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Title: Myanmar Junta Kills 13 Civilians Over Weekend
Description: "Around 13 civilians, including three social workers, were killed by Myanmar’s security forces in Mandalay, Sagaing and Magwe regions and Mon State during the weekend. On Sunday night, two civilians on a motorbike were shot dead in Mawlamyine, Mon State, after they reportedly refused to stop at a checkpoint. The security forces opened fire on two citizens near a school in Letpanhla village in Singu Township, Mandalay Region, on Sunday night. Ko Kyaw Kyaw Myo, who was due to marry soon, was killed. The security forces retrieved his body and detained another man. “He was inviting friends to his wedding. He was shot while passing a school where junta forces were deployed. His friend was beaten and taken away,” a friend of the victim said. Last Thursday, the security forces opened fire on young people playing football in Minywar village in the township and detained a villager who was shot in the thigh. On Saturday night, junta troops in three vehicles raided a house in Kale, Sagaing Region, and killed four residents without providing a reason, according to residents. A witness told The Irrawaddy that he heard gunfire after about 10 troops entered the house. U Win Zaw Oo, 50, Daw San San Maw, 48, Ko Thiha Aung, 23, and Ko Zaw Zaw, 35, were killed. An injured female relative was reportedly detained. Around 40 million kyats (US$24,300), a car and other possessions were reportedly seized. The People’s Defense Force in Kale said on Sunday that the junta must take responsibility for killing the family. On Saturday evening, three members of the Sanpya Social Organization based in Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region, were shot dead in Myaung Township, Sagaing Region, while returning home in an ambulance. Myaung resistance groups accused the junta of killing the three volunteers. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said at least 873 people have been killed by the junta since the February coup. Junta torture Nine civilians, including three villagers in their 70s, were allegedly tortured by junta forces during a raid on Kin village in Kani Township, Sagaing Region, on Saturday afternoon. The three older villagers – U Aung Thaung, U Khin Maung Lin and U Kyaw Myint – were kicked by soldiers after being forced to kneel. A young female villager, Ma Khine Mon Htet, was also beaten, according to villagers. Two villagers, Ko Aung Thet Min and Ko Lone Chon, were seriously injured after being tortured and stabbed with knives by soldiers. Troops in three vehicles and several members of a Pyu-Saw-Htee vigilante group allegedly looted houses and destroyed Kin’s shops. Pyu-Saw-Htee militias, named after a semi-legendary Bagan period king, have been formed and armed by the military to counter the anti-regime movement. A villager told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the security forces appeared to mainly target the property of villagers who opposed the regime. They also killed a village cow during the raid. Around 3,000 Kin Kin villagers have fled their homes since early May to avoid fighting and raids. Troops killed an injured man and looted houses in nearby Michaungtwin village on Saturday evening, according to residents. The junta-controlled media said the security forces were attacked by rioters near Michaungtwin on Saturday afternoon and a rioter’s body was found with a homemade hunting rifle. Residents said there was no shooting that day and the junta forces killed a 50-year-old villager who returned to the village to collect water. Leaked photos appear to show the villager was shot dead by junta forces after being injured. One photo shows the man alive but with a leg missing. A bucket and medicine are near him. The second photo shows him shot through the head beside a homemade rifle. The photographer’s arm in uniform is visible in the photo. Michaungtwin was abandoned in early May after junta raids. On Saturday, two resistance fighters were killed and five others detained during shootouts in Khin-U Township, Sagaing Region..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-21
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Title: The Revolt Against Myanmar’s Junta Can Succeed
Description: "A year after the National League for Democracy’s 2015 election victory, as I was wandering about the massive Tatmadaw Museum in Naypyitaw, I could not help but be awed by the scale of the Myanmar military’s gratuitous ode to itself. It sprawls across numerous caverns covering the minutiae of its history. Hiding in its bulk is one room dedicated to the Tatmadaw’s “victories”. What it claims as historic triumphs are battles to control hilltops. While important in terms of individual counterinsurgency campaigns, this presentation masks a reality. The Tatmadaw does not win wars. It may win some battles but ultimately it draws and seeks ceasefires. It has been argued in some recent analyses that resistance to junta rule is difficult, nay nearly impossible, because the Tatmadaw has approximately 350,000 troops. Using this number is a gross oversimplification and gives a false impression that the Tatmadaw is in an inherently strong position. This could not be further from the truth, for one reason: The generals managed to provoke a nationwide uprising against the Tatmadaw. There are few comparable examples of such an event since World War II and the period of anti-colonial wars. There is nothing pre-determined about what will happen in Myanmar, certainly not the Tatmadaw’s survival. The coup was a historic shift in the country and a strategic blunder of existential proportions by the generals. A more apt number to focus on is that Myanmar has a population of over 52 million, nearly all of whom viscerally hate the Tatmadaw. It is this context that confronts the generals. They have reduced their military to essentially being a foreign occupying force desperately trying to suppress nearly the entire Myanmar population. Wherever their soldiers look, they see hostility. Other than its immediate proxies, notably the police and the Union Solidarity and Development Party, there are no significant chunks of the public that are supportive. The Tatmadaw’s response to this uprising has been predictable. Its tactics of violence, deprivation and cooption have been honed over decades of dictatorship. There is a calculus within the Tatmadaw that it can outlast the public’s anger, the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and a collapsing economy, while isolating whatever revolts emerge. The Tatmadaw believes it has a longer window of perseverance than that of the resistance. The generals will attempt to split the public from the National Unity Government (NUG), the CDM and the country’s most ardent democracy activists. They will endeavor to sow discord between ethnic groups, keep ceasefires with ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and prevent the defection of proxy militias. They will sell the country cheaply to China. Whatever successes the Tatmadaw might claim are achieved at high cost in terms of soldiers and resources. That it has not been able to dislodge the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) from strategic gains made in March or decisively quell escalating revolts in Sagaing, Chin and Kayah are signs of weakness. Isolated in its purpose-built capital, hiding in schools in the cities, and having to move in large convoys through the Bamar heartland, the Tatmadaw would be foolish to feel it is presently in a good position. Its troops are harried to quell revolts before they spread, all the while fearing its lacky militias will desert and its ceasefires will collapse when the time is ripe. Essentially a light infantry force, the Tatmadaw is dispersed across the country in numerous small bases. In the context of a national uprising, this could arguably be a strength if the Tatmadaw was well resourced with good logistics chains and strong mobile units. Poor and under-equipped, it has neither of these. Individual units are increasingly feeling pressure as their resupply is stretched and local populations harass them. Logistics will be further pressed over the rainy season and Tatmadaw rank-and-file will be demoralized as millions openly cheer their battlefield losses on social media. Having long espoused a “people’s war” doctrine of relying on the population to help repel foreign invasion, it is the Tatmadaw that now faces numerous local self-defense militias. Many of these are the People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias instigated by the NUG, but there are others, such as the Chinland Defense Force, that are local collectives formed to provide security for threatened communities. This trend will escalate. To accurately assess the prospects of the resistance, it is most pertinent to focus on the military balance in terms of its trajectory. The anti-junta movement should not be judged on its composition at any snapshot in time, but rather on the speed at which it is advancing. Revolutions never start with a resistance that is well armed, fully staffed and professionally competent. Successful ones have a steep learning curve in terms of effective leadership, developing tactics and making all due haste in acquiring weapons. From this perspective, events are not moving in the junta’s favor. It is facing pressure across the country, including in areas that have not produced sustained revolt in living memory, such as southern Sagaing, but increasingly in other regions all the way down to Ayeyarwady as new PDFs emerge. The Tatmadaw must increasingly feel like it is a foreign occupying force amongst a hostile population. Its soldiers must fear envelopment across a range of threats—local attack, constricted resupply and suffocating social ostracization. They must be forced to spread themselves even thinner. Increasingly fatigued, they can be harassed and fragmented through countless small attacks. The Tatmadaw can always win the tactical firefights it chooses to prioritize but will struggle to design a viable strategy against a national uprising. This would be hard for any military facing near universal revolt. Key to the resistance’s success is unity. Battlefield successes against the Tatmadaw will do more to catalyze national solidarity than anything else. Kani, Mindat and Demoso must be precedents for wider collective action, while the whole country owes gratitude to the KIA for its undaunted assaults on State Administration Council forces and to the Karen National Union for providing safe havens. If the nature of the conflict can be maintained as a national uprising, the military balance favors revolution by sheer force of numbers and willpower. Many analysts have noted the durability of military rule in Myanmar. Such defeatist attitudes serve the status quo of domestic vested interests seeking to wait for others to bear the costs of ousting the Tatmadaw or cynical foreign observers who fail to see how much the Tatmadaw is loathed. Many have also subtly upheld the Tatmadaw’s claim that it is holding the country together, despite years of the military having divided local-level armed groups into competing factions and a complete refusal to meaningfully include leaders from outside its circle in political decision-making, stoking resistance generation after generation. Lessons are also clearly being learned from the country’s experience during 1988 and afterwards. The NUG sees itself as a revolutionary movement rather than a “government in exile” and has made clear efforts to build a national coalition based on federal democracy. These efforts are still nascent and must be furthered. Moreover, it is vital that armed resistance is not borne only by ethnic minorities but fundamentally includes the Bamar majority. It is critical that resistance includes the regions and cities. Resistance here greatly threatens the Tatmadaw’s viability. The generals would love to return to the “normalcy” of only fighting EAOs. Nascent “tag teams” between EAOs and PDFs in Chin, Sagaing and Kayah show how potent they could be. The NUG’s ominous warnings of a looming “D-Day” of national action should scare the military more than anything else. When walking out of the Tatmadaw Museum, one is left with the sense that such a massive complex is intended to hide what is actually an inferiority complex. This is a military desperately trying to show it is central to keeping the country together, ever the benevolent guardian. Any notions of this being accepted by the public are long gone, as the country has risen in revolt. The Tatmadaw is now widely recognized as the barbaric national disgrace it is. Fundamentally this is a crisis that only Myanmar can solve. International action will be distinctly secondary. The Myanmar people should take solace knowing that they have the means and moral right to overthrow a military that has for too long destroyed the country..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-21
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of June 19, (870) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of June 19, a total of (4999) people are currently under detention; of them (196) are sentenced. 1950 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 18 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of June 17, Hphone Wai Oo, a doctor and NLD party member of Mon State’s Mudon Township, was violently arrested by the terrorist junta at Kalawthut Village in Mudon Township where he lives. On June 17, Kyaw Zeya a.k.a. Maung Kyaw, a local villager living in Nat Kan village, Magway Region, was arrested by junta police and soldiers when informers reported to the junta forces that he had weapons. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses.."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-20
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 18 June, (870) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (5) fallen heroes today. These (5) fallen heroes from Pauk Township in Magway Region, Myingyan Township in Mandalay Region and Shwepyitha Township in Yangon Region were killed on previous days and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 18 June, a total of (4983) people are currently under detention; of them (186) are sentenced. 1937 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. A total of 38 villagers from Kwansite Village in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township were arrested after a former USDP Chairman was stabbed on June 15 at Kwansite Village. Sein Win and Chit Ko, two villagers, were killed on June 16 from torture in interrogation. On June 16, Naing Lin Tun a.k.a. Naung Thurein, Magway University Student, was sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour under Section 505(A)-c of the Penal Code by the court in Magway Prison. In addition to this, Thet Naing Win, a freelance reporter, was sentenced to three years imprisonment under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code by the court in Tharrawaddy Prison on June 16. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-18
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: DISPLACEMENT ON THE RISE: A Crisis in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
Description: "The short-lived era of democratic reform in Burma came to an alarming halt on 1 February 2021, when the leaders of the Burmese military seized power in a well-orchestrated coup. The democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government was overthrown and key members of parliament arrested. The military generals who staged the power grab said that the November 2020 election was fraudulent. But despite their claims, there has been no evidence of this at all. Not long after the military took control, laws were amended to make it easier to prosecute anyone who challenged their authority. The most widely used law has been Section 505 of the Penal Code, used by the authorities to stifle dissent. The law stipulates that it is illegal for anyone to make, publish or circulate any statement, rumor or report with intent to cause, or likelihood to cause fear or alarm to the public. The free press specifically has been targeted for reporting on the military’s violence and like many others, have faced charges under botched trials by the junta-controlled courts inside detention centers and prisons. The moral landscape of human rights in Burma has been eroded and deliberately derailed by the Burmese military. But civilians have responded with state-wide protests. The demonstrations went on for months, and drew thousands condemning the actions of the military. The junta in turn, at the direction of the so-called State Administrative Council (SAC), has continued on a spree of mass human rights violations across the country. Despite bloodshed, warrantless arrests and impositions of Martial Law in several townships, the people of Burma remain defiant. General strikes led to the establishment of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), and a shadow government, the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) was formed. Resistance to the military continues to take on different forms. The military’s attacks on all people of various ages, genders, socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities have triggered growing calls for more unity and collective action to overthrow the junta. These efforts are a growing force in the rallying calls for long-needed change in Burma, including for a democratic, federal union. In areas which the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) works in, including Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region, the assault of fundamental freedoms against innocent civilians has been widespread. This is especially true for those associated with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), an active movement of resistance taking place across multiple fronts, from striking doctors to armed protesters in the street. Those arrested have been forced to endure torture in detention. According to HURFOM data, at least 41 have been killed across the target area states. Another 222 have been injured, while 1,372 have been arrested and detained since the coup. But the nationwide death count has soared to almost 900, with over 6,000 arrested. HURFOM has also observed an increase in the confiscation of mobile devices and destruction of private property, including people’s homes. The sense of hope and freedom brought on from Myanmar’s democracy era is now totally lost. Survival has become the main focus as rallying forces continue to be fueled by wide-spread rejection of a military-government. The only way to beat the junta is to stay alive and to find new ways of delegitimizing their rule. Human rights defenders are regularly on the run, forced to meet in secret with other dissidents to overcome the harsh realities of the present moment which people are being strained to contend with. The chaos and instability of the security forces brazen attacks have affected thousands of civilians who have fled their homes to seek safety. HURFOM has categorized the mass internal displacement into three groups of people fleeing: political dissidents escaping persecution, civilians fearing the junta in their villages, townships and those who have been economically impacted seeking better opportunities. Further, this short briefing paper outlines the impacts of militarization on displaced communities since the coup and the underlying consequences. In addition, this briefer also makes direct calls for action regarding the humanitarian situation in Burma, where for the most vulnerable demands an immediate response..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Foundation of Monland
Date of publication: 2021-06-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-20
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Title: Flower protests in Myanmar for Suu Kyi’s 76th birthday
Description: "Supporters of Myanmar’s detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi wore flowers in their hair and paraded with them at street demonstrations on Saturday as she marked her 76th birthday locked up by the generals who overthrew her. Protests have been held almost daily in Myanmar since Suu Kyi was ousted in a Feb. 1 coup that cut short a decade of democratic reforms and also sparked paralysing strikes and renewed conflict in the Southeast Asian country. The United Nations General Assembly on Friday called for a stop to the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to respect November election results and release political detainees, including Suu Kyi. For decades a symbol of the fight for democracy under previous juntas, she often wore flowers in her hair. Among those wearing flowers on Saturday was activist Thet Swe Win, who had been at odds with Suu Kyi over human rights violations during her own time in office. "I demand freedom for all the people including Aung San Suu Kyi," he said "Her individual rights and political rights are being violated." A junta spokesman did not answer calls to seek comment. Suu Kyi is among nearly 5,000 people currently detained by the junta for opposing the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group. It also says 870 people have been killed - a figure challenged by the junta. The army overthrew Suu Kyi after her administration dismissed its allegations of fraud over her party's landslide election victory last November. International monitors had said the vote was fair. She now faces charges from illegally possessing walkie-talkie radios and breaking coronavirus protocols to inciting discontent, corruption and breaking the Official Secrets Act - which can carry a 14-year jail term. Suu Kyi's lawyers say the charges are absurd and her supporters say they are aimed at eliminating her from politics. The next hearing is set for Monday. Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but her standing in Western countries collapsed in 2017 over her defence of the army after the exodus of 700,000 minority Rohnigya Muslims in the face of an offensive. But the episode did nothing to dent her popularity in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country. The General Assembly resolution calling for a halt of arms supplies to Myanmar was adopted with the support of 119 countries. Belarus was the only country to oppose it, while 36 abstained, including China and Russia. "The risk of a large-scale civil war is real," U.N. special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told the General Assembly after the vote. "Time is of the essence. The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing."..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-19
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Title: Myanmar coup: UN calls for arms embargo against military
Sub-title: The UN has issued a rare call to halt to arms sales to Myanmar in response to this year's violent military coup.
Description: "The General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the military junta, which overthrew the country's elected government in February. The UN also called for the release of political detainees, such as elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and an end to violence against peaceful protesters. While not legally binding, the resolution is politically significant. "The risk of a large-scale civil war is real," UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, told the General Assembly. "Time is of the essence. The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing." It was supported by 119 countries, with Belarus the only one to vote against it. Another 36 countries abstained, including Russia and China - Myanmar military's two biggest arms suppliers. Some of the abstainers said the crisis was an internal issue for Myanmar, while others said the resolution did not address a brutal military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim population four years ago, which forced almost a million people to flee the country. The EU's UN ambassador, Olof Skoog, said the resolution "delegitimises the military junta, condemns its abuse and violence against its own people, and demonstrates its isolation in the eyes of the world". But Myanmar's UN ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who represents the country's elected civilian government, said he was disappointed by how long it took for the General Assembly to pass what he called a "watered down" resolution. Ms Suu Kyi, 75, has been held under house arrest since the coup, and little has been seen or heard of her, with the exception of brief court appearances. The military has justified seizing power in February, alleging voter fraud in general elections held last November. But independent election monitors say the election was largely free and fair, and the charges against Ms Suu Kyi have been widely criticised as politically motivated. The coup triggered widespread demonstrations, and Myanmar's military has brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists. Security forces have killed more than 860 people and detained nearly 5,000 to date, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Last month, Human Rights Watch had urged the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for an arms embargo, saying that "while not legally binding on states, such a resolution would carry significant political weight". "Governments should recognise that arms sold to Myanmar's military will likely be used to commit abuses against the population," the organisation added. "Arms embargoes can help prevent such crimes."..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2021-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-19
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Title: Dooplaya District Situation Update: Civil Disobedience Movement, military activity and anti-coup protests, March 2021
Description: "Civil Disobedience Movement: In early March, we learned that people involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)[2] were fleeing to Dooplaya District to escape from the SAC military’s[3] torture and killing. Many people who joined the CDM came to these townships. They are teachers and doctors. They have to flee because SAC soldiers are trying to arrest them and kill them. They fled to the Karen revolutionary areas [to the areas controlled by the Karen National Union - KNU].[4] More and more people involved in the CDM are coming every day. As of March 7th 2021, 1,310 government staff involved in the CDM had sought refuge in the KNU areas of Dooplaya District. They are from Ayeyarwady Region, Kawkareik, Mawlamyine and Hpa-an. They used to work for the following agencies: Ministry of Health and Sports, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, Ministry of Internal Affairs (Myanmar Police Force, Fire Service Department), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Electricity and Energy, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement, Ministry of Defence (SAC military), Ministry of Justice, and Myanmar Economic Bank. There are also municipal employees, Township-level staff and village administrators [General Administration Department]. [There could be even more people involved in the CDM in KNU areas]. Some name lists have not been sent [by local administrators] to the [KNU] Township and District [authorities] yet [local authorities must report new arrivals of people involved in the CDM to the KNU]. Some of them [people involved in the CDM] are hiding in villages and the village heads have not sent their names yet [to the KNU authorities]. We are not sure whether more people involved in the CDM will come to our areas.....Military activity: The SAC military cut down bamboo in A--- village, Pone Yay village tract,[5] Kaw T’Ree Township to strengthen their army camp [KHRG was not able to establish the exact date]. The local villagers told them that SAC soldiers were not allowed to trespass into the restricted areas.[6] [The soldiers did not threaten or do anything to the local villagers but they did not listen to them and trespassed anyway]. Their commanding officer was Aung Zaw Lin, a deputy company commander from Infantry Battalion (IB)[7] #13, Column #1. The SAC military is stepping up its activities in the local areas. Since the military coup,[8] the local villagers have been seeing more SAC soldiers in the jungle or bushes around the villages, including in Kheh Hkoh [a place where villagers go to collect T’La Aw leaves], between B--- and C--- villages, Kyauk Hkee village tract, Kawkareik Township. Therefore, the local villagers are now afraid to go and collect Ta La Aw leaves. Since the protests against the military coup started, it has not been easy for patients to go to the hospital [because healthcare staff is participating in the CDM]. They have to buy medicine from outside [at the pharmacy]. One of the children from D--- village, Waw Loo village tract, Kaw T’Ree Township had a motorbike accident. He was sent to the hospital, but there was no one to look after him, give him medicine and clean his wounds. [KHRG was not able to establish the exact date of this incident]. The students who attend Myanmar government schools could not go to school this year. Since the first wave of Covid-19, they have to work instead. However, Karen Education and Culture Department (KECD)[9] schools are still open. Local villagers/civilians are concerned that fighting [between the SAC military and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[10]] might break out. They have to live in fear now. Some of them are getting ready and storing food such as rice because they worry the situation might go back to what it was the past [before the 2012 preliminary ceasefire].[11] We realised that the SAC military had been stepping up its activities since March 7th 2021. They patrol at night, but we are not sure whether they are trying to find and arrest people who joined the protests; or if they are trying to find KNLA soldiers and shoot them. It creates concerns among local villagers. The SAC military also sent drones to KNU-controlled areas. SAC soldiers are now checking people on the main roads. They check people who go to Seikkyi Town, and sometimes they even check their phones. This is not happening every day, but they conduct surprise checks. On March 19th 2021 at midnight, SAC soldiers from IB #32 shot at a group of Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA)[12] soldiers in Kyainseikgyi Town. The DKBA soldiers were in the streets after 9 pm despite the curfew. They [SAC soldiers] could not kill any of them but they arrested one of them. We do not know what they did to him. The SAC military declared a curfew. No one can go out after 9 pm since March [but not everyone knows about the curfew]. These are just some of the SAC military activities this month [in March].....Anti-coup protests : In reaction to the military coup, protests were organised and held in every township of Dooplaya District. The demands of the protesters are: 1) Restore democracy; 2) Abolish the military dictatorship; 3) Free the detained people; 4) Abolish the 2008 constitution; 5) Establish a federal Union; 6) We do not want influential nationalism [Burmanisation]; and 7) All ethnic groups should be united. On March 9th 2021, around 500 villagers from Thay Baw Boe, Maw Hkee and Su Klee village tracts, Kawkareik Township planned to hold a protest against the military coup in Myawaddy. However, they were stopped by DKBA and SAC soldiers on their way [to the city], so they could not hold the protest in Myawaddy. On the same day, local villagers from Aw Hpa Hpa Doh village tract, Kawkareik Township held a protest against the military on the Asia highway. The local villagers from Kawkareik Township and Kruh Tuh Township held a protest on March 22nd 2021, and they plan to hold more protests in the future. They are going to hold protests in each of those townships on March 25th 2021. We heard that the SAC soldiers do not want the local villagers to hold protests. Therefore, we do not know what the situation will be on the days of the protests and we will have to monitor it. There are ongoing protests against the military because the local villagers are against military rule..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
Date of publication: 2021-06-18
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Interview: Captain Who Left Myanmar Army Estimates 800 Troops Have Defected Since Coup
Sub-title: "We understand why people hated the military so much and that’s why we are joining them," says Capt. Lin Htet Aung.
Description: "Capt. Lin Htet Aung left the Myanmar Army’s Light Infantry Battalion #528 to join pro-democracy forces resisting the military coup that seized power from the elected government on Feb. 1, citing voting fraud in the November 2020 elections. He told Khin Maung Soe of RFA’s Myanmar Service in a telephone interview from an area outside military regime control that about 800 officers and soldiers – roughly five battalions -- have defected since the coup. RFA could not independently verify that number. The following Q&A has been edited for clarity. RFA: Can you tell us how many members of the Armed Forces have defected to the people’s side? Lin Htet Aung: There are around 800. That's about the size of five battalions in Myanmar’s military structure. Some of them were from the army and many are from the Navy, the Air Force, artillery units, the Defense Service factories, etc. RFA: How do you get these numbers? Lin Htet Aung: We have contacts with one another and also from other sources. RFA: What is the security situation of these people? Lin Htet Aung: Those who have arrived in the liberated areas and territories held by ethnic armed groups have security. For those who have joined ordinary citizens, we are a bit worried for their security. People are trying to give them some protection, though, and some have contacted us for help. RFA: What about the welfare of these former soldiers? Lin Htet Aung: Most of them left their units without much money in hand. Those who have arrived in territories held by ethnic groups do not have to worry about food and lodging. RFA: What about their families left behind? Lin Htet Aung: Most of them are single. Those with families who arrived in territories held by ethnic groups do not have any problems. But some of them had left their families in their mother units and we are a bit worried for them. RFA: How many officers have defected from their units? Lin Htet Aung: There are about 100 among the officers but the majority are from lower ranks. RFA: What are you doing now? Lin Htet Aung: Most of us have decided to join the armed revolution. Those who do not want to join the armed revolution are seeking ways to help the people in whatever capacity they can. RFA: There are some people who are suspicious of people like you who have defected. Some people think you could be spies. How do you feel about these doubts and suspicions? Lin Htet Aung: Yes we have faced such situations. But I believe we will gradually win their trust. We will need time but I hope they will soon realize we genuinely want to oppose military dictatorship. RFA: Do you think we could say there might be military agents among those who have crossed over? Lin Htet Aung: Of course it is possible. We cannot trust everyone. We systematically checked everyone who contacted us directly. We have to be very careful because they have very qualified people gathering intelligence. We understand why people hated the military so much and that’s why we are joining them. We also hate military dictatorship as much as the people do. Our main objective is to join hands with the people and bring down the military dictatorship. RFA: Do you face any other difficulties? Lin Htet Aung: Though we can say we are now in liberated areas we don’t actually know what we should be doing or what role we should take. Most of us who defected have pure goodwill in our hearts towards the people. RFA: Do you think there will be more members of the Armed Forces coming over to the side of the public? Lin Htet Aung: Changing sides is an important tactic for this revolution. At first, we had hoped about 4,000 of the 400,000-strong military would change sides. But now we are expecting more than 4,000 will come to the aid of the people. RFA: The present revolution relies a lot on the ethnic armed groups and they have been staging a revolution fighting for their rights for many years. How do you think the two revolutions can be combined? Lin Htet Aung: We cannot just ask for assistance from them and leave but we will have to help them achieve their goals, too. If we leave them after seeking help from them, then it will be like we are fighting for Burma proper only. If we are to fight for the entire country, we will have to complement each other to achieve better results. RFA: Do you have any progress in working together with the National Unity Government (NUG)? Lin Htet Aung: The NUG is working very hard through a lot of difficulties and we have found some cooperation between them and us. We are very encouraged..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government: CDM Success Committee Announcement No.1/2021 - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ CDM အောင်မြင်ရေးကော်မတီ ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၁/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ CDM အောင်မြင်ရေးကော်မတီ ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၁/၂၀၂၁) ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဇွန်လ ၁၈ ရက် အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းကြေညာခြင်း ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ CDM အောင်မြင်ရေးကော်မတီ အနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူ့အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုပြုလုပ်နေကြသော တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုုးများရေးရာ ဝန်ကြီး ဌာနမှ ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေးနှင့် လုံခြုံရေးအတွက် အထူးအလေးထားဆောင်ရွက်လျက် ရှိပါသည်။ CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှု လုပ်ဆောင်နေကြသော တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုးများရေးရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ ဝန်ထမ်းများအား တရားမဝင် ဖိအားပေးခြင်း၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခြင်းနှင့် ဝန်ထမ်းအိမ်ရာမှ အတင်းဖယ်ရှားခြင်းတို့ကို ကျူးလွန်နေသော အောက် ဖော်ပြပါ ဝန်ထမ်းများကို အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းဝင်သူများအဖြစ် ကြေညာလိုက်ပြီး ၎င်းတို့၏ ရာထူးတည်ရှိမှု အပါ အဝင် ကိစ္စအဝဝကို ပြည်သူ့အစိုးရမှ လုံးဝ(လုံးဝ)အသိအမှတ်ပြုတော့မည်မဟုတ်ကြောင်း ကြေညာလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-18
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Striking Tanintharyi Teachers Threatened by Myanmar Junta
Description: "Myanmar’s military regime is using threats, dismissals and arrests to try and force striking school staff in Tanintharyi Region to return to work, after the junta’s reopening of public schools on June 1 flopped due to a lack of teachers. Seven teachers in the region have been arrested for joining the civil disobedience movement (CDM) and refusing to work under the regime. On Monday, the junta sentenced three detained teachers to three years in prison each for incitement. Less than a quarter of schools in Tanintharyi Region, southern Myanmar, opened on June 1 because so many teachers and education staff are on strike in protest at military rule. Those schools that have reopened are reporting a very low attendance of pupils, with parents and students choosing to boycott school enrolment under the regime. A member of the Basic Education Teachers Union in Tanintharyi who requested anonymity said that several striking teachers and education staff have been told to return to work, or else the regime will arrest their family members and seize their possessions. One township education administrator who was on strike for two months was forced back to work after her family were threatened, the teachers’ union member said. Hundreds of teachers who have joined the CDM are now in hiding to avoid arrest. Some 7,236 teachers and education staff in Taninitharyi Region were recently removed from their duties. In Kin Maw Village in Tanintharyi, where just four out of 180 pupils at the local primary school are attending classes, parents were threatened alongside teachers in an effort to get children back in school. In a video file shared by Khit Thit media, a military colonel told the Kin Maw teachers and village elders that he wants at least 90 students to show up by June 21, and threatened to seize their children if that fails to happen. An official with the Myanmar Teachers Federation, who was recently suspended from one of Yangon’s universities for joining the CDM, said that despite the junta’s threats many of the striking teachers and education staff are determined to continue to fight until the fall of the dictatorship and the return of a civilian government elected by the people..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-18
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Buddhist Monk Takes up Arms Against The Myanmar Junta
Sub-title: Monk Kaythara goes from preaching not to kill to learning how to kill.
Description: "A Buddhist monk has undergone armed training to fight with the popular resistance against the military junta in Myanmar, giving up his vows against killing in response to the deaths of peaceful protesters. Former monk Kaythara, who now goes by the name George Michael, left the monkhood and took up arms in response to the arrests and killings of fellow monks who joined protests against the military regime that overthrew the elected government in February. Kaythara, 33, became a monk when he was 20 years old and had been involved in humanitarian work. He served as head monk of the Dhamma Darna monastery in Hlaingthaya township, an area dominated by garment factories on the outskirts of Yangon, where he oversaw an orphanage. In the early days of the military coup, Kaythara said he had actively participated in peaceful protest marches. “We’ve been organizing the protests in Hlaingthaya since Feb. 6,” he told RFA in an interview. “Since then, we marched on the streets to protest every day until Feb. 14 when the authorities begin to crack down on the protests.” A violent suppression of protesters by security forces that day left more than 60 people dead. Many residents, including thousands of factory workers, fled the area, which authorities placed under martial law. Kaythara was not among the protestors that day because he went into hiding after authorities issued an arrest warrant for him. During his time in hiding, his mother died, but he wasn’t able to attend her funeral. Kaythara said he later learned that many fellow protestors had been killed during the crackdown, the event that prompted him to join the popular armed rebellion against the military junta. “We had resisted the military council’s rule peacefully, without even bearing a single needle, but after I learned about the forces shooting down fellow protestors, I changed my mind,” he said. “I decided to join the armed training when I arrived in this ‘liberated area.’” Liberated area is a general term used in Myanmar to refer to territory unpenetrated by the Myanmar junta’s rule, including rebel-controlled ethnic areas along the borders of Thailand, India, and China. “We were required to refrain from killing when we were Buddhist monks, but now we are in training to kill,” he said. Buddhist monk Kaythara participates in a peaceful protest against Myanmar's military junta in Yangon in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of Kaythara Authorities in the liberated area where Kaythara went for military training argued against his participation because he was a veteran monk. But they eventually relented, and he began training with an ethnic armed group in a location he declined to disclose for fear of endangering other soldiers. “I remained a monk for 13 years,” Kaythara said. “I am still using the pronouns designated for monks. I remind myself I am no longer a monk and that I am a soldier now, so I try to eat and live like other soldiers do.” Now that he has completed his military training, Kaythara is a ranking officer, though he said he is reluctant to confront Myanmar soldiers in battle because of his previous religious vow not to kill. “I wonder if I am really capable of killing someone in battle,” he said. “I used to preventing others from killing, let alone killing someone myself, but now I am required to eliminate them as a soldier.” Kaythara said he would have remained a monk had the military coup not occurred. “I had an ambition to establish a Buddhist university,” he said. “I wanted to build a three-story facility. I aimed to build something as big as a landmark for Buddhists. This was my dream, but now it’s been destroyed.” Other monks contacted Kaythara after they saw online photos of him in his military uniform, he said, but added that he doesn’t want them to follow in his footsteps. “Although the armed rebellion is essential for this revolution, there are many things we can do as Buddhist monks,” he said. “I want to appeal to other Buddhist monks not to give up the monkhood to join the armed forces. There are many other ways you can help by remaining as a monk inside the country.” At least 18 monks have been arrested by security forces for participating in protests since the Feb. 1 coup, according to the Dhamma and Peace Foundation, an online group set up in 2019 by prominent domestic and international Buddhist monks. More than 860 people have been killed by the junta, and 4,480 remain in detention since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based monitoring group and NGO..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 17 June, (865) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 17 June, a total of (4962) people are currently under detention; of them (183) are sentenced. 1937 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On June 15, Yamin Htike a.k.a. Htike Htike, a middle school teacher at the Basic Education High School in Mi Kyaung Ye Town, Magway Region, who was involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), was arrested in Magway. A protest strike in Thayet Hna Khwa Village, Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, was cracked down by a private car. Six policemen sped by and opened fire into the air on the evening of June 14. During this crackdown, Thi Thi Mar, a local villager was arrested. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.18 MB 4.4 MB 985.47 KB
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Title: Myanmar Monk Trades Robes for Military Fatigues in Fight Against Junta
Description: "Kaythara took up arms against the military regime in response to the arrests and killings of fellow monks who joined anti-coup protests..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: State of Fear - 101 East exposes a secret interrogation centre and claims of torture
Description: "Since a military coup in February, a climate of terror has engulfed Myanmar. Disappearances, detention without charge, alleged torture and mysterious deaths are just some of the actions under the spotlight following widespread protests against the military takeover. 101 East uses witness testimony and forensic analysis to expose a secret interrogation centre in the country's biggest city, Yangon. This investigation also reveals how Western tech firms have sold surveillance software and data extraction tools to the country. In a special collaboration with Lighthouse Reports and Forensic Architecture, we reveal how the military is creating a state of fear..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera English" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Airstrikes Kill in Karenni State While an Estimated 100,000 Flee
Description: "On 31 May at 1700hrs, the Burma Army attacked Demoso Town in Karenni State; they shot on and off for two hours, with two different helicopters. One was a Russian attack helicopter Mi 35. One person was killed in the attacks and six were wounded. Almost every villager in Demoso and Hpru So have evacuated and are now displaced in the jungle. The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) estimates that there are nearly 100,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) now in Karenni State since these attacks. KNPP estimates of IDPS: Eastern Loikaw – over 10,000 Western Loikaw – over 10,500 Demoso – over 65,000 Hpru Soh – over 11,000 The Burma Army has sent reinforcements into Demoso area. They have started to burn the houses of suspected sympathizers believed to be involved with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) or People’s Defense Force (PDF). IDPs are in need of food, shelter and medicine as the rainy season has begun. We are also sad to inform you all that we lost one of our Karenni Rangers. All Lo Sein was killed by the Burma Army on 27 May as he was rescuing civilians trapped under fire by the Burma Army in Demoso Town. All Lo Sein joined FBR in 2017 when he was 19 years old and told us that he wanted to learn how to help his people more. He was the second son and had nine brothers and sisters. He conducted relief missions after his initial training and also helped organize community support efforts. He was a kind, intense, dedicated and brave man who loved others more than his own life. He was gunned down by Burma Army troops when he placed himself between the troops and the townspeople they were attacking. Read more about him in the following FBR field report..."
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
Date of publication: 2021-06-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 16 June, (865) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Pyigyidagun Township in Mandalay Region was killed the previous day and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 16 June, a total of (4911) people are currently under detention; of them (182) are sentenced. 1937 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of June 14, Su Paing Htwe a.k.a Paing Paing, died from severe bleeding when he did not receive adequate medical treatment after being shot in the stomach by junta’s forces while riding a motorcycle at Pyigyidagun Township in Mandalay Region. After junta forces set fire to homes in Kingma Village in Magway Region’s Pauk Township on the evening of June 15, Some elderly and a disabled villager were killed, and buffalos and cattles died. In addition to this, a villager was shot in the thigh and some villagers arrested. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.18 MB 4.26 MB 981.72 KB
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Title: Mu Traw District Situation Update: Villagers protest against the military coup in Hpapun and K’Ma Maung towns, Lu Thaw Township, February to March 2021
Description: "The beginning of 2021 has been a devastating moment for civilians living in Myanmar. The military (led by Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing) forcibly seized power from the National League for Democracy (NLD) vice-president U Myint Swe on February 1st 2021.[2] Since the coup,[3] NLD government officials and [anti-coup] protestors have been detained [by security forces]. Since the military coup, civilians living in Myanmar who do not want the dictatorship have protested against the military coup. People living all throughout Myanmar have participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)[4] by banging metal boxes and metal barrels to express their disapproval. The [CDM] protests were started by healthcare workers and have gradually been growing with protests occurring in both Hpapun and K’Ma Maung towns. On February 5th 2021, healthcare workers from the public hospital in K’Ma Maung Town participated [began participating] in the CDM. On February 6th 2021, healthcare workers from the hospital in Hpapun Town (a 100-bed-hospital) also participated [began participating] in the CDM. On February 8th 2021, local people who live in Hpapun Town and K’Ma Maung Town protested against the military coup because they do not accept the dictatorship. On February 9th 2021, they held another protest which included around 200 people, starting from [the area between] the Hpapun Basic Education High School and the (100-bed) hospital in Hpapun Town. From there, they marched to Section (1) of Hpapun Town. People who took part in the protest in Hpapun Town circled twice around Hpapun Town, before returning to the Hpapun Government Basic Education High School at 10:30 am. The protest was successfully finished [ended without incident]. Likewise, on February 9th 2021, there were around 600 people from K’Ma Maung Town who held a protest starting from the government kindergarten school and marching to the public hospital. The protest finished at 11:30 am. The slogans used in the protest were: 1. Release the detained NLD government officials and protesters; 2. May Aung San Suu Kyi be healthy. The protests were held by different ethnic groups and staff from different [government] departments. On February 13th 2021, another protest was held in K’Ma Maung Town. The protest started at 9:00 am and ended at 11:00 am. Around 200 people, of different ethnic groups, participated in the protest. The protesters started marching from the football [soccer] field at K’Ma Maung Basic Education High School and circled once around the town. Then they returned and gathered at the school. No protests were held in K’Ma Maung on February 15th 2021. Similarly, on February 13th and February 15th 2021, there were no protests in Hpapun Town. Civilians protested in Hpapun Town on March 5th 2021. The protest was held in the western part of Hpapun Town located in K’law Hta village tract,[5] Lu Thaw Township, Mu Traw District. The protest was held with the people from the eastern and western parts of town, who gathered to protest against the military coup. Village heads and elders took part as organisers and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[6] soldiers stood guard as security during the protest. Villages such as Nah Khoh Hkee, Nah Khoh Hta, Maw Taw Hta, Ta Ghaw Kyoh, Day Baw Khaw, Dwe Lo, Baw Thay Hkee, Ta Hkoo Doe and K’Law Day, Htee Boh Kah Hta, Day Law, Baw Hta, Hpa Hee Kaung, Pyin Ma, Nga Ein Su, Ma Htaw and many more took part. There were villagers from 100 villages in total that took part in the protest. As for the village tracts: Meh K’Law, Meh Nyoo, Meh Hkoo, Meh Mawe, Meh P’Lee, Day Wah, Htee Th’Daw Hta, Ma Htaw, Htee Th’Blut Hta, Lay Boe Hta, and K’Taing Tee village tracts were included. [With such large numbers] the protesters split into two groups to hold the protest. One group held a protest in Hpapun Town and the other group held a protest in Way Mone village. In Hpapun, the villagers held the protest in front of the army camp of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)[7] #642 and then they circled twice around Hpapun. The protest, which was held on March 5th 2021, [started] at 8:00 am and finished at 12:00 pm. The protesters gathered at the football [soccer] field at Hpapun High School [prior to going to the army camp]; they chanted slogans and sang their national hymn. The protest ended without incident. The slogans used in the protest were: 1. Release the detained NLD government officials and protestors; 2. The Burma Army must withdraw their army camps from our territory; 3. Burmanisation and military dictatorship must end; 4. Abolish the 2008 Constitution; 5. Establish a federal democratic state; 6. Give us equality and self-determination; 7. The United Nations and the international community must not work with the Burma Army. Local people living in Hpapun Town provided food, water and juice for the protesters. Even though there were no blockades to stop the villagers from protesting in Hpapun Town, villagers who participated in the protest in Way Mone were stopped for about one hour by Tatmadaw[8] LIB #434 at their gate near the southern part of their army camp. The protest organisers and officials from LIB #434 negotiated and the gate was later opened, so villagers were able to continue their protest in Hpapun Town. Even though the protesters were confronted with obstacles, there were no casualties as a result of the protest. They were able to finish the protest at 12:00 pm without incident. No one was apprehended [by security forces] after the protest..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
Date of publication: 2021-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 498.28 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 15 June, (864) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Depayin Township in Sagaing Region was killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 15 June, a total of (4893) people are currently under detention; of them (182) are sentenced. 1937 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. In the evening of June 14, Aung San from Boke Village in Sagaing Region’s Depayin Township was shot dead in the chest when the junta troops opened fire on villages after two daughters of a coup council-appointed village administrator in Kyi Village, Depayin Township were stabbed to death. The terrorist forces searched for youth protestors to arrest in Patheingyi Township after two police were shot dead in Mandalay Region’s Patheingyi Township. A mother, who is not in good health, elder sister and brother were taken as hostages on June 11 when the junta forces did not find the two brothers who are pro-democracy demonstrators in Patheingyi Township. Lwin Maung Maung, Regional Hluttaw MP for Meiktila Constituency No.1, currently detained in Meiktila Prison, was sentenced to three years imprisonment on May 12 without trial. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.18 MB 4.32 MB 982.07 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 14 June, (863) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 14 June, a total of (4880) people are currently under detention; of them (178) are sentenced. 1937 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Doctor Maung Maung Nyein Tun, lecturer of surgery at the University of Medicine in Mandalay, and Swe Zin Oo, a specialist doctor at Mandalay Public Hospital, were arrested on June 13 in Mandalay City. Mar Mar Khaing, MP for No.2 constituency in Thaton Township, Mon State and her husband Nyan Tun, Executive Committee member of NLD of Kyaikmaraw Township, under detention in Kyaikmaraw Prison, were charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code on June 11 by the Thaton Township Court. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.19 MB 4.48 MB 974.1 KB
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Title: Teachers, students keep protests alive in ‘f***ing stubborn’ Monywa
Sub-title: Despite the dangers, protesters in the Sagaing Region capital say they will keep hitting the streets – to send a strong message to the people, the junta and the world, and to honour fallen comrades.
Description: "The 36-year-old private school teacher grimaced as she lowered herself to the floor of the safe house. It was one of many she had called home in recent months, since the security forces put out a warrant for her arrest. The brace enclosing her waist hinted at her bruising escape from a crackdown in early April, when the security forces pummeled her with batons. If the teacher went to hospital, she risked arrest, so instead she met her family doctor in secret. Still, she considers herself lucky. “Some others weren’t able to get away that day,” said the teacher, who asked not to be named for security reasons. Despite the near-constant pain, the teacher spoke with steely determination about the protest movement in her hometown of Monywa, the Sagaing Region capital, where teachers and students have led opposition to the Tatmadaw’s February 1 coup. She insisted that the violent crackdowns since late February, including the shooting of unarmed protesters, have failed to subdue opposition to military rule. “Some people think Monywa is getting quiet now, but they’re the ones who are doing nothing for the revolution – the ones who are at home, scrolling through their phones and reading news,” said the teacher, a mother of two children. “We keep doing as much as we can. There are now a lot of restrictions in Monywa that make it very hard for us to protest. But we understand that every part of this revolution needs to stay strong.” Even as resistance has shifted to armed struggle, including in the Dry Zone countryside around Monywa, residents still organise near-daily protests against the regime. Today it one of the few major towns where demonstrations continue on a regular basis. During a visit to Monywa in May, resistance leaders emphasised to Frontier the importance of maintaining street protests in tandem with the public sector strikes under the Civil Disobedience Movement, and alongside the work of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a body formed by ousted lawmakers in February that has since appointed a parallel National Unity Government. Because its protest movement has endured in the face of extreme violence, young resistance leaders proudly refer to their town as “sauk kyaw tin Monywa” (fucking stubborn Monywa). On May 4, Frontier observed a flash protest in which more than 100 people converged from different areas onto a ward where the security presence was light. Scouts first observed the ward, including major roads, for signs of police or soldiers, and once they gave the all-clear the participants marched quickly through the streets, chanting slogans loudly to catch the attention of nearby residents. Many people emerged from their homes to clap or join the chanting, sometimes presenting energy drinks and water bottles to the marchers. The protest lasted less than 20 minutes, and afterwards the participants gathered briefly in a narrow residential street to listen to protest leaders. “The street protests that triggered this Spring Revolution … have not disappeared yet,” Ko Than Kyaw Oo, the chair of Monywa University Students’ Union, told them. “These protests are like a fist punch to the vulnerable sternum of the military council. It causes them a lot of trouble. However much they want to, they can’t control the town,” he said. “We will keep on protesting and our town will still be known as ‘fucking stubborn Monywa’.”.....Everything ‘gone to waste’: On the day of the coup, teacher Daw Mya San Kywe was in Monywa helping to mark exam papers. “I cried that day,” the 42-year-old mother of three told Frontier. “But I was also angry – so were many other people here in Monywa.” She resolved to do whatever she could to oppose the military. On February 6, she and other teachers from her school, Basic Education High School Nyaung Phyu Pin, launched a photo campaign, posing in their green and white uniforms and giving the three-finger salute that quickly became a symbol of opposition to the regime. Two days later, 31 of the 45 teachers from the school took part in a protest. Sources in Monywa estimate that around two-thirds of all teachers in the district, which includes three other townships besides Monywa, have gone on strike and joined the CDM, a relatively high rate. NLD lawmaker U Myint Htwe, who won the Sagaing Region Hluttaw seat of Ye-U 2 in the November election, said local teachers had been invaluable in resisting military rule. “We are all grateful and thankful for their efforts in this revolution,” he said. Although Mya San Kywe no longer takes part in demonstrations, she remains active in the resistance movement, helping to raise and distribute donations for striking workers who have joined the CDM. Mya San Kywe’s younger sister, Daw San San Lin, also teaches at a school in Monywa. They had both been optimistic about the future of education in Myanmar, particularly the prospects for further reform during the National League for Democracy’s second term, which was meant to start this year. They said they knew straight away that the military’s power grab had put paid to any chance of that. “It felt like everything we had been trying to achieve had gone to waste,” said Mya San Kywe. When she got news of the coup, San San Lin was waiting for her husband-to-be to arrive in Monywa for their wedding, due two days later on February 3. The communications shutdown meant that she was unable to reach him for most of the day, and she wondered whether the ceremony would still go ahead. Although they were able to marry as planned, the couple were in no mood to celebrate. From the following day, they dedicated themselves to the Spring Revolution, joining the CDM and participating in protests. She said teacher strikes had helped to sustain opposition to the coup in multiple ways. “The number of teachers in Myanmar is higher than the number of military personnel. That’s why I feel our CDM is as important as the others,” San San Lin said, referring to other public sector walkouts. “Other government employees also don’t have contact with students like we do. So if teachers participate in the revolution then youths get more involved too. If a teacher is in danger or threatened with arrest, the students will stand by them.” Despite their determination, San San Lwin and Mya San Kywe have both been shocked at the regime’s brutality, particularly towards young protesters. Figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners show that security forces have killed 27 people and arrested 80 in Monywa from April 3 to June 7. Mya San Kywe said she’s tired of the loss of life and hopes the Spring Revolution will succeed soon, so that fewer people have to die. “When I saw young people dead on the road, even though I didn’t know them personally, my heart was broken,” Mya San Kywe said, before adding with grim humour: “Even when my ex-husband left me to marry another woman, I wasn’t that sad.”.....Fallen heroes: After several weeks of swelling protests in which tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Monywa, the security forces launched their first major crackdown on February 27. About 200 people, mostly teachers and students, were surrounded by security forces near Zaung Kyan Bin monastery, in the middle of town. At first security forces started shooting with teargas and stun grenades, but around 11am opened fire with live rounds. A restaurant owner was shot in his thigh and a teacher was shot in her abdomen but both survived, said U Myo Min Oo, a member of the Thumaydar volunteer organisation that has helped transport and treat those injured in the protests. He said he was shocked at the violence, but it would soon get much worse. Just seven days later, he watched as police and soldiers opened fire on a protest organised by the town’s General Strike Committee. “The protest group was taking a break in the afternoon at the corner of Aung Mahar and Pyidaungsu roads, near Hpayani Pagoda. The protesters had some food and then when they started moving to resume their march the security forces emerged and shot them immediately with live rounds,” said Myo Min Oo. The nine fallen heroes that day included poet and educator Ma Myint Myint Zin, 34. Better known to many by her penname, Kyi Lin Aye, she started writing poems and novellas in high school. After graduating with a degree in mathematics, she dedicated herself to education, volunteering as a teacher at monastic schools in the area. She and her younger brother, Ko Win Min Latt, also co-founded a social welfare association, Myitta Dika, that funded teachers, books and meals for orphans and other children whose parents could not afford to send them to school. Win Min Latt said that immediately after the coup, his sister began organising small protests in their neighbourhood, during which residents banged pots and pans, sung revolutionary songs and chanted slogans condemning the coup. “Even though she had never been involved with political parties or political movements before, she knew this the coup would be bad for the country,” he said. From February 6, Myint Myint Zin began organising larger demonstrations, encouraging her friends and students to take part. “From that day until the day she died, she was involved [in the revolution],” Win Min Latt said. Like many protesters, she knew the risks she was taking. On the day she was shot dead, she had written her blood type and her mother’s phone number on her arm with a marker, along with a message that her body was to be donated to Mandalay General Hospital. Win Min Latt got the news about his sister just a few minutes after she was shot. Not long after, he learned she’d died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. “My heart felt totally empty,” he said. “She was such an amazing person, I just felt it was such a waste. We weren’t just siblings; we were great friends. So, I’ve lost not only a sister but also a friend.” The next day, Monywa residents renamed Aung Mahar Road, where Myint Myint Zin and eight others had died, as Arzani (martyrs) Road..... Honouring sacrifice: Students have also been integral to Monywa’s resistance movement; and as the security forces have grown more violent, they’ve also borne the brunt of the casualties. “Some of our comrades have died in our arms,” said Ko Khant Wai Phyo, a student activist and leading member of the Monywa General Strike Committee. “We feel we’re responsible for sustaining the movement and making sure their hopes are fulfilled.” Ko Aung Kyaw, another student activist who is also part of the strike committee, echoed his words. “Every revolution requires sacrifice, but we don’t want these sacrifices to be in vain,” he said. “We will keep on fighting until we achieve the goal these fallen heroes were striving for.” Like the teachers, the students are committed to ensuring that protests continue in Monywa, despite the risks. They and other activists said this was important for a number of reasons: to show that the people still reject military rule, to maintain hope that the revolution will succeed, and to remind the world that the people of Myanmar are still under dictatorship. To maintain the momentum, activists try to organise at least one protest a day. This can take the form of motorcycle rallies in areas of Monywa town with a light security presence, but when there are too many soldiers or police in the town, they demonstrate in nearby villages instead. Teacher Ma Soe Myint Htwe, who had to flee with her family into a forest when clashes erupted between a civilian militia and the Tatmadaw, said she would “stay with the CDM until the dictators fall”. “There’s no way I can work under them,” said the 24-year-old, who had shelved plans to pursue a master’s degree in order to join local protests. “I want them to be annihilated as soon as possible – the longer they’re in power, the more likely we are to return to the dark days of the past...”
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Three Striking Teachers Jailed by Myanmar Junta
Description: "Three striking teachers in Myeik Township, Tanintharyi Region, were each sentenced on Monday to three years in prison for incitement for participating in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) against the regime. Daw Nay Chi Htwe and Daw Chit Myat Thu were detained together at their home on March 31 and charged with Article 505(a) of the Penal Code for allegedly lobbying other staff on social media to join the CDM. The teachers, who are related, were beaten during the arrest. U Nyein Chan Oo, a high-school teacher, was detained in early April in Myeik, on the same charge. The three were held in Myeik Prison and sentenced on Monday, a member of the basic education teachers’ union in Tanintharyi Region said. “They were sentenced for expressing their views peacefully by joining the CDM,” the member said. Many civil servants have been on strike since the Feb. 1 coup, refusing to work under military rule. Striking teachers have been jailed across the country and many have been officially suspended. In Tanintharyi Region, 7,236 striking educators and administrative staff were removed from their duties, according to the regional teachers’ union. Seven arrests have been made. Hundreds of striking Tanintharyi teachers went into hiding to evade arrest in May when the regime threatened them with arrest if they failed to return to work when the schools reopened. “Several schools can’t open as a majority of teachers went on strike. Only very few schools could open and less than a quarter of pupils have returned,” a Tanintharyi teacher said. The junta opened public schools on June 1 amid efforts to normalize the country but attendances have been very low nationwide..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Legal Perspective Information Sheet
Description: "Preface The purpose of publishing this information sheet is to increase the awareness of people over the Crimes Against Humanity committed by the military junta terrorists on a daily basis and to keep record of their brutal acts for future reference and proceedings. Committed crimes are selectively stated in this information sheet due to space limitations. Arbitrary Detentions and Enforced Disappearances On 27th May, Soe Linn Htet, a second year student majoring in Civil Engineering at the Technological University Meiktila, was arbitrarily detained at home at Pyawbwe Township in Mandalay Region. A village administrator, involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), was also arrested at Nayin Village, Yesagyo Township in Magway Region on 29th May. On 30th May, a former member of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) in Monywa District andwho is currently assisting IDPs was arrested at gunpoint by the junta troops wearing civilian attires. On 31st May, Khin HmwayLwin, a member of Sagaing Region and elected regional parliamentary representative fromMinkin Township constituency and Hein Win Latt, NLD executive member of Bhamo Town in Kachin State, were arrested respectively. On 2ndJune morning, former village administrator of Pan Lin Village inPyaungKhaung Village Tract of Mogok Township in Mandalay Region, was arrested by the junta troops. A lawyer who is representing pro-bono and arrested people for staging anti-dictatorship protests in Myitkyina, Kachin State was also arrested and on 3rdJune, a leader of Sanay Charity Group, Bhamo Town in Kachin State, was arrested by the junta troops. Murders On 27th May, two youths from Demoso Township in Kayah State were shot to death by terrorist junta while they were delivering food toKarenni IDPs. On the same day, a 14 year old boy was shot dead in the head while running away from the junta forces in ThabyayKone, in Loikaw Township, Kayah State. Later on 28thMay, at Pauk Taw Wa in Insein Township, Yangon Region, a youth was brutally killed when a military vehicle intentionally crashed into him for not being stop for checking. In early morning, 30 May in Baganmyothit in Nyaung-U Township in Mandalay Region, Moe Myint Aung was shot and died when the junta raided the Yonetan Ward and Hman Cho Ward. Later, sources said that Moe Myint Aung waswrongfully shot while capturing others six youths. On 30th May, in Loikaw Township in Kayah State,a man was shot dead by the junta troops while riding a motorbike. During the night of 4th June, Thaw Zin, who is a LGBT, was shot by the junta troops deployed at Township Education Office in Kyaukpadaung Town in Mandalay Region onhis way back home with a motorcycle with two of his friends. Thaw Zin eventually died from not receiving medical treatment in time. While around 80 villagers in Ayeyarwady Region clashed with soldiers as they tried to prevent the arrest of a man accused of transporting weapons, at least three civilians were killed by the junta force. The widespread and systematic murdering of the civilian population in Myanmar by the military shows no signs of stopping. In fact, it is evident that attacks against peaceful protesters across Myanmar have progressively intensified. Intention to destroy the whole ‘Kayan’ tribes The Kayan are a sub-group of Red Karen (Karenni people), Tibeto-Burman ethnic minority of Myanmar lives around Phekhone, Moebyel, Demoso, and Seebu. The estimated Kayan population is about 2 millions. In the early days of May, some young generations residing in these regions have been resisting against the military’s repression with homemade guns. Since then, the military have beenoperating systematic and targeted attacks on the entire ‘Kayan’ people including civilians who are not directly taking part in the hostilities. About 1 million of ‘Kayan’ are displaced directed towards Seebuu Township, due to the heavy artillery and Airstrikes of the military. Therefore, about 85% of the ‘Kayan’ people would become displaced persons and nowhere to hide since the geographical position of these regions are not interconnected with international borders, and if the military continues their strikes in Seebuu township. Since the military have been cutting off humanitarian aids to this particular region, people urgently need foods, water and medicines.The Myanmar military has been violating the fundamental and peremptory norms of international law on a daily basis. In carrying out these atrocities, the military’s conduct confirms that it does not and has no intention of abiding the obligations laid under the international law. In a world governed by the rule of law, the military cannot legitimately represent Myanmar. The international community must act immediately to stop the military’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Violations on Freedom of Speech and Fundamental Human Rights On 27th May, a reporter of Ayeyarwaddy Times News Agency based in Ayeyarwady Region was arrested and beaten while interrogating. Moreover, on the same day, Myo Thiha Kyaw, a photojournalist for the Myanmar Press Photo Agency, was arrested in Mandalay. Also in Kyaukme Township in Shan State, a photographer was arrested. To silence the widespread opposition against the military’s actions since 1st February 2021, it has targeted, attacked and arbitrarily detained dozens of journalists reporting on the protests. As a result, most editors and reporters inside the country currently refrain from identifying themselves as members of the press. Indeed, the military has also revoked licenses of a number of independent media outlets. Nevertheless, the National Unity Government planning to hand over documentary evidences of these crimes against humanity being committed by the military against the civilian population of Myanmar to relevant human rights bodies of the United Nations. Ref : Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) : Myanmar Now..."
Source/publisher: Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-06-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Stop Holding Family, Friends Hostage
Sub-title: Detaining People to Coerce Others is Collective Punishment
Description: "Myanmar security forces are arbitrarily arresting and detaining family and friends of activists, protesters, and opposition members, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should immediately and unconditionally release all those wrongfully held and end all collective punishment, which violates fundamental principles of international human rights law. Since the February 1, 2021, military coup in Myanmar, security forces have detained at least 76 people, including an infant, during raids when they were unable to find the person they sought to arrest, according to documentation by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). At least 48 of those people are still in detention, with some now held for more than three months. “Seizing family members and friends as hostages is a thuggish tactic by Myanmar’s security forces to terrorize the population and coerce activists to turn themselves in,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “The authorities should end the practice of collective punishment immediately and release everyone held on this illegal basis.” Security forces unable to find specific suspects have arrested their parents, children, other relatives, and friends who happened to be present during the search. Cases include: On March 8, security forces searching for lawyer Robert San Aung seized his daughter and brother-in-law and held them for 18 days before releasing them. On April 22, security forces searching for Pu Do Sian Pau, a member of the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement, seized his mother and his 70-year-old father, a retired pastor of the Cope Memorial Baptist Church. Both are still in detention. On April 29, security forces searching for Salai Bawi Uk Thang, the editor-in-chief of the Chinland Post newspaper, detained his father. He is still in detention. On May 23, security forces arrested the parents and younger brother of a striking worker from the fire department. All three relatives are still in detention. In some cases, witnesses allege that the security forces beat the relatives before detaining them. Tin Htut Paing, an activist who is in hiding, told the media that, on May 2, security forces searching for him and his brother beat his 90-year-old grandmother and 64-year-old mother. Security forces detained his mother and charged her with “incitement.” On May 28, she was sentenced to three years in prison. According to the AAPP, security forces searching for Associate Judge Kaung Myat Thu of Chaung-U Township Court beat his mother before arresting her. His mother is still in detention Young children and even an infant have also been detained, at least temporarily. Security forces detained five relatives of strike leader Ko Jay Lah, including two girls aged 2 and 4. Similarly, forces searching for protest leader U Tan Win detained his wife and 20-day-old baby. While in both cases the family members were released later the same day, the arrests send a chilling message to activists and members of the Civil Disobedience Movement that no member of their family is safe, Human Rights Watch said. The detention of people based solely on their relationship to another person is a form of collective punishment, which violates the right to liberty and security of person and the right to a fair trial, Human Rights Watch said. “Myanmar’s junta has taken unlawful detention to a noxious new level by detaining those close to people who themselves should not be facing arrest,” Robertson said. “Concerned governments should urgently impose targeted sanctions and a global arms embargo or expect the junta to continue to raise the stakes on abusive actions.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s Coming Revolution
Sub-title: What Will Emerge From Collapse?
Description: "Myanmar is at a point of no return. The army’s February coup, meant to surgically shift power within the existing constitutional framework, has instead unleashed a revolutionary energy that will be nearly impossible to contain. Over the past four months, protests and strikes have continued despite the killing of more than 800 people and the arrest of nearly 5,000 more. On April 1, elected members of parliament from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), together with leaders from other political parties and organizations, declared a “national unity government” to challenge the authority of the recently established military junta. And through April and May, as fighting flared between the junta and ethnic minority armies, a new generation of pro-democracy fighters attacked military positions and administrative offices across the country. The junta could partially consolidate its rule over the coming year, but that would not lead to stability. Myanmar’s pressing economic and social challenges are too complex, and the depth of animosity toward the military too great, for an isolated and anachronistic institution to manage. At the same time, the revolutionaries will not be able to deal a knockout blow anytime soon. As the stalemate continues, the economy will crumble, extreme poverty will skyrocket, the health-care system will collapse, and armed violence will intensify, sending waves of refugees into neighboring China, India, and Thailand. Myanmar will become a failed state, and new forces will appear to take advantage of that failure: to grow the country’s multibillion-dollar-a-year methamphetamine business, to cut down the forests that are home to some of the world’s most precious zones of biodiversity, and to expand wildlife-trafficking networks, including the very ones possibly responsible for the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in neighboring China. The pandemic itself will fester unabated. The task now is to shorten this period of state failure, protect the poorest and most vulnerable, and begin building a new state and a freer, fairer, and more prosperous society. A future peaceful Myanmar can only be based on both an entirely different conception of its national identity, free of the ethnonationalist narratives of the past, and a transformed political economy. The weight of history makes this the only acceptable outcome but also a herculean task to achieve. The alternative, however, is not dictatorship, which can no longer achieve stability, but rather ever-deepening state failure and the prospect of a violent, anarchic Myanmar at the heart of Asia for decades to come.....A COLONIAL INHERITANCE: Myanmar is a colonial creation. Over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United Kingdom conquered the coastline from Bengal to the Malay Peninsula, the valley of the Irrawaddy River (home for a millennium to Burmese-speaking Buddhist kingdoms), and then the surrounding uplands (regions that had never before come under external control). Myanmar—then called Burma—was forged through a military occupation and governed as a racial hierarchy. Imperial census administrators complained that the many and varied identities of its inhabitants were too fluid and contingent and that the country was “a zone of racial instability.” They nonetheless divided everyone into neat racial categories, with some races deemed “indigenous” and others “alien.” The British also established an incredibly unequal and exploitative colonial political economy, based on the large-scale immigration of Indian labor and the export of primary commodities—mainly rice, oil, and timber—to global markets. Modern Burmese politics emerged a century ago, and at its core was an ethnonationalism rooted in the notion of a Burmese-speaking Buddhist racial identity. In 1937, ten years before Pakistan was partitioned from India along religious lines, the British partitioned Burma from India on the basis of perceived racial difference. After winning independence in 1948, the new Burmese state tried to incorporate those non-Burmese peoples of the country also deemed indigenous, such as the Karens and the Shans, but within a framework of Burmese racial and cultural supremacy. Those peoples categorized as “aliens,” such as the more than 700,000 people from the Rohingya Muslim community viciously expelled to Bangladesh in 2016 and 2017, have fared worse. Myanmar’s nation-building project has failed for decades, leaving behind a landscape of endemic armed conflict and a country that has never truly been whole. The Burmese army has been the self-appointed guardian of this ethnonationalism. It is the only army in the world that has been fighting nonstop since World War II: against the British and then the Japanese, and, after independence, against an extraordinary array of opponents, including Washington-backed Chinese nationalist armies in the 1950s, Beijing-backed communist forces in the 1960s, drug lords, and ethnic armed forces struggling for self-determination, all the while taking as well as inflicting enormous casualties. Since the 1970s, most of the fighting has been confined to the uplands, where the army became an occupation force imposing central rule on ethnic minority populations. But every now and then, the army would descend into the cities of the Irrawaddy River valley to crush dissent. The ranks of the armed forces have grown to over 300,000 personnel. In recent years, the military has acquired new Chinese and Russian combat aircraft, drones, and rocket artillery. It is led by an officer corps that cannot imagine a Myanmar in which the military is not ultimately in control..."
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Source/publisher: Foreign Affairs
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Striking Myanmar Medics Face up to Six Years in Jail
Description: "Myanmar’s military regime has charged the national immunization director and others 26 doctors with the Unlawful Association Act and incitement under the Penal Code for allegedly assisting the National Unity Government (NUG). Dr. Htar Htar Lin, the national immunization director, was arrested on Thursday in Yangon. Her husband, seven-year-old son, friend and her daughter were also detained with her. Their whereabouts are unknown. Two other doctors, Dr. Maung Maung Nyein Tun and Dr. Swe Zin Oo, are among 26 suspects charged with her who were arrested on Sunday in Mandalay, a source told The Irrawaddy. On Saturday night, the junta-controlled media announced that Dr. Htar Htar Lin formed the civil disobedience movement’s (CDM) core group and assisted the NUG, which it has designated as a terrorist group. The state-controlled media said she confessed to communicating with Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, the NUG’s shadow health minister, through the applications Signal and Zoom. She helped write speeches and NUG health-care policy documents and helped prepare for Zoom meetings and plan to implement the NUG health-care programs, including estimating required drugs and costs, the state media stated. It said she will be prosecuted under Article 17 of the Unlawful Association Act and Article 505(a) of the Penal Code for communicating with a “terrorist organization” and working with Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, who is in hiding and acting health minister in the NUG. He also has two other ministerial portfolios. It made the same accusation against 26 other doctors who it said had accepted NUG public health, state health administration and clinician team roles. The state media broadcast their names and photos and called on the public to give evidence against them. It said anyone who hides the suspects would face prosecution. Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act penalizes anyone who has joined an unlawful association or is taking part in its activities with up to three years in prison. Incitement under the Penal Code also carries three-year terms. Several medics and Ministry of Health and Sports staff have been charged for participating in the CDM and for running secret clinics for wounded demonstrators. At least 51 striking medics, including superintendents, academics, surgeons and other hospital staff, have been arrested with many still in detention and facing prosecution. The regime also issued warrants for prominent CDM doctors, including Dr. Zaw Wai Soe and Dr. Htar Htar Lin. Thousands of medical staff are in hiding. The CDM was launched by medics on Feb. 3 in protest against the junta and followed by other government workers nationwide..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 13 June, (863) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Demoso Township in Kayah State was killed on a previous day and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 13 June, a total of (4863) people are currently under detention; of them (178) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. In the morning of June 11, May Lar was shot dead when he was bringing food back to Padan Kho Village from a displaced camp in Demoso Township in Kayah State because they lacked food. Two lawyers from Hpa-an Township in Karen State, who are representing political detainees including Karen State Chief Minister Nan Khin Htwe Myint, were arrested on June 10 at Myawaddy in Karen State. A lawsuit was filed against them under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code at Myawaddy Police Station. In addition to this, Kyaw Myat Min, a political activist, who was charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, was arrested at Hlae Kyaw Kone Village Monastery which is located in Pathein Township in Ayeyarwady Region on the night of June 10. While the monk was being arrested he was defrocked. Moreover, Aung Ko Min, a disabled man, living in Dawei in Tanintharyi Region, was arrested after leaving his home in a wheelchair on June 11. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 4.51 MB 1.19 MB 974.45 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 12 June, (862) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Demoso Township in Kayah State was killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 12 June, a total of (4848) people are currently under detention; of them (178) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. In the morning of June 11, Saw Bel Kream Hel a.k.a Khun Bel Bel was shot twice in the chest and died on the spot while he was helping to push a pick-up truck. In the evening of June 11, doctor Ye Zin Aung, Obstetrician-Gynecologist from Myingyan Hospital, was arrested at Myingyan Town in Mandalay Region. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.19 MB 4.4 MB 983.78 KB
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Title: Myanmar Junta: End Systematic Attack on the People of Myanmar, Reverse Coup d’état
Sub-title: Scores killed and injured, more than 1,400 arrested
Description: "The Myanmar military junta must immediately end its deadly nationwide attack against nonviolent protesters and return power to the elected government, Fortify Rights said today. The junta’s forces killed at least 61 people in at least seven regions and states throughout the country since a February 1 coup d’état, according to various sources. Yesterday alone, soldiers and police reportedly killed at least 38 people. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council will convene in New York City to discuss the situation in Myanmar. “Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his murderous junta are systematically terrorizing the people of Myanmar,” said Ismail Wolff, Regional Director of Fortify Rights. “We’re witnessing security forces commit targeted extrajudicial killings and other widespread violations. The Security Council should urgently impose a global arms embargo against the military.” Since February 27, the Myanmar military and police have dramatically escalated the use of excessive and lethal force against unarmed protesters in almost all of the country’s 14 states and regions. According to Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, the junta’s forces killed at least 23 people from early February to March 1. Yesterday, the military and police killed an additional 38 people, according to the U.N. Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener. The police and military killed men, women, and children. Victims included students, a carpenter, an engineer, a teacher, and others. Video footage shared widely on social media shows military soldiers and police officers shooting into crowds of unarmed people, shooting into private residences, brutally beating and arbitrarily arresting people, including medical workers and journalists, and destroying property. In two videos filmed yesterday and shared online, two bloodied, lifeless bodies lay on a street reportedly in Monywa, Sagaing Region. In one clip, two police officers drag one of the bodies down the road; in another clip, four officers carry a body down the same road. In another video reportedly filmed in North Okkalapa in Yangon, a dozen police officers surround a man and escort him out of a building and onto a street. A gunshot then rings out, and the man collapses to the pavement. An officer then kicks the man’s lifeless body, and then another officer drags the body away. Open-source photographs and videos show Myanmar Army soldiers holding automatic weapons, long-range sniper rifles, and other firearms. Police also used less-lethal weapons, including rubber bullets, slingshots, tear gas, and water cannons, against unarmed protesters. The similar use of excessive and lethal force by security forces in towns and cities throughout the country demonstrates coordination between units and an overarching national strategy, said Fortify Rights. All military and police in the chain of command should be held liable for crimes committed against the people of Myanmar. The junta has also arbitrarily arrested, charged, or sentenced at least 1,498 people since the February 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights organization monitoring arrests and detentions in Myanmar. On February 1, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing orchestrated a military coup d’état, overthrowing the elected government and detaining President Win Myint, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, dozens of other government leaders, parliamentarians, and human rights defenders. The junta took over the executive, judicial, and legislative levers of power and, on February 2, created a military-appointed “State Administration Council” (SAC) to rule the country. On March 1, the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, comprising elected members of parliament, declared the SAC a “Terrorist Group” for its “atrocities and acts of terrorism.” Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on February 26, Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.N., Kyaw Moe Tun, told member states that he represented the elected government of the National League for Democracy and called on the international community to use “any means necessary to take action” against the military to help “restore the democracy,” adding: “We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people, and to restore the democracy.” The U.N. Security Council should impose a global arms embargo against the Myanmar military, sanctions against Myanmar military individuals, entities, and assets, and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, said Fortify Rights. Failing that, the U.N. General Assembly should hold an emergency special session to address the crisis. “Soldiers and police in Myanmar are behaving like death squads and committing grave human rights violations,” said Ismail Wolff. “The world must take immediate action. There is no way out of this other than a complete repudiation of the coup and the junta.”..."
Source/publisher: "Fortify Rights"
Date of publication: 2021-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: U.N. General Assembly: Hold an Emergency Special Session on Myanmar
Description: "Myanmar junta systematically murdering and arresting protesters (BANGKOK, March 15, 2021)—U.N. member states should move to hold an Emergency Special Session at the U.N. General Assembly to demand collective action in response to the Myanmar military’s widespread and systematic attack on protesters, said Fortify Rights today. The Myanmar Police Force and Army reportedly killed more than 120 women, men, and children and arbitrarily arrested more than 2,000 since February 1. Yesterday, security forces murdered more than 50 protesters, most in Yangon, according to local news outlets and open-source media. It was the deadliest day since the February 1 military coup d’etat. “The Myanmar military poses a threat to the peace, and its ongoing attack is grave, dire, and massive in scope,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “The people of Myanmar are desperate for action, and the U.N. Security Council has persistently failed them. Now is the time for an Emergency Special Session at the General Assembly, where China and Russia have no veto power.” During an Emergency Special Session on the situation in Myanmar, U.N. member states should press for a global arms embargo against the Myanmar military and targeted sanctions against Myanmar military individuals, entities, and assets, said Fortify Rights. On sanctions, specifically, governments should coordinate to block the junta’s access to billion-dollar natural gas revenues. Member states should also press for the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocity crimes by Myanmar security forces in recent years, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The U.N. Security Council has issued two statements in response to the situation in Myanmar since the coup, on February 4 and March 10, but failed to take any collective action or acknowledge the junta’s overthrow of the elected government as a coup d’état. The people of Myanmar and civil society organizations have consistently called for greater action from the international community in response to the coup and the junta’s attacks on civilians. On March 10, the Security Council called on “the [Myanmar] military to exercise utmost restraint.” Since that statement, the junta murdered scores of people. The primary responsibility of the U.N. Security Council is the maintenance of international peace and security. In 1950, the U.N. General Assembly passed the Uniting for Peace Resolution to circumvent persistent vetoes at the U.N. Security Council by the Soviet Union during the Cold War era. Under the Uniting for Peace Resolution, if the U.N. Security Council lacks “unanimity” and “fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression,” then the U.N. General Assembly can convene “to maintain or restore international peace and security.” For the U.N. Security Council to request an Emergency Special Session, at least nine members of the Council must vote to refer the issue to the U.N. General Assembly. Alternatively, any U.N. member state may send a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General describing the matter of concern to request an Emergency Special Session. If a majority of member states agree with the request, then an Emergency Special Session must be held within 24 hours of receiving the majority of votes. Since 1950, the U.N. General Assembly has only ever held 10 Emergency Special Sessions on situations in several countries. During those sessions, the General Assembly recommended arms embargos on four occasions, comprehensive sanctions on two occasions, and peacekeepers on one occasion. In five of the past ten Emergency Special Sessions, the General Assembly urged military forces to withdraw. On February 1, the Myanmar military carried out a coup d’etat, overthrowing the democratically elected government. The military initially arrested State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and hundreds of others, declaring that it would control the country for one year. On February 2, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing created the State Administrative Council, with himself as chairperson. On February 3, medical professionals in Myanmar government-run hospitals went on strike in an act of civil disobedience. Their initial, coordinated act grew into the ongoing nationwide nonviolent “Civil Disobedience Movement” involving daily mass protests throughout the country and nationwide general strikes. On February 5, 15 elected members of parliament created the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), adding two additional MPs on February 10. The CRPH aims to form a government and perform the duties of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. On February 23, the CRPH appointed Dr. Sasa, an ethnic Chin medical doctor and longtime humanitarian, as its representative to the United Nations. On March 9, CRPH announced it had appointed Mahn Win Khaing Than as acting Vice President of the country. Since February 1, millions of people in Myanmar have protested the coup, including through acts as simple as banging pots and pans. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets throughout the country, protesting the military and holding evening vigils for murdered protesters in defiance of the junta’s prohibition on gatherings of five or more people. The Myanmar Police Force and military have used excessive and lethal force against protesters and, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, arbitrarily arrested at least 2,000 people. The junta amended a raft of laws to strip away rights and imposed evening internet blackouts nationwide. The military coup stands to exacerbate existing crises in the country, said Fortify Rights, citing reports of recent Myanmar military troop movements in at least northern Rakhine State and Karen and Kachin states, armed clashes with non-state ethnic armies, and attacks on civilians in ethnic areas since February 1. The Myanmar military is responsible for mass atrocities and protracted human rights violations committed with impunity against the Rohingya and the Arakanese (Rakhine), Kachin, Shan, Karen, and other ethnic minorities for decades. In its 2017 genocidal offensive against the Rohingya, the military massacred untold civilians and forced nearly 800,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Myanmar authorities continue to confine more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims to more than 20 internment camps in five townships in Rakhine State. On February 12, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said, “all options should be on the table” in response to the coup in Myanmar. “Barring concrete steps from the Security Council,” Thomas Andrews said, “the General Assembly can convene an Emergency Special Session.” On March 11, Thomas Andrews addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council, describing “shocking video of the aftermath of attacks, including fatal gunshot wounds to the heads of protesters, and video of soldiers dragging or carrying away the dead bodies of their victims.” “There is no question that the Myanmar military poses a threat to international peace and security, even beyond this coup,” said Matthew Smith. “This is the same military that has been carrying out the Rohingya genocide for several years and committing war crimes in ethnic states.” The U.N. Security Council already recognizes humanitarian emergencies, military coups, and cross-border refugee crises as legitimate threats to international peace. Despite the Myanmar military’s long-standing threats to peace and security, the Security Council has never used its authority under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter concerning Myanmar. Chapter VII allows the U.N. Security Council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take military and nonmilitary action to “restore international peace and security.” In 2007, China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Myanmar. Months later, the people of Myanmar held nationwide pro-democracy protests, similar in scale to the protests occurring now. In response, Myanmar state-security forces killed unarmed pro-democracy protesters and Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai with impunity. “The Myanmar military is not the Government of Myanmar,” said Matthew Smith. “U.N. member states must recognize Myanmar’s duly elected leaders and their chosen representatives, including the CRPH. The junta is an illegal entity formed by the Myanmar military, a criminal enterprise.”..."
Source/publisher: "Fortify Rights"
Date of publication: 2021-03-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: U.N. Security Council: Impose a Global Arms Embargo on Myanmar Military
Sub-title: 137 organizations call for urgent international action in response to coup and crackdown
Description: "The United Nations Security Council should “institute a coordinated, global arms embargo” against the Myanmar military, said Fortify Rights and 136 other organizations in an open letter to the body and U.N. member states today. “The Myanmar military poses a demonstrable threat to international peace and security,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “The Security Council should break its long history of inaction on Myanmar and immediately respond to this crisis.” Signatories to the open letter hail from 31 countries and include Fortify Rights, Human Rights Watch, and a diverse group of human rights organizations worldwide. Dozens of Myanmar-led organizations based in the country and Rohingya-led organizations signed the letter, demonstrating a level of inter-ethnic unity in the wake of the February 1 coup d’état in Myanmar, Fortify Rights said. The open letter released today focuses on the February 1 coup as well as the junta’s deadly crackdowns on nationwide protests, which continue at the time of writing. The Myanmar military “has detained the elected civilian leaders of the country, nullified the results of the November 2020 democratic elections, and installed a junta, the State Administration Council, under a manufactured ‘state of emergency,’” the letter says. On Monday, millions of people throughout Myanmar joined the “civil disobedience movement” by participating in a nationwide general strike and street protests. State security forces have used lethal force against unarmed protesters, killing Wai Yan Htun, 16, and Thet Naing Win, 36, in Mandalay and Tin Htut Hein, 30, while he was on a “night watch” in Yangon on February 20. On February 19, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, 20, died from injuries sustained after security forces shot her in the head in Naypyidaw on February 9. The police used excessive force—including with high-pressure water cannons, beatings, and rubber bullets and other less-lethal projectiles—in various locations since February 1, injuring scores. According to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, as of February 22, more than 630 people are either evading arbitrary arrest or are currently in detention since the junta seized power. In addition to overthrowing a democratically elected government and arbitrarily detaining an elected world leader, the Myanmar military is also responsible for mass atrocities and protracted human rights violations committed with impunity against the Rohingya and the Arakanese (Rakhine), Kachin, Shan, Karen, and other ethnic-nationality people. In its 2017 genocidal offensive against the Rohingya, the military massacred untold civilians and forced nearly 800,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Myanmar authorities continue to confine more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims to more than 20 internment camps in five townships in Rakhine State. Several armed conflicts in the country are ongoing. The U.N. Security Council already recognizes humanitarian emergencies, atrocity crimes, military coups, and cross-border refugee crises as legitimate threats to international peace. The United Kingdom is the current president of the U.N. Security Council, and the United States of America will become president on March 1. “There is no question that the Myanmar military poses a threat to international peace and security, even beyond this coup,” said Matthew Smith. “The coup will only exacerbate existing crises in the country that threaten to spill over its borders.” Despite the Myanmar military’s long-standing threats to peace and security, the U.N. Security Council has never used its authority under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter with regard to Myanmar. Chapter VII allows the U.N. Security Council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take military and nonmilitary action to “restore international peace and security.” In 2007, China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Myanmar. Months later, the people of Myanmar held nationwide pro-democracy protests, similar in scale to the protests occurring now. In response, Myanmar state-security forces killed unarmed pro-democracy protesters and Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai with impunity. On February 2, the U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the situation in Myanmar and failed to establish a common position. Later, the body issued a statement on the situation in Myanmar. “Council members should use that newfound consensus to take swift and substantive action,” the open letter issued today said. “An arms embargo would be the centerpiece of a global effort to shield the people of Myanmar from a return to abusive and autocratic rule.”..."
Source/publisher: "Fortify Rights"
Date of publication: 2021-02-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 11 June, (861) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Yenangyaung Township in Magway Region was killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 11 June, a total of (4823) people are currently under detention; of them (176) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of June 10, Maung Chit Thae a.k.a Chit Ko Win, a university student, was shot dead on the spot while he was passing through the front of Yenangyaung Government Technical Institute (GTI) riding a motorcycle at Yenangyaung Township in Magway Region. On the night of June 10, Myo Win Aung, photographer, was arrested at home by so-called police and soldiers at Taungdwingyi Township in Magway Region. On June 5, Ma Eaint, a filmmaker, was arrested by the junta in Rangoon while leaving her home. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.19 MB 4.34 MB 972.22 KB
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Title: Myanmar Junta Jails Disabled Student, Denies him Medical Treatment
Description: "A student from Magwe badly wounded in a junta crackdown on anti-regime protesters and at risk of going blind in one eye has been denied medical treatment by the military regime and imprisoned instead. Ko Liang Phyo Aung, a 22-year-old second-year engineering student at Magwe Technological University, was severely injured in his right eye after a violent crackdown by junta forces on an anti-regime demonstration in Magwe on March 27. He also lost his right hand, his left arm was broken and his mobility severely impaired by the wounds he suffered from being hit in the legs by multiple rubber bullets. He received treatment for those injuries while in detention at a military hospital, where in April the junta charged him with incitement under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code. The student was then sent to Magwe Prison on June 7, after the military hospital said that he is recovering from all his injuries except for his injured eye. But the military hospital stated also that his eye needs to be treated at Yangon Eye Hospital because the military hospital lacks a specialist eye doctor. “His eye is oozing pus and is in urgent need of surgery. There is no eye specialist at the military hospital and he needs to be sent to Yangon for a cornea transplant,” said the elder brother of Ko Liang Phyo Aung. “The medical report by the military hospital said his eye needs to be treated at Yangon Eye Hospital. But they sent him to prison right after the medical report was released,” he added. The report also said that Ko Liang Phyo Aung still needs rehabilitation as he could not walk well due to his leg injuries inflicted by rubber bullets. U Myat Thu Win, chairman of the Shwe Minn Tha Foundation, a group advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities, requested that Ko Liang Phyo Aung be given treatment under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Myanmar has ratified, and under Myanmar’s own law protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. “He used to be normal and became disabled only a few months ago. It will be hard for him to get used to it and perform daily activities. What is important is that he has every right to continue receiving treatment. I would like to request that he is given further treatment,” said U Myat Thu Win. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, Ko Liang Pyo Aung has the right to apply for bail to receive emergency health care. Citing Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, lawyer U Khin Maung Myint said the judge can grant bail for accused people who are sick if there are reasonable grounds for believing that they have not committed an offence punishable with death or with transportation for life. “The maximum penalty for violating Section 505(a) of the Penal Code is three years. As the case has not yet been brought to the court, bail can be applied for at the relevant police station and through the township police head,” said the lawyer. “He is a disabled person now and was made disabled by their torture. It is too inhuman to prosecute him after making him disabled,” said the elder brother of Ko Liang Phyo Aung. The regime has detained at least 15 physically or mentally disabled persons across the country, according to rights groups. As of June 10, at least 860 people have been killed by the junta since their Feb. 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. More than 4,800 people remain in detention..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Nearly 30 Junta Troops Killed in Myanmar’s Chin State as Rights Czar Calls For End to Violence
Sub-title: The country’s least developed state is dealing with a refugee crisis as well as a COVID-19 outbreak.
Description: "Nearly 30 junta troops were killed Thursday in Myanmar’s Chin state as fighting between militia groups and the military escalated in the country’s remote regions, prompting the United Nations rights czar to warn of a “human rights catastrophe.” Members of the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) in Chin’s Thantlang township said they attacked a column of soldiers traveling around 25 miles outside of the town center, killing as many as 17 in the ensuing firefight and suffering no casualties. “More than 100 junta soldiers were marching towards the Khuahring Thang mountain range,” said a fighter with the Thantlang CDF, who spoke to RFA’s Myanmar Service on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “We’re a little worried about the situation. There are more troops than ever pressing on us. The fighting is expected to become more intense.” The CDF fighter said his group attacked the column “because the military has been intimidating local residents.” The clash marked the first in Thantlang township and caused around 600 residents of three villages in the area to flee to the mountains, he said. “Most people fled because they were scared about the presence of the soldiers,” he said. “A lot of people in Thantlang had already fled their homes earlier [when troops began to deploy to the area].” A similar clash broke out in an area between the townships of Hakha and Gangaw, the Hakha CDF announced Thursday, saying it had killed 10 junta soldiers. The group did not report any casualties of its own in the fighting. In a statement, the CDF said it will “continue to fight fiercely in all parts of Chin state” to protect the people. RFA was unable to independently verify CDF claims about the number of soldiers killed in Thursday’s clashes and calls to Myanmar’s Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Friday.....‘Human rights catastrophe’: On Friday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned that any escalation in violence in Myanmar must be halted to prevent even greater loss of life and a deepening humanitarian emergency. “As I had feared, armed conflict and other violence are intensifying in many parts of Myanmar, including Kayah State, Chin State and Kachin State, with the violence particularly intense in areas with significant ethnic and religious minority groups,” Bachelet said in a statement, noting that the military has continued to use heavy weaponry, including airstrikes, against armed groups and against civilians. “In just over four months, Myanmar has gone from being a fragile democracy to a human rights catastrophe,” she said. “In addition to the loss of life, people are suffering from severe impacts on the social and economic rights. The military leadership is singularly responsible for this crisis, and must be held to account.” The junta deposed Myanmar’s democratically elected government on Feb. 1, claiming that the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party had won the country’s November 2020 elections due to widespread voter fraud, despite a lack of evidence. The move prompted widespread protests that the military has responded to with violent crackdowns, killing some 860 people over the past four months. The CDF is a network of volunteers that formed in April to protect the people of Chin and has enjoyed relative success facing the military—the second largest in Southeast Asia—with slingshots and the same crude flintlock “Tumee” rifles their forefathers used to fight off British colonizers in the 1880s. The CDF said it had killed some 100 junta troops between March and May. Fighters of the CDF were engaged in daily battles from May 12 until May 15, when the junta occupied Mindat with 1,000 fully armed troops who used civilians as human shields and sprayed gunfire indiscriminately, the CHRO said recently. The CDF pulled out May 16 to protect civilians from further artillery attacks and fire from helicopter gunships, Chin fighters have said, but fighting resumed on June 3 and both sides have suffered casualties. The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) estimates that some 40,000 civilians have fled their homes throughout Chin state since May.....Outbreak compounds challenges: As more residents flee intensifying fighting in Chin, the region is also facing an outbreak of COVID-19 that medical workers reported had killed 10 people as of Friday. Over the past three weeks, around 320 cases have been reported in the townships of Tunzan and Kyeehar, near Myanmar’s border with India. Myanmar’s least developed state had already been dealing with a shortage of health workers prior to the coronavirus pandemic, but sources told RFA that following the military coup, many of the medical personnel in the state joined the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement, leaving few behind to control the spread of the virus and treat those infected with COVID-19, the disease it causes. “Nobody who is infected wants to go to the hospital because there are no doctors there,” said an official with the COVID-19 Relief Team in Kyeekhar, where medical students are assisting three hospital staffers attend to 195 infected patients. “They are just being treated at home … We have tried to help them. If their condition becomes serious, they call us for help, and we take them by car to the hospital so that they can be given oxygen.” The administrator of Kyeekhar township confirmed to RFA that there are no longer any doctors at the local hospital. “We are treating patients with the help of volunteer doctors and nurses,” he said. On May 28, the local government issued a Stay At Home order in Kyeekhar and Tunzang townships and similar restrictions have since been implemented in the nearby townships of Tedim, Falam, Hakha and Thantlang. According to the junta’s Ministry of Health, a total of 144,876 confirmed infections and 3,237 deaths from COVID-19 have been recorded in Myanmar beginning in March 2020. Earlier this week, the United Nations in Myanmar voiced concern about what it called “the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation” the country’s remote conflict areas. The U.N. stressed the urgent need for food, water, shelter, fuel, and access to healthcare for people fleeing the fighting, saying that the aid it has distributed is insufficient—particularly for those in remote locations, where insecurity, travel restrictions, and poor road conditions are delaying the delivery of supplies. Aid groups estimate that more than a quarter of a million civilians in seven regions of Myanmar have been displaced by clashes between the military and militias or fighting between ethnic armies in the four months since the junta coup. The 226,000 displaced in 2021 join more than 500,000 refugees from decades of military conflict between the government military and ethnic armies who were already counted as internally displaced persons at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO..."
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Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: While Myanmar’s cities become military occupations, conflict persists in the ethnic borderlands
Description: "Following the February coup, the violence used by the security forces against civilian protestors in Myanmar’s towns and cities has shocked public opinion around the world. But, as Naw Hsa Moo and Dominique Dillabough-Lefebvre explain in this commentary, such tactics have long been used by the Myanmar armed forces in military operations in the country’s ethnic states and regions. Awareness is now building and, as they argue, the military coup has brought new understanding and sympathy between pro-democracy and ethnic nationality movements. Since the seizure of power by the military State Administration Council (SAC) on 1 February, mass protests have swept towns and cities in every state and region in Myanmar. As the days have passed by, civilians have faced the brunt of an increasingly aggressive response from the national armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, whose indiscriminate use of force has now led to over 70 killed, countless injured, and more than 2000 people detained. And yet, despite the heightened use of military force, the general public throughout the country continue to stand in defiance, leading creative protests, with people of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds joining strikes and the civil disobedience movement. All nationality peoples are being impacted. For lowland Bamar (Burman) people, the majority ethnic group, the current repression against civilians carries terrifying reverberations of past violent state-led responses towards demonstrators, most notably during the 1988 pro-democracy protests. However, for those living in many non-Bamar areas, the militarisation and pervasive sense of fear accompanying current events are sadly all too familiar. For many decades, they have been regular features of daily life, notably in the Kachin, Karen, Kayah (Karenni), Mon, Rakhine (Arakan) and Shan States. Karen State in Myanmar’s Southeast is a poignant example of such struggles. Home to what is often considered the world’s longest-running civil war, conflict has escalated between the Tatmadaw and the armed opposition Karen National Union (KNU), with over 6,000 civilians displaced from their villages since the Tatmadaw intensified military operations in December 2020. The majority people living here identify as Karen, one of the country’s largest nationality groups, and are largely farming communities living in forested hills and winding valleys that run down the Thailand border. In response to the twin threats of military incursions and the SAC coup, villagers across Kler Lwee Htu (Nyaunglebin) and Mutraw (Hpapun) Districts have been regularly demonstrating, demanding the removal of the Tatmadaw from their lands and expressing solidarity with the protest movement across the country. Whether in conditions of war or peace, Karen communities have faced the same challenges in every era of government since the country’s independence in 1948. A ceasefire was agreed between the government and the KNU in 2012 but, to date, this has not brought about a significant reduction in militarisation in many areas. Rather, the patterns of conflict and Tatmadaw encroachment have continued. In particular, the recent increase in Tatmadaw activity is linked to road-building, the expansion of a network of military roads in northern Karen State that first began during offensives in the 1990s. The detrimental consequences for local villagers are profound. Naw Ghay Hai is the principal of Keh Der school in Kler Lwee Htu District in the KNU 3rd Brigade area. But, as she explained, there is no benefit to the local population: only an increase in land loss and fear: “The road being built crosses through the paddy fields of local farmers, destroying the irrigation systems in the fields, seriously affecting the livelihoods of local people. They [Tatmadaw troops] build camps nearby that are causing the displacement of local villagers, and they are shelling around nearby villages. When local people hear the sound of guns and mortars, they obviously flee out of fear, and don’t dare to return.” The latest military incursions are now compounding a worsening pattern of land loss and displacement that has built up among the local population over several decades. According to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People, approximately 30,000 people have been displaced in the local area since Tatmadaw “regional clearance” operations were initiated in the 1990s. Military offensives and continuing clashes have caused a loss of shelter, a lack of access to healthcare and difficulties in delivering food supplies to displaced villagers, putting children and elderly people especially at risk. Displaced villagers now live scattered in different locations in several townships across northern Karen State. For many communities, this is not their first experience of flight. Villagers in Keh Der village tract recently explained to staff members from KESAN, a Karen civil society organisation, that they had started to hear the distant sound of gunshots and shelling from 12 December last year. Although this initially appeared to be occurring some way from their village, everyone was worried. Then, on 11 February – ten days after the coup, Tatmadaw forces moved closer to the village and people started to flee. As the troops moved in, they destroyed the food stores of displaced farmers, seized their livestock, burnt down their houses and, in nearby areas, forced villagers to act as porters to carry supplies for them as they continued their military sweep. For the local peoples, this latest displacement brought back many memories of sufferings in the past. Constant insecurity and the arbitrary use of force have long been a mainstay in the lives of local people in this region. Saw Lo Wah, head of Keh Der village tract, remembered first fleeing from the Tatmadaw as a child in the 1960s. Those who were captured were forced by the soldiers to work as porters, an especially pervasive and egregious abuse of human rights. As he explained: “Many people were injured or killed when they worked as porters for the military. For example, my father stepped on a landmine when he was a porter for the Tatmadaw. This was the case for many people as the Tatmadaw used Karen villagers to sweep the area for landmines, usually at gunpoint.” Such experiences continued into adulthood, with Saw Lo Wah describing the situation as having grown “increasingly worse” during the late 1990s: “When the military came, one family had to flee so quickly that they were unable to take their two children from their home, and the Burmese military burnt down their house. When the family returned, the children were gone.” This was by no means the end of local suffering. For his part, Saw Lo Wah had to build his own home on three subsequent occasions, but each time Tatmadaw troops burned it down again, with all of his family’s possessions inside. After six decades of military-dominated rule and a new regime in power, Saw Lo Wah’s assessment is stark. But he is expressing a view of the latest military takeover that can be frequently heard among communities in different parts of the country today: “This is the root cause of our poverty. The Tatmadaw doesn’t care if you are young or old, male or female, they will kill everybody. They spare nobody.”.....A backdrop of conflict: militarisation as a way of life: Internal military conflicts have long been central to the nation-building ambitions of the Tatmadaw in Myanmar. In a country where national identity has long been linked to a particularly “racialised” vision of ethnicity, the national armed forces have been engaged in protracted warfare with a wide range of ethnic armed organisations (EAOs), amongst them the KNU, since independence from Great Britain in 1948. During these years, a simplistic vision of national politics has often pervaded popular imagination and discourse. In recent decades, this vision has been marked by the country’s democratic hero, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), who – it was hoped – were gradually leading the country on a path away from state failure and international isolationism towards democratisation and respect for human rights. These expectations reached a pinnacle when the NLD won the 2015 general election, assuming government office the following year. Yet amidst the period of economic liberalisation that followed the 2011 shift to a nominally civilian system of government, armed conflicts have persisted in ethnic nationality areas outside of the Bamar-dominated heartlands in the centre of the country. While the army's blood-stained campaign against the Rohingya population in 2017 was the subject of much international media coverage, the Tatmadaw has also continued to carry out “anti-insurgency” campaigns against EAOs among several other nationality groups, including the Buddhist Rakhine people who also hail from Rakhine State. The cycles of conflict within the country are yet to be ended. Many nationality peoples have been affected. Following the expulsion of over 750,000 Rohingya people, the Tatmadaw became locked in an increasingly bloody conflict with an emergent Rakhine force known as the United League of Army-Arakan Army (ULA-AA). But, after the NLD’s accession to office, the Tatmadaw also escalated military “clearance operations” forcibly displacing local populations in the Kachin, Karen and Shan States as well, severely impacting on the security and livelihoods of farming communities who depend on land for their survival. Accurate humanitarian statistics are difficult to assemble from different parts of the country. But up to 10,000 people are believed to have died during Tatmadaw operations in the past five years, while over a million civilians are currently displaced from their homes, either living as refugees in neighbouring countries or in displacement camps in the hills. The evidence of a pervasive culture of human rights violations is deeply troubling. Today Tatmadaw actions during the events of the past few years are the focus of ongoing human rights investigations for potential war crimes by the International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice and UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar. Finding a political language, though, that unites peoples and addresses the conflict challenges in inclusive ways has historically proven difficult. Distinctions between “state” and “non-state” actors have often been opaque within the geographic boundaries of Myanmar. Shifting alliances between the Tatmadaw, ethnic nationality forces, government-backed militias and local military strongmen have been one of the most persistent realities in defining the functioning of “State” in many parts of the country. Today over 20 EAOs remain active in different nationality lands, from Rakhine State on the Bay of Bengal to the Tanintharyi Region in Myanmar’s far south. In this context, projections of national unity become a reflection of the complex relationship between the Tatmadaw at the political centre and the peripheries where diverse nationality peoples live in uplands surrounding the Ayeyarwady plains. Over the decades, continued exploitation of the wealth of the resource-rich borderlands has been central to the development of Myanmar state, much in the same way that the plunder of native lands, slavery and a western expansionism was central in the shaping of the American national imaginary. Much of this economy is secretive and under-reported, but Myanmar’s ethnic states are home to large mineral reserves, illicit drug production and lucrative cross-border trades from which powerful elites and outside interests – not local peoples – mostly profit. Compounding the marginalisation of local peoples, there is often a large knowledge gap in the outside world about the harsh living conditions in the country’s conflict zones. Such a lack of understanding is a constant source of frustration for ethnic nationality peoples trying to make common cause with their fellow countryman, yet find themselves stymied by urban-rural differences as well as ethnic, religious and linguistic divides. Even many well-informed urban Burmese only have a limited grasp of what is happening in the hills. The same lack of awareness exists in the international community, where the confusing array of armed groups poses significant barriers for foreign journalists, policy-makers and other outside actors who seek to understand some of the longest-running conflicts in modern Asian history. For this reason, the failure of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD leadership to address conflict and the grievances of non-Bamar peoples remains one of the party’s most notable failures during its time in government office. The 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), which the NLD-led administration inherited from its quasi-civilian predecessor, was a cornerstone in a faltering peace process that not only failed to include a majority of the strongest EAOs in the country but was also one in which the none of three words in its title could be said to be true: i.e. it was not nationwide, a ceasefire or an agreement. To try and pick up the political momentum, the NLD inaugurated a 21st Century Panglong Conference in August 2016 with a promise to re-energise the peace process. But the government never acknowledged the NCA’s many failings. The NCA’s largest signatories in terms of EAO combatants – the KNU and Restoration Council of Shan State – could hardly be seen to be representative of the entire country and both continued to clash with the Tatmadaw. At the same time, most of the eight other EAOs that signed the NCA were significantly smaller, some of which had never seriously fought with the government while others, notably the Chin National Front, had not had protracted clashes with the Tatmadaw since the early 1990s. Equally damaging to the credibility of the NCA, there were powerful and well-organised EAOs in the north of the country that were either not allowed by the Tatmadaw to join the accord or decided to boycott the process altogether. Pre-eminent EAOs which never joined the NCA include the United Wa State Party and Shan State Progress Party which have formal ceasefires with the government, and the Kachin Independence Organisation, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and ULA-AA that do not. The ethno-political landscape is now highly uncertain. Following the coup, the NCA EAO-signatories collectively issued a statement on 20 February refusing to recognise the new regime as a legitimate power, and leading to a cessation of further talks. This represents a de facto breakdown in a ceasefire which, since its inception, had given little assurances to NCA signatories that the Myanmar armed forces would hold true to their word. For ceasefire EAOs, this represents a dilemma. According to Lt-Col. Saw La Shwe Hai from the KNU’s armed wing, Tatmadaw officers claim to follow the NCA codes of conduct and that they will try to resolve issues through political dialogue, but they do not follow through in practice: “Instead they try and control more territory, build roads and further infrastructure and keep sending more reinforcements… They are trying to gradually control our area, bit by bit, but pretend they are following agreements… they couldn’t be lying any more”. For ethnic nationality communities in the conflict-zones, such experiences are hardly new. But there is evidence that the scale of human rights violations across the country since the SAC’s seizure of power is bringing about a change in attitudes among the Bamar-majority population as well. Amidst the protests in the cities, incidents are being documented that the Myanmar military has been looting shops and houses, stealing food from street vendors and taking livestock from markets. Understanding the reality of such violence from the perspective of those living in the ethnic states and borderlands sheds light on the nature of the ethnocratic state-building policies of governments since independence and the ideology of the Tatmadaw. Echoing this, a vocal minority of Bamar people have begun apologising for failing to stand behind ethnic peoples as they faced persecution. A female activist, who asked to remain anonymous, explained that “the intimidation, harassment and violence by the police and soldiers are nothing new” but that the “the violence and oppression has now been extended to the cities”. She continued: “We are not even experiencing the brutality of the military yet in the cities, like those people in Rakhine experienced every day and every night. Those in Kachin. Those in Karen. Those in Shan. Now we too have to defend ourselves.”.....Conclusion: As the military coup enters its second month, people across the country are increasingly faced with the striking parallels between the ongoing indiscriminate use of force, intimidation and suppression against anti-coup protestors and civilians in the towns and the military’s historical and ongoing systematic brutality in Myanmar’s ethnically diverse borderlands. For populations in these areas, this has long been part of their lived experience. But for many young Bamar people in the cities, a growing awareness of this offers important lessons for a country coming to grips with the reinstatement of a military dictatorship amidst longstanding ethnic strife. Such sentiments are not only rising in urban areas. Much of Myanmar’s largely rural population have also long faced the brunt of military-enabled land confiscations and repressive practices, keeping the majority of the population in poverty. As journalist and author Carlos Sardiña Galache succinctly put it: “The Tatmadaw has always portrayed itself as the only institution capable of preserving Burma's unity, and this coup is proving the point in an unintended way: virtually the whole country seems to be united in rejecting the coup and the Tatmadaw itself.” Now that these diverse groups are coming together, new alliances are beginning to emerge amidst the chaos. Although Myanmar’s future remains far from certain, the coup has created circumstances through which people in towns and cities across the country can better empathise with the long-suffering plight of residents of the war-torn lands inhabited by the Karens and other ethnic nationality peoples. Written in collaboration with members of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) conducting on the ground interviews..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The Transnational Institute (TNI)
Date of publication: 2021-03-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 10 June, (860) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Meiktila Township in Mandalay Region and Yinmabin Township in Sagaing Region were killed on previous days and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 10 June, a total of (4804) people are currently under detention; of them (173) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of 9 June, a teacher involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and who participated in the Amarapura Strike, was arrested in Amarapura Township, Mandalay Region by the terrorist junta. Two poets, Maung Yu Paing and Nayi Myeik (a.k.a Lwin Aung, the lawyer), activist Tin Ko Ko Oo, NLD Township executive member Soe Linn, who were living in Myeik Township, Tanintharyi Region were charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code and sentenced to two years imprisonment on on 9 June, apart from Maung Yu Paing sentenced on 8 June. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Film festival highlights Myanmar’s long struggle for democracy
Sub-title: Online film festival that runs to June 20 aims to draw attention to Myanmar’s political crisis while raising money for groups inside the country striving to restore democracy and alleviate hardship.
Description: "Mr Kenneth Wong and his family left Myanmar soon after witnessing the military gun down unarmed protesters on the streets of Yangon in 1988. For Wong, a Burmese language lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, there’s a painful sense of deja vu over the situation in Myanmar. He was a university student in 1988 when the military violently suppressed a national uprising in which many of his friends participated. In the decades since, Wong was encouraged by the how much Myanmar had changed each time he visited. Then came the coup on February 1. “The things I’m seeing are things I hoped the new generation would never have to experience,” he told Frontier. Wong, who is also a poet and artist, began looking for a way to support the anti-coup struggle through art. He got together with a group of filmmakers and directors based in San Francisco and began sounding out Myanmar filmmakers and distributors with the idea of holding an online film festival, with all proceeds going towards humanitarian and pro-democracy groups inside the country. These discussions resulted in the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival, which features more than 30 films from or about Myanmar, and runs until June 20. Helping to spearhead the concept was Gaetano Kazuo Maida, the executive director of the Buddhist Film Foundation/International Buddhist Film Festival. “The filmmaker community really responded to our urgent invitations,” said Maida. “All of the filmmakers that we reached out to were very generous, knowing that this was the cause,” added Wong. The film festival has an added poignancy because of the regime’s targeting of Myanmar’s top artists, including actors, filmmakers and bloggers. A fellow film festival organiser, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who founded the annual Human Rights Human Dignity Film Festival, was arrested on the day of the coup. In total, the military has issued arrest warrants for 120 filmmakers, actors, celebrities and journalists for opposing the coup. “The junta recognises that these entertainers have an incredibly powerful voice and so they target them,” Wong said. One of the most recent filmmakers to be arrested was Ma Aeint, whose latest film, Money has Four Legs, directed by Maung Sun and released last year, was about censorship in Myanmar. Ma Eaint’s family haven’t been able to contact her since she was detained by police in early June. “We want to get in touch with her her as soon as possible because the interrogation centers are known for torture,” said her sister, Ma Su Wai. Many of the titles in the Burma Spring Benefit festival encapsulate the sense of deja vu Wong is feeling, at a time when the military is once again in control of the levers of power and the people are once again fighting for democracy. Burma VJ, a 2008 Best Documentary nominee at the Academy Awards in the United States, shows how thousands of monks led a campaign of nonviolent resistance against the military junta in protests in 2007 known as the Saffron Revolution. Dozens were killed and hundreds arrested, and the Danish team that made the documentary had to smuggle their footage out of the country. Fellow festival organiser Ms Jeanne Marie Hallacy said the films in the festival were selected both for the strength of their storytelling and filmmaking craft, and their relevance for a general audience to understand the country’s prolonged struggle for democracy and human rights. One of the newest films to be screened, Burma Spring 21, is unique in that the five-minute film was shot and edited by an anonymous Myanmar filmmaker soon after the coup. Although filmmakers would ordinarily covet acclaim for a completed project, fear of being on a government blacklist and facing potential reprisals means that the message takes precedence. “Facts and figures are easy to get online,” Wong said. “But what’s difficult to get are the explanations about the socio-political issues that spawned the current crisis. This is the type of information that is better discovered in books, films, and particularly in documentary films.” A highlight of the film festival will take place on June 11 when it is due to be addressed by two members of the National Unity Government: U Aung Myo Min, the minister for human rights, and Naw Susannah Hla Hla Soe, the minister for women, youth and children affairs. The film festival is just one event in one US city that is helping to create awareness and raise funds for people resisting the coup in Myanmar. Elsewhere around the world, local activist groups have been holding rallies and raising funds for the protest movement. Wong is working with the International Network of Engaged Buddhists to transfer much-needed funds to civil servants who have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement and are refusing to work under the junta. “These are lifelines to them, because if you are participating in the CDM, a salary is no longer available,” said Wong. Although Myanmar faces an uncertain future, Wong hopes for the day when the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival will no longer aim to raise awareness and funds, and will instead showcase a renewed entertainment scene in all its creative glory. During his trips to Myanmar, he saw clear signs that the country was moving towards a better future after nearly half a century of military rule. “There were a lot of young people who were launching their own startups and drawing inspiration from Silicon Valley,” he said. “At tea shops, taxi drivers and waiters were eager to talk about politics and express their views without [having to worry about] being arrested. I felt that these were signs that democracy was struggling to be born. So this film festival is about creating awareness.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Torture to Death in Detention
Description: "The military group has carried out a series of daily arrests on elected leaders and civilians opposing the military coup since February 1, 2021. As a result of these arbitrary arrests and torture, people are being disabled and tortured to death. Successive dictatorships have pursued policies to control the population with fear and torture as one of those policies. Interrogation centers during the military regime were notorious for torture. After the 1988 uprising, thousands of civilians against them were arrested and imprisoned. AAPP collected data on 127 deaths during the State Law and Order Resurrection Council (SLORC) and State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) era, torturing inside interrogation camps, prisons, police custody, and through lack of access to medical treatment. Since February 1, the junta has brutally arrested and tortured, continuing to use torture as policy. The junta is beating, crashing with cars, and shooting. Many anti-coup activists have been arrested with serious injuries. Some of those cannot even be recognized because of torture and photos shown on junta-controlled media display people with injuries. Some detainees who were subjected to severe torture resulting in significant mental illness, being disabled and death. Sometimes, days after arrest, families are informed to take the dead bodies. Some others are not even recovering the bodies but instead just informed they are dead. In Burma since the coup, people are tortured to death for the specific purpose of inducing a climate of fear. This is a crime against humanity, and fundamentally the activity of a foreign terrorist organization. According to AAPP documentation, 5965 have been arrested since the coup. Of these, 4,804 remain in prison, interrogation centers, and under house arrest. At least 860 people have been killed. Of these, 22 have been killed from torture during detention. 3 of these tortured to death, dead bodies were not returned to their family. The number of tortured to death is likely to be higher than confirmed. Of those 22 tortured to death, 13 were killed within 24 hours of arrest and 4 were killed within 2 days, another 4 were killed within a week, and 1 victim was killed within two weeks. Almost all the victims were found with wounds consistent with torture, it can be seen all over the bodies. However, the junta reports they died from illness or other cause. U Aye Ko, 40-year old, was shot by the junta troops while night guarding in front of Ta Tar Oo Monastery, Mandalay on March 27. They dragged him onto a burning car tire. An eyewitness said that Aye Ko was not dead and could still walk when he was burnt alive. U Kyaw Kyaw (a.k.a. Agga Moe Nyo) 39-year-old, was arrested on March 15. On March 30 he was announced dead, his family were not allowed to return and bury his body. Daw Khin Marlar Win (a.k.a. Myo Myo Lwin) 39-year-old, was detained on March 19 in the Pakokku crackdown. She begged on her knees not to be arrested, she was forcibly arrested. The family was informed to take the dead body the next morning. U Zaw Myat Linn, 46-year-old, was arrested in Shwepyithar Township where he lived. He was killed that night. According to eyewitnesses, his whole head was bruised, and parts of his mouth and body had disintegrated. The prohibition of torture, and especially to death, is customary and observed across national military manuals. Torture is prohibited in Burma’s domestic law as well, “bodily pain” and “grievous hurt” are outlawed under the Articles 319 and 320 of Burma’s Penal Code. Articles 330 and 331 specifically forbid a public servant to commit “hurt” and “grievous hurt” during interrogations. According to Article 166, any public servant disobeying this law and intentionally harming any person shall be punished to one year imprisonment, a fine or both. When a public servant commits torture to death, it is a crime of murder. The Prisoner Act 49 provisions includes situations concerning the different use of punishment, and the restriction of a prison authority to significantly harm detainees. According to the international human rights law torture is prohibited under any circumstances: Article 3 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 7 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT) Burma is one of the handful countries to refuse to sign the UN Convention against Torture. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) strongly condemns such brutal torture and killings. At the same time, we call on the international community to take immediate and effective action in preventing the recurrence of torture. In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government: Announcement No.4/2021
Description: "The NUG has vowed to the people that it will, by justifiable means, vanquish and uproot the terrorist military council that has been ruling the country unlawfully and repressively. The NUG will, together with the public, endeavor to work judiciously and diligently towards building a federal democratic union. Today’s Spring Revolution is the people’s revolution led by the people to liberate themselves from under the yoke of the thuggish military dictatorship. It is obvious to one and all that the world renowned Civil Disobedience Movement is the main pillar of the Spring Revolution that has successfully hindered and impeded the military regime’s apparatus by nonviolent means. And it has rightfully been commended.Therefore the NUG, on record, hereby pay homage, applaud and honour all the heroes of the nonviolent Civil Disobedience Movement. It has also come to our notice that the terrorist military regime has been suppressing our non-violent CDM heroes by using inhumane methods such as intimidating, torturing and arresting them. Likewise their non-CDM lackeys in the upper administrative echelon are using various threats and putting pressure on staff. But with the interests of the Nation and the People at heart the populace and all nationals are persevering wholeheartedly with the Civil Disobedience Movement and for that we are grateful. The NUG will make sure that the military regime’s lackeys are meted out with appropriate retribution through the courts. The NUG has been systematically recording data on those who are non-CDM participants and have been bullying and threatening CDM participants. Similarly systematic data is being kept on who is CDM participant and who is not in a graded scale and that data will be used for adjudication purposes after the abolition of military dictatorship and the advent of a new federal democratic union. The NUG unreservedly supports the non-violent Civil Disobedience Movement. In addition the NUG has advocated a policy on self defence in order for the public to be able to defend themselves against the strong-armed repressive unjust atrocities enacted upon them by the junta. We also note that a group of factious agitators in all forms and guises have been performing seditious acts. The NUG has never been an advocate, nor a supporter of these lawless seditious acts. The NUG strongly condemns and denounces those acts. The NUG hereby declares that this government will only continue to support the two principles, that of upholding the law and endorse and lend credence to the non-violent activities of the Civil Disobedience Movement..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
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Title: H.E Dr. Sasa has sent a special appealing letter to Prime Minister of UK
Description: "Dear Prime Minister, I am making this special appeal to you on behalf of 54 million brave people of Myanmar and the National Unity Government of Myanmar to please put the deepening crisis in Myanmar on the G7 agenda when the head of world leaders meet at the upcoming G7 meeting. First of all, I would like to reiterate my sincere thanks to the people, Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom for standing in solidarity and being a strong voice for the people of Myanmar. I also want to express my gratitude for the efforts of the UK on coordinating targeted sanctions against key Tatmadaw personnel, Tatmadaw linked companies and enterprises such as MGE, MEC and MEHL, and for providing generous funding of 28 million UK sterling pound for humanitarian aids to Myanmar and for providing extra funding to the IIMM. I would like to further thank the UK government for taking a strong leadership role in the UN and G7 meetings on behalf of the people of Myanmar, and for the recognition of CRPH and NUG as important voices of many in this nation. Truly we are the voice of over 54 million brave people who stand in solidarity against the cruel and ruthless junta. Thank you also for lending protection and support to Myanmar Ambassador to UK, H.E Kyaw Zwar Minn since he was illegally removed from office by the junta. I previously had the wonderful privilege of meetings with Minister H.E. Nigel Adams and UK Ambassador to Myanmar H.E Dan Chugg. British Parliamentarians reassured me that the People and Government of the UK are strongly committed and supportive of the brave people of Myanmar in our peaceful movement for freedom and democracy against the junta reign of terror. I am also grateful for the opportunity to appear before the British Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee on the Myanmar military coup crisis hearing. Since the 1st of February 2021 when military coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and his gunmen instigated this illegal coup d’etat and took our Nation, Myanmar, hostage, nearly 900 civilians have been murdered by the junta including at least 72 children, nearly 6,000 civilians have been arrested by the junta including our State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and our President U Win Myint , and over 1,900 are evading arrest warrants. I have been charged with high treason by these military generals who are in fact the ones committing high treason against the people of Myanmar themselves. The junta leaders continue using the ASEAN engagements as a propaganda tool while the junta forces continue committing violence and atrocities against the people of Myanmar in villages, towns, and cities across the nation. The torture and cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians under the junta forces continue. They have abolished free media outlets in the vain attempt to stop the truth from getting out. Harassment and imprisonment of journalists continue under the junta. The violence we are seeing by the junta is both systematic and widespread. It is clear that they are engaging in crimes against humanity by using heavy battlefield weapons against unarmed civilians. They have been purchasing these weapons from big countries by using the stolen wealth of the people and country of Myanmar. As a result, Myanmar is now quickly becoming a failed state: ten of thousands of people have become displaced by the junta forces, food insecurity is rising sharply, and the UNDP is predicting that over half of the 54 million population of Myanmar (approximately 27 million people) will be living in poverty within a year. World Food Programme (WFP) estimates 6.4 million people will be without food in Myanmar by October 2021.lt will be heart breaking to count the number of deaths caused not only by the deepening crisis of violence, but also by the tragedy of poverty and hunger that has begun. We, the sovereign citizens of Myanmar, are doing all that we can to prevent these great tragedies of violence, genocide, criminal atrocities, poverty and hunger by courageously and peacefully resisting the junta’s efforts to cause us maximum pain, suffering, death and destruction. The citizens of Myanmar have initiated strong domestic sanctions against the junta through this peaceful movement of Civil Disobedient Movement-CDM, strikes and other acts of civil disobedience. We are boycotting junta produced goods, and a large percentage of civil servants are refusing to support the junta’s work. The sanctions that have been imposed to date by the International Community have been a helpful start to supporting our domestic efforts. While the brutal crackdown by the junta and its forces continue, opposition to the junta remains strong and unanimous among the people of Myanmar. However, greater help and support from G7 world leaders and countries are vitally important. We have three core requests to present to the G7 world leaders and countries: Engage with the National Unity Government as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Myanmar. We are comprised of leaders elected in Myanmar’s democratic November elections as well as leaders of ethnic states and regions. The people of Myanmar recognize us as the sole legitimate government and our hope is that you will also work with us as the sole legitimate government of Myanmar as well. Help us to address the growing humanitarian crisis. We need aid. The National Unity Government knows how to get aid to where it is needed. A humanitarian crisis is growing due to this brutal junta and the spread of COVID-19. Myanmar’s economy is in collapse and millions are already, or at risk of being, without water, food, sanitation, shelter and medicine. We desperately need aid for 1) FOOD SECURITY, 2) HEALTH 3) SHELTER, 4) EDUCATION: Help us by putting more financial and diplomatic pressure on the junta. It is critical for the nations of the world who stand with us to band together in a coordinated campaign of further sanctions that would cut the flow of revenue to this murderous regime to ensure that no funds from any entity under the control of G7 countries and its alliances be allowed to continue to be transferred to the Junta, its business entities, leaders or their families. The largest source of revenue to the junta, the oil and gas sector, remains unscathed by the international community, therefore sanctions must be placed against Myanmar Oil and Gas and all state-owned enterprises, including the transfer of dual use technology; the imposition of an international arms embargo and a strict no-fly-zone above the territory of Myanmar by whatever means necessary. These measures are critically vital to prevent many bloodbaths and another genocide in Myanmar. Our National Unity Government of Myanmar is ready, willing and able to help in all of these coordinated efforts. This is the first time in the history of Myanmar that there has been a National Unity Government with the full support of the people. We need the endorsement, recognition, acknowledgement and engagement from the Governments of G7 countries and the free countries and leaders from around the world who believe in freedom, justice and democracy. This is the greatest opportunity of the century for Myanmar. We must then seize upon this window of opportunity and put an end to this junta reign of terror - and build inclusive federal democratic union for All people of Myanmar by the people and for the people, and where the rights of ALL regardless of race, gender, culture, ethnicity, background, and religion are equally respected, protected and promoted. We, the opposition to the illegal junta, will win in our struggle to liberate Myanmar from the brutal military dictatorships, and at the other end of this fight we will emerge an inclusive Myanmar that is committed to democracy, human rights, and to being a responsible partner in the global community. With the help of the world leaders and G7 countries, our vision and our dream will become a powerful reality and will bear testimony to our strong friendship and unyielding gratitude for generations to come. Yours sincerely, H.E Dr. Sasa..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government: Press Release No. 4/2021 - ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ က သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက်အမှတ် (၄/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၄/၂၀၂၁) ၁၀ ဇွန်လ ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ် ၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက တရားရေဝန်ကြီးဌာန၊ ဆက်သွယ်ရေး၊ သတင်းအချက်အလက်နှင့် နည်းပညာဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့် လျှပ်စစ်နှင့် စွမ်းအင်ဝန်ကြီးဌာနတို့ကို ထပ်မံဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ပြီး နိုင်ငံတော်သမ္မတက အမည်စာရင်းတင်သွင်းသော ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးများကို ပြည်ထောင်စု လွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ (CRPH) က အတည်ပြုခန့်အပ်ပေးခဲ့သည်။ ၁ ၂။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ “အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးနှင့် အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများကြေညာခြင်း” ခေါင်းစဉ်ဖြင့် ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၃/၂၀၂၁) ၂ ကို ၇ ဇွန် ၂၀၂၁ခုနစ် နေ့စွဲဖြင့်ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါကြေညာချက်တွင် အောက်ပါအချက်များပါဝင်သည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ တပ်မတော်နှင့် ၎င်း၏အပေါင်းအပါအဖွဲ့အစည်းများသည် - အရပ်သား ၈၀၀ ကျော်ကို သေစေနိုင်သောလက်နက်များဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း - လူပေါင်း ၅၀၀၀ ကျော်အား မတရားဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ထားပြီး၊ အများစုမှာ အနှိပ်စက်ခံရခြင်း၊ လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာစော်ကားခြင်း - ဘဏ်စနစ်ပြိုလဲလုနီးပါးအခြေအနေဖြင့် တိုင်းပြည်စီးပွားရေးကိုချွတ်ခြုံကျစေပြီး အများပြည်သူ၏ ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှု စည်းစိမ်ဥစ္စာတို့အားပျက်စီးစေခြင်း - စားနပ်ရိက္ခာအကျပ်အတည်းကို လျစ်လျူရှုထားပြီး မကြာခင်ကာလများအတွင်း စားနပ်ရိက္ခာ အကျပ်အတည်း၏ ရိုက်ခတ်မှုကိုကြုံတွေ့ရမည့် လူပေါင်း (၁) သန်းမှ (၃) သန်းအထိ မြင့်မားသွားနိုင်ခြေရှိခြင်း - မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ COVID CERP အစီအစဉ်ကို ပစ်ပယ်လိုက်ခြင်းဖြင့် တိုင်းပြည်၏ ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍ ကျဆုံးသွားခြင်း။ - ငွေကြေးခဝါချမှု လုပ်ငန်းကြီးများပြုလုပ်ခြင်း စသည်တို့ကို ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သောကြောင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ(NUG)သည် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏တပ်မတော်နှင့် ၎င်းနှင့်ဆက်စပ်လျက် ရှိသော အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေပုဒ်မ (၃) အရ အကြမ်းဖက် အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်ကြေညာလိုက်သည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဥပဒေတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်မှု ကျူးလွန်ရန် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ဖြင့် “အများပြည်သူ၏ လုံခြုံရေးကိုဖြစ်စေ၊ အသက် အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်ကိုဖြစ်စေ၊ ပြင်းထန်စွာ ထိခိုက်ဆုံးရှုံးစေရန် ပြုလုပ်သည့် ပြစ်မှုများ” ကို ကျူးလွန်လျှင် ဥပဒေအရ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုမြောက်သည်။ ၃။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ “Non-CDM များနှင့်ပတ်သက်သော သဘောထားကြေညာချက်” ခေါင်းစဉ်ဖြင့် ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၄/၂၀၂၁) ၃ ကို ၈ ဇွန် ၂၀၂၁ခုနစ် နေ့စွဲဖြင့်ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါ ကြေညာချက်တွင် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) - အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားနေကြသော တော်လှန်ရေးသူရဲကောင်းများအား ဤနေရာမှ လေးစားစွာ ဂုဏ်ပြု မှတ်တမ်းတင်ကြောင်း၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ကိုယ်တိုင်က CDM ပြုလုပ်ခြင်းမရှိသည့်အပြင် CDM ပြုလုပ်သူများအား အနိုင့်အထက်ပြု ခြိမ်းခြောက်အကြပ်ကိုင်လျက်ရှိသော ဝန်ထမ်းဆိုးများကို စနစ်တကျ စာရင်းပြုစုလျက်ရှိသလို၊ Non-CDM များ၊ CDM များ ၏ စာရင်းများကို CDM ပြုလုပ်သည့် အချိန်ကာလပေါ်မူတည်၍ အဆင့်များခွဲခြားကာ စနစ်တကျ စာရင်းပြုစုလျက်ရှိပြီး စစ်အာဏာရှင် ပြုတ်ကျပြီး ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ထောင်သည့်အချိန်တွင် အဆိုပါ စာရင်းများအပေါ်မူတည်၍ တရားသော စီရင်ဆောင်ရွက်မှုများကို တိကျစွာဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း စသည်တို့ပါဝင်သည်။ ၄။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပြည်ထဲရေးနှင့် လူဝင်မှုကြီးကြပ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ တရားဝင် အင်တာနက်စာမျက်နှာ mohai.nugmyanmar.org ကို ထုတ်လွှင့်လိုက်ပြီး အဆိုပါ အင်တာနက်စာမျက်နှာတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုနှင့်လူသားများအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် တာဝန်ရှိသူများကို တရားမျတမှုအောက်သို့ခေါ်ဆောင်ပြီး ပြည်တွင်းတရားရုံးများနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာရာဇဝတ် ခုံရုံးများတွင် ကြီးလေးသောပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေးနိုင်ရန် လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုနှင့် လူသားများအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကာကွယ်နိုင်ရန် နှင့် အသွင်ကူးပြောင်းမှုကာလ တရားမျှတမှုကို ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် ကျူးလွန်ခံရသူများအနေဖြင့် အထောက်အထားအပြည့်အစုံနှင့်တကွ တိုင်ကြားနိုင်သည့် လမ်းကြောင်းတစ်ခုကို ဖော်ဆောင်ပေးထားပြီး ထိုသို့ တိုင်ကြားနိုင်ကြောင်း ကြေညာချက်တစ်ရပ်၄ လည်း ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ ၅။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အလုပ်သမားဝန်ကြီးဌာနက CDM ပြုလုပ်နေကြသော ပြည်သူ့ဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့် ကြေငြာချက်အမှတ် ၁/၂၀၂၁ကို၅ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇွန်လ၊ (၈)ရက်နေ့ရက်စွဲဖြင့် ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါ ကြေညာချက်တွင် CDM ပြုလုပ်၍ ရုံးတက်ပျက်ကွက်သည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ၁၅-၂-၂၀၂၁ ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ နိုင်ငံဝန်ထမ်းနည်းဥပဒေ ၁၇၁ အရ တာဝန်မှ ယာယီရပ်ဆိုင်းကြောင်း အမိန့်ကြော်ငြာစာ အသီးသီး ကို လက်ရှိ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အမိန့်နာခံသည့် ဌာနတာဝန်ရှိသူများမှ မတရား ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ ယခင်အစိုးက ထုတ်ချေးထားသော (၂) လစာချေးငွေနှင့် အချို့သောဝန်ထမ်းများအား အလုပ်ခန့်ထားစဉ်က ဝန်ထမ်းခန့်ထားရေး မူအရ ချုပ်ဆိုထားသော ကတိဝန်ခံချက်စာချုပ်သက်တမ်း မပြည့်သေးသည့် အကြောင်းပြချက်ဖြင့် စာချုပ်အရ လျော်ကြေး ငွေများကို (၂)ပတ်အတွင်း နောက်ဆုံးထားပေးသွင်းရန်နှင့် ပျက်ကွက်ပါက တည်ဆဲဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ တရားစွဲဆိုသွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ဝန်ထမ်းအချို့အားစာဖြင့် ခြိမ်းခြောက်နေကြောင်း၊ ထိုသို့ ခြိမ်းခြောက်နေခြင်းနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ စီမံကိန်းနှင့် ဘဏ္ဍာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနက ချေးငွေများအား ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ရန် မလိုအပ်သော ချေးငွေများအဖြစ် ၂ ကြိမ်တိုင်တိုင်ကြေညာကြောင်း၊ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဝန်ထမ်းဥပဒေ၊ နည်းဥပဒေများနှင့် ကိုက်ညီမှုမရှိသော လုပ်ဆောင်ချက်များအား ရှုတ်ချပါကြောင်းနှင့် CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် (၂) လစာ ချေးယူငွေများ နှင့် လုပ်သက်စာချုပ်လျော်ကြေးများအား ပေးလျော်ရန် မလိုအပ်ကြောင်း စသည့်အချက်များပါဝင်ပါသည်။ ၆။ အသစ်ဖွဲ့စည်းလိုက်သော လျှပ်စစ်နှင့်စွမ်းအင်ဝန်ကြီးဌာနက “လျှပ်စစ်ဓာတ်အားခများကောက်ခံနေမှု နှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ သတိပေးထုတ်ပြန်ခြင်း။” အကြောင်းအရာနှင့်ပတ်သက်သော အမိန့်ကြော်ငြာစာအမှတ် (၁/၂၀၂၁) ၆ ကို ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဇွန်လ ၈ ရက်နေ့ ရက်စွဲဖြင့် ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါ သတိပေးထုတ်ပြန်မှုတွင် CRPH ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ ၁၈ ရက်နေ့တွင် ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သော ကြေညာချက်ပါ (က) အိမ်သုံးအမျိုးအစား လျှပ်စစ်ဓါတ်အားခကျသင့်ငွေနှင့် မီတာဝန်ဆောင်ခများကို သုံးစွဲမှုယူနစ်အားလုံးအတွက် ခြွင်းချက်မရှိ ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်(အခမဲ့)ပြုခြင်း (ခ) အိမ်သုံးမဟုတ်သည့် အမျိုးအစားများအတွက် လျှပ်စစ်ဓါတ်အားခ ကျသင့်ငွေနှင့် အခြားဝန်ဆောင်ခများ ကောက်ခံခြင်းကို သုံးစွဲမှုယူနစ်အားလုံးအတွက် ခေတ္တဆိုင်းငံ့ခြင်း တို့ကို ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် ဆက်လက်အတည်ပြုကြောင်း၊ လျှပ်စစ်မီတာခများ ကောက်ခံနေမှု၊ ပြည်သူလူထုအား ခြိမ်းခြောက်နေမှုကို လုံးဝရန်ဆိုင်းရန်၊ နိုင်ငံတော်အစိုးရ၏ ကြေညာချက်အတိုင်း ဓါတ်အားခမပေး ဆောင်ကြသည် ဖြစ်စေကာမူ လျှပ်စစ်ဆိုင်ရာ ဝန်ဆောင်မှုများအား ကောင်းမွန်စွာစောင့်ရှောက်ကြရန် လျှပ်စစ်ဓါတ်အားဖြန့်ဖြူးရေးလုပ်ငန်း (ESE)၊ ရန်ကုန်လျှပ်စစ်ဓါတ်အားပေးရေးကော်ပိုရေရှင်း(YESC) နှင့် မန္တလေးလျှပ်စစ်ဓါတ်အားပေးကော်ပိုရေးရှင်း(MESC) တို့၏ဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့် ဌာနနှင့်ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်နေသော Franchise လုပ်ငန်းများ၏ ဝန်ထမ်းများကို ညွှန်ကြားလိုက်ကြောင်း၊ ညွှန်ကြားချက်များအား မလိုက်နာသော ညွှန်ကြားသူ၊ လက်တွေ့လုပ်ဆောင်သူ စသည့် တာဝန်ရှိသူ တစ်ဦးချင်းသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းဥပဒေအရလည်းကောင်း၊ ရာဇသတ်ကြီးဥပဒေပုဒ်မ ၁၂၂/၁၂၄ ပါအတိုင်း နိုင်ငံတော်၏ ကျေးဇူးသစ္စာ ဖောက်ဖျက်ပုန်ကန်မှုအဖြစ်လည်းကောင်း၊ အများပြည်သူအကျိုးစီးပွားစောင့်ရှောက်ရေး ဥပဒေအရလည်းကောင်း အရေးယူခံရမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်းနှင့် နိုင်ငံပိုင်စီးပွားရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသော Franchise ကုမ္ပဏီများသည်လည်း အမည်ပျက်စာရင်း(Blacklist) သွင်းခံရမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်းကို သတိပေးကြောင်း စသည်တို့ပါဝင်ပါသည်။ ၇။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး ဒေါ်ဇင်မာအောင်က တရုတ်ပြည်သူ့သမ္မတနိုင်ငံ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးထံသို့ စာတစ်စောင် ၇ ပေးပို့ခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါစာတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် တရုတ်သံရုံး၏ ဇွန်လ (၅) ရက်နေ့က စစ်ကောင်စီ ခေါင်းဆောင်နှင့် တရုတ်သံအမတ်ကြီးတို့ တွေ့ဆုံသည့်အကြောင်း သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက်တွင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင်အား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ “ခေါင်းဆောင်” အဖြစ် ရည်ညွှန်းသည့်အပေါ် ရှုံ့ချကြောင်း၊ ၎င်းသည် နိုင်ငံ၏ တရားဝင်ခေါင်းဆောင်မဟုတ်ကြောင်း၊ တရုတ်-အာဆီယံ နိုင်ငံခြားရေး ဝန်ကြီးများ အစည်းအဝေးနှင့် နှစ်သုံးဆယ်ပြည့် အခမ်းအနား ပွဲများကို စီစဉ်ကျင်းပရာတွင် တရုတ်နှင့် အာဆီယံနှစ်ဦးလုံးသည် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရနှင့် ဆွေးနွေးရန် ပျက်ကွက်ခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံနှင့်အတူ လန်ကန်-မဲခေါင် ပူးပေါင်း ဆောင်ရွက်ရေး (LMC) ၏ ပူးတွဲသဘာပတိ ဖြစ်သော်လည်း တရုတ်နိုင်ငံဘက်မှ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအား တိုင်ပင်ဆွေးနွေးရန် ပျက်ကွက်ခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ မင်းအောင်လှိုင်က နိုင်ငံအတွင်း တည်ငြိမ်မှု ရမှသာ အာဆီယံ၏ ကြိုးပမ်းမှုများကို စတင်နိုင်ကြောင်း ပြောကြားချက်ကို တရုတ်နှင့် အာဆီယံတို့က ပြင်းထန်စွာ ငြင်းပယ်သင့်ကြောင်း စသည်တို့ ပါဝင်သည်။ ၈။ “အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ဇွန်လ ၁၁ရက်နေ့မှ ၁၃ ရက်နေ့အထိကျင်းပပြုလုပ်မည့် G7 ကမ္ဘာထိပ်သီးခေါင်းဆောင်များ တွေ့ဆုံမည့်အစည်းအဝေးတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏အရေးကိစ္စကို ဆွေးနွေးအဖြေရှာ ကူညီကြပါရန် NUG အနေနှင့်တောင်းဆိုထားသော စာကို ဗြိတိသျှဝန်ကြီးချုပ်ဆီပေးပို့ခဲ့ပြီး တက်ရောက်လာမည့် ကမ္ဘာ့ထိပ်သီးခေါင်းဆောင်များထံ ဖြန့်ဝေပေးရန် တောင်းဆိုထားကြောင်း၊ G7 အစည်းအဝေးမှ ထွက်ပေါ်လာသော ရလာဒ်များကို ဗြိတိသျှလွှတ်တော်တွင် ဆက်လက်ဆွေးနွေးပေးရန် တောင်းဆိုထားကြောင်း၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး မန်းဝင်းခိုင်သန်းကလည်း G7 အစည်းအဝေးအတွက် NUG ၏သတင်းစကားကို ပေးပို့ထားပြီးဖြစ်ပါကြောင်း” အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး ဒေါက်တာဆာဆာမှ ပြောကြားထားပါသည်။ ၉။ “မတ်လ (၁၃) ရက်နေ့မှာ ဗြိတိသျှ လွှတ်တော်သို့ ကျွန်တော် ပန်ကြားခဲ့တဲ့ ကိစ္စရပ်များကို အလေးအနက်ထား တုန့်ပြန်သောအားဖြင့် ဗြိတိန်နိုင်ငံ၏ အာရှရေးရာဝန်ကြီး နီဂယ်အဒမ် က စစ်အာဏာရှင်ဒဏ်ကို ခံစားနေရတဲ့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသူ၊ နိုင်ငံသားများ၏ ကျန်းမာရေး၊ ပညာရေး၊ စားနပ်ရိက္ခာနှင့် နားခိုရာနေရာ စသည့် လူသားချင်းစာနာ ထောက်ထားသည့် ကိစ္စများမှာ ကူညီဖို့ ပေါင် (၂၈) သန်း လျာထားပြီး ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ပါတီစုံမှ ဗြိတိသျှ လွှတ်တော်အမတ် (၆) ဦး လတ်မှတ်ထိုးပြီး အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရကို ယူကေအစိုးရအနေနဲ့ တရားဝင် အစိုးရအဖြစ် အသိအမှတ်ပြုရန် တောင်းဆိုပေးခဲ့ကြတာကိုလည်း ကျေးဇူး အထူးတင်ရှိပါတယ်” ဟု အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ပြည်ထောင်စု ဝန်ကြီး ဒေါက်တာဆာဆာက ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၁၀။ “COVID 19 ရောဂါတတိယလှိုင်းနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီက ထိရောက်သော ထိမ်းချုပ်မှုကို ပေးနိုင်မည်မဟုတ်သည်မှာသေချာသောကြောင့် ပြည်သူတစ်ဦးချင်း တစ်ယောက်ချင်း အနေနဲ့ ကာကွယ်ခြင်း၊ အိမ်တွင်သီးခြားနေထိုင်ခြင်း ၈၊ တစ်ဦးကို တစ်ဦး အသိပေးခြင်း သတိပေးခြင်း စသည့် ထိမ်းချုပ်ကာကွယ်မှုများ၉ ကိုလိုက်နာဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းသည်သာ မြန်မာပြည်အတွက် အကောင်းဆုံး၊ အထိရောက်ဆုံး ဖြစ်သည်” ဟု အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး ဒေါက်တာဇော်ဝေစိုးက ပြောကြားထား သည်။ ၁၁။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားရေးနှင့် ဘေးအန္တရာယ်ဆိုင်ရာ စီမံခန့်ခွဲရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန အနေဖြင့် ယခုအပတ်အတွင်း တိုင်းနှင့်ပြည်နယ် ဒေသအသီးသီးသို့ ငွေကျပ် သိန်း ၄၇၀ခန့် တန်ဖိုးရှိ လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုအကူအညီများ ပေးအပ်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် ချင်းပြည်နယ် နှင့် ကရင်နီ ပြည်နယ်များအတွက် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုအကူအညီများ ဆက်လက်ပေးအပ်နိုင်ရန် ဦးဆောင်စီစဉ်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-10
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 9 June, (858) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Aunglan Township in Magway Region died today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 9 June, a total of (4782) people are currently under detention; of them (163) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. In the morning of 9 June, Tin Zaw Oo died while he was receiving the medical treatment at the hospital. He got injured by gunshot during a protest at Aunglan Town in Magway Region in March. On the night of 8 June, Myint Than, a philanthropic leader from Nawnghkio Township in Shan State, was arrested after his home was searched by so-called police and soldiers. A lawsuit was filed against him under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code. On 7 June, Than Oo, headmaster of B.E.H.S (1) of Myitkyina of Kachin State, was arrested by the terrorist junta. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.19 MB 4.31 MB 988.32 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 8 June, (857) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 8 June, a total of (4704) people are currently under detention; of them (162) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On June 7, doctor Aung Moe Nyo, Magway Region Chief Minister, was sentenced to two years imprisonment under 505(b) of the Penal Code. Marn Zar Myay Mon, a protest leader of Chaung-U Township in Sagaing Region, whom a Penal Code Section 505(a) warrant was issued, was shot and arrested by terrorist junta troops in the early morning of 8 June in the village where he was evading arrest. On 7 June, Myo Zaw, a former village administrator living in Nga Min Village of Taungdwingyi Township of Magway Region, was arrested by the terrorist police and military forces. In the early morning of 6 June, Kyaw Soe, elected MP for Thingangyun Township of Yangon Region, was arrested by junta troops. Moreover, on the night of 6 June, Tin Myint a.k.a Maw Si, Taunggyi Township Executive Committee Member of NLD, living in Ayetharyar Town, Shan State, was beaten and arrested at his home by junta troops. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.18 MB 4.22 MB 995.12 KB
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Title: Junta jails maimed protestor who may lose vision in his right eye without surgery
Sub-title: Hlyan Phyo Aung needs treatment at Yangon Eye Hospital but is now being held at Magway Prison
Description: "Hlyan Phyo Aung, who had been studying to be an engineer, was discharged from a military hospital in Magway on Monday more than two months after he lost his hand in a brutal attack by soldiers during a crackdown on a protest in the town. He lost part of his right hand when a stun grenade exploded next to him, and the rest of it when a soldier fired a bullet at it from close range. He was also shot numerous times with rubber bullets and badly beaten. His eyes were damaged by soldiers firing their weapons close to his face, according to a friend of his. The discharge certificate issued on Monday said he needed eye surgery and more physiotherapy. His family had wanted him to travel to Yangon Eye Hospital for treatment, but instead five police officers arrived after he was discharged to take him to Magway Prison. “He needs to get his cornea replaced. If this worsens he could lose his vision,” the relative told Myanmar Now on Tuesday. Hlyan Phyo Aung was arrested on March 27 and later charged with incitement. He has been receiving treatment at the 100-bed No. 16 military hospital under police supervision. While he was at the hospital, six court hearings went ahead at Magway Prison in his absence. His lawyers have been denied the official right to represent him, meaning there has been no opportunity to apply for bail on medical grounds. “When we requested bail, they said we could only do it at the prison court,” the relative told Myanmar Now. The next hearing is scheduled for June 17. Hlyan Phyo Aung faces up to three years in prison. According to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 857 civilians have been killed and over 5,800 have been detained by the military council as of Monday..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Rights of Women Violated in Myanmar Prisons
Topic: Women's Rights
Sub-title: Few Toilets, No Menstrual Hygiene Supplies
Topic: Women's Rights
Description: "When “Mi Mi” (a pseudonym) prepared for anti-coup demonstrations in Yangon in late February, she carefully chose to wear a pair of jeans and sneakers so she could run from the abusive security forces. The last thing on her mind was to carry menstrual pads in case she was detained. Myanmar’s police and military had begun to intensify crackdowns on protesters opposing the military’s February 1 power grab. As the security forces threw teargas onto the street and shot rubber bullets, she became disoriented, then trapped. Seven male police officers beat and kicked her when she fell on the ground. “Once I was down, one of them kept me down while the others kicked me with their boots,” Mi Mi said. “Then they hauled me over to a police truck…One of them held my head back and another guy punched me very hard in the face.” Mi Mi, 23, said the stress of the physical attack and arrest brought her menstrual period on early. Authorities eventually took her to Insein prison, the main detention facility, where she was held with more than 500 other women in facilities normally used for men. The women there had access to only two toilets with no water and no doors. Female prison guards repeatedly denied Mi Mi’s requests for sanitary pads until she bled heavily through her jeans. Finally, after 48 hours, they eventually gave her just one pad. Mi Mi said the experience was humiliating and left her with trauma causing nightmares even after her release. She said the stigma in Myanmar about menstruation and degrading treatment of women made it difficult for her to speak more openly. Female detainees have reported the “dehumanizing” experience of Myanmar prisons, explaining that they suffered during menstruation because prisons do not provide sanitary napkins. Since the coup, women have also reported sexual violence and other forms of gendered harassment and humiliation from police and military officials. The lack of adequate toilets with running water and privacy, and insufficient menstrual hygiene supplies can constitute degrading treatment in violation of international human rights law. The Myanmar authorities should respect the right of women and girls to manage menstruation with dignity..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Roughly 800 soldiers have fled the military since the coup, says defector
Sub-title: Most defectors now want to join the People’s Defence Force and fight against the regime, a former captain says
Description: "About 800 soldiers have left the military to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) since the February 1 coup, a former captain who is helping people to defect has told Myanmar Now. Lin Htet Aung, 29, defected in late March and has since teamed up with more defectors to assist others in leaving the military. He served in the 528th Infantry Battalion under the Triangle Region Command in eastern Shan state. About three quarters of those who have defected are ready to join the People’s Defense Force (PDF) to fight against the regime, he said. The rest would like to help the revolution in other ways but do not want to fight, he added. Around 100 of the defectors had been serving as officers with ranks including major, captain, and lieutenant. Some have travelled to border regions controlled by ethnic armed groups and are giving crash courses in combat to people who fled cities to take up arms against the junta. Most defectors are from the navy and air force; soldiers from infantry regiments have found it more difficult to flee due to the fear of repercussions against their families. “The main reason they can’t defect is because they’re performing frontline operations and are separated from their families,” said Lin Htet Aung. “They don’t have access to our statements either, so that doesn’t help,” he added, referring to public pleas by defectors for other soldiers to join CDM. Between 40 and 50 of those who have defected left their families behind in military housing, he said. “They don’t know what to do and they have no support. There’s no way for them to reach out to their families.” Most of the defectors are aged between 2o and 35 and no one above the rank of major has defected. “We don’t expect anything from those in higher ranks,” Lin Htet Aung said. “The higher up they are, the more scared they are of losing their positions.” “If they defected this fight would be over quickly,” he added. "We don’t expect anything from those in higher ranks. The higher up they are, the more scared they are of losing their positions.” Lieutenant Htet Nay Bala, 24, defected on March 7. He said he fled the 269th Infantry Battalion in Chin State after the regime ordered attacks against peaceful protesters across the country. “Instead of protecting the people after taking their taxes as salaries, this institution is committing all these atrocities. So I no longer want to be a part of it,” he said. “Everyone felt their future being taken away when the coup happened,” he added. “As a youth who loves my country, I’ll continue with the revolution. There’s no turning back.” ..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Soldiers in Sagaing shoot protest leader in the leg before arresting him
Sub-title: Marn Zar Myay Mon was riding on a motorcycle in a bid to escape a raid when the bullet hit him
Description: "Soldiers shot a local protest leader in the leg as he rode on the back of a motorcycle in Sagaing Region on Tuesday morning before arresting him and taking him to an interrogation center, a source close to the activist said. Marn Zar Myay Mon was trying to escape from the village of Shanhtu–where he had been hiding–after regime troops arrived and carried out a raid at around 6am. “The village school was set on fire at night, and the next morning the military showed up,” said a local source who is close to the activist and requested anonymity. “He was leaving the village to go into hiding again but met with the military’s troops. They shot him in the thigh and he fell off the bike,” the source added. The driver of the bike managed to escape, as did two others who were riding another motorcycle along with them. Marn Zar Myay Mon received treatment for his wound but was sent to the Monywa interrogation center in legcuffs, the source said. The 28-year-old has been wanted by the regime since April, when he was charged with incitement under section 505a of the Penal Code after becoming a prominent leader of anti-coup protests in Chaung-U Township. His family learned of his arrest at 7am on Tuesday and they have been unable to talk to or meet with him since. He is the son of the writer Myay Mon and has previously worked as a freelance journalist..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 7 June, (857) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (8) fallen heroes today. These (8) fallen heroes from Pyigyidagun Township in Mandalay Region, Shwepyitha Township in Yangon Region, Bago Township in Bago Region and Kyonpyaw Township in Ayeyarwady Region were killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 7 June, a total of (4677) people are currently under detention; of them (162) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of 6 June, two men were killed after being chased on motorbike and crashed into by a military vehicle in Pyigyidagun Township, Mandalay Region. On the night of 6 June, Chit Ko, NLD treasurer of Bhamo Township, Kachin State, was arrested. In addition to this, yesterday evening, three civilians from Nat Myaung and Nat Chaung Village in Kale Township, Sagaing Region, were beaten and arrested unprovoked. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.18 MB 4.16 MB 987.01 KB
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Title: H.E. Dr. Sasa's address to Japanese Parliamentarians, Professors and Researchers - ဒေါက်တာဆာဆာ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးနှင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ပြောရေးဆိုခွင့်ရှိသူ မှ ဂျပန်ပါလီမန်အမတ်များထံသို့ ပန်ကြားလွှာ
Description: "H.E. Dr. Sasa's address to Japanese Parliamentarians, Professors and Researchers - ဒေါက်တာဆာဆာ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးနှင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ပြောရေးဆိုခွင့်ရှိသူ မှ ဂျပန်ပါလီမန်အမတ်များထံသို့ ပန်ကြားလွှာ - ミャンマー国民統一政府 国際協力大臣兼ミャンマー広報担当 ササ医師の日本の国会議員とのセミナーにおける演説 (仮訳) 2021 年6月6日..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 1.67 MB
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Title: Japanese language version of H.E. Dr. Sasa's address to Japanese Parliamentarians, Professors and Researchers
Description: "Japanese language version of H.E. Dr. Sasa's address to Japanese Parliamentarians, Professors and Researchers - ミャンマー国民統一政府 国際協力大臣兼ミャンマー広報担当 ササ医師の日本の国会議員とのセミナーにおける演説 (仮訳) 2021 年6月6日..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 817.9 KB
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Title: National Unity Government: Announcement No.4/2021 - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၄/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ www.nugmyanmar.org ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၄/၂၀၂၁) ၈ ဇွန် ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ် “ Non-CDM များနှင့်ပတ်သက်သော သဘောထားကြေညာချက်” အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် တိုင်းပြည်ကို မတရားဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်အုပ်ချုပ်နေသော အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီအစိုးရအား တရားသောနည်းလမ်းဖြင့် အမြစ်ပြတ်ချေမှုန်း တိုက်ထုတ်သွားရန် ပြည်သူထံသို့ သစ္စာအဓိဌာန် ချပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ပြည်သူတို့ မျှော်လင့်သော ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ဆောက်ရေးအတွက် ပြည်သူတို့နှင့်လက်တွဲကာ ကိုယ်စွမ်း ဉာဏ်စွမ်းရှိသရွေ့ အစွမ်းကုန် ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက် သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ယနေ့ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသော ပြည်သူများ၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးသည် တိုင်းပြည်ကို အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်လက်အောက်မှ လွတ်မြောက်ရေး ဝိုင်းဝန်းကြိုးပမ်းနေကြသည့် ပြည်သူဦးဆောင်သော တိုက်ပွဲလည်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ထိုနွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး၏ အဓိကမဏ္ဍိုင်တစ်ရပ်ဖြစ်သော Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) - အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှုများသည် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့၏ မတရားအုပ်ချုပ်ရေး ယန္တရားကို လည်ပတ်နိုင်ခြင်းမရှိအောင် စွမ်းဆောင်ထားနိုင်ပြီး ကမ္ဘာကပါ ချီးကျူးဂုဏ်ပြုရသည့် လှုပ်ရှားမှုဖြစ်သည်မှာ ထင်ရှားပါသည်။ ထို့အတွက်ကြောင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) - အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားနေကြသော တော်လှန်ရေးသူရဲကောင်းများအား ဤနေရာမှ လေးစားစွာ ဂုဏ်ပြု မှတ်တမ်းတင်အပ်ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီက အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေကြသော သူရဲကောင်းများကို လူမဆန်သောနည်းမျိုးစုံဖြင့် ယုတ်မာရက်စက်၊ ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်၊ ခြိမ်းခြောက်၊ နှိပ်စက်၊ ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများကို နည်းမျိုးစုံသုံးကာ ဖြိုခွင်းလျက်ရှိသလို ၎င်းတို့၏ အလိုတော်ရိ အထက်အရာရှိ Non-CDM အချို့ကလဲ နည်းမျိုးစုံဖြင့် ခြိမ်းခြောက်အကြပ်ကိုင်လျက်ရှိသည်ကိုတွေ့ရပါသည်။ သို့သော်လည်း နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အရေး၊ ပြည်သူပြည်သားများ၏ အရေးကို ရှေးရှုကာ မြန်မာပြည်သား ပြည်ထောင်စုဖွားအားလုံးက ဆက်လက်၍ စိတ်ဓာတ်ခိုင်ခိုင်မာမာဖြင့် CDM လုပ်ငန်းများကို စဉ်ဆက်မပြတ် ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသည်ကို ကျေးဇူးတင်ရှိပါကြောင်းနှင့် ခြိမ်းခြောက်အကြပ်ကိုင်သော စစ်အာဏာရှင် အလိုတော်ရိများအား အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် တရားဉပဒေနှင့်အညီ ထိုက်သင့်သော အပြစ်ဒဏ်များကို ပေးသွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ကိုယ်တိုင်က CDM ပြုလုပ်ခြင်းမရှိသည့်အပြင် CDM ပြုလုပ်သူများအား အနိုင့်အထက်ပြု ခြိမ်းခြောက်အကြပ်ကိုင်လျက်ရှိသော ဝန်ထမ်းဆိုးများကို စနစ်တကျ စာရင်းပြုစုလျက်ရှိသလို၊ Non-CDM များ၊ CDM များ ၏ စာရင်းများကို CDM ပြုလုပ်သည့် အချိန်ကာလပေါ်မူတည်၍ အဆင့်များခွဲခြားကာ စနစ်တကျ စာရင်းပြုစုလျက်ရှိပြီး စစ်အာဏာရှင်ပြုတ်ကျပြီး ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ထောင်သည့်အချိန်တွင် အဆိုပါ စာရင်းများအပေါ်မူတည်၍ တရားသော စီရင်ဆောင်ရွက်မှုများကို တိကျစွာဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် CDM ၏ အဓိပ္ပါယ်ကို ဖော်ဆောင်သည့် အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လုပ်ငန်းများကိုသာ စဉ်ဆက်မပြတ် အားပေးထောက်ခံခဲ့ပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူများအား မတရားဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်၍ လက်နက်အားကိုး အနိုင်ကျင့်နှိပ်စက်နေသော အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များ ၏တရားမဲ့ပြုကျင့်မှုများအတွက် မိမိကိုယ်ကို ကာကွယ်နိုင်ခွင့်ရှိသည့် ဉပဒေကိုလည်း ပြဌာန်းပေးခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။ မသမာသူလူတစ်စုက ပြည်သူလူထုအား ထင်ရောင်ထင်မှားဖြစ်စေရန် ရည်ရွယ်ပုံဖျက်၍ အကြမ်းဖက် မှုများ လှုပ်ဆောင်နေသည်ကို တွေ့ရှိနေရပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ဉပဒေမဲ့ မည်သည့် အကြမ်းဖက် လုပ်ဆောင်မှု မျိုးကိုမှ အားပေး အားမြှောက် ကူညီလှုံ့ဆော်ခြင်း ပြုလုပ်မည်မဟုတ်ပါ။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ သည် ထိုလုပ်ရပ်များကို ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုံ့ချကန့်ကွက်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ခိုင်မာသော ရပ်တည်ချက် (၂) ခုဖြစ်သည့် တရားဉပဒေစိုးမိုးရေးနှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ ရဲဝံ့သော အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလုပ်ငန်းကိုသာ ဆက်လက်ထောက်ခံ သွားမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာလိုက်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 646.37 KB
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Title: National Unity Government: Ministry of Labour Announcement No. 1/2021 - အလုပ်သမားဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေငြာချက်အမှတ် ၁/၂၀၂၁
Description: "ကြေငြာချက်အမှတ် ၁/၂၀၂၁ ၁၃၈၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ကဆုန်လပြည့်ကျော် (၁၄)ရက် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇွန်လ၊ (၈)ရက် ၁။​၁-၂-၂၀၂၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာအား မတရားသိမ်းပိုက်ခဲ့သည့် လုပ်ရပ်အပေါ် အကြမ်းမဖက်အနုနည်းဖြင့်တုံ့ပြန်သည့်အနေဖြင့် အလုပ်သမားဝန်ကြီးဌာနမှ တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်လျက်ရှိကြသော နိုင်ငံ့ ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် ၈-၂-၂၀၂၁ မှစတင်၍ မတရားသော အမိန့်များအားနာခံခြင်းမပြုသည့် Civil Disobedience Movement - CDM တွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ၂။​CDM ပြုလုပ်၍ ရုံးတက်ပျက်ကွက်သည့် ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ၁၅-၂-၂၀၂၁ ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ နိုင်ငံဝန်ထမ်းနည်းဥပဒေ ၁၇၁ အရ တာဝန်မှ ယာယီရပ်ဆိုင်းကြောင်း အမိန့်ကြော်ငြာစာအသီးသီး ကို လက်ရှိ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အမိန့်နာခံသည့် ဌာနတာဝန်ရှိသူများမှ မတရား ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၃။​တာဝန်မှယာယီရပ်ဆိုင်းထားသော အဆိုပါ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ(အရာထမ်း၊ အမှုထမ်းများ) အား ရာထူးမှ ထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း/ ထုတ်ပယ်ခြင်း ပြစ်ဒဏ်များ ချမှတ်သည့် အမိန့်ကြော်ငြာစာများကို ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ်၊ မေလအတွင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့ပြီး ယခင်အစိုးက ထုတ်ချေးထားသော (၂) လစာချေးငွေနှင့် အချို့သောဝန်ထမ်းများအား အလုပ်ခန့်ထားစဉ်က ဝန်ထမ်းခန့်ထားရေးမူအရ ချုပ်ဆိုထားသော ကတိဝန်ခံချက်စာချုပ်သက်တမ်း မပြည့်သေးသည့်အကြောင်းပြချက်ဖြင့် စာချုပ်အရ လျော်ကြေး ငွေများကို (၂)ပတ်အတွင်း သို့မဟုတ် ၃၁-၅-၂၀၂၁ ရက်နေ့ နောက်ဆုံးထားပေးသွင်းရန်နှင့် ပျက်ကွက်ပါက တည်ဆဲဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ တရားစွဲဆိုသွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ဝန်ထမ်းအချို့အား စာဖြင့် ခြိမ်းခြောက်နေပါသည်။ ၄။​မိမိတို့ဒီမိုကရေစီအစိုးရက နိုင်ငံဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် Covid-19 ကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာနိုင် သည့် လူမှုရေး၊ စီးပွားရေး အကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှုများကို ကုစားရာတွင် အထောက်အကူ ဖြစ်စေ ရန်အတွက် (၂) လစာချေးငွေကို ဆိုင်းငံ့ကာလ (၆) လ၊ ပြန်ဆပ်ကာလ (၁) နှစ်သတ်မှတ်၍ ပြည်သူ့ ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ စားဝတ်နေရေး၊ တစ်စုံတစ်ရာ အခက်အခဲများပြေလည်စေရန် ၂၀၂၀ ပြည်နှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလတွင် ထုတ်ချေးပေးခဲ့ပါသည်။ ပြန်ဆပ်ကာလ (၁) နှစ် (ဝါ) ၁၂ လအတွင်း လစဉ် ကျသင့်ငွေပမာဏကိုသာ အရစ်ကျပေးသွင်းရန်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၅။​ထို့ပြင် စာချုပ်သက်တမ်းမပြည့်မီသေးသည့် CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား လျော်ကြေးငွေပေးသွင်း စေခြင်းမှာလည်း စာချုပ်နှင့်ကိုက်ညီမှုမရှိပါ။ စာချုပ်အရ ဝန်ထမ်းဖြစ်သူသည် သတ်မှတ်လုပ်သက် မပြည့်မီ မိမိဆန္ဒအလျောက် အလုပ်မှနုတ်ထွက်ပါက စာချုပ်ပါ လျော်ကြေးငွေကို ပေးလျော်ရမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများသည် အလုပ်မှနှုတ်ထွက်ခြင်းမဟုတ်ဘဲ တရားမဝင်စစ်ကောင်စီ အစိုးရ၏ အုပ်ချုပ်စီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုအား ဆန့်ကျင်ပြီး လုပ်ငန်းခွင်အား ယာယီရပ်နားထားခြင်းသာ ဖြစ်သဖြင့် အဆိုပါလျော်ကြေးငွေအားလည်း ပေးလျော်ရန် မလိုအပ်ပါ။ ၆။ ထို့ပြင် စီမံကိန်းနှင့် ဘဏ္ဍာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနကလည်း ချေးငွေများအား ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ရန် မလိုအပ်သော ချေးငွေများအဖြစ် ၂ ကြိမ်တိုင်တိုင်ကြေငြာပြီး ဖြစ်သည်။ ၇။​သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ အထက်ဖော်ပြပါ ဝန်ထမ်းဥပဒေ၊ နည်းဥပဒေများနှင့် ကိုက်ညီမှုမရှိသော လုပ်ဆောင်ချက်များအား ရှုတ်ချပါကြောင်းနှင့် CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် (၂) လစာ ချေးယူငွေများ နှင့် လုပ်သက်စာချုပ်လျော်ကြေးများအား ပေးလျော်ရန် မလိုအပ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေငြာ လိုက်ပါသည်။ ပုံ နိုင်သုဝဏ္ဏ ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး အလုပ်သမားဝန်ကြီးဌာန အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Labour
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Responding to the Myanmar Coup
Sub-title: Crisis Group Asia Briefing N°166
Description: "The Myanmar military took the world by surprise on 1 February, staging a coup d’état that abruptly curtailed the country’s democratic transition and has sparked mass protests that could lead to deadly violence. The generals say their move is con-stitutional, alleging fraud in November 2020 elections that saw the National League for Democracy (NLD) defeat the military-backed party. These claims lack substantiation. The detention of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as her anointed president, Win Myint, has generated immense popular anger. Foreign governments are now grappling with how to respond. Some (largely Western) governments threaten sanctions to punish democratic backsliding; the U.S. has already imposed some re- strictions. Asian powers that have expressed concern focus on the risk of instability. Governments that impose sanctions should adopt measures that target coup leaders and insulate Myanmar’s people and broader economy from their effects. Regional governments should consider such steps to protect regional stability. All external actors should cooperate to prevent violence. Complicating efforts by foreign governments to react is a dynamic situation on the ground. The new regime has tried to tamp down protests by issuing a curfew order that prohibits public gatherings of five or more people, rolling back some reforms that protected civil liberties and using heavy-handed crowd control devices such as water cannons and rubber bullets (compounded, some reports suggest, by live fire in some instances). Still, demonstrations show no sign of abating. Indeed, the junta’s sharp response, which resulted in the reported killing of at least one person, appears to have drawn even more people onto the streets, including in the capital city of Naypyitaw, suggesting significant support among government workers. The security forces’ approach could take an even darker turn fast. Soldiers and armoured vehicles have begun to reinforce the police lines and, should the generals become impatient with the status quo, could easily become the sharp end of a bloody crackdown, as has happened in the past. Responses around the world have varied. Many governments denounced the military takeover. The UN Security Council issued a press statement expressing “deep concern” about the “arbitrary detention” of members of the government, calling for the release of those detained and emphasising the need to “uphold democratic institutions and processes, refrain from violence, and fully respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law”. For Western governments invested in Myanmar’s democratic transition, initial statements were only an opening salvo. U.S. President Joe Biden has already approved sanctions on coup leaders, their business interests and close kin, and redirected more than $40 million of aid from the Myanmar government to civil society. New Zealand rejected “the legitimacy of the militaryled government” and suspended high-level military and political contacts. Asian governments and commentators have been more muted; many expressed concern for regional stability, but prominent voices have cautioned against a severe international reaction unlikely, in their eyes, to sway the generals.Western leaders will have to thread a needle. Targeted sanctions and the like can serve as a signal to the generals in Myanmar and others similarly inclined elsewhere. Sanctions might impose costs that will not reverse the coup but could offer modest leverage or deterrence in the future. Some measures, such as cutting off weapons shipments, can also help ensure those governments previously supplying arms are not complicit should the military again use force against Myanmar’s people. Yet sanctions should be formulated with a clear grasp of their shortfalls. Prior to Myanmar’s transition that began in 2010, the U.S., EU and others imposed ferocious sanctions that, alongside the junta’s economic mismanagement, harmed the population. The sanctions alienated Myanmar’s neighbours, which saw them as disproportionate, creating an unhelpful West-versus-East dynamic that inhibited cooperation. Sanctions did not play a decisive role in Myanmar’s 2011 democratic opening. Steering a policy course today requires humility about and historical perspective on external actors’ limited sway over internal developments. Still, outside powers can take useful steps. Governments wanting to signal the importance of a return to democracy should – as the U.S. has done – adopt tailored measures that seek to punish those responsible for the 1 February actions but avoid penalising the country’s population who are the coup’s victims and, in many cases, are risking their lives protesting it. Such punitive measures could include sanctions on military-owned enterprises, provided they do not hurt the broader economy and the people. Myanmar’s neighbours should join these efforts – whether or not, given their own systems, they are concerned about democracy in Myanmar – to help push the generals onto to a more stable path. All governments should suspend delivery and sales of weapons and other defence and dual-use equipment during this volatile period and maintain this policy until genuine civilian government is restored..."
Source/publisher: International Crisis Group (Belgium)
Date of publication: 2021-02-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: China supports ASEAN’s engagement with Myanmar Junta
Description: "China supports the implementation of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) engagement with Myanmar and hopes for the restoration of peace and stability, said its ambassador to Myanmar during a meeting with the junta leader. Ambassador Chen Hai met Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Saturday in Naypyitaw, before Sunday’s special China-ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting to commemorate 30 years of relations between Beijing and the regional bloc. The meeting, which is co-chaired by Myanmar and China, is due to run until Tuesday in the Chinese city of Chongqing. The junta-appointed foreign minister U Wunna Maung Lwin reportedly attended Sunday’s meetings. The Chinese embassy posted on Facebook that Chen stressed, as Myanmar’s neighbor, China “will continue to play a constructive role”. Its statement said: “China sincerely hopes for the earlier restoration of peace and stability in Myanmar and supports the implementation of consensus by ASEAN and Myanmar.” A diplomatic source said the Chongqing meetings kicked off several days ago with SME (small- and medium-sized enterprises) and media forums. Myanmar attended both forums “in a low-profile way”, according to the source. On Friday, Asean’s Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi from Brunei and Brunei’s foreign affairs minister Erywan Yusof met the senior general in Naypyitaw to discuss the special summit held in late April in Jakarta. The non-democratic, oil-rich state currently chairs ASEAN. But Myanmar’s parallel civilian National Unity Government says it has lost faith in the regional bloc as it has failed to engage with both sides, ignoring the NUG’s approaches and only engaging with the junta. Following the ASEAN summit on April 24, which was attended by Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, China proposed this month’s meeting in China with working-level talks on the crisis. Chen has reportedly held several informal, secret meetings with junta leaders ahead of Saturday’s talks in Naypyitaw. Military-control newspapers said on Sunday that meetings focused on “bilateral cooperation” and “stability” along the border, which extends over 2,000 kilometers, and the presence of numerous powerful ethnic minority armed groups along the frontier. China’s state-controlled Global Times said Myanmar’s authorities are willing to maintain communications with China. The newspaper posted on Facebook: “Myanmar is willing to work with ASEAN to maintain the domestic stability and coordinate implementation of relevant consensus, said Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing.” The reference to “Myanmar leader” angered many social media users. One user said the military chief is not the country’s leader and does not represent the people. Another comment read: “We don’t believe in ASEAN. It is not working for Myanmar’s people but for the terrorist junta.” Anti-regime protesters have been calling on the international community not to recognize the junta and its governing body, State Administrative Council. However, China has not denounced the coup and prevented United Nations Security Council intervention while looking to influence ASEAN, according to observers..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s Opposition Wants U.S. Intervention. Here Are Some Options.
Sub-title: Washington has choices, from imposing no-fly zones to tightening sanctions.
Description: "While the U.S. Congress is considering modifications of the Biden administration’s modest sanctions on Myanmar’s military junta, some voices among the protesters have called on the United States and the international community to consider armed intervention. Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations for the pre-coup Union Government, Kyaw Moe Tun, who continues to oppose the junta from abroad, asked the U.N. Security Council to enforce a no-fly zone over the country and impose a global arms embargo. The United States has had a unilateral arms embargo on trade with Myanmar since 1988, and Congress has placed restrictions on U.S. relations with the country’s military since 2011. In addition, there are a range of options on the table for harder interventions, although some are more plausible than others. This article does not advocate or endorse any U.S. military action in Myanmar in response to the Feb. 1 coup; the goal is to provide a brief overview of the options and examine the merits of each option. Given the impending end to two decades of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, military options in Myanmar are unlikely to be popular with either the Biden administration or Congress. Yet, as opposition calls for aid grow, it’s worth examining what the scope of U.S. military action could be. The most dramatic—and unlikely—option would be a full-scale invasion of Myanmar, either unilaterally (like the U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989) or multilaterally (like the 1990 war against Iraq). Such an invasion would probably focus on the nation’s central axis along the Irrawaddy River, including the key cities of Mandalay, Naypyidaw, and Yangon. Because of the presence of anti-junta ethnic armed organizations in the seven ethnic minority states of Myanmar (Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Mon, Rakhine, and Shan) that have long fought the central government, U.S. forces would probably see limited actions in those parts of Myanmar. Although Myanmar’s military has reportedly purchased some advanced military equipment and supplies from China, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine, advancing U.S. troops would be unlikely to face sustained resistance. Myanmar’s military has sustained serious casualties in the last two years in fighting against ethnic militias—such as the Arakan Army, the Kachin Independence Army, and the Karen National Liberation Army—which do not possess the resources of the U.S. military. Not surprisingly, morale among Myanmar’s security forces is reportedly low, with many soldiers wishing to resign or defect to the anti-junta opposition. While an actual invasion might be relatively simple, an occupation would be much more difficult. The recent unity in Myanmar in opposition to the Feb. 1 coup does not extend to any consensus on what form of government should be established after the removal of the military junta. For example, the proposed National Unity Government announced by the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a small group of largely National League for Democracy politicians who were supposed to become members of the legislature before the coup overturned the election results, has received lukewarm support from the major ethnic armed groups and the civil society organizations behind the civil disobedience movement. Following an invasion, the Biden administration could find itself responsible for a politically fractious nation—and face a wary reaction from some of the ethnic armed organizations. A U.S. invasion of Myanmar also would likely be condemned by China, Russia, Thailand, and other nations. China would perceive the presence of U.S. forces in a neighboring country as a serious security threat and increase its military forces along the border. Thailand would certainly be concerned, given that its current government is the result of a similar military coup in 2014. Without the support of other nations, the United States could find itself isolated and subject to widespread international criticism. Another military option that has been suggested is for the United States to establish a no-fly zone over Myanmar to prevent the Myanmar military from using its fixed-wing aircraft and attack helicopters against the ethnic militias and the local groups known as civil defense forces that are springing up in various parts of the country. A no-fly zone would rebalance the fighting to the advantage of the civil and ethnic armed groups, possibly leading to the defeat of the Myanmar military. One of the main challenges of this proposal would be establishing and maintaining the logistical support to sustain the no-fly zone. An aircraft carrier off the coast of Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal could be sufficient to provide the air coverage, but some form of land-based supply system would also be necessary, especially if the no-fly zone became a sustained effort. It would be difficult to find a nearby nation willing to allow the United States to set up such a logistical support center. India is not a likely candidate; nor is Thailand. Australia and Japan are probably too far away to be practical alternatives. Also, while the elimination of air support for Myanmar’s troops would alter the situation on the battlefield, Myanmar’s military would still be able to deploy its artillery and other heavy land equipment. As such, it is unclear how significant a change the establishment of a no-fly zone would be in the balance of power in Myanmar’s ongoing and intensifying civil war. The creation of a blockade off of Myanmar’s coast is another military option. Such a blockade could include shutting down Myanmar’s natural gas and oil production, which is a major source of international revenue for the military junta. From a military perspective, the maintenance of a blockade would involve less resources than a no-fly zone. Myanmar does not have a blue-water navy of any size or capability to challenge a U.S. blockade. Yet most of Myanmar’s international trade is conducted by land, not by sea. Myanmar’s major trading partners are China and Thailand, and most of the goods are exchanged by land, thereby evading such a blockade. Both China and Thailand might be willing to assist Myanmar’s military junta by permitting blocked goods to enter Myanmar via their territory. The U.S. military could also conduct a limited number of airstrikes against key Myanmar military installations to undermine its ability to use its air force in the fighting against the ethnic armed groups and civil defense forces. It also could target Myanmar’s weapons and munitions factories. For many years, Myanmar’s military has been producing most of its light weapons and equipment in military-run factories. Airstrikes against Myanmar’s military air bases and/or its weapons factories could seriously compromise the junta’s ability to continue the civil war. An advantage of limited airstrikes over an invasion or the maintenance of a no-fly zone is it would involve a relatively discrete amount of time and resources, but it could seriously weaken the military. Also, U.S. casualties would be minimal, as the number of airstrikes necessary to seriously damage Myanmar’s air force and weapons production is fairly small given Myanmar’s minimal air defense capabilities. There would undoubtably be some international criticism of the airstrikes, most likely from China, Russia, and Thailand. It is unlikely that China would attempt to intercept the U.S. airstrikes, given the risk of direct confrontation. The airstrikes might also provide moral support for Myanmar’s opposition movement, as it would be a clear demonstration of U.S. opposition to the military junta. Yet there are downsides. First, the U.S. military would probably have to return periodically to attack the air bases and weapons factories again, after repairs had been made. Second, the damage caused by the airstrikes might not be sufficient to alter the military balance of power in favor of the opposition armed groups. Limited U.S. airstrikes in other nations, such as Libya and Syria, have not always proved to be as effective as hoped. A less discussed option is providing military assistance and training to the ethnic armed organizations and civil defense force in support of their war against the military junta. This could involve the provision of arms and military equipment to the major ethnic militias and the newly established civil ones, as well as combat training for their officers. Such a program would be a significant change in U.S. policy, which has denied such assistance and training to Myanmar’s military for more than 30 years. It would also clearly place the United States behind the opposition movement, which may not win the war against the Myanmar military. China, in contrast, has been a major provider of military assistance and training for both the Myanmar military and some of the major ethnic armed groups for decades. The provision of U.S. support to the ethnic militias would improve U.S. relations with those groups, but it may antagonize China in the process, unless there is an agreement between the two nations. Another important consideration is the long-term implications of U.S. military support for anti-government opposition forces. Recent U.S. experience with such endeavors has been rather mixed. In some cases, what were at one time allies became enemies, such as in Afghanistan. Given the history of disagreements between Myanmar’s ethnic armed organizations, supplying them with weapons and military training may precipitate an outbreak of these groups fighting each other after the defeat of the Myanmar military. A final option to consider is the further international isolation of Myanmar’s military, especially its commissioned officers. This could involve an international arms embargo, the freezing of military financial assets overseas, a travel embargo on the Myanmar military’s commissioned officers, and/or the instigation of criminal charges against the heads of the junta. Bertil Lintner, a renowned expert on Myanmar, recently wrote an article advocating the extraterritorial prosecution of the junta’s leaders as an alternative to the types of sanctions being implemented by the Biden administration and other governments. Previous efforts in the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar have been blocked by China and Russia. The U.N. General Assembly is supposed to consider a non-binding resolution calling for a global arms embargo on Myanmar; a proposal backed by the Biden administration. But in addition, the Biden administration could apply indirect pressure on nations to join the United States in isolating the Myanmar military. For example, it could make the continued provision of U.S. military assistance and training contingent on severing any ties to the Myanmar military. Alternatively, the U.S. Treasury could ban any American financial institution from providing financial services that involve the transfer of funds to accounts owned or controlled by the Myanmar military or its officers, as well as restrict financial services to foreign financial institutions that provide financial services to the Myanmar military. In its relative simplicity, and in following on from similar measures against Iran, this may be the most appealing option to the Biden administration and Congress—even if it doesn’t match the hopes of the opposition..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Foreign Policy" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The revolution is ours
Sub-title: It is women—teachers, factory workers, nurses, lawyers—who are again guiding people out of the darkness of military rule, Esther Wah writes
Description: "Women across Myanmar have long taken leading roles protecting their villages, land, and forests. We continue to be marginalised, perceived as weak or incapable, but it is women who for generations have courageously led communities through periods of adversity. The military coup on February 1 crushed the hopes and futures of people throughout the country, and we began a descent back into the nightmare of complete army control. It is hard to find the words to describe the pain we continue to suffer under the military’s domination. But yet again we see women—teachers, garment factory workers, nurses, lawyers—leading the grassroots movement against the junta, standing at the forefront of demonstrations, organising communities, providing support and care for villages and neighbourhoods. It is women who are again guiding people out of the darkness. We have no choice. We know that authoritarian military patriarchal rule has grave implications for women throughout the country; the tyranny that the military imposes upon women’s bodies is unbearable. Rape and sexual assault have long been weaponised by Myanmar’s armed forces against populations in every ethnic state in the country. We have seen this pattern repeated since the coup, now in towns and cities where no one is safe travelling, sleeping or passing through checkpoints. Every act of daily life poses new dangers. This is why we must stand up, we must fight, and we must win. In their April briefing paper, the Women’s League of Burma reported that more than 800 women had been detained and more than 40 killed since the coup. From those who have been detained there have been reports of torture and grievous sexual violence by the regime’s troops. Airstrikes and artillery shellings in Kachin, Karen and Kayah states have collectively displaced well over 100,000 people. Among them are pregnant women, children, and the elderly, languishing in squalid camps, hiding the jungle like animals, or, in the case of Karen State, stuck on the banks of the Salween River, unable to cross the border to Thailand. “There is no more peace and security for women,” one human rights defender from Kachin State told me recently. She noted that the discrimination and gender-based violence of the past had worsened in the years prior to the coup, and that shootings and sexual assault perpetrated against women were common due to the civil war and Myanmar military occupation of Kachin lands. Since the coup, this “culture of male violence,” as she described it, has intensified. “It hurts a lot, and it is completely unacceptable. There is no rule of law, no protection—the law has been abolished by the military. The situation is hopeless,” she said. Even as the any guarantee for our safety deteriorates, women continue to be at the forefront of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which aims to unseat the junta. Its main tool of resistance is a general strike, where people from across all sectors have refused to return to work until democracy is restored. Much of the CDM campaign has been led by women-dominated industries, as workers sacrifice their wages and their physical safety for the future of the country. Participation in the CDM comes with the risk of arrest, torture and murder by the junta. It started early: in mid-February, two female teachers who had joined the CDM were beaten and arrested in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina. Even after the military forced schools to open on June 1, more than half of the country’s 400,000 teachers have refused to work while the junta is in power. Most of those on strike are believed to be women. Teachers in the CDM have been temporarily or permanently suspended from their jobs, and more than 100 are facing criminal charges by the regime. Many no longer dare to live in cities and towns and have fled to rural areas, with some even hiding in the jungle. One ethnic Karen teacher on strike in Tanintharyi told me she was not going back to work because she does not want to “live as a slave under the military dictatorship.” “I do not want to be involved in any administrative machinery that will prolong the new military dictatorship. I do not want to pass on this slave education system to the new generation,” she explained as to why she continues her strike. She is one of many women throughout the civil service who is sacrificing her own safety and livelihood for the benefit of future generations. Women have also been integral in leading protests against the military, using the power of their own womanhood to destroy the army’s control. The htamein campaign—in which women’s sarongs were used as flags or strung up above roads in urban areas—showed how women’s clothing instilled fear among soldiers, who feared they would lose their masculine power if they passed underneath the clothes. Images of Kachin nun Sister Rose Nu Tawng have been seen around the world, a symbol of compassion and courage. In the midst of a protest crackdown in Myitkyina in March, she was photographed on her knees with her arms outstretched, begging members of the junta’s armed forces to “shoot and kill [her]” instead of children. While the police paused the violence momentarily, they continued shooting at demonstrators only moments after the iconic photos were taken. In ethnic areas, women have long taken leadership positions through periods of war and hardship. In Karen State, for example, there are many villages where it is women who serve as village heads. Because of the civil war and ongoing military oppression, men have been worried that they would face torture or murder if they took on the role of village head, leaving women to do the job instead. Women throughout the region have had to protect their communities from violent attacks and negotiate with the military when they came to their villages. Being on the frontlines is not new for us. These leadership positions continued through periods of temporary ceasefire, as women in ethnic areas addressed ongoing persecution and led efforts to recover lands and forests that were confiscated by the military. Women-led organisations across the ethnic states have also played central roles in civil society movements, creating new platforms and spaces for women throughout the country to be heard. Despite the prominent roles of women within emergent civic spaces, there had been little space for women to participate in official roles within government or the peace process prior to the coup. In the newly formed anti-coup National Unity Government, women make up around one-third of cabinet positions, a presence we have not seen in previous national administrations. While Myanmar is a deeply conflicted society divided by ethnicity, gender, class, and generational differences, we see that the military’s power grab has united us: today we stand together against patriarchal and racist military control. Ethnic groups from the Karen to the Kachin to the Rohingya to the Burmese, from older generations to Gen Z, from women to men, from factory workers to doctors—we all stand against military oppression. This revolution is for all of us, and in a new Myanmar, women, ethnic minorities, youth and the working class will take a leading role in shaping it. There is no going back, only forwards. This revolution is ours, and we will defeat our common enemy. Esther Wah is an indigenous Karen woman. She works with ethnic communities across Myanmar on their right to protect the land and forests..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Cartoonists use art to oppose TotalEnergies’ business with junta
Sub-title: The winning cartoon in a competition organised by a French campaign group shows blood dripping from a Total oil container and forming the shape of Myanmar
Description: "UK-based cartoonist Carol Isaacs, also known as The Surreal McCoy, has won the #TotalCartoonChallenge, a competition organised by French campaign group Info Birmanie to protest oil company TotalEnergies’ business with the Myanmar military junta. Carol’s winning cartoon shows blood dripping from a Total oil container and forming the shape of Myanmar. Carol has deep ties to Myanmar, as her family fled the country as refugees during the Second World War. She has visited several times and is currently working on a graphic novel on her family’s history. Info Birmanie launched the #TotalCartoonChallenge on social media 10 days before TotalEnergies’ May 28 annual shareholder meeting. The challenge aimed to increase TotalEnergies’ reputational risk because of their continued business with the military junta. The winning prize is publication in Myanmar Now. “We know the challenge is symbolic and does not carry much weight by itself, but we hope that the sum of actions, such as the letter co-signed by more than 40 elected members of parliament in France, will generate enough momentum and visibility to force Total to stop financing the junta,” Info Birmanie assistant coordinator Arjuna Lebaindre told Myanmar Now. The cartoon challenge is part of a series of creative actions to oppose the Myanmar coup. The Raise Three Fingers campaign, which Carol is part of, is a Myanmar initiative that calls on artists to create a three-fingered salute, the symbol of pro-democracy movements in Myanmar, Thailand and Hong Kong. Info Birmanie is continuing its campaign against TotalEnergies’ business with the junta. They are now running an online petition calling for TotalEnergies to “block any payment to the military junta until the country is ruled by the democratically elected civilian government,” receiving almost 3,800 signatures since its launch..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-05
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 6 June, (849) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Shwe Nyaung Township in Shan State were killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 6 June, a total of (4674) people are currently under detention; of them (160) are sentenced. 1936 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, 39 people to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour and 5 persons to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Around 8pm on 5 June, two men were shot dead, and one man was beaten and arrested near the intersection of Shwe Nyaung and Nyaung Shwe in Shan State when junta troops opened fire from their cars at the men riding a motorcycle. Khin Maung Shwe, Sagaing Region’s NLD Shwebo Township Chairman, who was arrested and charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code for alledgely inciting people to participate in the 22222 anti- coup movement, was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 4 June. In the afternoon of 5 June, Kyaw Ohn, village NLD Chairman of Man Ywet Village of Mogaung Township of Kachin State, was arrested at his home by the terrorist troops wearing plainclothes. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 5 June, (847) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Kyaukpadaung Township in Mandalay Region and Monywa Township in Sagaing Region were killed in previous days and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 5 June, a total of (4642) people are currently under detention; of them (158) are sentenced. 1931 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour and 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of 4 June, when Thaw Thaw a.k.a Thaw Zin who is LGBT, and two friends were on the way home riding a motorcycle, Thaw Thaw a.k.a Thaw Zin was shot with three bullets hit in their arm and rib by junta troops deployed at Township Education Office in Kyaukpadaung Town in Mandalay Region, and died from not receiving medical treatment in time. On the night of 3 June, Ka Lar was shot to death when he did not stop his motorcycle for inspection by junta troops in Monywa, Sagaing Region. On 4 June, Khant Zin Ko, who is a member of Monywa University Student Union, was arrested when the junta did not find his father at home at Monywa in Sagaing Region. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-05
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 1.17 MB 4.22 MB 975.94 KB
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Title: H.E. Dr. Sasa's address to Japanese Parliamentarians, Professors and Researchers
Description: "Konnichiwa! Thank you for having me, I am really grateful to you all for giving me this opportunity. The brave people and National Unity Government of Myanmar greatly appreciate the People, Parliament and Government of Japan for standing with us at this critical moment in our history. This is the darkest of hours and the most pivotal moment in the history of Myanmar. While the fate and future of Myanmar hangs in the balance, the strong and continued support from the people, parliamentarians, and Government of Japan and its International alliance are absolutely crucial in stopping this reign of terror and great tragedy in Myanmar. More than ever before, the 54 million courageous citizens of Myanmar need the continued strong friendship and coordinated support and recognition from the people, parliamentarians and Government of Japan in fulfilling the hopes, aspirations and dreams of those who have suffered so much for far too long under the hands of the brutal and cruel military generals and their regime. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my sincere thanks to the People, Parliament and Government of Japan for standing in solidarity with the 54 million citizens of Myanmar in this very difficult time in our history. Thank you for being a strong voice for the people of Myanmar and extending the visas for our grateful citizens living in Japan. Thank you for your leadership at G7 on behalf of the people of Myanmar, and for the recognition of CRPH and NUG as important voices of the people of Myanmar. Thank you for joining countries that have imposed an arms embargo in solidarity against the cruel and ruthless military junta in Myanmar. The duty of a nation’s military is to defend and protect its people. However, under the command of Min Aung Hlaing, the supposed guardians of our nation are doing precisely the opposite of their duty and continue arbitrarily murdering and detaining the brave and innocent civilians of Myanmar without cause on a daily and hourly basis. The people of Myanmar unanimously consider Min Aung Hlaing and those who report to him as terrorists and perpetrators of crimes against humanity. It has been four months since Min Aung Hlaing and his gunmen instigated this illegal coup d’etat and took the nation hostage. Since the 1 st of February 2021: Nearly 900 civilians have been murdered by the junta, including at least 72 children. Nearly 6,000 civilians have been arrested by the junta, and over 1,900 are evading arrest warrants. I have been charged with high treason by these military generals who are in fact the ones committing high treason against the people of Myanmar themselves. The junta continues using the ASEAN Summit as a propaganda tool while the junta forces make daily raids on private homes in villages, towns, and cities across the nation. The torture and cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians under the junta forces continue. They have abolished free media outlets in the vain attempt to stop the truth from getting out. Harassment and imprisonment of journalists continue under the junta. We are however thankful to courageous Japanese journalist Mr. Yuki Kitazumi for his bravery in reporting the true situation inside the prisons that he observed while illegally detained. We were all relieved by the news of his release, but more than 40 more journalists remain behind the junta’s cruel prison bars. The violence we are seeing by the junta is both systematic and widespread. It is clear that they are engaging in crimes against humanity against by using heavy battlefield weapons against unarmed civilians. They have been purchasing these weapons from China and Russia, among other countries by using the stolen wealth of the people and Country of Myanmar. As a result, Myanmar is now quickly becoming a failed state: Nearly a million people have become displaced, food insecurity is rising sharply, and the UNDP is predicting that over half of the population of Myanmar (approximately 27 million people) will be living in poverty within a year. The WFP analysis has also shown that more than 3 million people in Myanmar are going to face hunger in the coming months, while so many have already had to flee their homes and are facing hunger hiding in the jungle. It will be heart breaking to count the number of deaths caused by not only the deepening crisis of violence, but also by the tragedy of poverty and hunger that has begun. We, the sovereign citizens of Myanmar, are doing all that we can to prevent these great tragedies of violence, genocide, criminal atrocities, poverty and hunger by courageously and peacefully resisting the junta’s efforts to cause us maximum pain, suffering, death and destruction. They continue trying to take away our freedom and democracy with their blood-stained battlefield weapons. The peaceful Civil Disobedience Movements (CDM) led by dauntless medical and health workers, schoolteachers, students, activists, and joined by hundreds of thousands of civil servants and private sector workers continues unabated. Make no mistake, this is the most powerful peaceful movement ever to rise against a military junta. Day after day the defenseless people of Myanmar march across the nation and continue to demonstrate enormous valiancy in the face of the murderous and oppressive military dictators. This peaceful movement has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, however, this peaceful movement deserves not only the Nobel Peace prize, but also the full support of the People, Parliamentarians and Government of Japan, and the international communities. The citizens of Myanmar have initiated strong domestic sanctions against the junta through this peaceful movement of CDM, strikes and other acts of civil disobedience. We are boycotting junta produced goods, and a large percentage of civil servants are refusing to support the junta’s work. The sanctions that have been imposed to date by Japan and the International Community have been a helpful start to supporting our domestic efforts. While the brutal crackdown by the junta and its forces continue, opposition to the junta remains strong and unanimous among the people of Myanmar. However, greater help and support from the people, Parliament and Government of Japan and its allies from the international community are vitally important. We have three core requests to present to the People, Parliament and Government of Japan and its allies from around the world: 1) Engage with the National Unity Government as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Myanmar. We are comprised of leaders elected in Myanmar’s democratic November elections as well as leaders of ethnic states and regions. The people of Myanmar recognize us as the sole legitimate government and our hope is that you will also work with us as the sole legitimate government of Myanmar as well. 2) Help us address a growing humanitarian crisis. We need aid. The National Unity Government knows how to get aid to where it needs to go. A humanitarian crisis is growing due to conflict and the spread of COVID-19. Myanmar’s economy is in collapse and millions are already, or at risk of being, without water, food, sanitation, shelter and medicine. (UNWFP estimates 6.4m people will be without food in Myanmar by October 2021). We desperately need aid for 1) FOOD SECURITY, 2) HEALTH 3) SHELTER, 4) EDUCATION: 3) Help us put more financial pressure on the junta. It is critical for the nations of the world who stand with us to band together in a coordinated campaign of further sanctions that would cut the flow of revenue to this murderous regime. We are respectfully requesting that the Government of Japan ensure that no funds from any entity under the control of Japan, whether public or private, be allowed to continue to be transferred to the Junta, its business entities, leaders or their families. The largest source of revenue to the junta, the oil and gas sector, remains unscathed by the international community. Coordinated and targeted sanctions and legislation would make a clear legal obligation for companies to stop the flow of this revenue to the junta. We must not continue to allow this illegal junta to spend the wealth of the people of Myanmar in murdering the people of Myanmar. Therefore, the Government of Japan and the International Community must place sanctions against Myanmar Oil and Gas and all state-owned enterprises, including the transfer of dual use technology, and impose an international arms embargo and a strict no-fly-zone above the territory of Myanmar by whatever means necessary. These measures are critically vital to prevent civil war and another genocide in Myanmar. Our National Unity Government Myanmar is ready, willing and able to help in all of these coordinated efforts. This is the first time in the history of Myanmar that there has been a National Unity Government with the full support of the people. We need the endorsement, recognition, acknowledgement and engagement from the Government of Japan and the free countries and leaders from around the world who believe in freedom, justice and democracy. This is the first time in our history that elected members of Parliament, political parties, ethnic leaders, ethnic armed organizations and grass roots civil society organizations have come together as one united people to oppose the common enemy. This is the greatest opportunity of the century. We must then seize upon this window of opportunity and put an end to this wicked, illegitimate regime, and begin afresh with a transparent and inclusive federal democratic union of Myanmar. As the true legitimate and democratically elected Government of Myanmar, the National Unity Government of Myanmar is here to help generate the will of the brave people of Myanmar by whom, and for whom it was elected. This united will of the people is: - Building of a Federal Democratic Union of Myanmar where both Federal States and Federal Union Governments are by the people and for the people, and where the rights of ALL regardless of race, sex, culture, ethnicity, background, and religion are equally respected, protected and promoted. It will be a place where power and resource sharing will be based on the principles of equality and self-determination, and where the three branches of Parliament, Judiciary and Executive will function independently. - Total eradication of military dictatorship and the current genocidal military which has become a cancer to the country and people of Myanmar, and to replace it with an ethical and inclusive armed force that belong to the people of Myanmar and is led by the civilian government. - Complete nullification of the 2008 constitution created by the junta and for the junta, and repealing and replacing discriminative laws, such as the 1982 citizenship law, with new laws and a federal constitution for the people of Myanmar. This will be done in an inclusive manner and only with the consensus of ALL the stakeholders. A constitutional convention and referendum will be held on the permanent draft constitution which will be won by the people and belong to the people of Myanmar for generations to come. I am very proud of the courageous people of Myanmar who are on the front lines of this movement to liberate our nation from a brutal military regime, and for their bravery and their commitment to human rights, a federal democracy and freedom for ALL the people of Myanmar. Mark my words: we, the opposition to the illegal junta, will win in our struggle to liberate Myanmar from the brutal military junta, and on the other end of this fight we will emerge an inclusive Myanmar that is committed to democracy, human rights, and to being a responsible partner in the global community. With the help of the People, Parliament and Government of Japan, our vision and our dream will become a powerful reality and will bear testimony to our strong friendship and unyielding gratefulness. Sincerely, Arigatou..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Crimes Against Humanity Committed by Myanmar Junta in Last Three Months
Description: "Amid condemnation by the international community, the Myanmar military regime has intensified its violent suppression of anti-regime protests since the Feb. 1 coup, frequently committing crimes against humanity. In the three months from Feb. 1 to April 30, nearly 760 people were killed during crackdowns, raids, arrests, interrogations and random shootings. Those killed include anti-regime protesters, bystanders, pedestrians and residents. More than 3,400 people have been detained, including elected leaders, National League for Democracy members, election commissioners, doctors, journalists, protesters, activists, writers, artists, teachers and civilians. Facing huge daily protests nationwide, the regime has used lethal weapons including live ammunition, hand grenades and heavy explosives to attack peaceful anti-regime protesters, labeling them as “rioters”. During their raids and crackdowns, the military regime’s forces have committed crimes, destroying civilians’ belongings including vehicles, motorbikes and houses, and looting property including motorbikes, phones, money, foods, chickens and pigs. The Irrawaddy has collected 29 photos containing evidence of the junta forces’ brutality, among thousands of such cases committed against civilians.....Feb 10, 2021: Ma Mya Thwet Thwet Khine, a 19-year-old high school student is on life support at a hospital after being shot in the head by police at an anti-regime protest in Naypyitaw on Feb. 10. During the crackdowns, at least four others were injured as police used live bullets. Ma Mya Thwet Thwet Kine, who had been brain dead, was pronounced dead on Feb. 19. Her death was the first protest related death at the hands of the junta’s force in Myanmar. However, the military junta has denied responsibility for her death claiming she died when protesters shot at each other.....Feb 20, 2021: A medic from a charity treats Ko Yarzar Aung who was shot in the leg in a police vehicle before he was taken away on Feb. 20. Ko Yarzar Aung was injured during the crackdown on hundreds of people who appeared in the street to protest government staff taking part in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) at a dock, in a raid by police and military troops in Mandalay on Feb. 20. In the crackdown, a total of six people were killed and nearly 30 people were injured. More than 80 people, including some seriously injured protesters, were arrested. Medics were not allowed to provide proper treatment to the injured arrested during the crackdown. Four days later, Ko Yarzar Aung died at a military hospital without being provided proper treatment, a witness told The Irrawaddy. The military regime announced he died of COVID-19.....Feb 27,2021: A riot police officer in Myanmar intimidates a pregnant woman by pointing at her face with his fist in Yangon’s Myaynigon during a crackdown on anti-regime protesters on Feb. 27. During the crackdowns, the junta’s forces arrested bystanders and intimidated medical teams by pointing at social worker with guns.....March 3, 2021: Ko Min Thura lost is eyesight in a crackdown by the junta’s forces in Yangon on March 3. He was seriously wounded in the eyes by rubber bullets on March 3 when the junta’s forces conducted a crackdown on anti-regime protests in Yangon’s North Oakkalapa Township. He was shot in the face with rubber bullets when he tried to carry the body of one of his friends out of the line of fire. His right cheek and ear are paralyzed and he can open his mouth only slightly due to the injuries. In the crackdown, around eight anti-regime protesters were killed and several injured. Ko Min Thura lost two close friends killed by the junta’s forces during the crackdown.....March 3, 2021: The 19-year-old Kyal Sin during an anti-regime protest in Mandalay (left). She died after being shot in the head (right). Kyal Sin, also known as Angel or by her Chinese name, Deng Jia Xi, was shot in the head during a heavy-handed police crackdown on anti-regime protesters in downtown Mandalay on March 3. Before she left for the protest, she wrote on Facebok that her wish was to donate her organs if something happened to her. One day after her burial, the regime’s solders forcibly exhumed her body and conducted an autopsy. Later, the regime denied responsibility for killing the girl, reasoning that the girl died when protesters shot at each other.....March 6, 2021: The dead body of NLD ward chairman U Khin Maung Latt, who was tortured to death by the military regime’s forces. During a house raid, the 58-year-old Muslim, a National League for Democracy (NLD) ward chairman, was violently beaten and kicked before being taken from his home at Yangon’s Pabedan Township on the night of March 6. He was tortured to death by the regime’s forces, hours after he was arrested. Since the Feb. 1 coup, three NLD members were tortured to death by the military regime......March 14, 2021: A mortuary with dead bodies of anti-regime protesters in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township. Around 80 civilians were killed across the country when the military regime’s forces conducted crackdowns on anti-regime protesters on March 14. Around 50 protesters were killed and several dozen were injured in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township alone when the regime’s forces opened fire on not only protesters but also bystanders and pedestrians.....March 14, 2021: Two police drag a medical student wounded by live bullets along on the street during deadly crackdowns on anti-regime protests in Yangon’s Tamwe Township on March 14. The 18-year-old, Khant Nyar Hein, a first-year medical student, was shot on the street by the regime’s troops in Tamwe while he was taking part in a protest. Another protester tried to save him, but the police dragged his body away. The protester who attempted to save him was arrested. The body of the teenager was returned to the family later. The boy was shot three times.....March 19, 2021: The mirror widow of a Yangon private hospital is damaged by a gunshot by the junta’s forces. The regimes’ soldiers and police fired shots at SSC Hospital’s women’s center in Yangon on the evening of March 19. No casualties were reported at the center, which provides maternity and newborn care. Pregnant women and women who had just delivered babies were present on two floors the hospital, which were hit by the gunfire. After the gunfire, those in the hospital laid low. At least four other private hospitals were shot at and raided by the junta’s forces in Yangon.....March 19, 2021: Soldiers and police torture an arrested civilian during a crackdown on anti-regime protesters in Yangon Region’s North Oakkalapa Township on March 19. Some said police rode on his shoulders and strangled the man neck with a rope until he was unconscious.....March 19, 2021: The inhumane treatment of citizens by the military regime’s forces was caught in this video screenshot showing officers forcing a man to crawl along a street in Tamwe Township, Yangon Region on March 19. The man, who was being used as forced labor to carry sandbags, was forced to crawl after he could not carry any more. Many residents were also used as forced labor to remove the sandbags, which are used as roadblocks by anti-regime protesters to protect themselves against the crackdowns of the junta’s forces.....March 20, 2021: A funeral is held secretly for 21-year-old Ko Chan Thar Htwe by his family in Mandalay. Neither protesting nor gathering in the street, Mandalay resident Ko Chan Thar Htwe was deliberately shot in the head by the junta forces from long range while he was in front of his house in Chanmyathazi Township in the morning on March 21. On that afternoon, family urgently held a funeral for the victim secretly after changing two locations as the troops searched for them in the ward. On the next day, the whole family fled their home as the junta’s troops searched for them in the ward again, according to a family member..... March 21, 2021: The funeral is held for 16-year-old teashop waiter Zaw Myo Htet, who was shot dead by the junta’s forces in Mandalay during a night raid on March 21. The high school student was shot dead on the night of March 21 by the junta’s forces when he was looking around outside a tea shop where he worked in Chanayethazan Township of Mandalay region. The native of Bago Region came to work as a waiter at the tea shop just two days before his death. During the shooting, seven other residents were also killed. The next day, security forces, claiming they needed to conduct an autopsy, interrupted the funeral of the boy and forcibly took the dead body.....March 23, 2021: The dead body of Ma Khin Myo Chit, who was shot dead in her father’s arms during a house raid in Mandalay. The 6-year-old Muslim girl was shot to death at close-range during a house raid at Aung Pine Lae in Chanmyathazi Township of Mandalay. The frightened girl was slain while being hugged by her father. During the raid, a 19-old-man, the girl’s brother, was also beaten and taken away by the security forces. The family fled their house and held a funeral for the girl secretly since the junta’s forces came to seize the dead body of the girl that night. The military regime’s forces conducted a series of raids in several wards in Chanmyathazi including Aung Pin Lae, Aung Tharyar and Mya Yi Nandar over three days after a confrontation between them and peaceful anti-regime protesters on March 21. In the raids, at least 20 people were killed and about a hundred were injured.....March 26, 2021: Two people are arrested while their hands are tied behind their backs during a crackdown against an anti-regime protest in Tanintharyi Region’s Myeik Township on March 26. The junta’s forces also used two seized ambulances from which to shoot at protesters and bystanders in the town. During the deadly crackdown, four people were killed and at least two dozen were injured. Several protesters were arrested.....March 27, 2021: Soldiers drag away an anti-regime protester hit by bullets after a deadly crackdown against protesters in Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan Township on March 27. At least two civilians were seriously injured as large numbers of junta forces dispersed anti-regime protesters in the Yuzana Garden Housing Complex in the township in the morning on March 27 by using live ammunition and stun grenades.....March 27, 2021: A video screenshot shows military troops in vehicles open fire on three boys on motorbikes passing by near them in Tanintharyi Region’s capital Dawei on March 30. One of the three youths on the bike, 17-year-old Kyaw Min Latt, was shot and dragged away by the troops. He was pronounced dead on March 30 by the military hospital, saying the teenager died of a brain injury due to falling from the motorbike.....March 27, 2021: The remains of neighborhood watch member U Aye Ko, who was burned alive by the regime’s troops in Mandalay’s Aungmyethazan Township on March 27. During soldiers’ night raid on Mintae Ekin ward, U Aye Ko, 40, was left behind after being shot. He was dragged away and set on fire at a roadblock by the junta’s forces, witnesses told the media. Residents said they were unable to rescue the volunteer as soldiers were deploying in the area, threatening to shoot anyone who appeared at the windows of houses. On that day, the Myanmar military regime marked its Armed Forces Day by slaughtering around 110 people across the country, making it the bloodiest single day since the Feb. 1 coup.....March 28, 2021: A video screenshot shows two junta forces in partial uniforms using a motorcycle to shoot anti-regime protesters in Myinchan Twonship, Mandalay Region on March 28. A young female anti-regime protester and a male protester were shot dead when the junta’s forces using civilian vehicles and motorcycles randomly opened fire on protesters and residents in Myinchan in the morning on March 28. In the afternoon, the junta’s forces also opened fire on a vehicle carrying children and women passing through the town. In the shooting, a man in the vehicle died after being hit with a live bullet.....March 28, 2021: A man carries the body of a nursing student who was shot dead while assisting the injured during shooting by police and soldiers against anti-regime protests in Sagaing Region’s Monywa on March 28. The 20-year-old nursing student Ma Thinzar Hein was shot dead as she was assisting the injured when the junta’s forces opened fire on anti-regime protesters. In the shooting by junta forces, at least five people were killed.....April 4, 2021: The 19-year-old fell to the ground after being shot while returning home with her husband on a motorbike in Mandalay at night on April 4. The girl died after suffering a head injury, presumably after falling off the bike. Her husband managed to reach medics with his serious injury after being hit in the abdomen by a live bullet fired by junta forces. The rescue workers took 20 minutes to reach her and to drive her home as the team had to hide from the junta’s forces.....April 4, 2021: Photos of Ko Aung Paing Htwe, who was tortured to death at the hands of junta forces. Ko Aung Paing Htwe, 30, was arrested by junta forces while he was extinguishing a fire at a ward administration office in Shan State’s capital, Taunggyi on April 4. His dead body was returned by the military two days later, saying he died of a brain hemorrhage and lung injuries caused by a crash with a fire engine. However, signs of severe torture were obvious on his body, said fellow ward residents. His head was cracked open, his face was covered in bruises, one of his ears had almost been cut off, and there was a knife wound in his back. Wounds in his chest had been stitched back together.....April 9, 2021: The funeral of Ko Thiha, who was killed by the junta’s forces in Bago on April 9 (left). Explosives used by junta’s forces remain unexploded in the attack (right). The social worker was among more than 80 people who were killed by the regime’s troops in a massacre in Bago on April 9. The regime’s forces used automatic weapons and many rifle grenades in attacking the defense team members and night watchman guarding the protest assembly areas during their deadly crackdown on four anti-regime stronghold wards in Bago.....April 17, 2021: Police carry two bodies of protesters hit by bullet in a cart after a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters in Mogok, Mandalay Region on April 17. Two were killed and two others were injured in Mogok, a ruby town in Mandalay Region, when the military cracked down on anti-regime protesters. In a video recorded by a local, a soldier is heard issuing the command “I want five people (to be arrested) and I want them dead”.....April 20, 2021: Dead bodies of villagers who were killed during shootouts with the regime’s forces in Yinmabin Township of Sagaing Region on April 20. Hundreds of villagers from Kapaing, Thigone and Thityarpin villages conducted a defensive action against hundreds of military troops approaching the villages for a raid. In the shootouts, the military troops used a drone to search the locations of villagers and used heavy explosives in attacking the villagers taking up homemade percussion lock firearms and slingshots. In the fight, more than 10 villagers were killed and several dozen detained. Troops were based in Kapaing after raiding the village. A villager said the troops looted all food, chickens, pigs, motorcycles and money from the village. They even stole women’s clothing.....April 24, 2021: Portraits of Ma Khin Nyein Thu who was sexually assaulted and tortured in detention. After being accused of involvement in a series of bombing, the detainee, Ma Khin Nyein Thu, 31, was sexually assaulted and tortured by junta forces at an interrogation center in Yangon, a former cellmate released from the junta’s interrogation center revealed on social media and in regular media. She had been tortured and beaten since being arrested by the junta’s forces along with five other people at a house in Yankin Township on April 17. After learning that her boyfriend is a foreigner, officers at the police station in Yakin forced Ma Khin Nyein Thu to open her legs, kicked her in the genitals and beat her on the genitals with a stick. She is still detained.....April 25, 2021: A photo shows regime forces forcing two women to dance for banging pots and pans in Mayangone Township of Yangon on the night of April 25. Myanmar regime forces dragged around 10 residents from their home in Thamine ward in Mayangone Township for banging pots and pans as a night-time anti-regime protest. The junta’s forces forced them to continue to hit their pots and made two women in nightwear dance for them for two hours in the street. Some male civilians were also beaten.....April 26, 2021: The dead body of a street vendor who was killed by the random shooting of junta forces in Mandalay on the evening on April 26. Ko Zaw Shein, 37, was shot dead by the junta’s forces while he appeared on the road near his shop in Sein Pann Ward in Mandalay Region’s Mahar Aung Myay Township at around 7 pm on April 26. In Mandalay, the junta’s forces frequently open fire on pedestrians and bystanders.....April 27, 2021: The dead body of a villager who died after being shot in the abdomen during shooting by the junta’s forces in Kayah State’s Demoso Township on April 27. During the raid to remove roadblocks in Six Mile Village in Demoso, military regime forces opened fire on bystanders and villagers opposing them...."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-05-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 4 June, (845) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 4 June, a total of (4565) people are currently under detention; of them (156) are sentenced. 1931 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour and 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. By 1am on 4 June, Khun Aung Sann was beaten and arrested at his home at Taunggyi Town in Shan State by the junta. The youth’s phone was confiscated and people downstairs in his home were also assaulted. On the 3 June afternoon, Lwin Ko Chit a.k.a Phoe Chit, who is a leader of Sanay Charity Group, Bhamo Town in Kachin State, was arrested by junta troops. Ni Ni Nyunt, headmistress of B.E.M.S (3) of Taungdwingyi Town in Magway Region, was charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code in the morning of 3 June for her involvement in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). She was arrested in March. Thet Tun Aung a.k.a Maung Htoo San, a professional photographer, who was charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code, was sentenced to three years imprisonment on 3 June. He was arrested in April after being accused of joining armed training in an ethnic area. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-04
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Diary of a Myanmar medic: 'I learned to treat gunshot wounds on YouTube'
Description: "A doctor who provides treatment to protesters injured by the military describes the daily violence and trauma of post-coup Myanmar Rebecca Ratcliffe A medic in Myanmar, as told to Rebecca Ratcliffe Fri 26 Mar 2021 11.40 EDT A doctor who provides treatment to protesters wounded by the army and police has described a week in the turmoil of the post-coup Myanmar. When the military coup happened, I joined a group of medics providing treatment to protesters. Every day is a risky day for us. I may be captured, I may be shot dead. We don’t have bullet-proof vests. We have only a waistcoat and a stethoscope. Our ambulance has been shot at twice before; we just had to get out and run. If we weren’t providing medical cover, there would be nowhere for people to get proper care. Many doctors and nurses are refusing to work in the government hospitals, because they are protesting against the junta. The only other place for the wounded is the military hospital. I am doing this for my country’s people, and because I want my children to have a bright future.....Saturday: Every morning I say a prayer. I write my blood group, my emergency contact number, my weight and other credentials on my forearm. I tell my wife: if I don’t come back, you must live yourself and take care of the children. My wife is also very active in resisting the military coup. She tells me: do what you have to do, and if you die, I will be proud of you. Today there was a protest by students. The military tried to capture them, but they ran away and hid in the local people’s houses. Residents refused to hand them over, so the military started shooting at them. We waited in hiding around the local houses, trying to get the students home safely. We managed to get about 50 students out. It took half a day. Some of them were very afraid to move. They were so young, only 17 or 18. The students had just bruises, but residents were shot for protecting them. One of the victims, who I cared for, had been shot in the back, near the kidney area. We couldn’t go into his house because all the lanes were blocked off by the military. The other residents managed to carry him to us. They moved him slowly from one house to another house. Eventually he reached our ambulance. At this point, he was barely breathing. There was a lot of blood. We tried to resuscitate but we were not successful. Four people were killed in the area.....Sunday: My team heard from our network that there had been another shooting in a nearby downtown area. There was no protest at the time, but the military was shooting while patrolling the streets. Four people were injured, including a 13-year-old boy. A woman was shot dead. Her body was lying on the road, but we had to wait nearly two hours to treat her because the military was spraying bullets nearby. The fatal wound was on the back of her head. There are some patients we see, lying down on the street, who we cannot reach. The military takes them. They may die, they may not be treated. I think the official death toll is an underestimate. I think I have almost got PTSD. I laugh sometimes, I cry sometimes, I feel depressed sometimes. Sometimes I cannot sleep well. I had not treated gunshot wounds before the coup. I learned from watching YouTube and from reading my medical and surgical books.....Monday: Usually, we connect with our peer-to-peer network on apps, but now the junta has cut everyone’s mobile data. Three people were killed locally today. One of the victims, whose death I certified, was just 20. The military was taking down barricades that residents had put up to protect their neighbourhoods, and the people, who were afraid, were making new barricades further down the road. The military started shooting at them. We treated the patients in nearby homes. There was a gunshot wound to the shoulder, buttocks, as well as rubber bullet wounds, and one patient had cuts to the thigh. We stitched them up to control the bleeding, but without local anaesthesia. We don’t have lots of equipment with us, only our backpacks. We made an IV drip for them, and for the pain relief we gave only diclofenac (Voltaren). We need morphine sometimes but it is a controlled drug so we cannot get it easily. We had to move locations three times as we treated the patients, because the military was coming. It’s like a war. The people living in the houses are very passionate towards us. As medical cover, we are the only help they can find. If the patient’s condition is bad and there’s not much we can do, then they have to be moved to the surgeon, who performs operations in a safe place.....Tuesday: Today was quiet. Patients who were stitched yesterday were given wound dressings. We also went and gave money to the victims’ families. We give to wounded patients who have had to have limbs amputated as well. They are just poor people. Sometimes they have a wife and kids. In one case, a man who was killed had a wife who was three months pregnant. At night time we could not sleep very well because the military was going around patrolling, shooting, and setting off stun grenades. I no longer sleep at my home. I stay in a different place every night. I’ve done this for a month. I am afraid of being arrested in night raids. When the military comes, we turn the lights off in the house, and turn on the street lights, so that we can see what they are doing outside.....Wednesday: Mobile data is still down. We trained other volunteers who are not medics, teaching them how to check patients, how to do the tourniquet, how to stop the bleeding. I am afraid for tomorrow; often one or two days of quiet are followed by violence.....Thursday: The military came again tonight, patrolling the area where I am staying and yelling at us not to go outside. The people on my street were OK, but in another nearby area one man was shot dead. He was a resident who had volunteered to stay out on night patrol, to alert others in case the military approached. My daughter is afraid of the loud bangs and cursing. She asks me: why don’t the police come [to stop the shootings]? She has seen, in the movies, how the police are the good guys who take the bad guys out. It is a very hard question for me to answer. How can I tell her that those who are shooting the people are police and soldiers? Whenever I go outside, she asks me when I will come back. She tells me: daddy, don’t go out they will shoot you. It is traumatic for children. Due to Covid, the schools have already been closed for around one and a half years. My daughter asks me when she can go out on a trip, but it is too dangerous for children to go outside. Luckily we have wifi and so she can watch YouTube. I logged out of my Facebook a few days ago, so that I can concentrate on my work. There is too much rumour, fake news, psychological warfare by the junta, and graphic imagery on social media. There are live videos of people being slaughtered or captured and beaten. It’s hard to cope with that stimulus all the time. Sometimes, if I can’t sleep at night, I take antidepressants. After the revolution is successful, I want to apply to open a clinic specialising in trauma and stress. We need it a lot. We feel insecure all the time. We feel the danger and violence. We are fearful all the time..."
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Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-03-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Hostages under the military coup
Description: "Hostages under the military coup Date : 4 June 2021 Since 1 February 2021, when the junta arrested Burma’s elected state leaders and unlawfully seized power, junta forces have carried out relentless and dailyarbitrary arrests. The junta uses brutal force to arrest these civilians, on thestreet, in their homes, and even in hospitals receiving medical treatment. The junta employs brutality to arrest those not easily detained, like ramming with cars. When wanted individuals aren’t found, family members are taken hostage. This junta takes whoever they can find, including children, employing worsening methods to apprehend the detainees. According to AAPP’s documentation, at least 76 people have been taken hostage since the coup. 28 have been released and 45 remain in custody. Twowere placed under house arrest and one has been sentenced to prison. The 45 who remain in custody include National League for Democracy’s Hluttaw representatives, party leaders, protestors, CDM strikers, those issued warrants under Penal Code 505-a, and those suspected to have links to EAO’s. Two people currently held hostage have been placed under house arrest. On 22 May, in Pantanaw Township, Irrawaddy Division, the junta came to arrest NLD party leader U Mya Nyein at his house. They did not find him, instead taking his wife Daw Nyein Nyine (75 years-old) and his cousin Daw Wine Tine (65 years-old). At first held in Pantanaw Police Station, they were later placed under house arrest. At present, they have not been allowed to return to their home in Mimma Pye Village, instead held at the house of U Mya Nyein. One person who was taken as hostage has been sentenced to prison. On 2 May, in Rangoon Division, the home of political activist Ko Tin Hute Paing, in North Okklapa, was raided. The junta could not find him, instead detaining and beating his mother. On 28 May, at a North Okkalapa military court, she was sentenced to three years under Penal Code 505-a. Of the 76 hostages, 36 of them are women, aged from 2 to 75 years old.Hostage taking is a serious crime, committed by terrorist organizations. Yetsuccessive dictators in Burma have carried out abductions. Preceding drafted constitutions have given impunity for these past crimes and present crimes.In 1979 the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages was first introduced, Myanmar became a state party to the convention on 4 June 2004. Partied states pledged that hostage taking is a threat to international peace and security. Hostage-taking is a violation of the basic values upheld by the United Nations, namely the fundamental rights enjoyed by every individual, including life, liberty, and security, laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR). The terrorist actions by this junta clearly defy international humanitarian law in Burma. We, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP),condemn this brutality, call for the immediate release of all hostages, and for the international community to take stern and meaningful action..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-04
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘I just want to cry’: Non-striking civil servants in a moral bind
Description: "Daw May Thu is not proud to serve under the military regime. Quite the opposite: she despises it and fervently prays it will fall. Yet while she seethes with resentment and shame, she continues to serve in her position at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Nay Pyi Taw. “It’s not wrong to think of me as a coward, because many people are so determined and made bold decisions to join [the Civil Disobedience Movement],” said May Thu. Along with others interviewed for this report, she is given a pseudonym to avoid reprisals. “Sometimes when I see [social media] posts that criticise non-CDM people, I start to sweat. My whole body becomes warm and I feel so ashamed,” she said. Since the February coup, hundreds of thousands of civil servants have gone on strike throughout the country. The strike is one element of the CDM, which includes boycotts of military-linked companies and their products, and other activities aimed at disrupting the junta’s efforts to consolidate control over the country. The CDM has caused serious disruption to healthcare, education, banking and transport services, and cracks are also showing in the police, local administration and other sectors. As the regime suspends contracts, issues arrest warrants, evicts the families of public servants and hunts down those refusing to report to work, CDM participants have earned strong support domestically and internationally. Underground funding networks have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support striking workers, and in March, the CDM was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, comprised of lawmakers ousted by the coup, endorsed the movement within weeks of the first strikes, and in March said it would guarantee that people who joined the CDM could return to their posts under a future civilian government. The following month, the CRPH-appointed interim National Unity Government, which is serving in parallel to the regime, announced that it would use funds donated to the CRPH to pay the salaries of striking civil servants. Meanwhile, those who have stayed in their posts have faced social punishment, a strategy of naming and shaming people connected with the military or supporting the regime. As the military’s acts of terror have increased in frequency and violence, hostility towards those who are not participating in the CDM has only grown. At times, anger towards these individuals has turned violent. On May 4, Myanmar Now reported a series of explosions at a court, education office, and public hospital compound in Magway Region’s Myaing Township, with residents attributing the blasts to CDM supporters, and on June 2, Democratic Voice of Burma reported that a bomb exploded at the house of a non-CDM teacher in the town of Mogok in Mandalay Region. Frontier interviewed five civil servants who chose not to join the CDM. All said they had opposed the coup and contemplated joining the movement, but had decided to stay at their posts for reasons ranging from concern for their families, fears for their safety and loyalty to like-minded colleagues. Some also thought they could do more to help the people by continuing to work rather than going on strike or resigning. May Thu said that if, as she expects, the junta eventually falls, she and other non-striking colleagues will be prepared to accept any censure or punishment for their choice. “When the [civilian] government wins, if CDM people point their fingers and laugh, we will happily leave our office,” she said. “All I want is for the coup to fail and the CRPH to win.” “If they ask us to leave in humiliation … we will not hesitate to do so.” ‘Becoming like Pyongyang’ On the day of the coup, May Thu and her colleagues were called to a meeting and told that as civil servants they must continue to do their duties regardless of who was in power. “The majority of my colleagues, maybe two-thirds, were disappointed to learn about the coup. On that day, we weren’t motivated to work anymore,” said May Thu. For a few weeks, however, some hope lingered that the protests would succeed and military rule would be short-lived. May Thu and like-minded colleagues joined the nationwide evening ritual of banging pots and pans to symbolically “drive out evil”. They also watched with excitement and admiration as others left their posts. Most did this by resigning rather than going on strike, due to fear of arrest, although May Thu said this has become less common in recent weeks because the regime has started denying resignation requests. “Many of my colleagues couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to resign not long after the coup … We just watched them and respected them for their decisions,” she said. But as the days passed, her optimism faded. Shots were fired at an apartment where people were banging pots and pans, and the practice gradually stopped in her compound. May Thu watched as the CDM’s momentum in her office also fizzled out. “At first, it seemed like the CDM was going to succeed, and many people were planning to leave, but for so many reasons, some of us changed our minds,” she said. Life for civil servants in Nay Pyi Taw has also grown increasingly regimented. “They started to order us to do things that we didn’t want to do,” May Thu said. She and her colleagues are required to inform the authorities about visitors to their dormitories, for example, and now have to sign in twice a day at the office. They have even been ordered to buy “low quality” cloth for their uniforms at a “high price” from a military-run enterprise and sew them according to detailed specifications. “It starts from how many buttons we can sew and if we change it a bit, it can cause problems,” May Thu said. “We must follow their instructions exactly.” “We joke among ourselves that our place is becoming like Pyongyang,” she added, referring to the capital of North Korea, a totalitarian dictatorship. Camaraderie with her colleagues has helped her cope with the situation, but despondency often overwhelms May Thu. “We don’t feel like doing anything at the office. Every day, we have to sit and read [the regime’s] orders. We know they will bring nothing good for the country … We just want to cry.” May Thu reached a breaking point during the Thingyan holiday in mid-April, when she and her colleagues were required to participate in traditional Myanmar dancing on a stage at a military-run event. Some feigned stomach aches, but the ruse was unsuccessful because they were unable to present a doctor’s certificate. “You could count with one hand those who really enjoyed celebrating Thingyan,” said May Thu, who broke into tears when describing the experience. “We had to dance, despite our sadness.” After Thingyan, she called her parents and told them she was coming home, but changed her mind after speaking with female colleagues. “We all live together as a family,” she said. “I don’t want to break our relationship.” May Thu also believes that leaving her post could do more harm than good. “If we joined the CDM and left the office, military staff would surely replace us,” she said. “I know that there are many people who will say, ‘You decided to stay, so why are you complaining?’ … If I were them, I might say the same thing to non-CDM people. Nonetheless, I still hope there’s some people who’ll understand our choice and sympathise with us.” Safeguarding families Family considerations are a powerful reason why some civil servants have not joined the CDM. “[My mother] worked really hard so I could become a doctor,” said Dr Paing Htoo, who works at a public hospital in Kayin State. He supports his single mother and a younger sibling, who would have no income if he were detained. More than 150 health workers have so far been arrested for joining the CDM, and the junta has issued arrest warrants for 400 striking doctors, according to the Humanitarian Data Exchange. “I consider my family more than myself,” said Paing Htoo. “I’m worried that if I join the CDM, I might get arrested and it would break my mother’s heart.” Paing Htoo also believes he can help his community by continuing to serve patients, especially the elderly and poor. “I completely agree that the coup is an injustice,” he said, “but most people here depend on the services [my hospital] provides. By continuing to work here, I can give a little help to those in need.” Although he worries about facing harassment or threats for his decision not to join the CDM, he hopes his integrity will protect him. “According to my [Buddhist] religion, if you do good things, merit can save you from danger,” he said. High CDM participation in the education sector prompted the regime to suspend more than 125,000 CDM teachers throughout the country in May, but some in the profession have felt unable to join the mass strike. Although Roi Ja, a primary school teacher and single mother in Kachin State, was upset about the coup, she decided not to join the CDM because of her family responsibilities. “Of course, I would prefer to work under the previous government than the military,” she said. “I really wish the coup would fail. I would definitely join the CDM if I had another secure job and received enough to support my children.” With arrest warrants out for more than 200 teachers, fear of arrest also deterred Roi Ja from going on strike. “I would have to be alert all the time,” she said, adding, “I couldn’t easily relocate [and go into hiding], since I have a big family and other responsibilities.” Fearing social punishment, however, she has hidden her decision from her colleagues who are in the CDM . “I feel guilty and ashamed,” she said. U Kaung Myat, an election official who asked that his location not be revealed, became the sole income-earner for his family of four after his wife joined the CDM. He worries about being dismissed from his post should he also join the CDM, but also fears being promoted should he stay in his role. “If I am offered [a promotion], it will be the hardest decision … I will hesitate because many people have given their lives,” he said. Like many Union Election Commission staff across the country, he was detained shortly after the coup when the junta pressured election officials to back its unsubstantiated voting fraud claims, in an effort to discredit the National League for Democracy’s victory in November’s election. Having spent more than a month in custody, Kaung Myat fears being arrested again. “I was abducted once. I don’t want to experience it twice,” he said.. “If I was single, I could run and hide somewhere, but I have two children and my wife is pregnant.” Fighting from inside U Kyaw Kyaw, a police officer in Chin State, said his work had become more dangerous since the coup but he had resolved to remain in his job. “I don’t feel safe, because people’s reactions to us before and after the coup have changed,” he said. “I am especially worried about being attacked or shot when I go outside.” Civilians in cities and towns across the country have been arming themselves since late March to defend their communities from regime forces, and recently, unknown assailants fired tumi hunting rifles at the police station where Kyaw Kyaw works. Although Kyaw Kyaw initially contemplated joining the CDM, the news that one of his colleagues who had joined the movement was arrested while trying to cross the border to India has deterred him, as has a sense of obligation to the oath he took when joining the police force. “Personally, I don’t like the military dictatorship, but this is politics and I [have to] step aside from politics,” he said. “We took an oath to the country under Myanmar’s flag when we started working in the police force … We are just civil servants and we have to carry out our duties.” Ko Thu Rain, a CDM organiser who focuses on police defectors, said he had had to try new tactics when seeking to support holdouts like Kyaw Kyaw in resisting the regime The CRPH declared March 31 as the deadline for civil servants to join the CDM, and whether or not this was decisive, Thu Rain acknowledged that the rate of people joining from within the police force was slowing. Although he estimated that 95 percent of police officers were opposed to the coup, he said many of those left felt too fearful to leave their post. “All the risk-takers have already become CDM,” Thu Rain said. “ Now I cannot convince people to join the CDM.” Instead, his support network is focusing on encouraging police who remained at their posts to fight the system from within, by using their authority to help people through acts of leniency. “[Previously], people got involved in the CDM by running away from the office. Now, non-CDM people will get involved in a different way,” he said. Thu Rain hopes that this covert strategy need only be temporary, until ethnic armed groups and newly-formed People’s Defence Forces take control of cities and towns that could serve as safe havens for defecting police and other civil servants. Once this begins, he predicts that a domino effect will follow. “If one very strong police station [or force] goes against the military, then every police force in Myanmar will [rise up],” he said. “They are waiting for that time, but they don’t know who is going to do that … They cannot take the risk if it is not a good time. They only have one [chance]” Thu Rain said that every move from now on will need to be weighed carefully, and that past practises in the movement must be re-thought. “The CDM people did their best [but] it is time to change the strategy,” he said. “We have to approach it in a clever way; [only] then we can win this fight.” ..."
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Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-06-05
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government: Ministry of Education Announcement No.18/2021 - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေငြာချက် အမှတ် (၁၈/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေညာချက်အမှတ်(၁၈/၂၀၂၁) ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇွန်လ(၂) ရက် သင်ကြားရေးဝန်ထမ်းများ ခန့်ထားခြင်းနှင့် စေတနာ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ ဖိတ်ခေါ်ခြင်း..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Education, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 3 June, (845) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. These (3) fallen heroes from Launglon Township in Tanintharyi Region and Pekon Township in Southern Shan State were killed on previous days and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 3 June, a total of (4509) people are currently under detention; of them (138) are sentenced. 1931 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, and 39 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour (who are evading arrest). We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of 2 June, a 19 year-old youth was shot dead to the forehead and another civilian was seriously injured after being shot in the mouth when junta forces opened sniper fire in Mobye Town, Pekon Township in Southern Shan State. Two women, who were arrested with gunshot injuries later died after they ran away in fear when junta troops entered Chaung Wa Pyin village, Launglon Township, Tanintharyi Region on the night of 29 May. Both women were cremated and photos of their bodies were sent to the families by the junta in the evening of 31 May. In the early morning of 3 June, two NLD members were beaten and arrested at their home in Sein Pan Ward, Mahaaungmyay Township in Mandalay Region after an anti-dictatorship protest in Sein Pann ward. Lawyer Thet Tun Oo, who is representing pro-bono, people arrested for staging anti-dictatorship protests in Myitkyina, Kachin State, was arrested on 2 June. This happened after he testified in a case at the court in Myitkyina Prison. He is currently detained at Myitkyina Myoma Police Station. A lawsuit was filed against him under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code by the Myitkyina Myoma Police Station Officer. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.16 MB 4.06 MB 976.54 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 2 June, (842) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Loikaw Township in Kayah State was killed on 30 May and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 2 June, a total of (4468) people are currently under detention; of them (133) are sentenced. 1909 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 31 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour and 17 to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of May 30, a man was shot dead in an unprovoked shooting by junta troops while riding a motorbike when he returned to Law Pi Ta Village from Kyauk Taung Village at Loikaw Township in Kayah State. On 2 June morning, former village administrator of Pan Lin Village of Pyaung Khaung Village Tract of Mogok Township of Mandalay Region, was arrested by the junta with two military vehicles. In addition to this, after a bomb blast at a car workshop in Ohn Shit Pin town, Pandaung Township, Bago Region on the night of 1 June, a 62 year-old mother and wife of a man who the junta was searching for, were arbitrarily arrested in the morning of 2 June when the junta did not find the man at his home. A grandfather was also arrested on the night of 31 May in Taungdwingyi town, Magway Region when the junta did not find his grandson Pyae Phyo Paing in a search, a political activist. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.09 MB 4.12 MB 978.36 KB
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Title: Myanmar's Spring Revolution
Description: "After Myanmar’s grabbed power on February 1, they immediately faced strong resistance from citizens seeking to restore civilian rule. This resistance grew into a nationwide movement that attracted global support. The three-month anniversary of the coup was in fact marked by protests across the world which came to be known as “Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day”. Myanmar’s “Spring Revolution” aims to unite the country’s citizens in strong rejection of the coup and a call for the return of democratic rule. It encompasses all forms of resistance, including the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), community actions, social media protests, and even the use of guerilla tactics and armed resistance against attacks by security forces. The Spring Revolution follows the tradition of previous anti-junta movements such as the “’88 Pro-Democracy Uprising” in 1988, and the “Saffron Revolution” led by Buddhist monks in 2007. Today’s Spring Revolution has maximized the creative use of digital tools in coordinating protests and promoting the goals of the democracy movement. It has also striven to be more inclusive, challenging gender and racial prejudices and seeking to build solidarity across Myanmar’s many ethnic communities. Since day one of the coup, Global Voices has documented the resistance movement in Myanmar, partnering with independent media groups and relying on reports by local researchers and citizen journalists highlighting the situation across Myanmar’s communities. This special coverage section continues our special coverage, focusing on the coup’s social impact and the ongoing defiance of Myanmar’s citizens as they challenge the actions and legitimacy of the military regime.. We were deeply inspired by the words a citizen journalist shared with us during a webinar we hosted in April about the situation in Myanmar: The military junta could only terrorize our country, but they can’t rule. They could shoot, kill and arrest our young heroes called “Spring flowers” but they can’t avoid Burma’s Spring..."
Source/publisher: "Global Voices"
Date of publication: 2021-06-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government: Ministry of Education Announcement No.16/2021 - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေငြာချက် အမှတ် (၁၆/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေညာချက်အမှတ်(၁၆/၂၀၂၁) ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ မေလ(၃၀) ရက် အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းကြေညာခြင်း..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Education, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 678.15 KB
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Title: National Unity Government: Ministry of Education Announcement No.17/2021 - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေငြာချက် အမှတ် (၁၇/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ပညာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကြေညာချက်အမှတ်(၁၇/၂၀၂၁) ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ မေလ (၃၀) ရက် အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းကြေညာခြင်း..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Education, National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 273.61 KB
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Title: National Unity Government: Press Release No.3/2021
Description: "1. The National Unity Government has adopted the seals, policies, and programmes of the 13 ministries. 2. The official website of the National Unity Government https://nugmyanmar.org is now launched. It has web pages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Human Rights. The web pages for other ministries will be available soon. 3. The National Unity Government is releasing today a statement1 regarding the Rohingya. The statement sets out that they will be referred by NUG as 'Rohingya' and that the 1982 Citizenship Law will be repealed and replaced with a new law based on proper citizenship criteria. It also states that the government will continue working with the international legal system to hold the military accountable for the crimes committed against the people, including Rohingyas, over many decades. 4. The NUG wishes to tell the world that the number of forcibly displaced people in the Kayin State, Shan State, Kachin State, Chin State, and Magway Region from the attempted coup of 1 February 2021 up to 27 May 2021 is 83,900. The number of displaced people up to 29 May 2021 at the IDP camps in the Karenni State is more than 80,000. The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has already delivered humanitarian assistance worth around 300 million Kyat to the IDPs in Kayin State, Karenni State, Yangon Region, Shan State, Kachin State, Mon State, Chin State, Mandalay Region, and Tanintharyi Region. 5. The Ministry of Defence has released Basic Principles of the People’s Defence Force 2 (PDF) and the Military Code of Conduct for the People’s Defence Force 3 (PDF). The Code of Conduct sets out Rules for soldiers, for prisoners of war (POWs) on the relations with civilians, including women and children. The Ministry has also released a statement 4 on the members of the Tatmadaw. 6. The National Unity Government (NUG) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Chin National Front (CNF) signed an agreement on 29 May 2021 to fight together against the dictatorship and to bring about a shared democratic federal system.1 7. Under the guidance of Ministry of Health, Myanmar doctors in the UK have started delivering weekly online lectures via Zoom from 29 May 2021 and 30 May 2021 for medical students in Final Part II. The lessons are delivered on Saturdays and Sundays. There were more than 2,000 participants. The lectures are being based on the curriculums of medical schools in Myanmar and those in the UK (Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester etc.) and reflect the context of the present situation in Myanmar, so the lessons will first and foremost focus on emergency care. The schedules for weekly lectures will be announced in time on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Health 5. The lecturers will work with doctors in the US and Australia to add more lessons. 8. The Ministry of Health's motto is people-centred approach and that we recognise and honour all healthcare professionals caring patients by giving up their lives. A protocol has been set up for the early detection and prevention of COVID 19 third wave in Myanmar. It includes strict guidelines for the individuals and the families, instructions for the suspects and mild cases, step by step guidelines for how to deal with seriously ill patients. These guidelines and protocols will be available on the Ministry Facebook and website for public information. There will be more updates on telemedicine centers which will be set up and be opened 24 hours for advice and treatment for the suspects. The preventative measures must be distributed, and the guidelines must be followed diligently as prevention is far more effective than the cure. 9. The Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment welcomes Total’s suspension of their cash dividends, payable to the military junta. This cash dividend suspended by Total is however a small amount compared with the full revenue flows from Total to the regime. Therefore, the regime will continue receiving substantial amounts of revenue, risking that more money is spent enabling violence. We urge the oil and gas companies to block and cease all payments generated from oil and gas industry as soon as possible. These payments are crucial for the continuation of the military council, an organization of state terrorists..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 268.91 KB
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Title: National Unity Government: Press Release No.3/2021 - ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ က သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက်အမှတ် (၃/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ www.nugmyanmar.org သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၃/၂၀၂၁) ၃ ဇွန် ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ် ၁။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ဝန်ကြီးဌာန (၁၃) ခု၏ အမှတ်တံဆိပ်များ နှင့် မူဝါဒများ၊ လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များကို အတည်ပြုခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ ၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ တရားဝင်အင်တာနက်စာမျက်နှာ(Website)ဖြစ်သော https://nugmyanmar.org ကို ထုတ်လွှင့်လိုက်ပြီဖြစ်ပြီး နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၊ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၊ ကျန်းမာရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန နှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာ ဝန်ကြီးဌာန တို့၏ အင်တာနက်စာမျက်နှာ(Website) များလဲ ပါဝင်ပါသည်။ ကျန်ရှိနေသေးသော ဝန်ကြီးဌာနများ၏ အင်တာနက်စာမျက်နှာ(Website) များကိုလဲ မကြာမီအချိန်အတွင်း ဆက်လက်ထုတ်လွှင့်ပေးသွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၃။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ရိုဟင်ဂျာများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ ထားရှိသည့် သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ချက် ၁ ကို ယနေ့ထုတ်ပြန်လိုက်သည်။ ယခုထုတ်ပြန်ချက်တွင် ရိုဟင်ဂျာပြည်သူအား “ရိုဟင်ဂျာ” ဟူသော အမည်ဖြင့်သုံးစွဲသွားမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း၊ ၁၉၈၂ နိုင်ငံသားဥပဒေကို ပယ်ဖျက်၍ နိုင်ငံသားစံနှုန်းများကို အခြေခံရေးဆွဲသော ဥပဒေသစ်ဖြင့် အစားထိုးဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်းနှင့် ရိုဟင်ဂျာများနှင့် အခြားပြည်သူတို့အပေါ် ဆယ်စုနှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ အပြစ်ရှိသည့် စစ်တပ်၏ တာဝန်ခံမှုများကိုဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာတရားရုံးနှင့် ဆက်လက်ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း များပါရှိသည်။ ၄။ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီက နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို မတရားသိမ်းယူခဲ့သည့် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၁) ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်၊ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်၊ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ချင်းပြည်နယ်နှင့်မကွေးတိုင်းတို့မှ အိမ်ယာစွန့်ခွာရွှေ့ပြောင်းရသူများမှာ မေလ ၂၇ ရက်နေ့အထိ ၈၃၉၀၀ အထိရှိနေပြီဖြစ်ပြီး ကရင်နီပြည်နယ် စစ်ဘေးရှောင်စခန်းများတွင် မေလ ၂၉ ရက်နေ့အထိစာရင်းအရ ၈၀၀၀၀ ကျော်ရှိသွားပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။ လူသားချင်းစာနာ ထောက်ထားရေးနှင့် ဘေးအန္တရာယ် ဆိုင်ရာစီမံခန့်ခွဲရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန အနေဖြင့် ကရင်၊ ကရင်နီ၊ ရန်ကုန်၊ ရှမ်း၊ ကချင်၊ မွန်၊ ချင်း၊ မန္တလေး၊ တနင်္သာရီ ဒေသများမှ နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးနေရသူ တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူများအတွက် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု အကူအညီများ အနေနှင့် သိန်း ၃၀၀၀ ခန့်တန်ဖိုးရှိ အကူအညီများပေးပို့ခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ ၅။ ကာကွယ်ရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနက ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်မတော်(PDF)၏ အခြေခံမူဝါဒ ၂ , စစ်သည်တော် ကျင့်ဝတ်စည်းမျဉ်းများ၊ စစ်သုံ့ပန်းများအပေါ် ပြုကျင့်ရမည့် ကျင့်ဝတ်များ၊ အရပ်သားပြည်သူများနှင့် ဆက်ဆံရာတွင် လိုက်နာရမည့် ကျင့်ဝတ်များ၊ အမျိုးသမီးများနှင့် ကလေးငယ်များအပေါ် လိုက်နာရမည့် ကျင့်ဝတ်များပါဝင်သည့် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်မတော် စစ်ဘက်ဆိုင်ရာ ကျင့်ဝတ်များ ၃ ၊ တပ်မတော်သားများနှင့် သက်ဆိုင်သည့် မူဝါဒသဘောထားကြေညာချက် ၄ များကို ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ ၆။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) နှင့် ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဦး (CNF) တို့အကြား အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်ရေးနှင့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ်ဖော်ဆောင်ကျင့်သုံးရေးအတွက် နှစ်ဖက်သဘောတူညီချက်ကို ယနေ့ မေလ ၂၉ ရက်တွင် အောင်မြင်စွာ လက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၅ ၇။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ သဘောထားမှာ ပြည်သူသည်သာအဓိက၊ ပြည်သူ့ ကျန်းမာရေးသည် ပထမဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ကိုယ်ကျိုးစွန့်လျက်၊ အသက်ပေးလျက် ပြည်သူ့ကျန်းမာရေးကို စောင့်ရှောက်ပေး နေကြသော ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်းများအား ကျေးဇူးတင်ဂုဏ်ပြုပါသည်။ ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် ကိုဗစ်-၁၉ ရောဂါ တတိယလှိုင်းကို ကာကွယ်နိုင်ရန်နှင့် ရောဂါဖြစ်ပွားမှုကို စောစီးစွာသိရှိနိုင်ရန် လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များ ဆောင်ရွက်ထားရှိပါသည်။ လူတစ်ဦးချင်းစီနှင့် မိသားစုတစ်စုချင်းစီက ရောဂါကာကွယ်ရေး လုပ်ငန်းများ တိကျစွာလိုက်နာရန်၊ ရောဂါသံသယလက္ခဏာရှိသူများနှင့် မပြင်းထန်သော လူနာများ ဆောင်ရွက်ရန် လုပ်ငန်းများ၊ ပြင်းထန်သော လက္ခဏာရှိသည့် လူနာများအတွက် လုပ်ငန်းအဆင့်ဆင့်ကို ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ဖေစ့်ဘွတ်ခ် စာမျက်နှာတွင် ဖော်ပြထားပြီး ပြည်သူများ သိရှိသင့်သည့်အချက်များကို အချိန်နှင့် တပြေးညီ ဖော်ပြသွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ သံသယလူနာများ (၂၄)နာရီ ပြသနိုင်ရန် တယ်လီကျန်းမာစင်တာများကို ဖွင့်လှစ်၍ ကုသအကြံပေးသွားမည်ဖြစ်ရာ သတင်းထပ်မံထုတ်ပြန်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ကာကွယ်ခြင်းက ကုသခြင်းထက် အဆပေါင်းများစွာ ကောင်းမွန်သဖြင့် ရောဂါကာကွယ်ရေး နည်းလမ်းများကို တစ်ဦးကိုတစ်ဦး အသိပေး၊ သတိပေး၍ သတိမလစ် ဆောင်ရွက်ရန် လိုပါသည်။ ၈။ ဆေးတက္ကသိုလ်နောက်ဆုံးနှစ် အပိုင်း (ခ) ကျောင်းသားများအတွက် ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီး၏ လမ်းညွှန်မှုနှင့်အညီ UK ရောက်မြန်မာဆရာဝန်များမှ အပတ်စဉ် စနေနှင့် တနင်္ဂနွေနေ့ online zoom lecture များကို၂၉-၃၀ မေလ weekend မှစတင်ပို့ချပေးလျက်ရှိပါသည်။ မြန်မာပြည်ရှိ CDM လုပ်နေသောဆရာများ၊ US နှင့် Australia ရောက်မြန်မာဆရာဝန်များနှင့် ပူးပေါင်း၍ သင်ခန်းစာ အချိန်များကို တိုးချဲ့သွားပါမည်။ ပထမနေ့တွင် zoom သတ်မှတ်ထားသော ၁၀၀၀ ပြည့်သွားသောကြောင့် ဒုတိယနေ့တွင် zoom live အပြင် ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန Facebook page မှ live လွှင့်ရာ ကျောင်းသား ၂၀၀၀ ကျော်တက်ရောက်ပါသည်။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် ဆေးတက္ကသိုလ်များ ၏ သင်ရိုးညွှန်းတမ်းနှင့် UK ဆေးတက္ကသိုလ်များ (Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, etc.) သင်ရိုးညွှန်းတမ်းအပေါ်အခြေခံ၍ ယနေ့မြန်မာပြည်အခြေအနေပေါ်မူတည်၍ သင်ကြားပြီး Emergency အခြေအနေ များကို ရှေးဦးစွာ ဦးစားပေးသင်ကြားပါမည်။ အပတ်စဉ် သင်ကြားမည့် အစီအစဉ်များကို ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန Facebook page ၅ မှ အချိန်နှင့် တပြေးညီ အသိပေးကြေညာပေးသွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၉။ စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာန အနေဖြင့် Total ကုမ္ပဏီမှ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသို့ စီးဝင်နေသော ဝင်ငွေတစ်စိတ်တစ်ပိုင်းဖြစ်သည့် အမြတ်ငွေခွဲဝေမှုအား ရပ်ဆိုင်းလိုက်သည့်အတွက် ကြိုဆိုပါသည်။ အဆိုပါအမြတ်ငွေများသည် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်လုပ်ရပ်များအတွက် အဓိကအထောက်အပံ့ပြုနေသော ဝင်ငွေများ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ယခုရပ်ဆိုင်းလိုက်သည့် အမြတ်ငွေသည် TOTAL ကုမ္ပဏီမှ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီထံသို့ စီးဝင်နေသော စုစုပေါင်းဝင်ငွေနှင့် နှိုင်းစာလျှင် မပြောပလောက်သည့် ပမာဏသာဖြစ်သည့်အတွက် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် ရရှိမြဲဝင်ငွေအများအပြားကို ဆက်လက်ရရှိနေမည်သာဖြစ်ပြီး ၎င်းတို့၏ အကြမ်းဖက်ယန္တရားအား ဆက်လက်လည်ပတ် နေမည်သာဖြစ်သည်။ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ရေနံနှင့်သဘာဝဓါတ်ငွေ့ထုတ်လုပ် ရောင်းချသည့် ကုမ္ပဏီများအား အထူးတိုက်တွန်းလိုသည်မှာ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ သက်ဆိုးရှည်ရေးအတွက် အဓိက ကျသည့် ရေနံနှင့်သဘာဝဓါတ်ငွေ့ရောင်းချရသည့်ဝင်ငွေများအား ထိရောက်စွာ အမြန်ဆုံးဟန့်တားပိတ်ဆို့ဖြတ်တောက် အရေးယူကြရန် ဖြစ်သည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-06-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Demonstrations, defiance as Myanmar marks 4 months since coup
Description: "Pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets in towns around Myanmar on Tuesday to denounce the country's military, marking four months since it ousted an elected government and unleashed a wave of nationwide anger. Despite a bloody crackdown by security forces, Myanmar's military is still struggling to impose order amid protests and strikes, and fighting on multiple fronts in border regions as civilians take up arms against the junta. Protests took place in the south in Luang Lone, several areas of the Sagaing division including Kale and Monywa, and the commercial hub Yangon, according to images carried by mainstream and social media. "This is not over yet. We still have our turn," read a sign carried by one protester. Schools officially reopened across Myanmar for the first time since the Feb. 1 coup, but turnout was low due to security concerns and a boycott over the junta's suspension of tens of thousands of teachers opposed to its rule. Some students held demonstrations with blood-splattered white uniforms. Security forces have killed 840 people since the coup, according to figures from activists cited by the United Nations. The junta says about 300 people have died. The military, known as the Tatmadaw, says it seized power because of fraud in a November election won by Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling party. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper carried a quote from junta leader Min Aung Hlaing on Tuesday saying the current crisis was caused by "dishonesty of democracy" in the election, under a large headline that said "Tatmadaw values democracy". The military's use of lethal force against its own people has caused outrage among western countries, and concern among its neighbours. In April, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announced a five-point consensus towards resolving the crisis, though no timeframe was agreed. But four diplomatic sources have told Reuters that the chair and secretary-general of ASEAN are planning to visit Myanmar this week, to meet junta leaders, among other stakeholders. read more It was not clear if they would meet detainees or members of a shadow unity government formed to challenge the junta and undercut its efforts to gain international recognition....HEAVY TOLL: The unrest has taken a heavy toll in the countryside, where clashes between Myanmar's well-equipped military and ethnic minority armies or newly formed People's Defence Forces have displaced tens of thousands of people. On Tuesday, a local aid group said 8,000 people were in camps having fled the town of Mindat in Chin State, which the army took control of last month after days of clashes with militias armed mostly with hunting rifles. The people's militias have stepped up ambushes in recent weeks on troops in Kayah state bordering Thailand, where witnesses said fierce fighting and retaliatory shelling and air strikes had taken place late on Monday in the town of Demoso. A resident shared video and images with Reuters of soldiers he said were killed in Demoso late on Monday. He said he saw six bodies and residents had counted 20. The Karenni Nationalities Defence Force said on its Facebook page that 80 army soldiers had been killed on Monday, while one of its fighters and a civilian were also casualties. Reuters could not verify the information and a spokesman for the junta did not answer calls seeking comment. Myanmar state television made no mention of the Demoso unrest in its nightly news bulletin. Fighting in Kayah has displaced about 37,000 people in recent weeks, according to the United Nations. Many have fled into jungles and are in need of food and medicine. The Elders, a group of former national leaders founded by the late Nelson Mandela, on Tuesday called on the international community, including ASEAN, to turn up pressure on the junta. "Myanmar is currently on a dangerous path towards state failure," its chair, Mary Robinson, said in a statement. "Allowing the coup to succeed through inaction and disregard would further undermine the international rules-based order upon which global stability depends."..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-06-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Ex-Myanmar police officers reveal how they were told to shoot protesters - and why they defected
Sub-title: Myanmar's security forces have been accused by Amnesty International of "premeditated" attacks on peaceful protesters.
Description: "In a safe house in Myanmar, resistance is growing. Quietly, in the gloomy light, a group of men raise their hands in a three-finger salute. Traditionally a sign of defiance and support for pro-democracy protesters, for these men it symbolises so much more. Once police or soldiers, they now plan to fight the forces they used to serve. Just talking to us is a huge risk; if caught the defectors could be killed. So in hiding, faces and voices disguised for protection, they explain why they decided to defy the junta. "We were told that we could shoot the protesters if they gathered in more than five. We could arrest them and shoot them," Officer A, a former police officer says. "We were ordered to shoot but we couldn't do it." The allegation echoes the claims of both protesters and human rights groups after February's military coup. Myanmar's security forces have been accused by Amnesty International of "premeditated" attacks on peaceful protesters - including "extrajudicial executions" and indiscriminately spraying bullets in urban areas. While a shoot-to-kill policy has never been officially confirmed by the junta, the defectors claim they were encouraged to open fire. "My friends said if they shot the protesters, they would get a promotion as a reward and be praised for being brave and following the junta's order," another former police officer, Officer B, tells Sky News. "They were promoted from police second lieutenant to police lieutenant, from corporal to sergeant. As far as I know, those who shot the protesters got promoted." A former soldier in the group tells a similar story. According to him, challenging an order wasn't an option. "The soldiers and police are now abusing the people at the order of Min Aung Hlaing (Myanmar's junta chief)," he says. "'Shoot. Just shoot. This is my order,' this is how they order the troops. If we did not follow the order, we would be punished." As well as the shootings, the military is accused of other abuses: of power, of people, and of their duty to protect. Some female protesters have publicly accused members of the security forces of physical and sexual violence following their arrests. The soldier isn't surprised. He says he heard reports of sex assaults during his service, in particular during military operations to ethnic minority areas in Myanmar. "People are calling soldiers 'military dogs' [and] also accusing them of rape. Let me tell you, yes, we have seen those scenes at the frontline. I wasn't involved in it. "The officers were calling the women here and there and abusing them. Rape as well. It's happening," he says, At least 840 people have been killed since the coup, many shot by junta forces according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). We put the allegations made by the defectors to the junta, but on publication Sky News still hadn't received a response. The men say the command to use violence against civilians is the reason they fled and joined the protest movement. Their choice means the institutions they swore an oath to are the enemy they must defeat and the decision to defect has come at great personal sacrifice. They have lost their freedom. They cannot see their families. They cannot return to their hometowns or tell friends where they are. They now live their lives in hiding and on the run, waiting in dark, cramped and basic accommodation fearing they may be discovered. Yet still they remain defiant - determined to fight for the democracy lost when the military seized power. Since the coup, some protesters have travelled to border areas in Myanmar for resistance training and now some of the defectors are planning to use their own skills to help them. "Those [protesters] who are not familiar with the military training, they need to learn how to use the weapons, to fix them, and set them up. "I want to teach them. I will join with those organisations that are in the revolution to fight the junta. "I will fight those power-hungry thugs," the soldier says. "I will join this revolution until the end. I will give my life. I will kill them wherever I see them." So in secret they plan, they train, they get strong; preparing to strike back against the generals they followed for so long..."
Source/publisher: Sky News (London)
Date of publication: 2021-06-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-02
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Title: Myanmar: 'We were ordered to shoot but we couldn't do it.'
Description: "Myanmar's security forces have been accused by Amnesty International of 'premeditated' attacks on peaceful protesters. Former police and military figures explained what they were asked to do, and why they are now rebelling in secret against the military junta..."
Source/publisher: "Sky News"
Date of publication: 2021-06-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-02
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Title: Myanmar's Women Are Fighting for a New Future After a Long History of Military Oppression
Description: "The world will have noted that women have been on the front lines of the revolution in Myanmar, with activists, elected officials, and journalists such as Ei Thinzar Maung, Thinzar Shunlei Yi, Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Daw Myo Aye, Naw K’nyaw Paw, and Tin Htet Paing playing significant roles. Many have assumed that this is a newfound feminist ferocity, but from ancient Queen Pwa Saw, to the first woman surgeon Daw Saw Sa, who qualified in 1911, Myanmar women have always been as strong as, if not stronger than, our men. The sad truth is our cause was set back by over 60 years of brutal and misogynistic oppression by the Burmese military. I spent last Tuesday reviewing evidence from a Myanmar women’s group for submission to the U.K. Foreign Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the Myanmar crisis. Just reading about the atrocities committed by military forces meant I slept badly that night. Nearly 50 women have been killed in the protests so far, and around 800 women have been arrested. Sixty percent of the people involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement, a peaceful protest designed to shut down the country, are women, and they continue to face sexual violence, harassment, abuse, and threats from the junta. Many, including beloved film stars such as Paing Phyo Thu and May Toe Khine, have been charged under Section 505A of Myanmar Penal Code—a disproportionately punitive piece of legislation, and a hangover from colonial times that basically criminalizes freedom of speech. In prison, military forces have subjected women detainees to more violence, humiliation, and even torture. A huge part of this is a horrific reflection of the misogyny—cloaked in patriarchy—that the military holds dear, having beaten it into the hearts and minds of the people of Myanmar. The military declares itself the father of the nation, but one that deems its female children as lesser human beings. Before Myanmar, then called Burma, first fell to military dictatorship in 1962, its women enjoyed an unusual measure of freedom and power. In 1919, the first women’s association Konmari Athin, was formed; in 1932, Daw Hnin Mya was elected as the country’s first woman councillor; and in 1952, Claribel Ba Maung Chain became the first woman government minister. Burmese women kept their maiden names and property, they handled financial affairs, and voting rights were granted to them in 1922, only 4 years after women in the U.K. got the vote. Melford Spiro, the famous anthropologist, wrote: “Burmese women are not only among the freest in Asia, but until the relatively recent emancipation of women in the West, they enjoyed much greater freedom and equality with men than did Western women.” Many successful businesses were owned by women, including the Naga Cigar Company founded by my great-aunt Naga Daw Oo and the Burmese Paper Mart, founded by my grandmother Daw Tin Tin, who was also a senior member of Upper Burma’s Chamber of Commerce. Another great-aunt was the famous dissident and writer Ludu Daw Amar, who founded the newspaper Ludu Daily. Shortly after the coup in 1962, all of their businesses, along with those of countless other women, were either shut down or requisitioned by the Myanmar military who were adamant that women should no longer have such power and influence. The women’s liberation movement in the country was far from perfect. Even some of our most progressive women, such as author Daw MiMi Khaing, still saw men as spiritually superior, thanks to outdated religious views. But the movement was on the right track until it was derailed by the dictatorship. It then entered what writer Kyaw Zwa Moe referred to as a “feminine ‘dark age’”—an era in which the military and its hardline clerical supporters reinforced dogma for their own regressive agenda. For example, every Burmese man is deemed to have hpone or glory. An ancient fable relates that men will lose their hpone if they walk under or come into contact with women’s sarongs (known as htamein) or undergarments; according to the military, this was because women are inferior or unclean. This is, however, a subversion of the original superstition which was that women are sexual temptresses; when I had my first period, I was told that I could no longer climb pagodas in case I toppled them with the might of my vagina, and that only men could ever be innocent enough to ascend to the highest plane of nirvana. This concept was just as sexist, but it at least recognized that women were powerful rather than pathetic. Shortly after the February coup, Myanmar women gladly took advantage of these attitudes to use htamein as barricades against the military. Even the junta knew that it was being ridiculous: If you need any further evidence that the Myanmar military does not really believe that htamein are unclean, its members have been known to wear them at special events because their astrologers once told them that only a woman would rule Myanmar. The idea of a woman being in charge was so loathsome to the military that when it came to pass, in the person of Aung San Suu Kyi, the generals banned people from saying her name or displaying her picture. During decades of its rule, the military not only sidelined women in terms of financial, cultural, and political power, even worse, they also brutalized them in war—especially women from minority groups like the Rakhine, Shan, Rohingya and Kachin—using campaigns of rape and other forms of violence and terror. It should come as no surprise that women fight alongside men in the ethnic armed organizations, whereas the Myanmar military has no women in its combatant ranks. But the flames of female resistance never really died down in Myanmar, despite the military’s worst efforts. In 2007, there were notable women activists in Myanmar’s Saffron Revolution, including Nilar Thein, Phyu Phyu Thin, Mie Mie, Su Su Nway and Naw Ohn Hla. At the time, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimated that since the 1988 Uprising, which also saw many women take a prominent role, more than 500 Myanmar women had served prison terms because of their political activism. In 2015, Phyoe Phyoe Aung, general secretary of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, was one of the student leaders whose protest against the National Education Bill was violently suppressed by military police in Letpadan. This time around, women activists such as Thinzar Shunlei Yi and Ester Ze Naw are again at the forefront, women lawyers such as Zar Li have been working day and night to ensure the release of detainees, and women journalists such as Naw Betty Han and Nyein Lay are risking arrest and injury to report on developments in Myanmar. Even the first death of a protester was that of a 19-year-old female, named Mya Thwe Thwe Khine. Since Feb. 1, hundreds of thousands of other women have exchanged their work tools for daily protest marches. Medical workers, teachers, and garment workers are on strike and are all from sectors dominated by women. Tin Tin Wei and Moe Sandar Myint are, respectively, an organizer and the chairwoman of Myanmar’s Federation of Garment Workers, and have spoken out against the coup so vociferously that the latter has gone into hiding for her own safety. The most promising sign of a much-needed return to gender equality in Myanmar is that the National Unity Government, made up of ousted lawmakers in hiding, has appointed several women ministers, including human rights advocate and former political prisoner Zin Mar Aung as minister for foreign affairs and Ei Thinzar Maung as deputy minister of women, youth and children’s affairs—the latter appointment being groundbreaking in more ways than one, as she is the youngest minister ever at the age of 26. After decades of misogynistic and violent oppression by Myanmar’s military and its cronies, it finally looks like the women of Myanmar might be taking back everything that we lost and more. The Women’s League of Burma is an umbrella organization of 13 women’s groups, such as the Shan Women’s Action Network, who are working together to enhance the role of women of all backgrounds and ethnicities at a national and international level. A global, growing feminist movement called #Sisters2Sisters has even been set up, through which more than 80 civil society organizations are demanding an end to the violence against women in Myanmar and the immediate release of women human rights defenders..."
Source/publisher: Time Magazine (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s football in crisis as pull-outs and suspension threat follow coup
Sub-title: National team lost 10-0 in Japan after mainstays including an experienced goalkeeper refused the head coach’s call
Description: "Second-division games in Malaysia don’t make many international headlines but that changed in March when the Myanmar under-23 winger Hein Htet Aung gave a three-fingered salute after scoring for Selangor II. Popularised by The Hunger Games film franchise, this gesture of resistance was adopted by pro-democracy protesters in Thailand and Hong Kong in 2014 and then by Myanmar, after the military took back power in a coup on 1 February. Before Myanmar’s 2022 World Cup qualifier against Japan last Friday, the goalkeeper Kyaw Zin Htet had called for players to copy Hein’s handiwork. “It would be good if some of them came out and gave the three-fingered salute to an international audience,” the 31-year-old told AFP. There weren’t many opportunities for the national team to follow in Hein’s footsteps during the game as a ruthless Japan won 10-0 to inflict Myanmar’s biggest defeat. The only protests seen and heard came outside the stadium from a few dozen Myanmar residents in Tokyo. There are, though, more chances to grab headlines in Japan (where all the group’s games are being held to reduce travel) against Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on 11 and 15 June respectively. There were mitigating circumstances regarding the size of Friday’s loss. Kyaw, an experienced goalkeeper, did not go to Japan, one of many mainstays who refused the call from the head coach, Antoine Hey, a development that delayed the team’s departure by a week. Kyaw made clear on 13 February during a protest with other footballers in Yangon that he was not going to represent the nation under the regime headed by Gen Min Aung Hlaing. “If the entire group of players had opted out, it would have had an impact,” said Kyaw. “Younger players are also being threatened on their future if they choose not to play the game, so they might be worried about it.” The Myanmar Football Federation said on its website that players who refused could be suspended. Prominent figures have been put under pressure. In April, the junta stepped up a campaign against celebrity protest supporters – some of whom have been imprisoned – by publishing a list of their names in state media and warning broadcasters and agencies against working with them. According to the human rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, as of 1 June 841 people had been “confirmed killed by this junta coup”. Chit Bo Bo Nyein, the Paul Pogba-loving captain of the under-21 team of Hantharwady United, one of Myanmar’s leading clubs, was shot and killed on 27 March, a day when 150 were reported to have died in protests. Hey, the German is in his second spell as head coach, is trying not to get drawn into the issue. He told the Guardian that he respected the players’ decisions but that football owed it to future generations to continue. After the heavy defeat by Japan he said: “We are concentrating on our job, on our team, on our players; we are not taking any political stand or side,” Hey said. “We just do what we are here for – playing football as good as we possibly can.” Club football has ground to a halt in Myanmar, which rarely features in the south-east Asian summer itineraries of European club giants. Hantharwady and Shan United recently withdrew from Asian club competitions and federation officials say many players have returned to their home provinces and some are undergoing military training to learn how to fight back. The 2022 World Cup would be out of the question even if Myanmar had all their players available but with the road to Qatar doubling as the route to the 2023 Asian Cup in China, there is a chance of making it to the continental tournament for the first time since 1968. It has been a while since Myanmar were a force even in south-east Asia, with Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and, these days, Vietnam leading the way. There had been promising signs. The talent that has always been there has started to move overseas in increasing numbers and when the Under-20 team qualified for the 2015 World Cup, the people took to the streets to celebrate. It feels like a long time ago now..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-06-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 1 June, (841) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Tamu Township in Sagaing Region was killed on 28 May and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 1 June, a total of (4443) people are currently under detention; of them (110) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of 28 May at Tamu Town in Sagaing Region, a youth who came back from his friend’s birthday, was shot dead in his left rib in an ambush by junta forces. On the night of 31 May, Khin Hmway Lwin, a member of Sagaing Region National League for Democracy (NLD) and elected regional parliamentary representative for Minkin Township constituency, was arrested at Shwe Taung Oo Myothit in Yinmarbin Township, Sagaing Region where she was in-hiding. Also on the night of 31 May, Gatone a.k.a Hein Win Latt, NLD executive member of Bhamo Town in Kachin State, was arrested at his home. Yesterday evening at Ocean Center in Monywa City in Sagaing Region, Phue Theint Theint Tone, former member of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) of Monywa District, who is currently assisting IDPs, was arrested at gunpoint by eight soldiers wearing civilian clothes. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-06-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.09 MB 4.03 MB 964.86 KB
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Title: Myanmar military fails to quell protests four months after coup
Description: "Myanmar pro-democracy supporters took to the streets on Tuesday in several districts, as fighting between the army and anti-junta militias raged in border areas, four months after the military ousted an elected government in a coup. Despite a ferocious crackdown by security forces, Myanmar's military is still struggling to impose order after arresting Aung San Suu Kyi and senior leaders of her party, sparking nationwide protests and paralysing strikes. In the far south of Myanmar, anti-military protesters staged a march in Laung Lone, a photograph posted by the Irrawaddy newspaper on social media showed. Meanwhile, in the commercial hub of Yangon a group of mainly young protesters rallied in the district of Kamayut, photographs posted by the Myanmar Now news portal showed. "This is not over yet. We still have our turn," read a sign written on a sheet carried by one protester. Demonstrators in urban areas have had to become more nimble to avoid security forces, often using flash mobs or staging small unnannounced protests, after larger rallies in the first months after the coup were often met with security forces firing live rounds. Decades-old conflicts between the military and ethnic minority armies in border areas have also reignited since the coup. Ethnic militias allied with a shadow civilian government have stepped up attacks on the army, which has responded with heavy weapons and air strikes, forcing thousands to flee. Mobile phone footage obtained from a resident in Kayah state bordering Thailand showed what appeared to be artillery being fired from inside the state capital Loikaw into Demoso, about 14.5 km (9 miles) away, where a People's Defence Force said it had attacked troops and was coming under heavy fire. Residents in Loikaw said that about 50 rounds had been fired on Monday and six on Tuesday morning. "The sound of artillery is deafening us," a resident told Reuters on Monday, requesting anonymity due to safety concerns. The Karenni Nationalities Defence Force, a militia active in Kayah state, said in a post on its Facebook page that 80 army soldiers had been killed on Monday, while one of its fighters and a civilian were also casualties. Reuters could not verify the claim and a spokesman for the junta did not answer calls seeking comment. Fighting in Kayah has displaced about 37,000 people in recent weeks, according to the United Nations. Many have fled into jungles and are in need of food and medicine. Civilian forces, often armed with rudimentary rifles and limited training, have been formed in towns and regions across Myanmar to challenge the military, in support of a National Unity Government that the junta says is treasonous. read more Security forces have killed 840 people since the coup, according to figures provided by an activist group. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has said the toll was nearer 300, and has said it is unlikely there will be a civil war in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-06-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 31 May, (840) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 31 May, a total of (4424) people are currently under detention; of them (109) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of May 30, two women and a five year old girl were shot and arrested when the junta opened fire when villagers guarding the village ran away after seeing the junta patrol by on motorbikes in Pyingyi Village, Launglon Township, Tanintharyi Region. Last night, Min Min, a photography enthusiast from Kyaukme Township in Shan State, was arrested at gunpoint unprovoked. A teacher from B.E.M.S (4) in Thingangyun Township, Yangon Region, who was involved in CDM but later changed, was arrested yesterday for encouraging students not to enroll at school. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.09 MB 3.98 MB 961.77 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 30 May, (840) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. (1) from Nyaung-U Township in Mandalay Region was killed today and (2) from Loikaw Township in Kayah State and Pinlebu Township in Sagaing Region were killed on previous days and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 30 May, a total of (4409) people are currently under detention; of them (108) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. In early morning, 30 May in Baganmyothit in Nyaung-U Township in Mandalay Region, Moe Myint Aung was shot in the stomach by a bullet and died when the junta raided the Yonetan Ward and Hman Cho Ward to arrest six youths and opened fire to the door to enter the house of Moe Myint Aung. On 29 May at Narnat Taw Ward in Loikaw Town, Kayah State, the terrorists entered a religious building compound where IDPs had fled to, and shot the former Hundred Household Administrator of Yayo Village to death. In the afternoon of 29 May, a village administrator, who was involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), was arrested at Nayin Village, Yesagyo Township in Magway Region. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.09 MB 3.93 MB 955.51 KB
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Title: Myanmar pro-democracy artists vow: 'We will win'
Description: "On 1 June, it will be four months since a military coup overthrew Myanmar's elected government. Tens years of democratic reforms have been upended and bloody attempts to silence opposition have shocked the world. Those on the front line attempting to stand up to the regime are trying to delicately navigate through a new life of protest and safety. While pro-democracy demonstrations have mostly left the streets, the movement against the junta exists through other means of expression in other realms. In particular, it has made being an artist in Myanmar a dangerous business. "I'm sorry that I couldn't turn my camera… messy situation right here", illustrator Raven told RTÉ News over a secure line. Raven is one of many artists in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon who have been using art as a weapon against the country’s ruling junta, by exploring a digital canvas to showcase political messages against the February coup. Protests through paint, illustrations, images and words are a more secure place of demonstration, away from the violence on the streets. However, that is not to say it doesn’t come with its own risks. The sheer level and reach of this expression caught those in power off guard which has led to a clampdown to squeeze out any opposition voices. According to artists in Myanmar, art studios have been burnt down and state-sponsored news channels broadcast arrest warrant lists regularly that include influencers, actors, film makers, artists and graphic designers. The New York Times has reported that four poets have been killed and dozens imprisoned in the last couple of months. Poet Khet Thi, whose work declared resistance to the military, died in detention recently. His family said that his body was returned with the organs removed. Raven has a reluctance to give anything away about herself, out of fear for her safety. While working a full-time job she has been leading a double life, shielding herself online by using a fake name so she can "work harder and longer". She said: "I have been protesting physically on the streets, but when the shooting became serious and brutal, I kind of stopped going outside in person. "I've been illustrating a lot of stuff every day…listening to people listening to their stories, their ideas and trying to illustrate them and spread the message because it's the only thing you know I can do." Demonstrations against the coup have been the largest and bloodiest in decades. Myanmar was ruled by the armed forces from 1962 until 2011, when a new government began ushering in a return to civilian rule. However in February, the junta seized control again following a general election in which Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party won by a landslide. It was a vote the military claimed was rigged. Hundreds of people, including children, have been killed in the last four months. While the streets have become too risky for protest, the pro-democracy movement continues to live through art in the online world. The Hunger Games' three-fingered salute has become one of the major symbols, a defiant pose that gripped demonstrators from the beginning with interpretations of the move making its way through digital art. "Our objective is trying to reflect the people's voices as much as we can so that other people see it, hear it, because not everybody can go out" said Nyi Maw, a Myanmar filmmaker. He continued: "[The three-fingered salute] is a symbol that people can hold onto. It aligns with the people who in the beginning were demanding the three main objectives: to get democracy, to release the leaders, and to give the people's power back to the people". Red, the colour of danger, anger and violence, floods most of the imagery. Art collectives like the Raise Three Fingers group in Yangon have been founded through the frustration by artists and creatives - hoping to bring the global art community together and highlight the crisis happening in the country. "Clearly art has some kind of power, right? Because it's causing some kind of fear in the eyes of the junta" said a representative from the group to RTÉ News, who is also on the call with Raven. "We know that art is powerful because it transcends language", they said. "It can, it's emotional. It can get people to act. You don't need words, right? Anyone can feel moved by a piece of art you might ask", they added. The Raise Three Fingers (RTF) group lives online with creatives posting their work anonymously from countries around the world, in solidarity with the movement. TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have served as platforms to spread their message far and wide, allowing this movement and many others, to grow, flourish and connect with users globally. They say access to the world at their finger trips has helped keep the situation in Myanmar on people’s agenda. It is what separates it radically from the previously pro-democracy movements that have come before in Myanmar. Unlike the revolutions of 1988 and 2007, the current protests in Myanmar are being led by a digitally savvy generation using hashtags, memes, visual graphics and social media to fight and shape the direction of the movement on a day-to-day basis. More than a decade ago SIM cards were exceptionally expensive, but after a series of reforms in the country during Aung San Suu Kyi’s time in government, this opened up the digital domain to the people of Myanmar. "There are figures to show that there are more SIM cards than people in Myanmar. In fact, Facebook is the internet in Myanmar and that's the way in which people, particularly the young, process news", Vijaya Nidadavolu, a gender and development specialist who recently worked in the country, told RTÉ News. Even now with regular patchy internet access, creatives have the ability to organise, engage and spread the message online across interactive communities. They can paint, draw, sculpt, animate, sing or dance and share works instantly within their networks through digital platforms. "The revolutions in 1988 and 2007 was very different because we didn't have this type of access to the Internet. But now it feels like the playing field is different because since day one of the coup, we saw that there was a huge outpouring of art. People were able to like organise protests around a certain theme and get people together", said the RTF spokesperson in Yangon. This online world of protest has also opened up the movement to more diverse voices. Iconography surrounding other political mobilisations revolved solely around the figure of politician Aung San Suu Kyi, who became famous in the late 1980s for campaigning to restore democracy. In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to victory in Myanmar's first openly contested election in 25 years. Posters, calendars and billboards all carried her image prominently as a symbol of hope as she spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010, after organising rallies calling for democratic reform and free elections. "There was no alternative imagery in the public domain," said Vijaya Nidadavolu. "The current protests have enabled a diverse set of other voices to express themselves and seize the political space, including through art. Aung San Suu Kyi’s image is not the only visible symbol of protest. People are rallying around a diversity of images and iconography, which is a defining feature of the current protest", Ms Nidadavolu added. That changing political landscape can be seen in the art that has been produced and floods the Raise Three Fingers website. "It's making room for diversity and inclusion and reparations for a lot of communities, including for the Rohingya communities" said the Raise Three Fingers spokesperson. "So I think people are making different demands. It's not just about get rid of the dictatorship, we want democracy. We want a better democracy because the democracy we had before failed us", they said. According to the RTF, Generation Z have been the most active as they have known nothing other than a country moving towards a free nation. It’s in stark contrast to other age groups who have only gotten a taste of life outside a dictatorship, some of whom are disappointed with Aung San Suu Kyi's record and are still haunted by previous regimes. "We want this to be the last generation under a dictatorship because we're sick of it quite frankly. For even young adults like me, it just feels like you have to do something because you don't want to go through this anymore", they said. However, four months since the military coup, the junta still holds a tight grip on the Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi remains detained after being hit with a string of criminal charges including flouting coronavirus restrictions during last year's election campaign and possessing unlicensed walkie-talkies. Social media may offer an alternative reality and solace for those who are trying to keep the pro-democracy movement alive as life on the streets of Yangon and elsewhere are still very different and difficult. The spokesperson from RTF said: "I feel like I was more confined than during Covid. At least during Covid, if I had my mask on and I was keeping safe, I could go out [and] see friends. But now you know I'll go to the grocery store and I'll visit my parents house and that's about it. "For for some people life has returned to normal. I see people eating at restaurants." Many are living with a constant fear of being arrested. "They're still stopping people checking cars in this street, and there is a feeling of constant anxiety, knowing that you could be arrested at any moment for everything. For having a phone, for having social media accounts" they added. For Raven, she still puts her pen to digital paper every day with the hope that her images will keep the spirit of the movement alive. "I definitely believe that we're going to win because we have to. Otherwise it will never win" she said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: RTÉ News
Date of publication: 2021-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Revolutionary Anthem to Reject Military Coup 2021 in Myanmar (ENG lyrics)
Description: "“Kabarmakyaybu” was the revolutionary anthem of the 1988 pro-democracy movement and it becomes to be our chanting anthem to fight for our democracy once again in 2021 Feb. The English translation of the lyrics was done by the E-major students (YUFL) and we give full respect and credit to the original creators of the graphics and music. We created this ENG lyrics video so that world knows the meaning of our revolutionary anthem. It has been a week they overtook the country, and rallies of young & old came out of the street to protest peacefully and face their fears and fight for their rights today. We are so proud of our people. Let the world know we are resisting the group of narcissistic psychopath abusive Juntas who like to stay in power..."
Source/publisher: GenZrevolutionMM
Date of publication: 2021-02-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 29 May, (837) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (4) fallen heroes today. These (4) fallen heroes from Insein Township in Yangon Region and Gangaw Township in Magway Region were killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 29 May, a total of (4370) people are currently under detention; of them (108) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. On the night of May 28, at Pauk Taw Wa in Insein Township, Yangon Region, a youth was brutally killed when a military vehicle intentionally crashed into him, after he did not stop his motorcycle when Division 77 told him to stop to be checked. The fallen youth worked as a model and an actor. On the evening of May 28, a teacher, who was involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), and two villagers, were shot to death when junta troops raided Yehla Village in Gangaw Township, Magway Region. On the evening of May 28, Myint Aung, Minister of Labour, Immigration and Population of Magway Region Government and NLD Chairman of Kanma Township in Magway Region, was arrested at his home. On the night of May 27, a mother was taken as a hostage when the junta could not find her son Pyae Phyo Paing, a political activist, as they searched for him in Taungdwingyi Town in Magway Region. On May 27, lawyer Ayar Linn Htut was arrested representing political prisoners at Hinthada District Court, in Ayeyarwady Region. A lawsuit has been filed against her under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code at the Hinthada Police Station. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses.."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.09 MB 4.01 MB 956.14 KB
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Title: Human Rights in Myanmar: A discussion with U Aung Myo Min (Part 2)
Description: "This is Part Two of a two-part interview with the newly-appointed Minister of Human Rights for the National Unity Government, U Aung Myo Min. Read Part One here. [Editor’s Note: This post is part of a collaboration between Tea Circle and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University, to share transcripts and reports from a series of seminars on Myanmar that ISHR is hosting.] Thursday, May 13th at 10:30 EST/20:00 IST/21:00 MMT Kristina Eberbach: Thank you, we have a couple of questions we received in advance or in the chat, some relate to the international community, and some more specifically, with respect to the International Criminal Court. I’ll begin with the international community in the sense that the UN Security Council, ASEAN, as well as individual countries have taken insufficient action in response to the situation in Myanmar. And so, one of the questions is how do you see the NUG working with these mechanisms going forward? There was also a question specifically about China, and the role of China. I know you’ve been working and calling on some sanctions against the junta, but beyond sanctions, what do you see the international community doing? And then a second question related to the role of the international community: What do you see civil society being able to do, including individuals on this call who want to support the human rights and democracy movement––what would you like to see them do? U Aung Myo Min: Ok, on the international front, at least we have strong countries supporting us. They have been the champions of condemnation, they have called for the release of detainees and for an end to the violence. So, these are very friendly countries. And though some countries are not that strong, they support and call for peaceful dialogue and things like that, so we have different degrees of commitment. And then on the other side, China is, you know, always a protector of the military. They have a long history of these things because they have many interests in Myanmar. On the other hand, India is monitoring the relationship between China and Myanmar and measuring the pros and cons, because they are both regional giants and Myanmar is sandwiched between the two countries. So, they are thinking about checks and balances. Also, ASEAN’s role now is much more outspoken than before. In the past, ASEAN never considered the issues in Myanmar to be a regional issue, only internal. But at least there was a session, and some discussion about Myanmar; they made 5 recommendations for the military to follow up on. The military did not follow them, that is a kind of failure, but as long as you are not supporting the Myanmar military, that is fine, that is the bottom line. But for the other strategies, we also should have a carrot and stick approach. The carrot means it is very unlikely the junta will listen to you, say yes or very politely follow (recommendations), because many countries and people have called on them to stop the violence but it is still going on. But there is kind of a ‘carrot way’, with a dialogue between the NUG, the military and other stakeholders to come together and find a solution––this is like, a good ending story, we would like to see a happy ending at the end. This is one strategy. The second strategy is under the ‘stick’ category. Condemnation, and also some actions including selected sanctions, embargos, and ensuring accountability issues are put on the international criminal justice docket. These are the things we can do. What we need is for countries to recognize the NUG as the legitimate government. We have support from the people, I would say, and it also has a mandate [from the CRPH], but in order to get other countries to recognize it as a legitimate government, we really need to work hard. We have sympathy and we have support, but not as a government yet. So, recognizing the NUG as the legitimate government and coordinating and supporting, for example, humanitarian assistance or other support for education help. We can work together on things like that. Besides that, we have other issues where we need to talk with the international community, including sensitive issues from the previous government, like the Rohingya issue. We need to have a clear policy paper. The new government must have a clear policy toward the Rohingya. And we need to clarify how this kind of policy will be accepted, respected, and implemented. This process is also important. Right now, our ministry is preparing draft positions on our policy towards the Rohingya. So there are three areas: one is Rohingya being able to be called Rohingya, unlike under the previous government, where there was a denial of their identity rights. We can promise that the Rohingya will be recognized, as with the name and terminology. Second, no one––including the Rohingya––will be subject to violations of their civil rights. Arrest, torture, forced relocation, sexual violence, no one should be subjected to these. These rights are protected for Rohingya, like all other people. Third, we want to clearly implement the recommendations of the Kofi Annan commission for reconciliation of the Rakhine State issue. We recognize that these are good solutions, and we will set up a process for implementation. But those recommendations were made in 2017, almost four years ago. There should be another situational analysis, considering other things through consultation with the Rohingya people. We are in the process of meeting with different groups and people from Rakhine State, even Rohingya IDPs and refugees from the refugee camps, to get their ideas. I promise that our clear policies on the Rohingya will be released in two weeks. And on this, I will say, I will try my best to meet the international standards and to uphold the dignity and rights of the Rohingya people after consultation with them. Ben Fleming: Myo, may I jump in and ask a question from the audience related to this? We know that the NUG has vowed to rewrite a new constitution, to get rid of the 2008 constitution. We have a question from the audience about the NUG’s position on the 1982 citizenship law. Is that something that the NUG also wishes to reform? Rewrite? And then one quick question is when the members of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) will be announced. U Aung Myo Min: Thank you. We are conducting a review, consulting with many people, with the stakeholders and one of the recommendations is on the 1982 citizenship law. I studied it, I can recite it by memory almost, truly, because I was a human rights activist, so all my homework from before helps! In my view, the 1982 citizenship law is very discriminatory. It is also based on ethnicity. It was created by U Ne Win based on the 135 nationalities, so in this respect, it is already flawed. The 1982 citizenship law and other laws that are not in line with international standards are now under review and under consideration to repeal, revise or replace with a new law. I can promise that, as the Minister of Human Rights, I will try to propose to repeal or amend the 1982 citizenship law. For the NUCC, they have already established who will be on the council but some of them cannot be made public for security reasons because many are still inside the country. We expect to announce this within 2 weeks, when it is safe to make this information public. Kristina Eberbach: Thank you. Another question we received in advance relates to human rights as a meaningful terminology and meaningful framework within the country. This person is asking how you, as the Minister of Human Rights, would communicate the idea of human rights to people and convey its relevance to their everyday concerns? How will you adapt the international terminology to more localized understandings? And finally, how do you address the role of the state, given the problematic relationship, to say the least, that the state has had with Human Rights, and given the fact that within the framework of human rights, the state is one of the primary duty-bearers for respecting human rights? How do you go about approaching the role of the state in protecting or enforcing Human Rights alongside the role of local community practices in enforcement? U Aung Myo Min: The motto of my ministry is equality, peace, and justice. Those are the basic principles of human rights. Equality means nobody is subject to discrimination. We will stay committed to Articles 1 and 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 1 deals with equality and Article 2 is related to non-discrimination. Thees are our principles. Whether you are from, one of the 135 ‘so-called’ nationalities or not, no one should be subject to any kind of violence or abuse, or rights violations from state or non-state actors. This is our commitment: no one should be left behind. If we have a marginalized group or disenfranchised group, like LGBT is one of them, and other minorities or persons with disabilities, these people are considered for temporary special measures, affirmative action, so their status would be upgraded, (to ensure they receive) equal treatment, justice, and peace. So this is my thing. I set up my first organization, Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) in 2000. This year is the 20th anniversary. We planned to celebrate our 20 years of service in Human Rights Education, but unfortunately, it will not happen. First, because of COVID, and second, the coup. The 2 C’s make it very difficult for us, but at least we can celebrate amongst ourselves. We have more than 20 years of Human Rights Education materials, including our TV channel, which we broadcast weekly through the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). This kind of groundwork and community-based action is good, and we can use them. We have trained more than 300 experienced trainers across the country. My role was a director to many staff before I joined the cabinet, but now my role is to make sure that these kind of Human Rights Education programs keep running. Not with lectures, but participatory learning based on the everyday situation of the country. We have what we could call a “three H” approach. One is Head, putting in the international standards, teaching what the UDHR, CEDAW, CRC, and CRPD is. The second one is Heart, so people can practice the three values of non-discrimination, equality, and respect for diversity. So people can feel it and they can also think about what social norms and taboos are not in line with everyday life. For example, calling someone Kalar (foreigner) is very discriminatory; calling someone achauk (gay) is horribly discriminatory; taw thar (rural) is also this kind of discriminatory language. We have been working on changing this language. That’s why you can see that in the Spring Revolution many women are actively participating, and LGBT flags, rainbow flags everywhere. This is the significance of the groundwork we’ve done, so we will keep doing that. And finally, putting a Human Rights curriculum in the new system, from the primary level to high school. A faculty of Human Rights, or maybe, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) Myanmar! This is my passion. This is my dream. This was my dream as an activist before. Now that I’m the dreammaker, maybe, to put this into our government’s policy. Ben Fleming: On that note, Myo, do you have any thoughts on the sort of efforts that the NUG and others are taking for a federal university to stand in for the CDM students and faculty. We know that thousands upon thousands of faculty have refused to return to work, and many thousands have been fired. Those who have returned to work have returned to empty classrooms. What role––and we are happy to play whatever part we can––can we play in supporting an effort to keep education alive for those in CDM? U Aung Myo Min: Thank you, Ben. This is my request I was going to make, but you already answered that, Great! We are real Columbia, we know each other! Our Ministry of Education (MoE) has that kind of alternative education and institution already in mind from the liberated areas. When I recall my experience back in ‘88, we were the students that left the classroom; we were eager and hungry for education. We didn’t have any proper institutions from which we could learn, we only had small libraries. That’s where I picked up a copy of the UDHR and started learning myself. And I don’t want that [situation] for the new generation! Our MoE plans are to have alternative education at the institute level, and the university level in some areas. Because, you know that we have totally ethnic-controlled areas along the border. From Kachin State to the border along Thailand, in some areas, the education institutions are well-established. They have their own universities, their own teachers’ college, and system. In some areas, it is not a teachers’ college, but they have their own traditional teachers training that they can multiply in other areas, so based on some of these ideas, our MoE will set up one university in one particular liberated area. So, my work, my years-long work of Human Rights curriculums, Human Rights teaching will be adapted/adopted in that university. Further, with my association with the ethnic education committees, we can work together and my team is happy to contribute and distribute. But this is from the Myanmar context. Ben Fleming: We have lots of people on this call from a number of universities, so it is a call to arms for all of us to play our part in keeping education alive for the people of Myanmar. U Aung Myo Min: Yeah, and welcome…for Human Rights, I’m open to working with any organization. For other non-Human Rights education, I can convey that message in the cabinet meetings, particularly with the MoE. Kristina Eberbach: Thank you. We only have a few more minutes left, and we want to be respectful of your time, we know you are very busy! There were two questions about the ICC and you talked a little bit about it in terms of the hope to engage the ICC in pursuing accountability. And then there was the question of the jurisdiction in terms of the time frame – are you hoping to pursue accountability not only for recent events, but for those in the past? U Aung Myo Min: Oh yes, thank you. We are in consultation with a legal firm to study and analyze how we can be a member of, or ratify to be a member state of the ICC. So, we see the legitimacy issue, the process issue, and the jurisdiction issue, too. Wo have support and advice from this legal group, but we need also to think about it ourselves, and the process is already ongoing at the NUCC stage. To any of you, when I met some Burmese students from Columbia University I also said, please, give me your input and ideas, I’m open to listening and different ideas can help enrich my understanding and thinking about the best and possible ways. I’m open to that sort of thing. On jurisdiction: We’ve thought about it, because usually only criminal acts committed after ratification can be held accountable. But some legal experts have said that you can request special circumstances. For example, this is the criminal, he’s not doing this just after February 1st, but there’s a long history of these things, so there is another special procedure we can request. And identifying the perpetrators, the criminals, and a long history of involvement in these kinds of crimes, these are special requests we are seriously considering, with regard to labeling it as ongoing crimes. The ICC also accepted the case taking place inside Bangladesh against the Rohingya because Bangladesh is a member of the Rome Statute. Myanmar is not, but they have already carried out IIMM and the Independent Fact Finding Mission, set up to collect (and document) all the previous Human Rights violations and abuses. We are collaborating on that, and we can extend its jurisdiction to inside the country. Ben Fleming: We have some questions about the military or future possible military. I know the NUG has said clearly that any future armed forces will be civilian led. Is that going to be reflected in a constitution? Also, have you gotten, or do you know if there is much buy-in from the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) about a civilian-led military and what that should look like from an inclusive standpoint? U Aung Myo Min: Well, the PDF (People’s Defence Force) is founded as an “NUG Armed Forces.” And you might be surprised to learn that the Defence Minister was a former poet and the Deputy Minister is the first woman Deputy Minister of Defence, and with an academic background! So, this is already a civilian leadership, when you know traditionally, “macho” men-in-uniform would take these places, so this is one such change. I think that kind of civilian-led institution is being established and that kind of militarized history has been broken already. This is the first step. But this kind of PDF, it is something like the small, first cell of the federal union, or the federal army that we are looking for. In this case, we are working with the Defence Minister, at least to have a code of conduct for members of the PDF. Because sometimes, when you are carrying arms and you want revenge, anything could happen. But that kind of PDF is meant to defend the people, and also work for the people, not to threaten or even do something bad to the people. This military code of conduct will be finished very soon, [and will] respect the dignity and the rights of the people based on international humanitarian law and also the law of armed conflict. We are in the process of talking with different ethnic armed groups. We don’t want them to come and work under the PDF because they are more senior, they have their own thing, and they have sacrificed their lives for their struggles. But what we need is cooperation and coordination. How can we put all the forces together, with a strong chain of command, military strategies, and mutual understanding? We need to guard against possible conflicts of interests, conflicts of power, and that is the purpose of the discussion with individual ethnic armed groups. Some are ready to go, but some are not ok because of a long history of mistrust between Bamar and other ethnic people. We are solving the problem, showing that the federal union and federal democratic constitution is not only for the Bamar, but for all the peoples of Burma, of Myanmar! We are at different stages of consultation and making sure that everyone is coordinating and complementing each other under the federal union. It’s a long process, because our country is a very complicated country with very complicated issues. (Featured image courtesy of the Institute for the Study of Human Rights)..."
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Source/publisher: "Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Journalism goes local as the junta shackles national media
Sub-title: Amid the near-destruction of Myanmar’s media industry, nimble township-based outlets have sprung up to meet the constant demand for local news about the nationwide uprising.
Description: "First thing each morning, 26-year-old Ko Zaw Oo checks his online messages for recent news or tip-offs about protests and crackdowns in his home township of Hlaing Tharyar, a densely populated factory district on the north-western outskirts of Yangon. “If something interesting is happening, I’ll go and see for myself,” said the 26-year-old. “Otherwise, I’ll roam around [Hlaing Tharyar] and find news to post about.” Zaw Oo, who asked that his real name not be used to protect his safety, was telling Frontier about his daily routine as the editor and chief reporter for HTY (Hlaing Tharyar) Information. He founded the Facebook page and website on March 5 to provide a regular feed of reliable news about developments in the township. Formerly an IT professional, with no previous experience or training in media, he said he had “never imagined [he’d] be doing this kind of work”. He came up with the idea for HTY Information when posts from his personal Facebook account following the February 1 coup went viral, alerting him to the huge appetite for local news amid a nationwide uprising. His news outlet has since proved popular, with more than 167,000 followers and posts that are frequently shared thousands of times. Initially working as a team of one, Zaw Oo tracked the anti-coup demonstrations as they grew in scale and confidence in the township – with the participation of tens of thousands of factory workers from what is the hub of Myanmar’s garment industry – until a brutal crackdown by security forces on March 14 prompted many residents to flee to family homes in the countryside. Although the crackdown all but crushed the local protest movement, it motivated Zaw Oo to keep reporting as resistance to military rule went underground, many of the township’s internal migrant workers eventually returned from rural areas, and the junta struggled to assert its authority over local communities and chase down dissidents. From early April, he was joined by 10 volunteer reporters, enabling more comprehensive coverage. Zaw Oo said the bloodshed of March 14 showed him that many crucial events in Hlaing Tharyar would go unreported without local outlets like his own. “I saw a lot of people die in the crackdown. I was able to broadcast some of the violence live, but a lot of mainstream media couldn’t report what had happened in Hlaing Tharyar,” he said, adding that the roughly 60 deaths reported by national outlets was significantly below the true death toll, which he put at more than 100 based on local civil society sources. “Many reporters were unable to reach Hlaing Tharyar that day,” Zaw Oo said. “That’s when I resolved to [continue to] regularly report what is happening in the township.” He pointed out that the March 14 massacre happened shortly after the junta seriously escalated its assault on the media, with a ban on five major media organisations announced on March 8. Most of these outlets responded with defiance; Myanmar Now, Democratic Voice of Burma, Mizzima and Khit Thit Media have continued to publish and broadcast online. The exception was 7Day News, the country’s highest circulation newspaper, which immediately stopped printing and scrubbed its online presence. In addition to the bans, which have since been extended to Kachin State-based Myitkyina Journal and 74 Media and the eastern Shan State-based Tachileik News Agency, the junta has raided several newsrooms and arrested more than 80 journalists, over 40 of whom are still in custody, including Frontier’s managing editor, Danny Fenster. Meanwhile, other newspapers such as Myanmar Times and The Voice have decided to fold voluntarily, due to a post-coup climate that is hostile to both business survival and press freedom. These attacks on media freedom have decimated a news industry that blossomed after the lifting of print censorship in 2012. In their place have arisen hyper-local, township-based media outlets like HTY Information. Covering the breadth of Myanmar, from Yangon to Chin State to Magway Region and elsewhere, they have met a surge in demand for local news as protests and strikes continue to be met with deadly force – an environment where, for ordinary people, staying informed is crucial to staying alive. Some of these small, nimble outlets are run by experienced journalists and offer miniature versions of conventional news articles on websites and Facebook pages. However, many more have been started by untrained youth, who stick to social media and blur the lines between journalism and activism. As well as documenting events, they tip local residents off to police and army clampdowns, and also help to coordinate protests and fundraising for striking government workers in the Civil Disobedience Movement – a kind of community media tailored to the post-coup times. “This is a new type of information stream for the people; citizen journalism is filling the gap in professional media coverage,” said U Myint Kyaw, a member of the Myanmar Journalist Network and a media trainer who resigned from the national Press Council shortly after the coup. But despite attracting tens of thousands of readers, who they sometimes appeal to for donations, several of the local outlets told Frontier they’re struggling to meet their meagre operating costs in an increasingly cash-strapped economy. Their reach has also been curbed by a ban on mobile internet in place since mid-March. More seriously, several editors and reporters told Frontier they’re being hunted down by the security forces, just like their counterparts in national media organisations. While this proves the impact of these local outlets, some are struggling to operate while in hiding or on the run.....‘The impact was huge’: U Wai Lin, a co-founder of the Thingangyun Post, is one of the few local media pioneers with an extensive background in journalism. The 30-year-old stressed that his outlet, which serves residents of Thingangyun Township as well as neighbouring townships in Yangon, fills a gap vacated by national media by marrying professionalism with a commitment to telling local stories. “Mainstream media is no longer widespread and township-based media outlets like ours have become reliable sources of information for the public,” said U Wai Lin, who launched the Thingangyun Post with a colleague in 2019 after a decade in journalism. “At that time, very few people knew about us, but we have gained more readers since the coup,” he said, alluding to the Facebook page’s more than 112,000 followers. Wai Lin said the Thingangyun Post, which operates as a team of three journalists, was the first media outlet to report a February 15 raid by the security forces on a residential compound in the township that housed Central Bank employees, many of whom had joined the CDM. “We arrived there early that day,” Wai Lin said. “Later, when we broadcast the situation live on Facebook, others came to know what was happening and better-known media arrived. Since then, our page has become very popular in Thingangyun.” He said the Thingangyun Post’s coverage of the raid allowed it to fulfil two functions that are crucial to the mission of most township-based outlets: keeping residents informed, and bringing local incidents to national attention. “The impact was huge,” Wai Lin said. “Many people came to show support for the striking Central Bank staff.” But away from Yangon, where most of the remaining national outlets are based, the need to capture and draw attention to local incidents is even greater. “In our city, there were protests and demonstrations and a lot of people were arrested by the military, but there was no news about it in the mainstream media,” said Ko Min Naung, who lives in the famous ruby mining centre of Mogok, in a mountainous area of northern Mandalay Region. “That’s why we established the Mogok Information Group.” Min Naung, a pseudonym, is one of nine 20-year-olds in the town who founded the outlet, which has a Facebook page with more than 25,000 followers and a Telegram channel. By mid-May, the Mogok Information Group had reported 11 deaths and more than 100 arrests in the area, “but I was unable to find any [other] media reports about this,” Min Naung said. The Facebook page mostly posts real-time updates and warnings about bombings, arrests and army mobilisations, which have become common in Mogok in recent weeks. With most posts being less than 100 words, and with a staunchly activist stance, little of the group’s output meets a conventional definition of journalism. But for the group’s founders, the need to provide the people of Mogok with potentially life-saving information in an environment of widespread dissent easily outweighed any lofty considerations of media professionalism. “The main thing is for the protesters in the town to be able to run when the army and the police are coming,” explained Min Naung. “We had never written a news story, or studied journalism,” he said. “We try to write by ourselves because we want to tell the news in our town.” A similar amateur passion had inspired the young founder and administrator of Myingyan News, a Facebook page with more than 70,000 followers. “It was hard for me to write news but I kept trying and now people know about the military’s abuses in our town,” said 20-year-old Ko Lin Aung, a pseudonym. He reports on Myingyan Township alongside 20 other locals. In a sign of the outlet’s activist bent, they are drawn from night watch groups that patrol neighbourhoods each night after the curfew, to protect community members from the junta’s security forces. The dusty Dry Zone township in Mandalay Region has seen armed resistance in addition to peaceful street protests, and the junta has cracked down brutally as a result. Lin Aung claims his group’s reporting has brought this violence to wider attention, with larger news organisations using Myingyan News as a source. “When mainstream media learned about us, they interviewed us about the situation in Myingyan,” he said. “We achieved our goal.”.....‘We have to be brave’: The founders of these township-based outlets said their work depends on the collaboration of readers. “Almost every day, regular readers are sending messages to the [Facebook] page’s inbox to confirm news,” said Zaw Oo of HTY Information. But even with this support, which also comes in the form of donations via mobile wallets, providing daily news has been a financial challenge for these outlets, who don’t seek revenue from advertising or other commercial sources. “I have no income; every cost is covered from my pocket,” Zaw Oo said, adding that since HTY Information was established in early March, its expenses – which include buying cameras and covering phone bills and taxi fares, as well as occasional reporting fees to staff – have exceeded K3 million (US$1,820). There’s a similar problem at the Thingangyun Post, which Wai Lin said costs up to K20,000 a day to produce, due to similar expenses. “We cover the costs ourselves,” he said. The reach of their online news dispatches has also been curtailed by the junta’s internet restrictions. The block on mobile internet imposed in mid-March has been a particular blow, because the large majority of Myanmar people access the web via smartphones. However, the junta’s gradual white-listing of apps and websites since April has, deliberately or otherwise, made the work of most township media accessible via VPNs. For Yangon-based HTY Information and the Thingangyun Post, the mobile internet ban has been less of a problem. This is thanks to the relatively wide availability in the city of fibre internet, which the junta has left open despite blocking wireless broadband. Wai Lin said readership and engagement with Thingangyun Post content had “decreased a bit” since the ban, but he believed it would remain widely read for as long as fibre connections remain open. “If they cut [fibre], we can’t work,” he said. “We can’t say the junta won’t do this, and I’ve made plans to produce a printed paper in our township if it happens.” In small towns and villages, however, people tend to lack any access to fibre internet. “In urban areas of Mogok, a lot of homes have fibre internet, but rural areas have no access to it,” said Min Naung of the Mogok Information Group. “So, we printed a weekly newspaper and distributed it in some villages.” However, Min Naung and his colleagues only distributed two editions of the paper in the latter half of April before the junta’s gradual whitelisting of websites made the group’s content available via mobile internet again. “If mobile internet is [entirely] cut again, we will go back to producing the print paper,” he said. “We won’t give up.” Besides limited internet and finances, there is a still-greater threat to the survival of township-based media. Wai Lin of the Thingangyun Post put it bluntly. “The main danger is the junta,” he said. In the first and so far only known arrest of a township media practitioner, on April 24, soldiers and police seized the editor-in-chief of the Thanlyin Post, Ma Tu Tu Thar, 49, in a raid on her home in Yangon’s Thanlyin Township during which they also took away her 18-year-old son, brother, and a friend. Before this incident, in early April, Wai Lin realised he was being watched, so he moved from Thingangyun to a secret location in South Okkalapa Township. But even there, the junta seemed to be tracking him. “A neighbour [in South Okkalapa] told me a man in civilian clothes had asked about us three times,” he said of himself and a colleague, adding that they had since moved to another hiding place in Yangon. But even if Wai Lin is safe in hiding, his loved ones might not be. As the junta has grown increasingly desperate to impose order, its troops have taken to detaining the relatives of fugitives, seemingly regardless of whether these relatives had any role in assisting them. “I am worried that my family members will be arrested,” he said of his parents and two brothers, who remain at his original Thingangyun address. Wai Lin added that he was “not alone” among local journalists in feeling that he was putting relatives at risk. Meanwhile, in Hlaing Tharyar, Zaw Oo is confident the junta doesn’t know his identity. However, readers have warned him that police and soldiers are searching the township for whoever is behind HTY Information. He said he came dangerously close to being caught in early April, when his live reporting on the aftermath of a bomb blast at the administration office for the township’s seventh ward brought security forces rushing to the scene. “I was still at the site of the bombing when they came looking for me. I ran away fast; I was very scared,” he said, adding that he had since gone into hiding elsewhere in the township. “My media outlet is successful, which means I’m in greater danger,” he said. The need to constantly evade the security forces and their informers has also compounded the problems created by the internet restrictions. Wai Lin and Zaw Oo say their hiding places lack fibre internet, meaning they have needed to venture outside to post news, putting themselves and others in great danger in the process. “Sometimes teashops are my newsroom. Sometimes my friends’ homes are my office,” said Wai Lin. But despite these difficulties and the daily risks they face, Zaw Oo said that he and other “citizen journalists” owed it to their communities to keep reporting. “We have to be brave now,” he said. “If we cannot fulfill our media roles, no one will know about the military’s atrocities.”..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication: 2021-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Statement on Disappearances in the Spring Revolution
Description: "As of today, AAPP believes there are 75 people currently missing in Burma. These disappearances have occurred since the beginning of the coup, when junta seized power and detained our democratically elected leaders on 1 February, 2021. Since then, the military coup has consistently been perpetrating brutal crimes against civilians, including killing and torture, and disappearing dead bodies. A large number of pro-democracy supporters are now missing, they may be detained, tortured, or killed. Crucially, the junta regime has not disclosed where any of the arbitrarily detained are. When detainees have been located, it is because of information provided by those released from the prison, lawyers, families who have been permitted to send parcels to the prison, and legal aid groups. Many detainees are not able to see their lawyers, or contact their families, with some not in contact with the outside for periods of time. The junta regime has not issued any statement related to detention information, such as where they are being detained and interrogated. Of the 75 missing, AAPP can verify 23 are disappeared, a further 52 are believed disappeared with precise status to be confirmed. 19 people are missing. 14 of these disappeared went missing while fleeing from junta troops who were raiding and shooting in villages in Yinmabin and Kani Townships. Four people, including Moe San Suu Kyi, disappeared from their hideout, and are suspected to have been detained. However, there is no information about when and who made the detention. One civilian was arrested for seven days for staging a solitary protest, but after their release, they did not return home. 4 people are now missing after having been initially confirmed detained. 3 were arrested for participating in a protest and supporting CDM. They were sent to Myaung Mya Prison, but no family member has been able to make contact since. Aside from this, one civilian arrested in Yinmabin Township has since gone missing, with no contact being made to his family. 24 people left their homes for known reasons, but after several days have not returned. This includes those who have left their homes to take part in protests, to withdraw money at the bank, to go to grocery stores, and to go outside for food. 28 people were detained but their families have not been told where. One of these individuals, Aung San Ko Ko (a.k.a. Wine Chit Oo) was shot, wounded, and abducted by the terrorists, and he remains missing. Individuals went missing when: Leaving their homes to participate in demonstrations, and amid brutal crackdowns have later not been able to contact families, relatives or friends for some days. After being taken for questioning by junta troops whilst walking on the streets, they are later uncontactable. They fled their homes, but have been missing with no contact since then. Their families could not contact them after they were arrested in the hideout. The location of the detainees was not disclosed, even though they were arrested and interrogated, including some of those not allowed to meet with lawyers and AAPP believes are no longer in prison. AAPP will continue to verify the recently disappeared. According to international law, one is considered disappeared when unlawfully detained, abducted, against their will with failure by the responsible party to provide information on said person. International humanitarian law is explicit on missing persons. States should not perpetrate, condone the act, or impede investigation. The junta in Burma has done nothing to account for these missing persons, in fact threatening civil society and oppressing civilians who raise the issue. The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2474 on 11 June 2019, calling on all parties to actively report and search for missing persons. Time and again, resolutions have underscored knowing the fate of loved ones is a basic human right. In the International Committee of Red Cross’ study on international humanitarian law, it is affirmed “practice indicates that the obligation to account for missing persons arises at the latest after an adverse party provides notification of those who are missing”. AAPP is providing notification of 75 believed missing persons. The junta is the responsible party for the crimes and disorder resulting in these disappearances. The AAPP calls for the international community, including the United Nations and the ASEAN country members, to work effectively to investigate disappearances during this attempted coup..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: WIDER IMAGE 'For fallen souls' - A survivor says Myanmar fight must go on
Description: "Each morning, Ko Phyo washes himself and his two-year-old son while seated on a chair, a plastic bag covering what remains of a thigh that he says was shattered by a bullet fired by a Myanmar soldier. Ko Phyo says he was wounded on the front lines of the biggest protests against Myanmar's military in decades. Now, he is adjusting to life as an amputee and single parent in a country in chaos since a Feb. 1 coup. The 24-year-old says he joined the nationwide protest movement in the biggest city Yangon, acting as a guard trying to protect demonstrators from security forces during daily pro-democracy marches and strikes. (Open https://reut.rs/3wTmBlV in an external browser to see a picture story on Ko Phyo.) "We ran away because we didn't want to get arrested and beaten," he said, recalling a day in early March when he was cornered as police and a soldier advanced. "Then they started shooting, I was shot in the leg, and fell on the ground." Security forces have killed more than 800 people since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group. The ruling junta says around 300 have died, most of them "terrorists" and "instigators of violence". Ko Phyo said he carried only a shield. The bullet that hit him severed three arteries. The soldier who fired the shot removed it with a knife, and a local policeman he knew took him to a military hospital, a journey that took more than two hours, he said. "I started feeling the pain and I couldn't bear it. I told them to cut off my leg immediately. They cut it on the seventh day." Ko Phyo has been learning to become mobile in a wheelchair in his three-room home and uses crutches when outdoors to deal with the uneven roads and paths that run between the green fields of his Yangon township. He hopes to return to his job handling vehicle licensing with the road transport authority, when stability eventually returns. Concern about the future of his son drove him to join the anti-junta protests and gave him motivation to recover faster and leave hospital after 12 days, he said. He sees the loss of his leg as a small sacrifice compared to those of the hundreds killed, including one of his fellow guards, a 15-year-old girl. "All protesters out there are fighting for the next generations ... The military is supposed to protect its own people, but they are killing us instead." "We must keep fighting," Ko Phyo said. "We must win this revolution to bring justice for fallen souls." His son is adapting to the new reality too, playing games with his father and bringing him snacks and cushions to make him comfortable on the floor. "I feel terrible when he asked, 'Dad, where's your leg?'," he said. "So, I replied 'a dog's eaten my leg but it will grow later'. And he still believes it."..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Begone အလိုမရှိ We Resist 알로맛시
Description: "Collection of အလိုမရှိ songs in English, Burmese, Korean... Credit to all original songs, lyrics, photos and video clips owners..."
Source/publisher: Bryan Bert
Date of publication: 2021-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 27 May, (831) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. (2) fallen heroes from Demoso Township in Kayah State were killed today. (1) from Taketa Township in Yangon Region was killed on a previous day and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 27 May, a total of (4331) people are currently under detention; of them (102) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. This morning, two youths from Demoso Township in Kayah State were shot to death by terrorist junta while they were bringing food for Karenni IDPs. Early in the morning of May 25, a man, who suffered from mental health, was shot to death at Thaketa Township, Yangon Region by the terrorist junta. Soe Linn Htet, second year student majoring in civil engineering at the Technological University Meiktila, was arrested at home at Pyawbwe Township in Mandalay Region this morning. On the night of May 25, Aung Mya Than, a reporter of Ayeyarwaddy Times News Agency based in Ayeyarwady Region, was arrested and beaten while questioning. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.08 MB 3.97 MB 978.24 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 28 May, (833) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Loikaw Township in Kayah State and Dawei Township in Tanintharyi Region were killed yesterday and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 28 May, a total of (4350) people are currently under detention; of them (104) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Yesterday afternoon, a 14 year old boy was shot dead in the head as he ran away from junta forces, who had entered Kayan Tharyar Village, in Thabyay Kone, in Loikaw Township, Kayah State. Last night, a man was shot and left injured during unprovoked shooting by the military in Kyet Sar Pyin Ward, Dawei Township in Tanintharyi Region. Junta forces then took him away by car, and he later died. On May 28, Mi Nge a.k.a Nge Lay, a former female political prisoner, was sentenced to three years imprisonment under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code for defamation. On May 2, junta forces searched her home for her son, political activist Tin Htut Paing. When they could not find him, they arrested and beat her. This afternoon, Myo Thiha Kyaw, a photojournalist for the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency, was arrested in Mandalay. Last night, in Thaton Township in Mon State, four youths from Manaw Phyu Charity Association were arrested. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.08 MB 4.07 MB 970.62 KB
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Title: Human Rights in Myanmar: A discussion with U Aung Myo Min (Part 1)
Description: "This is Part One of a two-part interview with the newly appointed Minister of Human Rights for the National Unity Government, U Aung Myo Min. [Editor’s Note: This post is part of a collaboration between Tea Circle and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University to share transcripts and reports from a series of seminars on Myanmar that ISHR is hosting.] Thursday, May 13th at 10:30 EST/20:00 IST/21:00 MMT Kristina Eberbach: In response to the coup that took place 102 days ago, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) began organizing a series of webinars focused on human rights and democracy in Myanmar. We are planning a number of further webinars over the coming months with leading Myanmar and International activists, academics, and policy-makers. To receive additional information about upcoming events in this series, please sign up for our newsletter at humanrights.org My name is Kristina Eberbach, and I’m Deputy Director of the Institute and adjunct assistant professor at SIPA. I’m also the co-developer and co-director of the Institute’s University Human Rights Education in Myanmar. I’d like to welcome U Aung Myo Min, who was recently named Minister of Human Rights for the National Unity Government in Myanmar by the CRPH (Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw). He is a long-standing human rights advocate and was a student leader in Myanmar’s 1988 revolution. He is also the founder of Equality Myanmar, a leading human rights organization in the country, and has been awarded seven international awards for his work in human and LGBT rights. In 1993 he also participated in ISHR’s Human Rights Advocate’s Program and we have had the pleasure of collaborating with U Myo and EQMM as part of the Institute’s University Human Rights Education in Myanmar program and SIPA’s capstone program. I’d also like to introduce my colleague Ben Fleming, who will be co-moderating this discussion. In addition to co-developing and co-leading our Human Rights Education in Myanmar initiative, he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and an Adjunct Professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. Ben Fleming: Hey everybody, thanks, Kristina. Sayar Myo, good to see you, welcome everybody, and Mingalaba. Kristina Eberbach: How did the formation of the ministry come about within the NUG? Can you describe for us the relationship that you believe will exist with the NUG and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint if/when they are released? And finally, what is your envisioned role in this position? U Aung Myo Min: It’s a good question. The NUG was founded by CRPH, a composition of the elected members of Parliament in the 2020 elections. The military did not want the Parliament to set up a new government according to the procedures. So they took a stage, staged a coup before the new government was founded. The first thing they did was arrest Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the President, and many other cabinet members. They are still under arrest right now, but the CRPH was brave enough to set up their interim government. It is just for the legislation process. We needed the executive body to make to prepare us. Since the state counselor and the President are under arrest, we did not have any communication. But the CRPH thinks this is the right move to act as a legitimate government because they are the legitimate members of Parliament, and they have a duty and responsibility to set up a legitimate government. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not in the consultation during the formation of the NUG, but she heard about it through other sources. She didn’t say anything. The new stance of the NUG is a bit different from the old NLD (National League for Democracy) led government. The NLD-led government was recommended by many of the groups because this is the only party-dominated government, and there are some ministers and deputy ministers, mainly from the NLD supporters and President appointed. The CRPH decided to make a better, more diverse NUG. Inclusion is a big issue. People want to see that. There should be more diverse and multiple ethnic representation in the new government. This is the lesson we learned from the past. Myanmar is known as a very diverse country. By diverse, what I mean is that we have diversity of ethnicity, diversity of religion, and diversity of social status. If we learn from the past, we see one-party dominated politics without any active participation from ethnic parties. Hence, the CRPH decided to set up the new government with someone from the non-political, non-NLD parties. They also wanted to include representation from people with ethnic backgrounds, who are supported by ethnic people, women, and the Gen Z participation. During this spring revolution, many from Gen Z are at the forefront. So the leaders and young generation should be in the cabinet to represent them and to make good policy. See, I am an openly gay person in the country, and I am part of the new NUG. This is great. This is a very diverse and multicultural government. This is the lesson we learned. And we are trying not to repeat the mistakes and take recommendations from civil society. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would accept it, too, I think. I say this because she always said respect for diversity is the basis of human rights. The ethnic issue is very important, especially at a time like this, because the country is building a new federal democratic union. Without the ethnic representative or other diverse people in the government, it would be meaningless. This is in line with the guidance and statements Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has made before, so even though we have no direct communication or consultation with her, I believe that she would be happy. The question is not that the new government has different ethnicities and the new generations involved. I think she might be more interested to know our future plan. What is our draft constitution going to look like? What is our new government going to look like? For example, the ministry of human rights is the first of its kind in the history of Myanmar. Similarly, the federal affairs ministry is new too. So, I think she may personally be interested in our mission/vision and to know our plan. We need to explain and get her updated, but we are on the same mission and vision even if we don’t have direct communication. This government is an interim government during this revolution time, but we will make a better government when we have the space and more consultation with other leaders. Kristina Eberbach: Thank you. You touched on this a little bit in terms of the importance of diversity and ensuring respect for minority rights, but could you speak about your mission and vision and what your priorities will be in this new position? U Aung Myo Min: Ok, after I accepted this appointment, I’m thinking about what are my vision, mission, and strategies. This is a new ministry, and it is a cross-cutting one because a lot of the issues are interrelated. The military is committing everyday violations across the country. Many people have been killed. Right now, about 800 people have been killed. People have been shot dead, including young children. Around 4000 people are in detention, many arrested without proper legal procedure. They are committing military offensives, including airstrikes in the ethnic minority areas. This has forced thousands of already civil-war-affected people. New waves of IDPs (internally displaced persons) have been created. Such incidents are taking place everywhere. My background in human rights documentation came to my mind because it is important to collect all the human rights violations. I would say that not only are they committing human rights violations, but they are committing crimes against humanity. They are ordering systematically. Order and command are being passed out from the military to all the military, the police forces. This is taking place all over the country, not only in Yangon or Mandalay but everywhere! This kind of criminal act and various human rights violations should be well-documented and securely stored. There should be a strong database system so we can easily learn what is going on and the different trends and think about our next steps, as well as on the issue of accountability. In Myanmar, we have long histories of the culture of impunity. We have more than five decades of civil war, and many people were arrested and detained, but the perpetrators were never taken to trial. The culture of impunity is so well-established that the survivors feel they have no protection and feel hopeless. They get used to it, but they think no one cares or will stop these things. On the other side, the perpetrators said, ok, we’ve got the license to kill, license to rape, because they don’t have to worry about any legal action against them. So, this is very dangerous, not only right now but for any future generation to face the culture of impunity. Stopping impunity and building justice is another step. The judicial system in Myanmar has totally collapsed. No court is running properly. There are military tribunals where there is no legal protection or witnesses or testimonies allowed. So military officers just listen to the reports by the police and make a long sentence. It is hard for us to take legal action or exercise justice domestically. We need to beyond that. Regional countries and associations like ASEAN need to utilize their HR mechanisms to hold the perpetrators accountable. They can take some bilateral or regional intervention towards the military to start to bring the power back to the people. Another issue is the international level. Myanmar is known as a long champion of violations of war crime against ethnic people and genocide against the Rohingya people. Now again, we have crimes against humanity. They are criminals. They should proceed and be treated according to the international criminal process. There are so many ways to do this. The UN can use the mechanisms of the human rights council. The security council can be pushed for responsibility/accountability for global/un-led intervention, but unfortunately, China and Russia are not supporting that one. Another way is the ICC, which already accepted the file of Myanmar for the genocide against the Rohingya people. Bangladesh is a signatory of the Rome statute, but not Myanmar. So, we are thinking, the NUG, as the legitimate government, can ratify the Rome statute. This is all difficult and challenging. As I mentioned, the Human Rights Ministry is a cross-cutting ministry. Everything relating to Human Rights is our responsibility. For example, if we have the Ministry of Interior to propose the citizenship law under their mandate, but it is not only the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Interior but also related to the Human Rights ministry. We have a long history of citizenship lawthath is discriminatory against minorities. For example, the people who are born in Thailand but live in Myanmar for a long time have no rights. So, we have to see this law from the perspective of human rights. All the international human rights standards and considerations should be well-reflected, so I have to work with them. If we have another ministry, for example, the humanitarian affairs ministry, and if they decide to deliver humanitarian assistance along the border, then this is their job. But my ministry has to make sure no one is left behind. Everyone will need to be treated from a humanitarian perspective. There should be no discrimination and no abuse of power in food distribution or any kind of religious system. This is where my ministry is the focal ministry for every single ministry to ensure that every policy and program and action by ministers is in line with international standards. We have to check if this is not the right way and if there is something missing. For example, if the ministry of women, while drafting the violence against women law, exclude transgender woman, that’s not acceptable. I am doing this monitoring of every single policy, and you can see the responsibility for our ministry, just like the other ministries in the cabinet. My background is from civil society. I duly respect the role of civil society, their commitments, their inputs, and ideas to make government better. That is what I had done when I was outside of the government. Government should listen to and coordinate with civil society. I have a series of consultations with different civil society members—by secretary, by ethnicity, by gender, you know, like women, and disabled, other minorities. Every day I have a series of consultations to listen, and my duty is to make sure their recommendations and suggestions are well-reflected and implemented in the everyday policy of the government. Ben Fleming: It is a very big portfolio, Myo. I don’t envy the number of meetings that you will have if we can switch gears quickly, in 1988, you went to the jungle to train, but you realized that your talents lie elsewhere. We now know that many young people are going to the jungles or taking up arms in their village. We know there was violence today in Mingyan, and in Chin State, the NUG has set up a People’s Defense Force and is negotiating with the EAOs [Ethnic Armed Organizations] in the hope that one day they can form a federal armed force. What are your thoughts on the process of defeating the junta? How would you speak to Gen Z? Is armed conflict a foregone conclusion, or can there still be a peaceful process, given the inequality of arms, what is it you hope for people to do? U Aung Myo Min: Ok, you remind me of the days when I was a Gen Z back in 1988. I understand why many Gen Z have decided to leave for the border like me and want to take some kind of military action. There are two ways, the conventional military army and also the guerilla strategies. Young people think that we are left defenseless on the streets during the military crackdowns, and many are killed because they don’t have weapons to defend themselves. So they really want to fight back. They need weapons. I understand how they feel. Taking up arms is one of the strategies, but this isn’t the only solution to solve the problem. We have so many other strategies and actions taken by different people every day at different stages. Some of the Gen Z are still out on the street every day. There is no massive peaceful demonstration like before, but there are still hit-and-run demonstrations. Youngsters are showing how they want their voices to be heard. They look for the flag. They are ready to join. They are showing the defiance of the people. The military has got the message that you cannot run the country like this. First, that’s also opposition. Second, the civil disobedience movement (CDM), mainly by the staff, thousands of doctors, nurses, teachers, professors, and government servants, are still taking part in CDM. They are not going to work under the military government. There are huge numbers refusing to go even though the military is desperately saying everything is running well. We know that they cannot manage the situation while the massive CDM movement stays strong. This is another strategy. And this also is effective. You can see the military every day announces the list of people that got fired because they are part of the CDM. They threaten people who join the CDM. So, these are two strategies. Third, the NUG is trying to work on the diplomatic strategy, using all kinds of international cooperation, trying to get the legitimate vote as the legitimate government. They are looking for international or bilateral cooperation for the NUG movement. This is also another strategy. That is why we are calling for intervention. We are asking ASEAN, EU, or the US government to take action on the military’s ‘three-cuts’ policies. First, please cut the financial support to the military. Don’t do any economic transactions that benefit the military. Don’t do investments that directly benefit the military. Second, cut their weapons. For example, a small arm embargo can stop any kind of military training. It can stop any military-related support to the government. Third, cut the immunity to the military as a legitimate government. Bring these perpetrators to the stage of the international justice criminal system. With these three weapons and tools, we are working on our diplomatic strategy. So maybe armed struggles and federal people’s defense forces are one of the strategies, but I would say it should be a combined strategy. Whatever path you take, our goal is to stop the human rights violations, abuses by the military, and step them down and bring in the normal civilian government. Ben Fleming: To carry on from that, about the CDM. What are your thoughts on if and when the junta is defeated? What does national reconciliation look like? How do we reintegrate the Tatmadaw, in which case there needs to be a criminal process? But we are already getting so many messages from people who remain in CDM, those who have returned to work from the CDM, and also those who were never part of the CDM. We hear that these personal relationships have been broken, in some instances, beyond repair. How would you speak to those who remain in CDM, those who have left, and those who never were believed in the hopes of unifying the country and overcoming the junta? U Aung Myo Min: How to deal with the CDM non-CDM and former CDM – good point! We have been discussing this issue. For those who are committed to continuing CDM, the NUG is supporting them. Financially, at least with some international donations and through the overseas Burmese support, we are giving them the minimum amount. The money is not that much. But more so, we give them the recognition and moral support for their participation in the movement. But we cannot reach every single person who is part of the countrywide CDM. Communication is very difficult, and supporting CDM is considered a ‘crime’ by the military. We sometimes, we didn’t know the personal information of individuals, but at least we are providing some small token of appreciation to the CDM movement. Second, we understand it has been 100 days already. Some people are having a hard time being in the CDM. Their whole family is kicked out of from the government. They have lost their quarters, jobs, salaries. They have to support their children and the elderly. We understand that one from a humanitarian perspective, humanitarian reason, and you know no one can be 100% committed, sacrificing their whole life. It happens, so we understand. So long people are not being double agents, for example like informing on the other CDM people, and making reports, or forcing the other CDMs to return home, it’s fine. There are some people who are motivators for harassing the CDM movement staff. We are recording all these kinds of activities and making a list. The Ministries of Education and Health are also making a list. Such people might be expelled from the government jobs with the NUG side. We never encourage anyone to kill or abuse. We need to keep the dignity of the people even though they don’t have the same ideas or same side as us. In the future, we can promise that we will compensate the CDM people who are still on strike to get their jobs back, get compensation and reparation, so we can make sure they are safe, that they can get their job back. We will give some kind of recognition to these people. But for the people who are totally at the forefront of opposing the CDM movement, really, we cannot forget. There should be some kind of action. I don’t mean legal action, maybe not social action but some action by the government..."
Source/publisher: "Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-05-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar coup: street orchestra fights military dictatorship with protest song
Description: "A group of musicians in Myanmar have been on the streets performing in the country’s anti-coup demonstrations. Their new song, ‘Revolution,’ aims to encourage young people to fight the military dictatorship..."
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Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2021-02-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Beyond the Coup: Can the United Nations Escape Its History in Myanmar?
Description: "When Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations Kyaw Moe Tun took the floor of the General Assembly on Feb. 26 to condemn the weeks-old military coup and announce his loyalty to the elected government, he not only shocked all those tuning in who expected a pro forma defense of the Tatmadaw’s power grab and denunciation of U.N. interference. He also provided Myanmar’s democratic movement a potentially powerful new tool, both to help secure their legitimacy, and to shift the historic dynamics of U.N. failure in Myanmar. To make the most of this tool, the nascent National Unity Government (NUG) must quickly learn how to work with the U.N. system and leverage it for its intrinsic utility as well as to build out their footprint internationally. To date, the results have been mixed, but there are signs that the NUG is learning. Whether these efforts ultimately will be effective also depends on whether the U.N. system can learn from its own failures in Myanmar and make the necessary course corrections at this pivotal moment.....Past Imperfect: The U.N.’s history with Myanmar has been a multi-decade case study in the moral hazards that international organizations face when dealing with regimes that do not care about either the welfare of their own people or the opinions of outsiders. After being one of the first of the newly independent post-colonial countries to join the U.N., Myanmar enthusiastically participated in U.N. activities during the parliamentary democracy period. It even requested the U.N.’s help in dealing with spillover from the Chinese civil war, when both Kuomintang (KMT) and Communist troops breached Myanmar’s border. After Ne Win’s 1962 coup, however, successive military regimes rigorously limited their engagement with international organizations out of an almost fanatical devotion to neutrality. Like other autarkic dictatorships, the Ne Win regime deeply distrusted the U.N. and particularly eschewed involvement with its field-based activities, even though his countryman U Thant served as U.N. Secretary General during much of the first decade of Burmese Socialist Program Party (BSPP) rule. It was not just the U.N. that drew Ne Win’s suspicions: nearly all foreign organizations were kicked out of Myanmar during the 1960s and diplomats based in the country were heavily restricted. The BSPP’s fetishization of neutrality was such that Ne Win withdrew Myanmar from the Non-aligned Movement in 1978 because he was concerned it had become too partisan toward the Soviet Union. Given the role of Southeast Asia as a major theater of Cold War contestation, and China’s mercurial role in these geostrategic games, one can hardly blame Myanmar for wanting to remain aloof from it all. But Ne Win’s autarky also ensured that Myanmar essentially was suspended in amber for more than a decade. Faced with a ruinous economic situation, however, the post 1974-BSPP and its successors in the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), while no less xenophobic, recognized that the U.N.’s rapidly expanding aid agencies could be useful as they attempted to address the country’s disastrous economic situation. The Tatmadaw generals seemed to innately grasp that these various humanitarian and development agencies cared more about their agency’s particular development and humanitarian mission set than about the quality of Myanmar’s governance and these agencies were competing for “clients” in the developing world. Having been locked out of Myanmar at the height of the BSPP’s autarky, these agencies were desperate to experiment on its broken economy and what they viewed as a tabula rasa society ripe for their modernization efforts. This gave the BSPP the ability to arbitrage aid agencies’ ambitions and silos, strictly limiting their staffing and physical access and insisting on a high degree of control over their activities in the country. Even after Ne Win resigned as BSPP chairman in 1988, the SLORC and SPDC continued to use humanitarian access as a bargaining chip to ensure that agency operations were compliant. In the most striking—but far from the only– example of its extreme suspicion toward the U.N., the Burmese regime initially rejected U.N.-led humanitarian assistance in the wake of 2008’s devastating Cyclone Nargis, which killed tens of thousands of people, wiped out the critical Irrawaddy Delta rice production zone, and left millions homeless.....Political Battles at – and Over – the U.N.: In contrast to the aid agencies ostensibly apolitical approach, the U.N.’s Member State bodies have periodically attempted to involve themselves in Myanmar’s politics, especially after the Tatmadaw’s violent suppression of the 1988 uprising. The end of the Cold War and concurrent rise of liberal internationalism were rocket fuel to the U.N.’s political engagement in Myanmar. After the SLORC ignored the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) landslide victory in the 1990 elections, the United States and other western democracies supported various resolutions in the U.N. Human Rights Commission and General Assembly, condemning the military’s brutal usurpation of democracy and appointing Special Rapporteurs to investigate its wrongdoings. The United States and other major donors also restricted U.N. agencies’ and international financial institutions’ cooperation with the military. U.N. agencies, in turn, complained bitterly about what they saw as the negative impact of these donor efforts to ensure aid was not instrumentalized by the military regime. For their part, Burmese regimes did not appear to differentiate between the component parts of the U.N. system. The Secretary General’s Special Envoys typically were given privileged access to both junta members and detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, so long as they kept their public statements anodyne and their “negotiations” efforts within prescribed limits. Human Rights Special Rapporteurs, on the other hand, were forced to negotiate access on the narrowest of terms and often subjected to rough treatment on the ground. Special Rapporteur Paulo Pinheiro found a barely concealed listening device in the room where he was holding interviews with political prisoners. A violent mob attacked his successor Tomas Quintana’s motorcade during a field visit to Rakhine State following 2012 anti-Muslim violence there. Likewise, after she spoke out on the situation of the Rohingya, Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee was subjected to a steady stream of virulent misogynist verbal abuse before seeing her access cut off altogether. For the U.N. agencies and personnel deployed in-country after 1988, efforts to navigate between their ‘apolitical’ aid and development missions and the extremely political Member-State activities in New York and Geneva—all while dealing with a distrustful and mercurial junta-often proved untenable. The treatment of the U.N. during the Saffron Revolution of 2007 is a case in point. As anti-regime protests intensified in the summer and fall of 2007, the dual-hatted Resident Coordinator/ Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) in Myanmar was Charles Petrie, a U.N. veteran who had been an eyewitness to the international community’s moral failure in the Rwandan genocide, was under pressure to speak out about the situation on the ground. His home agency, the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), was often a target of criticism from human rights groups and the pro-democracy movement as soft on the military regime due to their focus on economic development. Even after the military started shooting at unarmed protesters and arresting U.N., Petrie studiously avoided direct criticism of the junta. It was only after thousands had been killed that Petrie issued a U.N. Day statement that obliquely linked economic hardship in Burma with the protests, after which the junta forced him to leave the country.....The Consequences of Contested Engagement: In trying to manage the sensitivities of both Burmese juntas and subsequent quasi-civilian governments, the U.N. generally has ended up pleasing no one and failing in its most basic tasks. The Tatmadaw was never going to embrace the U.N., given its innate xenophobia and the decades of General Assembly and Human Rights Commission and Council resolutions criticizing its ruinous and abusive rule. Prior to 2010, democratic forces and ethnic civil society criticized U.N. humanitarian and development programs on the ground as doing little more than legitimizing military rule. After a brief post-2010 honeymoon period, Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy came to view the U.N. as unhelpful because she felt they consultation with treated her as a ‘box-checking’ exercise as they rushed to expand the UN presence under the Thein Sein government. After the NLD took power in March 2016, Suu Kyi’s negative view of the U.N. hardened in the face of Member State bodies’ condemnations of atrocities against the Rohingya while she was the de facto head of government. Suu Kyi’s antipathy towards the U.N. was undoubtedly fueled by veteran diplomats such as Kyaw Tint Swe who spent their careers vigorously defending military regime abuses and pushing back on the U.N. in Geneva and New York. By the time the August 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya began, there was little trust and empathy between the U.N. and the NLD government. Once again, the U.N. Resident Coordinator in Yangon, Renata Lok-Dessallien, was caught in these cross currents. A development expert by training, Lok-Dessallien was sent to Yangon to oversee the major expansion of U.N. agency partnerships with Myanmar’s government. In the end, her efforts to soft-pedal concerns about the Rohingya and other human rights issues prior to the 2017 atrocities did little to overcome the deep reservoir of hostility and distrust that colored the government’s view of the U.N. Her development-focused approach did, however, trouble her staff, especially those charged with implementing the U.N.’s “Human Rights Up Front” initiative. As the scale and scope of the atrocities in Rakhine state spiraled and international condemnation grew, Lok-Dessallien was spectacularly ill-equipped to deal with the situation. Although the U.N. secretariat in New York was aware she was flailing, they took no steps to recall or replace her until it was too late. This was all well documented in both contemporaneous media reports on the 2017 Rakhine crisis and the U.N.’s Rosenthal Report on the U.N.’s failure to anticipate or prevent the genocide. Despite this checkered history, in 2021 protestors in Myanmar initially called on the U.N. to act against the Feb. 1 coup and live up to its founding ideals. Invoking the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) and seizing on condemnatory statements by U.N. officials, many young protesters looked to the U.N. to send in peacekeepers or take other steps to restore the elected government. But so far, the U.N. has spectacularly failed to rise to the occasion. Blame for this failure has largely centered on the Security Council, where the United Kingdom and other so-called like-minded countries have taken a cautious incremental approach, ostensibly due to fear of a joint Chinese and Russian veto of any resolution they might table. As time passes since the coup and humanitarian needs rise, there also are growing concerns among the anti-coup forces that various U.N. agencies may be falling back into old habits of willingness to work with the junta in order to retain access to their projects in country.....A New Hope at the U.N.? Options for Constructive Engagement: Yet even as the U.N. has proven unable to stop the junta’s illegal coup or ameliorate the situation on the ground, it does have some specific utility for the democratic movement. For the first time, those facing off against a military junta have a Burmese ambassador in New York who has declared his loyalty to the democratic movement and is empowered to work with the entire U.N. system, including and especially on human rights issues. Practically speaking, control over the U.N. seat in New York can be a beachhead for the NUG’s broader efforts towards international recognition even as the struggle on the ground continues and the democratic leadership builds out its own institutions. Because many other governments will recognize whatever authorities are recognized by the U.N., controlling the General Assembly seat is critical. Moreover, Permanent Representatives (PRs) in New York hold a privileged position within the U.N. system, surpassed only by ministers and heads of state and government from a protocol standpoint. As long as Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun remains credentialed to the U.N. as Myanmar’s PR, he is the senior-most Burmese diplomat accredited to the U.N. system. As a result, he can represent Myanmar at U.N. meetings not only in New York but also in Geneva, Vienna, Rome, Bangkok, Nairobi, or any other venue where the U.N. convenes Member States. The U.N.’s continued reliance on virtual meetings due to the pandemic is helpful in this regard, as Kyaw Moe Tun and his designates can remain in New York to defend his seat while representing Myanmar at U.N. events around the world. On the programmatic side, the Civil Disobedience Movement’s (CDM’s) efforts to shut down economic activity in Myanmar and the NUG’s demand that humanitarian assistance not flow through military controlled channels have highlighted the need to establish parameters for cooperation with U.N. agencies, funds, and programs accustomed to dealing with Member State governments. To this end, the NUG can use their foothold in New York to pull through cooperation with U.N. agencies, including negotiating Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) on access, financing, and other modalities. By aligning these efforts with outreach to bilateral donors and multi-lateral development banks, the NUG can begin to demonstrate governance capabilities to their own people and the international community alike. Working together with CDM diplomats in Geneva and elsewhere, the New York mission can coordinate diplomatic engagement across the entire U.N. system on everything from credentialling for meetings to negotiating MOUs with U.N. agencies. The NUG will need to provide strategic and policy guidance, including on where within the U.N. system to prioritize limited human resources for maximum impact. This was recently and unfortunately demonstrated when the junta successfully sent its murderous police chief to a U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) senior officials’ meeting. That event seems to have served as a wake-up call for the NUG on the need to track and manage such U.N. Member State-driven activities more effectively. On May 26, for instance, the World Health Assembly (WHA) refused to seat the junta’s delegate after the NUG submitted a competing credential request. While not a total victory, having the Myanmar chair empty is preferably to having the junta represent the country. The WHA’s decision also kicked the issue back to the General Assembly, highlighting the stakes for keeping the New York mission in the NUG’s hands. Given the complexity of the task and the small number of diplomats the NUG currently has, both the New York mission and the NUG leadership will need to be creative and disciplined about staffing and other resource allocation decisions. For instance, civil society groups that work on human rights and humanitarian action have substantial resources and influence that make them potential force multipliers in these areas of alignment. While many small Member State missions in New York and Geneva have deep experience working with their own and international allied civil society partners, many experienced Burmese diplomats are more accustomed to seeing civil society as adversarial and both sides will have to overcome both a trust deficit and a learning curve to work together effectively. The CDM diplomats are fortunate, however, that Burmese civil society has decades of experience partnering with regional and global advocacy groups and diplomats from other governments, especially in the priority areas of human rights and humanitarian assistance. The New York mission should look beyond the Secretary General’s Special Envoy and engage the various Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council that have an interest in Myanmar, including Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews, and Special Representatives of the Secretary General on issues such as the Responsibility to Protect, Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict, and Children in Armed Conflict. These U.N. experts can be both resources for information and potential allies in the system. Finally, the NUG must have a clear plan for holding on to Myanmar’s U.N. General Assembly seat when the next General Assembly session begins in September. The NUG and the junta are likely to submit competing credentials for the session, and the U.N. Credentials Committee and ultimately the General Assembly itself will likely be drawn into a credentials fight. While the technical and protocol aspects of U.N. credentialling are relatively straightforward, those credentials fights that have taken place over the 75-year history of the U.N. have largely followed a pattern where initially ‘possession is 9/10ths of the law’ but the representation usually ends up aligning with political reality on the ground—regardless of the legitimacy of that reality. The refusal to seat representatives of South Africa’s apartheid government is one of the few cases where the U.N. acted from a moral imperative. The situation of Myanmar is likely to challenge the U.N., both institutionally and among its individual member states. By working now to establish Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun as an active and credible representative of the Burmese people across the U.N. system, the NUG can create facts on the ground that may prove dispositive when his credentials are challenged in September. The more his counterparts in New York see him as the legitimate representative, the more likely they are to support him, if for no other reason than they themselves would not wish to be arbitrarily replaced as the result of an illegal coup. For its part, the U.N. system should recognize that they have an historic opportunity to align with the Burmese people’s democratic aspirations and contribute positively to this hinge moment in Myanmar’s history. By drawing lessons from the missed opportunities and failures of the past, the system can try to turn a new page. For the programmatic pillars of the system, this means being more cognizant and tolerant of political risk than they are typically comfortable being. The UNDP—both because of its past issues in Myanmar and because it has specific responsibilities with regard to governance—should stake out a leadership role in supporting the democratic aspirations of the Burmese people and work with both the NUG and civil society on urgent governance challenges that have resulted from the coup. UNDP also has an existing MOU to work on Rakhine State, signed with the NLD government, that can provide the basis for addressing that troubled region. Likewise, agencies such as U.N. Fund for Children (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP) can work directly with the NUG to address urgent humanitarian needs. In the past, these agencies have been more adept at handling political ambiguity and demonstrating flexibility, and these skill sets will be necessary to navigate the current situation. On the Member State side, creativity will also be required, including looking beyond the politicized Security Council and Human Rights Council (HRC). One potential solution is to empower entities such as the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IIMM), that were created by Member States but operate as independent technical bodies. The IIMM’s mandate should be interpreted (or expanded) as needed to allow it to provide technical assistance directly to the NUG, including by confidentially sharing evidence about the atrocities against the Rohingya. Helping the NUG and its ministers to understand and come to terms with the scope and scale of atrocities the Tatmadaw committed during the NLD’s watch could help to advance the cause of recognition and reconciliation that ultimately is core to Myanmar’s nation-building project. This is a delicate task, but one that the IIMM – as a technical body that is built on collecting and following the evidence rather than advocating for any particular outcome – is uniquely qualified to undertake. Given that the overwhelming majority of Member States have supported resolutions in the General Assembly condemning the atrocities against the Rohingya, the NUG’s inability to date to adequately address the Rohingya issue remains a major stumbling block as countries consider whether to recognize it. A successful two-way partnership between the IIMM and the NUG could help to address this issue in a more constructive way. In light of the many challenges facing Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement at the moment, leveraging the country’s U.N. General Assembly seat may not be top of mind for the NUG. Nonetheless, the seat – and the source of legitimacy that comes with it – represents a major tangible asset that has real value to other countries that otherwise may be inclined to pay the NUG little attention. Whether the NUG can deploy this asset strategically and successfully could make the difference as it struggles to establish itself on the international stage. After decades of awkward and all-around frustrating engagement, the U.N. also needs to step forward with a more flexible and conscious approach that shows it has learned from past mistakes. Even if both sides can break old habits, there is no guarantee that the outcome will be successful for the Burmese people. But if the NUG and U.N. squander this opportunity by repeating old patterns, it is virtually guaranteed that everyone stands to lose..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Just Security (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-05-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 26 May, (828) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen heroes today. This (1) fallen hero from Salin Township, Magway Region was killed on previous days and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of 26 May, a total of (4330) people are currently under detention; of them (102) are sentenced. 1881 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. A woman, living in Taw Seint Village in Salin Township, Magway Region, was shot dead in the head last night when the village administrator requested the military come to the village and open fire in response to a “No to Military Slavery Education” sticker campaign at a local school. Last night, Zaw Win Maung, member of the NLD Information Committee in Hpakant Township, was arrested while staging a night protest in Lone Khinn Village, Hpakant Township in Kachin State. Khin Ohn Myint, the retired teacher and a patron of the Red Cross Committee in Mogok Township, was arrested at Kyauk Saung Village in Mogok Town in Mandalay Region yesterday evening. On May 24, Thet Tin Aung, Secretary of Art and Science of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), and his companion Paing Soe, were arrested at Yangon-Mandalay Road and Chit Htwe, Myo Nyunt and Win Kyaw Soe, three philanthropists, living in Wakema Township, Ayeyarwady Region, were arrested. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-05-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Violence Against Health Care in Myanmar, Three-month review May 2021 update
Description: "On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar armed forces (known as the Tatmadaw) seized control of the country, following a general election that the National League for Democracy party won by a landslide. The military have since declared a state of emergency to last for at least a year, and numerous countries have condemned the takeover and subsequent violent crackdown on protestors. Over the past three months, from February to May 2021, hundreds of people, including children, have been killed and many injured during the protests. The military-run State Administrative Council has targeted doctors and other health workers for taking a leading role in the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Doctors and nurses have been served with warrants and arrests, health workers have been injured while providing care to protestors, ambulances have been destroyed, and health facilities have been raided. This document is the result of collaboration between Insecurity Insight, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR) as part of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC). It highlights reported incidents of violence against health workers, facilities, and transport in Myanmar between 11 February and 11 May 2021. It does not include information on violence against patients. The incidents referred to are based on the dataset 11 February - 11 May 2021 Violence Against Health Care in Myanmar Data, which is available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX)..."
Source/publisher: Insecurity Insight via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-05-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government: Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment Announcement No.2/2021 - စီမံကိန်း ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ကြေညာချက် (၂/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ကြေညာချက် (၂/၂၀၂၁) မေလ ၂၅ ရက် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်။ ================ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း (အမြဲတမ်း) များကို လစာ(၂)လစာ အတိုးမဲ့ ကြိုတင်ထုတ်ချေးငွေများအား ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ရန် မလိုအပ်သည့် ချီးမြှင့်ငွေအဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်ထားပြီးဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထပ်မံအသိပေးထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက် ------------------------------- ၁။ Coronavirus Disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) ကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာနိုင်သည့် သက်ရောက်မှုများအပေါ် ကုစားနိုင်ရေး အတွက် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်း(အမြဲတမ်း)များကို လစာ(၂)လစာ ကြိုတင်ထုတ်ပေး၍ အတိုးမဲ့ချေးငွေအဖြစ် ၂၀၂၀ အောက်တိုဘာလမှစ ၍ ဆိုင်းငံ့ကာလ (၆)လ၊ ပြန်ဆပ်ကာလ (၁) နှစ်သတ်မှတ်ပြီး ပြည်သူ့ဆန္ဒနှင့်အညီ ရွေးကောက်ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သည့် အရပ်သားအစိုးရမှ ထုတ်ချေးခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၂။ အဆိုပါချေးငွေအား ၂၀၂၀ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲရလဒ်အရ ပြည်သူ့ဆန္ဒနှင့်အညီ ဖြစ်ထွန်းပေါ်ပေါက်လာသည့် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့အစိုးရက နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ၏ သက်သာချောင်ချိရေးကို ရှေးရှုလျက် CDM ဝန်ထမ်း၊ non-CDM ဝန်ထမ်းမခွဲခြားဘဲ ပြန်လည် ပေးဆပ်ရန်မလိုအပ်သည့် ချီးမြှင့်ငွေအဖြစ် ပြောင်းလဲသတ်မှတ်ပေးခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ ၃။ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများကို တရားဝင်စီမံခန့်ခွဲပိုင်ခွင့်ရှိသူမှာ ပြည်သူလူထုကိုယ်တိုင် ယုံကြည်စွာ ဆန္ဒမဲပေး ရွေးချယ်လိုက်သည့် အစိုးရသာဖြစ်သည်။ ၄။ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ ဆန္ဒအား အလေးမထား၊ လစ်လျူရှုလျက် နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာအား အတင်းအဓမ္မသိမ်းယူထားသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၌ ပြည်သူ့အခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများအား စီမံခန့်ခွဲပိုင်ခွင့် လုံး၀ မရှိပါ။ ၅။ ယခုအခါ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ချေးငွေပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ရန် အတင်းအကျပ် ခြိမ်းခြောက် တောင်းဆိုနေသည့်အပြင် non-CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအားလည်း ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ အကုန်တွင် ချေးငွေ ပြန်လည်ပေး ဆပ်ရမည်ဟု သတိပေးချက်ထုတ်ပြန်ထားကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ ၆။ ထို့ကြောင့် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အဆိုပါချေးငွေများအား ပြန်လည်ပေးဆပ်ရန် မလိုအပ်သည့် ချေးငွေအဖြစ် တရားဝင်သတ်မှတ် ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာထားပြီးဖြစ်သောကြောင့် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ခြိမ်းခြောက်တောင်း ဆိုမှုများအား အသိအမှတ်ပြုရန် မလိုအပ်ကြောင်း ထပ်လောင်းထုတ်ပြန် ကြေညာလိုက်သည်။ တင်ထွန်းနိုင် ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီး စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြှုပ်နှံမှုဝန်ကြီးဌာန..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment - NUG
Date of publication: 2021-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Some 90 percent of Myanmar students refuse to attend school under coup regime, teachers say
Sub-title: More than half of all teachers are on strike and just 10 percent of students have signed up to start the school year, according to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation
Description: "Two days into the school registration process, some 90 percent of students have refused to enroll in Myanmar’s education system under the coup regime, members of the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation (MTF) have said. Although the military council opened registration on Monday, only 10 percent of students nationwide have enrolled in their respective schools, according to MTF. Myanmar had more than 9 million students enrolled in its basic education system during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the Ministry of Education under the ousted National League for Democracy government Current figures suggest that less than 1 million are re-joining their schools this year when they open on June 1. Locals nationwide have protested the reopening of schools—the sites of occupation by junta troops and battles with local resistance—spray painting anti-coup messages on gates and buildings. Parents have declared that they do not want their children indoctrinated into a “military slave education.” Likely in response to this protest movement, some 30 policemen and regime troops have been standing guard outside the only high school in Kyike Htaw village in Yangon’s Kawhmu Township during the registration process. They have also been escorting teachers to the school, according to a local resident who requested anonymity. In the afternoon, the local said, military-appointed ward administrators and members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party took over the duties from the police and soldiers. Just 12 students enrolled at the high school in two days, according to sources close to the school. In the cities of Mandalay, Monywa, and Yangon there are schools that have had no students register to attend, MTF reported. Yet junta-run newspapers have recently published photos of crowds of people taking part in the registration process. Netizens have cried foul, pointing out that the pictures were taken prior to the 2019 school year and not indicative of the current level of participation. Myanmar Now has been unable to independently verify these claims. ‘They are trying to threaten us’ A teacher and MTF member who is on strike in accordance with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), told Myanmar Now that this was not an appropriate time for students to return to school. “If schools open now, we won’t be able to teach anything meaningfully. Children won’t feel safe. Education isn’t just about teaching information—it is about cultivating humanity. This needs to happen in an environment that is warm and secure,” the teacher said. More than half of the 400,000 teachers in Myanmar’s education system are estimated to be participating in the CDM. With more than 130,000 of the striking teachers formally suspended by the regime, the military authorities have been advertising open teaching positions in junta-controlled newspapers as the school opening date nears. “Even before the coup, there weren’t enough teachers to meet the needs of the number of students that they had. Suspending the teachers and bringing charges against them will create even bigger operational challenges for the regime itself,” the same teacher told Myanmar Now. More than 100 striking teachers have been charged with incitement for violating Section 505a of the Penal Code, an MTF member said. Conviction carries a three-year prison sentence. Soe Thura Kyaw, a teacher from Yangon’s Taikkyi Township, is among those charged under 505a for leading a protest in Yangon and joining the CDM. He told Myanmar Now that the junta has offered to drop the charge against him if he returns to work. “They are afraid of the resistance. They are trying to threaten us into teaching again,” Soe Thura Kyaw, who is also a member of the protest committee for education staff, said. He added that he is committed to the strike, and bringing down the military dictatorship. A 28-year-old man in Yangon Region’s Kyike Htaw village said his younger brother, who was due to start fifth grade, would not be going to school this year. The family is waiting for the anti-coup National Unity Government (NUG) to release its interim education program. At the time of reporting, the NUG had publicly stated plans to teach online, but further details were not yet known. “We don’t accept the military dictatorship, and we reject their education,” the Kyike Htaw local said. “We will send our brother back to school once the people have won.” ..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-05-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Survivors of junta brutality remain defiant as they struggle to rebuild their lives
Sub-title: Even after suffering life-changing injuries, many protesters are determined to keep up the fight against military rule
Description: "Thura was trying to recover the body of a friend who had been shot in the head when he, too, came under fire from regime forces during a protest in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township on March 3. The 23-year-old had been a regular participant in protests at North Okkalapa’s Kanthaya Park, but on the day he was shot, a crackdown dispersed the crowd that had gathered there. Rather than simply give up and go home, however, he and some friends decided to march to another protest site at the township’s Circular Junction. They went because they wanted to support students who had come under attack at the junction. They knew that they were walking into an extremely dangerous situation, but somehow it no longer seemed to matter. When his friend was shot and killed, he became even more reckless, he recalled. “In the past, I didn’t think I would ever dare go into an area where bullets were flying. I was just too scared. But the crackdown made my blood boil, so I wasn’t afraid anymore. I just wanted to get my friend's body and return it to his family,” he told Myanmar Now. On a day that saw a total of 38 civilians killed by the regime around the country, North Okkalapa alone accounted for 10 of them. But a far greater number were injured, many of them seriously. Thura was one of 79 who were wounded in the township on the day that he permanently lost his eyesight. A bullet fired by a soldier from the military’s notorious Light Infantry Division 77 took out his left eye, but blinded him in the right as well. His first thought, he said, was how the news would affect his mother, who suffers from heart disease. “I was afraid that my mom would be very sad,” he said.....‘Ready to do anything’: Thura, who dropped out of school after completing the eighth grade to help support his family, lives in a household of eight people. Their home is in North Dagon Myothit, one of the “new townships” created by the former regime a year after it seized power in 1988. Since he was shot, he has been receiving treatment for his injuries at home. To help him pass the time, family members read the news to him so that he can follow the progress of the movement against the current junta. Despite losing his vision, he said that he would willingly do anything he could to bring down the regime. As a “defence-line protester”, Thura was armed with no more than a makeshift shield that he used to slow down rampaging soldiers so that fellow protesters could escape. Now, however, he is prepared to go to extremes to fight back. “Do I have to strap explosives to my body and blow myself up in a crowd of soldiers? If I can, I will. If there is anything I can do, I’m ready to do it,” he said. Like many others who have fallen victim to the regime’s ruthless efforts to terrorize the public into submission, however, Thura’s immediate concerns are more personal. He is still worried about his bedridden mother, from whom he has managed to hide his own condition. “I don't want to make her heart disease worse,” he said, explaining why he hasn’t let his mother know what happened to him. He also acknowledged that his situation has added to his family’s hardships at a time when the collapse of the economy since the coup has put enormous pressure on the poor. But even the loss of one of the family’s breadwinners has done little to dampen their conviction that no sacrifice is too great to resist the junta’s rule. “Despite this incident, no one in my family has spoken a word of regret,” he said.....Fighting for the future: A week after Thura lost his eyesight in North Okkalapa, 24-year-old San Lin was shot while protesting in South Dagon. Two days later, after being admitted to Mingaladon Military Hospital, he lost half of his left leg. He spent 10 days in the hospital, and was due to return again five days later to have the dressing on his wound changed when the regime’s forces went on a killing spree. His appointment was on March 27—a day marked by the military as Armed Forces Day, but by the rest of the country as Anti-Fascist Resistance Day. It was the worst day of killing since the coup. Over 100 civilians were murdered on that day alone, and countless others were wounded. San Lin said he felt he had to fight for the sake of his three-year-old son’s future. “We received a poor education when the military was in power before. I don’t want my son to have a similar fate,” he said. He said he believed that the Spring Revolution, as the anti-coup uprising has been called, would eventually succeed, but it would take time. “Our movement must win. We will fight until we win,” he said. As for his own role, he said that even if he can no long join his fellow protesters on the front lines, he will still find a way to support their efforts. “I will continue participating in this movement in any way I can. In the beginning, I was a frontline protester. I can’t be on the front line anymore, but I will stay in the movement,” he said. While his son’s future remains his primary motivation for continuing with the struggle, he said he now also feels an obligation to honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. “If we fight until we win, our brothers and sisters who gave their lives will be content in the afterlife. All people who are fighting for democracy at this time are brothers and sisters,” he said.....‘We will win!’: The first reaction most people have when they learn that a family member has survived a deadly crackdown is relief, according to doctor in Mandalay who has treated many such patients. But when they learn that their loved ones will never be the same after suffering often grisly injuries at the hands of soldiers armed with high-powered weapons, they realize that their suffering has just begun. “They just have to accept that whatever the patient’s condition, they can still see them alive and live together with them,” said the doctor. “It’s a sad thing,” he continued, noting that many of the victims are low-paid casual workers who struggled to make ends meet even when they were healthy. “In the future, there should be long-term projects established to support people with such disabilities,” he added. This is the grim reality that now faces thousands of people around the country who may never fully recover from injuries inflicted on them by the ruling junta. According to those who work to assist these victims of the regime’s assaults on unarmed civilians, many are unwilling to speak about their injuries to others. Myanmar Now spoke to one young man who was shot in Mandalay, but he said he was not ready to talk about his injuries, which have left him without the use of his limbs. One of the most notorious incidents was the shooting of Hlyan Phyo Aung, a 22-year-old civil-engineering student from Magway. In a particularly sadistic attack, soldiers shot both of his hands at close range, completely severing the right hand and leaving the left severely damaged. He was saved by fellow protesters, but not before the soldiers shot him repeatedly in both legs, leaving him with injuries that could require amputation. That attack took place on March 27, the day that the regime unleashed an orgy of violence on the country that put its utter contempt for human life on full display. The following day, near the Thiri Myaing railway station in Yangon’s Hlaing Township, another young protester also lost his hand after he tried to throw a hand grenade that had been lobbed at a group of protesters away from them. In a scene that was captured on video and widely shared on social media, the man is then seen getting into a cycle-rickshaw as blood dripped from his handless wrist. At that moment, he shouted the words that continue to sustain many others like him: “We will win!”..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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