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UN Secretary General: Act Now To Prevent Famine in Rakhine State

December 19, 2024/in News

Burma Campaign UK is urging UN Secretary General António Guterres to travel to Bangladesh to negotiate the opening of aid and trade routes into Rakhine State, Burma. In November the United Nations Development Programme warned of impending famine in Rakhine State. The aid and trade embargo imposed by the Burmese military on areas of Rakhine […]

Sold to China

December 19, 2024/in ND-Burma Members' Reports

Trafficking of women from throughout Burma to be forced brides in China This report, based on interviews with 187 female trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT between 2019 and 2023, reveals that the demand for brides continues to be the main factor fuelling trafficking of women from Burma to China, and that women from throughout Burma […]

UN Secretary General: Act Now To Prevent Famine in Rakhine State

December 19, 2024/in News

Sold to China

December 19, 2024/in ND-Burma Members' Reports

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UN Secretary General: Act Now To Prevent Famine in Rakhine State

December 19, 2024/in News

Burma Campaign UK is urging UN Secretary General António Guterres to travel to Bangladesh to negotiate the opening of aid and trade routes into Rakhine State, Burma.

In November the United Nations Development Programme warned of impending famine in Rakhine State.

2 million people face starvation.
95% of the population will be living in ‘survival mode’
The state is expected to produce only 20% of the food it needs.
There is already a crisis, with well over 600,000 people displaced.

The aid and trade embargo imposed by the Burmese military on areas of Rakhine State which it no longer occupies is a deliberate tactic to use starvation as a tool of oppression.

Rakhine State (also known as Arakan State) is in western Burma, bordering Bangladesh in the North. The largest ethnic group there are Rakhine, but many ethnic and religious minorities live there, including the Rohingya.

The Arakha Army, mostly made up of ethnic Rakhine people, has been fighting to free the state from Burmese military rule and has taken over large parts of the state. The Burmese military have used every tactic they can to try to weaken resistance to their occupation of Rakhine State. They have launched indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery attacks, exploited ethnic and religious tensions to try to divide and rule, and placed strict restrictions on aid and trade, including medicines, seeds and fertiliser, into the areas where they have lost control.

By spring 2025 it is predicted the state will only produce 20% of the food it needs. This is on top of well over 600,000 people who have already fled their homes and jobs (1). Around 250,000 of those are Rohingya, many of whom have fled not just attacks by the Burmese military, but also attacks by the Arakha Army. The Burmese military-imposed trade embargo is creating mass unemployment, and blocking essentials like medicine and agricultural supplies.

The personal intervention of the UN Secretary General provides the best hope of garnering momentum for the significant changes in approach that are required. A business-as-usual approach to this crisis, delegating responsibility to UN agencies or envoys, will not work. It hasn’t worked in the past regarding previous crises. There is no evidential basis to believe this time will be any different.

Trying to negotiate with the Burmese military to allow greater humanitarian access and lift trade restrictions into the areas of Rakhine State now administered by the Arakha Army will not succeed in alleviating this crisis.

The Burmese military is already placing some of the most severe restrictions and conditions on humanitarian aid seen anywhere in the world. These restrictions violate international law. The Burmese military will attempt to leverage the maximum advantage from the process of negotiations, forcing UN and other agencies to submit to extreme conditionality for the sake of limited access.

Instead, a humanitarian corridor from Bangladesh needs to be opened. This should already have happened months ago in response to the growing number of internally displaced people.

“Two million people face starvation, but with political will this is preventable,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Preventing an impending crisis like this is exactly what the role of the UN Secretary General is for. The United Nations and international community have a track record of failing to act to prevent crises in Burma. Will the UN Secretary General António Guterres allow famine to happen in the same state where the UN failed to act on warnings of Rohingya genocide?”

Burma Campaign UK has launched a petition to UN Secretary General António Guterres calling on him to travel to Bangladesh to open negotiations for aid and trade corridors into Rakhine State.

Burma Camping UK

Sold to China

December 19, 2024/in ND-Burma Members' Reports

Trafficking of women from throughout Burma to be forced brides in China

This report, based on interviews with 187 female trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT between 2019 and 2023,

reveals that the demand for brides continues to be the main factor fuelling trafficking of women from Burma to

China, and that women from throughout Burma are being trafficked for this purpose

Number of bride trafficking survivors assisted by KWAT in 2019 tripled from the previous year, before decreasing

due to border closures and travel restrictions as a result of the Covid pandemic and escalated conflict after the

2021 military coup in Burma

–

during which time women began being trafficked to Chinese-run cyber scam

centers in northeast Shan State.

Over half of all bride trafficking survivors came from states and regions of Burma not adjoining China, unlike in

previous years, when most survivors came from Kachin or northern Shan State.

Most of the survivors were recruited in person, by relatives or “friends” linked to the extensive trafficking

networks that have developed across Burma and China as a result of decades of bride trafficking. Many brokers

were themselves originally trafficked as brides to China.

Most women were oﬀered well-paying jobs at factories or farms in China to lure them across the border before

being forced to be brides. Increased smuggling of workers from Burma to meet factory labour demands in China’s

eastern industrial zones has been useful for traffickers, both as a pretext to entice women across the border, and

enabling them to prey on those already in China.

Sold_to_China_Eng Download

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

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အတိတ်မှ ဆိုးရွားသည့် အကြီးအကျယ် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ ထပ်မံမဖြစ်ပွားစေရေးအ တွက် အာမခံခြင်း (Guarantees of non-recurrence)February 10, 2025 - 9:58 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.

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