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Peace is broken in the Karen hills. How will donors respond?

January 27, 2021/in News

The Tatmadaw has resumed its old ways, killing civilians and destroying villages, despite the early promise of peace initiatives backed by Norway and other Western countries. By CHARLES PETRIE and ASHLEY SOUTH | FRONTIER Since at least 2018, the Tatmadaw has been aggressively patrolling northern Karen (Kayin) State and eastern Bago Region, in areas long […]

Myanmar Must Urgently Address the Further Backsliding of Human Rights Situation through the Universal Periodic Review

January 26, 2021/in Member statements

[25 January 2021]Today, as Myanmar’s human rights record was examined by the UN Human Rights Council, civil society organizations (CSOs) in Myanmar who made submissions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the situation of protracted displacement, hate speech, 1982 citizenship law and freedom of movement, and reform of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission […]

Peace is broken in the Karen hills. How will donors respond?

January 27, 2021/in News

Myanmar Must Urgently Address the Further Backsliding of Human Rights Situation through the Universal Periodic Review

January 26, 2021/in Member statements

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Peace is broken in the Karen hills. How will donors respond?

January 27, 2021/in News

The Tatmadaw has resumed its old ways, killing civilians and destroying villages, despite the early promise of peace initiatives backed by Norway and other Western countries.

By CHARLES PETRIE and ASHLEY SOUTH | FRONTIER

Since at least 2018, the Tatmadaw has been aggressively patrolling northern Karen (Kayin) State and eastern Bago Region, in areas long under the control of the Karen National Union – and the Karen National Liberation Army’s brigades 3 and 5 in particular. The ostensible reason for these manoeuvres has been to support road-building initiatives. But both villagers and the KNU have repeatedly protested the Tatmadaw’s encroachment and expansion in the region.

In recent weeks, locals have spontaneously mobilised to demonstrate against increased militarisation, and to demand the withdrawal of Tatmadaw troops they regard as an alien, predatory and violent occupying force. The Tatmadaw calls the road-building necessary for the area’s development, but the KNU calls it is a clear violation of Article 5 of the National Ceasefire Agreement that both sides signed in 2015, and which calls on all signatories to halt aggressive troop movements and the reinforcement of military bases. Furthermore, there are no government civilian structures in these Karen hills, with health, education and other (under-funded) services provided by the KNU and partner civil society organisations. The Tatmadaw is not bringing development to these areas, but rather displacing existing community development activities.

The failure of the Joint Monitoring Committee to deal with these tensions was a key reason behind the KNU’s withdrawal from JMC meetings at the end of 2018, when it said the body needed restructuring. In 2019 the KNU pushed for the establishment of direct, bilateral, military-to-military meetings to try to effectively implement the ceasefire. When bilateral meetings began again early last year, the situation in the KNU ceasefire area was raised but never resolved and the Tatmadaw resisted KNU pressure to restructure the JMC. Then COVID-19 put the bilateral meetings on hold. The KNU and the Tatmadaw have since begun considering a proposal for an independent conflict resolution mechanism.

The most recent Tatmadaw offensive began in late December and displaced at least 3,900 villagers, including some 700 residents of Keh Der village tract in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi Township, who were forced from their homes on January 13.

Sources with the Free Burma Rangers, a multi-ethnic humanitarian group, said this level of aggression from the Myanmar army had been “very unusual” since it signed a bilateral ceasefire with the KNU in January 2012, “but would have been normal for cool and dry season attacks before 2012”.

The latest offensive and the forced displacement of civilians is particularly and bitterly ironic given that Keh Der – which falls within KNU-demarcated Ler Doh Township, in the armed group’s Brigade 3 area – was the centre of a Norwegian-supported pilot project to support the bilateral ceasefire. The project was launched with great fanfare by the Norwegian government the following April.

The Kyaukkyi pilot project, as it was called, was jointly designed by community representatives, KNU headquarters and district officials, and the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People – the KNU’s humanitarian and community development body. While the project aimed to provide relief for internally displaced Karen, many of whom were keen to return to their home villages, its main objective was to test the peace process and to build confidence in the ceasefire among civilians who had suffered greatly through decades of armed conflict. Stakeholders believed that its successful implementation would prove that the emerging peace process constituted meaningful progress, rather than simply a lull in fighting.

With high-level diplomatic and financial backing from the Norwegian government, the Kyaukkyi pilot project was implemented by the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative, led by the authors of this article. The MPSI had been established in March 2012 following a request from the Myanmar government for Norway to lead international assistance to the peace process, which President U Thein Sein had launched late the previous year.

One of the most symbolically important episodes in the MPSI experience for us was when government and Tatmadaw officials from Nay Pyi Daw and Kyaukkyi accompanied us to the “front line” at Mu The, a four or five hour, bumpy motorbike ride up into the hills to the east. At Mu The we were handed over to KNU troops who led us on a trek through minefields into KNU-controlled areas, where we spent two days talking to villagers and local KNU officials about their experiences and their hopes for the ceasefire.

At a meeting arranged by MPSI at Kyaukkyi on September 5, 2012, Keh Der villagers told the Bago Region security and border affairs minister that they felt intimidated by Tatmadaw troops questioning them when they had to travel through territory under its control. The minister was initially defensive but, after listening to the displaced villagers, ordered the Tatmadaw colonel at the meeting to ensure the questioning was reduced.

At a previous meeting in July, a brave Karen IDP village leader asked a minister in the Bago Region government, “Can you guarantee that you will not burn down our villages again in the future?”

The minister promised that the Tatmadaw would not burn Karen villages again, while also acknowledging that his promise was difficult for them to believe. He said his presence at the meeting was a symbol of the military-backed government’s willingness to make peace and that with time they would all build trust in each other.

Such positive encounters continued separately from the MPSI project, as demonstrated by the joint celebration of the Karen New Year at Kyaukkyi on January 12, 2013. This unprecedented event was attended by high-level representatives of the Union government, the KNU and the community, and would have been unthinkable the year prior. Many IDPs travelled from the pilot project site at Keh Der to Kyaukkyi for the first time since 1975. Emotional scenes unfolded as families re-united. Participants said that, though they were frightened of the Tatmadaw, the interactions they had with soldiers as a result of the pilot project gave them the confidence they needed to attend an event in a government-controlled area.

Eight years later, the Karen have celebrated their New Year again, and the longer-term results of this test of the peace process seem increasingly conclusive: the Tatmadaw has no interest in keeping the peace, let alone addressing the root causes of conflict. Rather, the Tatmadaw seems intent on continuing its brutalisation of local communities, pushing unwanted roads into ethnic areas that make it easier for it to consolidate its positions and re-supply its frontline troops.

The perception in the Karen hills – at least in areas under KNLA Brigades 3 and 5 – is that the Tatmadaw is not interested in respecting ceasefires and has no qualms about violating the NCA. Trust has all but disappeared, with most residents assuming the ceasefire has failed. After years of patience, the KNLA has begun to push back and launch attacks on the intruders.

The Norwegian government played a key role in supporting the early stages of the peace process, and in encouraging the KNU and other ethnic armed groups to take the Thein Sein government’s peace overtures seriously. Following a change in government in Oslo, in September 2013, and once it became clear that the National League for Democracy would win the 2015 general election, Norway did not seem to be as committed to supporting the peace process with the appetite for risk that the process demanded. Instead, Norwegian foreign ministry officials seemed to prioritise business and economic growth as the drivers of a sustainable peace.

It is yet to be seen whether international supporters of the peace process will respond to the Tatmadaw’s violations of the NCA. In the meantime, thousands of Karen civilians have marked a cold and fearful New Year.

Charles Petrie and Ashely South served as senior advisers to the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative from 2012 to 2014. Mr Petrie also served as Resident UN Coordinator in Myanmar from 2003 until the end of 2007, shortly after the Saffron Revolution.

frontiermyanmar.net

Myanmar Must Urgently Address the Further Backsliding of Human Rights Situation through the Universal Periodic Review

January 26, 2021/in Member statements

[25 January 2021]Today, as Myanmar’s human rights record was examined by the UN Human Rights Council, civil society organizations (CSOs) in Myanmar who made submissions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the situation of protracted displacement, hate speech, 1982 citizenship law and freedom of movement, and reform of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) urge the Myanmar government to uphold its human rights obligations and commit to urgently address the further deteriorating human rights situation throughout the country.

“The UPR review is an opportunity for the Myanmar government, which just gained for the second time a significant parliamentary majority and the mandate by its people, to demonstrate its commitment to rights-based reforms that protects and promotes all people in Myanmar,” said Nang Zun Moe of Progressive Voice. “The government must stop turning its back on human rights for another five years and allowing the country to continue to backslide.”

Myanmar’s human rights record was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) during the 37th Session of the Working Group on 25 January 2021. This is the third time Myanmar has been reviewed, with the first and second reviews taking place in 2011 and 2015 respectively.

While the Myanmar government’s 19-page national report outlines actions which the government has taken to implement the recommendations it committed to, it overlooks rampant grave human rights violations taking place across the country, that have been raised by the UN and CSOs.

In the area of ceasefire and national reconciliation, the government outlines a series of actions, including the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and establishment of a Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee. However, conflict has raged on in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States and most recently tension and conflict has intensified in Karen State where almost 4,000 people have been displaced at the start of the year with civilian deaths and casualties, including children. UN has verified 994 grave violations against children between September 2018 and June 2020, mostly in Rakhine State, with the killing and maiming of 320 children, including infants. This is despite the government’s claims that cooperation with the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, “has reached an unprecedented level.”

“The consequences of Myanmar government’s silence and willingness to turn a blind eye to the ongoing conflict in ethnic regions and the plight of the IDPs and refugees is shouldered by the ethnic people who for generation have had to grow up hiding in jungles and watch their children and families being killed,”said Moon Nay Li of Kachin Women’s Association – Thailand. “The government has to take immediate and concrete actions and urgently put an end to this devastating civil war.”

172 CSOs expressed grave concerns regarding the Myanmar military’s recent actions that contravene the NCA, including expanding deployment into Karen ethnic areas held by the Ethnic Armed Organization, the Karen National Union, which has resulted in an outbreak of conflict in Karen State. The groups urged the Myanmar government to immediately take action to resolve the tensions and conflicts and pursue political solutions to the ongoing civil war.

While the national report claims the MNHRC has been established in line with the Paris Principles, the UN and CSOs, including the CSO Working Group on MNHRC Reform, continue to note its lack of independence, and ineffectiveness in dealing with allegations of human rights violations, particularly in situations of armed conflict.

“Victims and survivors still have no domestic human rights body it can turn to address grave human rights violations, particularly when it involves the Myanmar military and this lies squarely with the government’s inaction to amend the MNHRC Enabling law and reform the MNHRC” said Bo Bo of Generation Wave. “The government must bring the MNHRC in line with international standards to enable the body to function independently and impartially with the mandate for protection, otherwise perpetrators of human rights violations will continue to act with total impunity.”

Furthermore, the government in their national report claims that “Complaints on any violations of human rights by military personnel may be dispatched in person or in writing to the commander concerned without restrictions”, or to the President, Parliamentary Committees, MNHRC and the media. Despite these claims those who choose to raise such human rights concerns are in turn targeted with defamation and charged using Myanmar’s myriad of restrictive laws. On the other hand, the government have been ignoring the movement and activities by extremist Buddhist nationalists inciting hatred and violence against ethnic and religious minorities, in particular the Rohingya and other Muslim minorities.

“The culture of hate speech and targeting of minorities is a reflection of Myanmar’s overall culture of exclusion and systemic discrimination,” said Ye Hein Aung of Myanmar Cultural Research Society. “Hate speech is institutionalized, systematically disseminated and promoted by those in power, including the government and the military. It is high time that government makes a strong commitment to address root causes of hate speech.”

Reinforcing such exclusion of minorities are discriminatory laws, such as 1982 Citizenship Law, which contravenes the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality, heightening the vulnerability and persecution of Rohingya and other minorities to range of human rights violations, including the right to freedom of movement. Yet the government has continuously refused to agree to recommendations that strike at the heart of addressing this issue during its previous reviews, and has continued to blatantly contravene its international obligations, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the optional protocol on the CRC, which Myanmar has ratified.

For more information, please contact:

– Nang Zun Moe, Progressive Voice (PV), +66 (0) 956382063, zunmoe@progressive-voice.org

– Moon Nay Li, Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), +66 (0)855233791, moonnayli@gmail.com

– Bo Bo, Generation Wave (GW), +95 (0)9421087992, bobo@generationwave.org

– Ye Hein Aung, Myanmar Culture Research Society (MCRS), +95 (0)9975106743, alexphothagyan@gmail.com

Editor’s note:

The Open letter from 172 civil society organizations concerning the current tensions and conflicts in Karen State can be found here: https://bit.ly/39700cr

The below joint submissions were made to the 37th session of the Universal Periodic Review;

A joint submission on the situation of refugees and internally displaced persons was made by 14 ethnic community-based organizations (CBOs) and CSOs that work closely with displaced ethnic communities, including refugee committees along the Thailand-Burma/Myanmar border, youth and women’s organizations, as well as local development and humanitarian organizations.

See the submission: https://bit.ly/3sKZXe0; Factsheet:https://bit.ly/33Jo4hv

A joint submission on hate speech and shrinking democratic and civil society space was made by 16 CSOs that work on the issue of hate speech and/or are directly impacted by it.

See the submission: https://bit.ly/2LUVg0v; Factsheet: https://bit.ly/33K0cKz

A joint submission on MNHRC was made by the CSO Working Group on MNHRC Reform. The MNHRC Working Group consists of 22 diverse Myanmar CSOs that works to advocate for the reform of the MNHRC so it is an effective, independent, and transparent NHRI that promotes and protects the rights of all people of Myanmar in line with the Paris Principles – the international standards for NHRIs.

See the submission: https://bit.ly/2XZozlc; Factsheet: https://bit.ly/2MgSrXy

A joint submission on the 1982 citizenship law and right to citizenship of minorities and freedom of movement was submitted by 11 CSO that work on the issue of Human Rights and Citizenship Rights.

See the submission: https://bit.ly/2NuJRVX, Factsheet: https://bit.ly/32P1pRP

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The Tatmadaw has resumed its old ways, killing civilians and destroying villages, despite the early promise of peace initiatives backed by Norway and other Western countries.

ND Burma

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