Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against several groups

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Websites/Multiple Documents

Title: Human Rights Watch Burma page
Description: Full text online reports from 1989 (events of 1988), though 1991 seems to be missing and 2004 has no section on Burma.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) - Myanmar page
Description: Highly recommended. Well-organised site. In "list of sources used" are most of the main reports from 1995 bearing on IDPs (though the reports from 1995 to 1997 are missing - temporarily, one hopes) and more Burma pages updated June 2001. Go to the home page for links on IDPs, including the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
Source/publisher: IDMC
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Description: The largest body of high-quality reports on the civil war in Burma, especially focussed on the civilian victims - currently over 600 reports dating from 1992.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, Karen, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Title: Karen Human Rights Group - photo & video
Description: Several thousand photographs from 1993 covering different ethnic groups as well as a smaller number of videos.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Minorities at Risk Project
Description: May be useful, but it needs SPSS to work with the database
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: US Committee for Refugees
Source/publisher: US Committee for Refugees (USCR)
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Title: Myanmar's ethnic groups have long suffered from military brutality. The junta gave them a common foe
Description: "For many of Myanmar's ethnic minorities, the bloodshed inflicted across the country's towns and cities this week is a continuation of the oppression they have suffered at the hands of the military for decades. The Southeast Asian country is home to some of the world's longest civil wars, where myriad ethnic insurgencies have fought the military, central government and each other for greater rights and autonomy. Some of those bloody conflicts have ebbed and flowed in the borderlands for 70 years. Throughout years of conflict in Myanmar's jungles and mountains, ethnic people have witnessed and been subjected to horrific atrocities including massacres, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, forced labor and displacement by the armed forces, as well as state-sanctioned discrimination. In 2016 and 2017, the military launched a brutal campaign of killing and arson that forced more than 740,000 Rohingya minority people to flee into neighboring Bangladesh, prompting a genocide case to be heard at the International Court of Justice. In 2019, the United Nations said "grave human rights abuses" by the military were still continuing in the ethnic states of Rakhine, Chin, Shan, Kachin and Karen. This week, that brutality played out on the streets of Myanmar's biggest cities, as the ruling junta launched a systematic and coordinated attack on unarmed peaceful demonstrators calling for an end to the February 1 coup. Witnesses, footage and photographs showed police and the military shooting dead anti-coup protesters, beating detainees and reported extrajudicial killings, while images of crumpled bodies laying in pools of their own blood or being dragged through the streets shocked the world. Determined to fight against those abuses and ensure their distinct voices and demands are heard, ethnic people have loudly joined the nationwide protests, uniting in solidarity against a common enemy. Though many fear further violence and intensified conflict from an unchecked military junta operating with impunity and now firmly in control of the country. "This fight has been since the beginning of the forming of the country itself. We hope that the current fight against the military coup in 21st century might be a new hope for our people," said Chin activist Sang Hnin Lian..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-03-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Biden administration designates Myanmar military takeover as a coup
Description: "The Biden administration has formally determined that the military takeover in Myanmar constitutes a coup d'état, a designation that requires the US to cut its foreign assistance to the country. "After careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1," a State Department official said Tuesday, using another name for Myanmar. "We continue to call on the Burmese military leadership to release them and all other detained civil society and political leaders immediately and unconditionally." The United States provides "very little" foreign assistance directly to Myanmar's government and "the government of Burma, including the Burmese military, is already subject to a number of foreign assistance restrictions, including statutory restrictions on military assistance, due to its human rights record." The State Department official, speaking on a call with reporters, said the administration "will undertake a broader review of our assistance programs to ensure they align with recent events." That review will begin "immediately" and will "look at any programs that indirectly benefit the military or individual low level officers." "At the same time, we will continue programs that benefit the people of Burma directly, including humanitarian assistance and democracy support programs that benefit civil society. A democratic civilian led government has always been Burma's best opportunity to address the problems the country faces," the official said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Deep fears of violent crackdown in Myanmar, UN rights chief warns
Sub-title: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has voiced “deep fears” of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices in Myanmar, where the military assumed all powers and declared a state of emergency after overthrowing the civilian government and arresting top political leaders, on Monday.
Description: "“Given the security presence on the streets in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, as well as in other cities, there are deep fears of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices”, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Monday. “I remind the military leadership that Myanmar is bound by international human rights law, including to respect the right to peaceful assembly, and to refrain from using unnecessary or excessive force”, she added. High Comissioner Bachelet also called on the international community to “stand in solidarity with the people” of Myanmar at this time. She also urged all nations with influence to take steps “to prevent the crumbling of the fragile democratic and human rights gains made by Myanmar during its transition from military rule.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of publication: 2021-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar coup: health workers at 70 hospitals join civil disobedience campaign
Sub-title: Medical staff accuse military chiefs of prioritising their own interests above those of the public during the pandemic
Description: "Staff at dozens of hospitals across Myanmar stopped working on Wednesday as part of a growing civil disobedience campaign, one of the first organised acts of defiance against the military after it ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Health workers in 70 hospitals and medical departments in Naypyidaw, Yangon and other towns and cities said they would not work under the military regime, accusing the generals of placing their own priorities above those of ordinary people during the pandemic. “We refuse to obey any order from the illegitimate military regime who demonstrated they do not have any regards for our poor patients,” the organisers said. A Facebook page coordinating the campaign accumulated nearly 150,000 followers in just 24 hours. “They will not stop this movement until the elected government is restored,” said Kyaw, a surgeon at West Yangon general hospital who has gone on strike. “I am upset about being apart from the patients, but I have no regrets, knowing that I did my best to help fight the pandemic,” he said, adding that he had resigned from the government hospital were he worked. Doctors are instead treating patients in their homes and at private clincis. The All Burma Federation of Students Union has also urged other government workers to strike. There have been no reports of street demonstrations against the army, but anger is simmering among the public, who lived under repressive military regimesfor five decades. On Wednesday night, the clanging of pots and pans echoed through the main city of Yangon, as people took to their balconies in a symbolic protest against the military. On social media, many adopted red profile pictures to signal their loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent nearly 15 years in detention as she campaigned against military rule before being released in 2010. Within Myanmar, she is widely revered as a heroine of democracy, despite international condemnation over her treatment of the Rohingya..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication: 2021-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar’s military takes power in coup, detains Suu Kyi
Description: " Myanmar’s military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule. An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the military’s claims of fraud in November’s elections — in which Suu Kyi’s ruling party won a majority of the parliamentary seats up for grabs — and because it allowed the election to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic. The takeover came the morning the country’s new parliamentary session was to begin and follows days of concern that a coup was coming. The military maintains its actions are legally justified — citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency — though Suu Kyi’s party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup. It was a dramatic backslide for Myanmar, which was emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It was also a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her National League for Democracy won elections in 2015..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-02-01
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan 2021 (Issued January 2021)
Topic: Agriculture, Camp Coordination and Camp Management, Coordination, Education, Food and Nutrition, Health, Logistics and Telecommunications, Protection and Human Rights, Shelter and Non-Food Items, Water Sanitation Hygiene
Topic: Agriculture, Camp Coordination and Camp Management, Coordination, Education, Food and Nutrition, Health, Logistics and Telecommunications, Protection and Human Rights, Shelter and Non-Food Items, Water Sanitation Hygiene
Description: "The present Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) seeks to mobilize assistance for close to 945,000 people in 2021, in support of the efforts of the Government of Myanmar to aid those affected by humanitarian crises and challenges in different parts of the country. As has been the case for previous years, the HRP places protection at the centre of an inclusive response tailored to the particular needs of the most vulnerable women and men, girls and boys. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 further demonstrated the critical importance of localization in Myanmar. In 2021, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) will build on the partnerships with national NGOs and local civil society actors that were strengthened as we adjusted to new operational realities in 2020. We will redouble our efforts to put in place robust channels for systematic two-way dialogue and engagement with affected people, and to capitalize on innovations around cash and voucher assistance to further extend our reach. Humanitarian partners remain committed to contributing to the achievement of durable solutions for displaced people. The National Strategy on Resettlement of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and Closure of IDP Camps provides a key entry point in this regard. Progress on implementation of the Strategy in 2020 was slowed down by COVID-19 but new opportunities are emerging. Our efforts in this regard in 2021 will seek to create new links across the humanitarian-development nexus, while remaining firmly anchored in the perspectives and concerns of displaced people themselves. In Rakhine, the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State will continue to be an important reference point for engagement between humanitarian organizations and the Government of Myanmar. Our dialogue with the authorities will continue to emphasize the importance of humanitarian access, so that needs can be fully assessed and analyzed, humanitarian activities can be prioritized on the basis of those needs, and the impact of our efforts can be effectively monitored. The Myanmar HCT remains committed to working in accordance with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, and without any adverse distinction based on region, ethnicity, religion or citizenship status..."
Source/publisher: OCHA (New York) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of publication: 2021-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 10.58 MB
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Title: Myanmar: Serious Rights Abuses Persist
Sub-title: No Justice for Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity, Apartheid
Description: "The Myanmar government has repeatedly violated basic civil and political rights, and failed to hold the country’s security forces accountable for atrocities against ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2021. The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party overwhelmingly won the November 8, 2020, election, which was marred by serious problems. Prior to the vote the government prosecuted its critics, censored opposition party messages, and did not provide equal access to state media. Systemic problems include the continued ethnic Rohingya disenfranchisement, the 25 percent of assembly seats reserved for the military, and the lack of an independent and transparent Union Election Commission. The commission cancelled voting in 57 primarily ethnic minority townships for security reasons, but provided little or no consultation or explanation to affected political parties and candidates. “Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling National League for Democracy have turned their backs on human rights concerns since taking power, betraying promises to Myanmar’s people to revoke repressive laws and break with abusive past practices,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “By winning a significant parliamentary majority, the NLD has an opportunity to introduce rights-respecting reforms that would protect everyone.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Human Rights Watch Statement: Impacts of Covid-19 on Internally Displaced People in Myanmar
Topic: Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas , Landmines , Internally Displaced People
Sub-title: Statement of Manny Maung, Myanmar Researcher, Human Rights Watch Subcommittee on International Human Rights Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development
Topic: Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas , Landmines , Internally Displaced People
Description: "Study of the Impacts of Covid-19 on Internally Displaced People in Myanmar Thank you to the Chairperson and Honorable Members of Parliament for inviting me to appear before this Committee to discuss the impacts of Covid-19 on internally displaced people in Myanmar. My name is Manny Maung and I am the Myanmar Researcher for Human Rights Watch. Decades of conflict have resulted in over 360,000 internally displaced peoples across the country. They are mainly members of ethnic minority communities spread across northern Myanmar, in Kachin and Shan States; in western Rakhine State; and in the southeast near the Myanmar-Thai border. Renewed conflict has created fresh displacements in 2020 in both Rakhine and Shan States. Humanitarian agencies reported that the government did not take measures to ensure that they could deliver emergency aid under the government-imposed travel restrictions to protect against the spread of Covid-19. In October, Human Rights Watch released a report, “An Open Prison without End,” on Myanmar’s detention of 130,000 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State since 2012.[1] Human Rights Watch found that the squalid and oppressive conditions imposed on the interned Rohingya and Kaman Muslims amount to the crimes against humanity of persecution, apartheid, and severe deprivation of liberty. Starting in August 2017, a military campaign of killings, sexual violence, arson, and forced eviction of Rohingya in northern Rakhine State forced more than 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch determined the Myanmar security forces committed ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Refusing to Be Gagged, Myanmar Journalists Work From Shadows
Description: "Hiding from Myanmar's police, journalist Aung Marm Oo refuses to conceal his anger with the civilian government led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as his country prepares for an election later this year. “Democracy is already dead,” the 37-year-old editor-in-chief of Development Media Group (DMG) told Reuters from a secret location where he is in hiding. “They blocked media, restrict media agencies, banned news, punish journalists. Media is the lifeblood of democracy in the country. Without media, how can democracy survive?” When Suu Kyi was released from house arrest by a military junta in 2011, Aung Marm Oo was a student activist living in exile. Her release helped persuade him to return home and enter journalism. The 2016 election that brought Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) to power ended half a century of military rule. But the generals retain strong influence under a constitution that reserves sweeping powers for the military, and 25% of seats in parliament for its appointees. The interior ministry is controlled by the Tatmadaw, the official name of the armed forces, and the freedom of civil society and the media remains restricted in a country plagued by ethnic conflicts..."
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
Date of publication: 2020-06-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: A long way to peace: identities, genocide, and state preservation in Burma, 1948–2018
Description: "...Following independence in 1948, successive Burmese regimes have fought continuous wars against ethno-religious minorities living on the periphery. The following article analyzes these conflicts through the lens of prospect theory. According to this perspective, regimes are highly sensitive to relative losses and may employ genocidal policies as a means of state-preservation. Our framework applies this theory to three sub-national cases of genocide perpetrated against the Karen, Kachin, and Rohingya ethno-religious groups. Through qualitative case analysis, we unpack multifaceted processes of violence perpetrated against civilians and non-combatants in Burma. Based on our findings, we argue that the Tatmadaw (Burmese military) engaged in genocidal policies, including forced displacement and labor, slash-and-burn tactics, ethno-religious co-optation, and political killings as an instrumental means of preserving the state. Notably, while the military engaged in extreme violence against all three groups, their interest in state preservation varied. Genocidal violence employed against Karen and Kachin, long recognized by the military as “legitimate” groups, was perpetrated to assimilate “hill tribes” into the state. Conversely, violence against the Rohingya evolved with the goal of pushing a perceived “foreign” group out. This study contributes to the growing body of literature within Genocide Studies, linking macro-level theory to sub-national case studies..."
Creator/author:
Date of publication: 2018-11-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : PDF
Size: 1.59 MB
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Title: Toward a Reorganization of the Political Landscape in Burma (Myanmar)?
Description: "Key figures on the national political scene and foreign specialists and observers alike have been puzzled by the rapid transformations taking place in Myanmar1 since 2011. What is happening in this country that was isolated for so long and dominated by its armed forces (or Tatmadaw in Burmese) totally resistant to change or contact with the outside world? In recent months, diplomats from the UN, Asia and the West have rushed to Naypyitaw2 and above all to Yangon to meet with the main opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been free since her (third) release from house arrest in November 2010 and has been a member of the national parliament (hereafter referred to as Parliament) since the by-elections held in April 2012. Strikes and public demonstrations, as well as unions and opposition political parties, are now perfectly legal. The censorship board has been dissolved. The Internet and cell phone industry are booming. The vast majority of the 2,200 political prisoners counted in early 2011 have been released. A human rights commission was even created in September 2011. Foreign journalists and critics have no problem obtaining visas, and tourists are flocking in. Burmese dissidents in exile have begun to return in order to take part in rebuilding an economy still on the sidelines of globalization. Foreign investors and multinational corporations have started to prospect in a “gold rush” atmosphere, as one of Asia’s richest regions in natural resources appears to be opening up..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "SciencesPo." (France)
Date of publication: 2013-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 432.75 KB (32 pages)
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Title: Historiography, Iconography and Political Legitimation in Myanmar
Sub-title: Nation building processes in tumultuous times
Description: "The study of the role historiography and public memory play within nation-building processes in Southeast Asia continues to see a steady rise of interest with scholars, governments and in growing numbers also the public eye. In face of continuous local resistance towards national integration, the struggle to define a national identity by converting multiple pasts into a single national narrative remains crucial to authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes alike. The question of belonging to one nation has yet to be resolved by various communities throughout the region (Aung-Thwin M. , 2012). Especially Myanmar’s challenged government tries hard to create a general Myanmar identity that includes not only the Bamar majority, but also all of the people living on Myanmar territory – with the current exclusion of the Muslim Rohingyas. 1 This nation-building attempt is naturally on terms of the government. The streamlining of regional or ethnic histories and narratives poses new threats and worries to the already suspicious minorities amidst the pacification and reconciliation attempts of Naypyitaw. Successive regimes and leaders have tried to both exploit the ideological groundwork laid in the dynastic, colonial and independence eras and to develop innovative new strategies to convince Myanmar’s inhabitants to overlook what divides them and prioritize what they have in common (Metro & SalemGervais, 2012)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Dr. Martin Großheim
Date of publication: 2015-02-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 1.21 MB (47 pages)
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Title: Pulling the strings
Sub-title: Masculinities, gender and social conflict in Myanmar
Description: "The Union of Myanmar is a complex country context marked by ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. It has been affected by decades of an authoritarian, isolationist regime and numerous interconnected conflicts, ranging from national-level ethnic political and armed conflicts and a pro-democracy struggle, to broader social-level land conflicts. It has also seen conflicts at the household level, such as domestic violence. In Myanmar, as in other countries, these numerous forms of violence affect men, women, boys, girls and those with diverse gender identities in different ways. There is increasing awareness that gender is important in understanding conflict and working towards peace and social cohesion. A growing number of development programmes are dedicated to addressing this. In practice, such programmes have largely focused on women’s participation in political and peacebuilding processes. This focus on increasing women’s meaningful participation in arenas and activities formerly dominated by men is an important aspect of peacebuilding. However, there is another ‘side’ to the gender inequality dilemma, which is less well understood – one that deals with the experiences of men and boys. Social expectations around masculinity are often overlooked (or oversimplified). Masculinities, that is, the social expectations of men to act or behave in certain ways because they are men, can be drivers of conflict or violence. However, limiting work on this to ‘men-engage’-type approaches focusing mainly on mobilising men to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) can mean overlooking how social expectations of masculinities can also lead to increased vulnerability for men and boys, which is often not recognised or addressed by peacebuilding programming. Understanding masculinities is important, because these masculinity norms – these social expectations – can be mobilised to manipulate the taking of violent actions. For instance, society may invoke the expectations on men to be protectors of their community from perceived external threats, including land confiscations for development projects. Where this means confronting more powerful actors such as state agencies, frustration and pressures can turn into violent action..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Paung Sie Facility, International Alert (London), Phan Tee Eain
Date of publication: 2018-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 928.79 KB (52 pages)
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Title: Attack Of The Burmese Dogs Ethnicity, Jade Trade, And Conflict In The Sino-Myanmar Borderlands
Topic: Rohingya, Ruili, ethnicity, jade trade, borderland, social-symbolic order, human- nonhuman
Topic: Rohingya, Ruili, ethnicity, jade trade, borderland, social-symbolic order, human- nonhuman
Description: "This paper addresses two questions pertaining to ethnicity. First, how do ethnic identifications, alliances, and conflicts play out in social worlds hosting ingrained ethnic hostilities? Secondly, how can we theorize the role of non-human agents in human conceptions of ethnicity and constructions of social-symbolic orders? The discussion is based on events related by Noor; a Rohingya man, who works as a jade trader in the border-town of Ruili in China’s Yunnan province, opposite Myanmar’s Shan state. The paper describes Noor’s motivations for fleeing Myanmar, his experience of Buddhist-Muslim conflicts, his work as a jade trader, and his hobby as a fighting cock breeder. The final section discusses how Noor conceptualizes his ethnic identity and position in a wider social-symbolic order hosting antagonistic ethnic Others by making analogies between nonhuman agents and ethnic humans..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Department of Sociology, Lund University" (Lund)
Date of publication: 2016-07-03
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 579.92 KB
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Title: Myanmar’s cardinal calls on government to abandon violence
Description: "For 70 years Myanmar has been torn apart by ethnic conflicts, dictatorship and religious nationalism that have led to horrific bloodshed, death, destruction, slavery and abuse,” said Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon. The Southeast Asian nation of 56 million (map) is 88% Buddhist, 6% Christian, and 4% Muslim..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Catholic Culture"
Date of publication: 2019-12-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar military continues committing atrocities against ethnic minorities, says Amnesty
Description: "The Myanmar military is continuing to wage fresh atrocities against ethnic minorities in the conflict-riven north of the country, according to a new report by human rights group Amnesty International. The report details harrowing accounts of ethnic Kachin, Lisu, Shan and Ta’ang civilians being arbitrarily arrested, detained and tortured by the armed forces. It also sheds a light on abusive tactics used by ethnic armed groups as they confront the military and fight among themselves to exert control over Shan State, a region rich in mineral resources and also part of the Golden Triangle where much of the world’s opium and heroin is illegally produced. “The Myanmar military is as relentless and ruthless as ever, committing war crimes against civilians in northern Shan State with absolute impunity,” alleged Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southeast Asia..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Telegraph" (UK)
Date of publication: 2019-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: The government's pointless battles with ethnic activists
Sub-title: On October 2, hundreds of people – possibly even 1,000 – gathered in Maha Bandoola Park in Yangon to show support for activists Naw Ohn Hla, Saw Thein Zaw Min and Saw Albert Cho.
Description: "Just hours earlier, they had been sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment for organising a ceremony to observe Karen Martyrs’ Day. The day marks the anniversary of the deaths of Karen National Union founders Saw Ba U Gyi and Major-General Sai Kay, who were killed in a Tatmadaw ambush in 1950. The trio were released immediately after the sentencing, having already served 22 days. But the outcome angered ethnic rights activists, who said it was further evidence of the government’s continued oppression of ethnic minorities. Why were they detained and charged? Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein had prohibited them from using the word “martyr” at the event, so they changed the location from North Dagon, on the city’s outskirts, to City Hall and Maha Bandoola Park, right in the centre. Moving the event was a provocative step. The government took the bait. Ohn Hla has been arrested and imprisoned many times over the past three decades. She is unlikely to shy away from a fight. Another stint in prison was always going to be a possible outcome. Lest we think this was a one-off, though, the regional authorities doubled down, filing charges against three women who had protested during a September 27 court hearing for the three detained activists. This story is likely to rumble on: more protests, more charges, more fiery statements. The whole episode underscores the government’s intolerance towards expressions of ethnic minority culture and history – in particular, those that deviate from the official narrative of 135 ethnic groups living in harmony since time immemorial, which, as the lead article in this issue of Frontier shows, is a myth. But it also reflects the government’s remarkable ability to pick pointless political battles. What would have been a relatively small event on Yangon’s outskirts was transformed into a series of demonstrations in the city’s heart that garnered major press coverage..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication: 2019-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Five years without justice for journalist Ko Par Gyi’s killing highlights need to reform 1959 law that facilitates military impunity
Sub-title: Reform of the 1959 Defence Services Act is a necessary step to address ongoing military impunity. The case of Ko Par Gyi’s killing should be reopened to satisfy the State’s international law obligations and deter repetition of serious crimes by soldiers.
Description: "Five years after the death of journalist Ko Par Gyi, the ICJ calls on the Government of Myanmar to reform the 1959 Defence Services Act, which was used to shield soldiers from accountability for involvement in his killing. “The case is emblematic of the 1959 Defence Services Act being used to enable impunity for human rights violations by soldiers throughout Myanmar, by transferring to military courts the authority to investigate and prosecute serious crimes against civilians,” said Frederick Rawski, Asia Pacific Region Director for the ICJ. “Impunity for Ko Par Gyi’s death is another example of this law being used to shield soldiers from accountability for serious crimes,” added Rawski. “Legislators should reform the 1959 law to enable the public criminal prosecution of soldiers for serious crimes in all circumstances, and take other steps to address the accountability gap.” After being detained by police in Mon State and transferred into military detention on 30 September 2014, Ko Par Gyi died four days later in the custody of Tatmadaw soldiers. Unceremoniously buried in a shallow grave, Ko Par Gyi’s death was hidden from his family and the public for weeks. Nobody has been held accountable for his death and his family lacks access to redress, including their right to know the truth..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "International Commission of Jurists" (Switzerland)
Date of publication: 2019-10-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Action to end Myanmar war crimes urged
Topic: MYANMAR, WAR CRIMES, JUSTIC, EGENOCIDE, SHAN STATE, RAKHINE STATE, OHCHR, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, RIGHTS, KAREN STATE, UN FACT-FINDING MISSION, MYANMAR MILITARY, 'FLYING TOMATO', UNHRC
Topic: MYANMAR, WAR CRIMES, JUSTIC, EGENOCIDE, SHAN STATE, RAKHINE STATE, OHCHR, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, RIGHTS, KAREN STATE, UN FACT-FINDING MISSION, MYANMAR MILITARY, 'FLYING TOMATO', UNHRC
Description: "The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (aka Forum-Asia), Progressive Voice and the Karen Human Rights Group are calling on member and observer states of the UN Human Rights Council to take concrete action to ensure justice and accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes perpetrated against ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar. We are deeply concerned regarding the escalation in conflict, particularly in Rakhine and Shan states, and are urging the UNHRC to broaden the mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar regularly to document and report violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law in that country. Shan state has observed an escalation in conflict since the factions of the Northern Alliance’s Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) carried out attacks against the Myanmar military’s Defense Service Technological Academy at Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Region, as well as a toll gate, customs house and police security outpost on August 15. The military was quick to retaliate, with some of the worst fighting observed in Lashio and Kutkai. In Lashio, the military used Buddhist temples to fire shells into villages, resulting in the death of a 52-year-old farmer. In Kutkai, parents and family grieved the death of three Kachin children due to heavy shelling between the Northern Alliance and the military..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
Date of publication: 2019-09-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: A Shortage of Women in China Has Led to the Trafficking of ‘Brides’ From Myanmar, Says a Report
Description: "Authorities on both sides of the border have failed to stop the trafficking of hundreds of women from Myanmar to China, says a new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday. The 112-page report, titled Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go: Trafficking of Kachin ‘Brides’ from Myanmar to China, documents anecdotal evidence from 37 victims of the trafficking trade who later escaped, and several families of trafficking victims. The women, originating from Myanmar’s northern Shan and Kachin States, were typically sold for between $3,000 to $13,000 after being lured across the border by the promise of good jobs. Many of the victims testify to being locked up, raped and forced to bear the children of their captors. The report’s author says that China’s now abolished one-child policy, which began in 1979, is a major cause of the current trafficking crisis because it created a gender imbalance in China. Forced to have only one child, Chinese parents often abandoned female babies or had sex-selective abortions in favor of males, leading to a shortfall in the female population of an estimated 30 to 40 million..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Time"
Date of publication: 2019-03-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar shuts down internet in conflict areas as UN expert warns of potential abuses during blackout
Description: "A top United Nations official has warned of "serious implications for human rights" in parts of Myanmar after the government shut down mobile data networks. According to Telenor, a Norwegian telecoms firm which operates mobile internet services in Myanmar, on June 20 all mobile phone operators were ordered to "temporarily stop mobile internet traffic in nine townships in Rakhine and Chin State." "The directive, which makes references to the Myanmar's Telecommunication Law, does not specify when the shutdown will end. As basis for its request," Telenor said in a statement, adding that officials "referenced disturbances of peace and use of internet services to coordinate illegal activities." The Myanmar military, also known as the Tatmadaw, has been conducting a major security operation and crackdown in the western province of Rakhine since August 2017, when alleged Rohingya militants attacked police posts. More than 720,000 Rohingya are estimated to have been forced to flee into Bangladesh as a result of the ensuing violence, which US lawmakers and international human rights bodies have said amounts to ethnic cleansing and even genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNN"
Date of publication: 2019-06-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Font: Zawgyi
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Title: Lift Internet-Blackout in Rakhine and Chin States: Ensure Access for Aid Groups and Monitors.
Description: "Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi should immediately lift an internet blackout that the government has imposed for more than one month in western Myanmar, Fortify Rights said today. On June 21, the government ordered the shutdown of internet services in nine townships—eight in Rakhine State and one in Chin State—severely impeding humanitarian aid, business, media access, and human rights monitoring. “We can’t move anywhere and now we can’t communicate with anyone,” a Rohingya resident in Maungdaw Township told Fortify Rights. “We are in total darkness.” “The civilian government imposed this blackout, and it can lift it,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “This shutdown is happening in a context of ongoing genocide against Rohingya and war crimes against Rakhine, and even if it were intended to target militants, it’s egregiously disproportionate, affecting an estimated one million civilians for nearly a month.” The Myanmar Ministry of Transport and Communications directed all mobile phone operators in Myanmar to disable internet services in Ponnangyun, Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Rathedaung, Mrauk-U, Minbya, and Myebon townships in Rakhine State, and Paletwa township in Chin State. The Myanmar military and Arakan Army are fighting in these areas, and many of the areas are sites of previous military-led attacks against Rohingya civilians. A local aid worker in northern Rakhine State who works for an international non-governmental organization told Fortify Rights: “We have no access to information…Providing aid without internet is very difficult. We cannot share information and communicate effectively with the headquarters or other offices to deliver aid.” The length of this shutdown is one of the world’s longest ever and is disproportionately affecting civilians and their protection, Fortify Rights said. A vague provision of the 2013 Telecommunications Law permits the suspension of internet services “when an emergency situation arises” and “for public interest.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Progressive Voice" via Fortify Rights
Date of publication: 2019-07-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: FRESH MILITARY VIOLATIONS HIGHLIGHT ONGOING IMPUNITY IN MYANMAR: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ORAL STATEMENT AT THE 41ST SESSION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Sub-title: Oral statement delivered by Amnesty International during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council
Description: "Oral statement delivered by Amnesty International during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council. Mr. President, We thank the Special Rapporteur for her update. We agree that the human rights situation in Myanmar remains critical. In Rakhine State, there has been a major escalation in fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group, since January 2019. Amnesty International has documented serious violations by the military against civilians, including unlawful attacks, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and forced labour. All communities – including Rakhine, Rohingya, Mro, Khami, and Chin – are being affected, regardless of their ethnicity and religion.1 Similarly serious violations are also ongoing in Kachin and Shan States in northern Myanmar, despite the announcement of a temporary ceasefire by the military in December 2018, recently extended by two months until 31 August 2019. These include unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment, and the use of landmines. These ongoing violations show the consequences of ongoing impunity for a military which stands accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. The prospect of meaningful justice and accountability in Myanmar is currently almost non-existent. We urge the Council to continue to explore all avenues for international justice and support the swift operationalization of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). Mr. President, There is a worrying erosion of the freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly across the country, and we are concerned by a surge in politically-motivated arrests and imprisonment in recent months. Filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi has been detained since 12 April 2019 for criticising the military’s role in politics on social media,2 while Rakhine journalist Aung Marm Oo is hiding after learning – through the media – that he faces criminal charges under Myanmar’s notorious Unlawful Associations Act.3 Politically-motivated arrests and detention are made possible by a range of laws which have long been criticised for violating the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Repealing or else amending these laws is one area where the current civilian-led government could make important progress, but with less than 18 months until general elections, time is running out. Ms. Lee, Given continuing violations in the country and the authorities’ refusal to cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms, including your mandate, what additional measures do you think this Council should take to address the situation?..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
Date of publication: 2019-07-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Title: Myanmar: Humanitarian Response Plan 2019
Description: "Humanitarian needs in Myanmar are characterized by a complex combination of vulnerability to natural disasters, food insecurity, armed conflict, inter-communal tensions, statelessness, institutionalized discrimination, protracted displacement, human trafficking and risky migration. In Rakhine, the situation remains tense following the armed attacks and the military operations and violence in 2017 that led to the exodus of over 700 000 people to Bangladesh. In Kachin and Shan states, the escalation of armed conflict caused new and secondary displacements..."
Source/publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Date of publication: 2019-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.64 MB
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Title: “A Declaration of War on Us”: The 2018 VFV Law Amendment and its Impact on Ethnic Nationalities
Description: ''The right to land for all peoples is essential for peace, democracy and development. The recently adopted amendment by parliament to the 2012 Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (VFV Law) has immediate, deep and far-reaching implications for many millions of rural working people in Myanmar, especially in ethnic nationality regions. The new law has also serious, negative consequences for the country’s development and the transition towards democracy, and ultimately for the prospects for a lasting peace in Myanmar. Across Myanmar, but especially in ethnic borderland areas, the livelihoods and well-being of agrarian communities have, for centuries, been assured through traditional customary land and resource management systems. Many such systems continue to exist, and they command social legitimacy in regulating how people relate to each other and to land and resources at the village level. These systems involve community assertion of authority over the local land and resources, and regulation of their management and use. These systems are often informal, but there is clear understanding within and between villages what land can be used, by whom, for how long, and for what purposes...''
Source/publisher: Transnational Institute (TNI)
Date of publication: 2018-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: State of the World?s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2013 (Burma/Myanmar section)
Description: "State of the World?s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2013" presents a global picture of the health inequalities experienced by minorities and indigenous communities. The report finds that minorities and indigenous peoples suffer more ill-health and receive poorer quality of care. - See more at: http://www.minorityrights.org/12071/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-worlds-minorities-and-indigenous-peoples-2013.html#sthash.4jaxgXrf.dpuf
Source/publisher: Minority Rights Group (MRG)
Date of publication: 2013-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2013-10-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 153.11 KB
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Title: Unsung Heroines: the Women of Myanmar
Description: Women in Myanmar have been subjected to a wide range of human rights violations, including political imprisonment, torture and rape, forced labour, and forcible relocation, all at the hands of the military authorities. At the same time women have played an active role in the political and economic life of the country. It is the women who manage the family finances and work alongside their male relatives on family farms and in small businesses. Women have been at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement which began in 1988, many of whom were also students or female leaders within opposition political parties. Burman and non-Burman women. List of women in prison.ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Amnesty International USA (ASA 16/04/00)
Date of publication: 2000-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Burma/Myanmar: Time for Change
Description: "This timely report gives an overview of the major minority ethnic groups and their situation and prospects within Burma today. Major human rights issues are also discussed: extra-judicial killings, displacement of populations, forced labour, illegal use of landmines and child soldiers. The author considers the position of women, restrictions on freedom of expression and the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS and the trade in narcotics."
Creator/author: Martin Smith
Source/publisher: Minority Rights Group
Date of publication: 2002-07-17
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 640.53 KB
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Title: Burma?s Dirty War - The humanitarian crisis in eastern Burma
Description: "Up to a million people have fled their homes in eastern Burma in a crisis the world has largely ignored. Burma?s refusal to release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, and the boycotting of the constitutional convention this month by the main opposition, has thrust Burma into the spotlight again. But unseen and largely unremarked is the ongoing harrowing experience of hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Burma, hiding in the jungle or trapped in army-controlled relocation sites. Others are in refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border. These people are victims in a counterinsurgency war in which they are the deliberate targets. As members of Burma?s ethnic minorities - which make up 40 per cent of the population - they are trapped in a conflict between the Burmese army and ethnic minority armies. Surviving on caches of rice hidden in caves, or on roots and wild foods, families in eastern Burma face malaria, landmines, disease and starvation. They are hunted like animals by army patrols and starved into surrender. In interviews... refugees told Christian Aid of murder and rape, the torching of villages and shooting of family members as they lay huddled together in the fields. They recalled farmers who had been blown up by landmines laid by the army around their crops. This report, based on personal testimonies from refugees, tells the story of Burma?s humanitarian crisis. On the brink of the Burmese government?s announcement of a ?roadmap to democracy? for a new constitution, Burma?s Dirty War argues that any new political settlement must include the crisis on the country?s eastern borders. Burma?s refusal to free Aung San Suu Kyi promises more intransigence and an even slower pace of change - with predictable human costs. This report calls on the UK and Irish governments, the EU and the UN to use what opportunity remains from the roadmap to democracy to press for an end to the conflict in negotiations with ethnic minorities. It also argues that the UN must gain access to the areas in crisis - despite the Burmese government ban on travel there by humanitarian agencies. Key recommendations include: * that the Burmese government cease human rights abuses, allow access to eastern Burma by humanitarian agencies including UN special representatives, and engage in dialogue with ethnic minority representatives * that the UK and Irish governments, the EU and the UN fund work with displaced people inside Burma and continue to support refugees in Thailand * that the UK and Irish governments, the EU and UN Security Council condemn Burma?s human rights abuses against ethnic minorities, demand that it protect civilians from violence and insist that Burma allow access to humanitarian agencies The report argues that governments must seize the opportunity presented by the roadmap to push for genuine negotiations between the government, the National League for Democracy and ethnic minority organisations which can bring out a just and lasting peace..."
Source/publisher: Christian Aid
Date of publication: 2004-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar: Ethnic Minority Rights under Attack
Description: This report focuses . . . human rights violations against members of ethnic minority groups. These abuses, including extrajudicial executions; ill-treatment in the context of forced portering and labour; and intimidation during forcible relocations occur both in the context of counter-insurgency operations, and in areas where cease-fires hold. The State Law and Order Restoration Council SLORC, Myanmar?s military government) continues to commit human rights violations in ethnic minority areas with complete impunity. This high level of human rights violations and the attendant political instability in Myanmar pose a major regional security issue for the country?s new ASEAN partners. One dimension of this is the unprecedented numbers of refugees from Myanmar now in Thailand: a conservative estimate of some 200,000 refugees live in Thai cities and in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. All of the refugees whom Amnesty International recently interviewed, and whose testimonies form the basis of this report, said that they had fled because they could no longer survive under the harsh forced labour and relocation practices of the SLORC. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/20/97)
Date of publication: 1997-07-22
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English and French
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Title: Valued Less Than A Milk Tin
Description: "When you speak another language, that is Burmese, you become Burman instead of Karen. When this happens you?re already dead as a Karen person." "When they are portering, many Shan don?t understand what the soldiers are ordering them to do, and so they may make mistakes and get beaten and tortured by the soldiers." On the eve of the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa, EarthRights International released this report, which documents a widespread pattern of brutal discrimination against ethnic minorities in Burma. The report was researched by EarthRights International staff who interviewed mainly Karen and Shan victims of government-sponsored discrimination, including forced labor, rape, destruction of identities and suppression of language. The report documents state-sponsored discrimination against minorities in schools and government institutions, discriminatory violence in conflict zones, and a pattern of targeting minorities for the worst abuses of forced labor..."
Source/publisher: EarthRights International
Date of publication: 2001-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: MYANMAR: LEAVING HOME
Description: "...Amnesty International is concerned about a variety of human rights which are systematically denied to civilians by the Myanmar government, particularly those belonging to ethnic minorities. The routine military interference with the exercise of human rights includes forced labour; forcible relocation; extortion of food, money and other personal possessions; house destruction; and the denial of freedom of movement. During May and June 2004, Amnesty International interviewed 115 migrant workers in seven locations in Thailand who were either working or searching for work. They were members of the Mon, Kayin, Kayah, Shan, Rawang, Tavoyan and Bama ethnic groups, and followed the Buddhist, Muslim, or Christian faiths. They were employed mostly in the fishing, manufacturing, agricultural, construction, and domestic service industries. The interviews were conducted confidentially with the assistance of an independent Bama ? English interpreter. Both the men and women who were interviewed were predominantly from rural areas, although some were from urban centres, including small towns, State and Division capitals, and Yangon. In the last decade hundreds of thousands of workers from Myanmar have migrated to neighbouring Thailand in search of jobs and other economic opportunities. Migrants interviewed by Amnesty International had left their homes in Myanmar for a variety of reasons, including the inability to find a job; confiscation of their houses and land by the military; and fear that if they remained they would be subjected to human rights violations, including forced labour. Many of the young people who were interviewed had come to work in Thailand in order to send money back to their families. However some of them could not save enough to send any money home, but were working in Thailand so as not to be a burden to their parents. Those who had fled from militarized areas in Myanmar were much more likely to have had direct experience of human rights violations at the hands of the Myanmar military. In some areas the vast majority of young people have left their villages in order to work in Thailand. One Mon man from Hpa?an township, Kayin State, told Amnesty International about the situation in his village: "Many people have been in Thailand for the last 15 years, and many more are leaving now. Prices are going up, the population is growing, people are having a hard time feeding themselves and have decided to leave."..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
Date of publication: 2005-09-08
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar: Torture of Ethnic Minority Women
Description: Torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of men, women and children, both in ethnic minority areas and in central Myanmar, has taken place for decades. This report examines the torture and ill-treatment of women from ethnic minorities in particular by the tatmadaw (armed forces). Ethnic minorities, who make up a third of the country?s population, mainly live in seven states in the country . . . Amnesty International has documented serious human rights violations by the tatmadaw: extra-judicial executions, "disappearances," torture and cruel treatment of ethnic minority civilians, including the rape and sexual abuse of women. Torture in ethnic minority areas generally takes place in the context of forced labour and portering; forced relocation, and in detention at army camps, military intelligence centres, in people?s homes, fields and villages. Many individuals have died as a result of torture or been killed after being tortured. Force and the threat of force is regularly used to compel members of ethnic minorities to comply with military directives - which may range from orders for villages to relocate; to provide unpaid labourers to military forces; to not harvesting their crops. Torture, including rape, is particularly widespread in those states where armed resistance continues and the army is engaged in counter-insurgency operations against armed groups. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
Date of publication: 2001-07-17
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, French
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Title: Myanmar: Ethnic Minorities: Targets of Repression
Description: Myanmar?s ethnic minorities, comprising one third of the population, continue to suffer disproportionately from a wide variety of human rights violations compared to the majority Burman people. This is particularly true of minorities living in areas where ethnically-based armed opposition groups are fighting against the tatmadaw, or Myanmar army. These groups live primarily in the Tanintharyi Division and in the Shan, Mon, Kayah and Kayin States in the east of the country. The army maintains an increasingly large presence in these areas, particularly in the so-called "black" or "grey" zones where armed opposition groups are active. As troops move through the countryside they pass through farming villages searching for insurgents and seeking intelligence about their movements from the farmers. While on patrol troops steal villagers? livestock, rice, money, and personal possessions, seize them for forced labour duty, and sometimes torture or even kill them for imputed links with the armed opposition.These human rights violations have been occurring for decades, and in spite of some recent positive developments in Myanmar, continue to be perpetrated by the tatmadaw." KEYWORDS: ETHNIC GROUPS / DISPLACED PEOPLE / ARMED CONFLICT / EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION / FORCED LABOUR / TORTURE/ILL-TREATMENT / HARASSMENT / FARMERS / RACIAL DISCRIMINATION / REFUGEES / NON-GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES / MILITARY
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
Date of publication: 2001-06-13
Date of entry/update: 2010-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Ethnische Minderheiten im W?rgegriff
Description: Die ethnischen Minderheiten stellen rund 30 Prozent der 50 Millionen Bewohner Burmas. Sie leben ?berwiegend in den Bergregionen an den Grenzen zu den Nachbarl?ndern. Seit 1948 ringen sie um mehr Selbstverwaltung und Menschenrechte. W?hrend sich die internationale Gemeinschaft nun f?r die Freilassung der bei der Niederschlagung der Proteste in Rangun Festgenommenen einsetzt, nimmt kaum jemand wahr, dass in den Minderheitengebieten seit Jahren schwerste Menschenrechtsverletzungen andauern; Menschenrechtsverletzungen vor und nach 2007; Chin; Karen; Biosprit; Human rights violations before and after 2007; natural ressources, bio-fuels
Creator/author: Ulrich Delius
Source/publisher: Gesellschaft f?r bedrohte V?lker
Date of publication: 2008-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2008-05-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: German, Deutsch
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Title: Unterdr?ckung durch die Milit?rjunta
Description: Mindestens 82 000 Angeh?rige von Minderheiten flohen in 2005 vor den schrecklichen Menschen-rechtsverletzungen in Burma. In Thailand sind mehr als 150 000 burmesische Fl?chtlinge registriert, wobei sich dort Sch?tzungen zufolge mindestens 1,5 Millionen illegal aufhalten. Allein die Zahl Hilfe suchender Karen-Fl?chtlinge ist um fast 60 Prozent auf 900 Neuank?mmlinge pro Monat gestiegen. Zwei Drittel dieser Fl?chtlinge sind Kinder. In Burma selbst leben nach offiziellen Angaben 500 000 Binnenfl?chtlinge; die tats?chliche Zahl d?rfte in Millionenh?he liegen. Salween; Staud?mme; Salween-River; dams
Creator/author: Anna Bucur
Date of publication: 2007-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-05-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: German, Deutsch
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Title: BURMA: EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION, TORTURE AND POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT OF MEMBERS OF THE SHAN AND OTHER ETHNIC MINORITIES
Description: "This document presents new evidence of a consistent pattern of unlawful killing and ill-treatment of members of Burma's ethnic minorities by security forces, including the army and police. It is a follow-up to a document published in May 1988, Burma: Extrajudicial Execution and Torture of Members of Ethnic Minorities. That document presented evidence of unlawful killings and torture of members of the Karen, Kachin and Mon ethnic minorities. This document provides information about allegations of similarly severe violations of the human rights of members of the Shan ethnic minority. It also describes the cases of two or three Shan who may be prisoners of conscience. There is information suggesting they may be imprisoned because of their ethnic background and their non-violent political opinions or peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/10/88)
Date of publication: 1988-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 158.35 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 1999-2000: 08 - Extrajudicial Killing, Summary or Arbitrary Execution - table
Description: Table of people killed in Nyaunglebin District, Karen State (Pegu Division) by the Sathonlone (SSS) troops in 1999.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit of the NCGUB
Date of publication: 2000-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : PDF
Size: 6.85 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 1999-2000: 14 - Rights of Minorities
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit of the NCGUB
Date of publication: 2000-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : PDF
Size: 15.97 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 1999-2000: 15 - Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading, Treatment or Punishment
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit of the NCGUB
Date of publication: 2000-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : PDF
Size: 39.17 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 2002-03: Rights of Ethnic Minorities
Description: "Throughout its entire existence as an independent state Burma has experienced a complex set of conflicts between the central government and ethnic minority groups. More than half a century of civil war has caused immense suffering and devastation for Burma and its people. A series of ceasefires between the SPDC and armed ethnic opposition groups since the late 1980s have brought relief in some areas but no real solutions and fighting continues. The government?s determination to preserve a unified state remains the main justification for military rule, and armed conflict is a root cause of ongoing human rights abuses and a deepening humanitarian crisis in ethnic minority areas..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit of the NCGUB
Date of publication: 2003-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 64.1 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 1994: 13 - Protection of Minorities
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit of the NCGUB
Date of publication: 1995-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 10.86 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 2000: Rights of Ethnic Minorities
Description: "...Burma is a country rich in ethnic diversity. Yet although the SPDC attempts to promote this diversity, and the existence of its 135 "national races" (SPDC term for the country?s ethnic minority groups), the rights of ethnic minority people remain in violation...n areas where cease-fire agreements have been reached, human rights abuses continue to take place. In fact, in these "national reconciliation" areas human rights abuses have increased rather than abated. There has been no move on the part of the SPDC to engage in political discussions with opposition groups to reinforce the military cease-fire agreements. Under the terms of the cease-fire, some ethnic groups have been allowed to keep their arms and soldiers, however, SPDC had vastly increased the number of its soldiers in those areas... The continuing armed conflicts in the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Chin States have been accompanied by massive human rights violations..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit, NCGUB
Date of publication: 2001-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm htm
Size: 92.2 KB 6.04 KB
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Title: Burma Human Rights Yearbook 2001-2002: Rights of Ethnic Minorities
Description: "...Ethnic minorities, which make up more than one-third of the population of Burma, have long struggled for political rights and greater independence from the Rangoon government as a reaction to political isolation and oppression. As a result, the military junta has implemented a ?divide and rule policy? in which divisions between and within ethnic groups are developed and encouraged and majority Burman troops in ethnic minority areas oppress the general population. Throughout the year, Burmese soldiers were responsible for a large number of documented abuses against minority peoples including killings, beatings, and rapes..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit, NCGUB
Date of publication: 2002-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 64.1 KB
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Title: Burma: One of the World?s Landmine "Black Spots"
Description: Stephen Goose, co-founder of Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, is one of the world?s foremost authorities on the use of anti-personnel landmines. In this exclusive interview with The Irrawaddy, he describes the situation inside Burma, where, he says, there are an estimated 1,500 landmine casualties each year.
Creator/author: Stephen Goose
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8. No. 10
Date of publication: 2000-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Forced Labour in Myanmar (Burma)
Description: "Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)"...Full Text (about 400 pages) The central ILO report on forced labour in Burma. Appendix III contains 246 interviews, largely with people from non-Burman ethnic groups - Chin, Rohingya, Arakanese, Karen, Karenni, Shan, Pa-O, Mon. The interviews cover forced labour, but also many other violations of human rights such as killings (executions), rape, torture, looting, forced relocation (forced displacement) violence against women, violence against children, looting. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: International Labour Office
Date of publication: 1998-07-02
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm doc
Size: 1.78 MB 2.15 MB
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Title: Incoming Field Reports
Description: "The following reports have recently been sent in by human rights monitors operating independently inside Karen areas. A few of the incidents were reported in radio messages from Karen frontline military units, and these are noted as such. Note that these field reports are not even close to a complete summary of all the killings and looting being done by SLORC troops -for every field report which is sent in, there are a hundred similar incidents which are not being reported..." Area: Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District, Thaton District, Toungoo District, Kya In Seik Gyi Township, Dooplaya District, Lu Thaw Township, Papun (Mudraw) District, Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin District, Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin District, Nyaunglebin District, Kyaikto Township, Mon State.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1994-08-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts: Internally displaced villagers cornered by 40 SPDC Battalions; Food shortages, disease, killings and life on the run.
Description: Food shortages, disease, killings and life on the run.Based on new interviews and reports from KHRG field researchers, this update summarises the increasingly desperate situation for villagers in these two districts. In the hills, the people of several hundred villages are still in hiding, their villages destroyed by SPDC troops. Their survival situation is now desperate as 40 SPDC Battalions continue to systematically destroy their rice supplies and crops and landmine their fields, and shoot them on sight. In the villages under SPDC control, people suffer under an impossible burden of many kinds of forced labour and extortion.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG (Information Update #2001-U3)
Date of publication: 2001-04-09
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: A strategy of subjugation: The Situation in Ler Mu Lah Township, Tenasserim Division
Description: "This report aims to provide an update on the situation in Tenasserim Division, Burma?s southernmost region. It is based primarily on interviews from Ler Mu Lah township in central Tenasserim Division, but also gives an overview of some background and developments in other parts of the Division. At the end of the report two maps are included: Map 1 showing the entire Division, and Map 2 showing the northern part of Tenasserim Division and the southern part of Karen State?s Dooplaya District. Many of the villages mentioned in the report and the interviews can be found on Map 1, while Map 2 includes some of the sites mentioned in relation to flows of refugees and their forced repatriation..." An update on the situation in central Tenasserim Division since the Burmese junta?s mass offensive to capture the area in 1997. Unable to gain complete control of the region because of the rugged jungle, harassment by resistance forces and the staunch non-cooperation of the villagers, the SPDC regime has gradually flooded the area with 36 Battalions which have forced many villages into relocation sites where the villagers are used as forced labour to push more military roads into remote areas. Thousands continue to hide in the forests despite being hunted and having their food supplies destroyed by SPDC patrols. They have little choice, though, because if they flee to the Thai border they encounter the Thai Army 9th Division, which continues to force refugees back into Burma at gunpoint." Additional keywords: Tanintharyi, Burman, Mon, Karen, Tayoyan, road building, free-fire zones, destruction of villages, resistance groups, extortions, internal displacement, refoulement, forced repatriation, killing, torture, shooting, restrictions on movement, beating to death, shortage of food, 9th Division (Thai Army). ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2001-04)
Date of publication: 2001-12-21
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Thai-Burmese Border: Shan, Karen, Karenni (KHRG Commentary)
Description: "The State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) junta ruling Burma is now using mass forced relocations of entire geographic regions as a major element of military strategy. While this is not new to SLORC tactics, they have seldom or never done it to such an extent or so systematically before. The large-scale relocations began in Papun District of Karen State in December 1995 and January 1996, when up to 100 Karen villages were ordered to move within a week or be shot [see "Forced Relocation in Papun District", KHRG #96-11, 4/3/96]. These were all the villages in the region between Papun and the Salween River, an area about 50-60 km. north-south and 30 km. east-west. Most of them were ordered to move to sites beside military camps at Papun, Kaw Boke, Par Haik and Pa Hee Kyo, where SLORC was gathering people to do forced labour on the Papun-Bilin and Papun-Kyauk Nyat roads. However, the main reasons for the forced relocation were to cut off all possible support for Karen guerrilla columns in the area, most of which has only been SLORC-controlled since mid-1995, and to create a free-fire zone which would also block the flow of refugees from inside Karen State to the Thai border. Recently, though, SLORC troops in the area have limited their movements rather than combing the area, allowing some villagers to trickle back to their villages. This may be partly because of rainy season or because of the current SLORC-Karen National Union ceasefire talks, but it is probably largely because SLORC realised it could not control the result - people were fleeing into hiding in the jungle, some were fleeing to Thailand, but none were heading for the relocation camps..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication: 1996-07-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: A Village on Fire: the Destruction of Rural Life in Southeastern Burma
Description: "...Under military control, rural Burma?s subsistence farming village is losing its viability as the basic unit of society. Internally displaced people are usually thought to have fled military battles in and around their villages, but this paradigm doesn?t apply to Burma. In the thousands of interviews conducted by the Karen Human Rights Group with villagers who have fled their homes, approximately 95 percent say they have not fled military battles, but rather the systematic destruction of their ability to survive, caused by demands and retaliations inflicted on them by the SPDC military. Where there is fighting, it is fluid and sporadic, and most villagers can avoid it by hiding for short periods in the forest. Once the SPDC occupies the area around their village, however, the suffering is inescapable. Villages, rooted to the land, are defenseless and vulnerable, and villages can be burned -- destroying rural life in southeastern Burma. "
Creator/author: Kevin Heppner
Source/publisher: "Cultural Survival Quarterly" Issue 24.3
Date of publication: 2000-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Voice of the Hungry Nation
Description: This document presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma. The Tribunal?s work will appeal to all readers interested in human rights and social justice, as well as anyone with a particular interest in Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission presents this report in order to stimulate discourse on human rights and democratization in Burma and around the world.
Source/publisher: People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma
Date of publication: 1999-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Voice of the Hungry Nation
Description: an edited version of a report by the People?s Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma, which was published by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in October 1999.
Creator/author: People
Source/publisher: "Burma Debate", Vol. VI, No. 3
Date of publication: 1999-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Voice of the Hungry Nation
Description: Burmese version
Source/publisher: People?s Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma
Date of publication: 1999-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese
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