2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"For more than two years, a UN-appointed team of 59 people has been collecting and analyzing more than two million pieces of evidence about possible human rights violations in Myanmar.
Working out of Geneva, there are experts in gender violence and crimes against children; analysts with experience in international justice; specialists in open source evidence; and investigators working with sophisticated information systems.
The team of professionals are formally known as the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, (IIMM) or Myanmar Mechanism, and was created in 2018 by the Human Rights Council.
The Mechanism was established after an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission found “clear patterns” of violations by the military, known as the Tatmadaw, and insisted that the perpetrators of the “gross human rights violations”, including those against the Rohingya, must not go unpunished.
The IIMM is not a court, neither does it have the power to prosecute. The hope is that all the information that could otherwise be lost, is preserved, and then shared with national, regional or international courts.
In an extensive interview with UN News, the head of the Mechanism, Nicholas Koumjian, explains the importance of preserving this evidence before it is potentially lost.
“Crime scenes get disturbed, bodies decompose, wounds can heal, people’s memories can fade, witnesses with information can pass away”, he explains. “So it’s very important to collect the information while you can.”
*The interview has been edited for clarity and length. *
**UN News: You and your colleagues have been working for over two years. What has been your focus? What has been achieved so far? **
Nicholas Koumjian: We started two years ago, in July of 2019, and we've been building up the Mechanism, acquiring all of the expertise that we believe would be necessary.
We have those with expertise in International Criminal law, in things like gender violence, investigation of crimes against children, investigation of sexual assaults, analysts with experience in very complex international cases.
We have those with experience in using open source evidence and very sophisticated and secure information systems, so that the information that we collect and preserve, is held confidentially and no one has access to it, and that also allows us to analyse the very vast quantities of data that we have collected.
We're now looking at the evidence that we've collected, over two million pieces, and analysing that in various situations, that we believe have the potential to amount to criminal cases against individuals responsible for those offences.
**UN News: Are there any preliminary conclusions? Can you share any? **
**Nicholas Koumjian: **What's different about our mechanism is that we're not really a reporting mechanism. We're not a court or prosecution service. We're collecting the evidence and preparing files to share them with those courts that might, or judicial authorities that might have the authority, and the willingness, to hold fair proceedings to hold individuals to account.
We've specifically been asked to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which has an investigation related to Rakhine State [home to many of those mostly-Rohingya Muslims who have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh], and we're doing that.
We also have been asked by the parties at the International Court of Justice to share evidence, and we looked at that situation. We want to help the judges in that case reach the best decision, and so we've agreed to look for relevant evidence that we can share, with the permission of those that provided it to us.
UN News: Can you tell me how you're conducting this work without having access to the country?
Nicholas Koumjian: It's unfortunate that we don't have access. The Human Rights Council specifically asked Myanmar to cooperate with us and we've reached out to them and we will continue to reach out and seek cooperation and access to the country, to the crime scenes, and to witnesses inside Myanmar when we can do so safely.
UN News: Do you have any hope that it can happen at any time soon?
**Nicholas Koumjian: **I don't think there's an immediate prospect of that happening. But what I've learned is, in International Criminal law, and generally in history, it's very hard to predict the future. Things can change much quicker than we imagined, so we will continue to reach out and hope that things do change and that we will eventually have access.
UN News: Regarding the military coup in in February, has it impacted your work? If so, in what ways?
Nicholas Koumjian: We said, when the coup first happened, that the change of government itself, the overthrow of the constitutional authority, the question of fair elections and democratic process, is not within our mandate, which is limited to the most serious international crimes and violations of international law.
But we said that we were very concerned, given the history of Myanmar, of so many crimes against civilians occurring in political conflicts, that we would be watching the situation closely.
What we've seen since then is, unfortunately, that it appears that very serious crimes have been happening, throughout the country, in different regions, systematically and on a widespread basis. So, we're collecting that information.
Many different sources have been voluntarily reaching out to us to provide us with information.
Others we have contacted. I believe we received over 200,000 communications just in the first few months after the coup, so it's increased the burden on us, but it's also given us the opportunity to have more individuals and organizations willing to speak to us, more opportunities to talk to those who have information about what is happening or has happened in the past in Myanmar. And this has created some opportunities for investigations.
UN News: Is it correct to say that some of these investigations, some of the information you're collecting, wouldn't otherwise happen, or be collected, if your mechanism didn't exist?
Nicholas Koumjian: Yes, I believe that it is absolutely fair to say that.
I've worked on different war crime tribunals, different processes to seek accountability, and one of the things that we've seen in other conflicts is the importance of preserving information while it's still fresh, while you can, because, of course, crime scenes get disturbed, bodies decompose, wounds can heal, people’s memories can fade, witnesses with information can die, can pass away without that information being collected.
So, it's very important to collect the information while you can, because unfortunately international justice often is a long process.
I came to the Myanmar mechanism from being the co-prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers for the courts in Cambodia, otherwise known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which was looking into crimes committed between 1975 to 1979.
Even in 2019, 40 years after those crimes were committed, that process was ongoing, and the evidence was being used. Fortunately, a lot of the evidence that was used there had been collected by a civil society organization, DC-Cam, in the 1990s, and that was very helpful to us.
So we think what we're doing now is very important, to preserve the evidence so that someday – and we hope it certainly will be much sooner than 40 years – this evidence can be used in courts that can hold those responsible for crimes accountable.
UN NEWS: When you talk about information and evidence, what are you talking about? Electronic communications? Forensic evidence?
Nicholas Koumjian: It's a broad category of information. We will be collecting information from individuals, sometimes interviewing individuals, collecting information that different organizations have previously collected, consolidating that, and analysing it.
Looking at digital information, looking at photographic and video information, analysing that with the most modern information technologies. We can locate where videos were taken and identify the duplicates, because we're getting so many thousands and thousands of videos and photographs, this is very important for us to do.
UN NEWS: And you're getting those from civil society organizations? People in the country?
**Nicholas Koumjian: **We're getting it from a broad range of different sources, and of course one of the basic premises of our work is that we don't name the individuals or organizations that we received the information from. But I would say from a very broad range of different types, organizations, businesses, individuals, many different types of sources.
UN NEWS: You spoke about having justice. What does it look like in this case?
Nicholas Koumjian: I think in Myanmar, as in many other conflicts around the world, many, many people have suffered. Some of them continue to suffer. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees living outside of their homes, either inside Myanmar or outside the borders of the country, wanting to go home.
Unfortunately, the crimes that they fled from continue to occur in some way or another, so they don't feel it's safe to go home.
Part of justice is assuring that those who committed crimes previously with impunity will now be held responsible, so that hopefully that will deter future crimes from occurring, and that the people of Myanmar who suffered can have some hope that these crimes will end and that they will receive some justice for what happened to themselves or to their family members..."
Source/publisher:
UN News via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-15
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Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, The UN and Burma - news and commentary
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"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ်(၃၅/၂၀၂၁)
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ (၁၅) ရက်
ကြားကာလ အခြေခံပညာရေး စစ်ဆေးအကဲဖြတ်ခြင်း ဆိုင်ရာထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Education, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-15
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National Unity Government (NUG), Education in Burma/Myanmar - general, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"1.Today marks the Sixth Anniversary of the signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) by the leaders of
Ethnic Revolutionary Armed Organizations, government, tamadaw and Hluttaw on 15th October of 2015, in the
presence of foreign diplomats which included the UN, EU, China, Japan and Thailand in order to establish a Union
based on the principles of democracy and federalism that guarantees democracy, national equality and selfdetermination.
2. PPST upholds the essence of NCA which embodies resolving political crisis through political means, fostering a
meaningful political dialogue with all the stakeholders, and protection and security of the people's lives and
property.
3. During the past six years, four sessions of the Union Peace Conference - 21st Century Panglong had been
convened according to the Seven-step culminating in the signing of three parts of the Union Accord. However,
we were still unable to lay down concrete principles to establish a Federal Democratic Union as desired.
Implementation of ceasefire matters and interim arrangements made no headway. Another disappointment was
the inability to convince remaining ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to sign the NCA which included the
principle of all-inclusiveness.
4. On the bright side, we have stimulated the widespread awareness and substantial understanding of federalism
among the public and public participation in the peace process. We have faced numerous obstacles and
challenges in fostering a new political culture that seeks resolution for the long standing political crisis through
political means. We believe that those lessons learnt will become instrumental in resolving the nation's current
political crisis.
5.The entire peace process including implementation of NCA has stalled due to the coup on February 1, 2021. In
order to overcome the political crisis, the PPST has adopted the following political goals based on the NCA
essence that embodies resolving political conflict through political means, fostering meaningful political dialogue
with all the stakeholders, and protection of civilians:
1) To release immediately and unconditionally all the state leaders and other detainees arrested
after the coup, and seek to resolve the political differences as soon as possible.
2) The future political dialogue for a political solution is to include all stakeholders and to take place
with the assistance of the international community.
3) To find solutions for the earliest transfer of power to the civilian leadership within the democratic
framework through a collective approach.
4) To implement institutional reforms to enable the Union of Myanmar to stand with dignity among
the International Community.
5) To establish a security system that protects the people in pursuant of peace, stability and
prosperity of the nation.
6) To implement programs that advance the protection of the lives and property of the people, and
resettlement and rehabilitation for their losses.
7) To build a Federal Democratic Union which ensures stability, peace and prosperity.
6. We welcome the efforts of the international community including the ASEAN to resolve the Myanmar political
crisis. We will also collaborate with all political forces to work towards the solution.
7. PPST is seeking humanitarian assistance for the people displaced by the conflict, as well as Covid-19 related
support and programs for people in the NCA-S EAO based area.
8. On this special occasion of the 6th Anniversary of the Signing of the NCA, we solemnly call for immediate and
unconditional release of all detained political prisoners and urge all the stakeholders to find peaceful means to
resolve the current political crisis..."
Source/publisher:
NCA-S EAO
Date of publication:
2021-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Armed conflict and peace-building in Burma - theoretical, strategic and general, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"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)
Date of publication:
2021-10-14
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Articles and reports about the NLD, The 2020 General Elections in Burma/Myanmar, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights Defenders
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"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
CDM အောင်မြင်ရေးကော်မတီ
မြန်မာ့မီးရထား CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဝန်ထမ်းအိမ်ရာမှ အတင်းအဓမ္မ ဖယ်ရှားနေသော လုပ်ရပ်များနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်း၍ ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခြင်း
၁၄ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၀၂၁
၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ မှ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ မတ်လ ၁ ရက်နေ့ တွင် ကြေညာချက် အမှတ် (၁၀/၂၀၂၁) ဖြင့် ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်နှင့် နိုင်ငံသူ နိုင်ငံသားများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်မှု တိုက်ဖျက်ရေး ဥပဒေပါ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည့် “နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံရေးအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ” အား “အကြမ်းဖက်အုပ်စု” အဖြစ် ကြေညာခဲ့ပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂။ တစ်ဖန် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ မတ်လ ၇ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၁၁/၂၀၂၁) ဖြင့် ပြည်သူက ဒီမိုကရေစီ နည်းလမ်းအရ တရားဝင်ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ထားသော ပြည်သူ့အစိုးရ စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်သည့် နိုင်ငံတော်ကိုသာ ကျေးဇူးသစ္စာစောင့်သိရိုသေရန် ဖြစ်ပြီး တရားမဝင် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီက ဥပဒေမဲ့ အာဏာလုယူ စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်နေသည့် နိုင်ငံတော်၏ ကျေးဇူးသစ္စာကို စောင့်သိရန် မလိုအပ်ကြောင်း ဖော်ပြခဲ့ပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၃။ သို့သော် Non-CDM အရာထမ်း / အမှုထမ်းများသည် တရားမဝင် အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီ အားသစ္စာခံ၍ အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှု ( Civil Disobedience Movement ) တွင် ပါဝင်ကာ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးတွင် ပြည်သူနှင့်အတူ ရပ်တည်လျက်ရှိသော မြန်မာ့မီးရထားCDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဝန်ထမ်းအိမ်ရာများမှနေ၍ ဖယ်ရှားပေးရန် အကြမ်းဖက် ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဖြင့် ခြိမ်းခြောက်ကာ အတင်းအဓမ္မ ဖယ်ရှားခိုင်းလျက်ရှိသည်ကို စိစစ်တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။
၄။ မိမိတို့အနေဖြင့် ယခုကဲ့သို့ မြန်မာ့မီးရထား CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ရာထူးမှထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအိမ်ရာများမှ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်နှင့် ရဲများကို အသုံးပြု၍ ဖယ်ရှားစေခြင်း တို့ကို စက်ဆုတ်စွာ ရှုံ့ချပါသည်။
၅။ ထိုသို့ ရာထူးမှ ထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း၊ ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ်ခြင်း တို့အပြင် ဝန်ထမ်းအိမ်ရာများမှ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်နှင့် ရဲများကို အသုံးပြု၍ ဖယ်ရှားခြင်းများပြုလုပ်ရာတွင် အမိန့်ပေးစေခိုင်းသော၊ လက်တွေ့ပြုမူဆောင်ရွက်သော၊ အားပေးကူညီသော လူပုဂ္ဂိုလ်များအားလုံးကို မှတ်တမ်းပြုစုကာ လိုအပ်သော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ ပြုလုပ်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ပြုမူခံရသော မြန်မာ့မီးရထား CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအားလဲ ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးက ဝိုင်းဝန်းကူညီ ပံ့ပိုးပေးကြပါရန် မေတ္တာရပ်ခံအပ်ပါသည်။
မန်းဝင်းခိုင်သန်း
ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးချုပ်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ဥက္ကဋ္ဌ
CDM အောင်မြင်ရေးကော်မတီ..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-14
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-14
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"Court testimony from Myanmar’s ousted civilian President U Win Myint on Tuesday showed that commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing breached the military’s own 2008 Constitution when he seized power on Feb. 1.
On multiple occasions over the past eight months, whether in meetings with members of the State Administration Council (SAC) he chairs, or at gatherings with his subordinates, the commander-in-chief has repeatedly claimed that there was no coup on Feb. 1 and that the military takeover was carried out “constitutionally”.
However, on Tuesday, the 70-year-old detained President, testifying in his own defense, told a court in Naypyitaw that early on the morning of the takeover, two military generals entered his room at the Presidential Residence in Naypyitaw and tried to force him to resign from his post on the grounds of ill health.
According to his lawyer, the President told the court that the officers threatened him, saying that if he did not do as they instructed he would come to “harm”.
U Win Myint told the generals that he would rather die than consent to their proposal, the lawyer added.
The President said he told the generals that he was not concerned about being harmed, and that things should be handled as per the law and not by staging a coup, his lawyer said.
The first public revelation of the circumstances of President U Win Myint’s detention came as he personally defends himself against an incitement charge brought by the regime over statements released by his National League for Democracy (NLD) urging the public to resist the coup.
The same charge has also been brought against detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD chairwoman, and detained Naypyitaw Mayor U Myo Aung.
A lawyer told The Irrawaddy that Tuesday’s court testimony from the President has emerged as the strongest confirmation yet of assertions made by both local and international legal experts that the military takeover was unconstitutional.
According to Article 417 and Article 418 of the 2008 Constitution, in the event that a state of emergency is to be declared in the country, the President must announce the order in coordination with the military-dominated National Defense and Security Council (NDSC). The President then transfers the government’s executive, legislative and judicial powers to the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces.
However, a few hours after the country’s civilian leaders including President U Win Myint and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi were arrested on Feb. 1, the military convened an NDSC meeting. Former general U Myint Swe, the military-appointed vice president, attended the meeting as “acting president” and declared the country to be under a nationwide state of emergency for one year. Then, he immediately transferred the country’s legislative, administrative and judicial powers to the commander-in-chief.
Trying to force the sitting president to resign by using threats could be seen as coup maker Min Aung Hlaing’s desperate attempt to make his takeover constitutional. The charter’s Article 73 (a) states that one of the two vice presidents—the one who won the second-highest number of votes in the presidential election—shall serve as Acting President “if the office of the President falls vacant due to his resignation, death, permanent disability or any other reason.”
In other words, the two senior military officers’ suggestion that U Win Myint quit his position for health reasons was nothing more than a pretext to make the coup legal.
However, given the then president’s refusal to resign, it’s hard to say that Article 73 provides valid support for U Myint Swe’s acting presidency, let alone the coup.
“The President has notified the entire nation as well as the world, through the court, that the takeover violates the Constitution,” the lawyer said.
The President’s words clearly reveal the commander-in-chief and his fellow generals to be criminals who have committed high treason, he said.
“It is the strongest evidence that they committed high treason as [it comes from] the head of state himself,” the lawyer said.
Lawyers in Myanmar have called for the prosecution of the coup leaders for high treason, which carries the death sentence.
Amid these calls, the SAC led by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has amended the country’s high treason law in an attempt to guarantee impunity for the military leaders who seized power in February.
While the original Article 121 of the Penal Code says anyone who “attempts or otherwise prepares by force of arms or other violent means to overthrow the organs of the Union or of its constituent units established by the Constitution” is guilty of high treason, the coup leader has amended it so that only unconstitutional use of force of arms constitutes high treason, meaning it is acceptable to use force of arms as long as it is done in line with the Constitution.
However, lawyers said that because the takeover was carried out in breach of the Constitution, every order, every appointment and removal of an official, and all changes to the law made by the junta are illegal.
Myanmar has been in political and social turmoil since the military overthrew the civilian government and seized control.
Since the coup, the junta has killed at least 1,167 people including protesters, politicians, activists, bystanders and children, and arrested more than 8,890 in an effort to suppress opposition to the regime..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-13
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights Defenders, Military History, Political History
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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)
Date of publication:
2021-10-12
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Articles and reports about the NLD, The 2020 General Elections in Burma/Myanmar
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"To: ASEAN Leaders
H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei
H.E Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia
H.E Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia
H.E Thongloun Sisoulith, Prime Minister of Laos
H.E Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri, Prime Minister of Malaysia
H.E Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President of the Philippines
H.E Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore
H.E Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand
H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Vietnam
CC: ASEAN Dialogue Partners
H.E. Will Nankervis, Ambassador of Australia to ASEAN
H.E. Diedrah Kelly, Ambassador of Canada to ASEAN
H.E. Deng Xijun, Ambassador of China to ASEAN
H.E. Igor Driesmans, Ambassador of the European Union to ASEAN
H.E. Shri Jayant N. Khobragade, Ambassador of India to ASEAN
H.E. Chiba Akira, Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN
H.E. Lim Sungnam, Ambassador of Korea to ASEAN
H.E. Pam Dunn, Ambassador of New Zealand to ASEAN
H.E. Alexander Ivanov, Ambassador of Russia to ASEAN
H.E. Melissa A. Brown, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., U.S. Mission to ASEAN
13 October 2021
Re: Myanmar’s presence at the ASEAN Summit
Your Excellencies,
We, the undersigned organisations, write to you to urge you not to extend an invitation to Myanmar’s military junta to the upcoming ASEAN Summit on 25 to 28 October because of the military’s blatant disregard for the Five Point Consensus agreed at the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting and continuing refusal to cooperate with ASEAN towards its implementation.
We welcome the remarks made by the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia and Malaysia who questioned whether the junta should be invited to the Summit and urge the other Member States to come to the same conclusion.
ASEAN’s credibility depends on its ability to act decisively and bring an end to the Myanmar military junta’s relentless violence against the people of Myanmar. A lack of decisiveness and consequences for the military’s total contempt for the ASEAN’s leaders’ agreement risks undermining the bloc’s legitimacy as a key regional player that can bring peace and stability.
On 24 April 2021, the leaders of nine Member States and the Myanmar junta, represented by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, agreed on a consensus that included the “immediate cessation of violence”, constructive dialogue among all parties, the appointment of an ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar, humanitarian assistance to be delivered to the country, and for the Special Envoy and delegation to visit Myanmar to “meet with all parties concerned“.
Myanmar’s junta has failed to respect this consensus on every single count.
Since the Myanmar junta agreed to immediately cease the violence on 25th April till the end of September there have been 3,534 attacks either on civilians by the military or armed clashes that failed to protect civilians – that’s an 840% increase from the same period in 2020 (376). Thousands have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety. Violent acts amounting to crimes against humanity have been documented. It is clear that junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will not stop in his attempts to crush the democratic opposition to his rule.
The military junta has also continually opposed any form of dialogue. Zaw Min Tun, the military’s spokesman, recently said that dialogue between the ASEAN Special Envoy and the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the National Unity Government and People’s Defence Forces could not take place because they have been declared by the junta as “illegal organizations”. The junta’s stalling tactics also contributed to the delay in announcing Brunei’s Foreign Affairs Minister II Erywan Yusof as ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar.
While we note aid commitments made to the AHA Centre and delivered through the Myanmar Red Cross, it is important to recall that the Myanmar military’s own actions are creating the current humanitarian crisis engulfing the country. According to the United Nations (UN), three million people require assistance. That number has tripled over the last eight months. In addition to that, there are now 20 million people living below the poverty line – nearly half the population. Yet, the military junta is weaponizing humanitarian aid; blocking the distribution of supplies, placing travel restrictions on humanitarian workers, hoarding and destroying aid, and attacking civilians, health and humanitarian aid workers.
It is clear that Myanmar’s military has displayed a flagrant lack of respect for ASEAN, and in fact since the coup, it appears to have used the bloc to try to gain legitimacy while at the same time increasing its brutal reprisals against the people.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also warned that the opportunity to prevent the Myanmar junta from entrenching its rule could be narrowing. He has called for unified regional and international action to prevent the crisis from becoming a large-scale conflict and multi-faceted “catastrophe” in Southeast Asia and beyond.
It is time for ASEAN to act decisively. This starts by denying the Myanmar junta the legitimacy it craves, and which has been rejected constantly by the people of Myanmar. The junta has refused to cooperate with regional and international neighbors, failed to stand by the commitments it has made, and exposed to the world not only its barbaric brutality but also an inability to deal with the deepening social and economic disaster currently taking place in the country, which includes the dereliction of public health services amid the global pandemic.
Reiterating the remarks of Malaysia and Indonesia’s foreign ministers, a firm united response by the other Member States is required. The Myanmar junta’s actions must not be accepted as “business as usual.” They are endangering the stability, prosperity, peace and health of the region.
We therefore call on ASEAN leaders to deny the head of the Myanmar military junta a seat at the table and display to him that his callous disregard for the people, and his regional neighbors, does not come free of consequences..."
Source/publisher:
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
Date of publication:
2021-10-13
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
ASEAN-Burma relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"Myanmar's deposed President testified on Tuesday that the military tried to force him to relinquish power hours before its February 1 coup, warning him he could be seriously harmed if he refused, according to his lawyer.
The testimony of Win Myint -- his first public comments since he was overthrown -- challenges the military's insistence that no coup took place, and that power had been lawfully transferred to the generals by an acting President.
Win Myint was testifying alongside Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and de facto government leader before the coup, at their trial on Tuesday on charges including incitement, stemming from letters bearing their names that were sent to embassies urging them not to recognize the junta.
Win Myint, who was Myanmar's head of state, told the court in the capital Naypyidaw that senior military officials approached him on February 1 and told him to resign due to ill health.
"The president turned down their proposal, saying he was in good health," defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said in an English-language text message sent to reporters, citing his testimony. "The officers warned him the denial would cause him many harm but the president told them he would rather die than consent."
A spokesman for Myanmar's ruling military council did not answer calls seeking comment on Tuesday.
Khin Maung Zaw said the defense rejected the charges against Win Myint and Suu Kyi as they were being held incommunicado.
Win Myint and Suu Kyi have both dismissed multiple charges against them as false. The defense lawyer, representing them both, said Suu Kyi had suggested Tuesday's testimony be made public.
Myanmar has been torn by violence and economic paralysis since the army intervened to prevent Suu Kyi forming a new government, three months after her party was re-elected in a landslide.
The generals said that election was marred by fraud, threatening the country's sovereignty.
The vice president, Myint Swe, a former army officer, was sworn in as President on February 1 and immediately handed power to the military to oversee a state of emergency.
The junta has not publicly disclosed how Myint Swe assumed the presidency from Win Myint..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK) via "CNN" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-10-13
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Description:
"This brief, the third in a series, reviews Myanmar’s conflict trends for the month of September 2021. It focuses on the significance of the National Unity Government’s (NUG) September 7 declaration of “resistance war” against the junta, e.g., the long-rumored ‘D-Day.’1 This brief builds upon analysis presented in Brief 2: Myanmar’s Shifting Military Balance, which described how armed resistance to military dictatorship continued to expand in scope during July and August 2021. Particularly significant, by the end of August a total of 250 out of the country’s 330 townships had experienced at least some conflict incidents since 1 February. Key to armed resistance has been the increasing assertion and steady expansion of self-defense groups. Since the coup, approximately 240 such groups have declared themselves in one way or another. It is likely that at least 180 of them have been active to some extent.
The NUG’s September 7 declaration was a major milestone in the country’s history.2 Since then, there has been a notable increase in attacks across the country on Tatmadaw forces and other State Administration Council (SAC) apparatuses. Self-defense groups and key EAOs are active in resistance actions across the length and breadth of the country aside from Rakhine.3 A strong argument can be made that resistance to military rule is now self-sustaining in terms of resourcing, safe havens, and personnel, and cannot be easily extinguished by the Tatmadaw.4 The Tatmadaw has had no success forcing key EAOs to sign ceasefires or to break their burgeoning relationships with the NUG and peoples’ defense forces (PDFs). Resistance forces now have established safe havens with both the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Karen National Union (KNU) where they can safely train and equip fighters.5 Raids on villages are ineffective at killing PDF fighters. Tatmadaw ‘clearance operations’ in remote townships are costly and ineffective at controlling territory for the long-term. There are simply not enough security forces to move around. It is not assured that SAC will lose, but a month after D-Day, it certainly does not have the military initiative. The Tatmadaw is increasingly having to react to events driven by the resistance.6
As before, the analysis in this brief is underpinned by a ‘conflict incidents’ dataset compiled by the author. This dataset comprises approximately 3,400 incidents from 1 February to 30 September but focuses specifically on ‘conflict incidents’ from May onwards when the nature of resistance shifted towards nationwide armed revolt. This dataset draws on Exera daily briefs but is complemented by other sources, such as 74 Media, Khit Thit Media, and Mizzima’s daily updates. The author notes up front his own doubts about trying to quantify a highly fluid situation. Such datasets are useful for highlighting general trends and trajectories and the analysis below should be understood accordingly.7 Lastly, the brief intentionally provides a wide range of references to support policymakers interested in specific topics. Did D-Day have any effect? The September 7 announcement by NUG interim president Duwa Lashi La provoked a lot of interest around the world and a palpable sense of excitement within the country. After a month, it is possible to make some preliminary observations about whether it had any significance to the military situation on the ground.
Over September there were approximately 779 conflict incidents, compared to 523 in August and 443 in July.8 This represents a 49 percent increase month-on-month.9 A review of the most conflict-affected townships, both overall and during September, highlights they are all over the country, including in major urban townships in Yangon and Mandalay. September saw new townships all over the country emerge as hotspots, such as: Ye Township, Mon State; Launglon Township, Tanintharyi Region; Thantlang Township, Chin State; and Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region.
Examined from another angle, daily national averages of conflict incidents increased from 16.9 in August to 26 in September.10 Mandalay saw the steepest change, nearly doubling its average with several townships in Mandalay city seeing sharp rises in conflict incidents (see Annex 1). Magway was also notable, increasing from 1.55 to 2.64 conflict incidents per day, driven by resistance attacks in Yesagyo, Gangaw, Pauk, Saw and Taungdwingyi Townships. Yangon and Sagaing Regions were already high in August but still increased over September; from 3.61 to 5.4 and 3.84 to 6.8 incidents per day respectively. Overall, Sagaing, Magway, Yangon, and Mandalay Magway Regions represented 68 percent of all conflict incidents in September.
The widespread presence and quickening pace of armed resistance and conflict incidents in Bamar Regions is unprecedented. While the remaining three regions are not at the same levels, Bago, Ayeyarwady and Tanintharyi Regions also saw their daily averages of conflict incidents increase over September compared to August (see Annex 1). This was due to increased actions in townships with
existing concentrations of conflict incidents – for instance Pathein, Bago, and Dawei – but more significantly by rapid increases in other townships that did not have extensive conflict histories. For instance, Thayetchaung Township in Tanintharyi Regions escalated markedly in September as did Kyaukkyi Township in Bago Region. Seven townships also became active for the first time in September in these three Regions, namely Einme and Ngaputaw Townships in Ayeyarwady Region; Daik-U, Gyobingauk, Kawa, and Monyo Towships in Bago Region; and Tanintharyi Township in Tanintharyi Region. The D-Day announcement did not significantly change the strategy and tactics used by self-defense groups. Rather, it signaled a distinct escalation in attacks utilizing available resources. Self-defense groups are utilizing the gamut of tactics applied to date, including IED and mine attacks, assassinations, arson attacks, attacks on police stations, and bombings of strategic routes, offices, and infrastructure. Several new tactics have also emerged, such as the routine sabotage of MyTel telecom towers. During September there was a clear escalation of bombings in both Yangon and Mandalay. By example, from September 1 to 22, there were at least 39 explosions in Yangon Region alone.11 Sabotage of MyTel telecom towers escalated significantly over September and by the end of the month over a hundred had been destroyed since the coup.12 As mentioned, conflict incidents have been consistently present in the States since the coup except for Rakhine. However, Shan State was relatively calm over September aside from consistently high levels of conflict incidents in Muse Township in the northeast and Phekon Township in the south, which has been the case for several months now. Overall, conflict incidents decreased across the State from 48 in August to 33 in September. That Shan State is relatively calm is a historic anomaly, but the ongoing fighting between the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) -- Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) coalition persists at comparatively low numbers of conflict incidents, albeit at high intensity as they are significant military forces engaging in battles. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an EAO from the Kokang community, has been active in Muse but was also increasingly active in Lashio Township during the last week of September. There were also notable attacks on Tatmadaw-allied forces in Kalaw Township.13
Although Chin State saw an overall increase in conflict incidents, both Kayah and Karen States saw slight decreases. Fighting over September was particularly pronounced in Chin State’s Thantlang, Hakha and Tedim Townships in the north and Kantpetlet Township in the south. September was also significant for the amount of coordination by Chin self-defense groups and those in nearby Sagaing and Magway
0
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Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month Conflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region MonthConflict Incidents Per State/Region Month
May
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AugustAugustAugustAugustAugustAugust
SeptemberSeptemberSeptemberSeptember September SeptemberSeptember
4
Regions. Mon State also saw notable increases in conflict incidents over September, more than doubling compared to August. This was driven by marked increases in Ye, Bilin and Thaton Townships..."
Source/publisher:
Matthew B. Arnold, Ph.D.
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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"The situation regarding human and labour rights in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate since the military junta coup in February. The military has brutally violated human rights and, in their attempt to wipe out opposition, targeted workers, activists, labour rights organisations and trade unionists. As a result, Clean Clothes Campaignmembers in Myanmar have been forced into hiding. As of September 18th, 1109 people have been killed by the military since the coup and 6613 are currently detained in custody.
We stand in solidarity with all those working to end military rule in Myanmar and fully support the call to bring back democracy and to respect human rights. The Clean Clothes Campaign’s role is to amplify the voices of garment workers and to be guided by the demands of our members regarding protection of their rights. Having consulted with our Myanmar members, we call for the suspension of the EU’s preferential trading system ‘Everything But Arms’ (EBA). Under the EBA, businesses in Myanmar can export goods tariff-free (barring weapons and ammunition) to the EU market. The EBA has significantly bolstered Myanmar’s economy and the EU receives more than half of Myanmar’s total apparel exports. EBA preferences can be revoked in cases of serious and systematic violations of human rights and suspension of it will hit the ruling military.
The Clean Clothes Campaign will continue to push all garment brands sourcing from Myanmar to prioritise workers’ rights in all their actions.
This means that brands who are stopping production in Myanmar must abide by their responsibilities to exit responsibly, honour all existing commitments and payments and ensure workers receive all wages, benefits and severance pay owed to them. This is vital as the coup, combined with Covid-19, have resulted in job losses, povertyand economic instability, which are severely impacting upon workers and their families. Myanmar has approximately 700,000 garment workers; brands must act now to ensure these workers and their families do not face further hardships.
Our demands to brands:
Publicly condemn the military coup, call for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, and to support the people’s protests and the Civil Disobedience Movement;
Prioritise workers’ rights and take concrete steps to protect them, including but not limited to: protecting, supporting and collaborating with the labour movement, ensuring workers receive full wages and benefits owed including full severance payments as necessary; as far as possible, protecting the safety of workers including ensuring suppliers don’t have links to the military.
Be thorough and transparent in their due diligence process concerning human and labour rights in Myanmar, including disclosure of an up-to-date list of all their direct and indirect suppliers.
If brands are currently committed to producing in Myanmar, they should create robust contingency plans regarding payment of severance and a pathway for a responsible exit, should their situation change.
Our call to the European Union, the United Kingdom and international communities:
Withdraw EBA preferential trading tariffs due to the serious and systematic violations to human rights by the military.
Support the people of Myanmar in their call for democracy through targeted sanctions and diplomatic means.
Continue to pursue all avenues for remedy of human rights violations, including pressuring the military to release all political prisoners..."
Source/publisher:
Clean Clothes Campaign
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
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Description:
"Dear Excellency,
I am delighted to express my sincere appreciation to you and your fellow
parliamentarians, on behalf of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw-CRPH
and People of Myanmar, for joint motion resolution (2021/2905 (RSP)) on the human
rights situation in Myanmar, including the situation of religious and ethnic groups,
unanimously adopted by the plenary session of European Parliament on 7 October 2021
in which the European Parliament called for military leadership of Myanmar to fully
respect the outcome of the democratic elections of November 2020 and, in order not to
devastate all the democratic progress achieved in past years, to immediately reinstate
the civilian government, end the state of emergency, and allow all elected
parliamentarians to assume their mandates in order to restore constitutional order and
democratic norms.
Furthermore, we would like to show our heartfelt thanks to you for the resolution to urge
the immediate and unconditional release of President U Win Myint, State Counsellor Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, and all others arrested by Myanmar Junta on unfounded accusations
during and after the coup, to support the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu
Hluttaw(CRPH) and the National Unity Government(NUG) as the only legitimate
representatives of the democratic wishes of the people of Myanmar, to continue imposing
targeted and robust EU sanctions as well as demanding member states push ahead with
targeted restrictive measures against those responsible for the coup.
As a legitimate body representing the elected members of parliament, the CRPH
(Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw) will be working closely with the European
parliament for restoring democracy and the resumption of economic and social
development in Myanmar through the effective channel of parliamentary diplomacy. We
strongly believe that mutual solidarity and camaraderie provided by the international
parliamentarians will help us in pursuing a 'Democratic Federal State'.
Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration..."
Source/publisher:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH)
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, European Union-Burma relations - European Parliament
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Sub-title:
Ensure Prompt Access to UN Refugee Agency for Protection
Description:
"(New York) – Indian authorities should immediately free all detained Myanmar asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should investigate the deaths of two women who had fled Myanmar and died in custody in Manipur state from Covid-19 in June 2021.
Since Myanmar’s military coup on February 1, tens of thousands of Myanmar nationals have fled the country to escape the violent crackdown. Approximately 16,000 Myanmar nationals have crossed into India in the four bordering states – Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, the media have reported. Those fleeing include parliament members, civil servants, military and police officials, and civil society and human rights activists. Most are in hiding, afraid of being arrested.
“People from Myanmar fleeing threats to their lives and liberty should be offered a safe haven in India, not detained and deprived of their rights,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indian government should uphold its international legal obligations and work with the UN refugee agency to ensure prompt access to international protection mechanisms.”
In June, two women from Myanmar, Ma Myint, 46, and Mukhai, 40, died from Covid-19 in a district hospital in Manipur state. Ma Myint and Mukhai were among 29 Myanmar nationals arrested on March 31 under the Foreigners Act for entering the country without valid travel documents. They were later placed in judicial custody by the district court. On July 2, the Manipur-based group Human Rights Alert wrote to the state human rights commission alleging that government officials were not providing immigration detainees with food and adequate health care, and that detainees were dependent on the charity of local civil society groups for food.
Ma Myint and Mukhai were only taken to a hospital once their illness was critical, according to Human Rights Alert and both died within three days of being admitted. At least 13 other asylum seekers also contracted Covid-19 in detention in Manipur.
Since February, the Myanmar junta and security forces have responded with increasing violence and repression to the nationwide anti-coup movement. Security forces have killed over 920 people and arbitrarily detained an estimated 5,300 activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. In March, the Indian government condemned the violence in Myanmar at the UN Security Council and called for the release of detained leaders, but at the same time the government ordered northeast border states to check the flow of “illegal immigrants from Myanmar.”
The chief minister of Mizoram state, which has had the greatest influx since February, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying this directive was unacceptable and urged the national government to instead provide asylum to the refugees.
While Indian border guards have not pushed back any arrivals from Myanmar since the coup and several village councilors in northeast states have expressed a willingness to accommodate the refugees, the Modi government has provided no clarity regarding their status, local rights groups said. In addition, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India requires asylum seekers to travel to one of the agency’s designated centers, none of which are in the northeast, to apply for refugee status. As a result, thousands of Myanmar nationals in India fleeing persecution remain vulnerable to arrest, detention, and possible return to Myanmar.
UNHCR Detention Guidelines, which draw on international law, say that government authorities may detain adult asylum seekers only “as a last resort” as a strictly necessary and proportionate measure to achieve a legitimate legal purpose based on an individual assessment. Legitimate justifications for detention should be clearly defined in law, and conform to reasons clearly recognized in international law, such as concerns about danger to the public, a likelihood of absconding, or an inability to confirm an individual’s identity. Victims of torture and other serious physical, psychological, or sexual violence should, as a general rule, not be detained.
Refugees in the border states are largely dependent on civil society groups, who are providing support. Several groups have written to the national government asking it to provide humanitarian aid to the asylum seekers and ensure that specialized humanitarian agencies, including UNHCR, have unhindered access to them.
On May 3, the High Court of Manipur ordered safe passage for seven Myanmar nationals, including three journalists, to Delhi so that they could seek protection from UNHCR. “They fled the country of their origin under imminent threat to their lives and liberty,” the court stated, adding “They aspire for relief under International Conventions that were put in place to offer protection and rehabilitation to refugees/asylum seekers. In such a situation, insisting that they first answer for admitted violations of our domestic laws, as a condition precedent for seeking ‘refugee’ status, would be palpably inhuman.”
Although India is not a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, the international legal principle of nonrefoulement is recognized as customary international law binding on all countries. Nonrefoulement prohibits countries from returning anyone to a country where they may face persecution, torture, or other serious harm.
Since 2017, Indian authorities have repeatedly sought to return ethnic Rohingya to Myanmar despite serious allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide by the military. In March, Indian authorities in Delhi, Jammu, and Kashmir detained dozens of Rohingya with plans to deport them to Myanmar. In April, the Supreme Court rejected a plea to stop their deportation.
Many of the detained Rohingya say they hold identity documents issued by UNHCR and that they feared for their safety in Myanmar. Over a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar, primarily to Bangladesh, most of them since the military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing that began in August 2017. The 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar’s Rakhine State face severe repression and violence, with no freedom of movement, no access to citizenship, or other basic rights. Abuses against the Rohingya in Rakhine State amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, Human Rights Watch said.
Indian authorities say that they will deport irregular immigrants from Myanmar if they do not hold valid travel documents required under the Foreigners Act. But any forcible returns to Myanmar would violate the principle of nonrefoulement.
India’s failure to provide fair asylum procedures or to allow UNHCR to make refugee determinations for those fleeing Myanmar because of the threat to their lives violates the government’s international legal obligations, Human Rights Watch said.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to ensure that the Indian government meets its obligations under international refugee law,” Ganguly said. “Indian authorities should treat those from Myanmar seeking refuge in India with dignity and provide them protection from further abuse.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-07-28
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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With three of her sons in prison and the fourth in hiding, Khin Kyi finds herself alone and struggling in precarious times
Description:
"Until four years ago, 63-year-old widow Khin Kyi made a living selling used books in the Myaynigone commercial district in Yangon's Sanchaung Township. Then she started selling noodle salads to make ends meet. Now she has nothing to rely on, not even her four sons.
First the pandemic, then the coup, robbed her of her livelihood. Of the two, the latter has done far greater harm. She may have been strong enough to survive a recent bout of Covid-19, but recovering from the coup may prove far more difficult.
Thanks to a niece, she has food to eat. But that is far less support than she would have had if her four adult sons were still around. Before the coup, they often visited her home. Now she has no idea when they will return.
“My niece has been sending me food these days. I feel quite small since I don’t have my sons with me anymore, but I’m trying my best to stay strong as I want to see them all again,” she said.
Her oldest son, 34-year-old Thu Zaw Kyi Win, has a family of his own, with two young sons, aged three and four, and a third child on the way. It has been months since he saw them last.
He longs to reunite with his family—not only with his wife and children, but also with his mother and brothers. But as the only son who is not in the custody of the coup regime, he doesn’t dare return to any of the homes he has known, lest he, too, ends up sharing his brothers’ fate.
“The only way all of our families will ever be able to reunite is if we win this revolution,” he says in a determined voice.
The solitary son
Now in hiding, Thu Zaw Kyi Win plays down the price he and his brothers have had to pay for opposing Myanmar’s dictators: “I knew I would have to face these things if I did this, so it wasn’t unexpected when my brothers got taken.”
In his eyes, however, there is a look of deeper concern. Perhaps he is thinking of his mother, and the mother of his sons. But rather than dwell on this, he returns to the subject of his brothers.
Naing Zaw Kyi Win, the next in line, was arrested on April 10 for taking part in a workers’ strike in Yangon’s Shwepyithar Township. He is currently being held in Insein Prison, where the two brothers previously served 14 months for their involvement in a similar strike in February 2015.
Twenty-seven-year-old Naing Zaw Kyi Win was working as a driver at a factory before the coup. A loner who kept largely to himself, he was also known for helping his co-workers with their problems.
Thu Zaw Kyi Win acknowledged that his brother had drifted away from the rest of the family before the coup. “He lived alone and never really talked to any of us,” he said.
Ironically, before the coup tore the family apart, it brought the two brothers together again. United in their commitment to fighting the regime that seized power on February 1, they were both quick to join the Spring Revolution.
Thu Zaw Kyi Win has heard that his brother was among those who took part in a protest inside Insein Prison in July. As punishment, he was reportedly beaten and placed in an isolation cell.
Although this could not be confirmed, it has added to the emotional burden of both his mother and the only brother still in a position to know anything about the rest of his family.
The twins
When Thu Zaw Kyi Win and Naing Zaw Kyi Win joined forces in the early days of the anti-coup movement, they also counted a third brother among their closest comrades.
Yan Naung Kyi Win was working as a tattoo artist near Shwepyithar’s Amoe Gyi bus station before the turmoil began. Just 22 years old, he already had a history as a student activist.
According to a former central committee member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), Yan Naung Kyi Win served as chair of the Shwepyithar Township Student Union from 2017 and became president of the township’s executive team of the Basic Education Students Union in 2018.
“He was dead set on destroying the dictatorship from the time he started working with us. I’m very worried about him now that he’s being detained,” the former ABFSU official said.
Yan Naung Kyi Win was arrested in Bago on April 16 and is currently being held in Bago Prison.
Despite being his identical twin, Yan Naing Kyi Win, the fourth brother, could not have been more different from Yan Naung Kyi Win, at least in terms of his political orientation.
Unlike his brothers, Yan Naing Kyi Win kept himself aloof from the unrest that has swept across the country since February. He preferred to focus on his phone and computer repair business in Hlaing Tharyar Township.
But his apolitical attitude did little to protect him when, in July, he was arrested while visiting his mother. As Thu Zaw Kyi Win later learned, he has since been charged with incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code.
“They accused him of taking part in the protests and arrested him. I think they mistook him for one of us,” said his oldest brother.
Targeting families
According to Bo Kyi, the associate secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), such unjustifiable arrests are not simply a matter of guilt by association. Targeting family members has always been one of the military’s ways of punishing its opponents, he explained.
“The military has not changed. In the past, they would often arrest the father if they could not find the son. But now they’re doing it even more than before,” he said.
But the regime doesn’t just lock up relatives of activists—it also ensures that families suffer in other ways, as well.
“Sometimes they fire family members from government jobs if someone in the family is politically active. And they will make it impossible for children of activists to study abroad,” he said.
As a mother deprived of the support of her sons in a time of desperate need, Khin Kyi is like millions of others in Myanmar who are struggling to survive under the rule of an army indifferent to the needs of ordinary citizens.
For Thu Zaw Kyi Win, who is as powerless to help his mother as her other three sons who are now behind bars, knowing how much she must be suffering is perhaps the bitterest pill he has had to swallow.
But even now, he remains convinced that the day will come when the people will prevail over their oppressors, and his family will be reunited.
“We will make sure to meet up at Mom’s house again, just like old times,” he says, with hope in his eyes..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-10-10
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders
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"I and many other journalists who covered the 1988 pro-democracy uprising felt a sense of déjà vu when, once again, the Tatmadaw’s tanks rolled into major cities and cracked down brutally on protesters while some embittered activists took to the borders to fight and to form a government working mostly in exile. Is it happening again? Will there be another few decades of harsh military rule, resistance and suffering? Will the men in green ever come to their senses and realize that they are destroying the country, not “saving” it?
On closer reflection, however, there are some fundamental differences between the situation today and that of 33 years ago. First of all, digital media has changed the world, and Myanmar is no exception. In 1988, the internet and smartphones did not exist and we who covered the uprising from Bangkok had to depend on shaky and often faulty landlines. It all began on Aug. 8,1988—hence “8888”—with massive demonstrations all over the country. The military was called out to suppress the uprising and did so brutally. Thousands of people—yes, thousands, not hundreds as some chroniclers claim—were gunned down in the then capital Yangon and elsewhere. When that failed to cow the public into submission, the Tatmadaw withdrew from the streets and public view, hoping that it would create the kind of chaos it would need to step in and “restore order”. And that was exactly what it did on Sept. 18, when a junta called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) assumed power and another massacre of protesters took place.
During that month, from mid-August to Sept. 18, Myanmar actually enjoyed its first month of intellectual freedom since the initial military takeover in 1962. After more than two decades of strict governmental control of the media, new lively papers emerged, some daily and others intermittent. By the end of August, Yangon alone had nearly 40 independent newspapers, magazines and journals full of political commentaries, biting satires and cartoons ridiculing the ruling elite. They had fanciful titles such as the Light of Dawn, Liberation Daily, Scoop, New Victory, the Newsletter and so on. Some were handwritten and photocopied or mimeographed, while others had access to professional printing presses, often free of charge because their owners wanted to show that they also supported the movement for democracy.
Despite the use of English titles for many of the publications, they were in the Burmese language, published locally in Yangon, Mandalay, Mawlamyine, Pathein and elsewhere, and it was rare that the information they contained reached the outside world. The same was true of photographic images. Many Myanmar photographers took excellent pictures and those were also published locally. One of them is Htein Win, and thanks to him there is evidence of the events of 1988. An experienced photographer, in 1974 Htein Win had also photographed the student demonstrations triggered by the funeral of the Myanmar former secretary general of the United Nations, U Thant.
But very few international press photographers were inside the country, among them Alain Evrard from Belgium and a Japanese photographer who used the name Ryo Takeda. Takeda photographed demonstrators kneeling before soldiers and urging them not to shoot, while Evrard took the most iconic picture of the suppression of the 1988 uprising: a shot of a Tatmadaw officer leading an attack on a group of demonstrators — and soldiers carrying guns with bayonets charging the crowd. Evrard had to hide his film rolls in his underpants and smuggle them out of Myanmar. Once in Bangkok, days after the event, he could have his film developed and prints made. A few videotapes, all on VHS, also reached Bangkok, but they were of very poor quality.
Sporadic demonstrations continued for a while after the formation of the SLORC and the imposition of draconian martial law measures, but the Tatmadaw was soon in near-total control of cities and towns and even major villages. But an estimated 10,000 activists, most of them young, fled to areas along Myanmar’s borders which were under the control of various ethnic rebel armies. On November 1, they formed the All Burma Students Democratic Front and organized themselves along military lines and dressed up in uniforms with insignia. The hope was that they, together with their ethnic allies, would defeat the Tatmadaw militarily.
Then came the May 1990 election, which, to the surprise of many, was free and fair. The National League for Democracy (NLD) scored a landslide victory, capturing 392 of the 485 seats that were up for grabs (of a total of 492; elections were not held in seven constituencies) while the Tatmadaw-supported National Unity Party scored a mere 10 seats. But that Pyithu Hluttaw, or National Assembly, was never convened. Instead, the SLORC eventually decided to form a constituent assembly consisting of about a hundred MPs-elect and 600 delegates handpicked by the Tatmadaw.
When it became clear a couple of months after the May 1990 election that the SLORC was not going to honor the outcome and began arresting MPs-elect, some fled to the Thai border along with other NLD activists. In December 1990, they formed what they called the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s cousin U Sein Win, an elected MP, as prime minister. A loose alliance was formed with the ABSDF and some of the ethnic rebels.
Internationally, there was widespread condemnation of the mass killings and arrests in 1988 as well as the SLORC’s decision to ignore the results of the 1990 election. But, at that time, there were almost no foreign investors in Myanmar. One of the few was Fritz Werner Industrie-Ausrüstungen, a German firm that was involved in arms production and had personal connections with the then dictator General Ne Win. There was, in other words, very little at stake economically for the outside world, including Myanmar’s immediate neighbors.
Looking back at those events which took place three decades ago, it is evident that we are now dealing with an entirely new situation with different dynamics internally, regionally and internationally. After the 2010 election, the Tatmadaw decided to allow a high degree of freedom of expression, and that lasted until the Feb. 1 coup. But during those 10 years, tech-savvy young people known as Generation Z became masters at using the internet—and many of them are still active after the coup. Today, nothing happens in Myanmar without it being disseminated worldwide on Facebook and other social media. People also communicate with each other relatively safely via digital platforms, some of which are encrypted. In real, crude and brutal terms, more people were gunned down by the Tatmadaw in 1988 than today, but the documentary evidence was never there.
Some, but not as many as in 1988, have resorted to armed struggle—but in a way that Myanmar has not seen in recent history. The military-structured ABSDF soon fell apart because of factional infighting, some resulting in activists killing other activists. There was an acute shortage of weapons and even medical supplies. Many fell sick with malaria and other diseases contracted in the jungle. The dream of an armed uprising from the borders never materialized. The erstwhile ABSDF militants trickled back to their old hometowns, or ended up in exile in the US, Australia and Europe.
This time, there is armed resistance as well, but it includes urban guerrilla warfare of a kind not seen in Myanmar before. Bombs are exploding on an almost daily basis in cities and towns all over the country, even in the old capital Yangon and the new one, Naypyitaw. Suspected Tatmadaw informants are being assassinated and militants are blowing up military-owned property like Mytel communication towers. Local resistance forces, which are active also in the Burman-dominated heartland, have ambushed Tatmadaw convoys with guns and homemade bombs. And the Tatmadaw today is no longer the highly disciplined fighting force it was in the 1980s and before. Judging from reports from inside the country—and then not only from internet activists—the Tatmadaw has suffered heavy casualties with hundreds of dead and many more wounded.
Furthermore, the old NCGUB never managed to attract anything that could be interpreted as recognition. It became redundant after 2010 and was dissolved two years later. The new National Unity Government (NUG) has the backing of several MPs who, unlike those in 1990, have actually served as MPs, and that of Myanmar’s representative to the United Nations, U Kyaw Moe Tun. Informal meetings have been held with representatives of foreign governments. On Oct. 5, the French Senate extended what can be seen as a recognition of the NUG, and the European Parliament passed a similar resolution a day later. And, as The Irrawaddy reported on Oct. 6, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has issued a warning to the junta in Naypyitaw, the State Administration Council (SAC), that his country will hold talks with the NUG if the generals fail to cooperate with a recently appointed special envoy of ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a fellow member.
But the deciding factors could be what certainly did not exist in 1988: a once thriving local business environment and foreign investors. Strikes and military crackdowns have been bad for business. The World Bank forecasts in its July report an 18 percent annual decline for Myanmar’s economy, nearly double what was predicted in March. Other estimates are even more dire; Global credit rating agency Fitch Solutions, for instance, expects a contraction of 20 percent or more. In short, the economy is on the verge of collapse, and the blame for that lies entirely with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s decision to oust the elected government and seize absolute power.
Regional trading partners like ASEAN and China may not care about democracy and human rights, but they don’t want to see their investments go up in smoke over the Myanmar battlefield. China has invested heavily in Myanmar’s fledgling industry and in infrastructure projects such as a deep-sea port at Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State. High-speed railroads are on the drawing board, and so are plans to dredge the Irrawaddy River for trade. Chaos is the last thing the Chinese would want to see in Myanmar.
Singapore exported US$2.7 billion worth of goods to Myanmar in 2020, mainly mineral fuels, oil, electronics and machinery. Trade with Vietnam was also booming before the coup and Vietnamese companies have invested in real estate and a huge new shopping mall in Yangon. Mytel is a joint venture between Tatmadaw-controlled Myanmar Economic Corporation and Viettel, which is owned by the Vietnamese military. Vietnam, hardly a democracy, would not normally have cared about a military takeover in a foreign country, but the Vietnamese can hardly be pleased to see their co-owned communication towers being blown up, and other investments being ruined because of the coup.
So will the new junta survive? The old SLORC was never under the same pressure at home or internationally as the SAC. But, in the end, it depends on what will happen inside the Tatmadaw when—and it seems inevitable—Myanmar sinks even deeper into economic, social and political crisis. But what will come in place of SAC, if it falls, is impossible to predict. What can be said with certainty, though, is that Min Aung Hlaing and his henchmen had probably not anticipated any of this when they decided to launch their ill-fated coup on Feb. 1. What the generals could get away with in 1988 is not possible in 2021.
Bertil Lintner is a Swedish journalist, author and strategic consultant who has been writing about Asia for nearly four decades..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-11
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political History, Military History, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders
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Description:
"Response to the briefing by Mr. Andrew Kirkwood,
United Nations Resident Coordinator a.i and Humanitarian Coordinator a.i
1. Introduction
The National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) recognises the critical roles performed by United Nations (UN) agencies, funds and programmes in Myanmar, and restates its commitment to working in partnership with the UN Country Team (UNCT) and the Resident Coordinator’s Office.
The NUG also notes the 3 October 2021 media briefing by Mr. Andrew Kirkwood, UN Resident Coordinator a.i and Humanitarian Coordinator a.i. It is however concerned by some inaccurate and misleading representations and significant omissions. They are addressed in this statement.
2. Military takeover
The Resident Coordinator a.i. referred to a “military takeover” and claimed that the military had “seized control”. This is a dangerous misrepresentation. The NUG, Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs), and pro-NUG districts and local communities control significant swathes of territory and are delivering essential services, including healthcare, education and humanitarian assistance. The NUG is constituted of and was established by democratically-elected parliamentarians and enjoys the popular support of the people. Critically, the UN Security Council and the General Assembly have recognised the continuing authority of President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Myanmar military staged an illegal, unsuccessful coup d’état on 1 February 2021 and has since been unable to wrest control of the country’s territory, infrastructure or institutions. It has collapsed service provision. It has acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally. It is opposed by the Myanmar people on a mass, country-wide scale, including by civil servants. On no grounds has the military junta “taken over” or “seized control”.
3. Multi-dimensional crisis
The Resident Coordinator a.i. rightfully spoke of “a crisis on top of a crisis with yet another crisis on top of that”. What he failed to add during his discussion of the “devastating third wave” of COVID-19 is that these are military-induced crises. The military junta has weaponised COVID-19 through targeted attacks on medical personnel and by withholding access to medical treatment, medicines, oxygen and vaccines. An unknown number of people have died and millions have been plunged into poverty – the same millions that the UNCT is now struggling to reach.
4. Displacement
The Resident Coordinator a.i. reported that over 200,000 people have been “newly displaced” since 1 February 2021 “due to the conflict between the Myanmar armed forces, many of the ethnic armed organizations, and these newly formed People’s Defence Forces”. This statement stopped short of linking displacement to the large scale and widespread military operations that have seen civilians executed and tortured, villages raided and torched, and property destroyed and looted. These military actions comprise grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and in some cases crimes against humanity. It is disingenuous and dangerous to generically attribute displacement to “conflict”.
5. Humanitarian access
The NUG stands ready to work in partnership with the UNCT and humanitarian agencies to facilitate the delivery of emergency assistance and supplies. The Resident Coordinator a.i. has called on “all parties to use their influence to facilitate… safe and unhindered access”. As the legitimate Government of Myanmar, the NUG will meet this call. However, it is critical that the international community and the UNCT acknowledge that the military junta’s actions are plunging the country into a deeper humanitarian crisis.
6. Human rights and accountability
The Resident Coordinator a.i. did not make a single reference to human rights or to military atrocities in his statement. Only ten days earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights briefed the UN Human Rights Council on the military’s crimes, reporting:
serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of person; the prohibition against torture; fair trial guarantees; freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly. Several of these violations may amount to crimes against humanity committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population – or, to the extent arising in armed conflict, war crimes.
The High Commissioner added that ‘[t]he human rights violations… being committed by the Tatmadaw today are built upon the impunity with which they perpetrated the shocking campaigns of violence against the Rohingya just four years ago – and also against many other ethnic minorities over decades.’
The Resident Coordinator a.i. must present a more comprehensive picture of the UN’s work in country, including by addressing human rights concerns. The Rosenthal Report on the UN’s involvement in Myanmar found a collective failure on behalf of the UN system to convey ‘more forcefully the United Nations’ principled concerns regarding grave human rights violations.’ These failures must not be repeated.
7. Depoliticisation
The Resident Coordinator a.i. has called for a “depoliticised” humanitarian response. The military junta continues to apply its well-worn tactic of holding human lives to ransom. The UNCT must not take the bait by engaging with the junta based on justifications such as “staying and delivering” or “securing a license to operate”. The UNCT must strictly abide by its Engagement Principles, which demand that all programmes accrue benefits directly to the people and in no way grant legitimacy to the military junta. To act otherwise would see the UNCT enable the very “politicisation” that the Resident Coordinator a.i. has warned against. The UNCT is at grave risk of being instrumentalised by the military junta.
8. Socio-Economic Response Framework (SERF) for Myanmar
The NUG supports the Resident Coordinator a.i. in calling for increased contributions to alleviate the dire suffering in Myanmar. We stand ready to support SERF implementation. All humanitarian and development projects must be implemented through the NUG and its partners, EAOs, INGOs, NGOs, local and civil society organisations, and community-based organisations. Not a single dollar should be directed to the military junta. Calls have been made for the Security Council to list the military junta as a terrorist organisation. The UNCT and donor agencies should treat it as such.
9. Conclusions and recommendations
The NUG requests clarifications from the Resident Coordinator a.i in the form of a corrective statement. Particular caution must be exercised to avoid phrases that misrepresent the situation in Myanmar. The NUG also calls on the Resident Coordinator a.i. and the UNCT to:
• Engage directly with the NUG as the legitimate Government of Myanmar. The NUG and its partners control significant territory, deliver essential services, and enjoy the support of the people. The Security Council and the General Assembly continue to recognise the authority of President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the NUG’s Permanent Representative to the UN continues to represent Myanmar in UN fora.
• Ensure that all humanitarian and development projects are implemented through the NUG and its partners, EAOs, INGOs, NGOs, local and civil society organisations, and community-based organisations. Not a single dollar should be directed to the military junta
• Avoid taking any actions that legitimise the military junta, in line with the UNCT’s Engagement Principles
• More comprehensively present the views of UNCT members, including with regard to the human rights situation in Myanmar and military atrocities
• Update the UNCT’s Human Rights Strategy. New programmes must be informed by human rights due diligence, conflict-sensitivity and risk assessments, and the do no harm principle. The Strategy should also identify the NUG as the primary implementing partner.
Finally, the NUG calls on the UN Secretary-General to formally appoint the new Resident Coordinator as a matter of urgency, in consultation with the NUG..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-11
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National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ်(၃၄/၂၀၂၁)
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ (၁၀) ရက်
PGDMA အပတ်စဉ် (၂၀) သင်တန်းဆင်းများနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခြင်း..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Education, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-10
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-10
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"The European Parliament has voted to support Myanmar’s shadow government and its parliamentary committee as the legitimate representatives of Myanmar, becoming the first international legislative body to officially endorse the organizations behind the fight against military rule in the Southeast Asian country.
The country has been mired in crisis since the military ousted the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government in February, sparking mass protests and a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. After more than eight months, sporadic armed attacks on regime targets and reprisals by junta forces continue.
In a resolution adopted on Thursday, the European Parliament said it “supports the CRPH and the NUG as the only legitimate representatives of the democratic wishes of the people of Myanmar,” referring to the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) and its parliamentary Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CPRH), both of which were formed by ousted elected NLD lawmakers and their ethnic allies in the wake of the Feb. 1 takeover.
The motion was passed with 647 votes in favor, two against and 31 abstentions.
The EU Parliament’s show of support on Thursday comes as a major embarrassment to the Myanmar military regime, which seeks international recognition as the country’s rightful caretaker government and is struggling against a competing claim by the NUG.
Neither the NUG nor the CRPH were immediately available for comment on Friday.
Since its formation in April, the NUG has enjoyed popular support at home and abroad. It is supporting striking civil servants and resistance forces against the regime inside the country while lobbying for international acceptance as Myanmar’s legitimate government. Despite some unofficial engagements, however, it has yet to receive diplomatic recognition from foreign countries. Early last month, the shadow government called a nationwide revolt against the regime after deciding that diplomatic pressure was no longer strong enough to topple the junta.
The regime has branded the NUG and CRPH as terrorist organizations.
Early this week, the French Senate voted unanimously to recognize the NUG. If the French Parliament’s lower house approves the vote, France will become the first country to officially recognize Myanmar’s shadow government. The support from the EU parliament could be
In its resolution, the European Parliament also condemned the Myanmar military’s violent response to protesters, as well as its human rights violations against the people following the coup, saying “these ongoing abuses and actions amount to crimes against humanity”. As of Thursday, 1,159 people had been killed by the regime while ethnic and religious minorities have also suffered abuses, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and displacements due to the junta’s clearance operations in anti-regime strongholds.
The resolution calls for the immediate and unconditional release of President U Win Myint, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all others arrested by the military on unfounded accusations during and after the coup.
As ASEAN is playing a mediator role in an effort to resolve the Myanmar crisis, the European Parliament called on the regional bloc and its special envoy to Myanmar to engage with all parties involved, notably with the NUG and representatives of civil society. So far, the regime still hasn’t allowed the envoy to visit the country and the regional bloc has voiced disappointment with the junta’s lack of cooperation.
Internationally, the Parliament called on the regime’s allies China and Russia to live up to their responsibility as permanent members of the UN Security Council and said it expects them to play a constructive role when scrutinizing the situation in Myanmar. Both countries have long supported the regime at the council by vetoing critical resolutions by the US, the UK and France.
Finally, it urged EU countries to continue imposing targeted and robust sanctions to cut off the economic lifelines of the junta, as well as demanding member states push ahead with targeted restrictive measures against those responsible for the coup..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), European Union-Burma relations - European Parliament
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"David Eubank, who is originally from Texas, lives in the jungles of the Karen state near the Thai-Myanmar border, along with his wife and children. The Karen people have been fighting the Myanmar military for decades, in the world’s longest civil war.
Since the military coup on 1 February, the Karen Nation Union has sided with a people’s uprising demanding democracy is restored, and has launched attacks on the military. The army has responded with bombings that have displaced tens of thousands of people. David has seen first-hand what has happened.
Hundreds of young protesters have fled to ethnic areas, including into the area David is working in. His group, The Free Burma Rangers, has provided survival and medical training to some of these young people who want to continue fighting to restore democracy.
He is also part of an underground railway helping to smuggle out politicians, artists and activists who are on the military’s wanted list.
David takes us on a mission through the jungle to get aid to civilians caught up in the conflict..."
Source/publisher:
"BBC News" (London)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Christianity, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Karen (cultural, historical, political)
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Sub-title:
Myanmar’s rice farmers are facing higher production and transportation costs, lower yields, and low prices, leaving many worried they will no longer be able to earn enough to survive.
Description:
"Myanmar’s rice farmers are facing a bitter harvest. With the price of agricultural inputs more than doubling since the start of the year and market conditions more unpredictable than ever, cash-strapped farmers faced a tough choice: take on more debt to buy their usual amount of agricultural inputs, or reduce their use of fertiliser, insecticide and weedkiller.
Many have chosen the safer option of spending less, but this will almost certainly result in a lower yield of paddy from this year’s monsoon season crop.
U Myint Wai is the owner of a 100-acre farm in Maletto village, in Ayeyarwady Region’s Maubin Township, and normally averages 70 baskets of paddy an acre. He told Frontier that farmers like him had had to cut costs drastically just to cope with the pandemic, and he’s expecting a drop in yield of up to 30 percent.
“Farmers can use only one-third of the inputs they used the previous year,” he said. “The per-acre yield will certainly be reduced. A plot that used to yield 70 baskets per acre may now yield only 50 baskets.”
Paddy farmers told Frontier that the price of a bag of fertiliser that had cost K20,000 (about US$10 at an exchange rate of K2,000 to the dollar) last year, was selling for K50,000 (about $25).
Since the coup, Myint Wai said, most farmers have been struggling just to make ends meet, let alone save for the future. Although increased joblessness from the pandemic and political unrest means there is no shortage of labour, many farmers simply can’t afford to hire the people they need to bring in the harvest.
U Sann Tin, who farms paddy, peanuts and sesame in Magway Region’s Myaing Township, said that farming families were having to do more with less.
“A plot that normally needs to be weeded twice can only be weeded once,” he said. “If the work can be done by members of the family, we do it ourselves instead of hiring anyone. We have to weigh [the cost of] everything.”
Read more: Monsoon rice crop in peril as farmers hit by coup turmoil
For the cultivation of crops other than paddy, daily wages vary according to location. In Myaing Township this year, a man can expect to earn about K3,000 ($1.50) for half a day’s weeding, but a woman will earn only half that.
“Farmers have to carefully consider whether to buy even one bag of fertiliser,” said the owner of a shop selling agricultural chemicals in Pyinmana Township, Nay Pyi Taw. He declined to give his name because he feared reprisals for speaking to a journalist.
Myint Wai said farmers are waiting nervously to see if they will make any profit this year. “We are growing rice, but we do not know how much we’ll earn,” he said.
Falling exports
Farmers fear that even as they are facing higher production and transportation costs, the price of rice may fall. Many rice mills closed when the third wave of COVID-19 tore through Myanmar in July, border gates remain shut, and demand from other foreign markets has dropped.
Although most rice produced in Myanmar is for domestic consumption, exports have become an important feature of the agricultural economy over the past decade, helping farmers earn more for their crop.
Myanmar was one of the world’s leading rice exporters until General Ne Win seized power in 1962 and adopted the disastrous “Burmese Way to Socialism”, which left farmers with little incentive to produce more rice than they needed for subsistence.
A few regime cronies were allowed to export under the previous military dictatorship, but after U Thein Sein came to power in 2011 the export process was liberalised significantly.
U Myo Tint Htun, deputy secretary of the junta’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, told Frontier that from 2012 to 2018 Myanmar exported between 2 million and 4 million tonnes of rice a year.
Exports have already started to fall since the coup. In the first 10 months of this fiscal year, to the end of July, Myanmar had shipped or trucked 1.7 million tonnes of rice and broken rice to foreign buyers, down from 2 million tonnes over the same period the previous year.
The decline is mainly because of higher transportation costs by both road and sea, said U Ye Min Aung, chairman of the Myanmar Rice Federation.
“The rising transportation costs are the biggest challenge for exporting rice this year,” he said. “But we are looking for all possible ways to continue exports … of Myanmar rice and broken rice.”
Myanmar ships 70pc of its rice exports and the remaining 30pc is transported across land borders, show Myanmar Rice Federation figures.
Because Myanmar imports most of its refined fuel, the collapse of the kyat since the start of this year – it is trading at close to half its pre-coup level – has sent fuel prices skyrocketing.
But shipping rates have increased even further, said Ye Min Aung. He told Frontier that it cost about $8,000 to ship a container of rice to Europe this year, four times what it cost last year.
“The main reason for the rising cost of transportation is COVID-19,” he said. “Because it is a pandemic, the cost of marine transportation has risen globally, not just in Myanmar. But because of the current unstable situation here, some of the foreign marine cargo-liners don’t want to come here.”
There are also headaches for those who export through land borders. U Khun Min Thant, a rice exporter at Muse in northern Shan State, opposite China’s Yunnan Province, said border closures caused by the pandemic had a serious impact on his work.
As COVID-19 cases began to skyrocket in Myanmar in early July, China closed all border crossings with Myanmar, including those at Muse, which accounts for 70pc of the country’s border trade.
Read more: ‘Prices are dropping exponentially’: Border trade hit hard as China shuts the gates
“Since the border gates with China are closed, rice exports across the border have been completely suspended — not for political reasons, but for the pandemic,” he said.
Although the number of COVID-19 cases remains high in Shan State, traders in Muse said they were optimistic that trade would resume in mid-October.
“It is possible to export through marine channels, but it requires too many documents and papers. So just a few exporters use this channel. When the pandemic subsides, rice exports will return to normal.”
The military regime is certainly hoping so. It is aiming to promote agricultural self-sufficiency and has also made agriculture-based industrialisation a key objective, both in public speeches and its draft Myanmar Economic Recovery Plan.
Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing conceded at a September 7 meeting that rice exports had fallen short of expectations. He suggested that farmers’ incomes could be increased by raising the per-acre yield through the use of good quality strains of seeds and necessary agricultural inputs, and urged regional and state chief ministers to prioritise agriculture.
But his comments seem out of step with a reality in which the tanking kyat makes those inputs significantly more expensive, and in which a banking crisis has made access to credit much more difficult and expensive.
As public policy analyst U Khine Win wrote recently in Frontier, the impact of farmers using less inputs has not yet been reflected in trade figures, because this year’s monsoon crop has not been harvested. Although overall trade fell 20pc this fiscal year, agriculture exports remained steady. As a result, they account for more than one-third of all exports – a 25pc increase on the previous year.
“Decreased fertiliser use this year means agricultural outputs are likely to fall dramatically in the near future, hitting both exporters and importers hard,” he wrote.
The International Food Policy Research Institute, which has predicted that fertiliser sales will decline by half this year, has warned that lower yields will have a significant impact on poverty, as about 80pc of the country’s poor are linked to the agricultural sector.
Read more: The economics behind Min Aung Hlaing’s grand delusions
A price fix?
Farmers are also worried about the price they’ll receive after they harvest their crop in the coming months.
Rice merchants say the retail price of the cereal has been steadily rising since the coup, because people have been stocking up on staple foods. A 50kg bag of low-grade manawthukha rice that cost K29,000 pre-coup is selling for K32,000.
U Hlaing, a rice merchant in Mandalay, suggested that the rises would be temporary.
“The price of rice does not rise too much,” he said. “Mainly because of spreading rumours about the political situation, people rush to buy rice, and it prompts the merchants to raise the price. But it does not last long. The next day when the rumour subsides, the business is normal.”
But even if retail prices are higher than pre-coup levels, higher production and transport costs mean farmers are unlikely to enjoy a higher profit on their paddy. Many fear they may lose money.
In recent years, the government has set a floor price for paddy to ensure farmers do not sell their crop at a loss. Ye Min Aung said that the Myanmar Rice Federation is still calculating the floor price – a process that involves negotiations among representatives from the federation, the government, farmers and rice merchants.
“I think it will be announced around the same time as last year [in October],” he said. “The [military] government will make the announcement.”
Once set, buyers purchase rice from farmers at the market rate or the floor price, whichever is higher. The floor price was fixed at K500,000 for 100 baskets of paddy in 2018 and 2019, before being raised to K520,000 in 2020. Ye Min Aung said he expected it to be about K540,000 for 100 baskets this year. “The floor price will certainly be higher than that of last year but not by much,” he said.
“The floor price is just the floor price. The market price can be higher,” said Ye Min Aung, adding that last year 100 baskets of paddy fetched between K500,000 and K900,000 ($250 to $450 at current exchange rates), depending on the variety.
A basket of paddy weighs 20.87 kilogrammes or 46 pounds, so 100 baskets is just over 2 tonnes.
Although the Myanmar Rice Federation maintains that setting a floor price helps farmers make a profit while stabilising prices for consumers, some farmers doubt that it will be an effective safety net.
U Ko Ko Naing, who grows paddy on 15 acres in Mandalay Region’s Patheingyi Township, said he doubted the regime would be able to enforce the floor price if the market rate was lower.
“It makes no difference how you fix the price in a free market. The government cannot take action against a buyer who pays less than the floor price,” he said. “If buyers pay the floor price when the current price is lower than that, they expect higher quality. The price mainly just depends on supply and demand.”
The regime will also be keen to ensure prices do not rise too much. The impacts of COVID-19 and the coup have left many households struggling to afford even the basics, like rice, salt and cooking oil. With the World Bank forecasting an 18pc contraction in GDP and more economic pain ahead, the United Nations Development Programme expects poverty levels to double by early next year, to more than half the population.
Ma Lin Lin of Pyinmana Township in Nay Pyi Taw is one of the many people who have been hit hard by the mounting crises. Her husband was working as a carpenter on a construction site, earning about K10,000 a day, but is now mostly out of work.
Lin Lin is keeping their family of five afloat by running a small store from her house, but has seen her daily takings fall from K20,000 to less than K10,000. It’s barely enough to cover the rent on their house, and she’s had to cut back on spending as much as possible.
“For daily food, we weigh and use what we can get each day,” she said. “In the past we would mix half rough rice with half fine rice. Now we just have to eat rough rice.”
She’s worried that sooner or later, the family will fall into a spiral of debt. “We have nothing to spare, so if someone in my family fell ill, what would we do?”..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
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"Myanmar’s farmers are making losses as the prices of fertilizers and other agricultural inputs have doubled during the monsoon season amid ongoing turmoil under military rule.
A sack of fertilizer has jumped from 25,000 kyats (US$13) to 70,000 kyats and it costs more than 60,000 kyats to harvest an acre (0.4 hectares) as fuel prices have significantly increased, said a farmer from Kayan Township in Yangon Region, who did not want to be named.
Price hikes have forced many paddy farmers to use less fertilizer, which will directly affect the harvest, he said.
“Previously, we could buy goods on credit. But sellers can’t give credit now so we can’t fertilize our farms,” he said.
The military regime on Wednesday fixed a minimum or floor price for rice at 540,000 kyats for 100 baskets of paddy (the regime set one basket at 21kg, however on the market, it is around 22-23kg) for monsoon paddy this year and hot-season paddy next year.
A regime statement said the market can exceed the floor price but not fall below it.
Monsoon paddy harvest is just beginning and prices will depend on the merchants. Only when the rice fetches 700,000 kyats per 100 baskets at market can they have a profit of 70,000 kyats to 100,000 kyats, said farmers.
It costs more than 400,000 kyats per acre with an estimated harvest of 70 baskets, according to farmers. And the yield will decline with the limited use of fertilizer.
Rice prices are 500,000-600,000 kyats per 100 baskets in Myanmar. Current prices are only covering most farmers’ costs. Farmers in remote locations are making losses after earning only around 500,000 kyats after transport costs are paid to merchants.
If price hikes continue, it will be difficult for farmers to grow paddy in the coming hot season when there will be no rain and farmers rely on wells and irrigation, they said.
“Fuel prices have increased so the harvest may decline in farms that have to pump from wells in the hot season,” an Ayeyarwady Region farmer told The Irrawaddy.
Even in Ayeyarwady Region, farmers in Zalun, Danubyu, Kyonpyaw, Pantanaw and other townships have to use wells during the hot season, meaning the area being cultivated might decline, he said.
“Given the fertilizer and other prices, it will be hard for farmers to grow hot-season paddy,” said the Kayan Township farmer.
While the minimum price was set at 520,000 kyats per 100 baskets of paddy last year, fixing the price at 540,000 kyats this year will not help farmers, considering the current situation. Given the fixed prices, farmers who borrowed money from lenders or pawned their belongings to grow paddy will be forced to abandon their livelihoods, said Pakokku University Students Union..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, Agriculture in Burma/Myanmar: general and research, Rice
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Description:
"Your Excellencies,
I urge you, as Member States of the United Nations, to take further urgent and concrete action to halt the ongoing human rights and humanitarian catastrophe in Myanmar and hold to account those responsible for human rights violations.
I am sharing an appeal signed by over 70,000 people from 161 countries and territories to governments and businesses around the world, to unite to protect the people of Myanmar. They specifically urge governments to:
increase diplomatic pressure to stop the Myanmar military’s human rights violations and to hold perpetrators accountable;
stop the flow of all arms and other resources to the Myanmar military used to commit violations;
request ASEAN to implement its Five-Point Consensus with a clear timeline, call for the release of all individuals arbitrarily detained, and support UN actions;
increase humanitarian assistance;
Additionally, local and foreign businesses are asked to fulfil their responsibility to respect human rights, including to assess the human rights impact of their operations and partnerships in Myanmar.
In just eight months since the coup, the Myanmar security forces have killed over 1,100 people, and injured countless protesters, bystanders, and other civilians. More than 7,000 people remain arbitrarily detained under repressive laws, largely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, with reports of torture in custody continuing to emerge. These rights are further curtailed with the rise of state surveillance and censorship, including continued attacks by security forces on media workers and those who speak out against the coup, blocking of websites, a ban on satellite dishes, and internet shutdowns and slowdowns. Escalating armed violence has killed or injured civilians and recently displaced over 237,000 people from their homes. The healthcare system is broken amid a global pandemic and crumbling further under attacks by security forces on healthcare workers. The economy continues to collapse with millions of people losing their livelihoods, particularly women, and millions facing hunger or expected to face hunger in the coming months.
The crimes occurring in Myanmar after the coup are “widespread and systematic,” according to the latest analysis of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was established by the Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect, consolidate, preserve, and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011, and to prepare files for future prosecutions. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar has warned that these post-coup violations “amounted to crimes against humanity”; and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged states with influence to pressure the Myanmar military "to halt the commission of grave human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity”.....The suspected perpetrators of these crimes under international law include the coup leader and Commander-in-Chief of the military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and other senior military leaders and commanders, who the UN’s Fact-Finding Mission has previously called for to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The renewed round of atrocities currently devastating communities across the country has been made possible because of the continued impunity enjoyed by the military.
After years of diplomatic endeavours, the outgoing Special Envoy of UN-Secretary General on Myanmar has concluded that the military does not welcome an inclusive dialogue, and clearly lacks the will for a peaceful solution. In the absence of adequate and concrete actions capable of averting the onslaught of human rights violations, many people in Myanmar are taking matters into their own hands. Myanmar’s self-declared parallel government, the National Unity Government, declared “a people’s defensive war against the military junta” earlier this month, which could result in a full-blown war and a deepening of the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crisis across the country.
I acknowledge and appreciate the statements and actions taken so far by the UN, including: the statement on Myanmar by the President of the UN Security Council issued in March, condemning the violence against peaceful protesters and calling on the military to exercise utmost restraint; the resolution overwhelmingly adopted at the UN General Assembly in June, calling on all member states to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar; and the resolution adopted by consensus at the 46th Session of the Human Right Council, mandating the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to focus on enhanced monitoring, documentation, analysis, and public reporting on the human rights situation, and to follow up on the findings and recommendations of the 2019 report by the UN’s Fact-Finding Mission on the economic interests of the military.
However, these statements of concern and actions have yet to lead to meaningful improvement in the lives of the over 54 million people in Myanmar, and of the hundreds of thousands who have already fled the country for their safety. Further concrete actions, in particular by the Security Council and the ASEAN, are required urgently, so that the enjoyment of human rights is a lived reality in Myanmar. Words without accompanying concrete measures do not have much, if any, impact on the conduct of the Myanmar military, particularly while governments and corporations continue to operate business as usual, providing resources and enabling the military to further commit human rights violations.
“How many bodies does the UN need to take action?” asked 23-year-old Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, the day before he was shot dead on 28 February, while peacefully protesting in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. At that point, the death toll stood at 23. Today, his twin brother is in hiding, his mother is held hostage by the military, and over 1,100 people have been killed by the Myanmar security forces.
The international community has a responsibility to act, to end the cycle of human rights violations and impunity in Myanmar. Failure to act has already cost Myanmar a heavy price in lost lives and liberties – and the death toll is only likely to worsen if urgent interventions are not made. Concrete measures, such as those called for by tens of thousands of people around the world, are urgently needed, including: the implementation of a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar and targeted financial sanctions on senior officials; referring the situation of Myanmar to the International Criminal Court; increasing humanitarian aid; and pressuring the Myanmar military to release all individuals arbitrarily detained. I urge governments and businesses to unite to prevent further unlawful killings and repression, protect the people of Myanmar, and end decades of impunity..."
Source/publisher:
Amnesty International (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-10-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
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html
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Amnesty International reports on Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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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)
Date of publication:
2021-10-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Articles and reports about the NLD, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports
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"Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a call by the European Parliament for more European Union (EU) sanctions on state owned banks, gas revenue, and the State Administrative Council, a body set up by the military after the coup.
The European Parliament passed a Resolution on 7th October calling for further action by the EU.
It is now almost four months since the last round of EU sanctions targeting members of the military and revenue going to the military. During this time the military has stepped up repression of those opposing the coup, with more than 7,000 political prisoners in detention and more than 1,100 people killed. At least quarter of a million people have been displaced as a result of fighter jets bombing civilian areas and attacks by the Burmese Army.
“The EU had appeared to be on the right track with regular rounds of sanctions targeting revenue to the military, but now progress has stalled,” said Mark Farmaner. “The delay in new EU sanctions not only means more money for the military, but also sends the wrong signal to the military, that the EU won’t apply more pressure.”
Under the previous military dictatorship sanctions were not applied strategically, but rather as a kind of slap on the wrist every few years in response to atrocities. It had appeared that the European Union and others were applying a more strategic approach this time, with a more systematic effort to identify sources of revenue to the military and cut them off, and doing so on a continuous basis. This is essential in order to let the military and its business allies know that the economic noose will keep tightening around their neck, there will be no let-up in pressure.
However, in recent months only the British government has continued to implement new sanctions, with the USA also failing to take further action. With the Biden administration failing to act, a new Burma sanctions bill has been introduced in Congress.
There have been no new sanctions by any country targeting gas revenues, which are one of the single biggest sources of foreign currency for the military. Nor have there been any sanctions targeting the supply of aviation fuel to the military, despite bombings and flyovers by military jets and drones resulting in tens of thousands of people being displaced and creating a humanitarian crisis.
New sanctions have an important short term financial and political impact, but in addition there is a vital long term cumulative impact of sanctions which will be effective in not only reducing revenue to the military, but also undermining the crony nepotistic business infrastructure which is so important to the military support base.
“The European Parliament has sent an important reminder to the EU that they must keep identifying and sanctioning sources of revenue to the military,” said Mark Farmaner. “EU member states have to stand up to Macron, who is putting the financial interests of Total ahead of human rights and democracy in Burma, and opposing EU sanctions on gas revenue.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Sanctions, Business and the Military
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"The European Parliament,
– having regard to its previous resolutions on Myanmar and on the situation of the Rohingya, in particular those of 22 November 2012(1), 20 April 2012(2), 20 May 2010(3), 25 November 2010(4), 7 July 2016(5), 15 December 2016(6), 14 September 2017(7), 14 June 2018(8), 13 September 2018(9), 19 September 2019(10) and 11 February 2021(11),
– having regard to the Council conclusions of 22 February 2021 on Myanmar,
– having regard to the statements of the Vice President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) of 23 March 2021 on the escalation of violence in Myanmar, and of 19 April 2021, 30 April 2021, 12 May 2021 and 27 July 2021 on the situation in Myanmar,
– having regard to the declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU of 30 April 2021 on the outcome of the ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting,
– having regard to the statements by the Spokesperson of the European External Action Service of 3 March 2021 on continued human rights violations by the military, and of 23 May 2021 on the latest developments in Myanmar,
– having regard to Council Decision (CFSP) 2021/1000 of 21 June 2021 amending Decision 2013/184/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Myanmar/Burma(12),
– having regard to the Council Decision (CFSP) 2021/711 of 29 April 2021 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Myanmar/Burma(13),
– having regard to the EU guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief,
– having regard to Article 34 of the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar recognising the freedom of religion or belief and guaranteeing citizens the ‘right to freely profess and practice religion’,
– having regard to the Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s Five Point Consensus of April 24 2021,
– having regard to the report of the UN Secretary-General of 31 August 2021 entitled ‘Situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar’,
– having regard to Resolution 75/287 of 18 June 2021 of the UN General Assembly on the situation in Myanmar,
– having regard to the report of 22 August 2019 of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar entitled ‘Sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar and the gendered impact of its ethnic conflicts’,
– having regard to the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the reports of the International Labour Organization supervisory mechanism,
– having regard to the report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of 16 September 2021 on the situation of human rights in Myanmar,
– having regard to the statements by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Myanmar of 23 September 2021,
– having regard to the statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas H. Andrews, of 22 September 2021,
– having regard to the UN Human Rights Council reports on Myanmar and the situation of the human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities,
– having regard to the report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar of 1 July 2021,
– having regard to the final report and recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State (Annan Report),
– having regard to the order of the International Court of Justice of 23 January 2020 on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by the Republic of the Gambia in the case concerning the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar),
– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,
– having regard to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the additional protocols thereto,
– having regard to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948,
– having regard to Rule 144(5) and 132(4) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas on 1 February 2021, the military of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, in a clear violation of the constitution of Myanmar, arrested President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as leading members of the government, seized power over the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the government by means of a coup d’état, and declared a one-year state of emergency; whereas in August 2021, the commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, announced that he was appointing himself Prime Minister and that the state of emergency would be extended until August 2023;
B. whereas the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar indicated in a formal statement that the military junta’s widespread, systematic attacks against the people of Myanmar likely amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law; whereas the UN Special Rapporteur explicitly stated that the architects and perpetrators of the coup and the violations should be held accountable;
C. whereas in May 2021, the military junta took initial steps to dissolve the political party of Aung San Suu Kyi, which was in government until the coup d’état of February 2021;
D. whereas the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and the National Unity Government (NUG) were formed to represent the democratic wishes of the people of Myanmar;
E. whereas in response to the coup, peaceful protests and demonstrations broke out in various cities in Myanmar; whereas since 1 February 2021, politicians, government officials, civil society representatives, religious actors, peaceful protestors and writers have been unlawfully arrested or put under house arrest; whereas the latest report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights states that since the coup, more than 1 120 people have been killed and military authorities have arrested over 8 000 people, including hundreds of politicians, activists and civil servants; whereas the courts have sentenced 312 people, 26 of whom have been sentenced to death, including two children; whereas at least 120 people have reportedly died in custody; whereas as of July 2021, the junta had killed at least 75 children;
F. whereas the military has, in parallel, been increasing its crackdown on the media in Myanmar, with a growing number of journalists having been arbitrarily arrested, detained and charged in order to silence the media and eradicate freedom of expression; whereas the junta is increasingly making use of tools of surveillance and censorship through restrictions on telecommunications and the internet;
G. whereas torture is widely used against the people held in custody for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations; whereas methods of torture include beatings, mock executions with guns, cigarette burns, and rape and threats of rape; whereas torture by the police has been a problem in Myanmar before, but the Tatmadaw is now using a systematic threat of torture as a part of its efforts to oppress the opposition;
H. whereas the junta is increasingly relying on the use of collective punishment, including the abduction of the family members of those who have been issued with arrest warrants, but who the police and military forces are unable to locate; whereas children, including toddlers, have also been killed or abducted, presumably to force their parents to turn themselves in to the authorities;
I. whereas ethnic minorities practice Christianity (6,3 %, particularly the Chin, Kachin and Karen people), Islam (2,1 %, particularly the Rohingya, Malays, people from Yangon and other minorities), and Hinduism (0,5 %, particularly Burmese Indians);
J. whereas violations of the freedom of religion or belief and other human rights are being perpetrated against religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar;
K. whereas churches have been shelled and raided, and priests and pastors have been arrested; whereas military troops have also set up camps in church compounds, thus further undermining their role as sanctuaries for people in need;
L. whereas there are numerous ethnic groups in Myanmar; whereas internal conflicts have led to the tragic loss of thousands of lives over the past decades;
M. whereas Myanmar’s Citizenship Law declares the Rohingya ‘non-national’ or ‘foreign residents’ and therefore deprives them of citizenship, which further exacerbates their precarious situation; whereas the persecution of the Rohingya minority has not ended, despite numerous calls by the international community;
N. whereas the roughly 600 000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State are being subjected to persistent discriminatory policies and practices, systematic violations of their fundamental rights, arbitrary arrests, confinement in overcrowded camps and severely limited access to education and healthcare; whereas the oppressive conditions imposed on the Rohingya amount to crimes against humanity;
O. whereas the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, in particular women and girls, remain at significant risk of sexual violence, notably in the context of the protracted conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army;
P. whereas the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is worsening, with more than 210 000 people internally displaced this year alone, three million people in need of humanitarian aid, a number which has tripled in the last eight months, and half the population, approximately 20 million people, living below the poverty line;
Q. whereas the UN Secretary-General has warned that ‘the risk of a large-scale armed conflict requires a collective approach to prevent a multi-dimensional catastrophe in the heart of Southeast Asia and beyond’;
R. whereas the World Food Programme estimates that 6.2 million people across Myanmar are at risk of food insecurity and hunger, up from 2.8 million prior to the military coup;
S. whereas the humanitarian situation in Myanmar has also been worsened by the COVID-19 crisis; whereas the arbitrary mass detention of protesters, crowded prisons and the overall neglect of prisoners’ health have also contributed to an increase in the number of COVID-19 infections;
T. whereas the military has used COVID-19 measures to crack down on pro-democracy activists, human rights defenders and journalists; whereas the right to health is being undermined; whereas the junta has shut down hospitals and targeted medical professionals, leading to the collapse of the health system as COVID-19 surges across the country; whereas troops have destroyed medical supplies and equipment and have occupied dozens of medical facilities, which has prompted the people of Myanmar to stay away from medical facilities for fear of being detained or shot;
U. whereas the Tatmadaw and its generals are illegally securing funds through the illegal sale of timber, gems, gas and oil, and are faced with widespread allegations of corruption;
V. whereas according to the UN, the 2021 UN Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan has received only 46 % of the requested funds to date and humanitarian operations are suffering as a result of a major funding shortfall;
1. Strongly condemns the coup d’état of 1 February 2021 executed by the Tatmadaw under the leadership of commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing; calls on the Tatmadaw to fully respect the outcome of the democratic elections of November 2020 and to immediately reinstate the civilian government, end the state of emergency, end the use of violence against peaceful protesters, respect the right to freedom of expression and association, and allow all elected parliamentarians to assume their mandates; calls on Myanmar’s military to release all political detainees, to reverse restrictions on the freedom of expression, assembly and association, and to respect the freedom of religion or belief;
2. Calls for the immediate and unconditional release of President Win Myint, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and all others who have been arrested on unfounded accusations; considers the release of all political leaders and prisoners the first essential step towards a peaceful solution to the crisis and the restoration of the legitimate authorities;
3. Expresses its support for the people of Myanmar in their struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights;
4. Denounces the Tatmadaw’s widespread violent response to any kind of protest and the gross human rights violations it has committed and continues to commit against the people of Myanmar, including against ethnic and religious minorities, which amount to crimes against humanity; expresses its deep concern at the frequent attacks on churches, mosques, schools and medical facilities, and the arrests of religious leaders;
5. Supports the CRPH and the NUG as the only legitimate representatives of the democratic wishes of the people of Myanmar, and calls on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community to include and involve them in genuine and inclusive political dialogue and efforts aimed at the peaceful resolution of the crisis based on respect for the rule of law;
6. Calls for immediate and regular access for the International Committee of the Red Cross to detainees and prisons, as covered by the Geneva Conventions; calls on the military and police forces to provide the families of all individuals detained in connection with the security force operations across Myanmar prior to and in the aftermath of 1 February 2021 with full information about their fate and whereabouts;
7. Recalls the multi-ethnic nature of Myanmar; urges the Tatmadaw to fully respect each ethnicity’s inalienable rights; calls for an immediate, rigorous, independent and transparent investigation into the crimes committed in the country by the military and for their perpetrators to be brought to justice ;
8. Is appalled by the Tatmadaw’s crimes against ethnic and religious groups in Myanmar; strongly condemns the attacks by the Tatmadaw in the states of Kayin, Kayah, Kachin, Shan and Chin, which have led to large-scale displacement, the death of civilians, including children, the destruction of religious buildings, and other violations of human rights and humanitarian law;
9. Condemns the persecution of Christians in the country; urges the Tatmadaw to stop killing and arresting Christians and to end the shelling and raiding of churches; stresses that the international community has expressed its deep concerns about the violent targeting of Christian communities in Myanmar;
10. Reiterates its condemnation of the human rights violations and systematic and widespread attacks against the Rohingya population; underlines that the EU will continue to closely monitor the actions of the military leadership towards minorities in the country, in particular the Rohingya; reiterates its call on the authorities of Myanmar to establish conditions and guarantees for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return, under the oversight of the UN, of those Rohingya who wish to return to their native land;
11. Strongly condemns the ongoing discrimination against ethnic minorities, whose freedom of movement is severely restricted and who are deprived of basic services in Myanmar;
12. Condemns any use of violence by the junta against its citizens, as well as other forms of harassment, in particular towards human rights defenders, civil society activists and journalists; urges the junta to remove any restrictions on telecommunications and the internet, including independent media websites and social media platforms;
13. Calls for an immediate end to the violence towards labourers and unions, and for the rights of unions and their members to be protected, including the right to operate freely;
14. Calls for immediate humanitarian access to and assistance for vulnerable communities, including women, children and ethnical minorities, and for the empowerment of civil society organisations and ethnic community-based organisations, in order to ensure that humanitarian aid effectively reaches those in need; asks the Commission to redirect and step up humanitarian aid, including healthcare support, through cross-border channels, local humanitarian networks, ethnic service providers, and community-based and civil society organisations; asks the Commission to analyse how best to pursue development projects with these groups and to direct development assistance accordingly;
15. Notes with grave concern that the humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by a third wave of COVID-19 in Myanmar, with particularly worrying transmission levels among the most marginalised populations, including those in the country’s overcrowded and unsanitary prisons; urges the junta to re-establish a containment strategy and a contact-tracing system, and to ensure that people have access to healthcare services and vaccines; asks the Commission to step up its support in this regard and to guarantee that this support reaches the citizens, including by providing doses of COVID-19 vaccines;
16. Is appalled by the attacks, harassment, detainment and torture of healthcare workers, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 healthcare crisis; calls on the junta to guarantee the security and safety of all healthcare workers and to immediately cease all harassment and attacks against these people; stresses the responsibility of the Myanmar authorities to guarantee full access to healthcare;
17. Condemns the attacks by the military authorities against medical professionals and facilities, and the response of these authorities to the COVID-19 pandemic; highlights that health and access to healthcare and vaccinations are universal human rights;
18. Calls on the Tatmadaw to stop denying the right of the population to protection against and proper treatment for COVID-19, which could cause significant loss of life in Myanmar;
19. Urges the governments of the neighbouring countries to ensure that their authorities do not prevent anyone from crossing the border in search of refuge; calls on these governments to ensure that aid organisations and local civil society organisations are allowed to access areas with internally displaced people along their borders with Myanmar;
20. Reiterates its support for civil society and democracy advocates in Myanmar and calls for the EU and its institutions to continue efforts aimed at civil society advancement, despite the current and possibly ongoing limitations imposed by the current military government;
21. Calls on ASEAN, its members and particularly its Special Envoy to Myanmar to make more proactive use of their special role in Myanmar, to cooperate with the UN Special Envoy and to engage with all parties involved, notably with the NUG and representatives of civil society, in particular women and ethnic groups, in order to promote, at a minimum, the effective and meaningful implementation of the five-point consensus with a view to achieving the sustainable and democratic resolution of the current crisis in the near future;
22. Further calls on China and Russia to actively engage in international diplomacy and live up to their responsibility as permanent members of the UN Security Council; expects them to play a constructive role when scrutinising the situation in Myanmar;
23. Urges Myanmar to cooperate with international efforts to ensure accountability, including by finally granting the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) full access to the country; calls for the EU, its Member States and the international community to ensure that the IIMM has the requisite support to execute its mandate; recalls that Myanmar is under the obligation to comply with the provisional measures order of the International Court of Justice;
24. Welcomes the recent rounds of sanctions imposed by the Council against members of the Tatmadaw and their businesses, and calls on the Council to continue imposing targeted and robust sanctions, with the aim of cutting off the lifelines of the junta while ensuring that the people of Myanmar come to no harm; is of the opinion that the international community must continue to take additional action against, and impose costs on, the military and its leaders until they reverse course and provide for a return to democracy; stresses the need for all EU Member States to strengthen and enforce sanctions imposed against any state-run Myanmar businesses, notably in the timber and gem industry; urges the Commission to ensure that national penalties imposed on Member States and associated countries for breaching EU sanctions are effective; stresses that this would require imposing specific asset freezes and bans on international financial transfers to the two state-owned banks, the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and the Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank, through which all foreign currency is collected, and adding to the sanctions list the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, which generates the junta’s single largest foreign currency inflow;
25. Calls on the Council to continue to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for the coup of February 2021 and to consider other possible measures; urges the Council to include the State Administrative Council as an entity instead of its individual members, on the list of natural and legal persons, entities and bodies subject to restrictive measures;
26. Reiterates its call on EU-based businesses with operations or supply chains in Myanmar to conduct heightened human rights due diligence and to ensure that they have no ties with Myanmar’s security forces, their individual members or entities owned or controlled by them, and that they do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the junta’s crackdown on democracy and human rights; calls on EU-based businesses to publicly disclose their conclusions and to work on continually improving labour conditions and environmental standards within their undertakings in Myanmar;
27. Reiterates its call to continue implementing targeted sanctions against those who are responsible for the atrocities against the Rohingya;
28. Reiterates its call on the Commission to swiftly launch an investigation into the trade preferences that benefit Myanmar, especially regarding companies owned by members of the Myanmar military, in specific sectors and to keep Parliament duly informed of the steps to take; acknowledges that improvements have been achieved since Myanmar was reinstated into the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme in 2013, for example the creation of jobs in the garment sector, which has benefited women in particular; underlines, however, that the enhanced engagement process had already been established in 2018, focusing on compliance with international human rights conventions and labour rights, and that the coup reversed the progress made during the democratisation process, thereby undermining the conditions for granting EBA preferences;
29. Calls on the EU delegation to Myanmar and the embassies of the Member States to closely monitor the human rights and health situation in Myanmar and the cases of political leaders and others who are currently detained and imprisoned;
30. Calls on the Member States and associated countries to maintain the embargo on the direct and indirect supply, sale and transfer, including transit, shipment and brokering, of all weapons, munitions and other military, security and surveillance equipment and systems, as well as the provision of training, maintenance and other military and security assistance; highlights the need for the further investigation of the situation by the International Criminal Court;
31. Warns of the risk of an even larger humanitarian emergency as a consequence of the escalation of violence and of the country’s severe economic crisis, poverty and number of displaced people; calls for the EU, its Member States and the international community to urgently meet their financial obligations to the 2021 UN Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan;
32. Calls on the VP/HR and the Member States to vigorously address the situation in Myanmar, and calls on the VP/HR to report back to Parliament, in particular to its Committee on Foreign Affairs, on a regular basis, including on the situation of religious and ethnic groups, in order to ensure adequate parliamentary dialogue on this important and worrying situation;
33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the legitimate President and National Unity Government of Myanmar, the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the State Counsellor of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the governments and parliaments of the United States, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, Australia, Canada, the Member States of ASEAN, the governments and parliaments of Russia and China, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Human Rights Council..."
Source/publisher:
European Parliament (Brussels)
Date of publication:
2021-10-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Description:
"To: Members of Congress of the U.S Senate and House of Representatives:
Subject: Joint Open Letter from Burmese diaspora, community based-organizations and Civil Society Organizations to the United State Congress to pass the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021 or BURMA Act of 2021
Dear Members of Congress,
We, the undersigned 242 Burmese diaspora, local CSOs inside Burma, community-based organizations, and civil society organizations both here in the U.S. and around the world welcome the introduction of the Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021, or, the BURMA Act, and call on all members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to co-sponsor this crucial legislation and support its expeditious passage into law. As the situation in Burma worsens daily, U.S. action is vital to the millions of lives currently suffering at the hands of the Burmese military. The BURMA Act will provide much needed U.S. support for the realization of all Burmese peoples’ aspirations for an inclusive, rights respecting democracy.
Since the February 1st coup, the people of Burma have seen increased human rights violations and militarization, and the situation is growing more dire by the day. While the number of people killed by the junta is significantly higher, there are over 1,100 confirmed deaths since February, including at least 75 children. More than 8,700 people have been arrested, of which an estimated 7,104 are still detained. 220,000 have been newly displaced, with 3 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. The World Bank predicts an 18% drop in GDP for Burma this year, which, combined with slower growth in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will leave Burma’s economy 30% smaller than originally expected. The World Food Program estimates that food insecurity will have more than doubled since the coup by October 2021 to more than 6.2 million people.
Despite the Burmese military junta campaign of oppression to terrorize and demoralize the people, they have not won. In each of Burma’s states, ethnic minorities are witnessing the worst of the Burmese military’s violence and crimes against humanity. While it is clear that Burma’s ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted by violence from the Burmese military, the country’s majority Burman group are also affected, representing the extent to which the junta’s attacks are indiscriminate and truly affect all in Burma.
On September 7, the Burmese military used two farmers from Shan State as human shields to guard soldiers as they walked in front of a battalion. Similarly, in Karen state, reports of the Burmese military capturing and forcing women to be porters and human shields have been increasingly common. In early September, Kachin Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were forced to return to their villages after being unable to find food in the IDP camps, despite their homes remaining in a conflict zone. Karenni state suffered from 21 clashes in August that led to an additional 5,000 IDPs to the 100,000 displaced in the state, which makes up nearly half of the Karenni population. Reports from Mon state in early September highlight the intensified militarization in many of the state’s townships, where civilian arrests and security checkpoints have increased. In Rakhine state, close to 10,000 IDPs returned to their villages in fear of rising COVID-19 cases in IDP camps, despite the threat of landmines and zero humanitarian aid in their townships. An estimated 50,000 civilians and 5,000 IDPs living in southern Chin state are suffering from food shortages as the Burmese military blocks transportation routes into the area. From February to July, there were 3,601 attacks on civilians or armed clashes that failed to protect them, which is a 521% increase from the same months in 2020. These atrocities occurring throughout the country have been the lived experiences of marginalized communities for decades. Clearly, the situation in Burma necessitates U.S. action and will only continue to deteriorate the longer accountability and aid are delayed.
In July, Burma was hit hard with a third-wave of the COVID-19 virus. While the junta officially reported an estimated 6,000 deaths and 141,000 infections, many civil society organizations in Burma believe these reports grossly underestimate the actual number of COVID-related deaths, especially as cemeteries in Yangon received 1,500-2,000 bodies every day in mid-July. As thousands were dying of COVID-19, the junta cut off medical and oxygen supplies to the people of Burma. Many accused the junta of denying oxygen to private clinics and hospitals, instead funneling the available oxygen to military-controlled health facilities. The junta also shut down any charity supplies and blocked all initiatives created by community and civil society organizations to battle COVID-19. In an aggressive approach to deny access to lifesaving oxygen, the military fired into a line of people waiting to purchase oxygen tanks. In another case, witnesses stated that the military also lured medical professionals by pretending to be COVID-19 patients, only to arrest them and raid their affiliated clinics.
Even as the COVID vaccine was procured from China, the junta reportedly reserved the vaccine for its military and loyal allies before making it available to the public. However, it was also reported that due to the mistrust of the junta’s intentions and the vaccine from China, many avoided vaccinations. It is clear from the actions of the junta and its military that they are weaponizing the virus and vaccine. While COVID-19 numbers have decreased since August, the people of Burma are still battling the COVID crisis while fighting the illegal junta for democracy.
Despite the violence perpetrated by the Burmese military, the Burmese people continue to stand resolutely against the junta’s rule. Since February, the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) continues to be supported by over 400,000 civil servants without losing any steam. This movement started in central Burma and spread to major cities in the ethnic states. The people of Burma also launched themed protests, such as the hanging of sarongs, flashlights at night, and the clanging of pots and pans to display signs of dissidence. Members of the CDM also boycott military businesses and refuse to pay for military-controlled services like electricity bills, with estimates reporting that this loss of revenue will cost the junta up to $1 billion per year. The CDM has grown past the borders of Burma to gain international support. The Burmese diaspora in other countries, such as the United States, Australia, and the UK, have come together to protest against the February 1st Coup and rally their respective policymakers to make a public stand against the military junta. For more than six months, the protest movement has remained undeterred by the junta’s brutal crackdowns and arbitrary arrests. In addition to the CDM movement, civilians are joining the National Unity Government’s People’s Defense Force to provide safety and security that has been repeatedly denied by the Burmese military.
Given the Burmese military’s unrelenting violence, it is clear that Congress must act now to support the people of Burma. The BURMA Act will showcase U.S. leadership in alleviating an increasingly dire situation and hold the Burmese military accountable for their illegal seizure of power. Justice and accountability are more important than ever, given the ongoing genocide against the Rohingya people - and the over one million Rohingya people who have been forced to flee their homeland over many decades and remain stuck in limbo in Bangladesh and other countries in the region with limited access to livelihoods or education and any chance to return home, integrate into their country of asylum, or be resettled to a third country. Checking the junta’s power would ensure that the crimes they continue to commit against the Rohingya, other ethnic and religious minorities, and all civilians come to an end. The bill will additionally support a strategy for the U.S. to coordinate policy on Burma multilaterally; provide support for civil society organizations, democracy activists, political prisoners and independent media; and authorize sanctions laser-focused against the military, its economic interests, and its primary sources of remaining revenues, while minimizing a humanitarian impact on the people of Burma.
While we note and appreciate the action that the U.S. has taken for Burma so far, it is simply not enough. We thank Sen. Cardin (D-MD), Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Lujan (D-NM), Sen. Merkley (D-OR), Sen. Wyden (D-OR), Sen. Markey (D-MA), Sen. Murray (D-WA), Sen. Peters (D-MI), Sen. Padilla (D-CA), Sen. Sanders (D-VT), Sen. Rosen (D-NV), Sen. Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Kaine (D-VA), Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), Rep. Steve Chabot (R) (co-lead), Rep. Michael McCaul (R), Rep. Ami Bera (D), Rep. Karen Bass (D), Rep. Joaquin Castro (D), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R), Rep. Ted Lieu (D), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D), Rep. Young Kim (R), Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D), Rep. Ro Khanna (D), Rep. Juan Vargas (D), Rep. Claudia Tenney (R), Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D), Rep. Lois Frankel (D), Rep. James P. McGovern (D), Rep. Grace Meng (D), Rep. Peter Meijer (R), Rep. Kathy Manning (D), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D) for introducing the BURMA Act, and call upon all members of Congress to stand in solidarity with the people of Burma and co-sponsor the BURMA Act of 2021 to end the junta’s campaign of violence and cycle of impunity.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Burmese diaspora, community based-organizations and Civil Society Organizations
1. Action Against Myanmar Military Coup (Sydney), Australia
2. Action Committee for Democracy Development, Burma
3. Action Corps, USA
4. African Great Lakes Action Network, USA
5. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress, Thailand-Burma Border
6. All Kachin Youth Union (AKYU), Burma
7. All Young Burmese League, Australia
8. ALTSEAN-Burma, Thailand
9. Ameinu, USA
10. American Baptist Churches USA
11. Americans for Rohingya, USA
12. Anti-Dictatorship in Burma DC Metropolitan Area, USA
13. Arakan Rohingya Union, USA
14. Arakan Watch, Malaysia
15. Arizona Kachin Community, AZ, USA
16. Asian Community and Cultural Center, USA
17. Asian Student Union, KS, USA
18. Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters- HRDP, Myanmar
19. Australia Karen Organisation Inc, Australia
20. Backpack Health Workers Team, Thailand-Burma Border
21. Bakersfield Karen Community, CA, USA
22. Blood Money Campaign, Myanmar
23. Boston Free Burma, MA, USA
24. Burma Action Ireland, Ireland
25. Burma Border Projects, MA, USA
26. Burma Campaign UK, United Kingdom
27. Burma Medical Association, Thailand-Burma Border
28. Burma Nationals Organization, USA
29. Burma Task Force, USA
30. Burmese American Millennials, USA
31. Burmese American women Alliance, CA, USA
32. Burmese Community Center for Education, USA
33. Burmese Community Support Group, Australia
34. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, United Kingdom
35. Calgary Karen Community Association (CKCA), Canada
36. California Kachin Community, CA, USA
37. California Karen Youth Forum, USA
38. Campaign for a New Myanmar, USA
39. Citizen of Burma Award, USA
40. Coalition of Rohingya Organisations in Malaysia (CROM)
41. Congregation Neveh Shalom, OR, USA
42. Crane Center for Mass Atrocity Prevention, USA
43. Da'wah and Empowerment Association of Rohingya (DEAR), Malaysia
44. Dallas Fort Worth Myanmar Ethnic Community, Burma
45. Dallas Kachin Community, TX, USA
46. Darfur and Beyond, USA
47. DEEKU-Karenni Community of Amarillo, TX, USA
48. Democracy, Peace and Women's Organization, Burma
49. EarthRights International, USA
50. Edmonton Karen Community Youth Organization, Canada
51. European Karen Network, UK
52. First Karen Baptist Church of Indianapolis, IN, USA
53. Florida Kachin Community, FL, USA
54. Free Burma Campaign (South Africa), South Africa
55. Free Myanmar Inc., USA
56. Freedom for Burma, USA
57. Friends of Rohingya USA
58. Friends of TCI Australia, Australia
59. Future Light Center, Burma
60. Future Thanlwin, Burma
61. Gender Equality Network, Myanmar
62. Georgia Kachin Community, GA, USA
63. Global Justice Center, USA
64. Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD), USA/Global
65. Good News Detroit Church, USA
66. Hanna United Methodist Church, IN, USA
67. Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project/Portland State University, OR, USA
68. Holy Family church, USA
69. Houston Kachin Community, TX, USA
70. Human Rights Foundation of Monland, Thailand/Myanmar
71. Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council, IN, USA
72. Institute for Asian Democracy, USA
73. International Campaign for the Rohingya, USA
74. International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), USA
75. International Karen Organisation, Australia
76. Iowa Kachin Community, IA, USA
77. Jewish World Watch, USA
78. Justice for All, USA
79. Justice for Myanmar, Myanmar
80. Kachin American Community (Portland – Vancouver), USA
81. Kachin Community of Indiana, IN, USA
82. Kachin Community of USA
83. Kachin National Organization USA
84. Kachin Peace Network, Myanmar
85. Kachin Refugee Council – India
86. Kachin Women's Association Thailand
87. Kansas Karenni Community, KS, USA
88. Kansas Zotung Community, KS, USA
89. Karen American Association of Wisconsin, USA
90. Karen Association of Huron, South Dakota, USA
91. Karen Baptist Churches USA, USA
92. Karen Community of Akron, USA
93. Karen Community of Canada (KCC), Canada
94. Karen Community of Czech Republic
95. Karen Community of Finland
96. Karen Community of Hamilton, Canada
97. Karen Community of Iowa, USA
98. Karen Community of Ireland
99. Karen Community of Israel
100. Karen Community of Kansas City (KS & MO), USA
101. Karen Community of Kitchener & Waterloo, Canada
102. Karen Community of Leamington, Canada
103. Karen Community of Lethbridge, Canada
104. Karen Community of London, Canada
105. Karen Community of Minnesota, USA
106. Karen Community of North Carolina, USA
107. Karen Community of Ottawa, Canada
108. Karen Community of Regina, Canada
109. Karen Community of Saskatoon, Canada
110. Karen Community of South Carolina, USA
111. Karen Community of Thunderay, Canada
112. Karen Community of Toronto, Canada
113. Karen Community of Windsor, Canada
114. Karen Community of Winnipeg, Canada
115. Karen Community Society of British Columbia (KCSBC), Canada
116. Karen Environmental and Social Action Network, Burma
117. Karen Human Rights Group, Thai-Burma border
118. Karen Organization of America, USA
119. Karen Organization of Minnesota, USA
120. Karen Organization of San Diego, USA
121. Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN), Thailand/Burma
122. Karen Refugee Committee Education Entity, Thailand
123. Karen Society of Nebraska, USA
124. Karen Student Association at UNO, USA
125. Karen Swedish Community, Sweden
126. Karen Thai Group, Thailand
127. Karen Youth Education Pathways, USA
128. Karen Youth Networks, Burma
129. Karen Youth of Norway
130. Karen Youth of Toronto, Canada
131. Karen Youth Organization, Thailand
132. Karenni Civil Society Network, Thailand-Burma Border
133. Karenni Community of Arizona, AZ, USA
134. Karenni Community of Arkansas, AK, USA
135. Karenni Community of Austin, TX
136. Karenni Community of Bowling Green, KY
137. Karenni Community of Buffalo, NY
138. Karenni Community of Chicago, IL
139. Karenni Community of Colorado, CO
140. Karenni Community of Dallas, TX
141. Karenni community of Des Moines, IA
142. Karenni Community of Florida, FL,
143. Karenni Community of Fort Worth, TX
144. Karenni Community of Georgia, GA
145. Karenni Community of Houston, TX
146. Karenni Community of Idaho, ID
147. Karenni Community of Indianapolis, IN
148. Karenni community of Kansas City
149. Karenni Community of Massachusetts, MA
150. Karenni Community of Michigan, MI
151. Karenni community of Minnesota, MN
152. Karenni Community of Missouri, MO, USA
153. Karenni Community of North Carolina, NC, USA
154. Karenni Community of Portland, OR, USA
155. Karenni Community of Rockford, IL, USA
156. Karenni Community of San Antonio, TX, USA
157. Karenni Community of Sioux Falls, SD, USA
158. Karenni Community of Utah, UT, USA
159. Karenni Community of Utica, NY, USA
160. Karenni Community of Washington, WA, USA
161. Karenni Community of Wisconsin, WI, USA
162. Karenni Society of Omaha, NE, USA
163. Karenni-American Association, USA
164. Karenni-American Catholic Association, USA
165. Kentucky Kachin Community, KY, USA
166. Korea Karen Organization, Korea
167. Korea Karen Youth Organization, Korea
168. LAI Baptist Church of Maryland, USA
169. Like We Don’t Exist, USA
170. Louisiana Kachin Community, LA, USA
171. Lowell International Church, USA
172. Mae Tao Clinic, Thailand
173. Maryland Kachin Community, MD, USA
174. Metta Campaign, Myanmar
175. Michigan Kachin Community, MI, USA
176. Milwaukee Myanmar Christian Church, USA
177. Minnesota Kachin Community, MN, USA
178. Minnesota Peace Project, USA
179. Mon State Development Center, Myanmar
180. Myanmar Community Church, CA, USA
181. Myanmar Cultural Research Society (MCRS), Yangon
182. Nationalities' Alliance of Burma, Washington D. C., USA
183. ND-Burma, Canada
184. NeT Organization, Myanmar
185. Never Again Coalition, USA
186. New York Kachin Community, NY, USA
187. No Business With Genocide, USA
188. North Carolina Kachin Community, NC, USA
189. Nyan Lynn Thit Analhtica, Myanmar
190. Olive organization, Burma
191. Omaha Kachin Community, NE, USA
192. Oversea Karen Organization Japan, Japan
193. Overseas Burmese Christian Fellowship, USA
194. Pennsylvania Kachin Community, PA, USA
195. Progressive Voice, Thailand
196. Pyit Taing Htaung Social Club, Australia
197. Refugees International, USA
198. Rohingya American Society (RAS), WI, USA
199. Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee (RARC), USA
200. Rohingya Cultural Center of Chicago, IL, USA
201. Rohingya National League, USA
202. Rohingya Society of Greater Nashua, NH, USA
203. Rohingya students Unity Right, Bangladesh
204. Rohingya Women Empowerment and Advocacy Network, Bangladesh
205. Rohingya Youth Development Forum, Burma
206. Rohingya Youths for legal Action (RYLA), Bangladesh
207. RW Welfare Society, Bangladesh
208. Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas, Burma
209. Saydanar Community Development Center, MA, USA
210. Shan MATA, Myanmar
211. South Carolina Kachin Community, SC, USA
212. St. Puis X Catholic Church, USA
213. STAND: The student-led movement to end mass atrocities, USA
214. Students for Free Burma (SFB), USA
215. Support the Democracy Movement in Burma, USA
216. Ta'ang Legal Aid, Burma
217. Ta'ang Students and Youth Union - TSYU, Myanmar
218. Temple Adath Israel --Lexington, KY, USA
219. Tennessee Kachin Community, TN, USA
220. The Burmese Rohingya Association of North America, USA
221. The PLAN: Public Legal Aid Network, Myanmar
222. The Sound of Hope, USA
223. The Urban Village, USA
224. U.S. Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar, USA
225. U.S. Campaign for Burma, USA
226. Unitarian Universalist Association, USA
227. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), USA
228. University of Hartford Philosophy Club, USA
229. US Chin Coalition, USA
230. Utica Karen Community, USA
231. Utica Karen Wesleyan Church, USA
232. Virginia Kachin Community, VA, USA
233. Washington Kachin Community, WA, USA
234. West Virginia Kachin Community, WV, USA
235. Women Advocacy Coalition, Myanmar
236. Women Empowerment and Advocacy Network, Bangladesh
237. Women's Peace Network, USA
238. World Outside My Shoes, USA
239. World Rohingya Organization, Jackson Heights, NY, USA
240. Youths of Tomorrow, Myanmar
241. Zion Karen Baptist Church of Albert Lea, MN, USA
242. Zotung organization of America, USA..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
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Sub-title:
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Ravina Shamdasani
Description:
"Alarming reports indicate that there has been substantial deployment of heavy weapons and troops by the Myanmar military, the Tatmadaw, over the past few weeks in Kanpetlet and Hakha townships in Chin State; Kani and Monywa townships in the central Sagaing region; and Gangaw township in Magway. Two high-level commanders have also been deployed to the area and the Internet has been shut down.
We are gravely concerned by these developments, particularly given the intensifying attacks by the military that we have documented over the past month in these areas, including killings, raiding of villages and burning of houses, apparently to seek out armed resistance elements and as reprisals against villages perceived to be sympathetic to people’s defence forces or ethnic armed groups. There have been reports of mass arrests, as well as torture and summary executions.Military “clearance operations” have involved the use of artillery barrages and airstrikes against villages. The Internet shutdowns have also meant that millions of people have lost the means to communicate and obtain information necessary for their survival, and cast an information blackout over potential abuses.
As the High Commissioner has already noted, there has been an established pattern of attacks by the Tatmadaw against unarmed individuals using lethal force, destruction of residential properties, mass arbitrary detention and deaths in military custody. We urge the international community to speak with one voice, to prevent the commission of further serious human rights violations against the people of Myanmar. Influential states must prevail on the Tatmadaw to de-escalate the situation, protect civilian lives and property, and ensure access to humanitarian aid for those who need it..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Geneva)
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Media contact: Myra Dahgaypaw, U.S. Campaign for Burma (718) 207-2556
Soe Reh, Karenni-American Association (832) 526-2849
Jan Jan Maran, Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD) (571) 620-9163
Washington, DC, October 6, 2021) – Today, 242 Burmese diaspora groups, local CSOs in Burma, community based organizations, and civil society organizations in the U.S. and around the world sent a letter to the U.S. Congress to urgently support and pass the BURMA Act, which was introduced by Chairman Meeks (D-NY), Senator Cardin (D-MD), and Representative Chabot (R-OH) on Tuesday, October 5th.
The BURMA Act was warmly welcomed yesterday as a vital next step in supporting the people of Burma and holding their perpetrators, the junta and its military, accountable for the countless human rights abuses committed daily. The introduction and eventual passing of the BURMA Act will show strong U.S. leadership in alleviating an increasingly dire situation in Burma by holding the junta accountable with targeted sanctions and providing vital aid to the people of Burma. Ending the military’s cycle of impunity will not only prevent further violence, but will aid in creating safer conditions for all people in the country.
The human rights violations committed by the Burmese military since the February 1st Coup are well documented by the CSOs on the ground and international organizations. For decades, the Burmese military incited conflict across Burma and waged a campaign of violence against ethnic minorities. Since February, the level of violence escalated to include the people of central Burma in targeted waves of human rights violations to silence any opposition and force the people into submission. Congress must take decisive action to hold the Burmese military accountable for their grave crimes and support impacted communities by urgently voting to pass the BURMA Act.
Burma’s ethnic communities in the U.S. have friends, family, and loved ones that are directly affected by the military coup. The people of Burma deserve sustainable peace, security and political stability after years of human rights abuses and a lack of justice.
“The people of Burma have waited far too long for tangible action like the Burma Act, which was introduced yesterday by Chairman Meeks, Senator Cardin, and Representative Chabot. We now need other members of Congress to step up and co-sponsor the bill in order for it to pass successfully. With U.S. leadership taking the initiative to help and support the people, as well as taking the necessary actions to hold the junta accountable for its brutal crimes; hopefully, the rest of the international community will follow suit.” – Myra Dahgaypaw..."
Source/publisher:
U.S. Campaign for Burma
Date of publication:
2021-10-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
216 KB
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Description:
"Nearly 1,000 villagers in Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, have been displaced by fighting between civilian resistance fighters and junta troops, said Dawna Tanintharyi, a humanitarian group helping those left homeless.
Clashes broke out after junta troops raided villages in Taung Pyauk to the east of the Dawei-Myeik road in Dawei District on Sept. 28, detaining civilians and torching houses.
“Nearly 1,000 villagers have fled their homes since the raids. The numbers will increase if the clashes continue. As there are still no camps they have to cope with what they have. We are consulting to set up camps,” said a Dawna member.
Daung Min, a resistance group, confronted regime troops following the raids. It said it clashed with junta troops four times since late September.
People lack food and medicine and junta troops are tightly controlling the roads, making it difficult to supply those displaced.
“They said their food will barely last a week. We have difficulties transporting food to them. They also need medicine,” said the Dawna member.
“More people will be displaced and the problems will increase if clashes continue. [The PDFs and junta troops] should stop fighting until the civilians have escaped. Those displaced need aid and they cannot receive any supplies,” said a resident..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., Human Rights Defenders
Language:
more
Description:
"Media Release from US Campaign for Burma
Today, 242 Burmese diaspora groups, local CSOs in Burma, community- based organizations, and civil society organizations in the U.S. and around the world sent a letter to the U.S. Congress to urgently support and pass the BURMA Act, which was introduced by Chairman Meeks (D-NY), Senator Cardin (D-MD), and Representative Chabot (R-OH) on Tuesday, October 5th.
The BURMA Act was warmly welcomed yesterday as a vital next step in supporting the people of Burma and holding their perpetrators, the junta and its military, accountable for the countless human rights abuses committed daily. The introduction and eventual passing of the BURMA Act will show strong U.S. leadership in alleviating an increasingly dire situation in Burma by holding the junta accountable with targeted sanctions and providing vital aid to the people of Burma. Ending the military’s cycle of impunity will not only prevent further violence, but will aid in creating safer conditions for all people in the country.
The human rights violations committed by the Burmese military since the February 1st Coup are well- documented by the CSOs on the ground and international organizations. For decades, the Burmese military incited conflict across Burma and waged a campaign of violence against ethnic minorities. Since February, the level of violence escalated to include the people of central Burma in targeted waves of human rights violations to silence any opposition and force the people into submission. Congress must take decisive action to hold the Burmese military accountable for their grave crimes and support impacted communities by urgently voting to pass the BURMA Act.
Burma’s ethnic communities in the U.S. have friends, family, and loved ones that are directly affected by the military coup. The people of Burma deserve sustainable peace, security and political stability after years of human rights abuses and a lack of justice.
“The people of Burma have waited far too long for tangible action like the BURMA Act, which was introduced yesterday by Chairman Meeks, Senator Cardin, and Representative Chabot. We now need other members of Congress to step up and co-sponsor the bill in order for it to pass successfully. With U.S. leadership taking the initiative to help and support the people, as well as taking the necessary actions to hold the junta accountable for its brutal crimes; hopefully, the rest of the international community will follow suit.” – Myra Dahgaypaw..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2021-10-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"8 October 2021: The United Nations is in danger of repeating its past mistakes in Myanmar, warns the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M). Effective leadership and an appropriate strategy are desperately needed if the UN is to avoid contributing to the suffering caused by the illegal military junta.
Since February, military leader Min Aung Hlaing’s violent assault on the people of Myanmar has driven the country into a state of acute crisis. During this unprecedented nation-wide emergency, the people of Myanmar feel they have been abandoned by the UN.
A lack of leadership from the Secretary-General and paralysis within the Security Council have added another eight months to years of UN failure in Myanmar. Recent comments by senior UN officials inaccurately suggested that the military has ‘taken over’ has an ‘iron grip on power,’ and presented the crisis as being the latest development in a protracted armed conflict. This misrepresents the situation and risks worsening the problem severely.
“The sheer level of violence being inflicted on the population by Min Aung Hlaing is a clear indication that he does not have a grip on anything. The junta is the source of the violence, and to deduce otherwise is a serious misinterpretation,” said Yanghee Lee, founding member of SAC-M. “Misinterpretation leads to misrepresentation, misrepresentation leads to misunderstanding, and misunderstanding leads to mistakes.”
This has been a persistent problem for the United Nations in Myanmar. The Rosenthal report on UN involvement in Myanmar from 2010-18 found systemic and structural failures that rendered the world body impotent in the face of atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017. These failures were noted throughout the UN’s engagement, from the Secretary-General to the Resident Coordinator. They must not be repeated in the latest crisis instigated by the illegal junta.
SAC-M is gravely concerned that the same failed logic of trying to accommodate the military, in an effort to continue in-country programming and maintain a presence in Myanmar, is guiding a misrepresentation by the UN of the current crisis and the junta’s role in it.
“There is clearly no military-led solution to the conflict in Myanmar, after an eight-month period of a failed post-coup attempt by Min Aung Hlaing and his brutal forces,” said Marzuki Darusman, founding member of SAC-M. “The UN in the country is adrift and seemingly beholden to the military. It risks being perceived as allowing a creeping process of imposing a military solution on the people’s democracy movement.”
The UN in Myanmar needs an appropriate strategy for engaging with the junta for what it is – an armed actor employing terrorism, not a government.
Despite the severity of the trials confronting Myanmar and the significant number of UN agencies, funds and programmes present, the UN Country Team has been without a permanent Resident Coordinator for most of the past four years.
“A deeply unfortunate series of circumstances has led to a lack of effective UN leadership in Myanmar throughout the crisis,” said Chris Sidoti. “The top UN position in Myanmar is now vacant again. This is unacceptable and must be rectified without delay. Myanmar needs a senior, well-experienced person as the next UN Resident Coordinator, selected after consultation with the National Unity Government and civil society.”..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-08
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
113.72 KB
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Description:
"အကျဉ်းထောင်များတွင် အကျဉ်းသားများ၏ အသက်ရှင်သန်ခွင့်အတွက် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့်အညီ ဆေးကုသခွင့်ရရှိရေး၊ အကြမ်းဖက်ဖိနှိပ်မှုများ ချက်ချင်းရပ်တန့်ရေး နှင့် ဖိနှိပ်မှုများအပေါ် သက်ဆိုင်သူများ တာဝန်ယူရမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ကြေညာခြင်း
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၂/၂၀၂၁)
ရက်စွဲ ၊ ၂၄ ရက် ဇူလိုင်လ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်
၁။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ကိုဗစ် ၁၉ ကပ်ရောဂါ ကူးစက်ပြန့်ပွားမှု မြင့်တက်နေချိန်တွင် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီသည် တရားမဝင်ရယူထားသည့် ၎င်းတို့၏ အာဏာတည်မြဲရေးကိုသာ အဓိက အလေးထား လုပ်ကိုင်ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသောကြောင့် ပြည်သူများအပေါ် ထိရောက်သည့် ကျန်းမာ ရေး စောင့်ရှောက် မှုများ မဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်သည့်အပြင် ပြည်သူအချင်းချင်း ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်မှု များကိုပါ နည်းမျိုးစုံသုံး၍ ပိတ်ပင်တားဆီးမှုများ ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသည်ကို တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။
၂။ ယခုအခါ အကျဉ်းထောင်များအတွင်းတွင်ပါ ကိုဗစ် ၁၉ ရောဂါ ကူးစက် ပြန့်ပွားမှုများ မြင့်တက်လျက်ရှိပြီး အခြေအနေဆိုးရွားနေသည့်အပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် ထိရောက် သည့် ကာကွယ်ထိန်းချုပ်မှုနှင့် ကုသမှုများ ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်မှု မရှိသည့်အပြင် အကျဉ်းထောင်တွင်း အမျိုးမျိုး သော ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်မှုများကိုသာ ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိနေသောကြောင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဇူလိုင်လ ၂၃ ရက်နေ့ မနက်တွင် အင်းစိန် အကျဉ်းထောင်အတွင်း ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်း သိမ်းခံထားရသည့် အကျဉ်း သား/သူများ၊ အချုပ်သား/သူများက ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒဖော်ထုတ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။
၃။ ယင်းသို့ ဆန္ဒဖော်ထုတ်ခဲ့မှုအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက စစ်တပ်အင်အားသုံး၍ ဝင်ရောက် နှိမ်နင်းခဲ့ပြီး ယင်းဖြစ်စဉ်တွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့သည့် အကျဉ်းသား/သူများ၊ အချုပ်သား/သူများကို လူမဆန်စွာ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှုများ၊ သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိကြောင်း ထိတ်လန့်တုန်လှုပ် ဖွယ်ရာ သတင်းများကိုလည်း ကြားသိနေရသည်။
၄။ အကျဉ်းသား/သူများ၊ အချုပ်သား/သူများကို လုံလောက်သည့် ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု စီမံ ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးမှု မရှိခြင်း၊ မိသားစုဝင်များနှင့် အဆက်အသွယ်ဖြတ်တောက်ထားခြင်း၊ အင်အားသုံး နှိမ်နင်းခြင်း၊ လူမဆန်စွာ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်းနှင့် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းဖြစ်စဉ်အပေါ် သတင်းမီဒီယာ များနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများကို လေ့လာခွင့်မပြုဘဲ သတင်းထိမ်ချန် ကွယ်ဝှက်ထားခြင်း များသည် အလွန်ဆိုးဝါးသည့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများဖြစ်သည့်အပြင် ရာဇဝတ်မှုမြောက် သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များဖြစ်သဖြင့် အဆိုပါလုပ်ရပ်များနှင့် နောက်ဆက်တွဲဆိုးကျိုးများအတွက် အာဏာ သိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် အကျဉ်းထောင်တာဝန်ရှိသူများတွင် အပြည့်အဝ တာဝန်ရှိပြီး၊ အပြည့်အဝ တာဝန်ယူရမည်။
၅။ အကျဉ်းထောင်တာဝန်ရှိသူများအနေဖြင့် အကျဉ်းသား/သူများ၊ အချုပ်သား/သူများ၏ အခြေခံလူ့အခွင့်အရေးများဖြစ်သော လုံလောက်သည့်ဆေးကုသခွင့် လူ့ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာနှင့်အညီ နေထိုင် နိုင်ခွင့်နှင့် လွတ်လပ်စွာ အသက်ရှင်သန်ခွင့်များကို အမြန်ဆုံးထိရောက်စွာ ကာကွယ်ပေးရန် လိုအပ် သည်။
၆။ ယခုဖြစ်ရပ်များနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ သတင်းအချက်အလက်များ၊ သက်သေအထောက်အထား များ ရရှိပါက အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝန်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ https://mohai.nugmyanmar.org (ဆက်သွယ်ရန် ကဏ္ဍ) သို့ ဆက်သွယ်ပေးပို့ကြပါရန်နှင့် ယခု ကဲ့သို့ အကျဉ်းသား/သူများ၊ အချုပ်သား/သူများအပေါ် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုနှင့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု ကျူးလွန်ခြင်းဖြစ်စဉ်များ နှင့်စပ်လျဉ်း၍ ကျူးလွန်ခံရသူများ၏ ထိခိုက်နစ်နာမှုများကို ပြန်လည် ကုစားပေး နိုင်ရေးနှင့် ကျူးလွန်သူများကို တရားဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ ထိရောက်စွာ အပြစ်ပေးအရေးယူ နိုင်ရေး ဆက်လက်ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာလိုက်သည်။
ပုံ
လွင်ကိုလတ်
ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး
ပြည်ထဲရေး နှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration - Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-07-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-07
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186.88 KB
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Description:
"CDM ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ ယာယီအုပ်ချူပ်ရေးကော်မတီ ဖွဲ့စည်းကြောင်း ကြေညာခြင်း
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၄/၂၀၂၁)
ရက်စွဲ ၊ ၇ ရက် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်
ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေးတွင် ပူးပေါင်းပါဝင်လာကြသော CDM ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ နှင့် မိသားစုဝင်များအား ပြန်လည်စုစည်းပြီး ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံမှုရှိစေရေး စီမံဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်ရန်၊ CDM ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ နှင့် မိသားစု များအကြား ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာမည့် အခက်အခဲများအား ကူညီဖြေရှင်းပေးနိုင်ရန်၊ CDM မပြုလုပ်ရသေးသော ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များအား CDM နှင့် Pre CDM များ ပြုလုပ်လာစေပြီး အနာဂါတ်ဖက်ဒရယ် ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ ဖွဲ့စည်းနိုင်ရေးအထောက်အပံ့ဖြစ်စေရန် ရည်ရွယ်၍ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့်လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန နှင့် CDM ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ ညှိနှိုင်းအစည်းအဝေးကျင်းပကာ “CDM ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ ယာယီအုပ်ချူပ်ရေး ကော်မတီ” အား ဖွဲ့စည်းလိုက်သည်။
ပုံ
လွင်ကိုလတ်
ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး
ပြည်ထဲရေး နှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration - Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Format :
pdf
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145.87 KB
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Description:
"အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ တရားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် ၅/၂၀၂၁
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ၊ ၇ ရက်နေ့
အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီအလိုကျ တရားစစ်ဆေးစီရင်နေခြင်းသည် ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်နေခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Justice
Date of publication:
2021-10-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Rule of Law - Burma/Myanmar-specific
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216.9 KB
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Sub-title:
The military council units also raided the boy’s house two days after he was detained
Description:
"Junta authorities arrested the teenaged president of the Basic Education Students’ Union of Naypyitaw’s Zabuthiri Township at his home earlier this week, according to the group.
Tun Aung Kyaw, age 15, was taken into detention by two police officers and two local administrators, a spokesperson for the Naypyitaw Students’ Union said.
It is said that the military units arrested Tun Aung Kyaw, the president of the basic education students’ union of Zabuthiri township, Naypyidaw, at his home on October 3 evening.
“He is technically a minor, so they said that they just had some questions to ask and that they’d let him go soon,” he told Myanmar Now.
At the time of reporting, the boy was still being held at the No. 3 police station in Zabuthiri and had not been allowed contact with his family, the student union representative said.
At 10pm on Tuesday, military troops reportedly ransacked his house.
Myanmar Now called the police station for comment on Tun Aung Kyaw’s arrest but the calls went unanswered.
Another Naypyitaw student leader, Yan Paing, was arrested by the military on May 2 and died on October 1 during an interrogation, according to a statement released by the Naypyitaw Students’ Union.
According to the statistics reported by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), there have now been at least 7,104 civilians detained by the junta since the February 1 coup and at least 1,158 civilians killed during that same period.
As they have been active in participating in anti-coup demonstrations, student union members have been frequent targets of military arrests, but the exact number of students in detention is not known.
Most recently, four students preparing to protest against the junta were arrested near the Pathi dam in Taungoo Township, Bago Region on the evening of September 19..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-10-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders
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Sub-title:
The ITUC has welcomed the pioneering decision by the French Senate to recognise the National Unity Government (NUG) as the official government of Myanmar.
Description:
"he Senate, the upper house of the French parliament, adopted the resolution unanimously.
ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said: “Well done to the French Senate for setting this precedent. We call on all governments to follow this example and recognise, without delay, the NUG as the official and legitimate government of Myanmar.
“The writing is on the wall for the military junta. They’ve already been shunned by the UN General Assembly, the ILO International Labour Conference, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. They all refused to accept the junta’s credentials.
“It’s time for the regime to return power to legitimate, elected leaders and restore democracy in Myanmar.”
To support the workers and families in Myanmar who have lost their livelihoods due to strikes or other protest actions, the ITUC has established a solidarity fund. Please show your solidarity and donate through the ITUC Myanmar strike fund here and promote it on your social networks..."
Source/publisher:
International Trade Union Confederation (Brussels)
Date of publication:
2021-10-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
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Description:
"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့်လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
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နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ ပြည်သူလူထုဘက်မှ အမြန်ဆုံးရပ်တည်ပေးနိုင်ရန်
ကြိုးပမ်းအားထုတ်ကြစေရေးနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်းသည့် ကြေညာချက်
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၃/၂၀၂၁)
ရက်စွဲ ၊ ၉ ရက် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်
၁။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ဦးဆောင်သည့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အုပ်စုသည် ပြည်သူလူထု ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ထားသည့် ဒီမိုကရေစီအစိုးရထံမှ လက်နက်အားကိုး ဖြင့် မတရား အာဏာသိမ်းယူခဲ့ပြီး ပြည်သူများကို ပစ်ခတ်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ နည်းမျိုးစုံဖြင့် ဖမ်းဆီးနှိပ်စက်ခြင်း၊ အကျဉ်းချခြင်း၊ ပြည်သူများ ပိုင်ဆိုင်သည့် အိုးအိမ်များ၊ ဥစ္စာပစ္စည်းများကို အဓမ္မသိမ်းယူခြင်း၊ ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်းစသည့် ဥပဒေမဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်များ၊ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်လာခဲ့သည်မှာ ၈ လတာကာလ အတွင်းသို့ ရောက်ရှိလာခဲ့ပြီ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂။ ယင်းသို့ ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်ဖမ်းဆီးသတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ဖိနှိပ်အနိုင်ကျင့်ခြင်းများကြောင့် ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံး ကိုယ်စိတ်နှစ်ပါး ဆင်းရဲပင်ပန်းနေကြရပြီး အကြောင်းအမျိုးမျိုးကြောင့် အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီလက်အောက်မှ ရုန်းမထွက်နိုင်ကြသေးဘဲ မလွှဲမရှောင်သာ ဆက်လက် တာဝန်ထမ်း ဆောင်နေကြရသည့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့၊ အထွေထွေအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန၊ အထူးစုံစမ်းစစ်ဆေးရေးဦးစီးဌာန၊ အကျဉ်းဦးစီးဌာန၊ မီးသတ်ဦးစီးဌာန၊ လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဦးစီးဌာန စသည့် ဌာနအသီးသီးမှ ဝန်ထမ်းအချို့သည်လည်း စိတ်နှလုံးမချမ်းမြေ့ဘဲ ထိခိုက်နာကျင်ခံစား နေကြရ သည်ကို ကြားသိနေရပါသည်။
၃။ ပြည်သူလူထုကို ရက်ရက်စက်စက် ဖိနှိပ် ညှဉ်းဆဲ သတ်ဖြတ်နေသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အမိန့် ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ဖီဆန်ခြင်းသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ သဘာဝအခွင့်အရေးဖြစ်သကဲ့သို့ နိုင်ငံသားများ၏ လွတ်လပ်မှု အခြေခံအုတ်မြစ်ကို တည်ဆောက်ခြင်းလည်း ဖြစ်သည်။ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန ဝန်ထမ်းများ Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) တွင် ပါဝင်လာခြင်းအားဖြင့် ပြည်သူ့ လွတ်မြောက်ရေး တော်လှန်မှုတွင် ပြည်သူနှင့်အတူ ရပ်တည်ပါဝင်လာခြင်းသည် ပြည်သူ့ခုခံတော်လှန်ရေး၏ တောင်းဆိုချက်လည်း ဖြစ်ပေသည်။
၄။ ယခုအချိန်တွင် ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ယာယီသမ္မတကြီး ဒူဝါလရှီးလက ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၇ ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ နိုင်ငံတော်ကို အရေးပေါ် အခြေအနေ သတ်မှတ် ကြေညာခဲ့ပြီး အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီကို ပြည်သူတစ်ရပ်လုံးမှ လှည်းနေလှေအောင်း မြင်းစောင်း မကျန် ခုခံတွန်းလှန်ကြဖို့ မိန့်ခွန်းမြွက်ကြားခဲ့ပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၅။ ပြည်သူလူထုဘက်က ရပ်တည်လိုသော်လည်း အကြောင်းအမျိုးမျိုးကြောင့် အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီလက်အောက်တွင် စိတ်မချမ်းမြေ့စွာ ဆက်လက်တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေကြရသည့် ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာနလက်အောက်ရှိ ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူ့ တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများ ဘက်မှ ပူးပေါင်းရပ်တည်ခြင်း၊ သတင်းပေးခြင်း၊ ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေး ရဲဘော်များနှင့် ပြည်သူများကို တတ်စွမ်း သမျှ ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ခြင်းများ လုပ်ဆောင်၍ ပြည်သူလူထု ဘက်မှ ပြတ်သားစွာ ပူးပေါင်းရပ်တည်နိုင်ရေး အတွက် အစွမ်းကုန် ကြိုးပမ်းအားထုတ်ကြဖို့ အချိန်တန်ပြီ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၆။ ယင်းသို့ ပြည်သူ့ဘက်မှ ပူးပေါင်းရပ်တည်လာကြသည့် အင်အားများသည် အာဏာရူးအကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်များကို ခုခံတွန်းလှန်စစ်ဆင်နွှဲနေကြသည့် ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေး၏ ပွဲသိမ်းအောင်ပွဲကို ကြီးမားသည့် အထောက်အပံ့ဖြစ်စေပြီး ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အသက်အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်များကို ပိုမိုကာကွယ် စောင့်ရှောက်နိုင်မည် ဖြစ်သည့်အပြင် ပြည်သူလူထုနှင့်တစ်သားတည်း ရပ်တည်ကြခြင်းဖြင့် မိမိကိုယ်တိုင်နှင့် မိမိတို့ မိသားစု ဝင်များကိုပါ ပြည်သူလူထုက အပြန်အလှန် ကူညီဖေးမ စောင့်ရှောက်ပေးနိုင်မည်ဖြစ်ရာ နိုင်ငံသား အားလုံးကို ပိုမို ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံမှုရစေမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၇။ နိုင်ငံဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် မိမိတို့၏ မူလတာဝန်ကို ကျေပြွန်စွာထမ်းဆောင်ရာတွင် အဓိက အလေးထား ရမည့်အချက်မှာ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အသက်အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်ကို ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက် ပေးရန်နှင့် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ လိုအပ်ချက်များကို ဖြည့်ဆည်းပေးနိုင်ရေးအတွက် ပြည်သူလူထုနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းလက်တွဲ ကူညီရန် ဖြစ်သည်။ အကြောက်တရားကြောင့် မိမိတို့၏ မူလတာဝန်ကို မေ့လျောကာ ပြည်သူလူထုကို အကြမ်းဖက် ပစ်ခတ် သတ်ဖြတ် ဖမ်းဆီးနှိပ်စက်နေသည့် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ လက်ကိုင်တုတ်၊ လက်ပါးစေဘဝသို့ ကျရောက်မသွားစေရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် သစ္စာမဖောက်မိစေရေးအတွက် မိမိတို့ ကိုယ်စွမ်း ဉာဏ်စွမ်းရှိသမျှ အားထုတ်ကြရမည် ဖြစ်ပါ သည်။
၈။ အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်ကာ ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ ဆက်လက်ကျူးလွန်နေပါက ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေးတိုက်ပွဲအတွင်း ပြည်သူ့ ရန်သူအဖြစ် တိုက်ခိုက်ချေမှုန်းခံရနိုင်သည့်အပြင် ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေးတိုက်ပွဲပြီးဆုံးချိန်တွင်လည်း တရားဥပဒေ အရ အရေးယူ အပြစ်ပေးခံရမည်ဖြစ်ရာ၊ လက်ရှိကာလအတွင်း ပြည်သူလူထုဘက်မှ ပြတ်သားစွာ ပူးပေါင်း ရပ်တည်ရန် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် နိုင်ငံ့တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေကြသည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အသက်၊ အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်ကို ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ပေးရန်နှင့် ပြည်သူလူထု၏လိုအပ်ချက်များကို ဖြည့်ဆည်း ပေးနိုင်ရေးအတွက် ပြည်သူလူထုနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းလက်တွဲကူညီရန် တာဝန်ရှိသည့်အားလျော်စွာ မိမိတို့၏ မူလ တာဝန်ကို လစ်ဟင်းမှုမရှိစေရေး အတွက် သတိချပ်ကြစေလိုပြီး ပြည်သူလူထုနှင့်တစ်သားတည်း ရပ်တည်နိုင်ရေး အလျင်အမြန် ကြိုးပမ်း ဆောင်ရွက်ကြရန် တိုက်တွန်းလိုက်သည်။
ပုံ
လွင်ကိုလတ်
ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး
ပြည်ထဲရေး နှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration - Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-09
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-07
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"BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian countries are discussing not inviting the head of Myanmar's junta to a summit later this month, due to a lack of progress on an agreed roadmap to restore peace in the strife-torn country, a regional envoy said on Wednesday.
The junta's inaction on a five-point plan it agreed in April with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was "tantamount to backtracking", Erywan Yusof, the bloc's special envoy to Myanmar, told a news conference.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since a Feb. 1 coup led by military chief Min Aung Hlaing that ended a decade of tentative democracy and the return of military rule has prompted outrage at home and abroad.
Erywan, the second foreign minister of ASEAN chair Brunei, said the bloc was in "deep in discussions" about not inviting the junta to participate in a virtual summit on Oct. 26-28, after the issue was raised by Malaysia and some other member countries.
"Up until today there has been no progress on the implementation of the five-point consensus, and this has raised a concern," Erywan said.
Myanmar junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not respond to calls from Reuters on Wednesday. Last week he told a news conference that Myanmar was cooperating with ASEAN "without compromising the country's sovereignty".
The bloc's effort to engage with Myanmar's military has been criticised by supporters of democracy, with a committee of ousted Myanmar lawmakers declaring the junta a terrorist group and saying ASEAN's engagement would give it legitimacy.
Still, excluding a leader from the summit would be a big step for ASEAN, which operates under consensus decision-making principles and prefers engagement, rather than confrontation, with member countries.
Erywan said the junta had not directly responded to his requests to meet detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was overthrown in the coup.
He added that he had proposed a programme for his visit to Myanmar to the military appointed foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin last week, but the junta has not yet responded.
A source close to the Malaysian government said the ASEAN envoy was unlikely to visit Myanmar before the summit as the bloc had initially targeted.
More than 1,100 people have been killed since the coup, according to the United Nations, many during a crackdown by security forces on pro-democracy strikes and protests, during which thousands have been arrested. The junta says that estimate is exaggerated and members of its security forces have also been killed.
The ASEAN roadmap included a commitment to dialogue with all parties, allowing humanitarian access and ceasing hostilities.
Myanmar's long history of military dictatorship and alleged human rights abuses has been ASEAN's most tricky issue, testing the limits of its unity and its policy of non-interference.
But the foreign ministers meeting virtually on Monday voiced disappointment about the lack of progress made by the State Administrative Council (SAC), as Myanmar's junta is known.
On Monday, Malaysia's top diplomat Saifuddin Abdullah on Twitter said that without progress, "it would be difficult to have the chairman of the SAC at the ASEAN summit".
He reiterated this stance in parliament on Wednesday and said the ASEAN envoy was doing "whatever is humanly possible" to make progress on the roadmap..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-10-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-06
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"Washington, DC – Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), House Foreign Affairs Asia-Pacific Subcommittee Ranking Member Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) introduced the “Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021” or BURMA Act.
The legislation condemns the actions taken by the Burmese military during its February 1 coup d’état and its aftermath. By authorizing targeted sanctions against the Burmese military, the State Administrative Council, as well as their affiliated entities and conglomerates, the bill holds accountable those responsible for the perpetration of the coup and the ensuing atrocities that have claimed over a thousand lives. In light of the growing crisis in Burma, the legislation also authorizes support for civil society and humanitarian assistance and calls on the State Department to issue a genocide determination for the persecution of the Rohingya.
“It has been eight long months since the Burmese military staged its illegal and illegitimate coup, reversing years of reform and Burma’s fragile transition to democracy. Despite diplomatic pressure from the United States and the international community, the Burmese military has refused to cease its violence, release those unjustly detained, or participate in meaningful dialogue with local stakeholders. The United States must do more to support and protect the Burmese people and send a clear signal to the Burmese military,” said Chairman Meeks.
“The Burmese military’s coup in February, and the ongoing atrocities that have followed, continue to be a direct attack on the people of Burma and their basic desire for self-government. Self-government is not some sort of temporary arrangement or gift from the military. The people of Burma have had enough of military rule and, to their credit, have courageously stood up for their legitimate democratic aspirations. As a longtime champion of human rights in Burma, I’m proud to join Chairman Meeks to introduce this legislation which will authorize a forceful response to these heinous crimes,” said Representative Chabot.
“As the death toll continues to rise, the United States must not be indifferent to Burma’s fate. Horrible atrocities have been committed against minority groups, including the Rohingya, which has led more than one million to flee as refugees. Our bicameral legislation aims to hold responsible the military leaders and others who have ravaged this nation and committed crimes against humanity. We stand in solidarity with the people of Burma and condemn the violence that has been perpetrated against them,” said Senator Cardin.
A copy of the BURMA Act of 2021 can be found here. Key elements of the legislation include:
Authorization to impose sanctions on individuals and entities who helped stage the February 1 coup d’état and are responsible for the subsequent repression of fundamental freedoms, human rights abuses, use of indiscriminate violence towards civilians, and other gross atrocities.
Authorization to prohibit the import of precious and semi-precious gemstones from Burma into the United States.
Authorization for a new position at the State Department, a Special Coordinator for Burmese Democracy, to promote an international effort to impose and enforce multilateral sanctions on Burma and coordinate United States Government interagency efforts on Burma.
Authorization for support to civil society and for humanitarian assistance in Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the surrounding region.
Call for the Department of State to make a genocide determination with regards to the persecution of the Rohingya.
Call for the United States to pressure the United Nations to take more decisive action with regards to Burma..."
Source/publisher:
House Foreign Affairs Committee
Date of publication:
2021-10-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations
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Description:
"A large proportion of more than 76,000 children in Myanmar who have been forced to flee their homes since the February coup could go hungry as their families share a single meal per day, Save the Children has warned.
Citing the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, the charity said on Monday that around 206,000 people have been displaced by violence since the coup.
Of them, 76,000 are children and many are sheltering in forests during torrential rain under tarpaulins without enough food, it reported.
“While the world’s attention has moved on, a hunger crisis is unfolding in Myanmar,” Save the Children said. “Children are already going hungry and very soon they will start to succumb to disease and malnutrition.”
Myanmar is seeing growing popular resistance to military rule in response to attacks on peaceful protests.
The junta has retaliated with brutal raids on villages suspected of harboring resistance fighters while torching houses and making arbitrary arrests, particularly in Sagaing and Magwe regions, Chin and Kayah states.
While the displaced people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and food, delivery of aid is often blocked or restricted by the junta.
A volunteer at a displacement camp in Kayah State said hunger was a huge concern for displaced families.
“In the beginning, they received public donations or from charities that were helping people in the camps. But now donations are limited because people are being prevented from going to the camps. Some rice bags were donated and every family got just five cups. That’s not much for a family of seven people to live off,” the volunteer told Save the Children.
In Kayah State, around 22,000 people fled their homes in September alone, according to the UN, which said more than 79,000 people, including around 29,000 children, are displaced in the state.
Earlier this year, the World Food Programme estimated that the number of children in the country going hungry could more than double to 6.2 million this year, up from 2.8 million in February..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Children, Children's rights: reports of violations in Burma against more than one ethnic group, Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups.
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"အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊သယံဇာတနှင့်သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက် (၁၆/၂၀၂၁)
++++++++++++++++++++++++
သစ်အခြေခံ အသုံးပြု (သစ်စက်၊ သစ်အချောထည်စက်နှင့် ပရိဘောဂ) လုပ်ငန်းလိုင်စင်များအား ၂၀၂၁-၂၀၂၂ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှစ်အထိ သက်တမ်း (၁) နှစ် တိုးမြှင့်ခွင့်ပြုခြင်း
For more- https://monrec.nugmyanmar.org..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation - NUG
Date of publication:
2021-10-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-06
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Individual Documents
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174.35 KB
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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)
Date of publication:
2021-10-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Articles and reports about the NLD, About Aung San Suu Kyi
Language:
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Sub-title:
Few states have the appetite to invest in a force dominated by Aung San Suu Kyi's ousted party
Description:
"We are facing crimes against humanity. We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe. Yet the world has ignored us. They have closed their eyes." Such was the plaintive cry of Dr Sasa, minister for international co-operation in Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government (NUG), in a recent interview. He was referring to the situation in his country after the military ousted the incoming democratically elected administration headed by Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, since which, according to the UN Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews, more than 1,100 people have been killed, over 8,000 arbitrarily detained, and at least another 230,000 forcibly displaced.
Dr Sasa is correct, if one were to go by the nugatory coverage of the trial of Ms Suu Kyi on what are widely considered to be trumped-up charges, including inciting public unrest and corruption. There was a time when the military's treatment of Ms Suu Kyi – they kept her under house arrest for a total of 15 years and allegedly even attempted to assassinate her – provoked international outrage. But the legions of human rights defenders are not flocking to the former democracy activist's banner any more.
At one level, this seems unfortunate. "Junta-controlled military forces had killed protesters in the street, murdered civilians in their homes, beaten individuals to death and tortured people to death in their homes," said Mr Andrews in a submission to the UN's Human Rights Council late last month. "The junta also continued to deny the existence of the Rohingya ethnic minority while denying them citizenship, freedom of movement and other fundamental rights."
The problem is that similar atrocities and far, far worse occurred while Ms Suu Kyi was the country's de facto head of government from 2016 to 2021. Her dwindling band of apologists may point out that it was not her, but the military – over which she had no effective control – that committed what most of the world believes to be acts of ethnic cleansing against the Muslim Rohingya minority in western Myanmar between 2016 and 2019.
But Ms Suu Kyi as good as denied that such events took place at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2019, labelling accusations of genocide as “incomplete and misleading”. She and her National League for Democracy (NLD) administration were complicit in these crimes. The relative lack of sympathy for Myanmar's democracy movement – even though the NLD won an overwhelming majority of the vote in both 2015 and 2020 – is therefore hardly surprising.
Ah, some will say, but the NUG is different. It is far more inclusive, both of the country’s numerous armed ethnic groups and now, potentially, of the Rohingya too. Indeed, in June, it did promise a new citizenship act that would base “citizenship on birth in Myanmar or birth anywhere as a child of Myanmar citizens”. But this is all too convenient. The NUG is dominated by the NLD. When it was in government, the latter had every opportunity to stop or attempt to stop the slaughter of the Rohingya. To reach out a bloody hand to them now may be too little, too late. One has to ask how genuine the move is, in any case. Would the NLD have extended citizenship rights if the military had not taken over? Given its past record, that seems extremely unlikely.
And here is the really unpalatable issue. Speakers at the UN Human Rights Council called for “the military regime to respect the will of the people expressed in the November 2020 election”, and that is a sentiment with which I would agree in theory. Regular readers will know that I have always argued for the rights of people to choose representatives of whatever stripe they will, regardless of whether I or anyone else disapprove of their politics. But there is a limit. And when the democratically expressed will of the people is to return to power a party of genocide enablers, I find myself well past that limit. Clearly I am not alone – hence the apparent reluctance of democracy champions around the world to rally to the NLD-led NUG’s side.
"Far, far worse occurred while Aung Suu Kyi was the country's de facto head of government from 2016 to 2021
So here is my prediction: Dr Sasa is right. As long as the disruption and violence in Myanmar are contained within its borders, the world will to all intents and purposes continue to ignore the junta’s suspension of democracy. Of course there will be debates and resolutions passed at the UN and elsewhere, the Association of South-East Asian Nations – of which Myanmar is a member – will continue to attempt to broker a solution, probably fruitlessly, and China will carry on keeping its options open by maintaining relations with both the military and the NLD. The junta will have to manage border issues; 15,000 people have already crossed into India since the coup. They’ll have to live with sanctions and a shredded economy. However, they can also scan the horizon and see that there is no state with the appetite to take the kind of intervention necessary to force them from power.
The world has lived with Myanmar being an authoritarian military regime for most of its post-independence existence. It can and will do so again. If the country’s pro-democracy movement wants to ask why, they have only themselves to blame, for they have stripped themselves of whatever moral authority they once possessed. After all, the difference between those “complicit in genocide and responsible for genocide” – as the former UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee said – is only a matter of degree. So why, some would ask, should they come to the aid of one set of pariahs over another?..."
Source/publisher:
"The National"
Date of publication:
2021-10-06
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters
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Description:
"စစ်ပွဲနှင့်တိုက်ပွဲ၊ ထိတွေ့မှုဆိုင်ရာ စည်းမျဉ်းစည်းကမ်းများ(Rule of Engagement) နှင့် လက်နက်ကိုင်ပဋိပက္ခဆိုင်ရာ (သို့) စစ်ဥပဒေများ၊ မြေအောက်ယူဂျီရဲဘော် ဆောင်ရန် ရှောင်ရန်၊ Gender နှင့်တိုင်းပြည်ကာကွယ်ရေး၊ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်မတော်၏ စစ်ဘက်ဆိုင်ရာ ကျင့်ဝတ်များ၊ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်မတော်၏ သစ္စာအဓိဌာန် (၄) ချက် စသည့် အနယ်နယ်အရပ်ရပ်မှ ဒေသခံ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးအဖွဲ့များ သိသင့်သိထိုက်သည်များပါဝင်သည့် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးစာစဉ် အတွဲ(၁) အမှတ်(၁) ကို ကာကွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနက ထုတ်ဝေခဲ့ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-07-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Format :
pdf
Size:
1.48 MB (36 pages) - Original version
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"1. The National Unity Government (NUG) released the policy regarding Tatmadaw and the Police Forces under the statement No. 8/2021 on 23rd August 2021.
2. The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in accordance with NUG’s aforementioned policy regarding ‘people’s soldiers and policemen’ defecting the State Administration Council (SAC) to take refuge in the people’s embrace, therefore, issue the following directive to members of Tatmadaw and the Police Forces.
The members of Tatmadaw and the Police Forces:
(a) shall not obey the SAC’s orders and directives,
(b) shall not obstruct, hinder or attack People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and allied forces, and
(c) shall not arrest, torture, or kill civilians, and they shall not plunder or destroy public and private properties.
3. The MoD encourages defecting soldiers and police uniting under the people’s embrace to contact and register with the NUG to ensure the provision of necessary assistance and to be recorded for recognition and honour.
4. The people and the NUG extend a special welcome of praise to defectors and commit to offer any necessary assistance and protection.
5. At the same time, we issue a strong warning that the PDF and its allied forces will take strong actions against the terrorising henchmen of SAC who are acting treacherously against the country and its people..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-08-28
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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pdf
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22.17 KB
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"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)
Date of publication:
2021-10-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Articles and reports about the NLD
Language:
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Description:
"၁။ တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီကို ရှေးရှူ၍ ပြည်သူ့ဘက်မှ ရပ်တည်ကာ ပြည်သူ့ရင်ခွင်သို့ ခိုလှုံဝင်ရောက်လာကြသော CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများသည် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ တော်လှန်ရေး အတွက် ကြီးမားသော ခွန်အားဖြစ်စေပြီး အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အင်အားကို ချိနဲ့စေရုံ သာမက အနာဂတ် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီနိုင်ငံတော်သစ် တည်ဆောက်ရေး အတွက်လည်း အားကိုးအားထားပြုရမည့် အင်အားများ ဖြစ်သည်ဟု မှတ်ယူအသိအမှတ်ပြုပါသည်။
၂။ ပြည်သူလူထုဘက်သို့ ပူးပေါင်းရပ်တည်လာကြမည့် မြန်မာ့တပ်မတော်နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့မှ CDM နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းသားကောင်းများအတွက် ကာကွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ CDM ကုဒ်နံပါတ် များအား မကြာခင်တွင် ထုတ်ဝေအသိအမှတ်ပြု သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။
၃။ CDM ပြုလုပ်ထားပြီး စာရင်းပေးသွင်းလိုသော တပ်မတော်နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ အတွင်းမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းကောင်းများအနေဖြင့် အချက်အလက်ပေါက်ကြားမှုကို စိုးရိမ်စရာမလိုဘဲ http://t.me/MyanmarPeople Telegram မှတစ်ဆင့် ဆက်သွယ်စာရင်းပေးသွင်း နိုင်ပါကြောင်း အသိပေး ကြေငြာလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-07-29
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
302.45 KB
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Description:
"The Ministry of Defence of the National Unity Government has published People's Defence Force Journal Volume (I), Issue (II).....ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးစာစဉ် အတွဲ(၁) အမှတ်(၂) ကို ကာကွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနက ထုတ်ဝေခဲ့ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-08-07
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Format :
pdf
Size:
1.5 MB (34 pages) - original version
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Description:
"အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ကာကွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ ဒုတိယအကြိမ်မြောက် ထုတ်ဝေသော ကာကွယ်ရေးစာစဥ် (အတွဲ ၁/ အမှတ် ၃)..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-05
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
18.55 MB - (45 pages) - Original version
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Description:
"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာန
သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၃ ရက်
ပြည်ထောင်စု လွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စား ပြုကော်မတီ (CRPH) သည် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာ ၂၀ ရက် နေ့ စွဲ ဖြင့်၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ပြည်ထောင်စု၏ အခွန်အကောက် ဥပဒေ ကို အတည်ပြု ပြဌာန်းခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၂၀၂၁-၂၂ ဘဏ္ဍာ နှစ် အတွက် အဆိုပါ အခွန်အကောက် ဥပဒေ၏ ထူးခြားသော ပြဌာန်းချက်များမှာ အောက်ပါ အတိုင်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
ရရှိလာသည့် အခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများအား လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီအထောက်အပံ့ ပေးရေး နှင့် ကျန်းမာရေး၊ ပညာရေး ဆိုင်ရာ အသုံးစရိတ်အများအတွက် ဦးစားပေးသုံးစွဲရန် ပြဌာန်းချက် (ဥပဒေပုဒ်မ-၃၀)
အခွန်ထမ်းပြည်သူများ လိုလားကြည်ဖြူစွာ ထမ်းဆောင်ထားသည့် အခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများကို နိုင်ငံတော် အာဏာအား မတရားသဖြင့်လုယူထားသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်များနှင့် ကိုဗစ်ကပ်ဘေး ရောဂါကြောင့် ဆိုးရွားစွာထိခိုက်ခံစားနေရသည့် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ ကျန်းမာရေး၊ ပညာရေး နှင့် လူသားချင်း စာနာမှုဆိုင်ရာ ကူညီကယ်ဆယ်ထောက်ပံ့ရေး လုပ်ငန်းများအတွက် ဦးစားပေးသုံးစွဲရမည်ဟု ပုဒ်မ ၃၀ တွင် အတိအလင်းပြဌာန်းထားပါသည်။
ကုန်သွယ်လုပ်ငန်းခွန် တစ်နှစ်တာကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ပြုသည့် ပြဌာန်းချက် (ဥပဒေပုဒ်မ-၁၄)
ကုန်သွယ်လုပ်ငန်းခွန်ကို ယခုအခွန်နှစ်အတွက် ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ပြုလိုက်ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အဆင်အခြင်မဲ့မှု၊ တာဝန်မဲ့မှုနှင့် စီးပွားရေးစီမံခန့်ခွဲမှု ညံ့ဖျင်းမှု များကြောင့် အတိဒုက္ခရောက်နေရသည့် ပြည်တွင်း၊ ပြည်ပ ရင်းနှီးမြုပ်နှံသူများအတွက် အကူအညီ အထောက်အပံ့ဖြစ်စေရန် ရည်ရွယ်၍ ကုန်သွယ်လုပ်ငန်းခွန် တစ်နှစ်တာကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်အား ပုဒ်မ ၁၄ တွင် ပြဌာန်းထားပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ နေ့စဉ်ဝယ်ယူစားသုံးမှုအပေါ် ကျသင့်လျက်ရှိပြီး ဝန်ပိနေသည့် ကုန်သွယ်လုပ်ငန်းခွန် ၅ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းအားလည်း ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ပြုထားပါသည်။
လခစားအခွန်ထမ်းပြည်သူများ၏ အခြေခံအခွန်ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့် ဝင်ငွေပမာဏအား တိုးမြှင့် သတ်မှတ်သည့် ပြဌာန်းချက် (ဥပဒေပုဒ်မ- ၁၅-က၊ ၁၅-ခ)
လခစားအခွန်ထမ်းပြည်သူများ၏ သက်သာချောင်ချိရေးကို ဦးတည်လျက် ပုဒ်မ ၁၅ (က) နှင့် ၁၅ (ခ) တွင် လစာဝင်ငွေအပေါ် ပေးဆောင်ရသည့် ဝင်ငွေခွန် ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်အား ယခင်နှစ်များတွင် ငွေကျပ် ၄၈ သိန်းအထိ ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ပြုခဲ့ရာမှ ယခုနှစ်တွင် ငွေကျပ် ၁၂၀ သိန်းအထိ တိုးမြှင့်သတ်မှတ်၍ ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့် ပြဌာန်းထားပါသည်။ မည်သူမဆို တစ်နှစ်လစာဝင်ငွေ သိန်း ၁၂၀ ရရှိခြင်း အတွက် ဝင်ငွေခွန်ပေးဆောင်ရန် မလိုတော့ပါ။ ဤပြင်ဆင်ချက်သည် အခြေခံ နှင့် အလယ်အလတ် လခစားအခွန်ထမ်းသူများ အတွက် ထောက်ပံ့မှု ဖြစ်စေပါသည်။
စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအပေါ် ကျသင့်သည့် ဝင်ငွေခွန် သက်သာစေရန် ဝင်ငွေခွန်အလွှာ များအား ပြင်ဆင်သတ်မှတ်သည့် ပြဌာန်းချက် (ဥပဒေပုဒ်မ ၁၅-ဂ)
ဝင်ငွေခွန်အလွှာ များအား ပိုမိုရိုးရှင်းကျစ်လစ်စေရန် မူလ ၆ လွှာ မှ ၄ လွှာသို့ ပြောင်းလဲခဲ့ ပါသည်။ စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအပေါ် ဝင်ငွေခွန်အမြင့်ဆုံး ယခင်၂၅ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းကျသင့်လျက်ရှိရာမှ ယခု ၁၅ ရာခိုင်နှုန်း အထိ လျော့ချပေးထားပါသည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ ပြင်ဆင်လျော့ချခြင်းသည် နိုင်ငံ၏ စီးပွားရေးအား ပြန်လည်တည်ဆောက် သည့်အခါ အဓိကကျသည့် စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းရှင်များ၊ စွန့်ဦးတီထွင်သူများ၊ ဓနဖန်တီးသူများနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာရောက်မြန်မာများ၏ အကူအညီ အထောက် အပံ့ကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုခြင်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
အခွန်အထူးသက်သာလွတ်ငြိမ်းခွင့် ပေးအပ်ထားသည့်ပုဒ်မအား ပယ်ဖျက်ရသည့် အကြောင်းအရင်း (ယခင်ဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ-၂၅)
အခွန်အထူးသက်သာလွတ်ငြိမ်းခွင့် နှင့်သက်ဆိုင်သည့်ပုဒ်မအား ပယ်ဖျက်လိုက် ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ အနေဖြင့် ပွင့်လင်း မြင်သာသော၊ စစ်ဆေးခံနိုင်သော ဝင်ငွေများကိုသာ အသိအမှတ်ပြုမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ယခင် အခွန်အကောက် ဥပဒေများတွင် စည်းကြပ်မှုမှ လွတ်ကင်းနေသော ဝင်ငွေများအား ၆ ရာခိုင်နှုန်း မှ ၃၀ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းအထိ အခွန်ပေးဆောင်စေခြင်းဖြင့် တရားဝင် ဝင်ငွေအဖြစ် အထူးအခွင့်အရေးတစ်ရပ် ခွင့်ပြုခဲ့ကြ ပါသည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ ဥပဒေနှင့်ညီညွတ်မှု အားနည်းသည့် ဝင်ငွေများအား တရားဝင်စေရန် ဥပဒေအရ အထူး အခွင့်အရေး ပေးအပ် ထားခြင်းသည် မသင့်လျော်တော့သည့်အတွက် သက်ဆိုင်ရာပုဒ်မအား ပယ်ဖျက်လိုက်ပါသည်။
သစ်လုံး၊ သစ်ခွဲသားများနှင့် ကျောက်မျက်ရတနာအရိုင်းထည်များ ပြည်ပသို့ တင်ပို့ခြင်းဆိုင်ရာ ပုဒ်မများအား ပယ်ဖျက်ရသည့် အကြောင်းအရင်း ( ယခင်ဥပဒေပုဒ်မ- ၁၁-ခ၊ ၃၃-ခ-၁၊ ၃၃-ခ-၂ )
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ သည် သစ်လုံး၊ သစ်နှင့် ဆိုင်သော ထုတ်ကုန်များ နှင့် ကျောက်မျက်ရတနာများ ပြည်ပသို့ တင်ပို့ခြင်းကို တားမြစ်ခဲ့ပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အဆိုပါ ထုတ်ကုန် ပစ္စည်းများ သည် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ နိုင်ငံတခု၏ မူဝါဒများ အပေါ် အခြေခံသော အမျိုးသားအဆင့် အခွန်မူဝါဒများ အရသာ ဆန်းစစ်ခွင့်ပြုနိုင်မည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ မိမိတို့ အစိုးရ အနေဖြင့် ဒေသခံပြည်သူ တို့၏ သဘောထား မပါသော ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်များကို လက်ခံအတည်ပြု ရန် မဖြစ်နိုင်ပါ။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ အဆိုပါ ထုတ်ကုန် များနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်း၍ အခွန်အကောက်ဥပဒေတွင် ပါဝင်ရန် မသင့်လျော် သောကြောင့် ပယ်ဖျက်ထားခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။
မိမိကိုယ်တိုင် အကဲဖြတ်တွက်ချက် အဆိုပြု၍ အခွန်ဆောင်နိုင်မည့် လုပ်ငန်းစဉ် နှင့် အကျိုးကျေးဇူးများ
မြန်မာ ပြည်တွင်း နှင့် ပြည်ပ ရှိ အခွန်ထမ်း ပြည်သူများ အနေဖြင့် မိမိတို့ ပေးဆောင်ရမည်ဖြစ်သော အခွန်ငွေအား မိမိကိုယ်တိုင် ချင့်ချိန်တွက်ချက်၍ လုံခြုံစိတ်ချရသော Online Platform မှ တဆင့် ပေးဆောင်သွားရမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အခွန်ငွေပေးဆောင် ပြီးသည့်အခါ အခွန်ထမ်းသူ တစ်ဦးတည်းကသာ သိရှိနိုင်သော Unique Identification Number (UID) နှင့်တကွ မှတ်တမ်းတင်ဂုဏ်ပြုလွှာကို ပေးပို့သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ တော်လှန်ရေးအောင်မြင်ပြီးနောက် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပြည်ထောင်စု ထူထောင်သည့် ကာလတွင် အခွန်ထမ်းဆောင်ထားသော ပြည်သူများ အနေဖြင့် မိမိတို့လက်ဝယ်ရှိ UID ကို ကိုးကားကာ အခွန်အထူးကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်များကို ရယူနိုင်မည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အခွန်ထမ်းပြည်သူ များ၏ တော်လှန်ရေး ကာလ တာဝန်သိ မှုနှင့် နိုင်ငံသားပီသမှုကို အသိအမှတ်ပြု၍ အဆိုပါအခွန်ထမ်း ပြည်သူများ၏ အကျိုးစီးပွားအား အထူးတန်ဖိုးထား ဦးစားပေးသွားမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
အခွန်ထမ်းဆောင်လိုသည့် ပြည်သူများအနေဖြင့် အောက်ဖော်ပြပါ website မှတဆင့် အခွန် ပေးဆောင်နိုင်ပြီ ဖြစ်ကြောင်း အသိပေးအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment - NUG
Date of publication:
2021-10-03
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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China-Laos railway will open on December 2 but it's not clear the BRI-built line will extend anytime soon to wider SE Asia
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"Laos will never be the same again on December 2, the day the first high-speed train on the Belt and Road Initiative-built railroad is scheduled to roll into the capital Vientiane arriving from the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.
Running for 414 kilometers from the border with China, the new line will transform Laos from a land-locked to land-linked country, as the Chinese state news agency Xinhua has trumpeted in several dispatches on the US$6 billion project.
According to Xinhua, Laos’ underdeveloped economy will blossom as the new modern train speeds in Chinese tourists and businesspeople, facilitates faster and greater trade, and thus enhances Laos’ connectivity and post-pandemic economic recovery.
Beijing is seeking to showcase the China-Lao train as a Belt and Road Initiative success story, one that encourages other Southeast Asian states to more firmly embrace the $1 trillion infrastructure-building scheme that has stalled on various fronts in the neighboring, resource-rich region.
That includes stop-and-go progress on a similar rail line in Thailand and a port project in Myanmar, both of which are key to the BRI’s vision of a better-connected regional economic sphere with China at its powerful center. That trade-geared vision is all the more important to China’s economic security as tensions continue to rise with the US and its allies in contested sea lanes.
There is no doubt that the China-Laos railroad is a remarkable feat of engineering. The deal between China and Laos was first struck in 2015 and work began in December 2016.
Since then, Chinese engineers have built 75 tunnels, 165 bridges and 20 stations through some of the most mountainous terrain in all of Southeast Asia, according to a Chinese general manager of the Lao-China Railway Company (LCRC), the joint venture that will operate the railroad.
The only railroad in Laos before the BRI-funded project was launched was a 3.5-kilometer Thai-built meter-track built in 2009 across the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge to Dongphosy village, 20 kilometers east of Vientiane, and a seven-kilometer, 600-millimeter narrow gauge line that was built in the late 19th century when Laos was a French colonial possession.
The latter bypassed some waterfalls on the Mekong in the south, but was closed in the 1940s. Today, only some rusted locomotives remain on Don Khon island in the Mekong.
The new, 21st-century project is only the beginning of a massive infrastructure drive that aims to transform all of mainland Southeast Asia. If all goes to plan, the railroad will continue from Vientiane across a planned new bridge on the Mekong River to Nong Khai in Thailand and then, eventually, all the way down to Singapore.
But there are downsides to the grand plan which has put Laos heavily in debt to China. Around US$3.6 billion of the railway’s total $5.97 cost has been financed a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China and the remainder by the LCTC, which is comprised of three Chinese state-owned firms holding 70% and a Lao state-owned enterprise with 30%.
But even the Lao share of the project’s expense is covered in part by loans from China. The bills are coming due while Laos’ $20 billion economy is weighed down by an estimated $12.6 billion in foreign debt, including US$5.9 billion owed to China for the railroad and other projects.
Fitch Ratings described Laos’ external debt repayment profile as “challenging” in an August 9 report with around $422 million due over the remainder of 2021 “and an average of $1.16 billion due per annum between 2022 and 2025.”
To fulfill those requirements without having to take out more loans, and then most likely from China, will be more than a “challenge”, the Fitch report said. Concerns are rising that Laos will soon be submerged in debts it can’t service and thus will fall victim to what critics of China’s lending practices call sovereignty-eroding “debt-traps.”
Unable to make repayments in hard currency, Laos has already turned to repaying loans to China through debt to equity swaps. In September last year, Vientiane ceded majority control of the debt-ridden state utility Électricité du Laos to China Southern Power Grid Co to cover debts owed. Reports noted at the time that means Laos’ national power grid is now de facto controlled by a state-owned Chinese company.
That erosion of sovereignty is no doubt ringing alarms in other Southeast Asian nations – not least Thailand – that Beijing is pressing to more fully commit to its BRI.
Thailand already has an extensive railroad network but with one-meter gauge tracks while the China-Lao high-speed trains will roll on a standard 1,435-millimeter. That means that an entirely new railroad would have to be built on the Thai side and beyond. Even Malaysia and Singapore have meter-gauge railroads that would not be suitable for China’s high-speed trains.
Whether China’s plans will materialize in the foreseeable future is an open question. Strict Covid-19 travel restrictions in China and much of Southeast Asia have raised new questions about the desirability and feasibility of the BRI’s vision of fast and open borders.
Thailand seems more interested in connecting Bangkok with Nakhon Ratchasima in the northeast, Chiang Mai in the north, and to beach resorts like Pattaya and Hua Hin, than being part of some broader Chinese scheme for the entire region. Most of those plans, despite Bangkok’s years of repeated assurances to Beijing the plan is on track, remain on the drawing board.
The only visible progress so far is the construction of a new railroad hub at Bang Sue, a northern Bangkok suburb, which will replace the old, downtown Hualampong Central Station. From Bang Sue, new railroads will branch out to different destinations in Thailand. In Malaysia, tentative agreements for the construction of high-speed railroads involving Chinese partners were allowed to lapse in May.
That leaves Myanmar as the only reasonably secure outlet for China to connect its railroad networks with Southeast Asian markets other than little landlocked Laos. That route, dubbed the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, forms a vital part of the BRI as it would provide the Chinese with direct access to the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean ports.
A railroad has been built from China’s Yunnan province capital of Kunming to Ruili, a border town opposite Muse in the far north of Myanmar’s Shan state.
Another newly-built line, ceremonially opened on August 25, stretches from Sichuan’s provincial Chengdu to Lincang in Yunnan, with a road connection to the border at Chinshwehaw in northeastern Shan state.
But ever since those Chinese-side projects were launched more than a decade ago, skeptics have pointed out that widespread insurgencies across the border in Myanmar would make it difficult, if not impossible, to extend those lines through northern Shan state to the central city of Mandalay.
From there a new railroad was planned down to the old capital Yangon and, more importantly, the deep seaport at Kyaukphyu on the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
On October 22, 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a railroad from the border to Mandalay was signed between the now-ousted Myanmar government and China Railways. Another MoU for the route from Mandalay to Kyaukphyu was signed on January 10 this year.
The China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group has carried out some feasibility studies along the route from the border to Mandalay but little, if any, concrete progress has been made on the ground.
The Covid-19 pandemic is now running rampant in Myanmar, prompting China to close the border. And the insurgencies in northern and northeastern Myanmar have only intensified since the MoUs were signed less than a month before Myanmar’s destabilizing February 1 coup.
The railroad to Vientiane could thus be the beginning and end of China’s lofty BRI plans for the region, particularly as China starts to turn inward and the economy shows new signs of overleveraged weakness.
In the end, China may not achieve the access to Southeast Asian ports it has so long desired while Laos is stuck with a hefty bill for infrastructure that is of marginal use and questionable commercial viability without wider connections..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication:
2021-10-03
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, China-Burma relations
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Description:
"Myanmar’s military regime has rejected a request for a meeting later this month between the country’s ousted leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy to Myanmar.
Instead of meeting with the detained State Counselor, ASEAN envoy Erywan Yusof has been offered a meeting with former Vice President Henry Van Thio and the former Lower House speaker T Khun Myat, sources said.
ASEAN’s envoy has been in talks with the regime since last month over the terms of a visit to Myanmar. Top of his list was a request to talk to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar’s military seized power from the Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a February 1 coup.
Erywan Yusof, Brunei’s Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, was chosen as ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar in August after lengthy wrangling. He has called for full access to all parties when he visits the country, but his efforts to open dialogue between the military regime and the ousted government have failed so far.
“There is an urgent need to go now to Myanmar. But I think before all that, I need to have assurances,” the envoy told Reuters last month.
The envoy added that he has asked the State Administration Council – the junta’s ruling body – for access to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
In September, the regime’s spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun told AFP, “We will allow meetings with official organizations.”
Erywan Yusof plans to visit Myanmar this month, ahead of an ASEAN summit later this month. But the regime has reportedly told him that he will only be allowed to meet Henry Van Thio and T Khun Myat.
Both Henry Van Thio, an ethnic Chin former army officer, and T Khun Myat, an ethnic Kachin, are under house arrest, although no charges have been brought against the men. T Khun Myat previously served as an executive member of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.
With most of the NLD’s leadership in detention, it is expected that they will not support the ASEAN envoy meeting Henry Van Thio and T Khun Myat.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, is being detained by the junta at an unknown location in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw. She faces a raft of charges including breaching COVID-19 regulations, sedition, illegal possession of walkie-talkies and a number of corruption cases..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
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"Monday 4 October 2021 – More than 76,000 children[i] in Myanmar have been forced to flee their homes since the coup on 1 February as armed conflict has erupted in several parts of the country, Save the Children said today.
Most of the displaced children are living outside in the jungle, with nothing but tarpaulins held up with bamboo sticks to protect them from the torrential monsoon rain. Many families do not have adequate food supplies and are sharing just one meal between them per day, Save the Children said.
Since the coup, 206,000 people have been displaced across the country. In Kayah State in southeastern Myanmar – a displacement hotspot - around 22,000 people fled their homes in September alone, according to the UN. More than 79,000 people – including around 29,000 children – are currently displaced in the state[ii]. One town, Demoso, has been left completely empty after its entire population fled violent clashes there last month.
A UN human rights envoy warned in June that Kayah State could see “mass deaths from starvation, disease, and exposure”. With access to food and life-saving services blocked, displaced families were reported to have been living on only rice broth.
Cherry*, 33, has been living in a displacement camp in a forest since she fled her home in Demoso Township five months ago with her husband and their two children. The family is living under a small makeshift tarpaulin shelter. Cherry* is pregnant with her third child, and faces the prospect of giving birth outside without access to medical care.
“I cannot even describe in words the pain I feel,” Cherry* told Save the Children. “My delivery date is close, and I’m so worried about the baby because I’m living in this camp. I can’t even think about eating nutritious food, as we have to eat whatever we can get. I’m also worried about what I’m going to feed my baby after its born. All we have is donated food and we have to eat whatever there is – it’s not the right food for a baby.”
In many parts of the country aid agencies have been unable to reach families in need due to ongoing conflict and restrictions on delivery of aid. Many displaced families are relying on donations from local people for food and essentials.
U Tun* and his family fled their home with nothing when fighting in their hometown of Demoso escalated in May. The family is unable to return home as their house was set alight in the conflict along with everything they own.
“I was only able to bring a few important identity documents, and I fled with my family. Now, we are living on a hill in a temporary shelter. It is very difficult to get food and we have to rely on donations because all of our property was destroyed and we can’t go home. Other people here are also suffering like us,” U Tun* told Save the Children.
Save the Children warned that thousands of displaced children could go hungry without urgent food aid. Some 60% of Kayah families surveyed by Save the Children in April said they relied on farming as their primary source of food, but had been uprooted from their farms by the conflict.
Earlier this year, the WFP estimated that the number of children in the country going hungry could more than double to 6.2 million in the next six months, up from 2.8 million prior to February.
Esther*, a volunteer at a displacement camp in Kayah State, said hunger was a huge concern for displaced families.
“In the beginning they received some donations from local people or charities that were helping people in the camps. But now donations are limited because people are being prevented from going to the camps. We got some bags of rice bags donated, and when we divided it, every household got just five cups of rice per family. That’s not much for a family of seven people to live off for long,” Esther* told Save the Children.
Save the Children said:
“While the world’s attention has moved on, a hunger crisis is unfolding in Myanmar. Tens of thousands of children across the country who have fled their homes are living outside in jungles or sheltering in temples, many of them with nothing but a tarpaulin sheet to protect them from the torrential monsoon rains. Families are living on next to nothing, sharing just one meal a day between six or seven people. Children are already going hungry, and very soon they will start to succumb to disease and malnutrition.
“Displaced families urgently need tents, food, clean water, medical care and sanitation. Our teams will continue doing everything they can to get children and their families the help they need, but we urgently need access to displaced families to deliver our life-saving services.
“As long as the violence continues, more families will be forced to flee in search of safety. We call on all parties to protect children’s rights and keep them out of harm’s way. This goes beyond protecting them from the dangers of conflict – children need to get back to school, and they need support to process the trauma they have experienced. Myanmar children have shown incredible strength and resilience, but they cannot be expected to keep carrying such a heavy load.”
Save the Children and its partners in Myanmar are providing food assistance and essential items to families who need it most. It provides life-saving health and nutrition services, as well as getting children back into learning and supporting them with their mental and physical health and wellbeing..."
Source/publisher:
Save the Children (London)
Date of publication:
2021-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Children, Children's rights: reports of violations in Burma against more than one ethnic group, Human Rights and international relations, Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"Myanmar’s detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has denied testimony from one of her ousted government’s chief ministers that she took a bribe from him, dismissing his claims as “all absurd”, according to her lawyers.
Testifying as a civilian witness, detained Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein told the court last week that he paid her US$600,000 and 7 viss (11.4 kg) of gold. The regime has charged Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption.
“She said she didn’t take anything [from him], and he didn’t pay her the gold or dollars,” U Kyi Win, one of her lawyers, quoting her as saying. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team met with her for a few minutes on Monday before her trial hearings. She is facing 11 charges, including corruption charges, brought by the junta since her arrest following the coup in February.
“She said U Phyo Min Thein was likely to have been forced [by the junta] to say so under detention,” the lawyer said.
Another lawyer said, “‘All absurd’ is what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi commented about the testimony.”
The chief minister has been detained by the regime since February.
In March, the regime released a video that it claimed proved the graft allegation against detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In the video, U Phyo Min Thein says he went to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at least three times to give her the money and gold between December 2017 and March 2018. But the video met with public skepticism as the chief minister’s lip movements were not synchronized with the audio.
On Friday, however, he appeared before the court and repeated what he said in the video, becoming the first plaintiff witness against her from the National League for Democracy (NLD). U Phyo Min Thein was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Unlike other senior NLD leaders and chief ministers, he has not faced any legal charges from the junta..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, About Aung San Suu Kyi, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
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"ကာကွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၊အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
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Individual Documents
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"Since the attempted military coup, the terrorist junta has been violently cracking down on civilians who protest the military coup. Civilians faced intense and daily repression from the terrorist junta.
On September 7, the National Unity Government declared the terrorist groups’ indiscriminate violence has been deteriorating. In response a defensive war against the junta was called, and peoples support for the NUG, and PDF requested.
During the month of September, the junta’s battalion troops violently raided villages, burning houses, killing civilians, and looting and destroying properties in Magway Region, Sagaing Region and Chin State. Entire villages forced to flee, with the number of abandoned villages increasing day by day.
This terrorist like junta are not only arbitrarily arresting people, but also looting their property, setting fire to, and destroying buildings. After arrest, detainees are being systematically tortured and killed by the junta.
At the same time, voluntary humanitarian groups providing food, medicine and other basic needs for internally displaced persons have been targeted by the junta.
A civilians’ right to freedom of expression is completely disregarded by the military junta. In 20 townships over Mandalay, Magway, and Sagaing Region, and Kachin and Chin State, the junta has cut internet connection to disrupting communication and the free flow of information.
The repressive Ward or Village Tract Administration Law was rejected under the previous civilian government, but in the aftermath of the coup was reinstated by the junta group. Under this law the military can enter your home at any time, for any reason. This law threatens the safety and well-being of the entire population. In September, the juntas so-called Central Committee for Combating Terrorism, announced that a house or apartment owner who rents out the property, must now report the tenants’ personal information to the relevant administrative office. At the same time, if tenants are found to be acting suspicious, the landlord has to report it immediately, to the relevant officer.
In addition, the statement said that if the house/apartment owner does not report a registration list, and the tenants are found to have committed “acts of violence”, that apartment will be taken as state ownership, under the anti-terrorism law, and the property owner charged under the existing law.
Summary of Junta’s September Crimes
Arrests
According to data collected by AAPP documentation, 555 people were arbitrarily arrested and detained between September 1 and 30, by the junta. This included (95) women, (17) children under 18 and (25) hostages.
Killings
This month, at least 96 civilians were killed by the junta’s targeted attacks. Among them, eight victims were tortured to death and eight were children, under the age of 18.
Acts of Terrorism in Sagaing Region
Pearl Township, Tangse Township, Kalemyo Township, and Kany Township have been areas of strong opposition to the military since the illegitimate coup. In disproportionate response, junta troops have raided villages, looted property, and bringing destruction to entire areas of innocent civilian populations.
Junta forces have used different kinds of heavy artillery to attack villages. Thousands have been forced fleeing to their homes. According to a report from a local villager, a 13-year-old girl was raped by a member of the junta, on September 16, in Kany Township.
Kyauk Yit village in Myaung Township, Yeshin village in Kalemyo Township, Lal Chya village, Doe Nwe Village, Kyauk Pyut village, Kyigone village in Tanse Township, and Kansu village in Yinmarbin Township were also set on fire to by junta troops.
Yangon Region
On September 7, in Sangyi village, Hmawbi Township, the junta armed forces took 30 villagers, and forcibly used them as porters. On September 25, at around 1:30 AM, at the edge of Myay Ni Gone Bridge, Sanchaung Township, three youths were detained, shot, and killed. The junta were kicking the youths, as they lay in a pool of their own blood, the soldiers later took the dead bodies away.
Magway Region
In Saw Township, Yezakyo Township, and Gangaw Township in Magway Division, the terrorist junta group were using artillery to enter villages and raid houses. Most of the local villagers were forced to flee their homes, whilst the junta group uses ambulances and charity cars to raid towns.
Nearby Mwe Le village in Gangaw Township, the dead bodies of three locals from Mwe Le village and two dead bodies from Le Shay village were found on September 13 and 14. Gunshot wounds were found on the back of the heads of the bodies, and all over, including heads and faces displaying injuries from severe beatings. They were also found to have knife wounds on their hand and legs, and their male organsq were cut.
In Myaing Township, junta troops have committed arson killings, setting fire to charity vehicles and more than 300 motorcycles. In the early morning of September 9, the junta set fire to Myin Thar village in Gangaw Township and killed at least 18 local villagers. Hnan Khar, Thaliin and Htae Hlaw villages in Gangaw Township were also raided by the junta and at least 50 houses burned to the ground.
Kachin State
In Mohnyin, the junta is forcibly collecting tens of thousands of Kyats in “property taxes”, depending on the condition of the house.
On 10 September, in Tarong village, Tanai Township, there was a clash between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and terrorist junta troops. Later on, the junta were shooting artillery shells and heavy gun fire into Tarong village. A 40-year-old woman was shot in the head and some 200 locals forced to flee.
On September 11, a vehicle carrying junta troops used heavy artillery on Shwe Bon Thar village. Mortar shells were also fired, two men and one woman were injured, and two others were detained.
Karen State
On September 1, in Pailaladon Village, Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District, the junta abducted a woman to use as a human shield. Junta troops entered KNU controlled areas with the woman as a guide on the frontline. They then set up camp in the Taungsoon village in Kayin Seik Gyi Township. The junta were shooting artillery shells and gunfire into the village on 25 September, at around 8pm, forcing many of the locals to flee.
Shan State
Since September 1, the terrorist group has been firing heavy artillery shells at Khaung Ei village in Phekone Township. On September 2, approximately 500 troops entered Kone Ei and Sattaw village.
Chin State
Around 20 youths were detained on September 3 at the Myothit project construction site in Hakha City. At around 1pm, junta troops were shooting from both a helicopter and the ground. On September 7, by around 10pm, junta troops were firing artillery shells and gunfire in Hakha city. Some civilians were injured and many houses damage from the heavy artillery shells.
On September 9, in Thantlang Township, the military fired heavy artillery, mortar shells and gunfire into the city. Some houses within the city were burnt down. At around midday, on September 10, the terrorist group were using fighter jets to bombard Lungler village in Thantlang Township.
In the afternoon of September 18, the military fired into Thantlang Township. Nineteen homes were set on fire by heavy artillery shelling. A pastor from Thantlang Centenary Church (TCBC), Cung Biek Hong, was shot to death. The terrorist junta cut off his finger to take his wedding ring. His phone and watch were also stolen by the junta. Residents of Thantlang fled, from fear of the terrorist group.
Kayah State
On September 7, heavy fighting broke out between junta troops and the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF). The junta used heavy artillery and three houses were burnt down within a six-mile area. In addition, the junta group set fire to buildings in Daw Poe Si village, Sanpya village and Daw Nga Kha Ward in Dimawso.
Four houses in Daw Se village were destroyed by heavy artillery and an eight-year-old child was injured. There was intensive fighting in Demawso Township, and more than 3000 locals from 10 different villages fled into the mountains.
On September 9, a female farmer was killed, and four others injured when artillery shells were fired from a military junta camp in Bawla Khe Township.
On September 25, junta troops attacked Demawso Township, they initially entered and set up camp in Sule village and Kone Thar village, before setting fire to local homes.
This is but just a summary of the human rights violations committed by the terrorist junta group in September. There have been similar atrocities across other states and divisions, in September and the months before, amounting the serious crimes against humanity..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication:
2021-10-04
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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Observers say that without stronger global action, the country is at risk of total collapse.
Description:
"Two-thirds of a year after the military seized power in a coup, government mismanagement has made life in Myanmar worse by nearly every metric, but the junta has shown little interest in stepping down and observers say that without a stronger global response the country could be heading for ruin.
Friday marks the eighth month of junta rule in Myanmar, which had enjoyed a decade-long experiment with democracy until Feb. 1, when the military overthrew the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government by claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud.
The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,146 people and arresting 6,921 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
In addition to the country’s spiraling political crisis, an ongoing coronavirus outbreak—hampered by arrests of medical professionals engaged in the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)—has seen at least 17,682 people die from COVID-19, with more than 462,000 people infected since the start of the pandemic.
On Sept. 7, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed groups. The number of civilians displaced by the violence numbers in the hundreds of thousands and aid workers face a humanitarian crisis.
The instability has caused investors to flee the country, pumping up already high unemployment rates and prompting a lack of confidence that has sent the value of the kyat into a freefall. The official U.S. dollar exchange rate rose Thursday to around 1,980 kyats, down from 1,330 on Feb. 1, while the black-market rate climbed to 2,500 kyats. The cost of a tical of gold (0.578 ounces) has soared to 2 million kyats, up from 1.3 million on the day of the coup.
Lines have formed at banks around the nation as people race to withdraw their savings, and inflation has sent the cost of daily necessities soaring to an all-time high. The country’s largest border trade zone, Muse, has closed its gates with China, while border gates with other neighboring countries remain shuttered. Imported goods are costly and largely unattainable to the public.
Myanmar's GDP is projected to fall by negative 18.4 percent in 2021, according to the latest report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Global response muted
Despite its failure to lead, the junta has found support from Russia and China, and while the governments of Western nations have leveled sanctions against the military over its violent repression of protesters, the NUG told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the international community has largely left the people of Myanmar to fend for themselves.
“Since the military took over, innocent people have been brutally suppressed and their homes destroyed. Thousands of people have become helpless because of the brutalities,” said Naing Htoo Aung, permanent secretary at the NUG Ministry of Defense.
“The NUG has called on the international community to respond effectively to these issues, but no effective international action has come, and the atrocities of the military are getting worse. That is why both the people and the NUG had no other alternative but to start a war in self-defense, instead of waiting for the international community to act.”
He said a combination of international pressure and self-reliance are key to resolving Myanmar’s current crisis.
“We are working hard to bring international pressure [on the junta], but at the same time the struggle of those at home is crucial,” he said.
“Foreign pressure can make the people’s struggle stronger, but we all need to understand that real power must be demonstrated at home.”
In April, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders agreed to a “five-point consensus” that would see the junta end violence in the country and enter into dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the country’s political crisis, however few measures have been implemented and the military has instead ramped up a crackdown on its opponents.
Locked in a stalemate
Ye Tun, a political analyst, said he fears the people of Myanmar will be the ones to suffer while the junta and NUG remain locked in a stalemate.
“One side thinks it has full public support and the world is behind it, while the other believes that it can defeat the opposition and control the state with the strength of the armed forces,” he said.
“Neither wants to hear about talks or negotiations.”
Ye Tun said he believes that if the two sides allow mediators to approach with a solution, a positive result could be found.
However, dialogue has proved unsuccessful in recent decades between vying stakeholders in Myanmar, and many now believe that the people themselves must act if they hope to end military rule.
“We cannot rely on anyone to put an end to the situation of our people and our country,” a resident of Yangon’s North Dagon township told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We called out for international help, but our calls have been met with empty statements. Nothing works. So many people have died, and thousands are homeless. We can no longer sit and wait for others to help us with our problems. We must fight it out ourselves.”..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Sub-title:
Win Ko Oo gave up his career—and lost his life—because he couldn’t bear to see his country fall under military rule again
Description:
"On an August morning at a wet market in Mandalay’s industrial suburbs, a 50-year-old man was selling noodles and cheerfully greeting fellow vendors and customers alike.
Win Ko Oo was well-known for his friendliness. But not everyone who had grown familiar with his smiling face knew that he had once had a very different life.
When the year began, Win Ko Oo was a train driver with 25 years’ experience. But then the army seized power, and everything changed. As someone who had lived through the aftermath of a similar coup in 1988, he knew he had to resist the return of military rule.
A month after Myanmar’s elected civilian government was overthrown, Win Ko Oo made up his mind to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) that was sweeping the country.
“I hesitated at first because I had to think about my family. We had nowhere else to go. But in the end, my hatred for the regime outweighed my concerns about the hardships we would have to face, so I quit,” he told Myanmar Now that August morning.
Mandalay’s railway workers were among the first to join the movement in large numbers. In the department that Win Ko Oo belonged to, 285 of 319 staff members walked off the job in an effort to deny the regime control over state mechanisms.
This resulted in hundreds of railway employees and their families being forced to leave the housing compound where most of the striking workers lived.
But as one of the leaders of the protesting workers, Win Ko Oo also had another reason to worry: a warrant for his arrest on charges of incitement.
Lying low
Feeling that he couldn’t afford to take any more chances, Win Ko Oo decided it was time to slip under the junta’s radar for a while. A relative gave him a place to stay, but he still had to make a living, so he started selling noodles in the market.
With a son in university and a daughter already married, this was not an easy move for him to make. He was used to being the family’s provider, but now that their only income was from his wife’s work as a seamstress, he had to swallow his pride.
“I was so ashamed at first that I wanted to cry. I was new to this business, so it was also pretty challenging for me to get the hang of it. But once I started earning money again, I came to like it,” he said.
Although Win Ko Oo spoke freely about his experiences since the coup, Myanmar Now decided not to publish his story after learning about it last month to avoid putting him at risk.
Since then, however, there has been another development that has made it more important to reveal the enormous price he has paid for following his convictions.
At around 5am on September 9, as he was making an early-morning delivery, Win Ko Oo was savagely beaten by a group of eight men who also stole his motorcycle. Ten days later, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
No investigation
During the remaining days of his life, an unconscious Win Ko Oo was treated at a private hospital for a broken skull and multiple injuries to his arms, legs and ribs. Finally, however, it became clear that he would never recover.
“We decided to bring him home on September 18 as he wasn’t getting any better. He died at home the next day,” said a family member.
There was never any investigation into the attack, in part due to the fact that his family didn’t report it because they didn’t trust the police.
The indifference of the police to this case even after it became public would seem to justify the family’s suspicions, according to a friend who dismissed any suggestion that Win Ko Oo was simply the victim of a robbery that went horribly wrong.
“It couldn’t have been because they wanted his motorcycle. There was no need to beat him like that just to take his motorcycle. It’s more likely that he died because he was a leader of the railway workers who joined the CDM,” the friend said.
Win Ko Oo’s family declined to comment on his death, but said that he never stopped believing in the struggle to create a better future for the people of Myanmar.
“He always said that he wanted this revolution to succeed, that he wanted to operate trains again, and that he wanted to send his grandchildren to school,” said a family member..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-03
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"At least 99 more people, including a toddler and four senior citizens in their seventies, were killed by Myanmar junta forces in September. Their deaths push the number of people who have died at the hands of the military regime to 1,146 over the past eight months, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Myanmar has been in political and social turmoil since the junta’s February 1 coup, as the merciless military regime continues with brutal and lethal crackdowns in its efforts to suppress the nationwide rebellion against the junta.
In September, the Myanmar military massacred civilians, including children, torched entire villages, fired randomly into homes and shelled residential areas in Kayah and Chin states and Magwe, Sagaing and Mandalay regions. The junta claims those areas were harboring People’s Defense Forces: bands of civilian resistance fighters opposing the regime.
Among those killed in September were nine children, the youngest of whom was one and half-years-old, detainees who were tortured to death, members and supporters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and three medics, according to the latest report from the AAPP, an activist group which monitors killings and arrests by the junta.
On September 20, regime troops raided Shaw Phyu Village in Natogyi Township, Mandalay Region. During the raid, junta forces shot at the home of NLD supporters, killing five family members.
Four of five were shot dead on the spot. A one and half-year-old child survived initially but died from injuries after arriving at Mandalay General Hospital, AAPP stated in their report.
In northern Shan State’s Monekoe Township, nine-year-old Mah Bon suffered serious head injuries after a junta artillery shell hit his home on September 27. The boy died the following day. His mother was also injured in the artillery strike.
Around a dozen detainees were tortured to death in September. Among them was Mandalay-based political activist and philanthropist Ko Than Htun Oo, aka Ko Min Ko Thein, a member of the NLD’s Mandalay branch. He died in police custody just a few hours after being arrested on September 25.
The 48-year-old, affectionately known as ‘Ko Fatty’ among his friends, was arrested at his home in Aungmyaythazan Township, Mandalay Region for alleged possession of weapons.
During the raid on his house, junta forces told him to get on his knees. When he said that he couldn’t kneel due to his weight, he was reportedly shot in the knee. He was arrested despite no weapons being found during the search. In the evening of the following day, his family was notified of his death. Ko Than Htun Oo’s body was not returned to the family, with regime officials claiming that they had organized funeral rites for him.
Ko Zaw Linn Htet, 30, from Pyay, Bago Region also died during an interrogation after just a few hours in junta custody. He was detained with his younger brother on the afternoon of September 6, allegedly in connection with the arrest of student union members a week before. His family was also informed of his death at night.
September also saw a surge in killings of youth activists and villagers from anti-regime strongholds where civilian resistance groups have inflicted heavy casualties on junta forces.
In Yangon, four young people were shot dead at midnight on September 25 after regime forces raided their hideout in Sanchaung Township. Two of the four activists were identified as Dr. Zin Lynn and nurse Ma Khin Khin Kywel. The following day, the wife of Dr. Zin Lynn, who is also a medical doctor, was arrested at her home. The couple have a seven-month-old baby.
On Thursday, junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun said at a press conference that the youths had opened fire on junta soldiers when they surrounded the hideout, killing and injuring a few of them. He claimed that the four activists were killed in a subsequent shootout with regime forces.
However, local residents and video footage uploaded by Khit Thit Media revealed that the young people were dragged from the apartment and beaten and kicked several times, before the junta forces fired shots. Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun made no mention of this at the press conference.
Teenagers were also rounded up and massacred in Myin Thar Village in Yaw in Magwe Region on September 9. In all, 18 people died in the village, including elderly citizens, and some 20 houses were burned down by junta forces.
The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar – an independent group of prominent former United Nations human rights experts – urged the United Nations Security Council in its latest statement to declare the junta a “terrorist organization” for its atrocities against its own people including public torture, executions and the taking of hostages, including children..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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Sub-title:
A relative of the 26-year-old victim says he was unarmed and struggling with an undiagnosed mental illness at the time of his murder in Ye Township
Description:
"Junta troops shot and killed a 26-year-old man in southeastern Myanmar’s Mon State this week, according to his relatives, who said that they were allowed only limited viewing of his body.
The victim was Ye Naing Oo, resident of Khawzar town in Ye Township who, according to his family, had recently been struggling with an undiagnosed mental illness. He left home on Wednesday morning and the family was notified at 7pm by police officials that he was dead, his sister Mi Cho Thet Oo told Myanmar Now.
She said that officers from the Khawzar police station told her that Ye Naing Oo was shot and killed after he tried to run from the military’s Chaung Taung checkpoint on the Ye River bridge, some 18 miles from his home.
“We are still not sure about what actually happened. We only know what we were told. My brother was not in his right mind, so it’s understandable that he tried to run. However, I told them that it was not necessary to kill him,” his sister said.
Mi Cho Thet Oo said that her brother’s mental state had deteriorated some six months earlier while he was in Thailand, where he had been working as a migrant labourer. He had only just returned to his hometown two days earlier.
On the day he was killed, he had ventured out saying that he wanted to buy betel nut, despite his family’s pleas to stay home.
“He was not in his right mind but we didn’t think he’d have walked all the way to the bridge. It was really far from home. Not even a healthy person would be able to walk that far,” she said.
Mi Cho Thet Oo said that eyewitnesses near the bridge told her that they saw Ye Naing Oo being beaten by soldiers at around 6pm and that they heard five gunshots soon after.
“The saddest part of this is that he was mentally ill and he was unarmed. He didn’t even have a motorcycle. He only had his phone and ID card on him. My brother’s death was not natural at all,” she said.
The family tried to collect Ye Naing Oo’s body from the Ye Township hospital on Thursday, but they were only permitted to see his face, not the rest of his body. His face was bruised and cut, Mi Cho Thet Oo said.
The family was forced to hold his funeral that same evening, under the watch of two police officers.
At the time of reporting, the junta authorities had not returned Ye Naing Oo’s phone or ID card to his family, his sister added.
The military council has not released a statement concerning Ye Naing Oo’s death, and Myanmar Now’s calls to the junta’s information officers went unanswered.
Ye Naing Oo is the second person reported to have been murdered by troops near the bridge checkpoint in recent days. Another man was shot and killed near the same location on September 20, according to both a report by the Mon News Agency and an anti-junta local resistance force. The Mon News Agency cited “police sources” who alleged that the man had thrown a grenade towards a security checkpoint at around 9pm near the bridge and was subsequently shot.
A spokesperson from the Ye People’s Defence Force (PDF) told Myanmar Now that the man was a civilian with no connection to the group.
The spokesperson said that the Ye PDF had in fact attacked that checkpoint on the day in question, but at around 3pm. He believed that the man killed by police hours later was a fishery worker at a nearby market, noting that workers there often travel across the bridge to reach the market site.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the identity of the man shot dead by junta troops on September 20..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-10-02
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-02
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"အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊သယံဇာတနှင့်သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန
ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက် (၁၅/၂၀၂၁)
++++++++++++++++++++++++
နိုင်ငံ၏ သယံဇာတများအား ကာကွယ်ထိန်းသိမ်းပေးလျက်ရှိသည့် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့ (PDF) များအား မှတ်တမ်းတင် ဂုဏ်ပြုကြောင်းကြေညာခြင်း..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation - NUG
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-01
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"Since the military takeover on 1 February, insecurity and armed clashes continue to be reported across much of the country. Disruptions to banking services, communications, healthcare, and supply chains ensue, while armed conflict in the north and the South-East between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), and/or People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) have resulted in civilian casualties and the displacement of thousands of people.
Natural hazards, such as flooding, has further exacerbated the vulnerability of communities.
Throughout the reporting period, UNHCR and partners continued providing critical life-saving humanitarian assistance, while following the development of the situation closely to understand the full impact on people of concern (PoCs), including IDPs, stateless populations and host communities. Early warning systems, initiated by UNHCR and partners, are employed to detect changes on the ground which could impact on operations and PoCs with the view to inform timely mitigating measures and responses.
The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis continues to pose additional challenges to already strained or disrupted health services, particularly with the surge in cases mid-year, which plunged the country into its most severe wave of infections to date. While integrating COVID-19 prevention and response into regular programming, UNHCR takes proactive measures to adapt in an agile manner to the evolving context to minimize risks to PoCs and to devise ways in which to continue interventions that support them..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Food Security and nutrition in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations, Education in Burma/Myanmar - general
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"The Myanmar military’s coup turns eight months old on Friday, and the takeover has had a resounding impact on the country and its people. The regime’s follow-up crackdowns on protesters over the last seven months have seen more than 1,000 people killed and several thousand others detained. For all its brutality, the junta still can’t control the country due to various forms of ongoing popular anti-regime resistance. While some people have taken up arms, some of the country’s most popular artists are using their skills and fame to rally people to the cause and keep the revolution going strong.
Meet Kyar Pauk, one of Myanmar’s most famous rockers, and heartthrob actor Daung.
Both artists have denounced the coup from the outset. Now in hiding, they still find ways to resist the regime. The lead singer of the band Big Bag produces podcasts chronicling unfolding resistance-related events, with the aim of keeping people motivated without giving them “false hope”.
The 31-year-old actor Daung actively lobbied for the Civil Disobedient Movement (CDM) against the regime following the coup. For his activism, he was targeted with false rumors that he had a relationship with the regime leader’s daughter—claims he strenuously denies in the interview below. Currently, he said he is supporting the revolution as best as he can but is reluctant to go into details due to security concerns.
They talked to The Irrawaddy about the reasons behind their opposition to the junta, as well as their hopes.
What led you to participate in the revolution against the military dictatorship?
Kyar Pauk: I joined the movement neither as a rock star nor an artist. I reject military rule as a citizen. The people have the right to speak if they do not like the person who rules them. You need to make your voice heard. It has nothing to do with having many followers. You have to stand on the side that you think is right and show the right side of what you stand for. I do play that role. Another reason is I want to share my message. It doesn’t matter if they block my views one way or another, or whether my songs are not allowed to be sung on stage or be aired on the radio. We have to think about how often we speak out through our own platform. That is the key.
For eight months since the Feb. 1 coup, you have played your part by motivating others. In this revolution, if some feel depressed and frustrated, what would be your message to them?
KP: The main thing is that we need to know the real situation. The real situation is it will take time, because a lot of things are out of our control. Things can’t be done based on our decisions alone. It depends on the decisions of other people, so patience is key.
No one can say at this time how long it will take. You have to choose what role you will play. But if we get too excited and work so hard every day, we will get tired and burn out. We must strike a balance. We have to know our situation. We must keep that in mind.
How has the coup affected you?
KP: I’ve lost everything. I’m afraid that may sound like a complaint or as if I’m depressed. There are so many memories I try not to dwell on. What we have to keep in mind at this time is not what we have lost. There are some who have lost their lives and some who have lost their family and loved ones. We have to think about that.
Before the coup, you must have had plans for the future. How were you preparing for 2021 before the coup? Are those plans all gone now?
KP: In fact, life is ruined. Everything you believed in and built has been destroyed. I am not alone. As you know, it has happened to all of us, more or less.
What prompted you to be outspoken against injustice and stand up for truth? And what do you want now?
KP: Before 2010, throughout our lives, we did not know much about education or social problems. Then the political transition came, the doors were opened. I knew I did not have freedom under previous military regimes. Then under the civilian governments, we did have relative freedom, if it was not absolute freedom. But when the coup happened, these freedoms were immediately revoked. That’s it. That is the inspiration for all of us. It’s not just me who is motivated to defy the military regime. Everyone knows that loss of freedom is losing a part of our life. Everyone feels empty.
Actor Daung
Could you tell us about the beliefs that led you, as an artist, to get involved in the Spring Revolution and the current anti-dictatorship movement?
Daung: When this [coup] happened, it went without saying that our future was ruined. This is not fair. If we did not respond, we would not be human. Because we live in a society. As a citizen, I cannot accept it at all. That’s why I resist.
I am an artist and the artists belong to the people. We stand with the people to show that we, the artists, do not accept the coup. That’s how I got involved in this revolution. In the beginning, I rejected injustice, and then resisted.
For the past eight months since the coup, you have continuously shown defiance and relentless opposition to the military dictatorship. Some express doubt about how long the revolution will last. How do you keep your spirits up?
Daung: Simply put, the time has passed while we’ve been contributing our part. Before this coup, I posted on Facebook that we, the people, voted [for the National League for Democracy in last November’s election]. The next day, when the military staged the coup, I felt so sad. I think that feeling is still going strong.
From then on, I asked myself, ‘What can I do?’ I will do my best as a citizen. I’ve been working based on my beliefs and decisions step by step until now.
My purpose is simple. I will continue to work until this dictator is overthrown. I don’t think I could work on creating any art other than revolutionary art. I wouldn’t want to. I don’t know why.
Yourself and many young people were born and raised during the previous military dictatorships. Then, we had this era of democracy for 10 years. How did you feel when you heard about the military coup on that day?
Daung: Let me give you an analogy: It’s like the electricity going out while you are watching a very interesting movie. There is anger when you’re plunged into darkness. Everyone feels empty and [in Burmese] we say the word “ha” in unison. It was not just me who felt that way: It happened to the whole country.
As you said, we grew up under the dictatorships. We lived like a bird in a cage that did not know we could fly in the sky. Then, the cage door opened [with the democratic transition] and we got half way, flying in the sky. Suddenly, we are now put back in a cage. Such a situation is unacceptable. We are not only fighting the coup leaders and the regime; we are fighting with the intention of making our country the best it can be. I think we all need to understand that.
We must fight them, to deter their destruction. They must be destroyed, demolished and eradicated.
Since you have many supporters as an actor, have there been any personal attacks against you or threats for joining this revolution?
Daung: Now I’m being accused of extra-marital relations with someone I do not know. I have never talked to her. I only shot one film with that production company [Seven Senses]. I did not know that it was led by them [Khin Thiri Thet Mon, the daughter of coup leader and commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing). I think a few actors and actresses took a group photograph with her once at the launch of that film production. That’s it. I’ve received lots of criticism since then. I have already made a decision since then that I would not make contracts with that company. That’s how I’ve rebelled.
It hurts so much to be accused of having a relationship with this woman. I don’t have any such relationship. There are such attacks.
Next time, when our country gets back on the path to democracy, I will practice my art again. I value my art a lot. I believe that art will return in a new form. Because of the experience we are going through now, it will be a lot more mature than before. The people, all of us, want to contribute our best for our country. I believe we can make more beautiful creations. We put our hope in that. That is why we are continuing the revolution..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-10-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-01
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Sub-title:
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has attracted ridicule for airing grand development plans at a time when the economy is in crisis, but even the regime’s more rational economic goals are unlikely to be achievable.
Description:
"Coup leader and Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has become the laughing-stock of Myanmar social media over his grand plans for the country.
The most outrageous example of his folly is the grandiose expansion of the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, that he proposed in August. His vision of a city of 20 million people with a subway system and electric buses for transport prompted The Irrawaddy to publish an editorial titled “Myanmar junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s delusions of grandeur”.
At meetings of the Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of COVID-19, Min Aung Hlaing has also waxed lyrical about using traditional medicine to produce vaccines for use against the coronavirus. The domestically produced vaccines would save on the cost of imports, he said.
He has also given reassurances that despite rising inflation there will be no food shortages in Myanmar because it is mainly an agricultural country.
At a meeting of the National Planning Commission in Nay Pyi Taw on September 22, Min Aung Hlaing discussed using electric vehicles and trains to reduce reliance on fuel imports. He also said that Myanmar could become a middle-ranking member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations within five years, and one of the top ASEAN countries in a decade.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Min Aung Hlaing is like the head of a poor household whose small wooden house is going up in flames but instead of trying to put out the fire he is shouting loudly about building a grand mansion.
His comments reflect a lack of both basic knowledge of macroeconomics and the necessary skills for managing the economic turmoil he has unleashed on the country by overthrowing the elected government.
The World Bank has forecast a contraction in GDP of 18 percent in the 2020-21 fiscal year, amid a crisis in the banking sector and the rapid depreciation of the kyat against the US dollar. In recent days, the kyat has sunk to a record low of around K2,500 to the dollar, almost half what it was trading at on January 31. The crash has prompted many money changers to close their doors, only adding to the sense of turmoil and chaos.
The economic crisis will be devastating for the people of Myanmar. The United Nations Development Programme has forecast that the poverty rate could double by early 2022 and nearly half of the population will be below the poverty line. That prediction was made back in April, and the situation has only become more dire since then.
But we need to look past Min Aung Hlaing’s delusions to winnow the truth from falsehoods and understand why the senior general and his junta, which calls itself the State Administration Council, are articulating certain economic policies. We need to ask whether the policies can be successful, what impact they will have on the lives of the country’s people, and what trajectory the economy is likely to follow in months and years ahead.
An economic agenda, and its challenges
The SAC’s economic policies can be summarised as promoting the agricultural sector for self-sufficiency, import substitution and industrialisation through protectionism.
The junta’s draft Myanmar Economic Recovery Plan seeks to flatten a recession curve by focusing on the domestic economy and domestic consumption as a counter to supply chain disruptions. The plan also sets three objectives: promoting agricultural-based industrialisation, creating a stable market economy to attract direct foreign investment, and supporting domestic industries and businesses to create jobs.
Regarding the first goal, Min Aung Hlaing has repeatedly spoken of the need to export milled rice rather than paddy, and the draft MERP targets cultivation of value-added vegetables in greenhouses in the medium term. For the second objective, MERP emphasises relaxing rules and regulations, setting up one stop service offices to speed up processing of applications, and streamlined procedures for importing capital goods. To support domestic businesses, MERP says only essential goods should be imported, while non-essential goods should be produced domestically where possible.
Promoting self-sufficiency and import-substitution, and relying on domestic consumption are understandable policy responses to targeted sanctions, the suspension of international aid, dwindling revenues and declining foreign currency reserves.
These policies are the regime’s strategy for the long game. The generals are probably aware that economic recovery in the short to medium term is impossible given the scale of economic downturn and absence of international assistance. They will resist international pressure to make concessions and will instead isolate themselves, if necessary, regardless of the costs incurred on the society. In this context, these policies will be needed to help them hang on to power.
But the SAC will be unable to achieve these objectives unless it addresses more immediate challenges to the economy. In particular, the banking crisis has planted the seeds of destruction in the real economy and the value of the kyat. Some have predicted that the economic downturn could become more severe after the fiscal year ends on September 30. The kyat’s precipitous decline over the past week only hints at how bad the situation could get.
As an example of why the country’s financial crisis will make it impossible for the junta to realise its economic plans, consider the regime’s decision to give priority to the agriculture sector, particularly small-scale farming.
The output from monsoon season crops is predicted to decline significantly this year due to a sharp fall in fertiliser use by farmers. This occurred partly because of a global rise in fertiliser prices but mainly because of the disruption that the coup inflicted on the economy.
A survey of agricultural input retailers conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute in March found a range of factors had contributed to lower fertiliser use, including truck drivers going on strike, the disruption to banking services because of internet cuts and the Civil Disobedience Movement, the depreciation of the kyat (which made imports more expensive), and the decision of the SAC-controlled Central Bank to set limits on cash withdrawals from bank accounts.
In a working paper published in April, IFPRI predicted that fertiliser sales would be half that of a normal year. It said this would have an outsized impact on the rice harvest, particularly in the Ayeyarwady delta, which produces about half of the monsoon crop and usually accounts for half of the country’s annual fertiliser imports. In a normal year, Myanmar imports about US$500 of inorganic fertiliser. The assessment was based only on fertiliser sales and did not include other factors such as the cost of seeds and farm machinery.
Reduced spending on farm inputs will not only have implications for the macroeconomy, it will also have a huge impact on poverty, IFPRI said, because about 80pc of the country’s poor are linked to the agricultural sector, IFPRI said.
The impact of this is not yet being felt. Data published recently by the junta’s commerce ministry showed that agricultural products accounted for 34pc of all exports between October 2020 and September this year – an increase of 25pc on 2019-20.
Total trade between October 2020 and September 3 this year was $27.15 billion, a near-20 percent drop on the $33.55 billion in the same period last year, state media reported recently.
Agricultural products have thus helped to prop up Myanmar’s trade figures this year, but this is because of increased agricultural production before the coup. Decreased fertiliser use this year means agricultural outputs are likely to fall dramatically in the near future, hitting both exporters and importers hard next year.
Political problem, political solution
During eight months of SAC rule, all of the country’s economic indicators have become flashing red lights.
The junta leader’s import-substitution and industrialisation policies are relevant for the medium to long-term but they cannot address the immediate and worsening economic crisis.
The financial crisis is the result of a lack of trust and confidence in the economy, particularly private banks. The reason for this is the Tatmadaw’s seizure of power, and restoring confidence would almost certainly require a return to the status quo ante – a political settlement that enables the National League for Democracy to return to office.
Another possible solution is a massive injection of international funds – a bailout, essentially – but the Tatmadaw’s power grab and the human rights abuses it has inflicted over the past eight months mean there is little appetite to provide monetary assistance through the SAC.
Only the restoration of democracy and a legitimate government will unlock the international assistance Myanmar needs to alleviate the crisis.
With such a solution unlikely to materialise, the future for Myanmar’s economic is bleak. In the coming months we can expect to see increased poverty inflicting greater suffering on the people, while the state-controlled news media continues to fawn over more of Min Aung Hlaing’s delusions of grandeur.
Khine Win is a public policy analyst focusing on economic governance in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
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Title: Interview: ‘We Have Decided to Make Sacrifices For The People,’ Says Myanmar Film And TV Star
Sub-title:
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin says she joined the popular resistance against the junta after peaceful protests brought repression.
Description:
"Myanmar model and television and film actor Mya Hnin Ye Lwin, 34, gained widespread recognition for her roles in popular TV drama series and 10 movies, including the 2016 legal drama “Angel of Eden” and the 2018 romantic comedy “Yee Sar Ta Won Kwal.” She also holds a degree in psychology from Dagon University. Earlier this year, she returned to the spotlight, but this time as one of the most active celebrities in the resistance movement against the national military’s seizure of power on Feb. 1. Mya Hnin Yee Lwin has denounced the coup at anti-junta rallies and on social media. In response, the military government in April issued a warrant for her arrest for inciting the public to disturb the peace and stability of the nation. Although she has fled Yangon and sought refuge in a rebel-controlled “liberated” area, she has vowed to keep up the fight against the junta. Reporter Aye Aye Mon of RFA’s Myanmar Service spoke to Mya Hnin Ye Lwin about her decision to join in the anti-junta activities. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
RFA: Many film and music artists have joined the protests against the Feb. 1 military takeover, but most of them did not choose to take up arms. Why did you decide to join the protests and stand up for the people?
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin: I took part in the protests after hearing the shocking news about the coup that morning on Feb 1. I felt that it was an injustice against the people and decided to join the protests. In the beginning, I did not have much fear because there were so many people, thousands of us trying to peacefully express what we wanted for the country. Later on, when arrests were made and a warrant was issued against me under Section 505(a) [of Myanmar’s Penal Code], I became a little frightened of what might become of me if I was arrested. I went into hiding at first and decided later to join the resistance, despite the fear in my heart.
RFA: You come from a very well-off and educated family and have been quite successful in your career. Do you find daily life to be very difficult in your present situation?
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin: I had never dreamed about, not even joked about, spending my days in the jungle like this. Of course, there are hardships. Food and shelter are poor. Sanitary conditions are unspeakable, especially for a young woman like me. Sometimes it is a little disheartening and I have to lift up my spirits by thinking about those who have made greater sacrifices. I have no regrets, and now I have become used to life here. The changes in life were so sudden, and I have had to adjust myself mentally as well as physically.
RFA: You must miss home.
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin: Of course, I miss home very much sometimes, but we told ourselves we cannot go home yet. We have decided to make sacrifices for the people. And with that in mind, even when looking at posts and pictures on social media, I put my emotions aside and just look at them as a third person.
RFA: Some people say that you resemble former Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi in photos posted on Facebook. When did you first realize that you look like her?
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin: People began noticing that I looked very much like her when they saw pictures of me in interviews with some media [outlets]. At one time, a photographer friend asked me to model for him, and I dressed up in a long-sleeve top with long hair flowing down like Amay [Mother] Suu. I have a habit of learning the styles and movements of people I’m portraying even though I may not totally resemble them physically. More people noticed the resemblance one day at the protests. That day, all the women protesters were asked to wear traditional Myanmar dresses and wear a flower in their hair the way Amay Suu always does. I dressed up accordingly, and people saw how much I look like her.
RFA: Many people have made sacrifices but for some, successful people like you, the sacrifice is greater. How do you feel about leaving behind all you have worked for?
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin: Like I said earlier, there were days when I felt a bit down in the dumps. But I try not to think of how many sacrifices I have made. The hardships we face each day are nothing compared to the lives of those who gave up life and limb and those who have been imprisoned. With such thoughts in my mind, I will carry on this fight until we have victory.
RFA: What do you think of the daily killings and fighting across the country at present?
Mya Hnin Ye Lwin: All this unnecessary violence and killings stemmed from the brutal suppression of peaceful protesters by the junta. Millions of people peacefully protesting on the streets were all unarmed, but the junta resorted to violence that resulted in bloodshed on the streets and arbitrary arrests and killings. People were not even safe in their own homes, and finally they had no other choice but to take up arms to protect themselves and their families. We will have to fight on until we win so as to honor those who have given their lives..."
Source/publisher:
"RFA" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-09-28
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
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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)
Date of publication:
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, About Aung San Suu Kyi, Articles and reports about the NLD, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
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Description:
"Almost eight months after the military coup, Myanmar’s currency depreciated to a record low this week, prompting fears of worsening social and economic instability in the country, which has been devastated by the takeover.
On Tuesday, the US dollar exchange rate rose to a record high of around 2,500 to
2,700 kyats per dollar. Prior to the Feb. 1 coup, the exchange rate was between 1,300-
1,400 kyats per USD. The rates on Wednesday are the same as yesterday, according to sources from different money exchanges and the black market.
The value of gold on the domestic market reached a record high of more than 2.25
million kyats per tical on Tuesday, up sharply from a little over 2 million kyats the
previous day. Gold shops had to close on that day and the market reopened only on Wednesday afternoon with prices at 2.2 million kyat per tical. The tical is a traditional Burmese measurement of gold weight equal to16.33 grams (just over half an ounce). The gold price before the coup was 1.32 million kyats per tical.
People are only looking to buy US dollars in the currency market, with almost no one willing to resell, pushing the value of the greenback up sharply against the local currency, according to market sources.
“Dollar sales are almost nonexistent and demand [for US currency] is rising as more people want to buy than previously,” said a businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Under the junta, the Central Bank of Myanmar has been selling reserve dollars to some companies importing key commodities such as petrol, cooking oil and pharmaceuticals through local private banks on a quota basis. However, the businessman said, there is a large demand for dollars in the market.
Since the coup, the central bank has sold more than 190 million US dollars to the market in an attempt to stabilize the exchange rate. Of that amount, some $60 million was sold in September alone.
However, unwilling to accept the drop in the Myanmar currency’s value, the junta set the official exchange rate at around 1,755 kyats per USD on Wednesday.
Economists told The Irrawaddy that the economic slowdown, the banking crisis and political instability in the aftermath of the coup have led to volatility in the US dollar/kyat exchange rate, adding that the banking crisis had escalated into a currency crisis.
A business analyst in Rangoon said, “It is mainly based on political instability. As the political situation becomes more volatile, some rich people will buy gold and dollars. The Central Bank also tries to monitor [the situation]. But as the bank does not have a lot of dollars, it can’t control things.”
He said the current economic problems in the Southeast Asian country could not be resolved through economic policies alone, but only through political change.
The rise of the US dollar/kyat exchange rate has seen petroleum prices increase steadily to more than 1,400 kyats per liter. At the end of January, fuel prices ranged between 660-770 kyat per liter.
As a consequence, transportation costs have risen, as well as domestic commodity prices and the prices of some imported goods. On Wednesday, some companies abruptly halted their sales of imports due to the serious drop in the kyat’s value.
An economist said: “People have lost faith in the kyat and are reluctant to deposit in banks. So they purchase the commodity they trust. People are trying to save dollars rather than spending.”
He said that due to a decline in exports, the cessation of foreign investment and the absence of international aid, the junta’s income from foreign currency had dried up, limiting its ability to control the US dollar/kyat exchange rate.
“They can’t solve this crisis. It is clear that they cannot do it. The whole economy is collapsing because of them,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-29
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Banking, Economic History, Business and the Military
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Description:
"Fuel prices in Myanmar have more than doubled since the junta’s February 1 coup, as the cost of crude oil has jumped in international markets and the kyat has weakened significantly against the US dollar amid post-coup political turmoil.
Before the coup, the price of a liter of octane or diesel fuel was around 700 kyats. Now, it has soared to over 1,500 kyats.
“Crude oil prices have hit a record high this year in the international market. Not only our country, but other countries are also experiencing price hikes. But in Myanmar it is coupled with the weakening kyat,” a manager of a Yangon fuel importer told The Irrawaddy.
On Tuesday, oil prices hit their highest level in three years, climbing above US$80 a barrel in the global market amid tight supply and surging demand.
This week, the US dollar exchange rate reached a record high in Myanmar of around 2,500 to 2,700 kyats per US dollar. Prior to the coup, the exchange rate was between 1,300 and 1,400 kyats per US dollar.
The Central Bank of Myanmar has been selling US dollars to oil importers through private banks, but the amounts are not sufficient for all the oil importers who are now finding it hard to purchase US dollars in the open market.
“It is mainly because of the exchange rate. And it is difficult to buy US dollars. Previously, you could buy US$1 million easily, but now you can only buy smaller amounts from several currency dealers,” the manager of a Mandalay-based oil importer told The Irrawaddy.
Despite the increase in global crude prices, fuel prices in Myanmar are unlikely to have more than doubled if the kyat had not depreciated steeply, added the manager.
On Monday, coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing urged regime ministers to find ways to reduce the use of imported fuel and to aim for the manufacture and operation of electric buses and vehicles..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Sub-title:
Myanmar’s Coup Built on Years of Failed Accountability
Description:
"On August 1, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, dressed in civilian clothes, made a televised speech six months to the day after leading a coup that thrust the country back under brutal military rule. Amid claims of establishing a multiparty democracy, the junta leader announced that his manufactured state of emergency, which has given rise to massive human rights abuses, would be extended until August 2023.
Later that day, Min Aung Hlaing appointed himself prime minister of the State Administration Council (SAC) junta’s “caretaker government.”
“We have to try to bring them back to a stable condition,” he said of the junta’s use of force against the millions of peaceful protesters who have taken to the streets since February 1. “We must apply our collective strengths.”
The past eight months have offered a stark demonstration of the military’s application of its “collective strengths.” Since the coup, security forces have carried out a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests with the same callous disregard for life that has driven their scorched-earth strategy in ethnic regions for decades. Police and soldiers have killed over 1,000 people, including about 75 children, arrested more than 6,000 protesters, journalists, and others, and tortured and raped detainees.
Human Rights Watch determined that the military’s post-coup abuses—vast, methodical, and systematic—amount to crimes against humanity. The broad-based and consistent nature of the crackdown reflects not the individual actions of security officers, but a countrywide policy of the junta.
Crimes against humanity committed since February 1 include murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual violence, severe deprivation of liberty, and other inhumane acts causing great suffering. Across the country, security forces have repeatedly used lethal force, including live ammunition, mortar shells, and grenades, while using so-called less-lethal weapons indiscriminately and excessively. Video footage has captured soldiers shooting down children on motorbikes, brutally beating medical aid workers, and firing shotguns into crowds of peacefully protesting doctors.
These displays are tragic but not surprising for anyone who has been paying attention to the human rights situation in the country. In 2017, Min Aung Hlaing orchestrated crimes against humanity in which the military committed genocidal acts and other horrific abuses against ethnic Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, killing thousands and forcing over 730,000 to flee to Bangladesh. The same notorious military units implicated in the 2017 atrocities—since sanctioned by the US and UK—have been deployed in the streets of Yangon, Mandalay, and other cities and towns since the coup, terrorizing protesters calling for civilian democratic rule.
The throughline of these two grave crises—the 2021 coup and the 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya—lies in the decades-long impunity enjoyed by Myanmar’s military, or Tatmadaw.
The Tatmadaw is an institution driven by brutality. It sows disunity and fear with the sole aim of propping up the supremacy of its leadership. It seeks to create an oppressive atmosphere of terror, in ways both overt and subtle. It knows no other way of exercising power. And has done so unchecked for decades.
The coup has made clear that the bloodshed happening today on the streets is a direct corollary of a military that for years has faced few to no consequences for its crimes.
In the four years since the military’s atrocities in northern Rakhine State, the situation for Rohingya in Myanmar and abroad offers a dismal reflection of justice delayed. In Rakhine State, 600,000 Rohingya remain trapped under a system of discriminatory laws and policies that amount to apartheid under international law.
In Bangladesh, nearly a million Rohingya refugees live in sprawling, overcrowded camps, their prospects of voluntarily returning to a Myanmar where they could live safely and securely more distant than ever. The commander-in-chief who orchestrated the ethnic cleansing campaign that led to the massacres of their families and neighbors has now not only evaded justice, but installed himself as leader of the country.
There have been some flashes of progress toward accountability. Gambia, one of the smallest countries in Africa, has brought Myanmar before the International Court of Justice for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in its atrocities against the Rohingya. The International Criminal Court is conducting a limited investigation into alleged crimes against humanity which were completed in Bangladesh that will identify individuals for prosecution.
But as a whole, the international response to the Tatmadaw’s cycles of ethnic cleansing and forced deportation of the Rohingya has been fragmented and halting. The UN Security Council, the body with the authority to respond with binding resolutions on states, has remained paralyzed. At the time of coup, the Council had not produced a formal document on Myanmar in over three years.
Diplomats meanwhile have favored the closed-room tactics of quiet diplomacy and “dialogue” over strong measures for accountability—a futile approach compounded by an enduring and misguided faith in the former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s imagined democratic credibility.
A clear and consistent multilateral strategy for accountability and justice never emerged in the wake of the 2017 violence. Instead, the military maintained its grasp on Myanmar’s levers of political and economic power, with Min Aung Hlaing remaining untouched at the helm.
When armored vehicles rolled through the streets of the capital, Naypyidaw, before dawn on February 1, with the military detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected leaders, foreign governments were quick to voice concern. Their condemnation grew louder as the death toll of protesters rose in March and April.
Some consequences followed. The US, UK, EU, and Canada sanctioned junta leaders and major military enterprises, including its two main conglomerates, the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). But the sanctions’ toll on the military’s cash flow has not been enough.
France and other governments have skirted the global call for sanctions on the massive foreign oil and gas revenues that bankroll the junta and its weapon purchases. Japan and Australia have done even less, issuing no sanctions on military leaders or entities since February, despite condemning the coup.
Meanwhile, the Security Council’s historical inaction on Myanmar endures, with permanent members Russia and China—long serving as Myanmar’s protectors at the Council—resisting substantive action, and Western members too timid to push the limits. As a result, the Council has done little beyond issuing statements calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to the violence.
“What are we waiting for?” a US diplomat asked in a speech at a July council meeting. “The longer we delay, the more people die. This Council is failing in our collective responsibility to safeguard international peace and security. And it is failing the people of Burma.”
The UK, the Security Council’s designated penholder for resolutions on Myanmar, has for years taken a hyper-cautious approach to the country. Since the coup, it has bound its own hands under the banner of maintaining consensus among council members, focusing on anodyne statements over substantive action. This strategy already failed to achieve an ounce of justice for the Rohingya, only emboldening the military with a sense of reprieve.
The unwillingness of the UK, US, and France to press for a resolution in fear of vetoes by China and Russia has ultimately betrayed the Council’s mandate to ensure international peace and security as well as the millions of people risking their lives in Myanmar by opposing the coup.
“We will do everything we can to mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said days after the coup. Eight months on, that momentum has waned. The Security Council failed to capitalize on the international outcry triggered by the coup and the window it offered for real, swift impact.
The people of Myanmar continue protesting, but they do so with a sense of having been abandoned. “There is nobody coming to help them to stop this violence,” said activist Khin Ohmar.
The dangerous narrative persists that there is a way forward with the Tatmadaw seated at the table. Calls for “all parties to engage in dialogue,” as the UK ambassador to Myanmar recently tweeted, ring hollow in the face of the military’s depravity and stark repression of any opposition. The UK and other governments’ delayed action under the pretense of waiting for effective leadership from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is similarly empty. The regional bloc has a track record of neglecting its responsibility to act to protect the people of Southeast Asia. Since releasing its five-point consensus in April, ASEAN has taken no meaningful steps to press the junta to end its abuses. Min Aung Hlaing, meanwhile, has been unwilling to meet even ASEAN’s low bar.
In June, faced with Security Council inertia, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling on member states to prevent the flow of weapons into Myanmar. Lamentably, the Security Council has yet to follow the General Assembly’s lead with a binding global arms embargo.
The Human Rights Council held a Special Session following the coup but adopted a watered-down resolution in the interest of consensus. Subsequent resolutions have been stronger, but the crisis has received reduced attention from the Council in recent months.
Over the next months, UN member states will be drafting a Myanmar resolution for the Third Committee of the 76th General Assembly session now underway. Drafters should ensure the resolution expressly condemns Min Aung Hlaing and the Tatmadaw as orchestrators of the crisis, identifies the abuses committed since February 1 as crimes against humanity, and calls for the Security Council to advance international accountability.
The resolution should recognize the coup and the atrocities against the Rohingya as intersecting crises with shared perpetrators that demand a cohesive response. This could reinvigorate pressure on the Security Council to pass a resolution instituting a global arms embargo and referring the Tatmadaw’s grave crimes across Myanmar since at least 2011 to the International Criminal Court. The Council should also impose targeted sanctions including global travel bans and asset freezes on the leadership of the junta and military-owned conglomerates.
To cut off the military from the revenue funding its ongoing crimes against humanity, the US, UK, EU, and other governments should work together to strengthen international sanctions. Governments should target the junta’s gas revenues, its largest source of foreign income, totaling about US$1 billion annually in duties, taxes, royalties, fees, and other profits. Broad coordination and enforcement are crucial for these to have an effective influence on the military’s calculations.
Myanmar’s crisis may have faded from the front pages of world news, but its urgency still pulses across the country, a hum both daily and catastrophic.
“They are attempting for the disintegration of the Tatmadaw,” said Min Aung Hlaing, denouncing the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement in his August 1 speech. In fact, what the protesters are risking their lives for is nothing more than respect for their rights and freedoms, and justice for their suffering. But concerned governments supporting the fight for civilian democratic rule in Myanmar also need to recognize that achieving such aims will require excising the Tatmadaw from the vast control it wields in every layer of Myanmar life..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Discrimination against the Rohingya
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Sub-title:
Family members say they were denied permission to see the body of Than Tun Oo, who was arrested on Saturday
Description:
"A National League for Democracy (NLD) member who was arrested in Mandalay’s Aung Myay Tharzan Township on Saturday has died in custody, according to a source close to his family.
Than Tun Oo, who was also known as Min Ko Thein, died within 24 hours of his arrest, the source told Myanmar Now.
“His whole family, including his two children and his mother, who is in her seventies, was at home when they took him away,” the source said.
The soldiers who carried out the raid shouted at his family to remain inside the house as Than Tun Oo was taken outside and forced to kneel in the yard.
When he had difficulty getting down to the ground due to his weight, the soldiers fired a shot and said they would “help him get on his knees,” the source said.
“He agreed to go with them and took his medication for hypertension and cramps with him when he left,” she added.
A lieutenant colonel involved in making the arrest accused Than Tun Oo, who was also a well-known community volunteer, of helping to transport weapons for anti-regime forces.
However, a thorough search of his home failed to yield any weapons or incriminating evidence.
A day later, the family was informed that Than Tun Oo had died of a heart attack and that he had been cremated because he had also contracted Covid-19.
“When his mother, two aunts and sister started crying at the news of his death, they were warned to stop or they would face arrest themselves,” said the family friend.
Another woman who was a close friend of the victim condemned the military’s callous treatment of the family.
“It’s really cruel that they managed to kill a person within 24 hours and then they break the news to his family with a cold heart,” she said.
Apart from being overweight, Than Tun Oo did not have any underlying medical conditions, she added.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, since the February 1 coup at least 66 people have died in the regime’s custody within 24 hours of their arrest..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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"27 September 2021: The illegal Myanmar military junta engaged in acts of extreme violence, even while UN Member States met in New York and Geneva over the past two weeks, and should be designated as a terrorist organisation, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
The crisis in Myanmar came under international scrutiny as the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council convened.
The Tatmadaw, seeking to return Myanmar to full military rule, committed public torture and executions while the two UN bodies were in session. It also took family members of democracy activists as hostages, including children as young as two, and planted landmines under the bodies of civilians they had killed, intended to detonate when family and friends returned for their deceased.
“These are the same terrorist tactics used by the nascent Islamic State group in the Iraqi desert in the mid-2000s,” said Chris Sidoti of SAC-M. “The UN Security Council should immediately commence the process of declaring the Tatmadaw as a terrorist organisation.”
According to credible reports, junta forces committed multiple massacres of civilians – including children – torched entire villages, and fired randomly into homes, killing residents, in Chin state and Magway, Sagaing, and Mandalay regions throughout September.
“Min Aung Hlaing’s forces are using the same tactics they used during the genocidal atrocities committed against the Rohingya,” said Yanghee Lee of SAC-M. “If you juxtapose the pictures of recent massacres with those of 2017 in northern Rakhine, you cannot see any difference. No one has been held to account for those terrible crimes, and now people are being massacred and villages burned up and down the country.”
SAC-M deplores the international community for repeatedly failing the people of Myanmar.
“The international community should end its hypocrisy and cease to mindlessly call on all parties to refrain from violence,” said Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M. “They full well know it is the Tatmadaw that is the source of violence and calamity.”.....ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့၀င်နိုင်ငံများအနေဖြင့် လွန်ခဲ့သည့် ရက်သတ္တပတ် နှစ်ပတ်အတွင်း နယူးယောက်မြို့နှင့် ဂျီနီဗာမြို့များတွင် အစည်းအ၀ေးများ ကျင်းပနေသည့်အချိန်တွင်ပင် မြန်မာ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် အလွန်အမင်း အကြမ်းဖက်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည့်အတွက် ၄င်းတို့အား အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းအဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်သင့်သည်ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီမှ ပြောကြားလိုပါသည်။
ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ အထွေထွေညီလာခံနှင့် ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီ ညီလာခံတို့ စတင်လာသည်နှင့် တစ်ပြိုင်နက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေးကိစ္စသည်လည်း နိုင်ငံတကာ၏ အသေးစိတ်စောင့်ကြည့်ခြင်းခံရမှုကို ကြုံတွေ့လာရသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအား စစ်အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးပြန်လည်အသက်သွင်းလိုသည့်် တပ်မတော်သည် ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ အဖွဲ့အစည်းနှစ်ခုအနေဖြင့် ညီလာခံများ ကျင်းပနေစဥ်တွင်ပင် ပြည်သူများအား လူသိရှင်ကြား ညှင်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်းနှင့် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းများကို ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၏ နှစ်နှစ်သားအရွယ် ကလေးငယ်များ အပါအ၀င် မိသားစု၀င်များအား ဓားစာခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ ၄င်းတို့ သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့သော အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ၏ မိသားစု၀င်များနှင့် မိတ်ဆွေများမှ ၄င်းကြွင်းကျန်ခန္ဓာများအား ပြန်လည်သယ်ယူရန် လာရောက်ကြသည့်အခါတွင် ဖောက်ခွဲပစ်ရန် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ဖြင့် သေဆုံးသူများ၏ အလောင်းများအောက်တွင် မြေမြှုပ်မိုင်းများ တပ်ဆင်ထားခြင်းတို့ကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။
“ဒါတွေဟာ ၂၀၀၀ ခုနှစ် နှစ်လယ် ကာလတွေတုန်းက အီရတ်သဲကန္တာရမှာ အစပြုလာတဲ့ IS (Islamic State) အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းက ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်တွေပါပဲ။ ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီအနေနဲ့ တပ်မတော်ကို အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းအဖြစ် ကြေညာတဲ့ လုပ်ငန်းစဥ်ကို ချက်ချင်းအစပြုရပါမယ်။” ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီ အဖွဲ့၀င် Chris Sidoti မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။
ယုံကြည်စိတ်ချနိုင်သည့် အစီရင်ခံစာများအရ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ကလေးငယ်များ အပါအ၀င် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအား ရက်စက်စွာ သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ခြင်း၊ ရွာလုံးကျွတ်မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ အိမ်များအတွင်းထိ ပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းနှင့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအား သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းတို့ကို ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ မကွေးတိုင်း၊ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းနှင့် မန္တလေးတိုင်းတို့တွင် စက်တင်ဘာလတစ်လလုံးတွင် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြသည်။
“မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ရဲ့ တပ်ဖွဲ့၀င်တွေဟာ ရိုဟင်ဂျာတွေကို လူမျိုးသုန်းသတ်ဖြတ်မှုကျုးလွန်ခဲ့ကြစဥ်က လုပ်ရပ်တွေအတိုင်း အခုပြန်လုပ်နေကြတာဖြစ်တယ်။ အခုချိန်မှာ ကြုံတွေ့နေကြရတဲ့ အစုလိုက်၊ အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှု ရုပ်ပုံတွေကို ၂၀၁၇ခုနှစ်မှာ ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့တဲ့ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ် မြောက်ပိုင်းက ဖြစ်ရပ်ပုံရိပ်တွေနဲ့သာ နှိုင်းယှဥ်ကြည့်မယ်ဆိုရင် ဘယ်လိုကွဲပြားခြားနားမှုမျိုးကိုမှတောင် မြင်နိုင်မှာ မဟုတ်ဘူး။ အဲ့ဒီတုန်းကလည်း အဲ့ဒီ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်တဲ့ ရာဇ၀တ်မှုတွေအတွက် ဘယ်သူကမှ တာ၀န်မခံခဲ့ဘူး၊ အခုချိန်မှာ လူအများကြီး အစုလိုက်၊ အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခံနေကြရတဲ့အပြင် နိုင်ငံတစ်၀ှမ်းမှာ ရွာပေါင်းများစွာ မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခံနေကြရပါတယ်။” ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီ အဖွဲ့၀င် Yanghee Lee မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအ၀ိုင်းမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုကို ကာကွယ်ပေးရန် ထပ်တလဲလဲ ပျက်ကွက်မှုများအပေါ် ရှုံ့ချလိုက်ပါသည်။
“နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအ၀ိုင်းအနေနဲ့ သူတို့ရဲ့ အပြောနဲ့အလုပ် မညီကြတဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်တွေနဲ့ မြန်မာပြည်တွင်းမှာရှိနေကြတဲ့ အစုအဖွဲ့များအားလုံးအနေနဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ရှောင်ရှားကြဖို့ ခပ်လွယ်လွယ်လေး အဓိပ္ပာယ်မရှိ ပြောဆိုနေတာတွေကို ရပ်တန့်ကြဖို့ ကောင်းပါပြီ။ လက်ရှိဖြစ်နေတဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတွေနဲ့ ကပ်ဘေးဆိုးတွေရဲ့ တကယ့် အရင်းအမြစ်က တပ်မတော်ကြောင့် ဆိုတာကိုလည်း နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအ၀ိုင်းအနေနဲ့ ကောင်းကောင်းသိကြပါတယ်။” ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံကောင်စီအဖွဲ့၀င် Marzuki Darusman မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Collected resolutions of the GA on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations
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"1. We have observed increased torture, raids, killings and extrajudicial
arrests of innocence people in Myanmar including lawless confiscation
private lands and houses.
2. On 23rd September 2021, Myanmar Military had illegally raided and
detained a group of activists including U Ragu Nay Myint, who is a
former political prisoner and Hindu leader actively working on interreligious
peace building.
3. We have learnt that people detained form the case are accused with
act of terrorism based with baseless accusations and their family are
pushed towards difficult situation as their private home are confiscated.
4. We have also observed that on 25th September 2021, Myanmar Military
publicly killed and tortured 3 young people on the street in MyaeNegon,
Yangon.
5. Myanmar Military has been also committing atrocity crimes and war
crimes in Sagaing, Magway regions and other ethnic regions admit shutting
down of the internet to cover up their crimes.
6. We strongly condemn all awful acts of Myanmar Military and we affirm
our commitment to do anything we can to contribute to the success of
the revolution and stand in solidarity with our fellow people of Myanmar.....ဖက်ဆစ်စစ်တပ် ရဲ့ ဆိုးယုတ်နိမ့်ကျသော နည်းလမ်း နှင့် လူမဆန်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များအပေါ် အပြင်းအထန်ရှုတ်ချပြီး ပြည်သူနှင့် အတူ တစ်သားတည်း ရပ်တည်ကာ တော်လှန်ရေးအောင်မြင်သည်အထိ ဆက်လက်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်မည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး ဘာသာပေါင်းစုံကွန်ရက်မှ သဘောထားကြေညာချက်ထုတ်ပြန်
#faiths4springrevolution..."
Source/publisher:
The Spring Revolution Interfaith Network
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Spring Revolution, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Cherry Htet has been under close surveillance since the coup and was taken for interrogation last week, sources said
Description:
"The military council arrested a former bodyguard of detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi last week and accused her of incitement over Facebook posts supporting the ousted leader, as well as links to Myanmar’s underground government.
Cherry Htet, a police sub-lieutenant at Special Branch, was detained on Thursday in Naypyitaw under section 505a of the penal code. The junta later said she has links to the National Unity Government (NUG), which it has branded a terrorist organisation.
“They accused her of writing things on a Facebook account with the name Cherry Htet but that account is still posting statuses even after her arrest,” said a source close to the police. “I think it’s a fake account.”
Cherry Htet has been under surveillance by the junta since the February 1 coup and was reportedly coerced into working at the Myanmar Police Force Headquarters office on Zayahtani road in Naypyitaw, a friend of hers told Myanmar Now.
She served on Suu Kyi’s personal security team during foreign and domestic trips under the National League for Democracy government and works for Special Branch’s anti-terrorism department. Her boss, police captain Zaw Win Tun, is the plaintiff in her case.
Junta forces seized Cherry Htet’s phone and computer on September 14 and she has effectively been under a form of house arrest since the coup, the friend said. She is being interrogated at the Pyinmana central police police station in Naypyitaw, both sources said.
Suu Kyi once gave Cherry Htet a necklace she reportedly designed herself as a birthday gift, according to a Facebook post from February last year.
Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told BBC Burmese on Sunday that Cherry Htet was being interrogated for her alleged connections to the NUG.
Hundreds of police officers have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement in a bid to topple the dictatorship. The junta has been closely monitoring the online activity of police officers, especially lieutenants and sub-lieutenants, said a police officer on condition of anonymity.
“Their major concern is us using Facebook,” he said.
Cherry Htet and other members of Suu Kyi’s security team were not present when the State Counsellor was detained on the night of the coup, Suu Kyi’s lawyers have said.
Zaw Naing Win, a former personal assistant to Suu Kyi at the foreign affairs ministry, was reportedly sentenced to seven years in prison in July after he resigned from his post in the aftermath of the military’s power grab..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports
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Description:
"(CNN) - Five-year-old Su Htet Waing often wakes up crying for her mother and older sister.
Hiding in the mosquito-infested jungles of Myanmar in a makeshift tent with her father, her young world has been torn apart.
"I want to sleep with mummy, but the police have taken her," she said in an audio clip recorded by her father, Soe Htay, on his phone and sent to CNN in early August.
Soe Htay was one of the early leaders of the pro-democracy movement against the military which overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in a coup in February.
He says his family is now paying the price for his activism. His wife and teenage daughter remain behind bars, and his youngest daughter says she was forced into a half sitting, half standing pose during the 18 days she was in detention -- a stress position that the United Nations Committee Against Torture views as a form of torture.
The military has not responded to CNN's detailed emails and texts about the girl's detention and treatment.
Soe Htay, left, and his daughter Su Htet Waing.
But Soe Htay and his daughter are not alone.
In the months since the coup, the junta has waged a bloody campaign against its opponents, shooting dead protesters in the street and detaining thousands of doctors, activists, journalists, artists -- anyone it deems an enemy.
Sometimes, the junta isn't able to find its opponents. And increasingly, the military is going after another group of people to sow fear among the population and make them fall in line: the family members of dissidents, according to Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.
"It's just horrific, it's horrific, it's outrageous, it's completely unacceptable and the international community should be up in arms," he said. "That's the brutal reality we're facing in this country and most importantly that the people of the Myanmar are facing."
Cracking down on protests
After the military took over, Soe Htay took to the streets in protest. And, like thousands of others in the country opposed to the takeover, Soe Htay became a target of the military junta.
In June, months after he had stopped protesting for fear of being shot by the military, soldiers came to his home in Myanmar's central Mogok city to arrest him, Soe Htay told CNN from his jungle hideout.
They raided his house four times, but he had already gone into hiding with his two sons, he said, leaving his immediate family behind.
On the final visit in June, they arrested his wife and two daughters instead.
"This is a hostage-arrest," he said. "Since they arrested my family when they couldn't arrest me ... my youngest daughter wasn't even 5 yet."
Su Htet Waing spent 18 days in detention.
Su Htet Waing spent her fifth birthday in detention, said Soe Htay. She was let out on June 30 after 18 days as part of a mass prisoner release. Her mother and sister remain behind bars, sentenced to three years in prison, Soe Htay said. Local media reported the pair were charged with incitement -- a common punishment leveled at pro-democracy activists.
While Su Htet Waing was detained she was forced into the half-sitting, half-standing position, which caused her "mental trauma," said Soe Htay.
Andrews, the UN special rapporteur, said he has heard of many similar cases of children being brutally punished for the political views of their parents in the months since the military junta took control.
"The stress position is outrageous," he said.
"I have seen reports of children being beaten, reports of children, of iron rods burning their legs, I've seen them detained for several days ... I'm speechless and outraged and truly angry at what despicable behavior we're seeing."
The United Nations Committee Against Torture views stress positions as contrary to the Convention Against Torture.
Innocent hostages
Khaing Zin Thaw also tried to fight against the junta -- and like Soe Htay, it's her family that is paying the price.
Khaing Zin Thaw's parents were arrested in April. She says they haven't done anything wrong.
The 21-year-old used her role as a social media influencer to raise money for the Civil Disobedience Movement, which saw thousands of people leave their jobs to destabilize the coup and economy. She helped collect donations for those who had lost their jobs and were struggling to get by. Khaing Zin Thaw also made posts supporting the movement on Facebook, where she has about 700,000 followers.
But that soon put her onto the radar of the military.
Shortly after February's coup, she left home for safety and has been moving constantly ever since within Myanmar. But in April she got an alarming phone call.
"One of my friends called me and told me there were military trucks outside my house. They called back half an hour later and said your parents have been arrested," she said.
Her parents have done nothing wrong, she said, her voice wavering. Her father does not even know how to use Facebook.
Her sister-in-law was also taken in her place, Khaing Zin Thaw said, but has since been released.
"I heard that my father has been tortured and has not asked for his medication ... sometimes, my mind goes blank and I feel like I am losing my mind," she said, adding that both her parents have been charged with incitement.
The military has not responded to CNN's detailed requests for comment.
Taking 'hostages'
At least 182 people, including children, have been detained in place of their family members since the coup -- and 141 of them remain in detention, according to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The group characterizes these arrests as hostage taking, and stresses the military's actions are in violation of international law.
According to AAPP, when children are taken into detention, they are not sent to prisons, such as the notorious Insein where thousands of pro-democracy protesters are held.
Instead, they are sent to interrogation centers, police custody, military barracks or junta administration offices.
"The children who are detained as hostage are placed in the same cells as their family. But exact details inside detention are difficult to confirm," AAPP said in a written interview. "As far as we know, hostages are not being mixed with other pro-democracy detentions."
AAPP said because the junta is making this distinction, it "clearly understands what it is doing is hostage taking."
The group warns the practice is likely to increase.
Myanmar has been brought to the edge of collapse since the coup, with the junta waging a bloody campaign against nationwide protests and strikes.
The economy is in tatters, and a deadly Covid-19 wave is devastating the nation. Civilian insurgencies in the cities and border regions have declared a people's war on the military, with local militias carrying out guerrilla-style attacks on military forces.
"(Hostage taking) is a strategy by the junta to inflict 'worry', it is part of the junta's wider campaign of terror waged against the population," the group said. "(It) will only get worse as the junta is increasingly losing on the front lines, with attacks in the cities like Yangon and Mandalay also escalating."
The future
The practice of detaining relatives is aimed at suppressing dissent, but it doesn't appear to be working.
Far away from her happy childhood at their family home, little Su Htet Waing spends her days with her father, exposed to Myanmar's monsoon season, mosquitoes, and the risk of disease.
Su Htet Waing is in hiding in Myanmar's jungles.
Soe Htay says he believes the military is still hunting for him so he has to stay in a makeshift tent in the jungle. His daughter has her backpack ready in case they have to run again.
He is determined to continue the fight for democracy in any way he can, despite his seemingly desperate situation.
Soe Htay has been told by friends in the pro-democracy movement, who trickle information out of the prisons and during prisoner releases, that his daughter and wife were separated since their sentencing.
He's also been told his daughter caught Covid-19, but has since recovered.
"The way I see it," he said. "Their sorrow will only be healed after the revolution ... my only thought is to root out the dictatorship, for now I have to bury my bitterness and hatred in the revolution."
Khaing Zin Thaw said she is now in "a safe place" but has to continue moving for fear of being tracked down by the military.
"I am sad and dejected, and I am frustrated as I can't do anything for my parents in jail," she said..."
Source/publisher:
"CNN" (USA)
Date of publication:
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Children, Children's rights: resources and organisations, Human Rights Defenders, Anti-coup protesters, Women's rights, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
" Myanmar's military launched air strikes at the weekend after clashes with fighters opposed to the junta in the Sagaing region, according to media and a militia member, as phone lines and the internet were also severed in some districts.
The Southeast Asian country has been in crisis since the army seized power on Feb. 1, ending a decade of tentative steps towards democracy and triggering outrage at home and abroad and the setting up of People's Defence Forces (PDFs) to take on the military.
The DVB news portal reported the air strikes occurred as the army staged an offensive in the Pinlebu area of Sagaing in northwest Myanmar, citing residents who heard aircraft and explosions on Saturday night before phone lines and the internet went down.
A member of the Pinlebu PDF, speaking from outside the area, also confirmed by telephone that air strikes had taken place, but said there had been no casualties amongst his group.
"We cannot contact them due to the internet and phone lines blackout," the activist, who declined to be identified, said of his opposition colleagues.
Reuters could not independently verify any of the claims and a spokesman for the military did not answer calls seeking comment.
The National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration set up by ousted lawmakers and others opposed to the junta, said an arms cache including a rocket propelled grenade, small arms and shells had been seized in the fighting. It said more than 25 government soldiers had been killed.
There has been an upsurge in bloodshed in areas like Sagaing after the underground NUG declared an uprising on Sept. 7 and called on PDFs to target the junta and its assets.
Earlier in the conflict, the military had at times shut down the internet, particularly in cities, in a bid to curb demonstrations.
Since Thursday, the military had cut internet access in 11 conflict-hit districts in Chin State and in the Magway region, the Myanmar Now news portal reported, citing residents and members of PDFs.
Last week, thousands fled from the town of Thantlang in Chin State, bordering India, after fighting in which a Christian pastor among those killed.
Some militia groups have also claimed responsibility for blowing up scores of telecommunication towers run by Mytel, a partly army-controlled company.
U.S.-based democracy watchdog Freedom House said in a report published last week that internet freedom slumped by 14 points in Myanmar – the largest annual decline ever recorded on its 100-point scale – after the coup..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, National Unity Government (NUG)
Language:
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Sub-title:
Myanmar military is waging war on civilian populations in a brutal campaign to seek and destroy new people's defense forces
Description:
"What began as carnival-like protests against Myanmar’s military takeover on February 1 has since morphed into a vicious nationwide insurgency that has hit areas of the nation that had seen no armed confrontations between rebels and state forces for decades.
Brutal repression and massive atrocities committed by the military, known as the Tatmadaw, have underscored its reputation as the nation’s most loathed institution at a time when it has seized absolute power and appointed a new, non-elected government.
At the same time, the country is being ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic and a faltering economy the World Bank this month predicted will contract by at least 18% in 2021. The percentage of the population living in poverty is expected to rise to 48.2% by 2022, nearly double the 24.8% recorded in 2017.
And while a darling of the Western aid community after introducing political and economic reforms beginning in 2010 and resulting in historic 2015 elections, Myanmar has resumed its previous pariah status. By any measure, the country appears to be heading for a disaster of unparalleled proportions.
Eight months ago, millions of people took to the streets in virtually every city, town and major village across the country. Youth in fanciful costumes, some dressed as contestants in beauty pageants or as ghosts carrying placards saying “the military is scarier than us”, voiced their strong opposition to the coup.
Older protesters, inspired by the Generation Z youngsters, dressed in pre-Buddhist temple robes met for religious ceremonies reminiscent of those during Myanmar’s fabled nat pwes, or spirit festivals, asking deities for help to get rid of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other coup maker generals — and then cast evil spells on them. At one point, almost the entire nation was on strike.
But the situation took a turn for the worse when the Tatmadaw began shooting mainly peaceful demonstrators.
Specially-trained snipers picked out the youngest in the crowds in order to get their brutal message across. At the end of March, Min Aung Hlaing even said in a televised speech: “You should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly days that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back.”
Today, after more than a thousand demonstrators have been killed and thousands more remain in military custody, small-scale protests continue in the old capital Yangon, the central city of Mandalay and other places.
But expressions of dissent are changing as anti-junta forces increasingly detonate bombs on military and military-affiliated targets in urban areas and assassinate junta-aligned officials and their suspected informants.
New rebel forces, known as people’s defense forces (PDFs), are battling the Tatmadaw primarily in Sagaing, Mandalay and Magwe regions as well as Chin and Kayah states. While they often started their hit-and-run attacks with rudimentary hunting rifles and slingshots, many now possess automatic rifles and are inflicting heavy casualties on the Tatmadaw.
Unable to locate the new generation rebels, the Tatmadaw has resorted to shooting indiscriminately into villages from helicopters and with heavy artillery, looting homes at random, killing civilians for no apparent reason and burning property such as motorcycles, cars and livestock.
Some of the new-age rebels’ weapons have been captured from the police and Tatmadaw, while others have been supplied by ethnic rebels, namely Kachins in the north and Karen and Karenni on the Thai border in the east.
Myanmar’s many long-running ethnic rebellions have also been revitalized since the coup. In Kachin state, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has gone on the offensive and even expanded its area of operation to northern Sagaing and Mandalay regions, where it is working with local PDFs.
When Min Aung Hlaing visited the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina on September 19, he stayed for only one day and security reasons was forced to cancel a planned trip to Putao in the far north.
The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar website, reported on September 21 that dozens of young people took to the streets in Myitkyina shouting “Min Aung Hlaing, don’t you feel ashamed to come to Kachinland? Get out of Kachinland!”
Kachin civil society organizations, meanwhile, have slammed the Tatmadaw-appointed Kachin state chief minister Khet Htein Nan, calling him a traitor to the Kachin people.
The deteriorating security situation nationwide prompted the US embassy in Yangon to post an alert on its website on September 25 warning of “potential attacks” that may be carried out not only in the old capital but also in Mandalay and the new capital Naypyitaw “in the coming months.”
Internationally, Myanmar’s only remaining friends are its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) partners, Russia and China.
But even China is playing a double game to hedge its bets. While Beijing recently supplied US$6 million in aid to the ruling junta, known as the State Administration Council (SAC), in Naypyitaw, it has also reaffirmed Chinese Communist Party “party-to-party relations” with the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who led the now military-toppled government.
China’s recent deal with the US to delay which government should represent Myanmar at the United Nations – the coup-installed government or the National Unity Government (NUG) comprised of ousted politicians – further underscored Beijing’s double game.
Moreover, China has given nearly 13 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccines to Myanmar’s military-controlled health authorities and an undisclosed number of the same shots to people in areas controlled by ethnic armed groups, including in Kachin and Shan states and Wa-controlled areas. The vaccinations were reportedly conducted by Chinese medics who entered and then left the areas.
Several rebel groups, primarily the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army among the Palaungs of northern Shan State, the Shan State Army of the Shan State Progress Party, the Arakan Army in the southwest, and, to some extent, the KIA are armed with Chinese-made weapons provided by the United Wa State Army, a group with links to China’s security agencies.
China is also known to have told those groups not to fight near the oil and gas pipelines it has constructed from Myanmar’s coast on the Bay of Bengal to the China’s southern province of Yunnan, or disrupt other Belt and Road Initiative-related investments in Myanmar.
The Tatmadaw had probably not anticipated any of this when it seized power on February 1. At the same time, the generals appear determined to cling to power at any cost, probably realizing that it would be held accountable for the atrocities it has committed before and, especially, after the coup, if it were to fall.
To survive mounting international sanctions and boycotts and its own gross economic mismanagement, the Tatmadaw is attempting to tighten its grip on the lucrative jade trade, a multi-billion industry centered on the jade mines in and around Hpakant in Kachin state.
According to a report issued by the international environmental watchdog Global Witness and quoted by Al-Jazeera on June 29, the coup could turn the income from jade exports, mainly to China, “into a ‘slush fund’ for the military and source of political patronage to prop up the military regime.”
The Hpakan area has turned into a war zone since the coup, with KIA forces ambushing the Tatmadaw and even capturing some of its outposts, thus making it much less secure to mine for jade there.
But, according to reports compiled by Global Witness in 2015 and this year, among those making profits from the jade trade is Kyaing International Gems Company, which is owned in part by Kyaing San Shwe, one of the sons of senior general Than Shwe, Myanmar´s dictator from 1992 to 2011.
Meanwhile, Min Aung Hlaing’s son Aung Pyae Sone plays a role in the military’s control of the sale of dynamite in Hpakan, which is needed to extract the jade from the ground. On March 10, Aung Pyae Sone was placed under US sanctions along with his sister, businesswoman Khin Thiri Htet Mon.
The survival of SAC hinges on such connections and income, but if it fails to satisfy Tatmadaw leaders other than those in immediate power an internal coup cannot be ruled out. But observers monitoring the Tatmadaw say there is no guarantee that whoever dared to take such a drastic move would have a more liberal outlook than Min Aung Hlaing and his top brass allies.
To the contrary, the uncharismatic Min Aung Hlaing is seen by some top soldiers as weak and that even harsher methods are needed to quell the spreading dissent. Any significant split in the Tatmadaw, some suggest, could lead to a full-scale civil war and even greater humanitarian disaster.
But whatever happens next in Myanmar’s evolving tragedy, it is becoming increasingly evident that Min Aung Hlaing and his military allies opened a Pandora’s box of disasters when their tanks rolled into Naypyitaw and Yangon on February 1..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, National Unity Government (NUG), Anti-coup protesters
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Description:
"1. It has been nearly eight months since entire Myanmar people staged Spring
Revolution opposing Myanmar military' s February 1 coup. The National Unity
Government has also declared a nationwide state of emergency to wage a
"people's defensive war" against the military.
2. The military regime has been continuously committing human rights violations
since the coup, and evidence of its systematic, deliberate and widespread
human rights violations points to international crimes. The oppressed are
revolting in various ways against those atrocities.
3. The National unity Government has established military code of conduct and
rules of engagement for People’s Defense Force to ensure they respect human
rights and avoid inflicting harm on innocent civilians in the revolt.
4. Under no circumstances, violence shall be used against innocent civilians,
particularly the vulnerable groups including women, children, the elderly and
the disabled. It is clearly stated in international human rights laws that women
and children must be given special protection during conflicts. Our ministry is
working together with international community to document the regime's
human rights violations including those against women and children, and to
hold perpetrators accountable under the law.
5. Thus, ordinary civilians including the vulnerable groups such as women,
children, the elderly and the disabled must be protected from harm anywhere,
anytime and under any circumstances. Every armed unit and group has
responsibility not to harm them.
6. We urge respective armed groups around Myanmar that are revolting in their
own ways against the military regime to exercise due caution not to violate
international human rights laws..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry o f Human Rights
Date of publication:
2021-09-26
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Children, Children's rights: reports of violations in Burma against more than one ethnic group, Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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22.86 KB
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Description:
"1. It has been nearly eight months since entire Myanmar people staged Spring
Revolution opposing Myanmar military's February 1 coup. The National Unity
Government has also declared a nationwide state of emergency to wage a
"people's defensive war" against the military.
2. The military regime has been continuously committing human rights violations
since the coup, and evidence of its systematic, deliberate and widespread
human rights violations points to international crimes. The oppressed are
revolting in various ways against those atrocities.
3. The National unity Government has established military code of conduct and
rules of engagement for People’s Defense Force to ensure they respect human
rights and avoid inflicting harm on innocent civilians in the revolt.
4. Under no circumstances, violence shall be used against innocent civilians,
particularly the vulnerable groups including women, children, the elderly and
the disabled. It is clearly stated in international human rights laws that women
and children must be given special protection during conflicts. Our ministry is
working together with international community to document the regime's
human rights violations including those against women and children, and to
hold perpetrators accountable under the law.
5. Thus, ordinary civilians including the vulnerable groups such as women,
children, the elderly and the disabled must be protected from harm anywhere,
anytime and under any circumstances. Every armed unit and group has
responsibility not to harm them.
6. We urge respective armed groups around Myanmar that are revolting in their
own ways against the military regime to exercise due caution not to violate
international human rights laws..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of publication:
2021-09-26
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Children, Anti-coup protesters, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Children's rights: reports of violations in Burma against more than one ethnic group, Human Rights Defenders, Women's rights, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"Myanmar’s military regime has been waging war in Chin State in the mountainous far west of the country for months. Intense fighting between the junta and civilian resistance groups has forced thousands of people to flee their homes, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. In the past ten days alone, junta troops bombarded the town of Thantlang, prompting an exodus of nearly 8.000 people. Regime soldiers also shot down a Christian pastor in the town and mutilated his corpse.
The Irrawaddy spoke to Dr. Sasa, the Minister of International Cooperation for the parallel National Unity Government (NUG), himself an ethnic Chin, about the current situation in Chin State and the NUG’s efforts at home and abroad to deliver aid and win international support.
By THE IRRAWADDY 27 September 2021
Myanmar’s military regime has been waging war in Chin State in the mountainous far west of the country for months. Intense fighting between the junta and civilian resistance groups has forced thousands of people to flee their homes, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. In the past ten days alone, junta troops bombarded the town of Thantlang, prompting an exodus of nearly 8.000 people. Regime soldiers also shot down a Christian pastor in the town and mutilated his corpse.
The Irrawaddy spoke to Dr. Sasa, the Minister of International Cooperation for the parallel National Unity Government (NUG), himself an ethnic Chin, about the current situation in Chin State and the NUG’s efforts at home and abroad to deliver aid and win international support.
What can you tell us about the current situation in Chin State?
The military regime’s State Administration Council (SAC) has targeted Chin State since shortly after the coup, and there have been especially heavy crackdowns in Mindat and Kanpetlet. The regime bombs and uses heavy weapons against civilians. The use of such weapons to destroy villages and towns in Chin State is both a war crime and a crime against humanity. They attack the Chin people with the intention of massacring them. What happened in Thantlang earlier this September is further proof of the junta’s brutality. Not only did they kill the Chin Christian pastor Cung Biak Hum, but they also cut off his wedding ring. We feel that is not only an insult to the Chin people, but it is also a declaration of war against all the Christian community. They do it on purpose. Now, everyone in Thantlang has fled their homes. They deliberately burned down 19 houses.
Are the Chin people being repressed more because they are so active in the resistance against the junta?
What we have come to understand is that if this Spring Revolution does not succeed, there will be no future for the ethnic nationalities and for the people of Myanmar as a whole. Ethnic groups have been persecuted for 74 years. For those 74 years, we have had no hope from the generals and they have had nothing to offer. We Chin people have been discriminated against for generations on the basis of race and religion. Now all Chin people understand that the whole system needs to be changed. All ethnic groups understand that, too. We have a choice. We will end the rule of the military. Then, we will establish a federal democracy. [Under the federal democracy system] our constitution guarantees our right to self-determination. We will never back down until we have taken that path. If not, then military dictatorships will happen again and again.
What kind of support can the NUG provide to the Chin people, especially those who have fled from Thantlang?
There are a lot of areas where we can’t say what the NUG is doing to support people for security reasons. But I want to say that almost US$1 million is being provided indirectly for humanitarian support in Chin State.
In the Indian state of Mizoram, which borders Chin State and shares a similar culture to ours, we are in talks with the local government to help our people. There is a lot we are doing in collaboration with all the religious organizations in Mizoram, as well as with the international community, on health, education, and humanitarian assistance. Of course, not all the needs are being met. The NUG continues to work behind the scenes with humanitarian groups.
In Chin State, people are resisting the junta with traditional rifles and are suffering human rights abuses. What is the NUG’s message to them?
The Myanmar military have been using the four cuts policy for many years. It is a tactic to cut off food, funding, intelligence and recruits. Under that policy, humanitarian aid is much harder to deliver. For example, it takes a lot of permits just to transport a bag of rice.
We have a lot of resources. As a person communicating with the international community, I can say that there are many organizations that want to help. There are many philanthropists. But the four cuts policy is hurting our efforts to provide assistance to almost all villages in Chin State. The problem is that the military council aims guns at people to prevent them from getting help. We understand the frustration of the people and their suffering and how that might cause them to blame the NUG. But the people are suffering because of the generals’ four cuts policy. It is the SAC that is depriving us of the humanitarian assistance we deserve. We are facing a real hell.
The United States (US) alone has provided about US$200 million in humanitarian aid to Myanmar. Along with the contributions from the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU), the total support amounts to about US$300 million. If the four cuts policy could be taken away, no one would go hungry and no would be homeless. The longer the regime stays in power, the worse the situation will get. Therefore, we are working hard to end this dictatorship as soon as possible.
The NUG said earlier this month that the armed resistance movement is growing because of the failure of the international community to intervene. What do you think the international community should do?
Eight months after the coup, we are still urging the international community to recognize the NUG immediately. The NUG takes its legitimacy from the people. The NUG leadership is based on the results of the 2020 general election, which was won by the National League for Democracy. Our legitimacy comes from the people who support us. The 76th United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution recognizes the 2020 elections as free and fair. The independent electoral observer group in Asia also said it was free and fair. So the question is why does the international community not recognize the people’s government? The NUG needs to be recognized internationally as soon as possible. Only by recognizing us, can the basic needs of the people be met.
We are using our own four cuts strategy to counter the military. Number one in the strategy is to cut the financial flow and income to the SAC. Number two, supplies of fuel and weapons must be cut. Number three is to cut all the SAC’s attempts at diplomacy. The international community must not cooperate politically with the military regime. For example, the Association of Southeast Nations must cut ties with it. And all international organizations must cut ties with the SAC. Number four is to cut the legitimacy of the military council. They must not be allowed to administer the country.
How successful has the NUG’s four cuts approach been?
Think about it. Even now the junta-controlled lottery is not working. When our spring lottery was introduced [in August], their lottery faded and [seems to be] dead. Then there is the tax issue. The people do not want to pay taxes anymore. It is a way of non-violent [resistance against the military rule]. We now have electricity tax exemptions. It’s really a success. If you pay the electricity fee, the money will go to [coup leader Senior General] Min Aung Hlaing. He will use that money to buy weapons.
The Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) is another example of our four cuts strategy. The CDM brings an end to the regime’s attempt at administration. The whole world knows they can’t administer the country. This is the success of the people.
Internationally, the US government is monitoring the SAC’s military-owned companies. Similarly, the EU has imposed sanctions on all the military leaders and their companies. The same is true of Canada. We are urging Australia and New Zealand to back us. So the success we have had in the last seven or eight months has been huge. The UN resolution also calls for an end to arms sales to the military regime.
Our goal is to weaken the SAC financially so they are unable to get access to more weapons. Currently, they are not able to govern. In the meantime, we are advocating hard to the international community not to support the junta. So I want to ask the people if there is any country that accepts the SAC? There is none. The military regime is really falling apart..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-27
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Spring Revolution, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders, National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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The junta has enforced an internet blackout in a total of 22 townships in Chin and Kachin states and Magway, Mandalay and Sagaing regions
Description:
"The junta cut off mobile internet access and most Wi-Fi services to 11 townships in war-torn areas of Chin State and Magway Region at 6pm on Thursday evening, according to locals and members of the local resistance forces in the area.
The affected townships are Gangaw, Htilin and Myaing in Magway Region, and Falam, Kanpetlet, Matupi, Mindat, Paletwa, Tedim, Thantlang and Tonzang in Chin State.
Locals have said that the internet blackout will make it difficult for locals to both send and receive information on the conditions in the region.
“After the internet connection is cut off, the phone connection may also be cut off. In that case, I don't think the situation will be easy,” a Mindat resident told Myanmar Now.
A church and several buildings were hit by artillery shells fired by the Myanmar army during a clash with the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) on September 22 in Mindat.
Fighting broke out between the junta’s troops and the CDF in Thantlang on September 18, forcing nearly the entire population of the town to flee. At least 18 homes and a government building were set ablaze by the junta’s artillery fire, and a Christian pastor who tried to put out the fire was shot dead by the Myanmar army troops.
Soldiers cut off the ring finger on his left hand to steal the pastor’s wedding band; details of the act went viral on social media.
In the Chin State capital of Hakha, internet access was still available on Saturday morning, according to locals.
Since September 14, the internet connection has been cut off in Myingyan and Mogok in Mandalay Region; Taungdwingyi in Magway Region; and Ayataw, Butalin, Kani, Pale, Taze, Ye-U and Yinmabin in Sagaing Region.
Hpakant in Kachin State has suffered an internet blackout since August.
The recent addition of 11 townships in Magway and Chin State to the blackout on Thursday brings the total of townships without internet access to 22.
A spokesperson from the anti-junta Mindat People’s Administration Team speculated that the restrictions on internet access were likely timed to occur as the military intensifies operations in the region to suppress the resistance movement.
“It is either that they cut the internet and the flow of information because they fear that we will step up offensives against them, or they are preparing to get the upper hand to launch offensives against us,” the spokesperson said.
He insisted, however, that the lack of internet access would not have a major impact on the activities of local guerrilla groups, which do not rely on the internet for communication.
An official from the Yaw Defence Force (YDF), a local resistance group operating in Gangaw, Myaing and Htilin townships in Magway, echoed the assessment of the situation by the spokesperson of the Mindat People’s Administration Team.
“The military cut the internet because they can’t win. It is their usual tactic and won’t have much impact on the revolutionary forces. We will continue what we are supposed to be doing, regardless,” the YDF official said.
The military council has not published information on the cuts.
Following the February 1 military coup, the junta imposed tight controls on the internet nationwide in an effort to suppress news of its brutal crackdowns on peaceful anti-dictatorship protests.
Internet freedom in Myanmar has since collapsed, creating what Freedom House (FH) and Free Expression Myanmar described as “the most severe decline ever documented” in FH’s annual Freedom of the Net global surveys on and analysis of the issue.
“As part of its attempt to crush dissent and maintain power, the military junta shut down internet service, blocked social media platforms and websites, seized control of the telecommunications infrastructure, and ramped up intrusive surveillance,” Myanmar’s Freedom of the Net report, released on September 21, said.
In 2019, at the height of the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, much of northern Rakhine State lost internet access for more than a year..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Economic, social and cultural rights, Human Rights Defenders, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"The Myanmar junta has announced it plans to prosecute Dr. Aye Nyein Thu, better known as A Nyein, who has been aiding and providing healthcare treatment to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Chin State’s Mindat Township, for allegedly supporting local People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups.
Last week, junta forces arrested three volunteers delivering medical supplies to the doctor in the remote mountain town, which saw an exodus of thousands of residents after regime troops attacked civilian targets with artillery and engaged in random shooting throughout the town following clashes with PDF fighters.
On Thursday night, the junta announced in its state-controlled media the arrests of the three volunteers—Ko Kyaw Htay and Ko Zaw Naing Win from Pauk Township, Magwe Region; and Ko Kyaw Kyaw Tun from Pakokku Township, Magwe Region—and the seizure of medical equipment including one portable X-ray machine, one anesthesia machine, an oximeter and medicines intended for delivery to Mindat.
The report stated that the three had delivered “weapons, ammunition, money, medicines and medical equipment to main suspect Dr. Aye Nyein Thu, who provides the Chinland Defense Force [CDF] with these supplies”. It also claimed that Dr. Aye Nyein Thu provided assistance to members of the CDF on the orders of Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, the health minister in the shadow National Unity Government, for whom the junta has issued an arrest warrant.
The report added that regime officials would take action against the detainees and called on the public to work together to secure the arrest of Dr. Aye Nyein Thu and associated suspects.
After the junta launched bloody crackdowns on anti-coup protests in February, Dr. Aye Nyein Thu joined a team of volunteer healthcare professionals that provided emergency services in Mandalay and treated wounded civilians.
When thousands of Mindat residents had to flee junta forces in May, leaving them without access to healthcare, she went there to help assist in the camps.
According to the Mindat IDP camp management committee, around 25,000 to 30,000 people from Mindat and nearby villages have sought shelter in the temporary camps.
“This proves how cruel they are. Seizing medicines and medical supplies for IDPs is the same as preventing the saving of lives,” said a member of the Mindat People’s Administration Team, a local administrative group formed by local residents in the weeks following the Feb. 1 coup.
“The military arrests those who are working to help the IDPs and deliver supplies, and brings nonsense charges against them,” he added.
He said that recently, three other people working to provide food, medicines and other supplies to IDPs in Mindat were also arrested and charged..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-26
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"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
https://nugmyanmar.org
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၁၀/၂၀၂၁)
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ (၂၅)ရက်
နိုင်ငံသူနိုင်ငံသားများပိုင်ဆိုင်သည့် နေအိမ်၊ အဆောက်အဦ၊ ဥပစာနှင့်ပစ္စည်းများ၊ နိုင်ငံပိုင်မြေနှင့်အဆောက်အဦ နှင့်မြေကွက်များအား အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီမှ တရားမဲ့ပြုမူဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ အသိပေးထုတ်ပြန်ခြင်း
၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီသည် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ (၁) ရက်စွဲပါကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၁၀/၂၀၂၁) ဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီဟု မိမိကိုယ်ကိုမိမိအမည်ပေးထားသော အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီအား အကြမ်းဖက်အုပ်စုအဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်ကြေညာခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။
၂။ ထို့ကြောင့် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီမှ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် သြဂုတ်လ (၁) ရက်နေ့တွင် ထပ်မံအသွင်ပြောင်းဖွဲ့စည်း သည့်အိမ်စောင့်အစိုးရအဖွဲ့နှင့် လက်အောက်ခံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းအဆင့်ဆင့်အပါအဝင် ယင်းကောင်စီ၏ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေး၊ ဥပဒေပြုရေးနှင့် တရားစီရင်ရေးဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များသည် လုံးဝ (လုံးဝ) တရားမဝင်ပါ။
၃။ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် ယင်း၏လက်အောက်ခံအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၏ တရားမဲ့ပြုကျင့်ဆောင်ရွက်ချက် များကြောင့် နိုင်ငံသူနိုင်ငံသားများပိုင်ဆိုင်သည့် နေအိမ်၊ အဆောက်အဦ၊ ဥပစာနှင့် ပစ္စည်းများအပါအဝင် ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုနှင့် အကျိုးစီးပွားများပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးနစ်နာမှုများအပေါ် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူ့ အစိုးရအာဏာ အပြည့်အဝကျင့်သုံးနိုင်ခွင့်ရရှိသည့်အခါ တရားမဲ့ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးနစ်နာခဲ့ရမှုများအတွက် ဥပဒေ နှင့်အညီ တရားမျှတမှု ပြန်လည်ရရှိနိုင်ရေး အစွမ်းကုန် အာမခံဖြည့်ဆည်းဆောင်ရွက်ပေးသွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။
၄။ ထို့အပြင် နိုင်ငံပိုင်မြေနှင့်အဆောက်အဦနှင့်မြေကွက်များကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီမှ တနည်းနည်းဖြင့် လွှဲပြောင်းခြင်း၊ ရောင်းချခြင်း၊ ငှားရမ်းခြင်း၊ အကျိုးတူပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းများသည် တရားဝင်မှုလုံးဝ မရှိ သောကြောင့် ပြည်သူ့အစိုးရအာဏာအပြည့်အဝ ကျင့်သုံးနိုင်ခွင့်ရရှိချိန်တွင် ချွင်းချက်မရှိ ပြန်လည် သိမ်းယူ သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ဝယ်ယူငှားရမ်းပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်သူများအား အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေး ဥပဒေ အပါအဝင် တည်ဆဲ ဥပဒေများနှင့်အညီ ထိရောက်စွာ အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။
၅။ နိုင်ငံသူနိုင်ငံသားများအနေဖြင့် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီနှင့်ယင်း၏လက်အောက်ခံအဖွဲ့အစည်း အဆင့် ဆင့်၏ တရားမဲ့ပြုမူဆောင်ရွက်ချက်များကို အထောက်အထားများဖြင့်စနစ်တကျမှတ်တမ်းတင်ထားခြင်း၊ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရလက်အောက်ရှိ သက်ဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနများမှ တရားဝင်ဖွင့်လှစ်ထားရှိသည့် တိုင်တန်းရမည့် နေရာများသို့ သတင်းပေးပို့တိုင်တန်းခြင်းများကို ဆောင်ရွက်ကြပါရန်လည်း အလေးအနက် တိုက်တွန်းပန်ကြားအပ် ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-25
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-25
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"The military coup in Myanmar has destabilized most of the country, but many in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, one of its poorest, see little difference between the old democratic regime and the military dictatorship.
The Rakhine, or the Arakanese, have suffered through British and Japanese colonialism, poverty, exploitation, and human rights violations. An 18 month-long internet blackout, political disenfranchisement, violent military crackdowns, a lack of proper humanitarian aid, and poverty have contributed to the apathy felt by many ethnic Rakhines with respect to the new military dictatorship’s destruction of democratic traditions and institutions.
Under the pretense of eradicating a local military group known as the Arakan Army which fights for Rakhine self-determination, the Burmese military has devastated the region while the democratic government turned a blind eye.
JURIST has interviewed an ethnic Rakhine law student in order to better understand the persecution of ethnic Rhakines in Myanmar and their quest for independence. This interviewee will not be publicly identified due to ongoing security concerns. For more information on the latest developments, please follow our Myanmar coverage.
1) Tell us about the Rakhine people and your traditional home in the Rakhine State.
The Rakhine State is a coastal territory in Southeast Asia. It is a mountainous area, bound on the west by Bangladesh. Legend holds hat the history of Rakhine dates back to 6,000 BC during the course of which has included rich cultural and literary traditions, and strong military protection. But the glory came to an end in 1785, after the invasion of the Burmese king. At present, there is a population of more than three million in Rakhine, from seven different ethnic groups, which combined make up the Arakanese, or the people of the Arakan Land. Most of the Rakhines live in Rakhine State, though there are also people of Arakanese descent in various other parts of Myanmar and India.
2) Being Rakhine in Myanmar, have you ever experienced discrimination or improper treatment because of your ethnicity?
Historically, we Rakhines sought unity with other ethnic groups within the union of Myanmar. This attitude was reflected by the fact that the Rakhines banded together with other tribes of Myanmar in the anti-colonial fights against the British and Japanese. But ultimately our efforts seemed only to lead to broken promises and exploitation. Over time, we felt strongly that we were not being treated as equals by other parts of Myanmar. This seems to be related to the desire of others to exploit the abundance of natural resources in Rakhine State; geographically speaking, our land has all that it needs to become an economically important region; but most people who aren’t farmers in the region are jobless, and have to go abroad in search for work.
Despite its wealth of natural resources, the Rakhine State has, over time, become one of the poorest states in the country, and all of our key sectors, from education, to health, to the economy, are in decline. There is no industry zone and most of the locals are jobless. They have to go elsewhere in the country or abroad in search of jobs. Poverty and illiteracy are proliferating, causing conditions to continue to fall. While the country amasses wealth from our natural gas, many parts of the Rakhine State are lacking in such basic essentials as electricity. The Rakhines feel like they don’t belong in their own country.
In recent years, there has also been violence and enormous casualties and other problems in the Rakhine State. In particular, there was an internet blackout in the region, starting in June 2019, that set records because it lasted two whole years. During that time, there were many human rights violations by the military, a lack of information amid the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as most of the country went online for their studies during the health crisis, young Rakhine people lost access to their education because it was impossible to take classes online during that time. The locals felt like they were in a different world compared to the other states of Myanmar.
3) How would you describe the relationship between the Burmese government and the Rakhine people in Arakan State in the two or three years before the military coup?
Much of the current trouble started in 2015, when the National League for Democracy (NLD; [ed: Myanmar’s then-ruling party]) Government appointed one of their party delegates, Nyi Pu, as chief minister of the Rakhine State despite what appeared to be a landslide win in local elections for a representative of the Arakan National Party (ANP). In the aftermath, there were many battles between the Arakan Army and the federal military in Rakhine, and the locals had to flee for safety. The Parliament rejected proposals to provide much-needed resources for Rakhine refugees. The NLD Government claimed to be practicing democracy in Myanmar, but from our perspectives, they seemed to be misusing their authority. There were even allegedly personal threats made against government representatives who sought aid for the Rakhine people. These tensions continued into 2017 and 2018, at which point violence escalated and atrocities proliferated.
On the 21st of June 2019, internet access was shut down in the Rakhine State, prompting many university students to protest, a lot of whom ultimately faced charges and imprisonment. Between military violence, arrests, and refugee status, so many civilians of the Rakhine State suffered, with no help from the government. In fact, it was worse than that; the NLD Government not only failed to lend a helping hand effectively but also restricted donations and supplies from the organizations saying that they needed to ask for permissions from the authorities first.
Another worrying trend included the interrogations and arrests of many young boys who the Burmese military accused of having had connections with the Arakan Army. Reports of torture and even deaths abounded. For instance, a local carpenter, Zaw Win Hlaing, was arrested, and then was beaten so harshly that he developed a kidney condition that killed him. To make matters even worse, many such cases weren’t even reported because of the internet blackout.
In July 2019, during a visit to a Rakhine township, [then-State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi] delivered a speech in which she said it was inconsiderate and cowardly to seek change with the use of weapons. While she didn’t mention the Arakan Army by name, it was obvious to the Rakhine People who she was referring to. The speech caused an uproar, locally. The local people felt that as a leader, she should have understood that oppression was the root cause of all of these issues, and she should have properly addressed the underlying problems, not just attempted to cast blame. It later emerged that the [then-] State Counsellor’s administration had ordered the military to “crush” the local Rakhine fighters. Against this backdrop, she praised federal military forces for their efforts in the Rakhine State, while as far as I know she never said a word of sympathy toward the Rakhine refugees. When social media caught wind of all of the troubles in the Rakhine State, our compatriots blamed the Rakhines and the Arakan Army. Since then, there has been a broad feeling of bitterness toward the government and the people of mainland Myanmar. So I think it can be said that the NLD Government was partially to blame for our lacking sense of belonging in our country.
4) How did Rakhine people react to the 2020 elections and the NLD victory?
On a whole, the Rakhine people felt the 2020 elections were unfair. Only the residents of four of the 17 towns in the Rakhine State were allowed to vote. While this policy was blamed on armed conflict, things were relatively calm in some of the towns where people were deprived of this right. Furthermore, there was relatively low voter interest in the region compared to the 2015 elections, probably due in part to the sluggish information flow caused by the internet shutdown, and campaign limitations caused by the pandemic. Not to mention the the 2015 elections did not instill confidence that our votes would matter.
All that said, I wouldn’t say there was a particularly strong local reaction to the NLD’s 2020 victory in large part because of compromised access to information; between the internet blackout and limited access to news, many people in the Rakhine State didn’t even know so many towns were unable to vote.
5) How do the Rakhine people feel about the military coup?
Generally speaking, for the Rakhine People, the military coup doesn’t represent significant change, because the oppression we faced under the NLD Government and the Military were effectively one and the same. To us, it feels like we’re under the same dictatorship, but that’s now being led by a different figure head.
6) Would you support the return to power of Aung San Su Kyi?
To be honest, most Rakhines have no interest in the return to power of Aung San Su Kyi due to bitterness over her decision to side with the military during our conflict. In recent years, she has ignored oppression and injustice in our region, opting instead to work with the military. We do hope eventually that Myanmar will end up with a government that prioritizes fairness and equality for people of all ethnicities.
7) What is Arakan Army doing now? Has the regional conflict subsided?
The Arakan Army has not faced combat in several months. From what I understand, our regional military leadership has become the de facto authority of the Rakhine State, and is focused for the time being on state-building exercises, related to everything from public health and combating drug abuse, to technology initiatives and so on.
8) What do you hope the future will hold for the Rakhine people?
We don’t know what might happen in the future or how long this period of unrest will endure in Myanmar. The Burmese government in exile (National Unity Government; NUG) lacks both the de facto and de jure power to improve matters in the country. We all hope this will be the very last dictatorship our country will endure, and that ultimately, members of all ethnicities will one day be able to celebrate our achievements together. If the revolution is a success and a federalist government is formed, I am optimistic that matters will improve. Furthermore, I have faith that we will continue to seek our independence.
9) Do you think that Rakhine will declare independence?
Locals believe that the independence of Arakan fully depends on the Arakan Army, which, as mentioned before, has gained de facto power in some parts of Rakhine, and is thus in control of local administrations, the judiciary and more. And they are acting quickly; in some provinces, they have already implemented their new policies. Of course we believe that if the army gains more and more power, they may consider a declaration of independence, building an independent nation. We hope that if this happens, this secession will take place under good terms with Myanmar.
10) How do you think Rakhine Independence would affect the Rakhine people, Myanmar and Southeast Asia as a whole?
Of course there will be growing pains any time a territory secedes from a country it has been a part of for a long time. Of course we may suffer some difficulties because of how intertwined our systems of education, economics and more are with those of mainland Myanmar. But we believe these difficulties will be worth it. Furthermore, we have a lot to offer the the region; we have excellent industrial potential, and a wealth of natural resources, including natural gas, which will help us from an international commerce perspective..."
Source/publisher:
JURIST
Date of publication:
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
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Sub-title:
Ethnic armed groups in Shan State have long used intimidation to recruit fighters, but the brutal tactics of the Shan State Progress Party are terrorizing villagers and prompting some to flee their homes.
Description:
"On the morning of June 20, Daw Shristi Devi, 55, walked more than 20 kilometers from her village to a Shan State Progress Party camp near Lashio in northern Shan State.
The ethnic armed group had summoned the single mother of five to apologize on behalf of her eldest son for his refusal to enlist in the SSPP’s armed wing, the Shan State Army-North.
Moments after arriving at the SSPP camp, Shristi Devi, along with 23 villagers who had also been summoned for the same reason, were forced into a vehicle by five armed fighters and driven away. She was separated from her family for more than six weeks.
“We didn’t know where they were taking us. They could have done anything to us. We thought they would kill us,” recalled Shristi Devi, who asked that her real name and village not be published for fear of reprisal.
Although the military coup on February 1 brought violence and fear into households throughout the country, for many in Shan State conflict has been at their doorsteps for decades.
The state is home to some of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed groups, and these ethnic armies have long been at war with each other and with the Tatmadaw. However, as power struggles and territorial disputes persist, the SSPP and its armed wing, one of the biggest ethnic armed groups in northern Shan, has acquired a reputation as the more violent and aggressive of the groups, especially in recruitment campaigns.
‘We gave the money – that’s why we are still alive today’
The June 20 incident is reflective of the SSPP’s increasingly brutal recruitment tactics.
Taken against their will with no warning or explanation, Shristi Devi and the other villagers were moved three times after being abducted. At the final camp, where they were held for a month, they lived in tents with little food and not enough clothing. Shristi Devi remembers seeing over 200 people who had been abducted from other villages.
“It was intolerably cold. We didn’t know we could end up here like this so we didn’t bring any warm change of clothes or blankets. We had to wash the clothes again and again and re-wear them. And they didn’t give us anything to eat except rice, oil, and salt,” said Shristi Devi. “We spent most nights sleeping on the floor. It was such a nightmare.”
A few days after arriving at the final camp in Keng Tung, the men were taken to SSPP headquarters in Wan Hai, over 380km away, to begin formal training. The eight women remained at the camp.
Shristi Devi was told that she would only be released after her son joined the SSPP or a fee of K10 million was paid (about US$5,000 at current exchange rates). Fearing for her safety, her community collected the ransom and on August 2 she was released, along with another woman from her village. However, she was told that paying the ransom would only protect her for one year.
“I am constantly worried because they only gave us a one-year contract to sign, which means that they will or can come back next year again and the same thing would happen again,” said Shristi Devi, her voice shaking.
“We gave the money – that’s why we are still alive today. But this is [only] one year’s insurance. We don’t know what will happen to us in the next few years.”
The SSPP’s conscription efforts track eligible recruits using what’s known as “the list”. In villages across northern Shan, families with members aged between 18 and 40, men and women, are entered on “the list”, usually under the father’s name. An annual draw is held by respective village tract administrators and SSPP branch leaders to decide who must join. If selected, the family must offer at least one person to begin immediate military training regardless of whether the family is from a village in SSPP territory.
Sai Muang, editor-in-chief of the Shan Herald Agency for News, has monitored conscription and forced recruitment by the SSPP since 2006. He says the June 20 incident is one of the most extreme examples of intimidation by the armed group, but it is not an isolated case. He says the SSPP’s conscription programme has expanded over the past year, and now covers more than 50 villages. The increase has occurred amid a rise in fighting between the SSPP and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), and its armed wing is the Shan State Army-South.
“They [SSPP] have been recruiting in so many villages. They are now not just looking at the city or the number of people they can recruit. They are focusing on anyone above 18 and taking them,” said Muang.
Sai Wi Zay Ya, 52, a community leader from the same village as Shristi Devi, has spoken to families throughout northern Shan who have been targeted in the forced recruitment campaigns. He believes that the SSPP’s tactics have become more drastic in recent months.
In the past, if a recruit failed to comply with his or her conscription, their family could negotiate with the village leader to pay a fine. This is no longer sufficient.
“Before, it used to be directly dealt with by the village heads, without involving the villagers. Now, they don’t accept negotiating with the village head and demand to talk to the parents directly. That’s why now the head of the village has been conditioned to send the parents to their camp to deal with whatever they [SSPP] want,” said Wi Zay Ya, who asked that his real name and location not be used for fear of reprisal.
“They have found that the tactic of taking parents away is an effective and easy way to threaten the sons to join the groups. So, they started implementing such tactics in other areas gradually.”
These new tactics spread to Shristi Devi and Wi Zay Ya’s village when the SSPP pushed the RCSS out of the region in April and took over administrative control. A representative from each family is required to visit one of the SSPP camps in person; families that refuse to go through this process risk having SSPP soldiers raid their homes and detain anyone they find.
Shristi Devi’s eldest son was first recruited by the SSPP in one of its annual draws in 2015. For five years, her family paid an annual K4 million fine to the party in exchange for his freedom. Until this year, it was enough to ward off the party’s threats, but due to the new policy she feared for her family’s safety and felt she had no choice but to make the trip to talk directly to the party.
In other parts of Shan, the policies have been in effect for several years. Daw Nang Lee, 30, who lives in a village in northern Shan about 15km south of Shristi Devi’s community, made a similar trip to an SSPP camp in 2019.
Her younger brother was first recruited by the SSPP in 2012 and joined up, but absconded after seven years. Nang Lee was summoned to a meeting with the SSPP at which she tried to issue a formal apology on behalf of her brother.
“This is the only way to deal with them if you want to be excused from not getting other severe punishments like getting arrested or beaten,” said Nang Lee, who asked that her real name and home village not be used because the SSPP has in the past threatened and attacked residents of her village who have spoken out about the forced conscription.
Although Nang Lee did not face retaliation like Shristi Devi, her apology was rejected and her brother was again included on “the list”. He has remained in hiding since he ran away.
Decades of conflict in Shan State
For many families, the prospect of a loved one fighting with an ethnic armed group hangs over them like a death sentence. Reports of young people joining ethnic armed groups and never being heard from again are common.
“I feel that giving money is better than giving our sons and our lives because we don’t know what they will make our sons do once they join the group. We don’t know if they will ever come back or stay alive,” said Shristi Devi.
“It is better we go [to apologise] because if we don’t, the SSPP would come and raid our house and God knows what else they are capable of doing. I don’t want them to even see my sons at all.”
The fear of ethnic armed groups such as the SSPP has developed over decades of fighting, both against the Tatmadaw and between themselves.
The SSPP is allied with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which represents the Ta’ang minority. Separately and together, the two northern Shan groups have clashed with the RCSS, based in the south of the state, since the TNLA was formed in 2009.
However, while the TNLA focuses its recruitment almost exclusively on Ta’ang, the predominantly Shan SSPP is known to target all ethnicities, including those living in territory outside its control. SSPP spokesperson and secretary, Colonel Sai Su said that there is “no discrimination against gender or religions” in the party’s recruitment efforts.
The RCSS, while also violent, has developed a reputation as being a more protective force that is less likely to use fear-mongering tactics and extreme intimidation against civilians, especially in northern Shan.
Wi Zay Ya said he has witnessed the difference between the two groups firsthand. His village was under RCSS control until April when the SSPP pushed them out. He says the contrast between the two groups is significant.
“RCSS didn’t torture or use violence towards us. They took things from us, but protected us in return. But [SSPP] are very violent and ask the villagers to do things for them forcefully and ask them to give [money]. They want us to buy them beer, and they torture the villagers so inhumanely,” said Wi Zay Ya.
Muang has heard similar stories, but suggests that a preference for the RCSS might be misguided.
“RCSS has that strong mindset or value that is shared by many in Shan State: nationalism. Shan people love RCSS for that reason. It becomes easy for them to give anything to RCSS and hard for them to see them for what they really are,” said Muang.
“They [Shan people] paint SSPP as the “bad guy” because SSPP is more cunning, and they collaborate and work with different armed groups, and are seen as traitors in the community.”
Despite evidence of its crackdowns and harsh recruitment campaigns, the SSPP denies most allegations of violence. Sai Su said the group instills a sense of duty in its recruits and its leadership retains a tight grip on its fighters at all levels.
“There might be a possibility that lower-ranking soldiers are implementing this without us knowing but if this activity is truly happening on the ground, it is not ordered by us. But if we know anything about it, we would take serious action towards such violent acts,” said Sai Su.
However, the SSPP does admit to punishing those who evade recruitment, conceding that a small number of those who refuse to join are arrested and held for 30 days under what it calls “house arrest” as part of a re-education programme. Sai Su says only about 30 people are held under the programme every year.
Yet, stories of mass kidnappings and intimidation campaigns have spread across Shan, terrifying families who worry that they could be the next target. Rather than waiting for their village to be raided, many have made the difficult decision to flee their homes preemptively, relocating to one of the many displacement camps scattered throughout the state where they feel safe.
Figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) show that since the beginning of 2021, 26,681 persons have been displaced in Shan, with more than 22,000 in the north where the SSPP has its stronghold, as of September 15.
This is a significant increase from 2020, when the OCHA recorded 8,600 internally displaced persons in northern Shan state over the course of the year. While active conflict continues to be a primary driver of displacement across the entire state, recently, fear of conscription has also become a factor, a senior international aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Frontier.
“I don’t remember a single case last year of people leaving their house because of fear of being recruited, but vis-a-vis this year it is different,” said the aid worker.
“There are now reports of people being recruited forcibly, but even more reports of others fleeing their areas because of forced recruitment – because of reports they’ve heard and the fear of being taken in by the ethnic armed organisations.”
Allegra Mendelson is a freelance journalist based in Phnom Penh. Nandar is a feminist advocate and storyteller, originally from Shan State..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Armed conflict in Shan State - general articles, Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians
Language:
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Description:
"Madam President, Special Rapporteur,
The people of Myanmar have been pushed beyond the breaking point by the military junta’s continuous atrocities. Since the attempted coup, the junta has killed at least 1,114 and arrested 8,289 people. At least 6,637, including children, are still in detention, with many subjected to torture.
The junta continues to respond to the nationwide resistance with unimaginable cruelty and violence, inflicting countless human suffering on the people of Myanmar. It continues to escalate and expand military offensives in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni and Mon States and in Magway and Sagaing Regions, deliberately and indiscriminately targeting civilians. It is blocking and destroying aid, attacking aid workers, setting villages on fire, looting, destroying properties, conducting mass killings and using people as human shields and forced labourers. In July, the junta killed at least 43 villagers in four mass killings in Sagaing Region.
In Mon State, on 3 September, the junta soldiers shot and killed Ei Thwe Moe and her unborn child, and severely injured her husband Puu Day. In Kachin State, the ruthless Infantry Battalian 58 stationed near Waingmaw Township, continues to kill civilians indiscriminately. In Central Myanmar, the junta burned and destroyed essential supplies donated to villagers in Kin Ma village in Magway Region. As recent as on September 18, in Chin state, the junta shot dead a Christian pastor, cut off finger and looted his wedding ring as it burned at least 19 houses in Thantlang Township and shot indiscriminately at civilians, forcing most residents to flee.
For nearly eight months the people of Myanmar have bravely resisted the military’s merciless violence while the international community has stood by and watched with no concrete action. These atrocities, that amount to crimes against humanity, are enabled by many states, especially those in the UN Security Council, that continue to prevent action to hold the military to account. Coordinated actions, including global arms embargo, targeted sanctions, and the referral of Myanmar to the ICC, are essential to stop further bloodshed and prevent a nationwide civil war in Myanmar.
Thank you..."
Source/publisher:
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
https://nugmyanmar.org
အပတ်စဉ် သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၁၆/၂၀၂၁)
၂၄ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်
၁။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၉ ရက်နေ့တွင်အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာ ဝန်ကြီးဌာနက စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းနှင့် မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီးများတွင် ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာ အခြေအနေများကို ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီသို့ တင်သွင်းခဲ့သည်။ ထိုအစီရင်ခံစာတွင် တိုင်းဒေသကြီး နှစ်ခု၌ စစ်ကောင်စီက အရပ်သားများအပေါ် စတင်ထိုးစစ်ဆင်၍ နယ်မြေရှင်းလင်းရေးလုပ်ငန်းများ ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့သည့် ဇူလိုင်၊ ဩဂုတ် နှင့်စက်တင်ဘာလအတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ အသက်သေဆုံးသည်အထိ ညှင်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှုများ၊ တရားဥပဒေမဲ့ ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများကို ဖော်ပြထားပါသည်။ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်အား လက်နက်များတင်ပို့ရောင်းချခြင်းနှင့် စစ်ရေးအကူအညီပေးအပ်ခြင်းများ ရပ်တန့်ရန်၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ အမြန်ဆုံးရပ်တန့်ပြီး တရားမျှတမှုအတွက် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုတရားရုံးအပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံတကာလုပ်ထုံးလုပ်နည်းများ မှတဆင့် ထိထိရောက်ရောက်ဆောင်ရွက်ကြရန်နှင့် အကြမ်းဖက်ခံနေရသော စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းနှင့် မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီးများမှ ပြည်သူများအပါအဝင် မြန်မာပြည်သူများအား လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု အကူအညီများ ထောက်ပံ့ပေးရန် လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနက တောင်းဆိုထားပါသည်။
၂။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြုပ်နှံမှု ဝန်ကြီးဌာနက အောက်ပါရည်ရွယ်ချက်များဖြင့် ပေးပို့လာသည့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ပြည်ထောင်စု၏ အခွန်အကောက် ဥပဒေအား ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်က အတည်ပြုပြဌာန်းလိုက်သည်။
“၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ပြည်ထောင်စု၏အခွန်အကောက်ဥပဒေ ပြဌာန်းရခြင်း ရည်ရွယ်ချက်များ”
၁။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ (၁) ရက်နေ့မတိုင်မီ ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်၊ ပြည်ထောင်စု၏ အခွန်အကောက်ဥပဒေကို မဖြစ်မနေ ပြဌာန်းနိုင်ရေး။
၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရမှ စစ်အာဏာရှင် ပြုတ်ကျရေးအတွက် အဓိက လိုအပ်လျက်ရှိသည့် ဘဏ္ဍာရန်ပုံငွေများကို အခွန်ထမ်းပြည်သူများ ကိုယ်တိုင် လိုလားစွာ ပေးဆောင်နိုင်သည့် အခွန်နှုန်းထားများနှင့် အညီ ကောက်ခံရရှိနိုင်ရေး။
၃။ ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် အဓိက ဝန်ထုတ်ဝန်ပိုးမဖြစ်စေမည့် အခွန်နှုန်းထားများကို ခေတ်ကာလ အခြေအနေ နှင့်လျော်ညီစွာ ပြဌာန်းပြီး ပြည်သူနှင့်အတူ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး အမြန်ဆုံးအောင်မြင်နိုင်စေရေးအတွက် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရေး။
၄။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ဘတ်ဂျက်အသုံးစရိတ်လိုအပ်ချက်ကို ပြည်သူများလိုလားစွာ ထမ်းဆောင်သည့် အခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာရန်ပုံငွေများဖြင့် စနစ်တကျ သုံးစွဲနိုင်ရေး။
၃။ ကာကွယ်မှုပေးရန် တာဝန်ရှိမှု (Responsibility to Protect) ဆိုင်ရာ ဝန်ကြီးအဆင့် နှစ်စဉ်အစည်းအဝေးကို “ကာကွယ်မှုပေးရန် တာဝန်ရှိမှုနှင့် ဆိုးဝါးပြင်းထန်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များ ကာကွယ်တားဆီးမှု တွင် အမျိုးသမီးများနှင့် မိန်းကလေးများ၏ အခန်းကဏ္ဍ” ခေါင်းစဉ်ဖြင့် စက်တင်ဘာ ၂၀ ရက်တွင် ကျင်းပခဲ့ရာ ကုလသမဂ္ဂဆိုင်ရာ မြန်မာ သံအမတ်ကြီး ဦးကျော်မိုးထွန်း တက်ရောက် စကားပြောကြားခဲ့သည်။ ပြောကြားမှုတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ အကြမ်းဖက်မှု အပါအဝင် အခြားဆိုးဝါးသော ပြစ်မှုကျူးလွန်မှုများကို ကာကွယ်တားဆီးရေးနှင့် ပြစ်မှု ကျူးလွန်သူများကို တာဝန်ခံမှုရှိရေး တို့အတွက် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုက်အဝန်း၏ ထောက်ခံ အားပေးမှုဟာ အထူးအရေးကြီးကြောင်း၊ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်၏ ပြစ်ဒဏ် ခတ်ခြင်းမှကင်းလွတ်နေသော ဆိုးဝါးသည့် အစဉ်အလာကို ရပ်တန့်ရာမှာ နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုက်အဝန်းနှင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေး ကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် ကူညီဆောင်ရွက်ပေးရန် တိုက်တွန်းကြောင်း၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ စိစစ်မှတ်တမ်းတွေအရ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာနှင့် ကျား/မ အခြေခံသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုသည် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်စစ်ဆင်ရေး၏ ဝိသေသ လက္ခဏာ ဖြစ်ကြောင်းနှင့် ပဋိပက္ခ ဖြစ်ပွားမှုနှင့်ဆက်စပ်ပြီး လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုဟာ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်၏ စစ်ဗျူဟာ တစ်ရပ် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း၊ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့၊ ကျူးလွန်နေဆဲဖြစ်သည့် ပြစ်မှုများနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ အရေးယူနိုင်ရေးအတွက် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လွတ်လပ်သော စုံစမ်း စစ်ဆေးရေးယန္တရား အပါအဝင် အခြားအပြည်ပြည် ဆိုင်ရာ တရားဥပဒေ၊ တာဝန်ခံမှု ဆိုင်ရာ ယန္တရားများနှင့် ဆက်လက်ပူးပေါင်း ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်းတို့ ပါဝင်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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"1 . The Ministry of Human Rights of the National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
reported recent violations of human rights in Sagaing and Magwe Divisions to the United Nations Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) on 19 September 2021. The report described the ruthless clearance operations in Sagaing and Magwe
Divisions in July, August and September 2021 by the Military by means of state terrorism, murder, massacre, torture and
extrajudicial arrests and detentions. The UNHRC was urged by the ministry for an immediate arms embargo on Myanmar,
derecognition of international military ties with Myanmar, immediate cessation of violation of human rights in Myanmar, a
judicial action on these injustices through international criminal laws and procedures such as the International Criminal
Court, and humanitarian aids for Myanmar citizens including people of Sagaing and Magwe Divisions who have been
subjected to these atrocities.
2. The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw approved the 2021 Union Revenue and Taxation Law prepared, with the following
objectives, by the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment.
The following are the objectives of the 2021 Union Revenue and Taxation Law.
i) Ratification of the 2021 Union Revenue and Taxation Law before 1 October 2021
ii) Collection of the tax on the charitable funds raised for the deposition of the Myanmar Military through the same rates as
people who pay tax
iii) Determination of a tax rate appropriate to the time and situation, which will not impose a financial burden on people,
with a view to a firm unity with people for an expeditious victory of the Spring Revolution iv) The National Unity Government’s expenditure to be funded formally and systematically from the tax revenue levied by
the Government
3. The ministerial meeting on The Responsibility to Protect and the Role of Women and Girls in Atrocity Prevention
was held on 20 September 2021. The Myanmar Ambassador to the United Nations U Kyaw Moe Tun addressed that
collaboration with and support from international communities were crucial for prevention of sexual and gender-based
violations in Myanmar and criminal culpability of the offenders. He urged international communities and the United Nations
Security Council to stop the Myanmar Military’s ritual to ignore these offences. He quoted UN reports and said that sexual
and gender-based violence in Myanmar was a hallmark of the Myanmar Military’s operations. These violations were used
with the intent to intimidate, terrorise and punish the civilian population and as a tactic of war. For these past and present
sexual and gender-based violations, the National Unity Government will continue to collaborate with the International
Criminal Court, the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and other international human
rights courts and tribunals, to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-09-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Sub-title:
UN Human Rights Council – 48th session
Description:
"UN Human Rights Council – 48th session
Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
22 September 2021
Mister Vice-President, Mister Special Rapporteur,
FIDH and its member organizations ALTSEAN-Burma and Women Peace Network welcome this oral progress report.
The downward spiral of Myanmar’s human rights situation is accelerating and the country has effectively descended into civil war. The military junta has escalated arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions of human rights defenders and journalists - among them many women. Too often, detentions mean death. Since the February coup, we have recorded 115 civilian deaths (including seven women) in prisons, police stations, and military interrogation centers due to torture and lack of adequate medical care.
Under the military, there will never be accountability for its war crimes and crimes against humanity inflicted on Myanmar’s diverse population. The risk of further atrocities is being fueled by the military’s increasingly hateful propaganda against the Rohingya. This is why we reiterate our call for a UN Security Council referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
Mister Vice-President,
Accountability for human rights violations, international pressure, targeted sanctions against the military, and non-recognition of the junta as the government of Myanmar are all demands unequivocally made by the country’s civil society and the National Unity Government.
We back these demands and so should the international community. Stronger international action is urgently needed to prevent further suffering for the people of Myanmar and a threat to the region’s peace and security.
Thank you..."
Source/publisher:
International Federation for Human Rights
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, International Criminal Court, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Sub-title:
48th Session of the Human Rights Council
Description:
"23 September 2021
Madam President,
Excellencies,
Since my last update to this Council, the human rights situation in Myanmar has deteriorated significantly as the far-reaching impacts of the military coup continue to devastate lives and hopes across the country. Conflict, poverty and the effects of the pandemic are sharply increasing, and the country faces a vortex of repression, violence and economic collapse.
The military's iron grip on power faces resistance from large segments of the society. Weapons of war continue to be deployed in towns and cities to suppress opposition. Over 1,100 individuals have reportedly now died at the hands of the security forces since the coup.
Over 8,000 individuals – including children – have been arrested since the coup, with over 4,700 remaining in detention. Most are held without any form of due process, and lack access to legal counsel, or even the ability to communicate with their families. We continue to receive reports from multiple locations of interrogation techniques that amount to ill-treatment and torture, and have credible information that more than 120 detainees have died in custody – some within 24 hours of their arrest.
Over 260 attacks on health-care facilities and personnel have been reported since February, including targeting and shooting medical personnel, ambulances and hospitals; arbitrarily detaining medical professionals; military occupation of hospitals; and confiscation of medical supplies such as COVID-19 vaccines and oxygen. These attacks gravely compound the humanitarian consequences of the violence and a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our report A/HRC/48/67, which is before you today, documents many serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of person; the prohibition against torture; fair trial guarantees; freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly. Several of these violations may amount to crimes against humanity committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population – or, to the extent arising in armed conflict, war crimes.
Excellencies,
Faced with this overwhelming repression of fundamental rights, a movement of armed resistance is growing, alongside the peaceful protests that have taken place for seven months. Local self-defence groups have taken up arms, and many have joined a growing so-called Defence Force movement. Earlier this month, the interim President of the National Unity Government – which comprises representatives elected in 2020 who oppose the coup – issued a call for nation-wide armed uprising against the military.
Armed clashes now occur regularly in many heartland areas where conflict has not been seen in generations. In recent weeks, the Tatmadaw has been conducting offensives in Magway and Sagaing Regions and in Chin State, reportedly killing villagers and burning houses.
In border areas that have faced conflict for many years – including Kachin, Shan, Kayin, and Kayah states – some ethnic armed organisations have assisted People’s Defence groups and, in some instances, have conducted joint military operations with them.
The Army has launched offensives and reprisal raids against villages perceived to be the bases of people’s defence forces or ethnic armed groups, including artillery barrages and airstrikes against civilian areas. Hundreds of individuals have been killed and injured, and many have been forcibly displaced amid escalating humanitarian needs for food, water, shelter, and medical care.
I appeal once again to all armed actors to respect human rights and ensure that civilians and civilian structures are protected. Use of airstrikes and artillery in residential areas, and any form of military operation that targets health centres, places of worship, schools or other protected structures must immediately cease.
Excellencies,
These disturbing trends suggest the alarming possibility of an escalating civil war.
I urge action by members of this Council to actively support a political process that engages all parties to this crisis, including the National Unity Government, civil society, and representatives from the ethnic minority communities, especially women.
ASEAN’s initiative should urgently be accompanied by other influential Member States, using a mix of incentives and disincentives to reverse the military coup and desperate spiral of violence.
I encourage all parties, especially the military, to allow unrestricted access to facilitate humanitarian assistance, including vaccination efforts and other forms of health-care that should be made available in a non-politicized manner. Medical personnel must be protected, not targeted – and local community groups should be the primary instrument of delivery.
To create conditions for peace and dialogue, there must be immediate release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders.
Accountability remains crucial to any solution going forward. The human rights violations crimes being committed by the Tatmadaw today are built upon the impunity with which they perpetrated the shocking campaigns of violence against the Rohingya just four years ago – and also against many other ethnic minorities over decades.
It is crucial that the perpetrators of the most serious international crimes, including potentially genocide, are duly held to account. In this regard, the expanded work of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, with its ongoing mandate over current events, has become even more important. Steps taken by the democratic opposition to engage the International Criminal Court and other bodies may also open new avenues for accountability. I also hope that many more military personnel will grasp that their own futures will not be served by following unlawful orders to commit international crimes.
Myanmar’s stability and path to democracy and prosperity have been sacrificed over these last months to advance the ambitions of a privileged and entrenched military elite. Many people who seek only to safeguard democracy and human rights have lost their lives. The national consequences are terrible and tragic -- the regional consequences could also be profound. The international community must redouble its efforts to restore democracy and prevent wider conflict before it is too late..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of publication:
2021-09-23
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Sub-title:
Children as young as 20 weeks old are being seized to force opponents to hand themselves in
Description:
"Myanmar’s military junta is systematically abducting the relatives of people it is seeking to arrest, including children as young as 20 weeks old, according the UN special rapporteur for the country.
Tom Andrews told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday that conditions in the country had continued to deteriorate and “current efforts by the international community to stop the downward spiral of events in Myanmar are simply not working”.
His speech was followed by the release of a report by the UN Human Rights Office on Thursday, which warned of a “human rights catastrophe” and said abuses perpetrated since the coup may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The military and its forces have killed more than 1,100 people, according to the UN report. It details systematic, targeted killings by the junta, including the use of semi-automatic rifles and snipers against pro-democracy protesters. Weapons designed for military confrontation, such as grenade launchers and artillery shells, have also been used against protesters and fired into residential areas, it said.
“Victims of security forces often sustained wounds to their heads and torsos, indicating that they were targeted for maximum harm,” the report said.
As of July, the junta had killed at least 75 children ranging in age from 14 months to 17 years, according to Andrews. The military, he added, was routinely abducting family members when it is unable to locate individuals it is seeking to arrest.
“I have received credible reports that junta forces have arbitrarily detained at least 177 individuals when the initial target of a raid had successfully eluded arrest. These victims include very young children as young as 20 weeks old,” he said.
More than 8,000 people have been detained since the military seized power on 1 February. The junta, which faces widespread public opposition, has arrested anyone who has challenged its rule – from elected politicians, to activists, medical workers and journalists.
Most are held without any form of due process, and lack access to legal counsel, or even the ability to communicate with their families, according to the UN Human Rights Office report.
“We continue to receive reports from multiple locations of interrogation techniques that amount to ill-treatment and torture, and have credible information that more than 120 detainees have died in custody – some within 24 hours of their arrest,” said Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
“Conflict, poverty and the effects of the pandemic are sharply increasing, and the country faces a vortex of repression, violence and economic collapse,” Bachelet said.
In response to the coup, peaceful protests and a civil disobedience campaign spread across the country. A growing armed resistance movement has also emerged, with civilians taking up arms to defend their areas from military repression. Bachelet warned of “the alarming possibility of an escalating civil war”.
Over recent days, virtually the entire population of a town in western Myanmar, home to 7,500 people, were forced to flee, after clashes between the military and its opponents, according to media reports.
The Global New Light of Myanmar, which is controlled by the junta, said the military was ambushed by “some 100 terrorists” while patrolling Thantlang in Chin state, near the border with India.
Residents started to flee on Monday after soldiers “began to randomly shoot out the windows” of houses in the town, according to a resident who spoke to AFP anonymously.
“Almost everyone has left,” he said, adding he was sheltering in a nearby village with about 500 people, and that several hundred had already headed towards India.
Another resident said she travelled for three days with her elderly parents to reach India after soldiers bombed her house and fighting escalated around the town.
“I never thought of running from my own house even after the military bombed it … but as things got worse … I finally had to flee,” she told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The independent outlet Myanmar Now reported that soldiers shot dead a Baptist pastor, who had gone outside to extinguish fires. His body was discovered with his left ring finger missing, the chair of the Thantlang Association of Baptist Churches said, adding that he believed troops had stolen his wedding ring.
The junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun dismissed such reports as fake news. He said 20 homes and a government building had been destroyed in a fire after a clash on 18 September.
Attacks on junta troops have increased after Myanmar’s self-declared parallel government, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians, announced a “defensive war” against the military earlier this month.
There are now more than 230,000 civilians who have been displaced as a result of the junta. Speaking to the Human Rights Council, Andrews called for greater humanitarian aid for the more than 3 million Myanmar people who are in need of assistance.
“The international community must make a stronger commitment to ensuring lifesaving aid reaches those in need,” he said. “Myanmar civil society organisations who are saving lives need and deserve our support. The 2021 UN Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan has received only 46% of requested funds to date. We can and should do better.”..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-09-23
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders
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Sub-title:
Aye Nandar Soe was taken away on Sunday and her whereabouts are unknow
Description:
"Activists say they fear for the life of a students’ union chairperson after she was detained by junta forces on Sunday afternoon while travelling on a long distance bus.
Aye Nandar Soe, 21, was stopped and arrested at the Yadanabon bridge connecting Mandalay and Sagaing regions. She leads the students’ union at the Sagaing University of Education, where she is in her fourth year of studies.
Her friends say her whereabouts are unknown and believe she was arrested because of her opposition to the military’s February coup. Her detention comes as the junta steps up its crackdown against student and youth activists across the country.
The junta has not made a public announcement about Aye Nandar Soe’s arrest or the grounds on which she is being detained. Many other student activists who were detained recently have been charged with incitement.
“Our comrade Aye Nandar Soe is being detained… but we still do not know where she is being held,” the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), of which Aye Nandar Soe’s union is a member, said in a statement.
“We fear for our comrade Aye Nandar Soe's life and safety,” the statement said.
An ABFSU spokesperson said he had no information about where she was travelling when she was detained.
The military has stepped up arrests of anti-junta student activists in recent weeks, but the exact number detained is unknown, the spokesperson added.
“Many students from the ABFSU and other students’ unions were arrested, but the ones who were not will continue to revolt against the military,” he told Myanmar Now.
On Sunday three young activists, including two members of the ABFSU, were detained in Yangon and accused of being involved in bank robberies to fund armed resistance against the junta.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 1,122 people have now been killed by the junta and 6,698 others are in detention..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"A former under-secretary-general of the United Nations who had warm relations with Myanmar’s previous regime and their proxy government is tipped to be the next UN special envoy for the country after the incumbent’s term expires next month.
Though her appointment has yet to be officially confirmed by the UN, diplomatic sources close to the matter said Noeleen Heyzer would be the new envoy for the country, which she became familiar with as head of the UN’s regional economic commission in the early 2000s. Trained as a social scientist, Heyzer has also served as the UN secretary-general’s adviser for Timor-Leste to support peace-building and sustainable development.
The post of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Myanmar was first created in 2018, mainly to tackle the Rohingya Muslim issue in Rakhine State in western Myanmar, in partnership with the country’s government.
If appointed, the 73-year-old Singaporean would not only take over duties from current envoy Christine Schraner Burgener but would also be likely to inherit her predecessor’s failed mission of persuading Myanmar junta leaders to engage in dialogue to settle the ongoing political and social turmoil caused by the coup in February.
As a former head of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Heyzer is no stranger to Myanmar. She visited the country several times under the previous military regime that ruled the country until March 2011 and knows well the poverty endured by many in the Southeast Asian country. She was also a supporter of the country’s transition to democracy, which was halted by the coup.
When the then regime was reluctant to allow international relief assistance in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which wreaked havoc in the country’s Irrawaddy Delta area in 2008, killing more than 130,000 people, the then head of ESCAP was also involved in getting aid delivered to those in need by organizing a post-Nargis recovery conference in Bangkok. The junta’s Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu, who was coordinating international assistance at the time, was a main speaker there. Finally, ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, was able to fly the aid in.
“Noeleen Heyzer thought that the key was to see things from the Burmese (Myanmar) junta’s perspective, to talk in a language they understood, and thereby break the impasse,” writes Thant Myint-U in his latest book The Hidden History of Burma.
After the then junta released Myanmar’s popular democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in late 2010, the UN official stepped up her dialogue with the generals for the sake of the country’s development, telling them, “We can bring the best minds here to work with you,” according to the book.
Then she invited Nobel Prize-winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz to Myanmar. In Naypyitaw’s Myanmar Convention Center, before an audience packed with civil society representatives and government officials, including then Prime Minister U Thein Sein, who would become the country’s president a few months later in the regime’s proxy government, Stiglitz stressed the need to increase spending on health and education, invest in rural development and use revenues from oil and gas wisely.
When community strife between Rakhine and Rohingya people deteriorated in Rakhine State in 2012, the Thein Sein government asked Heyzer to help devise an economic development strategy that would be good for both communities.
“Heyzer passed this request on to the UN headquarters in New York. Nothing happened,” Thant Myint-U writes.
She also has good relations with Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). When the news of her would-be appointment as the special envoy circulated, some elected lawmakers—since ousted by the coup—welcomed it, hoping that she would break the political impasse.
The current military regime leaders in Naypyitaw would likely feel more comfortable talking to Heyzer than some other international diplomats, as she is one of the few to have earned the trust of their predecessors. But Heyzer shouldn’t take the significance of her old friendship with the former regime for granted, as current junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is unpredictable. Basically, like its predecessor, the current regime is interested only in maintaining power, not in compromising with its adversaries. It will show up at the table only when it has no choice or sees potential benefits in talking..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
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Sub-title:
A 20-year-old protest leader dies in Demoso Township after arriving in Kayah State in early September to join the armed resistance against the coup regime
Description:
"A member of the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF) was killed in a clash with the Myanmar army in Kayah (Karenni) State’s Demoso Township this week, according to a statement released by the group on Wednesday.
The soldier was 20-year-old Sai Bhone Min Thant, one of his close friends told Myanmar Now.
“I heard that they were shelled. We can’t even get his body back yet, let alone bury him,” the friend said.
Before joining the KNDF, Sai Bhone Min Thant had led anti-coup protests in his native Mandalay, and before the February 1 military coup he had been a student at the Mandalay Government Technical Institute.
“He always protected us during the protests. He was a good leader. It’s such a great loss,” his friend said, adding that Sai Bhone Min Thant had travelled to Kayah State in early September to join the armed resistance against the junta.
During a Wednesday protest in Mandalay against the military council, demonstrators held photos of the late Sai Bhone Min Thant to honour his contribution to the movement.
The battle in which he died broke out on Monday in Daw Poe Si village, when a joint force made up of the KNDF, the Karenni Army and the Demoso People’s Defence Force attacked around 300 junta troops, but were later forced to withdraw by the military’s heavy artillery fire.
The military council has not released any information regarding casualties on their side during the clash..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-23
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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"ထန်ထလန်မြို့နယ်အတွင်း စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ အကြမ်းဖက်လုပ်ရပ်များအပေါ် သဘောထား ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၂၂) ရက်
ချင်းရေးရာအဖွဲ့ချုပ်သည် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ အကြမ်းဖက်ပစ်ခတ်မှုများကြောင့် စစ်ဘေး ဒဏ်နှင့် ကြီးမားသော ဆုံးရှုံးမှု ခံစားနေရသည့် ထန်တလန်ပြည်သူများနှင့်အတူ ထပ်တူထပ်မျှ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရပါသည်။
စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်သည် ထန်ထလန်မြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ လူနေအိမ်များနှင့် ပြည်သူများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ကျူးလွန်နေကြောင်း ထင်ရှားနေပါသည်။
ဩဂုတ်လ (၂၅) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ထန်တလန်မြို့တွင်းသို့ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းကားပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် နေအိမ်ထဲတွင် ပုန်းခိုနေသည့် (၁၀) နှစ်အရွယ် ကလေး ကျည်ထိမှန် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရပြီး ပြည်သူ (၉) ဦး ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။ နေအိမ်အများအပြား ကျည်ထိမှန် ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။
ဩဂုတ်လ (၂၇) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ပစ်ခတ်သည့် မပေါက်ကွဲဘဲ ကျန်နေသည့် လက်နက်ကြီးကျည်ဆံအား နေအိမ်မှ ဖယ်ရှားရန် ကြိုးစားရာမှ ပေါက်ကွဲမှု ဖြစ်ခဲ့ကာ အိမ်ရှင် ဖြစ်သူနှင့် (၁၄) နှစ်အရွယ် သားဖြစ်သူ သေဆုံးခဲ့ပြီး ပြည်သူ (၁၁) ဦး ပြင်းထန်စွာ ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။
စက်တင်ဘာလ (၉) ရက်နေ့ မွန်းလွဲပိုင်းတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ မြို့တွင်းစစ်ဆေးမှုများကြောင့် ပစ်ခတ်မှုဖြစ်ပွားရာ ထန်တလန်မြို့ အမှတ် (၂) ရပ်ကွက်မှ နေအိမ် (၁) လုံး မီးလောင်ပြီး၊ Thantlang Baptist Church (TBC) ဘုရားကျောင်း အဆောက်အအုံခေါင်မိုးများ ကျည်ထိခဲ့ ရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် (၉) လအရွယ်ကလေးငယ်၊ ၁၅ နှစ်အရွယ် မိန်းကလေးတစ်ဦး၊ (၂၃) နှစ်နှင့် (၅၅) နှစ်အရွယ် အမျိုးသမီးနှစ်ဦး စုစုပေါင်း ပြည်သူ (၄) ဦးလည်း ကျည်ထိဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။
စက်တင်ဘာ (၁၀) ရက်နေ့တွင် လုံလဲရ်ကျေးရွာရှိ စစ်ကောင်စီစခန်းအနီးတိုက်ပွဲတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ တိုက်လေယာဉ်အသုံးပြုကာ လုံလဲရ်ကျေးရွာအပေါ် ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ရာ နေအိမ် (၃၄) အိမ်ခန့် ဗုံးဒဏ်သင့်ခဲ့ရပြီး Methodist Church၊COTR (Church on The Rock) နှင့် Baptist Library အဆောက်အအုံများ ပျက်စီးခဲ့ရသည်။
စက်တင်ဘာ (၁၄) ရက်တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ လက်နက်ကြီး ပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် ထန်တလန်မြို့ ရှိ Johnson Memorial Baptist Church (JMBC) ဘုရားကျောင်းအမိုးများနှင့် ပြတင်း ပေါက်များ ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။
စက်တင်ဘာ (၁၈) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ မြို့တွင်းသို့ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် အစိုးရအဆောက်အအုံအပါအဝင် လူနေ အိမ် (၁၉) ခန့် မီးလောင်ကျွမ်း ခဲ့ရသည်။ မီးလောင်ဆုံးရှုံးမှုတန်ဖိုးမှာ ကျပ်သိန်း နှစ်ထောင်မှ သုံးထောင်ဝန်းကျင်ခန့်ရှိကြောင်း သိရှိရပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် မီးငြိမ်းသတ်ရန် ရောက်လာသည့် ခရစ်ယာန် ဓမ္မဆရာ Pastor Cung Biak Hum အား စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ပစ်ခတ်ကာ လက်သူကြွယ်ဖြတ်ပြီး လက်ထပ်လက်စွပ်၊ ဖုန်းနှင့် နာရီတို့ကိုပါ ခိုးယူခဲ့သည်။
ထိုသို့ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်၏ ကျေးရွာလူနေအိမ်များအပေါ် တိုက်လေယာဉ်အသုံးပြု၍ ဗုံးကြဲ တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊ ဘာသာရေးအဆောက်အအုံများအား ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊ မြို့ပေါ်လူနေ အိမ်များအတွင်း လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းကားပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းတို့သည် စစ်ပွဲဆိုင်ရာကျင့်ဝတ် များကိုဖောက်ဖျက်ပြီး လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့်ပြစ်မှုမြောက်ပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင် စီတပ်သည် မိမိတို့ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များအတွက် တာဝန်အပြည့်ယူရမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သိစေအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Institute of Chin Affairs
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Inter-Communal violence and discrimination - Myanmar - General articles and analysis, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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"ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ ဟားခါးမြို့နှင့် ထန်တလန်မြို့အတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လူမဆန်သည့်လုပ်ရပ်များအပေါ် သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၂၂ ရက်
၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၁၈)ရက်နေ့တွင် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်များမှ ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ ဟားခါးမြို့နှင့် ထန်တလန်မြို့များတွင် လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းသမ်းပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့ရာ ဘာသာရေး အဆောက်အဦအပါအဝင် ပြည်သူ့အိုးအိမ်ပေါင်းများစွာ မီးလောင် ပျက်ဆီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ပါသည်။
၎င်းအပြင် မီးလောင်ကျွမ်းမှုကို ငြိမ်းသတ်ရန် သွားရောက်သည့် ထန်တလန်မြို့မှ ခရစ်ယာန်ဘာသာရေးသင်းအုပ်ဆရာတစ်ပါးအား အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်များမှ ပစ်သတ်၍ ဆရာတော်၏ လက်သူကြွယ်ဖြတ်ပြီး ဝတ်ဆင်ထားသော လက်ထပ်လက်စွပ်နှင့် လက်ပတ်နာရီအား ယူသွားကြပါသည်။
ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ ဟားခါးမြို့နှင့် ထန်တလန်မြို့၏ ထိခိုက်နစ်နာမှုများနှင့် ဆုံးရှုံးမှုများအတွက် CNO/CNDF မှ ထပ်တူဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲမိပါသည်။
မိမိတို့ ချင်းဌာနေတွင် လူမဆန်စွာ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာမှုအပေါ် ပြင်းထန်စွာ ကန့်ကွက်ရှုတ်ချကြောင်းနှင့် ချင်းတမျိူးသားလုံးနှင့်အတူ CNO/CNDF မှ သွေးကြွေးဆပ် သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Chin National Organization
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Chin (Zo)- economic, social, cultural, political
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"A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the disaster
The humanitarian impact of the civil unrest in Myanmar has continued to impact on affected populations since the political crisis on 1 February 2021.
In February and March, affected populations required first aid, ambulance services and emergency medical assistance in major cities and townships across the country.
During March and April, the number of people displaced increased significantly in areas of protracted crisis, including Kayin, Northern Shan and Kachin, renewed or escalating clashes between the Myanmar Military and Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) resulted in additional levels of displacement.
In May and June, clashes between newly formed People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) generated further displacements. These have occurred in regions/states previously not experiencing this level of instability. These included Kayah, Chin State (Mindat townships), Magway Region, Shan South, Mon State and Sagaing In the period since early April, incidents of people injured during street protests substantially reduced, however, the security context was characterised by increased incidents of explosive devices, affecting in particular, locations with public administration and security forces.
Socio-economic vulnerabilities already exacerbated by COVID-19 impacts in 2020 have increased. The numbers of households with reduced/minimal coping capacity are estimated to have increased significantly. This includes people in peri-urban locations, incorporating six townships under martial law since March 2021. Affected populations include economic migrants from other states/regions who faced sudden job loss in factories following incidents in these townships between February and April 2021.
The third wave of COVID-19, impacting across Myanmar since June 2021 has significantly exacerbated the existing humanitarian crisis. Public health sector response capacity has been limited, and the new forms of COVID Variants have resulted in high levels of related morbidity and mortality. Associated regulatory measures, including extended stay -athome orders have also had additional socio-economic implications.
Between late July and Mid-August, humanitarian needs in Myanmar included the impacts of sustained flooding in 22 townships in 5 regions/states. (Details are summarised in Needs Analysis section below)
Compounding the areas of increased insecurity, population displacement and other areas of humanitarian needs detailed above, economic activity, as well as humanitarian and development interventions have been constrained by disruptions to the banking sector. These disruptions, linked to the Civil Demonstration Movement (CDM) have been ongoing in response to the events of 1st February. Humanitarian response agencies have had limited access to cash-based modalities to reach affected populations at scale. Financial sector disruptions are also impacting increasingly on the overall logistics supply chain with reduced supplier payment options.
A further consequence of the civil unrest and associated CDM response has been reduced public health sector capacity over the last six months. In a context of reduced service capacity as well as increased transport and security challenges, access to basic as well as emergency health services has become increasingly difficult. Households with limited financial resources and support networks have been particularly impacted.
All 17 States and regions are impacted by the multiple effects of the crisis, with specific townships in at least 11 of these hard-hit states/regions in need of immediate assistance. Six townships in Yangon and in Mindat township in Chin State remain under Martial Law. Many regions and townships continue to be impacted regulatory and control measures that include curfews, detentions, and property searches. In some of areas of protracted crisis, displacement numbers have increased. There has also been a corresponding decrease in access and response capacity by many humanitarian actors, as a combined result of both security and COVID related regulatory measures.
Six months since the onset of the Myanmar Civil Unrest, there is no resolution of the crisis, and the associated humanitarian impacts are both now intensified and protracted. In August 2021, the Myanmar military has announced caretaker government for the next two years..."
Source/publisher:
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication:
2021-09-16
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
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"Yaw Region, once a haven of peace and tranquility, is now a war zone with civilian resistance fighters battling Myanmar’s military regime.
Local people in Yaw – which comprises Gangaw, Hteelin, Saw and Kyukhtu townships in Magwe Region and which is located between the Pongtaung-Ponnya mountain range on the western banks of the Chindwin River and the Chin Hills – are rebelling against military rule with whatever weapons they have.
Most of the villages in Yaw support the National League for Democracy Party, whose government was ousted by the Myanmar military in a February 1 coup. But the area is also home to military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party strongholds, where Pyu Saw Htee groups – militia trained and armed by the junta – are active.
Civilian resistance fighters in Yaw have only traditional hunting rifles to battle junta forces, who significantly outnumber them. As a result, the number of civilian deaths, displaced people and homes destroyed in junta raids is increasing.
The memory of what happened on September 9 in Myin Thar, a large village in Yaw with a population of 3,800 people, will haunt the villagers for the rest of their life. It was a tragic and painful sight for people resisting the military regime.
On the morning of September 9, Myin Thar was thrown into chaos after locals heard that junta troops were torching nearby Thar Lin Village, located to the west of Myin Thar on the opposite bank of the Myitthar River.
Then, junta troops and armed men in sports shorts came across the bridge that links Thar Lin and Myin Thar villages. A firefight erupted at 10am between civilian resistance fighters and the regime forces. The resistance fighters were forced to withdraw after the junta troops used heavy weapons.
A total of 18 people, including teenage boys and senior citizens, died in Myin Thar on September 9, and some 20 houses were burned down by the junta forces.
“We formed a defense group out of fear that our village might be raided and torched. We defended for around 45 minutes with traditional hunting rifles after they opened fire on us. We are upset,” said one villager.
Regime spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun said junta troops went to Myin Thar in response to a tip that a local People’s Defense Force (PDF) was active there. The junta spokesperson claimed that the regime forces were attacked by some 50 men near the village.
One soldier died and the military seized 23 rifles and eight homemade grenade launchers, added Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun. But he did not mention the deaths of the 18 villagers.
Locals said that the armed men in civilian clothes who fought alongside the junta troops are Pyu Saw Htee members. Some villagers were killed after the junta forces entered the village. And since September 9, the village is enveloped in silence and grief and the residents live in fear of another attack.
Piles of corpses were found. Almost all of them had been shot in the head, suggesting that the victims, many already wounded, were executed.
“Most of them were shot in the head. Their heads were broken and their brains spilled out like a ripe papaya that has fallen from a tree,” said one resident.
U Tun Ngwe, 86, was found dead with signs that he had been tied up and beaten to death. A 50-year-old paralyzed man barely able to walk had been shot dead in a chair in his house. It appears that every male that the junta forces encountered was shot dead.
Some villagers fled to the forest or the village monastery. Around 20 junta soldiers and armed men came to the monastery and threatened to shoot those in hiding if they did not come out. Residents including elderly persons, women, mothers and children were forced to kneel down for more than an hour and interrogated.
“Your children and brothers must have been among those killed in the fighting. Go and collect their bodies at the bridge. There are at least ten of them. Go and collect their bodies after we leave,” the junta soldiers reportedly told the villagers.
Junta troops burned and looted houses, said witnesses. The following morning, they torched more houses before they left. Then, the residents returned to their homes and collected bodies. The youngest victim was barely 16.
“Some of the victims were the only sons in their families and their parents broke down. Since that day, everyone in the village, whether young or old, is in tears,” said a resident.
Junta forces have also raided some 15 villages in Gangaw Township, killing more than 20 locals and displacing thousands of villagers. They have raided Hnan Kha Village in Gangaw four times, destroying some 50 houses.
In response to junta attacks, the combined forces of the Gangaw PDF and the Chin Defense Force-Hakha have ambushed military convoys on the Gangaw-Kale Road with mines.
People everywhere in Yaw were very upset when they saw the pictures of the young victims from Myin Thar Village, alongside the rudimentary rifles they had used to defend themselves from the regime troops.
“They [junta forces] are too inhumane. I can’t bear hearing their voices,” said one female Yaw resident. “I don’t want to experience this anymore. I wish other people also did not have to face this. I believe we will win the fight. We are not afraid of the junta forces, but we feel disgusted by them,” she added.
Many Myin Thar villagers are too upset to return to their village and are staying elsewhere.
The victims who died on September 9 were cremated near the bridge at the entrance of the village. Residents plan to plant a garden in their memory in the future..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-21
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma
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"Kachin youths gathered in downtown Myitkyina to show their opposition to coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to the capital of Kachin State in northern Myanmar.
Over a dozen youths staged a flash mob protest against the coup leader during his visit to Myitkyina over the weekend.
“Min Aung Hlaing, don’t you feel ashamed to come to Kachin land? Get out of Kachin Land,” shouted the youths in unison, despite the heavy presence of junta forces.
“We can’t welcome the military leader who has killed hundreds of people to our land,” said an anti-regime activist from Myitkyina.
Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing has visited Kachin State numerous times as the chief of the Myanmar military, but this was his first visit to Kachin since the February 1 coup.
By THE IRRAWADDY 21 September 2021
Kachin youths gathered in downtown Myitkyina to show their opposition to coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to the capital of Kachin State in northern Myanmar.
Over a dozen youths staged a flash mob protest against the coup leader during his visit to Myitkyina over the weekend.
“Min Aung Hlaing, don’t you feel ashamed to come to Kachin land? Get out of Kachin Land,” shouted the youths in unison, despite the heavy presence of junta forces.
“We can’t welcome the military leader who has killed hundreds of people to our land,” said an anti-regime activist from Myitkyina.
Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing has visited Kachin State numerous times as the chief of the Myanmar military, but this was his first visit to Kachin since the February 1 coup.
Sunday’s protest was also the first time he has been booed by Kachin people, despite the fact that he has overseen military operations even before the coup that have killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands of people in Kachin.
Junta-appointed Kachin State Chief Minister Khet Htein Nan presented the coup leader with a Kachin traditional costume, bag and ceremonial silver sword, prompting huge criticism in Kachin circles.
Kachin communities have slammed Khet Htein Nan as a traitor to the Kachin people. He was condemned by the Kachin people for accepting the position of chief minister from the military regime and a series of protests have been staged against him, with some locals calling for social punishment against him and his family.
Khat Htein Nan has drawn fresh criticism following Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s weekend visit to Myitkyina, with Kachin people calling for a boycott of the clothing business run by his daughter.
The coup leader arrived in Myitkyina on Saturday and met military personnel and their families from Northern Command and the Myitkyina battalion, as well as junta-appointed Kachin State ministers.
At the meeting with military personnel, he repeated claims that he has made to soldiers in other parts of the country that Myanmar is in crisis because the National League for Democracy (NLD) rigged the vote in the 2020 general election.
“From what we have seen and heard the current political situation is quite complicated and there are serious armed conflicts in Kachin. Security is always in a state of emergency in Kachin. We heard that he came to give some guidance regarding that situation,” a source close to Northern Command told The Irrawaddy.
There have been frequent clashes between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Myanmar military since a bilateral ceasefire broke down in 2011, although fighting stopped for two years before the February 1 coup.
Since March 11, the KIA has attacked regime troops and police stations in Kachin and northern Shan State, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces. Clashes have taken place in some eight townships across Kachin State. The KIA has claimed that the regime had brought in thousands of extra soldiers since late March.
The ethnic armed group has provided military training to civilians wishing to fight back against the regime, as well as giving shelter to political activists and NLD lawmakers wanted by the junta. Moreover, Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the parallel National Unity Government, is reportedly backed by the KIA and other influential Kachin politicians.
Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing likely attaches great importance to Kachin State as the KIA is viewed by the regime as the major ethnic armed group backing the nationwide revolt against the junta’s coup.
KIA information chief Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy that the central executive committee of the Kachin Independence Organization, the KIA’s political wing, had no comment so far on the coup leader’s visit to Kachin..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-09-21
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders
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The anti-coup organisers are accused of helping to rob 136m kyat from two banks in Yangon
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"Three young anti-coup activists were arrested on Sunday in Yangon’s Tamwe Township and accused of helping to rob two banks to raise funds for armed resistance against the junta.
Win Htet Mar, who is the former chair of a local branch of the Youth for a New Society activist group, was detained at 9:30am at her apartment on 152nd street.
“Residents from Win Htet Mar’s neighbourhood told me that plainclothes officers from the military broke into the apartment she was staying in,” a fellow activist said.
Kyaw Zin Lin and Pyae Phyo Kyaw, two activists from the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, were arrested in Tamwe later that afternoon, he added.
“The two were together when the military made the arrests. I think [the soldiers] came to their apartment after arresting Win Htet Mar,” he told Myanmar Now.
Relatives said they do not know where the three are being held.
The activists all played leading roles in street protests against the coup regime after the military seized power in February.
Military-run newspapers on Wednesday accused the three activists of being involved in robberies at two branches of the Global Treasure Bank, in South Okkalapa and Mayangon townships, on July 15 and August 30.
Robbers stole more than 136m kyat (roughly $75,000) from the banks, the newspapers said. The reports named seven other people accused of involvement.
Kyaw Zin Lin is accused of supervising the robberies and of possessing weapons and ammunition at his apartment. He attended a “terrorist training course” in territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Army along with Win Htet Mar and three others involved in the robberies, the newspapers claimed.
The reports said the stolen money was spent “on purchasing vehicles and weapons, renting apartments, supporting protesters in Yangon and... personal staff.”
“Their gang aimed to rob and lead to armed attacks,” the Global New Light of Myanmar said.
Myanmar’s underground National Unity Government declared a “resistance war” against the junta on September 7. Since then, the military has intensified its hunt for people involved in armed resistance against regime targets.
Junta forces in Yangon carried out several raids last week aimed at stamping out guerilla attacks on soldiers and military informants in the city..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Min Thitsar Aung and Wai Yan Htet were hospitalised due to severe injuries they sustained when they jumped from the 44th St apartment building during a junta raid
Description:
"Two seriously injured young activists who were arrested during a raid on an apartment on Yangon’s 44th Street last month were transferred from a military hospital to Insein Prison last week, according to a relative.
Min Thitsar Aung and Wai Yan Htet are among the five people who jumped from a three-storey building as they attempted to escape a military raid in August. Two of them died at the scene after the fall, while three others—Ye Min Oo, Min Thitsar Aung, and Wai Yan Htet—survived but suffered severe injuries.
Before they were sent to Insein Prison, Min Thitsar Aung and Wai Yan Htet were undergoing treatment at the 500-bed military hospital in Mingaladon Township until Friday for injuries they endured from the fall.
Min Thitsar Aung’s father, Thein Kyaing, said he was informed of his son’s transfer on Sunday by the Botahtaung Township police officer that had filed the charges against the young activists at a district court.
“He said the police sent the pair by ambulance from Mingaladon to a hospital inside Insein Prison. I was not able to see them though. I would like to see my son, of course,” Thein Kyaing said.
He added that his son sustained an injury that had left him still unable to walk without assistance and Wai Yan Htet, who broke both his legs in the fall, requires the use of a wheelchair.
On Monday, Thein Kyaing said he went to Insein to deliver basic items to Min Thitsar Aung but the staff did not confirm whether he was detained there.
“The prison staff said they would inform me if my son was not there. They have not said anything to me yet, so I assume he is there,” he said.
At the time of reporting, Myanmar Now was unable to get in touch with the family of Wai Yan Htet.
On August 10, junta troops raided an apartment on 44th St in downtown Yangon where nine anti-coup activists were present. Five people—Wai Wai Myint, Wai Zaw Phyoe, Ye Min Oo, Min Thitsar Aung and Wai Yan Htet—jumped from the three-storey building to the ground while three people were arrested inside the apartment. The ninth person, Kaung Min Thant, managed to flee the raid.
Wai Wai Myint and Wai Zaw Phyoe did not survive the fall.
The three people who survived the jump, as well as the three others who were arrested from within the apartment and a taxi driver who had been hired by the group, were all charged with violating the Explosive Substances Act.
The three young men who jumped, Ye Min Oo, Min Thitsar Aung, Wai Yan Htet, and two of the people arrested from inside the apartment—Thiha Kaung Sett and Phyo Wai Aung—were all charged on September 10 with making and possessing explosives with the intent to endanger life. They face a maximum penalty of life in prison if found guilty. Their next hearing is scheduled for Friday..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-09-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
more