests, abductions, torture and murder. No one feels safe.
In Karen State, clashes have been intensifying since 15 December between the Karen National Liberation Army and the Myanmar military. The onslaught of air and ground attacks forced over 10 000 villagers in Lay Kay Kay, Karen State to flee the junta’s relentless offensives. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are in urgent need of food, shelter, warm clothing and refuge where they are free from the looming possibility of more assaults.
According to Karen rights groups, tensions began to rise when the regime entered Lay Kay Kaw, a town controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU) and arrested over a dozen people, including an elected Member of Parliament and human rights defenders. When the KNU rightfully intervened to safeguard their people and communities, the junta responded by firing over 100 artillery shells and indiscriminately fired into the town. Many buildings and homes were destroyed.
At least 6900 people have been displaced since December 15 and over 4000 have taken refuge in Thai soil, according to ND-Burma member, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland. HURFOM urged the UN to designate a “no-fly zone” in all ethnic areas, including recent armed conflict in Karen, fighting centered around the town of Lay Kay Kaw. Those who have been displaced on the border and inside Thailand must be protected and provided with urgently needed humanitarian aid.
Innocent civilians living in areas where the junta has increased their armed presence are at risk of being killed by soldiers. The Karen Women Organization (KWO) strongly condemned a fatal attack against a 56 year old woman who was working on her farm with her husband when the Burma Army Battalion, LIB 101 along with five soldiers from the Border guard Force approached. Her husband fled, leaving her alone and terrified. She was asked where the KNLA soldiers were and when she replied she did not know, her nose was broken. She was then shot in the mouth and killed. KWO explained that this case was not isolated – rather one of many indicative of the rising assaults against women and civilians across the country.
As rights groups including ND-Burma have documented throughout the year, human rights violations in Myanmar are sysmatic, widespread and ongoing. They are being perpetuated endlessly through a cycle of impunity, emboldened by the international community’s lack of action. A global arms embargo is imperative to stopping the junta’s access to murderous weapons which are used to indiscriminately kill. Further, a referral to the International Criminal Court would send a critical message to the Myanmar Army which makes clear – no one is above the law and those who commit human right atrocities will be held accountable.
CHRO has also documented a rising number of COVID-19 cases which are adding to the stress of already worried civilians.
KAYAH (KARENNI) STATE
Over thirty refugees including women, children and the elderly were burned alive in Hpruso Township, Kayah (Karenni) State. The Karen Women’s Organization was among the civil society organizations to condemn the atrocities by extending solidarity and support. State media falsely alleged the innocent civilians killed were ‘terrorists’ in yet another lie in the regime’s sweeping fabrications and cover-ups of the atrocities happening on the ground.
Twenty houses in Kayah (Karenni) State were also destroyed in Loikaw by the junta, according to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Forces, following clashes earlier in the week. Civilians who lost their homes also lost valuable possessions, food and money. Over 150 000 have been internally displaced in Kayah (Karenni) State.
MAGWAY
Magway Township continues to be targeted by the junta. Nearly two dozen people were killed when the junta used airstrikes against Hnan Khar village in Magway region’s Gangaw Township. The victims were soldiers and innocent civilians, though an exact count could not be confirmed. Attempts from people trying to retrieve bodies were shot at.
As a result of the clashes, many people tried to flee. Witnesses to the attacks who were trying to flee said that elderly people had to be carried since they could not walk or run.