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Myanmar junta continues aerial attacks on Sagaing schools

June 7, 2023/in News

Regime forces launched aerial assaults on two schools in Sagaing Region’s Kalay and Kawlin townships earlier this week, injuring several people, according to local sources. On Monday, an attack helicopter fired on a school in Shu Khin Thar, a village located some 20km north of the town of Kalay, at around 10am. Four people—three men […]

Argentine court hears allegations of genocide against Myanmar leaders

June 7, 2023/in News

Universal jurisdiction case to review accounts of rape and slaughter of Rohingya. Updated at 10:30 p.m. EDT on June 7, 2023. An Argentine court is hearing testimony about allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by senior Myanmar officials against Rohingya Muslims in a landmark case. The hearing is being held in Argentina under […]

Myanmar junta continues aerial attacks on Sagaing schools

June 7, 2023/in News

Argentine court hears allegations of genocide against Myanmar leaders

June 7, 2023/in News

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Myanmar junta continues aerial attacks on Sagaing schools

June 7, 2023/in News

Regime forces launched aerial assaults on two schools in Sagaing Region’s Kalay and Kawlin townships earlier this week, injuring several people, according to local sources.

On Monday, an attack helicopter fired on a school in Shu Khin Thar, a village located some 20km north of the town of Kalay, at around 10am.

Four people—three men and a woman—sustained multiple injuries in that attack, which was the first ever reported in the village of around 200 households.

It was unclear why the village was targeted, but residents said it appeared to be related to a meeting that was being held at the school.

“I think someone leaked information to the junta, as they only attacked the school and nowhere else,” said a local man who did not want to be identified.

Myanmar Now was unable to confirm if the people inside the school at the time of the attack were members of any resistance organisation.

Later the same day, junta troops based in Kalay fired several rounds of heavy artillery at Letpanchaung, a village near Shu Khin Thar, injuring three more people and forcing residents to flee, local sources said.

A day earlier, another school was bombed in Kawlin Township, some 200km northeast of Kalay, after junta troops there came under repeated attack by local resistance forces.

Several buildings sustained heavy damage after the school in the village of Taung Ba Lu came under attack at around 7pm on Sunday, an officer of the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF) told Myanmar Now.

“The bomb didn’t fall right on the main building, but landed in the compound, destroying several buildings,” said the PDF officer.

Some damage was also reported in the nearby village of Chaung Kway, which was bombed at around the same time. No casualties were reported in either village.

The attacks came after a full day of fighting between resistance forces and a junta column of around 250 soldiers that was returning to its base in Koe Taung Boe, a village about 15km south of Kawlin, after a week of raids in the area.

Several PDF battalions took part in the clashes, which began at around 8am and continued through the day, according to the PDF officer.

About three hours before the junta aircraft arrived, troops based in Wuntho, north of Kawlin, fired on resistance positions with Howitzer guns in support of the column from Koe Taung Boe, he added.

Several regime soldiers were killed and a number of PDF troops were injured in the fighting, which reportedly lasted until the column reached Koe Taung Boe at around 11pm.

This week’s airstrikes were just the latest targeting schools in Sagaing Region, which has been a stronghold of the resistance movement since the military seized power in February 2021.

Last month, there were at least three similar attacks in the region: one on a high school in the village of the Htan Taw Bodi in Ye-U Township on May 9; another on a high school in Chaung Ma, a village in Kani Township, on May 17; and a third on a school in Pauk Inn Myaing, also in Kani Township, on May 31.

Civilian casualties, including children, were reported in all three incident, which are part of a pattern of indiscriminate killing by regime forces since the coup.

In September of last year, at least 13 civilians, including seven children, were killed in a brutal aerial assault on a school in the village of Letyetkone in Depayin Township.

Despite coming under strong international condemnation for that attack, the regime has shown no signs of relenting in its targeting of schools.

In April, another airstrike on a school in Webula, a village in Chin State’s Falam Township, left nine people dead, including the principal of the school and his wife.

The next day, a single attack on the village of Pa Zi Gyi in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township left at least 160 people, including dozens of children, dead.

Myanmar’s academic year began last Thursday, raising fears that more children may be killed in junta attacks on schools, especially those run by local groups opposed to the regime.

Myanmar Now News

Argentine court hears allegations of genocide against Myanmar leaders

June 7, 2023/in News

Universal jurisdiction case to review accounts of rape and slaughter of Rohingya.

Updated at 10:30 p.m. EDT on June 7, 2023.

An Argentine court is hearing testimony about allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by senior Myanmar officials against Rohingya Muslims in a landmark case.

The hearing is being held in Argentina under the principle of “universal jurisdiction” enshrined in the country’s constitution, which holds that some crimes are so heinous that alleged perpetrators thousands of miles away can be tried.

“This is a historic fight for justice,” said Tun Khin, president of the London-based advocacy group Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, or BROUK, which filed the complaint with the Federal Criminal Correctional Court in Buenos Aires in 2019.

“Holding the military accountable for genocide of the Rohingya will benefit everyone in Burma,” he said.

The week-long hearing will call witnesses to testify before federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, who is gathering evidence in the case.

Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK with Argentine human rights lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana outside a federal court in Buenos Aires on Dec. 16, 2021. In a hearing that opened Wednesday in Argentina, Rohingya Muslims appeared in person in a court of law for the first time to provide eyewitness testimony about alleged crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by senior Myanmar officials.Credit: Juan Mabromata/AFP

The 46-page criminal complaint centers on violence in 2012 and 2018 that drove about 1 million Rohingyas from Myanmar, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, where many live in squalid refugee camps to this day.

In harrowing detail, the document describes rapes, beheadings and the slaughter of Rohingya civilians committed by Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, and their civilian supporters.

It describes “the gang rape of women, girls and boys” and includes “the virtually total destruction of their towns and villages by intentionally setting them on fire.”

Goal: Arrest or extradition

Ultimately, the complaint calls for the perpetrators to be identified “and the necessary measures be adopted” for them to be interrogated by a judge, “including their arrest and/or extradition if necessary.”

“The idea is that someone will be caught and brought trial. It forms part of a longer arc of accountability and truth-telling,” said Akila Radhakrisan, head of the New York-based Global Justice Center, a group specializing in human rights and sexual violence against women.

Rohingya refugees stand in lines to collect food aid near Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Dar Yasin/AP

But cases like these can take decades to be resolved, Radhakrisan said.

For example, it was only on May 23 that a key fugitive in the 1994 Rwandan massacre was found in South Africa and arrested following a warrant issued by the United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

The public shaming and a pending arrest warrant for perpetrators in Myanmar could limit their travel, and also deter others around the world that might engage in similar human rights abuses, officials said.

Prosecutor Marijuan is technically still in the phase of collection of evidence.

Aside from the courtroom testimony, evidence includes detailed information collected by a 2017-2019 UN-backed Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar, which interviewed hundreds of witnesses in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

A Rohingya refugee carries an elderly woman after they crossed the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar, in Teknaf, Bangladesh Sept. 29, 2017. Credit: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

Those named in the accusation include Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of Myanmar’s armed forces and the ruling junta, which overthrew the civilian government in a coup two years ago, senior officials in the police and border guard, and radical Buddhist monks including Ashin Wirathu.The accusation also names pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto head of Myanmar’s civilian government between 2016 and 2021, as being complicit in the genocide. Removed from power in the coup, she is now serving a lengthy prison term in Myanmar on charges that supporters say are politically motivated.Anonymous testimonyFearing retaliation from agents of Myanmar’s military government, witnesses coming to court have taken strict measures to remain anonymous. The hearings are being held behind closed doors. The Rohingya are represented in court by Tomas Ojea Quintana, an Argentine attorney who has served as U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar between 2008 and 2014.Argentina has held previous cases about alleged crimes committed elsewhere.A 2010 case examined crimes committed in Spain during 1939-1975 fascist rule of Francisco Franco; a 2014 case against Israeli authorities for crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip; and a 2018 case against Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman for crimes against humanity committed in Yemen.

RFA News

Spring Revolution

Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 8 to 14, 2024)September 20, 2024 - 2:30 pm
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 8 to 14, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Magway Region, Shan State, Kachin State, and Rakhine State from September 8th to 14th. Military Junta arrested the civilians as human shields from Mindon Township, Magway Region, and Salingyi Township, […]
Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 1 to 7, 2024)September 13, 2024 - 5:08 pm
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 1 to 7, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Magway Region, and Shan State from September 1st to 7th. The Military Junta threatened that they would launch airstrikes on the townships which they lost. The […]
Human Rights Situation weekly update (Aug 22 to 31, 2024)September 7, 2024 - 4:09 pm
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Aug 22 to 31, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in the Sagaing Region, Magway Region, Bago Region, Mandalay Region, Tanintharyi Region, and Shan State from August 22nd to 31st. Head of Prison which works under Military Junta, tortured and blackmailed the […]

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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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