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UN Security Council Demands Answers Over Myanmar’s Christmas Eve Massacre

December 30, 2021/in News

The 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 […]

At least 61 civilians killed this month in clashes in Myanmar’s remote border regions

December 30, 2021/in News

More 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 […]

UN Security Council Demands Answers Over Myanmar’s Christmas Eve Massacre

December 30, 2021/in News

At least 61 civilians killed this month in clashes in Myanmar’s remote border regions

December 30, 2021/in News

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UN Security Council Demands Answers Over Myanmar’s Christmas Eve Massacre

December 30, 2021/in News

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

December 30, 2021/in News

More 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 10^th 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

Spring Revolution

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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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