Anti-coup protesters
Individual Documents
Sub-title:
One observer says it’s the ‘military’s attempt to dominate and control all departments.’
Description:
"A recent reshuffling of top military personnel by the leader of Myanmar’s junta is part of an effort to gain control of the entire governing apparatus and remain in power for years to come, analysts and observers said.
Among the top generals reassigned on Aug. 3 were the heads of the defense and home affairs ministries – the first changes since Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power from the elected civilian-led government in a February 2021 coup. The two ministries are responsible for tackling armed anti-junta resistance fighters across the country.
Former Transport and Communications Minister Gen. Tin Aung San was appointed as defense minister, making him a member of the National Defense and Security Council, and former Defense Minister Gen. Mya Tun Oo was made transport and communications minister. Both will continue serving as deputy prime ministers.
Lt. Gen. Yar Pyae, the former Union Government Office 1 minister, replaced Lt. Gen. Soe Htut as head of the Home Affairs Ministry. Yar Pyae held on to his position on the State Administration Council – the junta’s governing body – and his roles of national security adviser to Min Aung Hlaing and leader of the junta’s peace negotiation team.
The move came days after Min Aung Hlaing extended emergency rule in Myanmar for another six months on July 31, thereby delaying the date by which elections must be held according to the country’s constitution. The junta previously pledged to hold elections in August.
It also occurred as Myanmar, already hit hard by economic sanctions, faces intense international criticism over the military’s attacks on civilian communities and execution of detained combatants in areas that are hotbeds of resistance to the regime.
An annual report released publicly on Tuesday by the U.N.'s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar cited strong evidence that the military and its affiliate militias have committed “increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.”
New assignments at lower levels
A leader of the nonviolent anti-junta civil disobedience movement, or CDM, said Min Aung Hlaing reassigned generals he trusts to important ministries to prepare for what he may face during the next state of emergency period.
“The Defense Ministry is just like a correspondence office under the commander-in-chief,” the person said. “That’s why he transferred Gen. Mya Tun Oo, who is one of his major players, to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, which he will heavily use in the future to tackle the issues of airplanes and cyber communication.”
Min Aung Hlaing appointed capable Yar Pyae as home affairs minister in place of Soe Htut, who is in poor health, to strengthen the operations of the State Administration Council over the next six months, he added.
The CDM leader, who served in the military for 21 years and held the rank of a captain, moved to the civilian administration where he worked for nearly a decade until he was promoted to a director position. Following the 2021 coup, he left his job and joined other professionals who walked off the job to peacefully protest against the regime.
Reassignments have also taken place among lower-ranking military officers.
From January to the end of June, the junta transferred 40 lieutenant colonels, majors and captains to civil ministries to work as chief executive officers, or deputy and assistant directors, according to the junta’s weekly national reports.
Among them were one lieutenant colonel, nine majors and 30 captains sent to work at the Myanmar Economic Bank, Election Commission, Union Civil Service Board, ministries of construction, industry and commerce, sports and youth affairs, hotels and tourism, and the Yangon and Naypyidaw City Development Committees.
The largest number of military officers were transferred to the Myanmar Economic Bank with five majors as managers and 16 captains as assistant managers.
The transfers indicate that the junta is trying to control the operation of civil departments as well, said former Captain Kaung Thu Win, a member of the CDM.
“The junta aims to replace its people in senior positions in the civil departments such as directors to be able to control the head of the departments so that they will follow its instructions more faithfully,” he told RFA. “It transferred junior officers to the civil departments so that they can provide the military with the necessary information inside each department.”
RFA could not reach junta spokesman Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the personnel changes.
‘It’s called militarization’
Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, said the new appointments would strengthen the military administration.
“The bureaucratic mechanism makes the administration of a country run smoothly and easily,” he said. “In order for that mechanism including national security projects to operate, it is important for all the people involved to be able to work effectively. That’s why we need really capable people who can focus on their tasks.”
More reliable replacements were made because many of the current government departments have experienced security breaches, he added.
The appointment of military officers to both top and middle-level civilian positions is the junta’s attempt to dominate the entire government apparatus, political and military analyst Than Soe Naing said.
“It’s called militarization,” he said. “It is a military’s attempt to dominate and control all departments.”
Given the country’s current situation with anti-junta People’s Defense Forces, led by the shadow National Unity Government, and ethnic armed groups fighting junta forces, it is important for the military regime to have reliable people to back it, Than Soe Naing said.
“They only work with their service members who they can trust, so that they feel safer,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"Radio Free Asia" (USA)
Date of publication:
2023-08-09
Date of entry/update:
2023-08-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, The Military's political role
Language:
more
Description:
"North Kalay Police Station at Kalay in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region was among the first police stations to be established by the anti-junta resistance forces and recognized by the National Unity Government (NUG) after the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar. Pa Ka Pha, the local defense force in the region, began work on setting up a police station following a decision by the NUG early in October 2021 to set up a People’s Police under the Civil Disobedience Movement. The police station that existed at north Kalay near Letpanchaung, which functioned under the government before the coup, had been abandoned by police personnel after Kalay erupted in massive protests against the junta.
With the arrival of Han Thar Oo in early December 2021, the efforts of the Pa Ka Pha gathered momentum. Han Thar Oo, who hails from north Kalay, was a one-star police officer at Yangon when he decided to join the resistance movement after the coup. He is among the 2,937-odd police officers attached to the NUG — all of whom had joined the CDM after the coup. Resistance groups appointed him as head of the police in North Kalay and tasked him with establishing a system to check crime in the region.
In May of last year, police forces and stations under the NUG received a boost after the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament), the legislative body of the NUG, enacted the People’s Police Force Law to regulate law enforcement in areas controlled by resistance forces.
On January 24, I visited the North Kalay Police Station near Letpanchaung. Similar to other stations, it is rudimentarily equipped and has a lock-up for criminals. But it is also different in that it is prepared for an attack from the regime forces. There are trenches around the police station and landmines have been manufactured for planting where necessary. Locations have been identified for police personnel to take positions as a defensive measure against junta attacks.
Here are excerpts from an interview with North Kalay Police Station chief Han Thar Oo.
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Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Kalay. I joined the police service in 2013 as a one-star officer. I received training in Shan State at the Police Training Center for six months. I was posted there for two years and then transferred to Yangon, where I served for around a year. Our duty was mainly to patrol some parts of the city. This was stopped after the coup on February 1, 2021.
Subsequently, we were tasked with apprehending anti-coup protesters. We were instructed to shoot at them. I shot some protesters with rubber bullets. Then I realized that as a policeman my duty is to protect the people and not to shoot them. On March 5, I escaped from Yangon. Two of my friends from the police helped me escape. They took me to the taxi stand. I reached Mandalay and then Sagaing Region.
How many have left the police service like you?
Around 20,000 probably all over the country, but not everybody has registered with the CDM. This is almost double the number of army personnel who have left their jobs after the coup.
How did you get associated with this police station?
After arriving from Yangon, I was in hiding for almost two months at different locations in Sagaing Region. I realized I could not rest content with the CDM but wanted to engage against the military regime at a deeper level. At Chang-U in Sagaing Region, another policeman and I provided training to a batch of wannabe rebels, who were equipped with their own guns. But after the training ended, some members of this group were apprehended by the army. We then shifted the camp to another location very high on a hill. Then the group broke up.
Around May-June 2021, the Kalay PDF was formed. Meanwhile, some people who were trained by the Chin National Army at Camp Victoria in Chin State also returned to Sagaing Division. Then as the PDFs took shape and began to operate, I realized that a police service would be of huge importance if we were to set up our own government. I returned to Kalay. There was a high demand for the police in this region mainly because of drug trafficking and addiction. PDF and resistance leaders and a Member of Parliament from Kalay had also requested me to begin the police service.
On December 6, 2021, the Kalay Police Service was formed. It was a big challenge given the scant resources at our disposal. There is a constant danger of attacks from regime troops.
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Prior to the coup, police here were not following the law. People had lost faith in the police because it was lax against criminals. Police were active mainly against the functionaries and sympathizers of the resistance movement. Many stations were attacked and burned in this region. There was lawlessness. The police service had collapsed. This police station was already abandoned before we occupied it. Some personnel had also joined the CDM.
How has the police service been organized in North Kalay?
Before the coup, there were five police stations in Kalay, including the one in North Kalay. We moved here on March 3, 2022. The military has no presence here. I began with a team of 10 people, including myself; all of us had joined the CDM. Thirty-five more people were engaged with the station after training. Currently, our strength is 45 personnel. We remain in touch with the chief of the police service of the country, who is based at a secret location in Sagaing Region.
We have established two lock-ups – one in this police station and another in the jungle, where 17 and 21 people respectively are locked up. The NUG has recognized this police station. You can see the letter pasted on the wall of the station.
What is the area and population covered by this police station?
This station is responsible for the northern region of Kalay. There is a separate police station for the southern region. We cover about 50 villages, comprising around 50,000 people.
What are the challenging crimes that you deal with in Kalay?
The most challenging for us is checking drug trafficking. Drug trafficking has increased after the coup and the junta is involved in this illicit activity. A section of the military is compelled to get engaged because they do not receive regular salaries. The military’s objective is also to destroy the young generation through drugs. Consignments come mostly from Shan State. I have not heard of any place near Kalay where either Heroin No 4 or synthetic drugs are produced.
After the coup, 2,000 acres of poppy were planted at Tonzang in Chin State by farmers owing to poverty and lack of livelihood alternatives. There were some other places in and around Tedim where this phenomenon is discernible. Traffickers and consumers are from all income groups and include men and women.
Small packets are packed in soap boxes and then ferried across huge distances. Before the coup, the NLD government had made optimum efforts to curb the menace. Three sophisticated X-ray scanners were installed at three highways believed to be the main arteries of the drug trade to detect the consignments. On one occasion, drug barons attacked one of the X-ray scanners because it impeded the illicit trade. After the coup, the efforts have become lax. The scanners’ primary objective now is to detect weapons and not drugs.
Assassinations and killings have also emerged as a big challenge for us. Many dalans (informers of the military) have been killed on mere suspicion, on false information and without evidence. There were five cases of killings last year. In total, there were 96 cases of crime in the first year. This includes all types of cases. Drug trafficking accounted for most of the cases, followed by killings, theft, and rape.
Almost every week there are seizures of drug consignments in India’s northeastern states. Are there cartels that have been specifically pushing drugs to India?
The export of drugs to India has certainly increased after the coup, which is very apparent from the quantity that has been confiscated in the last two years. It is the junta that is actively involved in drug trafficking, and there are people to ferry the consignments through numerous routes in the country. There is a wrong notion among some people that PDFs and refugees in India are involved in drug trafficking.
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What happens to the criminals after they are arrested?
After they are arrested, a chargesheet is submitted to the court based on the investigation of the offense. Then, the accused is produced before the court. Currently, there are five courts with four judges. The verdict is binding on the police. The laws that are followed are mostly those that were in place under the earlier system before the coup, and some have been amended to suit the local conditions and situation.
How do you meet the expenses of the police station?
All personnel in the police station are volunteers. We do not take salaries. Expenses are met through local contributions and from the Pa Ka Pha.
How can the police administration be made more efficient? Are any plans being implemented?
We need more unity, support, a stable situation and effective expansion of our operations to more areas. Now we cannot go to the Pyu Hsaw Htee (allies of the military) villages, even if a serious offense or crime is committed there. If the junta decides to launch operations in this locality, then we would have to pack up and relocate to safer places. And in all probability, the station would be burned, and we will have to start all over again. Of course, we need more funds and manpower. Now very often we have to spend money from our pockets.
What kind of assistance have you received from the NUG?
Our police station is under the NUG’s Ministry of Home Affairs. Under the NUG, police services have been formed in only four districts so far, including Tamu and Wetlet. Kalay is among the first police stations recognized by the NUG. Guidelines and laws have been formulated by NUG. Police stations also function as per the norms laid down by the NUG. It is a process that has to grow and evolve.
There are so many guns everywhere with civilians in Myanmar. Imagine a situation when the military regime is toppled and democracy is restored in the country. Will so many weapons not trigger a serious law and order situation in the future?
In my personal opinion, it will be a very big challenge. But now, all the resistance groups have the same goals and are not much of a problem at the moment.
Could you deliver a message to the world from us?
I will, certainly.
This is an appeal to the world and especially to democratic nations. Myanmar is suffering. We appeal to the world not to forget us. Please assist us in our struggle against the atrocious junta. This must end once and for all..."
Source/publisher:
"The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of publication:
2023-07-06
Date of entry/update:
2023-07-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Flash mobs, longyi campaign, and voices from the protest frontlines
Description:
"The pro-democracy movement in Myanmar continues to challenge the junta which grabbed power in a coup in February 2021. The opposition government, ethnic armed groups, urban activists, and exiled media are all demanding the end of the military dictatorship, restoring civilian leadership, and reviving the nation’s transition to democratic rule.
Massive rallies opposed the junta and a civil disobedience movement emerged against the military dictatorship immediately after the coup. The junta responded by violently suppressing protest actions, revoking the licenses of independent media outlets, and designating the opposition government as a terrorist group. A systematic crackdown on dissent targeted youth activists, opposition leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens suspected of supporting the pro-democracy movement.
Despite the mass arrests and violence, opposition against the junta continues to garner public support as seen in the coordinated “silent strike” across the country. Activists either joined the armed resistance in rural communities or sustained the opposition in urban centers.
READ MORE: Myanmar's Spring Revolution
Through the help of a solidarity network, Global Voices interviewed the Yangon Revolution Force (YRF) and the Artists Collective about the status and prospect of the urban struggle against the junta.
After the violent dispersal of rallies, activists organized flash mobs to evade security forces while spreading the message of the resistance. Oakkar, a spokesperson of YRF, explained how flash mobs are organized.
Our flash mobs initially included 30–40 people, but when crackdowns became lethal, we downsized to groups of 10–20. Eventually, most of us were apprehended, and we had to operate in even smaller units.
The Artists Collective, a group of rebel artists, affirmed the value of flash mobs in the overall resistance.
Soft strikes and flash mobs are highly effective. We must always show the fascists that they're not in control. We believe these campaigns are gaining significance over time.
Images and videos of flash mobs often go viral reflecting the online support of Myanmar internet users. Oakkar shared how activists are maximizing multiple platforms to reach more people:
When the junta began brutally cracking down on peaceful protests and restricting internet access, we started organizing flash mobs. We didn't expect our campaigns to go viral or receive applause; we simply acted as necessary and relayed information to the media. The public's support has given us the strength to continue. We've also leveraged platforms like Telegram and Instagram. It's risky for people to engage with our Facebook posts due to potential repercussions, but we continue innovating ways to demonstrate that the junta cannot govern.
Another innovative protest is the Longyi campaign which involves the posting of protest messages in Myanmar’s traditional attire.
The Longyi campaign is a source of pride for us. Longyi is our traditional attire, a wrap-around skirt worn by both men and women. We wrote revolutionary messages on the fabric that would become visible when adjusting the Longyi in the crowd. The campaign received significant praise and global support, marking a proud moment for us.
Another risky form of protest is talking to strangers in the streets about the anti-junta campaign.
Another risky campaign involved our members approaching random people on the street to discuss the junta's upcoming sham election. This task was dangerous; if the people we approached were spies or junta supporters, we risked imprisonment. But we managed to execute it successfully.
Oakkar narrated the difficulties they face in waging guerilla tactics in urban centers:
It's extremely risky for our comrades to operate in Yangon. Increased patrolling, more spies, and advanced surveillance make it difficult and resource-intensive to operate in the city. Despite the ruined economy, locals are willing to rent safe houses to our members for a higher price. Operations cost is high due to the necessity of employing several scouts for safety.
The Artists Collective underscored the role of collaboration among different members of the pro-democracy movement:
As long as our comrades, who are in riskier situations, are willing to revolt, we're ready to help in any way to ensure the success of this spring revolution. For instance, during Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, we stayed up all night on a video call to guide our comrades in Yangon on how to draw the banner.
Oakkar highlighted the sacrifices of those who decided to join the anti-junta resistance:
Our members have had to make tremendous sacrifices. Our security is a constant worry, day and night. Many of us are unable to sleep peacefully, as the threat of midnight raids looms large. One of the most heart-wrenching realities is being cut off from our families. Additionally, unlike most young adults in their 20s, we don't have the luxury of enjoying regular pastimes and leisure activities. Our commitment to this cause, however, makes these sacrifices bearable.
He also shared an appeal to the international community:
We understand that everyone has their own responsibilities and tasks. However, we would greatly appreciate it if they could provide donations to support war victims fleeing to the borders, assist immigrants, or offer free online education to students supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement
The Artists Collective cited the contribution of artists in the pro-democracy movement:
As artists, we knew we could contribute by creating artworks to support the revolution. The fact that people are printing our artwork or using the digital versions online brings us immense satisfaction. We support the revolution through our art. Working together, we create banners, convey important messages, and assist with designs. Seeing our art pieces printed, displayed in marches, and online during flash events fills us with pride.
The group is confident that the revolution against the junta will lead to success:
We've seen a significant number of women and people of diverse sexual orientations and identities in deadly combat. This unique situation has brought people of different ages together to fight against the regime that has systematically oppressed our nation for 70 years. We believe the world will witness the establishment of a new federal democratic order in our country..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Voices"
Date of publication:
2023-07-03
Date of entry/update:
2023-07-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Spring Revolution, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
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Description:
"I used to be a university teacher. As a teacher, I was proud of my work as a mentor to students, our young gems for the future. I highly valued my job, and I’d devoted myself to teaching as I had few skills for another profession. As my husband was an employee at a private bank, we had to manage living on a fixed income since we were both salary earners. We’ve brought up our children to be content with life, doing our best to make a happy family, although it was not fully provided. But my dreams were shattered one morning in spring.
That day was 1st February 2021. My life, steady until that point, was struck by an immense change. On that day, the military announced a state of emergency and staged an illogical coup. I felt like a motherless child, like someone who had lost her future. It felt like I had travelled back in time. I had no motivation to work, and I felt even more lonely when the internet connections were cut off. Nobody could tell what would happen next or what had happened. People would voice their random ideas, and the department, the school, the town, and the entire country became silent with people deeply immersed in their own thoughts.
The movement started in Mandalay. Two days after the military coup, motorbike riders expressed their distress by honking on the streets. The whole street and residential quarters were noisy with honking sounds. Later, a silent strike was staged with a three-finger salute. Posters bearing the images of the three-finger salute spread throughout the country—it was not long before we heard the frustrated voices of people protesting the dictatorship.
Educators and staff from universities across the country also took part in protests by holding up posters of three-finger salutes. The once silent university came alive without the orchestrated but simultaneous chanting of slogans. At the same time, universities were closed, but staff continued to rotate teaching work due to the high rates of COVID-19 infections. The presence of teaching staff that day was a clear sign of how much civil servants loathed the dictatorship.
Multiple ethnic groups, students, and civil servants participated in various anti-dictatorship activities. People resented the unjust acts committed by the authoritarian government, especially since the time for a newly elected government was just an arms-length away.
Despite these challenges, our university’s strike column marched daily. I could not participate in these marches as I had to take care of my daughter’s security, but my inability to join the marches gave me a guilty conscience. I felt like I was being unfaithful to the movement. I tried to counteract my guilty conscience by banging pots and pans harder at 8pm, a symbolic act to drive out the evil dictators.
Continuing work as an educator became a big challenge. It took time for me to decide about what to do, since I’ve always been a responsible person who highly valued my work. I discussed it with my colleagues, friends, family, and parents. My supervisor explained the pros and cons of standing bravely for the truth. As they did, the State Counsellor’s quote, “people matter,” echoed in my mind. My husband supported me in resisting the dictatorship within my own capacity. It was with such support that I was able to make a strong decision. From the 8th of February, I decided to join the CDM movement and withhold my labour—proudly contributing to the revolution alongside my colleagues at the university.
Three weeks after the coup, the CDMers’ personal security was threatened when the military forces and police entered our university under the pretext of security. On 6th March, a month after we commenced our refusal to work with the slogan “don’t go to the office but struggle for freedom”, I went to my parents’ place with my daughter. My son and his father stayed behind in Yangon because of their respective responsibilities. About 10 days after I reached my parents’ village, a close friend and colleague informed me that she was going back to the office and asked me if I wished to recommence my duties. If so, she would submit my name. Soon after, my supervisor whom I so revered informed me that they would be resuming their duties out of fear for their security and arrest. We discussed with our colleagues how we could support them. We will not surrender, and we will fight till the end.
At the end of April 2021, I received news that my nephew, a young university student had been shot dead by military forces the night before. The sad news broke me. On that day, Tedim was completely silent. The soldiers, whose duty was to protect the life and property of the people, were brutally killing innocent people for no reason. I prayed that such incidents would not take place again for anyone—but my prayers were not answered. Many people’s lives were sacrificed. If we did not resist this horrible system, then who would?
In May 2021, I was expelled from my post for standing for the truth. It was a profession that I invested my heart and soul in for several decades, and I felt as though my arms and legs had been amputated. Moreover, the income source to support my family was now cut off. Life became very lonely. It was difficult to detach myself from work, but I had no reason to defend it any longer. I believed that Eternal God would prepare the best for me.
I was satisfied that I had been able to take refuge with my parents and care for my 80-year-old father. I found strength in the understanding and support from my parents and siblings. Whenever I had a chance, I went to my father’s farm and nurtured the plants, ploughed the ground with an iron hoe, or cut the trees with a knife. I learned how to make use of the same hands I once used only to hold pencils and pens. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise—I now had a chance to experience my community’s traditions and customs.
Many people from my village did not share my ideas. Few civil servants became CDMers. They believed they had to mind their own business regardless of the government. They continued to show up for the civil servants’ recruiting exams held by the military council and were proud of their achievements when appointed. They thought they were doing great, but it was very uncomfortable for me to live in such an environment.
My daughter would always encourage me—unhappy from trying to adapt to a new place—with positive motivation like “Mom…don’t be depressed. Our revolution will win.”
Compared to my daughter’s moral support, I felt sorry about the lack of understanding in society. However, I was proud of my daughter because she knew what was right and what was wrong. Her sacrifice and willingness to accept a meagre way of living was much greater than mine. My husband’s support also gave me power. He would repeatedly tell my daughter, “Your mother is a revolutionary heroine. We should always be proud of Mom.”
Maybe it was the emotional dejection that lowered our immunity. At the end of May 2021, my entire family was infected by COVID-19. We had to pull ourselves together to prevent us from falling to pieces. I was grateful for the fellow nurse CDMer who came to our house and treated us. Her words of consolation at that time of sickness and depression energized us.
A year after returning to my native village, the community criticized me in different ways. The most annoying question I got was, “Are you divorced from your husband?” Because I was a CDMer, I did not receive any salary. They would heartlessly tell me that the success of our revolution would not be achieved in any way, and that I should go back to work.
Even my close relatives blamed me. On the one hand, the arrest of CDMers increased every day. Though imprecisely, security became a concern. Over time, some schools in the village reopened, but my daughter had no desire to attend the school run by the military council. It was impossible to pursue online education either since the internet remained cut off.
Meanwhile, I was able to meet and accompany a Catholic priest who came back to visit the village from Mizoram, India. In this way, I reached Buarpui village in Mizoram state in early April 2022. My daughter came with me and was able to continue her schooling, but she faced various challenges due to the language barrier, an unfamiliar school syllabus in Hindi, Mizo, and Lai languages, and culture shock. I felt guilty.
For work, I worked in the kitchen of a hostel as an assistant to the chef. My days were spent peeling potatoes, picking rice grains, and washing dishes. I was exhausted both mentally and physically. I missed Myanmar and the life I enjoyed in the past—but I had to control my homesickness. I reminded myself not to forget that my life was where it was supposed to be, not where I wanted to be. The challenges as a CDMer refugee were hard. I prayed to God all the time, wishing to go back to where I deserved and wished to be.
Through a friend, I learned about a call for 5 Research Fellowships from the Institute of Chin Affairs (ICA). I was interested, and I started to prepare for the application without any prior experience and with much difficulty. As I worked, I jotted down my thoughts and sought advice from my experienced friends. I sent my application before the deadline on the 31st of August.
When the decision letter came on 15th September, I was happy to know that I was among the short-listed candidates. It reminded me of the same feeling I had when I first applied for my job. I wanted to be selected because I was interested in the field. On 27th September, I was informed that I had been selected as one of the Research Fellows. I was overjoyed. It was evident that God is good.
I was pleased and proud of myself for being a Research Fellow of the Myanmar Fellowship Program. Then again, I grew wary when I thought of leaving my daughter behind. Departing from Buarpui, my daughter told me constantly not to worry about her but to take care of myself. From there, I started my second lonely journey to the capital city, Aizawl.
In October 2022, myself and four other research fellows met the Deputy Director and the learning facilitator at the ICA office in Aizawl. The Chin Research Centre was formally opened in the compounds of Mizoram University. It is possible that the Spring Revolution created a historical milestone between the ICA and Mizoram University.
We had the opportunity to learn from the professors and associate professors of MZU and to write research papers. I’m grateful to the responsible persons of ICA, our group leader who paid attention to every detail, and the learning facilitator, for not only providing knowledge but for supporting the livelihood of someone living with uncertainty in a foreign land.
My ambition is to prepare a thesis paper that will enable us to implement a credit transfer, in addition to finding a way to have dialogue and collaborate on how to overcome the challenges of educational opportunities for refugee children. I aim to continue my tasks of the Spring Revolution as a researcher preparing research papers for the interest of the community and our people.
Starting from Spring, how far do I have to walk on this journey? It is grueling to predict when this journey will end. I hope it will not take long. Another spring will come along with the sweet, lamenting, cooing sound of cuckoos. I have to nurture the victory plant embedded in my heart to welcome the triumphant spring. There will also be light after darkness.
If the opportunity avails in peaceful times after the Spring Revolution prevails, I will create a good educational environment while sharing the knowledge earned through this program with my colleagues and students..."
Source/publisher:
"Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2023-07-03
Date of entry/update:
2023-07-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Spring Revolution, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Description:
"Sagaing Region has seen some of the strongest and most widespread resistance to the Myanmar military’s February 2021 attempted coup. In the face of the ongoing crisis in Sagaing, where villagers have been subjected to fear, violence and destruction of their villages at the hands of the military junta, a beacon of hope has emerged in the form of the Sagaing Forum as a regional political platform. This new political initiative can in the medium term address the pressing challenges faced by the region’s communities, while aiming to build up local and subnational governance structures to build trust and support cohesion within Sagaing’s pro-democracy movement.
The question here lies in whether the Forum can strengthen local and subnational networks to increase collaboration within Sagaing Region, which could help bring the resistance to the next level.
Plight of villagers and political challenges
For more than two years, the people of Sagaing have endured unimaginable hardships. The military junta’s “four-cuts” strategy, aimed at isolating and weakening resistance movements, has been deployed ruthlessly, leaving villagers trapped in a cycle of violence and oppression. The scorched-earth policy and arbitrary arrests have resulted in the destruction of thousands of villages, leaving communities devastated and displaced. As of Feb. 28, 2023, junta troops and affiliated groups have burned down 60,459 homes across the country, according to Data for Myanmar. In Sagaing alone more than 50,000 houses have been destroyed.
The major challenges faced by local actors and the National Unity Government (NUG) in countering military offensives are substantial, despite the individual strength of civil society and local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs). The absence of involvement by civil society groups in regional policies, and district and township-level appointments, which are directly made by key ministries such as the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Home Affairs within the NUG, has resulted in a lack of ownership. This lack of ownership not only creates a lack of coordination, but also makes it increasingly difficult to counter the military’s offensives. Moreover, in vast territorial regions like Sagaing, there is still a lack of a regional political body that can provide guidance to local PDFs and enable regional administrators to implement responsive and inclusive governance practices and policies.
The birth of the Sagaing Forum
After more than six months of dedicated deliberation, local community groups have come together in a series of bi-weekly Zoom and in-person meetings, totaling almost 20 gatherings. Their purpose has been to navigate through the political storms and remain resolute in their pursuit of establishing a political platform that fosters common ground and shared goals. These deliberations have involved representatives from over 25 out of the 37 townships, making it a comprehensive and inclusive process. Some township administrators directly appointed by the NUG have also attended the Forum. Interestingly, the name “Sagaing Forum” itself was coined by the participating groups.
The Forum’s leadership comprises a diverse range of individuals, including Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) teachers, campaigners, and local PDFs, who demonstrate a remarkable level of resilience, perseverance, and adeptness in navigating the complexities and obstacles that arise during discussions and message management.
As an observer, I have had the privilege of occasionally attending these meetings, including the groups’ informal discussions with the NUG and Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), exploring the group’s aspirations and envisioning their future path. They have had meaningful discussions, though the NUG and CRPH were not well informed enough in advance. It is worth noting that although invited, the Committee Representing Sagaing Hluttaw (CRSH), as a regional people’s elected body, was unable to participate due to their ongoing activities related to “important matters” surrounding politics, administration, defense, and humanitarian aid with the NUG, and they kindly requested an excuse. Though some NLD Sagaing representatives elected in the 2020 election attended individually, I wondered if the Forum (held May 30-31 for the first time) representing local stakeholders from more than 28 townships was not “important” enough for the CRSH to spend time with?
Bottom-up approach
Amid the current chaotic circumstances, the emergence of the Sagaing Forum brings a ray of hope. It represents a fresh and bottom-up approach to addressing the challenges faced by the region. Instead of relying on conventional methods, the Forum aims to foster collaboration, dialogue, and inclusive decision-making processes. Its ultimate objective is to establish a federal unit, advocating the NUG, CRPH and CRSH to be inclusive and responsive, steering away from divisive approaches. The Forum’s efforts are essential in creating a positive path forward for Sagaing, offering a glimpse of optimism amidst the prevailing challenges.
Among political approaches, the Sagaing Forum could stand out as a zero-to-one innovation in a Buddhist Bamar-dominated region. It signifies a departure from the conventional top-down models and embraces a bottom-up perspective, emphasizing the voices and needs of the local communities. By doing so, the Forum recognizes the importance of empowering those directly affected by the crisis and involving them in shaping their own future.
In the face of immense challenges and suffering endured by the people of Sagaing, the Sagaing Forum emerges as a beacon of hope, offering a pathway towards a brighter future. Its bottom-up approach, centered on inclusivity, local empowerment, and collaborative decision-making, signifies a profound shift in political engagement. By prioritizing the immediate needs of affected communities and striving for sustainable solutions, the Sagaing Forum lays the groundwork for a more reconciled and resilient Sagaing Region. As we reflect on the transformative power of changing political dynamics, let us ponder the following questions: How can other regions draw inspiration from the Sagaing Forum? What lessons can we learn about the potential for inclusive approaches to shape a better future for the people of Myanmar? Additionally, we must consider whether the Sagaing Forum can propel the Spring Revolution to new heights, bringing about significant progress and positive change.
Zaw Tuseng, a former pro-democracy activist, is founder and president of the Myanmar Policy Institute (MPI). The MPI was formed recently to mobilize Myanmar researchers to formulate policies and institutionalize the policymaking process for Myanmar. He holds an Executive Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-06-02
Date of entry/update:
2023-06-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Political History
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"Japan has continued railway improvement projects following the Myanmar military’s illegal coup attempt, a Justice For Myanmar investigation based on public sources and leaked documents has revealed.
Japanese multinational corporations have received millions in revenue from Myanma Railways under projects financed by loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) that were awarded before the attempted coup.
Myanma Railways is a state agency unlawfully controlled by the junta. Following the coup attempt, an estimated 90% of its 30,000 workers courageously joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, refusing to work under the junta and risking their lives and livelihoods.
The continuation of the railway improvement projects legitimises the junta and provides it with increased logistical capacity.
The junta uses trains to move troops, arms and other supplies as it commits atrocity crimes across Myanmar with total impunity. Through the project, the Japanese government and the corporations involved risk aiding and abetting the junta’s international crimes by providing it with logistical support.
JICA told Justice For Myanmar that under the bilateral agreement, which was made before the coup attempt, the projects shall not be used for military purposes.
However, the Japanese government and the corporations involved are unable to prevent misuse by the junta.
Recently, the junta was caught misusing boats donated by Japan for civilian use to move troops in Arakan State. Japan made a complaint to the junta about it last month, but details of any further action have not been made public.
Under the railway improvement projects, work is being carried out by multinational corporations from Japan and the EU, in partnership with Myanmar military crony companies. Public sources and leaked documents, including from Distributed Denial of Secrets, show:
The Spanish corporation Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) and Mitsubishi Corporation are supplying new trains to the junta.
Daiwa House subsidiary Fujita Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation and Nippon Signal Co. Ltd. are doing track and station upgrades, bridgework and work on signal and communication equipment under a contract signed in 2019. Fujita received revenues of 29.7 billion kyat from Myanma Railways for work on the Yangon to Bago section of the project in 2022, equivalent to over US$15 million, according to leaked tax filings.
Tekken Corporation and Rinkai Nissan Construction are working on the Bago to Nyaunglebin section of the track under a deal awarded in 2018, while Tokyu Construction is working on the Nyaunglebin to Taungoo section, with Toenec Corporation doing signalling and communications upgrades.
Justice For Myanmar calls on the Japanese government and the businesses involved in the railways improvement projects to immediately suspend work until Myanmar’s transition to federal democracy.
Japan should stand with the people of Myanmar and fulfil its international obligations by imposing sanctions on the junta and its business interests and suspending all official development assistance projects in Myanmar.
The Spanish government should investigate CAF’s business with the military junta and take swift action if EU sanctions have been breached.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “By allowing its railway improvement projects to continue, the Japanese government is legitimising the junta and providing it with resources that will support its campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar.
“Since its illegal coup attempt, the junta has killed more than 3,500 people and arbitrarily arrested over 22,700. Mass atrocities are being committed by the junta daily, including indiscriminate airstrikes, shelling, rape and torture.
“By continuing the project, Japan and major multinational corporations risk complicity in these international crimes.
“Japan needs to get on the right track for the people of Myanmar, suspend all official development assistance projects, and impose sanctions on the junta and its businesses.
“Myanma Railways are part of the Myanmar military cartel, and the businesses working with it need to responsibly cut ties, in accordance with their international human rights obligations.
“The role of CAF raises serious questions for the Spanish government and the EU over continued business links with the junta that need to be addressed.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of publication:
2023-05-30
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-30
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Individual Documents
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2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports
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The junta claims she had a document connecting her to the shadow National Unity Government
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"Junta troops have arrested a teacher in Myanmar’s southwestern Ayeyarwady region claiming she has links to the shadow National Unity Government, according to pro-junta Telegram messaging channels.
Residents of Bogale township told RFA Tuesday that 30-year-old Theint Theint Soe was arrested on May 23. She has been working as a teacher for eight years and participated in the civil disobedience movement following the February 2021 military coup, the locals said.
“Her husband was arrested a week earlier. The teacher was arrested on the same day that her husband was released,” said a resident who didn’t want to be named for fear of reprisals.
“She was arrested for allegedly supporting participants in the civil disobedience movement.”
Residents said Theint Theint Soen was being held at Bogale Police Station but it was not clear what laws she had been accused of breaking.
Telegram channels that support the junta said she was arrested because a document certified by the shadow National Unity Government board of education was found with her.
Nearly 300 civil disobedience movement teachers have been arrested since the 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2023-05-30
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Anti-coup protesters
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"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar to take up the case of a video reporter who has just been sentenced to an additional ten years in prison on a terrorism charge for covering a flash mob protest in Yangon. The special rapporteur should press for new sanctions against Myanmar’s generals, RSF says.
The ten-year sentence was passed on 26 May on Myanmar Press Photo Agency video reporter Hmu Yadanar Khet Moh Moh Tun in the utmost secrecy inside Insein prison, a notorious jail located in a northern suburb of Yangon, Myanmar largest city.
Asking not to be identified, her lawyer told RSF that Hmu Yadanar was convicted under article 50 (j) of Myanmar’s terrorism law, which penalises the “financing of terrorism.” She was already given a three-year sentence under a separate penal code charge last December.
All she did was film a flash mob-style protest in Yangon on 5 December 2021 that had been organised on social media. Despite sustaining serious head and leg injuries when soldiers ran her down with a military vehicle as she filmed the protest, she has been held ever since.
“By imposing this additional ten-year sentence on Hmu Yadanar, the military junta led by Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has yet again demonstrated the extraordinary scale of the tyranny to which reporters are subjected to Myanmar. We urge Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, to take up this high symbolic case in order to seek effective international sanctions against its military rulers.
Daniel Bastard
Head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk
The three-year sentence that Hmu Yadanar already received last December was imposed on a charge of inciting rebellion under article 505 (a) of the penal code. Her lawyer said she has decided not to appeal against her latest sentence to avoid giving an appeal court any chance to lengthen it.
Hmu Yadanar is one of a total of 70 journalists and media workers currently held in Myanmar’s prisons, according to RSF’s press freedom barometer..."
Source/publisher:
Reporters Without Borders (Paris)
Date of publication:
2023-05-30
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports
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"Five resistance members accused of shooting dead four police officers on a Yangon train were sentenced to death by a junta court at Insein Prison on Monday, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Suspects Ko Kyaw Win Soe, Ko Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, Ko San Min Aung, Ko Zayar Phyoe and Ma Myat Phyo Pwint were handed death sentences under the counter-terrorism law and separately given life sentences under the Arms Act (1949).
A court source confirmed the sentence, saying Monday’s verdicts were delivered by a civilian court rather than martial court, as in previous such cases.
On August 14, 2021, six policemen working as guards on a Circular Railway train travelling from Yangon’s Central Station to Kyemindaing in the city’s west were shot at close range by three members of an anti-regime urban guerrilla group. Four of the police officers were killed on the spot while two were injured, and their firearms seized.
The targeted attack came one week after five resistance movement members jumped to their deaths from a four-story building to evade raiding troops. Two of the five died on the spot.
In September, the regime arrested five out of 16 people it suspected of being involved in the train attack.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) also verified that five men detained over the incident were sentenced to death this week.
AAPP said in its daily brief issued yesterday that since the February 1, 2021, coup, a total of 3,520 people, including pro-democracy activists and civilians, have been killed in military crackdowns against the pro-democracy movement.
Junta courts have sentenced a total of 158 people to death since the coup. Among those executed were four prominent pro-democracy figures including politicians U Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-05-19
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Anti-coup protesters
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"Jailed anti-junta protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing was found guilty of high treason on Friday and sentenced to an additional 20 years by a junta court on Friday, taking his total sentence to 54 years.
The 28-year-old pro-democracy activist was violently arrested on April 15, 2021, when junta troops rammed him with a car as he led a motorbike protest in Monywa, Sagaing Region.
Ko Wai Moe Naing has faced 10 charges, including sedition, unlawful assembly, abduction with the intent to murder, murder and treason, for his role in Monywa’s protests after the February 1 coup. The junta sentenced him to 34 years in prison under eight charges.
The Monywa Prison court on Friday used Article 122 of the Penal Code to add 20 years to his sentence for high treason.
A source said Ko Wai Moe Naing saw his mother for a few minutes and was in good health.
Monywa People’s Strike Committee denounced the sentence and called for the release of all political prisoners.
“Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing and his fellow junta leaders are the only people to have committed high treason,” the committee said on Friday.
Ko Wai Moe Naing, a former student union leader and committee member, has been held in Monywa Prison since his arrest.
He also faces another murder charge in relation to the killing of two police officers.
Since the 2021 coup, more than 3,500 people have been killed and over 22,400 people have been incarcerated with around 18,000 still behind bars, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-05-19
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights and international relations
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Description:
"Past incident reports: 22 March-04 April; 22 March-04 April; 08-21 March; 22 February-07 March; 08-21 February; All.
Past analysis reports: April and September 2022; 1 February 2021 to 10 January 2022; 1 January to 31 March 2022.
Join our Myanmar mailing list for regular updates. Visit our website. Follow us on Twitter. If you have additional information on an incident documented here, or a new incident, please get in touch. Help support the protection of health care by sharing this resource. Please copy and paste this link: bit.ly/19Apr-02May2023MMRHealth
Documented incidents
19-22 April 2023: In Mabein town and township, Mongmit district, Shan state, a joint force of local resistance forces and the Kachin Independence Army warned health care workers of the township hospital to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). It was reported on 22 April that some health workers had been relocated to the district administration office in Mongmit town for security reasons. Sources: Telegram and Telegram II
20 April 2023: In Madaya town and township, Kyaukse district, Mandalay region, a bomb exploded between the operation theatre and staff residence buildings of the township hospital during an armed drone attack by the local resistance forces targeting the township administration council office and police station which were on either side of the hospital. Sources: Facebook, Mandalay Free Press and Telegram
21 April 2023: Near Zimte village, Zimpi village tract, Tedim township and district, Chin state, the Myanmar military conducted an airstrike at a Chin National Army (CAN) base camp killing a female medic, who was the sergeant of CNA medical corps. Sources: Chin Human Rights Organisation, Khonumthung Burmese and The Chin Journal
22 April 2023: In Me Ka Nai village tract, Myawaddy township and district, Kayin state, the Myanmar military destroyed the medical base camp of local resistance forces and the Karen National Union (KNU). Source: Telegram
22 & 29 April 2023: In Lay Twin Zin village, Pa Zi Gyi village tract, Kanbalu township and district, Sagaing region, the Myanmar military torched a sub-rural health centre and 75 civilian houses. Sources: Facebook and Radio Free Asia
24 April 2023: In Rathedaung town and township, Sittwe district, Rakhine state, Arakan Army (AA) stormed the township hospital compound in search of and to arrest two deserters and a AA prisoner. The raid involved around 100 AA armed personnel and the use of small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Sources: Democratic Voice of Burma and Radio Free Asia
As reported on 24 April 2023: In Leik Tho town, Thandaunggyi township and district, Kayin state, the junta authorities restricted the transport of medicines to IDPs in the town. Source: Karen Information Centre
25 April 2023: In Saung Hpway village, Yi Nwet village tract, Pekon township, Taunggyi district, Shan state, a fully-functioning local hospital was damaged in the airstrikes by the Myanmar military, injuring one nurse-aid, a patient and three civilians. Two ambulances and other vehicles were also damaged. IDPs sheltering near the hospital were further displaced. The hospital was managed by the Karenni National Health Committee and served the community in Pekon and Moebye townships in Shan state and Demoso township in Kayah state. The junta claimed that the attacks targeted the local resistance forces and the ethnic armed organisation ‘Karenni National Progressive Party’ based at the hospital. Sources: Facebook, Khit Thit Media, Myanmar Now, Shan News, Telegram and Than Lwin Times
As reported on 25 April 2023: In Kyondoe town and township, Kawkariek district, Kayin state, the Myanmar military forces and Border Guard Forces occupied a hospital, police station, administration office, and pagoda. Source: Karen Information Centre
26 April 2023: In Sin Hpyu Seik village and village tract, Tigyaing township, Katha district, Sagaing region, the Myanmar military torched the sub-rural health centre and 41 civilian houses, and killed two civilians. Source: Democratic Voice of Burma Reported on 28 April 2023: In Kayah state, a male nurse was shot while rescuing a wounded armed personnel during armed clashes between the local resistance forces/ ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military army. Source: Facebook
29 April 2023: On the highway connecting Yangon town and Mawlamyine town, near Shwe Yaung Pya village and village tract, Bilin township, Kyaikto district, Mon state, joint forces of local resistance forces and the Karen National Liberation Army attacked ambulances transporting wounded Myanmar military personnel. Source: Democratic Voice of Burma..."
Source/publisher:
Insecurity Insight (Geneva) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2023-05-10
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-10
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"၁။ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ဧပြီလ ၁၆ ရက်နေ့သည် ပြည်တွင်းပြည်ပ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲလေ့လာစောင့် ကြည့်ရေး အဖွဲ့အစည်းများက လွတ်လပ်၍တရားမျှတသော ရွေးကောက်ပွဲအဖြစ် အသိအမှတ်ပြုခဲ့ကြပြီး မဲပေးပိုင်ခွင့် ရှိသူဦးရေ၏ ၇၅.၉၆ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းမဲပေးခဲ့ကြသည့် ၂၀၂၀ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲရလဒ်ကို အခြေခံကာ ပေါ်ပေါက်လာခဲ့သည့် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီက ၂၀၂၀ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲမှရရှိသော လူထုထောက်ခံမှုအရ တရားဝင်မှု (De Jure Legitimacy) ကိုကိုယ်စားပြုသည့် နိုင်ငံရေးအင်အားစုများနှင့် အခြားနည်းလမ်းများဖြင့် ရရှိသော လူထုထောက်ခံမှုအရ တရားဝင်မှု (De Facto Legitimacy) ကိုကိုယ်စားပြုသော နိုင်ငံရေးအင်အားစု များ၏ တပ်ပေါင်းစုအဖြစ်ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သည့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီ၏ သဘောတူညီမှုဖြင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရကို ဖွဲ့စည်းကြောင်း ကြေညာခဲ့သည်မှာ (၂) နှစ်တင်းတင်းပြည့်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အဆိုပါ (၂) နှစ်တာကာလအတွင်း အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ပြည်သူလူထုက ပေးအပ်ထားသော ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၏ တရားဝင်အစိုးရတစ်ရပ်အဖြစ် တာဝန်များကို တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစု များအားလုံးနှင့် လက်တွဲကာ ဦးလည်မသုန် ကြိုးစားထမ်းရွက်လျက်ရှိကြောင်း ပြည်သူလူထုထံသို့ အစီရင်ခံ တင်ပြအပ်ပါသည်။
နိုင်ငံတကာဆက်ဆံရေး
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ (၂) နှစ်တာအစိုးရသက်တမ်းတွင် နိုင်ငံခြားရေး၀န်ကြီးဌာနသည် အာဆီယံ, EU အပါအ၀င် နိုင်ငံတကာအစိုးရအဖွဲ့ တာဝန်ရှိသူများနှင့် တွေ့ဆုံခဲ့ပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ ပကတိအခြေအနေများကို နိုင်ငံတကာကသိရှိစေရေး၊ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု အကူအညီများရရှိရေး၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရအား တရားဝင်အစိုးရအဖြစ် အသိအမှတ်ပြုရေး၊ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုနှင့် ၄င်းတို့၏ဆက်စပ် မိသားစုဝင်များအား စီးပွားရေးအရပိတ်ဆို့ အရေးယူနိုင်ရေး၊ နိုင်ငံတကာခုံရုံးတွင် ဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ ထိရောက်စွာ အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရေးနှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီပြန်လည်ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ရေး တို့အတွက် တောင်းဆို မှုများ၊ ဆွေးနွေးမှုများကို တစိုက်မတ်မတ်လုပ်ဆောင်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးများ၊ လွှတ်တော်ကော်မတီ ဥက္ကဌများ၊ လွှတ်တော်အမတ်များ၊ US သမ္မတဂျိုးဘိုင်ဒင်၏ အမျိုးသားလုံခြုံရေးအကြံပေး တို့နှင့်ပါ တွေ့ဆုံဆွေးနွေးမှုများ ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ခဲ့သည်။ အမေရိကန်ပြည်ထောင်စု၊ ယူကေနိုင်ငံ၊ ချက်သမ္မတနိုင်ငံ၊ သြစတြေးလျနိုင်ငံ၊ ပြင်သစ်နိုင်ငံ၊ နော်ဝေနိုင်ငံ၊ တောင်ကိုရီးယားနိုင်ငံ၊ ဂျပန်နိုင်ငံစတဲ့ နိုင်ငံပေါင်း (၈) နိုင်ငံတွင် ကိုယ်စားလှယ်ရုံးများကို ဖွင့်လှစ်နိုင်ခဲ့ပြီး အကြောင်းအမျိုးမျိုးကြောင့် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာခဲ့ရသော မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံသားများအရေးနှင့် ရွှေ့ပြောင်းပြည်သူများ၊ ပြည်ပတွင် အခက်အခဲကြုံနေရသော ပြည်သူများကို အကာအကွယ်ပေးနိုင်ရေး သက်ဆိုင်ရာနိုင်ငံများနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် အမေရိကန် ပြည်ထောင်စု အမျိုးသားကာကွယ်ရေး လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်အက်ဥပေဒ ၂၀၂၃ တွင် The Burma Act of 2022 ကို ပေါင်းစပ်ထည့်သွင်းနိုင်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းခြင်းနှင့် နိုင်ငံပေါင်း (၇) နိုင်ငံရှိ လွှတ်တော်များနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ဆောင်ရွက် ခြင်းများကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ရိုဟင်ဂျာအရေးနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်က ထုတ်ပြန်ထားခဲ့သည့် “ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်ရှိ ရိုဟင်ဂျာပြည်သူများဆိုင်ရာ မူ၀ါဒသဘောထား” နှင့်အညီ ရိုဟင်ဂျာပြည်သူများ မိမိတို့နေရပ်သို့ မိမိတို့ကိုယ်ပိုင်ဆန္ဒသဘောဖြင့် ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာရှိရှိ ပြန်လည်အခြေချ နေထိုင်ရေးနှင့် ဥပဒေအရ တန်းတူအခွင့်အရေးရနိုင်ရန်အတွက် လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာမှုများအတွက် ဤတော်လှန်ရေး ကာလအလွန်တွင် တရားမျှတ မှုရရှိရေးအတွက် ၎င်းတို့ကျုးလွန်နေသည့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့် မျိုးနွယ်စုအလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကို စနစ်တကျ မှတ်တမ်းကောက်ယူ၊ ပြုစုသိမ်းဆည်းပြီး သက်သေခိုင်လုံသော (၁၇၁) မှုကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ ကုလသမဂ္ဂစုံစမ်းစစ်ဆေးရေးအဖွဲ့ (IIMM) ထံသို့ပေးပို့ပေးပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာတရားရုံး (ICJ) တွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနဲ့ ဂမ်ဘီယာနိုင်ငံတို့အကြား တရားရင်ဆိုင်နေဆဲအမှုဖြစ်သော ရိုဟင်ဂျာပြည်သူများ အပေါ် လူမျိုးတုန်းသတ်ဖြတ်မှုနှင့်ပတ်သက်ပြီး ကနဦးကန့်ကွက်ခဲ့မှုအားလုံးကို ပြန်လည်ရုတ်သိမ်းကြောင်း ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၁) ရက် ၂၀၂၂ တွင် ပေးပို့အကြောင်းကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွမ်းကျင်သော အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းပြီး နိုင်ငံ၏တရားစီရင်ရေးဆိုင်ရာယန္တရား (universal jurisdiction) ကိုအသုံးပြုကာ စစ်ကောင်စီအား ဂျာမနီ၊ အာဂျင်တီးနားနှင့် တူရကီတို့တွင် တရားစွဲဆိုထားပြီး အခြားနိုင်ငံများတွင်လည်း ဆက်လက်စွဲဆိုနိုင်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းနေသည်။ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာရာဇဝတ်ခုံရုံး (ICC) တွင်လည်း စစ်ကောင်စီအား အမှုတင်သွင်း အရေးယူနိုင်ရန် ရောမသဘောတူစာချုပ် (Rome Statute) ၏ ပုဒ်မ ၁၂(၃) နှင့် အညီတရားစီရင်မှုကိုလက်ခံကြောင်း ဇူလိုင်လ (၁၇) ရက် ၂၀၂၁ တွင်တင်သွင်းခဲ့ကာ အမှန်တရားနဲ့တရားမျှတမှုကိုရရှိရန် ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်း ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။
စစ်ရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူ့ရင်ခွင်ခိုလှုံမှုအခြေအနေ
၃။ တစ်နိုင်ငံလုံးတွင် PDF တပ်ရင်းနှင့် စစ်ကြောင်း စုစုပေါင်း (၃၀၀) ကျော် ၊ ရပ်ရွာအခြေပြု ပြည်သူ့ ကာကွယ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (ပကဖ) များကို မြို့နယ်ပေါင်း(၂၅၀)ကျော်တွင် စနစ်တကျဖွဲ့စည်းတည်ထောင်ထား ပြီး လူအင်အား (Man Power) အရ မိမိတို့၏တိုက်ခိုက်ရေးအင်အားသည် ရန်သူ့ထက် “သာလွန် အင်အား” ဖြစ်အောင် ဤအချိန် (၂) နှစ်အတွင်း စုဖွဲ့တည်ဆောက်နိုင်ခဲ့သည်။
မဟာမိတ် တိုင်းရင်းသားတော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့များနှင့် အတူပူးပေါင်းကာ ဗဟိုကွပ်ကဲရေးနှင့် ပေါင်းစပ် ညှိနှိုင်းရေးကော်မတီ (Central Command and Coordination Committee - C3C) ၊ ပူးပေါင်းညှိနှိုင်းရေးကော်မတီ (Joint Coordination Committee - J2C) တို့ကို စုဖွဲ့လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိသည်။ အစိုးရသက်တမ်း (၂) နှစ်တာ ကာလအတွင်း မဟာမိတ် ERO များနှင့် ခုခံတော်လှန်စစ် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုများမှတဆင့် စနစ်ကျသော ထိန်းချုပ်ကွပ်ကဲမှု စနစ်တစ်ခုအောက်တွင် စစ်ဆင်ရေးနယ်မြေအလိုက် Chain of Command တည်ဆောက် ခြင်းများ ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံး၏ လှူဒါန်းကူညီမှု၊ မဟာမိတ်တိုင်းရင်းသား တော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့များနှင့် လက်တွဲဆောင်ရွက်မှုတို့ကြောင့် PDF တပ်မတော်အတွက် လက်နက်တပ်ဆင်မှုကို အတိုင်းအတာတစ်ခုအထိ တပ်ဆင်နိုင်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့အပြင် ကိုယ်ပိုင်လက်နက်ခဲယမ်း ထုတ်လုပ်ခြင်းကဏ္ဍ သည်လည်း များစွာအောင်မြင် ပေါက်ရောက်နိုင်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ရန်သူနှင့် ကောင်းစွာနှိုင်းယှဉ်နိုင်သည့်၊ ပွဲသိမ်းအဆင့် တိုက်ခိုက်နိုင်သည့် လက်နက်အင်အား အခြေအနေသို့ရောက်ရန်၊ လေကြောင်းရန်ကို တန်ပြန် တိုက်ခိုက်နိုင်ရန်၊ ခုခံနိုင်ရန်အတွက် ဗျူဟာမြောက် လက်နက်ပစ္စည်းများ အလုံအလောက် ရရှိနိုင်ရန်လည်း ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိသည်။ “ကျေးလက်ကို အခြေပြု၊ မြို့ပြကို ဝန်းရံ” ဟူသည့် အခြေခံ ပြောက်ကျားစစ်နည်းဗျူဟာနှင့်အညီ ယခုအခါ ကျေးလက်ဒေသအများစုကို မိမိတို့စိုးမိုးနယ်မြေအဖြစ် တည်ဆောက်ခဲ့နိုင်ပြီး တော်လှန်ရေး၏ နောက်တဆင့်အဖြစ် မြို့ပြဒေသများကို ခြိမ်းခြောက်နိုင်ရေး၊ ရန်သူ့ဗျူဟာမြောက် ဆက်သွယ်ထောက်ပို့ရေးလမ်း ကြောင်းများ (Line of Communication) ကို ဖြတ်တောက် ထိန်းချုပ်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် ကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိပါသည်။ စစ်မဟာဗျူဟာအရ ခံစစ် (Phase of Strategic Defense) ဖြင့် စတင်ခဲ့ရသော ပြည်သူ့ခုခံတော်လှန်စစ်သည် ယခုအခါ တန်ပြန်ထိုးစစ်အကြိုကာလ (Phase of Strategic Equilibrium) သို့ အပြည့်အဝရောက်ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ နောက်ဆုံးအဆင့်ဖြစ်သော စစ်မဟာဗျူဟာအရ တန်ပြန်ထိုးစစ်ကာလ (Phase of Strategic Counter Offensive) သို့ ဆက်လက်တက်လှမ်းနိုင်ရေးအတွက် မဟာဗျူဟာမြောက် စစ်လက်နက်ပစ္စည်းများ ရှာဖွေတပ်ဆင်မှုကို အားစိုက်ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသည်။ မှတ်တမ်းများအရ ပြည်သူ့ခုခံတွန်းလှန်စစ်အတွင်း ခန့်မှန်းရန်သူ့အင်အား ၃သောင်းခန့် ထိခိုက်သေဆုံးသည် အထိ ချေမှုန်းနိုင်ခဲ့ပြီး (၁) သောင်းကျော် ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရရှိစေခဲ့သည်။ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို လက်မခံသည့် တပ်မတော်သားနှင့်ရဲ (၁၃,၀၀၀)ဦးကျော် ပြည်သူ့ရင်ခွင်ခိုလှုံ လာခဲ့သည်။
ကြားကာလဒေသန္တရ ပြည်သူ့အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဖော်ဆောင်မှု
၄။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ကြားကာလဒေသန္တရ ပြည်သူ့အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဖော်ဆောင်မှု ဗဟိုကော်မတီကို ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလမှစတင်၍ ဖွဲ့စည်းပြီး ကြားကာလဒေသန္တရ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဖော်ဆောင်မှု လုပ်ငန်းများအား မူဝါများချမှတ်အကောင်အထည်ဖော် ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ရာ လက်ရှိ အချိန်အထိ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ စိုးမိုးထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေများတွင် မြို့နယ်ပြည်သူ့ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေး အဖွဲ့များကို (၁၇၁) မြို့နယ်ဖွဲ့စည်းနိုင်ခဲ့ပြီး ခရိုင်ပေါင်း (၁၀) ခရိုင်ကိုလည်း ခရိုင်အဆင့် ပြည်သူ့အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ ဖွဲ့စည်းနိုင်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးရုံးများနှင့်အတူ ပြည်သူလူထုဘဝလုံခြုံစေရန် ရည်ရွယ်လျက် ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ကို ဇွန်လ (၇)ရက် ၂၀၂၂ တွင်စတင်ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ပြီး ယခုအခါ ကြားကာလအုပ်ချုပ်ရေး နယ်မြေ ဒေသများတွင် ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်အင်အား (၁၉၆) ဦးနှင့် အခြေခံရဲသင်တန်းများပို့ချခြင်း၊ ရဲမှုခင်းများစစ်ဆေးခြင်း၊ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏သတင်းများ စုဆောင်းပြီး အကြမ်းဖက်နှိမ်နှင်းခြင်း လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များ ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
အဆိုပါနယ်မြေများတွင် အခွန်စနစ်ကိုလည်း စတင်ကျင့်သုံးနေပြီး ယနေ့အချိန်အထိ အခွန်နှင့် ဒဏ်ကြေးအတွက် မြန်မာကျပ်ငွေ ၁၀ ဘီလီယံကျော်ကောက်ခံရရှိပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၎င်းအခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများကို မြို့နယ်များအတွင်း လိုအပ်လျက်ရှိသော ဒေသကာကွယ်ရေး၊ ပြန်လည်ထူထောင်ရေးလုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များနှင့် လူသားစာနာလုပ်ငန်းများတွင် ပြန်လည်ခွဲဝေသုံးစွဲလျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ပြည်နယ်အတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီများ၊ လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြု ကော်မတီများနှင့်လည်း ပုံမှန်ဆွေးနွေးတိုင်ပင်မှုများပြုလုပ်၍ သက်ဆိုင်ရာတိုင်း ဒေသကြီး/ ပြည်နယ်/ဖက်ဒရယ်ယူနစ်များ၏ ဒေသန္တရအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးလုပ်ငန်း အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ဆောင်မှု များကို တိုင်ပင်ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ကြားကာလနှင့် အသွင်ကူး ပြောင်းရေးကာလများတွင် ပြည်သူများကို ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်မှုပေးနိုင်ရန်နှင့် တရားဥပဒေ စိုးမိုးစေရန် ရည်ရွယ်၍ တရားရေးရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနကို ဇွန်လ (၅) ရက် ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်တွင် CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှု၌ ပါဝင်ခဲ့သော နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ၊ ဥပဒေအရာရှိများ၊ တရားသူကြီးများ၊ ဥပဒေပညာရှင်များနှင့် ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ပါသည်။ ယခုအခါ မြို့နယ်တရားရုံး (၂၅)ရုံးတွင် တရားသူကြီး (၁၁၈)ဦး ခန့်အပ်ထားရှိပြီး တရားစီရင်ရေးအာဏာများ စတင်ကျင့်သုံးဆောင်ရွက်လျက် ရာဇဝတ်မှုနှင့် တရားမမှုများကို ဖြေရှင်းဆောင်ရွက်နေပြီဖြစ် သည်။
မဟာမိတ်ဆက်ဆံရေး
၅။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ဝန်ကြီးဌာနများအနေဖြင့်လည်း ၎င်းတို့သက်ဆိုင်ရာကဏ္ဍအလိုက် တိုင်းရင်းသားမဟာမိတ်အင်အားစုများနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ကာ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိပြီး ပိုမိုအားကောင်းသောဆက်ဆံရေးကို ထူထောင်နိုင်ခဲ့သည်။ တစ်ဖက်တွင်လည်း မဟာမိတ်ဆက်ဆံရေး ကော်မတီ (ARC) ကို ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီလ (၄) ရက်နေ့မှစတင်ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ပြီး နိုင်ငံရေး၊ စစ်ရေး၊ လုံခြုံရေး၊ ကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဆိုင်ရာကိစ္စရပ်များကို လက်တွဲညှိနှိုင်းဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ပါသည်။
မဟာမိတ်ဆက်ဆံရေးကော်မတီအနေဖြင့် တိုင်းရင်းသားအဖွဲ့အစည်း ERO များအပါအဝင်၊ နိုင်ငံရေး ပါတီများ၊ တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများ၊ အတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီများနှင့် သီးခြားတွေ့ဆုံဆွေးနွေးမှုများ ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ပြီး လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု အကူအညီဆိုင်ရာကိစ္စများအပါအဝင် စစ်ရေး၊ ကာကွယ်ရေး၊ ကျန်းမာရေး၊ ပညာရေး ကဏ္ဍများတွင် ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့် လက်တွဲဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုအား ဖြုတ်ချနိုင်ရေးနှင့် အနာဂတ်ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု ထူထောင်ရေးတို့အတွက် နိုင်ငံရေးဆိုင်ရာ သဘောတူညီချက်များရရှိကာ ယခုထက်ပိုမိုသည့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုများကို စုစည်းညီညွတ်စွာ ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ရေး ဆွေးနွေးပွဲများစဉ်ဆက်မပြတ် ပြုလုပ်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
ပြည်သူ့ဝန်ဆောင်မှု လုပ်ငန်းများ
၆။ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ ပညာရေးအဆက်ပြတ်မှု မဖြစ်စေရေးအတွက် CDM ဆရာ/မများ၊ ပညာရေးဝန် ထမ်းများ စုစုပေါင်းအင်အားတစ်သိန်းခွဲကျော်ဖြင့် အခြေခံပညာ၊ အဆင့်မြင့်ပညာ၊ သက်မွေးဝမ်းကျောင်း ပညာနှင့် ဆရာအတတ်သင်ပညာရပ်များကို တစ်နိုင်ငံလုံးအတိုင်းအတာဖြင့် online, on ground သင် ကြားရေး များအပြင် Digital Based Learning စနစ်များဖြင့် ဝန်ဆောင်မှုများ ပေးလျက်ရှိသည်။ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ဆောင်ရွက်နေသော online ကျောင်း (၇၀)ကျော်ရှိပြီး အသိအမှတ်ပြုမူဝါဒနှင့်အညီ ဖွင့်လှစ် သင်ကြားခြင်း၊ on ground ကျောင်းပေါင်း (၅၀၀၀) ကျော်၊ ဆရာ/မပေါင်း (၆၀,၀၀၀) ကျော်နှင့် ကျောင်းသား/ သူပေါင်း (၇၅၀,၀၀၀) ကျော်ခန့် ပညာသင်ကြားလျက်ရှိသည်။ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ပြီး မြို့နယ်ပညာရေးဘုတ်အဖွဲ့ကို (၃၀၄) မြို့နယ်တွင်ဖွဲ့စည်းကာ အကောင်အထည်ဖော် ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပညာရေးပေါ်လစီကို NUG-NUCC ပူးပေါင်းလုပ်ငန်းကော်မတီ၏ ပူးပေါင်းပါဝင်မှုနှင့် ဆက်လက်ရေးဆွဲ အကောင်အထည်ဖော်လျက်ရှိသည်။ အခြေခံပညာညီလာခံ၊ အဆင့်မြင့်ပညာညီလာခံတို့ကို ကျင်းပနိုင်ခဲ့ကာ အဆိုပါညီလာခံများမှရရှိသော ဆွေးနွေးဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်များကို အခြေခံ၍ ပညာရေး အကောင်အထည်ဖော်မှုများ ဆောင်ရွက်နေပါသည်။ BECA (Basic Education Completion Assessment) အခြေခံပညာပြီးမြောက်ကြောင်း စစ်ဆေးအကဲဖြတ်ခြင်းကို ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလမှ ဧပြီလအထိ online, offline ဖြေဆိုခဲ့ရာ online အနေဖြင့် ကျောင်းသားပေါင်း (၂၁၀၀၀) ကျော်ဖြေဆိုခဲ့ပြီး စာစစ်ဌာန (၃၂၉) ခုတွင် ကျောင်းသားပေါင်း (၃၈၈၇၇) ဦးဖြေဆိုခဲ့သည်။ PDF ရဲဘော်များလည်း ပါဝင်ဖြေဆိုခဲ့ကြသည်။
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရဖွဲ့စည်းပြီး (၂) နှစ်တာကာလအတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီကြောင့် ဘေးဒုက္ခရောက်နေရသော ပြည်သူများအတွက် ငွေကျပ် ၆.၆ဘီလီယံခန့် (USD ၂.၃ မီလီယံ) လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု အကူအညီများ ပေးအပ်နိုင်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ တစ်လလျှင် ပျမ်းမျှစစ်ဘေးရှောင်ပြည်သူ ၂ သိန်းကျော်ကို စားနပ်ရိက္ခာ ထောက်ပံ့ပေးနိုင်ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုကြောင့် နေအိမ်များဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည့် ပြည်နယ်နှင့်တိုင်း အသီးသီးတို့မှ ဒေသခံပြည်သူများအတွက် ယာယီတဲများ ပြန်လည်ဆောက်လုပ်ပေးခဲ့ရာ လက်ရှိအချိန်အထိ ပြည်သူကလှူဒါန်းသည့် ရန်ပုံငွေဖြင့် ယာယီတဲပေါင်း (၂,၂၃၉) လုံးဆောက်လုပ်ပေးပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ အသက်ဆုံးရှုံးရမှု လျှော့ချနိုင်ရန် ရန်ပုံငွေကျပ် (၁၁၉) သန်းခန့်အသုံးပြု၍ ကြားကာလပညာရေးဖော်ဆောင်နေသော စာသင်ကျောင်းများတွင် ဗုံးခိုကျင်း (၇၉၈) ကျင်းတူးဖော်ပေးခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ထို့အပြင် ဘေးအန္တရာယ်အမျိုးမျိုးနှင့် ပတ်သက်သည့် အသိပညာပေးခြင်း၊ စာစောင်များထုတ်ဝေ ဖြန့်ဖြူးခြင်းနှင့်စာသင်ကျောင်းများတွင် ဇာတ်တိုက်လေ့ကျင့်ခန်း များ ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးခဲ့ပါသည်။ တိုင်းဒေသကြီးနှင့် ပြည်နယ်အသီးသီးမှ လူသားစာနာတာဝန်ခံ စုစုပေါင်း (၃၅၂) ဦးကိုလည်း အရပ်သားထိခိုက်မှုလျှော့ချရေးနှင့် အရေးပေါ်တုံ့ပြန်ရေးလုပ်ငန်းဆိုင်ရာ သင်တန်းများ ပေးအပ်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ နိုင်ငံတကာမှ လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု အကူအညီများရရှိနိုင်ရေးအတွက် စစ်ဘေးရှောင် ပြည်သူအများဆုံးရှိသည့် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီးနှင့် မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီးအတွင်း မြို့နယ်ပေါင်း (၃၉) မြို့နယ် တွင် လူသားချင်းစာနာကူညီမှုဆိုင်ရာ လိုအပ်ချက်ဆန်းစစ်လေ့လာခြင်း ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ပြီး အစီရင်ခံစာ ကိုလည်း အလှူရှင်နိုင်ငံများ၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂနှင့်အာဆီယံသို့ ဖြန့်ချီပေးပို့ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် အရပ်သားထိခိုက်မှု လျှော့ချရေးနှင့် ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံသည့် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုအကူအညီပေးရေးစင်္ကြန်များ ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ရန် အလို့ငှာ တိုင်းရင်းသားတော်လှန်ရေးမဟာမိတ်များ၊ အရပ်ဘက်လူမှုရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ မိတ်ဖက်နိုင်ငံများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်း၍ အားလုံးပါဝင်သော လူသားချင်းစာနာကူညီမှုဆိုင်ရာဖိုရမ်တစ်ခု ကျင်းပနိုင်ရေးကိုလည်း စီမံ ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ Mind Healer စိတ်ခွန်အားပေးသူများ Facebook စာမျက်နှာမှ အကူအညီလိုအပ် သူများအား နှစ်သိမ့်ဆွေးနွေး အကြံပေးခြင်းကိုလည်း ပြုလုပ်ပေးလျက်ရှိရာ စုစုပေါင်း ပြည်သူ (၈၂၃) ဦးနှင့် CDM ဝန်ထမ်း (၄၂၂) ဦးကို ဝန်ဆောင်မှုပေးနိုင်ခဲ့သည်။
ထောင်တွင်းမတရားဖမ်းဆီးခံရသော နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသူများနှင့်လိင်စိတ်ကွဲပြားသူ(၄၆၉) ဦး၊ လူငယ် နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဉ်းသား (၄၀၀) ဦး၊ ကိုယ်ဝန်ဆောင်မိခင်နှင့်နို့တိုက်မိခင်များ (၁၁၁,၉၁၄) ဦး၊ အရေးပေါ် အခြေအနေတွင် နေထိုင်ရန်လိုအပ်မှုနှင့် camp အုပ်ချုပ်မှုသင်တန်း (၃,၀၀၀) ဦးတို့ကို ထောက်ပံ့ပေး ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အတူ ကလေးများအပေါ် စစ်ကောင်စီမှကျူးလွန်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို မှတ်တမ်းတင်ခြင်းနှင့် အစီရင်ခံခြင်း၊ ကလေးသူငယ်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့် သတင်းအချက်အလက်များ ဖြန့်ဝေခြင်းနှင့် စုဆောင်း ခြင်း၊ ကလေးစစ်သားစုဆောင်းမှုတားမြစ်ခြင်း လုပ်ငန်းများကိုလည်း ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့် ဆောင်ရွက်လျက် ရှိပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာသော ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရမှုများအား ကုသမှုပေးခြင်း၊ ခွဲစိတ်ကုသမှုပြုလုပ်ခြင်း၊ ခြေလက်အင်္ဂါဆုံးရှုံးသူများအား ခြေတုလက်တုတပ်ဆင်ပေးခြင်း၊ အရေးပေါဗိုက်ခွဲကလေးမွေးဖွားပေးခြင်း အစရှိသော ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုများကိုလည်း လုပ်ဆောင်ပေး လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
ပြည်သူလူထုနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုပေးနေသော ဆေးရုံ/ဆေးခန်းများအား အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လေကြောင်းရန်တိုက်ခိုက်မှု၊ စစ်ကြောင်းထိုးတိုက်ခိုက်မှု၊ မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးမှုစသည့် အကြမ်းဖက် လုပ်ရပ်များမှကာကွယ်နိုင်ရန် ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ စာသင်ကျောင်းများ၊ ဆေးရုံများတွင် လေကြောင်းရန်ကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် အရေးပေါ်ရှေးဦးသူနာပြုစုရေးတို့အတွက် လိုအပ်သောသင်တန်းများနှင့် အရေးပေါ်ဆေးအိတ် ဝယ်ယူရေးအတွက် ထောက်ပံ့မှုများကိုလည်း ပြုလုပ်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ မြေပြင်တွင် ဆေးရုံပေါင်း (၆၆) ခု၊ ဆေးခန်းပေါင်း (၁၅၉) ခု၊ ရွေ့လျား ဆေးခန်းပေါင်း (၂၅၀) ကျော်တို့ဖြင့် အရေးပေါ် ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုနှင့် ပဏာမကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုများ ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ မြို့နယ်ပေါင်း (၁၉၈) မြို့နယ် (တစ်နိုင်ငံလုံး၏ ၆၀ %) တွင် မြို့နယ်ကျန်းမာရေးတာဝန်ခံများရှိပြီး ဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့်လက်တွဲ ချိတ်ဆက်၍ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ဆောင်မှုပေးနေသည့် ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားစုစုပေါင်းမှာ (၃,၈၃၂) ဦးဖြစ်ကာ ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများ၏ (၇၈%) မှာ CDMers များဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုလုပ်သားစုစုပေါင်းထဲတွင် တိုင်းရင်းသား ကျန်းမာရေးအဖွဲ့များ၌ရှိသော ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများအင်အားပါဝင်ခြင်း မရှိသေးပါ။ ကျန်းမာရေးအသုံးစရိတ် အနေဖြင့် အမေရိကန်ဒေါ်လာ ၂ သန်း သုံးစွဲခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။
အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု(CDM)
၇။ အာဏာဖီဆန်လှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသော CDM ပြည်သူ့သားကောင်းများအား ပံ့ပိုးကူညီမှု ပေးနိုင်ရေးအတွက် ၂၀၂၁ ဧပြီလ ၂၇ ရက်နေ့တွင် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးများ၊ ဒုတိယဝန်ကြီးများ၊ CRPH ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များပါဝင်၍ CDM Success Committee အားဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ကာ CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့သူများနှင့် CDM ကွန်ယက်ချိတ်ဆက်ခြင်း၊ CDM ဆောင်ရွက်မှုအစီရင်ခံစာအား ၂၀၂၁၊ စက်တင်ဘာလတွင် UN Credential အတွက် ထုတ်ပြန်ခြင်း၊ CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုတစ်နှစ်ပြည့် အထိမ်းအမှတ်အဖြစ် CDM အချက်အလက်အစီရင်ခံစာအား ထုတ်ပြန်ခြင်း၊ CDM စစ်တမ်းကောက်ယူခြင်းတို့ကို ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် CDM ဆုချီးမြှင့်ရေးနှင့် လစာဘတ်ဂျက်တွက်ချက်မှုများ ဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်း၊ နှစ်ပတ်လည်လုပ်ငန်း တိုးတက်မှုဆိုင်ရာ စစ်တမ်းကောက်ယူ၍ ပိုမိုကောင်းမွန်သောလုပ်ငန်းစဥ်များ ဖော်ဆောင်ရန်လည်း ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ CDM Success Committee နှင့်ချိတ်ဆက်ထားသော CDM နိုင်ငံ့သူရဲကောင်း (၂၁၀၆၃၉) အနက်မှ (၂၀%) နှုန်းခန့်၏ အရေးပေါ်လိုအပ်ချက်များအတွက် မြန်မာကျပ်ငွေသန်း (၄,၀၀၀)ခန့် ကူညီထောက်ပံ့ပေးနိုင်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ဝန်ကြီးဌာနများအနေဖြင့်လည်း ဌာနအလိုက် CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား အသီးသီး ကူညီထောက်ပံ့လျက်ရှိသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလမှစတင်၍ အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှုဆိုင်ရာ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM/ Non CDM မူဝါဒမူကြမ်းအား နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDMများ၏ သဘောထားခံယူဆွေးနွေးရေးသားခဲ့ပြီး အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီက ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီ လ ၂၀ ရက်တွင် အတည်ပြုထုတ်ပြန်ပေးခဲ့သည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီက အတည်ပြုထုတ်ပြန်ထားသည့် “နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM မူဝါဒ” အပိုဒ် (၃) နှင့်အညီ ဥပဒေကြမ်းတစ်ရပ် ပေါ်ထွန်းလာရေးအတွက် CDM အောင်မြင်ရေးကော်မတီသည် အကြမ်းမဖက်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှုဆိုင်ရာ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းဥပဒေမူကြမ်းရေးဆွဲရေး ကော်မတီတစ်ရပ် ဖွဲ့စည်းကာ ဥပဒေမူကြမ်းရေးဆွဲလျက်ရှိပါသည်။
ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် စီးပွားရေးကဏ္ဍ
၈။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ စီးပွားရေးနှင့် ကူးသန်းရောင်းဝယ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများ၊ မြေပြင်သပိတ်အဖွဲ့များ၊ ပြည်သူများနှင့်ပူးပေါင်း၍ စစ်တပ်ထုတ်ကုန် သပိတ်မှောက်ကမ်ပိန်းအား ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ခြင်းနှင့် CDM Product များအား ပြည်ပနိုင်ငံများသို့ တင်ပို့ရောင်းချ ခြင်းတို့ကို ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ MSME ချေးငွေများထုတ်ပေးနိုင်ရန်နှင့် တော်လှန်ရေးအတွက် လိုအပ်သောကဏ္ဍများအတွက် ပံ့ပိုးကူညီနိုင်ရန် ရံပုံငွေရှာဖွေခြင်းများကိုလည်း ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ကာ ကျပ်သိန်းပေါင်း (၁၇၁,၆၇၇,၄၄၀) ထိ ကူညီပံ့ပိုးနိုင်ခဲ့သည်။
စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကာင်စီထံ စီး၀င်လာမည့် ဘဏ္ဍာငွေကြေးအထောက်အပံ့များကို တားဆီးပိတ်ပင်ခြင်းနှင့် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ လိုလားတောင့်တချက်နှင့်အညီ ပေါ်ပေါက်လာမည့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ဆောက်ရာတွင် အထောက်အပံ့ရစေမည့် ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများ ရရှိစေရေးမူဝါဒ (၂) ရပ် ချမှတ်ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဝင်ငွေဖြတ်တောက်ပိတ်ဆို့ရေးနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ ပြည်သူလူထု၊ နိုင်ငံတကာအစိုးရများနှင့် အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ တော်လှန်ရေးအစုအဖွဲ့များ၊ CSO/CBO များနှင့် လက်တွဲပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ပြီး စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ထုတ်ကုန် ပစ္စည်းများကို မသုံးစွဲရေး (Boycott) ပြုလုပ်ရန် စစ်တပ်ထုတ်ကုန်ပစ္စည်းများ၊ စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများကို ပြည်သူလူထုသိရှိစေရန် ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာထားပါသည်။
ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ဆောက်ရာတွင် အထောက်အပံ့ရစေမည့် ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများ ရရှိစေရေးနှင့်စပ်လျဉ်း၍ စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ အကောင်အထည်ဖော် ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသော အောင်လံလွှင့်ချီနွေဦးထီ၊ United Bond, EOD, Early Partnership Program, NUGPay, အခွန်၊ အကောက်၊ ဒဏ်ကြေးစသည်တို့မှရရှိသော ဝင်ငွေနှင့်သုံးစွဲမှုခြေပြဇယားမှာ အောက်ပါအတိုင်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
နိဂုံး
၉။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် တစ်နှစ်တာအစီအမံ၏ ရည်မှန်းချက်များ ပေါက်မြောက်အောင်မြင် ရေးနှင့် စိန်ခေါ်မှုများအားကျော်လွှားနိုင်ရေးတို့ကို စဉ်ဆက်မပြတ်လေ့လာသုံးသပ်ကာ အဆုံးသတ်တိုက်ပွဲ အတွက် အဆုံးအဖြတ်ပေးနိုင်မည့် လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များကို ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်း အကေင်အထည်ဖော် ဆောင်ရွက် သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံး၏ သဘောထားဆန္ဒအပေါ် အခြေခံထားသည့် အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရနှင့်တကွ တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများအားလုံး၏ ရည်မှန်းချက်ပန်းတိုင်ဖြစ်သော ဖက်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုဆီသို့ ပြည်သူလူထုက ဆုံးဖြတ်ပြဌာန်းသော ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပဋိညာဉ် လမ်းကြောင်းအတိုင်း ဦးလည်မသုန် ချီတက်ခရီးဆက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါကြောင်း ကတိသစ္စာပြု အစီရင်ခံအပ် ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2023-05-03
Date of entry/update:
2023-05-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Political History
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Format :
pdf
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Sub-title:
အမည်ပျက်စာရင်း ကြေညာခြင်း
Description:
"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း များအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန် မထမ်းဆောင်ဘဲ ဓမ္မဘက်မှရပ်တည်၍ ပြည်သူနှင့်တသားတည်း ဖြစ်စေရန်နှင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ကြစေရန် အကြိမ်ကြိမ်ဖိတ်ခေါ် ကမ်းလှမ်းခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင် ခဲ့ကြသည့် ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအသီးသီးမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းသူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေး၊ လုံခြုံဘေးကင်းရေး နှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင်ရေး တို့အတွက် အလေးထားဆောင်ရွက်လျက် ရှိပါသည်။
၃။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်နေပြီး CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိအားပေးခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်း၊ ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ်ခြင်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းနှင့် ဥပဒေနှင့်အညီပြန်ဆပ်ရန်မလိုတော့သည့် လစာ ချေးငွေများအား အတင်းအဓမ္မ ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ခိုင်းခြင်းများစသည့် အမျိုးမျိုးသော ဖိနှိပ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်နေသော ပို့ဆောင်ရေးနှင့် ဆက်သွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၊ မြန်မာ့မီးရထားမှ အောက်ဖေါ်ပြပါ ဝန်ထမ်းများအား အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းသွင်း လိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပယ် (Dismiss) လိုက်သည်။
မှတ်ချက် - အငြိမ်းစား ယူသွားပြီးဖြစ်သော ဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ CDM - နိုင်ငံ့ ဝန်ထမ်း ဆိုင်ရာ မူဝါဒ အရ ဆက်လက် အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Labour - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2023-04-23
Date of entry/update:
2023-04-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Anti-coup protesters
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"Myanmar’s military regime has sentenced jailed anti-junta protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing to an additional 20 years in prison, according to sources close to him.
The 28-year-old pro-democracy activist has now been sentenced to 34 years in total, having already been given a 14 year sentence for four charges including incitement and under the Natural Disaster Management Law at trials in August and October last year.
Ko Wai Moe Naing, a former student union leader, has been held in Monywa Prison, Sagaing Region since his arrest in April 2021 during an anti-regime rally.
On April 5, a junta court in Monywa Prison sentenced Ko Wai Moe Naing to 20 years under five more charges including robbery, rioting and carrying a deadly weapon in a crowd.
The activist defended himself at the trial as neither of his two lawyers was able to attend. One has been detained, while the other is in hiding after being made the subject of an arrest warrant.
He also has been charged with treason under Article 122 of the Penal Code for leading protests in Monywa and for being affiliated with the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a grouping of deposed lawmakers that the junta has declared an unlawful organization.
Anyone convicted under Article 122 faces a death sentence or life imprisonment. Ko Wai Moe Naing also faces one charge of murder.
As of Friday, 3,225 people had been killed by junta forces while 21,276 including elected government leaders have been arrested or detained since the Myanmar military’s 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors deaths and arrests under the regime..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-04-08
Date of entry/update:
2023-04-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations
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"YANGON, Myanmar — When the military seized power in a coup on the morning of Feb. 1, 2021, I grabbed some clothes and other essentials and stumbled out onto the streets of Yangon. I haven’t returned home since.
I lead a group of activists opposed to military rule of Myanmar, and I knew then that the soldiers would soon be coming for me. Since the coup, my colleagues and I have played cat and mouse with security forces in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. We organize nonviolent protests — small, quick demonstrations to remind the military that it is not in complete control and to give hope to our citizens.
It’s a dangerous, lonely life.
Nearly all of my time is spent hiding in safe houses — six of them so far. I’m 27 years old and have left my current apartment only a few brief times since July. It’s as if an impenetrable wall had been built, separating me from the world. I can’t go out to see the night sky or go to the market or visit friends. I spend much of my time in Zoom meetings planning street protests with colleagues in my organization, the University Students’ Unions Alumni Force, and other activists. To stay sane, I’ve taken up playing the guitar and force myself to walk around my tiny apartment for 20 minutes each day.
Whenever I feel the urge to go outside and enjoy life, I think about how long it would be before I am arrested, how my arrest would affect the men and women fighting alongside me and how I would no longer be of any use to the resistance. The apartment is both sanctuary and prison.
When friends and comrades are arrested, I grieve. But I have to quickly turn my attention to whether their arrest puts me at risk. I change my cellphone’s SIM card and review interactions with those friends for any incriminating information that military interrogators might squeeze out of them. We have protocols in place for this, useless information that can be given up to divert authorities or buy time. But what if they break my comrade?
The eyes of military intelligence are everywhere, sometimes disguised as fruit sellers or trishaw drivers. So only five people know where I am hiding, people who have either hidden with me or who supply me with groceries, cigarettes and books. I view this not as fate but as my own choice — it feels less depressing that way — and I am consoled by my belief in what I’m doing.
Myanmar’s people have been held captive for too long, first by the British and then, after a period of democracy after the country’s independence in 1948, by a succession of military regimes since 1962.
In 2015, a democratic government won power in elections after a military-led reform process. The military, known as the Tatmadaw, retained significant influence, but it seemed a new era had dawned. Until the 2021 coup.
I’m resolved to fight, but I still miss the normal life I once enjoyed in Yangon, my home city. I’m here, and yet I’m not. I yearn for the simple pleasure of a cup of milk tea in a tea shop. Tea shops are part of Myanmar’s DNA, where people catch up with one another, share news or simply contemplate life. My parents, who worked hard to send me to university, used to run a tea shop, and I loved working there. But in 2015, while a college student, I was arrested for protesting the military’s retention of significant powers that stood in the way of democratic development. By the time I was released the next year, my parents had closed the shop. They couldn’t continue without my help.
After the coup, my parents also went into hiding, fearing that the military would arrest them to get at me. It was the right move; some of my friends’ parents have been arrested for their children’s stance against the coup. I know where my parents are, but I can’t visit or tell them where I am. In Myanmar the price for political activism is paid by the entire family.
Resisting the regime gets more difficult every week. Right after the coup, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest. But the junta waged a brutal crackdown. So far, the military has killed nearly 3,000 people, arrested more than 17,000 and committed appalling human rights abuses. The real numbers are probably much higher. Thousands have taken up arms against the military, which has responded by massacring civilians and conducting airstrikes that have killed children.
Deadly force, including driving vehicles into crowds, has been used against nonviolent protesters. As a result, what started as hundreds of people joining our flash protests in the months after the coup has dwindled to merely dozens.
But we carry on. Our scouts identify good locations — bustling public places with ample escape routes to safe houses. We carry banners and march, chanting against the junta. Many street vendors and other bystanders voice their support, but they must be careful or risk having their market stalls destroyed or looted or being punished in other ways by security forces. It’s all over in minutes, and our activists melt away.
Last year I boarded a bus in Yangon and asked passengers to follow me in reciting a pledge to seek justice for prominent activists whom the military had recently executed and to fight for justice and equality in Myanmar. They did, raising their hands in the three-fingered opposition salute. Video of the scene was posted online. I had to change safe houses twice soon afterward.
The risks are enormous. A colleague was arrested en route to one of our meetings. Soon after, the military forced him to call us, trying to bait me and others into showing up to a phony meeting. Through code words, my colleague made us aware that he was in custody. We went immediately to his safe house and destroyed anything sensitive: his laptop, phone, camera, memory cards and documents. The military raided the apartment shortly after that.
He was soon forced to call us again. This time we put his girlfriend on the phone, thinking it might be her last chance to hear his voice. He pleaded, “Honey, please show up this time,” but we knew he didn’t mean it. He had planned to ask her to marry him a few days later. Instead, he was headed into the hell of military custody and interrogation.
On the day of the coup two years ago, I saw anger, fear, sorrow and uncertainty on people’s faces as they struggled to comprehend what it meant for them and their country. Today, people barely recognize their lives; severe economic hardship, sky-high inflation, increasing crime and other suffering touch countless families. But we have internalized the shock and are determined to write a happy ending to this dark episode.
Now, in our darkest hour, we must be courageous. We cannot lose hope.
We won’t go back to the old Myanmar. We will create a free and equal society for all, including the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities who have suffered for far too long — a Myanmar based on a federal constitution, equality and compassion and whose values inspire the world.
Source/publisher:
"The New York Times" (USA)
Date of publication:
2023-03-19
Date of entry/update:
2023-03-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
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"Women have been barred from education in Afghanistan and face mass arrests and summary executions in Myanmar. In Iran, failure to wear a hijab to the satisfaction of the morality police was enough to end in death—after being beaten by police, according to witnesses—for Mahsa Amini six months ago today.
Women’s rights are indivisible from national security. That’s the powerful message that came through strongly when four Australian women—one each from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iran, plus a nationally renowned foreign correspondent and rights advocate—gathered for ASPI’s event for International Women’s Day.
Titled ‘Women in conflict and protest: a conversation on protecting human rights and strengthening peace and security’, the discussion focused on women, the grassroots movements they lead, and how they stand at the forefront of protests and movements to defend human rights.
The panellists were united in raising the international community’s shortcomings in supporting these women’s efforts in consistent, principled ways. Women have distinct experiences of conflict and oppression and play particular roles in responding. That includes bringing unique strengths to popular acts of resistance and to peace processes.
But realities for women across the world show that the importance of their role in peace and security continues to slip through the cracks of the international community’s agenda.
The women, peace and security agenda remains on the backburner, despite the fact that we’ve seen a backsliding, if not a complete unravelling, of women’s rights in many countries over the past few years after decades of progress.
In her keynote address, Shaharzad Akbar, former chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, highlighted that Afghan women started mobilising against Taliban rule as early as 16 August 2021—just one day after the group took control of Kabul. Undeterred by the brutal crackdowns they continue to face, these women have adopted different forms of protest and resistance against the regime, such as establishing underground schools and libraries.
Nos Hosseini, an Australian-Iranian lawyer and refugee rights advocate, spoke about anger against the regime in Tehran and the courage of Iranian women who were ‘unafraid of the bullets they’re met with’.
‘It’s not about the headscarf at all,’ she said of the protests that have now lasted six months and claimed at least 500 lives. ‘It’s about dignity.’
The power of social media as a tool for women protesting emerged as a key feature of the discussion. Mon Zin, a founding member of Global Myanmar Spring Revolution, described social media as ‘the life of the revolution’.
Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement has its own verified Twitter page where protest ideas are posted and discussed. Zin said women use social media to disseminate anti-coup symbols. These include the three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance and democracy movements in Southeast Asia adopted from The Hunger Games film series; bouquets of flowers, a reference to Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s signature floral hairstyle; and bright-red lips, a reference to the #RedLipsSpeakTruthToPower campaign aimed at raising awareness about sexual violence against women committed by the junta.
Similarly, in Afghanistan and Iran, social media helps women overcome barriers to their physical movement and access to public spaces. Akbar observed that Afghan women, unable to take to the streets due to Taliban restrictions, have chosen to record videos at home, producing pieces of music and poetry with their faces covered and releasing them on social media.
Hosseini raised the invaluable role social media has played in sharing Iran’s realities with the world, mobilising support not just within Iran but also among the international community. Despite internet blackouts, she said, people have used virtual private networks to disseminate footage and imagery of the protests and the government’s crackdown. She particularly emphasised the role of social media in ensuring that Iran’s story reached the homes and phones of non-Iranians whose support is crucial in amplifying the voices of Iranians and ensuring that their struggle is not forgotten by the international community.
Women are also subverting and repurposing symbols of male power and patriarchy. For instance, Mon explained how women activists in Myanmar developed a tactic to keep security forces at bay by stringing up women’s clothing across the streets. In traditional Myanmar culture, walking beneath women’s clothing is considered bad luck and even emasculating for men.
Hosseini noted that the current wave of protests in Iran involves all genders, ages, ethnicities and religions. People are standing together in solidarity against ‘the gender apartheid regime that’s engulfed and held the Iranian populace hostage for the last 44 years’, she said.
Maryam Zahid established Afghan Women on the Move to address the lack of support available in parts of Australia to Afghan women who are recovering from past traumas and trying to rebuild their lives. The organisation uses community-based approaches to provide social engagement, mental health and settlement support to Afghan and other women from multicultural backgrounds in Australia.
In the face of extraordinary stories of courage of women fighting repressive rimes, Sophie McNeill, senior Australia researcher at Human Rights Watch, underlined the international community’s short and selective attention span for women’s rights. While media, governments and the public often show keen support for courageous women protesters early on, they tend to lose interest over the longer term.
The other panellists agreed. Zahid, for instance, recalled receiving enthusiastic political and media attention in the days following the Taliban takeover in 2021. But that evaporated soon after as a business-as-usual attitude set in.
Looking ahead, Zin encouraged members of the public to participate in online petitions and campaigns supporting the civil-disobedience movement and to let governments know that Australian public opinion stands firmly against the junta and with the people of Myanmar. She also underlined the importance of funding civil-society organisations.
McNeill reiterated the importance of long-term investments in the people on the ground, focusing on their protection, education and empowerment. She urged Australians to talk to their local members of parliament about increasing foreign aid. And she called on the international community to be more consistent in calling out human rights abuses wherever they occur in the world.
The importance of placing international pressure on repressive regimes and to break expectations of impunity was echoed by Hosseini. Overall, as McNeill also said, governments need to learn from mistakes and realise that conversations on human rights, women’s rights and security must not happen in silos.
The discussion brought out the contrast between the incredible resilience of grassroot movements and the international community’s patchy concern. For me, this raised questions about the usefulness of international frameworks such as the UN women, peace and security agenda and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Authoritarian regimes such as the Taliban, the Iranian state and the Myanmar junta, as Zin noted, simply don’t care about such frameworks, and the international community seems to lack the political will to take concrete action against the regimes’ violations.
What is the use of these frameworks, then, if they are only applied in situations where they are easily accepted and palatable, and are absent where they are needed most? In a recent advocacy video, an Afghan woman called for the world to ‘not forget the women of Afghanistan and help them not to be buried alive’. Her appeal shows what is at stake when the world turns a blind eye to gender-based violence and repression..."
Source/publisher:
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Date of publication:
2023-03-13
Date of entry/update:
2023-03-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Articles, reports and sites relating to women of Burma, Women and Politics in Burma/Myanmar, Women's rights, Anti-coup protesters
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Myanmar’s journalists are rebuilding independent media with one foot in the country, and one foot out, writes Laure Siegel.
Description:
"As Myanmar’s bloody coup ticks over into its third year, local journalists continue to struggle to sustain and build independent media voices in support of democracy both inside the country and in the growing refugee diaspora.
It’s an evolving ecosystem depending on an underground network, including citizen journalists, philanthropic support, experimentation in distribution and voices — and raw courage in the face of a violent oppression by the Tatmadaw military junta.
The military broke the old system.
“I didn’t want to give up this job. But since the coup, journalists can’t report freely and have to worry about their and their relatives’ safety. So I had to flee.” says a young woman print and TV reporter, now in Thailand.
Journalists were among the first to be hunted down after the military coup, led by General Min Aung Hlaing on February 1, 2021, along with opposition politicians, social workers and activists. In the two years since, four journalists — all working in local media or as freelancers — have been killed and 145 arrested. About 60 remain in detention.
It effectively dismantled the network of democratic media that had spread across the country over the previous decade. Instead, the Myanmar junta became the world’s biggest jailer of journalists relative to population. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists listed Myanmar as the eighth worst country worldwide for impunity for crimes against journalists.
An independent media emerges
Still, the military’s attempts to control the media landscape did not stop a surge in independent outlets and content creation. This period also observed a decrease in popularity of state-controlled media.
Two years after the coup, the top media by audience remain the trusted four: BBC Burmese, Mizzima, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and Voice of America (VOA).
All struggle to monetize this audience, especially as digital advertising prices have collapsed in Myanmar. One million online impressions earns media companies $US10, compared to $US570 in Europe and $US130 in Thailand.
Social media distribution has been constrained as Meta’s platforms have been banned in Myanmar.Now, only half of the country’s internet users who have access to VPNs can still access Meta. According to a survey by the News Consulting Group, only a third of Myanmar Meta users actively use Facebook as a main source of news.
“We have problems with Facebook because they don’t understand that we are covering a war so they regularly categorise our account as “Page at risk”. But only local media are punished for community violations when they publish videos of violent acts, not the big media. So when they block our audience, even though we have one million followers, we only reach 1000 people per post”.- founder of local media covering Myanmar central plains
As the usual revenue models of subscriptions, advertisements and events are denied independent media, most have turned to philanthropic grants to remain sustainable.
This has created an imbalance between the mainly English-language national media and the more poorly resourced, mostly local, media in Myanmar’s languages who lack staff dedicated to accounting or human resource management. Delays in transferring funds also disadvantages reporters relying on grants for their income:
We know how to write stories but we don’t know how to write proposals or grant forms. Our English skills are not good enough to fulfill the diverse requirements of international organizations, so we get less financial support than the big national media. — a local editor.
Most independent media have been forced to operate underground or abroad, mainly in Thailand, Bangladesh and India. At least a thousand Burmese journalists are estimated to live in exile since the coup, including a third in Thailand, often without refugee protections or the legal status that would allow them to pursue professional or educational opportunities. Their properties in Myanmar can still be seized and destroyed and their relatives are vulnerable to being taken hostage to impose pressure to keep quiet.
It’s a “one foot in, one foot out” model that brings big challenges. Despite those challenges, Myanmar’s journalists keep performing their duty of keeping their communities informed.
In-country, local media keeps providing a key link.
“Local media have built a very reliable network of sources over the years: they are our friends, relatives, neighbours. Even the media based in exile on the borderlands can still use the Myanmar telecom network to reach sources inside the country,” local editor.
They face greater risks, too, and have a responsibility to protect those sources — including from unwanted exposure by national or international media.
Hundreds of trainers conduct online and in-person capacity-building training sessions in mobile reporting, investigation, digital safety and feature writing. Organizations such as Myanmar Witness or the Center for Law and Democracy teach both citizen journalists and professional journalists to gather evidence of war crimes that could be used in international court cases.
Despite the electricity and Internet cuts, new distribution formats are being tested and developed, such as SMS, newsletters and podcasts. One prominent example is Kaladan media, the first Rohingya News Agency, which has been based in Bangladesh since 2001. They are one of the founders of the Burma News International (BNI), a network of fifteen independent media groups led by exiled Burmese journalists in India, Bangladesh and Thailand that was launched in 2003.
“We have been consistently challenging, monitoring and investigating the Burma Army Islamophobic narrative. During anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar, our website was hacked for six months and we were blocked on Facebook numerous times because of some users abusively reporting us. Our people don’t have easy access to the Internet so we launched a 30 minutes daily news bulletin, which is broadcasted in communal meeting places in refugee camps via loudspeakers.” — Tin Soe, editor-in-chief of the Kaladan Press Network explains.
Frontier Myanmar continues to run Doh Athan (“Our Voice”) program and local media such as Delta News Agency for the Irrawaddy region and Myaelatt Athan for Sagaing and Magway regions launched podcasts and weekly TV shows.
“We have three podcasts, one about news, one about healthcare and one is called ‘Letter from People Defence Forces’. We are reading on-air letters of pro-democracy fighters to their relatives or girlfriends. It’s a nice format that allows us to connect them with the people as they are trying to survive underground and are isolated from everyone”. A representative for Myaelatt Athan.
Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd, Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center emphasises: “A successful revolution is at least 75% communication. In the context of Myanmar, I see the way forward as systematising the defection of soldiers, focusing on people’s support and keeping up the international interest”.
In the spirit of building bridges between skills and nationalities, the collective Visual Rebellion Myanmar was co-founded after the coup by Burmese media students and international creatives. A newsroom of journalists and artists based inside Myanmar and around the world produces together in-depth features, research reports, photo stories and documentaries about the impact of the coup from a human perspective. Some of the best content is adapted and translated to other languages, such as a series for French investigative outlet Mediapart.
Visual Rebellion is committed to prioritize story angles where people are agents and not only victims of their fates. This includes the unionization of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand, the founding of a photo-magazine by Rohingya people in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, women fighting frontline battles and grassroots coping mechanisms for surviving the economic crisis generated by the coup.
After a year-long scorched-earth campaign in the central plains by military troops, one member of the collective who is native to the area, explained: “I can’t write about dead bodies and burned villages anymore because it is repetitive in its horror, it publicises terrorist actions by the junta which has a deep impact on the moral of the people and it has a huge impact on my mental health as I know the areas and people targeted very well since childhood. We need to find other ways to tell the story”.
As it is estimated that 75 percent of the stories published by Burmese media are coup or conflict related, several audience surveys show a phenomenon of “coup-fatigue”. People would rather read about topics such as commodity prices, health, education and agriculture, as well as weather, refugees, business and international affairs.
Local journalists on the front line
As most international and national media pulled out their staff out of Myanmar, they rely for on the ground information on citizen reporters who sent information, pictures and videos from their phones and are poorly paid, or not paid at all.
It’s forcing a division in the Myanmar media community with different treatment between management-level editors who are often safely re-based abroad and on-the-ground, junior reporters survive on their own in precarious situations. National and international media often use content gathered by local media without compensation.
“Relying on non-professional media workers carries big risks: they struggle with emotional distance, take low-resolution pictures, send them to all media houses and then face copyright issues, some share names of sources online and most are not trained enough to check accuracy. Digital, physical, psycho-social and legal safety is a precondition for producing professional journalism and local citizens can’t fill the void without being given the proper tools.” — Toby Mendel, executive director for the Center of Law and Democracy
The pauperization of the information sector post-coup has pushed down media rates and professional reporters still present in the country now get offered citizen reporter wages. Media workers lack the negotiating power and industry body to obtain fair wages and safety measures, as denounced in the Anti-Theft Wage Campaign by the International Federation of Journalists,
The division drives internal mistrust. The founder of a local media in hiding in a Thai-Myanmar border town, says: “We try to identify military propaganda accounts by the terms they use to refer to the junta. We also know that some “journalists” come to border towns in Thailand to spy on real reporters in exile and report to the military back in Myanmar. Some journalists who were working for pro-military newspapers even get hired by independent media houses nowadays because there is no background check and clearance process anymore. Now anyone can apply for a media job via Messenger by sending some pictures and footage and claiming experience after having attended a two-week training for Citizen Reporters.
A group of reporters in exile has started a consultative process with independent media houses with the goal of creating a new MPC and Code of Conduct, freed from business or military chains, be it from the Burmese army or opposition forces. They also lobby the body in charge of drafting a Federal Democracy Charter, to include a clause about press freedom and journalism protection in the future Constitution.
Whichever political situation emerges from the ongoing conflict, the journalistic community is already engaged in healthy debates about implementing policies of self-regulation, rethinking ownership structure and pushing for inclusion as well as gender and ethnic diversity. A balance between external support and internal reflection is the way for Myanmar media to survive the war of information that is raging in the country..."
Source/publisher:
International Press Institute
Date of publication:
2023-03-15
Date of entry/update:
2023-03-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
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Description:
"YANGON, MYANMAR —
Two years after Myanmar’s military coup, a handful of young people are still protesting the coup, but, given the military crackdown on protests, the tightened security situation, and financial constraints only a relatively few flash mob protests now occur, and they do so in urban areas.
In these protests, in places such as Yangon and Mandalay, a small group of young people gather briefly, chanting and hanging banners with slogans before dispersing.
The president of Basic Education Student’s Union, part of the All-Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), who uses the name “Molly” in media interviews for security reasons, said people in Myanmar need to be more aware of the opposition to the now-ruling junta.
“Flash mobs are making people in urban areas nervous. While the revolution goes on for the long run, people are getting back to normal life. They need to wake up to political awareness as well as the armed revolution,” she told VOA.
“We are under 18”
It is young people who, since the coup, who have been most vociferous in trying to take down the regime despite nighttime raids, unlawful arrests, and being chased down or beaten up in the streets.
The student unions federation and the General Strike Committee, the largest combination of groups organizing anti-government protests, told VOA that most of those in the flash mobs are high school students under 18 years of age. While other students return to military-controlled schools, some members of the two organizations have chosen the armed path, actively participating in guerrilla attacks.
Molly and her brother, Nyi Min Thu, joined the protests right after the February 1, 2021, coup. Nyi Min Thu was killed February 25, when the military raided the house where he was hiding.
“After my brother died, I worked harder on the revolution at risk to my life,” Molly said.
More lives at risk
As the coup passes the two-year mark, the military regime has increased its control over big cities. At Yangon and Mandalay intersections, the army has installed checkpoints and put security in place. Junta security forces have arrested young demonstrators by raiding houses and bloodily cracking down during the protests.
According to the ABFSU, some 50 student members have been detained for participating in the anti-junta movement and 30 of them were sentenced to a minimum of two years in prison. In addition, 11 protesters died during military raids.
On February 8 in Yangon’s Mayangone township, a young man wearing a black jacket and jeans pulled out a banner. Another eight young men hiding on the side of the road came out and joined him in holding the banner saying “reject the fascist election.”
“The demonstration lasted only four minutes, but we prepared for it over two weeks,” Kyaw Swar, a 17-year-old protester said, adding that as the military gains more control over cities, being out on the streets has become dangerous.
Flash mob groups said they meet regularly online to discuss protest plans and share information. Usually, they choose a location that the security forces cannot crack down on easily.
"In the past, it took a week to set up a protest in one place. Now, it takes up to a month to plan a protest because of tight security. Normally, protests take place in populated areas such as markets, parks and bus stops where people will notice and soldiers cannot arrest us,” Molly said.
Funding decrease, spending increase
Until mid-2021, there were many strike groups conducting flash mob protests but now only 10 have survived, strike groups said. Similarly, in 2021, at least 40 group members participated in a protest, now only five to 10 participate.
"We used to manage to protest at least four times a month, but now it's very difficult to do it once a month,” said Kyaw Swar.
The military crackdown and arrests are the main reason for fewer protests and protesters, young demonstrators told VOA. Other difficulties include raising funds and finding safe houses.
“Landlords refuse to rent their homes because we are so young,” Molly said. Landlords also refuse to rent to groups of young people because they suspect the young people are protesters or will take other actions against the junta.
Strike groups rely on online fundraising campaign groups and donations from the public. Until end of 2021, ABFSU received more than a million kyat – about $475 – per month, but donations have gradually dropped by half. In contrast, living costs and expenses for protests are rising. Protest groups said they need at least 2 million kyat a month for living and accommodation of 15 people. It costs up to 150,000 kyat to manage a strike.
“Fifteen people are living together in a house to save many. We only eat noodle soup on very difficult days. There are even days I just smoke when I am hungry," a striker who asked not to be named told VOA..."
Source/publisher:
"VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication:
2023-03-09
Date of entry/update:
2023-03-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"The military coup of 2021 did more than just destroy Myanmar’s political system. The damage it has wrought extends to every sector, not least the education system. The sector has suffered dire consequences, with 80 percent of Myanmar’s nearly 10 million students rejecting the regime’s education system, according to the Education Ministry of the parallel National Unity Government (NUG).
The takeover came as a particularly devastating blow for one group: Students who passed the matriculation exam in 2020 and refused to study under the regime’s education system lost their opportunity to continue their education. For the striking students, Myanmar Nway-Oo University, a public university, was established in October 2022 under the guidelines of the NUG to provide undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as vocational courses for striking students. It has an affiliation with Interim University Councils (IUCs), which were founded by striking students and teachers across the country.
Dr. Sai Khaing Myo Tun, the NUG’s deputy minister of education, talked to The Irrawaddy about the shadow government’s plans to meet the education needs of Myanmar’s striking students. He also delineated the promising future of a new education system under a federal democracy and other education policies that will benefit Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) students, resistance forces and disabled persons after the revolution.
What are the Ministry of Education (MOE)’s priorities for filling the education gap for striking students?
We implemented the online education system as the first stage because of the regime’s atrocities on the ground. Initially, we organized and gathered teachers and academic staff for basic education. We urged them to form township education boards and now we have 300 across the country. For higher education, we have 246 Interim University Councils (IUCs) under our authority.
The major change is that the MOE gives autonomy to all academic institutions. This is also part of our policy. All schools have their own administration and management rights. From our side, we provide an up-to-date curriculum and amend it in line with the values of federal democracy. Now, we have 70 online federal schools operating under the MOE’s guidelines across the country.
In addition, we have also set a policy that allows students to pursue education in accordance with their age.
Most important, the MOE has drafted a Federal Democracy Education Policy with the help of experts and the draft policy has already been approved by the NUG. We are now discussing it with the Education Committee of the National Unity Consecutive Council (NUCC). We are also seeking different opinions and voices from ethnic associations, educational institutions and religious organizations. This policy will be out in the near future.
What changes will the Federal Democracy Education Policy bring?
Myanmar’s education was a centralized system in the past. Under a federal democracy’s education system, each school in every state and region will have the authority to implement its own education system.
Ethnic people will have the right to learn in their mother tongue and their own curriculum. There will be more freedom in the education system as it is decentralized.
What challenges does the MOE face in implementing the Federal Democracy Education Policy?
The first challenge is the issue of teacher safety. Secondly, we face a budget shortage as we are an interim government. So, we cannot provide monthly financial support to teachers, but we are trying to find ways to solve this problem. We are seeking help from the international community. The next challenge is that teachers should have a deep understanding of federal democracy, as they will experience changes in the education system.
Is there any possibility of implementing the Federal Democracy Education Policy throughout the country?
There will be some difficulties in regions under the control of the military regime. However, we will implement the education system of a federal democracy in the regions under the control of the NUG, resistance forces and EAOs [ethnic armed organizations]. On the other hand, we don’t see any problem with that because online schools are spreading across the country. So, students will see the gap between the values of our education system and those of the regime’s education. We have already made a good start.
Will Myanmar Nway Oo University (MNOU) and its affiliated IUCs offer degrees ?
Certificates of Completion will be issued to students who finish the formal course by MNOU and the IUCs. The NUG will issue a degree certificate if all parties such as student unions and teacher unions taking part in the revolution agree to it.
Meanwhile, all parties agree to celebrate the convocation on the same day after the revolution.
How will the MOE ensure the credibility of certification issued by public universities and Interim University Councils for students who want to continue their academic journey abroad?
The authority to issue completion certificates rests with the public universities and IUCs. There might be some difficulties for students who don’t have their previous education records on hand. If necessary, the MOE is willing to provide letters of recommendation for students looking to further their studies abroad. We also have a department to deal with international affairs. The good news is that the European Union and the US will help the NUG and resistance forces. We are making connections with them and we are going to negotiate this issue. We’ve already offered courses taught by foreign professors from international universities. I don’t mean to suggest there won’t be difficulties, but all parties will figure this issue out and reach a consensus. We will make it better in order to create more education opportunities for students.
How will the NUG help IUCs that are not able to implement courses?
The NUG has a Board of Education that is responsible for developing curriculums and lessons for students. We can share this teaching content with them. MNOU is also using these lessons. If ICUs cannot implement this on their own, we can form a coalition of universities, the way Kachin State Comprehensive University does. Besides, there are also NUG-accredited private universities, like Spring University Myanmar. We are still in the stage of preparation and we are going step by step.
What are the plans of the NUG to provide education for resistance forces after the revolution?
The MOE has a plan to implement a bridge program for students who cannot access education during the revolution. We will provide an interim program for different students after the revolution. For students who joined the resistance forces, we will allow them to study at a defense university if they want to do so. We will also send them to foreign defense universities. If they want to study abroad, we will organize it for them. Or if they want to enter the workforce, we will provide vocational training for them. Next, we also have a plan to provide education for disabled persons who lost limbs [or other faculties] during the revolution or prior to the coup. The allocation of government expenditures for education may increase to 20 percent after the revolution. It will take time to reach a consensus because we are following democratic principles. On the one hand, there are losses because of the revolution, but on the other hand, we are developing the ability to make changes and build the future..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-02-23
Date of entry/update:
2023-02-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
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"Corn, watermelon, ginger and turmeric farmers in Shan State have switched to growing opium as Myanmar’s economy collapses under military rule.
Labor shortages and rising fertilizer and pesticide prices have thrown numerous farmers into economic hardship.
A Shan State farmer told The Irrawaddy: “Yields are not good this year and prices are low. I previously grew corn, turmeric and ginger but it was difficult to sell them because of problems with transport. I switched to poppy which is easier to transport. I can carry several kilograms and I earn no more than 30,000 kyats for selling about 50kg of crops. I would not be able to carry that amount to market but the brokers come to the farms to buy it. Poppy is much more profitable.”
It costs at least 1.3 million kyats (US$450) to grow an acre of corn or ginger and around 1 million kyats to cultivate an acre of poppy, which is far more valuable, he said.
“Food prices have generally increased since the coup but our crops sell for less. We have no option but to grow opium,” said the farmer.
Poppy yields are between 10-13kg per acre and it fetches up to 900,000 kyats per 1.6kg. The poppy season starts in August, according to growers.
Other farmers have left for Thailand, he said.
“Everyone who has stayed is growing poppy. It is difficult to sell other crops with transport disruptions. But the poppy brokers come to us to buy it,” he said.
Myanmar has again become the world’s second-largest producer of opium following the 2021 coup. Cultivation and production dipped and Myanmar in 2019 fell to third under the ousted National League for Democracy government, according to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report last month.
The survey of Shan, Kachin, Chin and Karen states, where Myanmar’s opium production is based, said Shan State accounted for around 84 percent of the area under cultivation.
Myanmar’s poppy cultivation stood at 55,000 hectares in 2015, 41,000 in 2017, 39,300 in 2018 and 39,100 in 2019.
In 2022 the cultivated area was estimated at 40,100 hectares, about 10,000 hectares more than in 2021, according to the UN agency. Production almost doubled in the first year of military rule to 795 tonnes in 2022.
Continued instability, increasing fuel and fertilizer prices, a weak economy, inflation and high opium prices have boosted opium cultivation, said the report..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-02-14
Date of entry/update:
2023-02-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Drugs and Burma: general links, reports and articles, Burma: drug production and trafficking, Drug bans and poppy crop substitution, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters
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"1. We solemnly salute CDM activists and hold them to the highest regard for the sacrifices they made and their moral stand, for always standing righteously with the people and for fighting together with them.
2. On the other hand, we to a certain extent must understand and empathize with the real life struggles of non-CDM people trying to survive under coercion and repression.
3. What we should and can appeal to all non-CDM public servants is to not politically co-operate with the SAC and to not actively participate in their mechanisms of repression, as well as to not willingly serve the military dictatorship. Moreover, revolutionary forces should continuously impart the non- CDM public servants with knowledge and guidance on how they can confidentially support the revolution and be a part of it.
4. The backbone of the CDM policy should include planning and implementing programs that provide the essential needs for the CDM people for their survival and wellbeing. The CDM policy must include sections that provide full guarantees for the future of CDM activists.
5. The CDM is one of the political movements. We should consider a variety of ways for CDM activists so that they can actively participate in this political process. Every revolutionary force has a major responsibility to organize CDM activists and help them transform from being a vital mass protest force to become part of a united powerful revolutionary coalition. We must organize, build up and transform our revolutionary associates to become our allies, and our allies to become our comrades.
6. Most critically, we should find ways to help CDM activists to learn political thought and ideology, and at the same time help them with details on methods to strengthen their emancipatory struggle and coping mechanisms for their everyday survival. This should include accessing UN mechanisms and programs as well as getting assistance through NGOS, INGOs, and negotiating with Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROS) for CDM activists to seek safe shelter, essential aid, evacuating and relocating CDM activists to liberated areas, and deliberating and discussing political thought and ideology with CDM activists.
7. By all means, we should try to help CDM activists to establish unions such as workers union or Public Servants Union, and help these unions to become active members of the political struggle.
8. We took a position that non-CDM people are not a fundamental alliance force for our struggle. At the same time, they are not the main target we should allocate our resources to stage an attack.
9. We should always let those who want to join the CDM movement know that they are welcome anytime, that it is better late than never. The door should be left wide open for them. Although the CDM and non-CDM people may subscribe to different political values and take different paths when passing through the tumultuous history of our time, we should not forget that each and every one is living under multiple forms of oppression perpetrated by the same military dictatorship.
10. Since oppression by the SAC has become more intense, those who initially refused to join the CDM movement are now joining, such as in Myaing region. In other cases, after the liberated areas gradually expanded, more and more non- CDM people are joining the movement, such as in Sagaing region. We should take notes of such phenomena.
11. In terms of formulating CDM policy, instead of a blanket approach, we should consider a stratified approach, that involves making different policies for different areas considering complex contexts and nuances, such as liberated areas, ERO territories, contested areas where both SAC and revolutionary forces are vying for control, and areas dominated by SAC.
12. We must consult and coordinate with EROS when formulating a CDM policy that concerns their constituencies and those who took shelter in their territory. We believe action speaks louder than words. It is not enough to superficially espouse "equality for all nationalities, and rights of ethnic people for self determination" but rather we must prove our determination with actual actions as suggested above.
13. It is vital to develop and implement an education policy in which rights to education and learning, and provision of essential education services are guaranteed. Absolutely, there is no moral ground for any political faction to interfere or take away these rights.
14. We should not allow our individual emotions and grievances get in the way of making a political policy for everyone. Likewise, we do not make a broad national policy just because "we had made political sacrifices" or "we endure hardships daily as a result of our belief". If we project our own bitter suffering too much over the policies we are making, we may knock the policy items away from the intended results we want to achieve, and the subsequent implementing strategies may go wrong. In fact, what matter most is that we hold together between different political allies, care for each other and pave our own way to the future.
15. It is crystal clear that the journey ahead is a long struggle. We believe that to unify, persuade and organize as much as possible is the most suitable and practical tactics for the revolution to triumph.
16. Judgements and punishments should only be considered when inevitable. Some conundrums might not be suitable to be solved at present. It is wise to postpone or sequence some issues, until the time and space is ripe.
17. Striving in every possible way for the triumph of the people's revolution should be our priority. We believe some questions will become easier to answer after the revolution is victorious. Some issues may shrink or fade away while some may find their own solution instantly. Therefore, we solemnly urge you to focus your precious efforts to the single most important task at our hand that is uprooting the military dictatorship through the means of politics, diplomatic and armed revolution..."
Source/publisher:
All Burma Federation of Student Unions
Date of publication:
2023-02-13
Date of entry/update:
2023-02-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Student Groups, Anti-coup protesters
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"Summary: On 5 January 2023, according to the Irrawaddy, PDF 3 Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) (under the control of Sagaing PDF 8 Light Infantry Division (LID)) alongside the Da Pa Yin Kwe PDF attacked Kywei Pon village where SAC and Pyu Saw Htee forces were camped. During the attack one Pyu Saw Htee member was shot and killed by the PDF.
Following this, SAC armed forces (reportedly the 33 LID) allegedly raided the village of Da Pa Yin Kwe (တပုရင်းကွဲ/ဒီပဲယင်းကွဲ). According to Khit Thit, from 0500 on 6 January 2023, there was a continuous exchange of fire and the use of heavy weapons by the joint Pyu Saw Htee and SAC armed forces. The SAC allegedly shot and killed four people, including Ashin Gandhasara (အရှင် ဂန္ဓသာရ), a Buddhist monk and graduate of Thitagu Buddhist University, and Ma Khaing Su Mon (မခိုင်စုမွန်), a teacher who was allegedly associated with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Ashin Gandhasara had reportedly travelled from Mandalay to Da Pa Yin Kwe village on the evening of 5 January and was staying at the Shwe Gugyi monastery.....Myanmar Witness has been able to verify: Myanmar Witness geolocated user-generated content (UGC) showing the deceased monk and teacher to the basement of the Da Pa Yin Kwe village monastery.
Using NASA’s FIRMS and Sentinel Hub, Myanmar Witness was able to verify that a fire took place on 6 January 2023 in Da Pa Yin Kwe village.....Background: Sagaing Township, in Sagaing State, has been the site of an ongoing conflict between the PDF, the SAC, and the pro-SAC Pyu Saw Htee. Da Pa Yin Kwe is reportedly a pro-democracy village, while Kwei Pon, only 1.5 kilometres away, is a pro-SAC village.
Notable clashes have occurred between the villages. In July 2022, Mandalay Free Press reported that the SAC armed forces raided Da Pa Yin Kwe Village, allegedly setting five houses on fire. They also claimed that one individual, 37-year-old Ko Zaw Lin (ကိုဇော်လင်း), was arrested, tortured, and burnt to death. Clashes also reportedly broke out in December 2022, according to Sagaing Township True News. The events between the 5-6 January 2023, which were investigated by Myanmar Witness, represent the latest round of conflict between pro-democracy forces and the SAC and Pyu Saw Htee in this location..."
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Witness
Date of publication:
2023-01-20
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
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"JCC-CDM တွင် အတည်ပြုပြီး ပေးပို့တင်ပြထားသော နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM မူဝါဒစာတမ်းကို အခြေပြု၍ အောက်ပါ မူဝါဒလေးရပ်ကို ချမှတ်သည်။
၁။ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM များသည် တိုင်းပြည်ပြောင်းလဲရေးအတွက် တော်လှန်ရေး၏ အရေးပါသည့် အင်အားစုတစ်ရပ် ဖြစ်သည်ကို NUCC အနေဖြင့် မှတ်တမ်းတင်ဂုဏ်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။
၂။ CDM နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ အသွင်ကူးပြောင်းရေးဆိုင်ရာ တရားမျှတမှု ပြန်လည် ရှာဖွေဖော်ထုတ်ခြင်းတွင် အသိအမှတ်ပြု မှတ်တမ်းတင်ခြင်း၊ ဂုဏ်ပြုချီးမြှင့်ခြင်း၊ အမှန်တရားနှင့် တရားမျှတမှု ရှာဖွေခြင်း၊ နစ်နာမှုများကို ပြန်လည်ကုစား ပေးခြင်းတို့ ပါဝင်သည်။
၃။ JCC-CDM တွင် အတည်ပြုပြီး ပေးပို့တင်ပြထားသော နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM မူဝါဒစာတမ်းကို အခြေပြု၍ လိုအပ်သော ဥပဒေ၊ နည်းဥပဒေနှင့် လုပ်ထုံးလုပ်နည်းများကို ဆက်လက်ရေးဆွဲသွားရန် ဖြစ်သည်။
၄။ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM များအပါအဝင် ပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံးအပေါ် အာဏာရှင် ထောက်တိုင်များ ဖြစ်ကြသည့် Non-CDM များက လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ချိုးဖောက်မှု၊ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ၊ ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်နေကြောင်း သက်သေအထောက်အထားများ တွေ့ရှိပါက သက်ဆိုင်ရာ ဒေသအသီးသီးမှ တရားဝင်အတည်ပြုထားသော သက်ဆိုင်ရာဒေသ ဥပဒေဖြင့် အရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Consultative Council
Date of publication:
2023-01-20
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
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"JCC-CDM က ရေးသားပြုစုထားသော နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း CDM မူဝါဒစာတမ်းကို အများပြည်သူလေ့လာနိုင်စေရန်အတွက် ထုတ်ပြန်အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Consultative Council
Date of publication:
2023-01-20
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
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2.83 MB
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"On January 4, the junta announced they would release a total of 7,012 prisoners in “accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 401, Sub-Section (1)”. AAPP has been monitoring the situation and understands that around 300 political prisoners from at least (19) prisons were released. Throughout the day, AAPP has been able to confirm the release of 223 identified political prisoners. The exact identities and total figures of the prisoners released remain to be verified, but AAPP will continue to monitor and document these releases as more information becomes available.
Since the February 1, 2021, military coup and the emergence of the Spring Revolution, a total of (2707) people, pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed through military crackdowns following pro-democracy movements.
Since the coup, a total of (13,272) people are currently under detention, (1911) of whom are serving sentences. There are a total of (100) post-coup death row prisoners as of January 6, 2023. (121) people have been sentenced in absentia, of whom (42) have been sentenced to death. This makes a total of (142) people who have been sentenced to death. (24) people have been released on bail and (3696) people have already been released. These are the numbers verified by AAPP. The actual numbers are likely much higher. We will continue to update accordingly.
According to information gathered today, on the night of January 5 political prisoners were severely tortured by prison staff and many police forces in Pathein Prison. The beatings are still continuing today. It is reported that a political prisoner Win Min Thant (aka Mae Gyi) was killed from the assault, though the death is still being confirmed. 8 political prisoners are reportedly receiving medical treatments in the new Pathein Hospital and are in life-threatening condition. Such kind of torture is a serious and blatent violation of human rights.
Among the prisoners released from Myeik Prison in Tanintharyi Region on January 4 was Dr. Min Htet Paing, a political prisoner who was sentenced to serve 3 years in prison under Penal Code Section 505 A. However, another charge was then made against Dr. Min Htet Paing and he was rearrested in front of the prison entrance. He was accused of writing false information on social media to create unrest and “terrorism”, and arrested in early April 2021 on Kyay Nan Taing Bridge in Pathaung Village Tract, Myeik Township.
AAPP will continue to inform on verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update the lists with details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against, CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent, please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected].....ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၄ ရက်နေ့တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ အကျဉ်းသား၊အကျဉ်းသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၇၀၁၂) အား ရာဇဝတ်ကျင့်ထုံး ဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၄၀၁၊ ပုဒ်မခွဲ (၁) အရ ပြန်လည် လွှတ်ပေးမည်ဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ AAPP မှ အဆိုပါ အကျဉ်းထောင်လွှတ်ပေးမှု အခြေအနေနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ စောင့်ကြည့်မှတ်တမ်းတင်လျက်ရှိရာ လက်ရှိအချိန်ထိရရှိထား သော အချက်အလက်များအရ အကျဉ်းထောင် (၁၉) ခုထက်မနည်းမှ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား (၃၀၀) ဝန်းကျင် လွတ်မြောက်လာကြောင်းသိရှိရသည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့် ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) မှ အဆိုပါ အကျဉ်းသားလွှတ်ပေးမှုဖြစ်စဉ်မှ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသော နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား (၂၂၃) ဦးကို ယနေ့အထိ မှတ်တမ်းပြုနိုင်ခဲ့သည်။ လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေအတိအကျနှင့် အမည်စာရင်းမှာ ချက်ချင်းရရှိရန် လက်လှမ်းမမီနိုင် သည့်အတွက် အတည်ပြုရန် လိုအပ်နေဆဲဖြစ်ပြီး အတည်ပြုနိုင်သည့် အမည်စာရင်းများကို ဆက်လက်ဖော်ပြပေးသွား ပါမည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့ မတရားစစ်အာဏာလုမှုဖြစ်စဉ်ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့ကြသော ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ နှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ စုစုပေါင်းမှာ (၂၇၀၇) ဦး ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်မှ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၆ ရက်နေ့ထိတိုင် ဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၃၂၇၂) ဦးရှိပြီး ၎င်းတို့အနက်မှ (၁၉၁၁) ဦးမှာ ထောင်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသည်။ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၆ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်အထိ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးနှင့်ဆက်စပ်၍ သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရပြီး အကျဉ်းထောင်များတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၀၀) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ မျက်ကွယ်သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ (၄၂) ဦး အပါအဝင် (၁၂၁) ဦးမှာ မျက်ကွယ်ပြစ်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံ ထားရသည်။ ထိုကြောင့် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၄၂) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အာမခံဖြင့် လွတ်မြောက်သူ (၂၄) ဦးရှိပြီး၊ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေမှာ (၃၆၉၆) ဦး ရှိသည်။
ဖော်ပြပါ ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များသည် AAPP မှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အရေအတွက်ဖြစ်ပြီး မြေပြင်တွင် ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့်အချက်အလက်နှင့် ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များမှာ ယခုထက်ပိုမိုများပြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ အချက်အလက်များကို ထပ်မံကောက်ယူရရှိလာပါက ဆက်လက်ထည့်သွင်းဖော်ပြသွားပါမည်။
ယနေ့ရရှိသော အချက်အလက်များအရ ယမန်နေ့ (ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၅ ရက်) ညအချိန်တွင် ပုသိမ်အကျဉ်းထောင်၌ ထောင်ဝန်ထမ်းနှင့် ရဲအင်အားအများအပြားမှ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများအား ပြင်းထန်စွာ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခဲ့သည်ဟု ကြားသိရသည်။
ယနေ့တွင်လည်း ဆက်လက်၍ ရိုက်နှက်နေဆဲဖြစ်ပြီး နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားဖြစ်သူ ဝင်းမင်းထက်(ခ) မဲကြီးမှာ ရိုက်နှက်ခံရမှုကြောင့် သေဆုံးသွားကြောင်း ကြားသိရပြီး ထိုသေဆုံးမှုအား ဆက်လက်အတည်ပြုနေဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ ၈ ဦး မှာ ပုသိမ်ဆေးရုံအသစ်တွင် ဆေးကုသမှုခံနေရသည်ဟု သိရှိရသည်။ ဆေးကုသမှုခံနေရသူများမှာလည်း အသက်အန္တရာယ် စိုးရိမ်ဖွယ်ရာ အခြေအနေဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်းသည် အလွန်ပြင်းထန် သော လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ချိုးဖောက်မှုဖြစ်သည်။
ထို့ပြင် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၄ ရက်နေ့၌ တနင်္သာရီတိုင်း၊ မြိတ်အကျဉ်းထောင်မှ လွတ်မြောက်လာသူများတွင် ရာဇသတ်ကြီးဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၅၀၅-က ဖြင့် ထောင်ဒဏ် သုံးနှစ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသော နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား ဒေါက်တာ မင်းထက်ပိုင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့သော်လည်း ၎င်းအား အခြားအမှုကပ်ပြီး ထောင်ဘူးဝရှေ့၌ ပြန်လည် ဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ ဒေါက်တာမင်းထက်ပိုင်သည် လူမှုကွန်ရက်စာမျက်နှာပေါ်တွင် မဟုတ်မမှန်ရေးသားပြီး ဆူပူအကြမ်းဖက်မှု များဖြစ်ပေါ်လာစေရန် စည်းရုံးလှုံ့ဆော်သည်ဟု စွပ်စွဲခြင်းခံရကာ မြိတ်မြို့နယ်၊ ပသောင်းကျေးရွာအုပ်စု၊ ကြေးနန်းတိုင် တံတား၌ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဧပြီလဆန်းပိုင်းတွင် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းခံခဲ့ရသည်။
အရပ်ဘက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းမှ ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ အရပ်သားများ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ သတင်းသမားများ၊ CDM လှုပ်ရှားနေသည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများစသည့် နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှ မည်သူမဆို ဖမ်းဆီး၊ ထိန်းသိမ်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းခံထားရ ခြင်းများနှင့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးသွားသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များကို သိရှိပါက အောက်ပါလိပ်စာ များသို့ ဆက်သွယ်၍ အသိပေး၊ အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ကျဆုံးအချက်အလက်များကို ဖော်ပြပါ [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း၊ အဖမ်းအဆီးအချက်အလက်များကို [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း တိုက်ရိုက်ပေးပို့၍ ဆက်သွယ်အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2023-01-06
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"On January 4, the junta announced they would release a total of 7,012 prisoners in “accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 401, Sub-Section (1)”. AAPP has been monitoring the situation and understands that around 300 political prisoners from at least (19) prisons were released. Throughout the day, AAPP has been able to confirm the release of 193 identified political prisoners. The exact identities and total figures of the prisoners released remain to be verified, but AAPP will continue to monitor and document these releases as more information becomes available.
Since the February 1, 2021, military coup and the emergence of the Spring Revolution, a total of (2702) people, pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed through military crackdowns following pro-democracy movements.
Since the coup, a total of (13,284) people are currently under detention, (1912) of whom are serving sentences. There are a total of (100) post-coup death row prisoners as of January 5, 2023. (121) people have been sentenced in absentia, of whom (42) have been sentenced to death. This makes a total of (142) people who have been sentenced to death. (24) people have been released on bail and (3667) people have already been released. These are the numbers verified by AAPP. The actual numbers are likely much higher. We will continue to update accordingly.
According to information gathered today, on January 3, at around 7:30 PM, the junta fired heavy artillery, despite no clash occurring, at Demoso Township in Kayah State. One of the artillery shells exploded on a hut near Daw Tangoo Village, resulting in the death of an internally displaced woman called Soe Myar, who was struck in the thigh.
On January 3, Aung Kyawl, NLD Township Secretary of Wakema Township in Ayeyarwady Region, was sentenced to serve 10 years imprisonment with hard labour. Aung Kwyal was charged under Counter-Terrorism Law Section 50 (j) and sentenced by the Myaungmya Prison Special Court in Ayeyarwady Region. He is over 70 years old and already spent over a year under detainment.
AAPP will continue to inform on verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update the lists with details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against, CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent, please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected].....ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၄ ရက်နေ့တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ အကျဉ်းသား၊အကျဉ်းသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၇၀၁၂) အား ရာဇဝတ်ကျင့်ထုံး ဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၄၀၁၊ ပုဒ်မခွဲ (၁) အရ ပြန်လည် လွှတ်ပေးမည်ဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ AAPP မှ အဆိုပါ အကျဉ်းထောင်လွှတ်ပေးမှု အခြေအနေနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ စောင့်ကြည့်မှတ်တမ်းတင်လျက်ရှိရာ လက်ရှိအချိန်ထိရရှိထား သော အချက်အလက်များအရ အကျဉ်းထောင် (၁၉) ခုထက်မနည်းမှ နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဉ်းသား (၃၀၀) ဝန်းကျင် လွတ်မြောက်လာကြောင်းသိရှိရသည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့် ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) မှ အဆိုပါ အကျဉ်းသားလွှတ်ပေးမှုဖြစ်စဉ်မှ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသော နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား (၁၉၃) ဦးကို ယနေ့အထိ မှတ်တမ်းပြုနိုင်ခဲ့သည်။ လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေအတိအကျနှင့် အမည်စာရင်းမှာ ချက်ချင်းရရှိရန် လက်လှမ်းမမီနိုင် သည့်အတွက် အတည်ပြုရန် လိုအပ်နေဆဲဖြစ်ပြီး အတည်ပြုနိုင်သည့် အမည်စာရင်းများကို ဆက်လက်ဖော်ပြပေးသွား ပါမည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့ မတရားစစ်အာဏာလုမှုဖြစ်စဉ်ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့ကြသော ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ နှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ စုစုပေါင်းမှာ (၂၇၀၂) ဦး ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်မှ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၅ ရက်နေ့ထိတိုင် ဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၃၂၈၄) ဦးရှိပြီး ၎င်းတို့အနက်မှ (၁၉၁၂) ဦးမှာ ထောင်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသည်။ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၅ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်အထိ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးနှင့်ဆက်စပ်၍ သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရပြီး အကျဉ်းထောင်များတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၀၀) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ မျက်ကွယ်သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ (၄၂) ဦး အပါအဝင် (၁၂၁) ဦးမှာ မျက်ကွယ်ပြစ်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံ ထားရသည်။ ထိုကြောင့် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၄၂) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အာမခံဖြင့် လွတ်မြောက်သူ (၂၄) ဦးရှိပြီး၊ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေမှာ (၃၆၆၇) ဦး ရှိသည်။
ဖော်ပြပါ ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များသည် AAPP မှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အရေအတွက်ဖြစ်ပြီး မြေပြင်တွင် ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့်အချက်အလက်နှင့် ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များမှာ ယခုထက်ပိုမိုများပြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ အချက်အလက်များကို ထပ်မံကောက်ယူရရှိလာပါက ဆက်လက်ထည့်သွင်းဖော်ပြသွားပါမည်။
ယနေ့ရရှိသော အချက်အလက်များအရ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၃ ရက်နေ့၊ ည ၇ နာရီခွဲခန့်အချိန်တွင် ကယားပြည်နယ်၊ ဒီးမော့ဆိုမြို့နယ်၌ တိုက်ပွဲဖြစ်ပွားခြင်းမရှိဘဲ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏တပ်မှ လက်နက်ကြီးဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့ရာ အဆိုပါလက်နက်ကြီးကျည်မှာ ဒေါတငူးကျေးရွာအနီးရှိ တဲအိမ်ပေါ်ကို ကျရောက်ပေါက်ကွဲခဲ့သောကြောင့် စစ်ရှောင် အမျိုးသမီးတစ်ဦးဖြစ်သူ စိုးမြာသည် ပေါင်ကို ထိမှန်ခဲ့ပြီး သေဆုံးခဲ့သည်။
ထို့ပြင် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၃ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဧရာဝတီတိုင်း၊ မြောင်းမြအကျဉ်းထောင်တွင်းအထူးတရားရုံးမှ ဝါးခယ်မမြို့နယ် အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ်၏ မြို့နယ်အတွင်းရေးမှူး ဦးအောင်ကြွယ်ကို အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေပုဒ်မ ၅၀(ည) ဖြင့် အလုပ်ကြမ်းနှင့် ထောင်ဒဏ် ၁၀ နှစ်စီ ချမှတ်ခဲ့သည်။ ဦးအောင်ကြွယ်သည် အသက် ၇၀ ကျော်အရွယ် ရှိပြီဖြစ်ပြီး တစ်နှစ်ကျော်ကြာဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းခံခဲ့ရပြီးနောက် အမိန့်ချမှတ်ခံခဲ့ရခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။
အရပ်ဘက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းမှ ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ အရပ်သားများ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ သတင်းသမားများ၊ CDM လှုပ်ရှားနေသည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများစသည့် နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှ မည်သူမဆို ဖမ်းဆီး၊ ထိန်းသိမ်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းခံထားရ ခြင်းများနှင့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးသွားသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များကို သိရှိပါက အောက်ပါလိပ်စာ များသို့ ဆက်သွယ်၍ အသိပေး၊ အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ကျဆုံးအချက်အလက်များကို ဖော်ပြပါ [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း၊ အဖမ်းအဆီးအချက်အလက်များကို [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း တိုက်ရိုက်ပေးပို့၍ ဆက်သွယ်အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2023-01-05
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"AAPP Secretary U Tate Naing said “the junta’s propaganda mouthpiece Myawaddy media today stated that 7,012 prisoners would be released. An illegal regime cannot announce an amnesty – since its coup the junta has announced several so-called amnesties to distract international attention. AAPP has been monitoring the situation and understands that over 200 political prisoners from at least (19) prisons were released today. We have so far confirmed 43 identities and will continue to monitor the situation. In fact, today on January 4, 2022 – an additional (22) political prisoners were arrested across the country but mostly in Sagaing”
Since the February 1, 2021, military coup and the emergence of the Spring Revolution, a total of (2701) people, pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed through military crackdowns following pro-democracy movements.
Since the coup, a total of (13,356) people are currently under detention, (1923) of whom are serving sentences. There are a total of (100) post-coup death row prisoners as of January 4, 2023. (121) people have been sentenced in absentia, of whom (42) have been sentenced to death. This makes a total of (142) people who have been sentenced to death. (24) people have been released on bail and (3517) people have already been released. These are the numbers verified by AAPP. The actual numbers are likely much higher. We will continue to update accordingly.
According to information gathered today, on January 1, junta troops stationed in Htan Ma Kauk Village, Seikphyu Township, Magway Region indiscriminately fired into the village. A 12-year-old called, A Mu Mu Aung, was killed while gathering firewood on the hill to the southwest of the village.
In addition, on January 3, Ashin Arsar Ya (aka Thabeik Khin) from Sangha Union Mandalay who was involved in anti-dictatorship protests in Mandalay City, was detained by the armed wing of the junta. He was arrested whilst carrying out a photo campaign at Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda, near the foot of Mandalay Mountain.
AAPP will continue to inform on verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update the lists with details of these alleged offenses. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against, CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent, please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected] .....“အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုရဲ့ဝါဒဖြန့်သတင်းမီဒီယာတစ်ခုဖြစ်တဲ့ မြဝတီသတင်းဌာနကနေ ပြစ်ဒဏ်ကျခံနေရတဲ့ အကျဉ်းသား/အကျဉ်းသူ ၇၀၁၂ ဦးကို လွှတ်ပေးမယ်လို့ ဒီနေ့မှာ ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာလု စစ်အုပ်စုအနေနဲ့ လွတ်ငြိမ်းချမ်းသာခွင့်ပေးဖို့ရာ တရားဝင်ဘာအခွင့်အာဏာမှမရှိနေပေမယ့် သူတို့အနေနဲ့ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းကို အာရုံလွှဲဖို့ရာအတွက် အမည်ခံလွတ်ငြိမ်းချမ်းသာခွင့်တွေကို အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်မှာ ပြုလုပ်နေပါတယ်။ AAPP က ဒီနေ့လွတ်မြောက်လာတဲ့ အခြေအနေနဲ့ပတ်သက်ပြီး စောင့်ကြည့်မှတ်တမ်း ပြုစုလျက်ရှိရာမှာ လက်ရှိအချိန်ထိ ရထားတဲ့အချက်အလက်တွေအရ အကျဉ်းထောင် (၁၉) ခုထက်မနည်းကနေ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား (၂၀၀) ကျော် လွတ်မြောက်လာတယ်လို့ သိထားရပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီထဲကမှ အမည်စာရင်းနဲ့တကွ မှတ်တမ်းကောက်ယူထားနိုင်သူဦးရေ (၄၃) ဦးရှိနေပြီး အချက်အလက်တွေကို ဆက်လက်ကောက်ယူနေဆဲပါ။ စစ်အုပ်စုက အကျဉ်းထောင်တွေကနေ အကျဉ်းသားတွေကိုလွှတ်ပေးနေတယ်လို့ ပြောပေမယ့်လည်း ဒီနေ့မှာ နိုင်ငံရေးအရ အဖမ်းခံရတဲ့သူ (၂၂) ဦးရှိနေပြီး အဲ့ဒီထဲက အများစုဟာ တိုက်ပွဲအရှိန် ပြင်းထန်နေတဲ့ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းကပါ” ဟု နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) ၏ အတွင်းရေးမှူးဖြစ်သူ ဦးတိတ်နိုင်မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့သည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့ မတရားစစ်အာဏာလုမှုဖြစ်စဉ်ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့ကြသော ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ နှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ စုစုပေါင်းမှာ (၂၇၀၁) ဦး ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်မှ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၄ ရက်နေ့ထိတိုင် ဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၃၃၅၆) ဦးရှိပြီး ၎င်းတို့အနက်မှ (၁၉၂၃) ဦး မှာ ထောင်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသည်။ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၄ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်အထိ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးနှင့်ဆက်စပ်၍ သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရပြီး အကျဉ်းထောင်များတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၀၀) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ မျက်ကွယ်သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ (၄၂) ဦး အပါအဝင် (၁၂၁) ဦးမှာ မျက်ကွယ်ပြစ်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံ ထားရသည်။ ထိုကြောင့် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၄၂) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အာမခံဖြင့် လွတ်မြောက်သူ (၂၄) ဦးရှိပြီး၊ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေမှာ (၃၅၁၇) ဦး ရှိသည်။
ဖော်ပြပါ ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များသည် AAPP မှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အရေအတွက်ဖြစ်ပြီး မြေပြင်တွင် ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့်အချက်အလက်နှင့် ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များမှာ ယခုထက်ပိုမိုများပြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ အချက်အလက် များကို ထပ်မံကောက်ယူရရှိလာပါက ဆက်လက်ထည့်သွင်းဖော်ပြသွားပါမည်။
ယနေ့ရရှိသော အချက်အလက်များအရ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် မကွေးတိုင်း၊ ဆိပ်ဖြူမြို့နယ်၊ ထမ္မကောက်ကျေးရွာ၌ တပ်စွဲထားသော အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏တပ်မှ ရမ်းသန်းပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းကြောင့် ရွာ၏ အနောက်တောင်ဘက်ရှိ တောင်ကုန်းပေါ်တွင် ထင်းခွေနေသော အသက် ၁၂ နှစ်အရွယ် ဧမူမူအောင်သည် ကျည်ထိမှန်ပြီး သေဆုံးခဲ့သည်။
ထို့ပြင် မန္တလေးမြို့တွင် စစ်အာဏာရှင်ဆန့်ကျင်သော ဆန္ဒပြလှုပ်ရှားမှု၌ ပါဝင်သည့် သံဃသမဂ္ဂ (မန္တလေး) မှ အရှင်အာစာရ (ခ) သပိတ်ခင်ကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏တပ်မှ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၃ ရက်နေ့၌ ဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့သည်။ အရှင်အာစာရသည် မန္တလေးတောင်ခြေအနီးရှိ ကျောက်တော်ကြီးဘုရားတွင် ဓာတ်ပုံကမ်ပိန်းပြုလုပ်နေစဥ် ဖမ်းဆီး ခြင်း ခံခဲ့ရသည်။
အရပ်ဘက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းမှ ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ အရပ်သားများ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ သတင်းသမားများ၊ CDM လှုပ်ရှားနေသည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများစသည့် နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှ မည်သူမဆို ဖမ်းဆီး၊ ထိန်းသိမ်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းခံထားရ ခြင်းများနှင့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးသွားသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များကို သိရှိပါက အောက်ပါလိပ်စာ များသို့ ဆက်သွယ်၍ အသိပေး၊ အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ကျဆုံးအချက်အလက်များကို ဖော်ပြပါ [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း၊ အဖမ်းအဆီးအချက်အလက်များကို [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း တိုက်ရိုက်ပေးပို့၍ ဆက်သွယ်အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2023-01-04
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"Since the February 1, 2021, military coup and the emergence of the Spring Revolution, a total of (2692) people, pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed through military crackdowns following pro-democracy movements.
Since the coup, a total of (13,375) people are currently under detention, (1947) of whom are serving sentences. There are a total of (100) post-coup death row prisoners as of January 3, 2023. (121) people have been sentenced in absentia, of whom (42) have been sentenced to death. This makes a total of (142) people who have been sentenced to death. (24) people have been released on bail and (3463) people have already been released. These are the numbers verified by AAPP. The actual numbers are likely much higher. We will continue to update accordingly.
On December 29, Nang Twal Tar Oo, Joint-Secretary of Yangon University of Education Students’ Union (ABFSU), and Yu Yu Mon, a former member of Yangon Institute of Economics Students’ Union and current Vice-Chief Statistician of Nay Pyi Taw Central Statistical Organization, were each sentenced to serve 10 years imprisonment. Yu Yu Mon had joined CDM and the pair were sentenced by Mon State Mawlamyine District Court under Counter-Terrorism Law Section 50 (j). They were arrested while evading capture in Mawlamyine Town on June 9.
On January 2, 2023, at around 9 AM, junta forces, stationed at Budalin Township in Sagaing Region, raided Shwe Taung Village in Budalin Township. The junta troops killed a couple of over 70-years-old. Military soldiers also detained a local called Nga Hmay for just wearing long pants, then tortured before killing him in a corn field outside the village.
AAPP will continue to inform on verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update the lists with details of these alleged offenses. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against, CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent, please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected].....၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့ မတရားစစ်အာဏာလုမှုဖြစ်စဉ်ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့ကြသော ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ နှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ စုစုပေါင်းမှာ (၂၆၉၂) ဦး ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်မှ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၃ ရက်နေ့ထိတိုင် ဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၃၃၇၅) ဦးရှိပြီး ၎င်းတို့အနက်မှ (၁၉၄၇) ဦး မှာ ထောင်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသည်။ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၃ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်အထိ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးနှင့်ဆက်စပ်၍ သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရပြီး အကျဉ်းထောင်များတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၀၀) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ မျက်ကွယ်သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ (၄၂) ဦး အပါအဝင် (၁၂၁) ဦးမှာ မျက်ကွယ်ပြစ်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံ ထားရသည်။ ထိုကြောင့် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၄၂) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အာမခံဖြင့် လွတ်မြောက်သူ (၂၄) ဦးရှိပြီး၊ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေမှာ (၃၄၆၃) ဦး ရှိသည်။
ယနေ့ရရှိသောအချက်အလက်များအရ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၂၉ ရက်နေ့တွင် မွန်ပြည်နယ်၊ မော်လမြိုင်ခရိုင်တရားရုံးမှ ရန်ကုန်ပညာရေးတက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်)၏ တွဲဖက်အတွင်းရေးမှူး နန်းတွယ်တာဦးနှင့် ရန်ကုန်စီးပွားရေးတက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့ဝင်ဟောင်း၊ အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) ပြုလုပ်ထား သော နေပြည်တော် ဗဟိုစာရင်းအင်းအဖွဲ့၏ ဒု-စာရင်းအင်းမှူး မယုယုမွန်တို့ကို အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၅၀ (ည) ဖြင့် ထောင်ဒဏ် ၁၀ နှစ်စီ ချမှတ်ခဲ့သည်။ ဇွန်လ ၉ ရက်နေ့တွင် မနန်းတွယ်တာဦးနှင့် မယုယုမွန်တို့သည် မော်လမြိုင်မြို့၌ တိမ်းရှောင်နေစဉ် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းခံခဲ့ရသည်။
ထို့ပြင် ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၃၀ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဧရာဝတီတိုင်း မအူပင်ခရိုင်ထောင်တွင်းအထူးတရားရုံးမှ မအူပင်နည်းပညာ တက္ကသိုလ်၏ နောက်ဆုံးနှစ်ကျောင်းသူ မရွှေခြူးဝိုင်းကို အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေပုဒ်မ ၅၀ (ည)ဖြင့် ထောင်ဒဏ် ဆယ်နှစ်ချမှတ်ခဲ့သည်။ မရွှေခြူးဝိုင်းသည် ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ် (မအူပင်) ၏ သတင်းနှင့် ပြန်ကြားရေး တာဝန်ခံ တစ်ဦး ဖြစ်ပြီး ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလတွင် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းခံခဲ့ရသည်။
ဖော်ပြပါ ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များသည် AAPP မှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အရေအတွက်ဖြစ်ပြီး မြေပြင်တွင် ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့်အချက်အလက်နှင့် ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များမှာ ယခုထက်ပိုမိုများပြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ အချက်အလက် များကို ထပ်မံကောက်ယူရရှိလာပါက ဆက်လက်ထည့်သွင်းဖော်ပြသွားပါမည်။
အရပ်ဘက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းမှ ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ အရပ်သားများ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ သတင်းသမားများ၊ CDM လှုပ်ရှားနေသည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများစသည့် နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှ မည်သူမဆို ဖမ်းဆီး၊ ထိန်းသိမ်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းခံထားရ ခြင်းများနှင့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးသွားသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များကို သိရှိပါက အောက်ပါလိပ်စာ များသို့ ဆက်သွယ်၍ အသိပေး၊ အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ကျဆုံးအချက်အလက်များကို ဖော်ပြပါ [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း၊ အဖမ်းအဆီးအချက်အလက်များကို [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း တိုက်ရိုက်ပေးပို့၍ ဆက်သွယ်အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2023-01-03
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"Since the February 1, 2021, military coup and the emergence of the Spring Revolution, a total of (2689) people, pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed through military crackdowns following pro-democracy movements.
Since the coup, a total of (13,300) people are currently under detention, (1940) of whom are serving sentences. There are a total of (100) post-coup death row prisoners as of January 2, 2023. (121) people have been sentenced in absentia, of whom (42) have been sentenced to death. This makes a total of (142) people who have been sentenced to death. (24) people have been released on bail and (3463) people have already been released. These are the numbers verified by AAPP. The actual numbers are likely much higher. We will continue to update accordingly.
According to information gathered today, on December 30, an artillery shell fired by junta forces exploded in San Khar Village, Lone Khin Village Tract, Hpakant Township, Kachin State; injuring six locals. Kun Jar Naw was one of six injured locals and he died on arrival at the hospital.
On December 30, Kaung Khant Kyaw, a primary school teacher of a high school branch in Htate Pote Kone Village, Myanaung Township, Ayeyarwady Region, was given a death sentence by a special court inside Hinthada Prison. He was charged under Section 51 (a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law and Section 302 (1)(c) of the Penal Code. In August 2022, Kaung Khant Kyaw had previously been sentenced to serve 5 years in prison under Section 50 (j) of the Counter-Terrorism Law. Kaung Khant Kyaw had taken part in the Civil Disobedience Movement and he was arrested in October 2021, on suspicion of being involved in the death of junta informant Win Nyunt Aung from Thabyay Kone Village.
AAPP will continue to inform on verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update the lists with details of these alleged offenses. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against, CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent, please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected].....၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့ မတရားစစ်အာဏာလုမှုဖြစ်စဉ်ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့ကြသော ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ နှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ စုစုပေါင်းမှာ (၂၆၈၉) ဦး ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်မှ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၂ ရက်နေ့ထိတိုင် ဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၃၃၀၀) ဦးရှိပြီး ၎င်းတို့အနက်မှ (၁၉၄၀) ဦး မှာ ထောင်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသည်။ ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၂ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်အထိ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးနှင့်ဆက်စပ်၍ သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရပြီး အကျဉ်းထောင်များတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၀၀) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ မျက်ကွယ်သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရသူ (၄၂) ဦး အပါအဝင် (၁၂၁) ဦးမှာ မျက်ကွယ်ပြစ်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံ ထားရသည်။ ထိုကြောင့် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခံထားရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၄၂) ဦးရှိပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အာမခံဖြင့် လွတ်မြောက်သူ (၂၄) ဦးရှိပြီး၊ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေမှာ (၃၄၆၃) ဦး ရှိသည်။
ယနေ့ရရှိသောအချက်အလက်များအရ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၃၀ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ဖားကန့်မြို့နယ်၊ လုံးခင်း ကျေးရွာအုပ်စု၊ ဆန်ခါကျေးရွာအတွင်းကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ ပစ်ခတ်သော လက်နက်ကြီးကျည် ကျရောက် ပေါက်ကွဲခဲ့သောကြောင့် အရပ်သားခြောက်ဦး ကျည်ထိမှန်ခဲ့သည်။ ကျည်ထိမှန်ခဲ့သော အရပ်သား ခြောက်ဦးအနက် တစ်ဦးဖြစ်သော ကွန်ဂျာနော်မှာ ဆေးရုံအရောက်၌ သေဆုံးခဲ့သည်။
ထို့ပြင် ဧရာဝတီတိုင်း၊ မြန်အောင်မြို့နယ်၊ ထိပ်ပုတ်ကုန်းကျေးရွာတွင်ရှိသည့် အထက်တန်းကျောင်းခွဲ၏ မူလတန်းပြ ကျောင်းဆရာတစ်ဦးဖြစ်သော ကိုကောင်းခန့်ကျော်ကို ဟင်္သာတအကျဥ်းထောင်တွင်း အထူးတရားရုံးမှ အကြမ်းဖက်မှု တိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၅၁ (က)၊ ရာဇသတ်ကြီးဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၃၀၂ (၁)(ဂ) တို့ဖြင့် ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၃၀ ရက်နေ့တွင် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခဲ့သည်။ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ ဩဂုတ်လတွင် ကိုကောင်းခန့်ကျော်သည် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၅၀ (ည) ဖြင့် ထောင်ဒဏ် ငါးနှစ် ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံထားရပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ ကိုကောင်းခန့်ကျော်သည် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင် ပါဝင်သူဖြစ်ပြီး သပြေကုန်းကျေးရွာမှ စစ်တပ်သတင်းပေး ဦးဝင်းညွန့်အောင် သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရမှု ဖြစ်စဥ်နှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ သံသယဖြင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလတွင် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းခံခဲ့ရသည်။
ဖော်ပြပါ ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များသည် AAPP မှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အရေအတွက်ဖြစ်ပြီး မြေပြင်တွင် ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့်အချက်အလက်နှင့် ကိန်းဂဏန်းအရေအတွက်များမှာ ယခုထက်ပိုမိုများပြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ အချက်အလက် များကို ထပ်မံကောက်ယူရရှိလာပါက ဆက်လက်ထည့်သွင်းဖော်ပြသွားပါမည်။
အရပ်ဘက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းမှ ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ အရပ်သားများ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ သတင်းသမားများ၊ CDM လှုပ်ရှားနေသည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများစသည့် နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှ မည်သူမဆို ဖမ်းဆီး၊ ထိန်းသိမ်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းခံထားရ ခြင်းများနှင့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလအတွင်း ကျဆုံးသွားသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များကို သိရှိပါက အောက်ပါလိပ်စာ များသို့ ဆက်သွယ်၍ အသိပေး၊ အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ကျဆုံးအချက်အလက်များကို ဖော်ပြပါ [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း၊ အဖမ်းအဆီးအချက်အလက်များကို [email protected] အီးမေးလ်သို့လည်းကောင်း တိုက်ရိုက်ပေးပို့၍ ဆက်သွယ်အကြောင်းကြားနိုင်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2023-01-02
Date of entry/update:
2023-01-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
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"On 7 September 2021, the National Unity Government’s (NUG) acting president Duwa Lashi La declared a people’s war against the Tatmadaw. He stated that in waging war against the junta, People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) should operate in accordance with the NUG’s Military Code of Conduct for People’s Defence Forces, which had been laid out on 21 July 2021. The NUG claimed that the Code of Conduct was established in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. However, there are some controversial areas in the Code of Conduct, which if left unaddressed, could undermine the NUG’s credibility. The political analyst Benjamin Mok has examined the Code of Conduct in an article on the Diplomat. However, there has not yet been an analysis of the Code of Conduct through the lens of International Humanitarian Law.
In this article, I will discuss some issues with how “legitimate targets” of PDF action might be defined and interpreted in the NUG’s Code of Conduct. First, I will evaluate the definition of civilians used in the NUG’s Code of Conduct and compare it with Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions (1977) which applies specifically to non-international armed conflicts. In so doing, I will inquire what constitutes a legitimate military target in the Myanmar context. Then, I will highlight some contentious issues on the ground, particularly targeting alleged informants, the junta-appointed civil servants, and political opponents. Finally, I will come up with recommendations for the main actors mentioned in this article.....
Who exactly are civilians?.....
One of the major actors in the Spring Revolution is “informants”. In this article, I use informants to refer to civilians who side with the junta and reveal the whereabouts of the resistance figures to the State Administration Council (SAC). They could be the SAC-appointed administrators or regular civilians and they have been one of the main targets of the PDFs. The moral justification for killing them has been debated since the beginning of the resistance. The NUG also does not specify if the informants qualified as military targets in their Code of Conduct for PDFs.
Under the ‘Targeting’ section of the Code of Conduct, Article 1 says PDFs are to target only “mechanisms of the dictatorship”, while Article 2 reads, “Civilians shall not be targeted, threatened, and attacked”. These two articles are in line with the basic principles of the Geneva Conventions. However, a question arises if we compare Article 2 against Article 1: Who does the Code of Conduct really count as civilians? According to the ICRC’s Interpretive Guidance, “all persons who are not members of State armed forces or of organized armed groups belonging to a party to an armed conflict are civilians.” This implies that to the ICRC, informants could be classified as civilians. The ICRC continues to state that civilians, so defined, are “protected against direct attack unless and for such time as they directly participate in hostilities”. Now, it is important to identify what constitutes “direct hostilities”.
While there’s no official definition of direct hostilities in International Law, the ICRC’s Interpretative Guidance, while not legally binding, also is helpful for this matter and serves as the standard procedure for states. According to the ICRC’s Interpretative Guidance,
“Persons participate directly in hostilities when they carry out acts, which aim to support one party to the conflict by directly causing harm to another party, either directly inflicting death, injury or destruction, or by directly harming the enemy’s military operations or capacity.”
By this definition, it’s hard to decide whether or not informants are partaking in direct hostilities. It may be tempting to put informants under the indirect hostility category. After all, what they are doing is simply revealing the location of their enemies. But, in this Spring Revolution, the informants do really “harm the operations” of the resistance groups. For example, informants reportedly revealed the whereabouts of Ko Phyo Zeyar Thaw and Ko Jimmy, responsible for overseeing the Yangon operations, leading to their arrests and snowball arrests of other members. A large number of arms and ammunition were also seized during the arrest.
However, I acknowledge the subjectiveness of such a matter, and one could argue targeting informants is not justified if they are only revealing the whereabouts of resistance figures under threat. This also highlights areas for improvement in international humanitarian law and such unique scenarios under the Myanmar context should be discussed more to better define “direct and indirect hostilities”....Attacks on SAC-appointed civil servants and political opponents....While informants blur the line between “direct and non-direct hostilities”, it is easier to determine whether or not civil servants working for the SAC should go under the “indirect hostility” category. The ICRC’s Interpretative Guidance says that “administrative and political support” is considered indirect participation in hostilities. Hence the ICRC views SAC-appointed civil servants as civilians that enjoy all the protections under Common Article 3 and Additional Protocol II. However, in Myanmar, the situation on the ground could be considered not yet in line with the ICRC’s standard.
As of November 2021, about 200 SAC-appointed administrators were killed by PDFs. It’s not surprising, to some extent, if some PDFs, not affiliated with the NUG, have their own agenda and would target the civil servants working for the junta, but it becomes problematic if the NUG itself would publicly recognize such operations as legitimate. In April 2022, Yangon Regional Command (YRC) under the NUG’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) shot the Central Bank’s Deputy Governor, as part of Operation Byan Hlwar Aung, which was conducted by NUG-affiliated PDFs under the directive of the NUG’s MoD. This sort of incident is not justified by the Geneva Conventions, which the NUG claims to abide by. While the NUG could argue that targeting informants is justified due to their significant damage to the resistance, International Law does not justify for military actions against civil servants.
One of the Soldier’s Rules under the NUG’s Code of Conduct reads: “Shall not discriminate any individual based on their ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation”, but there’s no mention of non-discrimination based on “political or other opinions” as included in Additional Protocol II. While it’s possible that the NUG simply overlooked this phrase in the article, it could also be assumed that the NUG intentionally phrased the rule in a way that could somehow enable the PDFs to target the regime-friendly civil servants or even civilians politically supporting the junta without facing legal restraints. In a recent interview with BBC, the USDP (a military’s proxy party) chairman U Than Htay claimed that “over 1,500 USDP members and supporters [were] killed (since the beginning of the coup)”. While it’s possible that the USDP has inflated this number, if true it could pose a threat to the NUG’s legitimacy if there’s no clear explanation on why and how it could happen from its side.....Potential risks and recommendations.....As the NUG is still competing for representation at the UN Human Rights Council with the SAC, it should consider the consequences of targeting those considered civilians in the eyes of the international community. Some international actors like ASEAN, except countries like Malaysia, lean towards keeping their distance from the parallel civilian government. ASEAN could justify its relative inaction against the SAC based on the claim that the NUG-led resistance inflicted “civilian damage”.
While targeting alleged informants is understandable for strategic purposes, it should always be the last resort and the PDFs should make sure that their targets are heavily involved in the military operations. While engaging with the international community, the NUG should make it clear from the start why alleged informants are not the same as ordinary civilians and how they are critical to the SAC’s counterinsurgency plans. And, at the same time, the NUG, as the government, should distance itself from the killing of the informants. In other words, they should not take credit for such operations. Otherwise, the NUG risks not looking credible in the eyes of the international community, within which many assume that ground realities contradict the NUG’s Code of Conduct.
The NUG could come up with alternatives to deal with the alleged informants and the junta-appointed civil servants rather than killings. There have been some good initiatives with the NUG setting up People’s Police Forces and township courts in different regions and states. With clear policies and measures, they could establish an effective justice mechanism to impose judicial measures against pro-SAC civilians rather than resorting to armed violence. The success of such a mechanism also relies on support from the international community.
The international community should also recognize that current conditions on the ground pose limitations on what the NUG can do. After all, many PDFs and LDFs (Local Defense Forces) operating are not yet directly under its command. The NUG’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Daw Zin Mar Aung recognized this reality while meeting with the diaspora community during her visit to Washington DC when she said, “PDFs need to follow rules of engagement (ROE) but on-ground situations could be complicated sometimes.” In order for the PDF to be more compliant with the NUG’s Code of Conduct, the NUG needs to first gain leverage over them. For now, the people’s government has little leverage over the majority of the PDFs due to its lack of capacity to provide financial and weapons support, and it simply cannot command the PDFs to do this or that.
While it is clear at this point that the West would not provide arms to the NUG, other forms of non-lethal support are still feasible. By having more financial leverage over the PDFs, the NUG could have more bargaining power in requiring them to engage in warfare and operations more in line with the Code of Conduct. What the West could do in this case is provide financial support to the NUG. The US could allow the NUG to access the 1 billion USD in Myanmar assets which the US froze at the beginning of the coup. This money could assist the NUG in coordinating its resistance, so that it can follow the standards of International Law. The US could also accelerate the legislative process of the Burma Act of 2021, which once passed, would provide humanitarian aid and assistance to civil society impacted by the coup, including “participants in the Civil Disobedience Movement, and government defectors”, hence, lifting weight off the NUG, so that it could redirect more resources to the resistance.
They could also support the parallel government in setting up administrative mechanisms, building the capacity of civil servants that refuse to work for the junta, developing administrative policies, providing joint educational programs, helping set up an effective tax system, and channelling aid through the NUG-initiated programs. At the moment, ASEAN is channelling aid through the SAC’s task force but the US could use its influence over ASEAN members to be more inclusive with aid management. In order to navigate the risk of targeting non-CDM civil servants, the international community could provide financial and technical support to the people’s administrations in PDF strongholds to create more incentives for those joining CDM. I recommend that the NUG also revise the Code of Conduct and make it more concrete with a well-defined set of rules and instructions to follow. More than a year since the publication of the Code of Conduct, it is important that the NUG and the international community revisit it..."
Source/publisher:
"Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2022-12-05
Date of entry/update:
2022-12-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Spring Revolution, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
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Description:
"The military coup that took place on February 1, 2021, in Myanmar sparked a civic uprising as millions demonstrated against the coup. The military junta has now renamed itself the State Administration Council (SAC) and is made up of junta appointed officials and corrupt generals and officers. Today, Myanmar’s democracy movement is on the march, the junta is losing ground, the People Power Movement-known as the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)– has spread to the entire country and the regime is resorting to unspeakable acts of violence in a vain attempt to maintain control over the shrinking amount of Myanmar they control.
The very first example of the CDM striking back at the junta occurred just one day after the coup attempt at Mandalay General Hospital (MGH). A group of healthcare workers and government civil servants posted statements on social media saying they would not serve or work under the illegal SAC. Dr. Zwe Min Aung, a surgeon, was interviewed by Voice of America that day. He reiterated that he and his colleagues have rejected the junta’s attempted takeover. This act of peaceful defiance was the spark lighting a fire of civil disobedience that quickly began to rage across the country. The term CDM had become widely popular in Myanmar. In fact, the CDM preceded street protests by a few days with the goal of crippling the military’s economic and political infrastructure—utilities, telecommunications, railways to name a few that are owned by the state. Together with the street protests, CDM became the symbol of an uprising that incorporated Myanmar’s entire civil society.
The military’s response was brutal to this outpouring of collective rejection. Demonstrators were gunned down and beaten. Those participating in the CDM were fired from their jobs, hunted down, and jailed. Organizers faced especially brutal treatment if caught—including jailing where heavy torture was, and remains, standard treatment. Consequently, many participants went into hiding. As time went on, with no income, they faced extreme hardships. There has been some monetary support primarily from the Myanmar diaspora for them but much more is needed.
Many protestors have now decided to switch tactics and resort to armed struggle and have formed units known as the People Defense Force (PDF). The public interest and monetary contributions have shifted towards supporting PDF units. There is still a big demand for funding those committed to the CDM. We can’t let these individuals drift from our time, attention, and especially our financial support. They face similar hardships, sometimes more so, as Myanmar’s internally displaced people (IDP) since more frequently than not, the whole family had to relocate as well in avoiding harassment by the junta.
Our National Unity Government (NUG) recognizes the critical contribution of the CDM movement and is seeking social, financial, and educational support for this branch of the democracy movement. In April of this year, Ministry of Health, NUG carried out an on-line survey to further identify the needs and circumstances faced by the CDM participants. The report came out in May. A total of 6,576 CDM participants responded with 34% of them formers members of the staff from the Ministry of Education and 27% from Ministry of Health making up a big chunk of respondents. Key findings include: 84% of the respondents were fired from work; 38% were unable to continue working in their trade or profession; 31% have been displaced from home for more than 6 months; 80% were facing financial difficulty; 26% were finding it difficult to access healthcare from their location; 48% were facing security threats and 53% were facing mental health issues such as depression. It is estimated that there are about 300,000 CDM workers and close to 1.5 million of IDP.
The NUG has set up a “CDM Success Committee” and has been working hard to support CDM participants. Strategies include improving income generating activities of CDM staff, providing financial assistance, helping find job opportunities, implementing measures to reduce security issues and attempting to create psychosocial rehabilitation programs. A “Spring Lottery” has been set up. It is a creative program run by the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investments of the NUG where the bulk of the proceeds are focused on CDM activists. Still, the needs are huge and much more needs to be done.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can play a critical role in assisting this important group. Afterall, they are IDPs under a different name. The NUG is ready and willing to collaborate if such an overture is made. Our policy has always been “People First”. Despite NGOs, both international and domestic, having to register with the SAC in areas controlled by the military, if there is transparency and equitable distribution and good communication with the NUG, we want them to be active in their roles. We may also have useful data to share as long as confidentiality can be guaranteed.
The SAC prohibits NGOs from operating in conflict zones which is almost 71% of the country , a tactic clearly meant to inflict suffering on those who oppose their rule. In another demonstration of callous brutality, in October 2022, the SAC issued a new law further restricting the registration and operations of NGOs. All of this suggests that the suffering of those associated with the CDM movement, as well as IDPs, are soon to increase exponentially.
Despite needing to walk a tightrope, the NGOs should not lose sight of what they were initially founded for and find creative ways to deliver help to those who need it most. They should pay more attention to delivering assistance through cross-border routes where many CDM participants are located together with IDPs. This would free them from the junta’s brutal restrictions which are handcuffing their ability to provide badly needed assistance to the people who need it most.
All NUG ministries, including mine, stand ready to work with any group to provide assistance to CDM members and those suffering so badly in Myanmar both inside the country and along cross-border areas..."
Source/publisher:
"East Asia Forum" (Australia)
Date of publication:
2022-11-21
Date of entry/update:
2022-11-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"It has been nearly two years since Tracy last saw her parents. She left her family in Yangon, where she was in her final year at the University of Medicine (1), one day after celebrating her 23rd birthday in February 2021.
Now 24, Tracy is among many in Myanmar’s young generation who have traded comfortable urban lives and promising futures for a tough jungle existence with the anti-regime resistance.
The regime’s deadly crackdowns on peaceful protests after the February 2021 coup drove multitudes of young people like Tracy to seek refuge in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups who reject military rule.
Some are now fighting with the ethnic resistance forces, while others, like Tracy, are making essential contributions with what they have learned, providing medical care to comrades and locals.
Tracy now lives in Karenni State (Kayah State), which has been rocked by daily clashes between regime troops and ethnic armed forces since May last year.
Like many others across Myanmar, she took part in the 2021 anti-junta protests following the coup. As a secretary of her student union, she joined the nationwide strikes to protest military rule. However, she fled after regime troops raided her house and attempted to detain her on an incitement charge.
“I decided I would keep struggling against the regime for as long as the revolution existed. So I left Yangon,” Tracy told The Irrawaddy.
“I can’t stand by and just watch this injustice. I don’t want the future of our people to be lost. I will do whatever I can to resist this dictatorship,” she said.
Tracy arrived at Demoso township in Karenni State and began working as a medic for People’s Defense Force (PDF) members, residents and internally displaced people (IDPs). She also helps to distribute learning materials for students in remote areas of the township and provides health education in schools under the parallel civilian National Unity Government.
She arranges food supplies for IDP camps with support from Yangon Medical University 1 seniors and the public. Moreover, she and her colleagues have set up mobile medical services in their area.
A clinic in their area has now been upgraded to a hospital capable of conducting different types of surgery. Tracy said the hospital is operating with support from her university seniors, NGOs that do not want to be named, public volunteers and the NUG’s Health Ministry.
The hospital sees more than a dozen badly wounded patients after every clash between regime troops and resistance forces. At these times, Tracy and her colleagues perform surgery both day and night.
“Patients arrive in the operating theatre with missing legs, hands or with gaping belly wounds,” she said of injured resistance members.
She remembers one young comrade wheeled in with catastrophic stomach wounds after being hit by regime artillery. Tracy and other doctors operated on the youth despite knowing his chance of survival was low. He emerged from surgery alive after six hours of desperate battle, only to die 30 minutes later.
Tracy said she and her colleagues were almost broken by their grief when he died.
“I felt distraught over the struggle of the young resistance fighter. At the same time, I feel hatred, disgust and anger at the sit-khwe [junta military “dogs”] and the people who work for them” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Tracy admitted to sadness at being parted from her parents, who support her decision to join the resistance.
“When I get depressed, I just think about the sacrifice being made by resistance fighters. They give their lives and they never see their parents again,” she told The Irrawaddy.
It’s not just PDF combatants who depend on Tracy and her colleagues, but also civilians and IDPs in the area. Civilian residents get injured in frequent junta artillery attacks on their villages, which also destroy homes. Meanwhile IDPs in local camps often suffer poor health and emergencies through lack of humanitarian aid.
IDP camps have insufficient blankets, which leaves children prone to pneumonia in the cold weather, while lack of clean water means many residents suffer diarrhea. Meanwhile, older IDPs with chronic conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes often arrive at the hospital desperately ill due to medicine shortages.
“We take care of them day and night. If they recover from their life-threatening condition, we are very happy,” she said.
Like Tracy, Julia travels around an ethnic area providing health services to civilians and ethnic armed combatants, in Chin State.
The strength of CDM medics
Julia, 33, was a civil servant in the public health department in Mindat Township, Chin State, before the military took power. In late February 2021, she and her friends joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Health workers nationwide were the first professionals to go on strike in protest against military dictatorship. Medics from government hospitals across the country participated in daily anti-coup protests and rejected the regime by hanging CDM hospital banners.
Myanmar’s health system ground to a halt as 60,000 of the country’s 110,000 health workers joined the CDM.
Nearly 5,000 of the CDM health workers are now working among resistance groups under the shadow civilian National Unity Government (NUG), according to the CDM Medical Network, which compiles lists of health workers. They include 320 specialist doctors, 560 nurses, 1,554 basic health workers, and volunteers, according to the NUG.
Julia is among them, having served both in a resistance group’s base camp and also in remote areas of Mindat township. Previously, she had worked at the Ministry of Health for 10 years.
“I joined the CDM movement because I strongly oppose and condemn the coup,” Julia told The Irrawaddy.
She and her friends had opened a CDM clinic just before May 2021, when the clashes erupted in Mindat. She then moved to a remote area where Chin Defense Forces (Mindat) were fighting regime troops.
She and the other five health workers served on the front line for 14 days in May 2021.
“Our side suffered casualties because of a shortage of weapons. I used a lot of bandages on comrades who were badly wounded and bleeding profusely,” Julia recalled of the battles.
Having never experienced combat conditions before, she was scared at first. But she overcame the fear by focusing on treating CDF comrades injured in battle.
She recalls seeing a tarpaulin on the ground soaked so heavily with the blood of wounded combatants that health staff could not sit down.
“One comrade was killed by a shell that shattered his skull. Others suffered smashed jaws or bullet fragments lodged in their legs. I felt sorry for them, these youths who had to take up arms instead of pens,” she muttered.
Away from the front line, she provides health services at CDF base camps. She said many resistance fighters suffer from kidney stones because the water is not clean. Some also fall sick because of the bad weather and training.
She is always ready if needed on the front line. Meanwhile, she provides maternity and child health services, her field of expertise, in remote villages in the township.
She faces many difficulties because these remote rural villages do not have enough medical equipment.
“Before the coup, we offered full services as a department.
But since last year we have been doing this work on our own. Since the coup, we have encountered a lack of equipment and inadequate medicine,” she explained of the challenges in public health provision.
However, Julia and other CDM medics remain determined to provide health services for areas under their care.
Doe Myae Medical Team
The Doe Myae Medical Team was formed by CDM health staff three months ago to provide healthcare services in western Sagaing Region, an anti-regime stronghold. The team is working for both IDPs and resistance forces.
Ko Myat Thu, 36, is the CDM medic who founded Doe Myae Medical Team.
He worked as a public health official for more than 18 years before joining the CDM movement on February 3, 2021 – two days after the military takeover.
“Our driving force to join the CDM movement was the coup,” Ko Myat Thu told The Irrawaddy.
Like other CDM medics, he has traveled around villages providing basic health care to the populace since last year. He and his colleagues have extended those services to PDF members in the last three months.
Ko Myat Thu and two other medics have stationed themselves just behind the battle lines to give first aid to wounded comrades. Seriously wounded combatants are transferred to the hospital in resistance-controlled territory.
He has seen many young resistance fighters killed, or lose legs and hands in battle.
“There is more pain than pleasure here,” he said quietly.
His family worries for him, but he also worries for them – regime troops launch artillery attacks on villages in his region almost daily.
The junta’s air force also carries out frequent airstrikes in the region.
“If the planes come, we can’t do anything. We have to run,” Ko Myat Thu said.
CDM medics unbeaten and unbowed
Having set up public health coverage in their respective areas by themselves, the CDM medical staff are determined to keep doing their jobs despite shortages of medicines and other necessities.
“I will continue to fight with my comrades until the revolution ends. After the revolution, I will return to my department,” Ko Myat Thu told The Irrawaddy.
Julia strongly believes the struggle against military rule will succeed because the public and the resistance are fighting a righteous war.
“We will inevitably succeed, but it will take time. I won’t abandon my fallen comrades, I will fight against the military to the end,” she said.
The medics also asked the public to donate to their medical teams around the country, as they provide health services not just to PDF camps but also IDP camps and civilian areas.
Tracy urged people not to relax under military rule but to participate in any way they could to support the revolutionary forces.
“We are struggling to finish the revolution as quickly as possible. I want to ask you to be part of this struggle.”
Topics: civil disobedience movement, ethnic armed organizations, Healthcare, medics, People’s Defense Forces, people’s war, resistance.."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-11-21
Date of entry/update:
2022-11-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Health Workers Strike, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
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Description:
"Executive Summary: Anti-junta protests constitute 99 % of mass protests, with some socioeconomic protests including
protests organized by thousands of garment laborers in the compounds of the Zaykabar company’s
factory, strikes of Food Panda riders, PMG bottle refinery factory workers’ strikes calling for the
increase of bonus and riots-like pro-military rallies.
Following the burning of civilian homes, markets, and public property near flash mobs, the military
junta has accelerated its tactics to divide the public and strike organisers.
In total, military and private vehicles were rammed into peaceful protests and struck 19 times,
including eight times in Mandalay Region, five times in Yangon Region, three times in Sagaing
Region, and once in each of Shan State, Kachin State, and Tanintharyi State.
Prison strikes include hunger strikes against the junta, prisoner strikes calling for their rights in
prisons and strikes showing solidarity with the oppressed outside. Inmate protesters were beaten,
kept in solitary confinement, denied access to letters and family, restricted in security, and tortured
to death.
In many cases, the charges against the detained protesters were replaced with more severe offenses. Demonstrators who have been arrested face criminal prosecution under the Penal Code or the
Counter-Terrorism Act rather than under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law,
which is less intense.
The lawyers defending and providing legal assistance to the detained protesters, politicians, and
activists were also jailed. A number of young female lawyers providing legal assistance to the detainees have been sexually harassed by both junta forces and police.
Despite the violent crackdowns and oppression, anti-coup flash mobs have continued to persist in
major cities with peaceful protests such as the main strike of Kalay township, Yinmabin Shwenwethway strike, the “Our Village Searches No Savior” strike in Yinmabin and multi-village strike
of eastern Yinmabin and northern Salingyi Sagaing Region..."
Source/publisher:
Athan - Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Date of publication:
2022-10-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
11.86 MB (Original version) - 29 pages
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Description:
"Executive Summary: Anti-junta protests constitute 99 % of mass protests, with some socioeconomic protests including
protests organized by thousands of garment laborers in the compounds of the Zaykabar company’s
factory, strikes of Food Panda riders, PMG bottle refinery factory workers’ strikes calling for the
increase of bonus and riots-like pro-military rallies.
Following the burning of civilian homes, markets, and public property near flash mobs, the military
junta has accelerated its tactics to divide the public and strike organisers.
In total, military and private vehicles were rammed into peaceful protests and struck 19 times,
including eight times in Mandalay Region, five times in Yangon Region, three times in Sagaing
Region, and once in each of Shan State, Kachin State, and Tanintharyi State.
Prison strikes include hunger strikes against the junta, prisoner strikes calling for their rights in
prisons and strikes showing solidarity with the oppressed outside. Inmate protesters were beaten,
kept in solitary confinement, denied access to letters and family, restricted in security, and tortured
to death.
In many cases, the charges against the detained protesters were replaced with more severe offenses. Demonstrators who have been arrested face criminal prosecution under the Penal Code or the
Counter-Terrorism Act rather than under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law,
which is less intense.
The lawyers defending and providing legal assistance to the detained protesters, politicians, and
activists were also jailed. A number of young female lawyers providing legal assistance to the detainees have been sexually harassed by both junta forces and police.
Despite the violent crackdowns and oppression, anti-coup flash mobs have continued to persist in
major cities with peaceful protests such as the main strike of Kalay township, Yinmabin Shwenwethway strike, the “Our Village Searches No Savior” strike in Yinmabin and multi-village strike
of eastern Yinmabin and northern Salingyi Sagaing Region..."
Source/publisher:
Athan - Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Date of publication:
2022-10-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Format :
pdf
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10.3 MB (Original version) - 31 pages
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"Ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) based in northern Myanmar, which are long under the influence of neighboring China, are paying close attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) congress as changes in Beijing’s leadership and policies can impact them.
President Xi Jinping is due to be confirmed as president and CCP general secretary for a third term and head of the powerful Central Military Commission.
China is a major investor in Myanmar and has important projects as part of the Belt and Road Initiative that will give it access to the Indian Ocean.
Xi visited Myanmar in 2020 and signed 33 memorandums of understanding, agreements, exchange letters and protocols with the then National League for Democracy government.
During the visit Xi acknowledged that Myanmar was an important partner.
Following the coup last year, Beijing said it will support Myanmar’s regime “no matter how the situation changes”. China and Russia are protecting the regime at the United Nations Security Council.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in April that Beijing “has always placed Myanmar in an important position in its neighborly diplomacy” and wants to “deepen exchanges and cooperation”.
Political analyst on China Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw recently talked to The Irrawaddy about how the congress could impact Myanmar.
Will there be a change in China’s policy regarding Myanmar?
I don’t think there will be significant changes. China is looking at the whole Asian continent for its economic recovery. Xi Jinping has recently visited central Asian countries.
And China is in the ASEAN Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership together with the 10 ASEAN countries. It plans to turn the entire Asia continent into its trade routes.
Myanmar is in the network and there won’t be significant policy changes.
As to the peace process in Myanmar, China is facilitating it as best it can. In the aftermath of the coup, China sent an envoy and called for a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
China is pushing for dialogue to build peace. It appears that China also supports the peace talks between the regime and EAOs based in northern Myanmar.
China tends to keep a low profile in what it does.
It might have been taking steps that we don’t see.
The Chinese authorities have reportedly told EAOs in northern Myanmar to make sure there is no gunfire along the border during the congress. Is it true and why did China demand this?
It is nothing new. Since the Kokang incidents in 2015-17 [clashes between Myanmar’s military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army], when shells landed in its territory, China has warned that it would respond if stray bullets and artillery landed in China’s territory.
It has repeatedly warned both the military and EAOs against fighting near the border.
The national security strategy rolled out by US President Joe Biden on October 12 seeks to contain China’s rise and calls it the largest threat to the global order.
Will the CCP respond at its congress?
China will only view it as a seasonal US statement and Biden setting off fireworks to attract voters for the mid-term elections in November. Republicans and Democrats may have different views on other things but they both take aim at China.
Despite the war in Ukraine, the US plan says China is the main threat.
It is seasonal. They are just playing the China card to win votes. This is how Beijing views it.
Will there be more friction between Washington and Beijing and how could that affect Myanmar?
There has been constant friction between China and the US. Economically, the US cannot shun China. Their economies are intertwined and there are many US companies in China.
Chinese analysts think relations between US and China will somewhat improve after the mid-term elections.
The US is playing the Taiwan card. But China apparently is not concerned much.
China believes it can threaten Taiwan a lot with its air force and navy. As long as Taiwan does not declare independence, China will not attack and it will keep the status quo.
Will China change its policy on Taiwan? Will it use force?
The general policy of China regarding Taiwan is the peaceful reunification of the Chinese people. China said it will consider various means, including the use of force, for reunification.
Some pro-independence groups are taking action with the help of certain countries.
China is unlikely to do anything unless Taiwan declares independence. But China has made preparations to take control of Taiwan by force if it declares independence.
How can revolutionary forces in Myanmar succeed without being stuck between China and the US?
It is a good opportunity for our revolution. But don’t oppose China by placing all the reliance on the US. Don’t expect anything from China and don’t curse the US with the hope of receiving help from China.
We have to take whatever we can get from the US. The US politically supports us.
And Myanmar’s ambassador [to United Nations] can speak freely from the US and we have to make use of it.
On the other hand, China has close ties with EAOs in Myanmar, including the United Wa State Army, Mongla (National Democratic Alliance Army), Kokang (Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army) and the Arakan Army.
We need to attract those forces into our revolution. It is important to attract all the ethnic armed groups into the revolution. And we should avoid being fiercely critical of China. We should be as flexible as we can be in dealing with China and persuade it.
We should take the cue from Indonesia regarding our diplomacy. Indonesia attended the Nato summit organized by the US and after it went to China and invited it to attend the G20 summit [in Bali next month]. And it also told China what it discussed at the Nato summit.
We must learn how to act between big powers. It is not good for us to take sides with one country and make another an enemy..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-10-19
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
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"Myanmar junta troops beheaded a teacher at a civilian National Unity Government (NUG) school in Magwe Region, according to sources.
U Saw Tun Moe was teaching at a NUG-funded school in Thit Nyi Naung village in southern Pauk Township. He was abducted on Sunday and killed at Taung Myint village about 3km away the following day.
Around 130 junta soldiers and junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militia members entered Taung Myit on Monday morning, according to witnesses.
“I saw him when junta troops entered our village. His hands were tied behind his back and he was forced away,” a Taung Myint villager told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
U Saw Tun Moe’s beheaded body was found at the school after troops left the village on Monday.
“His head was hung at the school door and his body was leaned against the door. Three fingers were cut off at the base and thrown between his thighs,” said a resident.
U Saw Tun Moe, 46, worked as a private teacher for 20 years and ran his own boarding school. After the 2021 coup, he volunteered for an NUG-sponsored school.
“He was aware he could end up like this if he fell into junta hands. Even then he took the risk and chose to teach at the NUG school. He was kind to his students. He committed himself to a historic duty as a good citizen,” said a colleague.
U Saw Tun Moe mainly taught mathematics and had many pupils across southern Pauk. He leaves a son.
Residents said the killing is to threaten others.
“They have cruelly killed him like this to instill fears in teachers and children and threaten the resistance groups,” said a resident.
NUG headmaster U Ye Thiha, who refused to work under military rule, from a middle school in Zalun Township in Ayeyarwady Region was stabbed to death on Monday.
The Basic Education General Strike Committee and Basic Education Workers Union Steering Committee on Tuesday denounced the atrocities, calling on the NUG to protect teachers and children..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-10-18
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
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Description:
"An alliance of pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar has congratulated Chinese leader Xi Jinping, saying it wants to work with China to restore peace in the country.
The National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) said it wanted to work with China for Myanmar and the region as a bedrock for the building of a community with a shared future.
Formed after the military takeover last year, the NUCC represents hundreds of anti-junta forces, including the shadow National Unity Government (NUG)’s parliamentary wing, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, ethnic armed organizations, political parties, civil society bodies and other groups. The goal is to achieve a federal democratic union by building unity among the forces.
The message congratulated the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people during the party’s 20th National Congress.
“This [bilateral] community is particularly important as the people of Myanmar continue their own search for a path towards peace and prosperity, which can only be realized once the military returns to the barracks and a true federal government representing the people can emerge,” said the NUCC’s congratulatory message.
China is a major investor and controls several strategic infrastructure projects in its southern neighbor, including energy pipelines and a proposed port that would give Beijing vital access to the Indian Ocean. China also has leverage over some ethnic armed organizations active near the border.
It is one of the few powerful countries, along with Russia, which has engaged with the regime since the coup.
Despite its engagement with the junta, China has said it wants to see stability in Myanmar.
The NUG, which commands the loyalty of the vast majority of citizens, has committed itself to China’s goal of a shared future with Myanmar and repeatedly pushed China to engage with the civilian administration.
It said if China continues to work with the regime, it will damage its international reputation and increase hostility from Myanmar’s population.
China has had no official engagement with the NUG..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-10-17
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, China-Burma relations
Language:
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Description:
"Daily ambushes and attacks on Myanmar’s regime targets have put Sagaing Region at the center of the armed revolution against military rule.
Following the 2021 coup, the revolution started in Sagaing when anti-regime protesters took up improvised firearms and old-fashioned hunting rifles to stop junta troops killing civilians during a crackdown in Kale, which has a mixed Bamar and Chin population, on March 28 last year.
In March last year, the regime escalated crackdowns, killing hundreds of peaceful demonstrators across the country, including in Yangon and Mandalay.
By April 2, 2021, a prolonged clash was reported in Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region, when residents with improvised weapons fought nearly 100 troops attempting to raid Thapyay Aye village, where a protest leader lived.
On April 7 last year, residents in Taze Township used slingshots, air guns and improvised firearms to fight regime forces arriving in seven vehicles to break up a demonstration of tens of thousands in the town.
At least 11 civilians were killed and more than 25 injured by the regime forces using automatic firearms and sniper rifles.
Now sprawling Sagaing, which straddles the central plains and has no experience of armed rebellion, has become a resistance hub.
Many resistance groups have acquired automatic firearms and upgraded improvised weapons and explosives.
They are increasingly attacking army outposts and police stations in the large region.
An estimated 12 troops are being killed daily in raids, mine ambushes and drone attacks. In upper Sagaing, the Kachin Independence Army is cooperating with resistance groups to attack regime forces.
Outside the towns, the junta has lost control. But regime bases and junta-controlled government departments and offices in towns are increasingly being attacked by urban resistance groups.
The region has reported the second-highest number of clashes with junta forces after Karen State, which had reported over 6,000 with the armed wings of the Karen National Union and their resistance allies by September.
As a restive region, Sagaing has suffered the heaviest regime atrocities with several massacres, arbitrary killings, arson and artillery attacks on civilian targets, airstrikes and looting and acts of sexual violence.
Internet and mobile connections have been blocked in several Sagaing townships since last year and some highways have been destroyed by the regime, stopping food, trade and medical supplies.
By August 25, an estimated 38,434 houses have been burned down by junta forces across the country since the coup, according to Data for Myanmar, an independent research group that monitors the junta.
Sagaing has suffered the heaviest arson damage with around 20,153 houses torched by junta forces. Neighboring Magwe Region, another resistance stronghold, has lost around 5,418 properties in regime arson attacks.
By September 26, an estimated 1,017,000 people across the country have been displaced by conflict and violence since the coup, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
More than half of those displaced are from Sagaing Region, accounting for 545,200 people, Unicef reported.
On Saturday, an estimated 12 civilians and 20 resistance fighters were killed by two junta jet fighters and two Russian-made MI-35 helicopters and foot soldiers during a raid on a people’s defense force training camp and nearby Nay Pu Kone village in Wetlet Township in Sagaing Region.
An estimated 13 civilians, including seven children, were killed in Depayin Township in the region on September 16 when two MI-35 helicopters and soldiers airlifted by helicopters attacked a school with 200 children at Let Yat Kone village.
Amid junta atrocities, the resistance forces in Sagaing become more united and relentlessly attack regime targets.
“We had a chance to enjoy a taste of democracy during the past five years. We know the country will return to the dark ages under this military dictatorship due to the coup. So we found firearms to fight back,” Ko Nway Oo, a founder of the Civil Defense and Security Organization Myaung, which has been fighting the regime in Sagaing since early 2021, told The Irrawaddy.
He said Sagaing’s residents have come to sympathize with ethnic minorities who have suffered from military atrocities for many years.
“That is another reason why we are fighting to root out the military dictatorship as we don’t want other people across the country to suffer under military rule anymore.”
Topics: civil disobedience movement, civilian deaths, Coup, crackdown, Democracy, Human Rights, junta, military in politics, military regime, Min Aung Hlaing, National League for Democracy, National Unity Government, November 8 general election, PDF, People’s Defense Force, people’s war, Political Prisoners, regime, Rule of Law, Sagaing Region, State Administrative Council, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Tatmadaw..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
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Description:
"1. Kalay protesters mark 600 days of protest...2. Terrorist SAC kills hundreds of children 240 children, abducts
hundreds more...3. Over 300 advance orders in NUG investment housing project...4. NUG Labour Ministry helps secure compensation for migrant workers 28/09/2022..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-10-03
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
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Format :
pdf
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2.02 MB
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"National Unity Government Weekly News Update (23/2022)..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-10-03
Date of entry/update:
2022-10-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, National Unity Government (NUG)
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pdf
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2.86 MB
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"Myanmar’s junta added a charge that carries a death sentence against jailed protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing for his role in the protest movement against military rule.
The 27-year-old pro-democracy activist has been held in Monywa Prison, Sagaing Region, since his arrest in April last year during an anti-regime rally. He has already faced several charges and was given a 10-year sentence in five incitement cases last month.
On August 26 the junta filed a fresh case against him under Article 122 of the Penal Code for leading protests in Monywa and for affiliating with the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw of deposed lawmakers, which the junta has declared an unlawful organization, his mother told The Irrawaddy.
Article 122 enforces a death sentence or life in prison for high treason.
Ko Wai Moe Naing defended himself in court as neither of his lawyers was able to attend court. One lawyer was detained and the other has been in hiding for over a month after the junta issued an arrest warrant.
He also faces charges of murder, wrongful confinement, defamation and under the Natural Disaster Management Law.
A hearing for the latest charge is scheduled for September 22.
The regime, which has killed at least 2,273 people since the February 2021 coup, has used the death penalty to intimidate opponents as it struggles to control the country.
It carried out Myanmar’s first execution in nearly four decades in July by hanging four detainees, including veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former National League for Democracy lawmaker, who were sentenced to death in January.
The other two victims were Ko Hla Myo Aung and Ko Aung Thura Zaw, who were accused of murdering a woman they believed to be a junta informant.
Many other political prisoners now face death sentences issued by junta courts..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-09-14
Date of entry/update:
2022-09-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights Defenders, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Anti-coup protesters
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Description:
"At least 15 protesters were arrested in Yangon on Wednesday afternoon when regime personnel in civilian clothes broke up a flash mob in Kyimyindaing Township.
The protest in Pan Pin Gyi Street was in support of the civilian National Unity Government and its United Nations representative, U Kyaw Moe Tun.
The security forces were prepared and waiting for them, residents said.
Protesters who escaped said the security forces were in plain clothes.
“They arrived soon after we began the protest and beat us with sticks. Three vehicles suddenly appeared and at least three shots were fired,” said a protester who escaped.
“At least 15 were taken away and we are very concerned for them. We saw them being beaten and shot at in public and anything can happen to them in an interrogation camp,” he said.
Daw Win Win, a Kyimyindaing resident who witnessed the incident, said: “It happened very quickly. I saw the people in plain clothes with sticks and some with guns watching from a distance. They beat the protesters. I ran away because I was scared.”
Ko Min Thurein, an executive member of the East Yangon University Students’ Union, was detained, according to the students union.
Others seized were representatives of the Basic Education Students’ Union, Myanmar Labour Alliance, Myanmar Youth Network and Pyinnya Nan Taw private school.
Five were members of the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM), the group said, denouncing the crackdown.
U Nay Min Tun from the Building and Wood Workers Federation of Myanmar and Daw Zuu Zuu Ra Khaing, Daw Yamin Kay Thwe Khaing and U Than Zaw from the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar were seized, according to the CTUM.
Last December junta forces rammed a vehicle into protesters and bystanders in the same street and arrested at least 12 people, including two journalists..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-09-14
Date of entry/update:
2022-09-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations
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Description:
"A police officer, who worked on police escorts for senior figures, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison for joining the civil disobedience movement (CDM), a source told The Irrawaddy.
Lance Corporal Han Lin Myint from the counterterrorism unit joined the CDM in March last year and protested following the Feb. 1 coup. Around the end of May last year, he was detained in a raid in Thingangyun Township, Yangon, and charged with high treason.
He was sentenced to 20 years by the Yangon Eastern District Court in May this year. He was handed later three more years for incitement under Article 505(a) of the Penal Code by Thingangyun Township Court and another three years for violating police discipline.
A source said: “We are proud of him. Others are also making sacrifices. But it is too much to imprison him for high treason when he only joined the CDM. We will appeal.”
Relatives appealed to Yangon High Court on August 17 against the 20-year sentence but it was rejected.
Ko Han Lin Myint is being held in Insein Prison and is on medication for stomach problems. One of his ribs was broken during interrogation.
He served for around five years, including in the counterterrorism unit and escorted trips by vice-presidents and state-level officials and provided security when State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited the construction of the Yangon-Dala Bridge, according to a source.
He was part of the escort when then Vice-President U Myint Swe, who is now the junta’s acting president, visited Kachin State in late January 2021 just before the Feb. 1 coup. He and other personnel had to stay with the military in Kachin State due to the coup.
The civilian National Unity Government reported in April this year that 2,973 police officers have joined the CDM, including two majors..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-08-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-23
Grouping:
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Description:
"Throughout the reporting period of January to June 2022, ND-Burma members witnessed the Myanmar military make a mockery of democratic norms and principles. Our findings make clear that the regime is continuing to act with deeply ingrained impunity amid a full fledged humanitarian crisis which has now seen over one million civilians internally displaced by the junta’s violence.1
When the Myanmar military orchestrated their coup on 1 February 2021, it changed the political discourse in the country. It also triggered a domino-like effect of opposition groups forming to protest the junta’s illegitimate seizure of power. Within the first few months following the overthrow of the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government, a Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) which continues to show its strength, emerged. Led by the civil service sector, medics, teachers, engineers and those representing other professions, announced that they would refuse to adhere to their responsibilities under the military junta. In March 2021, the CDM was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.2
In addition, the Spring Revolution has rallied support through strategic organizing efforts which have even exposed the military junta for violating their own Constitution in the attempted power-grab. The establishment of the National Unity Government (NUG) and the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) were formed as legitimate platforms for formal engagement and diplomacy in Myanmar. Armed opposition groups called People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) were created in direct response to the junta’s violence being deployed against civilians who rejected their illegal coup. Civilians across various backgrounds and ethnicities continue to work in solidarity in fierce opposition to the dictatorship.
What has become abundantly clear throughout the reporting period is that the junta is no match against the resilience and bravery of civil society organizations and pro-democracy affiliated organizations, including EROs. While global actors have overwhelmingly failed to respond to the multiple crises in Myanmar with the urgency required, actors inside the country have exemplified bravery by sacrificing their lives for their freedom. Rather than work with trusted, long-time activists, including the NUG, some international bodies have risked legitimizing the junta by working with them..."
Source/publisher:
Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma
Date of publication:
2022-07-28
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
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Format :
pdf
Size:
2.62 MB
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"ယခုအစီရင်ခံသည့် ကာလဖြစ်သည့် ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီမှ ဇွန်လတလျှောက် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်သည် ဒီမိုကရေ စီ စံချိန်စံညွှန်းများနှင့် အခြေခံမူများအပေါ် မထီမဲ့မြင်ပြုနေသည်ကို ND-Burma အဖွဲ့ဝင်များက မျက်ဝါးထင်ထင် မြင်တွေ့ကြရသည်။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့ အရိုးစွဲအောင် ကျင့်သုံးနေသည့် ပြစ်ဒဏ်ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့် ဓ လေ့နှင့် အကြမ်းဖက် ကျူးလွန်မှုကြောင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာသည့် အကြပ်အတည်းကိုဖြစ်ပေါ်စေပြီး လူဦးရေ တသန်းကျော် အိုးအိမ်စွန့်ခွာ ထွက်ပြေးနေရသည်။
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်တပ်မှ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကြောင့် တိုင်းပြည်၏ နိုင်ငံရေးအခြေအနေမှာ အကြီးအကျယ်ပြောင်းလဲသွားသည်။ ထို့အတူ တခုပြိုလဲသွားပြီးနောက် ဆင့်ကဲ ရိုက်ခတ်မှုဖြစ်စဥ်အရ စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့၏ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ဆန့်ကျင်၍ ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သည့် အတိုက်အခံအင်အားစုများအ ပေါ် ရိုက်ခတ်မှုရှိခဲ့သည်။ အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် (NLD) သောင်ပြိုကမ်းပြို အနိုင်ရပြီး လအနည်း ငယ်အတွင်းမှာပင် အကြမ်းမဖက်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) အားကောင်းလာသည်။ ပြည်သူ့ဝန် ထမ်းများဖြစ်သည့် ဆရာဝန်၊ ကျောင်းဆရာ၊ အင်ဂျင်နီယာနှင့် တခြားနယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှ ကျွမ်းကျင်သူများ က စစ်အာဏာရှင်အောက်တွင် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်မည် မဟုတ်ကြောင်း ငြင်းဆန်ကြေငြာခဲ့ကြသည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လတွင် CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုသည် နိုဘယ်ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးဆုအတွက် အမည်စာရင်း တင်သွင်းခြင်းခံရ သည်။
ထို့ပြင် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့၏ အာဏာငမ်းငမ်းတက် ရယူလိုချင်မှုကြောင့် ၎င်းတို့ မူကြမ်းရေးဆွဲခဲ့သည့် ဖွဲ့ စည်းပုံ အခြေခံဥပဒေကိုပင် ပြန်လည်ချိုးဖာက်ကြောင်း နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး၏ ဗျူဟာမြောက် စုစည်း ကြိုးပမ်းမှုမှ တဆင့် ထုတ်ဖော်ပြသခဲ့သည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) နှင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အတိုင်ပင်ခံ ကောင်စီ (NUCC) တို့ကို တရားဝင် ထိတွေ့ဆက်ဆံမှုနှင့် သံတမန် ဆက်သွယ်မှုအတွက် ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သည်။ လက်နက်ကိုင် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေး (PDFs) အဖွဲ့များကိုလည်း စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ဆန့်ကျင် သည့် အရပ်သားများဖြင့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့အား ဆန့်ကျင်တိုက်ခိုက်ရန် ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သည်။ နောက်ခံ အခြေအနေအမျိုးမျိုးနှင့် တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုးအသီးသီးတို့ ညီညွတ်စွာဖြင့် အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ဆန့်ကျင်လျှက်ရှိသည်။
ယခုအစီရင်ခံသည့် ကာလအတွင်း စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့သည် အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် EROs အပါအဝင် ဒီမိုကရေစီအင်အားစုများ၏ ရဲရဲဝံ့ဝံ့ခုခံမှုကို ယှဥ်ပြိုင်အံတုနိုင်ခြင်းမရှိပေ။ ကမ္ဘာ့ခေါင်းဆောင်များ အနေဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင်း အရေးပေါ်လိုအပ်မှုများအပါအဝင် အကြပ်အတည်းများနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ တုန့်ပြန်ဆောင်ရွက်ရန် ပျက်ကွက်နေစဥ်တွင် နိုင်ငံတွင်းရှိ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများက စံပြအနေဖြင့် ရဲရင့်စွာ အသက်ကို ပဓာနမထားပဲ ၎င်းတို့၏ လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအတွက် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေကြသည်။
NUG အပါအဝင် ကာလကြာရှည်ဆောင်ရွက်နေသည့် လှုပ်ရှားတက်ကြွသူများနှင့် ယုံကြည်စွာ လက်တွဲ အလုပ်လုပ်ရမည့်အစား နိုင်ငံတကာအဖွဲ့အစည်းအချို့သည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့နှင့် လက်တွဲ၍ ၎င်းတို့အား အသိ အမှတ်ပြုစေသည့် တရားဝင်မှုကို အရဲစွန့် ပေးနေသည်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုဆိုင်ရာ ညှိနှိုင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးရုံး (OHA) နှင့် ASEAN ၏ လူသားချင်းဆိုင်ရာ ကူညီမှု အဖွဲ့သည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့နှင့် ပူးပေါင်း၍ လူသားချင်းစာနာသည့် အကူအညီများအတွက် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရန် ခြေလှမ်းပြင်နေသည်[4]။ အထောက်အပံ့ အကူအညီများကို တလွဲသုံးခြင်းနှင့် စားနပ်ရိက္ခာ၊ ရေ၊ ဆေးဝါးနှင့် အမိုးအကာများ အပါအဝင် အရေးတကြီးလိုအပ်နေသည့် အခြေခံလိုအပ်ချက်များအား ပိတ်ပင်တားဆီးနေသည့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့ နှင့် လက်တွဲလုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ လက်တွေ့မြေပြင်တွင် လုပ်ဆောင်နေသည့် အားကိုးစိတ်ချ၊ ယုံကြည်ရသည့် အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် လက်တွဲ လုပ်ဆောင်မည်လား? မြန်မာစစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့အား အရဲစွန့်၍ တရားဝင်မှုကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုမည်လား? ဟု အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများက ကုလသမဂ္ဂအား မေးခွန်းထုတ် တောင်းဆိုနေကြသည်။ လူသားချင်းစာနာသည့် အကူအညီများအား တလွဲအသုံးပြုနေသည်ဟု မှတ်တမ်းရှိသည့် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်နှင့် ပူးပေါင်း၍ အကူအညီများ ပေးပို့ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည့် အရှေ့တောင်အာရှနိုင်ငံများအသင်း (ASEAN) ၏ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်အား NUG ၏ လူသားချင်းစာနာ ထောက်ထားရေးနှင့် ဘေးအန္တရယ်ဆိုင်ရာ စီမံခန့်ခွဲရေး ဝန် ကြီးဌာနသည် ကရင်အမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံး (KNU), ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဦး (CNF) နှင့် ကရင်နီအမျိုးသား တိုးတက်ရေး ပါတီ (KNPP) တို့နှင့် ပူးပေါင်း၍ ကန့်ကွက်ခဲ့သည်။ ထိုသို့ ဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့က လက်နက်မဲ့ အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူများအပေါ် စက်ဆုတ်စရာကောင်းအောင် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု များတွင် ကြံရာပါအဖြစ် အရဲစွန့် လုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma
Date of publication:
2022-07-28
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
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1.78 MB
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"At about 13:00 on 14 June, members of the volunteer People's Defence Force arrived at a patch of ground in the fields between two villages just west of the Chindwin River, in central Myanmar.
They had been alerted by a cow herder, who had spotted crows picking at what he believed was a corpse. The volunteers saw a human hand protruding from the earth.
It belonged to a young fighter from their group, Wu Khong, who had been injured and gone missing during an attack by the army four days earlier.
With him, in the shallow grave, were four other bodies, dismembered and burned.
From the clothing, a watch and a medical bag found nearby, they also identified 27-year-old Zarli Naing, a nurse who had come to this area in the Magway Region last year to provide healthcare to insurgents and locals.
They were opposing Myanmar's military which had seized power on 1 February 2021, overthrowing the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Through interviews with Zarli Naing's friends and family, those who trained her, and the villagers and fighters she lived with until her death, the BBC has pieced together the story of a bright and courageous young woman whose decision to oppose the coup ended in tragedy.
This is also the story of the desperate resistance being put up against the military junta by communities across a large swathe of the dry zone, an impoverished and drought-prone region of Myanmar.
Zarli Naing was the youngest of four girls from a poor farming family, which lived close to the great temple complex of Bagan. The only one of them who did well at school, she went on to qualify as a nurse and got a job at a hospital in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
She was working there when the coup happened. Like thousands of other healthcare workers across the country, Zarli Naing joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM), refusing to work with the military-controlled administration.
A month after the coup, she left Nay Pyi Taw and returned to her home village. But fearing her political activism would endanger her family, she decided to move on to a safe zone in the north of Magway, which is largely controlled by opposition forces such as the People's Defence Force or PDF.
There she became part of an extensive underground healthcare network run by the thousands of doctors and nurses who have left their jobs in protest against the coup.
She was also trying to complete an online degree course from the prestigious University of Nursing in Mandalay. She had started the programme in early 2020, but it was disrupted by the pandemic.
"When I spoke to her a month ago she told me how happy she was to be there," says one of her online supervisors, a nursing instructor for the clandestine network.
"She was especially happy that she could give first aid training to the PDF fighters in her area, because there are no other healthcare staff there. She was the only one able to give that service to them."
Zarli Naing had spent the past 14 months in a village called Dan Bin Gan. She was invited there by a friend, Khin Hnin Wai, a teacher the same age as her, who was working at a school run by a respected head teacher, Win Kyaw.
Win Kyaw was a prominent local CDM leader who backed the parallel National Unity Government, which was formed last year to challenge the military junta's rule.
Dan Bin Gan was, in effect, a liberated zone. It had an active PDF wing, which had established its base in the centre of the village. Most of the 2,500 inhabitants are farmers, eking out a living from cultivating beans, sesame and groundnuts, and a little corn to feed their cattle.
This part of Myanmar is known for being deeply loyal to Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy, which, in the last election, won every seat in Magway in both the national and local parliaments.
Opposition to the coup here, and in neighbouring southern Sagaing Region, is as strong as anywhere in Myanmar, with dozens of volunteer militias taking on the army using captured and home-made guns, and improvised mines.
The village also lies just 6km (nearly 4 miles) from Sin Pyu Shin bridge, one of the only road crossings of the Chindwin River, and so vital for moving troops and other reinforcements around.
Zarli Naing offered the only medical treatment for communities no longer able to use the local hospital, both because it was under military control, and also because after the coup so many nurses and doctors had abandoned state-run institutions.
Friends and PDF fighters who knew her say she was deeply committed to the armed struggle, and ran first aid classes for the fighters.
"Zarli was very strong," says another of her supervisors, who is based in the UK, where some medics are providing support for the underground health network in Myanmar.
"She was always very upbeat. She never spoke about her own difficulties. She just asked smart questions when she needed to fix something. The clandestine health workers can get depressed by the challenges they face.
"Sometimes their patients cannot reach them because of roadblocks or fighting, and they cannot refer patients to hospitals if they need more complex surgery. That is very hard for them - many of their patients in that situation do not survive."
But Zarli Naing "did not express any regret for the path she had chosen", says a friend who worked near her in northern Magway.
"There were many times she missed her family. She never told them what she was doing. Knowing she was working for the CDM would have put them in danger.
"We used to ask people we knew for donations, to pay for the medicines we needed. We often used to speak together on the phone, and talk about the medical problems we faced, or about our support for the CDM."
From her Facebook page she seems to have been a keen reader, posting colourful covers of the Burmese novels she liked. The photos of herself that she shared show her either reading, or holding up her hand in the three-fingered symbol of defiance that has become so popular in South East Asia in recent years.
One post has a series of pictures of a much younger Aung San Suu Kyi with her family back in the UK.
The day before Zarli Naing died - 9 June - three PDF groups together launched an attack on the military post guarding the Sin Pyu Shin bridge, killing three soldiers and taking control of it for a few hours.
A military counter-attack was inevitable, and in the early hours of 10 June, about 30 soldiers in four vehicles were spotted making for Dan Bin Gan from the east.
Not all the soldiers were in uniform, but those that were could be identified by their shoulder badges as coming from infantry battalions 256, 257 and 258, based at Hpu Lon, near Yesagyo town about 25km to the south.
At 03:00 the residents of Dan Bin Gan started fleeing the village, heading for open country to the west. Zarli Naing was among them.
To slow the army down PDF fighters laid homemade mines along the road into Dan Bin Gan. One of them, Wu Khong, injured his leg in a fall while doing this. Zarli Naing stayed with him to treat his leg.
Win Kyaw, who was protective of the young nurse, stayed back too. So did Zarli Naing's friend, Khin Hnin Wai, who was pregnant, and another young female fighter, Thae Ei Ei Win.
They had run to the western edge of Dan Bin Gan, according to eyewitnesses, but had stopped for Zarli Naing to deal with Wu Khong's injury, when they were intercepted by a group of soldiers.
Guided by an informer, the soldiers had come around the south of the village to avoid the mines.
They captured Zarli Naing and her friends, tied their hands, and together with nine other people they had detained, began marching them north for about an hour to the village of Thit Gyi Taw.
Eyewitnesses heard the soldiers asking their captives if they were members of the CDM, and warning that they could be jailed or shot. They say the soldiers repeatedly struck and kicked their captives; and stole food and alcohol from the now empty homes in the villages.
According to PDF sources, they also set 70 houses in Thit Gyi Taw alight, sending up a large plume of black smoke over the fields.
Later in the afternoon the captives were moved a little way south to a temple in a village called Peik Thit Kan.
Nine of them were then released, the soldiers telling them to run for their lives. One of them told us the remaining five were still alive at that point.
Exactly what happened to Zarli Naing and the other four prisoners after that is unclear. At some point in the night they were moved south of Peik Thit Kan, and killed by their captors.
Some villagers have reported hearing them shouting for help. But it's not clear when and why their bodies were dismembered and burned.
Local PDF fighters believe the military targeted Dan Bin Gan because it was a known centre of resistance to the coup, and also because of the school established there by Win Kyaw.
The school had opened only in May, but had already attracted 250 students. Its success made it something of a showcase for the parallel administration which the National Unity Government is trying to run outside military-controlled zones.
The PDF believes the informer travelling with the soldiers identified Win Kyaw, Zarli Naing and Khin Hnin Wai as important figures in Dan Bin Gan. Killing them has robbed the village and surrounding communities of leaders who helped to sustain the insurgency.
It has also robbed Myanmar of a promising young nurse, in a country which, even before the disastrous military takeover, had one of Asia's poorest healthcare systems.
"I am sure she was a wonderful nurse," says her online instructor. "She always tried so hard to do a good job.
"Just imagine, she was providing healthcare to the people of the village while all that time she was also taking all our online courses, even though there was no reliable internet access where she was. And she was taking the Bachelor degree course as well. The workload was enormous.
"Even I could not do all that. She was just wonderful. One of her teachers told me that her exam results were really good."
Zarli Naing had finished her first semester exams just two days before she died.
At the time of writing, the inhabitants of Dan Bin Gan are still hiding in the forested area to the west of the village.
It is the first time they have been forced to evacuate, but many other villages in this region have been attacked multiple times. This has repeatedly displaced their populations, creating serious humanitarian needs which are not being met because of the conflict and lack of access given to international agencies.
Thousands of houses in northern Magway and southern Sagaing have been destroyed by the army; even when they feel safe enough to return, people do not have the resources to rebuild their homes.
Last year's coup has unleashed a brutal war of attrition in this Burmese heartland, with uncountable casualties.
Zarli Naing's story is just one of so many..."
Source/publisher:
"BBC News" (London)
Date of publication:
2022-07-15
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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Regime forces have repeatedly deployed their vehicles to crack down on anti-junta protests since last year’s coup
Description:
"One person was hurt on Thursday after a car rammed into a group of protesters in Yangon’s Hlaing Township, according to activist sources.
The incident occurred at around 3pm, shortly after a flash mob of around 20 people carrying a protest banner started shouting slogans near the Thukha bus stop on Insein Road, the sources said.
“The car rammed into us just seconds into our demonstration. The guy at the far left was hit and thrown into the air,” said one person who took part in the protest.
Myat Min Khant, the Yangon district chair of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), told Myanmar Now that all of the protesters, including the one who was hit, fled the scene after the incident.
“The person who was hit managed to escape, but his arm was injured,” he said.
Myanmar Now has received a video that shows the moment of impact. In it, a white Toyota Belta can be seen running into a masked protester holding one end of the banner.
According to Myat Min Khant, a black item that exploded with a loud bang, believed to be a flash grenade, was thrown out of the vehicle as it sped away.
Thursday’s protest was held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the day that Myanmar’s first dictator, General Ne Win, blew up the Yangon University Student Union building on July 7, 1962.
“With a strong mind, we will fight for a new world. Never forget what happened on 7.7.1962” read the banner carried by the protesters.
A friend of the man who was hit by the car shared a screenshot of a conversation he had with him later that day on Facebook.
“The first thought that jumped into my head was that I had to take care of my parents, and so I just ran in a panic. My legs are still sore even now,” the man said.
According to a Facebook group called Hlaing Info, plainclothes officers were seen searching the area near the Thukha bus stop soon after the protesters had scattered.
While it could not be confirmed that regime authorities were responsible for the apparently deliberate attack on the protesters, it would not be the first time that the junta had used a vehicle to crack down on an anti-dictatorship demonstration.
In December of last year, regime forces were captured on video at they plowed into a crowd of protesters on Panbingyi Street in Yangon’s Kyimyindaing Township, killing or injuring several people before making a number of arrests.
In April, junta troops riding in a double cab pickup truck smashed into a taxi while trying to hit a crowd of marchers in Yangon’s Okkalapa Township. The three people inside the taxi, including two women from the Confederation of Trade Unions, Myanmar, were arrested after the collision.
The latest incident was on May 30, when five teenagers suffered multiple injuries after regime soldiers ran their vehicle into them following a flash mob protest in South Okkalapa Township.
The five minors were then beaten and arrested, according to the ABFSU’s Myat Min Khant..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2022-07-08
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
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"SITUATION OVERVIEW:
The people of Myanmar are dealing with an evolving humanitarian crisis where humanitarian needs have continued to escalate since the third wave of COVID-19 in 2021 and the ongoing political unrest since Myanmar’s military intervention on 1 February 2021.
The country is now entering the second year of this crisis, where ongoing inter-factional tensions have fueled its complexity and multi-dimensional characteristics. The Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) continues to be supported by many in Myanmar, impacting public services, including health, schools, and government administrations in states and regions across the country.
Clashes and targeted attacks between various armed actors, including the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), and the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF), continue and have intensified in several states/regions. Simmering historical tensions exist across certain key states, and, in some locations, these tensions have become exacerbated as a consequence of military intervention. Numerous new forces have emerged, and several ethnic armed groups, established many years before the military intervention, have become increasingly recommitted to the insurgency resulting in fighting occurring in areas that have been without conflict for decades.
Some sources have recorded nearly 13,000 political violence and protest events throughout 2021. The degree of violence against civilians has been severe. The number of casualties has increased, while thousands of houses and the properties of other civilians have been burnt down or destroyed. This has triggered multiple large scale population displacements. As of 28 February 2022, roughly 873,000 people have been internally displaced in Myanmar. About 502,600 people have been displaced by insecurity and the increased vulnerability of host and resident communities in affected areas since 1 February 2021. The northwest part of Myanmar (Sagaing, Magway and Chin) has recorded the highest level of new internal displacements, with 246,600 internally displaced persons (IDPs) (49 per cent), followed by the southeast part of Myanmar (Kayin, Kayah, and Shan) with 233,600 IDPs contributing 46.5 per cent. Displaced populations face significant challenges in access to basic needs and services, specifically, food, healthcare, shelter materials, clean water, and sanitation facilities.
Myanmar is also experiencing a socio-economic crisis exacerbated by the protracted COVID-19 epidemic. The local currency, the Kyat, has fluctuated with a significant drop in value by 60 per cent7 in the month of September 2021, while costs for food items, fuel, and other essential goods have soared. In September 2021, inflation increased to 7.3 per cent. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that in 2021, some 1.6 million jobs were lost, leaving only 18.9 million women and men employed. The farming, construction, garment, tourism, and hospitality industries are among the hardest hit. The economic and political volatility is projected to have driven almost half of the population into poverty in 2022.
The 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) for Myanmar , which was published on 31 December 2021, predicts that approximately a quarter of the population (14.4 million people – 4.9 million women and five million children) will be classified as requiring humanitarian support during 2022, up from about one million people in need before February 2021. This increase is driven by the social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19, worsening food insecurity, and the mass movement of the population since the events of 1 February 2021 and subsequent need for protection. These factors have generated an array of new needs and exacerbated the vulnerability of specific groups.
The HNO analysis estimated that 14 out of 15 states and regions in Myanmar are now within the critical threshold for acute malnutrition. Prices for key commodities in some states and regions have increased significantly, resulting in some food items no longer being affordable to many families. At the beginning of 2022, fuel prices increased by 14-18 per cent from the previous month. Compared to the pre-crisis period through to March 2022, fuel prices skyrocketed by 82-150 per cent , impacting transportation costs and contributing to unpredictable commodity prices.
Humanitarian access to reach conflict-affected populations remains a major challenge for the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) and other humanitarian organizations. Travel restrictions are currently in place due to the security context, military checkpoints, stringent administrative authorization requirements, and COVID-19 regulations.
This has impacted the distribution of humanitarian resources, direct support from personnel and disrupted monitoring and evaluation activities, including data collection and verification. Several private companies have withdrawn and/or halted services in Myanmar, which has impacted transportation, the supply chain, and costs, eventually delaying humanitarian assistance from reaching those most in need.
With continuous dialogue and advocacy efforts with all stakeholders and state administrators, the MRCS gradually secured safe access to wider vulnerable populations. This engagement is based on autonomous Red Cross Red Crescent-led needs assessments and a decision-making process that supports independent humanitarian action. The MRCS collaborates with both International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement (the Movement) and non-Movement partners, such as UN agencies, to deliver assistance to broader geographic areas. The National Society remains flexible and adaptive to the dynamic operational context to reach the most vulnerable and affected populations whilst ensuring compliance with security protocols for mobilizing personnel..."
Source/publisher:
International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies
Date of publication:
2022-07-06
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Public Health, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
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Description:
"Myanmar’s military regime reportedly carried out 125 airstrikes within five days to defend its strategic outpost in Karen State near the Thai border while it was being attacked by resistance forces.
The armed wings of the Karen National Union, the Karen National Liberation Army and the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO), and other resistance forces assaulted the Ukayit Hta outpost on a strategically important road near Waw Lay in Myawaddy Township on June 26.
Fighting continued for nearly a week. Witnesses said the battle for Ukayit Hta is the fiercest they have seen since last year.
A source said last Tuesday that shells landed every three seconds.
Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told a press conference on Friday that the outpost is still in junta control with the support of airstrikes and artillery.
Drone pictures released by the Cobra Column, one of the resistance groups, show heavy destruction at the outpost and the bodies of junta troops on the ground after an attack. The resistance forces have reported casualties because of junta airstrikes and artillery.
Cobra Column said from June 27 to July 1 the junta conducted 125 attacks with YAK jets and a MIG-29 jet. It said the group suffered no casualties in the airstrikes.
It said junta reinforcements were sent 12 times by helicopter from Mawlamyine.
Reinforcements were attacked and a Cobra Column video shows a junta corporal captured by the group saying at least 20 soldiers (of his group) were killed in an attack. The corporal was shown being treated for his injuries.
He said his commander fled during the attack so he ran away and was captured later.
The KNDO said on Thursday it attacked Light Infantry Division 44 reinforcements, killing at least seven soldiers and seizing weapons.
The casualties on both sides are unknown.
More than 300 Waw Lay residents have fled across the Moei River to Thailand.
On Friday and Saturday junta airstrikes killed two civilians and injured seven others, including children, in two Karen villages..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-07-05
Date of entry/update:
2022-07-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians
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"1. The National Unity Government, the Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Education strongly condemn the junta’s attempts to open public schools in order to portray an image of control over the country. This is a blatant attempt to exploit our future generations purely for their own political gains.
2. Despite numerous attempts by the junta, many teachers, students, and parents are still bravely taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) regardless of the hardships it brings. As a result, we see only a small number of students registered to attend the military-run public schools. We would like to express our gratitude to all the teachers and students participating in CDM.
3. The NUG Ministry of Education is providing interim education programs and services, including both home based learning (HBL) programs and online and face-to-face schooling and is already planning for the post revolution education system. We would like to encourage the citizens and students to continue opposing the reopening of public school by the junta.
4. The junta has and continues to commit heinous crimes openly against civilians, and another unimaginable attack happened at a bus stop in Yangon on the evening of the 30th of May. Civilians were killed and injured when the bomb exploded at a bus stop in downtown Yangon. There are fears the junta could cary out similar attacks on students in the newly re-opened schools in an attempt to pin the bombings on the PDF. In such schools the junta alone is responsible for the safety and welfare of the students in attendence.
5. The Ministry of Human Rights together with respective ministries has outlined a code of conduct for the people’s defence forces. We strongly urge all civilian defence forces to strictly abide by this code of conduct. Any and all attacks on school buildings are strongly condemned regardless of who initiate the attack.
6. The international communities should not ignore the fact that students and teachers are risking their lives to oppose the junta, to take part in the CDM, and to listen to the requests made by the revolutionary forces. We should not ignore the fact that the terrorist military can attack the same schools they plan to reopen at anytime. Together with the revolutionary forces, we urge everyone to fight against the terrorist military who continually disregard children’s right to education and who exploit children for their own political gains, so that together we may build a true federal democracy where freedom of education will be guaranteed for all children..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights and Ministry of Education
Date of publication:
2022-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2022-06-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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32.01 KB
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"၁။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုသည် နိုင်ငံကိုအုပ်ချုပ်နိုင်သည်ဟု ပုံဖော်နိုင်ရန်အလို့ငှာ စာသင်ကျောင်းများကို ဖွင့်လှစ်ရန်ကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိသည်။ ထိုသို့ကြိုးပမ်းမှုသည် နိုင်ငံ၏အနာဂတ်ဖြစ်သော ကလေး သူငယ်များကို ၎င်းတို့၏နိုင်ငံရေးအကျိုးအမြတ်အတွက်အသုံးချခြင်းဖြစ်သည့် ယုတ်ညံ့သော အကြံ အစည်တစ်ခုဖြစ်သောကြောင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့် ပညာရေး၀န်ကြီးဌာနတို့က ပြင်းထန်စွာကန့်ကွက်ရှုတ်ချသည်။
၂။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုကမည်မျှပင်ကြိုးစားစေကာမူ ဆရာ/ဆရာမများ၊ မိဘများနှင့် ကျောင်းသား/ ကျောင်းသူပေါင်းများစွာသည် အကြမ်းမဖက်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (Civil Disobedience Movement) တွင် ယနေ့တိုင်ပါဝင်လျက်ရှိပြီး အခက်အခဲမျိုးစုံကို ကြံ့ကြံ့ခံလျက် ဆက်လက်တိုက်ပွဲ ဝင်နေကြသောကြောင့် စာရင်းရှိ အခြေခံပညာကျောင်းသားစုစုပေါင်း၏ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းအနည်းငယ်မျှသာ စစ်အုပ်စုက ဖွင့်လှစ်သောကျောင်းများသို့ တက်ရောက်ရန် စာရင်းသွင်းထားသည်ကို တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ CDM ဆရာ/ဆရာမများ၊ မိဘများနှင့် ကျောင်းသား/ကျောင်းသူအပေါင်းတို့ကို ဦးညွှတ် ဂုဏ်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။
၃။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် ကြားကာလပညာရေးအစီ အစဉ်များ၊ ဝန်ဆောင်မှုများအား ပံ့ပိုးဖြန့်ဝေပေးလျက်ရှိသကဲ့သို့ တော်လှန်ရေးအလွန်ကာလ လုပ်ဆောင်ရမည့်ပညာရေးအစီအစဉ်များကိုလည်း ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ နေအိမ်အခြေပြု ပညာသင်ကြားရေးအစီအစဉ် (HBL) အပါအ၀င် online/on ground ကျောင်းများဖွင့်လှစ်ကာ ကြားကာလပညာရေးဝန်ဆောင်မှုများကိုလည်း ပံ့ပိုးဆောင်ရွက်ပေးလျက်ရှိသည်။ အဆိုပါ ဝန်ဆောင်မှုများကို လက်လှမ်းမီနိုင်သောပြည်သူများအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အတုအယောင် ကျောင်းဖွင့်လှစ်ခြင်းအား ဆက်လက်သပိတ်မှောက်ကြရန် တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။
၄။ စဉ်းစားပုံဖော်၍ မရလောက်အောင်ပင် ယုတ်ညံ့လှသည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ပြောင်ပြောင် တင်းတင်း ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသော အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုသည် မေလ ၃၀ ရက်နေ့ ညနေ ရန်ကုန်မြို့ ဘက်စ်ကားမှတ်တိုင်ကို ဗုံးခွဲတိုက်ခိုက်မှုပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ပြီး အရပ်သားများကို ထိခိုက်သေဆုံး၊ ဒဏ်ရာရစေခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အတူ တော်လှန်ရေး အင်အားစုများကို နိုင်ငံတကာမှ အထင်အမြင် လွဲမှားစေရန် အလို့ငှာ နိုင်ငံ၏ အနာဂတ်များဖြစ်သော ကလေးသူငယ်များကို စစ်အုပ်စုမှ အလားတူ ယုတ်မာစွာ အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်မည်ကို အထူးစိုးရိမ်ပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် အခြေအနေအမျိုးမျိုးကြောင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုက ဖွင့်လှစ်သည့်ကျောင်းများကို မလွဲမရှောင်သာ တက်ရောက်ကြရမည့် ကျောင်းသား/ကျောင်းသူများ၏ လုံခြုံရေးအတွက် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုတွင် အပြည့်အဝ တာဝန်ရှိသည်။
၅။ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် ပြည်သူ့ခုခံတော်လှန်စစ်တွင် ပါဝင်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေကြသည့် တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များအနေဖြင့် လိုက်နာရမည့်ကျင့်ဝတ်များကို သက်ဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းရေးဆွဲဖြန့်ဝေထားခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များအနေဖြင့် အဆိုပါ စစ်ဘက်ဆိုင်ရာကျင့်ဝတ်များကို ဆက်လက်၍ တင်းကျပ်စွာလေးစားလိုက်နာကြရန်အတွက် ထပ်လောင်း တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။ စာသင်ကျောင်းများကို တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်းအား မည်သည့်ဘက်၊ မည်သည့်အစုအဖွဲ့က တိုက်ခိုက်သည်ဖြစ်စေ လုံးဝလက်ခံမည်မဟုတ်ပဲ ရှုတ်ချမည်ဖြစ်သည်။
၆။ CDM ဆရာ/ဆရာမများနှင့် ကျောင်းသား/ ကျောင်းသူများ၏ အသက်နှင့် ဘဝများကို ရင်းနှီး၍ ဆက်လက်သပိတ်မှောက်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေကြခြင်းနှင့် အဆိုပါ တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများ၏ နိုင်ငံရေးတောင်းဆိုချက်များကို နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် မျက်ကွယ်မပြုအပ်ပါ။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု ဖွင့်လှစ်မည့် စာသင်ကျောင်းများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ ကိုယ်တိုင် အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်နိုင်သည်ဟူသည့် ဖြစ်နိုင်ချေကို ပေါ့ပေါ့တန်တန် မမှတ်ယူအပ်ပါ။ ကလေးသူငယ်များ၏ ပညာသင်ကြားပိုင်ခွင့် (Right to Education) ကို မျက်ကွယ်ပြုသော၊ နိုင်ငံရေး အကျိုးအမြတ်အတွက်အသုံးချရန် ကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိသော အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုကို တွန်းလှန် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေသည့် တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများနှင့်အတူ ကလေးသူငယ်များ၏ လွတ်လပ်လုံခြုံစွာ ပညာသင်ကြားပိုင်ခွင့်ကိုအာမခံနိုင်မည့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ဆောက်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်ကြပါရန် တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of publication:
2022-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2022-06-03
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"The people of Myanmar are resolved to defeat the military junta and establish
a genuine federal democracy. The revolution is already forming systems of local
governance to provide essential services to people, with immediate implications
for the delivery of international humanitarian assistance, says the Special Advisory
Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
A panel of esteemed representatives from key institutions within Myanmar’s
democratic revolution joined an online public event hosted by SAC-M on Thursday
26 May, to discuss the theme “Building the New Myanmar from the Ground Up.”
“We, the people of Myanmar, know we have to defeat this evil [tyrant] military
in order to [achieve] a peaceful, prosperous federal union that guarantees selfdetermination, equality and justice,” His Excellency Duwa Lashi La, Acting President
of the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG), told the panel. “Within one year
we’ve achieved significant success despite numerous challenges.”
“The junta has created a humanitarian crisis that threatens the stability of the
entire region. A priority of the NUG is to deliver unhindered humanitarian assistance
to the people of Myanmar,” the President explained.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee, Head of Foreign Affairs of the Karen National Union (KNU)
told the panel that the KNU, which runs 14 administrative departments in southeast
Myanmar including education, health, agriculture and transport, has expanded its
social service provision in response to rapidly escalating humanitarian needs caused
by the military’s attempted coup and subsequent attacks.
“After the coup we have been able to mobilise several administrative
departments across seven districts to accommodate tens of thousands of fleeing
politicians, lawyers, doctors, CDM-ers, activists, journalists as well as freedom
fighters,” said Padoh Saw Taw Nee. “We would like to request the international
community to please strengthen our existing humanitarian mechanisms so we can
reach our people who are most in need.”
The panel also heard from Salai Ram Kulh Cung, Chair of the Central Executive
Committee of the Chin National Front (CNF) in northwest Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-06-01
Date of entry/update:
2022-06-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters
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"It has been more than a year since Ko Jack left behind the career he loved and joined the armed struggle to defend the people from the junta’s atrocities.
For about 10 years, he followed his passion for photography, working as a photojournalist for news organizations in Yangon. As he had a special interest in covering armed conflicts, Ko Jack traveled to several ethnic states where armed groups have long fought the military for greater rights and autonomy, telling their stories through his camera lens.
Today, he finds himself among them not as a journalist, but fighting back against the military that overthrew the elected civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February last year.
Now a member of the People’s Defense Force in Karen State, the 29-year-old has taken part in five heavy battles alongside ethnic Karen forces fighting junta troops. In those clashes, more than 100 junta forces were killed and around a dozen captured.
From lens to gun
Ko Jack recalled his first battle experience in a recent interview with The Irrawaddy. He shared that despite having undergone months of military training, the first time he experienced front-line combat his old instincts returned and he immediately began mentally framing photographs of what he saw.
“Using a gun and taking pictures have something in common: you keep your index finger in a ready position. But you can’t do both [take photos and fire a gun] at the same time,” he said.
“If I started taking pictures, the gun I carry would be useless and it wouldn’t help my comrades either,” he added.
Since then, Ko Jack’s camera has been put aside and his rifle has become his top priority. And just as he relied on his strong sense of timing and focusing skills to take good photographs, he has proven to be a good shot on the battlefield.
He was even offered a promotion to section commander but turned it down, feeling he wasn’t ready for the post yet. On the front line he has become a good soldier, coordinating well with his comrades and obedient to his commander, while back at the base, he is a respected trainer among new members, sharing what he has learned with them.
The day that changed his life
For more than a month after the coup, Ko Jack put aside his personal anger at the military takeover in order to focus on his job, heading to the streets with his camera to document the anti-coup protests and the junta’s crackdown on its opponents. With his fellow journalists, he kept the world informed of the events that were unfolding in the coup-hit country and presented evidence of the violence used by the junta’s forces.
However, one day in March, witnessing the aftermath of a bloodbath committed by the junta in a suburb of Yangon convinced him that he had to take up arms.
Following the coup, numerous street protests broke out in Yangon and other cities, and junta forces responded to the peaceful protesters with lethal crackdowns and deadly shootings. Ko Jack was in Hlaing Tharyar Township one day after the military engaged in one of its worst mass killings of civilians there on March 14.
He recalls that so many bodies were taken to the cemetery that the crematorium had to work non-stop, leaving families unable to grieve properly as the funerals had to be rushed. He spent the whole day there. Some bodies were disfigured to the point of being unrecognizable with pierced heads, shattered faces or missing limbs.
The victims were protesters, bystanders and those helping the wounded, gunned down in a cold-blooded crackdown on an anti-coup demonstration in the township. During the crackdown, junta soldiers armed with assault rifles and snipers trapped protesters and shot to kill any living thing in their view. In total, the junta’s forces killed around 80 people on that day.
“I have never been able to just stand there and watch injustice unfold in front of my eyes. With the coup, and after seeing what happened on that day, I couldn’t stand and watch anymore,” he said.
A few days later he left his home in Yangon, joining thousands of young people across the country heading to rebel training camps and vowing to topple the junta, which has continued to terrorize the population with killings, arbitrary arrests, arson and bombing attacks.
His new home is a tent. He lives in a forest without any relatives nearby. More than a year on, he misses his home sometimes, especially when he is sick. He recently caught malaria while staying at a jungle camp; his biggest wish at that time was to be able to enjoy his favorite breakfast—spicy noodle salad with rice.
Same mission
But the determined revolutionary fighter said he won’t turn back until the revolution succeeds—a conviction he shares with his comrades.
A majority of the fighters in the group are aged between 20 and 30; they come from different regions and states and diverse backgrounds: workers, journalists, medics, artists, civil servants and even some striking police and soldiers. Besides graduates like Ko Jack, who completed a degree in geology, undergrads under 20 who are boycotting the junta’s education system have also joined the group.
Like Ko Jack, none of them chose to be soldiers; all felt compelled to take up arms due to the junta’s oppression of the entire population. They are among about 80,000 to 100,000 People’s Defense Force members nationwide who have taken up arms to fight back against the junta.
They all have one mission—to root out the military, which has oppressed the country for more than 60 years, and to terminate once and for all the system of dictatorship that is despised by all Myanmar people.
Some of Ko Jack’s comrades have given their lives for this mission. During one battle Ko Jack lost two fellow fighters, both of whom were much younger than him.
Their deaths could easily have left him heartbroken and demoralised; instead, they have driven him to become a stronger fighter, even more determined to achieve victory on their behalf, he said.
Like Ko Jack, all revolutionary fighters believe that their future will be bright only when the current military under Min Aung Hlaing is defeated.
Ko Jack said that while he personally loved detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as the country’s leader, the fight is not for her sake alone, but for his and his comrades’ future, and he believes other youths who have taken up arms feel the same way.
“We, the youth, are fighting to end military rule for our future and because we are the next generation,” he said.
Referring to the junta’s recent invitation of ethnic armed organizations to peace talks, Ko Jack continued that the young resistance fighters have no trust in any negotiations offered by the junta.
“We have seen their lies and don’t believe them. For us, we will continue to fight till the end, till the junta surrenders, and till they [the military] give up their place in politics,” he said.
Ko Jack and his comrades are confident of victory over the junta troops, who are dispirited and disunited.
Even now, facing shortages of arms and ammunition, the resistance groups, which comprise determined fighters across the country, pose a serious threat to the junta’s forces—once viewed as an all-powerful military—using guerrilla warfare tactics to seize junta posts.
Ko Jack said he has noticed that several junta troops who were killed or arrested by ethnic forces in their area used drugs, adding that on the front lines they are no longer obedient to their commanders.
But the inadequate arms and ammunition are holding back the resistance’s operations. For now, only half of the members of the group are armed.
With the PDFs still not fully armed, Ko Jack bought a used AK-47 rifle on his own and has raised funds to buy bullets for himself as well as for his colleagues. Other PDF members across the country have also had to raise money themselves to buy the required weapons and food.
Ko Jack said that if the resistance forces had adequate supplies of arms and ammunition, victory wouldn’t take long.
“We could also take the cities, as the people expect, in three to six months if we had full supplies of arms and ammunition. We don’t need tanks or jet fighters to win the battle, only supplies of arms and ammunition,” he said.
And the day they prevail will be the day they return home and reclaim their rights.
“When this is over, I want to return home in my uniform,” Ko Jack said. “I want to meet my parents in the battle uniform that I wore while taking part in the revolution and show them that their son did something they can be proud of.”
And yes, he will return to his camera and once again hit the shutter button instead of pulling the trigger..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-05-26
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
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"On 1 February 2021 the Myanmar armed forces (known as the Tatmadaw) seized control of the country following a general election that the National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide. The military junta that the Tatmadaw established to run the country is officially known as the State Administration Council (SAC). Over the period February–November 2021 hundreds of people, including children, were killed and many injured during nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) protests against the coup and violent SAC crackdowns on those opposing it.
Doctors and nurses were arrested for providing medical care to protesters, health workers were injured while providing care to protesters, ambulances were destroyed, and health facilities were raided. In the first few months of 2022 health care in Myanmar continued to be under attack.
By the end of 2021 what began as an urban-based protest movement had escalated into a wider conflict extending into the countryside. In September the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on the Tatmadaw. Shortly after, the Tatmadaw began a brutal offensive throughout the country, razing villages, damaging or destroying health infrastructure with artillery or air strikes, and blocking medical aid to opposition-controlled areas.
This update to the one-year report published in February has been prepared by Insecurity Insight, as part of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC). It highlights reported incidents of violence against health workers, facilities, and transport in Myanmar between 1 January and 31 March 2022 to highlight the impact on the health system as a whole. It does not include information on violence against patients. It is drawn from credible information that is available in local, national, and international news outlets, online databases, and social media reports..."
Source/publisher:
Insecurity Insight (Geneva) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2022-05-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Public Health, Human Rights and international relations
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"With unceasing brutality by the junta, and an increasingly engaged China and India, deferring to languishing ASEAN efforts has proved ineffective to support conflict transformation in Myanmar. Australia could, but is not yet, stepping up diplomatically.
16 April 2022 marked the one-year anniversary of the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, formed out of the parliamentarians elected prior to the military coup. In the international context of the NUG’s diplomatic efforts, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were significant geopolitical shifts in the IndoPacific region in 2021 which affect Myanmar. Myanmar occupies a strategic position at the heart of the Indo-Pacific and borders the globe’s two most populous nations.
One of the most influential developments in the Indo-Pacific in 2021 was the new US Indo-Pacific strategy. The United States, Japan, Australia, and India’s Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) has re-awoken since the Leaders’ Summit in March 2021. In addition, the trilateral security pact of Australia, UK, and the US (AUKUS) emerged on 15 September 2021 to attempt to balance military power in the region. The United States National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) has significantly increased US commitments to Myanmar, and the US House of Representatives has also approved the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2022 (BURMA Act of 2022) to authorise humanitarian assistance and civil society support, promote democracy and human rights, and impose targeted sanctions with respect to human rights abuses in Myanmar, and other purposes.
At the same time, China is centrally engaged in Myanmar and the region. China has shifted from its neutral stance on leadership and stated it will support Myanmar’s military junta “no matter how the situation changes” in the country over the coming months and years. Despite earlier statements for openness to talks, just days before the meeting, during the Armed Forces Day ceremony on 27 March , military leader Min Aung Hlaing said he would not speak to the NUG or the government in exile (CRPH). Hlaing added that he would fight to annihilate them, a statement seemingly emboldened by open support of the Chinese government.
This shift brings into question Australia and the international community’s decision to depend on ASEAN to lead negotiations to end to the violence. NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung appealed to the Australian government for support, saying that the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada had led the way not only in words but in effective action. Meanwhile, Australia’s inaction was notable.
More proactive engagement and consultation with the NUG is needed to re-energise support for restoring democratic governance in Myanmar. ASEAN’s diplomatic response has been ineffective. Moreover, the ASEAN Chair and his special envoy still keep the Myanmar Taskforce led by the military council at the centre of ASEAN’s humanitarian response. They hosted a consultative meeting on ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance to Myanmar on 6 May in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, but the UN Special Envoy to Myanmar, the NUG, and other crucial stakeholders were deliberately excluded. The NUG warned of the high risk of failure and politicisation in the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance that such exclusion poses.
For China, Myanmar is its only outlet to the Indian Ocean, which is vital to China’s strategy for energy security to sustain economic growth. In addition, Myanmar has rare earth minerals in abundance. China accounted for 60 percent of global production in 2021, and half of its raw materials come from Myanmar. Under the Chinese government’s foreign policy objectives, Myanmar is seen as being able to serve its national interests.
Myanmar has seemingly faded from the public eye in Australia as attention is drawn to the Solomon Islands and Ukraine. Myanmar is in the meantime experiencing shifts that will reverberate across the region. Some observers believe the sudden change in the Chinese government’s stance on Myanmar is a direct response to the Indo-Pacific strategy of the US. It is also worth considering whether, with Russia engaged in Ukraine, the Chinese government has significantly increased its support for the military junta. There are also speculations that the Myanmar junta continues its confidence in Russia and the relationship between the Myanmar junta and the Russian government is much broader than that of the Chinese government. One of Russia’s interests in Myanmar is also access to the Indian Ocean.
India, which has its own strained relations with China, is on Myanmar’s western border. Myanmar is at the heart of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Act East Policy, which emphasises defence cooperation. Today, the Indian government is paying close attention to the Myanmar military junta. Modi’s government has fostered friendly relations with the military junta since the coup. The Indian government thinks the fighting between the Myanmar military and People’s Defense Forces (PDF) along the Myanmar-India border, especially in Chin state, has compromised the Myanmar military’s support of India’s counterinsurgency efforts against Indian Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) that operate from Myanmar. This has resulted in the Indian government’s decision to partner with the military junta to attack pro-democratic PDF and EAOs in the border areas of Myanmar and India. This position goes against Quad members’ commitment to engagement in constructive dialogue, and to the early restoration of democracy in Myanmar.
Both China and India may see the junta as a stable partner despite both governments being aware of the consequences of political instability due to Myanmar’s military involvement in politics since 1962. If Myanmar can establish a true democratic federal state and the country is peaceful and stable, then the interests of China and India can be at their best. Myanmar will be an excellent neighbour to assist with a positive implementation of India’s Act East Policy, potentially assisting in the development of the North-eastern states of India. Longer-term and sustained peace, stability, and prosperity in Myanmar will help China’s energy security given its extensive assets in the country.
Given the geopolitical movements in the Indo-Pacific region which directly or indirectly affect Myanmar, Australia and the international community cannot continue to limit their efforts by relying on ASEAN. Significant results have yet to come as the five-point consensus of ASEAN leaders nears its one-year term. The junta does not seem to care about ASEAN, and it has failed to take any meaningful steps towards ending the conflict. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is chairing ASEAN this year, said he raised the issue of Myanmar but noted it would probably fall to his successor as there is no prospect of a resolution in his term. Having also recently appointed a Representative to ASEAN, the NUG welcomes revitalised ASEAN efforts.
The complex international dynamics at play in Myanmar suggest the conflict has regional implications and is not only an internal dispute. The NUG’s role in sharing its analysis and strategy with the international community is more important this year than ever. The NUG’s diplomatic efforts will need to be handled with special care to manage these dynamics and relationships, as they impact internal resistance and the ongoing dialogue and efforts of diverse groups and actors. The NUG will face its biggest challenges in 2022 as it seeks protect the lives of its people who continue to struggle for peace and pursue a future federal democratic union..."
Source/publisher:
Australian Institute of International Affairs
Date of publication:
2022-05-18
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-18
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"Myanmar’s military regime has stopped issuing passports to striking civil servants to prevent them leaving the country.
A striking doctor said: “Instead of arresting strikers at the airports, the regime has barred them from applying for or extending passports. I made enquiries about an extension and found a list of striking civil servants has been sent to the passport office.”
The regime has issued arrest warrants, detained and sacked striking civil servants as it tries to pressure them back to work.
A striking teacher said: “Once they saw my name, they asked me if I was a teacher. I denied it but they said my name was on a list. They said I will be arrested at the airport if they issue a passport.”
The teacher said she is trying to work abroad because of financial difficulties after being jobless for a year.
“The regime is trying various means to make us regret joining the civil disobedience movement [CDM],” she added.
The regime began stopping strikers from leaving the country in March.
A list of strikers, including their national registration numbers, has been sent to the passport office and some have been detained and questioned, a passport office source told The Irrawaddy.
Strikers have been detained at Yangon International Airport and charged with incitement, according to the media.
Schools are scheduled to reopen next month and the regime is trying to persuade teachers to return to their classrooms.
More than 200,000 civil servants joined the CDM to defy the military rule and many still refuse to work for the regime.
The regime has committed serious human rights violations against its opponents, including revoking their citizenship, sealing off their houses and taking their families, including children, as hostages..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-05-18
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
Language:
more
Description:
"The National Unity Government (NUG) published an
announcement expressing its disappointment in the
outcome of the Consultative Meeting on ASEAN
Humanitarian Assistance to Myanmar.....(1) The NUG published an
announcement expressing deep
disappointment and concern about
the outcome of the consultative
meeting on ASEAN humanitarian
assistance to Myanmar, which was
held on May 6, 2022, in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia.
In the announcement the
NUG states that although it has
repeatedly reached out to the
ASEAN chair and the ASEAN Special
Envoy to convey its openness to
engage and discuss ways forward,
its previous communication has not
been reciprocated until now. The
announcement goes on to state that
the NUG and other crucial
stakeholders of Myanmar such as the Ethnic Revolutionary/Armed
Organisations (EROs/EAOs), and
local humanitarian organisations
have been deliberately excluded
from the consultative meeting.
The announcement added
that the current conditions on the
ground and the people's trust deficit
in the SAC will continue to hamper
the urgent and effective delivery of
humanitarian aid.....UNION MINISTER
DR. TU HKAWNG
DELIVERED HIS
CONGRATULATO
RY REMARK TO
ALL STAFF WHO
ARE JOINING THE
CDM UNDER
DIFFERENT
CHALLENGES.....(2) At a meeting with
CDM staff within the ministry,
Dr. Tu Hkawng, Minister of
Natural Resources and Envi-
ronmental Conservation
(MONREC), expressed his
sincere gratitude and
congratulations to all staff
taking part in the CDM (Civil
Disobedience Movement) and
overcoming the many hards-
hips they have faced over the
last year..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-05-16
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
667.09 KB
more
Description:
"National Unity Government Weekly News Bulletin (3/2022)..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-05-16
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
744.11 KB
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Sub-title:
Long fighting for its own independence, the Karen National Union is providing protection and training to those opposed to the military.
Description:
"When the Myanmar military seized power on February 1 last year, the country’s oldest major ethnic armed group, the Karen National Union, was also one of the first to condemn the coup.
“We cannot accept the military taking power and detaining the country’s leaders. This is a massive obstacle and challenge in transitioning to democracy,” the KNU said in a statement the day after the power grab, accusing the military of violating its own 2008 constitution.
Soon afterwards, troops from the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, were seen providing security to protesters in Karen state, which lies along Myanmar’s border with Thailand. Elsewhere in the country, there was no such protection. The military embarked on a campaign of brutal violence against unarmed protesters, killing hundreds of people.
A year later, those images of the KNU protecting protesters have become symbolic of its role as the backbone of Myanmar’s new age of resistance. The group has provided military training to newly formed anti-coup armed groups, protection to political dissidents and safe passage for fugitives fleeing military-controlled areas.
“KNU people are very kind and very good at guerrilla warfare,” said Htet*, a 34-year-old resistance fighter who joined a network of armed groups in Yangon known as Urban Guerillas or UGs.
Htet and all other sources interviewed for this story spoke to Al Jazeera in person from an undisclosed location.
Last year, Htet travelled from Yangon to KNU territory to receive training after watching soldiers shoot down unarmed, peaceful protesters. “The military arrested everyone and shot everyone. I needed to know how to fight back,” he said.
KNU spokesman Taw Nee says the new generation of resistance fighters are “very active and want revenge”. While he praises their motivation, he also says it has sometimes been difficult for the KNU to manage the massive influx of inexperienced fighters hailing from a hodgepodge of disorganised, nascent armed groups.
Taw Nee said that had led to some problems, like resistance fighters posting videos of battles on social media, accidentally exposing sensitive information, or doctors insisting on fighting on the front lines when they would be more useful as field medics.
“But they’ve improved a lot,” Taw Nee said, grinning like a proud father. “They have a lot of experience within a few months.”
Htet took that experience and put it to use when he returned to Yangon.
“There were 10 soldiers driving. We knew the route they usually took so we planted two bombs. After that, we heard a lot of screaming and then they start bang bang bang,” he said, describing a pipe bomb attack in Yangon’s Insein township.
In another incident, they planted multiple bombs in Hlegu township, killing about eight soldiers in the first blast. When two more came to investigate, they detonated a second, killing them as well.
When asked if he ever feels bad about killing soldiers, Htet shakes his head emphatically. “They are very bad people,” he insisted.
Protecting peaceful resistance
The KNU does not only support armed resistance but also provides support, protection and safe passage to peaceful political dissidents.
A police officer from Yangon, who deserted when ordered to use violence against protesters, told Al Jazeera that the KNU also welcomed him, despite his decision not to join the fighting.
The 25-year-old, who joined the police force when he was just 19, said he deserted on March 6 of last year as violent crackdowns began to escalate. “They ordered me to crack down on protesters and arrest people. My superior officer said to use rubber bullets and then to use real bullets,” he said.
He praised the KNU for providing him with food and a safe house, but said there were still some close calls. “The military attacked our camp and we had to run away,” he said, explaining that a few other dissidents were captured during the raid.
Prominent activist Thet Swe Win fled Yangon in March 2021, sheltering in KNU territory for about seven months. “I know myself, I wouldn’t be a good soldier, but I respect the armed struggle as a key component of the revolution,” he told Al Jazeera.
The tattoos that cover Thet Swe Win’s arms tell the story of peace but also resistance: block letters spelling HAKUNA MATATA [Swahili for ‘no trouble’ and popularised in the film The Lion King] a peace sign, a man with a hammer smashing a Nazi swastika.
Despite being one of the most vocal advocates for minority rights in Myanmar, even Thet Swe Win was not fully prepared for the reality of life for Karen people. “Our understanding before was too shallow,” he said.
Thet Swe Win says while there is a mutual animosity between the Bamar majority and the Karen, the ethnic minority are the ones who are oppressed. “The only Burmese they see are the soldiers. The ones who kill and loot and rape and burn their houses,” he said.
Thet Swe Win says in many rural areas, there are no schools or hospitals. He saw one pregnant woman being carried in a hammock up mountains through the jungle to the nearest clinic to give birth.
“Many have no proper houses, just bamboo shelters, because the soldiers always raid and burn their villages,” he said.
Karen state at war
Fighting exploded across Karen state in December of last year, when the military raided Lay Kay Kaw town. Soldiers arrested dozens of dissidents in hiding, including two elected lawmakers from the National League for Democracy, which secured a landslide victory in the country’s last elections in November 2020.
The military has cited unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the poll in an attempt to justify its coup, but for the elected lawmakers their emphatic win is the source of their legitimacy.
They set up their own administration called the National Unity Government soon after being forced from office and a representative of the civilian government continues to hold Myanmar’s seat at the United Nations. The military, meanwhile, has declared the NUG and its anti-coup armed groups, known as People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), as “terrorist” organisations.
Since the raid on Lay Kay Kaw, fighting has spread to many other parts of the state. Taw Nee says there are clashes nearly every day, with tens of thousands of civilians displaced.
Taw Nee says morale within the Myanmar military is “very, very low” and claims fighting would be over soon if the military did not have air support.
Taw Nee says most of the PDFs operating in Karen State have been brought under the umbrella of the KNLA with a mixed command structure. There’s a “joint coalition committee at every brigade level” and if a unit includes PDF soldiers, the commander comes from the KNLA while the deputy is from the PDF.
“They wear KNLA uniforms, but they don’t speak Karen,” he said, laughing.
While there was an anti-military uprising in 1988, with some choosing the path of armed resistance, it was not nearly as successful as today’s revolution. Taw Nee says back then most people accepted the military’s promise of an election in 1990 and “calmed down quickly”.
“In 2021, it was not like that, it was totally different,” he said, noting that young people have had “a lot of experience over the last 10 years in an open society” and aren’t willing to go back.
History repeats itself
But Taw Nee also worries that history could repeat itself in other ways.
After the military refused to recognise the NLD’s landslide election victory in 1990, the KNU allied itself with a similar parallel administration known as the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.
“Then when The Lady was released from house arrest, they changed everything,” he said.
The Lady is Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s overthrown civilian leader, whose reputation was tarnished internationally after she defended the military’s atrocities against the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.
Many ethnic armed groups also felt that once Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in 2016, she sided with the military against them in peace negotiations. She is currently in military custody in an unknown location, but there is concern within the KNU that her release could create divisions within the multi-ethnic resistance.
“If the Lady is released, will you [the NUG] change your mind? They couldn’t answer right away with this,” Taw Nee said.
For now, he says the NUG and KNU are “all together” and he remains optimistic about the future. “The mind has changed a lot towards ethnic people,” since the coup, he said.
Htet, the resistance fighter, says the new generation of revolutionaries has greater respect for the KNU, which has trained them, supported them and fought by their side.
He still sees the NUG as the legitimate government of Myanmar and has joined them in a civilian capacity since being forced to flee Yangon. But he says the parallel government needs to do more.
“If [the NUG] gave us more guns, more weapons, we will win faster,” he said, claiming most weapons come from the KNU or donations from the general population.
Even with limited support, Htet remains confident the revolution will succeed.
“We are more and more powerful now. We can make better weapons and bombs. A lot of PDFs and UGs are learning to liberate their towns.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2022-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians
Language:
more
Description:
"As the National League for Democracy (NLD) was preparing to start a second term on 1 February 2021, the military seized power in Myanmar. Demonstrations erupted across the country in opposition to the coup. The military responded violently, leading to the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators. As the crackdown intensified, many communities began to take up arms to defend themselves, leading to the formation of local defense forces. Elected lawmakers ousted in the coup eventually established the National Unity Government (NUG), which subsequently declared a “defensive war” on the military in early September (Guardian, 7 September 2021).
Demonstrations in opposition to the military coup in 2021 were large-scale and widespread. ACLED records over 6,000 anti-coup demonstration events throughout the year.1 While the demonstrations remained largely peaceful, the military frequently responded with deadly violence, in many cases firing live rounds at demonstrators’ heads (Human Rights Watch, 2 December 2021). Women have played a key role in the movement (Al Jazeera, 25 April 2021), often standing on the front lines at demonstrations (Time, 31 May 2021); in turn, they have been met with targeted violence (GIWPS, 28 January 2022). According to ACLED data, Myanmar was the deadliest country in the world for demonstrators in 2021 (for more, see ACLED’s infographic: Deadly Demonstrations). Despite the crackdown, demonstrations have continued, often taking the form of flash-mob style events.
The degree of violence against civilians by state forces since the coup has been particularly severe, with a 620% increase in such events recorded in 2021 compared to 2020. Multiple cases of civilians being burned to death have been reported (Myanmar Now, 14 December 2021). On 24 December, for example, more than 30 people, including two aid workers, were burned to death by the military in Hpruso township in Kayah state. Earlier in December, in Done Taw village in Sagaing region, 11 villagers were burned to death by the military. As well, amid mass arrests of people accused of expressing opposition to the coup, the military has tortured detainees and committed acts of sexual violence against women and men (Myanmar Now, 3 January 2021).
Hundreds of local defense forces have emerged across the country in response to the ongoing military violence. Several groups were formed independently of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) under the NUG. However, the NUG has moved to consolidate the activity of local defense groups under a central command structure (Irrawaddy, 29 October 2021). Local defense groups have aimed to make the country ungovernable by the military junta. In some locations, where local defense groups have gained an advantage, such as in areas of Sagaing and Magway regions, ousted lawmakers and other activists have set up alternative governing systems (Myanmar Now, 12 November 2021). As well, many civil servants have continued the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), refusing to work for the military junta and thus further denying the military the capacity to govern at the local level.
In an effort to further threaten civilians opposed to its rule, the military junta has supported the formation of local militias called Pyu Saw Htee (Frontier Myanmar, 14 June 2021). These militias have targeted civilians and have engaged in clashes with local defense forces. In 2021, ACLED records the most activity by Pyu Saw Htee groups in Sagaing region. Aside from the formation of military-backed militias, amid defections and a paucity of new recruits, the military has also ordered family members of soldiers to attend military training (Irrawaddy, 7 December 2021).
The response of ethnic armed groups to the military coup has been mixed. Notably, though, groups like the Kachin Independence Organization/Kachin Independence Army (KIO/KIA) and Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army (KNU/KNLA) have supported anti-coup activists who fled to their areas along the border. Battles in Kachin and Kayin states, which had been relatively limited in 2020, thus increased significantly in 2021. At times, troops from these groups have fought alongside local defense forces. For example, clashes between the military and the KIO/KIA have expanded into Sagaing region as the KIO/KIA has supported local defense groups. Sagaing region has been home to over one-fifth of all organized political violence recorded nationally since the coup.
What to watch for in 2022:
While the military staged its coup under the pretense of combating electoral fraud, and has since claimed it will hold new elections in 2023 (The Diplomat, 2 August 2021), it has subsequently set about systematically dismantling the NLD. NLD members have been detained on politically motivated charges. NLD offices have been destroyed, and members’ homes seized and sealed (Development Media Group, 2 December 2021). Further, the military and its militias have tortured and killed NLD members (BBC, 8 June 2021). The military looks poised to continue this campaign of violence against its main electoral opposition before holding any elections.
The military’s ongoing use of violence means that local defense forces are likely to continue to emerge in the coming year, while existing groups move towards forming alliances to strengthen their operating capacity. Alliances with ethnic armed groups are also likely to persist, despite the challenges of bringing such groups under the formal command of the NUG. The ability of local defense groups to gain and maintain control over territory – or at least prevent the military from being able to govern – will be critical to the success of the anti-coup movement. Coordination between armed and unarmed elements of the resistance movement will also be key in consolidating its gains (Myanmar Now, 21 January 2022). In 2022, resistance to the junta will continue, with the military unlikely to succeed in quelling a population so deeply opposed to its rule.
Further Reading
Deadly Demonstrations: Fatalities From State Engagement on the Rise
Myanmar’s Spring Revolution
Violence Targeting Women in Politics: 10 Countries to Watch in 2022
Glossary
Demonstrations: This term is used to refer collectively to all events coded with event type protests, as well as all events coded with sub-event type violent demonstration under the riots event type.
Disorder: This term is used to refer collectively to both political violence and demonstrations.
Event: The fundamental unit of observation in ACLED is the event. Events involve designated actors – e.g. a named rebel group, a militia or state forces. They occur at a specific named location (identified by name and geographic coordinates) and on a specific day. ACLED currently codes for six types of events and 25 types of sub-events, both violent and non-violent.
Political violence: This term is used to refer collectively to ACLED’s violence against civilians, battles, and explosions/remote violence event types, as well as the mob violence sub-event type of the riots event type. It excludes the protests event type. Political violence is defined as the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation.
Organized political violence: This term is used to refer collectively to ACLED’s violence against civilians, battles, and explosions/remote violence event types. It excludes the protests and riots event types. Political violence is defined as the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation. Mob violence is not included here as it is spontaneous (not organized) in nature.
Violence targeting civilians: This term is used to refer collectively to ACLED’s violence against civilians event type and the excessive force against protesters sub-event type of the protests event type, as well as specific explosions/remote violence events and riots events where civilians are directly targeted..."
Source/publisher:
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project
Date of publication:
2022-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"Dr. Salai Lian Hmung Sakhong is the vice-chairman of the Chin political organization the Chin National Front as well as the federal union affairs minister for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG). In this interview with The Irrawaddy, he dismisses the regime’s recent invitation for peace talks to the country’s ethnic armed groups, the junta’s exclusion of the NUG and its armed wing, the people’s defense forces (PDFs), from the talks as impractical and how the military has always obstructed the formation of a federal democracy union since 1962.
What is your view on Min Aung Hlaing’s call for face-to-face talks with leaders of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) for peace?
Min Aung Hlaing seized power illegally. It is a proposal made by an illegitimate military leader and the offer is therefore illegitimate. The [military-backed] government held talks with us on August 18, 2011, and signed the NCA [Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement] and we continued to engage in dialogue with the elected government from the 2015 general election.
And we implemented the peace process according to that dialogue.
All the peace process implemented in that period was based on the NCA, which is the pact between the EAOs and the elected government. It is the dialogue between the government and EAOs and thus it is legitimate. The NCA was signed with the government, not the military.
If dialogue is to be held, the NUG is the only government elected by the people.
There will be discussions and consultations between the NUG and EAOs. We have already done it. We have designed a federal charter together and adopted principles for federalism and democracy.
So what Min Aung Hlaing has done is wrong.
There is a question about if the dialogue is required considering the NCA. The NCA was signed to hold talks during a ceasefire and then to hold the Union Peace Conferences to sign a Union Accord.
The aim of signing the Union Accord was to amend the constitution. Now people no longer accept the 2008 Constitution. And elected parliamentarians have also announced that it has scrapped it.
The objective of talks at different levels is to amend the 2008 Constitution. But the constitution no longer exists and there is no point in holding talks for that purpose.
Min Aung Hlaing does not have the authority to hold any dialogue. The objective [to amend the constitution] based on the NCA no longer exists. Min Aung Hlaing has called for peace talks to deceive the people so that he can retain the power he has seized.
What is the response of the CNF to the junta chief’s proposal?
We stand by the statement released by the 10 NCA signatories on Feb. 20, 2021. The regime seized power illegally and we must suspend all peace talks under the regime. It is not the decision made alone by the CNF but a joint statement.
Is it practical to exclude the NUG and people’s defense forces [PDFs] from talks
The NUG was formed based on the mandate of the people who overwhelmingly voted [NLD] in the November 2020 election and the mandate of ethnic people who have engaged in revolution for many years. It represents both the people and the nation.
There will be no answer from talks without the NUG. The PDFs are also civilian.
They were born out of the people to protect civilians from the regime. So excluding the PDFs means excluding the people. I don’t believe Min Aung Hlaing’s proposed dialogue is intended for the interests of the people while people are not allowed to participate in the talks.
And the regime’s spokesman said threateningly that EAOs may suffer if they don’t attend the talks.
How much have the people suffered since the coup? How many lives have been lost? How many properties have been damaged? What happened to Thantlang in Chin State? How many more houses do they want to torch? How many more people do they want to kill? They have shattered so many lives. We have nothing to lose.
The whole country will only suffer more if peace talks are held to maintain Min Aung Hlaing’s grip on power.
If we join the talks, people will continue to suffer because Min Aung Hlaing’s intention in organizing the talks is to retain power.
Min Aung Hlaing and his regime will never serve the interests of the people. So we must reject the talks.
Moreover, the election that they are planning to hold to maintain their grip on power is unacceptable. A real election was held not long ago. They are holding another election because they cannot accept the votes cast by the people and they are trying to cast votes by themselves. We can’t accept that. I urge the people to continue fighting the regime until it is uprooted.
There are criticisms that previous talks were not fruitful because EAOs had to hold talks with both the NLD government and the military. But now they are invited to hold talks with the military alone. Will it work?
They said the peace process could not make progress because of frictions between the NLD and military in the previous peace talks and that the peace process will be able to progress now because the EAOs have to talk to Min Aung Hlaing and the military alone.
We need to look back at history. The intention of holding peace talks is to establish Myanmar as a genuine federal democratic union with complete self-determination in line with the 1947 Panglong Agreement. Ethnic communities demanded that the constitution be amended to make way for federalism at the Taunggyi Conference in 1961. We discussed it at a seminar on federalism the following year. Based on that discussion, we tried to establish a federal union. Who prevented it? The military prevented it. General Ne Win claimed that the military saved the union which was on the brink of collapse due to minorities demanding secession. That’s why the union system could not be established. The military has prevented it since 1962.
I was constantly engaged in dialogue from 2012 to 2022. And it was the military, not the NLD, which mostly raised objections to agreements reached.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi presented six principles for federalism on the fourth anniversary of the signing of the NCA.
Her principles were based on the demands that we have made since 1962.
So the principles presented by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and us are basically the same. However, at the last Union Peace Conference on October 19, 2019, the military opposed the agreements. Can the people who seized power throughout history because they don’t like federalism and democracy give us what we want? Throughout history, they have always opposed establishing federalism and democracy.
We asked for self-determination and equality and they have stopped us repeatedly since 2017.
Now they have seized power and destroyed the country to maintain their grip on power. So Min Aung Hlaing’s real intention behind his proposal for peace talks is to retain power.
They will never establish the democracy we want. They are trying to enslave the people under their boots.
After they have done it for so many years, we can’t trust them. They are saying a tiger can eat grass.
How do you feel about the military trying to resurrect the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee?
The committee was a roadmap being implemented under the NCA. The objective of the NCA was to amend the 2008 Constitution.
But the people have already scrapped the 2008 Constitution so it is not acceptable to resurrect the committee. It would be an insult to the people to join the committee which is intended to perpetuate the dictatorship.
I respect and value the political party leaders. If they do what they should not do, they will be like Seneca who supported the dictator Nero in the Roman empire.
Seneca was a great statesman who loved the country and the people. But he earned a bad name in history because he worked for Nero.
I urge all party leaders not to take sides with Min Aung Hlaing, but to represent the people. They will go down badly in history if they make the wrong friend.
This is not the time for peace talks.
A federal democratic charter was adopted by elected lawmakers, EAOs, civil society organizations and those who have joined the civil disobedience movement. Let’s work together to establish a federation under the agreed roadmap.
I request political parties and EAOs not to make friends with Min Aung Hlaing..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-05-06
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Myanmar photojournalist Ta Mwe describes how he evades arrest while covering protests against the Myanmar junta.
Description:
"Myanmar freelance photojournalist Ta Mwe, a pen name he uses to protect his security, the pseudonym named for his security, has won awards for his news photos of the crackdown on anti-military junta protests following the Feb 2021 coup that ousted the country’s elected civilian government. To mark World Press Freedom Day, Ye Kaung Myint Maung of RFA’s Myanmar Service spoke to Ta Mwe about his work on the conflict.
RFA: Can you tell me about the award you won?
Ta Mwe: I have won the jury’s choice for honorable mention in Southeast Asia and Oceania category of the World Press Photo awards. (I submitted) a series of 10 black and white photos about the Spring Revolution in Myanmar. My photo series covers the scenes from the early days of protests after the military coup in 2021. The contestants in this category are required to submit their ten best photos from their work that depict the story. So I picked my ten best photos taken in four months, from February to May of last year.
RFA: Can you tell me about your career as a photographer?
Ta Mwe: I started my career in photo journalism as a citizen journalist. Around 2007, I started taking photos using my phone and uploaded them anonymously to Burmese language blogs on Blogspot.com. Around 2011, I started working as a full-time photographer. I had worked as a full-time photojournalist for a local weekly journal, then became a freelance photographer.
RFA: What can you tell me about the situation of press freedom in Myanmar at the moment?
Ta Mwe: The situation has become extremely difficult for journalists now. When we cover news activities on the ground, we first need to find a route to flee from the scene and escape arrest, before we start doing anything like taking photos or interviewing people. We have to figure out how to ensure our own security before we hit the ground. As I have covered flash mob protests in Yangon, I have planned carefully which streets to run away on as soon as I finish taking photos. It has become very challenging. When I grab a taxi on my way back from the coverage, I don’t do it in the streets close to the scene. I walk a few blocks to hide the traces of my identity before I take a taxi. Before, there were several news media and several photographers working at the scene. They now have either been arrested or gone into hiding.
RFA: We have seen that informants for the military authorities are everywhere. How risky it is for the journalists to do their jobs under those circumstances?
Ta Mwe: As when I was covering the flash mob protest in Yangon, I have to be at the scene before the activities happen and check the surroundings if there are authorities in plain clothes near the scene. There could be informants at the scene. If I think it is not safe to cover the activities closely, I have to take photos from a distance. It has become very unpredictable. I think the chances of spotting the informers are 50/50. Sometimes, I can easily distinguish the informants from the crowd because of their appearance. But other times, I cannot distinguish them. I hear that sometimes they suddenly come out of a parked car to arrest people. It has become very risky for me to do the job.
RFA: Now you are at a safe location. What do you expect to do to continue your work?
Ta Mwe: I am now at a safe location. But I will keep doing the journalism work by recording the happenings in Myanmar and disseminating them to the world, because we are witnessing a historic turning point in Myanmar. For someone of my age, it is very significant. I will keep covering the news happening in Myanmar from a distance. If it is possible, I will go and cover it on the ground.
RFA: What kind of message do you want to pass to concerned leaders around the world, working to restore peace and democracy in Myanmar?
Ta Mwe: As a journalist, I am risking my life to report news about Myanmar so that the concerned leaders around the world can make the right decisions. It is their job to make an informed decision. I believe it is my job to send out the correct information, regardless of the risks. I hope they will make the right and unbiased decision based on the information received from us. I also would like to implore them to work harder to secure the release of journalists in detention. Without journalists working on the ground, the people in Myanmar will be under an information blackout, and concerned leaders around the world will have many blind spots in their decision making and they will not make the best decision. I would like to appeal them to try hard for the release of journalists in prison and support those who are in hiding or evading arrest..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2022-05-03
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Sub-title:
အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းကြေညာခြင်း
Description:
"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ အနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်မထမ်းဆောင်ဘဲ ဓမ္မဘက်မှ ရပ်တည်၍ ပြည်သူနှင့်တစ်သားတည်းဖြစ်စေရန်နှင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ကြ စေရန် အကြိမ်ကြိမ်ဖိတ်ခေါ် ကမ်းလှမ်းခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ဝန်ကြီးချုပ်ရုံးအနေဖြင့်လည်း အောက်တိုဘာလမှစတင်၍ အမိန့်အာဏာ ဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမဖွဲ့ရသေးသော ဌာန အသီးသီးမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းသူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေး၊ လုံခြုံဘေးကင်းရေးနှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင် ရေးတို့အတွက် အလေးထား ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
၃။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်နေပြီး CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိအားပေးခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်း၊ ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှထုတ်ပစ်ခြင်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းနှင့် ဥပေဒနှင့်အညီ ပြန်ဆပ်ရန်မလိုတော့သည့် လစာ ချေးငွေများအား အတင်းအဓမ္မ ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ခိုင်းခြင်းများ စသည့် အမျိုးမျိုးသော ဖိနှိပ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်နေသော “စိုက်ပျိုးရေး၊ မွေးမြူရေးနှင့် ဆည်မြောင်းဝန်ကြီးဌာန (ကျေးလက်ဒေသ ဖွံ့ဖြိုး တိုးတက်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန)၊ (မွေးမြူရေးနှင့်ကုသရေးဦးစီးဌာန)” မှ အောက်ဖော်ပြပါ ဝန်ထမ်းများအား အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းသွင်းလိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismiss) လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-05-04
Date of entry/update:
2022-05-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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pdf
Size:
1.46 MB
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Description:
"Myanmar’s military regime has killed civilians, torched houses and looted valuables in resistance hot spots across the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting and Dr. Win Myat Aye, the humanitarian affairs and disaster management minister in the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), recently talked to The Irrawaddy about how his team is helping displaced people.
The former rector of the Magwe University of Medicine served as the social welfare, relief and resettlement minister in the National League for Democracy government before the 2021 coup.
Many people have been left homeless by junta raids. How is the NUG taking care of civil war victims?
Many places are suffering from violence and Kayah, Chin, Sagaing and Magwe have been hit hardest. We are working to ease their plight.
According to the UNHCR, around 566,100 people have been recently displaced by fighting. It is difficult for us to help all of them. So far we have reached 354,194 people.
We have provided 2.7 billion kyats (US$1.4 million) in relief aid and 62 percent of that was given to Kayah, Karen, Chin, Sagaing and Magwe. We are trying to expand our outreach and cover all the areas.
How is the NUG cooperating with residents and ethnic organizations?
Some 14.4 million people are going hungry across the country. We have only been able to help a small percentage. The NUG alone can’t handle it. The process calls for cooperation. Most of the war victims are in ethnic-minority areas and along the borders. So it is critically important for us to cooperate with ethnic organizations.
When we provide assistance, we need to reach social organizations that can work with us. There are organizations networked with ethnic revolutionary groups and ethnic organizations. We need a coordination committee to network with those organizations.
A coordination committee has been formed independently. It was not formed by the NUG and it is not operating under the NUG. All the stakeholders suggested that it will be effective if community-based organizations and civil society organizations can coordinate relief efforts. So we formed an independent coordination committee.
This committee is working out relief efforts after adopting policies and procedures. We assume that this coordination has enabled us to better serve the people over the past year.
What are the challenges? Can public donations fund the NUG’s relief efforts?
We were empty-handed after we initiated relief efforts. We need funds.
We are the government during the revolution. We rely on the people. The people only have each other. We mainly rely on expats. People have actively helped with boundless goodwill.
Some donors are helping through us and others directly help those in need. Some are helping through social organizations.
Regional countries and the United Nations have called for the delivery of humanitarian assistance through ASEAN. Will the regime listen to their calls?
We can only fulfill some of the many needs of the people so international assistance is necessary. But for now, Myanmar’s people help each other and they haven’t received international assistance. We are paving the way for the delivery of international humanitarian assistance.
ASEAN has formed a humanitarian team for Myanmar which has received huge contributions. The assistance must reach people.
The regime views civilian victims as the enemy. So assistance will not come through the regime. The international community must know how to help the people.
The international community can help through the coordination committee and the NUG. We have international agencies and non-governmental organizations partnering with us. Humanitarian assistance can be provided through them. We can also help them contact community-based civil society organizations to work with.
Financial aid will not reach the people through the regime. The international community has to take a practical approach to help the people.
Social welfare was neglected under previous military regimes but it was pushed to the fore under the NLD government. As a former social welfare minister, what is your assessment of the regime’s social welfare ministry?
There is a huge gap between the past and present. We were an elected government and we could help people in real-time when they were in trouble. We went to affected areas in person and received their recognition. We were close to the people and provided help to the displaced and ethnic minorities.
But I now realize we could not fully understand their feelings although we met them.
Though we met cordially with displaced people, we did not have a chance to have open discussions with them. It has become obvious now that it was because of military influence in the administration.
The military did not allow us to visit some displacement camps, citing security reasons. It concealed the real situation and suffering from us. This has been clearly revealed by the regime’s violence against the people.
It is difficult for the NUG to carry out relief efforts but we fully understand the feelings of displaced people.
We are very sad about how much they suffered in the past. I want to apologize to them.
The NLD government planned to largely increase the humanitarian budget.
In the past, the defense budget got the lion’s share and humanitarian assistance was underfunded and things have gone back to zero since the coup.
The NUG is helping those affected. But our assistance is very limited because we rely on donations. Our social welfare ministry does a good job but the regime’s ministry fails to provide any services.
We are working with civil society organizations, people’s authorities and people’s defense forces to provide services. There has been greater unity since the revolution started.
What else would you like to say?
Regime troops torch villages, destroyed property, loot belongings and deploy in villages. Residents are forced from their homes into forests and other villages. When junta troops leave, nothing is left.
We are trying to help people and have designed plans. But we need funds. We are holding talks with international organizations to gain funds. There will be results soon.
The most important thing is the revolution must succeed. Everything else can be handled if the revolution succeeds. We keep our eyes fixed on the success of the revolution in whatever step we take. If the revolution succeeds, power will be handed to the people and we will be able to establish the federal democracy which all the people want. We have to remain firm in this revolution and we are propping up the resistance..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-04-28
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, National Unity Government (NUG)
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Sub-title:
အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းကြေညာခြင်
Description:
"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ အနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်မထမ်းဆောင်ပဲ ဓမ္မဘက်မှရပ်တည်၍ ပြည်သူနှင့်တသားတည်းဖြစ် စေရန်နှင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ကြစေရန် အကြိမ် ကြိမ်ဖိတ်ခေါ် ကမ်းလှမ်းခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ် ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ဝန်ကြီးချုပ်ရုံးအနေဖြင့်လည်း အောက်တိုဘာလမှစတင်၍ အမိန့်အာဏာ ဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမဖွဲ့ရသေးသော ဌာနအသီးသီးမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း သူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေး၊ လုံခြုံဘေးကင်းရေးနှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင်ရေး တို့အတွက် အလေးထား ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
၃။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်နေ ပြီး CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိအားပေးခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်း၊ ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှထုတ် ပစ်ခြင်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းနှင့် ဥပေဒနှင့်အညီ ပြန်ဆပ်ရန်မလိုတော့သည့် လစာချေးငွေများအား အတင်းအဓမ္မ ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ခိုင်းခြင်းများ စသည့် အမျိုးမျိုးသောဖိနှိပ်မှုများကိုကျူးလွန်နေသော “သာသနာရေးနှင့် ယဉ်ကျေးမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာန (သာသနာရေးဦးစီးဌာန)” မှ အောက်ဖေါပြပါ ဝန်ထမ်းများအား အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းသွင်းလိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismiss) လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-25
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.18 MB
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Sub-title:
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာ CDM မီးသတ်ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီအား မီးသတ်ဦးစီးဌာနအဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲဖွဲ့စည်းခြင်း
Description:
"၁။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့်လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်လိုခြင်းမရှိသော မီးသတ်ဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများကို စုစည်း၍ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ အရေးကိစ္စများနှင့် ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့်လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ မြေပြင်အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးနှင့်လုံခြုံရေးဆိုင်ရာ ကိစ္စရပ်များတွင် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် (၁၃-၁၀-၂၀၂၁) ရက်နေ့တွင် အမိန့်အမှတ်(၅/၂၀၂၁)ဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာ CDM မီးသတ်ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ အား ဖွဲ့စည်းတာဝန် ပေးအပ်ခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ စိုးမိုးနယ်မြေများနှင့် ထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေများ၌ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လစ်လပ်သွားသော အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးယန္တရားတွင် အစားထိုးဝင်ရောက်၍ မီးဘေး လုံခြုံရေး၊ သဘာဝဘေးအန္တရာယ် ကာကွယ်ရေး၊ အရေးပေါ်ရှာဖွေကယ်ဆယ်ရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူ့အကျိုးပြုလုပ်ငန်းများ အကောင်အထည်ဖော် ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရန်နှင့် ပြည်နယ်ကောင်စီများ၏ ဒေသန္တရအုပ်ချုပ်ရေး လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များတွင် ကူညီပံ့ပိုး ပေးနိုင်ရန်အတွက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာ CDM မီးသတ်ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ အား မီးသတ်ဦးစီးဌာန အဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲဖွဲ့စည်းလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration - Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
171.78 KB
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Sub-title:
လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြု ကော်မတီအား လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန အဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲဖွဲ့စည်းခြင်း
Description:
"၁။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၁)ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို အကြမ်းဖက် လုယူသိမ်းပိုက်ခဲ့သည့် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်လိုခြင်း မရှိသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရပ်ရပ်ရှိ လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူ့အင်အား ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ အား ဆက်သွယ်ချိတ်ဆက် စုစည်း၍ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ဦးဆောင်မှုအောက်တွင် လိုက်ပါဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရေး အတွက် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီအား ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ (၃၀ - ၁၀- ၂၀၂၁) ရက်စွဲပါ အမိန့်အမှတ်၊ (၈/ ၂၀၂၁) ဖြင့် ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ စိုးမိုးနယ်မြေများနှင့် ထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေများ၌ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လစ်လပ်သွားသော မိမိဌာနလုပ်ငန်းများတွင် အစားဝင်ရောက်၍ ကြားကာလ အစိုးရ ယန္တရားများ ပိုမိုပီပြင်စွာ ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်စေရေး၊ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ မူဝါဒများ၊ လုပ်ငန်းလမ်းညွှန်မှုများနှင့်အညီ စနစ်တကျ အကောင်အထည် ဖော်ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင် ရေးအတွက် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ အား (၂၃- ၄- ၂၀၂၂) ရက်နေ့မှ စ၍ လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဦးစီးဌာန အဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲ ဖွဲ့စည်းလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration - Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-24
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Sub-title:
အထွေထွေအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ အုပ်ချုပ်မှုကော်မတီအား ပြည်သူ့အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာနအဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲဖွဲ့စည်းခြင်း
Description:
"၁။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၁)ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို အကြမ်းဖက် လုယူသိမ်းပိုက်ခဲ့သည့် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်လိုခြင်း မရှိသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရပ်ရပ်ရှိ လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူ့အင်အား ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ အား ဆက်သွယ်ချိတ်ဆက် စုစည်း၍ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ဦးဆောင်မှုအောက်တွင် လိုက်ပါဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရေး အတွက် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီအား ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ (၃၀ - ၁၀- ၂၀၂၁) ရက်စွဲပါ အမိန့်အမှတ်၊ (၈/ ၂၀၂၁) ဖြင့် ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ စိုးမိုးနယ်မြေများနှင့် ထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေများ၌ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လစ်လပ်သွားသော မိမိဌာနလုပ်ငန်းများတွင် အစားဝင်ရောက်၍ ကြားကာလ အစိုးရ ယန္တရားများ ပိုမိုပီပြင်စွာ ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်စေရေး၊ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ မူဝါဒများ၊ လုပ်ငန်းလမ်းညွှန်မှုများနှင့်အညီ စနစ်တကျ အကောင်အထည် ဖော်ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင် ရေးအတွက် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ အား (၂၃- ၄- ၂၀၂၂) ရက်နေ့မှ စ၍ လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဦးစီးဌာန အဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲ ဖွဲ့စည်းလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration - Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-24
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"1. On 17th April 2022, Maung Zwe Mahn Aung (27 year), Public Health Supervisor-2 (PHS-2) of Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) from Chaung U township, Sagaing Region together with Private Min Thant Kyaw, Private Yazar Htun, Private Naing Wunna and Private Minn Khant @ Moe Dee of Chaung U Township People’s Defence Force (CHUPDF) have fallen in action while on sentinel duty to provide security for the main route of the Monywa peaceful demonstration, as they were abducted and killed by the terrorist military council’s soldiers and their Pyusawhti lackeys from Taw Pu village tract, Monywa township. The fallen CDM healthcare worker Maung Zwe Mahn Aung is survived by his wife and two young children.
2. From the day the coup d’etat took place on 1st February 2021 to this present day, the terrorist military council has committed the following atrocious crimes on the healthcare workers and in the healthcare sector:
- 40 healthcare workers killed, 362 healthcare workers arbitrarily detained, 81 healthcare workers assaulted and injured.
- A large number of healthcare workers are hiding and evading arbitrary detention.
- 38 hospitals/clinics destroyed and damaged, 129 clinics/hospitals raided and pillaged, 67 were belligerently occupied.
- 34 emergency ambulances and patient transport vehicles were destroyed and damaged, 11 such vehicles were stolen or highjacked illegally.
3. The Ministry of Health of the National Unity Government stands together with and conveys our deepest condolences to the families of CDM healthcare worker Maung Zwe Mahn Aung and other fallen healthcare workers and shares their pain and sorrow. We pay homage and deem Maung Zwe Mahn Aung and other fallen healthcare workers as our heroes and martyrs.
4. The Ministry of Health condemns and strongly denounces the actions of the terrorist military council targeting the healthcare sector and the healthcare workers. The Ministry reaffirms its pledge and will do its utmost together with the public to uproot the military dictatorship and strive towards a Federal Democratic Union..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Health, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-23
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Description:
"၁။ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ ချောင်းဦးမြို့နယ်မှ CDM ပြုလုပ်ထားသော ပြည်သူ့ကျန်းမာရေး ကြီးကြပ်-၂ ဖြစ်သူ မောင်ဇွဲမာန်အောင်၊ အသက် (၂၇) နှစ်သည် ချောင်းဦးမြို့နယ် ပြည်သူ့ ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့ (CHUPDF) မှ ရဲဘော် မင်းသန့်ကျော်၊ ရဲဘော် ရာဇာထွန်း၊ ရဲဘော် နိုင်ဝဏ္ဏနှင့် ရဲဘော် မင်းခန့် (ခ) မိုးဒီတို့နှင့်အတူ (၁၇-၄-၂၀၂၂) ရက်နေ့တွင် ပြုလုပ်သော မုံရွာ ပင်မသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်းလုံခြုံရေးအတွက် ပွိုင့်ကင်းတာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေစဉ် မုံရွာမြို့နယ်၊ တောပုကျေးရွာမှ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်သားများနှင့် စစ်ကောင်စီလက်ကိုင်တုတ် ပျူစောထီးများ၏ အရှင်ဖမ်းဆီးသတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းခံရသဖြင့် ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရပါသည်။ ကျဆုံးခဲ့သော CDM ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်း မောင်ဇွဲမာန်အောင်တွင် ဇနီးနှင့် လူမမယ်ရင်သွေး (၂) ဦး ကျန်ရစ်ခဲ့ကြောင်းလည်း သိရှိရပါသည်။
၂။ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းသည့် (၁-၂-၂၀၂၁) ရက်နေ့မှ ယနေ့အထိ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍအပေါ် အောက်ပါအတိုင်း အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြောင်း တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်-
- ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သား (၄၀) ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ (၃၆၂) ဦးကို ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ (၈၁) ဦး ကို ဒဏ်ရာရစေခြင်းနှင့် တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊
- ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်း ဦးရေများစွာ ပုန်းရှောင်နေရခြင်း၊
- ဆေးရုံ/ဆေးခန်း (၃၈) ခုကို ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ (၁၂၉) ခုကို ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းလုယက်ခြင်း၊ (၆၇) ခုတွင် တပ်စွဲသိမ်းပိုက်ခြင်း၊
- အရေးပေါ်နှင့် လူနာတင်ယာဉ် (၃၄) စီးကို ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ (၁၁) စီးကို ခိုးယူအပိုင်စီးခြင်း။
၃။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသော CDM ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်း မောင်ဇွဲမာန်အောင်အပါအဝင် ကျဆုံးကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများ၏ မိသားစုများနှင့် ထပ်တူ ကြေကွဲဝမ်းနည်းရပြီး မောင်ဇွဲမာန်အောင်အပါအဝင် ကျဆုံးကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများ အားလုံးကို အာဇာနည်သူရဲကောင်းများအဖြစ် အသိအမှတ်ပြု မှတ်တမ်းတင်အပ်ပါသည်။
၄။ ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ ကျူးလွန်နေသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်များအပေါ် ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် ပြင်းထန်စွာ ကန့်ကွက်ရှုတ်ချကြောင်းနှင့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် ကျရှုံးပြီး ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပြည်ထောင်စုကြီး ပေါ်ပေါက်ရေးအတွက် ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးနှင့် လက်တွဲ၍ အစွမ်းကုန် ကြိုးပမ်းတိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Health, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-22
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-23
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"Testimonials from activists reveal a range of non-violent protests across Myanmar
Thousands have been killed and arrested since the military took power
Military forces disguise themselves as fruit sellers and trishaw drivers as part of the repressive surveillance system
‘Although our lives are in danger, we choose to continue. We will keep asking the world to help us because people are being killed in Myanmar’ - Zin Mar, protest leader
Myanmar’s activists continue to protest the regime’s human rights abuses despite facing serious danger, Amnesty International revealed today while marking one year since the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a Five-Point Consensus, which has failed to stop the regime’s violence in the country.
Amnesty conducted in-depth interviews over several months with people who have continued to take part in non-violent protests across five of Myanmar’s states and regions. The 17 interviewees were from a diverse array of protest groups, including LGBTQ and women’s rights organisations.
Across the country protests include ‘flash mobs’ in which activists run through the streets for a few minutes before dispersing to avoid being shot, arrested or run over by military vehicles. There are ‘silent strikes’ during which shops and businesses shut, roads are empty and people stay at home to demonstrate defiance to military rule.
Activists also distribute pamphlets on buses, post messages against the military on walls with stickers or spray paint, and encourage boycotts of goods and services with ties to the military.
Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research, said:
“These activists urgently need the support of the international community in the form of a global arms embargo to stop the Myanmar military from using weapons of warfare to kill peaceful protesters.
“Despite the immense dangers and hardships, there are still many activists and human rights defenders who choose to remain in Myanmar and are unwavering in their commitment to continue peacefully protesting and expressing their dissent.
“ASEAN must call on the Myanmar military authorities to immediately stop all violence against peaceful protestors in line with the stalled Five-Point Consensus. It also needs to continue to condemn all human rights violations in Myanmar and call for the release of all people who are being arbitrarily detained.
“It needs to do this now to prevent the Myanmar people from further suffering.”
Lethal force against protesters
In the days immediately following the coup, Amnesty and many other human rights groups urged the military to stop the use of unlawful and lethal force against peaceful protesters. The violence has prompted many to join armed resistance groups, which are active throughout the country.
Amnesty has called on the military to exercise restraint, abide by international law, and for law enforcement duties to be fully resumed by police.
These calls have gone unheeded. More than 1,700 people have been killed, and more than 13,000 arrested since the military took power, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Activists and human rights defenders interviewed by Amnesty described witnessing or experiencing abuses by military forces while demonstrating, including shootings, beatings, and attempts to ram vehicles into protests.
Towards the end of last year, there was a noticeable fall in the number of people who joined protests in the streets.
Thiri*, a university student in Mandalay who said she had no interest in politics before the coup but is now one of the leaders of a women’s protest group, said:
“We went from tens of thousands to thousands, thousands to hundreds, and hundreds to around 20.”
According to some of the activists Amnesty spoke to, this drop in numbers was part of a deliberate strategy to keep everyone safe by protesting in smaller groups.
Rina, a university student and member of the General Strike Committee in Yangon, said that it had become “too dangerous” to protest in large groups.
She participated in a flash mob with around 20 other people on 5 December 2021, and told Amnesty that on that day, a military truck drove straight into them.
“As I was running, I saw some of the other people who joined in the flash mob had been hit [by the military truck]. Some of them were rolling on the pavement.”
In the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, a university student who has been protesting with the University of Myitkyina Students’ Union, said that they usually go out in smaller groups because “if there are too many people in the protest, it is easier to get arrested”.
Zin Mar, another university student who is a protest leader in Monywa, said that although her protest group sometimes had to reduce the number of people demonstrating for security reasons, they were determined to continue. She said:
“We will always come out whenever we can."
Min Thu, a high school student who is a leading member of the Mandalay Youth Strike Committee, has witnessed at least three times unmarked vehicles that he believes belong to the military and police drive into protesters. In October last year, a motorcycle nearly hit him when he was about to join a protest. Min Thu said:
“Just before we started the protest, they tried to hit me [with the vehicle] from the front. I escaped by going to the nearest road and then they got down from their vehicle and pointed guns at me. They didn’t shoot me because they had blocked all the angles, and they thought they would arrest me.”
He told Amnesty that he dodged onto a side street and barely escaped.
In Sagaing region’s Salingyi and Yinmarbin townships, poet and engineer Yar Zar has regularly organised people across villages to protest since March 2021, and was at two protests when soldiers and police opened fire at the crowd.
To avoid encountering soldiers, he and his team carefully prepare routes along narrow, unpaved streets. He is one of several people who told Amnesty that they also rely on volunteers to check and make sure the route is clear before they demonstrate.
Phyu, a village protest leader in Thayetchaung township, Tanintharyi region said:
“When we protest in the village, some protesters who act as lookouts escort us so we can avoid the military. Once they have passed, we start our protest again.”
Life on the run
Many activists described how they felt they were being constantly watched and followed by civilian informants known as dala or by soldiers and police wearing civilian clothes and driving unmarked vehicles.
Myat Min Khant of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions said that the military and police roam streets disguised as fruit sellers or trishaw, motorcycle, or taxi drivers and embed themselves among the people to identify anyone daring to express dissent.
There are numerous checkpoints in towns and cities around the country where people are stopped at random, and their belongings are searched by soldiers and police.
Most of the activists who spoke to Amnesty said that they have left their homes fearing for their safety, with several not being able to return since February 2021.
Nan Lin of the University Students’ Union Alumni Force said:
“If I go back home, the military may be waiting to arrest me. Even my family members do not know my whereabouts.”
BP, a protest leader who has demonstrated on the streets of Kalay, Sagaing region every day since 7 February 2021, said that a convoy of five vehicles full of soldiers raided his family home three times in one day in September 2021. He is one of four protesters interviewed who said their homes have been raided since going into hiding.
Many said it is becoming increasingly difficult to find safe places to hide. BP said he regularly sees strangers who he believes are plainclothes informants loitering near where activists are staying or following them on motorbikes while carrying walkie-talkies.
U Yaw, a monk from Ayeyarwady region who has been actively protesting since the early days after the coup, had been in hiding since March 2021 when his monastery was raided. During the raid, as U Yaw hid in a toilet stall, he overheard soldiers saying that if they found him, they should “just shoot him dead and get rid of him”.
He fled to Mandalay where he continued his protests, but soldiers and police raided the monastery there where he was hiding in June. He took shelter in another monastery, which was raided by soldiers and police in September 2021. He escaped just in time, but the soldiers and police confiscated his identification documents and cash. U Yaw continued to protest despite the risks.
Threatening family members
In many cases, soldiers and police arrest activists’ family members and loved ones when they can’t find the activists. According to media reports, this includes a politician’s 94-year-old mother who was arrested and an activist’s four-year-old daughter.
In November last year, the military attempted to raid the house of another protest leader who had gone into hiding. The activist said:
“When they arrived, they started shooting, but they went to the wrong house. They mistakenly went to our neighbour’s house and one woman was killed in the shooting.
In spite of this, she is determined to continue organising peaceful protests.
“I cannot sit quietly when I see injustice,” she said.
Zin Mar, protest leader in Monywa said:
“Although our lives are in danger, we choose to continue. We will keep asking the world to help us because people are being killed in Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher:
Amnesty International (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-04-22
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations
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Description:
"Failure to stop violence one year after ASEAN’s adoption of its Five-Point Consensus
Activists inside Myanmar resorting to flash mobs and silent strikes to avoid crackdown
Plainclothes military forces disguise themselves as fruit sellers and trishaw drivers as part of the repressive surveillance system
Military retaliates against family members of activists
Myanmar’s brave activists are still pursuing peaceful protests despite grave danger and numerous challenges, Amnesty International said today, one year after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a Five-Point Consensus that has abjectly failed to stop the violence in the country.
In recent months, Amnesty International conducted in-depth interviews with 17 people who have continued to take part in non-violent protests across five of Myanmar’s states and regions. The interviewees were from a diverse array of protest groups, including LGBTQ and women’s rights organizations.
One of the most popular methods of protesting has been “flash mobs” where activists run through the streets for a few minutes before dispersing to avoid being shot, arrested or run over by military vehicles.
The public has also held “silent strikes” across the country, during which shops and businesses shut down, roads emptied, and people stayed home to show defiance to military rule.
Across Myanmar, activists and human rights defenders have been distributing pamphlets on buses, posting messages against the military on walls with stickers or spray paint, and encouraging boycotts of goods and services with ties to the military.
“These activists urgently need the support of the international community in the form of a global arms embargo to stop the Myanmar military from using weapons of warfare to kill peaceful protesters,” said Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research.
These activists urgently need the support of the international community in the form of a global arms embargo to stop the Myanmar military from using weapons of warfare to kill peaceful protesters.
Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research
“The ASEAN must call on the Myanmar military authorities to immediately stop all violence against peaceful protestors in line with the stalled Five-Point Consensus. It should do so now to prevent the Myanmar people from further suffering.”
“It must also continue to unequivocally condemn all human rights violations in Myanmar and call for the release of all individuals who are arbitrarily detained.”
“THEY TRIED TO HIT ME”
In the days immediately following the coup, Amnesty International and many other human rights groups urged the military to stop the use of unlawful and lethal force against peaceful protesters. The violence has since prompted many to join armed resistance groups, which are active throughout the country.
Amnesty International has called on the military to exercise restraint, abide by international law, and for law enforcement duties to be fully resumed by police.
These calls have gone unheeded. More than 1,700 people have now been killed, and more than 13,000 arrested since the military took power, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Activists and human rights defenders interviewed by Amnesty International described witnessing or experiencing abuses by military forces while demonstrating, including shootings, beatings, and attempts to ram vehicles into protests.
The brutal response of the military had an enormous impact on the nonviolent protest movement. During the latter part of 2021, there was a noticeable decrease in the number of people who joined protests in the streets.
“We went from tens of thousands to thousands, thousands to hundreds, and hundreds to around twenty,” said Thiri*, a university student in Mandalay who said she had no interest in politics before the coup but is now one of the leaders of a women’s protest group.
We went from tens of thousands to thousands, thousands to hundreds, and hundreds to around twenty.
Thiri*, university student in Mandalay
However, the reduced number of protesters taking to the streets may also be a matter of strategy. Some of the activists that Amnesty International spoke with said they were intentionally organizing the protests in smaller groups to keep everyone safe.
Rina, a university student and member of the General Strike Committee in Yangon, said that it had become “too dangerous” to protest in large groups.
She participated in a flash mob with around 20 other people on 5 December 2021 and she recounted to Amnesty International that on that day, as they gathered, a military truck drove straight into them. “As I was running, I saw some of the other people who joined in the flash mob had been hit [by the military truck]. Some of them were rolling on the pavement.”
In the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, a university student who has been protesting with the University of Myitkyina Students’ Union, said that they usually go out in smaller groups because “if there are too many people in the protest, it is easier to get arrested.”
Zin Mar, another university student who is a protest leader in Monywa, said that although her protest group sometimes had to reduce the number of people demonstrating for security reasons, they were determined to continue. “We will always come out whenever we can,” she said.
Min Thu, a high school student who is a leading member of the Mandalay Youth Strike Committee, has witnessed unmarked vehicles which he believes to belong to the military and police accelerate into protesters during at least three instances. In October 2021, a motorcycle nearly hit him when he was about to join a protest.
“Just before we started the protest, they tried to hit me [with the vehicle] from the front,” Min Thu said. “I escaped by going to the nearest road and then they got down from their vehicle and pointed guns at me. They didn’t shoot me because they had blocked all the angles, and they thought they would arrest me.” He told Amnesty International that he dodged onto a side street and barely escaped.
In Sagaing region’s Salingyi and Yinmarbin townships, poet and engineer Yar Zar has regularly organized people across villages to protest since March of last year, and was at two protests when soldiers and police opened fire at the crowd.
To avoid encountering soldiers, he and his team carefully prepare routes along narrow, unpaved streets. He is one of several people who told Amnesty International that they also rely on volunteers to check and make sure the route is clear before they demonstrate.
“When we protest in the village, some protesters who act as lookouts escort us so we can avoid the military. Once they have passed, we start our protest again,” said Phyu, a village protest leader in Thayetchaung township, Tanintharyi region.
Protest groups have also been distributing pamphlets and using social media to call for a boycott of goods and services with ties to the military, and have been posting anti-coup messages in public spaces.
LIFE ON THE RUN
Many activists described to Amnesty International how they felt like they were constantly watched and followed by civilian informants known as dalans or by soldiers and police wearing civilian clothes and driving unmarked vehicles.
Myat Min Khant of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions said that the military and police roam streets disguised as fruit sellers or trishaw, motorcycle, or taxi drivers and embed themselves among the people to surveil anyone daring to express dissent.
There are also numerous checkpoints in towns and cities around the country. People are stopped at random, and their belongings are searched by soldiers and police. Thus, activists either leave their devices at home or delete messages and applications on devices when they go out for fear that they could be arrested.
Surveillance by the military adds to the challenges in organizing protests, according to Moe Thouk, a protest leader with the General Strike Committee in Yangon.
They use CCTV cameras to follow activists, employ dalans in every ward to gather information, and arrest activists while wearing civilian clothes, he said. “They roam around places where protests often take place. We need to carefully choose the right place [to protest] and rely on scouts for safety,” said Moe Thouk.
Most of the activists who spoke to Amnesty International said that they have left their homes for safety reasons, and several of them have not been able to be back home at all since February 2021.
“If I go back home, the military may be waiting to arrest me,” said Nan Lin of the University Students’ Union Alumni Force. “Even my family members do not know my whereabouts.”
If I go back home, the military may be waiting to arrest me…even my family members do not know my whereabouts.
Nan Lin, University Students’ Union Alumni Force
BP, a protest leader who has demonstrated on the streets of Kalay, Sagaing region every day since 7 February 2021, said that a convoy of five vehicles full of soldiers raided his family home three times in one day in September 2021. He is one of four protesters interviewed who said their homes have been raided after they have left and gone into hiding.
But while they fear going home, many of these activists said it is becoming harder and harder to find safe places to hide. BP told Amnesty International that he regularly sees strangers who he believes are plainclothes informants loitering near the vicinity where activists are staying or following them on motorbikes while carrying walkie-talkies.
U Yaw, a monk from Ayeyarwady region who has been actively protesting since the early days after the coup, had been in hiding since March 2021 when his monastery was raided. During the raid, as U Yaw hid in a toilet stall, he overheard soldiers saying that if they found him, they should “just shoot him dead and get rid of him.”
He fled to Mandalay and resumed protesting, but soldiers and police raided the monastery there where he was hiding in June. He took shelter in another monastery which was raided by soldiers and police in September 2021.
He escaped just in time, but the soldiers and police confiscated his identification documents and cash. U Yaw continued to protest despite the risks.
THREATENING FAMILY MEMBERS
In many cases, soldiers and police have taken into custody family members and loved ones of activists if they were unable to find the activists and arrest them, including a politicians’ 94-year-old mother and an activist’s four-year-old daughter, according to media reports
In April 2021, soldiers and police raided the house of Arkar, an activist who had gone into hiding.
“Because they couldn’t find me and arrest me, they arrested my mother,” he said. “I got a call from the police station and I was told that I should give myself up in exchange for the freedom of my mother.”
Arkar did not turn himself in, and his relatives were able to negotiate his mother’s release the next day by paying a bribe. Arkar’s family have since moved to a new home to avoid further reprisals. Arkar is one of four people who told Amnesty International that their families were forced to leave their homes because of safety concerns.
In November 2021, the military attempted to raid the house of another protest leader who had gone into hiding. “When they arrived, they started shooting, but they went to the wrong house. They mistakenly went to our neighbor’s house and one woman was killed because of the shooting,” the activist said.
Her family was able to escape but she has not contacted them since for fear that she would be putting their lives at further risk. She is currently moving from place to place, and said she has trouble sleeping due to fear of arrest.
“We have to be vigilant 24 hours a day. We get startled even when we just hear a cat jumping onto the roof. We worry about getting arrested when we go out, and when we are in the house, we are scared they will come in and arrest us. We have completely lost our sense of security,” she said.
We have to be vigilant 24 hours a day. We get startled even when we just hear a cat jumping onto the roof.
Protest leader
She is determined, though, to continue organizing peaceful protests. “I cannot sit quietly when I see injustice,” she told Amnesty International.
A resolve to keep protesting nonviolently is shared by many of the activists.
“Despite the immense dangers and hardships, there are still many activists and human rights defenders who choose to remain in Myanmar and who are unwavering in their commitment to continue peacefully protesting and expressing their dissent,” Amnesty’s Emerlynne Gil said.
Many of them said they continue their peaceful protests to inspire more people in the country to action and to give people hope. “The main reason I continue protesting is so that the people do not become divided or lose enthusiasm, and so that they can get strength by seeing us,” said the monk in Mandalay, U Yaw.
“Although our lives are in danger, we choose to continue. We will keep asking the world to help us because people are being killed in Myanmar,” said Zin Mar, the protest leader in Monywa.
*Note to editors: In several cases pseudonyms have been used at the request of interviewees..."
Source/publisher:
Amnesty International (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-04-22
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar’s junta has sentenced Dr. Htar Htar Lin, who led Myanmar’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout under the ousted civilian government, to three years in prison with hard labor on corruption charges because she denied the regime international COVID-19 grants.
Junta-controlled newspapers reported on Thursday that the director of the national immunization program defied ministerial orders by returning a Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization’s Health System Strengthening grant of 168 million kyats (US$91,000) from Unicef and the World Health Organization on Feb. 10, 2021, shortly after the coup.
The return of the grant depleted governmental assets and she was found guilty under the Anti-Corruption Law, the junta’s media reported.
Since June last year, the well-respected director was charged with three more charges, including high treason and incitement and under the Unlawful Association Act for allegedly assisting the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), which the junta has designated as a terrorist group. The charges carry up to 20 years in prison.
An arrest warrant was issued for Dr. Htar Htar Lin shortly after the coup and she was arrested in June last year in Yangon. Her seven-year-old son, husband, friend and her daughter were also detained at the same time. The regime raided her home and seized her belongings.
In early February last year, Dr. Htar Htar Lin emailed colleagues to say she would probably face accusations that she misused funds as the dictatorship would try to steal from the vaccination program.
The email said: “We can’t let military dictators use COVID vaccinations as a weapon. I may still be free or detained by the military when you read this. But I will never surrender.”
On Wednesday, the junta also sentenced Dr. Soe Oo, who chaired the external aid committee which was overseeing the COVID-19 grant, on the same corruption charges for failing to stop Dr. Htar Htar Lin from returning the grants. He was sentenced to two years with hard labor on Wednesday.
Both high-profile doctors refused to work under the regime and they took part in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) after the coup.
The CDM was launched by medics on Feb. 3 in protest against the coup and was followed by other government staff nationwide.
The junta said last year that Dr. Htar Htar Lin confessed to communicating with Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, the NUG’s health minister, through the applications Signal and Zoom. She helped write speeches and NUG health-care policy documents and helped prepare for Zoom meetings and plan to implement the NUG health-care programs, including estimating the required drugs and costs, the state media stated.
It made the same accusation against 26 other doctors, who it said had accepted NUG public health, health administration and clinical roles. Among those accused was Dr. Maung Maung Nyein Tun, 45, a lecturer at the Department of Surgery at the Mandalay University, who died in junta detention with COVID-19 in August last year.
According to Physicians for Human Rights, 286 health staff have been detained since the Feb. 1 coup. The junta had raided at least 128 clinics and hospitals and killed at least 30 health staff by Jan. 10, the group reported..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-04-21
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Opinion and Expression - tools for change in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar is now in a state of civil war. What started in February 2021 as a mass protest movement against the military coup is now an armed uprising.
The junta is under attack across the country from a loose network of civilian militias called the People’s Defence Forces.
They’re fighting to create a democratic Myanmar.
The BBC gained rare access to the rebel jungle training camps where young protesters have been turned into soldiers.
They're up against a well-trained military, armed by Russia and China, that’s willing to use brutal tactics to hold on to power.
As the death toll mounts and the world looks away, can this people’s movement win?..."
Source/publisher:
"BBC News" (London)
Date of publication:
2022-04-21
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Opposition to the military regime is pulling adverse groups toward a new national identity tied to a federal democratic future.
Description:
"The military’s coup in Myanmar has been a tragedy in every respect but one: It is increasingly clear that the generals’ power grab and bloody repression have united Myanmar’s diverse — and often adverse — ethnic and political groups to resist a common enemy and seek a better future. Ironically, the army, which has argued since independence that it alone can hold the country together, has inadvertently spurred a revolutionary and irreversible nation-building dialogue aimed at creating a federal democratic system and more inclusive national identity. The National Unity Consultative Council, the platform for this dialogue, may be slow, complex and contentious, but its participants stay at the table for one reason: It offers the best opportunity to escape Myanmar’s vicious cycle of violence and authoritarian rule.
Since the February 1, 2021, coup, opposition to military rule has grown to include political, civil society and armed elements from every corner of the country. The resistance network that developed over the past year includes the deposed parliament and executive; state, regional and township administrators; armed organizations ranging from battled-hardened ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to newly formed People’s Defense Forces (PDFs); and civil society groups providing essential services and local leadership.
Bringing them all together is the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), tasked with unifying the resistance movement and, as a dialogue platform, drafting a political roadmap to move the country toward a federal democratic union. It is a low-budget force multiplier starved for resources and more than worthy of support from pro-democracy elements of the international community.
Not surprisingly, the chaos of war has challenged these groups’ ability to communicate, collaborate and coordinate. That has led some observers to view the resistance as disunited and directionless. Such a critique, however, misses the fact that these groups are complementary even if they don’t speak with a single voice, and that in combination they have performed effectively against the overwhelming structural advantages that the junta enjoys.
Perhaps of equal importance, these actors represent the bones of a new federal system that could rise from the ashes of the military’s atrocities. Where past democratic movements in Myanmar have struggled — namely, in their ability to craft and unify around an alternative political vision — this one has shown staying power. By establishing the NUCC less than two months after the coup, the resistance demonstrated its intention to avoid past mistakes that have led to disintegration. If it continues to make visible progress and demonstrate a commitment to decentralization and a new federal structure, the NUCC can help sustain and strengthen the movement.
The Misguided Search for Elite Dialogue
The historic and transformative potential of the NUCC has not been entirely obvious to the international community. From the outset of the coup, various envoys have ignored the NUCC process and instead pursued a solution to the conflict through elite dialogue between the military and fringe opposition elements willing to return to pre-coup conditions. As the ensuing armed conflict has broadened and intensified, with gruesome videos of military atrocities emerging daily, these calls for dialogue have grown louder. Those pushing such dialogue believe that peace is brokered through elites and the benefits will trickle down. This is deeply misguided. It is a view that has informed all five previous attempts to bring peace to Myanmar — attempts that have failed.
Though perhaps well-intentioned, this strategy fails to grasp that the people of Myanmar are unwilling to go back to the system of government that existed under the 2008 military constitution. They have made clear their urgent need to embrace this historic turning point, lest the country simply settles into another unstable equilibrium characterized by continuing violence.
No Going Back
Unlike some outsiders, none of the parties to the conflict sees a return to the status quo ante as possible.
In late March, coup leader and Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing vowed to annihilate all opposition in flagrant disregard of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) “Five-Point Consensus.” Whatever its original motives for the coup, the junta’s sole objective now is survival. The generals have calculated that international accountability for their brutality is unlikely and that their backers, especially China, Russia, India, Japan and some within ASEAN, will prove durable.
The resistance, too, recognizes that there is no going back — but where to head next is a point of contention. The vast majority of those within the NUG and NUCC, particularly among ethnic revolutionary organizations, protest groups and the more progressive members of civil society, have made clear that they seek nothing less than the full removal of the military from the country’s political and economic life. They view the previous system as having been unstable and exclusionary, held together through tenuous concessions to elites, and ultimately enabling the coup.
A Way Forward
Before evaluating the prospects for the NUCC, it should be stipulated that at this stage its potential remains aspirational. Its dialogues are unglamorous, fraught, complex and slow, held over bi-weekly Zoom calls at all hours.
That said, the NUCC’s inclusive dialogue processes reflect the will of the people, and there are reasons for optimism that this unique platform can help lay the groundwork for a new Myanmar.
In virtually every other political dialogue in Myanmar’s history — all of which have been controlled or sabotaged by the Burma army — participants would routinely abandon negotiations when they became contentious or seemed to be going nowhere. These dialogues were haunted by two major demons: the lack of a shared objective and the fact that the Burma army has never wanted peace (which remains the case today).
With the poisonous military excluded from the NUCC, it is at last possible to have a good-faith dialogue among parties with a shared goal of ending authoritarian military rule and establishing a peaceful federal democracy. Therefore, even when disputes become heated, as they often do, the conversations continue. Although key actors, including important political parties such as the Shan National League for Democracy and EAOs including the United Wa State Army, Arakan Army and Kachin Independence Army, have not joined the process, the NUCC has kept open the door to their future involvement and quietly consults with these groups to take into account their political ambitions.
Another positive development is the emergence of state-level Consultative Councils which were spawned by the NUCC. Some have made considerable strides toward unifying the resistance in states — often producing better outcomes than the NUCC itself. The Kayah State Consultative Council, for example, includes a diverse array of civilian, armed and civil society actors, and is nearing completion of a state constitution. It helps coordinate the armed resistance across the war-torn state and provides core governance functions, including oversight of a local police service and delivery of humanitarian aid. These state-level processes are not only a foundational exercise in federalism but could offer lessons on how to improve the NUCC.
If the NUCC can reach consensus on a plan for a federal government that makes space for Myanmar’s cultural diversity, it would put the resistance in a strong position to begin laying the foundation for negotiations with the military. It would also make the NUCC the setting for a long-term national dialogue aimed at developing an inclusive national identity as the basis for a more equitable and stable Myanmar.
Key Challenges Remain
Neither success nor failure is pre-ordained for the fractious resistance movement. Three factors will be especially critical to a successful outcome of the NUCC:
Pace and Priorities. NUCC dialogues are built upon the principle of collective leadership — a welcome departure from Myanmar’s history of rigid hierarchy centered around a Bamar Buddhist gerontocracy. But under its consensus model, the NUCC often shows little progress over long periods. The glacial pace weakens its perceived relevance among some key actors. The challenge, in part, is that the NUCC plays two roles — a policymaking body of a revolutionary administration (the National Unity Government, or NUG) and a nation-building dialogue platform. If the NUCC fails in the first role to keep pace with the revolution, it may lose the opportunity to lead in the second. Its success will depend on maintaining cohesion and adhering to leadership principles, while building momentum on core policy questions.
Action. Follow-up action is often inadequate because the NUCC, like the NUG, lacks enough working-level staff. The NUG and the Joint Coordination Committees are the primary implementing bodies of NUCC policy. While their personnel are committed, motivated and experienced, many have gone months without pay. If the international community provides stronger support for civil society actors, they can be force multipliers for the NUG and NUCC. When the NUCC establishes its Technical Secretariat team and Technical Support team in the coming months, the United States and other donors should be ready to assist.
Trust. For decades, the military has nurtured distrust among its myriad opponents. The National League for Democracy (NLD) party exacerbated these divisions while in power by implementing policies that antagonized civil society and the ethnic minorities that now make up the NUCC. Though the NLD-dominated NUG promises to build more equitable governance structures, ethnic minorities and others are wary. The NUCC needs to continue to push the NUG to demonstrate its commitment to federalism by designing and deploying governance structures that shift power from Union-level institutions like the NUCC and NUG toward sub-national institutions, including state and region-level Consultative Councils and township governance institutions (Pyithu Aochoteye a’pwe).
In a previous publication we said, the NUCC was too important to fail. This is as true now as it has ever been.
The NUCC alone will not win or lose this revolution, of course, but its success is a precondition to escaping the vicious cycle of violence and military authoritarianism. If the NUCC collapses or loses relevance, power will shift to those who seek elite and unaccountable negotiations. That will inevitably produce a myopic and unstable political outcome characterized by violence, authoritarianism and regional instability.
The best option for allies of a democratic Myanmar is to support the NUCC dialogues, which better reflect the will of the people and create the possibility for the elusive federal democratic union that Myanmar has always deserved. The search for dialogue to end this tragic conflict must first take place within the resistance before any negotiated settlement can be considered..."
Source/publisher:
United States Institute of Peace
Date of publication:
2022-04-19
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
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"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်မထမ်းဆောင်ပဲ ဓမ္မဘက်မှရပ်တည်၍ ပြည်သူနှင့်တသားတည်းဖြစ် စေရန်နှင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ကြစေရန် အကြိမ်ကြိမ်ဖိတ်ခေါ် ကမ်းလှမ်းခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ဝန်ကြီးချုပ်ရုံးအနေဖြင့်လည်း အောက်တိုဘာလမှစတင်၍ အမိန့်အာဏာ ဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမဖွဲ့ရသေးသောဌာနအသီးသီးမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း သူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေး၊ လုံခြုံဘေးကင်းရေးနှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင်ရေး တို့အတွက် အလေးထား ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
၃။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေ ပြီး CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိအားပေးခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်း၊ ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှထုတ် ပစ်ခြင်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းနှင့် ဥပေဒနှင့်အညီပြန်ဆပ်ရန်မလိုတော့သည့် လစာချေးငွေများအား အတင်းအဓမ္မ ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ခိုင်းခြင်းများ စသည့် အမျိုးမျိုးသောဖိနှိပ်မှုများကိုကျူးလွန်နေသော စိုက်ပျိုးရေး၊ မွေးမြူရေးနှင့် ဆည်မြောင်းဝန်ကြီးဌာန စိုက်ပျိုးရေးဉီးစီးဌာန မှ အောက်ဖေါ်ပြပါဝန်ထမ်းများအား အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းသွင်းလိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismiss) လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the Prime Minister of the Union - NUG
Date of publication:
2022-04-20
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-20
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"As the world’s eyes fall on Ukraine, a human rights catastrophe
continues to unfold in Burma/ Myanmar. Decades of impunity have
fueled a regime that knows no bounds when it comes to violence
in the pursuit of power. In its first broad human rights report since
the coup, the United Nations found the Burmese army has engaged
in systematic human rights violations, amounting to war crimes
and crimes against humanity. Civilians are not being caught in the
crossfire, they are being deliberately targeted by the Burmese army.
The US State Department’s determination that the Burmese army
committed crimes against humanity and genocide against the
Rohingya people in 2017 is welcomed, but long overdue. As each day
passes, the junta’s policy of systematic violence continues to cause
insurmountable suffering across the entire country, specifically in
ethnic regions. Over the February and March period, the junta’s violent
actions demonstrate its continued disregard for the life and dignity of
the people
During a raid of Pauk Township in the Magway Region on March 6, the
junta raped and killed a 42-year-old woman, Daw Aye Aye Win, and
then stabbed her three-year-old daughter to death. The junta troops
detained 29 villagers, including nine children to use as potential
human shields. Among the detainees was Daw Aye Aye Win’s 11-yearold daughter, who was found dead three days later.
The use of civilians as human shields is not an isolated incident, but
rather a systematic practice of the junta. In late February, the junta
detained 80 primary schoolchildren to use as human shields during
a raid in Sagaing Region’s Yinmabin Township. There are at least 85
reported incidents where the junta has forced individuals to perform
labour and act as human shields. This constitutes serious violations of
international humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes.
Arson is a hallmark of the Burmese army’s operation, burning
townships, food stocks, essential provisions for displaced people,
and even their victims. As of March 3, 2022, the junta has torched at
least 6,158 civilian homes, mainly in Chin and Karenni/Kayah states
and Sagaing and Magway regions.
Injuries and death from landmines and other explosive remnants of
war (ERW), and unexploded ordnance (UXO) are increasing as the
number of displaced people move through conflict areas. In 2021, 88
civilians, including 19 women and 19 children, were killed and another
196 people, including 33 women and 55 children, were injured from
landmines and ERW.
The Burmese army continues to bomb civilian villages almost every
day, deliberately targeting civilians and Internally Displaced People
(IDP) camps. Many homes and livelihoods have been burned down or
destroyed, leaving thousands unable to go home. The number of IDPs
continues to increase at alarming rates. As of February 28, the number
of IDPs reached 519,500, this is up from 451,000 people since WLB’s
December-January 2022 update.
Access constraints and inadequate humanitarian aid funding have
prevented aid relief for millions of people across Burma/Myanmar. Crossborder assistance is the only way to reach people in need, and local
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are doing most of the heavy lifting,
by delivering food, water, shelters, health care, and sanitary packs for
women. An increase in international humanitarian relief is critical, as
food, clean water, and medical supplies are quickly running out. Women
have been disproportionately affected by the impact the coup has had
on the economy, which has left half of the population in poverty.
Across the country, frequent electricity power outages have tripled the
cost of alternative fuel sources, such as candles, coal, and firewood. The
cuts to electricity have significantly impacted the supply of water, forcing
people to return to old ways of manually pumping water. In an attempt
to curb dissent and pro-democracy organizing, the junta tripled the
corporate tax rate for mobile and internet providers which has doubled
the price of internet data. The disruption to essential services, coupled
with rising levels of poverty, has disproportionately impacted women, as
they struggle to provide for their families and face an increased risk of
domestic violence.
WLB members report that women are not just experiencing an increase
in domestic violence, but gender-based violence more broadly. On March
7, three men entered a clothing store in North Okkalarpa Township,
Yangon, and attacked a woman, binding her hands and mouth, and
holding a knife to her neck. On March 24 in Myitkyina, Kachin State
capital, a woman selling small pieces of iron and bottles was murdered
by a group of men when she refused to hand over her money.
Despite the Burmese army’s efforts to terrorize civilians by stripping
people of their homes, livelihoods, and safety, the resistance movement
continues to grow. Eleven days after losing their homes and seeing their
village burn down, women in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township have bravely
stood up to protest against the junta. Having lost everything, these women
are fighting with a rare determination and bravery that is at the core of the
women’s resistance movement..."
Source/publisher:
Women's League of Burma
Date of publication:
2022-04-13
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Human Rights Defenders, Anti-coup protesters
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"12 April 2022: Australian, Indian and Saudi Arabian Ambassadors should be deeply ashamed of holding meetings with the leader of the illegal military junta in Myanmar while his forces beat civilians to death, burned villages to the ground and abducted children, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
The people of Myanmar have been resisting a violent attempt by the Myanmar military to seize power over their country since it launched a coup in February 2021. Civil disobedience, strikes, protests and armed resistance prevented the coup from succeeding, while vast areas of the country are under the territorial and administrative control of groups that recognise the authority of the legitimate National Unity Government of Myanmar.
Despite this, Ambassadors to Myanmar, including the Australian and Indian Ambassadors, prematurely held meetings with the leader of the junta, Min Aung Hlaing. The official engagements were used as propaganda by the junta leader in his ongoing attempt to gain domestic legitimacy. India, Australia and Saudi Arabia have resisted calls to impose personal sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing and other junta leaders like those imposed by the UK, US, EU and Canada. The members of SAC-M have been calling for Min Aung Hlaing to be prosecuted for genocide since 2018.
“The Myanmar people are engaged in an all-out struggle to defend themselves and their democracy from an internal occupying force that is intent on forcing them to succumb to authoritarianism,” said Yanghee Lee of SAC-M. “Foreign Ambassadors and other government representatives that choose to meet with the leader of that occupying force as if he is leader of Myanmar, might as well turn their backs on the Myanmar people altogether.”
Untold sacrifices have been made by the Myanmar people in their struggle. Thousands have been murdered and almost half a million people displaced as junta forces continue to wage a brutal campaign of terror involving mass murder, torture, arson, sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention.
The junta continues to launch devastating airstrikes on civilian targets including displacement camps, schools, hospitals and places of worship while on the ground its troops commit regular massacres of unarmed civilians that have included the burning alive of children.
“The junta is waging a war against the people. The atrocities are not side effects of the conflict but part of a deliberate assault on the population,” said Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M. “If the world truly stands for the rule of law, the principles of humanity and the fundamental right of all peoples to determine their own future, then equal action must be taken to defend those values wherever they are under threat – not hypocritical complicity with the very villains that would seek to stamp them out.”
The National Unity Government should be recognised as the legitimate government of Myanmar, according to internationally accepted criteria. SAC-M is calling for the international community to recognise the National Unity Government and work with it to end the crisis in Myanmar, to cut the supply of arms and cash to the illegal military junta and to refer the situation in Myanmar to International Criminal Court.
“The people of Myanmar will succeed in this fight for their country and their freedom,” said Chris Sidoti of SAC-M. “The question is, how will history judge the rest of the world when the records of these years are written?”..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-04-12
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Business and the Military, Sanctions, Human Rights Defenders
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"Statement of the National Unity Consultative Council on Atar Thingyan 1384..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Consultative Council
Date of publication:
2022-04-12
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-12
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"The human rights situation in Myanmar is becoming increasingly unstable. Hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced. Among those trying to help injured civilians, protesters and combatants from the People’s Defense Forces are medical professionals. They too have been targeted by the Myanmar junta who have used their weapons to destroy clinics and confiscate medicine. In the midst of a pandemic, these actions are increasingly volatile.
Doctors and nurses, who have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) have been forced into hiding. Despite mass arrest warrants issued, many are still providing treatment and care in secret. Their will and spirit cannot be marred by the junta.
The war that the Myanmar military is waging in their cruel pursuit for power has destabilized the country beyond repair. The health care sector is one of many which has been obliterated. Health care services are now largely beyond reach of every day civilians who are struggling to survive on the bare minimum as conflict wreaks havoc across the country.
On World Health Day, the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma recognizes the many injustices perpetrated against health care workers by the soldiers of the Myanmar Army. We condemn these unlawful attacks and call for their immediate protection, as well as for those arrested and detained to be released and all charges dropped..."
Source/publisher:
Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma
Date of publication:
2022-04-07
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Health Workers Strike, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
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"In one drawing, dozens of men sit crammed into a single room, hunched with their knees together, every inch of space occupied. In another, they lie back to back on the floor, their faces straining with discomfort.
Fourteen sketches smuggled out of Myanmar's Insein Prison and interviews with eight former prisoners offer a rare glimpse inside the country's most notorious jail, where thousands of political prisoners have been sent since last year's military coup and communication with the outside world is sharply limited.
The rough, blue-ink sketches show daily life for groups of male prisoners in their dormitories, queuing for water from a trough to wash, talking or lying on the floor in the tropical heat.
Beyond those depictions, the eight recently released inmates told Reuters the colonial-era facility in Yangon is infested with rats, a place where bribes are common, prisoners pay for sleeping space on the floor and widespread illness goes untreated.
"We're no longer humans behind bars," said Nyi Nyi Htwe, 24, who smuggled the sketches out of the prison when he was released in October, after spending several months for a defamation conviction, on charges he denies, in connection with joining protests against the coup.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts provided by the former inmates.
Myanmar's junta, which seized power from the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and prison administration did not respond to multiple requests for comment on conditions shown in the sketches and described by the former inmates.
Humanitarian groups including the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters they have been denied access to the jail.
Built by the British in 1871, Insein is Myanmar's largest prison, housing many people arrested for opposing the junta.
Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, convicted of breaking Myanmar's Official Secrets Act in 2017, spent most of their 511 days behind bars in Insein. They were released in a 2019 amnesty, before the latest coup.
PRISON POPULATION SWELLS
The artist drew the prison sketches between April and July of last year. Later released, he declined to be interviewed or identified, telling Nyi Nyi Htwe he feared rearrest.
Nyi Nyi Htwe, who met the artist in prison, said he sketched prisoners if asked and drew prison scenes wherever he went, saying he felt more relaxed while drawing. He gave Nyi Nyi Htwe the sketches as a birthday present.
Nyi Nyi Htwe said he smuggled them out on his release to show friends, family and others the conditions inside.
Since the coup, 10,072 people have been detained in the Southeast Asian country, including Suu Kyi and most of her cabinet, and over 1,730 people have been killed, according to the nonprofit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, whose tallies are widely cited. The junta has said AAPP's figures are exaggerated.
Many of those detained have been sent to Insein.
Built to incarcerate around 5,000 people, the prison has seen inmate numbers swell to over 10,000 since the coup, said a spokesperson for the AAPP. Reuters could not confirm the figures.
The sketches reflect the increase in the months after the coup, said Nyi Nyi Htwe.
In one from late April, a few prisoners sit apart in their dorm, some reading books. A picture from June shows about 60 people in the same room - many lying in tight rows down the centre, the rest hunched against the walls.
Nyi Nyi Htwe said he and as many as 100 others were packed well beyond capacity into a room where they "slept a finger-width apart," and that he watched prison officers beat inmates with batons and had to pay bribes to send messages to family that they told him often did not arrive.
'LUCKY NOT TO DIE'
With the overcrowding came water shortages, disease, fatigue, fighting between prisoners and flourishing bribery, said people released in recent months.
"Rats ran around in the room. The toilets were filthy. The food was mixed with flies. Those who couldn't pay a bribe had to sleep next to the toilet bucket," said Sandar Win, a 42-year-old social worker jailed at Insein for several months for defamation after protesting against the junta.
She was released under an amnesty while awaiting sentencing for the charges, which she denies. She has since fled Myanmar.
Access to outdoor latrines was limited, forcing prisoners to defecate in buckets in their rooms, three women former inmates said. These unsanitary conditions allowed skin and bowel diseases to spread, and there was little medical help, they said.
A handwritten note by a group of anonymous Insein inmates, smuggled out to a prominent human rights activist in February, alleges several instances of medical negligence, including failure to treat people beaten unconscious and a person who had suffered a stroke and was paralysed.
"These cases are happening right in front of us," said the note, which was shown to Reuters by the activist, Nan Lin. "We request urgent help from international organisations and local organisations."
Reuters could not independently verify the note's authenticity, but several former inmates said they had witnessed or suffered beatings by guards and there was little medical support.
Despite a COVID-19 vaccination drive at Insein last summer that was publicised on state media, former inmates said the coronavirus thrived in the crowded prison. At least 10 prisoners are suspected to have died from the disease, according to the AAPP. read more
Nyi Nyi Htwe, who has joined an armed rebel group, said nearly two-thirds of his dormitory were sick with COVID symptoms last summer.
"They put all the sick people in our room — high fever, coughing and ill," he said. "I was lucky enough not to die."
A set of smuggled notes shown to Reuters by an aid group show an exchange between a father, held on defamation charges, and his young son.
"Behaving well, Papa. I miss you. I'd like to have a toy boat," wrote the boy.
"My little son," came the reply, including a tiny boat the father fashioned from instant coffee wrappers. "I love you so much, my sweetheart. Please listen to your grandma."..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-04-07
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders
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"မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအခြေအနေမှာ ပို၍ မတည်မငြိမ်ဖြစ်လျှက်ရှိသည်။ သိန်းနှင့်ချီသည့် ပြည်သူလူထု မှာ မဖြစ်မနေ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရသည်။ ဒဏ်ရာရ ပြည်သူများ၊ ဆန္ဒပြသူများနှင့် PDFs တပ်သားများအား ကြိုးစား ကုသပေးနေသူများမှာ ဆေးဘက်ဆိုင်ရာကျွမ်းကျင်သူများဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် ဆေးရုံ၊ ဆေးခန်းများအား ဖျက်ဆီး၍ဆေးဝါးများ မတရားသိမ်းဆည်းနေသည့် မြန်မာစစ်အာဏာရှင်တပ် များ၏ ပစ်မှတ်ထားခြင်းခံနေရသည်။ကမ္ဘာ့ကပ်ရောဂါ ဖြစ်ပွားနေချိန်တွင် ထိုသို့လုပ်ဆောင်မှုကြောင့် ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာ ပြဿနာများကို ပို၍ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေသည်။
CDM တွင် ပူးပေါင်းပါဝင်သည့် ဆရာဝန်နှင့် သူနာပြုများသည် တိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။ ဖမ်းဝရမ်းများ အထုတ်ခံထားကြရသော်လည်း ဆရာဝန်နှင့် သူနာပြုများက တိတ်တဆိတ် ကုသ၍ ကျန်းမာရေး စောင့်ရှောက်ပေးကြသည်။ ၎င်းတို့၏ စိတ်ဓာတ်နှင့် ဆန္ဒကို စစ်အာဏာရှင်များမှ ရိုက်ချိုး၍ မရပေ။ အာဏာကို ငန်းငန်းတက် လိုချင်၍ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ ရက်ရက်စက်စက် ဆင်နွှဲနေသည့် စစ်ပွဲသည် ထိန်းချုပ် ပြုပြင်၍ မရလောက်အောင် မတည်မငြိမ်ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေသည်။ ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု ကဏ္ဌသည် ဖျက်ဆီးခံရသည့် ကဏ္ဌများထဲမှ တခုဖြစ်သည်။ ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုသည် နိုင်ငံတဝှန်း ပဋိပက္ခများကြောင့် အကြီးအကျယ်ထိခိုက်ကသောင်းကနင်း ဖြစ်နေပြီး အနိမ့်ဆုံးအဆင့်ဝင်ငွေဖြင့် အသက်ရှင်သန်ရန် ရုန်းကန်နေရသည့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ လက်လှမ်းမမီနိုင်သည့် အခြေအနေတွင် ရှိနေသည်။
ကမ္ဘာ့ကျန်းမာရေးနေ့တွင် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ စစ်သားများက ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများအပေါ် မတရားမှုများကျူးလွန်နေသည်ကို မိမိတို့ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးမှတ်တမ်းကွန်ရက် (မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ) (ND-Burma) မှ သိရှိနားလည်သဘောပေါက်ပါသည်။ ယခုလို မတရား တိုက်ခိုက်နေမှုများကို ပြစ်တင်ရှုံ့ချပြီး ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများအား အလျင်အမြန် အကာအကွယ်ပေးရန်နှင့် ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်း ခံထားရသူများအားလည်း အမှုများမှ ရုပ် သိမ်း၍ အမြန်ဆုံးလွှတ်ပေးရန် တောင်းဆိုပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma
Date of publication:
2022-04-07
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Health Workers Strike, Anti-coup protesters, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
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"To: Members of the U.S. Congress :
Subject: Pass the B.U.R.M.A. Act, Open Letter Signed by the Diaspora of Burma in America and Endorsed by the CSOs and CBOs inside Burma and Global Solidarity Organization to the United State Congress to Pass the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability (BURMA) Act of 2021
Dear United States Representatives and Senators,
We, the diaspora with our roots from all various regions of Burma residing in the United States, with the endorsement by civil society organizations and community-based organizations inside Burma and global solidarity organizations, write to express our support for the BURMA Act and request its expedited passage into law. Since October 6th, 2021, when 242 Burmese diaspora, local CSOs inside Burma, community-based organizations, and civil society organizations signed an open letter to the United States Congress to support the BURMA Act of 2021, the situation on the ground has only worsened.
As of March 26th, 2022, the military junta had killed 1,707 civilians and arbitrarily arrested 12,970 people according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners AAPP (Burma). Moreover, the military-perpetrated ongoing airstrikes and heavy artillery launches in ethnic areas had resulted in 1.2 million persons of concern, including 810,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 600,000 stateless Rohingyas being forced to flee homes for their lives according to the latest UNHCR report.
We welcome the latest set of actions by the United States to reaffirm its ongoing support for Burma’s democracy in particular through Senator McConnell-led amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, additional treasury sanctions on March 25, 2022, a letter of support for Burmese democracy signed by 14 Senators and Members of Congress urging Secretary Blinken and State Department to take actions, the passage of S. Res 35 in the Senate, and US Government’s Rohingya Genocide Determination. We thank Representative Meeks, Representative Bera, and Representative Chabot for their joint statement on the one-year anniversary, and their continued demonstration of support for the democracy and freedom of the people in Burma. We also recognize the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s show of bipartisan support for the BURMA Act on October 21, 2021, and 102 cosponsors from both the House and Senate.
The humanitarian and democracy aid authorized in the BURMA Act are sorely needed, as is the investigation into the oil and gas industry, the accountability for the military’s ongoing war crimes, Rohingya genocide and atrocity crimes against ethnic minorities, and a special coordinator position to make sure it all gets done. The sanction language of the Burma Act targets the junta’s finances in ways that can hurt the regime while sparing the people from additional suffering.
We, the undersigned, urgently request the United States Congress to pass the BURMA Act of 2021 in consideration of the countless lives taken away by the murderous military junta and the dangers that the authoritarian regime imposes on human rights and democracy. We acknowledge the bipartisan support we have received from the House of Representatives and we call for the same unified support by our Senators. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, we look forward to our democratically-elected Congress taking swift, concrete actions in holding the junta accountable for their crimes and supporting the civilian’s efforts in building Burma’s path to democracy..."
Source/publisher:
58 diaspora organizations in the United States and endorsed by 87 Civil Societies inside Burma and across the globe
Date of publication:
2022-03-27
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations, Human Rights Defenders, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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"Last month, Myanmar’s regime enacted the Myanmar Police Act making it compulsory for law enforcement officers to fight alongside soldiers on the front lines, while expanding their powers to restrict citizens’ liberty.
Under the law, the appointment of police officers and any structural changes to the force requires the approval of the military chief.
Legal advisor U Khin Maung Myint recently talked to The Irrawaddy about how the law will affect people.
Why has the regime made it compulsory for the police to serve in security and combat roles besides law enforcement?
The police used to be a separate entity before 1962 but since then the military has used armed organizations, including the police, as auxiliary forces.
Now this law assigns security and defense roles to the police. It has been years since security battalions were formed within the police to perform as military units. The law was enacted to assign fighting roles to the police if necessary.
Do you think officers will have to go to the frontline?
It is likely. Police battalions had to fight in the past. While officers from township police stations were engaged in law enforcement, police battalions had to fight alongside the military on the frontline.
When they gained control of an area and the troops left, police battalions stayed and reestablished security. This law means that not only police battalions but all officers will be ordered to fight.
The law grants greater powers to the police. How will it affect the freedom and security of citizens?
Laws focused on security and protection often compromise the citizenship rights, privacy and security of individuals.
Under the law, officers can arrest and search buildings, citing security and defense concerns. Residents have to hand over a layout of new homes. There can be no privacy and safety.
There is no problem if those provisions are enforced properly, respecting constitutional rights but if the powers granted by the law are abused, it is quite dangerous.
The law carries prison sentences for banging pots and pans. Is the regime trying to stop every form of protest?
The law expands officers’ powers, largely in response to the changing situation.
The resistance of the people’s defense forces and ethnic armed groups has spread from ethnic-majority states and rural areas to the cities. As resistance groups appear to be planning to launch large-scale attacks in a so-called D-day, the law aims to lift the restrictions on police so officers can take preventive measures against potential attackers.
How about the increasing penalties for certain crimes under the law?
Every regime rules with fear. It hopes increased penalties will deter potential perpetrators and reduce opposition.
But the punishment must fit the crime and only then can social order be maintained.
How do you assess the law?
By international standards, the law grants excessive power to Myanmar’s police. It will overstretch the police from their primary duty: to maintain tranquility and enforce the rule of law. They are not enforcing the law at the moment and they will be overburdened if they are also to fight. It is out of touch with reality..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-04-05
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
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"Ten alleged Yangon activists, who were detained in April last year and charged with involvement in bombings, were sentenced to seven years in prison with labor, according to their lawyers.
A court in Insein Prison on March 31 handed down the maximum sentences for illegal weapons possession and their detention period will be deducted from the sentence. The 10 still face charges Article 436 of the Penal Code which could extend their terms by 20 years.
“The arson trial under Article 436 is ongoing. The maximum penalty under 436 is 20 years,” said a lawyer.
They were detained in night raids on April 17 last year following three blasts that killed at least one soldier and wounded several others at the General Administration Office in Yankin Township, where troops were based.
The following day, the regime’s Myawaddy TV announced suspects had been arrested in the township with bomb-making equipment after a tipoff. The accused showed signs of severe torture in the junta’s pictures.
The face of Ma Khin Nyein Thu, 31, was visibly swollen and she was reportedly sexually harassed during the interrogation.
A family member said Ma Khin Nyein Thus is now in good health.
Since the coup, many activists have been given lengthy jail terms or death sentences for alleged attacks and for having ties to the civilian National Unity Government or its armed people’s defense forces (PDFs). Recently several individuals were given 10-year sentences for allegedly donating cash to PDFs.
Those who are tried by court-martial are given harsher penalties and denied citizenship and human and legal rights, including the right to counsel, said lawyers.
U Khin Maung Myint, a lawyer, said: “There are two separate types of court, one for courts-martial in townships where direct military rule is imposed. Lawyers are not allowed to represent the accused in those courts. No one tried at those courts has been released and they are all given maximum sentences.”
No detainees tried at prison courts have been released, he added.
More than 10,007 people remain under detention since the February 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Around 905 detainees have been given prison sentences, including 59 death sentences. Two children have received death sentences. At least 41 other suspects in hiding have been given death sentences in absentia..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-04-04
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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"On 27 Mar, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing vowed to “annihilate the opposition.” As of 31 Mar, the junta had arrested at least 13,040 civilians, including politicians, activists, and journalists, and killed at least 2,053 civilians. The junta got dirtier in its tactics. It funded paramilitary groups, enacted “legislation” allowing it to conscript police into its war, used social media channels to discredit and hunt down its opposition, and demanded that hospitals turn over patient records to undermine treatment of opponents. Cities across Burma struggled with power blackouts as electricity production fell to a quarter of the national demand. Outages disrupted water distribution and business operations, while rising fuel prices made the use of generators unsustainable..."
Source/publisher:
ALTSEAN-BURMA, Asia Democracy Network, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Burma Human Rights Network, Initiatives for International Dialogue, International Federation for Human Rights, Progressive Voice and US Campaign for Burma
Date of publication:
2022-04-01
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders, Anti-coup protesters
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"Introduction
In 2005, the United Nations member states unanimously made a commitment to protect populations from the most serious crimes, namely genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.1 Known as the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ principle, or R2P, this commitment emphasises the primary responsibility by states to protect their own populations from these crimes, and the responsibility of the international community to support one another in their prevention.2 Recognising that atrocities are not random events but develop in a dynamic process and require the existence of an environment conducive to their occurrence, the United Nations Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect developed a methodological framework in 2014 that enables the identification of warning signs indicating the existence of such circumstances. The Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes (hereinafter ‘the framework’) sets out a series of Risk Factors and corresponding Indicators that enable stakeholders to identify high-risk developments in situations of serious human rights violations, domestic instability and crisis, pinpoint gaps in existing prevention capacities and promote necessary responses. The framework serves as a working tool for the monitoring and assessment of atrocity risks and as an early warning mechanism to support the prevention of their commission.3
The following atrocity crimes risk assessment applies the framework to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (hereinafter ‘Myanmar’). It identifies the most pressing risk factors and provides recommendation on future steps that can be taken by relevant stakeholders to address risks of atrocities being committed.
Since the last atrocity risk assessment of the situation in Myanmar conducted in 2019, there have been significant domestic developments that have reshaped the climate for the commission of atrocity crimes in Myanmar. The risk of atrocity crimes, specifically crimes against humanity and war crimes, is very high and the risk of genocide remains high. The military coup d’état on 1 February 2021 has resulted in a large movement of civil disobedience, the establishment of a shadow government under the leadership of former NLD politicians and its formation of an armed resistance force. The brutal crackdown by the military in response to nationwide anti-junta protests has led many civilians to take up arms and join armed resistance forces. Renewed conflict between long-standing ethnic armed groups and the military, the emergence of new local armed militias, as well as violent clashes between the military and resistance forces have dragged the country into another civil war. The means and methods deployed by the Tatmadaw against political dissidents, civilians and members of the armed resistance already meet the threshold of crimes against humanity and war crimes but indicate the risk of further escalations of the situation.
These developments occur amidst a multi-dimensional economic and humanitarian crisis that has reached new records in unemployment rates and in the number of internally displaced people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The global COVID-19 pandemic had severe impacts not only on an already buckling health sector, but has seen many people forced out of employment and into a state of severe food insecurity. The political unrest following the military coup, which resulted in an international response of targeted sanctions, withdrawal of foreign aid and foreign investment and an increase of unemployment across the entire country’s labour force, has caused a stagnation of Myanmar’s economy and pushed the country to the brink of an economic collapse. The large-scale disobedience movements in response to the coup, disruptions in supply chains as well as the junta’s regular shutdowns of telecommunication services, internet and power outages have paralysed essential sectors and much of the country’s infrastructure. In addition, atrocities committed against the Rohingya community during the military’s ‘clearance operations’ in Rakhine State in 2017 and 2018 remain unaddressed and have further nourished a climate of prevailing impunity and injustice. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Rohingya remain in detainment camps with restricted access of humanitarian aid delivery, while being denied freedoms of movement, access to basic goods, such as food and health care, and the right to a safe, dignified and voluntary return.
While the international community has stepped up its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar, the UN and its member States remain divided over the political disputes over power. While the majority of States condemned the military coup and refuse to recognise the military junta as the legitimate government, international response to the military use of force has been limited to targeted sanctions against senior military leaders and the exclusion of its representatives from regional summits. A stronger engagement by key regional actors, such as ASEAN member States and their newly appointed Special Envoy, and a concerted response by international actors including the UN Security Council is required to put a halt to the excessive use of force by the military against the population, to delegitimise the military junta’s claim to power and assist the country in returning to its path towards a peaceful democratic transition that is capable of addressing past injustices and building a resilient and independent national State apparatus in conformity with international human rights standards..."
Source/publisher:
The University of Queensland
Date of publication:
2022-03-31
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations, Genocide, International Criminal Court (Myanmar), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - Myanmar
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1.3 MB (Original version) - 51 pages
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Description:
"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားရေးနှင့် ဘေးအန္တရာယ်ဆိုင်ရာ စီမံခန့်ခွဲရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင် ဆန့်ကျင်ရေး၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီပြန်လည်ထွန်းကားရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူတစ်ဦးချင်းစီ၏ အခွင့်အရေးများ ပြန်လည်ရရှိရေးအတွက် အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (Civil Disobedience Movement- CDM) တွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ပြည်သူ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ လူမှုဘဝ ဖူလုံရေး၊ ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံရေးနှင့် နည်းလမ်းအမျိုးမျိုးဖြင့် ဖိအားပေးခံရခြင်းမှ ကာကွယ်ပေးနိုင်ရေးအတွက် အထူး အလေးထားဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ပြည်သူ့ဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့် ဆန့်ကျင်လျက် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အုပ်စုဘက်တွင် ရပ်တည်နေကြသည့် လူမှုဝန်ထမ်း၊ ကယ်ဆယ်ရေးနှင့် ပြန်လည် နေရာချထားရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ ရာထူးတိုးမြှင့်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအသစ်ခန့်အပ်ခြင်း၊ ပညာတော်သင်သွားရောက်ခြင်းများနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်း၍ လုံးဝ အသိအမှတ် မပြုကြောင်း ကြေညာချက် တစ်ရပ်ကိုလည်း ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ (၁၅)ရက် နေ့တွင် ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူ့ဝန်ထမ်းများအား CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွင် ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်၊ မတ်လ(၃၁)ရက်နေ့၌ နောက်ဆုံးထားပါဝင်ကြရန် တိုက်တွန်းနှိုးဆော်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ယင်းကဲ့သို့ CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွင်ပါဝင်ကြရန် သတ်မှတ်ထားခဲ့သည့်နေ့ရက်မှစ၍ တစ်နှစ်ပြည့်မြောက် ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သော်လည်း ယခင် လူမှုဝန်ထမ်း၊ ကယ်ဆယ်ရေးနှင့်ပြန်လည် နေရာချထားရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ အရာထမ်း၊ အမှုထမ်းများသည် ခံယူချက်မပြောင်းလဲဘဲ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဩဇာခံအဖြစ် ၎င်းတို့ဘက်မှ ဆက်လက် ရပ်တည်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် လူမှုဝန်ထမ်း၊ ကယ်ဆယ်ရေးနှင့် ပြန်လည် နေရာချထားရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ မူလတာဝန် ဝတ္တရားများဖြစ်သည့် သဘာဝဘေးအန္တရာယ်များနှင့် လူကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်တတ်သော ဘေးအန္တရာယ်များကြောင့် ဘေးဒုက္ခခံစားကြရသည့် ပြည်သူများအား လတ်တလော စားဝတ်နေရေး ပြေလည်စေရေးအတွက် ကူညီထောက်ပံ့ခြင်း၊ လူတို့ကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်တတ်သော ဘေးအန္တရာယ်များကြောင့် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ပြောင်းရွှေ့ကြသူများနှင့် လုံခြုံစိတ်ချမှု မရှိသော နယ်မြေအတွင်းမှ အခြား လုံခြုံသောဒေသသို့ စုစည်းပြောင်းရွှေ့ရသော ပြည်သူများအား ထောက်ပံ့မှုပေးခြင်းစသည့် လုပ်ငန်းတာဝန်များကို ထမ်းဆောင်ရန် တမင် ပျက်ကွက်လျက်ရှိသည်ကို တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။
၃။ ယခုအခါ စစ်ကောင်စီသည် လက်နက်ကိုင်ပဋိပက္ခတွင် ပါဝင်ပတ်သက်ခြင်းမရှိသည့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ လုယက်ခြင်း၊ နေအိမ်များကို မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ သက်ကြီးရွယ်အိုနှင့် ကလေးများကို အရှင်လတ်လတ်မီးရှို့ခြင်းစသည့် လူမဆန်သည့် ပြစ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်နေချိန်တွင် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု အကူအညီများ ပေးအပ်ရန် တာဝန်ရှိသည့် အဆိုပါဝန်ကြီးဌာနကလည်း စစ်ဘေးရှောင်ပြည်သူများကို ထောက်ပံ့ ကူညီခြင်း မပြုဘဲ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဖြတ်(၄)ဖြတ်လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်တွင် အလိုတူ အလိုပါ လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
၄။ ယင်းကဲ့သို့ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုကင်းမဲ့သည့် လုပ်ရပ်တွင် ပါဝင် ပတ်သက် နေကြပြီး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ယန္တရားလည်ပတ်ရေးတွင် အဓိကကျသော အောက်ဖော်ပြပါ အရာထမ်း များအား ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ(၁)ရက်နေ့ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်တွင် ခန့်အပ်ထားသည့် ၎င်းတို့၏ ရာထူးများအတိုင်း ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismissal)ပြီး ပြည်သူ့ သစ္စာဖောက် ဝန်ထမ်းများ အဖြစ် အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းထုတ်ပြန် ကြေညာလိုက်သည်..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management - NUG
Date of publication:
2022-03-31
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Format :
pdf
Size:
1.78 MB
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Description:
"အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ အလုပ်သမားဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ ပြည်တွင်း အလုပ်အကိုင်အကျိုးဆောင်အေဂျင်စီများ နှင့် ပြည်ပအလုပ်အကိုင်အကျိုးဆောင်အေဂျင်စီများ လိုက်နာဆောင်ရွက်ရမည့် အချက်အလက်နှင့် စပ်လျဉ်းသည့် ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် ၄/၂၀၂၂
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ပြည်တွင်း အလုပ်အကိုင်အကျိုးဆောင်အေဂျင်စီများနှင့် ပြည်ပအလုပ်အကိုင်အကျိုးဆောင်အေဂျင်စီများအနေဖြင့် မိမိတို့၏လုပ်ငန်းလိုင်စင်များကို အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ အလုပ်သမားဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ အောက်ပါ လင့်(ခ်) တွင် Online စနစ်ဖြင့်ပြန်လည် မှတ်ပုံတင်လျှောက်ထားရမည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Labour - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-03-31
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
475.79 KB
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Description:
"- မတ်လအတွင်း ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များ
- CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်မြှင့်တင်ရေး
နှင့် တစ်ဖက်တစ်လမ်းမှ ဝင်ငွေရရှိရေးအတွက် ဘက်စုံသုံးဆပ်ပြာဆီပြုလုပ်နည်းသင်တန်း ဖွင့်လှစ်
- ဖက်ဒရယ်သယံဇာတဆိုင်ရာ ပညာပေးအစီအစဉ်များ
- ကမ်းရိုးတန်းဒေသနေ အမျိုးသမီးများဦးဆောင်သော စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအတွက် နည်းပညာနှင့် ဗဟုသုတများ ဖြန့်ဝေ
- ကသာမြို့နယ် ပြည်သူ့အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့မှ ကျွန်းခွဲသား တန် (၂၀) တန်ခန့် ဖမ်းဆီး ရမိသတင်း
- ဆောင်းပါးကဏ္ဍ
(ကိုရိုနာဗိုင်းရပ်စ် ရောဂါပိုးကူးစက်ဖြစ်ပွားမှု (COVID-19)၊ တောရိုင်းတိရစ္ဆာန် တရားမဝင်ရောင်းဝယ် ဖောက်ကားမှုနှင့် CITIES)
- ကဗျာကဏ္ဍ (အကုသိုလ်အထု ပြုကြသူများ)
- တစ်ကွက်ကာတွန်း
- ဧပြီလအတွင်း သယံဇာတနှင့် သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ဆိုင်ရာ ကမ္ဘာ့အထိမ်းအမှတ်နေ့
(သယံဇာတနှင့် သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန သတင်းလွှာကို တစ်လ တစ်ကြိမ် ထုတ်ပြန်ပါမည်။)
သယံဇာတနှင့် သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation - NUG
Date of publication:
2022-03-31
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
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1.1 MB
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Description:
"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်မထမ်းဆောင်ပဲ ဓမ္မဘက်မှရပ်တည်၍ ပြည်သူနှင့်တသားတည်းဖြစ် စေရန်နှင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ကြစေရန် အကြိမ် ကြိမ်ဖိတ်ခေါ် ကမ်းလှမ်းခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ် ပါသည်။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ဝန်ကြီးချုပ်ရုံးအနေဖြင့်လည်း အောက်တိုဘာလမှစတင်၍ အမိန့်အာဏာ ဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ဝန်ကြီးဌာနမဖွဲ့ရသေးသောဌာနအသီးသီးမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း သူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေး၊ လုံခြုံဘေးကင်းရေးနှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင်ရေး တို့အတွက် အလေးထား ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။
၃။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေ ပြီး CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိအားပေးခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်း၊ ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှထုတ် ပစ်ခြင်း၊ တရားစွဲဆိုခြင်းနှင့် ဥပေဒနှင့်အညီပြန်ဆပ်ရန်မလိုတော့သည့် လစာချေးငွေများအား အတင်းအဓမ္မ ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ခိုင်းခြင်းများ စသည့် အမျိုးမျိုးသောဖိနှိပ်မှုများကိုကျူးလွန်နေသော ဆောက်လုပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ အောက်ဖေါ်ပြပါဝန်ထမ်းများအား အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းသွင်းလိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismiss) လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the Prime Minister of the Union - NUG
Date of publication:
2022-03-29
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-29
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Individual Documents
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"Tayzar San is one of the most prominent of Myanmar’s anti-regime protest leaders and a key member of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) — a body that brings forces opposed to the military regime together. A coalition of elected lawmakers, ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and pro-democracy activists, the NUCC serves as a political consultative body to the parallel civilian National Unity Government (NUG), and is leading the efforts to lay the groundwork for the creation of a federal democratic union.
As one of the junta’s most wanted people, Tayzar San has been on the run for many months. But while in hiding, he continues his mission to eliminate military dictatorship from his motherland.
Recently, the 33-year-old doctor turned activist talked to The Irrawaddy about the urgent need for funds for the revolution and called on the public to take the boycott and social punishment campaigns seriously.
You and other prominent opposition figures have talked about the importance of financing the revolution. How is the current funding situation?
The NUG talked about the defense budget in their six month report on the people’s defensive war. The NUG said that they have received nothing, neither cash nor any material support, from foreign counties for the revolution and depend only on public donations. In fact, finance is the essential need for the revolution and will determine its result. But the coup has plunged the country into political, social and economic turmoil. And so our people are facing hardship and their financial support for the revolution is limited.
But I want to say that to win this revolution quickly, we definitely need more funding. We have all heard and seen that our People’s Defense Forces (PDF) comrades need arms and other material items. So we all need to push and contribute more. I want to say that this revolution is not for the NUG, NUCC and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CPRH – the NUG’s parliamentary committee), but for all the people of Myanmar. If the revolution is successful, it will benefit all of us. Equally, if this revolution doesn’t succeed, all of us including future generations will suffer.
In the NUG’s six month report, the defense ministry said it has only received around US$30 million to fund the armed resistance. What do you think of that?
I was really surprised by that. I thought the amount would be more. Everyone knows that weapons and ammunition are expensive. At the same time, our enemy, the terrorist regime, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the military and has had 70 years to build up its infrastructure. Compared to that, spending US$30 million is like tossing sesame seeds into the mouth of an elephant. In a virtual discussion that I joined last year, one EAO leader said that, according to their calculations, if we could spend US$15 million a month on military expenses, we could bring down the regime in a short time. At least US$2-3 million is required to arm a battalion. So US$30 million is nothing. That’s not to be discouraging but to make people aware of the situation. Funding is the lifeline of the revolution, so we need to work together to push for more of it. If we can do that, we can reach our desired destination of a peaceful and flourishing country fast.
What can the NUG do to improve fundraising?
As far as I know, the NUG currently has two sources of revenue [for the resistance movement]. The first one is bond sales, which is well known. People who can afford it, buy bonds. But I think that they can organize a campaign to sell more bonds and reach the business community more. Another source of funds is the People’s Revolution Supply Family (PRF) program. We rely on it a lot. Under it, all of our people can help supply PDFs for a minimum amount of US$20 each month. But so far people have very little knowledge about the PRF. Actually, the PRF program is a great source of fundraising for the PDF members who are risking their lives in our fight for freedom. But as there’s little public awareness of the PRF, the amount of people participating is still very low. While we try to get donations from business people who can make big contributions, we should also try to do more to get the general public to contribute monthly to the PRF.
But the NUG shouldn’t just rely on those two sources of funding. They need to find innovative ways to generate more revenue and also work on how to raise taxes as a legitimate government. For international aid, the world only bets on the winning horse. We need to work to let the international community know that our revolution is moving forward, and that we will definitely win.
What will happen to the revolution if the funding doesn’t increase?
For me, the current situation is not satisfactory as there is a great need of funding but it is also not discouraging. Our [armed] resistance started with any available weapons and even under the current situation with insufficient weapons and ammunition, the PDFs can threaten the junta forces and have taken control of rural areas in Sagaing Region and Kayah State. Tactics will also play a role in battle, while the main difference between us and the terrorist regime is that our fight is spirit-based and has the full support of the people. For them [the military regime], regardless of how well-equipped they are, as soon as they leave their bases or camps, they are in enemy territory. It is certain that we will win this revolution and there is a lot of good potential. But it will depend on us to make that happen. So I would like to urge our people not to relax or be disrupted by events and don’t be disunited.
In terms of public participation in the revolution, you have also recently reminded people of the boycott and social punishment campaigns. Why have you done that?
Because now more than a year after the coup, the terrorist military council members and some of their collaborators, supporters and opportunists are starting to publicly attempt to claim that normality is returning under the regime. They didn’t dare do that before as the peoples’ campaign against them was quite strong. But now they are testing the water. This is a battle between Dharma and Adharma. We need to clarify clearly the line between our enemy and us and we shouldn’t let them get into our society. They are the ones responsible for all the social and economic consequences since the coup. We need to strongly reject all of them. The boycott campaign against any businesses and services owned or affiliated with the military is also important. It needs to apply to anyone, any organization, any product affiliated with the military or supporting the military, because the money we use to buy their products or to use their services will turn into guns and bullets that kill our people and our PDF fighters. So not a single penny should reach the military. Our people already know that. But they might overlook the importance of the boycott campaign and social punishment for the revolution. And the terrorist regime and their collaborators will take advantage of that. We can’t let them do as they want. If we do, we are stupid.
What else would you like to say?
I would like to say that the more people contribute, the faster the revolution will succeed. You shouldn’t assume that the revolution will be over without you participating. There are several ways to participate. I am not asking you to do what the PDF youths are doing: fighting on the ground and risking their lives for the revolution. Let’s push to meet the financial needs for the people’s defensive war. Let’s be a support force [to the PDFs] by joining strikes, continuing to donate, continuing the Civil Disobedience Movement, boycott campaign and social punishment. Freedom does not come for free. We all have to make whatever contribution we can..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-03-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
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"In the six months following its February 2021 coup d’état, the Myanmar junta murdered, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, forcibly displaced, and persecuted civilians in acts that amount to crimes against humanity, said Fortify Rights and the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School (“Schell Center”) in a new report released today.
The report makes new contributions to accountability and international justice efforts targeting the junta’s atrocities since the coup, including by:
Identifying 61 senior military and police officials who should be investigated and possibly prosecuted for international crimes;
Establishing the locations of 1,040 military units nationwide;
Revealing new information about the military chain-of-command during the crackdown on peaceful protesters throughout the country; and
Providing the most thorough legal analysis to date of the junta’s widespread and systematic attacks on the people of Myanmar in the first six months after the coup.
“Published just days prior to the one-year anniversary of the Armed Forces Day Massacre, this report provides the international community a better understanding of the junta’s crimes, the individuals responsible, and their battalions’ locations in relation to attacks. U.N. member states must ensure accountability for these ongoing atrocities,” said Tom Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Robina Senior Fellow at Yale Law School’s Schell Center, and author of the foreword to the report. “This pivotal report on the junta’s horrendous crimes can help guide efforts to ensure accountability.”
The 193-page report, “Nowhere is Safe”: The Myanmar Junta’s Crimes Against Humanity Following the Coup d’État, is based on more than 120 testimonies, leaked documents and information, and in-depth legal analysis of new evidence. It focuses on the first six months after the military’s attempted coup on February 1, 2021.
For months and often in broad daylight, Myanmar Army soldiers and Myanmar Police Force officers shot and killed unarmed civilians in cities and towns throughout the country, among other atrocities. The report proves how the junta engaged in a premeditated, widespread, and systematic attack on the civilian population.
Among the 61 senior military and police officials named in the report as potentially liable for crimes against humanity are Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Senior General Soe Win, and the Joint Chief of Staff General Mya Tun Oo. These men are also responsible for what Fortify Rights determined to be genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017, as well as war crimes in Rakhine State in 2019 and probable crimes against humanity and war crimes in Shan and Kachin states.
Other military and police suspects identified in the report are 19 regional commanders of the police force, 13 regional commanders from the military, and 27 other senior officials from the junta..."
Source/publisher:
Fortify Rights
Date of publication:
2022-03-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
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Sub-title:
The Myanmar Junta’s Crimes Against Humanity Following the Coup d’État
Description:
"Based on more than 120 interviews, “Nowhere is Safe”: The Myanmar Junta’s Crimes Against Humanity Following the Coup d’État , exposes how the Myanmar military junta murdered, imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, persecuted, and forcibly displaced or transferred peaceful protesters, activists, political leaders, and other civilians throughout the country in the six months following the military coup on February 1, 2021.
It provides the most extensive legal analysis to date on the attack, finding that the Myanmar junta is responsible for crimes against humanity under international law, and it reveals the identities of 61 Myanmar military and police officials who should be investigated and possibly prosecuted. It also reveals the physical locations of 1,040 military units nationwide.
Through detailed recommendations, this report provides a pathway for the international community to address impunity by the Myanmar junta, hold preparators accountable, and end ongoing attacks..."
Source/publisher:
Fortify Rights
Date of publication:
2022-03-24
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Format :
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Size:
32.93 MB 31.03 MB 141.25 KB
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"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမိန့်ကြော်ငြာစာအမှတ် (၁ /၂၀၂၂)
၁၃၈၃ ခုနှစ်၊ တပေါင်းလပြည့်ကျော် ၇ ရက်
(၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ မတ်လ ၂၃ ရက်)
================
၁။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီမှ လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အာဏာကို မတရားသိမ်းပိုက်ရယူခဲ့သည့် အချိန်မှစ၍ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနလက်အောက်တွင် တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်လျက် အမှန်တရားနှင့် ပြည်သူ့ဘက်မှ ရပ်တည်ခဲ့ကြသည့် CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများကို ဖိအားပေးနေသည့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်ပါးစေဝန်ထမ်း (၉၀)ဦးအား ၈-၉-၂၀၂၁ ရက်စွဲပါ အမိန့်ကြော်ငြာစာအမှတ် (၄/၂၀၂၁) ဖြင့် အမည်ပျက်စာရင်း (BLACK LIST) (ပထမအသုတ်) တွင် ထည့်သွင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂။ ထို့အပြင် ၂၉-၁၁-၂၀၂၁ ရက်စွဲပါ ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၈/၂၀၂၁) ကို ထုတ်ပြန်၍ ပြည်ပရှိ မြန်မာသံရုံး၊ အဖွဲ့ရုံးနှင့် ကောင်စစ်ဝန်ချုပ်ရုံးများတွင် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေကြသည့် သံအမတ်ကြီးများနှင့် သံတမန်များအား အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီကို ကိုယ်စားမပြုဘဲ “ပြည်သူသာ အဓိက၊ ပြည်သူနှင့်အတူ” ဟူသော ဆောင်ပုဒ်နှင့်အညီ အမှန်တရားနှင့် ပြည်သူ့ ဘက်မှ ရပ်တည်ပေးရန် သတိပေးနှိုးဆော်ခဲ့ပါသည်။
၃။ သို့ရာတွင် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီမှ နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အာဏာကို မတရားသိမ်းယူမှု (၁)နှစ် ကျော်လွန်လာခဲ့သည့်တိုင် ယနေ့အချိန်အထိ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ လက်ပါးစေ အဖွဲ့၏ ညွှန်ကြားချက်များကို နာခံဆောင်ရွက်သည့်အပြင် တာဝန်ပေးစေခိုင်းသည်ထက် ကျော်လွန်၍ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိအားပေးအကြပ်ကိုင်ခြင်း၊ လက်ရှိအမှန်တရားအား ဖုံးကွယ်၍ ပူးပေါင်းကြံစည် လိမ်လည်လှည့်ဖြားပြီး နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းသို့ မဟုတ်မမှန် သည့် သတင်းများဖြန့်ဝေခြင်း၊ ကြေညာချက်များ ထုတ်ပြန်ခြင်း စသည်တို့ကို ဆက်လက် လုပ်ဆောင်နေသည့် အောက်ဖော်ပြပါ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်ပါးစေဝန်ထမ်း (၅၄)ဦးအား ပြည်သူ့အကျိုးငှာ အမည်ပျက်စာရင်း (BLACK LIST) (ဒုတိယအသုတ်)အဖြစ် ရေးသွင်း၍ ပြင်းထန်စွာသတိပေးလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
Date of publication:
2022-03-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Format :
pdf
Size:
749.52 KB
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"The entire population of Myanmar has been deprived of their basic human rights at the moment. Among them, prisons are the worst place of the most serious HR violations which are totally unknown to the rest of the world, to the entire country and the humanity. Political prisoners and detainees who took part in the anti-coup movement and fought against the military dictators by all means during the Spring Revolution have been heavily tortured by the prison authority, stooges of the dictator. This animation video is presented by GSCC, AAPP and AJAR marking the “International Day for the Right to the Truth” to disclose the true reality and to make known of the most unknown and worst HR violations behind bars.
(Our Revolution Must Surely Win!!!)..."
Source/publisher:
General Strike Collaboration Committee, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and Asia Justice and Rights
Date of publication:
2022-03-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
Language:
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"၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းသူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဘဝဖူလုံရေး၊ ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံရေးနှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင်ရေးတို့ကို အထူးအလေးထား ဆောင်ရွက်လျှက်ရှိပါသည်။
၂။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်နေပြီး (CDM) ဝန်ထမ်းများကို ဖိနှိပ်ခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်း၊ ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ်ခြင်း၊ ပြည်သူ့အစိုးရမှ ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ရန်မလိုဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ထားသည့် (၂) လစာချေးငွေများကို ပြန်လည်တောင်းခံခြင်းနှင့် အမျိုးမျိုးသောဖိနှိပ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည့်အပြင် ပြည်သူလူထုကို အကြမ်းဖက်နှိပ်စက်လျက်ရှိသော စစ်ကောင်စီယန္တားရား လည်ပတ်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် ပူးပေါင်းပါဝင် ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသော မြန်မာ့နိုင်ငံခြားကုန်သွယ်မှုဘဏ်မှ အောက်ဖော်ပြပါ အရာထမ်း၊ အမှုထမ်း (၂၁၂) ဦးတို့ကို အမည်ပျက်စာရင်း(Blacklist) သွင်းလိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismissal) လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment - NUG
Date of publication:
2022-03-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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"From the day the organization was established, throughout its 22-year existence, AAPP has been diligently observing, documenting, and reporting on the violations of prisoner rights, and human rights throughout Burma.
Through our work, we have discovered the situation inside prisons and interrogation centers in the country has clearly worsened since the February 1, 2021, attempted military coup. The inhumane conditions suffered by political prisoners demonstrate how the junta thinks. For them, it is as if those who show dissent do not have fundamental human rights.
In this report, we have described the experiences of political prisoners, pro-democracy supporters, who have been subjected to interrogation, judicial processes, and imprisonment by the junta since the beginning of the attempted coup. Evidence has been collected from AAPP records on file, interviews with family members of political prisoners, interviews with released political prisoners, and other credible sources.
This brief report provides inexorable evidence that arbitrary arrests and unlawful imprisonment will continue, along with persecution over all peoples, including ethnic nationalities, with violations of human rights everywhere across the country, if the coup continues. As long as the military dictatorship exists, people in Burma will have no future..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2022-03-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
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615.64 KB
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Description:
"Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC),
comprised of seven countries from South Asia and Southeast Asia namely Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, is scheduled to hold its 5th Summit on March 30
which will be hosted by Sri Lanka.
The biennial summit is a conference where leaders of member states come together to discuss
and make highest policy decisions for peace, prosperity and sustainability of Bay of Bengal
region. The 4th summit held in Nepal in 2018 was attended by Myanmar president U Win Myint.
On 1st, February, 2021, Myanmar military attempted to seize power from the civilian
government. It has been 400 days since for Myanmar people of all ethnics and religions, who
have categorically rejected and resisted the military’s coup attempt, risking their lives to defend
democracy and end military tyranny by all means as they strive for a federal democratic system.
To this end, the military junta’s coup attempt to seize control of the country has failed.
Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing sent his remark representing Myanmar at the 24th anniversary of
BIMSTEC in June 2021 and in BIMSTEC’s announcement of his message, he was referred to as
honorary chairman of the State Administration Council of Myanmar. In December 2021, Myanmar
military was invited to take part in military exercises of BIMSTEC countries in India and, in
addition, there are records that Myanmar military representatives attended many of BIMSTEC
meetings as country representatives.
Most of the members of BIMSTEC are democracy countries, yet BIMSTEC have provided
legitimacy to the Myanmar military that is a terrorist organization that has killed 2,313 people
just because they protested against the military and detained 11,564 civilians (Grim data
collected by the Media Monitoring Collective, MMC from February 2021 to January 2022). The
Junta has arrested democracy and human rights activists and defenders and deliberately
targeting civilians with airstrikes, ground military attacks, setting villages on fires and committing
mass killings. The military’s campaign of terror has forced over 500,000 people to flee their
homes, further deepening the humanitarian crisis. These grave violations of human rights amount
to crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been collectively condemned by the people
of Myanmar and international community together.
BIMSTEC risks compliciting in Myanmar military’s atrocities crimes by continuing to invite
coup leader Min Aung Hlaing as representative of Myanmar to the 5th BIMSTEC summit in 2022
as it will lend legitimacy to the Myanmar military and further embolden them to continue its
atrocity crimes against the people.
Such action will only cause additional pain and serve as salt to the wound of the people of
Myanmar who are already suffering from atrocities by Myanmar military on a daily basis.
We, the undersigned organizations in solidarity with Myanmar across the globe demand the
following:
1. BIMSTEC must disassociate itself and cut all ties with the military council members which
was established by the Myanmar military who have been accused of committing genocide, war
crimes and many acts of crimes against humanity.
2. The demands of democracy movement and spring revolution of Myanmar people must
be respected and recognized.
3. There cannot be a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable Bay of Bengal region, if
democracy and human rights cease to thrive. We call on leaders of BIMSTEC member states to
discuss and decide on the issues of Myanmar in consideration of humanity and human dignity..."
Source/publisher:
136 Myanmar Civil Society Organizations
Date of publication:
2022-03-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Anti-coup protesters
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124.07 KB
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Description:
"ယနေ့ မတ် ၂၃ ရက်နေ့၊ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်တွင် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) စတင် ဖွဲ့စည်း ထူထောင်ခဲ့သည်မှာ (၂၂) နှစ် ပြည့်မြောက်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။
စတင်ထူထောင်ချိန်မှစ၍ ၂၂ နှစ်တာကာလအတွင်း AAPP အနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားအရေး၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေး၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ အစဉ်တစိုက်လေ့လာစောင့်ကြည့် မှတ်တမ်းတင်မှုများ၊ ထုတ်ပြန်မှုများကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည်။
ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်နေ့၊ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ မတရားအာဏာလုယူမှုနောက်ပိုင်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စစ်ကြောရေးစခန်းများနှင့် အကျဉ်းထောင်များ၏ အခြေအနေမှာ ယခင်ကထက် အဆပေါင်းများစွာ ပိုမိုဆိုးရွားလာခဲ့သည်ကို စောင့်ကြည့်လေ့လာမှုများအရ တွေ့ရှိရသည်။ အထူးသဖြင့် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ၏ ထောင်တွင်းရင်ဆိုင်ကြုံတွေ့နေရသည့် အခြေအနေများမှာ လူတစ်ယောက်၏ အခွင့်အရေးမှန်သမျှ အဟောသိကံဖြစ်ကြရသည်။
ယခုအစီရင်ခံစာတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို မတရားအာဏာလုယူချိန်မှ အစပြု၍ ရင်ဆိုင်နေရသည့် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ၏ စစ်ကြောရေး၊ တရားစီရင်ရေးနှင့် အကျဉ်းစံ အတွေ့အကြုံများကို ဖေါ်ပြထားသည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်းမှ ကောက်ယူထားသော မှတ်တမ်းများ၊ အကျဉ်းကျခံနေရဆဲ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ၏ မိသားစုဝင်များနှင့် တွေ့ဆုံမေးမြန်းမှုများ၊ ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်သူများနှင့် တွေ့ဆုံမေးမြန်းမှုများအပေါ် အခြေခံ၍ သက်သေခံအထောက်အထားနှင့်တကွ တင်ပြထားခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် သက်ဆိုးရှည်နေသေးသ၍ ပြည်သူများ၏ အနာဂတ်ပျောက်နေဦးမည်သာဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့အတူ တရားလက်လွတ်ဖမ်းဆီးထောင်ချမှုများ၊ တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူတရပ်လုံးအပေါ် အနိုင်ကျင့်စော်ကားမှုများ၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီး၊ နေရာဒေသအသီးသီးတွင် ဆက်လက်ရှိနေဦးမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ဤအစီရင်ခံစာက တစိတ်တဒေသအားဖြင့် သက်သက်ခံနေမည်ဖြစ်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Date of publication:
2022-03-23
Date of entry/update:
2022-03-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
530.9 KB
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