Articles and reports about the NLD

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Description: Not much there
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Research Pages
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: There are references to the NLD in all the GA and CHR resolutions on Myanmar and reports of the Special Rapporterus on Myanmar.
Source/publisher: United Nations
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-15
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) says it will cooperate with Thai authorities to arrest a National League for Democracy (NLD) member accused of raping a Myanmar child in Thailand’s Mae Sot. “We are working to open a case and issue an arrest warrant for the suspect,” NUG spokesman Nay Phone Latt told The Irrawaddy. The suspect has been identified as U Aung Min, secretary of the executive committee of the NLD chapter in Yangon’s Twante Township. He is accused of raping the five-year-old daughter of a striking education officer who took refuge in Mae Sot after fleeing Myanmar for fear of junta reprisals. Family members of the victim filed a complaint with the NUG against U Aung Min on May 2. The suspect remains at large. Family members accuse him of sexually abusing the girl, citing her accounts. The accused, the family of the alleged victim and other families lived together in a rented compound in Mae Sot after fleeing Myanmar. The alleged victim was examined by a striking nurse on May 1. The nurse said she found evidence of molestation and penetration. The mother asked for a sexual assault forensic examination at a Mae Sot hospital the following day but had not yet obtained the result when the complaint was filed with the NUG. The NUG will cooperate with local police and law enforcement in line with international procedures to arrest and interrogate the suspect, said U Nay Phone Latt. “We will inform Thai authorities about it. We don’t know yet how Thai authorities will respond,” he said. The NUG’s Women, Youth and Children Affairs Ministry has relocated the victim and her mother and is providing counseling, according to the NUG. NLD central executive committee member U Kyaw Htwe said: “I support taking legal action against him if he really committed [this crime]. The party will also take harsh disciplinary action against him. But if he is innocent, justice must be served for him too.” The NUG said its court will also punish the suspect if he is found guilty, without providing details of what punishment would be imposed for the sexual abuse of a child. Political activists say the NUG’s judicial system is not yet properly functional, and has been unable to handle the majority of previous allegations of crimes committed by resistance forces. Only when the NUG acts promptly and solves less complicated crimes like rape, will its justice system win the trust of Myanmar people, said activists. A political activist said: “People have filed complaints with the NUG. But many complaints including [rights] violations by armed [resistance] groups have not yet been dealt with. Whenever a crime happens, the NUG will issue statements vowing punitive action. But I haven’t seen the NUG administer a fitting punishment in any case so far.” The 2021 coup and violent junta crackdown triggered the civil disobedience movement that has seen a mass exodus of civil servants, politicians and political activists to neighboring countries. The majority have sought refuge in Thailand..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2023-05-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "We strongly condemn the Burma military regime-controlled Union Election Commission’s decision to abolish 40 political parties, including the National League for Democracy (NLD). The people voted overwhelmingly to re-elect the NLD and other parties in November 2020 national elections. The military regime’s decision to dissolve the political parties shows its continued contempt for the popular will of Burma’s people and multi-party democracy. The military’s ongoing efforts to stifle political dissent and eradicate civic space are designed to further entrench its own power and interests. This action further demonstrates that the regime’s plans for deeply flawed elections, if held, will not represent the will of Burma’s voters. The United States calls on the military regime to reverse course, end the use of violence against the people in Burma, free those it has unjustly detained, and respect its obligations under international law. We remain committed to supporting genuine multiparty democracy, peace, and respect for human rights..."
Source/publisher: U.S. Department of State
2023-03-30
Date of entry/update: 2023-03-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: To comply, the NLD would need to declare that it is in no way associated with the CRPH or NUG, and dismiss jailed officials including Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint
Description: "While Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint serve decades-long jail sentences meted out in farcical court proceedings that followed a military coup in early 2021, their National League for Democracy (NLD)—the country’s largest and most popular party—is in disarray. Hundreds of NLD officials have been incarcerated, some even tortured to death in military interrogation centres. The party’s headquarters in Yangon and its offices throughout the country have been repeatedly vandalised by individuals presumed to be affiliated with the military. On Thursday, the military published a legal statute seen as a final blow to the party. The Political Parties Registration Law, enacted under the order of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, requires all of Myanmar’s existing political parties to re-register with the military-appointed election commission within a period of 60 days. Those who fail to do so will be abolished, and the party’s assets confiscated. The NLD’s leadership has already declared that they will not re-register with the junta’s electoral body, which is headed by a former military official who chaired the same commission under a previous dictator, Than Shwe. However, even if the NLD chooses to re-register, it would likely make no difference: the junta law states that no political party may have as its members individuals who are serving jail terms or who are affiliated with entities designated by the military as “unlawful associations.” Many NLD MPs elected in 2020 formed the parliamentary body known as Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), and others hold positions in the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG). Both have been declared as “terrorist groups” by the junta. In order to comply with the coup regime’s party membership requirements, the NLD would need to declare that the party is in no way associated with the CRPH or the NUG, and dismiss Suu Kyi, Win Myint and many other jailed officials from its ranks. It is not a new condition, and was once featured in an older party registration law enacted in 2010 under the rule of former military ruler Than Shwe. At that time, Suu Kyi was under house arrest and the country was on the brink of a military-orchestrated transition to a “discipline-flourishing” democracy after decades of army rule. The NLD’s senior leadership opted not to dismiss Suu Kyi and other jailed party members and refused to re-register the party, resulting in an automatic boycott of the general election in the country. It also led some of the top party leaders to leave and establish a breakaway group called the National Democratic Force (NDF). Two prominent NDF figures, Khin Maung Swe and Thein Nyunt, are now members of the junta. This controversial clause in the party registration law was obviously designed to prevent the NLD from contesting the election in November 2010; the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by former army generals, unsurprisingly declared a landslide victory. After Suu Kyi was released from house arrest one week after the 2010 vote, ex-general Thein Sein—who had become the President in the USDP-led administration—removed the controversial requirement from the electoral law. The gesture followed a highly publicised meeting with Suu Kyi in August 2011—part of an effort to demonstrate to both domestic and international audiences that the country’s political transition was genuine and substantive. The change in the law paved the way for Suu Kyi to re-register the NLD as a party and contest the parliamentary by-elections in 2012. It was a move for which she and the NLD faced objections from some senior colleagues and civil society organisations for seemingly legitimising a political system guided by the undemocratic and military-drafted 2008 Constitution. Thursday’s newly-enacted law by Min Aung Hlaing restores the old clause that once kept the NLD at bay. It serves as a conclusion to an incident of historical rapprochement between the military establishment and the country’s main political opposition dating back more than a decade, and which formed the basis of Myanmar’s short-lived political liberalisation. Speaking to the BBC’s Burmese language service, military council spokesperson Zaw Min Tun denied that the law was designed to persecute the NLD. “We don’t have the intention of targeting any particular party,” he said. The fate of the NLD, he added, “is mainly in its own hands.” NLD spokesperson Tun Myint, now in exile, explained that he remains positive about the future of the party, even when asked by Myanmar Now about the junta law that again disqualifies them from governing. He noted that the NLD had overcome several challenges since its establishment following the democratic uprising in 1988. “Our party’s survival relies on public support. Since we will continue to reflect the will of the public, we have every confidence that we will survive,” he said. One party rule If the NLD is abolished, the USDP—headed by Khin Yi, a former police chief who recently served as the junta’s immigration minister—will be the dominant party in the country. Myanmar Now previously reported that Khin Yi was assigned by Min Aung Hlaing to take on the party’s chairmanship role in order to quell internal tension between the junta chief and the USDP’s former leadership. The move was seen as a step toward ensuring that Min Aung Hlaing would be able to rely on the party to support his political ambitions. In this increasingly restrictive context, ethnic political parties may also find themselves marginalised, barred from contesting the elections at a national level. A clause in the junta’s new law requires parties which intend to run in more than one state or region to enlist at least 100,000 members within 90 days of registering with the military-appointed election commission or face de-registration. Opting to register as “regional parties” allows these entities to mobilise just 1,000 members, but then limits them to running in constituencies in one chosen state or region. One of the largest and most prominent ethnic political parties, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), has its largest support base in Shan State, but also traditionally contests in other areas with sizable ethnic Shan populations, such as Kachin State. SNLD general secretary Sai Leik said that his party’s central executive committee members would need to convene a meeting in order to decide whether to re-register the party under the military council’s terms. He pointed out that the junta’s electoral law would ensure that the Union parliament would be dominated by the USDP, as well as the military itself, which holds 25 percent of seats in all legislatures in accordance with the 2008 Constitution it drafted. “The new law will merely intensify the competition between regional parties for a greater number of seats [in the state and regional parliaments], while our representation at the Union level will be seriously weakened,” Sai Leik said. “Only the military, the USDP and a few other parties backed by the military will remain significant in the Union parliament.”..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2023-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-27
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Sub-title: Myanmar’s junta appears determined to hold a national election this year, but the vote will be a sham, logistically difficult to pull off and will almost certainly provoke greater violence.
Description: "Just a handful of autocrats will endorse the results. Precious money and resources will be wasted. Violence will almost certainly worsen. And yet, the junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing remains committed to holding an “election” in 2023 that few in Myanmar want. After thousands of deaths, at least a million people displaced, a massive nationwide drop into severe poverty, war crimes on at least a weekly basis and the broad militarisation of society, the regime believes it will hold an election by August 1 this year, the legally mandated end of its emergency rule provisions. Whatever else this theatrical undertaking turns out to be, it does not appear to be either an “exit strategy” for senior military officials or an attempt to achieve peace. Moreover, there will be no independent findings that the results represent a credible reflection of Myanmar’s electorate. Throughout Myanmar’s post-independence history, the country’s military rulers have concocted elections on their own terms. The 2015 election remains the outlier – the only instance since General Ne Win’s 1962 coup d’état where the military lost and accepted the results. It refused to recognise the National League for Democracy’s similar landslide election victories in 1990 and 2020, while the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won amid an NLD boycott in 2010. This next election is rooted in Min Aung Hlaing’s fabricated justification for the February 2021 coup – that the NLD led by then-State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi won the 2020 election due to massive voter fraud. This narrative, which invokes the founding claim of the military to be the only reliable guardian of the nation, obscured what were arguably the real factors behind the takeover, such as the senior general’s personal ambition, legally required retirement in 2021 and growing rancour at Aung San Suu Kyi. The commander-in-chief and his handpicked Union Election Commission, consisting of 15 elderly men, have appeared confident from day one of delivering what they frequently describe as a much better, cleaner and – rather improbably – more inclusive election than the NLD oversaw in 2020. But even meeting the August 1 deadline is a challenge. Since independence in 1948, Myanmar has never held a general election in July – the middle of Buddhist Lent and peak rainy season. May, just before the rains, is a more common month but time is running out. Before then, the UEC must compile voter lists, register and vet political parties and candidates, organise an expected shake-up of constituencies, change the electoral system from first-past-the-post to one based on proportional representation, and allow time for campaigning – rumoured to be extended from 60 days to 90 days. The expected introduction of an entirely new voting system is clearly intended to benefit pro-military candidates, as the NLD had won more seats than its proportion of the popular vote in the winner-take-all system in 2015 and 2020, while the USDP suffered the reverse fate. The junta may adopt what is known as the “largest remainder” system of proportional representation, with candidates running on party lists and numbers of seats assigned by quota. The administrative focal point would shift from 330 township-based constituencies to 100-plus districts. Potentially the use of a smaller number of geographically larger constituencies makes it easier for the military-appointed UEC to exert control. Presumably the army can secure a few polling stations in at least half of those districts? Maybe even all? Combined with the constitutionally-mandated 25 percent of seats in both parliamentary chambers that are directly appointed by the commander-in-chief – along with an expected boycott by many parties and voters ­– Min Aung Hlaing might think he is assured victory. But regardless of constituency size and seat allocation, compiling voter lists is fraught with difficulties and danger. Ministries have never maintained a centralised registry of citizens, leaving that kind of record-keeping to ward and village tract offices, which in theory (but rarely in practice) updated records at the township administrative office. In many parts of the country since the coup, local officials have been chased out or killed by resistance forces, and residency ledgers have been torched or blown up. Any serious attempt at a voter list update will require on-the-ground data collection in places where anyone involved in any kind of regime project – and the election in particular – will be considered a target by anti-junta groups. Whatever way the regime manipulates the process, the scene is set for Myanmar’s most violent election in history. Electoral violence was not unusual in the 1950s “parliamentary” era, when many politicians of the ruling Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League campaigned with so-called pocket armies (gabaik-saung tat). In 1951-52, fighting was so widespread that delayed elections were unconstitutionally held in three stages, with turnout reaching just 18pc. Rumours have circulated that the junta is thinking of replicating this kind of staggered election, starting with a first round of polling in places it can protect from resistance attacks. There is a recent precedent of sorts: in the 2020 election, most parts of Ann Township in Rakhine State were cancelled for “security reasons”, except for the large area occupied by the Western Regional Command, where soldiers and their families voted. Afterwards, the military proposed holding supplementary elections in cancelled areas after agreeing a ceasefire with the Arakan Army, but they were never held. Areas where the military has a strong presence, like Nay Pyi Taw, Pyin Oo Lwin, Mingaladon and Meiktila (at least around the airfield), could possibly sustain security for some campaigning and one day of voting. In other parts of the country where daily violence is occurring, there remain islands of military security. For example, Magway Region has vast areas occupied by as many as 20 military weapons factories, with possibly up to 50,000 soldiers, employees, guards and their families in massive and highly secured compounds, which could also host campaigns and polling stations. Voting could also possibly be held in the more than 200 villages across the country controlled by pro-military Pyusawhti militias, and more than 2,000 military landholdings, garrisons, arms factories and agribusiness plantations, such as the giant oil palm and rubber concessions in Tanintharyi Region. There is even a remote chance that first-round elections could be held in territory controlled by some ethnic armed groups that have not joined the fight against the junta, like the United Wa State Army or New Mon State Party. Other ethnic armed groups have made it clear this electoral exercise won’t be tolerated. The chairman of the Kachin Independence Organisation, a key player in the resistance, warned that any party that participates in the election is “standing with the enemy” – another hint of the violence the vote could bring. Attempts to reach even half the number of districts will put large numbers of civilians in harm’s way. Anyone who votes, no matter who they vote for, will be considered complicit and therefore a legitimate target for radical guerrilla groups. Meanwhile, anyone who refuses to vote could find their homes raided by police – or worse, given the army’s penchant for airstrikes, artillery attacks and arson against civilians. Given the challenges and dangers, it is possible to imagine two scenarios. In the first, the commander-in-chief runs polls in around 200 to 400 places, down from 40,000 in 2020, with heavy air and ground support. In the second, he orders a legal advisor to find a way around the August 1 deadline and postpone the election. The latter, however, would involve a significant loss of face for Min Aung Hlaing, because he is a product of a military that fetishises elections, even though it almost always loses the ones it holds. Who will run in the election? Hundreds of high-ranking military officers have been or will be pensioned off to stand for the USDP or some other military-aligned party. A motley crew of political parties with no real support base will also be expected to contest. They include the Shan Nationalities Development Party (considered a USDP proxy in 2010) and former human rights activist Ko Ko Gyi’s People’s Party. The National Democratic Front and People’s Pioneer Party – both NLD breakaway parties – will also undoubtedly join, as both of their leaders hold senior positions in the junta. Of more concern to the pro-democracy movement would be if credible ethnic minority parties, with grievances against the NLD, decide to contest. The Mon Unity Party has already confirmed its intention to participate, and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy and Arakan National Party have both declined to rule it out (although neither have made any moves that indicate they are preparing for an election). All three had relatively strong showings in 2020 and are considered among the most influential ethnic parties. But despite reports of a recent ham-fisted attempt to get the blessing of Aung San Suu Kyi, there seems no possible scenario in which the NLD would participate, a prerequisite for a legitimate election in Myanmar. Finally, which countries would lend their blessing to this sham? China and Russia, providers of weapons and a diplomatic shield in the United Nations Security Council, are the most likely. India and Thailand, important neighbours with their own agendas, may also recognise the process and the results. Few other countries, though, can be expected to pay the election any regard. Yet, regardless of its attempts to stage-manage the vote, the military has a mixed record on controlling the process and fallout of elections. The military’s political proxies lost elections in 1960 and 1990, despite the playing field being heavily tilted in their favour, forcing it to take more drastic measures to reassert control. And even when the USDP won in 2010, a small number of handpicked ex-military generals and admirals went on to hijack the implementation of the 2008 Constitution and steer it in an unexpectedly reformist direction. While the military likely hopes an election will help stabilise its rule, it may instead be unleashing something it can’t control..."
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Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
2023-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-03
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Sub-title: Observers say the ruling is one of many politically motivated acts targeting the party.
Description: "A prison court in Myanmar’s Magway region has sentenced at least 20 National League for Democracy (NLD) members to lengthy jail terms on charges of violating the country’s Counterterrorism Law, officials from the ousted political party said Monday. The 20 NLD members from Magway’s Pwintbyu and Sidoktaya townships – which included senior officials from the party’s executive committee – were each sentenced to jail terms of 20 years or more in a closed trial at the Daungnay Prison Court on Sept. 30, the officials told RFA Burmese, speaking on condition of anonymity citing security concerns. Sources within Myanmar’s judicial system and NLD members called the hefty punishments “politically motivated” and typical of how the military regime has threatened and harassed the party whose democratically elected government it sidelined in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup. Pwintbyu Township NLD Executive Committee member Win Zaw Oo, and party members Zaw Myo Htet, Zaw Win, Win Kyaing, Ni Thway, Kyi Linn, Chit Nyi Nyi, Hlaing Win, Kyaw Win Sein, San Htay and Than Htay were each sentenced to 25 years in prison. Similarly, Pwintbyu party members Kaw Zin Min, Tin Maung Htun, Nyi Nyi Aung, Than Soe, Nyo Win Aung, Sann Lin Aung, Zaw Myo Aung and Bhone Kyaw, were each sentenced to 20 years in prison. An NLD party official from Pwintbyu who declined to be named told RFA that authorities also sentenced Aye Aye Aung, chairwoman of the Women’s Affairs Committee for the NLD in Sidoktaya township, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for violating the Counterterrorism Law. The chairwoman had been arrested on Dec. 18, 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for terrorism, and last week’s conviction brings her total term to 40 years. A member of the NLD in Pwintbyu told RFA that those sentenced had been arrested “for various reasons,” without providing further details. He also accused authorities of using questionable methods to arrest the two NLD executive committee members. “[Win Zaw Oo] had been in hiding [with his brother-in-law] in the Sidoktaya area to avoid arrest … He was arrested [on Sept. 21, 2021] after authorities took his family members hostage and used them for leverage,” the party member said, adding that Win Zaw Oo was known for his charity work in the region. “[Aye Aye Aung] was arrested in Salin township. [Junta] authorities tricked her into thinking she would meet someone she knew and then arrested her.” Another NLD official in Pwintbyu called Aye Aye Aung’s sentencing “heart wrenching.” “She was given another 20 years sentence on Sept. 30, as they charged her for a second time under the same articles,” the official said. Sentences for ‘political reasons’ Speaking to RFA on Monday, a veteran attorney in Myanmar noted that all of the sentences delivered on Sept. 30 were “the maximum penalty under the law.” “The [junta] always lectures the people about the rule of law, but they do not respect the law themselves,” he said. “They always give the maximum penalty to NLD leaders … so we can conclude they [are doing it] for political reasons.” Bo Bo Oo, a former NLD lawmaker for Yangon’s Dala township, said he had seen similarly lengthy punishments handed to members of the party in his region. But he called the tactics of the junta authorities in Pwintbyu and Sidoktaya townships “particularly unlawful and underhanded.” “In these cases, authorities arrested or harassed family members and friends when they couldn’t arrest the person they wanted,” he said. “They are increasingly using this tactic throughout the country.” NLD members say that in addition to arrests, authorities have been confiscating and sealing off properties belonging to the party and its supporters. According to party records, the military regime has arrested 972 members and killed 55 between last year’s coup and Sept. 23, 2022. Speaking to the media during a Sept. 20 press conference in the capital Naypyidaw, junta Deputy Information Minister Major General Zaw Min Htun warned the public that anyone who donates as little as one kyat to anti-junta groups could be persecuted under the Counterterrorism Law. Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) says that authorities in Myanmar have killed at least 2,332 civilians and arrested 15,744 others since last year’s coup – mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. At least 12,569 of those arrested remain in detention, the group says..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2022-10-03
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-03
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Description: "(CNN)A court in military-run Myanmar has sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to six more years in prison after convicting her on four extra counts of corruption, state media reported on Tuesday. The latest verdict in the series of secretive trials against the Nobel laureate takes her total jail term to 17 years and comes as the UN's Special Envoy on Myanmar traveled to the country on Monday to address the "deteriorating (rights) situation." Suu Kyi, who turned 77 in June, was previously found guilty of multiple offenses ranging from graft to election violations. n Monday, Suu Kyi was sentenced for charges of misusing funds from a charity to build a house and leasing government-owned land, according to the Myanmar News Agency (MNA). Three other former government officials were also sentenced to three years in prison on similar charges, state media said. Suu Kyi is being held in solitary confinement at a prison in the capital Naypyitaw and has denied all charges against her. International rights groups and world leaders have expressed concern about the deteriorating state of human rights in Myanmar and dismissed ongoing trials against Suu Kyi, calling them "unfair and unjust." "The Myanmar military junta's unjust conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi is part of its methodical assault on human rights around the country," said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement Monday. "The military's willingness to forcibly disappear the country's high-profile civilian leader reveals the brutality that lesser-known political prisoners face," Pearson said. Meanwhile, UN's Special Envoy on Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, traveled to Myanmar on Monday to address the "deteriorating situation and immediate concerns," the UN said in a statement. "The Special Envoy's visit follows her extensive consultations with actors from across the political spectrum, civil society as well as communities affected by the ongoing conflict," the statement said..."
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Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
2022-08-16
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-16
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Description: "A Myanmar junta court sentenced the country’s ousted leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional six years in prison on Monday, finding her guilty of further corruption charges, relating to a charity she founded in memory of her late mother. In the four corruption cases decided on Monday, a special court in Naypyitaw Prison, where Suu Kyi is being held in solitary confinement, said that the 77-year old leader of the National League for Democracy Party misused her power to rent public land at below market prices and to build a residence with donations intended for Suu Kyi’s charity, the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation. Sources close to the court said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi complained that the verdict was unfair and has asked her lawyers to appeal. Since her arrest following last year’s coup, the military regime has filed 20 charges against Suu Kyi, including 13 corruption cases. She faces a potential combined prison term of 164 years if found guilty of all 20 charges, with the regime seemingly determined to ensure that their politically-motivated charges keep Suu Kyi behind bars for the rest of her life. So far, she has been sentenced to 17 years in jail on six charges. In May, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to five years in prison for accepting bribes from the then Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, who testified in October last year that he gave her seven viss (around 11.4kg) of gold and US$600,000 in 2017 and 2018. The verdict was based only U Phyo Min Thein’s testimony and there is no evidence of the gold or dollars being received by Suu Kyi..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-08-15
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "U Tin Tut, who was one of the “elders” and original members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as a former parliamentarian, former political prisoner, and former student leader, died at his home in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 8 at the age of 92. U Tin Tut was my father’s first cousin, someone I called “aba” or “older uncle.” He was also the first “political prisoner” I ever met, the person whose life inspired my scholarship on Myanmar’s democracy movement. When I was reunited with my Uncle Tut in 2014, after many years apart, I would ask him to tell me stories about his political struggles and his run for parliament in 1990. After dinner, when the entire family would sit around the living room, my uncle’s middle son, who seemed just as excited to talk about the topic as I was, would say: “Dad, tell her about Aung San Suu Kyi; do not forget about that,” or “What about the meetings you had with the Thakins, tell her about that.” Thakins were members of the influential Burmese nationalist group Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association) set up to oppose British colonial rule in the 1930s. My Uncle Tut would lean back in his chair, smile, and nod, but said relatively little about politics or his participation in it. Instead, we talked about other family members—my father, my other uncles, my aunts, my cousins—what they were doing, who was pursuing this or particularly talented at that, and how much they reminded him of other relatives I had never met. “And what about Thant,” he would say, “He is just like his father. And May Than, oh your grandfather loved her so.” I knew Uncle Tut needed time and space to tell his story—away even from his children and grandchildren—and in the right moment, he would recount what he knew. So, after many nights in Sydney, I walked with my uncle and aunt to the hotel where I was staying, a half-mile from where they lived. My aunt had knee surgery a few years back and my Uncle Tut, his hips failing him, also walked with a cane. I did not want them to walk such a great distance. I told them that I would hire a taxi even for a few blocks, but they would not have it. Then I told them we could do it on another occasion. I told them that we had plenty of time; I could come back to Sydney next summer and spend more time with them. But once my uncle had it in mind that he would tell me what he knew, he could not be persuaded to turn back. Born in the Irrawaddy Delta in 1931, in the village of Einme, U Tin Tut lived through British colonialism; lived through the Japanese occupation and their eventual overthrow; lived through the era of the Thakins and the fight for independence; lived through the parliamentary era; lived through General Ne Win’s dictatorship; lived through the 1988 pro-democracy movement and Ne Win’s own overthrow; his own election to parliament in 1990; six years in prison; and then migration to Australia. U Tin Tut’s father was the headmaster of a government school, first in Einme, and then in Pyinmana, where Uncle Tut received his primary education. He recalled to me in 2014 that “living in Pyinmana made all the difference, because there were a lot of politically active people, you see. There was not any one political cause that they all gathered around, but because my father was a teacher at the [government-run school] we always entertained guests from different places. And when they met they would talk about political issues. Even though at first I did not understand what they were saying, I would sit on the floor and listen to them. In that way, I came to be interested in politics.” During the Japanese occupation, Uncle Tut was not able to attend school, but continued to be politically socialized by his father’s friends: “Many political types continued to come to our home in the evenings, drank tea, and talked about the occupation with my father. There was the Dobama Asiayone led by the Thakins. The Thakins from Dobama were actually older people, not terribly educated or intellectual, unlike the Thakins who were university students, but I learned a lot from them nevertheless.” After the war ended, Uncle Tut was sent to Pathein to attend high school at the Cosmopolitan Po Karen High School. It was in Pathein that Uncle Tut first became involved with the student union. This was how Tin Tut became part of the long tradition of student leaders (the kyauntha gaungzaungs as they are called) and activists in Myanmar. After he entered university, his involvement in a student strike in 1953 landed him his first stint in prison. Uncle Tut recounted that his experience of imprisonment in the 1950s did not have the same dehumanizing qualities that he would later experience as a political prisoner under the military regime known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Doctors made regular visits to the prisons and as the resident physician felt Uncle Tut was too thin, he was put on a regiment of fresh cow’s milk. He recalled that prisoners were not only allowed to read, but that books and newspapers were plentiful, and they could order whatever they needed from the outside. Indeed, he seemed to recall this period of his life with great fondness. My own father, who was six years younger than Uncle Tut, and tasked with bringing food and supplies to the prison, remembered it differently. He told me that they would both sit and cry during the prison visits. In 1988, Uncle Tut once again became involved in national politics. Along with U Win Tin, with whom he was contemporaries and had a close, lifelong friendship, he became one of the earliest members and leaders of the NLD. During this period, he spent copious amounts of time in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s home. In 1990, he ran for parliament as the NLD candidate for Einme. He won a resounding victory against his military-backed opponent but was never allowed to take office. Instead, along with hundreds of other elected parliamentarians, U Tin Tut was illegally detained and then imprisoned for six years, much of which he spent in solitary confinement. At different points during his imprisonment he found himself crossing paths with a younger generation of activists, including members of the 88 Generation, such as Ko Jimmy, who was among the four democracy activists hanged by the regime in late July, Ko Pyone Cho, and Ko Min Ko Naing. Ko Pyone Cho recalled in interviews I conducted with him in 2013 that much of his own political socialization during his first year in Insein Prison involved listening to my Uncle Tin Tut talk with his contemporaries, including figures such as Dr. Maung Maung Kyaw, who had been chair of the Student Union in the 1950s, and the leftist writer and former student leader U Lay Myint. Uncle Tut seemed to have a particular soft spot for Ko Jimmy, often recalling with dismay how the prison guards would not let him share some of his food provisions with his younger prison mate. Both in the movement and in prison, Uncle Tut was known for his quick temper, raspy voice, passion, and authenticity. He was also known for his loyalty and warmth as a friend and comrade. U Tin Tut was one of the few parliamentarians who made the difficult decision to migrate out of Myanmar. After his release from prison in 1996, his wife beseeched him to leave and he reluctantly agreed. Indeed, were it not for his wife, I believe Uncle would have stubbornly stayed on in Myanmar, continuing to struggle against the dictatorship, as many of his peers and comrades did, until the very end. While he never fully articulated it to me, I do not doubt that it pained him to go into exile. Yet, if he had never migrated out of Myanmar, he certainly would not have lived until he was 92, such that he could pass away peacefully at his home, with his wife by his side, and his four children and six grandchildren close by. He would not have seen his sons marry, his grandchildren graduate. And he certainly would not have been able to tell me—his “niece”—about his time in prison. His stories would have never planted a seed inside of me that grew into the many friendships that I would have with democracy activists and former political prisoners. His narratives of political strife and imprisonment would not have compelled me to return to Myanmar to search out his history and, in doing so, to document the democracy movement in the many imperfect and incomplete ways that I have. I am told that had my Uncle Tin Tut died in Myanmar before the coup, the community of political prisoners in Yangon would have gathered and given him the hero’s burial that he deserved. His coffin would have been draped in a flag of the NLD, for all the sacrifices that he made. Responsible members of the community would have read proclamations that the political organizations to which he had belonged over the course of his lifetime, including the NLD and student unions, released him from all future obligations and duties, allowing his spirit to be set free. While I cannot perform this rite for him, there is a part of me that recognizes that, in the last decades of his life, he needed no such release, no such liberation. He had become free on his own terms..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-08-12
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-12
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Sub-title: Two other party members, arrested with him, were also killed by junta troops, while one man escaped.
Description: "The body of a National League for Democracy MP has been found two weeks after his arrest. Kyaw Myo Min had been tied up and buried in a shallow grave in Kayin state’s Hpa-An township. He had been arrested in his home town of Belin in neighboring Mon state on June 22 along with two other NLD members and a local who were traveling by motorcycle. Junta forces shot at them and they were then arrested. An NLD member told RFA the troops had tried to hide Kyaw Myo Min’s body. “He was tied up at his back and buried on the shore of the creek, but he was not buried well and his head was visible. It seems the body was dumped on the shore of the creek and covered with leaves. It was difficult to identify the body as it had decomposed. There were no visible bullet or stab wounds”, he said. A member of Kyaw Myo Min’s family, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said the family knew he was in danger because it was impossible to contact him after his arrest. Last Saturday locals also found the bodies of the other two arrested NLD members, Pan Myint and Ko Ko Maung. The bodies were dumped in Hpa-An township close to where the MP’s body was found. There are a number of infantry troops stationed in Belin township: the Thein Zayat-based Kha Ma Ya 207 brigade, the Kyaik Hto-based Kha La Ya , Kha Ma Ya 102 from Tha Hton, along with Military Battalion 33 and the Border Guard Force Brigade. It is not yet known which troops were involved in the arrests and killings. Calls to the military council spokesman by RFA went unanswered and it has not released any statement on Kyaw Myo Min’s arrest. One of his family members told RFA the local who was arrested with the NLD members managed to escape so the troops broke the other captives’ legs and critically injured Kyaw Myo Min. “Now they are doing what the powerful do: anything they want without following laws regarding prisoners,” said an NLD source and colleague of the murdered MP. “I will record their illegal activities so I can recall them during the [coming] revolution. People will know who committed the crimes and they will be made to suffer one day.” Kyaw Myo Min became an MP in 2011. He also served as chairman of the Belin branch of the NLD. An NLD statement released in May said 917 NLD members had been arrested since the coup on February 1, 2021. It also said 18 party members, including MPs, died due to inadequate health care and brutal interrogations. Many NLD members joined the mass protests after the 2021 coup and armed themselves to fight after junta forces launched a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2022-07-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The Myanmar junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) has threatened two major political parties that won majorities in the 2020 general election with disbandment if they do not comply with its order to submit their financial accounts for inspection by March 9. In a letter to their chairpersons dated Feb. 8, the UEC instructed the National League for Democracy (NLD), the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and two other parties to appear before it on Feb. 14 to verify their financial accounts and expenses. Neither the NLD nor the SNLD showed up, however, prompting the UEC to issue its warning on Feb. 23. The NLD and the SNLD won majorities in the Union Parliament and Shan State Parliament, respectively, in the 2020 vote. The SNLD also came third in the nationwide parliamentary vote. On Feb. 26 last year, the NLD released a statement saying it does not recognize the new election commission appointed by the junta and that its announcements are illegal. NLD chairperson and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since she was detained by the military hours before last year’s Feb. 1 military coup. Sai Kyaw Nyunt, joint secretary of the SNLD, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday the party would accept a request from the UEC to visit the party’s main headquarters and audit its financial accounts. However, he said, “We didn’t commit any [wrongdoing], so we don’t need to go there [to the UEC] and be investigated.” In written replies to questions from pro-junta media, the UEC said if the parties failed to comply with its instruction, they would face legal action under Section 24 (c), (d) and (e) of the Registration of Political Parties Law. Violations of these provisions of the law carry potential punishments of a three-year suspension, having their operations halted, and disbandment, respectively. An NLD source told The Irrawaddy the party rejected the UEC’s call, as the junta had already arrested almost the entire party leadership. U Kyaw Htwe, a spokesman for the NLD’s Central Work Committee, said the decision on whether to submit the party’s financial accounts for inspection would ultimately be made the Central Executive Committee members. “Our party leaders who have been detained must be released immediately. Besides, [the UEC] needs to be a body that is legal to inspect financial accounts. This UEC was appointed by the military council; they have no right to scrutinize political parties.” Political parties with popular support in Myanmar are at risk of being dissolved before the junta’s planned election in August next year. U Khin Maung Myint, a lawyer, said that despite the UEC’s claim that it is acting in accordance with the law, the order that parties submit their accounts for financial audit “is not a fair demand at this time,” given that some parties’ leaders are detained or imprisoned, or have fled to avoid arrest by junta forces. “The intent [of the move] is to suspend or dissolve the parties, as the current [political] situation does not favor financial inspection of parties,” he said. Myanmar has 92 registered political parties. About half of them are proxy parties for the military, including the Union Solidarity and Development Party. The junta-appointed UEC has scrutinized the financial accounts of more than 70 parties. As of Feb. 9, it had checked the accounts of 67 political parties. At least six more showed up at the UEC to be inspected last week and this week..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-02-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Ousted Rakhine State chief minister U Nyi Pu was sentenced to nine years in prison for corruption on Wednesday along with other National League for Democracy (NLD) ministers, according to lawyers. The detained finance minister U Kyaw Aye Thein, transport minister U Aung Kyaw Zan, agriculture minister U Kyaw Lwin and municipal minister U Min Aung were also given jail terms. The chief minister, U Kyaw Aye Thein and U Aung Kyaw Zan faced three corruption charges for violation of financial regulations on land use in Gwa Township and for using 86.5 million kyats of Rakhine State funds. The regime also accused the three of handing three state-owned buildings in Sittwe to a company they had links with to open a clothing factory and for giving the company 5.5 million kyats for maintenance of the building although the factory was not operational. The junta court in Sittwe Prison handed the three ministers a three-year sentence for each charge, according to U Aung Naing Win, U Aung Kyaw Zan’s lawyer. U Kyaw Lwin was given three years for the charge over land use in Gwa. U Nyi Pu’s daughter said: “I have no comment. People know if the lawsuits and verdicts are fair.” U Nyi Pu and U Min Aung were detained in February soon after the coup. U Kyaw Aye Thein and U Aung Kyaw Zan were detained in Yangon at the end of July. U Kyaw Lwin was detained on Ramree Island in Rakhine State in August. In August, the military regime said it had opened corruption cases against the ministers under Article 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law, which carries a potential 15-year sentence for anyone in political office involved in bribery. U Min Aung was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday. He was also accused of accepting bribes to grant approval for markets to be built. In September, he was sentenced to two years and two months under the Natural Disaster Management Law and Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law for organizing anti-regime protests. U Nyi Pu, an NLD member, was sentenced to two years in prison with labor for sedition in October last year. The junta-appointed Rakhine State election body has also opened cases against U Nyi Pu and U Min Aung for alleged violation of electoral laws in the 2020 general election..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-01-19
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The military coup on February 1, 2021, effectively ended the democratic transition under Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD was poised to return to power for another five years after winning landslide general elections in November 2020. Instead, under the military State Administration Council (SAC) junta led by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, soldiers and police rounded up hundreds of members of parliament, including Aung San Suu Kyi and senior NLD party members, and held them in arbitrary detention for months, many of them in undisclosed locations. The military seized power making unfounded claims of widespread and systematic election and voter irregularities, although international and domestic election observers found that the election was “credible and reflected the will of the majority of the voters.” The junta brought multiple charges against Aung San Suu Kyi, including for corruption, incitement, and breaching the Official Secrets Act. Three of her deposed cabinet ministers and an Australian economic adviser also faced charges under the Official Secrets Act. Millions took to the streets across the country in largely peaceful protests to call for the military to relinquish power, while members of parliament, ethnic minority representatives, and civil society activists formed the opposition National Unity Government (NUG). The security forces responded by committing offenses amounting to crimes against humanity against the civilian population, including torture, severe deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearances, rape and other sexual abuse, and inhumane treatment. Journalists, lawyers, medical personnel, anti-junta protesters, civil society activists, women, and many others continue to be at high risk of arbitrary arrest. Between February 1 and November 1, the police and military killed at least 1,200 protesters and bystanders, including approximately 75 children, and have detained over 8700 government officials, activists, journalists, and civil servants. On March 14, the junta imposed martial law in several townships across Yangon and began to enforce additional restrictions in other parts of the country. On May 13, the junta also imposed martial law in Chin State’s Mindat township after clashes between security forces and lightly armed opposition militias. Under martial law orders, direct authority over the townships was transferred to the respective regional military commanders. Since the coup, the military has intensified military operations against ethnic armed groups in some areas, such as Chin State. The military’s indiscriminate use of artillery and airstrikes has reportedly injured and killed civilians, damaged villages, including schools, and forced thousands to flee. Post-Coup Crimes against Humanity The security forces have engaged in widespread and systematic attacks on civilians throughout Myanmar, including killing protesters, enforced disappearance of opposition supporters, torture, sexual abuse, rape of some detainees, and mass political detentions. On February 21, 2021, the junta stated in the state’s Global New Light of Myanmar: “Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youth, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life.” Many of the 1,200 people killed by police and military since the coup were protesters and bystanders in cities and towns across Myanmar, including Yangon, Mandalay, Bago, Monywa, and other townships in Sagaing Region, Mindat township in Chin State, and many other locations. International human rights standards permit law enforcement officials to use lethal force only as a last resort when there is an imminent threat to life. But in numerous cases in 2021 reported by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, other human rights organizations, and media, security forces fired on demonstrators who were unarmed and posed no apparent threat. The UN reported that on March 3, security forces across the country fired live rounds at protesters, killing at least 38 and wounding more than 100. Killings were also reported in one day in Monywa, Sagaing Region; Myingyan and Mandalay, Mandalay Region; Salin, Magway Region; and Mawlamyine, Mon State, according to media reports. On March 13, authorities killed at least nine protesters, including five in the Sein Pan area of Mandalay, when security forces shot into a crowd. On March 14 in Hlaing Tharyar township, Yangon, security forces killed an estimated 66 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The MRTV news channel announced the day before Armed Forces Day, on March 27, that demonstrators “should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back.” On March 27, security forces followed through on that threat by carrying out violent crackdowns on protesters in at least 40 towns and cities, killing dozens. On April 9, military personnel killed an estimated 82 people in Bago in a dawn assault on protesters’ barricades and encampments; exact figures have been difficult to determine due to a strong security presence and lack of access to the area by reporters or independent investigators. Many persons detained for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations said after their release that security personnel tortured and otherwise ill-treated them and others in custody. Methods of torture included beatings, mock executions with guns, burning with cigarettes, and rape and threatened rape. The junta has taken into custody more than 100 politicians, election officials, journalists, activists, and protesters, and refused to confirm their whereabouts or conditions of detention in violation of international law. Security forces frequently detained family members, including children and older people, when they were unable to find the individual they sought to arrest. Threats to Rohingya Authorities have been committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid, persecution, and severe deprivation of liberty against 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State. Most Rohingya had fled the country following the military’s campaign of killings, rape, and arson that resulted in crimes against humanity and genocidal acts in 2017. Approximately 130,000 Rohingya have been confined to open-air detention camps in central Rakhine State since being displaced by ethnic cleansing in 2012, in violation of their fundamental right to return home. They are denied freedom of movement in what amounts to arbitrary and discriminatory deprivation of liberty. Following the coup, restrictions on humanitarian access increased, leading to preventable deaths and illnesses in Rohingya camps and villages. In late May, nine children reportedly died Rakhine State following an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea. Threats to Women’s and Girls’ Rights Women have led and taken part in mass protests as part of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the junta. Female protesters were some of the first killed by security forces and arbitrarily detained. Many women reported being beaten by security forces during their arrests, and some reported credible allegations of sexual violence and humiliating treatment by security forces during their detention. Trafficking of women and girls remains a serious problem in Shan and Kachin States, where conflict and economic desperation has made them vulnerable to being lured to China under false promises and sold into sexual slavery and forced reproduction as “brides.” The NLD government, prior to the coup, was unable to pass the Prevention of Violence Against Woman Law. While the law had been criticized for falling well short of international standards, the absence of targeted legislation has stalled efforts to prevent gender-based violence, assist survivors, and bring perpetrators to justice. Freedom of Expression and Media As of October 25, Myanmar’s junta had arrested 98 journalists, 46 of whom remained in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Six journalists had been convicted, including five for violating section 505A of the penal code, a new provision that makes it a crime to publish or circulate comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.” In such prosecutions, “false news” appears to be any news that the authorities do not want to reach the public. On March 8, the junta stripped media licenses from five local outlets: Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), Khit Thit Media, Mizzima, Myanmar Now, and 7Day. On May 4, authorities banned two other outlets, the Kachin-based 74 Media and the Shan-based Tachileik News Agency, and also banned satellite television. Also, on May 4, authorities arrested US journalist Danny Fenster, the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, and detained him on politically motivated charges. On November 12, a court sentenced him to 11 years’ hard labor, but he was permitted to leave the country on November 15. On June 30, the Ministry of Information issued a warning to journalists to stop describing the SAC as a “junta” or face prosecution. Internet Shutdowns In the weeks following the coup, the junta imposed nationwide internet shutdowns from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m., which were later lifted, but authorities continued to block many websites and throttled internet speeds throughout the year. Blocks to mobile data and networks also continued across 22 townships where anti-junta opposition resulted in heavy clashes between the Myanmar military and pro-democracy militia groups. Threats to Humanitarian Aid Increased fighting between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups in the border areas in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, and Shan States has increased strain on access and limited humanitarian aid to those areas. The UN said, in July, at least 3 million people needed humanitarian aid—an increase of 2 million since February 1—and food shortages were reported in parts of Chin and Rakhine States. Anti-Junta Militias Militias have formed around the country since the coup to oppose the junta and target security forces. Many of the militias have adopted the title of People’s Defense Forces, the same name the NUG adopted for the nationwide force it created. However, not all the recently formed People’s Defense Forces are linked to the NUG or take orders from its command structure. These militias began conducting small-scale attacks against the military in July. In Sagaing and Magway Regions and Chin State, intense fighting between the militias and the military reportedly killed hundreds of troops. The military responded with increased raids and by burning villages. Some militias have carried out unlawful bombings of buildings and targeted killings of civilian supporters of the military. On September 7, acting NUG President Duwa Lashi La declared a “defensive war” against the military junta. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Myanmar’s penal code punishes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” with up to 10 years in prison and a fine. The opposition NUG reported that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have been particularly vulnerable to sexual violence in custody. One transgender woman recounted after her release that she was raped in custody with an object, tortured, and severely beaten. Covid-19 and Attacks on Healthcare Workers By November 2021, just 13 percent of Myanmar's 54 million population was fully vaccinated. A total 17,998 deaths were recorded by the Ministry of Health between March 2020 and October 2021, although the actual numbers are likely much higher. The junta has harassed, arbitrarily arrested, and attacked medical professionals, sometimes as they treated injured protesters. Healthcare workers were early leaders of the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement and refused to work in government hospitals as a form of protest. In the nine months following the coup, at least 260 healthcare workers were attacked while trying to administer medical aid, and 20 killed. The AAPP said 76 remained in detention in September, and as many as 600 healthcare workers had outstanding arrest warrants against them. Many have been forced to work underground in makeshift mobile clinics to treat Covid-19 patients or have gone into hiding to evade arrest. The UN Country Team in Myanmar has said that attacks on healthcare workers have jeopardized the Covid-19 response and prevented patients from receiving health care. Key International Actors In February, the UN Human Rights Council held a special session and adopted by consensus a resolution deploring the removal of the elected government and calling for the unconditional release of all those arbitrarily detained. A further resolution was adopted at the council’s March session “condemning in the strongest terms” the military deposition of the civilian government, and highlighting the need for accountability. In June, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution strongly condemning the February 1 coup. The General Assembly also made several important recommendations, including calling for all members states to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar. The UN Security Council did not follow up and pass a legally binding resolution of its own that would impose a global ban on the transfer of weapons and dual-use technologies to Myanmar. Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States have imposed targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s top military officials and members of the junta, conglomerates, and companies owned or controlled by the military. However, foreign governments did not impose sanctions on oil and gas revenues, the junta's main source of revenues. In October, the US Congress introduced the BURMA Act 2021, supporting authorization of further targeted sanctions and recommended the US government make a Rohingya genocide determination. The European Parliament also supported recognizing the NUG as the legitimate government of Myanmar and urged further EU sanctions against military-owned businesses. While the EU expressed support for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a mediator with the Myanmar military, it also condemned the coup in “the strongest terms.” The UN-backed Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) is mandated to build case files to support efforts to hold individuals legally accountable for serious international crimes. The IIMM is “closely monitoring” events and is collecting evidence of such crimes committed following the coup, and said if substantiated, the alleged violations could amount to crimes against humanity. On April 24, ASEAN negotiated a five-point consensus plan with the military, and appointed Brunei diplomat Erywan Yusof as special envoy. The military’s failure to implement the five-point plan led ASEAN to exclude junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing from its October summit. At the International Criminal Court, the prosecutor is investigating Myanmar for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution, based on the completion of these crimes in Bangladesh, an ICC member, following the 2017 ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya. In July, citing Article 12(3) of the ICC Statute, the NUG lodged a declaration with the ICC accepting the court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed in Myanmar since July 1, 2002. Gambia’s case alleging Myanmar’s violation of the Genocide Convention continued before the International Court of Justice, with Myanmar raising preliminary objections to the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of Gambia’s application..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
2022-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "During 1 Feb–26 Nov, there were 6,675 armed clashes and attacks on civilians, a 632% increase from the same period in 2020. The junta’s crimes resulted in a massive increase in displaced persons, including around 50,000 just in Chin, Sagaing, and Magway since May 2021. Junta courts handed down lengthy sentences to high-profile NLD leaders. Sham trials against Aung San Suu Kyi moved forward, but the court delayed two verdicts without explanation. Junta military courts sentenced 21 people to death and 29 to life in prison. The junta ordered its soldiers in Sagaing, Tanintharyi, and Mandalay Regions to shoot at any male passenger on a motorbike..."
Source/publisher: ALTSEAN-BURMA
2021-12-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-03
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Sub-title: The judge who will decide the NLD leader’s fate may not be your average apparatchik, but don’t expect any surprises when he reaches his verdict
Description: "In a country notorious for the opacity of its justice system, Ye Lwin is a rare bird: a judge who is not just a faceless cog in a machine that routinely does the bidding of Myanmar’s military. Currently serving as a judge in Naypyitaw’s Dekkhina District Court, he has presided over a number of high-profile cases, including those against Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the country’s ousted civilian government. Most recently, he was the lead justice in a two-judge panel that last week sentenced Win Htein, a patron of the deposed ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to 20 years in prison for sedition. But it was more than three years ago that he first came to prominence, both for his role as information officer during the trial against the killers of Ko Ni, Suu Kyi’s long-time legal advisor, and as the judge who found two Reuters reporters guilty of violating the Official Secrets Act for their reporting on military atrocities committed in Rakhine State. Now presiding over Suu Kyi’s trial under the same colonial-era law, Ye Lwin’s reputation for coming down hard on defendants is hardly reassuring. But that hasn’t stopped lawyers who have seen him in action from expressing a grudging respect for him. In the case against Win Htein, for instance, he betrayed no obvious prejudice against the defendant of his defence team, according to Myint Thwin, the lead lawyer for the 79-year-old NLD stalwart. “The judge was just doing his job. He didn’t stay to look at Win Htein. He just left the court after handing down the sentence,” he said, adding that Ye Win allowed the team to practice “their full rights to defend” their client. But that will be little comfort to Suu Kyi, who is under no illusions about her chances of receiving a fair trial under the regime that seized power on February 1. When Myint Thwin, who happened to speak with the NLD leader the day before Win Htein was sentenced, informed her that his client was facing up to 20 years in prison, she jokingly responded: “I think it could be longer for me.” Unexpected praise Described by some colleagues as “charismatic” and a good communicator, Ye Lwin is also widely seen as a judge who takes his responsibilities seriously. “In general, I would say that he is quite trustworthy. He is not the kind of person to get caught up in corruption scandals,” said a retired court officer familiar with Ye Lwin’s career, which began more than two decades ago. But it is probably his reputation for being approachable, rather than his apparently unimpeachable integrity, that has made the 50-year-old Ye Lwin a suitable pick to handle cases that have attracted both national and international attention. “He was not a difficult person to talk to,” said one reporter who covered the Ko Ni assassination trial for a foreign news outlet. “Even if he didn’t want to answer a question, he would just try to walk around it, rather than getting angry.” As the person charged with explaining the verdict in that case, Ye Lwin faced a barrage of questions about why two of the defendants did not receive heavier sentences. While the two convicted killers, Kyi Lin and Aung Win Zaw, were both given the death penalty, the accused mastermind, former military intelligence captain Zeyar Phyo, received only five years for destroying evidence, while a fourth defendant, Aung Win Tun, got off with just three years for harbouring an offender. Ye Lwin’s considerable communication skills were on full display as he tried to justify these decisions. But when the name of another suspect—Lin Zaw Tun, a retired army colonel and former aide to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing who went on to win a seat in parliament for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party—was raised, Ye Lwin knew better than to test the limits of his abilities as a public speaker. “I am just relaying the information on the court’s actions today regarding the case as an information officer. I have already described in detail regarding all the findings and comments in today’s report. I have no other comment to give on this case,” he said calmly as he brought his press briefing to an end. Even his handling of the case against Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo earned Ye Lwin praise from an unlikely quarter: a police officer whose testimony as a witness for the prosecution exposed a conspiracy to frame the two defendants. When former police captain Moe Yan Naing testified that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been set up, it nearly destroyed the case against them. But rather than attempting to silence him, Ye Lwin allowed Moe Yan Naing to speak. “He did not dismiss my statement. He accepted it as evidence. But in the end, my testimony had no impact on the sentence given to the two reporters,” said Moe Yan Naing, who was later imprisoned for speaking the truth on the stand. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who had written an investigation into a massacre of 10 Muslim men and boys in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township in September 2017, were both given seven-year sentences under Section 3(1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act, but were later released on a pardon. The judiciary since the coup Myanmar’s judiciary is led by Tun Tun Oo, who has been the chief justice of the Union Supreme Court since 2011. Under the 2008 Constitution, the former military officer (who is not to be confused with Tun Tun Oo, the attorney general who was replaced after the coup in February) can remain in his current position until he reaches the age of 70. In his case, that means he can serve as the country’s top judge for five more years. But having a former officer in charge of Myanmar’s highest court is not the only way the military exerts its influence over the country’s judicial system. Indeed, since it first seized power nearly six decades ago, the military has steadily stripped the courts of any vestige of the independence they once had. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was appointed to lead a parliamentary “rule of law” committee months after winning a seat as an MP in a 2012 by-election, has long stressed the need to re-establish the independence of courts as a key pillar of democratic rule. “My party has repeatedly emphasized rule of law because of the very fact that our judiciary is far from independent. It is a mere tool of the executive. That means not just that the judiciary is undemocratic, but the executive is undemocratic as well and the legislature, too, is undemocratic,” she said in a TED Talk in July 2014. Now, however, she is once again a captive of the generals, who have not hesitated to use their complete control over the courts to deprive her and all other opponents of their regime of their most fundamental rights. Currently facing a total of 11 charges, she was not even allowed to have some of her defence lawyers present during the first hearing of her trial under the Official Secrets Act. She faces a sentence of up to 14 years in prison on that charge alone. This decision sends a clear signal that Ye Lwin, who is presiding over that case, has no intention of breaking with decades of judicial subservience to the will of the military. Another attorney who has crossed paths with Ye Lwin several times declined to make any comment on his character based on what he has seen in court. In the end, he said, it doesn’t matter what kind of person he is: He will do what is expected of him, as he has done in every other case he has been involved with. “He did what he had to do during those court hearings. But he may hand down verdicts that we are not happy with at the end of the day,” said the lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous. Even Moe Yan Naing, who was so impressed by Ye Lwin’s willingness to hear him out when he presented damning testimony of wrongdoing by the authorities, recognized that it was unlikely that he would show such even-handedness under the country’s current circumstances. “Most of judiciary matters were beyond our control even when we had a president. Now that we’re under a dictatorship, things can only get worse,” said the former police captain..."
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Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-11-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-07
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Sub-title: The patron of Myanmar’s ousted ruling party was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sedition late last month
Description: "The legal defence team for Myanmar’s detained civilian leaders plans to call Win Htein, a senior figure from the ousted ruling party who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sedition late last month, as a witness, court sources told Myanmar Now. Lawyers for ousted State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint came up with the plan after deciding not to call other witnesses due to fears that they could be targeted by the country’s coup regime for testifying in favour of the deposed leaders, the sources said. Suu Kyi faces a total of 11 charges, including incitement, corruption, and violations of the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, that could land her in prison for decades if convicted. Win Myint is standing trial for incitement and breaching health restrictions during last year’s election campaign. Until now, their lawyers have had to base their cases solely on the testimony of the two defendants. However, they have recently submitted a request to call Win Htein, who is a patron of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), to the stand as a witness, the sources said. Win Htein was given the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on October 29 after being found guilty of sedition under Section 124a of the Penal Code. He was due to be transferred from the Naypyitaw Detention Centre to Mandalay’s Obo Prison after his sentence was handed down, but the transfer has reportedly been delayed in case he has to return to court to testify on behalf of Suu Kyi and Win Myint. Legally, there is no reason that someone who has already been convicted can’t act as a witness in other lawsuits, according to Thein Oo, the justice minister of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG). “The law does not stipulate that someone who has been convicted cannot testify as a witness. Defence lawyers have the right to call anyone who can prove the innocence of the accused,” he said. The junta’s anti-corruption commission has accused Suu Kyi of taking bribes while she was in office. Last month, the former Yangon chief minister under her ousted government, Phyo Min Thein, testified in court that he paid her $600,000 in cash and gave her 11.4kg of gold in exchange for protection and support for his businesses. Thein Oo told Myanmar Now that as a patron of the NLD, Win Htein had influence over the party’s choice of chief ministers and monitored their performance in office. This knowledge would make him a suitable witness to defend Suu Kyi’s innocence, he said. “If U Win Htein is allowed to testify [in the corruption case], we can see how much of Phyo Min Thein’s testimony is actually accurate,” the NUG justice minister said. The court is also expected to hand down verdicts in the incitement cases against Suu Kyi and Win Myint later this month. It was still unclear at the time of reporting if Win Htein would also be testifying in these cases. A spokesperson for the junta could not be reached for comment. Win Htein was among the few top NLD leaders who was not detained in the early hours of February 1 as the military toppled Myanmar’s elected government. Later the same morning he used his freedom to excoriate the military and urged the public to resist the coup during interviews with journalists. Min Aung Hlaing acted “without thinking of what is right and wrong,” he told reporters, adding: “I feel pity for him.” He was arrested at his home in Yangon three days later. According to his lawyer Myint Thwin, Win Htein said he made the comments on the day of the coup because, as a leader of the ruling party, he felt responsible for communicating the unfolding situation to the country..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-11-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-07
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Sub-title: The 79-year-old was arrested days after the February coup for remarks he made condemning the military’s power grab
Description: "A tribunal in Naypyitaw on Friday handed a 20-year prison sentence to National League for Democracy (NLD) party stalwart Win Htein, who was arrested in early February after condemning coup leader Min Aung Hlaing’s power grab during media interviews. The 79-year-old former military captain, who is in poor health, appeared for the verdict at a court inside the Naypyitaw Detention Center, where he has been on trial for sedition under Section 124a of the Penal Code. The two-judge tribunal, presided over by judge Ye Lwin, handed down the maximum sentence allowed under the law at around 3pm. Defence lawyer Myint Thwin said Win Htein was ready for a harsh sentence. “He is firm in beliefs and resilient so he was not fazed at all. Since the time he was detained and charged, he has told the court to hand down the sentence as it sees fit, no matter how many years it may be.” Chit Suu, Win Htein’s youngest daughter, told Myanmar Now the sentence was not surprising but was an “injustice.” “This is as we expected. It's not a surprise but it's a sad and outrageous thing to hear about the ridiculous sentencing. The perpetrators of this injustice will be held accountable,” said Chit Suu, who lives in Australia and spent most of her childhood separated from her father. Win Htein was among the few top NLD leaders who was not detained in the early hours of February 1 as the military toppled his party’s elected government. Later the same morning he used his freedom to excoriate the military during interviews with journalists. Min Aung Hlaing acted “without thinking of what is right and wrong,” he told reporters, “I feel pity for him.” He was arrested at his home in Yangon three days later. Myint Thwin said that Win Htein made the comments on the day of the coup because, as a leader of the ruling party that was being toppled, he felt responsible for communicating the unfolding situation to the country. Win Htein was forced to retire from the military in 1976 after being accused of involvement in a plot to assassinate then dictator Ne Win. He went on to work as a businessman until 1988, when he became close with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after an introduction from Tin Oo, the former military commander-in-chief who was also forced to retire in the late 1970s and later helped found the NLD. As Suu Kyi emerged as the most prominent leader of the democratic uprising in 1988, Win Htein took responsibility for her security at protests. He was arrested for his political activity in 1989 and spent the majority of the next two decades in prison before being freed in 2010. In July Nyan Win, another senior NLD leader who was detained following the coup, died in junta custody after contracting Covid-19 at Insein Prison. The junta has also detained most of the country’s NLD-appointed state and regional chief ministers, charging them with incitement and corruption. Several NLD office buildings, including its Yangon headquarters and its regional branch in Mandalay, have been targeted in bomb or arson attacks in recent months. Senior NLD figures believe that the junta is trying to destroy the party. After appointing himself the prime minister of the “caretaker government” in early August, Min Aung Hlaing has stepped up efforts to change Myanmar’s electoral system to one of Proportional Representation. The new system would make it harder for any party to secure a crushing landslide victory like that enjoyed by the NLD in last year’s election. Win Htein will now be transferred to a different prison to serve his sentence, but it is unclear which one..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-10-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Ye Htet will still be allowed to have brief notes with him when he takes the stand, Suu Kyi’s lawyer said
Description: "The plaintiff in detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s corruption case has been banned from reading statements while testifying against her in court, the judge said during a hearing on Friday. The order came after Suu Kyi’s legal team submitted a complaint about the pre-written testimony from Ye Htut, an officer from the junta’s Anti-Corruption Commission who is pressing charges against the leader. Judge Myint San, who is presiding over the case at a special court in the Naypyitaw Council compound, approved the request. “The witness can longer give statements by reading out pre-written documents,” a member of Suu Kyi’s legal team told Myanmar Now. “They will still be allowed to have notes containing numbers and dates.” Suu Kyi is accused among other things of building a house on land owned by the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, the charity she founded in the name of her mother. If found guilty, Suu Kyi could be sentenced to 14 years prison under Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law. She is also accused under the same law of taking gold and cash as bribes from Phyo Min Thein, the former chief minister of Yangon Region. She was in good health during Friday’s hearing, her lawyers said. The leader faces a total of 11 charges that could see her handed a decades-long sentence..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s military regime has imposed yet another gagging order on a lawyer representing detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, before her latest appearance in court on Tuesday. U Kyi Win is the fifth member of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team to be barred from speaking to the media, foreign diplomats and international organizations. The regime imposed the gagging order after U Khin Maung Zaw, the head lawyer representing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, gave details of President U Win Myint’s testimony during a court hearing on October 12, when the President said that the Myanmar military threatened to force him to resign during the February 1 coup. Lawyers U Khin Maung Zaw, U Thae Maung Maung and Daw Min Min Soe were also recently barred from speaking to the media, foreign diplomats and international organizations under Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Another one of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers, Daw San Mar Lar Nyunt, was barred in August from speaking about the trials. The junta has brought 11 charges against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and two against U Win Myint. The gagging order could prevent first-hand accounts of Suu Kyi’s weekly hearings from reaching the public, said lawyers. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team has been the only source of information on the trials and on the well-being of the State Counselor and President U Win Myint..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Dr Aung Moe Nyo is facing two charges of corruption, each accompanied by up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted, after already being sentenced to two years for incitement
Description: "The military council filed a second corruption charge against Dr Aung Moe Nyo, the detained Magway Region chief minister under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, on Monday. Facing the same charge are Magway’s minister for social welfare, Dr Khin Maung Aye, and Tin Nwe Oo, the regional minister for transportation and construction, according to their lawyer. “The military filed charges against the three of them for alleged misconduct in the tenders regarding the construction of Magway Education College in 2020,” Aung Naing, the group’s lawyer, said. The junta accused the trio in June of costing the government nearly 54m kyat ($28,727) when they allegedly selected a company for the project in a manner that was not in accordance with tender regulations. “We still haven’t received copies of the documents or the evidence submitted by the prosecution for the new corruption charge. Our request is that his trial continue only after the court has approved [our request] to obtain those documents,” the lawyer said. Another charge was filed against the 63-year-old chief minister and NLD central executive committee member under Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law on June 23. The statute states that those in political office who are convicted of bribery face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, as well as a fine. The junta’s previous corruption charge is linked to the allegation that Aung Moe Nyo accepted 50m kyat (US$26,540) from the Denko Petrol Company and subsequently provided the company with land on which to construct a petrol station, according to Aung Naing. On June 8, the chief minister was also given a two-year prison sentence for incitement charges filed against him by the junta for allegedly violating Section 505b of the Penal Code. Multiple NLD chief ministers who are also members of the party’s central executive committee have been charged by the junta with corruption and incitement in recent months. Aung Moe Nyo’s legal team has only able to meet with him during his court hearings, since they have not been granted permission to speak with their client privately, Aung Naing said. The lawyer explained that during his brief discussions with the chief minister at the hearings, his client had told him that the money in question—50m kyat—was spent on the development of Magway Region. “He is not guilty as he did not use the money for his own personal use. He only used it for the wellbeing of the community,” Aung Naing told Myanmar Now. Aung Moe Nyo was placed under house arrest after the February 1 coup that ousted the elected NLD administration. He was moved to Magway Prison after he livestreamed his opposition to the coup on social media from house arrest. Although there have been rumours that Aung Moe Nyo was also facing charges under Section 25 of the Disaster Management Law, his lawyer told Myanmar Now that he had not been charged under the statute in court..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-10-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-20
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Description: "A National League for Democracy (NLD) official and other party members, around a dozen journalists, student activists, a writer, a comedian and a few striking civil servants were among those released under Monday’s amnesty order. Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing on Monday announced the regime’s decision to free over 1,300 people jailed for participating in anti-coup protests and more than 4,300 detainees who were facing trial on incitement charges for their anti-regime activism. The amnesty followed an announcement by ASEAN that Min Aung Hlaing would not be invited to its annual summit later this month after the regional bloc’s call to end the ongoing violence in Myanmar in April was ignored. NLD information secretary released Monywa Aung Shin’s wife, Daw Kay Thwe Moe, told The Irrawaddy the detained politician returned to the family on Monday evening. Monywa Aung Shin was arrested by regime forces at his home in Yangon’s Tamwe Township at around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 1, the day the junta overthrew the democratically elected NLD-led government. He was one of around 150 senior NLD leaders and Central Executive Committee members, prominent activists, writers and monks who were arrested on the first day of the coup. Since then, the whereabouts and condition of the 76-year-old politician had remained unknown to the family until his release. In an interview with local media outlet DVB news, Monywa Aung Shin said he was kept at a military interrogation center in Mingalardon Township and no charge was filed against him, despite his being detained for over eight months. Several NLD members and elected lawmakers remain in detention. And some of those who were included on the release list on Monday were rearrested for allegedly having connections with the parallel National Unity Government, its parliamentary committee and the People’s Defense Force, according to sources. The junta has brought several charges, from bribery to incitement, against NLD leaders including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, chief ministers and the party’s elected parliamentary speakers. Some journalists freed As of late Tuesday afternoon, the release of around a dozen journalists had been confirmed. Those included three journalists from Myitkyina Journal, one each from 74 Media and Kachin Wave, three from DVB who were sentenced to prison terms, and three from Mizzima including its co-founder Ma Thin Thin Aung and one reporter from Mon State. Ko Aung Kyaw, the recently released DVB reporter, said that during his detention he was interrogated and tortured, and also forced to labor in prison, according to DVB. He was violently arrested on March 1 after he livestreamed police and soldiers shooting at houses and destroying possessions of civilians during their crackdown. He also reported that a pregnant woman in Myeik had been beaten and her home looted by security forces. He was convicted of incitement and sentenced to two years in June. He said that more than a hundred dissidents remained in Myeik Prison. Writer, comedian released Well-known comedian U Zaganar was also released on Monday, according to his friends. The comedian, who was in and out of prison under the previous military regime for his pro-democracy activism following the 1988 uprising, was detained at his home in Tamwe Township, Yangon Region in April. No reason has been given for his abduction this time. Writer and media trainer Ma Tu Tu Tha and a member of her family who were arrested at their home in Thanlynn Township in Yangon were released on Tuesday. According to local residents, soldiers and police searched her house and arrested four, including her son, brother and one of their friends during an overnight guest inspection. Activists among the released According to a local media report, two ethnic Kachin youth political activists, Lum Zawng and Seng Nu Pan, were released from Myitkyina Prison on Tuesday. Ma Shwe Yupar Linn, Ko Lin Htet, Ko Kyaw Min Tun and Ko Soe Htet Oo from the University Students Unions Alumni Force were also freed from Insein Prison on Tuesday after six months of detention for their anti-regime activism. Junta tactic According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group recording killings and arrests of junta forces, more than 9,000 people have been arrested since the coup. The group described the detainees’ release as a tactic of the junta to stop international condemnation. “These releases will not end the coup,” the AAPP said in a recent report. The group called for the unconditional release of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint and all political prisoners, and the restoration of the democratically elected leaders to their positions. As of Oct. 18, at least 1,181 people had been killed by junta forces and 131 had been tortured to death, according to the AAPP. “Action must be taken against those who committed arbitrary arrests and torture. Moreover, the junta must take full responsibility as perpetrators, apologize and institute reparations for those arbitrarily detained and physically and mentally tortured,” the AAPP said. The 5,600-odd people freed under Monday’s amnesty were warned that if they are rearrested they will have to serve the rest of their original sentences, as well as any additional sentence. “If they commit crimes again, they will have to serve the remaining sentences in addition [to the old one],” said a junta statement accompanying the prisoner release. UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said in a statement released after the announcement of the amnesty that the release of detainees is clearly not because the junta has had a change of heart, but because of the pressure on it. He urged sustained pressure to deny the junta money, weapons and legitimacy, saying this is the best way the international community can support the people of Myanmar, as the arbitrary arrest and persecution of those exercising their fundamental human rights continues..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-10-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "“I would rather die than resign.” This was the response of President U Win Myint when two senior army officers told him to resign on health grounds on the morning of the military coup on Feb. 1 and threatened him with harm if he refused. U Win Myint testified about the circumstances of his detention during a court hearing in Naypyitaw on Oct. 12. The regime has filed several charges against him since his detention. “He was then told that he could be harmed if he refused, and was told to reconsider. He replied that he had faced dangers along the way and faced the risk of death,” lawyer U Khin Maung Zaw said, recounting U Win Myint’s testimony to the court. U Win Myint also told the two military officers to act in line with the 2008 Constitution and not to stage the coup. Though President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Naypyitaw Mayor Dr. Myo Aung were detained on the day of the military takeover on Feb. 1 and have been isolated since then, the regime has charged them with incitement over a statement condemning the coup that was issued by the National League for Democracy (NLD)’s Central Executive Committee a few days after their detention. While U Win Myint’s testimony has won loud applause from many in Myanmar, the response to another detained senior NLD member, Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, has turned out to be just the opposite. In the eyes of many, U Phyo Min Thein’s political career ended the moment he testified that he bribed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with more than 11 kg of gold and US$600,000—a claim that angered and disappointed many in the country. “When there are violent political storms, U Win Myint is prepared to row with his hands if there is no oar. U Phyo Min Thein belongs to those who want to hitch a lift,” said political analyst U Than Soe Naing. A true people’s representative U Win Myint has won four electoral races on the NLD ticket—in the general elections in 1990, 2015 and 2020, and in a by-election in 2012. Born in Danubyu Township of Ayeyarwady Region, U Win Myint was trained as a lawyer. He has engaged in politics for more than 30 years since the pro-democracy movement in 1988, joining the NLD in its early days. Like many other politicians of the time, U Win Myint ended up in prison after the military refused to honor the results of the 1990 general election. Back then, he was offered large sums of money and a permit to import a car, a rare luxury at the time, if he resigned from the NLD. But he chose prison over the money, and not even the lousy food and terrible conditions in prison could shake his faith. “U Win Myint is imbued with all four attributes of a politician—bravery, honesty, industriousness and humility,” remarked U Than Soe Naing, who has known U Win Myint for two decades. When the NLD boycotted the military-orchestrated general election in 2010, U Win Myint stood firmly with the party line. And when he was elected to Parliament alongside Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the 2012 by-election, he was the youngest member of the NLD’s Central Executive Committee. When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was appointed to the Committee for Rule of Law and Stability in the Lower House in the same year, U Win Myint served as the committee’s secretary, and the two worked together more closely. “He seems to be meticulous and uncompromising, but he is very cooperative and hard-working, both in the party and the government,” said NLD lawmaker U Bo Bo Oo. Stony-faced Speaker One question on voters’ minds ahead of the 2015 election was who would serve as Myanmar’s president if the NLD won, as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was constitutionally barred from taking the country’s top job. Myanmar’s military and their allied parties expressed doubts as to whether the NLD had a person capable of assuming the presidency. In response to the criticisms, U Win Myint, speaking in a pre-election debate program organized by media outlet DVB, implied in his comments that no one could do a worse job of managing the country than the military, saying, “Every bird is as beautiful as a vulture.” After the NLD won a majority in the 2015 poll, U Htin Kyaw became president, and U Win Myint, due to his legal knowledge, was elected Lower House Speaker. He was 66 at the time. As Parliament Speaker, U Win Myint was not liked even by fellow NLD lawmakers, as he never hesitated to complain about any lawmaker—regardless of what party they were from—for any act deemed to be inappropriate, including reading journals during parliamentary sessions. He often confronted ministers when they failed to give clear answers to lawmakers’ questions. It was the first civilian government since 1962, and U Win Myint shrewdly managed the Parliament to avoid friction between military-appointed representatives and elected lawmakers, according to political analysts. “There could have been problems, should there have been constant friction between elected lawmakers and the military appointees. The problem, I mean, is that there could have been a coup back then,” U Bo Bo Oo said. U Win Myint did not show any bias toward his party when he was in charge of the Lower House, said Shan Nationalities League for Democracy chairman U Sai Nyunt Lwin. “When I asked how he was doing as the Parliament Speaker, he said it was an ‘unspeakable’ trouble,” said U Sai Nyunt Lwin. U Win Myint’s daughter married while he held the Parliament Speaker role, but he insisted that no wedding gifts would be accepted. The politician also earned plaudits for his handling of land issues for farmers. Lowly politician to President After two years as the Parliament Speaker, U Win Myint became the President in March 2018 after U Htin Kyaw retired on health grounds. Anti-graft efforts were stepped up after he assumed the presidency, both in the administrative and judicial branches. One of the most significant reforms was to bring the General Administration Department, which had been overseen by the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs, under civilian oversight. However, the military transferred the department back to the Home Affairs Ministry after the coup. “He has not changed his stance along the way from a [rank-and-file] politician to a president,” said U Than Soe Naing. No fault can be found with U Win Myint throughout his political journey to the presidency, said politicians and political analysts. “We believe he will remain firm in his stance. And we should praise him for that,” U Sai Nyunt Lwin said..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-10-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-16
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Description: "Ousted President U Win Myint appeared at a special court in Naypyitaw on Oct. 12 to face incitement charges over a National League for Democracy (NLD) central executive committee (CEC) statement condemning the Feb. 1 coup. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and former Naypyitaw Mayor Dr. Myo Aung also appeared at the court for the same charge. President U Win Myint for the first time revealed details of his detention on the morning of the Feb. 1 coup during his testimony. He said the military tried to force him to step down before the coup but he refused. The president’s lawyer, U Kyi Win, told The Irrawaddy about his first public comments since he was detained. What did President U Win Myint testify about his detention? The court asked his age, address and occupation. He said he was 70 but that he didn’t even know where he was being held and that he lived at the presidential residence until Feb. 1. And he said his occupation was president, which suggested he still considered himself to be the president. He said soldiers entered his bedroom at around 5am on Feb. 1. He said he took his medicines, said his prayers, got dressed and went with them. He was taken to the President’s Office and was asked to wait outside his office. Two generals asked him to resign on health grounds. He said he was in good health and would not resign. One of the generals asked him to reconsider his decision, saying he could be harmed. He said he would rather die than resign. He told them to act lawfully and not to stage a coup. He was taken back to his presidential residence. At the residence, many soldiers had seized communication devices from the building. At noon, he was told he would have to move within three days. So he and his family started packing. He said he was moved to a house in the ministers’ neighborhood on Feb. 4. He was moved again on May 23. He didn’t know where it to. Many soldiers were waiting for them at the new house. He said he lost contact with the outside world on Feb. 1 and there was no television or newspapers. He said it was unreasonable to charge him over the NLD statement which was issued after his detention and that he was not guilty. Was he detained with his family? All we know is he said he packed with his family. We assume they are still together. To what extent will his testimony impact the case? The prosecutors have charged him under Article 505(b) of the Penal Code for incitement. They cannot prove he was involved in the NLD statement. The prosecutor failed to submit evidence. In Myanmar, prosecutions can’t proceed unless the prosecutor can submit evidence. The president cited Article 64 of the Constitution: “If the president or vice-presidents are members of a political party, they shall not take part in its party activities.” He said he strictly followed Article 64 and had not engaged in the party’s activities since he assumed the presidency. He said the accusation that he was involved in the NLD’s statements on Feb. 7 and Feb. 14 was unsubstantiated because he was detained on Feb. 1. He said the charge was therefore baseless. He said they only charged him because he was on the NLD’s CEC. We heard the prosecutor asked him about the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, National Unity Government and People’s Defense Forces. What was his response? Prosecutors asked him if he knew about the organizations. He said he didn’t because he had been isolated since Feb. 1. Did Daw Aung San Suu Kyi instruct you to inform the public about the testimonies made in court? Yes. She said the public must be informed about the trial. Trials are supposed to be held in public. She said people should know if a trial is unfair. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi asked us to release the testimonies. What is your legal assessment of the case? Legally, [U Win Myint] did not violate the law. The prosecution cannot prove he was involved with the statements..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-10-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s ousted civilian President told army officers he would rather die than consent to their order that he resign from his post on the day of the military coup in February, a court heard Tuesday. The circumstances of President U Win Myint’s detention on the morning of Feb. 1, when the military seized power from the country’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government, were revealed for the first time by the former head of state himself during his testimony to a court in Naypyitaw. The junta has filed several charges against U Win Myint, who has been under house arrest since the coup. On the morning of the takeover, two very senior army officers entered his room at the Presidential Residence in Naypyitaw and attempted to persuade him to resign from his post on grounds of ill health, his lawyer quoted him as telling the court. The President turned down their proposal, saying he was in good health. “The officers warned him the denial would cause him much harm but the President told them he would rather die than consent,” said lawyer U Khin Maung Zaw. Since the coup, a number of NLD government leaders including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have been detained and charged by the junta. The ousted President is seen as an important ally of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and is the vice chairman of the NLD. Among the cases filed against U Win Myint is a charge of sedition, based on the NLD’s post-coup statements urging the people of Myanmar to resist military rule, and an allegation that he breached COVID-19 restrictions during the campaign period ahead of last year’s general election. Speaking in his own defense in the sedition trial on Tuesday, the former president—who is himself a lawyer—told the court that the accusations against him were groundless, as he had been held incommunicado. Therefore, he said, the statements allegedly released by the NLD were issued without his knowledge, even though his name appeared on them. A loyal NLD member, longtime democracy activist dating back to 1988 and former political prisoner, U Win Myint served as Myanmar’s 10th President from 2018 until the coup. Prior to assuming the presidency, the 69-year-old served as Lower House Speaker when the NLD took office in 2016 after its landslide victory in the 2015 general election. During his speakership, he earned the respect of many lawmakers for his strong leadership and impartiality, but was hated by military appointees in the Parliament. As President, U Win Myint was known for his strong political will and efforts to tackle corruption and reform the country’s weak judicial system. Throughout his political career, he was elected four times, most recently in 2020..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-10-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Nyi Pu is also facing corruption charges carrying 15 years’ imprisonment if he is convicted
Description: "A junta court in Sittwe sentenced Nyi Pu, the detained former chief minister of Rakhine State, to two years in prison with hard labour for incitement on Friday, according to his lawyer. Judge Win Naing of the Sittwe Township court delivered 66-year-old Nyi Pu’s verdict at a hearing held via video conference on Friday regarding charges filed under Section 505b of the Penal Code. Section 505b outlaws “any statement, rumour or report” likely to induce people to “commit an offence against the state.” Nyi Pu is the second chief minister and central executive committee (CEC) member of the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) to be convicted by the junta of violating the statute since Myanmar’s February 1 military coup. On June 8, Aung Moe Nyo, another NLD CEC member and former chief minister of Magway Region, was also sentenced to two years in prison for incitement. Nyi Pu was among multiple members of Union and regional cabinets detained shortly after the military seized power from the elected NLD administration. The junta initially placed him under house arrest days after the coup, but transferred him to detention on February 10 after he posted a video on Facebook in which he expressed opposition to the coup. The NLD has published statements encouraging public resistance to and the rejection of military rule as long as its leaders, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, are in junta custody. The military authorities accused central members of the party, including Nyi Pu, of inciting the public to violence through the statements. Myo Myat Hein, a lawyer from Thazin Legal Aid Network representing Nyi Pu, said the judge concluded that he was among those responsible even though he was in custody at the time the statements were published. “The conclusion is that whether or not he attended the party’s meetings [regarding the statements] is a separate issue, but as a CEC member, he is responsible for those statements,” said the lawyer. Kyaw Thein, the junta’s deputy township administrator of Sittwe, filed an incitement charge against Nyi Pu on February 15. The plaintiff called on five witnesses to testify against him and Nyi Pu testified on his own behalf on September 28. Nyi Pu appeared calm as the judge handed out the verdict on Friday, Myo Myat Hein added. The former chief minister will be transferred to Sittwe prison from a detention centre at the township’s military cantonment, the lawyer said. He said he will consult with Nyi Pu regarding whether to file an appeal against the verdict. Kyi Kyi Oo, Nyi Pu’s daughter, said she had not been able to meet with her father since he was arrested in February and has demanded that she be granted a visit with him. She did not offer comment on Friday’s verdict. “We all know that [the military] arrests people unjustly and frames and convicts people unfairly,” she told Myanmar Now. Her sister, Moe San Suu Kyi, an NLD youth leader, was arrested by the junta authorities in Yangon on May 9 and has since been detained in Insein Prison. In addition to the incitement conviction, Nyi Pu is also facing three corruption charges filed at the Rakhine State High Court for which hearings are ongoing. Rakhine State’s municipal minister Min Aung, industry and transportation minister Aung Kyaw Zan, planning and finance minister Kyaw Aye Thein, and forestry and mining minister Kyaw Lwin are also named in the corruption charge levied against Nyi Pu. He stands accused of abusing his power during his tenure as chief minister and personally profiting while overseeing the implementation of land development projects in Rakhine State’s Gwa Township. Each charge carries 15 years’ imprisonment if he is found guilty..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-10-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The State Counsellor’s legal team did not know that the former Yangon Region chief minister would be testifying on October 1 until he entered the courtroom, lawyer Khin Maung Zaw says
Description: "State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is now facing 11 criminal charges put forward by Myanmar’s junta, including five corruption charges each carrying a 15-year prison sentence. One of these cases is based on a statement made by former Yangon Region chief minister Phyo Min Thein, who claimed that he bribed the State Counsellor with US$600,000 and 11.4kg of gold in exchange for protection and business support. Suu Kyi dismissed the allegations as “absurd,” head of her defence team Khin Maung Zaw said. As a central executive committee member of the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Phyo Min Thein has been in detention since the February 1 coup. He had been held in an undisclosed location along with his wife until October 1, when he was brought to testify against Aung San Suu Kyi in the Naypyitaw court created by the junta to host her trial. Myanmar Now spoke with Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw about Phyo Min Thein’s testimony, and the corruption cases against the State Counsellor. Myanmar Now: Is there physical evidence for the corruption charges Aung San Suu Kyi is facing? Khin Maung Zaw: There is no physical evidence at all. This is written on the front page of the case file. MN: Has there been any occasion where a corruption charge was filed without physical evidence? KMZ: Most of the time, the authorities would have had to hunt for the evidence if it was no longer in the hands of the defendant. For example, if they sold the evidence to a jewelry store, they’d have to confiscate the item from the shop. However, in her case, they just wrote on the case file that there was no physical evidence. MN: In other cases, the official from the anti-graft commission would interrogate the defendant and if they had enough evidence, they’d be sent to court. Did the commission officer first interrogate Aung San Suu Kyi regarding the corruption charges? Or did she only find out about the charges once she got to court? KMZ: Concerning the four corruption cases [that have already been submitted to the court], we weren’t told whether she was interrogated beforehand. Normally, the commission officer would have to look over the case and submit a report, and only under the anti-corruption commission’s approval would the charges be filed. The law states that the suspect would have to be examined beforehand. What’s most important is whether the case is legitimate or not. Another thing to take into consideration is whether the examination process was done in accordance with the law. I say this because the junta’s anti-corruption committee itself is not as ‘clean’ as their name implies. MN: Does that mean that it is a regular procedure for the commission officer to interrogate the defendant before they are sent to the court? KMZ: Yes. The commission officer is like a police officer, so the report they would be making is the same as a police report. You could think of it as a police officer interrogating both the defendant and the plaintiff. MN: The military council is now using Phyo Min Thein as a witness. What could this lead to, legally? KMZ: We can’t disclose any details because we don’t want to leak the information we are going to use in court. We don’t know why they didn’t take action against the alleged bribe giver. Legally, the one who offers the bribe is also guilty in a corruption case. MN: Phyo Min Thein’s voice was barely audible at last week’s court hearing, as you have said, and you told us that he didn’t make eye contact with Aung San Suu Kyi. Can you also describe how she acted during the hearing? KMZ: He was already one of the witnesses in the case file but she only got her copy of the case file on the morning of the hearing. So we didn’t know that he would be coming that day. The judge only said that it was a “civilian witness who was difficult to summon.” We only found out it was him when he came into the room. She wasn’t very surprised to see him, though. She just kept staring at him, in her typical manner. She just sat still and stared. Phyo Min Thein was standing with his back to her, facing the judge. MN: How long did Phyo Min Thein take to make the statement? Did Aung San Suu Kyi say anything at all during that time? KMZ: Nothing. She was just staring at him for 30 minutes. MN: How do you plan to deal with this lawsuit? KMZ: Everything including how we are going to defend her in court, which routes we are going to take, how we are going to use the information that there was no physical evidence and what strings we will pull are all confidential. We can’t disclose any of that. Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team will cross-examine Phyo Min Thein on October 8..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The 94-year-old mother of a former lawmaker from the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) in Mon State and the son of a wanted protest leader in Mandalay Region are among the latest family members of regime opponents to be detained by junta forces. U Myo Win’s 94-year-old mother and his daughter were arrested on Saturday when junta troops failed to find the former NLD MP in Ye Township, Mon State. The mother was later released but the daughter remains in custody. Their detention followed the arrest and release by junta troops of U Myo Win’s wife earlier in the day. He has been in hiding since March to evade arrest, as the junta has targeted elected lawmakers and members of the NLD across the country with detention, torture and lawsuits. On Monday, the MP wrote on his Facebook page that his mother was released after being detained, but his daughter was being kept in custody for interrogation. The regime has adopted the tactic of arbitrarily arresting and detaining family and friends of activists, protesters and opposition members as hostages in order to force its wanted opponents to surrender. More than 170 civilians including children are being held hostage by Myanmar’s military regime in place of wanted opponents, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Of those who have been detained, only a few have been released. Among the children held as hostages was Su Htet Wyne, the 5-year-old daughter of Ko Soe Htay, a protest leader in Mogoke, Mandalay Region. She was held for two weeks after being arrested together with her mother and sister on June 13 after junta troops failed to find her father at their home on the day. A warrant has been issued for Ko Soe Htay on an incitement charge for organizing anti-regime protests. While Su Htet Wyne was released, her mother and sister were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment each on incitement charges. Neither defended themselves against the charge, saying they don’t trust the judiciary under the junta. Ko Soe Htay told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that his older son, Ko Okkar Soe, 24, was again arrested at around 4 a.m. on Sept. 29 at his office in Mogoke, for using his delivery service business to earn extra income to support the jailed mother and sister, something that had become necessary as his father is also in hiding. Eight other young men employed at the office were also arrested. Ko Soe Htay said the families of the detained young men have not yet been told the reasons for their arrests and have not been allowed to visit them. “We heard they were tortured in military interrogation,” he said. “As they can’t find me, they are arresting all my family members. It is what dictators do, how they bully civilians. There are other families who face a worse fate than us. Only when our revolution prevails will we be able to end such incidents,” the protest leader added. Currently, Ko Soe Htay and two remaining family members—his youngest daughter and younger son—are in hiding. According to the AAPP’s most recent report, more than 8,700 people including elected leaders, politicians, protesters, student activists and striking civil servants have been arrested. Of them, 7,079 were still detained as of Monday, the AAPP stated in the report..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s deposed President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and Naypyitaw Council chairman Dr. Myo Aung earlier this week pleaded not guilty to charges of incitement brought by the military regime that removed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) government in February. The regime led by coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has brought 11 charges against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and two each against U Win Myint and Dr. Myo Aung. It is well known that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was subjected to decades of oppression by successive military regimes. But legal persecution is not new to U Win Myint and Dr. Myo Aung, either. However, the detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in an unknown location and the attempt to imprison her on baseless charges indicate that Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is more ruthless than his predecessor, Senior General Than Shwe. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest three times spanning a total of 15 years between 1989 and 2010 by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and its successor, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Deposed president U Win Myint and Dr. Myo Aung were also the political prisoners of previous regimes. As Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity grew along with that of the pro-democracy movement in 1988, she was put under house arrest for the first time in July 1989 under Section 10 (b) of the 1975 State Protection Act. The provision carries three years in prison and she was due to be released in July 1992. But in 1991, the regime changed the law and increased the prison term to five years. The amendment meant Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would be kept under arrest for two more years. Her release was due in July 1994, but the regime refused to free her, saying she had been detained under a decree from July 1989 to July 1990, so that period would not be counted in her five-year house arrest. Thanks to the regime’s crafty interpretation, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had to spend six years in total under house arrest and was only released in 1995. In September 2000, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was forcibly stopped at Yangon General Railway Station as she was attempting to leave for Mandalay to campaign for her party. She was taken back to her home in Yangon’s Bahan Township where she spent one year and eight months in confinement until May 2002, without having committed any offence. Just before her second house arrest, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage, while traveling to Kunchangon and Kawhmu townships, were beaten and placed under house arrest for two weeks. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was snatched and taken home by six policewomen from Dala on the opposite bank of Yangon. Among those who were placed under 14 days of house arrest was Dr. Myo Aung, who later served as Naypyitaw Council chairman in the NLD government that was ousted this year. The public support for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not wane, despite the regime’s hope that she would fade into obscurity after years of separation from the public. This led to the attempted assassination of the NLD leader while she was on a campaign trip in Tabayin in May 2003. She escaped the attack and was sent to Insein Prison, then again locked up at her house. Her third house arrest began in May 2003. Under the law, the maximum punishment is five years in prison, but again the regime counted the prison term as starting from May 2004. Then, US citizen John Yettaw trespassed upon her lakeside residence in early May 2009, two weeks before her scheduled release from house arrest. This illegal visit prompted prosecution of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under Section 22 of the State Protection Act. People believed the regime used it as an excuse to confine her until the 2010 general election was complete. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was detained at the officers’ quarters of the Correctional Department inside Insein Prison and for the first time put on trial. She was sentenced to three years in prison with labor in August 2009. Consequently, Home Affairs Minister Major General Maung Oo read Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s instruction before the judges, diplomats and journalists that she would only have to serve half of the jail term no matter how many years she was handed by the court. The remainder of the sentence would be suspended and she would be freed from having to serve it if she behaved well. She was placed under house arrest. As scripted and directed by the regime, she was released from house arrest on Nov. 13, 2010, five days after the regime held a general election. Two years later, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi entered the parliament, which was dominated by the ex-generals. Her NLD won a majority in the general election in 2015 and formed the government for the first time, 25 years after winning the 1990 general election, only for the regime to refuse to hand over power. It was the first civilian government in more than five decades, since the 1962 coup by Gen. Ne Win. In the 2020 poll, the NLD again secured an electoral mandate to manage the country for five more years. However, the Myanmar military, which has never enjoyed public support and has never been able to remove Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from Myanmar’s political leadership role, seized power in a coup in February this year. She was arrested for the fourth time at the age of 76 and is being held in an unknown location in Naypyitaw Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is facing 11 charges, a larger number than was brought by former military dictators Senior General Saw Maung and Snr-Gen Than Shwe. Facing at least 75 years in prison, the now 76-year-old would spend the rest of her life behind bars if convicted of all charges..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Letter dated 10 September 2021 from the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations, H.E. U Kyaw Moe Tun, addressed to the Secretary-General H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres, on the worsening situation in Myanmar, together with the weekly information update on current situation in Myanmar as of 5 September 2021..."
Source/publisher: Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
2021-09-10
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s National League for Democracy will attend a summit for Asian political parties hosted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday. The CPC is planning to hold a virtual meeting with political parties from Southeast and South Asia on Thursday. The party has invited four out of Myanmar’s 93 political parties, including the NLD. The invitation can be seen as Beijing’s official recognition of the NLD despite attempts by Myanmar’s regime to dissolve it. The NLD won the 2020 general election by a landslide but the regime accused it of vote-rigging and nullified the results. The party leadership, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have either been arrested or went into hiding. U Bo Bo Oo, a Yangon regional NLD lawmaker and a member of the Committee Representing Yangon Region Hluttaw (CRYH), told The Irrawaddy that he will represent the party. Military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party’s spokesman Dr. Nandar Hla Myint wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that central youth affairs committee member Dr. Thant Zin Lwin will attend the “Strengthening political parties’ cooperation in joint pursuit of economic development” meeting. In last year’s general election, the NLD won over 80 percent of all elected constituencies. The junta says it will hold a new election and has since taken steps to disband the NLD. In early August, in an online meeting between the junta-appointed foreign minister U Wunna Maung Lwin and China’s ambassador to Myanmar, Chen Hai, the envoy referred to the State Administration Council (SAC), the governing body of the regime, as the Myanmar government but also voiced concerns over plan to dissolve the NLD. Sun Guoxiang, a Chinese special envoy for Asian affairs who was in Myanmar from Aug. 21 to 28 at the invitation of the regime, reportedly asked to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. His request was denied and the regime was tightlipped about the visit. According to sources, Chinese officials have told the regime that Beijing wants the NLD to continue as a political party. In late July, the CPC also sent a letter of thanks to the NLD’s central executive committee in response to its congratulations on the centenary of the Communist Party’s founding..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-09-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Three other Myanmar political parties, including the NLD’s military-backed rival, will also attend
Description: "The National League for Democracy (NLD) will attend an online meeting organized by the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday, according to a senior party member. Four parties from Myanmar have been invited to the meeting on “Political Parties’ Cooperation in Joint Pursuit of Economic Development,” which will bring together parties from across South and Southeast Asia. The Union Solidarity and Development Party—the NLD’s main, military-backed rival—and the Arakan National Party are also expected to attend. It was not clear at the time of reporting which other Myanmar party would be present. NLD lawmaker Bo Bo Oo posted on social media on Wednesday that the NLD would be attending the meeting. A senior party member later told Myanmar Now that Bo Bo Oo, who handles the party’s communications with China, would also be taking part. The NLD was Myanmar’s ruling party until it was ousted by the military on February 1, despite winning a landslide victory in last year’s election. China is one of the few countries that recognize the coup regime led by Myanmar’s top general, Min Aung Hlaing. But it has also reportedly expressed concern over the military’s plan to dissolve the NLD, according to media reports. The invitation to Thursday’s online meeting was not the first time that China has publicly signalled its ongoing relationship with the NLD since it was ousted from power. In July, the CPC sent a letter to the NLD’s central executive committee thanking it for sending congratulations on the occasion of the CPC’s centenary. Also, during a week-long visit to Myanmar in late August, China’s special envoy for Asian affairs, Sun Guoxiang, reportedly requested a meeting with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The request was denied. While the Myanmar junta has been tight-lipped about the visit, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that it was part of Beijing’s effort to help Myanmar “restore social stability and resume democratic transformation at an early date.” China, which has long been seen as an ally of successive military regimes in Myanmar, was the target of protests and boycotts around the country in the wake of the coup..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-08-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: ''The triumph of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) at the 2015 election was supposed to mark the consolidation of a reformist trajectory for Myanmar society. What has followed has not proved so straightforward. The fractures at the heart of Myanmar’s political system have become tragically clear since the heady optimism of late 2015 and early 2016. The NLD government has announced various policy initiatives aimed at achieving sustainable and inclusive development. Yet conflict persists, issues of citizenship and belonging remain vexed and the everyday struggles faced by many people continue. Meanwhile Myanmar’s restive borderlands have been the site of brutal military campaigns which have displaced more than a million Rohingya, Kachin, Rakhine, Shan and Karen civilians internally and across borders. Though resilient within Myanmar, the perception of Aung San Suu Kyi as an icon of moral struggle is now tarnished internationally following her government’s response to these crises, especially in Rakhine State. A recently released book volume, Myanmar Transformed? People, Places and Politics, published by the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, grapples with the contradictions and possibilities at the core of Myanmar’s current political moment. The chapters are drawn from the 2017 Myanmar Update held in Canberra at Australian National University, which took as its theme “Transformations”. The chapter authors examine issues at the core of Myanmar’s societal fractures including civil-military relations, natural resources and conflict, the securitisation of the Rohingya and the possibilities for progressive government action to foster a more vibrant and peaceful democracy. The book was launched at lively panel discussions in Singapore and Yangon in November 2018, held with the support of ISEAS, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Myanmar. The free Introduction to the volume is now available in English and, thanks to the support of IDRC, in Burmese language also. The Introduction surveys the current political moment in Myanmar and assess the possibilities for reform in the context of the current arrangement of partial civilian rule. The 2019 Myanmar Update, to be held at the ANU in Canberra on 15th and 16th March, builds on the issues explored in the volume and prior Update conferences. Focusing of the theme “Living with Myanmar”, more than 30 scholars from Myanmar and around the globe will examine how people navigate the institutions, ideals that continue to shape every day existence after sixty years of military rule. All members of the public, including students interested in studying Myanmar, are encouraged to attend. To see the full programme for the conference and to register your attendance please see the conference website here...''
Creator/author: Gerard McCarthy
Source/publisher: New Mandala
2019-03-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Prisoners of conscience and NLD MPs-elect Dr. Than Nyein (m), 67, and Dr. May Win Myint (f), 55, have been imprisoned since October 1997 and are in poor states of health. They have each served a seven year prison sentence for organizing a meeting of opposition party members of the National League for Democracy (NLD). They have been detained without charge or trial since the expiry of their sentences and authorities have ordered that they remain in detention until January and February 2006 at the earliest. Both have medical problems, exacerbated by their treatment in detention. Dr. Than Nyein has repeatedly gone on hunger strike to protest his continued imprisonment and his health is believed to be deteriorating seriously. Amnesty International and reiterates calls on authorities for the immediate and unconditional release from detention of these two prisoners of conscience.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
2001-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Is the NLD in any shape to press for change?... "The National Convention ground into motion once more in February, but again Burma?s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD, was absent. And that?s probably just as well, because the NLD seems to be in no shape right now to meet the regime leaders head on. It?s not just that NLD Secretary General Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest, unable to hold a political meeting in her own home, let alone participate in one outside her confining four walls. The united front that once defined the party as a viable political movement has now turned into an amorphous grouping of often opposing views—some claim the NLD is no longer a credible force to challenge the rule of the generals or even to share government..."
Creator/author: Nandar Chann
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 2
2005-02-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Does the NLD?s future still rest with its ?young Turks??... "With the 60th birthday of Burma?s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in June now behind them, Burma watchers, journalists, diplomats and activists are reflecting on the state of her opposition National League for Democracy and wondering what the future holds for its members. As more than 1,000 political prisoners remain held in Burma?s prisons and with Suu Kyi still under house arrest, many people have trouble retaining hope for the country?s democracy movement..."
Creator/author: Toby Hudson
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 7
2005-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The pro-democracy protests in August 1988 were spearheaded by students. But a lack of coordination with Burma?s opposition party and the passage of time are forcing the movement to review its strategy..."
Creator/author: Min Zin
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 9
2003-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-01-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: By The Irrawaddy "The regime in Rangoon has proven the naysayers right once again. The May 30 clash in Upper Burma, and the crackdown that followed, should remind the junta?s apologists and other optimists hoping for a happy ending to the country?s political drama that national reconciliation in Burma is a long, long way away. The events on Black Friday demonstrate clearly it?s time for the international community to take action against Burma. Failing to act ignores the suffering of the Burmese people and acknowledges the junta?s ultimate victory—a triumph scored by attrition rather than a knockout blow. The script is familiar. Suu Kyi is detained by the regime. Advocates for democracy in Burma call for her release. The generals hold firm, defying international condemnation, then give in a little. Suu Kyi is finally freed and the world applauds. International opinion is successfully manipulated. Asean, Japan and some nations in the West express appreciation for the concession and begin speaking of the junta?s democratic will. Rangoon?s victory is rewarded with more trade and more aid. Meanwhile, the opposition remains stonewalled..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 5
2003-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-09-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The National Council of the Union of Burma and the Burma Lawyers' Council have formed a commission on June 25, 2003 to jointly deal with the alleged assassination attempt against the leaders of the National League for Democracy, including Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, with the following programmes: The Title of the Commission - The commission will be entitled as the Ad hoc Commission on Depayin Massacre (Burma). Aim - (1) To find out the truth on the Depayin Massacre; (2) To facilitate the struggle of people, based on legal affairs, both inside Burma and in the international community, in connection with the Depayin Massacre; Programme Objectives - (1) To exert efforts to lodge a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the event that it has jurisdiction over the Depayin Massacre case; (2) To lodge a complaint or complaints with other courts in the international community including the International Criminal Tribunal to be possibly established by the United Nations Security Council if the first objective is not possible; (3) To cooperate with the people inside Burma and the international community for the emergence of an official independent investigation commission in order to find out the truth on Depayin Massacre... Contents: ... Formation of Ad hoc Commission on Depayin Massacrr; Explanatory Statement of the Ad hoc Commission; Brief Background of Depayin Massacre; Depayin Massacre; Affidavits of the Eyewitnesses; SPDC?s Press Conference; Victims of Depayin Massacre (Pictures); Appendix I - Interview with Zaw Zaw Aung 50; Appendix II - Statement of Ko Aung Aung from Democratic Party for a New Society; Appendix III - The list of the vitims of Depayin Massacre.
Source/publisher: Ad hoc Commission on Depayin Massacre
2003-07-04
Date of entry/update: 2003-07-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Burmese opposition groups in exile were surprised when the military regime announced: ?In the Belin township, all National League for Democracy (NLD) members have resigned from their party. They have sent their resignation letters, the party billboard and all NLD documents to township Election Commission. So there is no NLD in Belin, Mon state.? The state-controlled media announcement very clearly signals the start of an offensive against the NLD party..."
Creator/author: Win Htein
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 6, No. 6
1998-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: The past decade has seen plenty of action, and heard even more words of both hope and intimidation, but the fulfillment of the Burmese people?s dream of creating a democratic nation remains as elusive as ever. Below is a synopsis of some of the salient events surrounding the elections of May 1990 and subsequent efforts to implement the National League for Democracy?s landslide victory.
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8. No. 4-5
2000-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: In the latest sign that the talks in Rangoon may be going somewhere, sources close to the National League for Democracy NLD have confirmed that a number of party elders have moved into the residential compound of General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi.
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 9. No. 3 (Intelligence section)
2001-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Ten years have passed since the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in Burma?s first free elections since the military seized power in 1962. Nobody knows when-or if--the results of the 1990 elections will ever be honored. As the military?s hold on power only seems to grow stronger with time, many wonder if the NLD is doomed to become a victim of history,
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8. No. 4-5
2000-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Moe Aye chronicles events and developments since the NLD?s dramatic electoral victory eight years ago... "If the SPDC (Slorc) had respected the results of the May 1990 election, and the parliamentary term was limited to four years, we would now be at the end of the second parliamentary term, and political parties would be busy organizing for the next elections. But this is o?nly a dream at the moment..."
Creator/author: Moe Aye
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 6, No. 3
1998-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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