Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports

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Title: Myanmar: ASEAN meeting outcomes ignores assault on rights and civil society
Description: "Global civil society alliance CIVICUS is disappointed that the outcomes of the regional ASEAN summit held in Jakarta fell short of what is necessary to address Myanmar’s human rights crisis, including by failing to call for the immediate release of human rights activists, journalists and others arbitrarily detained. This failure undermines any chance of ensuring a genuine dialogue and transition back to democratic civilian rule. A statement released after the summit said the leaders and foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had reached a consensus on five points. They included asking for an immediate stop to the violence and opening a dialogue between the military and civilian leaders, with that process overseen by a special ASEAN envoy who would also visit with a delegation. The group also offered humanitarian assistance. The statement offered no timeline for these actions to be taken or an implementing mechanism. No mention was made of the nearly 4,000 people who have been arbitrarily detained by the military, including activists, peaceful protesters, and journalists, some in unknown locations and denied access to lawyers or family members. Many are facing serious and baseless charges, including treason. “Millions of people in Myanmar were hoping that ASEAN would, for once, uphold the principles enshrined in the ASEAN Charter including the rule of law and respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and were once again tremendously disappointed. ASEAN has failed the thousands of political prisoners including activists and journalists by not calling for their immediate and unconditional release, which should be an integral part of any successful efforts to restore democracy,” said David Kode, CIVICUS’s Advocacy and Campaigns Lead. The summit also failed to acknowledge the National Unity Government (NUG) that was formed on 16 April 2021 representing elected members of the Union Parliament. It also ignored the serious violations that have occurred in Myanmar since the coup which left around 750 dead, including children and thousands injured due to the use of lethal force by the security forces to crack down on protests, the ill-treatment by the security forces during night-time raids and the internet shutdowns. No mention was made of UN resolutions on the crisis adopted by consensus at the Human Rights Council since the coup. Nor was there any acknowledgment of or offering of support to the UN mechanisms mandated to monitor and report on human rights violations relating to the coup. “The failure to acknowledge and engage with the legitimately elected representatives of the people of Myanmar shows that ASEAN leaders’ talk of democracy is only lip service. We call for ASEAN to put their words into action by demanding an end to the state of emergency and for the elected civilian government to be restored,” said David Kode. Since the meeting, the junta already seem to be backtracking from their already minimal promises. Myanmar military junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said he will consider proposals by ASEAN to solve the ongoing crisis in Myanmar only after peace and stability are restored in his country. CIVICUS reiterates calls for an immediate end to the escalating violence by the military, the immediate and unconditional release of all those arbitrarily detained, and for steps to be taken by the international community, including ASEAN, to hold those responsible for the serious human rights violations to account..."
Source/publisher: Civicus (Johannesburg)
Date of publication: 2021-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-01
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Title: Myanmar: Civil servants face junta pressure to return to work
Description: "Workers associated with the civil disobedience movement have been thrown out of public housing and issued legal notices. Meanwhile, many banks are also grappling with a lack of working employees. As the civil disobedience movement (CDM) grows in popularity in Myanmar, the military has started ramping up pressure on government employees to return to work, while businesses struggle under the weight of missing employees and internet blackouts. Civil servants started refusing to carry out their duties, just days after the February 1, 2021, coup, when the country's military seized power. The movement has been expanding since then, with widespread support from both in and outside the country, and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nomination. However, the junta has been pushing government workers participating in the movement to go back to work, using forceful tactics. In one case, government hospitals in cities began issuing letters to medical workers to come back to work. In another instance, a CDM-affiliated railway worker was forced to leave his government apartment. Doctors pressured to return to hospitals One doctor working at a government hospital said the junta is afraid of the CDM's power. "The CDM is one of the most important things to stop the government mechanism," a 25-year-old assistant surgeon, who asked for his name not to be published, told DW. "That's why they try to push CDM participants back to work in various ways, like forcing railway staff to leave their government apartment if they don't come back to work." A military spokesperson last week accused CDM-affiliated medical workers of being responsible for the deaths of people in hospitals, who could not receive proper treatment. The surgeon, who is working at Myanmar's largest hospital — the Yangon General Hospital — disagrees with that accusation. "They want to open public hospitals again as soon as possible, and mislead people into thinking that the country is stable, and that they can get back to their normal lives. That's why they are still pushing healthcare workers to return to their jobs, by accusing them of committing genocides in the newspaper." On Tuesday, the junta issued arrest warrants for 20 doctors who had joined the CDM against the military dictatorship, charging them with defamation. The surgeon told DW that doctors are preparing for the worst. "I am not afraid of them. It doesn't matter, even if they revoke my medical license. I will be a part of the CDM until the end of the junta," he said. Cash flow comes to a halt "Businesses were hurting because of the pandemic, even before the coup. Any business would be lucky to break even, and many have closed," said political analyst Dr Khin Zaw Win, who runs an independent think-tank in Myanmar called the Tampadipa Institute. "The movement aims to disrupt the government machinery and does not force essential services to stop operating," he told DW. Cash flow within the country has also come to a halt, since banks have not been opening due to a shortage in staff. Many people are lining up at ATMs, mainly in the big cities like Yangon and Mandalay. "Banks are a good example — many staff have joined the CDM, and the junta is affected. But some banks are providing services to customers with a skeleton staff," said Khin Zaw Win. However, the Central Bank of Myanmar last week said that the private bank sector is still strong, and that customers can trust them. "All of our work has stopped because customers don't want to spend on extra things. We can't receive payments from our customers because the banks are closed," said 36-year old businessman Hla Win, who declined to use his real name, and who runs a mobile accessories company in Myanmar. The internet has been shut down in the country by the military in order to control the growing anti-coup movement, and mobile data has been inaccessible since March. "No banks are open and there is no internet for people living in small cities who want to use internet banking," he told DW. "We were still able to run virtual sales before, but this coup stopped everything." A solemn New Year According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), at least 737 people have been killed by the junta as of April 19. As the people of Myanmar mourn the civilian deaths, many decided not to celebrate the New Year festival, also known as the Thingyan Water Festival, which took place from April 13-17. However, social media videos showed junta members celebrating with joy, and spraying water in the capital Naypyitaw on April 14. Elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested on February 1, triggering a wave of anti-coup protests. She is facing six charges set by the military. In addition to several deaths, over 3,200 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced for their role in the protests..."
Source/publisher: "DW News" (Germany)
Date of publication: 2021-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-01
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Title: Myanmar: End Threats Against Rights Group
Sub-title: Respect Rights to Freedom of Association, Expression
Description: " Myanmar’s military junta should immediately stop threatening the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a leading human rights monitoring group, Human Rights Watch said today. The group has documented security force abuses since the February 1, 2021 coup, including killings of protesters, arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, and unjust court convictions. On April 26, the Home Affairs Ministry of the ruling State Administration Council (SAC) accused the AAPP of operating illegally because it was not registered as an organization. The junta’s announcement threatened “severe action” against the group for causing “State service personnel and public panic” that will “incite the occurrence of more riots” and “harm State stability, rule of law and restoration of law and order.” “While the world’s media and diplomats regularly cite the AAPP’s daily updates on the military crackdown, Myanmar’s generals are desperately trying to silence the group to keep the truth from getting out,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The threats are part of the junta’s shroud of silence and censorship, targeting frontline groups like AAPP, arresting journalists, and shutting down the internet.” The junta’s efforts to target the AAPP are illustrated in the 115-page briefing paper, obtained by Human Rights Watch, that the junta leader, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, presented to leaders at the ASEAN summit in Jakarta on April 24. Min Aung Hlaing claimed, without providing evidence, that the AAPP uses “data” that “appeared in fake and hoax news.” He added that the junta was “very upset” that “world media and international organizations restated” that information. Responding to the allegations, AAPP Secretary-General Bo Kyi, a recipient of the Human Rights Watch Alison des Forges Defender Award in 2009, told The Irrawaddy magazine that: “I think it is just a political move as international governments, media and UN are referencing our data … The key issue is the violence they have committed, their killing and arrests. Instead of solving those problems, they are targeting a group like ours which is revealing the true events.” The AAPP told Human Rights Watch that the military’s threats have forced them to close their office in Yangon and compelled their staff to go into hiding and work from undisclosed locations. The junta has also arbitrarily arrested journalists to prevent reporting on the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement’s broad-based resistance to the coup and the security force abuses. UNESCO reported that the junta has arrested at least 71 journalists since the coup. The AAPP says that 48 journalists are currently known to be in detention, most in undisclosed locations without access to their families or legal counsel. Many other journalists have fled to border regions controlled by ethnic groups, or to neighboring countries. The junta has brought charges against numerous journalists and activists under revised penal code provisions adopted on February 14. The State Administration Council inserted a new provision, section 505A, that could be used to punish comments regarding the illegitimacy of the coup or the military government, among others. The new section would criminalize comments that “cause fear,” spread “false news, [or] agitates directly or indirectly a criminal offense against a Government employee.” Violation of the section is punishable with up to three years in prison. The law arbitrarily interferes with the exercise of rights protected under international law, including freedom of expression. The junta has also increased pressure on independent media outlets by revoking their operating licenses. On March 8, the State Administration Council announced that it had cancelled the licenses of Mizzima, Myanmar Now, 7Day News, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Khit Thit Media. While these media groups have continued to report on events, they do so at great risk since journalists working for these outlets face immediate arrest if they are discovered doing their jobs as reporters. “Groups like the AAPP and the independent media are playing a critical role holding Myanmar’s junta accountable, and they need to be able to continue their work,” Robertson said. “Governments concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Myanmar should be offering public support for these organizations and their brave staff members.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-01
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Title: Survivors of Bago’s devastating crackdown vow to retake their city
Sub-title: Despite suffering the worst single-day death toll since the coup, Bago’s defenders say they are not ready to give up yet
Description: "Nyein Maung, a native of Yangon who didn’t move to Bago until late February of this year, was still not very familiar with the city when he became a protest leader at its main defence site. As a sailor who had spent many years at sea, he had finally decided to settle down in his wife’s hometown with her and their four-year-old son. By the time he arrived, however, Bago was already experiencing its first wave of brutal crackdowns. It was not long before he saw for himself what the junta that had seized power on February 1 was prepared to do to crush resistance to its rule.....Nyein Maung, a native of Yangon who didn’t move to Bago until late February of this year, was still not very familiar with the city when he became a protest leader at its main defence site. As a sailor who had spent many years at sea, he had finally decided to settle down in his wife’s hometown with her and their four-year-old son. By the time he arrived, however, Bago was already experiencing its first wave of brutal crackdowns. It was not long before he saw for himself what the junta that had seized power on February 1 was prepared to do to crush resistance to its rule. On February 28, just days after he moved to Bago, he watched in horror as a young man who had been shot in the stomach by regime forces was viciously beaten by five armed policemen. After they left him for dead, Nyein Maung went to see if might have survived the attack. When he found that the man was still breathing, he put him into his car to take him to the hospital. At that point, the police started shooting at him. Nyein Maung managed to escape with just a bullet hole in his car, but decided then and there that he had to do something to protect protesters from the junta’s relentless violence, even if it meant putting his own life on the line. “I left my family that day and started staying somewhere else. My friends and I built a stronghold. We didn’t really have a system, but we were determined to defend ourselves with anything we had,” he said. The 31-year-old former sailor let his wife and father know that he had joined the revolution and then left home with just 100,000 kyat in his pocket. “I told them, ‘If a federal army is formed, I will be a part of it. If I die, just sell the car and our other possessions so you can continue living.’ Our group is made up entirely of people who aren’t afraid of losing their lives,” he said. But it wasn’t just his life that Nyein Maung was prepared to lose. He told his father, who serves in the navy, that he had to take a clear stance on the protests. “I said, ‘If you’re going to kill people and be involved in the crackdowns, we’re finished.’ But he told me he had nothing to do with that,” he said, adding that his father has since joined the Civil Disobedience Movement.....The main barricade: The protests in Bago started near the famed Shwemawdaw pagoda in the city centre, but spread to other areas as the military moved in to violently suppress large gatherings. Around 140 young protesters, including Nyein Maung, formed a security team in early March. Using sandbags, they built barricades at major protest sites, such as the ones in Bago’s Ma Ga Dit, Hmor Kan and Socialist wards, where Nyein Maung was a frontline defence team leader. The main stronghold was at Ma Ga Dit, where protests were held daily from 9am. All three of these sites were targeted for major offensives by the military. The defence team manned the barricades in shifts. As a team leader, Nyein Maung was serious about maintaining discipline, instructing team members to refrain from consuming alcohol while on duty. “This is no time to be joking around. One mistake and you lose your life. I told them they need to be able to make clear decisions,” he explained. Meetings were held every day at 4pm to divide the team into groups and assign them to different wards. They also discussed the security situation as it evolved from day to day. On March 14, team members defending the Ma Ga Dit barricade with air guns, Molotov cocktails and handmade weapons killed two police officers, marking a turning point in the conflict between Bago’s residents and the regime’s forces. The stronghold was subsequently destroyed several times in the ensuing weeks, but was rebuilt each time. To ensure that it was never left undefended, the security team set up a camp so they could stay there around the clock. By early April, when troops from Light Infantry Division 77, stationed nearby, started shouting threats at them, it became clear that they were heading for decisive clash that would likely end badly for them. “They always gave us warnings at night, telling us that they would come down harder on us than they did on Hlaing Tharyar,” said Nyein Maung, referring to the massive assault on Yangon’s industrial outskirts in late March. “They warned us to drop our weapons, and were listing charges we’d be given and all that,” he added. But at this stage, they had no intention of giving up. Armed with improvised explosives, fireworks, and Molotov cocktails, as well as non-lethal gas-powered guns, they dug in and braced for what was to come. “We told the people who had been feeding us that we would protect them and hold on for as long as we can,” said Nyein Maung, recalling the tense days before the final onslaught.....‘Driven by cruelty’: By this time, there were actually four barricades set up in Ma Ga Dit ward, each one numbered according to the lane off of the main road where it was located. On the morning of April 9, when the military finally launched its attack, barricades 1, 4, 7, and 13 were all surrounded by heavily armed troops. Barricade 1 was the first to come under fire. In an effort to hold off the forces storming barricade 1, Nyein Maung and about 30 others started firing gas guns and fireworks from barricade 4. They also lobbed explosives, which proved to be their most powerful weapon. “We had two homemade explosives. It got four of them. I can confirm that because I threw them myself. I think we held on for about ten minutes,” Nyein Maung recalled. But they soon found that they were no match for soldiers with weapons of war. “At 5:10am, the military threw a grenade, and then opened fire with RPGs. That’s when stronghold 1 fell. We led another defence attack and they used two more RPGs. One fell next to me, and a lot of us were killed,” said Nyein Maung. When they tried to retreat to barricade 4, they found that it had also been destroyed. Still coming under heavy fire from artillery, grenades, and machine guns, they fled to barricade 7 and then to 13. “We retreated to stronghold 7. By the time we got to 13, we had to give up. Only 24 of us made it out alive,” he said. At least 82 civilians were confirmed dead after the April 9 crackdown, although the actual number was likely much higher, as many of the wounded did not receive medical treatment, according to local residents. “The injured and the dead were put in the compound of the Zeyar Muni pagoda. A monk there asked the military to return the bodies to their families, but they wouldn’t hand them over,” said Thurein, a local volunteer. Those who survived escaped to the countryside, where they were pursued by troops who continued shooting in villages that were not part of the protests. For the next two days, the regime carried out intense clearance operations in Bago and the surrounding area, rounding up anyone suspected of involvement in the resistance movement. Now in a safe place with several other members of his team, Nyein Maung denounced the junta’s ruthless use of military might against a far smaller defensive force. “Their rate of killing isn’t normal. They wouldn’t even kill this many in a battle. They are just driven by cruelty,” he said. Despite this defeat, however, he remained convinced that he would be able to avenge his fallen comrades and repay those who supported their efforts. “We apologize to the families from Ma Ga Dit and Socialist wards that fed us. We didn’t back down. We will reclaim our city of Bago,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-01
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Title: UN fails to agree on Myanmar statement, diplomats blame China, Russia
Description: "The UN Security Council failed to agree Friday on a joint statement on the crisis in Myanmar after a closed-door meeting, with diplomats blaming Beijing -- the junta's main backer -- and Russia for raising objections and putting forward their own competing text. The session was convened by Vietnam to present the conclusions of a recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia. ASEAN is to appoint an envoy to help resolve the crisis sparked by the February 1 coup by the Myanmar military. During the meeting, the UN Special Envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who is currently touring the region, gave a report on her long meeting with Myanmar junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing, held on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting. Diplomats said the envoy, who is currently based in Bangkok, once again had her request for a visit to Myanmar denied. During the meeting, Brunei, which currently holds the presidency of ASEAN, floated the idea of a joint visit to Myanmar by the UN envoy and her future ASEAN counterpart. A draft Security Council declaration, drawn up by Britain, failed to win full endorsement as it stood. A copy obtained by AFP showed that it planned to give "full support for the central role of ASEAN" and to encourage a visit to Myanmar by Schraner Burgener "as soon as possible." It said that members of the Security Council "once again strongly condemned violence against peaceful protestors" and "reiterated their call on the military to exercise utmost restraint." But diplomats said China and Russia objected to the British draft and proposed their own short competing text, which proved unacceptable to the majority of the Security Council. Discussions were still underway for a merger of the two draft statements on Friday, diplomats said. Nearly 760 civilians have been killed by police and soldiers in the past three months, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The junta puts the death toll at 258 dead by April 15, calling the demonstrators "rioters" who engaged in "acts of terrorism".
Source/publisher: Agence France-Presse (Paris) via "France24" ( Paris)
Date of publication: 2021-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-01
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Title: UNICEF calls for greater attention to protection of children’s rights in Myanmar during time of crisis - ပဋိပက္ခကာလအတွင်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ ကလေးသူငယ်များ၏ အခွင့်အရေးများကို ကာကွယ်ပေးရေးအတွက် အထူးဂရုပြုကြပါရန် ယူနီဆက်မှ မေတ္တာရပ်ခံ
Sub-title: UNICEF Myanmar Statement
Description: "YANGON, 9 February 2021 – UNICEF expresses deep concern regarding the impact of the ongoing crisis in Myanmar on children’s wellbeing and reminds all actors of their obligations to uphold all children’s rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Myanmar is a State Party, and under the Myanmar Child Rights Law enacted in July 2019. These rights include the rights to protection, participation, peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. They also include freedom from unlawful or arbitrary detention or separation from parents. In crisis situations, children are often disproportionally affected, and it is essential that all actors uphold the best interests of the child, one of the core principles of the CRC, as a primary consideration. In the context of ongoing demonstrations and current events, and reports of injuries, some potentially fatal, UNICEF calls on all actors, including security forces, to exercise the utmost restraint, to resolve differences through constructive and peaceful means, and to prioritize the protection and safety of children and young people as they express their opinions.....ရန်ကုန်မြို့၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၉ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် – ယူနီဆက်အနေဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်ပွားလျှက်ရှိသော ပဋိပက္ခအခြေအနေများကြောင့် ကလေးသူငယ်များ၏ ကောင်းကျိုးချမ်းသာအပေါ် ထိခိုက်လာမည်ကို လွန်စွာစိုးရိမ်ပူပန်လျှက်ရှိပြီး သက်ဆိုင်ရာ တာဝန်ရှိသူအဖွဲ့အစည်းများအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ ပါဝင်သဘောတူလက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးထားသည့်ကလေးသူငယ်အခွင့်အရေးများဆိုင်ရာ ကုလသမဂ္ဂသဘောတူစာချုပ် (CRC) ပြဌါန်းချက်များ နှင့် ၂၀၁၉ ခုနှစ် ဇူလိုင်လ တွင်ပြဌါန်းခဲ့သည့် ကလေးသူငယ်အခွင့်အရေးများဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေ ပြဌါန်းချက်များနှင့်အညီ ကလေးသူငယ်များ၏ အခွင့်အရေးများအားလုံးကို လေးစားလိုက်နာကြပါရန် သတိပေးလိုပါသည်။ ဤအခွင့်အရေးများတွင် ကလေးသူငယ်များအနေဖြင့် ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်မှုခံယူပိုင်ခွင့်၊ ပါဝင်ဆောင်ရွက်ခွင့်၊ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ စုဝေးခွင့်နှင့် လွတ်လပ်စွာထုတ်ဖော်ပြသပိုင်ခွင့်တို့ ပါဝင်ပါသည်။ တရားဥပဒေနှင့်မညီသော သို့မဟုတ် မတရား ဖမ်းဆီး ထိန်းသိမ်းခံရမှုများ သို့မဟုတ် မိဘများနှင့် ဝေးကွာစေခြင်းများကို မပြုလုပ်ရန်လည်း ပါဝင်ပါသည်။ ပဋိပက္ခကာလများအတွင်းတွင် ကလေးသူငယ်များမှာ မကြာခဏအားဖြင့် အထိခိုက်ခံရဆုံးသူများဖြစ်ကြပြီး သက်ဆိုင်သူများအားလုံးအနေဖြင့် CRC ၏ အဓိကကျသော အခြေခံမူများမှတစ်ခုဖြစ်သည့် ကလေးသူငယ်များ၏ အကောင်းဆုံးအကျိုးစီးပွားကို အဓိကဦးစားပေးအဖြစ် ထည့်သွင်းစဉ်းစားပြီး ထိန်းသိမ်းစောင့်ရှောက်ကြရန် အထူးပင် အရေးကြီးလှပါသည်။ လက်ရှိဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် ဆန္ဒပြမှုများတွင် ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရရှိမှုများဖြစ်ပေါ်နေပြီး အလွန်ပြင်းထန်ကြောင်းလည်းသိရသည့်အတွက် သက်ဆိုင်သူများအားလုံးသည် ကွဲလွဲမှုများကို အပြုသဘောဆောင်ပြီး ငြိမ်းချမ်းသောနည်းလမ်းများဖြင့် ဖြေရှင်းကြပါရန်နှင့် ကလေးသူငယ်များနှင့် လူငယ်များက ၎င်းတို့၏ သဘောထားများကို ထုတ်ဖော်ပြသသည့်အခါ ၎င်းတို့ကို ကာကွယ်ပေးရေးနှင့် ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံရေးကို ဦးစားပေးရန်အတွက် အထူးထိန်းသိမ်းဆောင်ရွက်ကြပါရန် တောင်းဆိုလိုပါသည်။ အဓိကတာဝန်ရှိသည့် မိဘများနှင့် စောင့်ရှောက်သူများအနေဖြင့်လည်း ကလေးများ၏ ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံရေးကို အမြဲထည့်သွင်းစဉ်းစားပြီး ကလေးများ ဘေးအန္တရာယ်ကင်းဝေးစေရေးအတွက် သင့်လျော်သောလုပ်ဆောင်မှုများကို လုပ်ဆောင်ထားကြရန် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 29 April, (759) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. (1) from Pyapon Township in Ayeyarwady Region died on 29 April. (2) from Mandalay and Kani Township in Sagaing Region were killed 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 April 29, a total of (3461) people are currently under detention; of them (80) are sentenced. 1276 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. Today people across Burma continued to protest in different ways against the military coup despite the brutal crackdowns and repressions. This morning, plain clothes junta forces in private cars armed with guns in ShweBo Town, Sagaing Region, crashed into the main protest group. Junta forces threatened, swearing, at the protesters. Thereafter, one woman from the strike was arrested. Arrests are being made in private cars, not military trucks or police cars. This is because the terrorists are attempting to cover up their acts of violence, and make it more difficult for civilians to report on the junta’s actions because they are using private vehicles. Last night, a night protest was cracked down on and one civilian got shot on his thigh in Pyigyidagun Township, Mandalay Region. Terrorists are committing unlawful shootings and killings day after day. Last night, a young man was shot in the abdomen and died on the spot near Zegyo Clock Tower on 84 road, Mandalay City. He was trying to run away after the military stopped him for a motorcycle check. A local man was shot and wounded in the abdomen and arm by the terrorists in Auk Kwin Village, Pyapone Township, Ayeyarwady Region last night and died this morning. In addition to this, two civilians were arrested and detained last night, one of whom died. The junta forces are becoming more violent each day. Civilians are being treated like enemies. The junta forces were using slingshots and throwing stones at an apartment because they did not turn the lights off after 10 pm, destroying the windows in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, Yangon Region. Daily lives of the civilians are being threatened by the junta through these relentless actions. A group of 50 junta troops in plain clothes and police uniform stormed the house of Ko Zin Maung Phyo’s yesterday in Thayet Chaung Township, Dawei District. The Dawei District Students Union member is evading a Penal Code 505(a) warrant. They broke into the house at night, smashing the doors and destroying everything in the house. The junta troops also seized the farm and land registration papers and all the other documents. The junta are also targeting arrestees and brutally torturing civilians into confession. Two villagers from a village in Kani township, Sagaing Region, were arrested on April 27. One of them was told to pick up the dead body next day. The body of the fallen villager was found with wounds consistent with torture. As long as the dictatorship does not end, the security and dignity of civilians will continue to deteriorate. Protest leaders, politicians, and activists are being prosecuted by the junta forces under several laws. Wai Moe Naing, the leader of the Monywa strike, has been charged under seven sections, including the Penal Code Section 505-a, and three more sections, including Penal Code Section 124. The junta has tried to imprison dissidents for as long as possible under various sections of the law. This is the practice of successive dictatorships. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Despite ASEAN consensus, military abuses continue around the country
Sub-title: Myanmar’s junta has effectively ignored the terms of a five-point agreement reached in Jakarta last weekend
Description: "Nearly a week after Myanmar’s chief coup maker met with leaders of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last Saturday to discuss the crisis in the country, reports of abuses by the military continue. The ASEAN meeting, held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, reached a five-point consensus that aimed to end the ongoing violence, which has already claimed more than 750 civilian lives in less than three months. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who made his first trip outside of Myanmar since seizing power on February 1 to attend the emergency summit, appears to have backed away from the terms of the agreement since returning to the country. The day after the meeting, coverage of the summit in state-run newspaper The Mirror made no mention of the five points, which included plans to allow representatives of the regional grouping into the country to observe the situation on the ground. On Tuesday, however, the regime announced that it would only move forward with this and other points in the agreement once the country had become “stable”. Meanwhile, it continues its efforts to restore stability through brute force, killing at least seven people during and in the days immediately after the Jakarta summit, in direct violation of its commitment to end violence against civilians.....Ongoing abuses: The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which has documented the regime’s arrests and killings of protesters and other civilians, said that the ASEAN meeting had failed to achieve the desired results. “On the night after the meeting, the junta’s armed forces continued to commit atrocities against civilians, including women, in plain sight,” it noted in a statement released earlier this week. On the day of the summit, a young man was shot dead by plainclothes policemen in Mandalay, while a woman arrested in Myaung Mya, a town in Sagaing Region, died shortly after being taken into custody on the same day, according to AAPP. There was also one other civilian death reported in Yezagyo, Magway Region, on Saturday, followed by two more the next day—one in Kawthaung, in Tanintharyi Region, and another in Yangon’s Insein Township, AAPP records show. Since then, there have been at least two more fatal shootings of civilians, including one of a fried-rice vendor in Mandalay on Monday and another in Kayah State’s Demoso Township on Tuesday. In another attack, a woman in Kayin State’s Phaya Thone Su Township sustained serious injuries last Saturday after she was shot by the military and hit with a car while she was taking part in an anti-coup motorbike rally. Besides using lethal force, soldiers and police have kept up a steady campaign of harassment against civilians in an effort to break their resistance to military rule. Residents of Yangon report that regime forces come into their neighbourhoods every night after curfew to prevent people from banging pots in protest against the coup. “They came onto our street last night and started threatening anyone who dared to bang a pot. They used very vulgar language and fired at people’s houses with slingshots. It happens every night now,” said one Yangon resident who asked not to be identified. On Sunday, a group of women in Yangon’s Mayangone Township were forced to bang their pots and dance in the street while soldiers watched and laughed. If they stopped dancing, the soldiers hurled insults at them and threw stones at their houses, AAPP said in a statement that recounted a number of similar incidents involving attempts to humiliate civilians. “Forcing women to hurt their dignity in public, and treating civilians as if they were enemies, are cruel acts that the military continues to lawlessly commit,” the group said in its statement. In another incident that took place in Yangon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township last Saturday, a transgender woman was forced to wear a man’s longyi and mocked by regime forces. Many remain undeterred by this behaviour, however, as ordinary citizens continue to register their rejection of the military’s overthrow of the elected civilian government. A resident of Yangon’s Tamwe Township who complained about the junta’s persistent efforts to disrupt the lives of civilians said that he and most of his neighbours refused to be intimidated. “They curse at passersby, interrogate them for a while, and then let them go. When they came to my door, I closed it and they threw stones. But we will continue to demonstrate against them. We won’t be ruled by these people,” he told Myanmar Now.....Intensifying pressure: While ordinary citizens do their best to cope with the heavy military presence, those taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) are coming under growing pressure to end their efforts to deny the regime control of the state. Among those most under threat from the junta are healthcare workers, who spearheaded the CDM in the early days after the coup. In the months since, the movement has been joined by many other public employees and emerged as a major stumbling block to Min Aung Hlaing’s ambitions. Frustrated by its inability to break the CDM, the junta has in recent weeks stepped up its efforts to arrest the movement’s leaders and put them behind bars on trumped-up charges. Since April 13, military-controlled television has broadcast the names of at least 20 health professionals who have been charged with incitement and issued with arrest warrants. At least 300 medical workers are now on the regime’s wanted list. On Tuesday, a failed attempt to apprehend a doctor in Yangon’s South Okkalapa Township resulted in the arrest of her father and younger sister, according to a relative. The doctor, Yu Sandar Moe, has since gone into hiding, the relative told Myanmar Now. According to a statement released by the University of Medicine (1) Students Union on Saturday, a total of 46 medical workers and students, including 29 striking doctors, have been arrested since the coup. The junta has also threatened to revoke doctors’ passports and medical licenses if they join the CDM. Private hospitals and charity clinics that accept CDM doctors will also have their licenses taken away, the junta said. Other prominent figures in the anti-coup movement have also been targeted for arrest. On Saturday, regime forces carried out a raid on a monastery in Sagaing Region’s Yinmabin Township in an attempt to arrest a monk who has led protests in the area. It was the second time this month that the junta had failed to catch the monk. On April 2, soldiers surrounded the village of Thabyay Aye to arrest him, but locals fought back with homemade rifles. Four villagers were killed in that clash, which also reportedly resulted in military casualties. At least six people were killed earlier this week during clashes elsewhere in Yinmabin. The recent efforts to crack down on protests have also forced tens of thousands of people from 30 villages to flee as soldiers set up camp in the area. Meanwhile, civilians armed with hunting rifles in southern Chin State’s Mindat Township claim to have killed 30 regime soldiers during four days of fierce clashes that began last Saturday. Amid concerns that the situation in Myanmar still threatens to spin out of control, Mann Win Khaing Than, the chief union minister of the recently formed National Unity Government, called on ASEAN to ensure that the regime abides by its agreement to deescalate its use of violence..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Frontline doctors risk persecution, careers – and their lives
Sub-title: A frontline medic describes the dangers of trying to save lives at a time when the regime regards many health workers as criminals for serving at protests and participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Description: "On the evening of April 9, reports began emerging that security forces had killed scores of people in Bago, after they unleashed heavy weapons and grenades to disperse protesters manning barricades. Before launching the operation in the city about 80 kilometres northeast of Yangon, the armed forces had blocked roads in Bago. This prevented ambulances from collecting the wounded, many of whom were eventually dumped in a monastery compound. At least 80 people were killed in Bago that day, but a final death toll will probably never be known. Something else we’ll likely never know is how many of the wounded died because they did not receive treatment. I arrived in Bago three days later to help treat the wounded. It was a difficult task –many of them were in hiding, for fear they would be arrested if they sought treatment. Witnesses also said volunteer medical workers had been detained by the security forces, following a pattern reported elsewhere in the country. As a frontline medical volunteer, I’ve regularly witnessed the brutality of the junta’s dispersal tactics. The first time was during a protest near Thanlyin Technological University in southeastern Yangon Region on March 9. Troops had occupied the campus, and students were protesting peacefully to demand that they leave. The soldiers suddenly opened fire with live rounds, leaving several people injured. We began treating some of the injured in a safe house not far from the site of the protest, but we had to quickly evacuate the patients when soldiers arrived nearby. Thankfully, we managed to get them to another safe house and continue treating them. Compounding the suffering Not every injured protester manages to escape. Some are seized by the police and army and denied first aid, often dying as a result of loss of blood. Even when the injured manage to evade security forces, they are far from safe. As the Bago example illustrates, accessing healthcare and medical assistance is itself a dangerous challenge for protesters, and for the medical volunteers who come to their assistance. The best-case scenario for an injured protester is to be quickly evacuated from the scene by frontline medical volunteers and treated. But there is always a risk that the armed forces will stop the ambulance in which they travel or raid the clinic they are taken to. As a result, they are often forced to wait hours for proper treatment, or denied it altogether. Because the regime has made state hospitals unsafe places for injured protesters, medical volunteers refer them to private hospitals or clinics run by charities. The military is notified about all admissions to government hospitals and patients can be arrested before they are discharged. Patients wanted by the authorities are also often shackled to their beds. My team encountered one man who had suffered facial injuries after being hit with shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade. The man had been hiding at home for three days without seeking treatment because he feared arrest if spotted by soldiers. We were eventually able to take him to a safe private medical facility for treatment. He is recovering, but has suffered damage to one of his eyes. The World Health Organization has said that from February 1 to April 30, there were at least 158 attacks on healthcare facilities, vehicles, staff and supplies, as well as patients in Myanmar, resulting in 11 deaths and 51 injuries. Because of these incidents, volunteer teams are often forced to park ambulances some distance from protest sites to avoid attracting the attention of soldiers and police. Equally disturbing are raids on medical treatment centres and charity rescue service offices. Raids were conducted on the intensive care unit at Yangon’s privately run Grand Hantha International Hospital on March 14, on a clinic in Mandalay on March 27 that resulted in the arrest of 26 people, including doctors and volunteers, and on a clinic at Kalay on April 7, as well as on a medical facility in Yangon’s Sanchaung Township on April 5, during which nine people were detained, including doctors and volunteers. Medics need protection It is a distressing time to be a medical professional in Myanmar. Last year, we were honoured as national heroes for our role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. But since the February 1 coup, the military has turned on government health workers due to their role in instigating the Civil Disobedience Movement. The regime now regards us as criminals rather than heroes – all doctors who are providing care to anti-coup protesters are at risk of arrest for incitement under section 505A of the Penal Code, for which the maximum penalty is three years’ imprisonment. Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun has even accused government doctors who’ve left state hospitals to join the CDM of committing murder. In reality, CDM doctors are helping the public in many ways, including by providing free treatment at private hospitals and charity clinics, making home visits, and providing telephone counselling. Doctors and other healthcare professionals at state hospitals are accustomed to high workloads and low pay, but prior to February 1 they had not gone on strike to demand better working conditions. By refusing government work in solidarity with the people of Myanmar, they have sacrificed their lives, positions and prospects of a bright future. In a cruel move, the military council said on April 20 that doctors supporting the CDM would be blacklisted and their passports cancelled. Even private and charity-run clinics have been ordered not to accept the services of CDM doctors or admit wounded protesters for treatment. Clinic owners that violate the order risk being jailed. The cumulative effect of all this has been to deny timely and effective care to those who need it. These are dark days for medical workers and their patients. The international community must condemn the reprehensible actions of the military regime, including its targeting of medical workers and its efforts to deny life-saving treatment to injured protesters..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Glaring glimpse into Myanmar military’s self-delusion
Sub-title: Junta report presented to ASEAN on Myanmar's political situation revealed a tortured relationship with the bloody truth
Description: "Myanmar’s junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing arrived at the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta with justifications for his February 1 coup compiled in a neat document entitled “The Current Political Situation in Myanmar.” Written in a first-person account redolent of a court case defense summation, the 118-page paper outlines the alleged fraud and corruption at last November’s elections that motivated the coup and subsequent responses by the military, or Tatmadaw. The military’s electoral fraud allegations had been mounting for months since the nationwide polls, and its insistence that 10.4 million votes were fraudulent is as implausible as when the accusation was aired by military officials days before the coup, which acted to form the State Administration Council (SAC) and topple the National League for Democracy (NLD) government. The document absurdly uses screen grabs of statements from the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, United States Secretary of State and international media to demonstrate “the election as not free and fair due to ballot rigging”, when the related statements predominantly criticized constitutional provisions preserving Tatmadaw power and the disenfranchisement of Rohingya Muslims. It also manages to heap blame solely on the NLD for the pre-election cancellations that deprived some 1.4 million people the vote. But it is the document’s self-deluded description of the nationwide protests that erupted in response to the coup and suspension of democracy that is most glaring. It outlines five stages of progressively severe protest to justify the military clampdown. First, as the junta sees it, there were peaceful protests led by the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). The narrative in this section almost commends protestors for their ingenuity and spontaneity, with several pages of photos of colorful demonstrations. The second stage, however, is characterized as “riots”, the third stage “anarchistic mobs” and the fourth stage “insurrection”, with alleged provocateurs summarized as “NLD radicalist (sic), destructionists, bad guys…Federal Army idealists.” The fifth stage slugs the protests as “terrorism…the worst stage ever.” The report outlines the alleged destruction of property with protesters “utilizing immature children as human shield.” It shrilly says “on the pretext of democracy they (NLD and demonstrators) are exercising mobocracy and tyranny of the majority.” In a picture diagram of the supposed five stages, the document bids to justify the junta’s arrests and use of force to counter “protester actions”, but utterly and blindly fails to document its violent assault on the country and its people over the last three months. According to the report, the list of casualties includes six dead Tatmadaw with 45 injured and five dead Myanmar Police Force (MPF) with 12 inexplicably “Fall” and 253 wounded. From February 1 to April 15, it says 64 police stations, the majority in Mandalay, were destroyed by fire. It also claims 62 war or village administration offices, 52 offices, 16 roads, 13 banks, and 105 other buildings were destroyed. Security forces also claim to have seized 3,118 shields, 694 slingshots, 14,183 pellets, 1,114 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 16 guns, and 4,630 “firebombs.” Now compare this with the more credible summary of state repression compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which lists 755 protestors killed, 4,496 arrested with 3,448 still detained and an unknown number of casualties nationwide as of April 27. This contrast in assessments has obviously irked the SAC, with the Ministry of Home Affairs this week threatening AAPP with “severe action” for its contradictory reporting. By any measure, though, contrasting the AAPP’s data with Min Aung Hlaing’s ASEAN-friendly account is an exercise in cognitive dissonance and revelation of the SAC’s inability to generate remotely credible fake news. The military document also summarizes an ASEAN-appeasing five-part future work plan, which like the previous military regime’s “Seven Step Road Map to Discipline Flourishing Democracy” that preceded it its military-crafted 2008 Constitution, includes a “work in progress” approach that will allow the Tatmadaw to set the tempo and timetables of supposed state-building. The five stages will include reconstituting the Union Election Commission and establishing correct voter lists; prevention of Covid-19 and a vaccination drive; the recovering of businesses affected by the pandemic; “Restoring Eternal Peace with NCA”, without acknowledging the 2015 ceasefire agreement is already dead; and finally, free and fair multi-party elections. This section, like a lot of Tatmadaw plans, has a “Waiting for Godot” aspect. In summary, the briefing booklet evokes the metaphor of a student “passed who cheated on his exams” to decry alleged NLD meddling and corruption in the elections. SAC propaganda also recently referenced the “Harry Tan” incident of 1956, where a seventh-grade student involved in protests was famously shot dead by police, the first student killing of the post-independence era, to perversely besmirch the NLD and its “cheating on democracy.” Clearly, the SAC is more comfortable in a bygone era than the future as it asserts the current takeover of state power is more like the 1958 military “caretaker government” and therefore not a real coup, a word it has barred harassed local media from using. It has called on the regional bloc for “understanding the root causes and the reality of current situations, and hopes for ASEAN cooperation.” In sum, the booklet is even more crude, shrill and unnerving than the usual lame efforts that pass for propaganda from the Tatmadaw’s True News Information Team. Rather, it is a slapdash scrapbook with all the hallmarks of a late minute submission than a serious authority seeking regional and global understanding. Hysterical headlines and highly suspect figures of destroyed property and alleged crimes is an insight not into obtuse authoritarian bluster but sheer self-deception. The SAC issued a statement on Monday suggesting ASEAN “review the information booklet circulated at the meeting before comments are made relating to the current political situation.” Tatmadaw propaganda has always revealed a tortured relationship with truth, but the report’s justifications for the coup and the one-sided narrative of grievance and violence is a pathological projection of a severe conscience: guilt pours over its crude pages. The Tatmadaw leadership is likely aware most of their “news” is sheer bunk and largely designed to convince themselves and their rank and file rather than the general population and wider world. It’s also unclear if the coup confessional is a SAC initiative or the efforts of the US$2 million funded shill Ari Ben-Menashe and his Dickens and Madson public relations firm hired by the junta to launder its global reputation. The booklet has the legacy blend of previous military regimes’ propaganda in the early 1990s, with an obsession with “evidence” and an assembly of grievances to justify seizing state power from untrustworthy civilian politicians and unruly subjects — all designed to downplay their own extreme violence. The booklet is useful evidence for the case against ASEAN interventions in Myanmar: it’s akin to submitting inane scribbles and scraps for a final semester assignment at university and expecting the indolent yet corruptible faculty to pass you regardless of the quality. Clearly, the SAC realizes with cynical acuity that with ASEAN it doesn’t need to make much of an effort; mere attendance makes the grade. The Tatmadaw also knows the game plan ahead. Indeed, they have confronted these ritualized, regional admonishments before without repercussion. ASEAN will embark on yet another limp, ineffectual engagement strategy, promising dialogue and assistance. The West and United Nations will sigh relief that their support for ASEAN’s efforts absolves them of anything other than issuing strong statements, imposing a smattering of sanctions and be assuaged that a prolonged dialogue “process” is underway. Urgently needed humanitarian assistance for millions of people affected by state violence then becomes hostage to these elite maneuvers. For those in the West who actually do care about the future of Myanmar, this booklet should spark distress that the Tatmadaw is determined to drag the country back into a stone-age dictatorship, with ASEAN as its usher. That is the real danger of the junta’s disinformation screed. By engaging with the SAC’s justifications for extreme violence, international interlocutors are inculcating the generals’ delusions. ASEAN is, as ever, the preferred prophylactic for Western inaction on Myanmar and is tantamount to selling the nation’s democratic resistance down the river. David Scott Mathieson is an independent analyst working on conflict, peace and human rights issues on Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar approaching point of economic collapse: UN report
Sub-title: The turmoil following the military coup in Myanmar, coupled with the impact of COVID-19 could result in up to 25 million people – nearly half of the country’s population, living in poverty by early next year, a United Nations report said on Friday.
Description: "That level of impoverishment has not been seen in the country since 2005, and the economy is facing significant risks of a collapse, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in its report, COVID-19, Coup d’état and Poverty: Compounding Negative Shocks and their Impact on Human Development in Myanmar. “In the space of 12 years, from 2005 to 2017, Myanmar managed to nearly halve the number of people living in poverty. However, the challenges of the past 12 months have put all of these hard-won development gains at risk,” Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, said. “Without functioning democratic institutions, Myanmar faces a tragic and avoidable backslide towards levels of poverty not seen in a generation.” The study also noted that as economic, health and political crises affect people and communities differently, vulnerable groups are more likely to suffer, a fact particularly relevant for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and ethnic minorities, in particular, the Rohingya community.....Multiple shocks: According to the report, by the end of 2020, 83 per cent of Myanmar’s households reported that their incomes had been, on average, slashed almost in half due to the pandemic. As a result, the number of people living below the poverty line was estimated to have increased by 11 per cent points. The situation worsened further with the 1 February military takeover and the ensuing security and human rights crisis, with projections indicating a further 12 per cent point increase in poverty as a result. In the nearly three months since, over 750 people – including children – are reported to have been killed by security forces in a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, countless more have been wounded and thousands arrested. Furthermore, clashes between Myanmar security forces and regional armed groups have resulted in fresh displacements in several parts of the country, as well as forcing many to seek refuge outside its borders. Prior to the latest crises, nearly a million people in Myanmar (identified at the start of 2021) are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.....Women, children, small businesses hit hardest: According to the study, women and children are feared to bear the heaviest brunt, with more than half of Myanmar’s children projected to be living in poverty within a year. Urban poverty is also expected to triple, as worsening security situation continues to effect supply chains and hinder the movement of people, services and commodities. Small businesses, which provide the majority of jobs and incomes for the poorer segments of the urban population, have been hit hard, UNDP said. It also added that pressures on the country’s currency, the Kyat, has increased the price of imports and energy, while the volume of seaborne trade is estimated to have dropped by between 55 and 64 per cent. At the same time, the country’s banking system remains paralyzed, resulting in shortages of cash, limiting access to social welfare payments, and preventing much-needed remittances from reaching hard-pressed families.....Corrective actions urgently needed: The report also noted that without rapid corrective actions on economic, social, political and human rights protection policies, Myanmar’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 could be derailed. As a dire and complex situation unfolds – characterized not only in humanitarian terms but also as a deep crisis in development, democratization, and human rights – and circumstances worsen, international support will play an important role in safeguarding the well-being of the Myanmar population, it added..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2021-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The Myanmar Junta’s Assault on the Truth
Topic: Press Freedom
Sub-title: Crackdown on Media Aimed at Hiding Security Force Abuses
Topic: Press Freedom
Description: "Myanmar security forces have launched a full-scale attack on the country’s media, targeting journalists for arrest, raiding the offices of newspapers and online media, and banning five outspoken media outlets. At least 71 journalists, including a Japanese freelancer, have been arrested, of whom 48 remain in detention. In the latest escalation, the junta is including journalists in the nightly broadcast of individuals “wanted” by the authorities. Every day brings new reports of additional journalists being detained. The authorities have charged many of those detained with violating a new provision in the penal code, adopted by the junta after the February 1 coup, that makes it a crime to publish or circulate comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.” Those convicted face up to three years in prison. It is clear that in today’s Myanmar, “false news” is any news the junta doesn’t want the public – or the world at large – to hear. The crackdown on journalists is part of the junta’s larger effort to suppress coverage and deny the reality of serious rights abuses the military is committing across the country. Facing international outrage over the killing of more than 750 people by security forces, authorities have accused the media, which it says “does not want peace and stability in the country,” of “plotting to mislead the international community and the public.” The junta has also threatened “severe action” against a local group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, that has been tracking arrests and deaths, accusing the group of releasing “incorrect data” and harming “state stability.” The authorities have imposed severe restrictions on the internet, making it very difficult for people to access or to share information. Mobile internet data and wireless broadband have been turned off for more than six weeks, and Facebook and other social media platforms popular in Myanmar have been blocked since the coup. Despite the challenges and risks, Myanmar’s journalists and ordinary citizens continue to document atrocities and share information with the world. For daring to share what is happening in Myanmar, they are in the military’s crosshairs. They urgently need and deserve the international community’s attention and support..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Fighting erupts in Myanmar; junta to ‘consider’ ASEAN plan
Description: "Ethnic minority Karen insurgents attacked a Myanmar army outpost near the Thai border on Tuesday in some of the most intense clashes since a military coup nearly three months ago threw the country into crisis. The Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar's oldest rebel force, said it had captured the army camp on the west bank of the Salween river, which forms the border with Thailand. The Myanmar military later hit back against the insurgents with air strikes, the KNU and Thai authorities said. The fighting took place as the junta, in a setback for diplomatic efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said it would "positively" consider the bloc's suggestions to end the turmoil in Myanmar but only when stability was restored. The ASEAN leaders said after meeting on the weekend with the junta chief that they had reached a consensus on steps to end violence and promote dialogue between the rival Myanmar sides. The outbreak of hostilities near the border shifted the focus of opposition to the junta away from the pro-democracy protests that have taken place in cities and towns across the country since the coup on Feb. 1. The military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, detained her and other civilian politicians, then cracked down with lethal force on anti-coup protesters. Security forces have killed more than 750 civilians in the demonstrations, an activist group says. The Karen and other ethnic minority forces based in frontier regions have supported the largely urban-based pro-democracy opponents of the junta......PRE-DAWN ATTACK: In Tuesday's fighting, villagers on the Thai side of the river said heavy gunfire started before dawn. Video posted on social media showed flames and smoke on the forested hillside and KNU forces had captured the outpost, the group's head of foreign affairs, Saw Taw Nee, told Reuters. The Myanmar military later mounted air strikes, Saw Taw Nee said. There was no word on casualties and 450 Thai villagers were moved away from the border to safety, the Thai military said. The Myanmar army made no comment. It has historically portrayed itself as the one institution that can keep together the ethnically diverse country of more than 53 million people. The KNU agreed to a ceasefire in 2012, ending its struggle for autonomy that began shortly after Myanmar’s independence from Britain in 1948. But its forces have clashed with the army since it seized power, ending a decade of democratic reforms that had also brought relative peace to Myanmar's borderlands. Fighting has also flared in the north and west, where the Irrawaddy news site reported 13 government soldiers were killed in clashes in Chin State over the past few days. About 24,000 people are sheltering in the jungle after being displaced in recent weeks by violence near the Thai border, including military air strikes, Karen groups say.....'CAREFUL CONSIDERATION': Elsewhere in Myanmar, there have been few reports of bloodshed since the weekend meeting between the junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and Southeast Asian leaders to try to find a way out of the crisis. The junta, in its first official comment on the meeting, said it would give "careful consideration to constructive suggestions ... when the situation returns to stability". The suggestions would be "positively considered" if they facilitated the junta's own "roadmap", and "serves the interests of the country", it said in a statement. The junta did not refer to what ASEAN called a five-point consensus, issued at the end of the meeting, to end the violence and initiate talks. ASEAN's points included appointing an envoy to visit Myanmar for talks with all sides. But Min Aung Hlaing, in comments reported in state media, said: "The visits to Myanmar proposed by ASEAN will be considered after stabilising the country." U.N. Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews called on Min Aung Hlaing to make a commitment to live up to the ASEAN plan. "The people of Myanmar...need and deserve to know if it is your intention to honour this commitment," Andrews said in an open letter. Activists have criticised the plan, saying it helped to legitimise the junta and fell far short of their demands. In particular, it did not call for the release of Suu Kyi, 75, and other political prisoners. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group says more than 3,400 people have been detained for opposing the coup. Suu Kyi's party won a second term in November. The election commission said the vote was fair but the military said fraud at the polls had forced it to seize power. Protesters against the junta were out in several places on Tuesday including the main city of Yangon, where hundreds surged down a street in a “flash mob” march, images on social media showed..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Military In Politics: Myanmar | Insight | Full Episode
Description: "In the early hours of February 1st, 2021, the Myanmar military known as the Tatmadaw seized power of the country. The coup led to the ousting of democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi and brought Myanmar's decade long experiment with democracy to a crashing halt. A mass uprising soon broke out across the country. The security forces responded by launching a brutal crackdown against the protesters, turning some areas of the capital, Yangon into battle zones. But why did the army stage a coup and shatter the hopes and dreams of many of its citizens? Will the violence and protests in the streets help restore democracy in Myanmar?..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNA Insider" (Singapore)
Date of publication: 2021-04-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar civil society organizations condemn UNODC’s decision to invite brutal military representative, Lt-Gen Than Hlaing, to its 64th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs
Description: "410 Myanmar civil society organizations and four individuals condemn the UN Office of Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) decision to allow Lieutenant-General Than Hlaing, who is sanctioned by Canada, US, UK and the EU, to represent Myanmar via video, at its 64th session of the Commission on Narcotics Drugs in April this year. The CSOs call for UNODC to immediately end all ties with the illegitimate military junta and recognize the National Unity Government as the legitimate governing body representing the people of Myanmar. Allowing the military to represent Myanmar at the UN conference held in Vienna, betrays the will of the people of Myanmar who continue to oppose the illegitimate and brutal military junta and further damages the confidence the people have in the UN to carry out its mandate enshrined in the UN Charter to promote and encourage “respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms”. The 64th meeting of the Narcotics Drugs Commission was held in Vienna, Austria, from 12 to 16 April, and was organized by the UNODC. The annual conference to review and analyze the global drug situation, which hosted UN Member States from around the world, opened with a speech by the UN SecretaryGeneral, António Guterres. The UN has not only failed to act as the brutal military junta commits crimes against humanity, it is now acting to legitimize and offer a platform to those who are murdering innocent people by the hundreds, including children. It is disheartening to see such lack of respect for human rights displayed by the very institution that is mandated to protect and encourage respect for human rights. It is all the more shocking to see a UN institution with a mandate to prevent crime, corruption and terrorism feting an international criminal. Worse yet, Vienna, Austria - where the conference was held - is part of the EU which sanctioned Lieutenant-General Than Hlaing as part of its restrictive measures (asset freeze and travel ban) on 22 March, 2021. He would have been prevented from entering Vienna had he not been allowed to join by video conference. This is a grave circumvention of the EU sanctions, weakening their very purpose. On 2 February, the day after the coup, Lieutenant-General Than Hlaing was appointed Chief of the Myanmar Police Force and Deputy Home Affairs Minister by the illegitimate military junta. In his position as the Chief of the Myanmar Police Force, he commanded the commission of extreme brutality and acts of violence against peaceful protesters, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement, and other innocent individuals who have been killed, detained and tortured. 756 have been killed as of 28 April 2021 including at least 51 children. 3,449 people have been detained. 1,237 arrest warrants have been issued. Yet the people of Myanmar have opposed the military junta as it continues its brutal attempt at an already failing coup. As well as the EU, the US, UK and Canada have also imposed sanctions against Than Hlaing, who the UNODC shamefully decided to allow the illegal military junta a platform to speak to the world as the representative of Myanmar at its conference. This is not the first time that the UNODC has been criticized for legitimizing the Myanmar military’s narrative. UNODC has a long and troubled history of turning a blind eye to the complicity of the Myanmar military and other state backed groups in Myanmar’s profitable drug trade. In particular, UNODC’s annual opium survey which is published jointly with the Myanmar government, has come under heavy criticism for distorting the realities on the ground in favor of the Myanmar military and government. UNODC’s Myanmar Opium Survey 2013 indicated that opium production levels in Kachin State were down by 10%, however the survey failed to include Chipwe, which was controlled by the Border Guard Force, under the command of the Myanmar military. In its Myanmar Opium Survey 2018, UNODC once again provided contentious and incorrect information in its reporting, stating that highest density of poppy cultivation had taken placed under areas controlled by the ethnic armed organizations. Such statements, which were refuted by both civil society organizations and ethnic armed organizations, lent legitimacy to the Myanmar military and government’s facade that they were enforcers of drug eradication rather than address the rampant corruption and their culpability in one of the most profitable trades in Myanmar. UNODC has long failed to heed the calls from civil society organizations to accurately reflect the situation on the ground. Its invitation of a sanctioned military official who is responsible for the violence inflicted against the people of Myanmar to its annual conference is a part of a pattern indicating a systemic failure by the United Nations to ensure that all bodies of the UN reflect the human rights values enshrined in its Charter. Therefore, we call on: • The UNODC to immediately end all ties with the illegitimate military junta and recognize and work with the National Unity Government, the legitimate governing body representing the people of Myanmar; • The UN Secretary-General, the UN OHCHR and other bodies of the UN to ensure that UNODC act in compliance with the human rights principles enshrined in the UN Charter - the UN must ensure a coordinated approach that embodies the “do no harm” and conflict sensitivity principles; • The UN bodies to stop recognizing and hosting the Myanmar military junta at events and meetings and instead invite representatives of the legitimate government, the National Unity Government, as the official representative of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: 410 Myanmar civil society organizations and four individuals via Progressive Voice (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 205.85 KB 215.76 KB
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Title: Myanmar coup: Unity government tells ASEAN no talks until prisoners freed
Description: "The pro democracy unity government in Myanmar which includes members of Aung San #Su​ Kyi's party, says it will not enter talks until the junta releases all political prisoners. Souteast Asias regional bloc has been holding talks with the leaders of the miltiary who seized power on February 1st. Since then massive protests have been held against the coup, hundreds of civilians have been killed and many more arrested. Wai Hnin Pwint Thon campaigns officer at #Burma​ Campaign UK, and the daughter of a man currently serving a 65-year jail sentence in Myanmar for his part in the 2007 protests gave us her talke on the current situation. She says negotiations will have to happen but that talking with the #Myanmar​ military is futile..."
Source/publisher: "France24" ( Paris)
Date of publication: 2021-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: National Unity Government Ministry of Women, Youth and Children's Affairs Announcement (1/2021) - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အမျိုးသမီး၊ လူငယ်နှင့် ကလေးသူငယ်ရေးရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနက ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၁/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "Ministry Investigates Sexual Violence in Detention: 1. We strongly condemn the serious allegations of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls in unlawful detention committed by the military-led State Administrative Council and its security forces. We have received many disturbing reports of women being tortured, verbally and sexually assaulted, severely beaten causing serious injuries, including a case of a woman being raped during an interrogation by the security forces. Some detained women have also reportedly been humiliated in public, forced to dance in the streets to entertain the security forces, while others have been groped and manhandled during arrests. One woman miscarried while in detention as a result of mistreatment.....2. These cases are indicative of the wider pattern of sexual and gender-based violence committed by Myanmar’s military that has persisted for years with impunity, particularly against ethnic minority women and girls in armed conflict areas. In 2019, the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (IIFFMM) found that the military committed "widespread and systematic" gender-based violence against ethnic communities, employing tactics such as rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and other forced sexual acts against women, girls, boys, men and transgender people. According to the IIFFMM, such violations could amount to crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The military’s use of rape as a weapon of war to terrorize ethnic communities has been widespread and systematic, particularly in ethnic conflict-affected areas, and has been widely documented by the local ethnic women organizations and the international community.....3. We are deeply troubled that the State Administrative Council appears to have set aside the Joint Communique that was signed by the Government of Myanmar and the United Nations in 2018. This agreement was adopted under the framework of United Nations Security Council resolution 2106 (2013) and requires Myanmar’s military to implement specific time-bound commitments that include the issuance of clear orders through chains of command prohibiting sexual violence and accountability for breaching these orders, as well as timely investigation of alleged abuses.....4. We appeal to the international community to immediately investigate the allegations of widespread sexual and gender-based violence being committed by the military junta so that all perpetrators, regardless of seniority or rank, can be held accountable for their actions. Furthermore, we believe that immediate action is needed to end the ongoing intensification of nationwide attacks against civilians by the military, that includes widespread allegations sexual and gender-based violence. We therefore urge the UN Secretary-General to use his good offices to deter further grave violations from taking place. This could include an official visit to Myanmar by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar, with the goal of stopping the military terror and violence and securing the safety of the people of Myanmar.....5. We are committed to a zero-tolerance policy for crimes of sexual and gender-based violence, in line with Myanmar’s obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, including UN Security Council resolution 1325 and related resolutions, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We call on the UN, including the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Special Rapporteur on human rights situation in Myanmar, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, and the international community to work with our Ministry to protect the rights of women, youth and children and stop and prevent further violence. We all have a responsibility to hold the perpetrators of such heinous crimes to account and to address the needs of survivors through a survivor-centered approach, including provision of necessary services such as medical care and psychological support. The ministry will continue investigate these allegations and document the incidents in order to bring justice for all victims. Our Ministry stands with the victims and survivors of sexual and genderbased violence and commits to ending violence against women, youth and children and to ensure justice and accountability....Ministry of Women, Youth and Children's Affairs National Unity Government..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf pdf pdf pdf
Size: 54.59 KB 139.23 KB 882.61 KB
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Title: Two Myanmar air bases come under attack - reports
Description: "Unidentified attackers launched assaults on two Myanmar air bases on Thursday, with blasts reported at one base and rocket fire seen at another, media and a witness said. The attacks come after three months of turmoil in Myanmar triggered by a Feb. 1 military coup. There was no claim of responsibility or any confirmation of any casualties in the attacks. A military spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment. In the first attack on Thursday, three blasts went off at an air base near the central town of Magway in the early hours, the Delta News Agency reported in a post on Facebook. Security checks were stepped up on roads outside the base after the blasts, the news portal said. Later, five rockets were fired at one of the country's main air bases, at Meiktila, to the northeast of Magway, reporter Than Win Hlaing, who was near the base at the time, said in a post. He also posted a video clip that included the sound of what appeared to be a rocket flying overhead followed by a blast. Reuters could not verify the clip. Since the ouster of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy protests have rocked cities and towns, and the military has cracked down with lethal force, killing 756 people, according to an activist group. Reuters is unable to confirm the casualty toll. Fighting between the military and ethnic minority insurgents has also flared since the coup with the military launching numerous air strikes in border lands in the north and east. While the armed forces have been battling insurgents in frontier regions for decades, attacks on such high-profile military facilities in central areas have been rare. HOPE FADES: The growing insecurity comes as hope fades for a bid by Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbours to find a path out of the crisis. The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held a meeting on Saturday in the Indonesian capital with the junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and later said they had reached a "five-point consensus" on steps to end violence and promote dialogue between the generals and their civilian rivals. But the junta has declined to accept the proposals, saying it would consider them "when the situation returns to stability" and provided the recommendations facilitated the military's own roadmap. Myanmar's pro-democracy unity government, formed to oppose the junta, ruled out talks on the crisis until all political prisoners are released. In an indication of the military's determination to crush dissent, state television announced late on Wednesday that authorities were seeking to charge one of the main leaders of the pro-democracy protests with murder and treason. Wai Moe Naing, 25, was arrested on April 15 when security men rammed him with a car as he led a motorbike protest rally in the central town of Monywa. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that Wai Moe Naing's group was linked to several explosions of "homemade grenades" in Monywa. "In addition, they also tortured and brutally killed two police officers ... on March 26," the newspaper said. It is unclear if Wai Moe Naing has a lawyer...."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Violence continues to erupt in Myanmar
Description: "Just under six months ago, the people of Myanmar delivered a landslide victory to Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy Party. It was the 75-year old's second election win, and it made the military so furious that it seized power in a coup on the first day the new parliament was due to sit. Since then hundreds of people opposing the military regime have been shot dead and thousands have been arrested. South-East Asia correspondent Mazoe Ford reports, and a warning, her story contains some distressing images..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: ABC News (Australia)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘We wanted to scare them’: the brothers who fought back against Myanmar’s army
Description: "Three months after the coup, four brothers tell how they joined protesters fighting the junta before fleeing for the border. The young men only had a moment to study the river before rushing into the waist-deep water. The brothers – ranging in age from 15 to 21 – were unfamiliar with the border area and afraid of being seen. On the run from Myanmar’s military, they pushed on into the Thaunggin River. After just a few minutes of wading, they stumbled into no man’s land. Moments after crossing the river, three smugglers dressed in military fatigues met them. After handing over 6,000 Thai baht (US$200) and exchanging a few words, the smugglers led them deeper into the woods and then to safety in Thailand. Three months after the military coup on 1 February, four Burmese brothers have told the Guardian of how they were inspired to join the fight against the military – and how their involvement in protests in Yangon that turned violent eventually forced them to flee at the end of March. Safely outside the country, the brothers have given an account of brutal military repression and their decision to take the fight to the military in a bid to prevent further violence. Their journey would take them from peaceful protest in Yangon to petrol bombing police stations and running for their lives. Lin*, 21,the eldest of the four brothers, said he had watched the coup unfold from his home in western Thailand, close to the border. Seeing the death toll mount amid growing military brutality he felt compelled to join the resistance movement, and soon his three younger brothers and two cousins from different parts of Myanmar followed him to Yangon. At 15, Za* is the youngest of the brothers. He said he took part in the resistance because he wanted to stop the violence on the streets. “Look at how many people they have killed in the past two months. If we don’t do anything and just let it happen so many more innocent people will die,” Za said. Joining the protests: The men met up in Yangon and for the first few days joined the peaceful protests. Soon, they became part of a nightwatch team protecting residential neighbourhoods from night-time raids by security forces. Armed with sticks and swords they say they helped women, children and the elderly move around safely. As they continued to demonstrate, some teams of frontline protesters began discussing the possibility of hitting back, Lin says. “People started saying we need to fight back. But they didn’t know how, and they were scared.” Lin says he was concerned it was just what Myanmar’s military, also known as the Tatmadaw, was hoping for. They told how they joined a small minority of protesters on the frontlines squaring off against security forces, using molotov cocktails and slingshots in what they said they believed was a legitimate form of self-defence against the military’s automatic weapons. But it was not without cost. During one attack on a police station, Lin says one of the team died after being hit in the head by a rubber bullet. He was in his 50s. “I don’t want my children to grow up in the situation that my generation and the older generations did,” says Moe*, 18, another of the brothers. The first attack: It was about 11pm when the group carried out its first attack on a police station. Lin describes how they moved towards the building, with more people joining the group as they got closer. Some were carrying molotov cocktails, others were armed with slingshots and swords, he says. But when the men edged near to the police station, the group hesitated. Lin says: “At that time I was aggressive, I was mad, no one was willing to throw the cocktail bomb. “I came back [to Yangon] thinking I was going to be a peaceful protester … but if I needed to be another thing, then I will be that, too,” Lin said. “So I took the molotov and went up to the [overpass] bridge.” The bottle landed right on top of a pile of rubbish leaning against the building. Flames started to shoot upwards towards the roof, Lin says. “We wanted to scare them,” he says of the Tatmadaw. “You make us feel unsafe, then we want you to feel unsafe too.” Lin says a truck full of Tatmadaw soldiers arrived, and the group started retreating. Footage seen by the Guardian shows teargas rounds whizzing past them as they fled. The group could hear the sound of people celebrating in their homes as they sprinted past. “It was like we were coming back from war.” Over the next few days, the brothers, along with a handful of other teams, targeted multiple police stations. Lin says he doesn’t believe they injured anyone in the attacks. They were unsuccessful in burning down the buildings. He says the attacks were psychological warfare and the men felt they had to show some degree of force to counter the military.....‘We had to run’:The campaign continued until the day Lin says they heard one of their friends had been abducted by security forces. “They contacted us and said he died. They tortured and killed him,” he recalls. “We all had to run at that point. They said, ‘One of our guys is gone. We are on the run now. You should too.’” They agreed it was time to leave. The brothers woke up early to begin their trip east to Hpa-An, the capital city in Karen state, close to the border with Thailand. The day after they left their apartment in Yangon, a neighbour told them police had searched it. After laying low in Hpa-An for a few days, they finally got the call to leave. They would have to make the cross near Myawaddy, a town known for its casinos and entertainment venues. After just a few minutes of wading through the river, they stumbled into no man’s land. Moments after crossing the river, three smugglers dressed in military fatigues met them. The smugglers demanded their payment upfront before they moved the brothers to a secret location. After paying the troops, the group hiked for another 20 minutes in the dark to a bunker where they were told to wait. “We were afraid of them because they were strangers with guns and we were in their place,” says Htet*, 18, another of the four brothers. “If they wanted to do something they could’ve and we didn’t have anything to stop that.” At around 3pm they were told it was finally time to go. They walked along a dirt path that would lead to a paved road, their guide told them. After more trekking on their own, they found their way out of the woods. They had made it. The group crossed the border at a time when Myanmar’s military had killed more than 550 people and detained nearly 3,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. “It was a hard decision to make to come here. Even though we are safe and comfortable, we want to be back there. But it was just too dangerous,” Lin says. “But the good thing was I had my brothers. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it alone.” *Names have been changed to protect identities..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 28 April, (756) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (1) fallen heroes today. This (1) fallen hero from Tedim Township in Chin State was killed last night 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 April 28, a total of (3449) people are currently under detention; of them (79) are sentenced. 1237 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. Since the ASEAN leaders meeting on 24 April at least 6 people have been killed by the junta. The junta’s pledge to “refrain from violence” should never have been believed by ASEAN. There is only “one party” exercising violence in Burma. Despite the junta’s ongoing violence on a daily basis, the Spring Revolution intensified across the country, including in Yangon and Mandalay. On April 28, the Yadanarbon and Mandalay University student strikes were attacked by military vehicle and people arrested in Mandalay City, Mandalay Region. Six civilians were arrested, and ordered to raise their hands under the hot sun. The numbers of injured have not been confirmed yet. Since the terrorists arrested Wai Moe Naing, the protest leader of the Monywa strike, by crashing his motorbike, junta forces have continued to crackdown on protests using vehicles and motorbikes. Arrests have continued both day and night using private cars. A 20-year-old young man was shot dead around 10pm last night in Tedim Township, Chin State and his body has not yet been returned to his family from the hospital. The terrorist group is using different forms of repression to put pressure on public servants involved in the CDM movement. If they can not arrest CDM staff, they take family members as hostage; force them to move from the government housing; firing; or charging and issuing warrants under various laws. Teachers from universities, colleges and management level have been forced to come back to work on 3 May at the latest. Families of Budalin Hospital CDM staff members were forced to move from staff housing in Sagaing Region. CDM participation by the civil servant is having a significant impact on the day-to-day running of the administration mechanism of junta. This is why CDM staff are being targeted. The junta coup lifted the FTTH fiber-optic 1 am to 9 am blackout enforced for 72 continuous nights, on 27 April. However, all other internet services are still cut off and the information flow remains restricted. Some social media and news are still banned, for 83 days now. The terrorist group is restricting the flow of information because of the fear civilians will get accurate information and opposition even stronger. The junta is also using Myawaddy TV (MWD) and Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) broadcasts to spread its propaganda. The violation to freedom of press is emblematic of the diminishing human rights in the country. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 915.06 KB 3.31 MB 940.08 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 27 April, (755) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. (1) from Demoso Township in Kayah State died on 27 April. (1) from Mandalay 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 April 27, a total of (3448) people are currently under detention; of them (79) are sentenced. 1200 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 April 27, people across the country remained on the streets to protest the dictatorship despite atrocities of shooting and torturing by the terrorists. Today, anti-military protests and repression escalated in Yangon. Although the coup leader agreed to end violence at the ASEAN leaders meetings days ago. In reality, junta forces have been violating human rights abuses on a daily basis. Today a man was killed and at least four civilians injured in Demoso Township, Kayah State during a crackdown on the people-made barricades, the terrorist group used live ammunition on civilians like in a conflict. Also, a man was killed and two others injured in an unprovoked shooting in Mandalay last night. Recently, the terrorist group has been cracking down on media and trying hard to cover up the news. This morning, the Mandalay based editor-in-chief of Voice of Myanmar (VOM) and a journalist were arrested. On the night of April 25, a former journalist of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) was arrested and taken to an interrogation center. According to UDHR Article 19, everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The terrorist group has cut off information flow between the media and public in order to delay access to accurate information. At the same time, the junta are trying to cover up their violence and crimes to both international and domestic audiences. It is for those reasons that journalists are being persecuted. At present, the terrorist group is not only openly looting but also kidnapping civilians. Some arrested villagers from Win Kone village, Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region were released on April 24 only after locals paid junta forces an amount they demanded. Today, terrorists raided the house of a protest leader in Mogok, Mandalay Region and looted items in the house. Last night, a fisherman was beaten and interrogated by the junta forces in a village that is located in Kangyidaunt Township, Ayeyarwady Region. His old watch and 1000 kyats were confiscated. On the morning of April 25, the junta forces raided someone’s house who is working for the funeral service society in Myingyan Town, Mandalay Region. They destroyed his house and looted his antiquity collections, money and crafts. The terrorist regime commits various forms of violence leaving people insecure and fearful mentally and physically. The civilians are facing daily threats and their basic human rights are being violated. The only way to achieve democracy, human rights, and internal peace is not through negotiations but to eradicate dictatorship in Burma. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 835.12 KB 3.35 MB 935.59 KB
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Title: Japan: Suspend Aid Benefitting Myanmar Junta
Topic: Business , Crisis and Conflict
Sub-title: Urgently Review All Non-Humanitarian Projects
Topic: Business , Crisis and Conflict
Description: "The Japanese government should immediately review its aid portfolio for Myanmar and suspend non-humanitarian projects that benefit the junta or military, Human Rights Watch said today. Japan should immediately suspend Official Development Aid (ODA) infrastructure projects carried out by Myanmar government ministries and other assistance involving military-controlled entities. Following the February 1, 2021 military coup, the Japanese government stated it would refrain from carrying out new non-humanitarian ODA programs in Myanmar, but it has yet to adopt a clear, public position regarding ongoing projects. The latest figures show that in 2019, Japan provided about 169 billion yen (US$1.6 billion) in loan assistance, 15 billion yen ($140 million) in grant aid, and 6.7 billion yen ($62 million) in technical assistance to Myanmar. “As Myanmar’s security forces gun down protesters on the streets, Japan should not take a ‘wait and see’ approach but should promptly and responsibly review its aid portfolio to Myanmar,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia program officer. “Japan should suspend all non-humanitarian aid projects that benefit the junta or military as part of global efforts to pressure Myanmar’s generals to cease their violent crackdown, release all political prisoners, and restore the democratically elected government.” Ongoing nationwide protests have demonstrated widespread opposition to military rule. The response of the junta’s State Administration Council to the largely peaceful protests has been increasingly brutal. Since the coup, security forces have killed over 750 people, including at least 45 children, and detained an estimated 3,431 activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. Human Rights Watch and four other organizations sent a letter to Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on February 25 saying that the Japanese government should halt non-humanitarian ODA programs to Myanmar. A Foreign Ministry official told Human Rights Watch on April 15 that Japan’s plans for a 100 million yen ($930,000) financial grant to the Myanmar police, originally announced on July 2, 2020, had been “undetermined” due to the coup. The official did not clarify whether the aid has been permanently terminated or suspended, and no public statement has been made regarding this project, or any other ongoing aid project. Another problematic project is the Bago River Bridge Construction Project in Yangon, approved by Japan and Myanmar in December 2016. The project involves a 31-billion-yen loan ($288 million) provided by Japan’s aid agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). On March 26, the local media outlet Myanmar Now reported that the project involves the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), a military-owned conglomerate recently sanctioned by the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. The report said that a MEC-owned steel mill in Hmawbi, Yangon, is supplying steel for two-thirds of the bridge’s construction and profiting enormously. In response to a March 27 inquiry by Human Rights Watch, JICA confirmed that Yokogawa Bridge Corp., a Japanese construction firm involved in the project, had finalized a contract with MEC and its affiliate in November 2019. A representative from Yokogawa Bridge also confirmed to Human Rights Watch that it has a “business dealing” with MEC, while saying that construction was on hold partly due to a “lack of material resources.” The representative said that the company would “pay close attention to ensuring the safety of those involved in Myanmar and continue discussions with relevant parties on what to do going forward.” The project is also being carried out in conjunction with Myanmar’s Construction Ministry and the Myanmar Port Authority under the Transport Ministry. According to Mohinga, the aid website operated by Myanmar’s Planning and Finance Ministry, Japan is currently funding several non-humanitarian infrastructure projects directly with the Planning and Finance, and Transport and Communication Ministries. Such projects should also be reviewed for possible suspension. Japan has been a leading donor to Myanmar. By 2017, the government had provided more than a total of 1 trillion yen ($9.3 billion) in loan assistance, more than 320 billion yen ($2.9 billion) in grant aid, and 98 billion yen ($912 million) in technical assistance. As of 2017, Official Development Aid from Japan to Myanmar ranked highest among member countries and institutions of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s development cooperation directorate. In November 2016, when Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, visited Japan, Japan announced that its public and private sectors would contribute 800 billion yen ($7.4 billion) to Myanmar over a five-year period. The Japanese government should trigger human-rights-based conditions enshrined in its ODA charter, which states that “Japan will pay adequate attention to the situation in the recipient countries regarding the process of democratization, the rule of law and the protection of basic human rights, with a view to promoting the consolidation of democratization, the rule of law and the respect for basic human rights.” With respect to humanitarian aid, Japan should maintain such projects but redirect the funds through nongovernmental groups to ensure it is used effectively and directly benefits populations in need. Development aid should be directed only toward basic human needs and where possible delivered through independent nongovernmental organizations. Since the coup, the junta has overhauled the Myanmar Investment Commission and all regional investment bodies, installing nine members, including Lt. Gen. Moe Myint Tun, who is also a junta member. The US, UK, and EU have sanctioned Moe Myint Tun for his direct involvement in and responsibility for what the EU said was “undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar … repressive decisions and for serious human rights violations.” As a military commander who oversaw operations in Rakhine State until 2019, he was also “therefore responsible for those serious violations and abuses against the Rohingya population,” according to the EU. “The Japanese government’s indecisiveness and silence over suspending its non-humanitarian aid that benefits the junta is contributing to the military repression in Myanmar,” Kasai said. “Japan should swiftly and publicly show it is on the side of Myanmar’s people and not the commanders who are behind the arrests and killings of protesters every day across the country.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-04-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Man killed in Myanmar two days after regional deal, local media say
Description: "Myanmar security forces shot dead a man in the second city of Mandalay on Monday, national media reported, two days after Southeast Asian leaders said they had reached consensus with the junta on ending violence. Activists opposed to military rule called on people to stop paying electricity bills and agricultural loans and to keep their children away from school, adding to doubts about a regional bloc's push to end Myanmar's post-coup crisis. The man was shot dead at a fried rice shop in Mandalay late on Monday and some other people were wounded, three Myanmar media reported. Mizzima news service also said a woman had been shot dead on a motorcycle in the southern town of Dawei. A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. With most internet access cut and journalists' movements restricted, Reuters could not confirm the incidents independently. An activist monitoring group says more than 750 people have been killed by security forces as the generals unleashed lethal force in the face of sustained protests against their Feb. 1 coup. There were more protests on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of violence at them. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing reached an agreement at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia at the weekend on steps to bring peace. But the junta chief did not submit to calls for the release of political prisoners, including the leader of the ousted civilian government Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ASEAN accord lacked any timeline for ending the crisis. Activists criticised the agreement that came out of the ASEAN meeting, a so-called five-point consensus that included an end to violence, starting dialogue among all parties, accepting aid, and appointing a special ASEAN envoy who would visit Myanmar. "We deplore the fact that the consensus was reached without any legitimate representation of the people of Myanmar," said a statement in the name of more than 400 Myanmar civil society groups, who said ASEAN should push the junta to hand over to a rival civilian unity government formed by its opponents. The military has not officially commented on the outcome of the meeting but the state broadcaster, citing the ruling military council in its main bulletin, said: "Some of the facts from ASEAN are a good contribution so we will consider that." MORE ACTION Pro-democracy activists have called for an intensification of efforts against the military from Monday by refusing to pay electricity bills and agricultural loans, and keeping children from going to school. "We don't participate in their systems, we don't cooperate with them," activist Khant Wai Phyo told a protest meeting on Monday. The ASEAN agreement did not mention political prisoners although the statement said the meeting heard calls for their release. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group says 3,431 people have been detained for opposing the coup. The most prominent is Suu Kyi, 75, who has been charged with various offences including violating a colonial-era official secrets act that could see her jailed for 14 years. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and has led Myanmar’s struggle against military rule for decades. Her party won a second term in November. The election commission said the vote was fair but the military said fraud at the polls had forced it to seize power. Suu Kyi appeared via video link for a hearing in her case on Monday and again asked the court for permission to meet her lawyers in person, a member of her legal team said. She has only been allowed to speak to them by video link in the presence of security officials so far. Police told the court they had referred her request to higher authorities and were "working on it step by step", lawyer Min Min Soe told Reuters. Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said Suu Kyi had not been allowed direct contact with the lawyers because it could be an avenue for illegal communication with protest leaders and because of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to an interview with Russia's RIA news agency last week. Her lawyers have said the charges against her were trumped up. The next hearing is on May 10..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 25 April, (751) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. These (3) fallen heroes from Mandalay City in Mandalay Region, Yesagyo Town in Magwe Region and Myaung 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 April 25, a total of (3431) people are currently under detention; of them (79) are sentenced. 1159 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. Today, people across Burma continue to protest against the dictatorship in different ways despite intense repression. The ASEAN leaders meeting vaguely asked for an “immediate end to the violence” – it was an unclear and general statement. During the meeting there were discussions and requests, some stern, but the statement does not include what the civilians are asking for – respect for their basic human rights, democracy and peace , neglected in the statement. People in Burma are not asking for humanitarian aid, but for the international community to stand for the truth. The statement does not deter terrorist atrocities against unarmed civilians on a daily basis with both combat zone weaponry. Yesterday after the ASEAN leaders meeting finished, even on that same day, the terrorist group violated the dignity of civilians including women. Human rights abuses committed openly in public. The statement did not stop the violence against innocents. Last night in Mayangone Township, Yangon, people ‘banging pots and pans were arrested. They were made to play drums on the streets and the women forced to dance whilst the junta forces openly mocked them. If they stopped playing or dancing they were beaten. The junta troops also threw stones at houses who protested by making noise with pots and metal boxes. After this, young men were detained and tortured on the road. Assaulting women with weapons who expressed outrage over the immodesty of the public ridicule – the junta treats people like enemies, committing crimes without any restraint. Yesterday in Karen State, at Three Pagoda town, a junta car crashed into motorcycle protesters and they were shot at 6 times. Five protesters were later arrested in a car crash and one woman was seriously injured. In Thapyay Aye village, Yinmarbin Township, Sagaing Region the junta came to crackdown the monastery and arrest the head monk. After this they destroyed one building and they seized 20 laptops from the monastery. The terrorist group troops openly loot, but it is being resisted. In order to stay in power, the junta is creating internal unrest. On the evening of April 24, Sagaing Region, in Myaung Township, a woman was arrested and died minutes later from illness, yet it is the detention of innocent civilians which is having these consequences. Civilians are already suffering on a daily basis through the atrocities of this junta. Compromise or negotiation with the terrorists will not be possible. Compromise will be used to prolong junta rule. Action which does not allow the terrorist to continue committing atrocities must be sought so that innocent civilians suffer no more. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 916.54 KB 3.31 MB 924.28 KB
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Title: Grassroots Voices: A letter from a jail cell
Description: A letter from a jail cell: Dear Father, the River, whose stomach was cut open, has declared war on our tiny house on the bank, hasn’t she? Right in front of the house you must be looking out for someone who will help you with embankment poles to straighten the river, to fill her holes with sandbags. In the murky water, which rises like a bamboo lance, you must be gazing at the sesame plantation — laden with fruits ready for harvest. You must be thinking a fistful of rice in your mouth is about to be fingered out. Maybe you will find solace in religion, contemplating our five foes. Maybe you will think of the void a son’s labour can fill. One son, two daughters and one son; The eldest is a poet in prison, the first daughter, a school teacher, the second, a graduate in the kitchen, the youngest, a student. Your poet son, is he even employable as the dah you use to clear weed? Forgive nothing, Father. Nothing! “Son, Pho Chan, why do I hear noises behind you?”, you asked on the phone. “I am at the bus stop to post a manuscript to a journal,” I lied. From your liar son in the dock to thugs who sweeten you with the tips of their tongues, “To our benefactor peasants … ”, because they want to have you from behind, hate them all, Father. Hate them all. A thief is unarmed. A thug is armed to the teeth. If thieves are ungovernable, if thugs are ungovernable, what’s the point of government? Whatever happens to the jungles whatever happens to the mountains whatever happens to the rivers they don’t care. They love the country just the way they love to grate a coconut, from inside out, for coconut milk. Plinth by plinth, to make their throne taller, they will point their guns at the urna on the Lord Buddha’s forehead. Their class is that crass. To cuss at that class if your religion forbids you allow me to lose that religion. I will turn the air blue on your behalf. Maybe you don’t know yet. your son was set up for demanding the so-called police not to harm ordinary citizens. Someday your son, who is not a thief nor a thug will become employable, good as your dah that clears weed. For now, Father, keep gazing at the plantation you’d ploughed with your naked shoulders. Keep singing the anthem of The Peasant Union. Yours ever, K Za Win Cell 1, Section 10 Thayawaddy Prison..... "Poet name – K Za Win (1982–2021) Birth name – Chan Thar Sway K Za Win was born from a peasant family, in Letpadaung village, Sarlingyi township, Sagaing region. His father’s name is U Kyaw Swe and his mother’s name is Daw Win May. He is the eldest son with three other siblings. He started to write poems from the age of 16. In 2004, his poems were published in magazines such as Thaung Paung Htway Lar Comedy magazine with the poem titled ‘The End’, and in First Eleven Sports Journal. From 2009-2010, he continued to compose poems and political essays under different pseudonyms. He produced his own collection of poems with the title ‘Reply letter to Ramón’. In 2015, as he was about to leave for Japan as a migrant agricultural worker to build a new life with his fiancé, he was arrested in Letpadaung for supporting the democratic education movement led by the students, and was jailed in Tharyarwaddy prison. After he was released, he lived in Monywa and worked as a volunteer Myanmar language teacher. He was an active member of the West-North Plains Poet group as well as the All Burma Youth Poet Union. He never failed to meet his student union comrades who were being detained in prisons. He contributed to political mobilizations as much as he could. Since the Spring Revolution began, he has shown immense bravery by taking part in Monywa protests, and lost his life as the demonstrations faced a violent crackdown from the military on March 3rd 2021..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The Journal of Peasant Studies via Routledge (London)
Date of publication: 2021-03-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 957.93 KB
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Title: At Least 109 Reported Attacks and Threats to Health Care in Myanmar Over Just Two Months of Military’s Crackdown
Description: "At least 109 attacks and threats against health workers, facilities, and transports have reportedly been perpetrated in Myanmar from February 11 to April 12, 2021, according to an analysis based on open-source reports conducted by Insecurity Insight, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and Johns Hopkins University Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR). The attacks are uniformly reported to have been committed by the country’s armed forces and police amid ongoing protests against the military coup. In addition to the military’s attacks on civilians and demonstrators, health workers have been targeted for providing medical care to injured civilians and other health workers have been attacked for their participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which is protesting the military takeover. Within the 109 total incidents that took place across Myanmar between February 11 and April 12, Insecurity Insight, PHR, and CPHHR highlight reports of: 97 health workers arrested 32 health workers injured 10 health workers killed Hospitals raided at least 49 times Hospitals occupied at least 36 times The incidents referred to are based on the dataset 11 February – 12 April 2021 Violence Against Health Care in Myanmar Data, which is available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). For the purposes of this research brief, one incident can comprise multiple types of violence or threats such as those above. For example, in one reported incident in Kyauk Kone township in Yangon city on February 27, 20 health workers were arrested and four were injured. In another reported incident on April 5 in Saunchaung township in Yangon, four medical staff were arrested when a charity clinic was raided by soldiers and police. In one reported incident on March 9 in Heho town, Shan state, soldiers occupied the Heho General Hospital. Local residents protested the occupation, resulting in the arrest of 36 people. The detained individuals were sent to Taunggyi Prison. “The Myanmar military’s persecution of health workers is taking many horrifying forms: ambulances shot at, clinics taken over by armed forces, medics killed,” said Jennifer Leigh, an epidemiologist serving as PHR’s Myanmar researcher. “By attacking the health system, the junta is terrorizing the population and cutting off access to life-saving care in the middle of a pandemic.These are gross violations of human rights, and threats against long-standing international principles of protection of health care, including the obligations of health professionals to care for the sick and wounded without interference.” “Attacks on health care are a global phenomenon, experienced in many conflict settings but also fueled by the pandemic,” said Christina Wille, managing director of Insecurity Insight. “Tragically, Myanmar has emerged as a major hotspot for violence against health care, as the military brazenly assaults health workers and attempts to control the country’s health infrastructure.” The research brief highlights reported incidents of violence against health workers, facilities, and transport in Myanmar between February 11 and April 12, 2021. It does not include information on violence against patients. Insecurity Insight, PHR, and CPHHR used an open-source methodology to compile incidents noted in local, national, and international news outlets, online databases, and social media reports. The incidents reported are neither a complete nor a representative list of all incidents. Most incidents have not undergone verification by Insecurity Insight, PHR, and CPHHR. Data collection is ongoing and data may change as more information is made available. However, the data offers a snapshot of how Myanmar’s military is persecuting health workers and targeting facilities amid its broader crackdown on dissent. The research brief makes several recommendations to United Nations (UN) Member States, urging the international community to ensure the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2286, adopted May 2016, which strongly condemns attacks on medical personnel in conflict situations. Earlier this month, PHR and 20 other organizations sent an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the Biden administration to take immediate additional actions to address the public health and human rights crisis in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: Physicians for Human Rights (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-04-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Atrocity Alert No. 249: Myanmar (Burma), DR Congo and Nigeria
Description: "ASEAN MUST UPHOLD ITS RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE OF MYANMAR As anti-coup protests continue, during a 19 April interview the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said that, “according to the responsibility to protect [R2P], the international community… has a responsibility to do what it can to protect the lives of innocent people in countries that are unable or unwilling to do so, or are in fact attacking them.” He stressed that it was “definitely appropriate” for the international community to act in accordance with the R2P principle and that Myanmar was “exactly the situation” where we “have a responsibility to protect.” According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 739 people have been killed by the security forces since 1 February and at least 3,331 people are currently detained for resisting the military coup. Two protesters were killed in the city of Mogok on 17 April, when the security forces opened fire on people gathered to show support for the National Unity Government (NUG), which was formed a day earlier by a coalition of democratic opponents to military rule. Clashes also continue between Myanmar’s military and the ethnic armed group, the Kachin Independence Army. The military is reportedly using civilians as human shields in northern Kachin State, forcing them to walk ahead of soldiers. Such acts violate international law and are a war crime. Meanwhile, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will discuss the ongoing crisis in Myanmar during a summit to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 24 April. Controversially, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, the coup leader, was invited to the summit, while NUG representatives were not. It is unclear whether General Min Aung Hlaing – who an earlier UN Fact-Finding Mission found was responsible for the 2017 genocide against the country’s Rohingya minority – will attend the summit virtually or in person. In an address to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on 19 April, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed, “the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States should not be used as a pretext for inaction in the face of serious human rights abuses. ASEAN must make it clear to the Myanmar military that the current situation is so grave that it cannot be regarded only as an internal matter.” He further called on the current UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, “to engage directly with the Myanmar military” and urged the UNSC to “seriously consider” the principle of R2P, “using a range of tools at the Council’s disposal.” The UNSC and ASEAN must implement practical measures to help mediate an end to the crisis in Myanmar. Nadira Kourt, Program Manager at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said, “the country is currently ungovernable under the military junta. The UNSC and ASEAN should immediately impose a global arms embargo, as well as internationally binding sanctions on senior military officials and affiliated businesses. Accountability is essential. The time for so-called quiet diplomacy has passed. Now is the time for bold diplomatic action.".....ETHNIC VIOLENCE, DISPLACEMENT AND HUNGER THREATEN DR CONGO: Last Friday, 16 April, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned of a resurgence of violence in the Grand Kasaï region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to UNHCR, clashes between fighters from the Luba and Kuba ethnic groups in the Bakwakenge locality erupted in late March. Local authorities have reported that at least 21,000 people have been displaced, 13 people killed and 190 homes burned down. Tensions between the two communities have been increasing since August 2020 when a deadly cycle of reprisal attacks resulted in 40,000 people being displaced. The risk of widespread ethnic violence is particularly acute in the Kasaïs, as the region continues to recover from atrocities perpetrated between 2016-2018 that forced more than 1.4 million people to flee. During that time the UN identified at least 80 mass graves, and more than 3,000 people were estimated to have been killed, including two members of the UN Panel of Experts who were investigating the violence. Most fighting took place between Kamuina Nsapu (a mainly Luba militia), Bana Mura (a mainly Chokwe militia), and the armed forces of the DRC. A UN Team of International Experts found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the militias, including extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, and recruitment of children, as well as abuses that “could amount to persecution based on ethnicity.” UNHCR spokesperson, Babar Baloch, called for “a renewed focus on restoring peace and defusing tensions in Kasaï to prevent another wave of mass displacement in the country.” There are currently an estimated 5.2 million people displaced in the DRC where recurring conflict in the eastern provinces has contributed to a massive humanitarian crisis. On 6 April the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme announced that an estimated 27.3 million people – one in three Congolese – are critically hungry, which is “the highest number of people in urgent need of food security assistance in the world.” The DRC government needs to urgently deescalate tensions in the Kasaï region, protect vulnerable civilians and ensure that the violence does not derail the ongoing truth, justice and accountability process for past atrocities. ARMED EXTREMIST GROUPS TARGET HUMANITARIAN WORKERS IN NIGERIA A series of attacks by armed extremist groups on the town of Damasak, in northeast Nigeria, have forced 65,000 people – 80 percent of the town’s population – to flee. Since the attacks began on 11 April at least eight people have been killed and dozens wounded. The armed groups looted and burned down houses, as well as offices and warehouses of international humanitarian organizations, including a health clinic and UN Refugee Agency facility. Armed fighters also conducted house-to-house searches looking for aid workers. Humanitarian operations in Damasak have largely been suspended as result of the violence, adversely affecting 8,800 internally displaced people and 76,000 people in host communities in the area. Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that these “humanitarian aid operations and facilities are the lifeline of people in northeast Nigeria who depend on our assistance to survive.” Over the past year, humanitarian organizations have become the focus of recurring attacks by armed extremist groups operating in Nigeria. On 2 March alleged fighters from the so-called Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) attacked a UN base and overran a humanitarian hub in the north-east, trapping 25 aid workers. In response to this attack, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, stressed that, “civilians and aid workers, their facilities and assets should never be a target. They must be protected and respected at all times.” While no group has claimed responsibility for the assault on Damasak, both Boko Haram and ISWA continue to conduct attacks in the north-east and have killed at least 3,000 people since January 2018. Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, materials or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance operation is a war crime. Recurring attacks on humanitarian workers demonstrates the need for the Nigerian authorities to radically improve security in the north-east. The Nigerian government also needs to expand programs that directly address grievances that armed extremist groups exploit for recruitment, such as poverty, endemic corruption, youth unemployment and environmental degradation..."
Source/publisher: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: 'I will not return to work': Myanmar coup cripples healthcare system
Description: "Myanmar's front-line medical workers are finding themselves in a precarious position, torn between their patients and working for a military government enforcing a brutal crackdown on the country. Moe* is 53 years old and has stage three breast cancer. She used to go for radiotherapy treatment every three weeks at the state-run Mandalay General Hospital in northern Myanmar. But the day after the military deposed Myanmar's elected government in a coup on 1 February, the hospital closed its doors. Doctors, nurses and other medical workers all walked out in protest and have not returned. Now Moe cannot afford the roughly $700 (£502) she would need to complete her remaining cycles of treatment at a private hospital. Without it, she believes she has around a year to live. Nevertheless, she does not blame the doctors: "It's the fault of the military," she told the BBC. "Even if I die with cancer, I can accept it. The rest of the people in Myanmar deserve democracy.".....'Near collapse': Myanmar's healthcare system has been one of the worst-affected sectors in the aftermath of a coup on 1 February which saw the military seize control of the country, sparking widespread protests. Thousands of doctors have joined the country's civil disobedience movement which has seen public employees and other state officials refusing to work under the new military regime. Myanmar coup: What is happening and why? The TikTok loving teen and others killed in Myanmar Myanmar's public healthcare system accounts for around 80% of all hospitals and clinics and provides heavily subsidised care to the country's 54 million people. This virtually vanished overnight - and in the midst of a global pandemic. "It's a grim situation," says Dr Mitchell Sangma, who is on the ground for humanitarian organisation Medicins San Frontiers (MSF) in Myanmar's main city Yangon. "The public health system is near collapse." But doctors feel they have little choice. "For as long as the military junta stays in power I will not return to work," says Kyi Kyi* a doctor in Mandalay who has been on strike for nearly three months. "I do not want to recognise their authority in any way." For the first few weeks after the coup, Kyi Kyi offered free consultations at private sector hospitals. But she quickly realised this was too dangerous: "We started seeing soldiers stationed around the hospitals, waiting for us to arrive."..."
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Source/publisher: BBC News (London)
Date of publication: 2021-04-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Intensifying widespread, systematic slaughter by Myanmar military must be halted – Bachelet
Topic: Protection and Human Rights
Topic: Protection and Human Rights
Description: "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday urged States to take immediate, decisive and impactful measures to push Myanmar's military leadership into halting its campaign of repression and slaughter of its people. "We have witnessed yet another weekend of coordinated bloodshed in many parts of the country, including the reported mass killing of at least 82 people in Bago between Friday and Saturday. The military seems intent on intensifying its pitiless policy of violence against the people of Myanmar, using military-grade and indiscriminate weaponry," Bachelet said. "There are clear echoes of Syria in 2011. There too, we saw peaceful protests met with unnecessary and clearly disproportionate force. The State's brutal, persistent repression of its own people led to some individuals taking up arms, followed by a downward and rapidly expanding spiral of violence all across the country. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time warned in 2011 that the failure of the international community to respond with united resolve could be disastrous for Syria and beyond. The past ten years have shown just how horrific the consequences have been for millions of civilians." "I fear the situation in Myanmar is heading towards a full-blown conflict. States must not allow the deadly mistakes of the past in Syria and elsewhere to be repeated." Over the weekend, credible reports indicate that Tatmadaw forces opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades, fragmentation grenades and mortar fire in Bago in the south of the country. Security forces also reportedly prevented medical personnel from helping the wounded, as well as charging relatives a "fine" of roughly USD 90 to claim the bodies of those who were killed. Some individuals are also now resorting to the use of makeshift or primitive weapons in self-defence. Clashes between the military and ethnic armed groups have also intensified in several locations in Kachin, Shan and Kayin states, where the military have been employingairstrikes that have killed and displaced civilians. As arrests continue, with at least 3,080 people currently detained, there are reports that 23 people have been sentenced to death following secret trials -- including four protesters and 19 others who were accused of political and criminal offences. The mass arrests have forced hundreds of people to go into hiding, and reports suggest that many journalists, civil society activists, celebrities and other public figures are being sought, many simply because of the dissent they have been expressing on-line. Wireless broadband and mobile data services were cut indefinitely on 2 April, leaving the vast majority of people without access to vital sources of information and communication. Meanwhile, the country's economy, education and health infrastructure have been brought to the brink of collapse, leaving millions of Myanmar people without livelihood, basic services and, increasingly, food security. Thousands of internal migrants have left urban centres for their home communities -- which once relied on their income. COVID-19 measures have effectively been brought to a standstill. The High Commissioner called on the Myanmar military and neighbouring States to facilitate humanitarian access to populations in need. She urged neighbouring States to give temporary protection to people fleeing the violence, and to refrain from returning people fleeing Myanmar at this time, in accordance with the principle of non-refoulement. "Statements of condemnation, and limited targeted sanctions, are clearly not enough. States with influence need to urgently apply concerted pressure on the military in Myanmar to halt the commission of grave human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity against the people," Bachelet said. The High Commissioner made particular reference to the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, which contains clear recommendations for impactful action in relation to the military.* Bachelet stressed the need to cut off the supply of arms and finances to the military leadership that aid its commission of serious human rights violations..."
Source/publisher: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Vigil InSight Situation Report
Topic: Health, Protection and Human Rights, Safety and Security
Topic: Health, Protection and Human Rights, Safety and Security
Description: "Protests continue despite a death toll of over 700. Resumption of widespread ethnic separatist violence sees thousands held at Thai border. Increased tensions with China and India. This document provides an analysis of the current situation in Myanmar and the implications for aid agencies working in the area. Watch the Vigil InSight video. SUMMARY International focus remains on the continued protests against the military coup, which are becoming increasingly violent. A significant increase in violence has been seen, linked to the country’s various ethnic separatist insurgencies, particularly along the Thai and Chinese borders. This has led to rising numbers of displaced persons and pushbacks of them by Thai authorities though India is now letting them through. Chinese troops have been deployed to the border, likely to secure gas supplies..."
Source/publisher: Insecurity Insight via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-04-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "The terrorist leader attended the ASEAN leaders meeting today, claiming legitimacy to the international community whilst killing and injuring peaceful protestors and innocent civilians. The release of political prisoners was not included on ASEAN ‘five points of consensus’ released late evening. All of the arbitrarily detained must be released. At least 1 activist was killed on the day of this meeting, and violations have been systematically perpetrated this past week. If the illegal military does not stop terrorizing its people, then what will ASEAN do. As of 24 April, (748) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. (1) from Pyinmana in Naypyitaw died on 24 April. (2) from Loikaw Town in Kayah State and Pyay Town in Bago 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 April 24, a total of (3389) people are currently under detention; of them (79) are sentenced. 1138 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 Naypyidaw today, a young man was killed during a motorcycle demonstration in Pyinmana Township. This morning in Mandalay, plainclothes terrorists were seen using motorbikes looted from civilians to chase after and shoot protestors, a young man was shot in the abdomen. Also in Mandalay, a young man who set fire to tires was shot in the head and dragged into a car when he could not move. In Dala, Yangon Region, some police and military vehicles chased away youths participating in a motorcycle demonstration. On 23 April night, in Thaton Town, Mon State. Two men were shot dead for no reason. Yesterday afternoon, in Thapye Aye village close to Myingyan Town, Mandalay Region, the junta went looking to arrest and shoot people, five villagers were injured and one is in critical condition. In Htigyaing Town, Sagaing Region, yesterday afternoon an anti-military activist was arrested and there was a clash between civilians and the junta, two women were injured in the clash. Persecution is a pattern of this terrorist group, civilians are persecuted daily, in various ways. On 22 April, in Pyay Town, Bago Region, three youths were arrested, the terrorist group returned the dead body of one with wounds across the body consistent with torture. Civilians are being made into an enemy in detention, increasing numbers killed day after day. The right to security and liberty have disappeared under this junta. The terrorists care only about their interests and power. So-called police and soldiers take property from civilians like bandits. On the night of April 22, in Mogok, Mandalay Region, junta forces looted 7 million kyat and threatened the neighborhood that whoever posted the case on social media would get shot. On the evening of April 23, they entered a household goods store (which sold fire extinguishers and equipment), in Mandalay and looted. The post-coup period is getting long, the terrorist group is robbing, destroying property, killings are only intensifying. All sectors of the economy have begun to collapse in response to the political deterioration. People continue to call for meaningful action against the terrorist group, but are still being ignored. The situation for ordinary people is worse than ever. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 910.04 KB 921.59 KB 3.27 MB
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Title: Global Norms Are Under Attack in Post-Coup Myanmar
Sub-title: The world’s action – or inaction – will have an impact far beyond Myanmar’s own borders.
Description: "With Myanmar’s post-coup crisis dragging into its third month, security forces commanded by the coup leader Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing show no sign of abating in their brutal suppression of the anti-coup protests that have erupted across the country since early February. Despite their massive numbers, protestors have been highly disciplined and peaceful. It was only after the security forces began using excessive and lethal force that a small pocket of them resorted to handmade weapons such as Molotov cocktails and outdated hunting guns to defend themselves, with many more realizing that armed resistance was their only remaining option. If the security forces have shown troublingly little respect for international norms in their treatment of civilians and activists, no less troubling has been the response from the international community in the face of what is fast becoming a “bloodbath,” in the words of Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar. In other words, although the people of Myanmar are the ones at the receiving end of all these atrocity crimes, the fact that they are ongoing and the perpetrators remain undeterred points to a collective failure on the part of the international community to uphold the norms to which it has committed itself, and sends a very dangerous message to current and would-be strongmen. As many have now warned, with the ever-more-real possibility of the country being plunged into a full-fledged civil war, the kind worse than what we have seen in the past 70 years, time is fast running out for the international community to act. The international community must wake up to the depth and extent of the reign of terror Min Aung Hlaing has unleashed in his ruthless attempt to crush opposition and assert his illegal and unconstitutional rule. His security forces have been given a free pass to kill unarmed civilians, to arrest and torture people at will, and to loot and destroy private property. According to the monitoring organization the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), as of April 21, the junta’s security forces had killed at least 739 civilians, some murdered in the most horrific manner. Among those killed are 50 children; the latest victim was a 7-year-old girl, who was shot dead at her home in Mandalay. As reported by the investigative journal Myanmar Now, there have been several documented cases in which an activist arrested overnight has turned up dead the next morning. In yet another but definitely not isolated incident, an armed police officer made a passer-by crawl on his hands and knees in a disturbingly dehumanizing manner. So far, at least 3,331 people, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and other elected MPs, politicians, student leaders and human rights activists, remain under detention, some in undisclosed locations. On March 27 alone, at least 114 civilians in 44 towns across the country were killed by the junta. Junta forces have gone so far as exhuming and dragging away bodies. On March 28, they burned a man alive. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. Before the coup, U.N. investigators had found a genocidal intent in the crimes committed against the Rohingya people by the security forces commanded by the same general Min Aung Hlaing. During their so-called “clearance operations” in August 2017, at least 6,700 were killed, mass rapes and arson were committed, and more than 700,000 people were forced to flee to Bangladesh. Furthermore, the U.N. Fact Finding Mission reported in September 2018 that the military has likely committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kachin, Shan, and Rakhine states, and in April 2020, the U.N. Special Rapporteur reported that “possible war crimes and crimes against humanity were ongoing in Rakhine and Chin States.” Myanmar is today facing charges of genocide for the violence at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Due to ongoing aerial bombing and offensives targeting civilians and their facilities across the country, thousands of Karen people are fleeing to neighboring Thailand, where there has arisen an urgent humanitarian situation. All this is to say that Min Aung Hlaing and his State Administration Council (SAC) are fast turning Myanmar into a “human rights ground zero.” From mass murder to torture to arbitrary arrests to killing children to shooting at medics providing emergency care to the wounded, almost every article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being violated or is under threat. In the borderland areas where ethnic armies have been fighting for their right to self-determination for the past 70 years, aerial bombings by his forces are deliberately targeting civilian populations and facilities, adding to the war crimes and crimes against humanity against minority peoples, and the genocide or ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people that the military has already committed. For those foreign states claiming that they have a policy of working with only “states” as opposed to “governments” – if they mean by any chance that the SAC is the state in question – they must get their facts right. The SAC cannot even fulfil its basic duty as a state, namely, to provide security to its people. Nor can it provide basic services like healthcare with many civil servants having joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to protest the military’s illegal, illegitimate, and increasingly bloody coup. So far as Ming Aung Hlaing’s coup regime is recognized as Myanmar’s de facto or de jure government, it must also be recognized that it is actively committing mass atrocities against its own population. Therefore, for foreign nations to recognize the SAC as the “state” would make a mockery of their commitment to uphold human rights and international law, as the latter is showing absolutely no respect for these. On the other hand, the newly formed National Unity Government, which it is imperative for the international community to recognize as the legitimate government for no other reason than that it receives overwhelming support from the people, cannot yet protect the people. Thus, the onus is now on the international community to protect the civilian population in Myanmar before the forces of SAC commit further atrocities against them, and sink the country deeper into chaos. What is lacking for urgent international intervention, whether in the form of R2P or otherwise, is not evidence on the ground but political will at the U.N. and in the capitals of the most powerful nations on earth. As part of their “statement diplomacy,” foreign missions based in Myanmar have joined a chorus of other diplomatic voices in calling for restoration of democracy among other things in the country. With so much emphasis being put on restoration of what existed before the coup, it should be clear that what the pro-democratic forces inside Myanmar want is not a status quo ante in which the military enjoys a privileged role in politics without being accountable to the people or any elected body. Differently put, what we had pre-coup was a military dictatorship with some democratic characteristics. In the meantime, as another massacre in Bago in which junta’s forces have killed more than 80 protesters shows, Min Aung Hlaing is in no way backing down. Furthermore, letting the generals off the hook for the most atrocious crimes would make a farce of global justice, and more importantly, would utterly fail the people of Myanmar in their search for justice. Meanwhile, the pro-democracy protesters remain as determined as ever to see the end of Min Aung Hlaing’s illegal and brutal reign. Many of those we have spoken to have told us that they are prepared to fight until the end using every means at their disposal. Sanctions, with their ineffectual record from the past, imposed by the U.S., U.K., and EU on the junta’s top generals and its economic complex are failing to deter them. As Min Aung Hlaing’s forces continue to commit mass murders and carry out summary arrests at the sites of urban protest and his bombs rain down on villages in the borderlands, friends of the Myanmar people might have to prepare themselves to contemplate more coercive measures, such as arming the resistance movement, including the ethnic armed organizations that are already in the fight. As the former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel wrote recently on his Twitter account, “the Tatmadaw is beyond reason. I see no value in dialogue with them until and unless they recognize they cannot win and make clear they are looking for a way out.” The people of Myanmar have shown their bravery, but will the rest of the world rise to the occasion? The clock is ticking..."
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Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar coup: Week from March 30 to April 17, Opponents of junta unveil Suu Kyi-led unity cabinet
Sub-title: Group seeks recognition as 'legitimate government'; ASEAN summit rumblings intensify
Description: "Myanmar's military on Feb. 1 detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in the country's first coup since 1988, bringing an end to a decade of civilian rule.....The Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy had won a landslide in a general election in November. But the military has claimed the election was marred by fraud. For all our coverage, visit our Myanmar Coup page. Read our in-depth coverage: -- Myanmar junta taps Russian air power to bomb ethnic rebels -- Failed state: Myanmar collapses into chaos -- Myanmar junta efforts to restore calm 'unworkable': ex-Japan envoy -- Myanmar junta reaps millions in gem sales as economy crumbles -- Myanmar coup presses Japan to retreat from Abe-era business push -- Taiwan takes tougher line against Myanmar regime -- How Myanmar's post-coup violence is transforming a generation -- Who is Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing? 5 things to know -- Myanmar: Inside the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's government..."
Source/publisher: "Nikkei Asian Review" (Japan)
Date of publication: 2021-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: SE Asian nations say consensus reached on ending Myanmar crisis
Description: "Southeast Asian leaders said they had agreed on a plan with Myanmar's junta chief on Saturday to end the crisis in the violence-hit nation, but he did not explicitly respond to demands to halt the killing of civilian protesters. "It's beyond our expectation," Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters after the leaders' meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that was also attended by Myanmar's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. "We tried not to accuse his side too much because we don't care who's causing it," Muhyiddin added. "We just stressed that the violence must stop. For him, it's the other side that's causing the problems. But he agreed that violence must stop." ASEAN leaders wanted a commitment from Min Aung Hlaing to restrain his security forces, which an activist monitoring group says have killed 745 people since a mass civil disobedience movement erupted to challenge his Feb. 1 coup. They also wanted the release of political prisoners. "He did not reject what was put forward by me and many other colleagues," Muhyiddin said. According to a statement from group chair Brunei, a consensus was reached on five points - ending violence, a constructive dialogue among all parties, a special ASEAN envoy to facilitate the dialogue, acceptance of aid and a visit by the envoy to Myanmar. The five-point consensus did not mention political prisoners, although the chairman's statement said the meeting "heard calls" for their release. "He (Min Aung Hlaing) said he heard us, he would take the point in, which he considered helpful," Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters. "He was not opposed to ASEAN playing a constructive role, or an ASEAN delegation visit, or humanitarian assistance." But Lee added the process had a long way to go, "because it is one thing to say you will cease violence and release political prisoners, it is another thing to get it done". It was not clear why Lee referred to the release of political prisoners when this was not in the five consensus points. There was no immediate comment from Min Aung Hlaing. A regular nighttime news bulletin on the military-run Myawaddy TV reported his attendance of the meeting and said Myanmar would closely cooperate with ASEAN on various issues, including "the political transition in Myanmar, and the process that will be implemented in the future". Charles Santiago, head of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights group, called for the release of Myanmar's political prisoners and a timeline for an end to violence. "ASEAN must now act swiftly and set a clear timeline for Min Aung Hlaing to deliver on ending the violence, or stand ready to hold him accountable," he said. 'RESTORE DEMOCRACY' The ASEAN gathering was the first coordinated international effort to ease the crisis in Myanmar, an impoverished country that neighbours China, India and Thailand, since the coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government. Myanmar is part of the 10-nation ASEAN, which has a policy of consensus decision-making and non-interference in the affairs of its members. Myanmar's parallel National Unity Government (NUG), comprised of pro-democracy figures, remnants of Suu Kyi's ousted administration and representatives of armed ethnic groups, said it welcomed the consensus reached but said the junta had to be held to its promises. "We look forward to firm action by ASEAN to follow up its decisions and to restore our democracy," said Dr. Sasa, spokesman for the NUG. It was unusual for the leader of a military government in Myanmar to attend an ASEAN summit - usually the country has been represented by a lower-ranked officer or a civilian. The leaders of Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Brunei were at the meeting, along with the foreign ministers of Laos, Thailand and the Philippines. While ASEAN's non-interference policy makes it difficult to tackle contentious issues, the body is seen by the United Nations, China and the United States as best placed to deal with the junta directly. "We in the [@UN] Security Council eagerly await the outcome of the @ASEAN meeting on Burma, which deserves serious and immediate attention," U.S Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield tweeted..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Southeast Asian Leaders Call For Immediate End To Violence In Myanmar
Description: "Leaders of nine Southeast Asian countries on Saturday called for an immediate end to the violence in Myanmar, where the military government has cracked down violently on the enormous protests over its February coup. At an emergency summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held in Jakarta, Indonesia's president called the situation in Myanmar "unacceptable." "The violence must be stopped and democracy, stability and peace in Myanmar must be restored," President Joko Widodo said. Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters have demonstrated in the months since Myanmar's military seized full control of the country from the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. In response, the military has imposed Internet blackouts, arrested thousands and fired on protesters. At least 748 people have been killed and 3,389 are being detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a Burmese human rights group based in Thailand. The official statement released Saturday by ASEAN leaders makes five demands of the military junta, including an "immediate cessation" of the violence and a peaceful solution to the situation via "constructive dialogue," mediated by a special envoy appointed by ASEAN. The leaders also demanded that Myanmar's military government allow the arrival of humanitarian assistance. The military's leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who was in attendance, did not make a public statement. The summit was his first trip outside Myanmar since the coup. The invitation of the general was criticized by opponents of the coup, including the new National Unity Government in Myanmar, formed earlier this month by pro-democracy politicians who have named the deposed democratic leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, as their leaders. The National Unity Government argued the general's invitation risked legitimizing the military coup and had called on Interpol to arrest General Min Aung Hlaing upon his arrival in Jakarta. In a statement released after the summit, the group's spokesperson, Dr. Sasa, praised ASEAN's actions. "We welcome the encouraging news that ASEAN leaders have reached consensus that the military violence in Myanmar must stop and political prisoners released," Sasa said. "... We look forward to firm action by ASEAN to follow up its decisions and restore our democracy and freedom for our people and our region." ASEAN has traditionally defaulted to a more hands-off approach to the internal affairs of its 10 member nations. In the days after the coup in February, the bloc issued a statement urging a "return to normalcy" but stopped short of explicit condemnation. But ahead of Saturday's summit, pro-democracy advocates and organizations urged ASEAN to take a stronger stand. "This is not an internal matter for Myanmar but a major human rights and humanitarian crisis which is impacting the entire region and beyond," said Emerlynne Gil of Amnesty International ahead of Saturday's summit. Myanmar's deposed ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, who drew international praise for denouncing the coup in a remarkable speech before the U.N. General Assembly in February, pleaded with ASEAN to prioritize civilians. "Whatever the decision made by the leaders of the ASEAN, they should take into account the saving lives of innocent civilians in Myanmar and providing humanitarian assistance to the people in need," Kyaw Moe Tun said in an interview with Al-Jazeera ahead of Saturday's summit. In Myanmar, protests have mostly quieted in recent weeks due to the crackdowns. According to The Associated Press, some 150 protesters gathered Friday in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, but dispersed quickly when police arrived..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: National Public Radio (Washington, D.C.)
Date of publication: 2021-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The women of Myanmar: ‘Our place is in the revolution’
Sub-title: Some 60 percent of protesters against the military coup are women who fear their hard-won rights hang in the balance.
Description: "Every day at sunrise, Daisy* and her sisters set out to spend several hours in the heat cleaning debris from the previous day’s protests off the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. Protests have erupted around the country since the military seized control of the government after arresting democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on February 1, and declared a year-long state of emergency. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a non-profit rights organisation formed by former political prisoners from Myanmar and based in Thailand, 715 civilian protesters have been killed and more than 3,000 people have been charged, arrested or sentenced to prison for taking part in protests. March 27 marked the deadliest day of the anti-coup protests so far, with more than 100 deaths in a single day. Daisy, a 29-year-old elementary school teacher, has been out of work since the first week of February, because schools have been closed as a result of the protests, but is the sole earner and carer for her two younger sisters, aged 15 and 13. Despite this, she spends a portion of whatever money she has left to help feed hungry protesters. The military makes use of dalans – local people who are forced to spy on their neighbours and, in particular, to target women living alone whose homes are easy targets for looting and harassment. As a result, Daisy and her sisters have been forced to move home three times and are now in hiding with relatives. “The military are preying on vulnerable women, breaking in and raiding where we live to seize our belongings and lock us up for no reason,” Daisy says. But despite having little financial security, Daisy continues to help with the protests. “As women, we are the most at risk under the military but however large or small, our place is in the revolution.”.....Outrageous displays of ‘profanity’: Across Myanmar, women protesters have lined the streets with vibrant traditional women’s clothing and undergarments in the hope of challenging a long-held taboo around women’s clothing. “Htaimein – Burmese for sarongs and intimate women’s wear – are perceived as ‘unclean’ in traditional Buddhist belief and thus considered inferior in Burmese society,” explains 25-year-old Su, an activist and university student who does not wish to give her full name for fear of reprisals. Su is originally from Dadaye, a town in the Ayeyarwady region of southwest Myanmar. “Coming into contact or walking under these is believed to bring bad luck, reducing one’s hpone – masculine superiority – in Buddhist belief.” She says hanging up sarongs has been an effective deterrent to keep the military from attacking the protesters as their staunch beliefs will not allow them go anywhere near the orchestrated clothing lines. Women are also using their sarongs to create flags and hats for men to parade alongside banners that read “our victory, our htaimein” to celebrate wielding a degrading superstition about women as a successful defence strategy. In a similar vein, women have been hanging sanitary towels drenched in red paint to emulate blood over photos of the military general, Min Aung Llaing. “For a society where men, including Min Llaing, detest the idea of menstruation, smearing his face with what he finds the dirtiest is unimaginably humiliating,” Su explains. “Sarongs and sanitary napkins are symbolic of the women in Myanmar and how they are regarded as inferior to men in society.” By weaponising these displays of “profanity”, women say they are reclaiming their status against the same patriarchal attitudes that perceive them as lesser in society.....Civil disobedience as a means of resistance: The Women’s League of Burma, an organisation which seeks to increase women’s participation in public life in Myanmar (which was formerly called Burma), estimates that 60 percent of those protesting are women, while the AAPP says women make up almost 40 percent of those arrested. The Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) has brought the country’s public services, including healthcare, schools and banks, to a halt. It is also behind efforts to deprive the military of its income by boycotting military-owned services and products such as tobacco, alcohol, coffee and oil, and refusing to pay government taxes. Chit*, a 26-year-old doctor-in-training from Yangon, has been part of a group of female medical volunteers tending to the wounded during the protests. She believes providing medical care to protesters is a duty for all doctors. She says she has heard of one female doctor who was shot by the military while trying to aid a patient. “As women, we are expected to stay in ‘safe’ areas of the protests but we know our place is wherever help is needed.” Female lawyers and bankers have formed an informal group to offer legal and financial advice to civilians, especially those trying to flee the country. “We want to offer our services to those in general need of legal routes or financial advice. We know the public have been put in a compromising position given a pandemic then a coup so free verbal consultations, advice, and going through documents with them is an extension of our efforts against the military,” explains Min Thwaw, a private lawyer practising in the capital, Naypyidaw. “Many white-collar workers have lost their jobs and those females workers continue to be threatened by authority figures but the military need us [the workers] more than we need them. Without us, the banking system will collapse soon and economic crisis will remain irreversible – a price we are willing to pay to cripple the military,” she adds. Economic uncertainty caused by the military takeover is likely to have a negative effect on the country’s $6bn garment and footwear industry. As a result, thousands of garment workers, predominantly young women, have taken part in demonstrations, urging the multinational companies they work for to denounce the coup and protect workers from being fired or even killed for protesting. While some Western brands have remained silent over the military takeover in Myanmar, The Benetton Group, H&M, Primark and Bestseller all suspended new orders from factories there until further notice, following pressure from within and outside Myanmar. Despite this, trade unions in Myanmar stress companies are not doing enough and are demanding more “concrete action” like documenting and addressing human rights abuses with their respective governments and committing to partial payments of orders. Many garment workers have left their family homes for the safety of other family members in order to participate in the strikes. They include 27-year-old Jasmine (who did not wish to give her full name) and five of her colleagues. They live together in a 250-square-foot flat in Yangon, surviving on food donations from the wider community as well as community money handouts – funds raised by local and international supporters of the CDM to finance the movement from afar – a portion of which they need to send back to their home villages to support their families as well. These young women march defiantly together in large human chains with arms interlocked. Jasmine says this is an effective tactic adopted by garment workers who are protesting to ensure the police do not separate them from each other. “They yank protesters away to break the chain then abuse those they capture in jail or publicly.” On February 18, about 1,000 garment workers producing clothes for Primark were reportedly locked in GY Sen Apparel Company’s factory for taking part in the protests by supervisors who sympathised with the military. Upon breaking free after several hours, many of them were fired. Jasmine also says that she and her colleagues have been intimidated with verbal abuse by factory owners, who confront the women physically, they say, and who have been trying to fire them for protesting. For now, Jasmine still has her job, although many of her colleagues have been laid off. “These are the challenges we are faced with on top of a coup; borderline starvation and no pay. We need the companies we work for to denounce these heinous acts, recognise what we are going through and protect us,” she says. Since the women live together, they have been easy targets for the military and factory owners. During the day, the workers liaise with activists to gather information about locals collaborating with the military by providing details about people’s whereabouts and public gatherings. This way, they can find out about potential morning break-ins into workers’ homes and abductions by the military and police carrying out military orders. As the evening sets in, workers quietly gather in one house to make plans for the next day’s protests. The military blacks out the internet every night from 1am to 9am and has banned all social media to stop protesters from informing each other about arrests or possible military targets. It is meticulously tracking telecommunications. It also imposes a strict overnight curfew and deploys soldiers with orders to shoot on sight anyone who breaks it. Jasmine and her friends have heard frightening rumours about people being shot or abducted if they are found to be breaking curfew. The women, therefore, move carefully on foot from one house to another in the dead of night to relay crucial information regarding potential break-ins, abductions and to make plans for protests. “We cannot afford to risk brushing off anything heard through the grapevine as hearsay. Nobody is here to protect us but ourselves,” says Jasmine.....The LGBTQ community: The LGBTQ community has also participated in the protests, marching with rainbow flags. “We know they despise our identity so we offer them the highest form of indignation, standing united and proud in the skin we feel most comfortable [in],” says 30-year-old trans woman Diamond. Diamond believes that the LGBTQ protests have encouraged more people to come out as gay or trans. “People come up to join marches then disclose this is their first time being publicly trans or gay because it is an opportune time to be true to who they always have been.” However, the LBGTQ protest efforts were cut short at the start of March when the military began a crackdown on the community by raiding homes and detaining members. Out of fear of surveillance and arrests, Diamond and several of her friends from the transgender community have either fled the country or gone into hiding. “As a trans woman, I want the future generation of Myanmar to know the LGBTQ community risked everything and stood valiant against the military,” she says.....Sexual violence as a military tactic: Protests against a male-dominated military that has no women at all in its senior ranks and very few (0.2 percent) in the rank and file, have come at a great cost to women. Activists say that military and police have manhandled, groped and sexually harassed female protesters. “If you’re leading a large crowd, they will try to grope your breasts from behind to physically remove you or, at the very least, will try to unbutton your blouse with their baton,” says Daisy. “Women who have gone into custody have been subjected to unnecessarily prolonged strip and search, as well as groping.” Sexual violence is nothing new in military operations in Myanmar. It has been used to crack down on the Rohingya Muslim population since 2017. Instances of gang rapes by soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity have been reported by the Rohingya population, according to investigations by the UN. With violence against protesters escalating – and no sign of the protests stopping – Daisy says she fears the military will use mass rape tactics “as a last resort tool any moment now”.Nandar, a 26-year-old feminist activist from Shan State, claims Myanmar is culturally a deeply patriarchal society where the military sees itself as the “father” of the nation, assuming the “dominant and masculine role”. “By nature of a patriarchal system, social hierarchies are formed through hyper-masculinity and deeply conservative views that consider women subservient,” she says. The lack of women in the senior military ranks, she says, indicates the absence of women’s voices in the political sphere and further marginalises them, reinforcing stereotypes and transferring a woman’s importance in the political space to passive social roles instead. Nandar, who does not wish to give her full name for fear of reprisals, says: “The progress feminism made [under democracy] allowed women to see the value of their participation in every sector, moving the country forward. But under a misogynistic military which renders women entirely invisible, we will enter a dark future. Democracy took us one step forward but returning to dictatorship is taking us five steps back.” Despite all the odds, women have used their momentum to vocalise their opposition to patriarchal control and the lack of democratic freedom in the country. They have been the backbone of the protests and are promising not to back down..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘We want democracy back’: Despite hardships, Yangon’s urban poor vow to fight on
Sub-title: Working class communities may have been among the hardest hit by the coup, but despite their struggles many remain determined to see the military overthrown.
Description: "Among the wood, bamboo and tin homes that sprawl over several acres in one of Shwepyithar Township’s largest slums, Ko Kyaw Thu Htet begins to weep silently as he contemplates life under a military dictatorship. “Many lives have been sacrificed, including innocent children,” he says. “The democracy that we want is very expensive – we have to sacrifice a lot to get it.” Kyaw Thu Htet has seen this sacrifice first-hand. The 24-year-old bricklayer has been a regular member of frontline protest teams in the northern Yangon township since shortly after the coup, and on March 3 security forces shot and killed a man in his 30s standing near him. The death occurred during a confrontation with police and soldiers outside Sein Gay Har shopping centre in Hlaing Township; Kyaw Thu Htet was one of 128 people arrested that day. Despite initially facing a charge of incitement under section 505(a) of the Penal Code, he was released on March 24, together with 97 others arrested three weeks earlier. The arrest didn’t deter him. Shortly after returning home, Kyaw Thu Htet and his wife, a 24-year-old garment worker, immediately re-joined the protests, stopping only when it became impossible to evade the growing number of police and soldiers on the streets. Kyaw Thu Htet has vowed not to return to work until the revolution succeeds. For now, he’s relying on his wife and his father, who is also a bricklayer, in order to eat. Life is much more difficult, but Kyaw Thu Htet said he would dedicate every waking hour of his remaining life to the protest movement. “We just want to get democracy back. We hate the military dictator,” he told Frontier, referring to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. From Shwepyithar to Hlaing Tharyar, North Okkalapa to South Dagon, Yangon’s working-class neighbourhoods have been among the most resistant to military rule. Scores have been killed, with security forces deploying battlefield weapons to subdue street-level opposition. Since mid-March, these industrial townships have been under martial law, with a stricter curfew than elsewhere in the city and many criminal cases heard at military tribunals. These townships have also been among the most affected by the economic fallout from the February 1 coup, which prompted the World Bank to last month downgrade its forecast for Myanmar’s economy in 2020-21 to a 10 percent contraction. Others are warning of a contraction as large as 20pc, and possible economic collapse. Many households in these areas were already struggling due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the National League for Democracy government ordered two stringent lockdowns last year. “With savings already drained, many poor households have been forced to reduce consumption to cope,” the World Bank warned. Combined with “existing welfare challenges”, the impact of the coup would “likely result in a sharp increase in poverty, heightened food security risks, and deeper destitution for those already poor”. Since mid-March, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have left Yangon due to lack of work and security concerns, returning to rural areas where there are very few jobs and they are reliant on the support of relatives. Much of this economic fallout has been self-imposed, in an effort to deny legitimacy and revenue to the junta. The Civil Disobedience Movement has shuttered banks and disrupted trade, while street protests have prompted many businesses to lock their doors. The closure of government facilities, particularly healthcare, has also disproportionately affected the poor. Frontier spoke to a number of people living on the outskirts of Yangon, who before the coup typically worked in insecure, low-paid jobs. Despite the hardship they faced, they said their support for the revolution remained undiminished, and they lay the blame for the economic crisis squarely on the military for illegally toppling the NLD government. Ma Hla Witt Yee, 25, lives with her husband and their four-year-old son in Nya ward of Shwepyithar. They run a small business making pillows using leftovers from the township’s many factories. Hla Witt Yee said that even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales were not as slow as they have been post-coup. Previously, they could bring in about K50,000 a day – about a third of which was profit – but that figure has dropped to K10,000 since February, the couple said. Like other interviewees, Hla Witt Yee said her financial problems could only be resolved through a political solution to the country’s crisis – for her, that means the release of detained NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the end of military rule. “We’re not just hoping for our business to recover,” she said. “No matter what happens, if the country remains under the military, our desire for democracy will not change.” Hla Witt Yee’s cousin, Ma Thiri Mon, 24, also works in the pillow-making business in Shwepyithar. A single mother, she lives there with her brothers and now her parents, who moved in after the coup because of their own financial difficulties. Like her cousin, Thiri Mon is also facing economic disaster and had been unable to pay the interest on a debt owed to a moneylender since before the coup. But Thiri Mon said she was more concerned about the impact military rule would have on her daughter and future generations. “Our children’s education has already been delayed because of COVID-19,” she said, referring to the year-long closure of schools due to the pandemic. “I’m very concerned for my child’s future.” She said children could only thrive in a democracy, where they have access to information and freedom of expression. “If not, they won’t be able to express what they believe,” she said. Many have made sacrifices to contribute to the resistance. They include a 42-year-old woman, also from Shwepyithar, who requested anonymity due to fears for her safety. A single mother and a businesswoman, before the coup she lived in a large, comfortable two-storey home. Shortly after the military takeover she got involved in the anti-coup movement, not only joining protests but also providing cash and in-kind support to demonstrators and striking workers. She was arrested in Tarmwe Township on March 3 during a large-scale crackdown on protesters and sent to Insein Prison in northern Yangon. Since her release three weeks later, she has moved to a slum in Shwepyithar, where she has resolved to live and support grassroots communities until the revolution prevails. “Do you know why I’m so determined? Only when we win will those arrested be able to go back home. Most of them are from the working class,” she said. “Wealthier people are more afraid than grassroots workers … most of those who are really willing to make sacrifices for democracy are from the grassroots.” Across the Hlaing River from Shwepyithar, the industrial suburb of Hlaing Tharyar has seen many of its factories close temporarily or permanently since the coup, due to lack of orders, raw materials or workers. Several Chinese-run and other foreign-owned factories were also set alight shortly after security forces massacred more than 50 people in the township in March. About two-thirds of its residents, many of whom are first-generation migrants to Yangon, have since left for other parts of the country, according to labour rights groups and residents. Those who remain face a struggle to survive. Ma Thin Thin Aye, 35, a resident of Hlaing Tharyar’s 20 ward, gave birth to her third child a few days after the coup. A former leader of a local labour movement, she was unable to join the resistance because she was looking after her young daughter. In November she left her job at a garment factory in Mingaladon Township to open a tailor shop at her home because she wanted to run her own business. Until February, she earned a healthy income of about K300,000 per month sewing dresses, but now brings in just K50,000. Her husband, a construction worker earning a daily wage, has also struggled to find work since the coup. The couple spend K60,000 per month on rent, leaving them little to get by on each month. But unlike many of her neighbours, Thin Thin Aye has stayed in Yangon because, she said, life would be even more difficult in her Ayeyarwady delta hometown of Mawlamyinegyun. “If we go back there, our lives will be worse than they are now because we won’t have any income. We just wish to get back Mother Suu. We’ll only be able to live peacefully when we get her back,” she said. Although some tentative signs of an economic recovery are evident, Ko San Yu Maung, the general secretary of Action Labour Rights, said the factories that had reopened were operating well below their full capacity. “Since the military coup, people have found it really hard to earn a living. They are all in a state of fear. They go to work today despite feeling under threat from security forces because if they don’t work, they won’t have any money for food tomorrow,” he said. Business owners, too, have been badly affected. One small business owner from South Dagon Township, who is also a member of local resistance group the South Dagon People’s Guards, said that prior to the coup he had been hoping to expand his business, but the military takeover had crushed these plans. Instead, he’s been forced to lay off his workers temporarily. “I sent all my employees back to their villages,” said the man, who didn’t want to reveal the type of business. He said his business – and the economy more broadly – would only recover when the political situation improves. “Politics is the foundation of a country. Without a good and stable foundation, everything will suffer – not just the economy, but also thinks like education and healthcare,” he said. “So we just have to survive as best we can for now – we can’t expect a good economy until we are successful [in gaining democracy].” Ma Zin Mar Win, 22, is another migrant worker who has remained in Yangon. She’s managed to keep hold of her job in a factory in South Dagon that processes preserved fruit. She works there with her two sisters, aged 24 and 28, to support a young brother and their mother. The family is originally from Pyapon in Ayeyarwady Region, about 125 kilometres southwest of Yangon, and moved to the commercial capital six years ago in search of work. Until the coup, they had been slowly but gradually building a better future for themselves, putting away some of the K600,000 they earn each month so they could one day buy their own home. But the periodic closures of the factory since February 1, either due to a lack of raw materials at the factory or difficulties reaching their workplace, mean the sisters now only take home about K400,000 a month. Although this is enough to survive on, Zin Mar Win said the coup had robbed them of a better future. “We were trying to improve our lives, but how we can do that in this situation?” Safety is a major concern in these outlying townships. Residents are scared of the security forces, and some days there’s either no transport available to take them to the factory or they are too afraid to make the journey. Zin Mar Win said she fears every day for herself and her family. “We’re not safe during the day or at night because they [security forces] are shooting recklessly. We’re terrified of being hit, whether at home, on the street or at work,” she said. “We want to get back the peace we once had.”..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘Will the killings stop?’ Demands for Asean to ensure Myanmar honours pledge to end violence
Sub-title: Asean says consensus with junta was ‘beyond expectations’, but there is no timeline or explicit commitment to stop violence
Description: "Human Rights Watch has told south-east Asian leaders not to “pat themselves on the back” for getting Myanmar’s military rulers to agree to end deadly violence, saying a consensus reached by Asean lacks specifics and makes no mention of freeing political prisoners. Nearly 750 protesters have been killed since the military seized power in a 1 February coup. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations announced after a summit on Saturday that the head of Myanmar’s junta had agreed to stop the violence. The Malaysian prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, who attended the meeting, said the outcome was “beyond our expectation”. But Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said: “Asean cannot paper over the fact that there is no agreement for the Myanmar junta to release the more than 3,330 political prisoners currently in detention in the country, including senior political figures who presumably would be involved in any negotiated solution to the crisis,” he said. “Not only were the representatives of the Myanmar people not invited to the Jakarta meeting but they also got left out of the consensus that Asean is now patting itself on the back for reaching.” Robertson said Asean had to ensure the agreement was honoured, and called for further sanctions against the junta leaders. “The lack of a clear timeline for action, and Asean’s well known weakness in implementing the decisions and plans that it issues, are real concerns that no one should overlook,” he said. A statement released by Asean – whose meeting marked the first concerted international effort to find a resolution to the crisis – said it was agreed there should be constructive dialogue and an immediate end to violence. The group would also provide humanitarian assistance, and a special envoy would be appointed to meet with all concerned parties. On Saturday, as Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing attended the meeting in Jakarta, soldiers and police fired on protesters near Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, according to reports by Agence France-Presse. One 50-year-old protester was held by the police and shot dead by a soldier, an eyewitness told the news agency. Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said he was anxious to work with Asean’s special envoy and monitor the results of the summit. “The result of the Asean summit will be found in Myanmar, not a document,” he said. “Will the killing stop? Will the terrorising of neighbourhoods end? Will the thousands abducted be released? Will impunity persist?” Charles Santiago, head of the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights group, also stressed the need to ensure the commitments were implemented urgently. “How willing Asean is in responding seriously to the Myanmar crisis is dependent on them holding Min Aung Hlaing to account, ensuring he does not take them for a ride, and delivers on the agreed points. We must not see a scenario where Min Aung Hlaing endlessly delays action, or controls who they talk to and deliver aid to,” said Santiago. Asean’s decision to invite Min Aung Hlaing to its meeting in Jakarta attracted criticism from Burmese activists and rights experts, who said it risked legitimising the coup. Since seizing power on 1 February the junta has killed 748 civilians, according to an advocacy group, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma. This includes dozens of children. At least 3,389 people are currently in detention or have been sentenced, including Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won the November election in a landslide victory. “We tried not to accuse his side too much because we don’t care who’s causing it,” Muhyiddin said of the junta chief, according to reports by Reuters. “We just stressed that the violence must stop. For him, it’s the other side that’s causing the problems. But he agreed that violence must stop.” Dr Sasa, spokesman for Myanmar’s national unity government, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians and includes elected officials who have been detained, said he welcomed the agreement, adding: “We look forward to firm action by Asean to follow up its decisions and to restore our democracy and freedom for our people and for the region.” Military-controlled Myawaddy TV reported Min Aung Hlaing had attended the meeting, and said Myanmar would closely cooperate with Asean on various issues, including “the political transition in Myanmar, and the process that will be implemented in the future”. The leaders of Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Brunei were present at the meeting, along with the foreign ministers of Laos, Thailand and the Philippines..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ASEAN leaders meet with head of Myanmar's military junta
Description: "Myanmar's military commander has traveled to Indonesia for an emergency summit of regional leaders. It's the first time General Min Aung Hlaing has left Myanmar since the army seized power from the civilian government at the beginning of February. Other leaders are set to press for an end to the violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists.According to rights groups, hundreds of people have been killed during protests. But demonstrators say they refuse to back down until their elected leaders are freed.More than 700 people have been killed since the military seized power in a coup on February first. In spite of the danger, demonstrators take to the streets almost daily to protest against the military regime - and demand a return to democracy. The country's deposed civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in detention, as do thousands of political prisoners rounded up by police.Last week, opposition groups and ethnic minorities joined forces to form a new 'National Unity Government.'In addition to deaths and arrests, the crackdown has also displaced an estimated quarter of a million people. The UN says the situation in Myanmar poses a regional security risk, and is urging ASEAN countries to take action.Pro-democracy activists have been calling for a tougher international response to the coup. The ASEAN summit will be a test of what Myanmar's neighbors are willing to do.Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutsche..."
Source/publisher: "DW News" (Germany)
Date of publication: 2021-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 23 April, (745) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (6) fallen hero today. These (6) heroes from Mogok Town in Mandalay Region and Pakokku Town in Magwe Region were killed on previous days but 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 April 22, a total of (3371) people are currently under detention; of them (79) are sentenced. 1118 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. Nowadays in Burma the terrorists are brutally assaulting anyone who stands against the junta. Women are not spared against the brutality. Females are being systematically tortured, (physically and mentally) sexually assaulted with intent. A 17 year old girl who was released from Shwe Pyi Thar interrogation center, Sanchaung Township, Yangon, said so-called police from no.24 police station verbally assaulted and touched her inappropriately on shoulder then threatened her with his gun. Two other women detained at the same interrogation center in relation to the bombings from Yankin Township where also brutally beaten. One of these women was treated worse and assaulted with a metal pipe. The so-called police sat on her shoulder, pulling her hair, hitting her female organs, she was not given medical treatment. These crimes are a clear violation of human rights, the terrorist group is cruelly torturing women. The junta is not using female officers but mostly male soldiers during questioning. After torture they are not given adequate medical treatment, putting their life at risk even further. The junta is putting the mental and physical security of the female arbitrarily detained at risk of sexual assault at any time. It is creating a climate of fear, sexual assault could happen at any time at these male-only interrogation centers Burma has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Dictrimaton Against Women (CEDAW). It is an international tragedy that these violations are happening inside Burma. The UN Women Organization, human rights groups, including the international community must not ignore us. They should take immediate and stern action for violating CEDAW and protect all women in Burma. In Bago Region, Pantaung Police Station was set on fire. On 22 April early morning, the junta arrested a 2-year old child, his father and grandfather. So-called police tortured the father and grandfather in front of the 2-year old child, forced to confess to the arson. After this forced confession, the mother came to collect the 2-year old. The mother was then arrested as a conspirator. Some local villagers were also detained and forced to confess through beatings in interrogations. On 22 April, in Tamu City, Sagaing Region, a male employee of Kanbawza Bank was followed by the junta. When they found 4 walkie talkies in his hut, they brutally beat him to the face, broke his wrist, so that his bone was showing, and lost excessive amounts of blood. He was told to only wear underwear while they threatened him with his life. Now the terrorist group is torturing and committing increasingly brutal violence, children are not safe, they can be taken as hostages. The junta is trying to break our dignity through violations of human rights, with no rule of law. They commit criminal acts. All civilians including children, women, and the elderly, could be detained. Civilians are helpless, there is no security inside Burma. These are the conditions of life inside Burma under the junta. Early morning April 23, Kayah State, Loikaw Township, Shan Ward, the junta crackdown on a dawn protest, one man who was running away had to jump into the stream and is currently missing. On April 23 there was also a gunfire clash in Magway region, in Thayet Township, between the terrorists and the people. The coup leader will attend the 24 April summit. The National Union Government (NUG) has informed Interpol to arrest the coup leader. To bring the continued brutality by this junta to an end, the international community must take immediate action to arrest the terrorist leader. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Do or die moment for ASEAN in Myanmar
Topic: ASEAN, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Aung San Suu Kyi, Block 2, Humanitarian Crisis, Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar Coup, Myanmar Crisis, National Unity Government
Sub-title: Bloc's extraordinary Myanmar crisis meeting on April 24 could be the last diplomatic chance to prevent a regional catastrophe
Topic: ASEAN, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Aung San Suu Kyi, Block 2, Humanitarian Crisis, Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar Coup, Myanmar Crisis, National Unity Government
Description: "When Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders meet in Jakarta to discuss the worsening political crisis in Myanmar on April 24, it will mark the first time that the regional organization holds a highest-level meeting to address a specific situation of concern involving one of its members. Non-interference in domestic affairs has traditionally been one of ASEAN’s basic operating principles, along with decision-making by consensus. As such, Saturday’s summit is seen as a test of the grouping’s code of constraint as regional leaders find themselves under mounting pressure to engineer a workable, face-saving resolution before the crisis spirals further out of control. To be sure, the situation in Myanmar is on a knife’s edge. Its ruling military junta has intensified a brutal campaign of suppression in defiance of world condemnation. The cycle of protests and bloody crackdowns has left at least 738 people dead, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group. Inflexible repression by the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known, has pushed segments of the urban-based protest movement into using low-level guerrilla warfare tactics, while escalating hostilities with ethnic armed forces in the north and east threaten a wider war on multiple fronts in the country’s borderlands. The fear within ASEAN is that the worst is yet to come. As the region copes with a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic that continues to thwart broad-based economic recovery, the bloc faces the prospect of Myanmar’s civil strife escalating into a protracted Syria-like civil war and a humanitarian emergency that sends huge numbers of refugees over its borders. The threat of a failed state emerging within mainland Southeast Asia has added impetus and imperative to ASEAN’s diplomacy. Should the regional grouping fail to act meaningfully, analysts say outside powers including the United States and China could be compelled to intervene, raising the possibility of Myanmar becoming a proxy theater for great power contestation. Saturday’s meeting is expected to set the parameters for ASEAN taking on a mediating role in the crisis. “ASEAN will engage with all parties in Myanmar, but under what conditions will be made clearer at the summit this coming weekend,” said Alistair D B Cook, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Following weeks of planning, the talks are seen as primarily aimed at seeking de-escalation and establishing conditions for dialogue between Myanmar’s military and the ousted civilian government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures remain in detention. However, it’s not clear that a negotiated settlement would be acceptable to either side at this stage, with neither camp apparently willing to accept a compromise or return to the status quo ante. The Tatmadaw has shown no willingness to talk to members of the elected government it ousted, having ratcheted up its brutality despite appeals from its neighbors to refrain from violence. At least seven ASEAN leaders are expected to attend the summit in Indonesia’s capital, with Thailand and the Philippines opting to send their foreign ministers. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, chairman of the junta’s State Administration Council (SAC) and architect of the February 1 coup d’etat, is expected to travel to Jakarta to participate in the face-to-face meeting. “The fact that there will be an ASEAN summit meeting on the crisis and that General Min Aung Hlaing will attend it is an important but only tentative step forward,” said Choi Shing Kwok, director of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and head of its ASEAN Studies Centre. “I expect ASEAN leaders to focus first on convincing Min Aung Hlaing to take a few short-term steps, including curtailing the violence against unarmed civilian protesters and exercising restraint in its dealings with its opponents,” he said. “Without such a break in the escalation in violence, no reconciliation of the political forces within the country is possible.” Critics of the military takeover have condemned the general’s planned attendance at the summit, with some observers viewing the invitation to sit alongside other ASEAN leaders as tantamount to lending legitimacy to his regime’s democracy-suspending putsch, particularly in light of the recent establishment of a parallel authority by pro-democracy forces. “The invitation to Min Aung Hlaing must be handled with extreme caution, and ASEAN must make it abundantly clear that he is not there as a representative of the Myanmar people, who totally reject his barbaric junta,” said Charles Santiago, chairperson of advocacy group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). Deposed members of Parliament, leaders of anti-coup protests and ethnic minority organizations announced on April 16 a National Unity Government (NUG), which says it is the country’s legitimate interim authority and has requested international recognition and an invitation to the ASEAN meeting in place of the junta leader. Figures associated with the NUG, which previously referred to itself as the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), have said they were not consulted over the planned summit. Some regional foreign ministers and officials are known to have held back channel talks with Myanmar’s ousted lawmakers since the coup, however. “ASEAN cannot adequately discuss the situation in Myanmar without hearing from and speaking to the National Unity Government. If ASEAN’s purpose really is to strengthen democracy, as stated by its Charter, they must give them a seat at the table,” said Santiago in a statement. “After all, they are the embodiment of democracy in Myanmar.” Analysts expect ASEAN’s diplomats to continue their quiet diplomatic outreach with the NUG in the weeks ahead, but some say that the Tatmadaw’s leader may have refused to attend the regional summit if representatives of the parallel authority, which the junta regards as treasonous and unlawful, were also in attendance. “The call by the CRPH for ASEAN not to meet with MAH [Min Aung Hlaing] is an attempt to gain the diplomatic upper hand over the SAC, but acceding to it will be tantamount to an abandonment of any meaningful role by ASEAN,” said Choi, echoing the view that any practical de-escalation of the situation requires direct engagement with the military’s leader. “The formation of a NUG is still in its early stages and it remains to be seen if the other opposition forces in the country will accept it as the legitimate political authority. Should it be able to establish this in due course, ASEAN will certainly have to take its views and participation into account in any future reconciliation process,” Choi added. Proposals being considered for the summit reportedly include a humanitarian aid mission that would entail a pause in hostilities and delivery of medical supplies needed to counter Covid-19 as well as food aid. The appointment of a special envoy who would negotiate with the military junta and members of the deposed elected government is also reportedly under consideration. Naypyidaw has thus far refused to allow the United Nation’s special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, to visit the country. Burgener will reportedly be in Jakarta to engage ASEAN leaders on the sidelines of Saturday’s summit. While still regarded as the best hope for a diplomatic solution, the 10-member grouping’s record in tackling regional human rights crises has been abysmal. ASEAN states are already clearly divided on Myanmar’s crisis, with some of its members describing the junta’s bloody consolidation of power as an “internal matter.” Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and, more recently, the Philippines have censured the junta in uncharacteristically strong terms and called for the release of Suu Kyi and other political detainees, a step that the bloc itself has eschewed. Others have taken a more ambiguous position. Thailand, which shares a porous border with Myanmar and clearly fears a fresh influx of refugees, hasn’t openly criticized the coup but has tellingly said it is “gravely concerned” about escalating bloodshed and has more recently called for dialogue between the Tatmadaw and NLD. Hunter Marston, a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, said he anticipates that the summit will expose rifts within ASEAN on democratic and autocratic lines. “I do not expect a univocal response strong enough to convince Min Aung Hlaing that his regime has gone too far and will be held to account.” By ignoring the NUG’s entreaty to attend the summit, ASEAN has put itself in the awkward position of “effectively treating Min Aung Hlaing as the representative of Myanmar’s government even as certain members call for the release of elected leaders and a return to democracy in the country,” he added. Marston said some ASEAN states at least appeared reluctant to recognize the senior general as the legitimate leader of Myanmar. The Canberra-based academic said outside powers such as the United States, the European Union and others could soon opt to extend diplomatic recognition to the NUG, but aren’t ready to do so yet. The NUG aims to establish a federal democratic system, but isn’t yet materially able to support a nationwide parallel administration. Outside powers are thus “waiting to see how much of a following [the NUG] have, what resources they’re able to command, and whether they can effectively claim to govern Myanmar given the current state of chaos,” said Marston. Elina Noor, director for political-security affairs and deputy director at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington DC, said there will be pressures on, but also an inclination by, Western liberal democracies, in particular, to recognize the NUG as Myanmar’s legitimate government, which could allow it to access country funds now punitively frozen in overseas banking systems. The US, for one, is now holding over US$1 billion worth of Myanmar state funds. “If this happens, ASEAN will be in an even more difficult position since the UN and ASEAN’s own dialogue partners have all expressed support for the grouping’s key role in this crisis. ASEAN centrality will be further questioned if a split on recognition happens in the international community,” she told Asia Times. ASEAN centrality refers to the notion that the regional grouping and its associated mechanisms should serve as the core institutional platform through which disputes are managed and wider diplomacy with outside powers is advanced. That centrality, observers argue, risks being undermined by ASEAN’s inability to manage affairs within its region. “If the violence can be stopped and some interim mechanism of dialogue can be agreed upon involving the NUG, then ASEAN can help play a constructive, bridging role in charting a more sustainable roadmap ahead for Myanmar,” Noor said. In a recent op-ed published by the Jakarta Post, Noor said that while ASEAN must deal with the military junta as the de facto party in power in order to realistically address the situation, Myanmar’s suspension from ASEAN should be a consideration, particularly if the regime remains intransigent and rebuffs regional efforts to reach a solution. While suspending Myanmar from the bloc at a time of worsening violence could seem unconstructive and cause ASEAN to lose its leverage with the junta, Noor said Southeast Asian governments could be better off continuing their engagement with the Tatmadaw outside rather than within the ASEAN framework. “The solution may be to unshackle ASEAN member states from the constraining formalities of organizational bureaucracy while still working closely behind the scenes plurilaterally, as is effectively the case now,” she said. Noor added that engagement, rather than isolation, would in any case help to affirm ASEAN centrality and stave off external interventions. “If Myanmar teeters on the brink of civil war or if there is protracted bloodshed, there is a risk external powers will feel compelled to intervene and not completely for altruistic reasons, either,” she said. “This would be a worst-case scenario, in which major powers would carve out spheres and territories of influence in Myanmar as well as in the region. “That is why it is imperative for ASEAN to set the stage this weekend by demonstrating effectiveness, even if it’s just to stop the ongoing violence so that mediation can begin. It won’t be enough for the people of Myanmar who voted in a different government, but it will be a necessary precondition for some kind of change on the ground.” Should the crisis in Myanmar escalate and ASEAN’s attempt to broker a solution falter, analysts believe it is possible that the case for external military intervention, potentially in the form of missile strikes against military targets, could be seriously considered by Washington and its allies in a bid to pressure Naypyidaw to the negotiating table. The possibility of such an escalation is still seen as remote given that Washington has so far been broadly content to leave the crisis to ASEAN. The situation in Myanmar, moreover, isn’t deemed as being of critical strategic importance to the US, and military intervention would almost certainly spark divisions among the Washington-led Quad alliance. “The appetite for and effectiveness of foreign military intervention by the major powers is very much in question today,” said ISEAS’ director Choi. “With the Tatmadaw being fiercely independent and having the option to play one major power off against another, it is highly questionable what kind of effective intervention any power could mount.” ASEAN’s approach, “whatever it may be called, therefore remains an attractive option for the international community to rally behind, though its ability to deliver is not guaranteed,” Choi added. He expects “only modest progress” at the weekend’s summit, with the main aim being to persuade Min Aung Hlaing to accept a process towards a mediated reconciliation, which could also include the involvement of other international stakeholders. “The situation in Myanmar is at a point where it could get a lot worse before it gets better,” Choi lamented. “ASEAN’s record in the past has been to continue engaging rather than to close doors when there is still hope for improvement. Having said that, the situation is so open-ended that I believe anything is possible and nothing can be ruled out.”..."
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Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
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Title: For Immediate Release: From the office of Union Minister of International Cooperation and Spokesperson, National Unity Government of Myanmar - အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ နိုင်ငံတကာပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန၏ ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
Description: "On principle, the meetings that can contribute to a solution to the deepening crisis in Myanmar are welcome, meetings that exclude the people of Myanmar but include murderer in chief Min Aung Hlaing who is murdering the people of Myanmar are unlikely to be helpful. The legitimate representatives of the people and country of Myanmar, the National Unity Government (NUG) stands ready to engage and attend any ASEAN meeting on Myanmar, including the one scheduled for April the 24th that starts in less than 24 hours. We firmly believe that a meeting on Myanmar should not include illegal, illegitimate military junta unless the following serious conditions are met. The military junta must meets the following conditions and demonstrates that it is adhering to them. This is the only way to restore democracy, stability and prevent the great civil war that will end in genocide. 1. Stop murdering civilians. The junta has killed over 740 Myanmar civilians since the coup and the number of its victims increase daily; 2. Stop systematically attacking neighborhoods and randomly discharging weapons into civilians' homes that have claimed the lives of many civilians, including children; 3. Stop bombing and shelling villages, which has caused significant casualties and has led to tens of thousands of civilians being displaced; 4. Stop preventing those who need medical care from receiving it, including agreeing to immediately stop: (i) occupying medical facilities, (ii) arresting and attacking medical personnel, and (iii) preventing emergency medical personnel from reaching victims; 5. Unconditionally release the over 3,300 political prisoners detained since the coup and stop arbitrarily detaining protesters, CDM members and others who are exercising their fundamental right to the freedom of expression. 6. End the coup, end all violence and return the power to elected Government of Myanmar- t he National Unity Government -NUG We once again express our sincere appreciation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) willingness to help Myanmar address the crisis that has gripped our nation, and indeed our region, following the illegal coup d'etat on 1 February. Dr.Sasa Union Minister of International Cooperation and Spokesperson National Unity Government of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: Dr. Sasa via National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
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Title: Min Aung Hlaing’s ASEAN invite is necessary despite injustice of ignoring shadow government
Topic: Asean, Emergency Meeting On Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar Coup
Topic: Asean, Emergency Meeting On Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar Coup
Description: "On April 24, ASEAN is set to hold an emergency meeting in Jakarta on the political crisis in Myanmar. On February 1 the Myanmar military, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, took over the country’s government after alleging there were irregularities in last November’s elections. There is no evidence of mass voter fraud and since taking power the military has imposed draconian measures to silence resistance to the takeover, including curfews, internet blackouts and bans on social gatherings. Amid waves of mass protest, security forces have also killed over 700 people—a number the military disputes. With a global spotlight on the situation, ASEAN’s meeting is an attempt to work towards a resolution of the political impasse. In the runup to the meeting, however, there has been considerable handwringing by activists and observers as to the role ASEAN is prepared to play in the conflict. Activists aligned with Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement are concerned that by inviting Min Aung Hlaing to the summit, ASEAN legitimizes the military’s actions on the international stage, including its use of deadly force against its own population. They also argue that by ignoring Myanmar’s shadow government, an organization called the National Unity Government (NUG) made up of the country’s duly elected leaders, ASEAN is dismissing the stakeholders that have a legitimate say in the country’s future. With that said, despite the injustice and authoritarianism of the military government, not inviting them to the meeting would likely make Myanmar’s political situation worse. Although disinviting Min Aung Hlaing would be a snub to the military government—and a cathartic moment for activists—the reality is that the junta holds power in Myanmar. Without his attendance at the meeting, ASEAN leaders would be abandoning an opportunity to apply direct diplomatic pressure. Instead of decrying the attendance of junta leaders at ASEAN’s meeting, pro-democracy advocates should focus on the way the bloc interacts with Myanmar’s military government when the meeting takes place.....ASEAN needs to walk a fine line given democratic norms in the region: The metaphorical elephant in the room regarding ASEAN’s dealings with Myanmar’s junta is that a significant portion of the bloc is made up of countries with authoritarian leaders, who in some cases circumvented or altered the democratic process to gain power. Cambodia’s Hun Sen, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Thailand’s Prayuth Chan-ocha are the most glaring examples. After Thailand’s military took power in 2014, for instance, ASEAN’s response was muted and leaders in the region generally treated the coup as an internal matter. Noninterference is a guiding principle of the bloc, as stated in ASEAN’s charter. This arguably gives the junta more confidence coming into the summit and they will doubtlessly claim that the crisis is a domestic issue that does not warrant outside interference. One of the main issues following the coup in Myanmar, however, is the ongoing violence coupled with widespread international attention. This has put added pressure on ASEAN to help find a resolution to the crisis. Amid the controversy surrounding the meeting, Thailand’s Prayuth announced that he would not be attending personally and instead would send his foreign minister, saying that other countries are also doing the same. So far, only the Philippines has confirmed it intends to follow Thailand’s lead in sending its foreign minister. The heads of state of Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, meanwhile, confirmed they would be attending.....ASEAN must engage the junta but that doesn’t mean they should treat it as a normal government: Although engagement with the junta is necessary, that doesn’t mean leaders can’t take steps to make the summit a meaningful step towards resolving the crisis in Myanmar. Short of inviting NUG leaders, ASEAN leaders could take smaller steps to ensure the military government doesn’t think the meeting is business-as-usual. As suggested by pro-democracy activists, leaders in the region could express their position on the coup by ignoring the international titles of junta officials, such as foreign minister, in favor of referring to them as delegates of the military’s governing body, known as the State Administration Council (SAC). Another idea is to allow member states to make their own official statements after the meeting instead of issuing only a single joint statement by ASEAN’s Chair. This would give member states a chance to clearly voice their disagreements with the junta. Most importantly, despite ASEAN’s potential disagreements over the situation in Myanmar, the bloc must convey to Min Aung Hlaing and his government that the SAC’s actions not only push the region into further political disrepute but also threaten regional stability. Alongside the language of noninterference in ASEAN’s charter is a commitment to adhere to the “principles of democracy…respect for and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” ASEAN has a duty to push for stable democracy, peace and security for the people of Myanmar. Directly engaging with those in charge on the ground in Myanmar, in a tactful and careful manner, is the best way to increase the likelihood that this happens..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today" (Singapore)
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Open Letter to ASEAN Leaders: Recommendations from CSOs in Myanmar and in Southeast Asia to the Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar - အာဆီယံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များသို့ အိတ်ဖွင့်ပေးစာ – မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနှင့် အရှေ့တောင်အာရှရှိ အရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများမှ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးသို့ ပေးပို့သောအကြံပြုတိုက်တွန်းချက်များ
Description: "Your Excellencies, In alignment with the upcoming Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar on 24 April 2021, we, the undersigned 744 individuals, 402 civil society organisations in Myanmar and 444 in other Southeast Asian nations and globally, call on the ASEAN, its leaders and Member States to come up with an effective and sustainable strategy jointly with the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and other international community actors in addressing the illegitimate and brutal coup and atrocity crimes committed by the military junta in Myanmar. We welcome the decision to hold the Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar, based on the proposal made by President Joko Widodo of the Republic of Indonesia to discuss the worsening situation in Myanmar following the violent crackdown against peaceful protesters and the terror campaign against civilians launched by the junta. The decision hopefully constitutes a precedent and reflects the commitment of ASEAN Member States leaders to address Myanmar’s appalling situation using its highest-level policy-making body. However, in view of ASEAN Member States’ differing positions on the coup in Myanmar, we remain extremely concerned that the ASEAN Summit’s response might be to consider the crisis as solely within Myanmar’s domestic affairs and therefore deciding to refrain from any meaningful action in line with the “ASEAN Way” of non-interference and overzealous respect for ‘state sovereignty’. The differing positions of ASEAN Member States have made it difficult for ASEAN to reach a consensus and resulted in equivocations and delayed responses from ASEAN, while the military junta continued its deliberate, murderous attacks on Myanmar’s people, including various violence against women and girls, much to our sorrow and anger. As evidenced from the outputs produced by the Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (IAFMM), ASEAN responses fall well short of meeting the will of the people of Myanmar. The chair’s statement of the IAFMM meeting neither specifically publicly called out the junta’s brutality nor called for stronger cooperation with the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council. Further, it also fails to mention ASEAN’s commitment to supporting targeted economic sanctions against military personnel and business entities and global arms embargo and referral of the Myanmar situation to the ICC. With the different interests and political will of ASEAN Member States at the moment, we are concerned to what extent the Special ASEAN Summit can create an immediate and meaningful intervention to resolve the situation of Myanmar. ASEAN’s collective and meaningful action to uphold democracy is warranted at this time. Any decision by the ASEAN leaders to treat the military junta as the legitimate representative of Myanmar in the Summit will serve to legitimize the military junta’s crimes and will thus damage not only the relationship of ASEAN with the peoples of Myanmar but the people’s movement for democracy and human rights in the region as a whole. Further, the ASEAN and its Member States must recognise the legitimacy of the National Unity Government (NUG), the legitimate and democratically-elected government of Myanmar, given that it represents 76% of elected Members of the Union Parliament, ethnic leaders, the civil disobedience movement, and general strike committees endorsed by the people of Myanmar. Therefore, Myanmar must be represented by the NUG; not by the illegal junta who is trying to take full control of the country through its unprecedented brutality. As we send this letter to the ASEAN Leaders, the violence and killings by the Myanmar military against protesters and supporters continue with no sign of abating. The junta have so far arbitrarily killed 739 and arrested 3,331 people, including women, elderly people and children.[1] In Karen and Kachin ethnic areas, the junta has been bombing villages, displacing more than 30,000 villagers.[2] In these bombing attacks, civilians including children lost their lives as well as faced difficulties not only about their safety, but also for health, shelter and food. Among those fleeing were women, children, elderly and pregnant women who are due to give birth. There was also a case of a woman who gave birth to her child while she was fleeing. Given the gravity of the situation, the increasing number of victims, and the impact of the crisis on the region’s security and political stability, we strongly urge ASEAN to take firm and effective actions to address the Myanmar coup through the Special ASEAN Summit. We urge all ASEAN leaders to listen to, strongly consider, and to heed the aspirations and will of the peoples of Myanmar. The voices of Myanmar people who have risked their lives in defense of democracy and justice must be the anchor, the conscience, behind any modality and outcome of the Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar.....၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဧပြီလ ၂၄ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်မည့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အာဆီယံအထူး ထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးနှင့်အညီ အာဆီယံခေါင်းဆောင်များနှင့် အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်နေသည့် တရားမဝင် ရက်စက်သော အာဏာသိမ်းမှုနှင့် စစ်အုပ်စုက ကျူးလွန်သော ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းရာတွင် ကုသသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီ၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ကောင်စီ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး (ICC) နှင့် အခြားသက်ဆိုင်ရာ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများနှင့်အတူ ထိရောက်ခိုင်မာသော မဟာဗျူဟာတစ်ခုကို ပူးတွဲလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် အောက်တွင် လက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးထားသော တစ်သီးပုဂ္ဂလ ၇၄၄ ဦး၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ အရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်း ၄၀၂ ဖွဲ့နှင့် အခြား အရှေ့တောင်အာရှနိုင်ငံများမှ အရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်း ၄၄၄ ဖွဲ့တို့က တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။ အင်ဒိုနီးရှားနိုင်ငံ သမ္မတ ဂျိုကို ဝီဒိုဒို (Joko Widodo) ၏ အဆိုပြုချက်အပေါ် အခြေခံပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်း ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒပြသူများအပေါ် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ လုပ်ဆောင်သော အကြမ်းဖက် ဖြိုခွဲမှုများနှင့် အရပ်သားများအပေါ် ကြောက်မက်ဖွယ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့်နောက်ပိုင်း ပိုမိုဆိုးရွားလာနေသော အခြေအနေများကို ဆွေးနွေးရန်အတွက် အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးကို ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်ရန် ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို မိမိတို့မှ ထောက်ခံကြိုဆိုသည်။ ယင်းဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်သည် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ ၎င်းတို့၏ အမြင့်ဆုံးအဆင့် မူဝါဒရေးဆွဲချမှတ်သည့်အဖွဲ့ကို အသုံးပြုပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသော ဆိုးရွားလှသည့် အခြေအနေများကို ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းရန် ကတိကဝတ်ပြုမှုကို ထင်ဟပ်သည့်အပြင် လိုက်နာရမည့်ထုံးတမ်းစဉ်လာဖြစ်လာလိမ့်မည်ဟု မျှော်လင့်ပါသည်။ သို့ရာတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုအပေါ် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများ၏ မတူကွဲပြားနေသော ရပ်တည်ချက်များကို ကြည့်ခြင်းအားဖြင့် အာဆီယံထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးမှ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အကြပ်အတည်းကို ပြည်တွင်းရေးသာဖြစ်ပြီး “အာဆီယံနည်း” အရ ဝင်ရောက်စွက်ဖက်မှု မပြုခြင်းနှင့် နိုင်ငံ၏ အချုပ်အခြာအာဏာအပေါ် အလွန်အကျွံ လေးစားမှုတို့ကြောင့် အဓိပ္ပါယ်ပြည့်၀သော အရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်မှု လုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းမှ ရှောင်ကြဥ်သွားမည်ကို မိမိတို့မှ စိုးရိမ်မိပါသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူများအပေါ် တမင်ရည်ရွယ်သော သတ်ဖြတ်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ ဆက်လက် လုပ်ဆောင်နေချိန်တွင် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများအကြား မတူကွဲပြားသော ရပ်တည်ချက်များက အာဆီယံအတွက် ဘုံသဘောတူညီချက် ရရှိရန် အခက်အခဲဖြစ်စေပြီး မရေရာမှုများကို ထွက်ပေါ်စေခြင်းနှင့် အာဆီယံ၏ တုံ့ပြန်မှုများ နှောင့်နှေးကြန့်ကြာနေမှုသည် မိမိတို့အား ဝမ်းနည်း အမြတ်ဒေါသ ဖြစ်စေပါသည်။ အာဆီယံနိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးများ၏ အလွတ်သဘော အစည်းအဝေး (IAFMM) မှ ထွက်ပေါ်လာသော ရလဒ်များက ဖော်ပြနေသည်မှာ အာဆီယံ၏ တုံ့ပြန်မှုသည် မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ ဆန္ဒနှင့် ကိုက်ညီမှု မရှိပေ။ IAFMM အစည်းအဝေး ဥက္ကဌ၏ ကြေညာချက်သည် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာမှုများကို တိကျစွာ လူသိရှင်ကြား ဝေဖန်ရှုတ်ချခြင်း မရှိသကဲ့သို့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီနှင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီများနှင့် ပိုမိုအားကောင်းသော ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးအတွက် တောင်းဆို ခဲ့ခြင်းလည်း မရှိပေ။ ထို့အပြင် အာဆီယံသည် စစ်အုပ်စု ခေါင်းဆောင်များနှင့် စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအပေါ် ပစ်မှတ်ထား စီးပွားရေးအရေးယူပိတ်ဆို့မှုများ၊ ကမ္ဘာတစ်ဝှမ်း လက်နက်ခဲယမ်း ပိတ်ဆို့မှု နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အခြေအနေကို နိုင်ငံတကာရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး (ICC) သို့ လွှဲပြောင်းရေး တောင်းဆိုချက်များအပေါ် ထောက်ခံရေး ၎င်း၏ ကတိကဝတ်ကို ဖော်ပြရန်လည်း ပျက်ကွက်ခဲ့သည်။ လက်ရှိအချိန်တွင် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများ၏ မတူညီသော အကျိုးစီးပွားနှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးစိတ်ဆန္ဒများ ရှိနေခြင်းကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အခြေအနေကို ဖြေရှင်းရန် အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးမှ လျင်မြန်ပြီး အဓိပ္ပာယ်ပြည့်ဝသော ကြားဝင်ဖြေရှင်းမှုကို မည်သည့်အတိုင်းအတာအထိ ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်မည် ဆိုသည့်အပေါ် မိမိတို့မှ စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်သည်။ ယခုအချိန်တွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီ ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးအတွက် အာဆီယံ၏ အဓိပ္ပါယ်ပြည့်ဝသော စုပေါင်းအရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုကို လိုအပ်သည်။ လာမည့် ထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးတွင် အာဆီယံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ စစ်အုပ်စုအား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ တရားဝင်သော ကိုယ်စားလှယ်အဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်ဆက်ဆံရန် ဆုံးဖြတ်ပါက စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို တရားဝင်စေမည်ဖြစ်သဖြင့် အာဆီယံနှင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူတို့၏ ဆက်ဆံရေးကိုသာမက ဒေသတွင်းတစ်ခုလုံး၏ ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု ကိုလည်း ပျက်စီးစေလိမ့်မည်။ ထို့အပြင် အာဆီယံနှင့် ၎င်း၏ အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများအနေဖြင့် ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ခံထားရသည့် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ် ၇၆%၊ တိုင်းရင်းသား ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ လူထုအာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှုနှင့် အထွေထွေသပိတ်ကော်မတီများဖြင့် ပါဝင်ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသော မြန်မာပြည်သူများ ထောက်ခံ ထားသည့် တရားဝင် ဒီမိုကရေစီနည်းကျ ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ခံ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အစိုးရဖြစ်သည့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ တရားဝင်မှုကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုရမည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရကသာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို ကိုယ်စားပြုရမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ဆိုးရွားလှသည့်ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှုများမှတစ်ဆင့် နိုင်ငံကို အပြည့်အဝ ထိန်းချုပ်နိုင်ရန် ကြိုးစားနေသည့် တရားမဝင် စစ်အုပ်စုက မဖြစ်ရပေ။ ဤစာကို အာဆီယံခေါင်းဆောင်များထံ ပေးပို့သည့်အချိန်တွင်ပင် ဆန္ဒပြသူများအပေါ် လုပ်ဆောင်နေသော စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများနှင့် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများသည် လျော့နည်းလာမည့်လက္ခဏာ မရှိဘဲ ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည်။ လက်ရှိအချိန်ထိတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ လူဦးရေ ၃,၂၂၉ ဦး မတရားဖမ်းဆီး ထိန်းသိမ်းထားပြီး လူပေါင်း ၇၃၇ ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ကာ ထိုအထဲတွင် အမျိုးသမီး၊ သက်ကြီးရွယ်အိုများနှင့် ကလေးများ ပါဝင်သည်။[1] ကရင်နှင့် ကချင် တိုင်းရင်းသား နယ်မြေများတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုက ကျေးရွာများအား ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်းကြောင့် အရပ်သားပေါင်း ၃၀,၀၀၀ ကျော် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။[2] ထိုဗုံးကြဲ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများတွင် ကလေးငယ်များအပါအဝင် အရပ်သားများ အသက်ဆုံးရှုံးရမှုများအပြင် ၎င်းတို့၏ လုံခြုံမှုအတွက်သာမက ကျန်းမာရေး၊ နေထိုင်ရေးနှင့် အစားအသောက်တို့အတွက်ပါ အခက်အခဲများ ကြုံတွေ့ရသည်။ ထိုထွက်ပြေးရသူများထဲတွင် အမျိုးသမီးများ၊ ကလေးငယ်များ၊ သက်ကြီးရွယ်အိုများနှင့် မွေးဖွားခါနီး ကိုယ်ဝန်ဆောင်အမျိုးသမီးတို့ ပါဝင်သည်။ ထိုအထဲတွင် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရင်း မီးဖွားခဲ့ရသော အမျိုးသမီးတစ်ဦး၏ ဖြစ်ရပ်လည်း ရှိခဲ့သည်။ အခြေအနေ၏ ဆိုးရွားမှု၊ ကျူးလွန်ချိုးဖောက် ခံနေရသူ အရေအတွက် များပြားလာမှုနှင့် ဒေသတွင်း လုံခြုံရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးတည်ငြိမ်မှုတို့အပေါ် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အကြပ်အတည်း၏ သက်ရောက်မှုကြောင့် အာဆီယံထိပ်သီး အစည်းအဝေးမှတစ်ဆင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ဖြေရှင်းရန်အတွက် အာဆီယံအနေဖြင့် ခိုင်မာထိရောက်သော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက် မှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် မိမိတို့မှ တိုက်တွန်း တောင်းဆိုသည်။ အာဆီယံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ ရည်မှန်းချက်များနှင့် စိတ်ဆန္ဒကို နားထောင်ပြီး အလေးအနက်ထား ထည့်သွင်းစဥ်းစားလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် မိမိတို့မှ တိုက်တွန်းတောင်းဆိုသည်။ ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် တရားမျှတမှု ကာကွယ်ရာတွင် ၎င်းတို့၏ အသက်များကို စတေးထားသော မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ အသံများသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေး၏ လုပ်ဆောင်မှုပုံစံနှင့် ရလဒ်များ၏ အခြေခံကျောရိုး ဖြစ်ရမည်။..."
Source/publisher: 744 individuals, 402 civil society organisations in Myanmar, 444 in other Southeast Asian nations and globally via "Progressive Voice"
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Senior Chinese diplomat hopes ASEAN summit helps with Myanmar ‘soft landing’
Description: "Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Thursday that China hoped the upcoming ASEAN summit on member Myanmar would pave the way for a “soft landing”. The in-person summit in Jakarta on Saturday is the first concerted international effort to ease the crisis in Myanmar, where security forces have killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters since a Feb. 1 coup. The meeting is also a test for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which traditionally refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of a member state, and operates by consensus. "The Chinese side expects the meeting to lead to a good start towards helping realise a 'soft landing' for the Myanmar situation," said Wang, China's State Councillor and Foreign Minister. He was speaking with Thailand and Brunei's foreign ministers, the current and incoming ASEAN chairs, respectively. China is not a member of ASEAN, but is included in ASEAN Plus Three, along with Japan and South Korea. It was not immediately clear whether China will be attending Saturday's meeting in Jakarta. "Inappropriate intervention" from outside the region should be avoided, a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry cited Wang as saying. "Practice has proved that blindly exerting strong pressure by foreign forces will not help resolve a country's internal problems, but will bring turbulence or even deterioration to the situation, which will affect and destabilise the region," Wang said. The United States has been imposing punitive sanctions on Myanmar after the country’s military coup. Washington has said it would take further action. "China calls on the international community to take an objective and fair attitude and do more to help ease the tension in Myanmar, rather than the opposite," Wang said. "China will maintain close communication with ASEAN, and continue to handle any work related to Myanmar in its own way."..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Soldier shoots 14-year-old girl in the hand during raids on Mandalay neighbourhoods
Sub-title: A monk was also injured in the attacks, a rescue worker said
Description: "A 14-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man were injured when the coup regime’s troops stormed residential areas in at least three townships in Mandalay on Wednesday night and shot at people who were outside their homes, rescue workers said. The girl was shot in the right hand and the man was shot in the thighs and in the back, one of the workers told Myanmar Now. The military came into neighborhoods in Mandalay’s Chanmyathazi township at around 9pm and began shooting, a resident said. The attack happened after residents heard an explosion near a ward administration office where the troops were stationed. “They have been setting off sound bombs every night to scare people so no one thought they would come into the neighborhoods and start shooting at them. People were just staying in front of their homes,” the resident said. The girl was shot while she was washing herself in front of her house. She had to undergo surgery for the bullet wound on Thursday after the arteries in her hand were damaged, according to a relative. “She is unable to move two of her fingers,” the relative said. “The arteries were damaged. Last night even the family could not bear to look at it. The flesh is coming out.” Myanmar Now was unable to gather further details about the man who was shot. The troops continued to shoot their guns and intimidate people until midnight, the resident said. Eyewitnesses said two teenagers were also arrested after the attacks. “My child was crying, but I had to shut his mouth forcefully. We had to sleep in immense fear the whole night,” another Chanmyathazi township resident said. Soldiers also raided a monastery in Maha Aungmyay township and shot a monk with rubber bullets. “He was shot in the back. I was told that they stormed into the monastery and started firing. I can’t say the name of the monastery due to security reasons,” said a rescue worker who helped injured people at the monastery. The armed forces also attacked residents in Pyigyitagon township on Wednesday night and reportedly arrested one person, locals said. At least 10 residents were reportedly arrested across the three townships. Myanmar Now was unable to verify the number independently. The military’s spokesperson could not be reached for comment. The troops also carried out raids inside the Mya Yi Nandar housing complex in Chanmyathazi township on Thursday morning, witnesses said. Despite constant attacks against protesters and civilians, Mandalay’s residents continue to stage daily anti-coup rallies. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group said at least 739 civilians have now been killed by Min Aung Hlaing’s regime..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Southeast Asian summit to address Myanmar’s post-coup crisis
Topic: Business, Indonesia, Global trade, Min Aung Hlaing, Asia, Myanmar, Jakarta, Aung San Suu Kyi, Summits, Bangkok, Asia Pacific, World News, Southeast Asia
Topic: Business, Indonesia, Global trade, Min Aung Hlaing, Asia, Myanmar, Jakarta, Aung San Suu Kyi, Summits, Bangkok, Asia Pacific, World News, Southeast Asia
Description: "When the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations holds a special summit Saturday to discuss Myanmar, the regional body will be under as much scrutiny as the general who led the February coup ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Opponents of the junta are furious that ASEAN is welcoming its chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to its meeting in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, arguing that because he seized power by force, he is not Myanmar’s legitimate leader. Also weighing heavily against him is the lethal violence perpetrated by the security forces he commands, responsible for killing hundreds of largely peaceful protesters and bystanders. “Min Aung Hlaing, who faces international sanctions for his role in military atrocities and the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, should not be welcomed at an intergovernmental gathering to address a crisis he created,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch. “ASEAN members should instead take this opportunity to impose targeted, economic sanctions on junta leaders and on businesses that fund the junta, and press the junta to release political detainees, end abuses, and restore the country’s democratically elected government.” The junta’s foes have promoted the idea that the opposition’s parallel National Unity Government, recently established by the elected lawmakers the army barred from being seated, should represent Myanmar, or at least have some role in the Jakarta meeting. It has not been invited. “It’s unacceptable that they invite this murderer-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who has just killed more than 730 people in Myanmar, and I think it is very unfortunate that they, again and again, talk to the military generals and not to the civilian government of Myanmar, which is the NUG,” says the parallel government’s Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Sasa, who uses one name. Evan Laksmana, a researcher for Indonesia’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank with close government ties, told The Associated Press there is a very practical reason for engaging Min Aung Hlaing face to face. ASEAN recognizes “the reality is that one party is doing the violence, which is the military, and therefore that’s why the military is being called to the meeting. So this is not in any way conferring legitimacy to the military regime,” he said. By talking to the general, ASEAN hopes to initiate a longer-term process, starting with ending the violence, that will “hopefully help facilitate dialogue among all the stakeholders in Myanmar, not just (with) the military regime.” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at a news conference Friday that her country hopes the ASEAN leaders will reach an agreement that is good for the people of Myanmar. But skeptics feel ASEAN faces basic problems in seeking to resolve Myanmar’s crisis. They point to the divergent interests of the group’s members, its longstanding conventions of seeking consensus and avoiding interference in each other’s affairs, and the historic obstinacy of Myanmar’s generals. One faction in the group, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, believes the instability engendered by the coup threatens the entire region as well as ASEAN’s credibility as a group powerful enough to act independently of big power influence. They also point out that the ASEAN Charter — adopted in 2007, 40 years after the group’s founding — includes democracy, human rights, good governance and rule of law as guiding principles. “Now is a grave time for ASEAN’s much-touted centrality, the idea that ASEAN is a central regional platform for regional dialogue, for promoting peace and stability in the region,” said Prof. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. He said that conception of ASEAN is now facing “its most severe, grave challenge” in 53 years of existence. Member countries with more authoritarian regimes — Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam — see little benefit in paying more than lip service to such principles, and have treated Myanmar’s crisis as its own internal matter. The Jakarta meeting is a hybrid one, with onsite attendance encouraged but virtual participation by video an option because of the coronavirus pandemic. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte both announced they will stay home and send their foreign ministers in their stead, but they are dealing with serious COVID-19 outbreaks, obscuring any political message in their decisions. “It is more difficult to communicate on a personal level between the leaders without the leaders being present fully, particularly with regards to the prime minister of Thailand, whom we believe to have the best relationship with the current senior general from Myanmar,” observed Indonesia’s Laksmana. He believes ASEAN has a unique opportunity to engage productively with Myanmar’s ruling junta “because right now there is no other option on the table.” “We haven’t seen any progress from the U.N. Security Council, for example. There is no collective effort by other countries. This is it. This is the first potential breakthrough for the current crisis,” he told The Associated Press. U.N. specialized agencies and experts have been active in criticizing the coup and the junta’s crackdown. U.N. Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener will not take part in ASEAN’s deliberations, but intends to take part in sideline consultations. The junta has rejected her repeated requests to visit Myanmar. The Security Council could effectively coordinate actions such as arms embargoes to pressure the junta, but Russia and China, major weapons suppliers to the junta, would veto such moves. Western nations have already enacted targeted sanctions against members of the junta and businesses giving them financial support, but Myanmar’s past military governments have successfully stood up to such pressures, and would be expected to do so again, especially with support from Beijing. ASEAN prefers quiet diplomacy to intimidation, seeking incremental gains. Even getting the two Myanmar sides to talk to each other could take some time, acknowledges Laksmana. “I think the gravity of the situation on the ground is as such now that there is no space or even willingness for dialogue until we end the violence,” he said. “So I think the first steps would be to what extent can ASEAN facilitate the observance of a humanitarian pause first and then the delivery of the humanitarian aid,” he said. Only after that might a forum be possible where all the stakeholders could talk. A Southeast Asian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said another opening move is under consideration. This would involve having ASEAN’s current chairman, Brunei Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah, travel to Myanmar for meetings with the military leadership and Suu Kyi’s camp to encourage dialogue. He would go there with ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi — also from Brunei — if the junta gives them the nod. ASEAN-style diplomacy with Myanmar has borne fruit in the past. The military regime in charge in 2008 was incapable of mounting sufficient rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of devastating Cyclone Nargis, but refused to open up the country to an international aid effort. ASEAN took the initiative in offering to open a channel for foreign assistance, and the much-needed aid started flowing..."
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Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why the Tatmadaw won’t crack in Myanmar
Sub-title: While the world gasps at the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown, there is little hope for a soldier-led mutiny or countercoup
Description: "A military coup that overthrows a democratically elected government and sparks three months of nationwide protests and strikes. More than 700 people including children as young as five shot and killed as security forces fire into crowds of anti-military demonstrators. Thousands of people, among them not only politicians, activists and journalists but also some of the nation’s best-known singers, movie stars and celebrities arrested on various trumped-up charges. An economy on its knees with non-performing banks and foreign investors running for the exits. Such a litany would normally be enough to bring down any coup-installed government through a counter-coup or some other action by a military’s top brass who could see the self-defeatism of trying to cling to power when nearly the entire population is opposed to your takeover and rule. But not in Myanmar. Instead, the military and its controlled police seem prepared to do whatever it takes to preserve its democracy-suspending power grab. So far, there have been no signs of substantial cracks or divisions within the security establishment apart from a handful of policemen who have fled to rebel-held territories near the Thai border or across the border into neighboring northeastern India. But is Myanmar’s military truly full of spineless, mindless yes-men, or is there something else that holds the institution together in the face of massive local resistance and rising international condemnation? The simplistic explanation, put forth mostly by foreign security analysts, is that the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, is a battle-hardened force that has been fighting against an array of political and ethnic rebels continuously for more than 70 years. Myanmar’s civil wars broke out shortly after independence was achieved from Britain in 1948. Before that, an army founded by independence hero Aung San had fought alongside the Japanese military against the British and then, at the end of World War II, allied themselves with the British and turned against the Japanese. Consequently, the Tatmadaw sees itself as the true defender of the nation’s independence and the only force that can hold the ethnically diverse and politically divided country together. But that analysis misses the enigma of military power in Myanmar. Although Aung San’s daughter and coup-toppled democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi once referred to the Tatmadaw as “my father’s army”, the military force which fought during World War II had little in common with the army that emerged after independence. Because of post-war agreements with the British, most of the old fighters were demobilized and turned into a militia known as the People’s Volunteer Organization (PVO) which, in turn, resorted to armed struggle against the government because it saw independence as a sham that perpetuated colonial rule. By then, Aung San had been assassinated and of the legendary “Thirty Comrades” who had followed him to Japan to receive military training before the Japanese invasion of Myanmar in 1942, only three remained in the Tatmadaw in the 1950s, including army chief General Ne Win, who eventually seized power in a 1962 coup, the first absolute military-takeover in Myanmar, then known as Burma. By the 1950s, Myanmar’s civil wars were more or less over, with the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) and Communist Party of Burma (CPB) pushed back into remote areas. Persistent internal political turmoil, though, led to the formation of a caretaker government led by Ne Win, which was in power from 1958 to 1960. Rather than fighting the rebels, Ne Win and his 4th Burma Rifles spent the latter part of the 1950s building up a power base — and a business empire that in many ways endures today — centered around their regiment. In 1958, it published a document called “The National Ideology of the Defense Services” which strikingly resembles the dwifungsi, or dual function, doctrine of the Indonesian army that stated that the military has both a defense and social-political role. Ne Win also established an entity called the Defense Services Institute. (DSI), which soon controlled vital sectors of Myanmar’s economy. It had its own retail stores in Yangon and elsewhere it controlled the lucrative importation of coal for the railroads, electric supplies and inland water transport. DSI even established an external shipping line, the Five Star Line, and took over an English-owned bank and renamed it the Ava Bank. A newspaper, the Guardian, and a publishing house were also controlled by DSI. Meanwhile, the once-tiny Myanmar Army, perhaps as few as 2,000 men in 1949, grew steadily in strength and importance. By the late 1950s, Ne Win had more than 40,000 soldiers under his command. The army was becoming a state within the state, but few Myanmars, the vast majority of whom had faith in the nation’s then democratic system, constitution and rule of law, paid much attention until New Win seized power in 1962. Significantly, the junta that overthrew a democratically elected government introduced a new economic system called “the Burmese Way to Socialism.” But rather than establishing a socialist regime reminiscent of those in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union or China, Ne Win’s rendition meant that everything was nationalized and taken over by 23 military-run state corporations. Military coups were not uncommon in Asia at that time, but the difference in Myanmar was that the military seized not only political but also economic power. While the economies of Thailand and Indonesia, for instance, blossomed because the military entered into marriages of convenience with indigenous plutocracies, Ne Win took Myanmar in a completely different direction. The old business community, which was mainly of Indian and Chinese origin, had their properties and assets seized by the military, driving hundreds of thousands out of Myanmar into India, Southeast Asia or Taiwan. But if the 1962 coup had been meant to squash what was left of the insurgents, it turned out to be counterproductive. A rebellion broke out among the Kachin in 1961 in areas of northern Shan state. After 1962, it spread to Kachin state and the Kachin Independence Army took over most of the state. An even smaller rebellion among the Shan, which broke out in 1958, escalated into full-scale war as several bands grouped together to form the Shan State Army in 1964. The Burmese Way to Socialism had, hardly surprisingly, led to economic collapse — and a flourishing black market with neighboring Thailand. The KNU, which controlled the border areas, collected taxes on that trade, and was able to buy modern guns from the Thai black market. And, most devastatingly, China decided to give all-out support to the CPB, including modern, sophisticated weaponry of kinds that the old forces in central Myanmar never possessed. Thus, the new power structure that emerged in Myanmar after 1962 had more to do with preserving an order that hugely privileged the military in an otherwise collapsing society than the fact that officers had seen fierce combat. That new order had a very narrow base, consisting of men from Ne Win’s own regiment, the 4th Burma Rifles. And Ne Win himself was probably the least battle-hardened senior officer in the Tatmadaw as he arguably spent more time gambling at horse races than on the battlefield. Actually, the country’s most battle-hardened officers – among them the popular Brigadier Kyaw Zaw, who was purged in the late 1950s, later joined the CPB and ended his life in exile in China, and General Tin Oo, who fought in several frontier areas and in 1988 became one of the leaders of the then newly-established National League for Democracy (NLD) – did not become killers of civilians. Rather, it was Ne Win loyalists who opened fire on demonstrating students in 1962, on students and workers in the mid-1970s, and then the massacres in 1988, when thousands of pro-democracy protesters were gunned down in the streets of Yangon and elsewhere. Ne Win and his men from the 4th Burma Rifles remained in power until after the events of 1988, when somewhat younger officers took over. Ne Win’s legacy was finally dismantled in 2002, when he died and his relatives were purged allegedly for plotting against the then-military government. But the system he created lives on today. The military became the ruling class, which enjoyed privileges denied ordinary citizens. It had its own schools and hospitals and it was rare for someone who did not come from a military family to get a job in the government. The new army that emerged after 1962 also included a series of Light Infantry Divisions, which became notorious for their brutality when fighting rebels and suppressing civil movements in urban areas, as they did in 1988 and are doing once again in the wake of the February 1 coup. The Burmese Way to Socialism was abolished after the 1988 uprising, but the military retained an important role in the semi-capitalist system that succeeded it. While Ne Win had his DSI, Myanmar’s new military leaders established powerful companies like the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings and the Myanmar Economic Corporation, which currently have vast holdings across the economy. As such, the very concept of the 1958 declaration and the 1962 coup has not been abandoned but rather reshaped: the military should have a defense function as well as playing social, political and economic roles. Whether Suu Kyi and her NLD aimed to roll back those roles and holdings in a second elected term is an open and important question. Suu Kyi largely refrained from challenging the Tatmadaw’s political and economic power in her first term, but the NLD’s overwhelming election win last November – which coup-makers claim without evidence was fraudulent – gave her a strong mandate to push for more democratic change. Top brass leaders also likely feared the risk of retribution for their many crimes. All senior Tatmadaw officers know where the skeletons are buried of past atrocities, both in ethnic minority areas and now also in urban centers home to the middle class. The current commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is now widely loathed across the population for his regime’s ruthless post-coup clampdown. He and his associates know by now that they either maintain power or land in prison — or worse. But it is a combination of those fears, deeply entrenched economic interests and a dual-function ideology that holds the Tatmadaw so tightly together, not some underlying sense of patriotism or because officers have been hardened through battles in the field. And that explains why no cracks have or are likely to emerge in the Tatmadaw, despite the brutal, irrational and seemingly self-defeating orders being handed down by officers and carried out by unswervingly obedient foot soldiers..."
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Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2021-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ‘The military is hunting us’: volunteer medics in the crosshairs
Sub-title: With bullets, beatings and arrests, the junta is trying to scare volunteer rescue workers from treating its victims, and are breaking international humanitarian law to do it, charity groups say.
Description: "When the three-member team of volunteers from Mandalay’s Payaheta Darri charity rescue service arrived, the found they couldn’t get their ambulance close enough to get the 18-year-old victim onto a stretcher and wheeled to safety. Friends had brought the teenager, who had been shot in the back, inside a home on 76th Street between 34th and 35th streets in in the city’s central Chan Aye Thar Zan Township. With security forces continuously firing live rounds. The closest the ambulance could get was about three blocks down 34th Street. Ko Htet Myat, 21, a volunteer with Payaheta Darri since the group’s founding in 2015, set out on foot. He moved cautiously past young protesters huddled behind sandbag barricades and woven bamboo strips, turning onto 76th Street, which he described as a “battlefield”. Inside the home, he pulled the victim onto his back, the teenager’s arms slung over Htet Myat’s shoulders. Htet Myat slouched forward and began making his way back to the ambulance. On 76th Street three bullets whizzed by – the last terrifying close to his head – before he turned back down 34th. He finally loaded the teen into the ambulance and took him to a nearby hospital. It was about 1pm on March 27. At about the same time, in Nay Pyi Taw, strutting columns of garlanded troops paraded before junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to mark the 76th anniversary of Armed Forces Day. Meanwhile, throughout Myanmar that day, forces under Min Aung Hlaing’s command killed more than 100 civilians in crackdowns on protests. Htet Myat is among thousands of volunteer ambulance and rescue workers in Myanmar, who are increasingly being targeted by the junta with both bullets and the law. Earlier that morning, outside of a branch of state-owned Myanma Economic Bank, junta soldiers fired several shots at his ambulance as it took another gunshot victim to a hospital. Since the crackdowns began, there have been at least 28 attacks on hospitals and health workers, according to the United Nations, which has condemned the junta’s deliberate targeting of rescue workers and their vehicles. “Attacks against health volunteers and against ambulances are preventing life-saving help from reaching civilians wounded by security forces,” UN spokesperson Mr Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York on April 6. The junta has raided the offices of several charity organisations doing rescue work, and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says that at least 18 medical volunteers have been arrested, charged or sentenced for attempting to save lives. Most of the organisations are small, local entities working independently, but even volunteers for the large, government-affiliated Myanmar Red Cross Society have been injured and arrested, with some of them still in custody. MRCS general secretary Dr Htin Zaw Soe said that Geneva Conventions signed by Myanmar in 1949 recognise volunteers and vehicles bearing the Red Cross flag and logo as symbols of protection, making it a violation of international humanitarian law to target them. “They [security forces] may not be aware of this [law],” he said. “We plan to raise awareness among the public so this is more widely known.” For Htet Myat in Mandalay, the moral calculus is clear without bringing in international humanitarian law. “It is just inhumane of them [the security forces] to prevent us from helping the injured,” he told Frontier. “If protesters have been shot and badly injured, the junta’s security forces should allow us to retrieve them [and] save people’s lives.” ‘There is no guarantee for our safety’ The targeting of rescue workers did not begin with the Armed Forces Day slaughter. One of Payaheta Darri’s four ambulances was shot 15 times while parked outside the team’s office in Mandalay’s Chan Aye Thar Zan Township on the night of February 17. U Ye Myint Win, aka Nickey Diamond, a Myanmar human rights specialist with the international watchdog group Fortify Rights, believes the junta considers the charity groups to be anti-coup partisans. “The military junta assumes these charity groups support the protesters, and that is why they are also cracking down on them,” he said. “One of their objectives is to prevent injured protesters from being rescued and treated.” On February 28, junta forces beat two Red Cross volunteers as they were administering first-aid to injured protesters in Mandalay’s Chan Mya Tharzi Township, and damaged two of their ambulances. The day before, three other volunteers from the Pakkoku branch of the Red Cross in Magway Region were arrested while providing aid. Htin Zaw Soe said the organisation does not know why the arrests were made or if the volunteers have been charged with a crime, but that they are still in custody. It is lobbying local police for their release. In Mandalay, at least 26 members of the Payaheta Darri and Payaheta Min Khaung charity rescue groups, including two medical doctors and one nurse, were arrested and taken to Obo Prison for treating injured protesters on March 27, then charged with incitement under section 505-A of the Penal Code, according to an official with Payaheta Min Khaung. Also among the arrested was the Payaheta Darri team leader, a spokesperson told Frontier, adding that the group has since suspended its service “due to insecurity”. In Yangon, the highly-respected Free Funeral Service Society has suspended all operations since March 4, after security forces launched a midnight raid on its North Okkalapa Township office. During the raid, security forces brutally assaulted staff and volunteers, leaving at least three injured, and seized computers and other equipment, though they made no arrests. Two days prior to the raid, FFSS chair U Kyaw Thu had gone into hiding. Hours after the office was raided, the junta charged him in absentia with incitement under section 505-A of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum three-year year sentence. Daw Myint Myint Khin Pe, FFSS finance officer and Kyaw Thu’s wife, was charged with incitement on February 25, after the society voiced support for the Civil Disobedience Movement and pledged not to assist police or military personnel with medical or funeral service, according to a March 4 broadcast on state news. Military-run media has also accused the couple of “misusing” donations, including raising more than K316 million in donations for CDM participants between February 10 and March 3, and of distributing to about 2,000 CDM participants between K100,000 and K200,000 each. “All of our staff are now in hiding,” an FFSS employee who asked not to be named told Frontier on April 2. “The military is hunting us.” On March 3, CCTV footage that was shared on Facebook captured security forces savagely beating three male volunteers with the Mon Myat Sate Htar rescue charity who had been detained that day by security forces in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township, where the group is based. The AAPP says a fourth was also detained, but was separated and harassed before the camera began rolling. The three volunteers in the video, clad in construction hard hats, are forced to kneel before being kicked in the head and beaten with batons and rifle butts by police, who had also shot out the windows of their ambulance. All four suffered injuries and were reportedly treated at Insein Prison, where they were detained for several weeks. The AAPP says they were also slapped with 505-A charges, but Mon Myat Sate Htar could not confirm this, and they were all released on March 24. After their release, all four returned as volunteers to the frontlines of demonstrations. But Mon Myat Sate Htar president U Hla Kyaing said he fears the incident will deter others from volunteering as the need increases. U Zin Moe, vice president of the Mawlamyine Rescue Organisation, said volunteers were being forced to gamble with their own lives. “We want to help people, but there is no guarantee for our safety,” he said. On April 2, in the Mon State capital, soldiers and police dragged three volunteers from an MRO ambulance that had been called to assist people injured in a motorcycle accident at around 7pm. Police interrogated and humiliated the three on the street, though they made no arrests that night, Zin Moe said, adding that the nationwide 8pm-to-4am curfew in place since February has made it impossible to operate rescue services at night. The curfew has no medical exceptions, he said. ‘The injured just piled up’ The deadly consequences of the security forces’ targeting of medical workers was on full display during the April 9 mass slaughter in the city of Bago, where many victims died from excess blood loss after the military prevented rescue workers from getting to them. That day, police and soldiers reportedly killed more than 80 people. An official from a Bago rescue group who requested anonymity told Frontier that nearly every rescue group in the city was unable to tend to the wounded because of an unending torrent of junta gunfire. “The injured just piled up,” he said. “Even nearby residents couldn’t get to them. We wanted to save them, but our teams couldn’t run straight into a barrage of gunfire. The UN issued a statement the following day condemning the crackdown. “The UN in Myanmar is following continued escalation of violence in Bago with reports of heavy artillery being used against civilians and medical treatment being denied to the injured,” it said. “We call on the security forces to allow medical teams to treat the wounded.” Among the dead was at least one medical worker. U Thiha, a volunteer from the Pyae Wa charity group, was killed in Bago’s Ponna Su ward while helping to arrange a funeral when security forces arrived and opened fire. Witnesses told Thiha’s mother, Daw Yamin Oo, 52, that the 32-year-old was shot in the thigh as he tried to flee by scaling a wall. After he fell, soldiers approached and savagely beat him. Ponna Su residents told Frontier they later saw Thiha being dragged behind a police motorbike through the rock-strewn streets, screaming at first until his body became limp. “When I saw my son’s dead body, his head was dented and his chest was also bruised, and there was no skin at all below his knees,” Yamin Oo told Frontier. “How inhuman!” she said, going momentarily silent before breaking into a wail and calling out her son’s name. Ye Myint Win from Fortify Rights believes the savagery of such attacks is meant to send a message to protesters. “They want to instill fear in the people, so protesters know they will be helpless if they are shot or injured,” he said. Yamin Oo offered a similar, if more pointed, assessment of an institution whose power depends on fear. “My son was brutally murdered,” she said. “Soldiers and police are not security forces who protect the public – they are terrorists!”..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 22 April, (739) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has not yet confirmed any fallen heroes 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 April 22, a total of (3370) people are currently under detention; of them (76) are sentenced. 1099 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. Today, people across Burma continued to protest the dictatorship. In Myingyan, Mandalay Region on April 22, the main strike was fired upon by the junta forces. The terrorists then detained protestors in Myingyan Town. Last night in Chanmyathazi Township, Mandalay Region a 14 year-old girl and a man were shot and injured in the neighborhood for no reason. Reports of the junta reportedly calming down on crackdowns. Is nothing of the sort. The junta has continued to repressively try to shut down the internet across the country, and in rural areas where information is now especially difficult to ascertain and document, the junta’s violence is continuing at its normal brutality. This is most likely because of the upcoming ASEAN summit on 24 April, it wants to avoid condemnation and accountability and so is moderating its violence and terror in the more easy to document urban areas. Terrorist groups continue to arrest political party members, student activists, striking CDM workers, and youth protesters. Warrants are increasing, the junta is putting any and everyone who is against this junta on this list. In Magwe Region, over 100 CDM oil workers were threatened by the junta into returning back to work. If they did not return to work on April 22 they will be charged under 505(a) of the Penal Code. 2 private hospitals (Sein Thitsar and Sawn Metta) in Bhamo City, Kachin State were threatened by the junta if the 4 doctors involved in CDM give medical treatment there, then the hospital’s license would be revoked. Through the propaganda media MRTV, the junta said doctors will be prosecuted. On April 20 evening two CDM teachers from Hpa-An Township were detained in a village they were hiding in. The junta is changing tactics, the terrorists are threatening civilians and civil servants because they realise they cannot govern the country. Civil servants from many and various departments are now being detained, just as the junta is also increasingly issuing arrest warrants. Just like in the 2007 Saffron Revolution, the terrorists are violently arresting monks to maintain power. In Mandalay Region, Mogok, Sayadaw U Yewata (former chairman of ABSFU, formerly called Ye Yint Paing) from Yepu Monastery was beaten and detained last night. Journalists are now being charged under different sections of the law. In Ayeyarwady Region, a freelance journalist from Myaungmya was arrested last night. In addition, from yesterday the Monywa Gazette announced on their website they will stop operating. The terrorist group is trying to shut down the internet to hide the evidence of their atrocities, again. Information is being suppressed, and yet the media continues to work hard and document the truth to inform Burma’s people. Last night in Monywa Township, no.3 light infantry battalion chased 3 petrol trucks who passed them by, one driver was shot dead. After 6pm in Mon State, Billin and Thaton Township, the so-called police and military were shooting at anyone who passed by their camps. Civilians are too frequently injured and killed in Burma nowadays, after nearly 3 months the people continue to endure atrocities. If this dictatorship gets stronger, democracy will disappear. We must end the history of dictatorships in Burma to ensure democracy and human rights for all. For this movement to succeed we must have internal strength but also more substantial international support. 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: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 21 April, (739) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) hero from Myaung Township in Sagaing 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 April 21, a total of (3331) people are currently under detention; of them (76) are sentenced. 1059 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 April 21, “Blue Shirt Day 2021”, in honour of the seventh anniversary of the death of prominent journalist U Win Tin, protesters in Burma and many and all people inside and outside of the country, wore a blue shirt to stand with all political prisoners still detained in Burma. Political prisoners, those disappeared and in-hiding continue to increase. The situation for those detainees, their access to court – medical treatment – and fair trial is deprived. On this Blue Shirt Campaign Day, AAPP urges the international community including ASEAN to take action to ensure immediate release of all the political prisoners in Burma again. Today, sound grenades and live ammunition was used against the Dawei Strike in Tanintharyi Region. Five people including a 16-years old student were beaten and arrested. Among the arrested five, one youth was reportedly injured by a bullet shot, emergency treatment for him is clearly needed. The junta makes people who peacefully oppose them into enemies. They don’t even give medical treatment, increasingly civilians are dying from this. A main strike in Launglon town, Tanintharyi Region was also crackdown on. Two motorbikes were reportedly stolen by the junta forces, but no confirmed arrests yet. Yesterday, 200 terrorist troops took a military base between Thee Kone village in Yinmar Pin Town and Kapine village in Sagaing Region. Local residents opposed to this troop base waged a defence clash in which five villagers were killed as initially reported, further confirmation is being investigated. The junta reportedly used drones to scout the villages before using heavy artillery. The terrorists raid houses and take people as hostages. On April 19, two NLD members of Kyaukse Township, Mandalay Region, were searched for in their homes. The two were evading arrest. So, the junta detained both of their eldery fathers (one of whom is visually impaired). A CDM teacher charged with Section 505(a) and evading arrest in Thanbyuzayat town in Mon State was searched for on April 19, three family members were found and taken as hostages. Such hostage taking is a serious crime committed by the junta to indoctrinate a climate of fear. The terrorists oppress in many ways, unarmed civilians defy this oppression in peaceful protests/CDM – to destroy the dictator’s governance. Several innocents have sacrificed their lives. The international community must take whatever action is necessary. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 868.4 KB 3.21 MB 916.52 KB
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Title: Dirty Secrets #3: Min Aung Hlaing's daughter in secret deal with MYTEL
Description: "The daughter of Myanmar’s #1 international criminal has had substantial business dealings with military-controlled mobile operator Mytel, new leaked documents obtained by DDoSecrets show, in a serious conflict of interest. Khin Thiri Thet Mon, daughter of the leader of illegal coup d'état Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, was still a shareholder in Pinnacle Asia, a company that built mobile phone towers for Mytel when her father staged the coup illegally on February 1. She only resigned from Pinnacle Asia on March 17 – just days after the US government imposed Treasury sanctions against her in response to the violent attacks on unarmed civilians who are against the murderous regime.....Mytel and Min Aung Hlaing: Mytel was created during the military’s proxy government, led by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. The government’s 28% share is allocated to Star High. Star High was created by Myanmar Economic Corporation, a military conglomerate controlled by Min Aung Hlaing. Star High’s remit is seemingly to hold the military’s stake in Mytel. This creates a serious conflict of interest as Min Aung Hlaing's family is profiting access to state business. Min Aung Hlaing personally played a key role in the establishment of Mytel, leading numerous negotiations with the Vietnamese military and presiding over the launch.....Pinnacle and Mytel: Pinnacle Asia appears linked to Mytel from its first inception. Pinnacle Asia was established in 2016, the same year that the military was awarded shares in Myanmar’s fourth mobile operator Mytel. Pinnacle Asia then entered into business with Star High to build towers for Mytel and, according to a Linkedin profile, also has contracts with Ooredoo, another mobile phone company. Pinnacle Asia’s managing director is Sao Sawm Zai, an Australian citizen. A third director is Mya Myitzu. Sao Sawm Zai and Mya Myitzu are both directors of Pinnacle Myanmar, a Singapore registered company. Little information is available about the Singapore business, which had links to publicly listed firm Singaporean Myanmar Investco to establish a Jones the Grocer franchise in Myanmar. The deal was called off in 2018......Bank complicity: Yoma: The tower business that Khin Thiri Thet Mon owned until last month is financed by internationally exposed Myanmar banks. This raises human rights and corruption concerns for their shareholders. In February 2020, Yoma Bank, a Myanmar lender, issued a loan to Pinnacle Asia, guaranteed against a tower contract with Mytel. Khin Thiri Thet Mon signed the loan as a guarantor. The loan specified that revenue from Mytel is to be routed to Yoma Bank until the loan is repaid. The loan was authorised by both Star High and Telecom International Myanmar. This was followed by a second loan guaranteed against Mytel towers.....International shareholder exposure: Even though Yoma Bank was doing business with Min Aung Hlaing’s family and financed towers for Mytel, Norway’s Norfund and Singapore’s GIC invested in the bank. The equity purchase was announced in April 2020. In 2019, the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, converted an earlier Yoma Bank loan to 5% equity in the bank. Norfund, GIC and IFC stand to profit from Yoma Bank’s business with Mytel and the family of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and are exposed to the corruption and human rights implications of these loans. In July 2020, crony bank AGD, owned by Tayza, announced a project finance agreement with Pinnacle Asia for an undisclosed amount to increase tower holdings to 400 by 2021. Tayza is a close associate of Than Shwe who built his business through the preferential treatment he receives as a result of his close and personal ties with the military. In August 2019, the UN Fact-Finding Mission concluded that the military’s economic interests enable their atrocity crimes. It recommended that “no business enterprise active in Myanmar or trading with or investing in businesses in Myanmar should enter into or remain in a business relationship of any kind with the security forces of Myanmar, in particular the Tatmadaw, or any enterprise owned or controlled by them” and cautioned against business with family members of the military, which can be linked to or support the military. Yoma Bank and AGD disregarded these recommendations.....Family business: Khin Thiri Thet Mon’s business with Mytel shows how Min Aung Hlaing’s family profits from access to state resources. Star High was awarded the government’s lucrative share in Mytel but, before the brutal and illegal coup de’ tat, was unaccountable to parliamentary scrutiny. Khin Thiri Thet Mon’s business with Star High and Mytel is a clear example of a conflict of interest that is seen across military cartel businesses. Since the coup, the military has been deliberately attacking and killed more than 700 people including 49 children. Youngest killed was seven years old girl, whom before being shot, was scared because her father and brother were beaten by police who broke into their house. They have been using lethal weapons with sole aim to kill and these amount to crimes against humanity. The military has carried out indiscriminate air strikes against ethnic Karen and Kachin peoples in recent days, part of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity the Myanmar military has been committing against ethnic communities for decades. Min Aung Hlaing and the junta leadership, who are seeking to profit from the coup, must be held to account and perpetrators of these crimes must be prosecuted. Khin Thiri Thet Mon and other children of top military generals have long profited from the systemic corruption of the Myanmar military, at the expense of the people of Myanmar. As long as the military maintains power, this corruption will continue. Min Aung Hlaing’s family must be investigated for corruption and any stolen assets returned to the people of Myanmar. The cartel must be dismantled..." ‍
Source/publisher: Justice For Myanmar
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: End violence, start talks: Malaysia to Myanmar junta
Sub-title: Malaysian premier to attend meeting of ASEAN leaders on April 24, foreign minister confirms
Description: "Malaysia on Tuesday reiterated its call for an end to violence in Myanmar and the immediate release of all people detained by the military junta since its February power grab. “Provide space for peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. Return to the negotiating table to resolve this political crisis and avoid escalation of tensions,” Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a statement. His remarks came ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on Saturday. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will attend the special ASEAN meeting as he has received a special invitation from the bloc’s current chair, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, according to the foreign minister. Hishammuddin urged the military junta to open access for humanitarian aid to reach the people of Myanmar, while also calling for efforts for the peaceful, voluntary, and dignified repatriation of the persecuted Rohingya community. “We hope that during the upcoming discussions in Jakarta, Myanmar will agree to receive representatives from the ASEAN chair Brunei or from the ASEAN secretariat to help the country return to normalcy,” he added. Brunei confirmed on Wednesday that the meeting of ASEAN leaders will take place in Jakarta on Saturday and will be chaired by Sultan Bolkiah. At least 738 people have been killed so far as Myanmar’s military has used brutal methods to quell anti-coup protests raging across the country, according to the latest figures by a rights group. Figures provided by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners show over 3,260 people have been detained, 75 of them convicted, and arrest warrants issued for at least 970 others since the Myanmar army – officially known as the Tatmadaw – seized power on Feb. 1, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi..."
Source/publisher: "Anadolu Agency" (Ankara)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Millions face hunger as Myanmar crisis worsens, United Nations says
Description: "Food insecurity is rising sharply in Myanmar in the wake of the military coup and deepening financial crisis with millions more people expected to go hungry in coming months, the United Nations said on Thursday. Up to 3.4 million more people will struggle to afford food in the next three to six months with urban areas worst affected as job losses mount in manufacturing, construction and services and food prices rise, a World Food Program (WFP) analysis shows. "More and more poor people have lost their jobs and are unable to afford food," country director Stephen Anderson said in a statement. "A concerted response is required now to alleviate immediate suffering, and to prevent an alarming deterioration in food security." The WFP said market prices of rice and cooking oil had risen by 5% and 18% respectively since the end of February, with signs that families in the commercial capital of Yangon were skipping meals, eating less nutritious food, and going into debt. The agency plans to expand operations, tripling to 3.3 million the number of people it assists, and is appealing for $106 million, it said. A Myanmar junta spokesman did not immediately answer phone calls to seek comment. Myanmar’s army seized power from the democratically elected civilian government on Feb.1, plunging the Southeast Asian nation into turmoil and cracking down on mass protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement with brutal force, killing more than 700 people, a monitoring group said. The crisis has brought the banking system to a standstill, shuttering many branches, leaving businesses unable to make payments and customers unable to withdraw cash. Many people depend on remittances from relatives abroad. Most imports and exports have been halted and factories have closed. The World Bank forecasts Myanmar's GDP to contract 10% in 2021, a reversal of previously positive trends. Before the coup, the WFP said about 2.8 million in Myanmar were considered food insecure. The coronavirus pandemic took a heavy toll of the economy, which had been growing as it emerged from decades of isolation and financial mismanagement under former military governments..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s Doctors Urge UN Action Against Military Junta
Topic: anti-regime, arrests, bystanders, CDM, Coup, Doctors, killed, medical, medics, Military, protesters, Protests, regime, treatment, UN, wounded
Topic: anti-regime, arrests, bystanders, CDM, Coup, Doctors, killed, medical, medics, Military, protesters, Protests, regime, treatment, UN, wounded
Description: "After witnessing the military regime’s continuous targeted raids on doctors and healthcare facilities treating the wounded, Myanmar Doctors for Human Rights has asked the United Nation (UN) and international organizations to take meaningful measures against the junta. In an open letter to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, Myanmar Doctors for Human Rights demanded that the UN stop the junta’s forces from intentionally targeting medical professionals providing care to the wounded and help the injured seek treatment without fear for their own safety. The group includes volunteer doctors and 15 medical students’ unions. Since the Feb. 1 coup, the military regime has been conducting the deadly crackdowns on anti-regime demonstrations across Myanmar. Numerous atrocities have been committed against protesters and civilians by the junta’s forces during raids, arrests, and interrogations. During the crackdowns, many wounded protesters have been arrested without being provided medical treatment. Meanwhile, in several instances the bodies of the dead have been taken away and not returned to the families. Also, charity organizations and ambulances trying to pick up the bodies of those killed or provide medical assistance to the wounded have been fired upon or arrested by the regime’s forces. In a shooting in Mandalay in late February, Ko Yarzar Aung, a 26-year-old protester, who was shot in the leg, died at a military hospital without being provided the proper treatment, a witness told The Irrawaddy. A doctor from a charity group in the city, who tried to treat Ko Yarzar Aung, said that except for some minor treatment, the regime’s forces would not allow her to attend to wounded detainees before they were taken away. The doctor said that Ko Yarzar Aung would not have died from his leg injuries if he had been treated properly. In late March, the junta’s forces raided an office of a charity group comprised of several organizations in Mandalay giving treatment to the wounded, according to a social worker. The troops seized three ambulances and destroyed two others. They also seized clinic materials and arrested 26 social workers, including several medics. During an attack on anti-regime strongholds in Bago on April 9, when about 82 died in a massacre, the regime’s forces closed every entrance to four wards for days. No ambulances and social organizations giving medical assistance and free funeral services were able to go into the wards to pick up the dead or give medical treatment to the wounded. Myanmar Doctors for Human Rights said in its open letter to the UN that the military regime’s polices and soldiers are intentionally targeting medical treatment sites, charity clinics and hospitals providing critical care to the injured. On April 5, the regime’s troop stormed the house of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kyaw Min Soe in Mayangone Township of Yangon and arrested the physician. They tied the doctor’s hands behind his back, and a black bag was put over his head. The doctor, a professor at University of Medicine, Yangon, has been involved in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) and was also providing medical treatment to those injured in anti-regime protests. On April 12, the regime’s forces arrested Dr. Maw Maw Oo, head of the Emergency Department of Yangon General Hospital, who had been providing medical care to the wounded even though he has joined the CDM. Myanmar Doctors for Human Rights said that in some places, doctors have been forced to keep the lights off in order to prevent the junta’s forces from finding and arresting them. Working with just torchlight, they have performed life saving operations. Since last week, the military regime has been issuing arrest warrants for doctors in the CDM each night. As of Wednesday, 179 medics in the CDM have been charged. “It is truly agonizing for us to see our fellow countrymen taking their last breaths in front of our very eyes,” said Myanmar Doctors for Human Rights. It also said in its letter that by many lives which could otherwise have been saved have been unnecessarily lost because doctors have been forcibly prevented from providing essential medical care to the wounded. After receiving the open letter, Dr. Simon Adams, Executive Director of Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, tweeted on its Twitter account on Wednesday that the time for statements of concern has long passed. “I was very moved by the letter I received from Myanmar Doctors for Human Rights,” he said. He added now is the time for the UN to place human rights at the forefront and use every practical diplomatic tool available. As of Wednesday, nearly 740 people have been killed by the junta’s forces during their crackdowns, raids, arrests and interrogations, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Those killed include anti-regime protesters, bystanders, pedestrians and residents. In spite of killing and arrests, tens of thousands of people across Myanmar continue to take to the streets to show their defiance of the military rule..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ASEAN: Withdraw Invite to Myanmar Junta Leader
Sub-title: Southeast Asian Leaders Should Press for Return to Democratic Rule
Description: "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should immediately withdraw its invitation to Myanmar’s junta leader, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to attend its upcoming summit, Human Rights Watch said today. ASEAN has scheduled an emergency meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 24, 2021, to discuss the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s inclusion of Min Aung Hlaing lends unwarranted legitimacy to the junta’s State Administrative Council over Myanmar’s democratically elected government, which the military overthrew in a coup on February 1. Before and since the coup, the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union have imposed financial and travel sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing for his involvement in grave human rights violations as military commander-in-chief. “Min Aung Hlaing, who faces international sanctions for his role in military atrocities and the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, should not be welcomed at an intergovernmental gathering to address a crisis he created,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “ASEAN members should instead take this opportunity to impose targeted, economic sanctions on junta leaders and on businesses that fund the junta, and press the junta to release political detainees, end abuses, and restore the country’s democratically elected government.” On November 8, 2020, Myanmar’s voters overwhelmingly elected members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, to the national parliament. The NLD secured 83 percent of the contested seats. Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, claimed that the election was marred by massive fraud but has produced no credible evidence to substantiate that charge. Both domestic and international election monitoring organizations found the elections credible and rejected the Tatmadaw’s unsubstantiated claims. Myanmar’s generals refused to accept the massive electoral defeat of the military-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and acted to deprive Myanmar’s people of their right to choose their government, a right enshrined in international law. Early on February 1, the day that the new parliament was to sit for the first time, the military arrested and detained President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, along with scores of other NLD ministers, members of parliament, and regional administrators. The state security forces have arbitrarily arrested numerous local NLD officials, at least two of whom have been tortured to death in detention. The authorities have also arrested commissioners of the national Union Election Commission and many of its state and regional offices. Malaysia and Indonesia have publicly expressed concern about the coup, and Singapore and the Philippines have urged the Myanmar security forces to exercise restraint. However, ASEAN as a group has done little more than call on “all parties” to refrain from violence and to seek a peaceful solution through “constructive dialogue.” This call ignores the reality that the violence has overwhelmingly been committed by state security forces against peaceful protesters, and the State Administrative Council has declared unlawful two bodies that would be likely parties to any dialogue. On March 21, the SAC declared the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group representing elected lawmakers, an “unlawful association.” On April 20, the SAC issued the same declaration for the recently formed National Unity Government, established by opponents to the coup. Ongoing nationwide protests organized by the national Civil Disobedience Movement have demonstrated widespread opposition to rule by the military, which has governed the country for most of the past 60 years. The junta’s response to the largely peaceful protests has been increasingly brutal. Since the coup, security forces have killed over 700 people, including at least 45 children as young as five, and detained an estimated 3,200 activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. Hundreds have been forcibly disappeared, which may amount to crimes against humanity. Over the past weeks, the military has demonstrated the callous disregard for human life that has driven its strategy for decades. In video footage from cities and towns across the country, soldiers can be seen shooting down children, brutally beating medical aid workers, and firing shotguns into crowds of peacefully protesting doctors. In the city of Bago on April 9, military and police used grenades against barricades erected by protesters, killing scores of people. The State Administrative Council has also ordered the shutdown of mobile data and public Wi-Fi connections, resulting in the shutdown of much of the country’s internet, and placed areas of the country under martial law. In these areas, protesters, other opponents of military rule, and journalists face trials in closed military courts under unfair trial procedures, with no right to appeal. Under the council order, those convicted by military courts may be sentenced to death or hard labor for unlimited periods of time. Since the declaration of martial law, military tribunals have sentenced at least 19 people to death. “ASEAN should be playing a constructive role in resolving Myanmar’s crisis, not providing a podium to the general most responsible for creating it,” Adams said. “ASEAN should make clear that it stands with Myanmar’s democratically elected government and will demand accountability from Min Aung Hlaing and other junta leaders responsible for the deaths of hundreds protesting for democracy.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 83.5 KB
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Title: The case for a US missile strike on Myanmar
Sub-title: US could not unilaterally invoke 'R2P' to intervene in Myanmar's crisis but that doesn't mean the military option is off the table
Description: "Nearly 80 days and 800 deaths after the military coup of February 1, two divergent trendlines have emerged to define the future contours of Myanmar’s crisis: brutal reassertion of control by the military junta over a political and economic wasteland; or descent into civil war pitting the junta against a nascent coalition of forces fighting for federal democracy. Less noted and earlier in the crisis dismissed as quixotic, there is also however a third wild-card scenario involving action aimed at deflecting both of those two disastrous trajectories: foreign intervention to engage Myanmar’s generals in the only language they have ever understood or respected – military power. Impelled by the looming prospect of state collapse and humanitarian catastrophe as an inflexible Tatmadaw ratchets up its repression, the logic of external intervention in the form of US missile strikes against military targets is assuming a compelling momentum. As one well-placed Singapore-based analyst conceded: “We’re in such dire territory now that almost nothing is off-limits.” In the weeks following the putsch through February and into March many, including this writer, saw reassertion of control by the junta, known as the State Administration Council (SAC), as the most probable outcome. The argument was based on an assessment of four salient facets of the Tatmadaw as a military organization: its ample resources, institutional cohesion, proven ruthlessness and unblinking sense of mission. All of these characteristics had been amply demonstrated in earlier periods of popular protest. Where the assessment fell down was in underestimating the extraordinary courage and resilience of ordinary citizens. Led by a youthful vanguard armed with modern communications technology, hundreds of thousands who saw their future being torn away by the same military that between 1962 and 2011 had reduced their country to an economic basket case took to the streets in peaceful protest. This sustained outpouring of anger forced the military to move from relative restraint in the first weeks after the coup to a more characteristic resort to battlefield violence involving first targeted killings using rifles and finally open massacres with machine guns, grenades and rocket launchers..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 20 April, (738) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has not yet confirmed any fallen heroes 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 April 20, a total of (3300) people are currently under detention; of them (76) are sentenced. 1020 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. Today, protests across the country continued in resistance to the dictatorship. A seeming calm in crackdowns is actually not the case. This morning in Narnat Taw Ward, Loikaw City, Kayah State, a demonstration was attacked by junta forces, the area was then stormed and houses destroyed. This kind of violence is happening everywhere, as did many arbitrary arrests in several areas today. Yesterday early morning in Myingyan City, Mandalay Region, one protester was shot in the thigh and detained. By the evening, the junta told his family to collect his dead body. Across Burma, wounded people are being detained, mistreated and not given adequate medical care. In international conflicts people have a right to medical care when injured. The junta is treating anyone they see like an enemy. Injured protestors can not get treatment they desperately need. You have less chance of getting treated in junta crackdowns than in warzones seen outside our country. On the early morning of 19 April, in Chanmyathazi Township, Mandalay City, junta forces in a white unmarked car and military truck dropped a dead body by the trash in the Mya Nandar housing complex with his head wide open, wounds on his back, face bruised and his body burnt. There is a complete lack of human rights, the junta does not inform the family or place them in a hospital, there is no human dignity given. In Chanayethazan Township, Mandalay Region, the No.6 Police Station deputy was brutally arrested because of his involvement in CDM. The deputy has pre-existing kidney problems, he is reportedly not allowed medical care for his kidney problems. His family are worried if he can not get medical treatment, his health will further decline. The family have not been allowed to visit him, they are requesting he receive the medical treatment he urgently needs. It is a worry scenario when those being detained need medical treatment, in detention the situation is very insecure, there is no human rights given. This is worryingly happening every day across Burma now. But this is a systematic pattern of the junta behaviour. Detainees are entitled to human rights. The junta are targeting urban and rural areas with violence in crackdowns. In Sagaing Region, Ta Yaw Gyin village and Tha Byay Aye village in Yin Mar Bin Township; and Moe Gaung village, Chaung Ma village, Yar Gyi village, Lar Po village, and Sae Ywar village in Kani Township, locals were forced to flee because of the junta. Terrorist troops arrived and the villagers were forced to hide in paddy fields. The junta then based itself at the village, and destroyed and looted the villagers’ possessions. Last night, in Mee Laung Phya village, Nyaung Oo Township, Mandalay Region, the junta searched people’s homes, looting gold and jewelry. 30 villagers were detained and most of the rest were forced to flee. Yesterday evening, in Letwe-Myinni village, Nwathogyi Township, Mandalay Region, the junta set fire to defensive barricades. Terrorist troops also beat some of the villagers, searching one house and looting a satellite and other goods. All people feel unsafe because of the junta’s actions. The terrorist’s violence will only deteriorate. People will continue to have even less peace and security. ASEAN must not act like this is Burma’s internal affair, instability threatens the entire region’s economic and political interests. ASEAN must take a stronger response than at present. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 867.23 KB 3.16 MB 918.83 KB
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Title: EU Sanctions 10 More Myanmar Regime Members But Some Still Missing
Topic: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, civilian deaths, Coup, crackdown, EU, European Union, junta, military in politics, military regime, Rule of Law, Sanctions, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Topic: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, civilian deaths, Coup, crackdown, EU, European Union, junta, military in politics, military regime, Rule of Law, Sanctions, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Description: "The European Union imposed sanctions on 10 more junta members, including its ethnic minority representatives, and two military-controlled conglomerates on Monday. The latest sanctions target nine members of the State Administrative Council (SAC), the junta’s governing body, and its information minister, U Chit Naing, who is responsible for issuing military propaganda. The EU said the sanctions include asset freezes and visa bans on those involved in decision-making, undermining democracy and serious human rights violations. At least 739 people have been killed and 3,261 detained by the regime since the military takeover on Feb. 1, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The EU imposed sanctions on U Chit Naing, saying he was responsible for spreading disinformation through the state media. It said he was also “directly responsible for decisions that led to the crackdown on Myanmar media”. After taking over the ministry, he outlawed the words “coup”, “military regime” and “junta” in the independent media. On March 8 he removed the operating licenses of Mizzima, Myanmar Now, 7Day News, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and Khit Thit Media, all of which had covered the protests against military rule. Seven ethnic-minority SAC members are included on the sanctions lists. Mahn Nyein Maung, a former Karen National Union leader and ex-political prisoner, ran unsuccessfully for the Lower House in Ayeyarwady Region’s Pantanaw Township for the Karen People’s Party in the Nov. 8 general election. Rakhine politician Daw Aye Nu Sein was on the Arakan National Party’s policy board and the party’s spokeswoman. Kayah politician Saw Daniel was the vice-chairman of the Kayah State Democratic Party until his dismissal from the party for joining the SAC. Dr. Banyar Aung Moe, a central executive committee member of the Mon Unity Party, was appointed to the SAC on March 17, leading to the resignation of many party members. Shan politician Sai Lone Hseng was a Shan State speaker representing the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party. Two other members of ethnic minorities on the SAC, Jeng Phang Naw Taung and U Moung Har, also face EU sanctions. New National Democracy Party chairman U Thein Nyunt and National Democratic Force chairman U Khin Maung Swe are on the sanctions list. Both are former National League for Democracy members who quit to take part in the military-organized 2010 general election and they served as MPs until 2015. Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (MEC) have been also been sanctioned by the EU. The two conglomerates are a key source of income for the junta. They control a range of banking, trade, logistics, construction, mining, tourism and consumer goods businesses. The EU said its decision is “a sign of the EU’s unity and determination in condemning the brutal actions of the military junta and aims at effecting change in the junta’s leadership”. The 27-member bloc said its sanctions targeted the economic interests of the coup leaders and aim to avoid harm to the people of Myanmar. Some are still missing In March, the EU issued a freeze on assets and a visa ban for coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and nine other senior officers who are SAC members and for the new head of the election commission. The EU’s latest sanctions on Monday target civilian members of the SAC and one minister. Other key SAC members have evaded sanctions. Foreign minister U Wunna Maung Lwin, a key member of the UDSP, also served as foreign minister under President U Thein Sein when he worked with his counterparts in Asean, a role he reprised on his recent trip to Thailand. He met the Thai and Indonesian foreign ministers weeks after the military coup. Also missing is the regime’s investment and foreign economic relations minister, U Aung Naing Oo. Despite his military background, he was appointed Myanmar Investment Commission chief under the ousted National League for Democracy government. With the experience he gained under the NLD government, he is now the economics czar for the regime. The junta’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, Daw Thet Thet Khaing, was a military-friendly politician long before her ministerial appointment. Before the 2020 general election, she met Senior General Min Aung Hung to seek help if they were mistreated by the NLD during the election. She is a former NLD member. International cooperation minister U Ko Ko Haling used to be an adviser under U Thein Sein’s government in the early 2010s. He is a staunch supporter of China and he is an adviser to Yunnan University’s Center for Myanmar Studies. He has backed China’s policies towards Hong Kong and Taiwan. These ministers have all received severe criticism from pro-democracy supporters who have demanded western countries impose sanctions on them..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Five civilians killed in clash with junta’s forces in Sagaing’s Yinmabin Township
Topic: Military Coup
Sub-title: Troops used drones to track locals’ location and fired at them with long-range artillery
Topic: Military Coup
Description: "Five civilians were killed and five more injured after a shootout between the coup regime’s troops and locals armed with hunting rifles in Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region, on Tuesday. Following the clash, rumours circulated that 10 locals had died. Myanmar Now was able to confirm one death on Tuesday evening, and four more on Wednesday morning. “It’s not true that there were 10 deaths. We’re in touch with the leaders,” a relief worker from Yinmabin told Myanmar Now. The five casualties were Bo San, Aung San Oo, Aung Naing, Zaw Myo Aung, and Kyaw Myo Tun. They were from the villages of Win Kone, Kapaing-Theekone and Kyobin. The fighting with locals broke out after some 200 soldiers stationed themselves on the road to the Alaungdaw Kathapa pagoda near Kapaing village. While the locals defended themselves using traditional hunting rifles, troops took up positions beyond their range, using drones to track the villagers’ locations and fire at them with long-range artillery. Relief workers were only able to retrieve the body of Bo San, who had suffered multiple injuries in the shelling. At the time of reporting, Myanmar Now was still gathering further information about the five men who were killed in Yinmabin, but due to the lack of internet access to the region, such independent verification has been difficult. The ruling junta cut off mobile internet nationwide in March. Around 10,000 residents from at least 17 villages had fled their homes due to the clashes and were hiding in the jungle, the relief worker said. Residents in Sagaing Region’s Kalay, Kani, Tamu, Taze and Yinmabin townships have been resisting the regime’s attacks since the military began indiscriminate crackdowns on protests across the country following the February 1 coup..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Junta Imported $15M Worth of Russian Radar Equipment in February
Sub-title: Russia has continued to support the Myanmar regime after a military coup ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and brought an end to a decade of civilian rule.
Description: "The Myanmar military regime imported $14.7 million in radar equipment in February, Russian customs data seen by The Moscow Times. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu agreed to supply Myanmar with Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile systems, Orlan-10E surveillance drones and radar equipment during a visit to the capital Naypyidaw in January. The deal was made a week before a military coup ousting Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, which brought an end to a decade of civilian rule. It is unclear if the Russian radar equipment Myanmar imported in February was part of the January agreement. The Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS) did not respond to a request for comment. Russia has continued to support the increasingly isolated Myanmar regime. During a visit to Yangoon at the end of March, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin — who was the first high-profile foreign official to visit the country after the coup — vowed to deepen military cooperation between the two countries. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data for 2019, Myanmar's spending on Russian arms imports totaled an estimated $807 million for the decade, making Russia the number two military exporter to Myanmar behind China. In December, trade data also showed that Russia exported $96 million worth of goods classified as “hidden,” which are often defense-related products. While overall trade between Russia and Myanmar remains minimal, Myanmar’s leaders have urged Russian businesses to invest in the country. Their statements come as the international community increasingly shuns the Myanmar junta over its human rights violations. The U.S. has suspended a trade deal with Myanmar while several Singaporean companies, including a firm that sold anti-drone products to Myanmar's police, have canceled their deals. Over 500 civilians are reported to have been killed following the coup and the United Nations human rights office has warned the situation was heading “toward a full-blown conflict.” The EU, which on Monday introduced a new round of sanctions against Myanmar’s generals, has previously accused Russia of hampering a united international response to Myanmar’s military coup..."
Source/publisher: The Moscow Times ( Moscow)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Blue Shirt Day to draws attention to political prisoners in Burma
Description: "21 April 2021 is the seventh anniversary of the death of U Win Tin – journalist, democracy activist, founding member of the National League for Democracy, and one of Burma’s most high profile and respected political prisoners. He spent over 19 years in prison. People around the world will be wearing a blue shirt or blue clothing to raise awareness about Burma’s growing political prisoner population, and in solidarity with those activists in jail for supporting human rights and democracy. When U Win Tin was eventually released in 2008, he refused to hand back his blue prison shirt, and vowed to wear a blue shirt every day until all political prisoners were released, saying: “If there are no political prisoners … I will take off my shirt, but up until now I haven’t seen good indications.” Arrest, torture and forced disappearances are taking place daily in Burma since the military staged a coup on 1 February. There are now more than 3200 political prisoners, who are being imprisoned for peacefully protesting and speaking out against the military. This figure does not include people who have been arrested or simply disappeared in very remote ethnic areas. Please join Blue Shirt Day on Wednesday 21st April. Wear blue, post pictures on social media, and tell the world that there is a growing number of political prisoners in Burma, and that they must be freed immediately..."
Source/publisher: "Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication: 2021-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-20
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 19 April, (738) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) hero from Htone Bo Town in Pandaung Township, Bago 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 April 19, a total of (3261) people are currently under detention; of them (75) are sentenced. 970 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. Today at 8pm YGN time, junta propaganda MWD said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners was spreading fake news. AAPP is giving an accurate, verified, representation of the brutality of this illegal junta. Despite the inhumanity of torture, the junta in Burma has done it every single day since the attempted coup. Verified photos of six youths who were tortured after being arbitrarily accused and arrested for a bombing in Yankin township, Yangon Region went viral on social media. Such overt displays by the junta’s propaganda media reveal the inhumanity and notorious persecution in clear violation of international human rights laws and conventions, but in particular it is supposed to threaten people protesting for democracy of similar fates. Medical treatment is urgently needed for these respected youths. The consequences of these interrogations by the junta is extremely worrying. Terrorist troops passed by in front of a hotel with sailors returning to Burma, junta forces entered hotel rooms after allegedly hearing the banging of pots and pans, two sailors were assaulted, one had broken ribs, the other is reported to have gashed his eyebrows. The terrorists also robbed $1,500 from a sailors wages. AAPP strongly denounces such brutality, and we urge the UN, international community, including ASEAN, to take effective action as quickly as possible. Today, people across Burma continued to protest against the dictatorship with various marches. At the General Dawn Strike in Mandalay City, a frontliner was attacked by a car and the General Dawn Strike shot with rubber bullets, tear gas and live ammunition. 11 people were beaten and arrested and a victim was reported to have been injured in a car attack. This morning, two motorcycle strikes in Mandalay were rammed by a vehicle, one girl was crushed, another was injured by a bullet and more than 10 people were beaten and arrested. It is a serious situation when a terrorist group has repeatedly over the last few days been crashing into, to detain protestors in unmarked vehicles. Today, in Mohnyin town, Kachin State a strike was repressed, and two people, including a female university student, were arrested. People-made barricades were burned down in Nanataw Ward in Loikaw Township, Kayah State and the junta opened fire with live ammunition, and two young men were arrested. In Myin Gyan Town, Mandalay Region, the most tenacious fort in Ward 6 was brutally crackdown, the junta made it like a conflict zone with surface to air missiles and heavy artillery since April 18 evening. Six people, including a 13-year-old child, were reported to have been arrested, although some local residents who resisted were not wounded. The No.6 Ward barricade, demolished yesterday, was rebuilt by locals but then stormed again by large numbers of terrorists this morning. Two local residents were injured, one is reportedly in serious condition. The junta troops also went door-to-door searching for people; thousands of residents from No.6 Ward have fled to nearby villages. Homes and neighborhoods in Ward 3 and 4 were also violently raided, motorcycles were burnt down in No.4 Ward. In Kani township, Sagaing Region, more than seven villages fled due to the terrorist operation by the junta. Yesterday afternoon, large numbers entered Chung ma village, in Kani township, where junta troops searched door-to-door and stole food. Military vehicles arrived last night and shot randomly, forcing children and adults to flee. As a result of the junta’s forces’ arbitrary raids and shooting, residents are no longer safe even in their communities and face danger everywhere at any time. This morning, the junta troops opened and destroyed tombs at the Sin Phyu Kwin Cemetery, which had cremated fallen heroes from the Spring Revolution in Bago City. Bodies were removed and laid outside. A new tomb has not yet been created, terrorists have no respect for the dignity of those fallen with these disgusting acts. Burma’s transition to democracy, supposed to promote peace, national reconciliation and democracy, was destroyed by the coup. Abolishing the junta is the only solution to building a fully democratic society for the people. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: “I’m scared, but will not surrender…”
Sub-title: Journalists in Myanmar have put their lives at risk to tell the stories of protestors, doctors, nurses and citizens impacted by the military coup, writes Phil Thornton.
Description: "As a freelance photojournalist, Ng Maung has worked the frontlines of the protests since Myanmar’s military coup began on 1st February. Keeping low, behind flimsy barricades of wood, corrugated tin, tyres and bamboo, he photographed the hurts police and army inflicted on pro-democracy activists. Ng Maung told IFJ of the danger protestors and journalists are facing from heavily armed police and soldiers. “We were warned snipers were on roofs near where we were. I could hear and sense the bullets as they passed. These kids had no protection against bullets.” Ng Maung explained his view was restricted when focusing through a camera lens at soldiers down the street. “You see what is directly in front, not to your immediate side. Bullets were getting closer. I saw a young guy on the ground with a head shot…a lot of blood. People took him on a motorbike to an ambulance, but it was too late, he was already dead.” Ng Maung said soldiers and police are armed to kill and dressed for battle, unlike the unarmed protestors. “They’re targets are young men and women, mostly peaceful protestors, opposing the torture and jailing of elected politicians, workers, doctors, students and journalists. The only protection they have are hiding behind these barricades and running.” In an earlier interview with IFJ in February, Ng Maung, voiced his fears about unseen army snipers when he said they made the streets dangerous to work. “If I can see them I’m not scared, but knowing they could be concealed on rooftops, water towers, behind windows…anywhere…is terrifying.” Ng Maung’s fears became a reality on 23 March when a bullet tore through his hand as he focused his lens. “I could hear shooting. Near me three kids were using phones to take photos. I warned them to move away…take cover, as soldiers were firing.” Ng Maung felt the force of the bullet as it tore into his left hand, pulping bones, tissue and tendon. “I was confused, my hand was burning, at first it was relief the boys were not hit. Then I was worried my hand was destroyed. It looked bad. It took about three hours to get to a clinic.” Ng Maung is full of praise for volunteer doctors and nurses working the protests. “I’ve seen them put themselves at risk of being shot or wounded to care for the injured. I owe them a lot…they work for free…I am forever in their debt.” Ng Maung’s smashed hand has to be rebuilt. He has had a number of operations to try to reconstruct his hand – wire implants, bone repair and skin grafts. Despite the pain and the graphic nature of the wound, Ng Maung managed to photograph the surgical procedures. Ng Maung kept in regular contact with IFJ during the protests and after his wounding spoke of his determination to keep working as a photojournalist despite the dangers. “Everyone is in danger - the military shows no mercy - protestors, doctors, students, workers, children, citizens or journalists – we are all targets just to be shot...silenced. I feel they are no longer human and they don’t see us as human. I'm scared, really scared. As a journalist, I have no protection. I have to be very careful and secretive in getting information. It is so bad I dare not go home to sleep at night. It's very dangerous now. To report we risk our lives. I’m a photojournalist because I want people to know the truth from the pictures I take. I want to expose the brutality of the military and the brave resistance of our people to the world…I hope for international action to end the oppression.” The revolution will not be televised… To silence journalists, like Ng Maung, the military coup leaders ordered telecommunication companies and internet services to block social media platforms and shut down their networks to stop access to information and news. Journalists have been arrested and charged under 505a of the penal code, which carries a sentence of three years in prison. The licenses of Myanmar Now, Mizzima Media, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), 7 Day News and Khit Thit Media were revoked on 8 March. The Ministry of Information shut-down the five independent media outlets and banned them “from publishing or broadcasting” or using any kind of media or technology platforms reporting “news that affects the rule of law and security of the people and supports those who commit high treason…in accordance with Article 419 and 420 of the Constitution.” To make sure the five banned media organisations and their respective journalists got the message, soldiers and police broke into their offices, ransacked, thrashed and stole equipment. Ng Maung told IFJ “journalists are now being hunted – we’ve been put on wanted lists and they have arrested at least 42 journalists.” The police and army have been given unfettered authority by the coup appointed State Administration Council to raid homes to search and arrest without warrants. So called ‘suspects’ can be detained for 24-hours without court permission. Other sections of the Penal Code list a range of fines and jail sentences - twenty years, ten years, seven years and three years for alleged breaches. Faced with the danger of lethal force, nighttime raids on their homes or arrest, many journalists and media workers have been either forced into deep hiding or have left cities for remote ethnic areas in the jungle along the China, India, Bangladesh or Thailand borders. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) confirmed as of Sunday 16 April, 737 people have been killed and 3,229 arrested; 42 of those are journalists. Ko Bo Kyi is a founder and secretary of AAPP-Burma and was first jailed in 1989 for his political beliefs by the then military regime. He explained to IFJ how the military has deliberately created and are using divisions between soldiers and civilians to maintain its reign of terror. “This military is isolated from society. Soldiers are given a different history to what is really happening in the country or outside world. The internet cuts and mobile phone data blockages are not just to prevent protestors from organising, but to stop soldiers getting real information – their news intake is restricted to media controlled by the military - radio, websites, newspapers and television channels.” Ko Bo Kyi said despite fear of arrest, torture and jail, journalists and citizen journalists are still managing to report. “Everyday, underground reporters and civilian journalists are going out and bravely documenting human rights abuses. They’re finding ways to get verifiable and credible reports out to people inside and outside the country.” They’ve destroyed our industry… Zaw Myint, a senior editor, told IFJ he has been forced by soldiers and police making night raids near his home to leave his family and go into hiding, constantly changing his location. “I’m not the only journalist, many of us are now in deep hiding. It’s dangerous on the ground now. We can’t use our name on our stories. It’s getting difficult to survive as we aren’t being paid. Most of us are struggling and our families are suffering...the pressure is massive.” Zaw Myint said finding a means to communicate is getting more difficult. “Mobile data has been cut, it’s difficult to get ADSL connected, getting caught with a pocket Wi-Fi will get you arrested. I try to hook into established Wi-Fi at hotels owned by the military’s cronies.” With the forced closure of the independent media outlets most journalists fear their severance pay will soon be gone, Zaw Myint explains most journalist earn between US$300 and US$700 a month. “Most of us are struggling. The army has killed our industry. They’ve taken down our platforms to publish, they’ve robbed us of our salaries. They done this to silence us. It’s sad to see our industry ripped apart. There’s now no justice, only their law of the gun.” Zaw Myint made the decision to stay in the city despite the constant fear of arrest. “There are still some of us prepared to take risks to tell what’s going on. I hope our colleagues who get to safety in other places will keep working. We’ll print on pamphlets, photocopy them and get them to the people. We’ll send our stories and footage to exiled colleagues for publishing, we’re hurting now, but we will find a way to keep reporting and broadcasting.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "International Federation of Journalists" (Brussels)
Date of publication: 2021-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Local uprisings emerge to challenge Myanmar’s army
Description: "Sleeping by their makeshift barricades, knots of young men at Tahan in the western Myanmar town of Kale had not expected an attack in the pre-dawn darkness. Armed with a few hunting guns made by village blacksmiths, catapults, some airguns and Molotov cocktails, they were no match for forces hardened by decades of conflict and equipped with combat weapons. The first barrage of shots and rocket propelled grenades from Myanmar's army, known as the Tatmadaw, came around 5 a.m. on April 7, the protesters and residents of Kale said. By evening, the one-sided battle was over, the sandbag barricades had been cleared and 13 people were dead, three people involved in the armed group told Reuters. Soldiers deployed on street corners and remain until now. "So many people on our side were wounded that we couldn’t do anything and had to retreat," Aung Myat Thu, one 20-year-old protester in Kale, told Reuters from there by messaging app. Although the resistance in Kale was quickly crushed, it points to a new phase of bloodshed in Myanmar after the Feb. 1 coup, with some protesters now seeking to take up arms against the junta's forces. The junta did not respond to requests for comment. The junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said 18 rioters were arrested in Kale after attacking security forces with homemade weapons. "Some of the members of the security forces were seriously injured," it said Despite the early setbacks, disparate groups are trying to source better weapons, sharpen tactics, share intelligence and get training from some of the two dozen or so existing ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, several opposition politicians said. "Some small defence units have been formed across the country, in the community, villages or wards," said Moe Saw Oo, a spokesman for the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a body representing ousted lawmakers that has set up a rival national unity government. "At the same time, we are in coordination with ethnic armed organisations about the establishment of a proper defence force," he said. Over 700 people have been killed and more than 3,000 have been detained by security forces cracking down on the nationwide protests that have raged since the military deposed the civilian government led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1. Even as the fighters in Kale retreated, other groups have sprung up elsewhere. Acts of sabotage, such as the burning of administrative buildings and attacks on businesses linked to the army have broken out the in the main city of Yangon and the second city of Mandalay. "It is a sign of the determination and the extreme violence the military has been using against protesters rather than a strategic assessment they can take on the might of the military," said analyst Richard Horsey, who recently briefed the U.N. Security Council on the threat of national collapse. Among the new groups, the Ayeyarwaddy Federal Army announced its arrival last week in the heartland of the Bamar majority, which forms the core of the armed forces as well as Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. "Armed revolution is the only way to return the people's power," spokesman Mratt Thu Aung told Reuters via messaging app. He did not disclose the group's location or the size of its force and Reuters was unable to do so independently.....'IF WE DON'T FIGHT...'.....Pressure to organise an armed group in Kale began in mid-March as the army stepped up violence against protests sweeping the largely Buddhist country of 53 million. On March 17, police opened fire on an anti-coup rally - killing four people - after chasing protesters to Myohla on Kale's outskirts, said a 36-year-old activist who was there. "From that point, the people, especially the youth, felt that we needed to do something to defend ourselves," he said, declining to give his name for reprisals against his family. By late March, at least three barricades were set-up around the main market in Tahan, hundreds of people joining to pile up sandbags. Young people in the town banded together to form the Tahan Civil Defence Group, local activists said. The group then raised funds and sought out weapons - mainly rudimentary hunting guns made by local blacksmiths, they said. "At first we had seven guns, which then increased to 15 within a short time," the 36-year-old activist said. The group went for target practice session in a nearby forest on March 26. Two days later, the Tahan Civil Defence Group held off an assault by junta forces. Shortly after, it combined with other local groups to form the Kalay (Kale) Civil Army. Such groups were getting help from the CRPH across the country, an official of the group said. Several thousand young people had been given basic training in arms and fighting by at least four ethnic armed organisations, mostly in Myanmar's border areas, he said. "More are coming," he said, declining to be named. "If we don't fight, the future of Myanmar is gone."......'DON’T UNDERSTAND THE TATMADAW'...In Kale, the little-trained fighters were emboldened by early success. The 19-year-old fighter said he was sleeping between barricades on the main road through Tahan when gunfire woke him. "I grabbed my hunting gun and two soldiers started shooting at me," he said. "I had one chance to shoot back, but my gun didn't work." He sheltered behind a wall, then fled during a lull. The Tatmadaw advanced systematically, blocking off escape routes, one resistance member in Tahan said. "We don't understand the Tatmadaw mindset," the 43-year-old said from a safe house. "That's our mistake." Several young fighters were among the 13 dead at the end of a day of fighting, activists said. Survivors had now gone underground, they said. "We were not safe in Kale anymore," the 19-year-old fighter said by phone from northeastern India, whose border is just over 100 km (60 miles away). Indian authorities declined to comment. A local NLD lawmaker involved in forming the Kalay Civil Army said fighters had been asked to lay low for now, while equipment and training were improved across Myanmar. “Maybe the time will come to fight with the Tatmadaw,” the lawmaker said, “For that, we will need good training.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Mother of detained activist Wai Moe Naing demands her son be granted access to healthcare
Sub-title: The 26-year-old activist suffers from high blood pressure, and was hit by a car before he was taken into regime custody
Description: "The mother of detained Monywa protest leader Wai Moe Naing on Saturday requested that her son be allowed access to medical treatment after he was hit by a car and arrested by the junta’s armed forces on April 15. The 26-year-old Wai activist has suffered from high blood pressure for six years, Moe Sandar Kyu, his mother, told Myanmar Now. “I’m concerned because I don’t know how he’s living or if he’s being fed. He’s not a very healthy person but he’s very motivated. And that’s why he’s active,” she explained. Moe Sandar Kyu believes Wai Moe Naing was likely injured after he was struck by a car on Thursday, and demanded that she be updated on his current state. A photo of Wai Moe Naing in regime custody with a bruised eye and swollen face went viral on social media on April 16, suggesting that he may have been or is being tortured. His mother told Myanmar Now that she had not seen the photo since she, like many people across Myanmar, does not have Internet access since all mobile data was cut off by the coup regime earlier this month. “Since the time he was arrested, I’ve not been able to sleep well. [That day,] I couldn’t sleep for the entire night. On the 16th as well,” she said. “I am worried because I don’t know and I can’t see how he’s doing.” Wai Moe Naing was chair of the Monywa University Student Union from 2014 to 2015, and is also a member of Monywa’s General Strike Committee and the Sagaing Regional Youth Committee. He rose to prominence for his role organising daily anti-coup protests in Monywa, which sits on the eastern bank of the Chindwin River, since February 6. After two police officers were killed in Monywa on March 25, the junta hit him and fellow activist Ta Yote Gyi with murder charges. There is no known evidence linking them to the crime, but the allegations were made by the regime authorities in what has been seen as retaliation after Monywa locals captured and detained a person suspected to be an informant to the junta. He is also facing several other charges, including incitement and theft. Wai Moe Naing is currently being detained and interrogated at the military’s Northwestern Regional Command headquarters. “I don’t want the interrogation to go on for too long. For the protests and his involvement in the revolution, they’re definitely going to punish him like everyone else. But for these bizarre allegations of crimes he didn’t commit, we’ll resolve them as best we can,” Moe Sandar Kyu said, adding she has asked for legal assistance. Wai Moe Naing’s father died when he was six years old, and he is Moe Sandar Kyu’s only child. She had recently retired after working for 20 years as a schoolteacher in Monywa. “I only have one son, and he just has me. We’ve been surviving, just the two of us, without anyone’s help. I nurtured him as a struggling single mother. And now that it’s my turn to rest, he has been working hard to provide for me,” the 54-year-old mother said. Young people across Monywa will continue to fight for the cause of Myanmar’s anti-dictatorship Spring Revolution even though Wai Moe Naing was arrested, she told Myanmar Now, adding that everyone protesting was doing so out of their own free will. “He has said this since the beginning. This is the youth’s duty,” she said. “They have to fight the fight knowing that it is to oppose injustice.”..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-18
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar military junta arrests prominent trade union leader
Topic: Global development, Rights and freedom
Sub-title: Daw Myo Aye, labour organiser and a leader of civil disobedience protests, dragged from office by army
Topic: Global development, Rights and freedom
Description: "One of Myanmar’s leading trade union leaders has been arrested as part of escalating attacks on pro-democracy figures by the military junta. Daw Myo Aye, director of Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM), one of Myanmar’s largest independent unions, is a central figure in the movement for workers’ rights. She has been one of the most prominent union leaders in the civil disobedience movement, which has been organising national strikes and protests since the military seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February. Myo Aye was dragged from her office by the army last Thursday and taken to a police station where she has been charged and detained. According to the union, she is due to be transferred to a prison in Yangon. “We lost our pillar,” said a member of staff at STUM. “But … we are going to operate with the remaining staff. We operate within the law and we provide assistance to workers in accordance with the labour law. Our organisation will not collapse because she is not here.” Thousands of people have been arrested and hundreds killed since protests against the military junta began. According to the latest figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), 737 people have been killed by the military, and 3,229 individuals are detained or have been sentenced. Chue Thwel, Daw Myo Aye’s daughter, said: “Since the beginning of the coup on 1 February, I thought they would come for her … I feel they arrested her to set an example.” A spokesperson for the Worker Rights Consortium, a labour rights monitoring organisation, said: “With many labour leaders already in hiding or exile, the military’s arrest of Daw Myo Aye poses a serious challenge to the vital role of the Myanmar labour movement in the struggle to restore democracy.”..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Five-year-old among almost 100 killed by security forces
Topic: UNLAWFUL KILLINGS
Topic: UNLAWFUL KILLINGS
Description: "Responding to reports that at least 91 people, including a five-year-old boy, were killed by Myanmar security forces across the country on 27 March in its ongoing brutal crackdown on protesters, Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, said: “This is just the latest example of the military authorities’ determination to kill their way out of nationwide resistance to the coup. These abhorrent killings again show the generals’ brazen disregard for the inadequate pressure applied so far by the international community. “This comes a day after the military announced that further protests would be met with shots to the head. “The cost of international inaction is being counted in bodies, including children shot dead in their homes. Amid the horrifying death toll is a nation of over 50 million held hostage, subjected to arbitrary arrest and sweeping surveillance, living in fear of death and torture. “The people of Myanmar continue to protest, all while they grieve more killings by the hour. The nations that participated in the military’s Armed Forces Day events today in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw, particularly China and Russia, are the same states that have shielded the Tatmadaw from accountability time and time again, supplying them with the means to carry out mass slaughter. “UN Security Council member states’ continued refusal to meaningfully act against this never-ending horror is contemptible.” Background At the time of writing, media reported that the military killed nearly 100 people in Yangon, Mandalay and other towns today, including a five-year-old boy. On 26 March, state television announced protesters were “in danger of getting shot to the head and back”. According to estimates from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPPB), the minimum death toll since the 1 February coup stood at 328 on 26 March. While a small number of protesters have armed themselves with crude homemade weaponry including molotov cocktails, slingshots and homemade air-pressure rifles, the protests have overall remained peaceful and in the incidents that Amnesty International has examined, lethal force used by the military has been unlawful and excessive. Elsewhere in the country, armed conflict is escalating between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups. Amnesty International has grave concerns about the potential for further mass atrocities as well as the resumption of large-scale conflict and associated mass displacement adding to the country’s existing internally displaced population of over 300,000. Amnesty is calling on the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar, and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. The Security Council must also impose targeted financial sanctions against Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (Myanmar’s military chief now in charge of the country) and other military leaders responsible for atrocity crimes against various ethnic minorities across the country, including the Rohingya. The UN Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar has previously called for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials to be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-03-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Military under ‘major pressure’ as steel giant cuts ties
Topic: BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Topic: BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Description: "Responding to reports that South Korean steel giant POSCO will end the steel venture its Myanmar subsidiary shares with military-owned conglomerate MEHL, Amnesty International’s Business and Human Rights Researcher Montse Ferrer said: “POSCO’s decision to cut this tie is the latest blow to Myanmar’s military, which continues to impose its rule through murder and heinous human rights violations. Since staging a coup in February, the military has reportedly killed around 700 people, including dozens of children. “Given the scale of POSCO’s operations in Myanmar, this announcement is a major step forward. It increases the military authorities’ isolation, and adds to the growing pressure on other companies to end their business links with MEHL. “POSCO has yet to announce the full details of its plans to disengage from its steel venture and whether it will continue to pay lease payments to MEHL. The company also has yet to address its broader footprint in Myanmar in other sectors. However, this is still a warning sign to all companies and investors who have business partnerships with MEHL. All of these businesses should do the right thing and responsibly cut these links immediately. “As pressure builds on businesses, and as the military continues to commit appalling human rights violations, the UN Security Council must stop lagging so far behind. It must impose, without further delay, a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar, as well as targeted financial sanctions on senior military officials responsible for atrocity crimes. The Security Council must also urgently refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.”.....Background ...On 16 April 2021, POSCO announced that its Myanmar subsidiary, POSCO C&C, would end its relationship with military-owned Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). This decision follows months of international pressure from Amnesty International and other organizations, who have engaged POSCO, its investors and stakeholders, calling on the company to cut ties with the Myanmar military. On 24 March 2021, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar by consensus, which highlighted that no company active in Myanmar or with business links to Myanmar should do business with the military (also known as the Tatmadaw) or one of their business entities, until and unless those businesses are restructured and transformed. In September 2020, Amnesty International’s Military Ltd. report demonstrated that POSCO, as MEHL’s business partner, was linked to the financing of Myanmar’s military units implicated in crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations. The Myanmar military staged a coup on 1 February 2021 and has been increasingly using lethal force, including battlefield weapons, against overwhelmingly peaceful protesters and onlookers, reportedly killing over 700 people, including dozens of children. It has also arbitrarily detained over 3,000 individuals, including government officials, human rights defenders, activists, journalists, artists, medical workers and others..."
Source/publisher: "Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 211.37 KB
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Title: Myingan ‘like a war zone’ as regime troops destroy protest stronghold, locals say
Sub-title: Hundreds of soldiers and police crush an anti-coup defence area in the Mandalay Region town, shooting indiscriminately and arresting locals, including one child
Description: "The regime’s armed forces crushed an anti-coup stronghold in the Mandalay Region town of Myingyan on Sunday in an afternoon attack. The Lanmadaw protest base in the town’s sixth ward was a primary defence area from which civilians had been using homemade guns, such as hunting rifles, to resist attacks by regime troops. Some 200 members of the armed forces assaulted the stronghold from late afternoon until 10pm, according to locals. An estimated six people, including a 13-year-old boy, were arrested after the attacks, a resident said. Local sources said that there were casualties on the side of the armed forces, but that no civilians had died in the assault. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm these details at the time of reporting. A Myingan local told Myanmar Now that troops were “shooting at every person they saw… like in a war zone.” Residents rebuilt the Lanmadaw stronghold before dawn on Monday, but it was destroyed by the troops again at around 10am. Prior to the attack on Lanmadaw on Sunday, soldiers and police also indiscriminately shot at people near Myingan’s municipal market. At least one man was injured and in critical condition after being shot in the head, according to local sources. He was a worker in a rice shop, and was shot by troops as he tried to close the shop’s doors as they passed by the area. At around 4pm on Sunday, there was an explosion in front of the KBZ Bank branch in the town but no one was reported as injured. The cause of the blast is unknown. According to local relief organisations, at least 23 people have been killed in Myingyan by the military and police in crackdowns on demonstrations since the February 1 coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group that has been monitoring the regime’s violence, reported that more than 730 people have been killed nationwide during the same period..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 200.88 KB
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Title: The Tatmadaw is keeping families in the dark about their loved ones’ remains
Sub-title: As junta forces increasingly refuse to return the bodies of those they’ve slain, the pain of grieving families is being exacerbated by uncertainty.
Description: "The morning of March 11 was surprisingly cold in Mandalay, at least by the normal standards of Myanmar’s second-largest city. U Zaw Lin and his 19-year-old son, Ko Lin Htet, kept warm by huddling under a blanket. Lin Htet, a second-year geology student at Mandalay’s Yadanabon University, was recounting his experiences on the front lines of Mandalay’s anti-military protests when their conversation was interrupted by a phone call. “I have to go, dad,” Lin Htet said after hanging up. He leapt from the bed, disappearing into another room to get dressed. When he returned, he was wearing his father’s white sport shoes. “Look, your trainers fit me. Can I wear them?” Zaw Lin, 47, recalls his son asking. Lin Htet wanted to wear the shoes because he planned to join the Mya Taung protest group, which has been marching twice-daily through Mandalay since shortly after the February 1 coup. Sensing his son’s excitement, Zaw Lin gave his assent. Then they went their separate ways: Lin Htet to the protests, Zaw Lwin to his job at a car spraying workshop on Mandalay’s 16th street in Maha Aung Myay Township. He was at home eating lunch when he got the phone call. “A friend said that news was being shared on Facebook that Lin Htet had been shot,” Zaw Lin recalled, his voice trembling. “I was shocked – I couldn’t believe it at all.” As soon as Zaw Lin saw the photos, he knew it was his son. Lin Htet was tall, standing at six foot one (about 185 centimetres), with long black hair and the blue plaid shirt he’d left home in. What stood out in the photos, though, were Zaw Lin’s white shoes. “When I saw the photos on Facebook, I knew it was my beloved son, but I had trouble believing it – I couldn’t breathe, I was in shock,” Zaw Lin said. He rushed to the spot where his son had been shot, on 89th Street in Chan Aye Thar San Township, but the body was already gone. All that remained was the facemask his son had worn. Witnesses told him they had seen soldiers drag Lin Htet’s body into an unmarked black Toyota Alphard and drive away. Zaw Lin and his wife, Daw Htay Htay Myint, went to several police stations, army camps and hospitals around the city hoping to find their son’s body, but to no avail. Two days later, Police Chief U Toe Toe from the Maha Aung Myay’s No 6 police station told them that their son had been cremated the day he died. “I asked, ‘Why weren’t we informed?’ When I asked how they could do that without telling family members, he said they had to do it because it was their duty,” Zaw Lin said. He was furious at the police, both for their failure to help and their lack of remorse. “If they were unarmed, I would have fought them one by one,” he told Frontier on April 6. “But at the time, I even had to apologise to them just so I could try to get back my son’s remains for burial. Still, they shouted at us and claimed they had no responsibility to help.” More than a month later, Zaw Lin still does not know where his son’s remains are. Myanmar’s security forces have responded with growing brutality to the anti-coup demonstrations that have swept the country in recent months, a movement dubbed by some as the “Spring Revolution” and largely led by youthful “Generation Z” protesters like Lin Htet. Like Zaw Lin, scores of relatives who have lost loved ones face the added pain of not knowing the fate of their remains, and not having the chance to properly farewell them. The uncertainty magnifies their grief. On March 17, six days after Zaw Lin lost his only son, Ma Yee Mon Theint’s husband was killed in Hlaing Tharyar, an industrial suburb in Yangon’s west. Ko Thura Oo, a 25-year-old trishaw driver, was shot and killed by soldiers and police during an afternoon demonstration on Tharaphi Street in the Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone. Yee Mon Theint received the devastating news that evening, shortly after returning home from her job selling fish in a local market. “I was told by a friend who ran from the spot where my husband was shot. I tried to go to him, but because of the continuous shooting I couldn’t leave [my home] immediately. When I got there, my husband’s body was gone,” she said, crying. A witness told Frontier they saw Thura Oo shot in the head and back, before soldiers removed his shirt and hat and dragged his body into a nearby car. Yee Mon Theint said that when she arrived at the blood-stained spot where her husband had fallen, all that remained were his shirt and hat. Desperate to find her husband’s body, she went to Hlaing Tharyar Hospital, but they had no record of him. Later, ahe heard a rumour that his body had been dumped in a creek in the industrial zone, but her searches turned up nothing. Despite not finding his body, Yee Mon Theint accepted her husband’s death and held a small funeral ceremony three days later, but she still hopes that his remains will one day be returned. “Although my husband is already dead, I really want his body back. I want to bury him in a peaceful place,” she said, wiping away tears. “I have no idea where they took him.” Estimates on the number of people killed in Hlaing Tharyar range from 70 to more than 100. The leader of a relief organisation that works in the township told Frontier that the remains of at least 12 people who have been confirmed dead have not been returned. “Some family members are missing dead bodies although they heard information from witnesses, or [had seen evidence] that their sons and husbands had been shot during the protests,” said the leader, who asked not to be named. In other cases, he said, his organization has retrieved the bodies of protesters who have been killed, but has been unable to locate any family members, or even identify them. A relief worker in Mandalay, where at least 118 people have so far died, told Frontier that the bodies of three people – Lin Htet, another man and a woman named Daw Pyone – were unaccounted for in Maha Aung Myay Township alone. Relief groups are often asked to help families try to locate missing family members, the official said. “If the person’s body is not with the relief group, the family members then go to a police station or hospital to try and confirm if the person is alive,” he said. While the Mandalay official said he couldn’t understand why security forces were not returning the bodies of those killed in the crackdown, the leader of the Hlaing Tharyar relief group said he believed the military was trying to cover up evidence of its brutality. “I think it’s simply that the military wants to destroy the evidence of what they are doing,” he said. “They don’t want to hand back bodies that clearly show evidence of being shot.” The military regime has disputed death toll figures from independent monitoring groups, such as the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. On April 9, the military regime claimed that just 248 protesters had died, less than half of the AAPP total. That same day, junta forces reportedly massacred at least 82 people in the town of Bago, and AAPP says as of April 18, 730 people had been killed since February 1. Zaw Lin can still barely believe his son is gone. The father and son had enjoyed a close relationship, and Zaw Lin said he missed their animated conversations. “We have been distraught since my son left. I only had one son; he was a very talented child, and I miss him so much,” Zaw Lin said, crying. He described his son as intelligent, with a cool and calm demeanor, but said he had become angry after the February 1 coup. Lin Htet read news obsessively on social media; some days, he would sit alone and talk to himself, his father said, an indication of the profound impact the political situation was having on his son’s mental wellbeing. But Lin Htet had also been heavily involved in the youth-led protest movement since shortly after the coup. He would join rallies and marches, and note down significant dates – such as when protests started in Yangon and Mandalay, and when the United Nations held a meeting to discuss the situation in Myanmar – on a calendar at home. When Lin Htet’s parents tried to explain how anxious they were about him joining demonstrations, he would respond passionately, explaining why it was important for him to take part. “I didn’t think he would be so interested in politics,” Zaw Lin said. “When I suggested that politics is not a simple topic and he should spend some time learning more about it, he responded that the time had come for the younger generation to take the lead, and that he needed to be involved.” Zaw Lin accepts that his sone is gone – but his wife, Htay Htay Myint, believes that her son is still alive and in hiding. She prays and performs good deeds each day, hoping this will speed his return. “Every day I have to live with anxiety and grief,” she said. “I still expect to get a call from my son, and wonder if someone with good spirits is protecting him. Until I find his body, I cannot accept that my son is dead.”..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 284.41 KB
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Title: Two killed in separate incidents, as hundreds flee amid military build-up
Sub-title: One casualty was reported in Kyaukme, in northern Shan state, while the other was in Sagaing region’s Kani township
Description: "Two anti-coup protesters were killed in northern Myanmar over the weekend as the military continued its push to crush resistance to its rule. One person was reported dead in the northern Shan State town of Kyaukme on Saturday, while another died during a shootout in Sagaing Region’s Kani Township on Sunday. Aung Ko Ko Phyo, a 25-year-old government employee who had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, was shot in the head as he was leaving the monastery where he had temporarily ordained as a monk during the Thingyan holidays. According to local sources, Aung Ko Ko Phyo, who worked for the Department of Electrical Power, was shot near Kyaukme’s Wailuwun monastery at around 9pm on Saturday. “He was on his way to his teacher’s home. He had just left the monkhood because it was the end of Thingyan,” a Kyaukme resident told Myanmar Now. There were numerous witnesses to the incident, the source added, noting that it occurred in the centre of town. A doctor who treated him said he died from a bullet wound and would be cremated on Monday. The troops who killed him removed his body from the scene soon after the shooting. Family members were told they could collect it on Sunday. However, according to a local news agency, his mother was forced to sign a release before she was allowed to claim his body stating that her son had been stabbed to death and that the military was not involved in his killing. Residents of Kyaukme, a trading town located about 175km northeast of Mandalay, have held regular protests against the military since it seized power in a coup on February 1. On Sunday, another man died after the arrest of a local man led to a five-hour confrontation between regime forces and civilians in Sagaing region. The shootout, which occurred on the Monywa-Kalaywa-Yargyi road between Mingin and Kani townships, began at around 1pm, a resident of the area told Myanmar Now. “[Soldiers] fired a shot and came into the village. They arrested a local and that’s when the fighting began,” said a resident of Sal Yar Chaung, the village where the arrest was made. At least 100 soldiers were involved in the clash, according to another villager. No further details were available about the man who died. Residents said that some of the military forces may have been injured by homemade hunting rifles and air guns used by members of a village defence team. Residents say that hundreds of people have fled the area since Sunday, as more army troops pour in and conduct door-to-door raids targeting local civilians. “They came into the village in the morning. There were a lot of them. They were searching every house, so we had to run. It looks like they’re setting up base,” said a resident of Chaung Ma Kyway, one of the affected villages. The shootout on Sunday came days after a similar incident on April 15 left six civilians dead and at least 20 others missing. Many parts of Sagaing region have been tense since late last month amid efforts by the regime to crack down on strongholds of the anti-coup movement. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 730 civilians have been killed by the junta nationwide as of April 17..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 248.84 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 18 April, (737) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (7) fallen heroes today. These (7) heroes from Kani Township in Sagaing Region and Kyaukme Town in Shan State were killed the 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 April 18, a total of (3229) people are currently under detention; of them (75) are sentenced. 930 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. All across the country today, various protests against junta were carried out. On 18 April, junta crackdowns may have appeared calmer but in Myingyan City, Mandalay Region, the junta fired at young protestors, a man inside a house and shot and seriously injured. On April 17 nighttime, in Larpo village, Kani Township, Sagaing Region, protestors defending themselves from junta forces attacks were shot at, 2 protestors were shot dead. Last night at around 9pm in Kyaukme Town, Shan State, 3 young boys riding a motorbike were fired at by the junta, one was shot dead in the head, the 2 others detained. In Yangon, Yankin and other townships, explosions were set off yesterday. After the explosions, from last midnight up until noon today the junta raided Yankin Township, and arbitrarily assaulted and detained 30 women and youths. In most of the wards in Myeik City, Tanintharyi Region, the junta has been randomly throwing sound grenades throughout the night, attempting to continue its climate of fear. On 16 April, the junta searched for an MP, his sister, Daw Nwel Nwel Aung (a lecturer in Botany at West Yangon University), was taken as a hostage from her home in South Okkalapa Township, because junta forces could not find her brother. The junta has continued its policy of hostage taking, just as new tactics of these terrorists emerge. People are not safe, even at home, they can be abducted any time, facing terror every single day. This month has also seen an increase in pressure on journalists. In Kachin State, 3 journalists from the Myitkyina News Journal outlet are detained in interrogation centers. At these interrogation centers, detainees are forced to sign and confess under duress or through harsher torture. These places witness unimaginable suffering, they should not exist – but the dictatorship in Burma continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity here. Now journalists are being targeted in these interrogation centers. The junta in Burma is killing, shooting, harassing, looting, assaulting. The generals in Burma only look out for themselves. Innocent civilians are losing their rights to security and dignity, their property is under attack. There is no rule of law, every single corner of the country is repressed. For the uprising to fully succeed, we must ensure accountability for these crimes. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-18
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Size: 858.73 KB 3.04 MB 898.77 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 15 April, (726) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (11) fallen heroes today. (1) from Mandalay died on 15 April. (10) 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 April 15, a total of (3151) people are currently under detention; of them (75) are sentenced. 813 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 new technique of the regime of the junta is now using unregistered vehicles with fake licence plates to smash into and arrest peaceful demonstrators. Today in Saigaing Region, Monywa, Wai Moe Naing was crashed into, beaten and detained, AAPP is concerned for his access to adequate medical treatment from the crash. Across Monywa youth demonstrators were detained today. In all dictatorships in Burma, this junta has tortured and mistreated. The junta has form for using torture in interrogation centers, we are also therefore worried the lives and dignity of detainees will be violated. In Mandalay City, in a demonstration march led by healthcare workers and families, 6 were detained. At least 20 other local civilians were also detained. Junta forces also fired guns at Sule Mosque in Maha Aung Myay Township, Mandalay City and killed one person, 2 were critically injured, 1 of those critically injured was disabled. According to Myanmar Now 5 people sleeping inside the mosque were arrested, including children aged between 11 and 16. These religious compounds and places of worship are supposed to be protected, but this junta targets these areas, looting and openly destroying property. The junta continued with its brutal arbitrary repression in complete disrespect of the Ramadan religious festival. In conflicts across the globe killing may stop, but the terrorists in Burma continue murdering and torturing no matter any holy days. Yesterday afternoon in other cities and towns in Mandalay Region there were also shootings and killings. In Mandalay City, three civilians were injured. Yesterday in Myitnge, Mandalay, one person was shot dead, and another was shot and reportedly tortured to death, drowned in a puddle of mud by the junta. Yesterday in Myingyan whilst riding a motorbike, one person was shot and injured, he was tied up dragged along to death, his body has not been seen since. One other woman was shot in the arm and died. The junta is also attacking ambulances. Last night in Mandalay, a team of medics transporting injured protestors was stopped, and a woman grabbed by the hair and dragged out, three others of the medical team were detained. The junta is publicly terrorizing and violating anyone and everyone’s human rights. This evening in Yangon. The junta crashed into a taxi, and detained and assaulted the taxi driver and 3 passengers and threatened the neighbourhood with similar action. The previous night in Thamine ward, Insein Township, Yangon one civilian beating pots and pans was assaulted and arrested by junta troops, who then threatened the rest of the neighborhood with similar action. The junta wants to create a climate of fear. Everyday celebrities are issued arrest warrants on the TV propaganda mouthpiece. Today, famous Zin Wine and Singer Po Po (who had warrant issued for arrest) were detained In Kachin State, Momauk Township the terrorist military and KIA are engaged in heavy fighting. The junta is using artillery against civilians, who hide in bunkers, increasingly displaced and killed since the military use of airstrikes. The international community must implement a no-fly zone to stop these war crimes. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Junta troops kill two protesters in Mogok at National Unity Government rally
Sub-title: A video filmed at the scene depicts a member of the armed forces saying, ‘I want them dead. Do you hear me? Five of them’
Description: "Two protesters were shot and killed by regime troops during a demonstration on Saturday to welcome the anti-junta National Unity Government (NUG) in the Mandalay Region town of Mogok, according to local sources. Around 100 soldiers and police arrived at the scene in Aung Chanthar ward and opened fire on the civilians present, eyewitnesses said. “One [of the protesters] was shot in the head. Another was shot in the abdomen,” a local who was also at the demonstration told Myanmar Now. The two casualties were believed to be in their 20s, locals said. Police officers transported the bodies in a cart to an area near Chanthargyi pagoda, where the troops had set up a base. They then put the bodies in an ambulance which eyewitnesses said was headed toward the Mogok Public Hospital. “They shot at people who attempted to pick up the bodies,” the protester at the scene said of the armed forces. “We weren’t able to get them,” he added. Two other protesters were injured after being shot in the leg and thigh, and were also apprehended and put in the ambulance by the troops, another local said. Around 1,000 Mogok residents showed up to the rally at 11am to welcome the NUG government– the cabinet of which was announced by the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on Friday. The violent crackdown began 45 minutes later. In a video seen by Myanmar Now filmed by a local resident, a member of the armed forces is heard saying, ‘I want them dead. Do you hear me? Five of them.’ Another voice responded, ‘yes.’ The military’s information center had not released any information regarding the shootings in Mogok at the time of reporting, and had not responded to media inquiries. At least 10 protesters have been killed in Mogok by the regime’s armed forces for participating in anti-dictatorship protests since the February 1 coup, yet demonstrations have continued daily. Fighting between the military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has also recently broken out in Mogok, with the KIA launching an offensive against the junta’s troops. After news of the KIA attack, local youth expressed support for the Kachin army on social media..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 214.16 KB
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Title: Military and civilians clash in Kani, Sagaing Region, leaving six locals dead
Sub-title: A security team comprised of locals armed with hunting rifles was attempting to intercept trucks transporting detained protesters when the armed forces opened fire on them on April 15
Description: "Six locals were killed during a shootout between the military and a civilian-led security team in Kani Township, Sagaing Region, on Thursday evening. The security team– made up of locals armed with hunting rifles– was standing watch after hearing news that detained protesters were being relocated from their area, and wanted to intercept the trucks in which they were being transported. A member of the security team told Myanmar Now that they had set up checkpoints on the Monywa-Kani road and were planning to stop the prisoner transport vehicles. “We heard news that they were relocating about 70 protesters including protest leaders who were captured here,” he said. One military truck drove through the checkpoint without stopping. Soon after, some 12 trucks arrived at the scene and opened fire on the locals at around 4pm. The shootout continued until around 8pm. The six men killed were Kyaw Hlaing Win, Zin Ko, Ko Naing, Aung Naing Moe, Tin Ohn and Win Ko. They were from Thaminset, Lal Shae and Bant Bwe Myauk villages. A monk from Thaminset village was also arrested, and around 20 people went missing during the shootout. The military may have suffered casualties in the clash, as locals used hunting rifles to fight back against the junta’s troops, but Myanmar Now was unable to confirm further details at the time of reporting. Since Friday, soldiers have been stopping and interrogating passerbys in areas along the Kani-Monywa road, claiming they are doing so for security purposes. Anti-regime protests in Kani stopped after two protesters were killed in a military crackdown in early April. However, locals in the area have said that they are ready to defend themselves against the junta’s armed forces with any weapons available to them, including hunting rifles commonly used in the area. In Tamu and Kalay, in western Sagaing, locals have been using the same weaponry to oppose the coup regime’s suppression of their movement. According to monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, some 728 people have been killed by the junta’s armed forces since the February 1 military coup in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
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Title: Myanmar junta chief to attend ASEAN summit in first foreign trip since coup
Description: "Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia on April 24, Thailand said on Saturday, for his first known foreign trip since he seized power on Feb. 1. Myanmar has been in upheaval since Min Aung Hlaing ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. Security forces have killed 728 people, according to an activist group, in an attempt to crush protests. In the latest violence, security forces shot and killed two protesters in the ruby-mining town of Mogok, a resident told Reuters, while several small bombs went off in the main city of Yangon, wounding several people, media outlets reported. Myanmar's neighbours have been trying to encourage talks between the junta and the ousted government, but the military has shown little willingness to engage. Several of the 10 ASEAN leaders, among them Min Aung Hlaing, confirmed they would attend the meeting in Jakarta, Thai foreign ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat said. A spokesman for the junta did not answer calls seeking comment. Pro-democracy politicians including ousted members of parliament on Friday announced the formation of a National Unity Government (NUG) including Suu Kyi and leaders of the anti-coup protests and ethnic minorities. The NUG has called for international recognition as the legitimate authority, and requested an invitation to the ASEAN meeting in Min Aung Hlaing's place. It could not immediately be reached for comment...NEW YEAR AMNESTY... The junta released 23,184 prisoners from jails across the country on Saturday under a New Year amnesty, the Prisons Department said, though few if any democracy activists arrested since the coup were thought to be among them. Saturday is the first day of Myanmar's New Year and the last day of a five-day holiday that is usually marked with visits to Buddhist temples and raucous water throwing and partying in the streets. Suu Kyi is among 3,141 people arrested in connection with the coup, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). "These (freed) detainees are mostly from before Feb. 1 but there are also some who were imprisoned afterwards," Prisons Department spokesman Kyaw Tun Oo said by telephone. He said he had no details of the offences for which they had been jailed. Among those released were 137 foreigners, who would be deported, state television said. It gave no details. The AAPP said the military continued to seek 832 people in connection with the protests. Among them are more than 200 people, including several actors, singers and internet celebrities, who have spoken out against the coup and are wanted on a charge of encouraging dissent in the armed forces, which can carry a three-year jail term. State media announced the names of another 40 wanted people, 20 of them doctors, on Saturday..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 114.45 KB
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Title: Myanmar releases prisoners for New Year, though likely not dissidents
Description: "Authorities in Myanmar will release 23,184 prisoners from jails across the country on Saturday under a New Year amnesty, a Prisons Department spokesman said. But few, if any, democracy activists arrested since the February 1 coup are expected to be among them. Saturday is the first day of the traditional New Year in Myanmar and the last day of a five-day holiday usually celebrated with visits to Buddhist temples and rowdy water throwing and partying in the streets. Pro-democracy activists called for the cancellation of the festivities this year and instead for people to focus on a campaign to restore democracy after the military ousted the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi is among 3,141 people arrested in connection with the coup, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group. "These detainees are mostly from before February 1 but there are also some who were imprisoned after," Prisons Department spokesman Kyaw Tun Oo told Reuters by telephone. Asked if any of those being freed might have been detained in connection with the protests against military rule, he said he did not have details of the amnesties. While the military was freeing the thousands of prisoners, it was also seeking 832 people on warrants in connection with the protests, the AAPP said. Among them are 200 people -- including several internet celebrities, actors and singers who have spoken out against the coup -- wanted on a charge of encouraging dissent in the armed forces. Two of them, the married couple of film director Christina Kyi and actor Zenn Kyi, were detained at the airport in the main city of Yangon on Saturday as they tried to leave the country, several media outlets reported. A spokesman for the junta did not answer calls seeking comment. Myanmar has been in crisis since the coup, which the military defended with accusations of fraud in a November election won by Suu Kyi's party, though the election commission dismissed the objections. The ousted government had held power for the first five years of civilian rule since nearly half a century of army rule ended. Political leaders, including ousted members of parliament, announced the formation of a National Unity Government (NUG) on Friday including Suu Kyi and leaders of the anti-coup protests and ethnic minorities. Special Envoy to the United Nations, Dr. Sasa, who represents Myanmar's now ousted and disbanded parliament, told a press conference Friday that the NUG will attempt to amalgamate Myanmar's ethnic armed organizations to form a "federal army." Dr. Sasa referred to coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Defense Services, as "the murderer in chief." More than 700 anti-coup protesters have been killed by security forces since Min Aung Hlaing seized power on February 1.The new army will embrace defectors from Myanmar's security forces and encourage them to bring their own weapons, Dr. Sasa said. The NUG says it is the legitimate political authority and has called for international recognition. The junta has yet to comment on the unity government but has said it will hold a new election within two years and hand power to the winner. Two senior diplomats from the U.S. State Department have agreed with Myanmar's newly-formed shadow civilian government on "the importance of restoring Burma's path to democracy," according to a tweet posted by US Asia Pacific Media Hub Friday.n the post, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Atul Keshap and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Scott Busby are tagged and photographed as being in agreement with the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), which announced the formation of the NUG Friday. The hugely popular Suu Kyi faces various changes, including violating an official secrets act that could see her jailed for 14 years. Her lawyers dismiss the charges. Her supporters suspect the military will use the charges to exclude Suu Kyi and perhaps her political party from any future election..."
Source/publisher: Reuters via Bex Wright via Jaide Garcia via CNN
Date of publication: 2021-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: INTERVIEW: Myanmar military increasing efforts to keep truth from getting out, UN expert says
Sub-title: The crackdown on journalists, cutting off the Internet and disrupting the flow of information across Myanmar, is “not working”, and the world is not buying the military leadership’s “propaganda” that it is exercising restraint against protesters, the UN independent human rights expert on the country has said, in an in-depth interview with UN News.
Description: "Over 700 people are reported to have been killed in the brutal response by the security forces since the military overthrew the democratically elected Government on 1 February. Thousands more have been injured – many of them seriously, and over 3,000 people are in detention. That includes at least 71 journalists, more than half of whom are still detained, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – UN’s media workers’ safety watchdog – which added that some two dozen people have been charged for “allegedly spreading fake news”. Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told UN News in his extensive interview, that the military junta has been making “significant efforts, which have been increasing, to keep the truth inside the country, to not allow the world to see what is going on”. “Already the military has been making up stories about what it is facing. From the very outset, it said that it is using ‘utmost restraint’ – its language – to contend with ‘violent protests’, [but] we saw nothing of the kind.” “We saw increasing violence and increasing brutality by the military. And we saw very peaceful, unarmed protesters … despite their efforts to block it, the truth is getting out, and it is a gruesome truth”, Mr. Andrews added. In the first of this two-part interview with the Special Rapporteur, UN News asked the rights expert how he characterized the current international response to the crisis in Myanmar and what countries can do to stop the bloodshed. We will be publishing part two over the weekend, in which he addresses the responsibility to protect citizens from violence, and his hopes for the country’s future. UN News: It must be increasingly difficult to get information from Myanmar, but as far as you know, what is the situation on the ground? Special Rapporteur: You are right. There have been great efforts by the junta to block information from getting out to the world. Not only the blocking of Internet but also now the interruption of broadband wireless service, and there have been at least 64 journalists, that I know of, who have been arrested and detained. So there has been a significant effort, which has been increasing, to keep truth inside the country and not allow the world to see what is happening. Nonetheless, we know that conditions are worsening in Myanmar. We know that at least 700 people are confirmed dead, at least 3,000 people arbitrarily detained, and at least 46 children killed..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2021-04-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Burma charges doctors over civil disobedience protests
Description: "Burma's ruling junta has charged at least 19 medical doctors for participating in civil disobedience protests against the military's Feb. 1 coup, a state-run newspaper reported Wednesday. Doctors, nurses and medical students have marched and joined strikes to show their opposition to the military takeover that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government and put a halt to the progress Burma had made toward greater democratization after five decades of military rule. The doctors charged are accused of supporting and participating in the civil disobedience movement "with the aim of deteriorating the state administrative machinery," the Global New Light of Burma newspaper wrote. THOUSANDS FLEE BURMA AIRSTRIKES, COMPLICATING CRISIS The military government has already issued arrest warrants for 100 people active in the fields of literature, film, theater arts, music and journalism on charges of spreading information that undermines the stability of the country and the rule of law. This isn't the first time doctors have been targeted. Earlier this month in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, security forces used stun grenades and fired guns to break up a march by medical workers protesting the army’s takeover. The online news site The Irrawaddy reported that four doctors were arrested. Protests continued Wednesday across Burma even as people boycotted the official celebration of Thingyan, the country's traditional New Year, usually a time for family reunions and merry-making. In leaflets and social media posts last week, people were asked not to hold any Thingyan celebrations, saying it would be disrespectful to "fallen martyrs" to enjoy the festival. The government's violent response to anti-coup demonstrations has seen 714 people killed by security officials, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (New York) via "Fox News" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-04-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 181.24 KB
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Title: Funerals become scenes of Myanmar resistance, more violence
Description: " Myanmar security forces opened fire Sunday on a crowd attending the funeral of student who was killed on the bloodiest day yet of a crackdown on protests against last month’s coup, local media reported. The escalating violence — which took the lives of at least 114 people Saturday, including several children — has prompted a U.N. human rights expert to accuse the junta of committing “mass murder” and to criticize the international community for not doing enough to stop it. The Security Council is likely to hold closed consultations on the escalating situation in Myanmar, U.N. diplomats said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. The council has condemned the violence and called for a restoration of democracy, but has not yet considered possible sanctions against the military, which would require support or an abstention by Myanmar’s neighbor and friend China. The mounting death tolls have not stopped the demonstrations against the Feb. 1 takeover — or the violent response of the military and police to them. Myanmar Now reported that the junta’s troops shot at mourners at the funeral in the city of Bago for Thae Maung Maung, a 20-year-old killed on Saturday. He was reportedly a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Union, which has a long history of supporting pro-democracy movements in the country. According to the report, several people attending the funeral were arrested. It did not say if anyone was hurt or killed. But at least nine people were killed elsewhere Sunday as the crackdown continued, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which has been documenting deaths during demonstrations against the coup. Some of the funerals held Sunday became themselves opportunities to demonstrate resistance to the junta. At one in Bhamo in the northern state of Kachin, a large crowd chanted democracy slogans and raised the three-finger salute that has come to symbolize defiance of the takeover. Family and friends were paying their respects to Shwe Myint, a 36-year-old who was shot dead by security forces on Saturday. The military had initially seized her body and refused to return it until her family signed a statement that her death was not caused by them, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma, a broadcast and online news service. In Yangon, the country’s largest city, meanwhile, mourners flashed the three-finger salute as they wheeled the coffin of a 13-year-old boy. Sai Wai Yan was shot dead by security forces as he played outside his home. The Feb. 1 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. It has again made Myanmar the focus of international scrutiny as security forces have repeatedly fired into crowds of protesters. At least 459 people have been killed since the takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The crackdown extends beyond the demonstrations: Humanitarian workers reported that the military had carried out airstrikes Sunday against guerilla fighters in the eastern part of the country. Henrietta Fore, head of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, said in Saturday’s bloodiest day since the coup “an 11-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, two 13-year-old boys, a 13-year-old girl, three 16-year-old boys and two 17-year-old boys, (were) all reportedly shot and killed.” She said “a 1-year-old baby girl gravely injured after being struck in the eye with a rubber bullet.” “In less than two months, at least 35 children have allegedly been killed, countless others seriously injured and almost 1,000 children and young people reported arbitrarily detained by security forces across the country” she said, condemning the indiscriminate killings and demanding that those responsible be held accountable..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-03-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 273.09 KB
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Title: Myanmar heading towards a ‘full-blown conflict’, UN human rights chief warns
Sub-title: The ongoing repression of protests in Myanmar could spark a “full-blown conflict” on a par with Syria, the United Nations’ top human rights official warned on Tuesday, urging States with influence to take immediate and impactful action to halt the “slaughter” of civilians.
Description: "“Statements of condemnation, and limited targeted sanctions, are clearly not enough. States with influence need to urgently apply concerted pressure on the military in Myanmar to halt the commission of grave human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity”, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said. Her appeal came in the wake of yet another weekend of “coordinated bloodshed” in Myanmar, including the reported killing of at least 82 people in Bago, where, according to credible reports, the country’s military, Tatmadaw, opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades, fragmentation grenades and mortars. “The military seems intent on intensifying its pitiless policy of violence against the people of Myanmar, using military-grade and indiscriminate weaponry”, she said. Security forces also reportedly prevented medical personnel from helping the wounded, as well as charging relatives a “fine” of roughly $90 to claim the bodies of those who were killed, according to the High Commissioner’s Office (OHCHR), which added that some individuals are now resorting to the use of makeshift or primitive weapons in self-defence. Ms. Bachelet also highlighted the need to cut off the supply of arms and finances to the military leadership that aid its commission of serious human rights violations, noting the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, which contains clear recommendations for impactful action in relation to the military. ‘Clear echoes of Syria’ The High Commissioner cautioned that the situation in Myanmar clearly echoes that of Syria in 2011, as it descended into conflict, with the past ten years showing the horrific consequences for millions of civilians. “There too, we saw peaceful protests met with unnecessary and clearly disproportionate force. The State’s brutal, persistent repression of its own people led to some individuals taking up arms, followed by a downward and rapidly expanding spiral of violence all across the country”, she said. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time warned that the failure of the international community to respond with united resolve could be disastrous for Syria and beyond, Ms. Bachelet added. “I fear the situation in Myanmar is heading towards a full-blown conflict. States must not allow the deadly mistakes of the past in Syria and elsewhere to be repeated.” People forced into hiding, Internet cut Over 700 people are reported to have been killed in the crackdown by the security forces since the military overthrew the Government on 1 February. Thousands more have been injured, many of them seriously. At least 3,080 people are currently in detention and there are reports that 23 people have been sentenced to death following secret trials – including four protesters and 19 others who were accused of political and criminal offences – according to OHCHR. The mass arrests have forced hundreds of people to go into hiding, and reports suggest that many journalists, civil society activists, celebrities and other public figures are being sought, many simply because of the dissent they have been expressing on-line, it added. Wireless broadband and mobile data services were also cut indefinitely on 2 April, leaving the vast majority of people without access to vital sources of information and communication..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2021-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Regime Arrests About 36 Protest Leaders, Celebrities, and Activists in a Single Day
Topic: abducted, Activist, actor, arrest, arrests, beaten, charges, Detentions, Human Rights, leader, Police, Protests, regime, singer, troops, warrants
Topic: abducted, Activist, actor, arrest, arrests, beaten, charges, Detentions, Human Rights, leader, Police, Protests, regime, singer, troops, warrants
Description: "About three dozen people, including a prominent protest leader, protesters, celebrities, activists and ordinary citizens, were arrested by the military regime on Thursday in four states and regions. Regime forces arrested six medics during a crackdown on a protest column led by members of the medical community in Mandalay about 10 a.m. Thursday. A least 20 other people in the neighborhood were arrested during the crackdown. The junta’s forces opened fire and destroyed motorbikes and vehicles. About 10:30 a.m. the regime’s troops broke into a house in Shan State’s capital, Taunggyi, and arrested four people, according to state-based media. About 11:30 a.m., workers’ rights activist Daw Myo Aye, director of Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM), was abducted from her office in Shwepyithar Township. Four military vehicles with around 40 soldiers surrounded the office during the arrest. Her daughter wrote on her Facebook page that the troops also confiscated the phones of the staff in the office. Veteran academy-award winning actor Zin Wyne was arrested in afternoon in Yangon. He was charged with allegedly inciting civil servants to join the civil disobedience movement and support the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH). A group formed by elected parliamentarians ousted in the coup, the CRPH has been acting as a shadow government in opposition to the military regime. Po Po, a famous singer who was also on junta’s wanted list for the same charge, was arrested about 3 p.m. She was taken from her house in Yangon by regime forces, her manager wrote on social media. Both celebrities participated in anti-regime protests. Ko Wai Moe Naing, a prominent leader of the anti-regime protest movement in Monywa, Sagaing region, was beaten and dragged away by regime’s forces after having his motor scooter rammed Thursday afternoon. He had been leading daily motorbike protests against the military dictatorship. A female protester was also arrested along with him. The Monywa People Strike Leading Committee announced after the arrest that they will continue to fight until the fall of the military dictatorship. They also called upon the military regime to respect detainees’ human rights and allow proper medical treatment. On Tuesday, Ko Zaw Thurein Tun, president of Myanmar Computer Professionals Association in Monywa, and his pregnant wife were abducted together by plainclothes officers in Shwebo Township, Sagaing region. A former journalist from Myitkyina, a news outlet based in Kachin State, was also arrested by plainclothes officers at her home. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which tracks detentions, the regime had detained more than 3,000 people and issued arrest warrants for 756 more..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-04-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar violence ‘must cease immediately’: UN agencies
Sub-title: The UN Country Team in Myanmar on Monday, reiterated its call for an end to violence against civilians, amid reports of dozens of deaths in the latest crackdown on protests against the military takeover.
Description: "More than 80 people lost their lives on Friday as security forces reportedly used heavy weapons against protesters in the town of Bago, located about 90 kilometres (56 miles) northeast of the commercial capital Yangon, according to media reports. “[We are] following events in Bago with reports of heavy artillery being used against civilians and medical treatment being denied to those injured”, the Country Team (UNCT) said in a post on Twitter. “The violence must cease immediately”, it stressed. Hundreds killed Hundreds of civilians, including at least 44 children, have been killed in the crackdown across Myanmar since the military coup on 1 February. Countless more have been seriously injured and more than 2,600 are in detention, including many held incommunicado or forcibly disappeared. There are also reports that several hundred people have fled areas hit hard by violence, including many who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. UN agencies have also reported sharp increases in food and fuel prices in many parts of the country, on the back of supply chain and market disruptions. Humanitarians worry that if the price trends continue, they will “severely undermine” the ability of the poorest and most vulnerable to put enough food on the family table. UN Special Envoy visiting region The UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, on a regional visit to press for efforts to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. Ms. Schraner Burgener, however, will not visit Myanmar, she said in a tweet. “I regret that Tatmadaw [Myanmar’s military] answered me yesterday that they are not ready to receive me”, the Special Envoy said. “I am ready for dialogue. Violence never leads to peaceful sustainable solution”, she added. In the Thai capital, the Special Envoy is scheduled to meet with UN regional officials as well as ambassadors accredited to Myanmar who are in Bangkok. In addition to Thailand, the Special Envoy is consulting on visits to other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, as well as other neighbouring countries. “As she has highlighted repeatedly, a robust international response to the ongoing crisis in Myanmar requires a unified regional effort involving neighbouring countries who can leverage influence towards stability in Myanmar”, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2021-04-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Opponents of Myanmar military rule hold ‘silent strike’
Description: "Opponents of military rule in Myanmar observed a “silent strike” on Friday, with many people staying home to mourn the more than 700 people killed in protests against a Feb. 1 coup and others wearing black held small marches in several cities and towns. Many Myanmar citizens, infuriated by the return of military rule after five years of civilian government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, have been taking to the streets day after day with activists thinking up new ways to show opposition as the security forces step up their suppression. "Let's make the roads silent," protest leader Ei Thinzar Maung posted on her Facebook page. "We have to stage a Silent Strike to show our sorrow for the martyrs who have scarified their lives. The most silent voice is the loudest." Friday is the fourth day of the five-day traditional Buddhist New Year holiday, known as Thingyan. Most people this year are shunning the usual festivities to focus on their campaign against the generals who overthrew Suu Kyi's government and locked up her and many others. Streets in the main city of Yangon were largely deserted, residents said, while black-clad protesters held small rallies in half a dozen cities and towns, media reported. There were no immediate reports of violence but overnight, two people were shot and killed in the central town of Myingyan, Radio Free Asia reported. A spokesman for the junta could not be reached for comment. The military has also been rounding up its critics and has published the names of more than 200 people wanted under a law that makes it illegal to encourage mutiny or dereliction of duty in the armed forces. Two prominent protest organisers were arrested on Thursday along with an actor and singer, both known for speaking out against the coup. Late on Thursday, soldiers raided a famous Buddhist monastery in the second city of Mandalay and arrested two people, the Myanmar Now media group reported..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Australia should target Myanmar ‘gang leader’ for sanctions, UN expert says
Sub-title: Exclusive: special rapporteur Tom Andrews says crimes against humanity are happening ‘before our very eyes’ and calls for urgent action against military junta
Description: "A top United Nations expert is in direct talks with the Australian government about how to expand sanctions against Myanmar’s military regime, and warned that crimes against humanity are being “committed before our very eyes”. Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told Guardian Australia the government should target the commander-in-chief, whom he described as “the gang leader” responsible for mass atrocities, and should link additional sanctions with those imposed by other countries. On Wednesday the Australian government attempted to reassure more than 3,300 Myanmar nationals in Australia that it was not planning to send them home when their visas expired, amid concerns about the dangers they might face in the wake of the 1 February coup. The Australian government has condemned the coup and the killing of more than 700 civilians, but has not announced any sanctions beyond those applying to five military figures who have been on the list since 2018. Human rights groups have criticised Australia for appearing to act slower than some of its key allies and partners..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 169.4 KB
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Title: Is Civil Disobedience Myanmar’s New Normal?
Topic: civil disobedience movement, Coup, Democracy, Human Rights, military in politics, Min Aung Hlaing, National League for Democracy, November 8 general election, Rule of Law, State Administrative Council, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Tatmadaw, Yangon
Topic: civil disobedience movement, Coup, Democracy, Human Rights, military in politics, Min Aung Hlaing, National League for Democracy, November 8 general election, Rule of Law, State Administrative Council, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Tatmadaw, Yangon
Description: "What is the new normal for Myanmar today? As people have been trying different forms of civil disobedience to fight the military coup it has become a new normal in Myanmar. The words “civil disobedience” comes from State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal before she was detained. She urged people to “oppose the military coup together in any way possible”. For her, as she often said, “the people are the most important force”. A veteran journalist asked another National League for Democracy (NLD) leader, U Win Htein, about the message and what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wants people to do. U Win Htein said she wanted a civil disobedience movement rather than mass street protests because of COVID-19 and the potential for bloodshed. As her message was not clear enough, people were puzzled about what to do. NLD members have waited for instructions from the party’s central executive committee who are being held in Naypyidaw. The strict hierarchy of the NLD left people feeling bereft on the first day of the coup. My 78-year-old mother kept asking me, “Is there any luck?” She cried the whole day because her beloved leader, “Mother Suu”, was detained. It is heartbreaking for her because she did not expect to return to military rule. One day after the coup, people started banging pots and pans and honking car horns to oppose military rule. Banging pans is a traditional way of driving out ghosts. That initiative reached the international media and was dubbed the “drum revolution”. Thais have followed suit in an attempt to drive out Thailand’s military regime. But pots and pans are not enough for young citizens who have been hit the hardest by the forced internet shutdown ordered by the authorities. My son and his student friends have lost their online jobs, they cannot play virtual games and their online shopping businesses have folded. Food Panda delivers lost their jobs as online ordering has broken down and most bank cards have stopped working because of connection failures. Shops only want cash as the banking system is unstable and the Grab taxi app just says, “no connection found”. The internet shut down is causing a long list of problems. Facebook was blocked after the authorities forced telecoms operators to ban the most popular social media network. People immediately searched for virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass Myanmar’s networks. Anti-coup posts and protest photos returned to Facebook..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication: 2021-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 287.29 KB
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Title: Myanmar activists remember dead with red paint protests
Description: "Opponents of Myanmar’s coup splashed red paint and dye on roads and signs outside government offices on Wednesday to represent the blood of people killed protesting against the junta, on the second day of the traditional new year holiday. The display aimed at shaming the military took place in various towns and cities, according to pictures posted by media outlets, as people answered a call by activists to join what they termed a bloody paint strike. Some people marched with signs calling for the release of the leader of the ousted government, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. She has been detained since the Feb. 1 coup on various charges including violating an official secrets act that could see her imprisoned for 14 years. Her lawyers have denied the charges against her. “Please save our leader - future - hope,” read a sign with a picture of Suu Kyi held by a young woman among several thousand people marching in the second city of Mandalay, according to a picture published by the Mizzima news service. There were no immediate reports of violence at any of the protests on Wednesday, but information has become scarce because of junta curbs on the internet. The coup has plunged Myanmar into crisis after 10 years of tentative steps toward democracy with daily protests and various campaigns of defiance including strikes by workers in many sectors that have brought the economy to a standstill. The five-day New Year holiday, known as Thingyan, began on Tuesday but pro-democracy activists cancelled the usual festivities to focus on their opposition to the generals who seized power.
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 219.99 KB
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Title: Myanmar coup: What is happening and why?
Sub-title: Mass protests have been taking place across Myanmar since the military seized control on 1 February.
Description: "Elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party are among those detained. Hundreds of people, including children, have been killed. Where is Myanmar? Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in South East Asia. It neighbours Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, China and India. It has a population of about 54 million, most of whom are Burmese speakers, although other languages are also spoken. The biggest city is Yangon (Rangoon), but the capital is Nay Pyi Taw. The main religion is Buddhism. There are many ethnic groups in the country, including Rohingya Muslims. The country gained independence from Britain in 1948. It was ruled by the armed forces from 1962 until 2011, when a new government began ushering in a return to civilian rule. Why is Myanmar also known as Burma? The ruling military changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. The two words mean the same thing but Myanmar is the more formal version. Some countries, including the UK, initially refused to use the name as a way of denying the regime's legitimacy. But use of "Myanmar" has become increasingly common, and in 2016 Ms Suu Kyi said it did not matter which name was used. What has happened now, and why? The military is now back in charge and has declared a year-long state of emergency. It seized control on 1 February following a general election which Ms Suu Kyi's NLD party won by a landslide. The armed forces had backed the opposition, who were demanding a rerun of the vote, claiming widespread fraud. The election commission said there was no evidence to support these claims. The coup took place as a new session of parliament was set to open. Ms Suu Kyi has been held at an unknown location since the coup. She is facing various charges, including violating the country's official secrets act, possessing illegal walkie-talkies and publishing information that may "cause fear or alarm". NLD MPs who managed to escape arrest formed a new group in hiding. Their leader has urged protesters to defend themselves against the crackdown. Who is in charge now? Military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing has taken power. He has long wielded significant political influence, successfully maintaining the power of the Tatmadaw - Myanmar's military - even as the country moved towards democracy..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of publication: 2021-04-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 347.15 KB
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Title: Myanmar’s lost generation: nation’s youth sacrificing futures for freedom
Description: "For Myanmar’s young people, 2021 was supposed to be a year for optimism. After seeing through the Covid-19 pandemic, the rollout of the vaccine had begun and general elections in November had marked a step towards the country realising its potential. But in the wake of the 1 February coup, their dreams have turned into nightmares, as many of Myanmar’s young people have found themselves forced to sacrifice their futures to take a stand against the military. Aspiring engineer, Hlyan Phyo Aung, 22, is one of them. News portal Myanmar Now reported that he was hurt by an explosion during a crackdown on a protest in the central city of Magway on 27 March. A soldier reportedly shot off his injured hand at close range, another shot multiple rubber bullets into his other hand, and then troops kicked him in the face until onlookers flung themselves over him, saving his life. His right hand was amputated at the wrist; he may also permanently lose the use of his left hand. His left leg was shot eight times and may also be amputated, his right thigh has two bullet wounds, his face was battered and damage to his eyesight caused by the impact of the gunshots may also be irreparable. The military has stopped him from receiving treatment outside one of its own hospitals, and is also charging him with incitement, which carries up to three years in jail. His story echoes the brutality borne by other protesters of his generation. Among the first civilian casualties was a 19-year-old girl shot in the head by security forces. Then came an endless list of ruined futures – a 24-year-old father who lost his leg after being shot in Yangon on 10 March, in the north-west region of Sagaing, a 20-year-old man whose leg was also amputated after the military reportedly threw a hand grenade, a 19-year-old student shot dead near Yangon on 27 March, and even younger casualties on the same day, such as a 14-year-old girl who died in her home after security forces sprayed bullets in a neighbourhood, and a seven-year-old girl shot while sitting on her father’s lap in Mandalay. Some of those who survived the attacks have been maimed for life or are unable to work as a result of their injuries..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-04-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 348.63 KB
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Title: Regime’s forces kill two, loot donations from mosque from during attack on small town in Mandalay Region
Sub-title: ‘The situation is not good at all here,’ a rescue worker from Myitnge said
Description: "The coup regime’s forces shot dead two civilians and injured six others in the town of Myitnge, Mandalay Region, on Tuesday, according to residents. The two men who died were from the town’s Yankin ward and their bodies were cremated at the Myitnge Myoma Cemetery at 9am on Wednesday. The shooting began when regime forces tried to detain a civil servant who had gone on strike and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), a local said. “They came to arrest a civil servant doing CDM,” she said. “The residents came out to protest and they started shooting at them.” “They have been shooting all day today too. So we cannot go outside,” she told Myanmar Now on Wednesday. At around 2pm on Wednesday, soldiers destroyed barricades set up by locals and shot at houses in Thazin ward, she added. A donation box at a local mosque was also destroyed and the money inside was taken by the soldiers, a resident said. “We still don’t know how much money they took. They’re still blocking the area so we cannot go outside,” they added. The military’s spokesperson could not be reached for comment regarding the killing of the two men and the looting. Soldiers also began shooting in the nearby village of Hpa Paung on Wednesday evening, according to locals, though they were unable to give further details at the time of reporting. A relief worker from Myitnge said volunteers to help treat injured people and collect dead bodies have become scarce because of the dangers of doing such work. He added that a man was shot dead on Tuesday in the town of Sintgaing, about 16km from Myitnge. “We cremated his body immediately on the same day. I can’t tell you the details. The situation is not good at all here,” he said. More than 100 people have been protesting daily in Myitnge, residents there said. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group that has been monitoring violence and arrests since the February 1 coup, the new regime has now killed at least 715 people, including more than 40 children..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 194.72 KB
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Title: As civil disobedience movement grows, so do efforts to shore up resistance
Sub-title: As civil servants stage walkouts in protest against military rule, new groups are forming to help them meet basic needs
Description: "In the two weeks since Myanmar’s military seized power, resistance has taken many forms, from people banging pots and pans to massive street protests. But none have shown more commitment to the cause of restoring civilian rule than the tens of thousands of civil servants who have put their lives and livelihoods on the line by joining the growing civil disobedience movement. Some in this movement have been targeted for arrest, as the regime carries out late-night arrests around the country as part of its effort to crush popular opposition to its rule. But many others are struggling with a more basic problem: meeting their material needs as they forego an income in their bid to bring down the junta. It is in recognition of this sacrifice that new groups have begun to crop up to assist public employees in need. These groups—with names like “We Support Heroes” and “2/21 Sturdy Hands”—are trying to ensure that the regime doesn’t win by attrition what it can’t achieve through fear and intimidation. “Whenever we urge civil servants to stay away from work, there are always some who ask us how they can feed themselves. That’s why we formed this group, so that we could answer that question and show our unity,” said a member of a group that calls itself “Get Well Soon”. Already, hundreds have sought help. So far, however, support has come mainly in the form of food and shelter provided by private donors, as financial aid is still not available due to the fact that none of the groups have begun fundraising yet. One group, We Support Heroes, says that it has assisted at least 100 public employees and their families since the civil disobedience movement, or CDM, started in the days after the February 1 coup. Most are nurses, but others include customs officials, parliamentary office staff, and the households of six police officers forced to leave government-sponsored housing. One of the members of the group told Myanmar Now that even without much cash at its disposal, it has been able to amply provide for those in need of assistance thanks to the generosity of the public. “There are people who have welcomed others into their homes, in some cases giving them the whole house to live in. In Mandalay, a whole hotel was provided. And some are giving not just accommodation, but also daily meals,” he said. Engineering resistance Many of those walking off the job to join the CDM are technical staff working in a variety of ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and the Irrigation and the Small-Scale Industries Department. Scattered around the country, from remote parts of Kachin State to the urban centers of Yangon and Mandalay, they have been among those in greatest need. Civil Disobedience Campaign—Myanmar Engineers, a group formed to assist workers in technical professions who have lost their jobs or housing due to their participation in the CDM, says that it has received 600 requests for help, but has so far only been able to assist in about 200 cases..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-02-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 464.61 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 14 April, (715) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (1) fallen heroes today. This (1) hero was killed on a previous day but 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 April 14, a total of (3070) people are currently under detention; of them (66) are sentenced. 756 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 17 were sentenced to death and currently evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Today was the second day of Thingyan in Burma but instead people protested and strike across the country. Including a “blood strike” across the county symbolizing streets where the junta killed innocents as still stained. The inhumanity of the dictatorship is revealed because the blood has not gone away. Protestors wroten slogans on roads, like “stop killing people” and “Save Myanmar” using this red paint. Since this afternoon, Myitnge Town, in Mandalay Region was reportedly under siege by the junta, yesterday evening in Myitnge Town, at least five people were injured and many others arrested in shootings by the junta forces. In Bahan Township, Yangon, a man was shot dead in the chest while he was waiting for the bus near Min Street Bus Stop. Last night, in Kale Town in Sagaing Region, a man was shot in the stomach and injured when he was returning home from giving an oxygen tank to someone in an emergency. Last night, Myanmar Radio and Television (MRT) broadcasted that 26 civilians were sentenced – to death, 7 years imprisonment with labour, or 3 years imprisonment with labour. Some of these civilians are currently evading arrest. The junta’s own actions of death sentences and long sentences are criminally arbitrary. The junta is abusing the right of everyone to peace and security, people are facing threats to their lives on a daily basis. The junta robs the people like bandits. Yesterday, in Chin State, Hakha City, a military vehicle collided with a civilian car, destroying the man’s car. The man was detained for one night, 1.3 million Kyat in the vehicle was also stolen. A house in South Okkalapa Township, Yangon Region which stored rations and distributed donations was raided and 300 pounds of oil were stolen. The junta commits these crimes without regard for the law like terrorists. At the Yangon Education Center for the Blind in Mayangon Township, Khawe Chan. At around 7.30pm 12 April, approximately 70 junta Battalion No.77 jumped over the compound gate and set up base in two of the buildings. Inside were around 50 blind students (age between 5 and 30) and 30 family and blind staff in the wider compound, reportedly all still there. Staff movements are restricted. The junta troops initially said they would keep the base for 5-7 days, but on 13 April, they instead said it would be 1-2 weeks. Occupying a school of disabled students is not only morally abhorrent, but also violates universal international law. The UNSC must uphold its commitment to give these vulnerable students their protection and dignity which has been directly threatened by this junta terrorism and coup attempt. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 827.23 KB 2.92 MB 812.55 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 13 April, (714) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (4) fallen heroes today. (2) from Tamu Town in Sagaing Region died on 13 April. (2) 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 April 13, a total of (3054) people are currently under detention; of them (66) are sentenced. As 79 people including UEC members were released, we removed them from today’s detainee list. 717 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 17 were sentenced to death and currently evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Today on the eve of the Thingyan, people from all over Burma protested against the military dictatorship by chanting “Ye Ye Ni Sway Atar Oh Revolution” (The Red Welcome Flowerpot to Spirit Revolution), without having fun in water. Today, junta troops stormed Tamu, Sagaing Region. Since this morning, some wards in Tamu have been being raided, barricades and people’s homes nearby were shot at unprovoked. Today, a man and a woman were shot dead while delivering milk in Tamu. Five youths were reportedly beaten, hooded, and taken away. Persecution is practiced as routine for decades by dictatorships, now targeting civilians. Yesterday, in Insein Township, Yangon Region, a night watchman went missing on his way home after his duty. His family inquired of his whereabouts and found his dead body with wounds consistent with torture in another township, Hlaing Tharyar Hospital. The military attempts to create religious conflict as its policy. At a mosque in Tamwe Township, Yangon Region, a man, who called Muslims to prayer was found dead by hanging, his entire body and hands on back tied. Police and mosque officials have issued a statement condemning the alleged suicide, even though experts say suicide was not possible. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. It is a fundamental human right. In Burma it is a tragedy everyone is threatened and are concerned for their safety every day. This morning, arrests were made in Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region. Nine people were arrested in a raid on Lel Thit village in the eastern part of Myingyan. Last night, Mayangone Township, Yangon, a raid on Mudita’s Housing led to the arrest of at least 10 people. Yesterday in Taungdwingyi Township, Magway Region, thousands of locals were forced to flee their homes due to a military terrorist group opening fire on three villages of Pat Lal Gyi Village Tract, destroying homes and property. In order to retain power, the terrorist regime commits crimes against humanity on a daily basis. Yesterday’s news that the kyat has dropped 14% against the US dollar provides further warnings of Burma’s likely descent into a failed state. Burma already hosts fragile industries, which now face complete collapse. The economic effects will be felt internationally, particularly damaging its top investor Singapore and thereafter the entire ASEAN. Soaring food and gas prices come alongside yesterday’s scenes of long queues at ATMs in Yangon, as people panic to withdraw cash from crumbling bank systems. With junta terror prevailing in Tamu in particular today, economic chaos will engulf the entire country. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: If you need legal assistance, contact Aung Gyi on 09 451 529 000 from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and lawyer Khin Thida Lai Lai Htun on 09 774 081 585. “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 817.7 KB 2.91 MB 811.17 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 12 April, (710) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (4) fallen heroes today. These (4) heroes 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 April 12, a total of (3080) people are currently under detention; of them (64) are sentenced. 697 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 17 were sentenced to death and currently evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Last night, across the country civilians held a “flashlight strike”, lighting the sky in a powerful symbol of unity against unlawful military rule. Aerial images captured the extent of the people’s resistance. Junta forces responded to even these peaceful acts of solidarity with brutal violence. In one case in Aungmyethazan, Mandalay, CCTV footage shows the junta abducting civilians who simply turned on flashlights in their own homes. Nationally civilians also took part in a watermelon strike encouraging a boycott of Chinese products and fruits. This was in solidarity with farmers and in opposition to a China refusing to directly criticize the terrorists in Burma. Today people across Burma again continued in their protests against dictatorship, a coalition strike in Mandalay City was suppressed with gunfire. In Kyaukme, Shan State, the terrorists used tear gas and sound grenades in the afternoon. However, no one was injured or arrested. Junta forces removed barricades made by people in Narnattaw Ward, Loikaw Township, Kayah State and arrested seven individuals. Four of the seven were released soon afterwards. Although crackdowns appeas apear to be on the decline there are in fact ongoing shooting, killing, torture and arrests. Beginning early this morning, so-called police and military terrorists used excessive force to attack Tamu Township, Sagaing Region. Junta troops advanced through Tamu and destroyed people-made barricades, all civilians found were tied up. The terrorists opened fire and raided houses, suspects were arrested and taken away. The junta group raided and looted Grace Hospital in Tamu and beat the nurses. They also stormed the Methodist church compound and stole mobile phones, gold and jewelry and money which belonged to the abbot and civilians in the compound. The ward administrator house was also raided and property destroyed. During the raid, a seven-year-old boy was shot and wounded. Some people were forced to flee their homes. The terrorist group stormed the entire city with their weapons, and launched a fierce offensive in order to finally destroy a city united in defense regardless of the bombardment from heavy artillery. If they do not find people to arrest, the junta takes relatives and friends as hostage, it is a routine tactic of this terrorist regime. It is an attempt to threaten through kidnaping anyone close to them. In Tedim Township, Chin State; parents were taken hostage because the son of the Cooperative Department involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) was not found and arrested. According to AAPP documentation 32 hostages have been taken so far. Deaths by torture during detention and inhumane beatings are being perpetrated to create public fear. In Monywa, Sagaing Region, a villager was arrested and beaten last night for banging pots and pans. Today, a delivery man in Yangon was beaten for wearing a black mask and suffered bruises all over his face. Only by overthrowing the dictatorship can the persecution end, in addition to looting and robbing carried out openly by the terrorists. On April 10, in North Okkalapa Township, Yangon, the military terrorists broke into a man’s house on No. 13 Nwe Ni Road, took 180,000,00 Kyats and other valuables, beat him without reason and took him away. On April 10, in North Dagon Township, Yangon, a car driven by a dentist was allegedly stopped and searched and the dentist fined 120,000 Kyats and his wallet stolen for just giving free medical treatment. In the ethnic states, in Moe Mauk Township, Kachin State, fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the terrorist group intensified. A woman and a man were killed when artillery shells fired by the junta exploded in villages last night, another villager was injured in the leg. In Alaw Bum, the headquarter of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) area has been blasted with a series of fighter jets since this morning. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: If you need legal assistance, contact Aung Gyi on 09 451 529 000 from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and lawyer Khin Thida Lai Lai Htun on 09 774 081 585. “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 2.98 MB 749.17 KB 802.29 KB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup
Description: "As of 11 April, (706) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) compiled and documented (5) fallen heroes today. (1) died on 11 April. (4) 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 April 11, a total of (3059) people are currently under detention; of them (64) are sentenced. 657 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 17 were sentenced to death and currently evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. People are protesting against the junta on a daily basis, today participating in the “Green Day Strike”. On 11 April even though unprovoked shootings and arrests continued, the supposed calm is a serious cause for concern. Today, in Tamu, Sagaing Region, two people on a motorcycle were shot in front of the district police station, the man was shot dead and woman injured and close to death but no one dared rescue them. On 10 April in Wa Roung Village, Ahyartaw Township, Sagaing Region, a young man was shot dead and another injured in a crackdown on protesters. Last night, in Pathein Township, Ayeyarwady Region, two youths on a motorcycle were shot at in an effort to detain, but no one was injured or arrested. Since the military coup in Burma, the terrorist group has mainly targeted political parties, organizations and parliamentarians. One NLD MP from Pantanaw Township, Ayeyarwady Region was arrested yesterday, the military terrorist group uses torture as its weapon in detention, it is a serious cause for concern that detainees will survive with human dignity. In the ethnic states, conflict by the junta in particular against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) continued. From last night to this afternoon, fighting between the KIA and the junta intensified in Momauk Township, many locals have been forced to flee. On April 9 and April 10, five artillery shells were fired at KNU-controlled civilian areas in Papun District and gunfire at two working people. In Nyaung Lay Pin District, Bago Region, people in Kyaukgyi Township are continually worried about airstrikes from fighter jets. Today was the 70th day since the coup, but the attempt to control the state through oppression has failed. The coup in 1988 took a matter of days, the 2021 attempted coup has lasted over two months. People are demanding the military step back and return power to the elected government, the people realize the essence of democracy, they lost their freedom in an attempt to return back to dictatorship. The population are enduring atrocities and fighting for the overthrow of the dictatorship and for true democracy. The military terrorist group is carrying out daily shootings and killings. AAPP urges the international community, including ASEAN, to take immediate action to prevent further injuries and deaths in Burma. 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 heros in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: If you need legal assistance, contact Aung Gyi on 09 451 529 000 from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and lawyer Khin Thida Lai Lai Htun on 09 774 081 585. “Our uprising must succeed” Email : [email protected] Facebook : https://web.facebook.com/burmapoliticalprisoners/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/aapp_burma In Solidarity, AAPP..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of publication: 2021-04-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 780.05 KB 93.73 KB 2.96 MB 731.71 KB
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Title: How the CDM can win
Sub-title: The Civil Disobedience Movement must define clear goals, set sustainable strategies and ditch any illusions of foreign intervention if it’s to win its tug-of-war with the Tatmadaw.
Description: "The people of Myanmar awoke to fear and confusion on February 1 as the Tatmadaw detained national leaders and lawmakers in Nay Pyi Taw ahead of the convening of the new parliament. Despite intermittent internet outages and a lack of information from state-run media, it soon became clear that the Tatmadaw had staged a coup. Within 48 hours, coordinated action against the seizure of power had begun. As the days wore on, the anti-coup campaign gained a name and a strategy: the Civil Disobedience Movement. Although this non-violent resistance movement was launched by government healthcare workers refusing to show up to work, it is largely an ad hoc campaign organised on the internet with no apparent leader. The CDM has galvanised millions to reject the military takeover of the government through sustained street protests, encouraged a boycott of military-owned or affiliated businesses, and, most vitally, inspired public servants to refuse to comply with directives from the military regime. A month from the coup, the devastating effect of millions of people working together to sabotage administration and the economy is being keenly felt. The strikes by public servants have slowed international trade to a crawl, government hospitals are having to turn away patients, and the banking system is unable to function, creating a cash crunch. What happens next will determine whether Myanmar is able to rid itself of the military junta or if millions will suffer pointlessly. There are five key challenges the CDM needs to address in order to win. The first challenge is to clarify and build consensus about what “success” means. Although there is universal agreement that the CDM rejects the military takeover of government, there is so far no consensus over what the campaign hopes to accomplish should the movement force the military to the negotiating table. At the moment, people on the streets are demanding paradoxical things. Many are calling for the regime to “respect our votes”, but activists from ethnic and religious minorities are not protesting in support of returning the National League for Democracy to power. Instead, they want to form a federal democracy based on a new or amended constitution. A lack of consensus is understandable given that the CDM is more than just street protests, a strike by government employees and a boycott of anything associated with the military. It is also a cultural sea change in which a new generation of activists is speaking up and taking the lead without looking to a source of authority for permission or approval. But without an agreement to pursue inclusive, justice-focused goals, it is easy to envision a future in which the concerns of minorities are again sacrificed for a settlement that the majority can accept, or one in which the movement suffers from infighting and then fails. The second challenge is the lack of clear leadership to both guide the CDM in its middle phase and be “in the room where it happens” at the end. Currently it seems that everyone in the CDM is involved with everything, without a clear sense of where each individual and group fits. This is extremely dangerous when confronting an organisation as highly organised and as well-resourced as the military..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 406.82 KB
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Title: In Face of Deadly Crackdown by Myanmar’s Junta, Civil Disobedience Movement Carries On
Description: "Anti-coup protests broke out again across Myanmar early Monday as popular acts of defiance against the military junta despite the regime’s violent and increasingly deadly pushback. Hundreds of demonstrators marched along a main road in Mandalay before dawn, many of them doctors, nurses, students and other medical personnel wearing white coats, repeating a similar demonstration carried out the night before. Scores of motorists in the commercial capital of Yangon honked their car horns in response to a call on social media, according to Reuters. Myanmar has been in turmoil ever since military jailed de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the democratically elected civilian government on February 1. At least three people were killed Sunday in violent clashes between police and civilians, including two in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city and a major hub of opposition. An activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said nearly 250 people have been killed since the coup, with more than 2,000 people detained. Australian authorities confirmed Sunday that two of its citizens, businesspeople, were detained in Myanmar. Australia’s government declined to further details, citing the privacy of the concerned parties. Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan will visit Brunei Darussalam on Monday before going to Malaysia and Indonesia as part of a regional diplomatic push to bring an end to the crisis in Myanmar, Reuters reported..."
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication: 2021-03-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 322.61 KB
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Title: Junta uses control over military families to prevent defections, say army insiders
Sub-title: Soldiers disgusted by the regime’s murder of civilians fear their families will pay the price if they join the CDM
Description: "Soldiers appalled by the Myanmar junta’s brutal treatment of civilians are reluctant to leave the military because they fear for their families’ safety, according to people familiar with the situation. Despite these fears, however, a number of military officers have already defected to avoid serving under a regime that has so far killed more than 700 protesters and bystanders since seizing power on February 1. In the past month, four soldiers, including a captain from Light Infantry Division 77, which has carried out crackdowns in Yangon, have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Others have also deserted and are now on the run. Many more would be willing to disobey the dictatorship if their families weren’t effectively held hostage by the junta—or “kidnapped by a gang”, as one of the recent defectors put it. “That is the situation right now. Those living in military compounds have basically been kidnapped. They use soldiers’ family members to control them so they can’t act freely. If a soldier wants to run, he has to take his family with him,” explained Capt. Lin Htet Aung, who joined the CDM this week. The captain, who served with Light Infantry Battalion 528 under the Triangle Region Command in eastern Shan state’s Mong Ping township, told Myanmar Now that many soldiers are uneasy about the crimes they have been ordered to commit. They know the regime is arresting, torturing and murdering innocent civilians, he said, but they are too worried about the safety of their own families to risk doing anything about it. “They know it isn’t fair, but they have to look out for their families. They’re aware of the injustice and I’m sure they feel uncomfortable about it. And yet they have to close their eyes,” he said. Now in hiding in territory controlled by an ethnic armed organization, he estimated that around 75% of troops would leave the military if their families were to receive protection. Not free to speak Even before the coup, the movements of soldiers’ family members were restricted, especially if they lived on military bases, according to the wife of an officer stationed in Mandalay. Since the coup, however, the situation has gotten much worse, both for the soldiers themselves and for their families, she said. “It’s been two weeks since I last had contact with him,” said the woman, who does not live with her husband. “They can’t go out except for security purposes. They line up every day and night to give their names, since some are defecting.” Because she doesn’t live on the base, where she can be more easily controlled, she has been denied access to her Facebook account and has also been forced to give up two phone numbers she previously used, she told Myanmar Now. “I never lived in a military compound, so he never really tells me anything in detail, because he doesn’t want to get in trouble. But he says they threaten him, asking if he wants a promotion or one or two years in prison. They’ve been saying I’m in the way of his prospects,” the woman said. Her husband, who is a graduate of the Defence Services Technological Academy, has wanted to leave the army since before the coup, she added. But not everyone in the military is disillusioned with the regime, she noted. There are still many who believe anything the generals say, due to their lack of access to news from outlets that are not controlled by the military. “There’s no internet access and they believe that everything they see on Myawaddy is real,” she said, referring to the military-owned TV station that the regime uses to spread disinformation about the coup. “They genuinely believe this coup was staged due to electoral fraud and that there will be another election in a year to transfer power,” she said of families living on bases. When Myanmar Now contacted the wife of another officer to ask about her current situation in a military housing compound, she simply responded that she did not feel safe speaking on the phone. She added, however, that she did not mind not being able to speak freely..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2021-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 499.31 KB
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