Blog Elements – Page 255

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Woman abducted by junta with 3-year-old son accused of ties to urban guerrilla forces

April 15, 2022/in News

Information obtained from the woman while in detention led to the arrest of resistance force members allegedly planning bombings during Thingyan, the Myanmar military claims Myanmar’s military council announced the arrest of 15 alleged members of anti-junta resistance forces in Yangon as well as the confiscation of several weapons in a statement published on Thursday. […]

‘Trail of bodies’: defector says military’s top judge came to Rakhine to destroy evidence of Rohingya atrocities

April 15, 2022/in News

Aung Lin Dwe, who at the time was Judge Advocate General, fabricated cover stories and ordered soldiers to delete files from their phones, according to a defector The Myanmar military’s top judge travelled to northern Rakhine State in 2017 to assist with the destruction of evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya, a defector who says […]

Woman abducted by junta with 3-year-old son accused of ties to urban guerrilla forces

April 15, 2022/in News

‘Trail of bodies’: defector says military’s top judge came to Rakhine to destroy evidence of Rohingya atrocities

April 15, 2022/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Woman abducted by junta with 3-year-old son accused of ties to urban guerrilla forces

April 15, 2022/in News

Information obtained from the woman while in detention led to the arrest of resistance force members allegedly planning bombings during Thingyan, the Myanmar military claims

Myanmar’s military council announced the arrest of 15 alleged members of anti-junta resistance forces in Yangon as well as the confiscation of several weapons in a statement published on Thursday.

The announcement claimed that the crackdown in Yangon was based on information provided by Thiri Wai, a 28-year-old woman who they said they had detained on April 5. Some 13 people were reportedly arrested hours after she provided the alleged testimony in junta custody, and two more people were detained on April 11, according to the junta.

Myanmar Now reported on Tuesday that Ma Wai—who is 35, according to a friend—was blindfolded and taken from her Insein Township home by troops on the morning of April 5. It was also her three-year-old son’s birthday, and he too was reportedly kidnapped by junta forces from his kindergarten that afternoon. They are still believed to be in military custody, and Myanmar Now remains unable to speak with her family.

The military council did not mention the abduction of the child in their Thursday statement.

The military identified the 15 detainees as members of the urban guerrilla forces known as Union Myanmar Civil Development (UMCD) and God of Death, and accused them of planning to perpetrate bombings in seven Yangon locations during the Thingyan water festival, which took place this week.

They claimed to have seized 12 guns, including nine handmade rifles, as well as improvised explosive devices and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Speaking to Myanmar Now anonymously, a UMCD officer confirmed that the group’s members had been arrested. He said that there were inaccuracies in the junta’s statement regarding the dates of the victims’ arrests and denied the allegation that they were planning bombings during Thingyan.

While he did not disclose further information on the detainees, he described Ma Wai as “a woman with guts of steel,” and speculated that she may have been forced to give the alleged statement to her captors in order to protect her son, Thant Hpone Waiyan.

“I think they’re torturing the child to extract information from her,” he said.

The officer added that her family members had been afraid to contact the military to inquire about her and her son’s well-being.

Myanmar Now called the kindergarten attended by Thant Hpone Waiyan in Ahlone Township to inquire about his abduction, but all calls went unanswered.

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar declared that until April 29, they are accepting submissions of reported violations of child rights in Myanmar since the February 2021 coup to be considered for inclusion in a forthcoming report on the issue.

The shadow National Unity Government (NUG) announced that they had reported the three-year-old’s kidnapping by the military to the Special Rapporteur.

According to an April 8 report released by the NUG’s Ministry of Women, Youths and Children Affairs, 132 minors have been killed by the Myanmar military during the post-coup period. Some 216 have been detained, of whom two have been handed death sentences by junta courts, the ministry said.

The administration called for justice for the crimes.

The military council has not responded to the allegations.

Myanmar Now News

‘Trail of bodies’: defector says military’s top judge came to Rakhine to destroy evidence of Rohingya atrocities

April 15, 2022/in News

Aung Lin Dwe, who at the time was Judge Advocate General, fabricated cover stories and ordered soldiers to delete files from their phones, according to a defector

The Myanmar military’s top judge travelled to northern Rakhine State in 2017 to assist with the destruction of evidence of atrocities against the Rohingya, a defector who says he took part in the offensive has told Myanmar Now.

Aung Lin Dwe, who at the time was the Tatmadaw’s Judge Advocate General, arrived in the village of Mawrawaddy near Maungdaw after the attacks against the minority group began in August 2017, according to Captain Nay Myo Thet.

“The Judge Advocate General came to the No. 4 Border Guard Force office in Mawrawaddy, fabricated incidents as the military wanted… and got rid of the evidence of the acts of terrorism the military committed,” he said. “He also altered the weapons and ammunition inventory records.”

Aung Lin Dwe, who now serves as Secretary of the military’s so-called State Administration Council, issued an order in 2017 for soldiers to delete any record of the attacks they had taken on their phones, Nay Myo Thet said, adding that he himself passed this order down to his own subordinates.

“We were told to check our mobile phone every few days and delete whatever photos or videos we had there,” he said.

Nay_myo_thet.jpeg

Captain Nay Myo Thet defected from the military in January (Supplied)

Much of what is known about the 2017 attacks, which both UN investigators and the United States have labelled genocide, comes from witness testimony given by Rohingya survivors who fled to Bangladesh in their hundreds of thousands.

The offensive, which followed a similar but smaller round of violence against the Rohingya in 2016, involved mass killings, the rape of women, men and children, and systematic arson to destroy hundreds of villages.

We were told to check our mobile phone every few days and delete whatever photos or videos we had there

Journalists, observers and investigators have been denied access to northern Rakhine ever since, except on tightly controlled media tours, and it has not been possible to gather physical evidence from the sites where atrocities were reported.

Nay Myo Thet abandoned his post in Buthidaung Township in January, taking his wife and five-year-old child with him, to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against Myanmar’s coup regime.

Nay_myo_thets_military_id.jpeg

Captain Nay Myo Thet’s military ID card

The captain, who is 32, graduated from the 51st batch of the Defence Services Academy and from 2015 until his defection served as a squadron commander of Infantry Battalion 233 under Western Military Command. His unit was in charge of providing logistical support for troops.

His wife, Mar Mar, who he married in 2016, is a former police officer from Rakhine. The family has fled Rakhine.

They used to say: ‘The noose is very far away. Be careful not to put your neck in the noose yourself. Double-check everything. Instruct your underlings to cover their tracks. Get rid of all the evidence’

During the 2017 attacks, higher ranking soldiers had a sense that they were unlikely to be held accountable for their crimes, but nonetheless did not want to make things easy for international prosecutors by leaving behind evidence, Nay Myo Thet said.

“They used to say: ‘The noose is very far away. Be careful not to put your neck in the noose yourself. Double-check everything. Instruct your underlings to cover their tracks. Get rid of all the evidence’,” he said.

The military’s engineering battalion was brought in to help with this, he added.

“They bulldozed the land to get rid of the evidence,” he said. “By evidence, I mean dead bodies and the remains of burned houses.”

The military built border guard police stations on the bulldozed land, he said.

They bulldozed the land to get rid of the evidence. By evidence, I mean dead bodies and the remains of burned houses

Soldiers also poured acid onto the bodies of dead Rohingya in order to prevent them being identified, Nay Myo Thet said.

A 2018 investigation by the Associated Press found that acid had been poured over the bodies of Rohingya buried in mass graves in the village of Gu Dar Pyin, in Buthidaung. Nay Myo Thet told Myanmar Now that he arrived in Gu Dar Pyin after the attacks there and saw the aftermath.

Nay_myo_thet-2.Jpeg

Captain Nay Myo Thet is seen together with a fellow soldier during the commemoration of Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day on March 27, 2021 (Supplied)

Weapons inventories destroyed

Another way the military erased evidence in Rakhine was by destroying inventory records of weapons and ammunition used in the offensive, said Nay Myo Thet.

He served as a logistics officer during the operations and it was his role to procure food supplies, weapons, and aircraft fuel for the soldiers, he said.

“I was aware of our ammunition inventory because I used to be the supply officer,” he said. “So I know how much and what kind of ammunition the soldiers used. It was, however, off the record, so it meant they were given permission to do whatever they wanted.”

Nay Myo Thet’s battalion was deployed to Maungdaw Township as part of a mission named Zwe Marn Hone, which began in 2016 and continued after August 2017 with the purpose of “clearing” a stretch of land along Myanmar’s western border.

“We destroyed a series of Rohingya villages from Kyi Kan Pyin until Baw Tu Lar,” he said, referring to offensives he took part in in both 2016 and 2017. “It ended after we built a community hall in Baw Tu Lar” in 2017, he added.

A top military official named Lieutenant General Aung Kyaw Zaw, who was later sanctioned for his role in the atrocities, built a pagoda in Baw Tu Lar, which sits at one of Myanmar’s most westerly points, “in order to declare the area as Buddha’s land” Nay Myo Thet said.

During the Zwe Marn Hone mission, Nay Myo Thet said soldiers burned down villages and stripped Rohingya women naked for “searches”.

“The military columns would raid and torch villages and the villages would be burnt to ashes. It all happened before my own eyes,” said the captain, who served in the military for 13 years, seven of which he spent in Rakhine State.

Aung-Lin-Dwe.jpeg

Aung Lin Dwe now serves as Secretary of the military’s so-called State Administration Council (nwayoomyanmar.com)

Military authorities gave permission to ground troops to carry out unannounced searches in the villages and to take whatever they liked, the captain said.

“Every time they arrived at a house, they would make the men step outside and the women stand in a line in the house, and then they would strip them naked and ‘search’ them,” he said. “It didn’t matter if the women were old or young. They’d strip all of them naked. Then they would brag about it proudly.”

He added that the soldiers were also allowed to shoot anyone dead if they tried to run during the searches and that no weapons, apart from kitchen knives, were ever found.

“The people did not have any weapons to fight back but the soldiers were justified in killing them even if they found a kitchen knife” he added.

“They would leave a literal trail of dead bodies behind them after they left the villages. The streets would be filled with rotten smells from the bodies. It was very disturbing,” he said.

Rohingya leaders sometimes sought to prevent attacks by bribing army officers at the entrances of their villages with gold, silver, and other valuables, he added: “They would sell the objects given as bribes by the Rohingya people, including motorcycles and cars, among themselves. It was a big market.”

They would leave a literal trail of dead bodies behind them after they left the villages. The streets would be filled with rotten smells from the bodies. It was very disturbing

In 2020, military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told reporters that three soldiers had been punished for “weakness in following the instructions” during the Gu Dar Pyin attacks, but he declined to name the soldiers or give their ranks.

Nay Myo Thet told Myanmar Now that the three soldiers Zaw Min Tun was referring to reported to a tactical officer named Colonel Naing Oo.

In 2019, Nay Myo Thet said, a lieutenant general named Zaw Myo Win was detained at a jail inside the base of Infantry Battalion 233 in Buthidaung for around six months.

His detention was ostensibly a punishment for his role in the Gu Dar Pyin attacks, Nay Myo Thet said, but it “was just an act”.

“I only know about this because I was there when it happened,” he added. “Everyone thought [he] was jailed for real. However, he was allowed to do whatever he wanted while he was detained. He even got to drink alcohol.”

Zaw Myo Win was commander of ground operations under Light Infantry Division 33, which was responsible for a large share of the 2017 atrocities.

It is unclear if Zaw Myo Win was one of the three soldiers that Zaw Min Tun was referring to in 2020.

There is, Nay Myo Thet said, no desire in the military for any genuine accountability for crimes against the Rohingya.

“The military as a whole thinks that the Rohingya are the source of all the problems,” he said. “They just want the Rohingya people gone. That’s all they want.”

Myanmar Now News

Spring Revolution

Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 15 to 21, 2024)September 27, 2024 - 8:26 am
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 15 to 21, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Shan State, Chin State, Rakhine State, and Kachin State from September 15th to 21st. The Military Junta committed arresting, occupying the properties, threatening by using power, and […]
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 […]

Multimedia

What is the Truth (Cartoon Animation)May 31, 2024 - 4:58 pm
What is Transitional Justice (Cartoon Animation)May 3, 2024 - 8:38 am
Close the SkyApril 11, 2024 - 7:45 am
Forced MarriageJanuary 9, 2024 - 2:12 pm

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.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

ND Burma

Recent Posts