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ND-Burma December justice news: Mon rights organisation details 22 years of rights abuses in Mon state and clear demands for justice from government; Conflict ramps up in Shan and Kachin; Ta’ang lawyer arbitrarily arrested and tortured; Reuters journalists on trial…

January 10, 2018/in Justice Newsletters

Seeking Justice in Burma December 2017 New ND-Burma member report details victims’ demands for justice ND-Burma member the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) published a new reportdetailing human rights abuses by the military and ethnic armed organizations in Mon areas of Burma over the last 22 years. Having conducted dozens of interviews, HURFOM found that […]

Refugees rise in Kachin, Shan states due to clashes

January 9, 2018/in News

THE number of people displaced in the escalating clashes between government forces and ethnic armed groups in Shan and Kachin states rose to 1200, aid officials said Thursday. Some 1100 people from Kaing Tine, Kyaukphyu Lay, Ar Pyaung and Hgin Gar villages fled to Kyaukme city due to fighting between Tatmadaw and Ta’aung (Palaung) National Liberation […]

ND-Burma December justice news: Mon rights organisation details 22 years of rights abuses in Mon state and clear demands for justice from government; Conflict ramps up in Shan and Kachin; Ta’ang lawyer arbitrarily arrested and tortured; Reuters journalists on trial…

January 10, 2018/in Justice Newsletters

Refugees rise in Kachin, Shan states due to clashes

January 9, 2018/in News

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ND-Burma December justice news: Mon rights organisation details 22 years of rights abuses in Mon state and clear demands for justice from government; Conflict ramps up in Shan and Kachin; Ta’ang lawyer arbitrarily arrested and tortured; Reuters journalists on trial…

January 10, 2018/in Justice Newsletters

Seeking Justice in Burma

December 2017

New ND-Burma member report details victims’ demands for justice
ND-Burma member the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) published a new reportdetailing human rights abuses by the military and ethnic armed organizations in Mon areas of Burma over the last 22 years. Having conducted dozens of interviews, HURFOM found that victims overwhelmingly want justice in the form of acknowledgments, apologies, reparations or criminal justice.

Conflict ramps up in Shan and Kachin states displacing hundreds;
Ta’ang lawyer arbitrarily arrested in Shan state;
4 Karenni soldiers allegedly executed by Tatmadaw
Renewed Tatmadaw offensives in December displaced approximately 900 people in Shan State and 100 in Kachin State. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) wrote a letter to local government objecting to individuals and private companies making use of lands belonging to to IDPs who fled conflict in 2011. A landmine in Muse township, Shan State, killed one child and injured 4; it is unclear who laid the mine. A local church group called on authorities to re-open the unsolved case of two Kachin school teachers raped and murdered in 2015. A detailed look at the Tatmadaw’s ‘other ethnic atrocity’ in Kachin State by Stella Naw can be found here.

Ethnic Ta’ang lawyer Mai Myo Aung was detained by police in Muse Township following a shooting at a gambling den, despite reportedly not being at the scene – police claim they have CCTV footage implicating him but have refused to release it. His wife says he has been beaten by police and authorities say he faces prosecution for homicide under sections 302 and 307 of the penal code.

In Loikaw, the capital of Kyah State, 3 soldiers of the Karenni National Progressive Party and a civilian were allegedly executed at an army base after having been arrested during a raid on the rebel camp. 5 youths who protested the killings have been summoned to appear in court accused of violating Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law.

Two Reuters journalists working on Rakhine story arrested;
Press team arrested for flying a drone cleared of all charges;
Journalist attacked and in critical condition
Two Burmese Reuters reporters were arrested and accused of planning to provide state secrets to foreign media. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were reportedly arrested after accepting documents from police officers and face charges under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum jail term of 14 years. The journalists had reportedly been researching a story on military abuses in Rakhine State.

A piece of good news towards the end of the year as the two foreign journalists and their two local staff arrested for flying a drone over the parliament have been released and cleared of all charges.

A journalist for the local media organisation Democratic Voice of Burma was stabbed in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and is in critical condition. No case has been opened into the attack as of yet and there are no suspects.

Burmese government blacklists UN Special Rapporteur;
UN Fact Finding Mission finds similar patterns of abuse in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin
The Burmese government has banned UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, from entering the country and withdrawn all cooperation for the duration of her tenure. Yanghee Lee said in response: “This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.”

Meanwhile the UN Fact Finding Mission concluded its first set of interviews with victims of human rights abuses and found “patterns” in the allegations of Shan, Kachin and ethnic Rakhine groups similar to those they heard from the Rohingya. If true, these would “constitute serious human rights violations,” according to the FFM investigators.

A mass grave containing ten bodies was found by the military in Rakhine state. A general has been appointed to investigate whether state troops are culpable; internal military investigations in Burma consistently absolve ist forces of any wrongdoing.

Third session of Panglong planned for early 2018: civil society demands to join discussions;
Tatmadaw blocking Shan State preparations for peace conference
The third session of the Panglong peace conference should be held at the end of January. Civil society organisations have demanded they be allowed to join discussions in a letter to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, signed by 145 representatives from 92 groups.

Shan leaders have been unable to prepare for the upcoming Panglong conference due to the Tatmadawobstructing preparations for State level political dialogues.

Ethnic groups called on the government and Tatmadaw to move away from general statements and deliver a detailed vision of what a future federal system would look like.

Majority of defamation complaints filed by government officials
A report by Free Expression Myanmar found that the majority of complaints filed under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law were by people closely related to the government. Article 66(d) has been widely used to punish criticism of people in power and has been deployed increasingly frequently since the NLD government took power.

Activists begin bid to get UNESCO recognition for 8888 uprising;
Aspiring 88 Generation politicians register as ‘Four Eights Party’
Activists have started the process of putting Burma’s 8888 uprising forward for inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. U Any Bwe Kyaw, a member of the group pushing for the nomination, said: “We want the world to recognize this movement so that no future governments can erase the history recorded in this museum.”

Some of the leading voices from the 8888 uprising have registered a new political party called the ‘Four Eights’, with the aim of taking ‘political responsibility’ as opposed to power.

Only 10% of land grab complaints have been settled;
Letpadaung copper mine complaints ignored
Only 10% of cases submitted to the committee on land complaints have been settled since it was formed in 2016. A total of 543 out of 5735 complaints have been resolved.

A letter to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from Letpadaung residents affected by the controversial copper mine project has been ignored.

Government fails to pay ethnic language teachers
Hundreds of ethnic language teachers in Mon and Karen states have not been paid their salaries for several months.

Refugees rise in Kachin, Shan states due to clashes

January 9, 2018/in News

THE number of people displaced in the escalating clashes between government forces and ethnic armed groups in Shan and Kachin states rose to 1200, aid officials said Thursday.

Some 1100 people from Kaing Tine, Kyaukphyu Lay, Ar Pyaung and Hgin Gar villages fled to Kyaukme city due to fighting between Tatmadaw and Ta’aung (Palaung) National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State’s Kyaukme and Namsan townships, according to Shan State Department of Relief and Resettlement Director U Soe Naing.

He said the displaced people from the clashes which began since the last week of December, have currently taken refuge at Warso Monastery, Aung Mingalar Monastery, No.3 Dhamaryone Sakan and Aung Myae Thar Yar Monastery.

“At present, we have provided them with basic necessities such as food and clothing,” U Soe Naing said.

Department officials will meet the displaced people who have taken refuge in Kyaukme to provide more food, he said, adding that his office will cooperate with local civil society groups and Red Cross in helping villagers who want to evacuate from their homes.

“We are directly giving aid to refugees in the areas in Northern Shan State which are under the government’s control,” said Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr Win Myat Aye.

“Through negotiation with respective organisations, we have also provided for those who have fled to the areas beyond the government’s control,” he added.

Villagers feared that fights would intensify so they began fleeing from their villages since December 29, said U Thar Zaw, a relief worker.

Most of the refugees are women and children, and they still need blankets, pillows and food, said U Tin Maung Thein, a spokesperson for Zewita, a social welfare association in Kyaukme.

Tatmadaw and TNLA fought throughout December in Kutkai, Mong Ton, Muse, Mong Ko, Kyaukme and Namsan townships.

In the adjacent Kachin State, government forces — locally known as Tatmadaw — and the state’s ethnic armed group Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have also clashed in Mansi township, displacing 100 villagers, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) figures released on January 1.

“There was fierce fighting last month in Manwynegyi village. Villagers fled as the planes fired. It is calm now and we will have to arrange for them to go back,” Mansi township MP for State Hluttaw U Min Min said.

Dr Win Myat Aye said that the government can only extend immediate help to those refugees in government controlled areas.

“If refugees enter government-controlled areas, we will provide assistance. We are providing vocational training at IDP camps and arranging everything for them including healthcare,” he said.

Fighting between Tatmadaw and KIA stared in mid-December in Laiza, Hpakant, Tanai and Mansi, and the situation in these areas remains tense.

Myanmar Times

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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