Blog Elements – Page 492

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Justice in Burma: Wounds on the Wall

May 23, 2018/in Justice Newsletters

BY TEACIRCLEOXFORD POSTED ON MAY 23, 2018 Veronica Collins argues that a museum run by former political prisoners showcases the lasting impact of state brutality on Burmese society. This post is part of Tea Circle’s “2018 Year in Review” series, which looks back at developments in different fields over the last year. In March 2018, a new museum opened in […]

Rohingya Militants Massacred Civilians in Myanmar: Amnesty Report

May 23, 2018/in News

In one attack last year, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army abducted 69 Hindus and killed all except those who converted to Islam, Amnesty International found By Jon Emont Updated May 22, 2018 9:11 p.m. ET 14 COMMENTS A Rohingya Muslim militant organization slaughtered dozens of Hindus in Myanmar last year amid violence that included the military’s bloody […]

Justice in Burma: Wounds on the Wall

May 23, 2018/in Justice Newsletters

Rohingya Militants Massacred Civilians in Myanmar: Amnesty Report

May 23, 2018/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Justice in Burma: Wounds on the Wall

May 23, 2018/in Justice Newsletters

BY TEACIRCLEOXFORD

POSTED ON MAY 23, 2018

Veronica Collins argues that a museum run by former political prisoners showcases the lasting impact of state brutality on Burmese society.

This post is part of Tea Circle’s “2018 Year in Review” series, which looks back at developments in different fields over the last year.

In March 2018, a new museum opened in Rangoon. It does not boast any artworks or ancient artefacts, but hundreds of pictures documenting the extent of state violence committed against Burmese citizens since the military seized power half a century ago.

Grainy black and white shots depict officers beating up students protesting against Ne Win’s coup in 1962, before moving to the savage repression of democracy activists in 1988 and the torture of those who defended the electoral victory of the National League for Democracy in 1990. By the time we reach the 2007 Saffron Revolution, the Burmese state’s brutality is displayed in technicolour.

The museum is run by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a member of ND-Burma, a local organisation documenting human rights abuses in the country.

The mere fact that the museum is permitted to operate shows that Burma is freer than it used to be. Before 2011, when General Thein Sein initiated a series of reforms, anyone caught documenting or disseminating information about government ruthlessness would have faced certain arrest, perhaps torture and possibly death.

The rest of the museum, however, shows how fragile Burmese democracy still is. Among the pictures of current political prisoners are Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters reporters arrested last December while researching allegations of grave human rights violations in Rakhine State. They are awaiting their trial in the notorious Insein prison, where thousands deemed enemies of the state have served time.

As employees of an international media organisation with a public campaign behind them, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo will probably not be tortured. But torture continues to be used by state security forces, especially against ethnic nationality civilians.

Lahpai Gam, a Kachin farmer in his 50’s who was released as part of a New Year’s amnesty in April after serving nearly six years in jail, continues to suffer health problems after he was beaten by government soldiers, burned with knives, waterboarded, and forced to have sex with another man.

Sadly, his case is not unique. ND-Burma and its member organisations regularly document state violence against ethnic nationality civilians accused of supporting insurgent groups. No evidence is required and providing a bag of rice is considered reason enough to charge someone under Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act – a piece of legislation routinely used to imprison ethnic nationality civilians. On 30 October, a 14-year old boy became the youngest person to be jailedunder this law after being forced to face a judge without legal representation or an interpreter to translate the hearing into his native Ta’ang tongue. Three journalists attending a drug burning ceremony hosted by an ethnic armed group were also hit with 17(1) and detained for three monthsbefore being released without explanation or apology.

No peace without justice

There continues to be near-total impunity for human rights violations. The majority of victims do not try to pursue justice for fear of retribution, absence of funds, or lack of trust in the legal system. ND-Burma’s 2017 documentation shows that when victims try to seek justice, the military uses a variety of methods to obstruct cases. This includes providing meagre amounts of compensation, which many survivors feel compelled to accept in the face of poverty and absence of the rule of law. In other cases, the military bamboozles victims into dropping cases by making them sign long documents, hidden in which are statements absolving soldiers of wrongdoing.

On a few occasions, the military has admitted it was in the wrong. Seven low-ranking soldiers were found guilty of murdering Muslim men in Rakhine State – a crime the Reuters journalists were investigating when they were jailed. At the beginning of 2018, six soldiers were sentenced to ten years in jail for killing Kachin civilians.

However, the army admits its faults on its own terms. Trials of soldiers are almost always heard in secret military courts and one must usually trust the army’s word that justice has been served. Burmese state TV reported that the soldiers responsible for the murders in Rakhine State were released as part of the New Year’s amnesty. The government quickly denied the reports, but the lack of transparency in the military justice system means the men may indeed have been released.

Furthermore, military courts do not provide redress to victims, nor remedy to ensure the violations do not recur. Nobody knows why the handful of cases that have been brought to court have been selected and the majority of human rights violations continue to go unpunished. Senior military figures remain untouchable.

Instead, the legal system continues to be used to suppress freedom of expression. The past year has seen MPs move to tighten the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law. Parliament also failed to reform section 66(d) of the Telecommunication law which criminalises defamation and protects the powerful – research showed the majority of complainants to be government officials.

Decades of misuse of the justice system have left a mark on Burmese society. A recent survey showed that a majority of the public sees laws as a way to control society as opposed to protecting individual rights.

In such conditions, the government’s much touted objectives of rule of law and peace remain a distant prospect.

A real national reconciliation

Victims of human rights violations often tell ND-Burma that it is not the perpetrators they hate, but the system that has made abuses possible. A former political prisoner who spent a total of 14 years in jail for his activism and was interviewed for an upcoming ND-Burma report told us that: “perpetrators also committed these crimes so they could survive.”

Structural change is what ND-Burma has been working towards since we started documenting human rights abuses 14 years ago. We believe that only through acknowledgement and redress can Burma build a state that guards against human rights violations. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s attempt to leapfrog the democratic transition and ignore the past has failed. Instead, two years after her government took power, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar describes a country where “the repressive practices of previous military governments are returning as the norm once more.”

The opening of the AAPP museum is as much a sign of progress as a reminder of the government’s inaction. Last year the government said it was planning a permanent museum commemorating the 8888 uprising in Rangoon. Unfortunately, the anniversary of the revolt was met with silence from the government, as was that of the Saffron Revolution.

But as much as words, victims need actions. Former political prisoners lament the lack of support they receive from those who were once their comrades. In the face of government inaction, aid groups are doing their best to try and heal the lasting impact of state violence. International NGO FHI 360 provides a six-month internship programme to former political prisoners, who often face unemployment as a result of social stigma and lack of training. Local organisations continue to operate unofficial clinics providing medical and psychosocial services to victims of human rights violations.

The government has made national reconciliation one of its priorities. Efforts to reconcile armed groups and the army are indeed essential, but reconciling oppressors with victims, and the country with its own past, cannot be neglected.

Veronica Collins is ND-Burma’s Advocacy Manager. Before coming to Burma she worked on human rights issues for the UN in Kosovo and the EU in Brussels. Read more of Veronica’s posts on Twitter @VeronicaInBurma or ND-Burma’s @ndburmaweb

Photo Credit: Thiha Lwin of AFP via Getty Images.

Rohingya Militants Massacred Civilians in Myanmar: Amnesty Report

May 23, 2018/in News

In one attack last year, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army abducted 69 Hindus and killed all except those who converted to Islam, Amnesty International found

Jon Emont

Updated May 22, 2018 9:11 p.m. ET

14 COMMENTS

A Rohingya Muslim militant organization slaughtered dozens of Hindus in Myanmar last year amid violence that included the military’s bloody campaign that forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee the country, a report released Tuesday by Amnesty International said.

The report marked the most definitive account of atrocities against civilians allegedly committed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in violence that engulfed the western state of Rakhine. The military has borne the brunt of human-rights scrutiny. The aid agency Doctors Without Borders estimates that some 6,000 Rohingya were killed and the U.N. said the campaign bore the hallmarks of genocide. But the military has contended that the militant organization massacred civilians in addition to waging coordinated attacks against police and military outposts.

Both Muslims and Hindus are minorities in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar, including in Rakhine state, but the Rohingya Muslims have been the target of focused persecution for decades. The Myanmar government considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and a security threat.

Survivors Recount One of Myanmar’s Biggest Massacres

A Sunday afternoon massacre last August could rank as one of the largest by Myanmar‘s security forces since the military initiated its campaign against the Rohningya. (May 11, 2018)

Amnesty International said that it had interviewed numerous Hindus, including survivors, who were present during the alleged massacres and reviewed other evidence, such as photos of mass graves.

One attack documented in the report occurred in Ah Nauk Kha Maung, a mixed Hindu-Muslim village, where the militant organization allegedly abducted 69 Hindu villagers. According to villager accounts shared with Amnesty, the militants blindfolded and robbed the Hindus, marched them to a creek and executed most of them by weapons including knives and iron rods. Of the 69 captives, only 16 were spared-—women and children who agreed to convert to Islam. The report documented similar violence elsewhere.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army didn’t respond to inquiries about the report. In public statements, the group has generally insisted that it targeted only Myanmar security personnel. The group formed around 2012 following previous violence against the Rohingya and attracted hundreds of recruits but is believed to be poorly armed and funded. It has recently adopted a much lower profile and stopped issuing public statements.

Abuses by the militant organization need to be investigated as part of a wider push for accountability in the events that occurred last year, said Laura Haigh, an Amnesty researcher on the report.

Investigating crimes committed by either side has been difficult. Myanmar’s government prevents researchers and journalists from independently working in northern Rakhine state, where most of last year’s violence took place. A U.N. fact-finding mission has been prevented from entering Myanmar to conduct research. Amnesty was unable to visit the sites where the alleged militant Rohingya group massacres occurred.

“What Amnesty have clearly shown is the group was involved in evident atrocities against Hindu civilians in the early stages of the ‘area clearance operation,’ ” said David Mathieson, a Yangon-based analyst focused on Myanmarese politics and security who was not involved in the creation of the report, but has read it. “The group should be properly investigated for all the many abuses it has been accused of, in the same way the Myanmar security forces and auxiliaries should be properly investigated and brought to account.”

The report supports the Myanmar government’s assertion that Rohingya militants committed human-rights abuses in the days leading up to the military’s campaign against the Rohingya. However the report is unlikely to lead to a fundamental re-assessment of the conflict given the far greater scale of the violence the military is believed to have meted out to Rohingya civilians.

Write to Jon Emont at jonathan.emont@wsj.com

www.wsj.com

Spring Revolution

Civil Society Position Paper on ASEAN’s Goal of a Myanmar-Owned and -Led SolutionDecember 18, 2024 - 12:11 pm
Recommendations to ASEAN and Its Member States (1) Move beyond the 5PC to achieve a Myanmar people-led and people-centered solution to the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s “Myanmar-owned and -led” approach must be backed by genuine political will that aligns with and supports the collective aspirations of the people of Myanmar. (2) Cease all pressure on […]
The Airstrikes after the journey to the China of the Junta Military LeaderDecember 10, 2024 - 1:28 pm
Operation 1027 was a coordinated military attack against the junta on October 27th, 2023. It was carried out by the Northern Brotherhood, which includes the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Several months later, the Three Brotherhood Alliance held three meetings to negotiate with China on January 11 […]
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 […]

Multimedia

Reparation (Cartoon Animation)December 21, 2024 - 8:08 am
Human Rights Basic 4 signs Cartoon AnimationDecember 8, 2024 - 9:07 am
Human Rights Cartoon AnimationDecember 8, 2024 - 9:03 am
JusticeOctober 7, 2024 - 10:28 am

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)

In one attack last year, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army abducted 69 Hindus and killed all except those who converted to Islam, Amnesty International found

ND Burma

Recent Posts