Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations

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Title: Joint statement: One year after the military coup in Myanmar
Description: "On 1 February 2022, people in Myanmar will mark the first anniversary of renewed military dictatorship with protest and resistance. The coup prevented an elected government from taking office. The military extralegally detained its members, and embarked on a program of state violence reminiscent of the atrocities in 2017 that led hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. The military has met nationwide resistance. A civil disobedience movement that began in the days after the coup has persisted in its efforts to oppose military rule by strikes, boycotts and other kinds of non-cooperation. A people’s defensive war has brought fighting to parts of the country that had for decades been without armed conflict. The costs have been great. Many have lost their jobs and housing. Thousands have been detained and at least 1,499 civilians have lost their lives, according to the AAPP. An estimated 406,000 people have been internally displaced since the coup and at least 32,000 have fled to neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR. The military coup has exacerbated efforts to combat the Covid-19 crisis, unnecessarily contributing to a high death toll. Military rule greatly complicates future efforts to control the virus, putting the health and safety of millions in peril. The consequences of the coup on higher education are disastrous. After decades of debilitating dictatorship, universities and institutes in Myanmar were just beginning to find their feet when the military again seized control. The universities remain closed to students. With their shutdown go the hopes of another generation for quality education in Myanmar. Opposition groups, activists and engaged scholars are setting up alternative study programs, but these can fill only a small part of the demand. As academics, students and professional staff working on Myanmar, we mark this anniversary by condemning the coup and the violent suppression of political opposition to military rule. We deplore the targeted killing and maiming of unarmed civilians, including via massacres during recent military offensives launched in many parts of the country. To our friends and associates in Myanmar, and to alumni of Australian universities who are struggling against dictatorship, we extend our solidarity. We join with you and others around the world in demanding that the military retreat from politics, stop the killings and torture; release all political prisoners, including our colleague Professor Sean Turnell, and return government to those whom Myanmar’s electorate chose to lead it. Joint statement issued on 31 January 2022 by:..."
Source/publisher: Asian Studies Association of Australia, Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars, Australia-Myanmar Constitutional Democracy Project, Australia Myanmar Institute, Griffith Asia Institute and Myanmar Research Centre
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-02
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Title: One Year after the Illegitimate Military Coup in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Description: "We will never forget. It has been a year since the violent and illegitimate occupation of the democratically elected government by Myanmar's military junta on 1 February 2021. This was at a period when the people were at their most vulnerable, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was and still is a grave and utter betrayal of the public will and trust and a sheer disregard of democratic institutions and values. In the past 365 days, we have been witnessing accounts of serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, criminalisation, arbitrary detentions, illegal arrests, torture, violent reprisals, and sexual and gender-based violence committed against pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders. This junta has fueled a humanitarian crisis that continues to impose fear, escalating violence, and destroy innocent lives throughout the country. Bombings of villages identified as centres of the opposition had resulted in killings of civilians and humanitarian workers and triggered gross internal displacement of communities. The crisis continues to escalate and has spilt across its borders as thousands have fled and sought refuge in neighbouring countries. We are appalled by the junta's disregard of socio-economic and health emergencies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as curtailing supplies of oxygen and medicines, arresting doctors and medical personnel, and leaving thousands to die without medical help. We will always remember. The sheer tenacity, bravery and courage of LGBTIQ+ persons who were and are at the frontlines fighting for democracy, dignity, and freedom will forever be commemorated and ingrained in our collective memory. Despite repressive conditions, our LGBTIQ+ siblings have tirelessly campaigned both online and offline in pursuit of reclaiming democracy and urging for a global action to condemn military-led atrocities. We are deeply moved by various forms of creative resistance such as flash mobs, the waving of rainbow flags, the march of drag artists that had become symbols of peoples' solidarity and strength. This military junta and their supporters have blood on their hands. We deeply regret that many have been separated from their loved ones and have lost their lives amid the struggle. Data reported by Myanmar's National Unity Government (NUG) in June 2021 revealed that at least 12 LGBTIQ+ people were shot to death, while hundreds more were detained, arrested, and severely tortured based on their SOGIESC. Many are currently in hiding to escape retaliation. We stand firmly in solidarity. As long as Myanmar is unfree, democracy in Southeast Asia will never move forward. We commit our continuous support for efforts to reclaim and fortify human rights, freedoms, peace and democracy in Myanmar. Human rights and freedoms, particularly of LGBTIQ+ peoples, can flourish only if the people are recognised and respected as the rightful sovereign of the country. As such, we strongly deplore the military junta as an illegitimate force that is unworthy of any recognition. We urge the UN to step up and impose necessary sanctions and actions against the junta. Min Aung Hlaing, the rest of the military leadership, their political allies, and their families should be made accountable for the atrocities they committed. We urge all governments, the UN, and the entire international community to recognise Myanmar's National Unity Government (NUG) immediately and assure urgent unified response to provide unified assistance for putting Myanmar back on the path to democracy, the restoration of fundamental freedoms such as on information and expression, and guarantee the prevalence of peace and prosperity. While Myanmar is in crisis, we urge the international community to open up its borders, facilitate safe passage, and create domestic conditions to guarantee safety and dignity for all Myanmar persons seeking refuge. We urge ASEAN, especially the government of Cambodia in its capacity as the Chair of the regional bloc, to fully implement its Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar: an immediate cessation of violence, constructive dialogue with all stakeholders especially marginalised and ethnic groups who are excluded from political processes, provision of humanitarian assistance, and the appointment and unhindered visits of an ASEAN Special Envoy to facilitate constructive dialogues with all stakeholders. To our Myanmar LGBTIQ+ queerblings both in the country and abroad, you are not alone in this struggle. We are with you until and after democracy is fully regained in your beloved country..."
Source/publisher: 61 LGBTIQ and Civil Society Organizations via Civicus
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-02
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Title: ပူးတွဲကြေညာချက် – မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် စစ်တပ်အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်း တစ်နှစ်ပြည့်
Description: "၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၁) ရက်နေ့သည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ ပြည်သူများ၏ အသစ်တဖန် ပေါ်ပေါက်လာသော စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်အား ဆန္ဒပြခြင်းနှင့် တော်လှန်တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း တစ်နှစ်ပြည့်မြောက်သည့် နေ့ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုသည် ရွေးကောက်ခံအစိုးရတစ်ရပ်၏ အစိုးရဖွဲ့အုပ်ချုပ်နိုင်ရေးကို တားဆီးခဲ့သည်။ စစ်တပ်သည် အစိုးရအဖွဲ့ဝင်များကို တရားမဝင် ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းပြီး ရိုဟင်ဂျာမွတ်ဆလင်သိန်းနှင့်ချီ၍ ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နိုင်ငံသို့ ထွက်ပြေးစေခဲ့သည့် ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ်က ဖြစ်ရပ်ကို အောက်မေ့သတိရစေသော အစိုးရကျောထောက်နောက်ခံပြု အကြမ်းဖက်အစီအစဉ်ကို စတင်ခဲ့သည်။ စစ်တပ်သည် နိုင်ငံတဝန်း ခုခံတော်လှန်မှုကို ရင်ဆိုင်နေရသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီး ရက်ပိုင်းအတွင်း စတင်ခဲ့သော စစ်အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကို ဆန့်ကျင်ရန်သည့် အကြမ်းမဖက်လူထုအာဏာဖီဆန်သည့်လှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) သည် ဆန္ဒပြခြင်း၊ သပိတ်မှောက်ခြင်းနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်းငြင်းဆန်သော နည်းလမ်းများစွာဖြင့် ကြံကြံခံ ဆက်လက်တည်ရှိနေသည်။ ပြည်သူများ၏ ခုခံစစ်ကြောင့် လက်နက်ကိုင်ပဋိပက္ခများ ဆယ်စုနှစ်များစွာ မရှိခဲ့သော နိုင်ငံ၏အစိတ်အပိုင်းများတွင် တိုက်ပွဲများ ပေါ်ပေါက်လာသည်။ ပေးဆပ်ရမှုသည် အလွန်ပင်ကြီးမားပါသည်။ လူအများအပြား အလုပ်အကိုင်နှင့် အိုးအိမ်များ ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ ထောင်နှင့်ချီ၍ ဖမ်းဆီးခံထားရပြီး အရပ်သား ၁၄၉၉ ဦးထက်မနည်း အသက်ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ကြောင်း AAPP ၏ အချက်အလက်များအရ သိရသည်။ UNHCR အချက်အလက်များအရ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးကတည်းက ခန့်မှန်းခြေ လူ ၄၀၆,၀၀၀ ခန့် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးခဲ့ရပြီး အနည်းဆုံး ၃၂,၀၀၀ ခန့် အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများသို့ ထွက်ပြေးခဲ့ကြရသည်။ စစ်တပ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုသည် COVID-19 ကပ်ရောဂါအကျပ်အတည်းကို တိုက်ဖျက်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းမှုများကို ပိုမိုဆိုးရွားစေခဲ့ပြီး သေဆုံးသူအရေအတွက် မြင့်မားလာစေခဲ့သည်။ စစ်အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးသည် ဗိုင်းရပ်စ်ကို ထိန်းချုပ်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းမှုများကိုများစွာ ရှုပ်ထွေးခက်ခဲစေပြီး သန်းနှင့်ချီသောပြည်သူများ၏ ကျန်းမာရေးနှင့် ဘေးကင်းရေးကို အန္တရာယ်ဖြစ်စေသည်။ အဆင့်မြင့်ပညာရေးအပေါ် အာဏာသိမ်းမှု၏ အကျိုးဆက်များက အလွန်ဆိုးရွားလှသည်။ ဆယ်စုနှစ်များစွာ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို အားနည်းစေပီးနောက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ တက္ကသိုလ်များနှင့် အင်စတီကျူးများသည် မိမိခြေပေါ် မိမိရပ်တည်နိုင်ရန် စတင်ကြိုးပမ်းနေစဥ် စစ်တပ်က ထပ်မံသိမ်းပိုက်လိုက်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ တက္ကသိုလ်များသည် ပိတ်ထားဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ ရပ်ဆိုင်းလိုက်ခြင်းဖြင့် အရည်အသွေးပြည့်ဝသော ပညာရေးကို မျှော်လင့်နေကြသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ မျိုးဆက်နောက်တခု၏ မျှော်လင့်ချက်များကို ကွယ်ပျောက်စေခဲ့သည်။ အတိုက်အခံအဖွဲ့များ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများနှင့် ပညာရှင်များသည် အစားထိုးပညာရေးအစီအစဥ်များကို ကြိုးစားအကောင်အထည်ဖော်နေကြသော်လည်းဘဲ တောင်းဆိုချက်များ၏ အနည်းငယ်မျှကိုသာ ဖြည့်ဆည်းပေးနိုင်သည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနှင့်ဆက်ဆိုင်သော အကြောင်းအရာများကို လုပ်ဆောင်နေကြသော ပညာရှင်များ၊ ကျောင်းသားများနှင့် ကျွမ်းကျင်ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် အာဏာသိမ်းမှု တနှစ်ပြည့်မြောက်သောနေ့တွင် အာဏာသိမ်းမှုနှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးအတိုက်အခံများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက် ဖြိုခွင်းခြင်းများကို ရှုတ်ချလိုက်ပါသည်။ နိုင်ငံအများအပြားတွင် မကြာသေးမီက ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည့် ထိုးစစ်များအတွင်း အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းများအပါအဝင် လက်နက်မဲ့ အရပ်သားများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထားသတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းနှင့် ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရစေခြင်းများကို ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ရှုတ်ချသည်။ အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို တွန်းလှန်နေကြသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ မိတ်ဆွေများ၊ အပေါင်းအသင်းများနှင့် သြစတြေးလျ တက္ကသိုလ်အသီးသီးမှ မြန်မာကျောင်းသားဟောင်းများနှင့်အတူ မိမိတို့ တစိတ်တဝမ်းတည်း ရှိနေပါသည်။ စစ်တပ်က နိုင်ငံရေးကနေ ဆုတ်ခွာရန်၊ သတ်ဖြတ်မှုနှင့် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှုများကို ရပ်တန့်ရန်၊ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏ လုပ်ဖော်ကိုက်ဖက် ပါမောက္ခ Sean Turnell အပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဉ်းသားများအားလုံး လွတ်မြောက်စေရန်နှင့် ပြည်သူများရွေးကောက်ထားသော အစိုးရထံ အာဏာပြန်လည်အပ်နှံရန် တောင်းဆိုနေသူများအားလုံးနှင့်အတူ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့အတူ ရပ်တည်နေပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Asian Studies Association of Australia, Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars, Australia-Myanmar Constitutional Democracy Project, Australia Myanmar Institute, Griffith Asia Institute and Myanmar Research Centre
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-02
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Title: ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (ရတကသ) ၏ ၉၁ နှစ်ပြည့် အထိမ်းအမှတ်သို့ ပေးပို့သော သဝဏ်လွှာ
Description: "၁၉၃၁ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၃၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် စတင်ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့သော ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (ရတကသ) ပေါ်ပေါက်လာခဲ့သည်မှာ ယနေ့တွင် ၉၁ နှစ် တိုင်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။ နယ်ချဲ့ဆန့်ကျင်ရေး၊ လွတ်လပ်ရေး၊ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်တိုက်ဖျက်ရေး၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီရေး၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီပညာရေး အစရှိသည့်တိုက်ပွဲများတွင် အဖိနှိပ်ခံပြည်သူလူထု၊ ကျောင်းသားထုနှင့် တသားတည်းရပ်တည်ကာ တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ခဲ့ကြသော ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက်က ရတကသရဲဘော်များအား ကျွန်ုပ်တို့မှ အလေးအမြတ်ပြုပါသည်။ ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (ရတကသ) သည် စတင်ဖွဲ့စည်းချိန်မှစ၍ ယနေ့တိုင်အောင် အဖိနှိပ်ခံလူထုနှင့်ရပ်တည်ကာ ဖိနှိပ်သူအပေါင်းကို တွန်းလှန်ခဲ့သည်မှာ အထင်အရှားပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်သည်လည်း အဖိနှိပ်ခံပြည်သူလူထုအကျိုး၊ ကျောင်းသားထုအကျိုးအတွက် ဆောင်ရွက်မည့် လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်အရပ်ရပ်တွင် ရဲဘော်တို့ ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (ရတကသ) နှင့် ဆက်လက်ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်လိမ့်မည် ယုံကြည်ပါသည်။ ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (ရတကသ) အနေဖြင့် အဖိနှိပ်ခံကျောင်းသားထုအကျိုး၊ ပြည်သူလူထုအကျိုးအား ဆက်လက်သယ်ပိုးထမ်းဆောင်နိုင်ပါစေကြောင်း ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်မှ ဆန္ဒပြုရင်း သဝဏ်လွှာပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: All Burma Federation of Student Unions
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-31
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Title: Military’s cyber security bill worse than their previous draft
Description: "The military’s new draft Cyber Security Law repeats the repressive provisions of previous drafts and adds more, seriously threatening the safety and security of Myanmar’s digital space. The military has circulated a newly revised draft Cyber Security Law to a few stakeholders requesting any feedback by 28 January 2022. A 2021 draft of the same law disappeared after being criticised by business and civil society, including FEM. Some of the 2021 draft’s repressive provisions were later added to the Electronic Transactions Law in an amendment condemned by FEM and others. This analysis outlines new threats posed by the 2022 draft. FEM’s analysis is based upon international standards relating to the right to freedom of expression. All of the threats posed by the 2021 draft still remain in the 2022 draft, and are listed below too. FEM has published an unofficial translation of the 2022 draft, showing any changes from 2021. This analysis should not be understood as legitimising the military’s authority or its so-called laws. Prosecution bias, evidence ignored, and courts sidelined The 2022 draft seriously undermines due process in Myanmar’s judicial system. Due process, which can be defined as fair treatment in courts according to a clear set of rules, is vital for the protection of all human rights, including freedom of expression. Any undermining of due process is therefore an attack on the right to freedom of expression. Prosecutors would no longer be required to present electronic evidence of a crime in court, but could simply say that the evidence exists (Art. 66). The prosecutor’s evidence would come from the newly established and military-controlled “National Digital Forensic Lab” (Art. 65). If the defendant’s lawyers gave contradictory evidence in defence, which is normal in any criminal case, the court would be forced to favour the prosecution’s evidence, regardless of its merit (Art. 67). Several provisions in the 2022 draft would sideline the courts entirely. The military would have the legal authority to check and take over the systems of digital businesses, order content deleted, block digital platforms, revoke business licences, and seize individuals’ computers or phones, all without going to court (Arts. 60, 61b, 35, 61c, 71-78, 55, 57). More options for permanently blocking social media and websites The 2022 draft has added a whole new chapter on administrative sanctions for digital businesses (Ch. 15), compared to just one article in the 2021 draft (Art.72). The new chapter includes four articles that each allow the military to block access to digital businesses, such as Facebook, YouTube, or domestic companies (Arts. 71-74) for breaching any one of five long and vaguely written provisions (Arts. 34, 35, 36, 54, 58). For example, the military could permanently block the whole of Facebook on the grounds that it included just one post criticising a military leader (Arts. 71 and 35e). Any such block would likely be a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression and access to information. The 2022 draft does not include any safeguards to arbitrary blocking. The military would not need to have or show a reason for blocking, would not need to go to court, or get a court order, and could therefore decide to block access unilaterally. Any appeal by a blocked digital business would be decided by the military rather than a court (Art. 77). If blocking was inadequate, the military could shut down the entire digital business on the grounds that it had not been “properly formed”, a status undefined anywhere in the draft (Art. 74). VPN use and encouragement criminalised The 2022 draft would criminalise the use of Virtual Private Networks, or VPN, with a punishment of up to three years imprisonment and a fine (Art. 90). VPNs hide data flows so that people can access blocked content or communicate privately. VPNs are vital for protecting freedom of expression and access to information in authoritarian countries like Myanmar. Most people in Myanmar use VPNs to access Facebook, which has been blocked by the military since 4 February 2021 shortly after the coup began. Businesses also use VPNs to exchange data securely, but could potentially apply for a waiver to the ban (Art. 62). Given that VPNs are needed to access Facebook, any individual or business that posted on Facebook could in effect be creating evidence of a crime. Any individual that encouraged the use of VPNs could also face a punishment of up to three years imprisonment and a fine (Art. 89c). This could include phone shops that install VPNs, media outlets and civil society organisations who promote VPN use, or digital rights defenders who give security training. Platforms like Facebook criminalised for hosting criticism The previous 2021 draft would have made digital businesses, such as Facebook and YouTube, criminally liable for hosting any expression that the military decided fell under five vague categories (Arts. 29 and 61). The five categories included expressions that were vital for democratic debate and were lawful offline. For example, expression that disturbed the so-called “stability” of the military’s coup (Art. 29a). The military would also have had the legal authority to order such expression deleted (Art. 29). Any international businesses operating outside of Myanmar could have ignored the order. However, they would still have faced the risk of their employees being charged in absentia, or their services being blocked (Art 86, 100, 101). The 2022 draft repeats the 2021 version and its violation of the right to freedom of expression. It has also added a sixth vague category of expression that the military could order deleted: “expressions that damage an individual’s social standing and livelihood” (Art. 35f). On first impression, this could mean defamation, which is best defined as a false assertion of fact that results in serious harm to a person’s reputation. However, the sixth category does not say or imply that the expression needs to be false, or needs to be an assertion of fact, or that it should create serious harm. Furthermore, the sixth category does not use any of the common Burmese language descriptions of defamation. Instead, it would best be described as simple criticism, which inevitably – and often rightly – damages a person’s standing. For example, criticism of a coup leader. The 2022 draft’s “intermediary liability”, or holding digital businesses liable for content, would not only apply to international social media, but could also apply to Myanmar-based servers, websites, or apps. This increase in business risk may directly or inadvertently encourage businesses, including international companies, to carry out military orders in part or in whole, increase general content moderation to delete anything that could fall under the military’s six categories, or block Myanmar users altogether. Child “pornography” crime removed The right to freedom of expression and information may be limited under particular circumstances, including when necessary and proportionate to protect the rights of others. As such, there is no right to seek, receive, or impart content showing sexual abuse of children, often inappropriately called child “pornography”. The 2021 draft would have rightly criminalised the specific crime of seeking, receiving, or imparting content showing sexual abuse of children (Art. 69). However, the military has completely removed this crime from the 2022 draft. It is unclear why the military would choose to effectively decriminalise child abuse content. The 2022 draft does however keep the 2021 draft’s crime of sharing general sexually explicit content (Art. 96). The provision is vague and could be used to violate the right to freedom of expression and access to information. For example, people, including teachers and civil society workers, could be criminalised for providing sex education, discussing women’s bodies, or raising awareness of LGBTIQ issues. Financial flows to dissenting groups blocked The right to freedom of expression is closely linked to the right to freedom of association. Often, individuals join together with others who wish to express similar concerns. They may establish organisations that sometimes require income in order to facilitate their rights to association and expression. Any block that prevents an organisation from raising funds can be a violation of the right to freedom of association. If the organisation is blocked because of its political message, this is a violation of the right to freedom of expression too. The 2022 draft includes a range of provisions that could seriously undermine the financial systems that are commonly used by members of the public to finance groups that offer dissent against the military such as the National Unity Government (NUG), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), and Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) (Art.94 and 95). Recommendations At the beginning of the coup, the only institution in Myanmar with the constitutional mandate to adopt laws was the Union Parliament. As the Union Parliament is no longer functioning, laws and amendments, including the 2022 draft Cyber Security Law, cannot be lawfully adopted. The military has no legal right to adopt laws as civil society has already established. Nevertheless, FEM calls on all national and international stakeholders – including those from within the business community – to review FEM’s analysis, reflect on how these violations of the right to freedom of expression would affect them and the Myanmar people, and act immediately to ensure that the military once again withdraws their repressive proposal. Previously published concerns The following concerns were published in February 2021 in response to the military’s circulation of the 2021 draft Cyber Security Law. All of the threats posed by the 2021 draft still remain in the 2022 draft. 1. Military will have absolute control over Myanmar’s internet The draft law establishes a hierarchy of bodies overseen by and formed of representatives chosen by the military under the military’s governing State Administration Council (Arts. 5.a, 7, and 9). These oversight bodies are given absolute control over making internet and communications-related rules (Art. 6.a), implementing those rules (Art. 6.b), and investigating rule-breakers (Art. 12). Furthermore, the draft law also enables the Ministry of Defence to issue rules (Art. 88). 2. Regulates people, communications, and companies internationally The draft law is unusual because it has a wide, extra-territorial reach, giving the military government an international jurisdiction as well as a normal domestic one. It creates international offences (Art. 2.a), applies to Myanmar citizens outside of Myanmar (Art. 1.a) and international organisations (Art. 6.h), and covers any form of international communications (Art. 1.c). This significantly extends the oppressive effect of Myanmar’s already restrictive domestic legal framework. 3. Increase in criminalisation and long prison terms The draft law includes a variety of vague and overlapping crimes with three-year prison terms and fines, many of which do not have legitimate democratic aims. Three-year prison terms for misinformation or “fake” websites that cause “public panic, loss of trust or social division” are likely to be used to punish criticism (Arts. 64 and 65). Sharing “sexually explicit speech” – such as that currently being used by many Generation Z protesters – is also punished with a three-year prison term (Art. 68). Using false names or pseudonyms on Facebook will result in a three-year prison sentence (Art. 65). Several provisions include three-year prison terms for actions commonly done by whistleblowers (Arts. 57, 59, and 60). In addition to these disproportionate three-year prison terms, those convicted may also be charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law (Arts. 70 and 71). 4. Internet intermediaries criminally liable for content The draft law places both administrative and criminal liability on internet intermediaries such as Facebook, Google, and Telenor, while easing the military’s potential to ban them altogether. It includes a vague list of content that all “online service providers”, defined as “any person or business providing online services used in Myanmar”, must remove when ordered (Art. 29). The vague list includes for example, “verbal statements against any existing law” and is clearly intended to punish criticism. All “online service providers” must prepare in advance to receive orders (Art. 48), which may come from any person or organisation authorised by the military government (Art. 47). If an intermediary does not comply with an order, the military government can issue a warning, fine, or temporary or permanent ban (Art. 72). Representatives of the intermediary will also face a criminal punishment of up to three-years imprisonment plus a fine (Art. 61). 5. Eases network control and internet shutdown The draft law enables the military government to take direct control over network infrastructure and eases their ability to shut down the internet. It includes provisions for both temporary and permanent bans on any online service such as Facebook (Arts. 51.a and 51.c), and provisions for allowing the military government temporary control of any network devices (Art. 51.b). Bans must be in accordance with a vague “public interest”, presumably as defined by the military (Art. 51). The only so-called “safeguard” is that the military’s governing State Administration Council must approve the military-controlled ministry’s decision (Art. 51). 6. Private data put under military control The draft law gives the military unfettered access to private data. It requires all “online service providers” such as Facebook, Google, and Telenor, to store vast quantities of personal private data including Citizenship Card numbers for at least three years (Art. 30). This data must be stored on servers designated by the military-controlled government (Art. 28.a), and be accessible for “national security” checks (Art. 59). There are no privacy safeguards (Art. 15) and data must be provided when requested (Art. 31). Any computer owned by anybody can be inspected on vague grounds (Art. 45)..."
Source/publisher: Free Expression Myanmar
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-27
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Title: Outspoken news anchor reports from Myanmar’s jungles amid media crackdown
Sub-title: Htet Htet Eaindra Aung fled Yangon and now files reports on the run from remote and embattled Kayin state.
Description: "Htet Htet Eaindra Aung was a news anchor at 7-Day TV in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon when the military junta ousted the democratically elected government and shut down news organizations like hers. Now she’s among a group of young journalists trying to help to restore democracy by working remotely, often on the run, for online outlets dedicated to challenging the regime’s propaganda. An outspoken critic of the military, Htet Htet Eaindra Aung said she felt that she had to flee Yangon after its crackdown on media. She spoke with RFA’s Myanmar Service from the jungle in Kayin state along Myanmar’s border with Thailand, with only a backpack full of her personal belongings. “I can’t stand the weather here. It's very cold,” she said. “There are days when you wake up in the morning without having a good night's sleep. Sometimes I spend the whole night in front of the fire and go back to bed in the afternoon.” Htet Htet Eaindra Aung spent several weeks on the run with refugees fleeing an offensive by the military in the Lay Kay Kaw region — an area in adjacent Kayin state under the control of the armed wing of the ethnic Karen National Union. Some 20,000 civilians are estimated to have fled fighting in the area to makeshift camps along the banks of the Thaung Yin (Moei) River and into neighboring Thailand. Each day, Htet Htet Eaindra Aung records a news segment in front of a greenscreen for the online-only news outlets of PVTV and Delta News Agency. At night, she sleeps in a crowded tent in the jungle. She said that she misses being able to work at her own pace and her former carefree lifestyle when “there was nothing to worry about.” “I would work quietly all day in an air-conditioned room. After work, I’d take a walk outside. That was my previous life,” she said. Journalists targeted Htet Htet Eaindra Aung is one of many journalists who left the city for Myanmar’s jungles amid the deteriorating security situation. Some have left the country to seek political refugee status. Several others have been detained while working inside the country. About 120 journalists have been detained since the coup, according to U.N. ad RFA tallies. While some have since been released, at least 53 others are still being held in various prisons. One photojournalist died while being interrogated and another was fatally shot in an artillery attack carried out by Myanmar’s armed forces while covering the plight of refugees in Kayin state. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report it released in December that Myanmar ranks second only to China as the world’s worst jailor of journalists. After the coup, Htet Htet Eaindra Aung said that she constantly felt anxious and insecure because she had spoken out against the military, making it impossible for her to work or even risk staying in her own home. Eventually, she decided to leave Yangon to work as a correspondent in the jungle. “I only have a brother and my father. They never stop me from doing what I want to do,” she said. “I told my father that I wanted to leave like this and that I might not be able to return home. He said it was fine and that I could decide for myself and not to worry about him.” Inconveniences and danger Htet Htet Eaindra Aung, who has a passion for singing and aspires to become an artist, said she was initially excited to experience life in the mountains and believed that working as a reporter in the country’s remote border regions would not be so difficult. However, she told RFA that she misses the convenience of city life in Yangon. “I try to be happy here, with nothing in my mind. I carry out my work as required. But in my subconscious mind, I miss Yangon,” she said. “I often have dreams and in them, I’d be walking alone in Yangon without anyone by my side. It should be a fun time in which I’m walking around the city happily. But I often feel very bad when I wake up from such dreams.” Life in rural Myanmar isn’t only more difficult because of small inconveniences. When fighting between the military and the KNU intensified in Lay Kay Kaw, Htet Htet Eaindra Aung fled the town along with its residents, including infants and the elderly. “I was very sad to see a newborn baby while on the run. The baby was only eight days old. Both the baby and the mother were running away from the fighting,” she said. “I saw elderly people as old as my grandmother trying to flee to safety. Even young people like me cannot stand the cold weather here. How can these elderly people manage?” Htet Htet Eaindra Aung said she regularly prays for the release of the country’s detained journalists and the resumption of her career as a reporter following an end to military rule. She also expressed her appreciation for her family, who she said “have full confidence in me.” “I’m so very grateful to my father and brother, but I have never said it out loud. If I had a chance, I’d like to thank them for this opportunity,” she said..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-16
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Title: Local media editor is third journalist killed by Myanmar’s junta in less than a month
Description: "Local news website editor Pu Tuidim became the third journalist to be killed in Myanmar in just over three weeks when he was abducted and murdered by government soldiers in the northwest of the country last weekend. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this barbaric murder of a reporter who tried to inform his fellow citizens about the fighting between armed rebels and the military junta. Pu Tuidim’s body was found in Matupi township, in Chin State, a mountainous region bordering on India, on the morning of 9 January, two days after he and nine other civilians were abducted by members of the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s armed forces, as he was covering the clashes between the Tatmadaw and local armed rebels. The soldiers shot him after using him as a human shield. He was the founder and editor of the Khonumthung Media Group, a local news outlet named after Chin State’s highest mountain. Tragically, the website had just published an article about the Tatmadaw’s use of civilians as human shields. On the evening of 9 January, Pu Tuidim's colleagues posted a statement condemning this practice and deploring their editor’s death “caused by the military council’s atrocities.” The message was circulated throughout the region under the hashtag of #အထူးဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲခြင်း, a Burmese expression meaning “Special Mourning.” Escalating terror “Cruelty, cynicism, barbarity – these words seem inadequate to describe Pu Tuidim’s shocking murder,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “He is the third journalist to be killed in Myanmar in less than a month, in a sign of the absolutely unacceptable practices increasingly employed by the junta. We appeal to the international community to toughen the sanctions imposed on the junta’s members in order to end this headlong escalation in terror.” The most recent previous media fatality was Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung, who was killed by gunfire near the Thai border in the southeastern state of Kayin during a Tatmadaw artillery attack on 25 December. He was also covering fighting between the Tatmadaw and the People’s Defence Force (PDF), the armed resistance to the junta. Freelance photographer Soe Naing was the first journalist to die at the junta’s hands. He died under torture on 14 December, four days after soldiers arrested him while he was covering a silent street protest in Yangon. The number of journalists imprisoned in Myanmar has meanwhile risen to at least 59, according to RSF’s press freedom violations barometer, which is constantly updated. They include two journalists who worked for the Zayar Times, a newspaper that was closed when the military staged their coup last February. The two journalists, deputy editor Pyae Phyo Aung and reporter Myint Myat Aung (also known as D. Myat Nyein), were each sentenced to two years in prison for “inciting crime” in a trial last week inside the prison where they are being held in the central city of Shwebo. The did not have access to a lawyer. Myanmar is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index..."
Source/publisher: Reporters Without Borders (Paris)
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-12
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Title: လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့် ဆက်သွယ်ရေး၊ သတင်းအချက်အလက်နှင့် နည်းပညာဝန်ကြီးဌာန တို့၏ မိုဘိုင်းအင်တာနက်ဈေးနှုန်းများ တိုးမြှင့်ကောက်ခံမှုနှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့် ပူးတွဲထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
Description: "လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာနနှင့် ဆက်သွယ်ရေး၊ သတင်းအချက်အလက်နှင့် နည်းပညာဝန်ကြီးဌာန မိုဘိုင်းအင်တာနက်စျေးနှုန်းများ တိုးမြှင့်ကောက်ခံမှုနှင့် ပတ်သက်သည့် ပူးတွဲထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၉) ရက်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီ ၂၀၂၂..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Human Rights and Ministry of Communications, Information and Technology - Myanmar
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-09
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Title: 31 regime opponents get lengthy prison sentences in Dawei
Sub-title: The defendants were facing a range of charges, from incitement to violations of weapons and anti-terror laws
Description: "Thirty-one opponents of Myanmar’s military junta received lengthy prison sentences in Dawei in the final week of last year, a prison source in the Tanintharyi Region capital has disclosed. A list provided by the source shows that a special court inside Dawei Prison handed down the sentences, ranging from two years to 19 years, between December 28 and 30. According to the list, 14 of the convicted defendants were student activists who had been charged with incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code. This group included Soe Pyae Aung, 22, a spokesperson for the Dawei University Student Union, who was arrested in late September, and two female students, Soe Mi Mi Kyaw, 22, and Shar Pyae Khin, 24, who were taken into custody at the same time. Four of the 14 students—all of whom were given two-year sentences for their political activities—were women, the list showed. The remaining defendants were given sentences of at least seven years in prison, based on offenses that included incitement and violations of Section 19f of the Weapons and Explosives Law, Section 51 of the Anti-Terrorism Law, and Section 52 of the Logistics Law. The longest sentence was given to 38-year-old Tun Tun Oo, who was given an 18-year prison term after being found guilty on all four charges. Nyan Win, 24, was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison on all but the terrorism charge, while the others each received seven or eight years. All 17 are also facing additional charges of homicide under Section 307 of the Penal Code, the source said, adding that this charge has been laid against a total of 77 Dawei Prison inmates. According to the source, none of the defendants were represented by lawyers. A lawyer living in Dawei and two local activists confirmed that prisoners detained for anti-regime activities were having difficulty getting legal representation. “No lawyer in Dawei dares to take these cases. Some offered their services free of charge at first, but then they started to be targeted with arrest warrants,” said one activist. A Yangon-based lawyer who frequently travels to Dawei said that colleagues in the city were coming under heavy pressure from the regime. “A very close lawyer friend of mine said that they had been warned not to take political cases, and also not to speak of the threats against them,” he said. Local media outlets reported recently that warrants were issued against several lawyers in Dawei and Launglon townships in November. Four of these lawyers have since been arrested, according to the reports. Myanmar Now was unable to reach the families of the defendants or local authorities for confirmation of the sentences..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-06
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Title: Director-General condemns killing of journalist Sai Win Aung in Myanmar
Description: " UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has denounced the killing of reporter Sai Win Aung, also known as A Sai K, in Lay Kay Kaw Myothit, Myanmar, near the border with Thailand on 25 December 2021, and called upon the authorities to conduct a full investigation. "I condemn the killing of Sai Win Aung. Media workers like Sai Win Aung risk their lives to keep the public informed. Their work deserves to be recognized and their safety protected in line with international humanitarian law, which forbids attacks on civilians." - Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General Sai Win Aung was covering the plight of refugees in the southeastern state of Kayin for the Federal News Journal when he was fatally shot in an artillery attack by the Myanmar armed forces, according to reports. Aung was the second journalist killed in Myanmar in December 2021. UNESCO promotes the safety of journalists through global awareness-raising, capacity building and a range of actions, notably in the framework of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity. See also: UNESCO observatory of killed journalists Media contact: Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi, [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-05
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Title: Access Now to Telenor: Where are the answers Myanmar deserves on the M1 sale?
Description: " As 2021 comes to an end, it has been more than five months since Telenor announced the cut-and-run of its Myanmar operations. Their decision to sell to M1 Group — an investor with a disastrous human rights record — remains in a quandary. What is clear, however, is that Telenor’s users still have no answers to how their rights will be protected. This is unacceptable. “For months, Access Now and civil society have continued to pressure Telenor to address the rights risks the disposal will generate, to no avail,” said Dhevy Sivaprakasam, Asia Pacific Policy Counsel at Access Now. “While our questions linger unanswered, human rights in Myanmar languish on the chopping block.” In July, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) submitted a complaint on behalf of 474 civil society organizations to — and now accepted by — the OECD’s Norwegian National Contact Point, breaking down how the sale failed to meet OECD’s responsible disengagement standards. In August, Access Now and 44 organizations addressed a letter to Telenor’s Board, highlighting how Telenor had “dumped the Myanmar outfit at a discounted rate, failed to provide any kind of risk assessment [or] indication of how it would deal with the repercussions of such a risky and irresponsible sale.” In September, Telenor’s leadership engaged with civil society and committed to human rights principles in response to both the NCP complaint and the letter — but omitted mentioning any concrete steps it would take to achieve these principles. Telenor emphasized that military orders to activate intercept technology in their network had made a sale inevitable — raising further red flags about potential military surveillance and abuse of user data. In October, Access Now again contacted Telenor’s Board seeking clarification about protections against these risks. None came. In November, Reuters reported that M1 Group was looking to partner with a Myanmar company to buy out Telenor’s operations. Telenor declined further comment. So — again — last week, civil society found itself repeating the dangers of potential military abuse of users’ data from Telenor’s “reckless” actions. “How many times will civil society need to raise these same issues before there are genuine answers? As 2022 draws near, one thing is clear — business is definitely not as usual,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia Pacific Policy Director at Access Now. “No matter whom they sell to, Telenor must be held accountable for its irresponsible and damaging exit from the country.” The obligation to uphold and protect the human rights of people in Myanmar lies not only with Telenor, but across the telecommunications sector and its actors. Their data handling practices bring with them equal obligations to ensure data protection and users’ privacy and security..."
Source/publisher: Access NOW
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-17
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Title: Myanmar: Two reporters attacked while covering anti-regime protest
Description: "Two journalists were injured at an anti-regime protest in Yangon when a military vehicle drove through the crowd on December 5. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) strongly condemns the brutal attack and demands that the junta immediately cease its increasingly extreme violence against journalists. Journalists with the independent Myanmar Pressphoto agency, Ma Hmu Yandanar Khet Moh Moh Tun and Ko Kaung Sett Lin, were on assignment when junta forces drove through a peaceful anti-regime protest in Yangon and opened fire on those attempting to flee. The attack killed five people and left dozens wounded, drawing international condemnation. Hmu Yandanar sustained serious injuries when the military vehicle rammed into the back of the protest. She remains in a critical condition at a military hospital in Yangon following surgery. Kaung Sett Lin was also injured and received medical treatment at the same hospital before being taken into custody. Coverage of the event by state-endorsed media made no mention of the military vehicle or the deaths, stating that its forces disbanded an “unlawful riot”. While the regime claimed that 11 demonstrators were arrested, witnesses suggest that over 15 people were taken into custody. Myanmar’s junta has antagonised journalists since it assumed control in the military coup on February 1, with over 100 journalists arrested during its administration and more than 20 remaining in custody. After its exclusion at a regional summit in October, the junta released dozens of journalists in an amnesty on humanitarian grounds, an action largely met with distrust. The IFJ said: “The IFJ condemns the junta’s ongoing violence towards journalists and demands that the journalists enduring detainment are released. This incident shows that, despite recent attempts to remedy its image, Myanmar’s junta continues to contravene international human rights standards and subjugate freedom of expression.”..."
Source/publisher: International Federation of Journalists
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-09
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Title: Two Myanmar journalists injured, arrested while covering anti-military protest
Description: " Myanmar authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalists Kaung Sett Lin and Hmu Yadanar Khet Moh Moh Tun, who were arrested after sustaining injuries covering anti-military protests, and ensure that those responsible for injuring the journalists are brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Authorities arrested photojournalist Kaung Sett Lin and videographer Hmu Yadanar, both with the independent Myanmar Pressphoto Agency, on December 5 while they were covering a flash mob protest on Pan Pin Gyi Road in the commercial capital Yangon, according to local news reports and MPA chief editor JPaing, who goes by one name. Both were in a military hospital due to injuries sustained at the event, he said. “Myanmar must immediately release journalists Kaung Sett Lin and Hmu Yadanar Khet Moh Moh Tun and bring the perpetrators of the violence that injured them to account,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Myanmar’s junta must cease and desist from treating journalists like enemies of the state.” Hmu Yadanar suffered injuries to her head after being hit by a truck allegedly driven by military forces into the back of the protest, The Irrawaddy reported. Security forces then opened fire on the protesters, killing at least five people in the melee, the same report said. JPaing told CPJ by email that Hmu Yadanar has since undergone surgery for her head injuries at Military Hospital No. 2 in Yangon. Kaung Sett Lin was being held at the same hospital and recuperating from injuries, he said. CPJ was not able to immediately determine the nature of those injuries or how they were sustained. It was not immediately clear under what charges they were being held, JPaing said. CPJ emailed Myanmar’s Ministry of Information for comment on Kaung Sett Lin and Hmu Yadanar’s arrests and The Irrawaddy’s account of violence by security forces, but did not receive an immediate response. A CPJ special report in July documented the situation of journalists jailed in the wake of the military’s democracy-suspending February 1 coup, and found that at least 32 journalists were imprisoned due to their work as of July 1. Several journalists have been released and arrested since the mid-year census was conducted, according to CPJ reporting. Many have been held on charges under Article 505(a) of the penal code, a broad and vaguely worded provision that penalizes incitement and the spreading of “false news” with maximum three-year prison penalties, CPJ research shows. In April, CPJ called on coup maker Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to release all of the journalists jailed by his military regime..."
Source/publisher: Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-08
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Title: Soldiers use civilians as ‘human shields’ during raids on villages in Magway Region
Sub-title: Some of those captured have since been released, but troops told locals they would kill the others if they heard gunfire near their villages
Description: "Junta soldiers used 13 civilians including a teenaged boy as human shields during raids on villages in the Magway Region Township of Yesagyo on Wednesday, according to residents. The troops, who were from Light Infantry Division (LID) 101, raided at least 11 villages in the township, which sits at the confluence of Chindwin and Irrawaddy rivers in central Myanmar. Several locals told Myanmar Now the soldiers were hunting for members of the People’s Defence Force (PDF). The civilians they detained also included two women and 10 men. About 60 LID 101 soldiers based in Pakokku, 47km from Yesagyo, occupied the villages of Min Ywar and Ngatayaw on Monday and another 60 joined them the next day before Wednesday’s raids began, the Yesagyo PDF said. Citing eyewitnesses, a leader from the Yesagyo PDF, said that 10 of the 13 people used as human shields were taken from the village of Hlaykhoke. “We were informed that soldiers tied the hands of those ten locals behind their backs and asked them to walk in front of them,” he said. About 3,000 residents from Yesagyo reportedly fled the raids, according to a Hlaykhoke villager who is among those displaced. Five of the 13 detained, two women and three middle-aged men, were released around 8pm on Wednesday, said the Hlaykhoke local and a resident of Ngatayaw village. The other eight, including a 15-year-old boy, remain in detention, they added. “One of the two women released said soldiers let them go but told them that they would kill all the remaining captives immediately if they hear the sound of gunfire near the village,” said the Hlaykhoke villager. “They just wanted to inform us that they had been released and told us to flee to avoid being arrested,” he said. On Thursday morning, soldiers entered the village of Ngatayaw and ransacked houses belonging to members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said the Ngatayaw local. The raids came four days after a coalition of local defence forces attacked a police outpost in Pakan Nge, 20km south of Yesagyo, and seized two motorcycles and two rifles before setting the outpost on fire. Locals said that junta forces told them they would not stop their attacks until they found the weapons that the PDF members seized from the outpost. The Yesagyo PDF on Monday released a video of locals clapping for PDF fighters returning from the attack in Pakan Nge. Lin Yone, the leader of a group involved in the attack called the Phoenix Guerrilla Force, said that the raid on the villages on Wednesday was likely fuelled by the video footage. “I think the military was checking around the villages in Yesagyo due to this video file in which the people are welcoming us without any fear,” said Lin Yone. Pakan Nge is on the western side of the Chindwin River and the villages raided by the junta forces on Wednesday are located on the eastern side of the waterway. In August, the military carried out clearance operations in several of Magway’s townships, including Yesagyo, Myaing, Gangaw and Pauk, to quell armed resistance to its rule. Resistance fighters in the region have launched numerou attacks on junta troops in recent months..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-20
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Title: AAPP Press Release: 10,000 Documented Detentions Since 1 February
Description: "This morning AAPP documented the detention of 10,000 civilians by the military Junta in its crackdown on the pro-democracy struggle. These are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, and other loved ones who chose to resist an illegitimate 1 February coup attempt. Yet, these are only 10,000 individuals documented by AAPP. Our organization knows there are many more. On April 24, the military told an ASEAN leaders’ summit 9,948 had been detained and 4,511 were already released. But the so-called SAC tries deception with unconditional releases. On June 30, the military said they would release 2,342 protestors, although only 370 have been identified. Again, on October 18, announcing 5,636 would be released. However, AAPP has confirmed 4,075, with only 1,199 identified. All of those released were forced to sign 401(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, threatening them with harsher sentences in any future arrest. According to these past announcements by the Junta, 12,489 political detainees have been released since the coup. But there is a crater sized gap between reality and what this Junta tells the world. As of November 11, at least 150 have been killed in custody, some within 24 hours through brutal interrogation methods, others locked in an overcrowded jail and denied necessary medical treatment during a pandemic. Yet all the detained will be mentally and physically tortured. Even those they take hostage when their relatives cannot be found. 244 people have been arrested as hostages since the coup, 194 of them remain detained. The youngest is an infant under 1-years-old. As of our sources, prison conditions are ruthless, with corruption everywhere. There is not enough quality food to eat or space to sleep. Detainees need to pay bribes to avoid degrading or harsh labor, denied even the most basic human dignity. Fundamentally, the 10,000 civilians arrested were not criminals, they are students, doctors, journalists, teachers, striking workers, politicians, lawyers, civil servants. People who do not want a return to harsh authoritarian rule. ASEAN’s ‘Five-Point Consensus’ to deal with the [military inflicted] political, economic, and social crisis ignored the escalating numbers of political prisoners. The first talking point must be the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. Arbitrary detentions began this illegitimate coup, the continued existence of political prisoners is the barometer of democracy in Burma. As long as there are political prisoners there can be no national reconciliation..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-11
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Title: Myanmar Junta’s Tactic of Re-Arresting Political Prisoners is ‘Psychological Warfare’
Description: "Over 20 years ago in exile, I co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) to monitor political prisoner numbers in Myanmar, so we can advocate and lobby the outside world to apply pressure on the Myanmar military, which once again seized power on February 1. On October 18, I saw the success of that political pressure when the junta announced a mass prison release days after coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing was rightfully excluded from the October 26-28 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. This is not the first so-called amnesty since the coup and it must not be the last. Yet, the outside world must continue to pay close attention. The junta will use so-called prisoner releases to deceive. On June 30, the regime announced the release of 2,342 prisoners. But AAPP has identified only 371 prisoners who were actually freed. Most remained in detention and their torture continued. It has been over two weeks since the junta announced on October 18 the supposed release of another 5,636 political prisoners. Only 4,072 of those detainees have had their releases confirmed by AAPP, but just 949 of them have been properly identified because the military refuses to be transparent. Our democratically-elected leaders remain in prison, as do many others as hostages. Arrests and killings by the junta have not slowed down. On October 23, the 1988 generation activist Ko Jimmy was violently arrested at a home in the Panglong housing complex in Yangon’s North Dagon Township. Another bargaining chip for the military regime in any future “concessions”. Thousands of less well-known political prisoners are at risk of being forgotten by the outside world. This is what the Myanmar military wants. Therefore, they arrest people in the middle of the night, refuse to acknowledge the location of detainees or to allow independent observers inside prisons. This corrupt and power-hungry institution wants to make it as difficult as possible for ASEAN and others to know how many people they arrest, and whether any amnesty is authentic. Actually, the stories of re-arrests outside prison gates and at homes soon after release demonstrate the reality of the junta’s tactics. Kyaw Naing Tun was one of those released from Magwe Central Prison on October 19, but the former political prisoner was re-arrested just eight days later. He was taken to an interrogation center and tortured to death, His body, and in particular the back of his head, had been violently smashed. At least 127 detainees supposedly released on October 18 have been re-arrested since then. Among them were 11 democratically-elected politicians who were taken to the gates of Meiktila Prison, only to be cynically re-arrested by the police and charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law. This is a pattern from before the February coup. Min Ko Naing, another 1988 generation activist, was released on two separate occasions during the time of the previous military regime, and both times was soon re-imprisoned. It was the same story for leading National League for Democracy (NLD) member U Win Htein, who on October 29 was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in a Naypyitaw detention center under Section 124(a) of the Penal Code. Back in 2008, U Win Htein was waiting in a guesthouse to be reunited with his daughter after being released from prison. It was less than 24 hours later when military intelligence sent him back to Katha Prison and charged him under the State Protection Act, a repressive piece of legislation subsequently repealed by the now ousted NLD government. Such re-arrests are motivated by the desire of the military to psychologically intimidate others. Treating political prisoners like pawns, the military re-arrests them just when they think they are free. AAPP released a statement on this tactic after October 18, highlighting the impact on the mental health of political prisoners and families. In fact, this is a type of psychological warfare, a torment which does not end with conditional release. Forced to sign pledges, all can be re-arrested at any time, for any reason, under Section 401 of the Penal Code. This is how it was in the past when persecution continued long after detention ended. Former political prisoners were always the first target if something went wrong in a community and they were continually harassed as a type of social punishment. When I was released for the first time in 1993, businesses felt intimidated to hire me and military intelligence followed my every move. It was not long before I was arrested again and sentenced to a longer, harsher term. While in prison, protestors detained for practicing fundamental human rights are forced to hold stress positions for hours, sticks are used to repeatedly hit their shins and backs, they are refused anything to drink, and made to hear the screams of fellow inmates. Even if they are spared brutal interrogation, political prisoners are housed in overcrowded cells and need to bribe guards just to get enough space to sleep, enough food to eat and water to drink. Every day is a struggle to survive. These are experiences that AAPP staff understand intimately. The scars of torture linger long after detention. A young man from Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State, was arrested on August 8 on unfounded suspicion of links with a People’s Defense Force. He was released the next day with wounds across his body consistent with severe torture. The man could barely speak, traumatized through vicious interrogation by the junta. Photos circulated of another detainee from North Dagon in Yangon, showing his neck tattoo burned off by cigarettes. The tattoo read “we will never forgive”, a reference to the Myanmar peoples’ hatred of the coup and desire for justice. Nowadays, people in Myanmar know that the coup leader’s greed and brutality will impoverish entire generations. We’d seen the prospect of a better future. Political prisoners and the entire population profoundly hate Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing for destroying that possibility and will never subject themselves to his rule, whatever the level of repression. Brutal interrogations, however, will create long-term mental health implications. Former political prisoners and their families need urgent support. Fundamentally, Myanmar is a deeply traumatized society. Just being released is not enough; we need accountability to tackle the loss of dignity. Families embracing loved ones after being released is one of the reasons I really appreciate what ASEAN did on October 15 by excluding the coup leader from its October summit, as well as the support of the United States and other like-minded governments since the coup. It was political pressure which allowed the possibility of rehabilitation to happen. Nowadays, the junta does not have legitimacy from its own people, its neighbors or the international community. Before the coup, the military’s spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said torture survivors and families could make complaints to the military. People in Myanmar understand, then and now, that you cannot submit a complaint of torture to the torturer, when that same torturer continues to hold a gun to your head on release. People in Myanmar need a civilian government, with no role for the military in politics or government. This why ASEAN’s decision to deny the coup leader the legitimacy he craves was so significant. Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews powerful statement said of the subsequent prisoner ‘amnesty’, “their release is clearly not because the junta has had a change of heart”. The October 18 releases happened because of pressure from inside and outside Myanmar. But I want to advocate for the international community to do more. The international community’s demand now must be for the release of detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, all other political prisoners, and a return to civilian rule. For this purpose, United Nations (UN) member states need to implement the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar’s ‘Three Cuts” policy. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke for civilians in Chin State and Magwe and Sagaing regions earlier this month. It noted the junta’s “established pattern of attacks… against unarmed individuals using lethal force, destruction of residential properties, mass arbitrary detention and deaths in military custody”. As long as the Myanmar military has cash and weapons, atrocities will continue..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-05
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Title: Crimes Committed by the Terrorist Junta in October
Description: "In the nine months since the coup, we have seen an intensification of inhumane acts committed by the terrorist-like junta. The military are violently raiding towns and villages, causing civilian casualties across all states and regions. Children have not been spared. After being arbitrarily arrested, civilians are often forced to pay a ransom for their release. Those in refugee camps face threats and harassment, and torture is systematically committed against innocents. These acts of terror are perpetrated by the junta, to instill fear in the population. On October 18, the terrorist group announced they would release (1316) people who had been sentenced and (4320) people who were facing trial, a total (5636) arbitrary detainees. The releases were achieved because of political pressure by ASEAN and the international community, but this was never an absolute amnesty, they were conditional releases. According to AAPP documentation, as of October 31, only (4072) were released, (122) of whom have been re-arrested. The number of re-arrests is likely to be higher, as some releases have not yet been identified by AAPP. In October, a church and at least 400 houses in Thantlang, Falam and Mindat Townships in Chin State were set on fire by the junta. The military denied responsibility for the arson that occured in Thantlang Township, on October 29. However, a spokesman for the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) threatened the public on social media, “to see the Thantlang incident as an example of what is to come”. In fact, the junta is also targeting National League for Democracy MP’s, officials, and supporters. The NLD Party which won the largest number of votes in the November 2020 election. In October, at least 10 NLD offices were attacked. The junta has also broken into NLD offices, looting items, committing arson and setting off bombs. At least 25 properties owned by Hluttaw representatives, NLD members, and ordinary civilians such as hotels, hospitals, houses and shops, were illegally seized by the junta in October. Arrests According to AAPP documentation, (319) civilians were detained by the terrorist junta between October 1 and 31. (80) women were detained, and (27) were taken as hostages, including (9) children, under the age of 18. In Mandalay, the Monk Union has been protesting daily against the military coup. On October 2, at around 1:30 pm, some 10 junta soldiers, armed and in plain clothes, arrived at Mya Taung Monastery in two cars. The military troops used a car to crack down on the protesting monks. During the crackdown, five monks were forced to change into normal clothes and were beaten, held at gunpoint and arrested. The same night, three other civilians were searched and arrested by the junta. Families continue to be held as hostages on a daily basis. At the beginning of this attempted coup, the wife and nine-year-old daughter of a Naypyidaw-based police superintendent, who was involved in CDM, were arrested. Still, no one knows where they are being detained. When a father was not found in Thayet Chaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, his wife and two children, aged two and six-years-old, were arrested and detained on October 9. Killings In October, at least (79) civilians were killed in the junta’s targeted attacks. This includes (6) women and (3) children, under the age of 18. Of those, (17) died as a result of torture. On the morning of October 1, around 100 terrorist junta soldiers raided Pyindaung village in Khin Oo Township, Sagaing Region, and chased the fleeing villagers. Five villagers, including a five-year-old boy, were shot dead in a field in the village. Houses were destroyed. Tractors, five cars, 40 motorbikes, rice and oil, were also stolen by the junta. Ko Kyaw Naing Tun a.k.a Ah Nge Lay, who was released from Magway Central Prison on October 19, was re-arrested at his home in Magway on October 27, on suspicion of killing the Aung Metta ward administrator. The family was notified to retrieve his dead body on October 28. Police say he died due to COVID, but his body and head (especially his back), were covered with injuries consistent with torture. This is but a summary of human rights violations committed by the terrorist junta group in October. In this climate of fear, similar atrocities have been widely perpetrated across the country, amounting to crimes against humanity..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-04
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Title: အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ကျူးလွန်မှုများ အကျဉ်းချုပ်ဖော်ပြချက်
Description: "အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စု၏ လူမဆန်စွာ ရက်စက်မှုများမှာ မတရားအာဏာလုယူမှု လပေါင်း (၉) လ ကြာလာသည့်အချိန်ထိ ဆထက်တိုး၍ ပိုမိုဆိုးရွားလာနေသည်။ မြို့ရွာများအတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းမှုများ၊ လက်နက်ဖြင့်ပစ်ခတ်မှုများကြောင့် ကလေးသူငယ် များအပါအဝင် အရပ်သားထိခိုက်နစ်နာခံစားရမှုများမှာ တိုင်းနှင့်ပြည်နယ်အနှံ့ ရင်ဆိုင်နေရလျက်ရှိသည်။ ထို့အပြင် မတရားဖမ်းဆီးပြီးနောက် အခကြေးငွေဖြင့် ပြန်လည်ရွေးခိုင်းမှုများ၊ စစ်ဘေးရှောင်များ၏ နေရာ များထိ လိုက်လံခြိမ်းခြောက်နှောင့်ယှက်မှုများ၊ ညှဉ်းပန်း နှိပ်စက်မှုများကိုလည်း စနစ်တကျကျူးလွန် လျက်ရှိရာ ပြည်သူများအား အကြောက်တရားလွှမ်းမိုးနေစေရန် အလို့ငှာ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိဖြင့် အကောင် အထည်ဖော်လျက်ရှိသည်။ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၁၈ ရက်နေ့မှစတင်၍ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ နိုင်ငံရေးနှင့်ဆက်နွယ်သော ပြစ်ဒဏ် ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံရသူ (၁၃၁၆)ဦး၊ တရားရင်ဆိုင်နေရသူ (၄၃၂၀)ဦး၊ စုစုပေါင်း (၅၆၃၆) ကို လွှတ်ပေးမည်ဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ မတရားဖမ်း ဆီးခံခဲ့ရသူများကို ယခုကဲ့သို့ ပြန်လည်လွှတ်ပေးမည်ဟု ကြေညာ ခြင်းမှာ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုက်အဝန်း၌ မျက်နှာပန်းလှစေရန် နိုင်ငံရေးရည်ရွယ်ချက်အရ လွှတ်ပေးခဲ့ခြင်းသာ ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ လွှတ်ပေးခဲ့သည်ဟု ကြေညာခဲ့သော်လည်း နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီ စောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) မှ မှတ်တမ်းပြုချက်များအရ အောက်တိုဘာ ၃၁ အထိ အရေအတွက် အားဖြင့် (၄၀၇၂) ဦးမှာ လွတ်မြောက်လာခဲ့ပြီး ထိုအထဲမှ ပြန်လည်ဖမ်းဆီးခံရသူ အရေအတွက်မှာ (၁၂၂) ဦး ရှိသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ပြန်လည်ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများကြောင့် တိမ်းရှောင်နေရသူများလည်းရှိနေသလို ပြန်လည်အဖမ်းခံရ သော အရေအတွက်မှာ မြေပြင်တွင် ထိုထက်ပိုများမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း ချင်းပြည်နယ် ထန်တလန်မြို့၊ ဖလမ်းမြို့နယ်နှင့် မင်းတပ်မြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ကျေးရွာများမှ ဘုရားကျောင်းတစ်လုံးနှင့် အိမ်ခြေ (၄၀၀) လုံးထက်မနည်း မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခံခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရ သည်။ အောက်တိုဘာ ၂၉ ရက်နေ့က ထန်တလန်မြို့ မီးလောင်မှု ဖြစ်စဉ်ကို စစ်အုပ်စုဘက်က ငြင်းဆန်ထား သော်လည်း စစ်အုပ်စုအမာခံ ပြည်ထောင်စု ကြံ့ခိုင်ရေးနှင့်ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးပါတီ၏ ပြောရေးဆိုခွင့်ရှိသူက လူမှု ကွန်ရက်စာမျက်နှာထက်မှတစ်ဆင့် ထန်တလန်ဖြစ်စဉ်ကို နမူနာယူကြရန် ပြည်သူလူထုကို ခြိမ်းခြောက်မှု ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည်။ ၂၀၂၀ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲတွင် ပြည်သူ့ထောက်ခံမဲအများဆုံးရရှိခဲ့သော အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ်ပါတီ၏ ပါတီရုံးများ၊ အဖွဲ့ဝင်များ၊ ထောက်ခံသူများကို စစ်အုပ်စုက ပစ်မှတ်ထားတိုက်ခိုက်လျက်ရှိရာ အောက်တိုဘာ အတွင်း ပါတီရုံး အနည်းဆုံး (၁၀) ရုံးထက်မနည်း တိုက်ခိုက်ခံရမှုဖြစ်ပေါ်ခဲ့သည်။ ပါတီရုံး၏ ခြံစည်းရိုး၊ တံခါး၊ ဆိုင်းဘုတ်၊ ဗီနိုင်းနှင့် အလံများ ရိုက်ချိုးဖျက်ဆီးပစ်ခြင်းများအပြင် ရုံးခန်းအတွင်း ဝင်ရောက်ကာ ပစ္စည်းများ ဖျက်ဆီးယူငင်ခြင်း၊ မီးကွင်းပစ်ခြင်း၊ ဗုံးပစ်ထည့်ခြင်းနှင့် ဖောက်ခွဲဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း စသည့်ပုံစံများ ဖြင့် တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များ၊ NLD ပါတီအဖွဲ့ဝင်များနှင့် အရပ်သားများ ပိုင်ဆိုင်သော ဟိုတယ်၊ ဆေးရုံ၊ နေအိမ်နှင့် ဆိုင်ခန်းများအား အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုက မတရားသိမ်းဆည်းချိတ်ပိတ်မှုများကို အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း အနည်းဆုံး (၂၅) ခုထက်မနည်း ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည်။ ဖမ်းဆီးမှု AAPP မှ လက်လှမ်းမီသမျှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အချက်အလက်များအရ အောက်တိုဘာ ၁ ကနေ ၃၁ ရက်နေ့အထိ စစ်အုပ်စု ၏ တရားလက်လွတ်ဖမ်းဆီးမှုကြောင့် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံခဲ့ရသူပေါင်း (၃၁၉) ရှိခဲ့သည်။ အမျိုးသမီးဦးရေ (၈၀)ဦး၊ အသက် ၁၈ နှစ်အောက် ကလေးသူငယ်ဦးရေ (၉)ဦးနှင့် ဓားစာခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးခံရသူ (၂၇) ဦး ပါဝင်သည်။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်ကို နေ့စဉ်ဆန္ဒပြနေသည့် မန္တလေးမြို့မှ သံဃသမဂ္ဂစစ်ကြောင်းသည် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂ ရက်နေ့၊ မွန်းလွဲ ၁ နာရီခွဲခန့်တွင် လမ်းပေါ်၌ ချီတက်ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်နေစဉ် အရပ်ဝတ်များ ဝတ်ဆင်ထားသော စစ်အုပ်စု၏ လက်နက်ကိုင် ၁၀ ဦးခန့်က အိမ်စီးကား နှစ်စီးဖြင့် ရောက်ရှိလာပြီး ကားဖြင့်တိုက်၍ ဖြိုခွင်းခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါဖြိုခွင်းမှုတွင် သံဃာ(၅)ပါးကို လူဝတ်လဲကာ သေနတ်ဖြင့်ချိန်၍ ရိုက်နှက် ဖမ်းဆီးသွားခဲ့သည့်အပြင် လူပုဂ္ဂိုလ် (၃)ဦးကိုလည်း ဖမ်းဆီးသွားခဲ့ကြပြီး ယင်းနေ့ ညပိုင်းတွင် မြတောင်ကျောင်းတိုက်ကို ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်း၍ ရှာဖွေခဲ့ကြပြန်သည်။ အလိုရှိသူကို ဖမ်းမမိ၍ မိသားစုကို ဓားစာခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများမှာ နေ့စဉ်ရက်ဆက် ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေဆဲဖြစ်ရာ စစ်တပ် အာဏာသိမ်းအပြီး ပြည်သူ့ဘက်ရပ်တည်၍ အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့သူ နေပြည်တော်အခြေစိုက် ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့မှ ရဲအုပ်၏ဇနီးနှင့် အသက် (၉) နှစ်အရွယ် သမီးတို့မှာ ဖမ်းဆီးခံရပြီးနောက် လက်ရှိအချိန်တွင် မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ချုပ်နှောင်ခံထားရသလဲဆိုသည်ကို မသိရှိရသေးပေ။ ထို့အပြင် အောက်တိုဘာ ၉ ရက်နေ့တွင် တနင်္သာရီတိုင်း၊ သရက်ချောင်းမြို့နယ်၌လည်း ဖခင်ဖြစ်သူကို ဖမ်းမမိ၍ ဇနီးသည်နှင့်အတူ နှစ်နှစ်နှင့် ခြောက်နှစ်အရွယ် ကလေးငယ်နှစ်ဦးကိုပါ ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းခဲ့မှု ဖြစ်ပေါ်ခဲ့သည်။ သတ်ဖြတ်မှု စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အညှိုးထားတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း အရပ်သားပြည်သူ (၇၉) ဦး အသက်ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ ထိုအထဲတွင် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှုကြောင့် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ (၁၇) ဦး၊ အမျိုးသမီး (၆) ဦးနှင့် အသက် ၁၈ နှစ်အောက် ကလေးသူငယ် (၃) ဦး ပါဝင်သည်။ ခင်ဦးမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ပျဉ်ထောင် ကျေးရွာကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏တပ်သား (၁၀၀) ခန့်မှ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၁ ရက်နေ့ နံနက်ပိုင်းတွင် ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းခဲ့ပြီး ထွက်ပြေးသော ဒေသခံရွာသားများကို လိုက်လံပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သောကြောင့် အသက် ၅ နှစ်အရွယ် ကလေးတစ်ဦး အပါအဝင် ဒေသခံရွာသား (၅) ဦးမှာ လယ်တောအတွင်း ကျည်ထိမှန်၍ အသက်သေဆုံးခဲ့ကြ ရသည်။ ထို့ပြင် နေအိမ်များကို ဖျက်ဆီးသွားခဲ့ပြီး ဒေသခံများ၏ ကား ငါးစီး၊ ထော်လာဂျီနှင့် ဆိုင်ကယ် အစီး ၄၀ နှင့် ဆန်၊ဆီ စသည့် ရိက္ခာများကိုပါ ယူဆောင်သွားခဲ့သည်။ မကွေးဗဟိုအကျဉ်းထောင်မှ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၁၉ ရက်နေ့က ပြန်လည်လွတ်မြောက်လာသူ ကိုကျော်နိုင်ထွန်း (ခ) အသေးလေးကို အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၇ ရက်နေ့က မကွေးမြို့၊ အောင်မေတ္တာရပ်ကွက် အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးမှူး သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရမှုနှင့် ပက်သတ်ပြီး မသင်္ကာမှုဖြင့် နေအိမ်တွင် စစ်တပ်က ထပ်မံလာရောက်ဖမ်းဆီးပြီးနောက် နောက်တစ်ရက်အကြာ အောက်တိုဘာ လ ၂၈ ရက်နေ့တွင် အလောင်း လာထုတ်ရန် မိသားစုကို အကြောင်းကြားခဲ့သည်။ ကိုဗစ်ရောဂါကြောင့် သေဆုံးသွားသည်ဟု ရဲက ပြောဆိုသော်လည်း သေဆုံးသူ၏ ခန္ဓာကိုယ်နှင့် ဦးခေါင်းတခုလုံး (အထူးသဖြင့် နောက်စေ့) ပျက်စီးကျေမွနေကြောင်း သိရှိ ရသည်။ အထက်ပါဖေါ်ပြချက်များသည် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်၏ အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း၌ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော တရားမဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်မှု များအား အကျဉ်းချုပ်ဖေါ်ပြချက်မျှသာဖြစ်ပြီး အခြားသော တိုင်းနှင့်ပြည်နယ်များတွင်လည်း ထိုကဲ့သို့ လူမဆန်သော အကြမ်းဖက်ကျူးလွန်မှုများ များစွာရှိခဲ့သည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း.."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-04
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Title: Student union members, education staff arrested in Mandalay raid
Sub-title: The former student union leaders and strike committee staff were taken into junta custody in a raid by 100 soldiers on a safe house in Chanayethazan Township
Description: "Around 100 Myanmar army soldiers raided a safehouse in Mandalay’s Chanayethazan Township on Saturday, arresting eight people, including two former student union leaders and two members of an education strike committee. Among those taken into junta custody were Yan Soe Paing, the former chair of the Mandalay University Student Union and Naung Htet Aung, the former chair of the Yangon Education University Student Union. Two members of the basic education staff’s general strike committee—Nine Thiha Kyaw and Thet Su Hlaing—were also arrested. Aung Pyae Sone Phyo, the chair of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, said the identities of the remaining two detainees had not been verified. “The house where they had recently been staying was raided. Six of our people were taken and we only managed to identify four of them. We still don’t know who the other two are, which group they are from or why they were arrested,” he told Myanmar Now on Sunday. The victims’ families were worried for their safety and had received no information on their whereabouts, Aung Pyae Sone Phyo said. “We heard that the military also kicked and beat a disabled woman at the house during the raid,” he added. Locals who spoke to Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity claimed that the troops who carried out the raid on the safehouse also later searched other homes in the neighbourhood and interrogated pedestrians. The junta’s information team did not answer calls from Myanmar Now regarding the arrests. Daily protests against the dictatorship are ongoing in Mandalay and have been met with brutal crackdowns by the military, whose troops have been known to open fire on demonstrators and hit them with cars. According to documentation by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 9,000 people have been detained by the junta in the nine months since the February 1 coup. More than 1,000 have been killed. The military council has declared the AAPP an unlawful organisation..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-02
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Title: Junta files terrorism charges against three detained journalists - lawyers
Sub-title: Family and friends had recently expected the reporters to be released as part of an amnesty
Description: "Three journalists jailed by the junta after reporting on the fallout from its February 1 coup are now facing terrorism charges that could see them sentenced to several years in prison, lawyers have told Myanmar Now. The journalists are Win Naing Oo, a senior Channel Mandalay reporter, D Myat Nyein, a reporter with the now defunct Zayar Times in Sagaing Region, and Pyae Phyo Aung, who worked for the same outlet. All three were initially charged under Section 505-A of the Penal Code for incitement. A Mandalay-based lawyer familiar with Win Naing Oo’s case said more details of the new charge against him would be released at his next hearing on November 5. “I learnt from the court that his Section 505 charge had been changed to one under the Anti-Terrorism Law,” he said. Win Naing Oo was due to appear at a hearing relating to his 505-A charge on Tuesday but did not show up even though other co-defendants in the case did, the lawyer added. “Only the others charged with him under the same case file were… indicted with Section 505 charges. Win Naing Oo didn’t appear at the court,” he said. Family members and friends of the three journalists had expected them to be released as part of a recent junta amnesty after it was announced that people charged under 505-A were due to be set free. Another lawyer said police and court sources had revelaed that the Zayar Times reporters would face terrorism charges, but no detailed information was available yet. “Only one charge has been filed to the court so far,” the lawyer said. “The terrorism charge is still being filed at the police station, according to my sources.” D Myat Nyein, 25, has been in detention at Obo Prison in Mandalay since July 26 and has been attending hearings at a court set up inside the prison. His lawyer could not be reached for further details about the case against him. Pyae Phyo Aung, 30, was arrested on October 11 and is due to attend his first hearing under the 505-A charge at a court in Sagaing Township on October 29. Myanmar Now was unable to contact the No.1 police station in the town of Sagaing, where Pyae Phyo Aung is being held. The Zayar Times was forced to stop publishing in late July after the junta began targeting its journalists. Its chief editor Saw Yan Paing and two other reporters there have gone into hiding to avoid arrest. It is unclear if the three journalists in hiding will also face terrorism charges. “As journalists we have to have connections with both sides so we can hear both sides of the story. It’s really sad that we have to face such major charges,” said one of the Zayar Times journalists who is in hiding and did not want to be named. The junta has arrested roughly 100 journalists since its February coup and at least 53 of them were still in detention as of October 1, according to Reporters Without Borders. Around 20 journalists were released as part of the amnesty in mid-October..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-28
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Title: New Reports of Torture in Myanmar
Sub-title: Stronger International Pressure Needed to End Abuses
Description: "“They placed a plastic bag over my head to suffocate me. They did this three times…. They held mock executions.… They pointed a rifle at me and pulled the trigger repeatedly.” This is how a detainee in Myanmar, recently released after arrest for anti-junta protests earlier this year, described to Human Rights Watch some of the torture tactics that Myanmar soldiers used during an interrogation session in a military facility. The detainee suffered extensive beatings even before the interrogation. “My back felt broken,” the former detainee said. “I was on my knees and they had kept kicking my head… There was so much blood. I really didn’t think I was going to come out alive.” Reports of torture by Myanmar’s long-abusive security forces are being increasingly well-documented. An expose by the Associated Press on October 28 includes credible and consistent accounts of torture of 28 detainees released in recent months, with information from victims, medical forensic analysts, and military defectors who witnessed abuse. Myanmar’s junta announced a partial prisoner amnesty on October 18. The announcement said 1,316 people would be pardoned and charges dropped against 4,320 people who “participated in protests.” But many of these people have yet to be released, and some of those freed have given harrowing accounts of their mistreatment. Several women released described to Myanmar media abuse they suffered at an interrogation center in Yangon, including mock executions and sexual assault. Human Rights Watch documented similar accounts at the same facility and elsewhere since the February 1 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Consistent accounts of torture of those critical of the junta, as well as widespread and systematic killings and other atrocities by Myanmar’s security forces, has led Human Rights Watch to conclude that abuses since the February coup amount to crimes against humanity. Concerned governments need to increase pressure on Myanmar to end this brutal crackdown. Targeted sanctions on the military leaders overseeing abuses have not been enough. Governments should block foreign currency transactions to overseas banks controlled by the junta, including billions of dollars in revenues from oil and gas, mining, and timber ventures that are paid to junta-controlled entities. The United Nations Security Council should impose an arms embargo and refer the country’s situation to the International Criminal Court. Failure to act will only invite more impunity, and more torture..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-28
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Title: Statement on Data Collection of Political Prisoner Releases: Continued Lack of Transparency by Junta Since 18 October - နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကို လွှတ်ပေးမှုအပေါ် အချက်အလက်ရရှိမှုဆိုင်ရာ ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
Description: "26 October 2021 On October 18, the military junta announced they would release 1,316 sentenced detainees and 4,320 more facing trial, i.e., a total of 5,636 civilians were promised to be released. However, according to AAPP documentation, as of October 25, only 4,065 victims have been released, 480 of whom have been identified. In the past, the military junta has refused to release official data on arbitrary detentions, nor published lists of those being released. The exact number and identification of prisoners must be publicly announced. AAPP is now collecting and verifying data on those detainees being released. Therefore, we invite the public holding any further information about the release of survivors to contact the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. We will continue to confirm the recently released after having verified. Once again, we call on the military junta to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. We request the international community’s support, to put pressure on the military junta and hold accountable the arbitrary detentions and all other inhumane acts.....အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၆ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၁၈ ရက်နေ့မှစတင်၍ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ နိုင်ငံရေးနှင့်ဆက်နွယ်သော ပြစ်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းခံရသူ (၁၃၁၆)ဦး၊ တရားရင်ဆိုင်နေရသူ (၄၃၂၀)ဦး၊ စုစုပေါင်း (၅၆၃၆) ကို လွှတ်ပေးမည်ဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) မှ မှတ်တမ်းပြုချက်များအရ အောက်တိုဘာ ၂၅ အထိ အရေအတွက်အားဖြင့် (၄၀၆၅) ဦးမှာ လွတ်မြောက်လာခဲ့ပြီး ထိုအထဲမှ နာမည်နှင့်တကွ အတည်ပြုနိုင်သည့် လွတ်မြောက်သူ (၄၈၀) ဦး ရှိသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ယခင်ကတည်းက မတရားဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းခံရသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များကို တရားဝင် ထုတ်ပြန်လေ့မရှိသလို လွှတ်ပေးသည့်အခါတွင်လည်း မည်သူတို့ကို လွှတ်ပေးလိုက်သည်ဆိုသည့် စာရင်းကို တရားဝင် ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခြင်းမရှိခဲ့ပေ။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ မတရားဖမ်းဆီးခံရသူများနှင့် ပြန်လည်လွှတ်ပေးခြင်းခံရသူများ၏ အချက် အလက်များကို အများပြည်သူ သိရှိနိုင်စေရန် အလို့ငှာ တရားဝင်တိတိကျကျ ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် လွတ်မြောက်လာသူဦးရေအတိအကျနှင့် အမည်စာရင်းမှာ ချက်ချင်းရရှိရန် လက်လှမ်းမမီနိုင်သလို လွတ်မြောက်လာသူ တစ်ဦးချင်းစီ၏ အချက်အလက်များအား စုဆောင်းအတည်ပြုမှုများကို AAPP အနေဖြင့် အချိန်ယူ၍ ဆက်လက်စိစစ်နေဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ လွတ်မြောက်လာသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များနှင့် ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းခံ ရသူများ၏ အချက်အလက်များ ရရှိပါက မိမိတို့ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်းထံသို့ ပေးပို့ပေးရန်အတွက်လေးစားစွာဖြင့် မေတ္တာရပ်ခံလိုပါသည်။ အတည်ပြုနိုင်သည့် အမည်စာရင်းများကို ဆက်လက် ဖော်ပြပေးသွားပါမည်။ လက်ရှိ အထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရဆဲ ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်နှင့် သမ္မတကြီးဦးဝင်းမြင့်အပါအဝင် မတရားဖမ်းဆီးခံထားရသူ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားအားလုံးကို စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ချွင်းချက်မရှိ အမြန်ဆုံးပြန်လည်လွှတ်ပေးရန်၊ နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်း အဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့်လည်း တရားလက်လွတ်ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူများအရေးအပါအဝင် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ လူမဆန်သော လုပ်ရပ်များအတွက် တာဝန်ယူမှု၊ တာဝန်ခံမှု ရှိလာစေရေး ပိုမိုဖိအားပေးဆောင်ရွက်ရန် မိမိတို့မှ အလေးအနက် တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-27
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Title: Targets of Oppression and Scrutiny: Being a University Teacher in Military-Ruled Myanmar
Description: "As the military takeover in Myanmar enters its ninth month of oppression and threat, university teachers committed to the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) are facing more difficulties and challenges. Most of the university teachers chose this vocation for its stability and prestige. However, Myanmar’s coup is making university teachers’ lives unthinkably difficult. Therefore, this article, based on open-ended survey research with university teachers participating in CDM,[1] will explore the pathways that university teachers are using to overthrow the military regime and the challenges they have faced since the military coup. This article is structured around Matthew Mullen’s argument that democratic change in Myanmar developed around three pathways: contentious politics; everyday resistance; and reconstructive politics. I use Mullen’s ‘pathways’ as a theoretical framework to explore how university teachers participate in the revolution against military dictatorship. The first pathway (contentious politics) entails people organizing and publicly challenging political targets. The second pathway (everyday resistance) describes how people in a personal capacity are engaging in subtle behaviors on a daily basis to subvert military rule. The third pathway (reconstructive politics) describes how people try to change the situation around them by creating new opportunities. I argue that through these three pathways Myanmar’s university teachers undermine the junta’s plan to use education as a site of normalizing military rule. Contentious politics: university teachers and the CDM After the coup on 1st February 2021, thousands of university teachers and school teachers, doctors and nurses across Myanmar joined the CDM. Soon after the military coup, some CDM teachers and students in various universities (including Dagon University, Mandalay University, Yadanarbon University, Technological Universities, Yangon University of Education, among others) staged a rally called the “Red Ribbon Campaign” in front of their respective universities, where they displayed the three-finger salute popularized by Thailand’s protesters. University teachers also joined in street protests by wearing teachers’ uniforms until the end of February and early March. The military targeted these university teachers in their crackdowns. Although university teachers cannot participate in strikes and demonstrations any longer because of arrests by the military, many are still participating in the CDM. When asked about why she participated in the CDM, an associate professor at Mandalay University said “I participate in the CDM to reject military coup and get truth and justice by means of the CDM.” A tutor at Mandalay University said “I joined the CDM in order to end military rule, to show our disobedience against any forms of the junta and to reflect what we [university teachers] can do for our future generations.” In early May, the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar announced that the Education Ministry would reopen 134 universities on 6 May, demanding that teachers arrive on campuses on 3 May to prepare for teaching. Owing to fears about how the military would treat dissenting educators, some university teachers ended their commitment to the CDM when universities reopened. “Some university teachers have already withdrawn from the CDM and come to class because of the threats made by the military” said a lecturer. Another lecturer said “I have withdrawn from the CDM to protect my family.” Many university teachers are returning to their respective universities, worried that they could lose their job and with it the income that their families rely on. Other CDM teachers think that those who suspended their involvement in the CDM lack the commitment necessary to end military rule. On 6 May when universities reopened, university teachers who were still actively participating in the CDM had their jobs suspended by the military. Some university teachers that were suspended eventually returned to work, where they had to sign a pledge not to take part in the CDM. People in Myanmar are reluctant to speak up because they are living under the surveillance of military intelligence personnel and informers. Those who act against the military risk torture, long-term imprisonment and being treated as outcasts for life. To protect themselves and their families, Myanmar people participate in creating the silence that constrains many aspects of their lives. On 21 May, the military issued removal letters for CDM teachers. However, many university teaching staff did not return to work despite various challenges and difficulties. In the words of an assistant professor at Mandalay University, CDM teachers believe that “CDM is very effective for overthrowing military dictatorship because until now governmental control or governance is not functioning all over the country”. Moreover, a tutor at Mandalay University added, “to some extent, it’s effective in overthrowing the military dictatorship. Even now, most of the students and teachers are not following the military’s rules to attend the classes. That’s absolutely what makes the junta look foolish.” Another tutor at Mandalay University answered “CDM is one of the most effective tools to overthrow the military regime, especially in challenging the military regime’s legitimacy.” Thus, many university teachers firmly determined that they will do CDM to the end. Everyday resistance: other ways that university teachers challenge the junta In addition to the CDM, university teachers are also using other ways which can overthrow the military regime. For instance, they refuse to pay taxes, boycott military products, and participate on social media. An associate professor at the Yangon University of Distance Education said “besides the CDM, I support the CDMers as much as I can by collecting the information and help them join the organizations they need”. A lecturer at Mandalay University answered “to reject the dictator, I don’t pay the municipal tax, don’t use the military products and don’t give back the government loan, etc.” A tutor at Mandalay University added “I act as a keyboard warrior on social media and also support the CDMers and the People Defense Force (PDF) as much as I can.” Another lecturer at Mandalay University said “I don’t pay electricity fee, I disobey the junta’s orders, and I share posts on social media to shame the military regime.” Thus, CDM university teachers also challenge the junta by using subtle tactics that subvert the junta. Reconstructive politics: engaging in federal education with the NUG Some university teachers are also participating in online educational activities with the National University Government (NUG). The NUG is working on plans to build a parallel education system for students who do not want to study at junta-controlled universities, in order to prevent the coup regime from governing and building legitimacy. Ja Htoi Pan, the Deputy Education Minister under the NUG, said “the NUG will first focus on an interim education plan for final year university students and Master’s students.” Since then, universities have formed the University Interim Council, with student representatives and teacher representatives, to implement the NUG’s education plans. An associate professor at Yangon University of Distance Education said, “I am preparing for online education and collecting the information of the CDMers to join with the NUG.” A lecturer at Mandalay University answered, “now I am trying to build capacity by attending online classes under the support of the NUG.” Thus, CDM university teachers are engaging in parallel education with the NUG to create new federal educational opportunities for students. This demonstrates reconstructive politics, or the creation of new opportunities as a form of resistance. Challenges faced by university teachers since the military coup Since the military coup, university teachers who committed to the CDM faced various challenges and difficulties. At least 90% of students and teachers joined the CDM before university reopened and many have been forced by the military to return to universities. State-run newspapers and television report that around 20 people a day were issued arrest warrants, including education staff who participated in the CDM throughout April. Teachers from various townships taking part in protests against the coup have been charged under section 505 (a) of the criminal code, which makes it a crime to circulate any statement, rumor or report which could cause any military person to fail to carry out his duties. Hundreds of rectors, lecturers and teachers have been charged under 505 (a) and could be imprisoned for a maximum of three years if found guilty. At least a hundred educators have been detained. Door-to-door searches have forced many teachers and civil servants to go into hiding. On the other hand, on April 26th, the NUG announced that they would blacklist 32 educators who had threatened or coerced CDM participants. The NUG also released the following statement: “Non-CDMers are betraying the country and they will be removed when the people’s government takes back power”. Some NUG supporters also posted on social media the names and pictures of non-CDM university teachers and added harsh comments in the name of social punishment. Under this difficult situation for university teachers, there are growing concerns about the future, as university teachers play a vital role not only in providing high quality education but also in developing the human resources of the nation. University teachers described their difficulties and challenges of participating in the CDM as follows. A lecturer at Mandalay University said “I can’t live in one stable place as I am worried about arrest and persecution by the military as well as the lack of income and living difficulty. But I overcome these difficulties through my willingness to win the revolution. Therefore, I am firmly determined not to return to work.” An associate professor at Mandalay University answered, “there are many challenges that I faced in participating in the CDM such as insecurity, fear of arrest, and removal order.” Moreover, she added that “temporary dismissal and removal order are challenges that I face because university teacher is my vocation. But this is the end of the military coup in our generation and so I decided to participate in the CDM to the end despite challenges.” Despite the determination of these educators, it is important to understand the serious challenges university teachers face, including threats to their safety and livelihoods. A tutor at Mandalay University reported “I face three main challenges by participating in the CDM. The first challenge is living difficulty as I do not receive my regular salary and it makes our living difficult sometimes. The second challenge is safety – we have to stay in a safer place due to arbitrary detention of CDM teachers. The final third challenge is that of emotional attacks because even though we participate in CDM, sometimes, most people near us don’t support the CDM and even discourage us. We don’t ask for much help from our neighbors but just for some words of support like ‘we will win one day, stay strong!’” She also added that “I feel depressed sometimes as there is no work or income but I feel proud to stand against injustice and I continue my life with the perception that I did what I should do for the public.” Thus, offering moral support is also vital for CDM teachers. There have also been complications regarding the loans that university teachers have received. A lecturer at Mandalay University reported “while the National League for Democracy (NLD) government was still in power, the NLD government gave loans that were equal to two months of salary for university teachers. The NUG said that university teachers do not need to give back loan. But the military dictatorship said that they will prosecute CDM teachers who don’t repay the loans. That threatens all CDMers.” Moreover, university teachers who are participating in educational activities with the NUG described that they have internet and communication difficulties and also fear for personal security. Overall, the main issue for CDM teachers is security. They face fear of arrest and threat by 505 (a) and thus many are living in hiding. The loss of a regular salary and a job they loved creates many difficulties for CDM teachers. Although CDM teachers sometimes feel depressed because of discouragement by neighbors and no income, they overcome these difficulties with a strong willingness to win the revolution. Support for university teachers participating in the CDM There are many local, regional, and national support groups like universities’ CDM support teams and the CRPH-CDM support team which are trying to provide financially for the CDMers. University teachers hold a variety of opinions about the financial support they have received while participating in the CDM. A lecturer at Mandalay University answered “I am satisfied with the supporting groups as they support as much as they can even though there are many difficulties. For instance, the military tries to disturb and block the supporting groups.” An associate professor at Mandalay University said, “I didn’t join the CDM with the expectation that I would be as well supported as we have been, so I am satisfied with how much support people have given us.” Although there are support groups which are trying to provide for the CDMers, there are still some teachers falling through the gaps. A tutor at Mandalay University responded, “I am not satisfied with support as teachers in rural areas do not have enough financial support from the support groups. Even if some CDMers receive support, it is not enough for their living costs.” There seems to be a big difference between the CDMers who are well off economically and those who are not. Although the loss of regular salary may not be as big of a problem for the CDMers who can rely on savings and support from their families, the CDMers who lack this security face more challenges due to loss of their regular salary. It is also difficult for the CDMers to find another job. Knowing that the CDMers will eventually return to their old jobs makes employers reluctant to hire CDMers over other candidates looking for permanent positions. As there is no regular income during this period, university teachers are trying to survive with the help of their family, or by living off savings or making more through irregular self-employment, like starting online shops. A lecturer at Mandalay University said “as I am single, my parents support me. For another job, as I got traditional medicine diploma certificate in 2001, I am trying to produce a medicine product to sell.” A tutor at Mandalay University answered “I try to survive by living with money I saved throughout the year and I have the plan to start working a new job but at the present I can’t do anything due to COVID-19 pandemic and political instability.” A lecturer at Yadanarbon University said, “I am running online shops and also my parents are able to support me.” It was found that although CDMers are facing difficulties, they never regretted their choice: they made up their mind to commit to CDM to the end. University teachers also recommended various ways to overthrow the military regime, encompassing international action, donations to the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), and the involvement of the ethnic armed organisations. They all stress unity for the cause. A tutor at Mandalay University suggested “international forces are crucial to overthrow the dictatorship. Also, the international actors should discuss Myanmar affairs and take action.” Another tutor at Mandalay University described “donating to the CDM and PDF and persuading military officers and police officers to cooperate in the CDM should be continued to overthrow the military dictatorship.” A lecturer at Mandalay University said “now under the NUG government, Generation Z are trying to fight against military dictatorship by taking up arms and attending training under KNU, KIA, and other ethnic groups. They have a strong desire to eradicate the military dictatorship, so we are heavily reliant on Generation Z and believe that we will win.” An associate professor at Mandalay University also suggested “we must unite each other to overthrow the military dictatorship and we need to continue participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement until we achieve this revolution.” Conclusion University teachers, who are at the heart of political activism, are prime targets for oppression and prosecution by the junta. Despite oppression by the junta, university teachers are using three of Matthew Mullen’s pathways to overthrow the military dictatorship. The first pathway they use is contentious politics such as participating in strikes, and the CDM. The second pathway is everyday resistance such as disobedience to the military’s orders, a refusal to pay municipal tax and electricity fees, boycotts of military-related products, donating to the PDF and CDMers, and speaking out on social media. The third pathway is reconstructive politics such as participating in a parallel education plan under the NUG. Thus, we can say that teachers have been in the forefront of the fight for democracy in Myanmar since the military coup on 1 February. Due to the impacts of the military coup in Myanmar, many university teachers who participated in the CDM have been removed from their position. They are in hiding and at risk. Some have been charged under criminal code 505(a) and detained. Besides personal insecurity, many are struggling to survive as they no longer get paid. Although they were facing various difficulties, they will continue participating in the CDM until the end and hope that the revolution shall win. Notes [1] The author contacted fifteen familiar university teachers through Facebook Messenger and requested that they answer a questionnaire for this article. Out of fifteen requests, ten teachers completed the survey for a response rate of 66.6%...."
Source/publisher: "Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-25
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Title: AAPP Statement on Re-Arrested Political Prisoners Since Junta Announced “Amnesty”
Description: "Since the military February 1, 2021, coup the junta has been brutally cracking down, arbitrary detaining thousands, relentlessly torturing, and ruthlessly killing civilians against an illegitimate coup attempt. Most of the political prisoners are mentally and physically tortured, and do not even have access to a fair trial. The military junta released some political detainees on October 18, 2021, with the promise of retrospective sentences. It was never an absolute amnesty for political detainees. However, some were even released then cynically re-arrested as soon as they arrived home. Some others were told they were on the released list, taken to the jail entrance, only to be taken back to prison in the face of additional charges. These actions, of re-arresting soon after supposed released, having met with family for some hours or even arriving at jail gates only to be taken back to prison, are a form of physical and mental torture, not only to the political detainees, but their families. According to AAPP documentation, 110 political prisoners were re-arrested soon after release since 18 October’s announcement. And yet, there will be more arrests as some are in hiding or have been in lost contact. The hope is for every detainee to be released. These re-arrests destroy this desire. It is clear, the military junta is targeting the mental wellbeing of not only the political prisoners, but their children and family members. We, AAPP, condemn these cruel acts committed by the military junta. We also urge the immediate release of Burma’s elected President, State Counsellor, and all political detainees. AAPP will continue our efforts against the military perpetrated arbitrary detentions, torture, and barbaric killing. Yet we urge the international community to put further pressure on this illegitimate junta group..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-21
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Title: The Centrality of the Civil Disobedience Movement in Myanmar’s Post-Coup Era
Description: "Emerging as the first act of defiance after the military coup on 1 February 2021, the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) is a general strike mobilisation spearheaded by hundreds of thousands of civil servants. The CDM has become the centre of focus for all parties involved in the post-coup era in Myanmar. To those opposing the coup and the military, the CDM is not only an anti-coup campaign but also a foundation from which to replace the military-controlled administrations. For the military and its supporters, the CDM was a surprise, and represents a threat to maintaining coercive and central power in the post-coup era—a threat that needs to be dealt with through the strongest measures available. The civil disobedience campaign in Myanmar comprises a wide range of forms including banging pots and pans, street protests, refusal to pay bills, and boycotting state-sponsored lottery and military-affiliated businesses. However, this report, which can be downloaded by clicking on the cover image below, mainly focuses on the actions and roles of CDM civil servants, locally known as the CDMers, as the civil disobedience campaign is widely referred to the act of civil servants pledging not to work under the military. The report explains the CDM in three different phases—emergence, growth, and consolidation—by highlighting the significant developments, campaigns, and relationships among key political actors and organisations involved; it also explains the measures taken against the CDM by the military to consolidate its grip. The coup was almost universally unpopular, sparking mass protests and boycotts against military-affiliated businesses, but also creating renewed fighting with several ethnic armed organisations, including signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). The Emergence of the Civil Disobedience Movement Mobilisation of politicians and activists to launch the civil disobedience campaign was vital, but the movement began with healthcare workers refusing to go to work on the day after the coup. In his first interview with the local media on 1 February, U Win Htein, a patron of the NLD, urged the public to initiate a non-violent movement to protest against the coup, referring to the civil disobedience movement of India led by Mahatma Gandhi. A group of medical doctors from Mandalay created a network and launched the online campaign by circulating a statement condemning the military coup. A day after the coup, healthcare workers from about forty hospitals, medical institutes, and COVID-19 testing centres announced their decision to join the movement and stop work indefinitely. Growing popularity of the Civil Disobedience Movement The CDM gained momentum with the onset of street protests. The “CDM” and “Don’t go to office, break away” became some of the most popular slogans of the anti-coup demonstrations across the country. While some portrayed the CDM as the best bulwark in defense against the military-rule, others went further in describing the CDM as a silver bullet that could entirely end the military’s dominance in politics. The health and education sectors have the highest volume of CDM participation. About 90% of the total number of healthcare workers reportedly joined the CDM in the first month after the coup. In some states and regions, 50 to 65 percent of teaching staff joined the movement. The participation of civil servants from three military-controlled ministries—Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Border Affairs—has attracted much public attention. In some townships in Yangon and Mandalay, CDM participation among ward offices is as high as 100%. Moreover, at least 2,000 soldiers and police have reportedly joined the movement as of mid-August. However, all of them are low-ranking, with the highest rank being an acting police colonel and army major, proving the military’s leadership is less likely to split. The movement was nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize by six academics in Norway. It is estimated that more than 410,000 of about one million civil servants have participated in the CDM since the coup. Consolidating the Civil Disobedience Movement Having witnessed the deadly crackdown and impact of the CDM, the CDMers and tech-savvy youth have resorted to various tactics, including controversial online “Social Punishment” campaigns, to grow and sustain the movement. For the National Unity Government (NUG), an alternative government to the State Administration Council formed by the military, the CDM is perceived as the most important pillar in boosting domestic support; some CDM participants have become leaders of the NUG. The CRPH and civil society organisations have set up networks across the globe to finance CDM participants, despite the military’s strict control over banking systems. With the assistance of the CDMers, there have been efforts to develop alternative administrative mechanisms to challenge the military’s rule, which are most evident in education and heath sectors. Defectors from the security forces have also been known to conduct training for the People’s Defence Forces (PDFs), liaising with others keen to defect, and leaking information about military affairs to the press and the NUG. In Kayah (Karenni) State, groups opposing the coup formed a state police force comprised of 300 CDM police as part of an alternative governing force. Military’s Responses Surprised by the impact and popularity of the CDM, the military has used all the tools at its disposal to weaken and co-opt the movement. The military at first only asserted authority through intimidation and warnings via their subordinates and lure the civil servants with promotions and benefits. When the movement grew exponentially, soldiers and police carried out lethal and extra-lethal violence to crackdown on the movement. As of May, more than 140,000 teaching staff were suspended. At least 252 attacks were carried out against healthcare workers and medical facilities, resulting in 25 deaths by 31 July. Hundreds of CDMers and supporters have been charged and more than 70 of their family members have been taken hostage by the military. In mid-August, more than 150 people, including 48 doctors, were still in custody in connection with the CDM and many of them were reportedly sexually abused, beaten, or tortured to death..."
Source/publisher: New Mandala
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-21
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Title: The Impact of Censorship on the Development of the Private Press Industry in Myanmar/Burma
Description: "In October 2008, the Myanmar censorship board suspended the publication of True News weekly journal for two months as the journal had violated the censorship rules. The censorship board, also known as the Press Security and Registration Board (PSRD), penalized the journal for publishing a photo of child labour on its front-page and failing to submit adequate information prior to publication. The suspension was a big loss for the journal that had been launched a month previously. It forced the journal to reorganize its editorial team and persuade its staff not to leave the paper. The most unfortunate effect was that the journal lost the bulk of its readership. Myanmar is one of the most highly censored countries in the world and it is not unusual for private publications to face punishments such as the one experienced by True News. Because of the strict nature of the censorship policy in Myanmar, private papers have to take extra care not to break the rules. In the authoritarian context, the rulers view the press as a servant of the state and the press is completely dominated by the state, whereas in the context of Libertarian theory the press is viewed as an independent institution that informs and entertains the general public, discovers the truth, promotes democracy and performs the role of watchdog of government accountability1. The Myanmar government, like other authoritarian regimes, heavily censors publications and penalizes the private press if they violate the censorship policy. Private newspapers in Myanmar are either directly or indirectly affected by the government censorship policy. An interest group called the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has described the censorship process in Myanmar as ‘arbitrary, intensive, and highly restrictive’2. Since publications are still facing suspension and closure orders, publishing a newspaper in Myanmar is considered to be a risky business. In addition, journalists who are associated with exiled media groups are targeted and arrested by the regime and given long prison terms. In September 2011, the nominally- civilian government gave a ten-year prison sentence to twenty-one year old Sithu Zeya who was working for the exiled media group Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), based in Norway3. According to a CPJ 2011 Special Report, Myanmar ranked among the ‘world’s five worst jailers of the press for four consecutive years’4. CPJ said at least fourteen journalists and media support workers were in prisons across the country as of September 2011, while the independent media freedom monitoring group, Reporters Without Borders, reported that seventeen journalists and three netizens were behind bars as of 20115. The CPJ report said, “Journalists are typically charged with violating the country’s censorship laws, among the strictest in the world, or engaging in “anti-state” activities such as disseminating information to the outside world”6. Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index 2010 stated that Myanmar is one of the world’s most repressive countries, together with Iran, North Korea and Syria, toward the press and journalists. It put Myanmar at 174 out of 178 in its annual Press Freedom Index as the government imposed strict censorship rules on the press, restricted the freedom of journalists to report and detained journalists. Fortunately, True News has survived although it faced one of the most severe punishments in PSRD history. However, The Action Times journal that was banned for a month at the same time never appeared in the market again. In Action Times’ case, the journal was suspended for ‘modification of the approved version’ when it was published7. According to journalists interviewed, the suspension of The Action Times for a month so financially threatened the journal that is was forced to close. With a population of over fifty-eight million8 and total adult literacy rate of 92%9, the press industry in Myanmar has a lot of potential to expand its market. A report released by Reporters Without Borders in 2010 said Myanmar’s people are ‘big media consumers’. The report was based on a poll of 2,950 people across the country who were asked how the public get their news. The report said the rate of reading print media in Myanmar (36 %) is ‘high for a developing country’. Although the press industry in Myanmar has the potential to expand its market, many scholars, rights groups and media professionals claim that the development of press industry is hindered by the strict censorship policy. Nwe Nwe Aye (2010: 56) claimed that “the circulation of state-owned daily newspapers and private owned weekly journals combined remains relatively low compared to countries in the region”. For example, whereas Thailand with a population of sixty-five million published 3 million copies per day in 2007, Myanmar with fifty-four million people published only 400,000 copies a day in 2005. The Press Freedom Index shows that Thai media enjoys more media freedom than their counterparts in Myanmar. Critics claim that censorship undermines journalistic work and the development of private press industry as a whole. They say that media in an authoritarian context can neither assume a watchdog role nor promote democracy. 1.1 Rationale of the study The aim of the study is to access the impact of censorship on the private press industry and journalistic work in Myanmar. While the study will include discussion of the potential for more media freedom under the new government, it mainly focuses on the media under the military government from 1988-2010. This report is based on surveys and in-depth interviews with journalists, publishers and executives from newspapers, journals and publishing houses in Myanmar. The survey was carried out from August to September 2011, including 77 journalists who represent over 10 private publications in Myanmar. In addition, in-depth interviews with publishers were also included to study the impact of censorship on the business of private newspapers. The interviews with publishers and experts were conducted via emails and personal meetings throughout my fellowship period from October 2011 to March 2012. They were asked questions regarding censorship and how it impacts on their reporting and creativity, as well as on the business of the newspapers. The study focuses on Myanmar’s two biggest cities Yangon and Mandalay, which are home to most of the media companies in the country. In addition, the study also included journalists in Nay Pyi Taw, the new capital city where government ministries are located. The paper tries to answer two key questions: 1. What has been the impact of censorship on journalistic work and the quality of newspaper publishing? 2. What has been the impact of censorship on the private press industry? 1.2 Organization of the paper This paper has been organized into five parts. Chapter 1 includes an introduction that describes censorship in Myanmar and the rationale behind the research study. Chapters 2 will emphasize the history of censorship, why governments use censorship and how it evolves. In addition, a comparative study of the censorship of authoritarian states such as Zimbabwe, Syria, and Vietnam will be presented. Chapter 3 includes a brief history of print news media in Myanmar. This part will focus on the period after independence and up to the present day. Because the British introduced the newspaper to Myanmar, a brief background of colonial rule in Myanmar will also be included to explain the history of the press industry in Myanmar. In addition, newspaper history will be presented in order to compare the newspaper industry in the colonial period, after independence, under the socialist regime and most recently, under the military government. Chapter 4 contains the major part of this study, covering the impact of censorship on journalistic work and the production of quality newspapers. Moreover, it closely looks into the relationship between the development of the private press industry and censorship. Surveys and in-depth interviews with nearly 80 reporters and editors will be included to assess the impact of censorship on journalistic works and publishing quality newspapers. Interviews with ten publishers and media executives will be described in order to assess the impact of censorship on newspaper businesses. This section also explores the censorship’s impact on revenue, readership and brand image of the newspaper. In addition, this chapter will look at the prospect of media freedom and market potential. Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the report. This chapter will present major findings and give recommendations based on the findings..."
Source/publisher: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and University of Oxford
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-13
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Title: Violence Committed by the Terrorist Junta in September - စက်တင်ဘာလအတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ကျူးလွန်မှုများ
Description: "စစ်တပ်မှ အာဏာသိမ်းယူသည့် အချိန်မှစ၍ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ဆန့်ကျင်ကန့်ကွက်ခဲ့ကြသည့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအပေါ် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန်နှိပ်ကွပ်မှုများကို စစ်အုပ်စုက ပြုလုပ်ဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိခဲ့သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၇) ရက်နေ့တွင် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက စစ်အာဏာရှင်ကို လက်နက်ကိုင်တော်လှန်မှုများဖြင့် ပြန်လှန်ခုခံသွားရန် ကြေညာချက် ထွက်ပေါ်ခဲ့ပြီးနောက် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများမှာ ပိုမို ဆိုးရွားရက်စက်လာခဲ့သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာလအတွင်း၌ မကွေးတိုင်း၊ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ချင်းပြည်နယ်တို့တွင် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ လက်ပါးစေ တပ်ရင်းတပ်ခွဲများက အကြမ်းဖက်ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းမှုများပြုလုပ်ကာ မီးရှို့ခြင်း၊ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ပစ္စည်းဥစ္စာများကို ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်းများ ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ ကြသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ရွာလုံးကျွတ် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင် ကြရသည့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများမှာ တစ်နေ့ထက်တစ်နေ့ ပိုမို များပြားလာလျက်ရှိနေသည်။ တရားလက်လွတ်ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများပြုလုပ်ရာတွင် လူကိုသာအကြမ်းဖက်ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းမျိုးမကဘဲ ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုများကိုပါ သိမ်းဆည်း ခြင်း၊ ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ မီးရှို့ခြင်း ဖြစ်ရပ်များအပြင် ဖမ်းဆီးပြီးနောက် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်၍ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းများကိုပါ စနစ်တကျ ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့် ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိနေသည်။ စစ်ဘေးရှောင်များကို စားနပ်ရိက္ခာ၊ ဆေးဝါး၊ ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုနှင့် လိုအပ်သော အခြေခံအထောက်အပံ့များ ကူညီ ပံ့ပိုးပေးနေသည့် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုပေးနေသော စေတနာ့ဝန်ထမ်းများမှာလည်း စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်းကို ခံနေရသည်။ လွတ်လပ်စွာထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုခွင့် အခွင့်အရေးများမှာ စစ်အုပ်စုလက်ထက်တွင် ဆိုးရွားစွာချိုးဖောက်ခံနေရသည့် အခြေအနေတွင်ရှိနေပြီး သတင်းအချက်အလက်ဆက်သွယ်မှုပြတ်တောက်စေရန် ရည်ရွယ်၍ မန္တလေးတိုင်း၊ မကွေးတိုင်း၊ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ကချင်ပြည်နယ်နှင့် ချင်းပြည်နယ်ရှိ မြို့နယ်ပေါင်း (၂၀) ကျော်တွင် အင်တာနက်ဖြတ်တောက်မှုများကိုလည်း စနစ်တကျ ပြုလုပ်ထားသည်။ ယခင် အရပ်သားအစိုးရ လက်ထက်က ပယ်ဖျက်ခဲ့သည့် မည်သည့်အချိန်တွင်မဆို အကြောင်းပြချက်မရှိဘဲစိတ်ထင်တိုင်း နေအိမ်များသို့ အချိန်မရွေး ဝင်ရောက်စစ်ဆေးနိုင်သည့် ဧည့်စာရင်းဥပဒေကို စစ်အုပ်စုက ပြန်လည်အသက်သွင်းလာပြီး ပြည်သူတို့၏ လုံခြုံဘေးကင်းရေးနှင့် အသက်အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်များမှာ ပိုမို၍ ကြီးမားကျယ်ပြန့်စွာ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခံနေရလျက် ရှိနေသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဗဟိုအဖွဲ့က နေအိမ်၊ တိုက်ခန်းငှားရမ်းသူအိမ်ရှင်များကို နေအိမ်၊ တိုက်ခန်းများအား ငှားရမ်းမည်ဆိုပါက ငှားရမ်း နေထိုင်သည့် သူများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ သက်ဆိုင်ရာ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးမှူးရုံးများသို့ ငှားရမ်းနေထိုင်သူများ၏ ကိုယ်ရေးအချက်အလက်၊ အထောက်အထားပြည့်စုံစွာဖြင့် တင်းကြပ်သည့် သတ်မှတ်ချက်များနှင့်အတိုင်း ဧည့်စာရင်း တိုင်ကြားရန်နှင့် မိမိငှားရမ်းထားသောသူများသည် သံသယ ဖြစ်ဖွယ်ရှိကြောင်း တွေ့ရှိရပါက သက်ဆိုင်ရာ တာဝန်ရှိသူများကို အချိန်မီသတင်းပို့ အကြောင်းကြားခြင်းရန် ကြေညာချက်ကို စက်တင်ဘာလအတွင်း ထုတ်ပြန်လာခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် ငှားရမ်းထားသည့်နေအိမ်တိုက်ခန်းများတွင် နေထိုင်သူများသည် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ ကျူးလွန်ကြောင်း ဖော်ထုတ် ရရှိပြီး ဧည့်စာရင်းတိုင်ကြားထားခြင်းမရှိကြောင်း စိစစ်တွေ့ရှိရပါက ငှားရမ်းသည့် ပိုင်ရှင်များတွင် တာဝန်ရှိသည့်အတွက် သက်ဆိုင်ရာ တည်ဆဲဥပဒေအရ အရေးယူခံရမည့်အပြင် အဆိုပါငှားရမ်းထားသည့် နေအိမ်၊ တိုက်ခန်းများကို အကြမ်းဖက်မှု တိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဥပဒေအရ သက်သေခံအဖြစ် သိမ်းဆည်းခံရမည်ဖြစ်သလို တရားရုံးတွင် စစ်ဆေးပေါ်ပေါက်ချက်အရ နိုင်ငံတော် ဘဏ္ဍာအဖြစ် သိမ်းဆည်းခံရမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်းလည်း ထိုကြေညာချက်တွင် ပါဝင်သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာလအတွင်း၌ ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သော စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ကျူးလွန်မှုများ အကျဉ်းချုပ်ဖော်ပြချက် ဖမ်းဆီးမှု AAPP မှ လက်လှမ်းမီသမျှ ကောက်ယူရရှိထားသည့် အချက်အလက်များအရ စက်တင်ဘာ ၁ ကနေ ၃၀ ရက်နေ့အထိ စစ်အုပ်စု ၏ တရားလက်လွတ်ဖမ်းဆီးမှုကြောင့် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံခဲ့ရသူပေါင်း (၅၅၅) ရှိခဲ့သည်။ အမျိုးသမီး ဦးရေ (၉၅)၊ အသက် (၁၈) နှစ်အောက် ကလေးသူငယ်ဦးရေ (၁၇) နှင့် ဓားစာခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးခံရသူ (၂၅) ဦး ပါဝင်သည်။ သတ်ဖြတ်မှု စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အညှိုးထားတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူ (၉၆) ဦး အသက်ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ ထိုအထဲတွင် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှုကြောင့် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ (၈) ဦးနှင့် အသက် (၁၈) နှစ်အောက် ကလေးသူငယ် (၈) ဦး ပါဝင်သည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်ဖျက်ဆီးမှု စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန်ဆန့်ကျင်ကန့်ကွက်သော ဒေသတစ်ခုအဖြစ် ထင်ရှားသည့် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းအတွင်းရှိ ပုလဲမြို့နယ်၊ တန့်ဆည်မြို့နယ်၊ ကလေးမြို့နယ်၊ ကနီမြို့နယ် အစရှိသည့် မြို့နယ်များနှင့် ကျေးရွာများတွင် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်တပ်က စီးနင်းဝင်ရောက်မှုများ၊ နယ်မြေရှင်းလင်းရေးအကြောင်းပြုကာ ရှာဖွေဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ ပစ္စည်းဥစ္စာများကို လုယက်ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်းများ ဆက်လက်ကျူးလွန်နေဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်မှ လက်နက်ကြီး၊ လက်နက်ငယ်များ အသုံးပြု၍ တရစပ်ထိုးစစ်ဆင်မှုများကြောင့် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းအတွင်းရှိ ကျေးရွာများမှ ဒေသခံထောင်ပေါင်းများစွာတို့မှာ ဘေးလွတ်ရာသို့ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရလျက်ရှိသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ကနီမြို့နယ်၌ အသက် ၁၃ နှစ်အရွယ်သာရှိသေးသည့် အရွယ်မရောက်သေးသော မိန်းကလေးတစ်ဦးမှာ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၁၆) ရက်နေ့က စစ်အုပ်စုလက်ပါးစေ တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ၏ အဓမ္မပြုကျင့်မှုကို ခံခဲ့ရကြောင်း ဒေသခံများ၏ ပြောကြားချက်အရ သိရ သည်။ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ မြောင်မြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ကျောက်ရစ်ကျေးရွာ၊ ကလေးမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ရေရှင်ကျေးရွာ၊ လယ်ခြားကျေးရွာ၊ ဒိုးနွယ်ကျေးရွာ၊ ကျောက်ပြုတ်ကျေးရွာ၊ တန်ဆည်မြို့နယ်ရှိ ကျီကုန်းကျေးရွာ၊ ယင်းမာပင်မြို့နယ်ရှိ ကံစုကျေးရွာများတွင်လည်း မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးမှုများ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ ရန်ကုန်တိုင်း စက်တင်ဘာလ ၇ ရက်နေ့၌ မှော်ဘီမြို့နယ်၊ စမ်းကြီးကျေးရွာရှိ ပြည်သူ ၃၀ ဦးကို လုပ်အားပေးရန်ပေါ်တာအဖြစ် စစ်အုပ်စု ၏လက်ပါးစေ တပ်ဖွဲ့များက အတင်းအကျပ် ခေါ်ဆောင်သွားခဲ့သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာ ၂၅ ရက်နေ့ နံနက် ၁နာရီခွဲ အချိန်ခန့်တွင် စမ်းချောင်းမြို့နယ်၊ မြေနီကုန်း တံတားအဆင်း၌ လူငယ် ၃ ဦးကိုဖမ်းဆီးပြီးနောက် သေနတ်ဖြင့်ပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သလို သွေးအိုင်ထဲ လဲနေသည့် ထိုလူငယ် များကို ဝိုင်းဝန်းကန်ကျောက်သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ကြပြီး ရုပ်အလောင်းများကို တင်ဆောင်သွားခဲ့ကြသည်။ မကွေးတိုင်း ဆောမြို့နယ်၊ ရေစကြိုမြို့နယ်၊ ဂန့်ဂေါမြို့နယ်၊ မြိုင်မြို့နယ် အစရှိသည့် မကွေးတိုင်းအတွင်းရှိ မြို့နယ်များတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုက လက်နက်ကြီးများနှင့် အဆက်မပြတ်ပစ်ခတ်မှုများ၊ နေအိမ်အတွင်းဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းမှုများ ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ရာ ဒေသခံများ ထွက်ပြေး တိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် စစ်အုပ်စုက လူနာတင်ကား၊ ပရဟိတကားများကို အသုံးပြု၍ ရွာများကို စီးနင်းမှုများ ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ ဂန့်ဂေါမြို့နယ်၊ မွေ့လယ်ကျေးရွာအနီးတွင် မွေ့လယ်ကျေးရွာမှ ဒေသခံရွာသား သုံးဦး နှင့် လယ်ရှည် ကျေးရွာမှ ဒေသခံရွာသား နှစ်ဦးတို့၏ ရုပ်အလောင်းများကို စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၃ ရက်နေ့ နှင့် ၁၄ ရက်နေ့တို့တွင် တွေ့ရှိခဲ့ရပြီး သေဆုံးသူများတွင် နောက်စေ့ကို သေနတ်ဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းခံထားရပြီး ခန္ဓာကိုယ်နှင့် ဦးခေါင်း၊ မျက်နှာတို့တွင် ရိုက်နှက်ခြင်း ခံထားရသည့် ဒဏ်ရာများ၊ ခြေထောက်နှင့်လက်ကို ဓားဖြင့် မွှန်းထားသော ဒဏ်ရာများ၊ လိင်အင်္ဂါဖြတ်တောက်ခြင်းခံထား ရသည့် ဒဏ်ရာများကို မြင်တွေ့ခဲ့ကြရသည်။ အလားတူ မြိုင်မြို့နယ်တွင်လည်း မီးရှို့သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ လူမှုကူညီရေးကားအပါအဝင် ဆိုင်ကယ်အစီးရေ ၃၀၀ ကျော်ကို မီးတင်ရှို့မှုများကို စစ်အုပ်စုက ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ စက်တင်ဘာ ၉ ရက်နေ့ နံနက်ပိုင်းတွင် ဂန်ဂေါမြို့နယ် အတွင်းရှိ မြင်သားကျေးရွာကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်မှ မီးတင်ရှို့ ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့ပြီး အနည်းဆုံး ဒေသခံရွာသား ၁၈ ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ဂန့်ဂေါမြို့နယ်၊ နှမ်းခါး၊ သာလင်းနှင့် ထယ်လှော်ရွာများကိုကို ဝင်ရောက် စီးနင်းခဲ့ပြီး မီးရှို့ခဲ့သည့်အတွက် အနည်းဆုံး လူနေအိမ် ၅၀ ခန့် ပြာကျခဲ့ရသည်။ ကချင်ပြည်နယ် မိုးညှင်းမြို့ပေါ်တွင် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ အိမ်ခွန်ဆောင်ရန်အတွက် အတင်းအဓမ္မလိုက်လံကောက်ခံလျက်ရှိရာ အိမ်အခြေအနေပေါ် မူတည်ပြီး သောင်းဂဏန်းမှ သိန်းဂဏန်းအထိ ငွေကြေး ပေးဆောင်နေရသည်။ တနိုင်းမြို့နယ်၊ တရုန်ကျေးရွာတွင် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၀ ရက်နေ့က အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်တပ်နှင့် ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးတပ်မတော် (KIA) တို့ တိုက်ပွဲ ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ရာ စစ်အုပ်စုဘက်က တရုန်ကျေးရွာအတွင်းကို လက်နက်ကြီးများ ပစ်ခတ်ခြင်း၊ သေနတ်များ ပစ်ခတ်နေခြင်းတို့ကြောင့် တရုန်ကျေးရွာရှိ အသက် ၄၀ ဝန်းကျင်အရွယ် အမျိုးသမီးဦးခေါင်းကို ကျည်ထိမှန်ခဲ့ပြီး ဒေသခံ ၂၀၀ ဝန်းကျင်ခန့်မှာ ထွက်ပြေး တိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ရွှေကူမြို့နယ်တွင် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၁ ရက်နေ့က စစ်အုပ်စု တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ စီးလာသည့် သင်္ဘောပေါ်မှ လက်နက်ကြီး၊ လက်နက်ငယ်များဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သဖြင့် ရွှေဘုံသာကျေးရွာမှ အမျိုးသားနှစ်ဦးနှင့် အမျိုးသမီး တစ်ဦး လက်နက်စမှန်ကာ ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရရှိပြီး နှစ်ဦးမှာ စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းကို ခံခဲ့ရသည်။ ကရင်ပြည်နယ် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဒူးပလာယာခရိုင်၊ ကော့ကရိတ်မြို့နယ်၊ ပိုင်ကလာဒုံကျေးရွာတွင်လည်း အမျိုးသမီးတစ်ဦးကို စစ်အုပ်စုက ဖမ်းဆီးခေါ်ဆောင်သွားပြီး စစ်ကြောင်းအရှေ့မှ လမ်းပြအဖြစ် လူသားဒိုင်းသဖွယ် အသုံးပြုကာ KNU ထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေအတွင်းကို ဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် ကြာအင်းဆိပ်ကြီးမြို့နယ်၊ တောင်စွန်းကျေးရွာ ဘုန်းတော်ကြီးကျောင်း ပရဝဏ်မြေတွင် တပ်စွဲထားသည့် စစ်အုပ်စု၏တပ်ဖွဲ့မှ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၂၅ ရက်နေ့၊ ညနေ ၈ နာရီကျော်အချိန်တွင် ကျေးရွာများအနီး၌ လက်နက်ကြီး၊လက်နက်ငယ်များဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်သည့်အတွက် ရွာသားအများစုမှာ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် ဖယ်ခုံမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ ခေါင်းအိကျေးရွာသို့ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁ ရက်နေ့မှ စတင်ကာ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်နေပြီး စက်တင်ဘာလ ၃ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကုန်းဆုံကျေးရွာ ထိုင်တော်မူဘုရားမှ ခေါင်းအိနှင့် စက်တော်ကျေးရွာများဘက်သို့ အင်အား ၅၀၀ ခန့်ဖြင့် ထိုးစစ်ဆင် ဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့သည်။ ချင်းပြည်နယ် ဟားခါးမြို့ မြို့သစ်စီမံကိန်းဖော်ဆောင်သည့်နေရာတွင် မီးကြိုးသွယ်တန်းနေသည့် လူငယ် ၂၀ ခန့်ကို စက်တင်ဘာလ ၃ ရက်နေ့၊ နေ့လယ် ၁ နာရီခန့်က စစ်အုပ်စု၏ တပ်များမှ မြေပြင်နှင့် ရဟတ်ယာဉ်ပေါ်မှနေ၍ သေနတ်နှင့်ပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သည်သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၇ ရက်နေ့၊ ည ၁၀ နာရီခန့်တွင် ဟားခါးမြို့တွင်း ပစ်ခတ်မှုများကြောင့် ပြည်သူအချို့ ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့ကာ နေအိမ်များမှာ လက်နက်ကြီးကြောင့် ပျက်စီး ခဲ့သည်။ ထန်တလန်မြို့တွင် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၉ ရက်နေ့၌ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က မြို့တွင်းသို့ လက်နက်ကြီး၊ လက်နက်ငယ်များဖြင့် ရမ်းသန်း ပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် မြို့တွင်းရှိ နေအိမ်တချို့မီးလောင်ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၀ ရက်နေ့၊ နေ့လယ်ပိုင်း၌လည်း ထန်တလန် မြို့နယ်ရှိ Lungler (လုံလဲရ်) ကျေးရွာကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ဂျက်လေယာဉ် တစ်စီးမှ ဗုံးကျဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၈ ရက်နေ့၊ နေ့လယ်ပိုင်းတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏တပ်မှ ထန်တလန်မြို့ပေါ်ကို လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သောကြောင့် နေအိမ် ၁၉ လုံးမီးလောင်ပြာကျခဲ့ပြီး မီးငြှိမ်းသတ်ရန်သွားသည့် ထန်တလန်ရာပြည့်နှစ်ခြင်းခရစ်ယာန် အသင်းတော် (TCBC) မှ သင်းအုပ်ဆရာ ကျုံးဗျက်ဟုမ်းသည် ပစ်သတ်ခြင်းခံခဲ့ရကာ ၎င်း၏ နာရီ၊ ဖုန်း နှင့် မင်္ဂလာ လက်စွပ်ကို လက်ချောင်းကိုပါဖြတ်ပြီး စစ်အုပ်စုတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များက ယူဆောင်သွားခဲ့ကြသည်။ ထန်တလန်မြို့ခံများသည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ရန်ကို ကြောက်သောကြောင့် တစ်မြို့လုံးနီးပါးထွက်ပြေး တိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရလျက်ရှိသည်။ ကယားပြည်နယ် စက်တင်ဘာလ ၇ ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်အုပ်စုလက်ပါးစေတပ်နှင့် ကရင်နီအမျိုးသား ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ် (KNDF)တို့ တိုက်ပွဲဖြစ်ပွား ခဲ့ပြီးနောက် စစ်အုပ်စုဘက်မှ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် ခြောက်မိုင်ရှိနေအိမ် သုံးလုံးခန့် မီးလောင်သွားခဲ့သည်။ ထို့ပြင် စစ်အုပ်စု တပ်ဖွဲ့ ဝင်များသည် ဒေါပိုးစီ၊ စံပြ ၆ မိုင်နှင့် ဒီးမော့ဆိုရှိ ဒေါငံခါးရပ်ကွက်မှ နေအိမ်တချို့အား ဝင်ရောက်မီးရှို့ ခဲ့သည်။ အလားတူ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်က လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သည့်အတွက် ဒေါစဲကျေးရွာရှိ လူနေအိမ် လေးလုံးထိမှန် ပျက်စီးခဲ့ပြီး အသက် ၈ နှစ်ဝန်းကျင်ကလေးငယ်တစ်ဦး ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။ ဒီးမော့ဆိုမြို့နယ်တွင် တိုက်ပွဲပြင်းထန်ခဲ့ပြီး ကျေးရွာ (၁၀) ရွာမှ ဒေသခံ ၃ ထောင်ကျော်သည် တောတောင်များအတွင်း ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်မှ ဘောလခဲမြို့မှ နေ၍ လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ရမ်းသမ်းပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် နန်းဖဲကျေးရွာရှိ တောင်ယာခုတ်တောင်သူ အမျိုးသမီးတစ်ဦး သေဆုံးသွားခဲ့ပြီး (၄) ဦး ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သည်။ စက်တင်ဘာ ၂၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်မှ ဒီးမော့ဆိုမြို့နယ်၊ သေးဆူလဲနှင့် ကုန်းသာကျေးရွာများအတွင်း တပ်စွဲပြီး အဆိုပါကျေးရွာများရှိ အများပြည်သူပိုင်နေအိမ်များအား မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးသွားကြသည်။ အထက်ပါဖေါ်ပြချက်များသည် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်၏ စက်တင်ဘာလအတွင်း၌ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော တရားမဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက် မှုများအား အကျဉ်းချုပ် ဖေါ်ပြချက်မျှသာဖြစ်ပြီး အခြားသော တိုင်းနှင့်ပြည်နယ်များတွင်လည်း ထိုကဲ့သို့ လူမဆန်သော အကြမ်းဖက်ကျူးလွန်မှုများ များစွာရှိခဲ့သည်။..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-04
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Title: Violence Committed by the Terrorist Junta in September
Description: "Since the attempted military coup, the terrorist junta has been violently cracking down on civilians who protest the military coup. Civilians faced intense and daily repression from the terrorist junta. On September 7, the National Unity Government declared the terrorist groups’ indiscriminate violence has been deteriorating. In response a defensive war against the junta was called, and peoples support for the NUG, and PDF requested. During the month of September, the junta’s battalion troops violently raided villages, burning houses, killing civilians, and looting and destroying properties in Magway Region, Sagaing Region and Chin State. Entire villages forced to flee, with the number of abandoned villages increasing day by day. This terrorist like junta are not only arbitrarily arresting people, but also looting their property, setting fire to, and destroying buildings. After arrest, detainees are being systematically tortured and killed by the junta. At the same time, voluntary humanitarian groups providing food, medicine and other basic needs for internally displaced persons have been targeted by the junta. A civilians’ right to freedom of expression is completely disregarded by the military junta. In 20 townships over Mandalay, Magway, and Sagaing Region, and Kachin and Chin State, the junta has cut internet connection to disrupting communication and the free flow of information. The repressive Ward or Village Tract Administration Law was rejected under the previous civilian government, but in the aftermath of the coup was reinstated by the junta group. Under this law the military can enter your home at any time, for any reason. This law threatens the safety and well-being of the entire population. In September, the juntas so-called Central Committee for Combating Terrorism, announced that a house or apartment owner who rents out the property, must now report the tenants’ personal information to the relevant administrative office. At the same time, if tenants are found to be acting suspicious, the landlord has to report it immediately, to the relevant officer. In addition, the statement said that if the house/apartment owner does not report a registration list, and the tenants are found to have committed “acts of violence”, that apartment will be taken as state ownership, under the anti-terrorism law, and the property owner charged under the existing law. Summary of Junta’s September Crimes Arrests According to data collected by AAPP documentation, 555 people were arbitrarily arrested and detained between September 1 and 30, by the junta. This included (95) women, (17) children under 18 and (25) hostages. Killings This month, at least 96 civilians were killed by the junta’s targeted attacks. Among them, eight victims were tortured to death and eight were children, under the age of 18. Acts of Terrorism in Sagaing Region Pearl Township, Tangse Township, Kalemyo Township, and Kany Township have been areas of strong opposition to the military since the illegitimate coup. In disproportionate response, junta troops have raided villages, looted property, and bringing destruction to entire areas of innocent civilian populations. Junta forces have used different kinds of heavy artillery to attack villages. Thousands have been forced fleeing to their homes. According to a report from a local villager, a 13-year-old girl was raped by a member of the junta, on September 16, in Kany Township. Kyauk Yit village in Myaung Township, Yeshin village in Kalemyo Township, Lal Chya village, Doe Nwe Village, Kyauk Pyut village, Kyigone village in Tanse Township, and Kansu village in Yinmarbin Township were also set on fire to by junta troops. Yangon Region On September 7, in Sangyi village, Hmawbi Township, the junta armed forces took 30 villagers, and forcibly used them as porters. On September 25, at around 1:30 AM, at the edge of Myay Ni Gone Bridge, Sanchaung Township, three youths were detained, shot, and killed. The junta were kicking the youths, as they lay in a pool of their own blood, the soldiers later took the dead bodies away. Magway Region In Saw Township, Yezakyo Township, and Gangaw Township in Magway Division, the terrorist junta group were using artillery to enter villages and raid houses. Most of the local villagers were forced to flee their homes, whilst the junta group uses ambulances and charity cars to raid towns. Nearby Mwe Le village in Gangaw Township, the dead bodies of three locals from Mwe Le village and two dead bodies from Le Shay village were found on September 13 and 14. Gunshot wounds were found on the back of the heads of the bodies, and all over, including heads and faces displaying injuries from severe beatings. They were also found to have knife wounds on their hand and legs, and their male organsq were cut. In Myaing Township, junta troops have committed arson killings, setting fire to charity vehicles and more than 300 motorcycles. In the early morning of September 9, the junta set fire to Myin Thar village in Gangaw Township and killed at least 18 local villagers. Hnan Khar, Thaliin and Htae Hlaw villages in Gangaw Township were also raided by the junta and at least 50 houses burned to the ground. Kachin State In Mohnyin, the junta is forcibly collecting tens of thousands of Kyats in “property taxes”, depending on the condition of the house. On 10 September, in Tarong village, Tanai Township, there was a clash between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and terrorist junta troops. Later on, the junta were shooting artillery shells and heavy gun fire into Tarong village. A 40-year-old woman was shot in the head and some 200 locals forced to flee. On September 11, a vehicle carrying junta troops used heavy artillery on Shwe Bon Thar village. Mortar shells were also fired, two men and one woman were injured, and two others were detained. Karen State On September 1, in Pailaladon Village, Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District, the junta abducted a woman to use as a human shield. Junta troops entered KNU controlled areas with the woman as a guide on the frontline. They then set up camp in the Taungsoon village in Kayin Seik Gyi Township. The junta were shooting artillery shells and gunfire into the village on 25 September, at around 8pm, forcing many of the locals to flee. Shan State Since September 1, the terrorist group has been firing heavy artillery shells at Khaung Ei village in Phekone Township. On September 2, approximately 500 troops entered Kone Ei and Sattaw village. Chin State Around 20 youths were detained on September 3 at the Myothit project construction site in Hakha City. At around 1pm, junta troops were shooting from both a helicopter and the ground. On September 7, by around 10pm, junta troops were firing artillery shells and gunfire in Hakha city. Some civilians were injured and many houses damage from the heavy artillery shells. On September 9, in Thantlang Township, the military fired heavy artillery, mortar shells and gunfire into the city. Some houses within the city were burnt down. At around midday, on September 10, the terrorist group were using fighter jets to bombard Lungler village in Thantlang Township. In the afternoon of September 18, the military fired into Thantlang Township. Nineteen homes were set on fire by heavy artillery shelling. A pastor from Thantlang Centenary Church (TCBC), Cung Biek Hong, was shot to death. The terrorist junta cut off his finger to take his wedding ring. His phone and watch were also stolen by the junta. Residents of Thantlang fled, from fear of the terrorist group. Kayah State On September 7, heavy fighting broke out between junta troops and the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF). The junta used heavy artillery and three houses were burnt down within a six-mile area. In addition, the junta group set fire to buildings in Daw Poe Si village, Sanpya village and Daw Nga Kha Ward in Dimawso. Four houses in Daw Se village were destroyed by heavy artillery and an eight-year-old child was injured. There was intensive fighting in Demawso Township, and more than 3000 locals from 10 different villages fled into the mountains. On September 9, a female farmer was killed, and four others injured when artillery shells were fired from a military junta camp in Bawla Khe Township. On September 25, junta troops attacked Demawso Township, they initially entered and set up camp in Sule village and Kone Thar village, before setting fire to local homes. This is but just a summary of the human rights violations committed by the terrorist junta group in September. There have been similar atrocities across other states and divisions, in September and the months before, amounting the serious crimes against humanity..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-04
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Title: Mandalay NLD member dies in custody a day after his arrest
Sub-title: Family members say they were denied permission to see the body of Than Tun Oo, who was arrested on Saturday
Description: "A National League for Democracy (NLD) member who was arrested in Mandalay’s Aung Myay Tharzan Township on Saturday has died in custody, according to a source close to his family. Than Tun Oo, who was also known as Min Ko Thein, died within 24 hours of his arrest, the source told Myanmar Now. “His whole family, including his two children and his mother, who is in her seventies, was at home when they took him away,” the source said. The soldiers who carried out the raid shouted at his family to remain inside the house as Than Tun Oo was taken outside and forced to kneel in the yard. When he had difficulty getting down to the ground due to his weight, the soldiers fired a shot and said they would “help him get on his knees,” the source said. “He agreed to go with them and took his medication for hypertension and cramps with him when he left,” she added. A lieutenant colonel involved in making the arrest accused Than Tun Oo, who was also a well-known community volunteer, of helping to transport weapons for anti-regime forces. However, a thorough search of his home failed to yield any weapons or incriminating evidence. A day later, the family was informed that Than Tun Oo had died of a heart attack and that he had been cremated because he had also contracted Covid-19. “When his mother, two aunts and sister started crying at the news of his death, they were warned to stop or they would face arrest themselves,” said the family friend. Another woman who was a close friend of the victim condemned the military’s callous treatment of the family. “It’s really cruel that they managed to kill a person within 24 hours and then they break the news to his family with a cold heart,” she said. Apart from being overweight, Than Tun Oo did not have any underlying medical conditions, she added. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, since the February 1 coup at least 66 people have died in the regime’s custody within 24 hours of their arrest..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-28
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Title: Statement From Spring Revolution Interfaith Network: Statement No. – 5/2021 - နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးဘာသာပေါင်းစုံကွန်ရက် သဘောထားကြေညာချက် - စာအမှတ် ၅/၂၀၂၁
Description: "1. We have observed increased torture, raids, killings and extrajudicial arrests of innocence people in Myanmar including lawless confiscation private lands and houses. 2. On 23rd September 2021, Myanmar Military had illegally raided and detained a group of activists including U Ragu Nay Myint, who is a former political prisoner and Hindu leader actively working on interreligious peace building. 3. We have learnt that people detained form the case are accused with act of terrorism based with baseless accusations and their family are pushed towards difficult situation as their private home are confiscated. 4. We have also observed that on 25th September 2021, Myanmar Military publicly killed and tortured 3 young people on the street in MyaeNegon, Yangon. 5. Myanmar Military has been also committing atrocity crimes and war crimes in Sagaing, Magway regions and other ethnic regions admit shutting down of the internet to cover up their crimes. 6. We strongly condemn all awful acts of Myanmar Military and we affirm our commitment to do anything we can to contribute to the success of the revolution and stand in solidarity with our fellow people of Myanmar.....ဖက်ဆစ်စစ်တပ် ရဲ့ ဆိုးယုတ်နိမ့်ကျသော နည်းလမ်း နှင့် လူမဆန်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များအပေါ် အပြင်းအထန်ရှုတ်ချပြီး ပြည်သူနှင့် အတူ တစ်သားတည်း ရပ်တည်ကာ တော်လှန်ရေးအောင်မြင်သည်အထိ ဆက်လက်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်မည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး ဘာသာပေါင်းစုံကွန်ရက်မှ သဘောထားကြေညာချက်ထုတ်ပြန် #faiths4springrevolution..."
Source/publisher: The Spring Revolution Interfaith Network
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-28
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Title: Myanmar air strikes reported in battle, internet cut in more areas
Description: " Myanmar's military launched air strikes at the weekend after clashes with fighters opposed to the junta in the Sagaing region, according to media and a militia member, as phone lines and the internet were also severed in some districts. The Southeast Asian country has been in crisis since the army seized power on Feb. 1, ending a decade of tentative steps towards democracy and triggering outrage at home and abroad and the setting up of People's Defence Forces (PDFs) to take on the military. The DVB news portal reported the air strikes occurred as the army staged an offensive in the Pinlebu area of Sagaing in northwest Myanmar, citing residents who heard aircraft and explosions on Saturday night before phone lines and the internet went down. A member of the Pinlebu PDF, speaking from outside the area, also confirmed by telephone that air strikes had taken place, but said there had been no casualties amongst his group. "We cannot contact them due to the internet and phone lines blackout," the activist, who declined to be identified, said of his opposition colleagues. Reuters could not independently verify any of the claims and a spokesman for the military did not answer calls seeking comment. The National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration set up by ousted lawmakers and others opposed to the junta, said an arms cache including a rocket propelled grenade, small arms and shells had been seized in the fighting. It said more than 25 government soldiers had been killed. There has been an upsurge in bloodshed in areas like Sagaing after the underground NUG declared an uprising on Sept. 7 and called on PDFs to target the junta and its assets. Earlier in the conflict, the military had at times shut down the internet, particularly in cities, in a bid to curb demonstrations. Since Thursday, the military had cut internet access in 11 conflict-hit districts in Chin State and in the Magway region, the Myanmar Now news portal reported, citing residents and members of PDFs. Last week, thousands fled from the town of Thantlang in Chin State, bordering India, after fighting in which a Christian pastor among those killed. Some militia groups have also claimed responsibility for blowing up scores of telecommunication towers run by Mytel, a partly army-controlled company. U.S.-based democracy watchdog Freedom House said in a report published last week that internet freedom slumped by 14 points in Myanmar – the largest annual decline ever recorded on its 100-point scale – after the coup..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-27
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Title: Military cuts off internet connection in 11 more townships in northwestern Myanmar
Sub-title: The junta has enforced an internet blackout in a total of 22 townships in Chin and Kachin states and Magway, Mandalay and Sagaing regions
Description: "The junta cut off mobile internet access and most Wi-Fi services to 11 townships in war-torn areas of Chin State and Magway Region at 6pm on Thursday evening, according to locals and members of the local resistance forces in the area. The affected townships are Gangaw, Htilin and Myaing in Magway Region, and Falam, Kanpetlet, Matupi, Mindat, Paletwa, Tedim, Thantlang and Tonzang in Chin State. Locals have said that the internet blackout will make it difficult for locals to both send and receive information on the conditions in the region. “After the internet connection is cut off, the phone connection may also be cut off. In that case, I don't think the situation will be easy,” a Mindat resident told Myanmar Now. A church and several buildings were hit by artillery shells fired by the Myanmar army during a clash with the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) on September 22 in Mindat. Fighting broke out between the junta’s troops and the CDF in Thantlang on September 18, forcing nearly the entire population of the town to flee. At least 18 homes and a government building were set ablaze by the junta’s artillery fire, and a Christian pastor who tried to put out the fire was shot dead by the Myanmar army troops. Soldiers cut off the ring finger on his left hand to steal the pastor’s wedding band; details of the act went viral on social media. In the Chin State capital of Hakha, internet access was still available on Saturday morning, according to locals. Since September 14, the internet connection has been cut off in Myingyan and Mogok in Mandalay Region; Taungdwingyi in Magway Region; and Ayataw, Butalin, Kani, Pale, Taze, Ye-U and Yinmabin in Sagaing Region. Hpakant in Kachin State has suffered an internet blackout since August. The recent addition of 11 townships in Magway and Chin State to the blackout on Thursday brings the total of townships without internet access to 22. A spokesperson from the anti-junta Mindat People’s Administration Team speculated that the restrictions on internet access were likely timed to occur as the military intensifies operations in the region to suppress the resistance movement. “It is either that they cut the internet and the flow of information because they fear that we will step up offensives against them, or they are preparing to get the upper hand to launch offensives against us,” the spokesperson said. He insisted, however, that the lack of internet access would not have a major impact on the activities of local guerrilla groups, which do not rely on the internet for communication. An official from the Yaw Defence Force (YDF), a local resistance group operating in Gangaw, Myaing and Htilin townships in Magway, echoed the assessment of the situation by the spokesperson of the Mindat People’s Administration Team. “The military cut the internet because they can’t win. It is their usual tactic and won’t have much impact on the revolutionary forces. We will continue what we are supposed to be doing, regardless,” the YDF official said. The military council has not published information on the cuts. Following the February 1 military coup, the junta imposed tight controls on the internet nationwide in an effort to suppress news of its brutal crackdowns on peaceful anti-dictatorship protests. Internet freedom in Myanmar has since collapsed, creating what Freedom House (FH) and Free Expression Myanmar described as “the most severe decline ever documented” in FH’s annual Freedom of the Net global surveys on and analysis of the issue. “As part of its attempt to crush dissent and maintain power, the military junta shut down internet service, blocked social media platforms and websites, seized control of the telecommunications infrastructure, and ramped up intrusive surveillance,” Myanmar’s Freedom of the Net report, released on September 21, said. In 2019, at the height of the conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, much of northern Rakhine State lost internet access for more than a year..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-26
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Title: Statement regarding the internet cutoff in many townships in Sagaing Region and others areas, and recent events happening throughout the country
Description: "1. Fascist Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) forcefully robbed the sovereign power of Myanmar since the coup on February 1. Many strong evidences show that they have been committing hideous crimes against humanity since then. 2. Fascist Myanmar military has intensified raids in cities and villages and arrested unlawfully, tortured and killed many innocent local people with no restraints. Moreover, evidences show that the military has increased their terrifying crimes and even set a whole village on fire time and again. 3. Fascist Myanmar military recently cuts off telephone lines and internet in many townships and areas around the country and also plans to cut off more areas; they are clearly violating the right to information. The unlawful arrests, tortures and killings of villagers under the "Area cleaning" program imply that the military regard the local people as enemy and the cities and villages as battle fields. 4. Fascist Myanmar military has launched offensive attacks in ethic regions, committed crimes against humanity under the program of "Area cleaning", and committed planned genocide on minority ethnic groups for decades. Reflection on the recent incidents happened around the country including Chin State, Sagaing Region and Yaw area indicate that the military is planning to commit similar crimes again across the country. 5. When the fascist military committed the hideous crimes against Rohingya and destroyed villages by setting them on fire, which caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to abandoned their homes and ran for their lives, and when the fascist military launched offensive attacks with disproportioned forces in ethnic regions, they had cut off the internet and telephone lines in those areas to cause news blackout on their crimes of setting villages on fire, arresting and torturing of villagers and killings the masses. 6. Fascist Myanmar military launched airstrikes on defenseless villages, set many villages on fire, killed mass number of villagers, and looted local people's properties across the country especially in Chin State, Chindwin river delta area and Northwest plain region in Sagaing Region, and Yaw area in Magway Region under the "Area cleaning" program. Cutting off internet and telephone lines to create news blackout in these areas are the first step of their future plans on committing more crimes. 7. Fascist Myanmar military uses disproportionate forces in their offensive attacks in ethic regions, Sagaing Region, Chindwin river delta region and Yaw region; these attacks will lead to major humanitarian crisis as millions of people will be forced to abandon their homes and villages and become Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). 8. If we cannot prevent further crimes against humanity such as offensive attacks of the Myanmar military led by Min Aung Hlaing using disproportionate forces and brazen violations of international laws and human rights, the appalling stories like the recent Rohingya genocide incidents and violent repressions in ethnic regions will repeat across the country. 9. Thus, we urge all the stakeholders including National Unity Government (NUG), revolution forces, and Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) to formulate necessary plans and implement these effectively and promptly to help protect the lives of civilians. 10. Myanmar will be ungovernable by the military council led by Min Aung Hlaing and the military's violent repressions will spread instability to the neighboring countries and threaten the regional peace. Thus, to prevent the potential humanitarian crisis spreading to the regional countries as many civilians will flee to the neighboring countries to escape the unlawful repression of the fascist military, we earnestly request the international community including the United Nations, neighboring countries, and ASEAN to stop the fascist military's offensive attacks, to stop the military council administration and return to democracy, to be accountable for their crimes by pressuring the military council in all possible ways and by increasing the contact with the NUG, who represent the Myanmar people, and providing more effective support to the NUG. 11. Myanmar people will never accept the military council's governance and the people will keep on fighting against the military until we can put a stop to all the inhumane terrorism of fascist Myanmar military and end the military dictatorship. We will use all measures tomake the fascist Myanmar military accountable for their crimes and to develop and instill federal democracy in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: 98 Organizations from Sagaing Region
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-19
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Title: စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီးအတွင်းရှိ မြို့နယ်များနှင့် ဒေသများစွာတို့တွင် အင်တာနက်နှင့် ဖုန်းလိုင်းများ ဖြတ်တောက်ခံရခြင်း အပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံအဝန်း ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသည့် ကိစ္စရပ်များနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်းသည့် သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
Description: "Statement regarding the internet cutoff in many townships in Sagaing Region and others areas, and recent events happening throughout the country..."
Source/publisher: 98 Organizations from Sagaing Region
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-19
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Title: Myanmar: Military junta intensifies hostility towards media workers
Description: "Myanmar’s military junta is increasingly arresting media workers, a sign of the gradual deterioration of press freedom in the country. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the repeated and increasingly hostile acts of Myanmar’s military junta towards media workers, which are a blatant attempt to supress an objective and independent press in Myanmar. On September 10, the State Administration Council increased the charges against Frontier Myanmar and Voice of America political reporter Sithu Aung Myint. Myint, along with Htet Htet Khine, a freelance producer for BBC Media Action, have been detained in Insein Prison since their apprehension and arrest on August 15. Myint has had an additional charge levelled under Article 505(b) which criminalises speech that could “cause fear or alarm in the public” within Myanmar’s penal law. She was initially charged with the dissemination of false news, a crime under Article 505(a) of Myanmar’s penal code. A sedition charge, under Article 124(a) of the penal code, was also made but has since been withdrawn. Myint has reported on criticism of Myanmar’s military junta. Khine was charged with harbouring Myint, an accused criminal at that stage, and for alleged ties to a shadow National Unity Government under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act. Moreover, Myo Thant, former Mizzima news editor-in-chief, was arrested by the State Administration Council on September 15. A justification for his arrest has not been disclosed. This follows the confirmation of photojournalist Ma Thuzar’s arrest by Myanmar police on September 5. Myanmar’s junta has repeatedly publicised its opposition to independent media during its administration. The Deputy Information Minister, Major General Zaw Min Tin said on July 12, “These media outlets are a danger to the people and traitors to the state, as they are broadcasting fake news and incorrect opinions.” The likelihood of arrest is an “ever-present” consideration for Myanmar’s media workers, according to Aye Chan Naing, chief-editor of independent Myanmar broadcaster DVB News. Recent reporting indicates that 98 journalists have been arrested by the junta since the coup on February 1, 2021. The IFJ said: “We condemn the punitive actions by the Myanmar military junta aimed at curtailing a strong and independent press. The IFJ calls for the immediate release of Sithu Aung Myint, Htet Htet Khine, and Myo Thant as well as for the release of all other media workers enduring detainment in Myanmar; arbitrary detentions must end so that the people of Myanmar can begin to create a safe and secure country.”..."
Source/publisher: "International Federation of Journalists" (Brussels)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-18
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Title: Two more journalists arrested in Myanmar’s continuing crackdown
Description: "Following the addition of two more names to the list of 54 journalists and media workers currently held in the military junta’s jails in Myanmar, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reminds the international community of the need for targeted sanctions against those responsible for the growing terror. Mizzima News former editor-in-chief Myo Thant was arrested yesterday in Kangye Htaung, a township in southwestern Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River delta region. RSF has learned that the security forces went to the township after being told he was there, and threatened to take his aunt if he did not surrender. He was finally arrested at round 8 pm. The Channel Mandalay news agency meanwhile confirmed today that one of its journalists, Win Naing Oo, was arrested with his wife on 31 August. His arrest came to light as a result of official report that he had been charged under section 505(a) of the penal code, under which the dissemination of information contrary to the interests of the armed forces is punishable by three years in prison. He is being held incommunicado at a detention centre in Sint Kaing, a township in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city. “The arrests of Win Naing Oo and Myo Thant sadly illustrate the extreme brutality with which Myanmar’s military treats journalists, pursuing them, pressuring their relatives and holding them incommunicado,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Their names have joined a list that keeps on growing. It is high time the international community reacted to the situation by imposing targeted sanctions on the ruling junta’s leaders.” World’s second biggest jailer of journalists According to RSF’s tally, a total of 53 professional journalists, two non-professional journalists and a media worker are currently imprisoned in Myanmar. In the past seven and a half months, since the coup d’état on 1 February, Myanmar has become the world’s second biggest jailer of journalists. Only China detains more. Myo Thant’s arrest comes two weeks after that of Ma Thuzar, a freelancer for various outlets including the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency and the Friday Times News Journal. As RSF reported last week, the authorities let five days go by before confirming her arrest. Myanmar is currently ranked 140th in RSF's World Press Freedom Index..."
Source/publisher: Reporters Without Borders (Paris)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-18
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Title: Women's League of Burma - August Situation Update
Description: "In the seven months which have now passed since the junta’s attempted coup, the people of Burma/Myanmar have been forced to endure multiple grievances, all of which have taken a toll on the state’s economy and socio-political affairs. The whole country has been pushed back to living under constant threads and insecurity. The military has used all forms of violence including arrest, killing, torture and sexual assault to suppress any actions taken against the coup. The junta also employs state-controlled media to defame women who have joined resistance forces. The junta’s spokesperson in particular has used sexist and patriarchal language against these brave women in an attempt to discredit them. After the arrest, the people continue to suffer from the violence during the interrogation process and in detention. Three dozen civilians have already been tortured to death following interrogations by the military. Many died within 24 hours of being tortured. Eighty- two percent of those in detention are in locations that the junta has not disclosed. At this moment, it is impossible to know how many more women and children are being abused under the scrutiny and increased surveillance of the junta. Women face various challenges as they face the onslaught of the pandemic in the midst of the coup and crippling internal conflict. Female health workers are under attack as they join the hundreds forced to go underground as the junta seeks out medical professionals with any connection to the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)..."
Source/publisher: Women's League of Burma
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-18
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Title: Myanmar Junta Arrests Two More Journalists
Description: "Two more Myanmar journalists have been arrested by junta forces, raising the number of journalists being held by the military regime to 53 as of September 16, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Since the military’s February 1 coup, Myanmar has become the world’s second-biggest jailer of journalists, after China, said RSF. On Wednesday night, the former editor-in-chief of Mizzima News, Ko Myo Thant, was arrested in Kangyidaunt Township, Ayeyarwady Region. Junta forces went to Kangyidaunt after being told that Ko Myo Thant was there, and threatened to detain his aunt if he did not surrender, RSF stated in a report released on Thursday. Channel Mandalay news agency journalist Ko Win Naing Oo was arrested on August 31 with his wife. News of his arrest only emerged on Thursday, following a report that he has been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, which criminalizes the spreading of false comments or fake news targeting government officials. Ko Win Naing Oo faces a potential prison sentence of three years. Since seizing power, the junta has targeted journalists with arrests, lawsuits, raids on newsrooms and violence in an effort to silence independent coverage of its daily atrocities. Over 100 journalists and media workers have been detained. In some cases, relatives of journalists have been held as hostages to force the journalists to turn themselves in. “The arrests of [Ko] Win Naing Oo and [Ko] Myo Thant sadly illustrates the extreme brutality with which Myanmar’s military treats journalists, pursuing them, pressuring their relatives and holding them incommunicado,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. Ma Thuzar, a freelance reporter and former member of the Press Council has also been arrested. She was snatched by police as she left her home on the morning of September 1. Her arrest was only confirmed by the police on September 5. Her family were unable to confirm her whereabouts, although there are rumors that she was taken to a military interrogation center in Yangon. The reason for her detention is unknown. RSF has called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for the media crackdown..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-17
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Title: MYANMAR’S CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT
Description: "AN INTRODUCTION TO MYANMAR’S CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT: On 8 November 2020, Myanmar held a third round of national elections since the start of an extended reform process instigated by the 2008 Constitution and national elections in 2010 and 2015. This reform process was premised on the country transitioning away from military dictatorship and civil war and towards peace and federalism. During the November 2020 elections, the military-backed political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), lost decisively to the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Subsequently, the USDP and the military started to make false claims of widespread electoral fraud. Both domestic and international election monitors had deemed the poll fair and credible. Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, launched a coup d’état on 1 February 2021, removing the elected NLD government led by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. The Tatmadaw’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing took power, forming a dictatorial body of the “State Administration Council” (SAC), composed largely of generals. The Tatmadaw also announced a “one-year-long state of emergency” and that multi-party elections would be held at the end of this year. This period was subsequently extended by SAC in July. The generals announced, unsurprisingly, that elections would not be held within one year of the coup but instead would not be held until at least August 2023. Despite their own unconstitutional actions in the form of a coup, the Tatmadaw cynically contends that the 2008 Constitution is still sacrosanct. Opposition to the Tatmadaw’s unconstitutional and coercive action was quick and nation-wide. Peaceful protests spread across the entire country demanding the release of all political prisoners and the return of the elected government. The Tatmadaw’s claims of electoral fraud were met with widespread contempt from the Myanmar people because of the military’s distinctly toxic history of launching coups and denying or corrupting elections. As peaceful protests were expanding across the country in early February, a novel movement also began to emerge. This movement intended to demonstrate both moral and ethical repulsion at the actions of the coup leaders but also to begin applying peaceful pressure on the military regime to relinquish power. The first incident of what would quickly grow into a national movement occurred on 2nd February. Medical doctors and other healthcare workers at the Mandalay General Hospital, all civil servants, posted social media statements that they would not work for an illegal military regime. As Naypyidaw surgeon Zwe Min Aung recounted to the Voice of America, “At the time, we really disagreed [with] this [the military coup], and we created [a] small group in Mandalay hospital and other hospitals, too. We distributed the statement on February 2 from Facebook and the nationwide CDM began.”2 Though CDM began as an online campaign but has expanded into a wider prodemocracy movement as civil servants from across the ministries started to boycott the military regime. As the movement gained momentum, ever wider parts of Myanmar society joined to make their opposition to the junta known.....MYANMAR’S PEOPLE REJECT MILITARY DICTATORSHIP: Myanmar is not a failed state. Its condition is not that of chronic state weakness caused by civil war, corruption, or entrenched dictatorship. Rather, it is a country where the public, as well as both the private and public sectors, reject the military coup staged on 1 February 2021. In this sense, Myanmar is a country where the near entirety of the population - including civil servants and the private sector – is staging a general strike to peacefully protest the illegal seizure of power by the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw. This effort is the CDM, a non-violent endeavour of an entire population to resist brutal dictatorship. By early-2021, the public had experienced nearly a decade of civilian leadership, economic growth and more generally reform and positive change. This was particularly so after the fully free elections in 2015 that brought the NLD political party, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to power. The prospects of returning to decades of impoverishment and dictatorial violence through Tatmadaw rule was revolting to the tens of millions of Myanmar citizens who sought to show their unwillingness to accept the coup through peaceful demonstrations in countless villages, towns, and cities across the country. CDM is composed of three major groups from the Myanmar people: the general public, private sector businesses and associations, and civil service personnel. CDM by Myanmar’s Public Since the 1 February coup, countless protests have taken place daily across the entire country to show solidarity for CDM and to demonstrate an absolute rejection of the junta. Over February and March, hundreds-of-thousands of normal Myanmar citizens gathered across the country’s cities, towns, and villages to demonstrate their anger and demand a future of federal democracy. These early mass demonstrations served to unite the various societies within Myanmar. The revulsion of the junta is near universal. For instance, Myanmar’s national football team refused to play under military dictatorship, while hundreds of monks led a prayer session supporting CDM and protestors. Numerous professional associations have regularly demonstrated on the streets wearing their respective attires (doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, and lawyers). Women have been prominent in the protests and LGBTs groups have also joined protests. The mass protests were not limited to one ethnic group or a particular area of the country. They were across the entire country, spanning religious, ethnic, and socio-economic lines. What united all the millions of people peacefully protesting was a shared desire for a better future defined by a path of democratization, peace, and economic development. The traumas of decades of brutal dictatorship, civil war and crushing impoverishment under the military are too painful to accept returning to. As such, some of the most common placards held high delivered the key messages - “Respect Our Votes” and “Say No to Coup.” Some young women joined early protests playfully wearing wedding gowns and holding placards with messages such as “we don’t accept military coup.” Myanmar’s people just want a normal life for themselves and their families. They know the military will never provide that. Given its toxic history, Myanmar’s military predictably resorted to mass violence against peaceful protesters as they have done so many times over the decades since independence in 1948. Large protests were no longer possible by the end of March after the military started regularly using war weaponry automatic rifles, rocket propelled grenades, and machine guns to disperse peaceful protest rallies. Despite this violence by an organization claiming to protect the people, viz. a national army, Myanmar’s people have continued to protest across the country using novel methods - such as so-called ‘flash mobs’ - to avoid opportunities by the junta to kill. Such is their determination and despite the risk of death, Myanmar’s people can still be seen from the smallest villages to the largest cities demonstrating their desire for a return to democracy and a better future..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-17
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Title: Days into military’s occupation of Gangaw, five more civilians found murdered
Sub-title: At least 25 civilians are believed to have been killed by the junta in the Magway Region township less than one week after troops began terrorising villages in the area
Description: "Locals found the bodies of five more villagers killed in Magway Region’s Gangaw Township this week, presumably by junta troops who have been occupying this area of northwestern Myanmar since September 9. At least three of the bodies showed signs of torture, according to eyewitnesses. Oo Thu, age 30, and Maung Shwe, 50, were found on Monday just south of their home village of Hmwae Lal, 50km from Gangaw town. Their bodies were bruised and they had been shot in the stomach. Another body of a 30-year-old man with an intellectual disability was found on Tuesday and had been visibly mutilated, according to a local. He was also from Hmwae Lal. “There was a knife wound on his neck. It appears that they slit his throat. We are assuming that they stabbed him first, cut off his private parts and ultimately slit his throat,” the local said. The three villagers went missing on September 11 when the junta soldiers who occupied Hmwae Lal that day arrested them, the local said. The troops moved on to station themselves in other villages the following day. The bodies of two men in their 20s from Yae Shin—15km from Hmwae Lal—were also found on Tuesday afternoon in the forest outside their village. They were identified as Naing Lin Tun and Phoe Phyu, who had gone missing while returning to Yae Shin from Gangaw on September 12. “They were working in Gangaw. One of them worked as a helper on buses. The other was a construction worker. They were coming back home from work when they ran into the soldiers,” a Yae Shin local told Myanmar Now. Citing eyewitnesses, he added that 400,000 kyat (US$218) in cash and the two men’s mobile phones were missing and the motorcycle they had been riding had been burned and destroyed. The men were cremated on the same day they were found. None of the five victims were involved in the anti-dictatorship movement, according to the local sources, who also said they believed the military council’s troops were responsible for the killings. All Myanmar Now’s calls to the junta’s spokesperson regarding the murders went unanswered. On Wednesday morning, resistance forces from the Yaw region of Magway—an area comprised of Gangaw, Htilin and Saw townships—calling themselves the Yaw Defence Force (YDF) ambushed the junta’s troops stationed in the village of Kyauk Pyoke, according to a spokesperson from the group. Kyauk Pyoke is located some 30km from Hmwae Lal in neighbouring Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township on the east side of Myittha River. The YDF collaborated with a Kalay-based guerrilla force to carry out the attack and reportedly killed six soldiers and injured one. “All of our troops came away unscathed. The military units have been patrolling the area around the village. We caught them by surprise,” he told Myanmar Now. Since Monday, the troops had been occupying Kyauk Pyoke and Kyaukse—also in Sagaing—after the Kalay-based guerrilla force ambushed their convoy and killed two soldiers near the villages. Following the National Unity Government’s September 7 declaration of war on the coup regime, the military intensified their attacks on villages in the Yaw region in an effort to crush the armed resistance and local support for it. From September 9 until 14—the first six days of the junta’s terrorisation of Gangaw—locals have said at least 25 civilians were killed and almost 100 houses were burned down. Military units raided the village of Thar Lin on the morning of September 9, then clashed with local resistance forces as they attempted to occupy Myin Thar village, resulting in the deaths of 18 locals, including multiple teenaged minors. Once the troops took Myin Thar, they reportedly burned down some 20 homes in the village. On both September 11 and 13, the junta raided Hnan Khar village on the Kalay-Gangaw road, and burned down nearly 50 homes. On the day between the two raids on Hnan Khar, September 12, soldiers ransacked Htei Hlaw village, killing a member of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) and a 55-year-old man. They also reportedly set fire to 27 homes. In Kyaukse, a village on the border between Gangaw and Kalay Township in Sagaing Region, junta troops burned down two homes and killed two elderly people who had been seeking refuge from the violence in a monastery. Local PDFs have said that the military council has suffered dozens of casualties in attacks by resistance forces. The junta has not made a statement on the matter. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), as of September 14, there have been at least 1,089 civilians killed at the hands of the military council since the February 1 coup..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-16
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Title: Myanmar Junta Cuts Internet Access in Anti-Regime Resistance Strongholds
Description: "Myanmar’s military regime has cut off internet access in several townships in Sagaing and Mandalay regions. The affected townships are strongholds of anti-regime resistance groups who have inflicted heavy casualties on junta forces. Mobile and wifi internet services from Myanmar’s three main telecom operators – MPT, Telenor and Oredoo – have been blocked since 12.30pm Tuesday in Kani, Mingin, Yinmabin, Pale, Shwebo and Budalin townships in Sagaing, and Mogoke and Myingyan townships in Mandalay Region. In the three months from June to August, more than 840 junta soldiers were killed and 355 wounded in Sagaing Region in clashes with local People’s Defense Forces (PDF). 184 civilians in Sagaing have also been slain and 49 wounded by junta forces, according to the parallel National Unity Government. Myanmar military forces are also facing intense opposition from resistance groups in Mandalay’s Mogoke and Myingyan townships. Junta-owned Mytel telecom masts have also been destroyed across the country, including in Sagaing and Mandalay regions, since last week. A resident of Sagaing’s Yinmabin Township said that civilian resistance fighters have managed to defeat junta troops in every clash in the region, because locals and resistance groups are sharing every movement of regime forces online. “Actually, they [junta forces] block the internet access as they are afraid of the people [sharing information],” said the resident. Before the internet blackout, some Facebook users and Facebook pages from Sagaing Region were actively sharing information about regime troop movements in order to have advance notice of potential raids. A spokesperson for the Kani-PDF told The Irrawaddy that the internet blackout likely means that the junta is planning to attack civilian resistance forces in the region, and wants to ensure that locals don’t share information about troop movements. Junta soldiers have been raiding villages in Kani Township over the last few days, while several Myanmar military gunboats have been patrolling the Chindwin River and helicopters have been hovering overhead. “They are frightening the people here by blocking the internet and the information flow. They also frighten us with their helicopters, drones and gunboats. This is a kind of psychological war against our people,” the spokesperson for the Kani-PDF told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. In August, junta forces raided a series of villages in Kani after blocking phone and internet access. Many locals are also concerned that the internet blackout means that the regime is more likely to use intense violence on anti-regime strongholds in the region. Since August, internet access has also been cut by the junta in the jade-mining town of Hpakant, Kachin State..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-16
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Title: New Briefing Paper by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland Condemns Privacy Violations & Increased Surveillance by the Junta
Description: "HURFOM: A new briefing paper by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), “We have lost our private sphere:” the infringement of privacy rights under the military junta in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region, finds civilian rights to privacy have been eroded by the power-seeking junta. Since the attempted coup on 1 February, the regime has taken steps to extend their authority into civilian homes and their personal devices. Through premeditated amendments to Burma’s legal framework, the junta has endeavored to justify their assault on fundamental privacy rights. Homes of prominent activists and democratically elected officials have been raided by military forces. Innocent civilians have been forced to hand over their mobile devices as soldiers try to extract evidence of pro-democracy activities. Their actions are all in violation of basic privacy laws which grant citizens protection from excessive state-oversight into their personal belongings and housing. In pursuit of evidence to criminalize civilians who have overwhelmingly opposed the coup, the junta has made amendments to several laws. Based on cases HURFOM collected between March and August 2021, the following laws were violated by the junta in Mon State, Karen State and Dawei: Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens: 89 cases Ward or Village Tract Administration Law: 62 cases Penal Code: 35 cases Electronic Transactions Law: 14 cases In the strongest possible terms, HURFOM condemns the attacks on civilian livelihoods, which have created a climate of fear and intimidation. The junta is deliberately violating democratic norms and principles by extorting local people for information and financial gain. Changing the laws to accommodate their ruthlessness is cowardly and shows signs of weakness, not strength. We call for an immediate end to the junta’s illegitimate oversight and access into civilian lives and property. Laws must be reformed to protect the people – not advance the interests of the regime. HURFOM’s extensive documentation of crimes against civilians since the coup is evident that no matter how brutal or harsh their policies are, the military cannot break the spirit of the people..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Foundation of Monland
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-15
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Title: Myanmar Junta Kills At Least 12 Civilians Over Weekend
Description: "At least a dozen civilians were killed by junta forces in Magwe, Sagaing and Yangon regions during the weekend. On Sunday, junta forces killed two brothers in Taungdwingyi Township, Magwe Region, after a telecom mast belonging to the military-owned Mytel, one of four telecom operators in Myanmar, was destroyed. Resistance fighters said in a statement that the troops tortured villagers as they interrogated them over the incident and two were killed. Four other villagers were detained, it added. Telecom towers owned by Myanmar’s military are being targeted by resistance fighters following the shadow National Unity Government’s declaration of war against the junta on September 7. The junta troops also burned several houses during raids on Hnan Khar and Htet Hlaw villages on Gangaw Township in the region, a resistance stronghold, over the weekend. According to residents, a villager and resistance fighter were shot dead by junta troops in Htet Hlaw on Sunday morning during a raid. Around 30 houses were also burned down during the raid, forcing villagers to flee. Villagers said they found the two bodies when they returned to put out the fires. On Monday morning, junta troops torched Hnan Khar, burning at least 10 houses. Nearly 40 houses have been partially or completely destroyed in the village since Friday. In Myaung Township, Sagaing Region, seven villagers, who were trapped in their village during clashes between junta forces and resistance fighters, were reportedly shot dead by regime soldiers. In Yangon Region, 36-year-old Ko Aung Ko was shot dead after he reportedly failed to stop his car at a checkpoint on Saturday night. His wife, who was a passenger, was shot and is in a critical condition. Since the February coup, junta forces have killed at least 1,080 people, including teenagers, children, student activists, protesters, politicians, bystanders and pedestrians. More than 8,000 people have been detained of whom 6,398 remain in custody, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-14
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Title: National Unity Government: Press Release No.14/2021
Description: "Republic of the Union of Myanmar National Unity Government https://nugmyanmar.org Press Release (14/2021) 13 September 2021 MYANMAR, September 13, 2021. The Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) announced the people's defensive revolution against the military junta on September 7, 2021. It issued an order declaring a State of Emergency in the country, closing all government offices for an indefinite period, and a directive outlining the Code of Conduct for People’s Defense Forces. The announcement was met with overwhelming support from the people. Min Aung Hlaing’s military junta continues to commit atrocities against the people of Myanmar and has dragged the country into instability and severe economic, humanitarian, and health crises in the last seven months. Immediately after the attempted coup, millions in Myanmar joined non-violent resistance movements and peaceful protests. The military responded with violence, killing more than 1,000 unarmed protesters, arbitrarily detaining more than 7,000 people, looting and destruction of civilian properties, and violating International Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws in its offensive operation against ethnic areas. With the illegal and failed coup having entered its eighth month, it is clear that the military junta is not interested in a peaceful political settlement but will continue to use violence in an attempt to gain power. The NUG, as the legitimate government of Myanmar, has the solemn responsibility to protect the interests and security of our people and bring stability back to the country. With the failure of various political and diplomatic efforts to stop the military’s brutality in the past eight months, local communities are forced to form defense forces and to defend themselves from continuous military atrocities. The NUG restates its commitment to ensuring that needs to create a unified chain of command amongst People’s Defense Forces, respect the NUG’s Code of Conduct which are in line with International Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws, and the Geneva Conventions. The NUG has also accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, meaning that all actors in Myanmar can now be held accountable for their actions under the Rome Statute. The NUG is striving to save Myanmar from the root cause of Myanmar’s civil wars and crises—the military. The People’s Defense Forces will play a very important role in reforming Myanmar’s security sector in the future and ensuring the establishment of a Federal Army that respects and follows international law, protects the people, and serves the Federal Democratic Union under civilian rule. At the same time, the NUG is giving a clear message to the forces of the military that they have a choice – they are ordered to depart immediately from their posts and seek the protection of the People’s Defense Forces and EAOs (Ethnic Armed Organizations). The NUG has invited and continues to invite members of the military and police forces to join with the people and the NUG. The NUG will ensure the security and safety of those who join and of their families, and make arrangements for those who wish to continue their duties as soldiers. The NUG, as the legitimate government of Myanmar, appreciates and recognizes various international efforts in support of Myanmar, and will continue its own efforts to engage the international community and respect international laws in implementing our goals and objectives. We note however, that, by default, the military has been invited to officially participate in some international meetings by some States, and is forging military and economic deals with some other countries thereby illegally encroaching on the legitimacy of the NUG as the sole representative of the people of Myanmar. In addition, the military has rejected the efforts of many international organizations and agencies to deliver health aid to the people, causing countless needless deaths from COVID-19, while generating instability and health crises across the region. The international community obviously cannot be relied upon to intercede on behalf of the democracy movement and secure the safety and well-being of the people of Myanmar from the frontal and brutal assault of the military junta. For that reason, the last seven months have clearly shown that national solidarity and collective action will be the most effective way to end the coup, chaos, and instability caused by the military. As the people continue to resist military rule, escalation of violence from the military is inevitable. The excessive and deadly force already used against peaceful protesters by the military has driven young people to take up a force-ready self-defensive revolution. The people across Myanmar have already formed the defense groups and initiated the defense activities, and the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) are preparing to defend themselves from military forces entering into their areas to attack villages. PDF have joined hands with the EAOs in their various states and regions to develop more coordinated defense plans. The NUG calls for the unity of all the people of Myanmar to uproot the military oppressors – the perpetrators of violence against the people – for good and to establish a peaceful federal democratic union that fully safeguards equality, freedom, inclusion and democracy for all. It further calls on the international community to recognize the NUG as the legitimate government of the people. As such, the NUG will listen to the demands of the people of Myanmar and respond to their need for protection from the military’s brutality. We acknowledge and accept our right and our duty to defend the people..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-13
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Title: National Unity Government: Press Release No.14/2021 - ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ က သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက်အမှတ် (၁၄/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ https://nugmyanmar.org သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၁၄/၂၀၂၁) ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၁၃) ရက် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက စစ်ကောင်စီအား ခုခံတွန်းလှန်မည့် ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေး စတင်ကြောင်း ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ စက်တင်ဘာလ (၇) ရက်နေ့စွဲဖြင့် ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ တိုင်းပြည်အား အရေးပေါ် အခြေအနေ ကြေညာ၍ အစိုးရရုံးများအား ရက်အကန့်အသတ်မရှိ ပိတ်ထားကြောင်းနှင့် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေး တပ်ဖွဲ့များ လိုက်နာရမည့် ကျင့်ဝတ်စည်းကမ်းများ ကိုလည်း ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါ ကြေညာချက်ကို ပြည်သူများက တခဲနက် ကြိုဆိုထောက်ခံခဲ့ကြသည်။ မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ဦးဆောင်သည့် စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ခုနှစ်လအတွင်း ပြည်သူလူထုအား ဖိနှိပ်ရက်စက်မှုများစွာ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့်အပြင် မတည်ငြိမ်မှုများနှင့်အတူ စီးပွားရေး၊ လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာ အကြပ်အတည်း ပေါင်းများစွာ ကြုံတွေ့စေခဲ့သည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းရန်ကြိုးပမ်းမှု ပေါ်ပေါက်ပြီး မကြာခင်မှာပင် သန်းပေါင်းများစွာသော ပြည်သူလူထုသည် အကြမ်းမဖက် ခုခံလှုပ်ရှားမှုများနှင့် ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖေါ်ပွဲများတွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုံခြုံရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့များက လက်နက်မဲ့ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖေါ်နေသည့် လူပေါင်း ထောင်ကျော်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ လူပေါင်း (၇၀၀၀) ကျော် မတရားဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ ပြည်သူများ၏ အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုများကို ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း အစရှိသော အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြပြီး တိုင်းရင်းသားဒေသများတွင် စစ်ဆင်ရေးများ ပြုလုပ်ကာ နိုင်ငံတကာ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုဥပဒေများကို ချိုးဖောက်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ တရားမဝင်၊ မအောင်မြင်သည့် အာဏာသိမ်းရန် ကြိုးပမ်းမှုက ရှစ်လအတွင်းသို့ ဝင်ရောက်လာပြီဖြစ်သော်လည်း စစ်ကောင်စီသည် နိုင်ငံရေးအရ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဖြေရှင်းမှုကို လုံးဝ စိတ်မဝင်စားပဲ အာဏာဆက်လက်တည်မြဲရေးအတွက် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ဆက်လက် ကျူးလွန်သွားမည်မှာ သေချာလျက်ရှိသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ တရားဝင်အစိုးရတစ်ရပ်အနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အသက်အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်နှင့် လုံခြုံမှုတို့ကို အကာအကွယ်ပေးရန်နှင့် တိုင်းပြည်အား တည်ငြိမ်မှုကို ဆောင်ကျဉ်းပေးရန် အလေးအနက် တာဝန်ရှိသည်။ ပြီးခဲ့သည့် ခုနှစ်လအတွင်း နိုင်ငံရေးနှင့် သံတမန်ရေး ကြိုးပမ်းမှုသက်သက်ဖြင့် ပြဿနာများကို မဖြေရှင်းနိုင်ကြောင်း သေချာခဲ့သည့်နောက်တွင် မိမိတို့ဒေသ ရပ်ရွာများကို စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်များ၏ ဖိနှိပ် ရက်စက်မှုများမှ ကာကွယ်ရန် အဆိုပါ ရပ်ရွာဒေသမှ ပြည်သူများက ကာကွယ်ရေးအဖွဲ့များကို မလွှဲမရှောင်သာ ဖွဲ့စည်းခဲ့ရသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့များအနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ လူ့အခွင့်အရေး နှင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေများ၊ ဂျီနီဗာသဘောတူညီချက်တို့နှင့် လိုက်လျောညီထွေဖြစ်သော ကျင့်ဝတ် စည်းကမ်းများကို လေးစားလိုက်နာရန် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်မည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထပ်လောင်း အတည်ပြုပါသည်။ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး၏ တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့် အာဏာကို လက်ခံထားပြီး မြန်မာပြည်တွင်းရှိ သက်ဆိုင်သူအားလုံး မိမိတို့လုပ်ရပ်များအတွက် ရောမသဘောတူညီချက် နှင့်အညီ တာဝန်ခံရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ပြည်တွင်းစစ်နှင့် လက်ရှိအကြပ်အတည်းများ၏ အခြေခံ အကြောင်းတရားဖြစ်သော စစ်ကောင်စီကို ဖယ်ရှားရန် ကြိုးပမ်းနေခြင်းလည်း ဖြစ်သည်။ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေး တပ်ဖွဲ့များသည် အနာဂတ်တွင်အကောင်အထည်ဖေါ်မည့် လုံခြုံရေးကဏ္ဍ ပြုပြင် ပြောင်းလဲရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ ဥပဒေကို လေးစားလိုက်နာသော၊ ပြည်သူလူထုကို ကာကွယ်သော ဖက်ဒရယ်တပ်မတော်ဖွဲ့စည်းရေးတွင် အရေးကြီးသည့် အခန်း ကဏ္ဍမှ ပါဝင်မည်ဖြစ်ပြီး အနာဂတ် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု၏ အရပ်သားအုပ်ချုပ်မှုအောက်တွင် အမှုထမ်းမည် ဖြစ်သည်။ တချိန်တည်းမှာပင် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ တပ်ဖွဲ့များအနေဖြင့် မိမိတို့တာဝန်များကို စွန့်ခွာ၍ ပြည်သူ့ ကာကွယ်ရေး တပ်ဖွဲ့များ၊ တိုင်းရင်းသားလက်နက်ကိုင် တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းရန် အခွင့်အရေး ရှိကြောင်း အသိပေးလိုသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရက တပ်မတော်သားများနှင့် ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင် များအား အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရနှင့် ပြည်သူ များအား ပူးပေါင်းရန် ဖိတ်ခေါ်ခဲ့ပြီး ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုသို့ ပူးပေါင်းလာသူများနှင့် ၎င်းတို့ မိသားစုများ၏ လုံခြုံရေးကို အာမခံပြီး တာဝန်ဆက်လက် ထမ်းဆောင်လို ပါကလည်း စီမံဆောင်ရွက်ပေးမည် ဖြစ်သည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် တရားဝင်အစိုးရတစ်ရပ်အနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ၏ ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်မှု များစွာကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုပြီး ဆက်လက်၍ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်သွားကာ မိမိတို့ ရည်မှန်းချက်အောင်မြင်ရေးအတွက် နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေများကို ဆက်လက်လေးစားလိုက်နာသွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ သို့သော်လည်း တဖက်တွင် နိုင်ငံအချို့၏ တရားဝင် ဖိတ်ကြားမှုဖြင့် စစ်ကောင်စီက အချို့သော နိုင်ငံတကာ အစည်းအဝေး များတွင် တက်ရောက်ခွင့်ရနေရပြီး အချို့နိုင်ငံများနှင့် စစ်ရေး၊ စီးပွားရေး သဘောတူညီချက်များပင် ရရှိနေကြောင်း တွေ့ရသောကြောင့် အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ၏ ပြည်သူများ ရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ထားသည့် တစ်ခုတည်းသော တရားဝင်အစိုးရဖြစ်မှုကို ထိခိုက်မှုများရှိလာကြောင်း တွေ့ရသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ကုလသမဂ္ဂအပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံတကာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် အေဂျင်စီ များ၏ ပြည်သူ လူထုအတွက် ကျန်းမာရေး အကူအညီများ ပေးအပ်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းချက်များကို စစ်ကောင်စီက ငြင်းပယ်ခဲ့ သောကြောင့် ကိုဗစ်-၁၉ ရောဂါဖြင့် မသေသင့်ပဲ လူပေါင်းများစွာ သေကြေပျက်စီးခဲ့ရပြီး ဒေသတွင်း၌လည်း မတည်ငြိမ်မှုနှင့် ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာ အကြပ်အတည်းများ ပေါ်ပေါက်ခဲ့ရသည်။ ဒီမိုကရေစီ လှုပ်ရှားမှုကိုယ်စား ကြားဝင် ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်ရန်နှင့် ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်လှသော စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုအား ကူညီကာကွယ်ပေးရန် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းကို အားကိုး၍မရတော့ပါ။ ပြီးခဲ့သည့် ခုနှစ်လတာ ကာလကို ပြန်လည်ဆန်းစစ်ကြည့်ပါက တမျိုးသားလုံး စုစည်းညီညွတ်မှု၊ စုပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှု တို့ဖြင့်သာလျှင် စစ်ကောင်စီကြောင့် ပေါ်ပေါက်ခဲ့သော အာဏာသိမ်းရန် ကြိုးပမ်းမှုနှင့် မတည်ငြိမ်မှုများကို အဆုံးသတ်နိုင် လိမ့်မည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သိသာထင်ရှား နေပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ပြည်သူလူထုက စစ်ကောင်စီအား ဆက်လက်ခုခံတွန်းလှန်နေချိန်တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ ပိုမို မြင့်တက်လာနိုင်ခြင်းကို ရှောင်လွှဲ၍ရမည် မဟုတ်ပါ။ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာဆန္ဒပြမှုများကို သေစေနိုင်သော လက်နက်များဖြင့် အလွန်အမင်း အင်အားသုံးဖြိုခွဲခဲ့မှုများက လူငယ်များကို ရရာအင်အားသုံး၍ မိမိကိုယ်ကိုခုခံရန် တွန်းပို့ခဲ့သည်။ ပြည်သူများ က နိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းလုံးတွင် ခုခံရေးအဖွဲ့များ ဖွဲ့စည်းပြီး ခုခံ တွန်းလှန်မှုများကို စတင်နေကြပြီဖြစ်သည်။ တချိန်တည်းမှာပင် တိုင်းရင်းသား လက်နက်ကိုင် တော်လှန်ရေး အင်အားစုများက မိမိတို့နယ်မြေအတွင်း ကျုးကျော် ထိုးဖောက်ဝင်ရောက်ပြီး ရပ်ရွာများကို တိုက်ခိုက်လာ တော့မည့် စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်ဖွဲ့များအား ခုခံကာကွယ်ရန် ပြင်ဆင် နေကြပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ပြည်သူ့ ကာကွယ်ရေး တပ်ဖွဲ့များအနေဖြင့်လည်း တိုင်းရင်းသားလက်နက်ကိုင် တော်လှန်ရေး အင်အားစုများနှင့် သက်ဆိုင်ရာ ဒေသများ အတွင်း အတူပူးပေါင်းလက်တွဲ၍ ခုခံတွန်းလှန်သွားရန် ပြင်ဆင်နေကြပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ၏ တရားခံဖြစ်သော အာဏာရှင် စစ်ကောင်စီအား အမြစ်ပြတ် ခုခံတွန်းလှန် သွားရန်နှင့် ပြည်သူလူထုအားလုံး၏ ညီမျှမှု၊ လွတ်လပ်မှု၊ အားလုံးပါဝင်မှုနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီ အခွင့်အရေးများအား အပြည့်အဝ ကာကွယ် စောင့်ရှောက်မည့် ငြိမ်းချမ်းသော ဖက်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ဆောက်ရန် အတွက် ပြည်သူ တရပ်လုံးက စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်စွာဖြင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက် ကြပါရန် တိုက်တွန်း အပ်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရကို ပြည်သူလူထုက ရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ခဲ့သော တရားဝင်အစိုးရတစ်ရပ် အနေဖြင့် အသိအမှတ်ပြုပေးရန် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းကိုလည်း ထပ်မံတိုက်တွန်းပါသည်။ သို့မှသာ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု၏ တောင်းဆိုမှုကို လေးစားလိုက်နာပြီး စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများမှ အကာအကွယ်ပေးရမည့် လိုအပ်ချက်ကို တုန့်ပြန် ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်မည်ဖြစ်သည်။ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရသည် ပြည်သူများကို အကာအကွယ်ပေးရမည့် တာဝန်ဝတ္တရားနှင့် အခွင့်အရေးအား ကောင်းစွာ အသိအမှတ်ပြု လက်ခံထားပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-13
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Type: Individual Documents
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Title: How Myanmar’s junta used a coup to settle old scores
Sub-title: Many of those imprisoned on the day of the military takeover had long been in the generals’ sights for questioning their right to rule
Description: "On February 1, the people of Myanmar woke up to their worst nightmare: the return of military rule after nearly a decade of relative freedom. The predawn arrest of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint signalled the end of a brief era of elected government and set the stage for the massive demonstrations and brutal crackdowns that were to follow. But the country’s civilian leaders were not the only ones detained that day. Many others were also taken into custody, not because they presented any immediate threat to the coup makers, but because they had displeased them in the past. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who orchestrated the military’s return to direct control over the state, moved swiftly to punish perceived enemies, locking them up even before they could utter a word of protest. Besides activists and politicians, his targets included celebrities, monks and other public figures who dared to question the army’s right to rule. Some had already been marked for revenge before the coup. Charged with offenses related to their criticism of the military or its bigoted henchmen, they were among the first to be silenced when the time came to start settling scores. Others, however, were arrested without even a pretence of legal justification. As with the allegations of voter fraud that served as the pretext for the military takeover, no serious evidence of wrongdoing was ever presented against them. In every case, all that mattered was the alleged offenders’ attitude towards the class of men who consider themselves Myanmar’s natural rulers. The profiles that follow provide a glimpse into the thinking of the generals and what they fear most—the prospect of losing power to those who refuse to fear them. Mya Aye Mya Aye, a veteran activist who played a leading role in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, was taken away from his home on the morning of the coup and held incommunicado for the next two months. It was not until April 1 that his family learned that he was being held in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison. Their relief at finally finding out where he was soon turned to dismay, however, when they discovered that Mya Aye had been charged with hate speech under section 505c of the Penal Code, which deals with acts likely to incite a criminal offence against any group or individual based on their ethnic or religious background. What made this so bewildering was the fact that, as a prominent Muslim political leader, Mya Aye had long been involved in interfaith efforts to end tensions between the country’s various religious communities. The charges, which carry a possible sentence of two years in prison, stem from an email he sent from his mobile phone in November 2014. At the time, he was working with the ethnic affairs department of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, led by former student leader Min Ko Naing. The email, which was related to Myanmar’s peace process, touched on the subjects of Burman ethno-nationalism and the need for cooperation among the country’s ethnic groups in order to achieve true federalism. “The only reason he sent that email was for the country’s sake. No conflicts between ethnicities, races or countries resulted from that email sent in 2014,” said his lawyer, Thet Naung. Mya Aye had been on the army’s radar since 1988, when he was a teacher who founded his own party to coordinate the efforts of younger leaders. “We were student leaders and he was the party chair. We usually held our meetings at his party’s office, which was essentially a rebel’s hideout,” recalled former political prisoner Tun Kyi. The only reason he sent that email was for the country’s sake. No conflicts between ethnicities, races or countries resulted from that email sent in 2014 – Mya Aye's lawyer Mya Aye was imprisoned twice, in 1989 and 2007, and spent a total of 12 years behind bars. During his years of freedom, he remained politically active and often courted the military’s ire. When the generals hinted before the coup that they might seize power again, Mya Aye described their words as an act of intimidation. He also rightly foretold the disastrous consequences of such a move. “A coup would be really bad for the country. We’ll be looked down upon by the international community. It’s a losing battle for everyone, including the military itself, the people, the winning party of the election, everyone, really,” he said. For those familiar with his career of speaking truth to power, Mya Aye’s arrest came as no surprise. “They know exactly who their enemies are,” Tun Kyi said of the country’s dictators. “They regard every activist and politician who stands against them as their enemy. And they have a very strong grudge against them.” Thura Aung Ko Thura Aung Ko’s journey from high office to a prison cell was a long and unlikely one. But a full year before his arrest, it was clear that the former army general and government minister was a marked man. In February 2020, after he suggested that the only reason the fugitive monk Wirathu remained at large was because the police answer to the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs, and not to the civilian government, army spokesperson Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun called on the then-ruling NLD administration to “take action” against him for defamation. But it was long before this episode that Aung Ko, a retired brigadier general who once served as deputy minister for religious affairs under the former junta, began his fall from favour with the military’s senior leaders. When Myanmar made a transition to quasi-civilian rule under retired general Thein Sein in 2011, Aung Ko was one of the key holdovers from the military regime that held power until then. As a prominent member of the military-backed USDP, he was elected to the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, in 2010 and appointed chair of a judicial and legislative review committee. In this capacity, he advocated for the suspension of a clause in the constitution that barred then opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president, signalling a break with the military’s entrenched position on the matter. In August 2015, when Thura Shwe Mann, the speaker of the Union parliament, was removed as chair of the USDP by a faction that felt he had grown too close to Suu Kyi, Aung Ko also found himself on chilly terms with the party. The two former generals, who share the “thura” title signifying courage in battle, were seen as allies who threatened to weaken the army’s hold over Myanmar politics. When the NLD came to power after a landslide win in the 2015 election, Aung Ko was named minister of religion and culture despite losing his seat in parliament. As head of the ministry, he was instrumental in shutting down the ultranationalist group Ma Ba Tha, led by firebrand monk Wirathu, in July 2017. Although Wirathu remained active after this, he was eventually prosecuted for sedition. After more than a year on the run, he turned himself in to the police just days before the 2020 election. (Imprisoned under the NLD government, he was pardoned and released by the junta earlier this month.) On March 5, more than a month after his arrest on the day of the coup, Aung Ko was charged with corruption for allegedly awarding religious titles to individuals in exchange for bribes. Currently being held in Insein Prison, the 74-year-old ex-general who made the mistake of displeasing higher-ranked hardliners now faces a sentence of 15 years behind bars. Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi Documentary filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi is well-acquainted with the generals’ vindictiveness. Less than a year before his latest arrest, he was released from prison after serving a one-year sentence for writing Facebook posts critical of the military-drafted 2008 constitution and the army’s role in politics. Accused of making derogatory remarks that harmed the dignity of the military, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi was charged in April 2019 with incitement under section 505a of the Penal Code. He was freed in February 2020 after receiving routine sentence reductions, but was repeatedly denied bail during his incarceration, despite suffering from liver cancer. A long-time critic of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and Ma Ba Tha, the Buddhist nationalist organization that actively promoted anti-Muslim sentiment, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi was “a thorn in the soles of the feet of the fascist generals,” as one colleague put it. Part of the reason for this is that he had long been a supporter of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. One way he demonstrated this was by auctioning off a poem written by Suu Kyi for 240m kyat (nearly $145,000) and donating the proceeds to her party. Despite being a well-respected filmmaker with an international reputation, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi was unable to screen any of his early work in Myanmar because it was banned by the junta that ruled the country until 2011. "a thorn in the soles of the feet of the fascist generals" His 2010 documentary “The Floating Tomatoes”—about the environmental degradation of Inle Lake in Shan State—and his first film, “Human Zoo,” which examines the exploitation of the so-called “long-neck” Padaung people in Thailand, were well-received overseas, but couldn’t be seen at home due to the regime’s censorship. When Myanmar began a partial opening a decade ago, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi started organizing events to bring his own work and that of others to a Myanmar audience. For the first, the Art of Freedom Film Festival, he collaborated with Zarganar, a comedian and fellow director who was also known as a vocal opponent of military rule. This was followed by the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival and the founding of the Human Dignity Institute, which produces documentaries and short films on human rights. "his ideals as an artist and the passion and inspiration he has fostered in young filmmakers cannot be contained and will not be silenced – Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi's colleague" According to his colleague, who asked to remain anonymous, many young filmmakers owe their start to Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi. Through them and through his own films, he continues to influence public discourse in Myanmar, even as he remains a prisoner of the junta. “The fascist regime may have succeeded [in detaining] Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, but his ideals as an artist and the passion and inspiration he has fostered in young filmmakers cannot be contained and will not be silenced,” said the colleague. Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, 59, and his former collaborator Zarganar, 60, are both currently being held in Insein Prison, along with many others deemed a threat to the regime. Htin Lin Oo As he awaited his arrest on the morning of February 1, author and former NLD information officer Htin Lin Oo recorded a nine-minute live broadcast on social media to denounce the military’s actions. No matter what, he said, he would always oppose the dictatorship. “I am not opposing the army. I am opposing the dictators who staged the coup. All of us civilians have to rise up and revolt against the dictatorship,” he said in his final public statement before being taken away. Htin Lin Oo accused the generals of killing democracy in its infancy. Every time they staged a coup, he said, they threw the country decades behind the rest of the world, as they did when they seized power in 1962 and 1988. Not surprisingly, these remarks did not sit well with Myanmar’s newly self-appointed leaders. After arresting him without charges, they hastened to use his online comments to charge him with incitement and spreading false news on social media. As was the case with many others arrested that day, Htin Lin Oo had a history of displeasing the military. In a speech delivered in Magway Region’s Chaung Oo Township in October 2014, he accused the army of using religion to create conflict and maintain control. A 10-minute excerpt from his two-hour speech was circulated widely online and portrayed as an attack on Buddhism, the religion of the majority in Myanmar. It proved so controversial that even his own party distanced itself from his remarks. At the time, the military-backed USDP was in power and the Patriotic Association of Myanmar (the Buddhist nationalist group better known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha) was at the height of its influence. It came as no surprise, then, when Htin Lin Oo was sentenced to two years with hard labour for allegedly violating sections 295a and 298 of the Penal Code, which prohibit “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings” and speaking “with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings”. After his release, Htin Lin Oo resumed his efforts to push the military out of politics, organizing public discussions on amending the military-drafted constitution and founding a weekly journal, D Lann, that raised related issues. His wife, Saw Sandar, said that the regime arrested Htin Lin Oo because it fears anyone who can lead the public. “It’s not fair, but we have the courage to face this. We’re not afraid of anything because we haven’t done anything wrong,” she said, adding that her only real worry is that her husband will fall victim to Covid-19 while behind bars. “What’s important is to stay healthy, especially when the pandemic is getting worse inside the prisons. That’s the only thing I’m worried about,” she told Myanmar Now. Min Thway Thit If he hadn’t been arrested on the day of the coup, Min Thway Thit would likely have been at the forefront of the anti-dictatorship movement. The 38-year-old activist and former political prisoner has long played a leading role in resisting military oppression. He first came to prominence in 2014 during student protests against a new national education law introduced by the quasi-civilian administration of then President Thein Sein. During a violent crackdown on protests in Letpadan, Bago Region, in March 2015, he was one of more than 100 people arrested and imprisoned. The charges against him were eventually dropped, however, when the NLD assumed power a year later. More recently, the former associate secretary of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and founder of the Oway Library and Education Charity (Thanlyin) led a volunteer group established in Yangon’s Thanlyin Township to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. Min Thway Thit was detained for a full month before the regime released any information about him to his family. His wife, Yadanar Su Po Khaing, told VOA’s Burmese-language service in an interview that she wasn’t able to send him any medicine or other necessities until early March, when she first learned that he was being held in Insein Prison. He now faces charges of violating vehicle-licensing regulations under Section 95 of the Vehicle Safety and Vehicle Management Act, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. However, according to his wife, he has refused to take part in the proceedings against him because he has no confidence in the impartiality of the junta’s judiciary. Ministers, monks and satirists The most common crime committed by those arrested on February 1 was supporting the NLD, the party that won two successive landslide victories against the military’s proxy party, the USDP. Anyone tied to the NLD, either as a leading member or as an outspoken supporter, was fair game for a regime determined to silence the military’s most potent rival for power. Surprisingly, perhaps, only a handful of NLD-appointed ministers have come under sustained pressure. Apart from State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, the only senior figures from the Union government still in custody are Soe Win, the ousted minister of planning and finance, his vice minister Set Aung, and his predecessor Kyaw Win. At the regional and municipal levels of government, however, a number of other senior officials have also been targeted by the junta. In early July, Mandalay’s chief minister, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, and the region’s minister for electricity, energy and construction, Zarni Aung, were charged with corruption, more than five months after their arrest. Similar charges, made in connection with alleged illegal deals involving Aung San Suu Kyi, have also been laid against Naypyitaw’s former mayor, Dr. Myo Aung, and deputy mayor, Ye Min Oo, as well as Min Thu, a member of the city’s development committee. Of the monks who were arrested on February 1, Ven. Pyinya Thiha, better known as Shwe Nya Wah Sayadaw, was perhaps the most outspoken backer of the NLD. In 2011, long before the party came to power, he was banned from giving public sermons after he commemorated the 20th anniversary of Aung San Suu Kyi receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. The abbot of Mandalay’s Myawaddy Mingyi monastery, Ven. Ariyawuntha Biwunsa (also known as Myawaddy Sayadaw), had also earned the military’s ire in the past. In late 2019, he was sued for defamation after he accused the armed forces of supporting ultranationalist monks. He was out on bail when he was arrested on the day of the coup. In an interview with Myanmar Now following his release from Mandalay’s Obo Prison last month, he dismissed the junta’s claims that the NLD was bad for Myanmar’s Buddhist monks and repeated his charge that the military was trying to “exploit the people in the name of religion.” Ven. Thawbita, one of the leaders of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, was taken away from his monastery in Patheingyi, east of Mandalay, in handcuffs on the morning of February 1. Two days later, he was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty under Section 66d of Myanmar’s draconian Telecommunications Law for an online comment he wrote more than two years earlier facetiously comparing Min Aung Hlaing to a cow. As if to prove their utter humourlessness, the generals also went after a pair of prominent satirists on the day they seized power. One was Maung Thar Cho, who wrote satirical articles for the 7Day daily newspaper under the pseudonym of Jack (Kunchan Kone). These pieces proved immensely popular and earned him a following among NLD supporters, who invited him to literary talks around the country. "They were kidnapped and now they are political hostages. The junta chief will use them to ease international pressure" The other was Saw Phoe Khwar, an ethnic Kayin reggae musician who performed at NLD campaign events during last year’s election. Famous for his peace concerts, he is also well-known for his use of wit to skewer the military. “The Son of Daw Sein Aye,” one of his most popular songs, plays on the name of the Defence Services Academy (DSA), the elite institution that produced most of Myanmar’s top military leaders. Ostensibly about an unruly man who makes trouble for his neighbours, it clearly refers to the DSA’s proudest alumni. Since the coup, it has become a popular protest song. Whatever reasons were given for their arrest, most of those detained on February 1 are likely to remain in the junta’s custody until it becomes politically expedient to release them. Locked up for offending the generals, they are now just pawns in their game, according to former political prisoner Tun Kyi. “They were kidnapped and now they are political hostages. The junta chief will use them to ease international pressure. They may be released, but they won’t be free, because they could be arrested again at any time. That’s just how it was done under previous regimes, too,” he explained..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-12
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Title: Letter from Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun to Secretary-General H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres on 3 Sep 2021
Description: "Letter dated 3 September 2021 from the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations, H.E. U Kyaw Moe Tun, addressed to the Secretary-General H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres, on the heartbreaking situation in Myanmar, together with the weekly information update on current situation in Myanmar as of 29 August 2021..."
Source/publisher: Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-12
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Title: Letter from Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun to Secretary-General H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres on 25 August 2021
Description: "Letter dated 25 August 2021 from the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations, H.E. U Kyaw Moe Tun, addressed to the Secretary-General H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres, on the worsening situation in Myanmar, together with the weekly information update on current situation in Myanmar as of 22 August 2021..."
Source/publisher: Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-12
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Title: Myanmar’s Students Sacrifice Books For Bullets in ‘Fight For Future’ Against Junta
Sub-title: A growing number of children are leaving school and picking up arms out of desperation.
Description: "Security forces in Myanmar are targeting anti-junta youth activists throughout the country, forcing many to drop out of school and take up arms with militia groups seeking to unseat the military regime despite international laws prohibiting children from becoming soldiers, family members said Thursday. Youth activists, many of whom say they felt hopeless about their future under military rule, began to join the widespread resistance movement against the junta after it seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government in a Feb. 1 coup. Many have been arrested or even killed in clashes with the military, prompting concern from observers who lament what they say is an increasingly lost generation of children forced to sacrifice their dreams in the hopes of reclaiming their country from an oppressive regime. In the seven months since the coup, security forces have killed 1,058 civilians and arrested at least 6,343—mostly during crackdowns on anti-junta protesters—according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The junta says it had to unseat Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD government, claiming the party engineered a landslide victory in Myanmar’s November 2020 election through widespread voter fraud. It has yet to present evidence of its claims, though, and public unrest is at an all-time high. Among the youth activists who have joined the fight against the military is 16-year-old Zaw Myo Mai Laban from the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, who went underground in June after around 50 soldiers and police officers tried to arrest him at his home for taking part in anti-junta protests. “We know young students like us are not physically fit for fighting yet—we’ve only just passed childhood,” the member of the Basic Education Students' Union Network (BESUN) of hundreds of students from more than 50 townships told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “However, we are doing this with the sole intention of fighting injustice and oppression. We give encouragement to one another when we find ourselves weak and try harder to be competent for the revolution.” Zaw Myo Mai Laban said that ethnic armed groups in the liberated areas of the country’s remote border regions had initially refused to allow those under the age of 18 to attend military training, in accordance with international laws prohibiting the use of child soldiers, but eventually relented due to “the strong enthusiasm of the young students.” “It is true that I am underage according to international law and laws against child soldiers, but [the military is] killing people whether they are underage or not,” he said. “International law doesn’t mean anything to the military.” Despite the military’s heavy-handed response to anti-junta protests, many high school students continue to take part in the gatherings, particularly in Myanmar’s largest cities Yangon and Mandalay. A student with BESUN in Mandalay, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said he participates in protests daily “for the future of the country’s youth.” “We are more afraid of losing our future than we are of the military,” he said. “Education in Myanmar at present is completely in shambles. Conditions were just about to see some improvement when they staged this coup. All our hopes were dashed … We had a spirit of revolution long before the coup, and their atrocities made us want to fight back even more.” ”When your friends are killed, there is little you can do but grieve for them. I would rather fight for them instead,” he said. Most of the high school students now involved in the anti-junta movement are minors under parental guardianship. Many parents told RFA they are worried about their sons and daughters being arrested, maimed, or killed, although some have allowed their children to join the protests. The mother of two high school students aged 15 and 17 in Yangon’s South Okkalapa township said she accompanies her children to protests but has asked them not to join the armed uprising. “I went along with them so they would not get into trouble or be harmed, because you can’t stop them from joining the protests,” she said. “However, I asked them not to do anything like take up arms because they are not old enough. If they get arrested and sent to prison for taking part in the protests, at least I could go and see them. I may be selfish, but I cannot allow my young kids to join a revolution.” A student with the Launglon township branch of BESUN in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi division, who also declined to be named, said he regularly speaks with parents as part of an effort to bring more youths into the anti-junta movement. “If students don’t get involved in politics, politics will work against them,” he said. “We enlightened [parents] by explaining that students have been detained and tortured too. This helped them understand why we have taken to the streets, and they allowed their sons and daughters to join us.” Investigating youth activists Meanwhile, authorities have spared no effort in investigating high school students involved in anti-junta activities. In Myanmar’s Bago region, five high school students were arrested in the first week of September, including one who died in detention while being interrogated. According to AAPP, at least 23 school age children were among those killed in the past seven months since the coup, while at least 20 high school students have been arrested. An AAPP spokesman told RFA that school age children are still very much at risk from the military. “If things continue like this, the children in our country will no longer have a future, including those who would one day be the nation’s leaders,” he said. “Children must have the right to freedom of movement and to follow their dreams. They shouldn’t be living in fear. However, at present, they must be careful even of what they wear because of current restrictions. The loss of their future is a loss for the country.” Calls by RFA to military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun seeking comment went unanswered Thursday..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-12
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Title: Weekly Updates on Current Situation in Myanmar (29-8-2021)
Description: "After 200 days have passed since the coup, the Myanmar military group is still ignoring the will of the people, putting the country into turmoil with disproportionate actions when the people are facing the nationwide health crisis under the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths and Arbitrary Arrests As of 28 August 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a total of 7, 627 people have been arrested, 6,005 people have still been detained, whereas 1,984 people have been issued with warrants and 1,026 people were ruthlessly murdered by the military since 1 February 2021 when the military unleashed systematic and targeted attacks and violence against innocent civilians. Irrational Arrests and Unprovoked Shootings On 20 August 2021 in Sagaing, the security forces in plainclothes reportedly arrested the parents of Mr. Zaw Min Win, a police sergeant who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). According to the news received, Mr. Zaw Min Win left his wife and two daughters at the police housing complex, and he took the weapons with him. On the same day, he left the house; about two dozen of security forces went to the house of Mr. Zaw Min Win’s parents, destroyed the properties, and arrested his parents. On 21 August 2021, around 8 pm, Mr. Maung Aye and his wife, Ms. Nweat Nweat Aye, from Kan Thit Village in Khin-u Township in Sagaing Region, returned home by motorbike, were reportedly shot to death by the patrolling military forces. It is reported that Mr. Maung Aye was shot in the head, and Ms. Nweat Nweat was shot in the stomach. On 22 August 2021 in Hintha village in Yesagyo Township of Magwe, the police forces reportedly raided a house in an ambulance. According to the residents, the forces surrounded the house and opened fire. Due to the incident, a 21-year-old man was killed, and four others were arrested. The owner of the house is believed to have participated in anti-coup movements. In accordance with the information received, a 10 year-old-child, Ven Bway Htan, was shot dead in the neck on the evening of 25 August 2021 in Htantalang Township of Chin State due to an unprovoked shooting by the military forces. Children are not safe, and the Myanmar military has no regard for the safety of children. It has no intention to abide by international laws protecting children in an armed conflict. According to the credible report, on 26 August 2021, in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in Yangon, Mr. Thein Min Oo was shot dead by the military forces on 121st street. His body was found between two buildings on 121st after the military forces reportedly opened fire at a drunken man shouting on the street. Neighbors believe that a stray bullet hit Mr. Thein Min Oo while the military forces chased and shot the drunk man. It is also reported that there were some injured civilians during the shootings. Taking Hostages On 24 August 2021, in Taw Kyaung Lay Village, in Khin-u Township of Sagaing Region, it is reported that the military forces arrested Ms. Ei Thandar Phyo, the younger sister of an alleged PDF. The forces took Ms. Ei Thandar Phyo as a hostage since they could not find her brother. On 27 August 2021, in South Dagon Township in Yangon, the husband and daughter of Political Activist Ms. Su Mar and a guest who were with them at home were reportedly arrested as the security forces could not find Ms. Su Mar at home. Deaths from Torture Mr. Soe Paing, a.k.a. Mr. Kyaw Khaing Win, a physics teacher from Tharkayta Township in Yangon Region, was reportedly arrested on 22 August 2021. He later died on the night of 23 August due to torture in interrogation. Similarly, on 24 August 2021, at night in Khayan Township of Yangon, Mr. Min Aung was shot and arrested by the security forces while passing by Khayan Police Station by a motorbike. He was then reportedly beaten during detention and died from the torture. In Monywa Township in Sagaing Region, Mr. Thet Paing Soe was reportedly arrested on 24 August 2021 and later died on 25 August. The security forces informed his family that he died due to COVID-19. However, his body was found with serious injuries due to constant torture. On 26 August 2021, Mr. Yan Aung Soe from Gonetan Village, in Shwebo Township of Sagaing Region, was reportedly arrested and taken to Gonetan Village Cemetery. The security forces then shot dead, who questioned him for allegedly possessing weapons in his house. Raiding in Rural Areas Myanmar military forces have reportedly been raiding in rural areas in Chaung-U Township in Sagaing Region. They raided Nwe Khwe village on 23 August 2021, Taw Kyaung Lay village on 24 August 2021, and Taw Kyaung Gyi and Thone Pan Hla villages on 26 August 2021. According to the residents, the forces invaded the villages where there were no anti-coup activities. They took even small things, and they did not leave behind a tiny amount of money. They searched the houses of youths who have been volunteering the charity work during the Covid-19 period. According to credible news, during the raid in Taw Kyaung Lay village, they destroyed some houses and took 9 million kyats, six motorcycles, jewelry, and clothes. Five youths who were taking care of Covid patients were reportedly arrested. Seizing Kar Paung Kya Village Military forces have seized Kar Paung Kya Village in Taze Township of the Sagaing Region since 26 August 2021. According to the residents, nearly a hundred soldiers in six trucks stormed the village at around 2 am on 26 August 2021. Troops started shooting a man who came out of the house to see what was happening. It is reported that several houses were torched and destroyed. More than a thousand of the 800-household inhabitants fled to a nearby forest. And the military troops even fired light weapons and heavy artillery into areas where villagers were hiding. On 27 August 2021, about 50 troops went into the forests to look for the fleeing villagers. People reportedly lost contact with each other, families have been separated, and many others have gone missing. During the raid, Mr. Moe Swe Oo and his younger sister were reportedly shot when they were hiding in a small hut three miles away from the village. According to a resident, Mr. Moe Swe Oo and his sister were shot while running away from soldiers. Mr. Moe Swe Oo reportedly died from his injuries, and his sister was severely wounded. According to the villagers, Kar Paung Kya village has been targeted repeatedly by the military troops. They keep coming into the village, destroying and looting things. Using Civilians as Human Shields It is reported that 30 civilians were detained by divisions 66 and 55 of the Myanmar military between 13 and 18 August 2021from Demoso, Hpruso, and Bawlakhe in Kayah State and Pekon township in Shan State during tensions between military forces and resistance fighters. The military has reportedly released 15 detainees; 10 from Pekon, three from Demoso, and two from Hpruso. However, 15 others are still being detained. According to credible news, six people taken from Demoso and Hpruso are in Loikaw after being used as human shields in different places. They will be interrogated in Loikaw. Those six people were detained on 14 August when they returned to their villages for food. One of the six is a 15-year-old with a health problem. A woman and seven men are reportedly being held by Light Infantry Battalion 531 based in Hpruso, and they have been seriously tortured. Generals, officers, and infantry soldiers have no regard for human life. They show no intention to abide by international humanitarian laws that protects civilians during the war. Mobilizing Military Troops in Karen State In accordance with the credible report, the Myanmar military has mobilized its troops in villages of the south of Kawkareik Township in Karen State. On 24 August 2021, Myanmar military forces and forces of the Karen National Union (KNU) clashed twice in Kawkareik Township after Myanmar military forces trespassed into KNU-controlled territory. It is reported that the military forces fired around 30 rounds of artillery, and there were casualties and deaths on both sides. Following the clashes, about 200 residents from Kawthanaw village fled their homes. According to the news, a jet fighter was seen on 25 August 2021 and was likely engaged in aerial reconnaissance. It is expected that a major invasion from the Myanmar military is coming soon. Targeting the members of the NLD On 21 August 2021, Mr. Kyaw Soe Win, a.k.a Kay Kay, NLD executive member in Aung Lan Township of Magway Region, was reportedly arrested in Shwe Pan Taw Village in Aung Lan Township. On 22 August 2021, it is reported that Ms. Khin Myat Thu, a Pyithu Hluttaw MP and NLD member of Mingaladon Township of Yangon Region, was arrested with her husband. Moreover, on 22 August 2021, Mr. Htay Win, MP of Htilin Township of Magway Region and executive member of the NLD of Magway Region, was also reportedly arrested in Sar Kyin Village in Pakokku Township of Magway Region. On 22 August 2021, Mr. Kyaw San Htoo, Magway Region NLD executive member, was reportedly arrested in Panmata Village at the Aung Lan Township of Magway Region. On 27 August 2021, in Kyaikhto Township of Mon State, Mr. Zaw Moe Htet, a.k.a. Gwen Gyi, NLD secretary of Theinzayat Town, who was issued a warrant under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code, was reportedly arrested by the security forces who were wearing plain clothes. Soldiers and Police joining the CDM It is reported that around 2,000 soldiers and police have joined the Civil Disobedient Movement (CDM) since the coup on 1 February 2021. Most of the soldiers who have joined the CDM are privates and sergeants. There are also around 100 officers ranking from lieutenants to majors. Most of them have reportedly fled to areas controlled by Ethnics Arms Organizations (EAOs), or some are hiding among civilians. These striking soldiers expect more military officers to join the CDM as the military regime continues to use violence against civilians. Humanitarian Situation The humanitarian update for Myanmar, issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 27 August 2021, highlighted the situations of people displacement and conditions of food insecurity in Myanmar. It is underlined that due to clashes and insecurity, thousands have been displaced in Sagaing Region and Chin State, particularly in and around Mindat Township. Also, in the south-eastern parts of the country, an estimated 141,200 people remain displaced, mainly in Kayah and Kayin States since the military coup. In the Shan States, more than 26,300 people have been displaced across the State since the beginning of 2021, of which about 6,400 of them remain displaced to date. It is also stated that food insecurity, particularly food shortage, is increasing in the displacement sites and communities in northern Shan and Rakhine states. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) also announced monthly food and cash assistance for vulnerable families in Rakhine State resumed during the fourth week of August. With monthly life-saving support, World Food Programme has provided food, and cash aids to nearly 360,000 food-insecure people in Chin, Kachin, Rakhine, and the Shan States, including women, children, and persons with disabilities and families displaced conflict. Activities of the National Unity Government On 24 August 2021, the National Unity Government released a Statement regarding the 4th anniversary of the atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya people in 2017. In the statement, the NUG has stated how it was saddened by the horrendous violence, gross human rights violations, and massive displacement that the Rohingya people suffered four years ago. The statement further explained that the same military responsible for all those atrocities has also perpetrated crimes against humanity and war crimes against the people of Myanmar over the decades. The NUG also expressed its endeavor in seeking justice and accountability for all crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya and all other people of Myanmar across the country throughout history. The NUG also informed its concerns regarding the situation of the Rohingya people in refugee camps of neighbouring countries and within Myanmar. It stated that voluntary and safe repatriation of the Rohingya people in a dignified manner is their utmost priority. Finally, the NUG also expressed its commitment to the fundamental principles enshrined in the Federal Democratic Charter, including fundamental human rights, human dignity, individual rights, collective rights, and establishing a Federal Democratic Union. The Radio NUG started its programme on 26 August 2021 at 8 am and 8 pm at SW 16, MHz 17.71. On 27 August 2021, the Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Investment released an Announcement on the Illicit Printing of Banknotes. In the announcement, the Ministry informed that they had received credible information that the illegitimate military council has made approaches to foreign banknotes and security printing times to seek assistance in printing new Myanmar Kyat banknotes. The Ministry also stated in the announcement that according to Section 16 of the Unlawful Associations Act 1908, the National Unity Government has determined the illegitimate military council to be an unlawful association, and thus, any issuance of currency effected by the military council, its successor entities, and any of its subordinate or subsidiary associations, including the so-called “caretaker government,” shall be deemed to lack legitimacy. The NUG called upon the military council to desist from the act of economic sabotage. It implored the foreign banknote and security printing approached the military council to refrain from printing Myanmar kyat Banknotes and providing any raw materials, supplies, etc., that could be used in their production. The NUG further called upon all responsible firms to follow the example set by Giesecke Devrient GmbH in March 2021. On 28 August 2021, the Ministry of Defence of the National Unity Government released Directive No. 2/2021 to Tatmadaw and Police Forces members. In the Directive, the Ministry referred to the policy of the NUG released under statement No. 8/2021 on 23 August 2021. According to that policy, the NUG also extended a special welcome to members of Tatmadaw and police forces who defected the State Administration Council to stand with the people. The NUG further instructed them not to obey the SAC’s orders and directives, to not obstruct, hinder, or attack People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and allied forces, and to not arrest, torture, or kill civilians and not plunder public and private properties. International Action and Pressure On 22 August 2021, Japan has reportedly refused to issue visas for two Myanmar military-appointed diplomats to the Embassy of Myanmar in Tokyo. However, the military has requested Japan to grant visas to them for the replacement in the Embassy. These two diplomats will be transferred to replace the two Myanmar diplomats who have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in early March 2021 and were dismissed by the military-controlled Ministry. During the 42nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly held on 23 August 2021, Speaker of the parliament of Singapore Tan Chuan-Jin remarked that platforms, particularly AIPA, are crucial for supporting a more integrated, digital, and forward-looking ASEAN community. He highlighted that the world is closely watching the response of ASEAN in resolving the crisis in Myanmar. Speaker of the parliament of Singapore stressed that Singapore welcomed the appointment of Brunei’s Foreign Minister as Special Envoy of the ASEAN to Myanmar, hoping that the special envoy will be allowed to have discussions and to facilitate meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders in Myanmar to facilitate the meaningful dialogue among all stakeholders in Myanmar for a peaceful political solution. He also affirmed that “the Myanmar people must determine the solution to the situation in Myanmar.” In the speech by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on the Indo-Pacific Region on 24 August 2021, it is highlighted that the U.S. is committed to supporting the people of Myanmar and restoring the democracy in the country and called for Indo-Pacific nations to join in that effort. In response to the reports of a journalist charged for doing their job, the U.S. embassy in Yangon issued an announcement on 26 August 2021 that the people in Myanmar and abroad should be free to express their beliefs and seek, receive, and share information and ideas. Following the public petition being signed by 268,428 people, which called on Seoul to render formal support to the National Unity Government (NUG) and to reject the military, the Office of the President of South Korea announced on 26 August 2021 that they will continue to engage with the NUG and continue to support the restoration of democracy in Myanmar through close cooperation with the international community. ***** Date: 29 August 2021 Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations, New York..."
Source/publisher: Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-12
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Title: Announcement Regarding the State of Affairs inside Obo Prison – Announcement (3/2021) - အိုးဘိုအကျဥ်း‌ထောင်တွင်း အခြေအနေနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ချက် – ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၀၃/၂၀၂၁)
Description: "On August 8, 2021, at about 9 PM., the Obo political detainees, who have been unjustly arrested, staged a protest against the lack of COVID-19 preventive measures and treatment inside the prison as a political movement marking the 33th anniversary of the 8888 Revolution. The terrorist junta and those who are in charge of the prison brutally suppressed the protest with gun-fires and the use of military force and subsequently silenced information regarding the situation. The family of the detamees, the people all over the country partaking in anti-authoritarian movements and the international community are all very concerned about the safety and well-being of these political detainees who have been unjustly arrested and confined. Regarding the protests inside Obo Prison, we make the following demands unwaveringly. 1. To unearth the truth regarding the current predicament inside Obo prison 2. To give access to COVID-19 preventive measures and treatment m all prisons in Myanmar, including Obo prison 3. To release unjustly arrested political detainees unconditionally and unexceptionally 4. To stop immediately the murdering of political detainees by using COVID-19 as a biological weapon.\ We urge the entire people of Myanmar, the international communities, the civil societies, the ambassadors residing in Myanmar and the international organizations to be vigilantly watchful of the status of access to medical care and other basic human rights inside prisons in Myanmar and to spread out helping hands by any means possible..."
Source/publisher: Student Union Representatives Committee - SURC
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-10
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Title: Myanmar Rock Singer Ito Arrested for Alleged Anti-Regime Activities
Description: "The Myanmar junta arrested rock singer Ito at his home in Yangon’s Mayangone Township on Wednesday night for alleged connections with anti-regime activities. At least five others were also arrested, according to sources close to the artist. Professionally known as Ito, Ko Win Htut Thawdar is in his 30s. He is also a composer and a son of famous Myanmar rocker Zaw Win Htut. Details of the alleged anti-regime activities of which he is accused are not yet known, nor is the location where he is being held. Myanmar has been in political turmoil since the military seized power from the country’s democratically elected government on Feb. 1. Following the coup, many celebrities joined the anti-regime movement, using their popularity to amplify its pro-democracy message. They took to the streets to protest against the coup and urged civil servants to strike by joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). They have been targeted for their participation in protests against military rule, with arrest warrants being issued for nearly 100 celebrities, artists, singers, actors, actresses and directors. About a dozen have been arrested, and nine famous Myanmar artists including comedian U Zaganar, director Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, actors Lu Min and Pyay Ti Oo, model Paing Takhon, actress Eaindra Kyaw Zin and singers Saw Phoe Kwer and Po Po are still in detention. In June, rock singer and songwriter Raymond, 32, passed away while evading arrest for participating in the anti-regime movement, after being charged under Article 505A of the penal code. Like other pro-democracy activists, many in the arts community are in hiding, having fled their homes to evade arrest. A few others have joined Myanmar’s “Spring Revolution.” Some artists have joined the armed resistance struggle and others are working for the parallel National Unity Government (NUG). As of Thursday, the Myanmar regime had killed a total of 1,058 civilians, arrested 7,992—of whom 6,343 are still in detention—and issued arrest warrants for 1,984, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-10
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Title: Press Statement of MATA for arrestment to Kyaw Minn Htut and his family members - ဖမ်းဆီးခံရသည့်ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ် နှင့် သူ၏မိသားစုဝင်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှုတာဝန်ခံမှုဆိုင်ရာမဟာမိတ်အဖွဲ့၏ သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ချက်
Description: "Press Statement of MATA for arrestment to Kyaw Minn Htut and his family members Date: 6th September 2021 Kyaw Minn Htut, the member of Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability (MATA) and his younger brother Kyaw Minn Aung including a man who lived together with them were arrested at home by SAC around 3:00 pm today (6th September 2021) in Nandawon Ward, Monwyar town, Sagaing region. One day ahead, Daw Khin Saw Hlaing and two years old child who are wife and son of Kyaw Minn Htut were also detained on 5th September 2021 by the military as well. Kyaw Minn Htut has been working for environmental protection and human rights issues consistently and he actively participated in the non-violent movement for democracy and human rights since after the coup. Besides, SAC neglected human rights and humanitarian principles by arresting his wife and two years old child. Kyaw Minn Htut is also the civil society representative from the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) of Myanmar Extractive Industry Transparency Initiatives (MEITI). MATA is the civil society alliance which was formed with over 400 organizations across the country for implementation of transparency and accountability in Extractive Industry through participating in MEITI. Kyaw Minn Hut is representative of Sagaing for MSG on behalf of MATA. Therefore, we strongly ask for freedom of Kyaw Minn Htut and all detained people who participated in the non-violent democracy movement without any harm and stop the coup immediately.....ဖမ်းဆီးခံရသည့်ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ် နှင့် သူ၏မိသားစုဝင်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှုတာဝန်ခံမှုဆိုင်ရာမဟာမိတ်အဖွဲ့၏ သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ချက် ရက်စွဲ။ ။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ (၆) ရက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူတာဝန်ခံမှုဆိုင်ရာ မဟာမိတ်အဖွဲ့ (MATA) အဖွဲ့ဝင်တဦး ဖြစ်သည့် ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ် နှင့် သူ၏ညီအရင်းဖြစ်သူ ကိုကျော်မင်းအောင် အပါဝင် (၃) ဦးအား ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ (၆) ရက်နေ့ ညနေပိုင်းတွင် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ မုံရွာမြို့၊ နန္ဒဝန်ရပ်ကွက်ရှိ နေအိမ်တွင် ဝင်ရောက် စီးနင်းဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ (၅) ရက်နေ့တွင်လည်း ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ်၏ ဇနီးဖြစ်သူ ဒေါ်ခင်စောလှိုင်နှင့် (၂)နှစ် အရွယ်ခန့်သာရှိသေးသည့် သားငယ်တို့အားလည်း ဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့‌ကြောင်းကြားသိရပါသည်။ ယခု စစ်ကောင်စီမှ ဖမ်းဆီးထားသည့် ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ်မှာ သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးနှင့် လူ့အ ခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာ ကိစ္စရပ်များကို တစိုက်မတ်မတ်လုပ်ဆောင်နေသူဖြစ်ပြီး၊ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးချိန်မှစ၍ အကြမ်း မဖက်သည့်နည်းလမ်းဖြင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအတွက်ဆောင်ရွက်နေသူဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့အပြင် သူ၏ဇနီး နှင့် ကလေးငယ်အား ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းထားခြင်းမှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ စံနှုံန်းများနှင့်များစွာ သွေဖီပြီး အကျည်းတန်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်ဖြစ်သည်ဟုလည်း မိမိတို့ ရှုမြင်မိပါသည်။ ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ်သည် MATA အဖွဲ့ဝင်တဦးဖြစ်သည့်အပြင် (MEITI) ၏ သုံးပွင့်ဆိုင်အဖွဲ့ ဝင်တဦး လည်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ MATA သည် တွင်းထွက် သဘာဝသယံဇာတဆိုင်ရာ ပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာ မှု လုပ်ငန်းစဉ် (EITI-Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) အား အကောင်ထည်ဖော်သည့် အရပ်ဘက် မဟာမိတ်အဖွဲ့ အစည်း တခုဖြစ်ပြီး အဖွဲ့စည်းပေါင်း (၄၀၀) ကျော်ဖြင့်ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသည့် မဟာမိတ်အဖွဲ့အစည်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ်သည် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး မှ MATA အဖွဲ့ဝင်အဖြစ် ပါဝင်သူတဦး ဖြစ်ပြီး EITI (သဘာဝ သယံဇာတဆိုင်ရာ ပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာမှုဖော်ဆောင်ရေး) လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်တွင် သုံးပွင့်ဆိုင်ညွန့်ပေါင်းအဖွဲ့ MSG (Multi Stakeholder Group) အဖွဲ့ဝင်တဦးလည်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ ဒီမိုကရေစီပြန်လည်ရရှိရေးအတွက် အကြမ်းမဖက်သောနည်းဖြင့် ဆောင်ရွက်နေသည့် ကိုကျော်မင်းထွဋ် အပါအဝင် ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းထားသည့် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ အားလုံးအား ရာဇဝတ်သား များကဲ့သို့ပြုမူဆက်ဆံခြင်းများမပြုလုပ်ဘဲ ချွင်းချက်မရှိပြန်လည်လွှတ်ပေးရန်နှင့် အာဏာသိမ်းသည့်လုပ်ရပ် အားအမြန်ဆုံးရပ်တန့်ရန် အလေးအနက်တိုက်တွန်း လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-07
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Title: Myanmar LGBTQ Makeup Artist Swaps Beauty Salon for Border Hideout and Revolution
Description: "Until the military takeover on Feb. 1, cosmetics, fashion and beauty design were the most important parts of May Oo’s daily life. For more than a decade, he loved to visually transform people’s appearance through his skills. His passion turned him into one of Yangon’s most highly sought-after makeup artists. His customers included celebrities and family members of high-ranking military officials. By THE IRRAWADDY 3 September 2021 Until the military takeover on Feb. 1, cosmetics, fashion and beauty design were the most important parts of May Oo’s daily life. For more than a decade, he loved to visually transform people’s appearance through his skills. His passion turned him into one of Yangon’s most highly sought-after makeup artists. His customers included celebrities and family members of high-ranking military officials. “It’s the profession I really love and I see it as a creative art,” said May Oo, who is gay. But the military takeover that toppled the elected government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has turned his life upside down. As a supporter of the NLD government, the 33-year-old opposed the coup. “We can’t accept it. The military stole power from the elected civilian government, which we voted for,” May Oo said. Like millions of others, he joined the anti-coup campaigns that have sprung up across the country and which range from banging pots and pans at night to marching in daily street protests to calling on civil servants to strike. At the same time, he disseminated information on the anti-regime protest movement known as Myanmar’s Spring Revolution via his own social media page, which has 770,000 followers, awing his customers with pictures of him shouting anti-regime slogans via a bullhorn at the front of a protest column. In March, May Oo refused to do the makeup for well-to-do families planning to attend a junta-organized religious ceremony in Naypyitaw, at which the junta conferred titles on wealthy persons. However, he had to pay a price for his activism. An arrest warrant was issued by the regime for incitement. Soldiers raided his apartment and took everything including his computer and makeup boxes. “They also destroyed everything in the whole room,” he recalled. Luckily, he managed to evade arrest. After the junta’s crackdowns against protesters intensified in late March, he was forced to go into hiding in April, partly because of his involvement in protests and for providing support to crackdown victims and their families. As of Sept. 2, the junta had killed 1,043 civilians and arrested a total of 7,768, of whom 6,132 are still detained. In addition, during their raids, junta troops have looted and destroyed property. While in lockdown during the first and second waves of COVID-19 in 2020, May Oo was able to continue his work, including providing training to amateur artists. He had trained amateurs and young talents in his profession since 2017, when he opened the May Oo Magic Beauty school, as well as leading a makeup team. His salon employed 12 full-time staff and some 60 part-time artists before the coup. Now the makeup artist lives a very different life in a place where he feels safe on the border. (He declined to provide details for security reasons.) He once received some weapons training like other young people determined to topple the regime through armed resistance. But he found that his hands, familiar only with makeup brushes, were not good with guns. Since then May Oo has devoted his time and energy to other activities, like raising funds for the movement. “I know my strength is not [in military activities], so I choose to support this revolution in whatever way I can. I just see myself as a pillar to help the revolution be victorious,” he explained. May Oo admitted that he can’t help but take off his hat to the young women he has seen seriously engaging in military training, adding that seeing them left him with mixed feelings. “I’m sure they never thought they would go through such a hard life. But they see that nothing is more important than ousting the regime. So, they feel immune to all the misery and difficulties they are facing. I feel sad for them but at the same time I feel happy [for the country],” he said. As a gay man who is open about his sexuality, his hopes when voting for the NLD in the November 2020 election were simple: He wanted a government that would respect human rights, including those of the LGBTQ community, which has long faced discrimination in Myanmar. “The NLD is the only party which respects the rights of minorities and marginalized groups. As an LGBTQ person, we have seen improvements and dignified treatment under the NLD government,” he said. He told The Irrawaddy that from his point of view, physical and verbal abuse of LGBTQ people decreased under the civilian government. “For a long time, we were insulted for our sexual orientation; but after 2015, we felt less discriminated against, and there were opportunities for makeup artists to choose the path they want.” LGBTQ people are subject to official persecution and discrimination under Section 377 of the Penal Code as well as the Police Act. People who engage in same-sex acts can be punished with up to 10 years in prison. The push for legislative change got under way under the NLD government and the LGBTQ community had high hopes for it. “I have suffered discrimination as a gay person since my younger days. I don’t want to experience it again,” he said. It has now been nearly five months since May Oo went into hiding. He said sometimes he feels regret, especially when he sees people having fun on Facebook. “That feeling doesn’t last long, though, because I comfort myself with knowing I have done nothing wrong and am taking a stand on the right side,” he said. Asked if he missed his former life as a makeup artist, he said yes and no. He misses it when he thinks of what his life was like in the past. “But when I think about tomorrow under this current situation, I no longer miss it at all, because you can’t guess what will happen next. It’s exciting [to see] what the future will hold for me.”..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-03
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Title: Arrests, torture, beatings and jail – inside Myanmar’s daily junta reality
Summary: "Myanmar’s military leaders used its armed forces to launch its coup and take control of the country from its elected government on 1 February 2021. In protest, millions of people took to the streets...
Description: "Myanmar’s military leaders used its armed forces to launch its coup and take control of the country from its elected government on 1 February 2021. In protest, millions of people took to the streets. The military responded to these protests by sending armed soldiers and police into residential areas to arrest defiant civilians, workers, students, doctors and nurses. In March, martial law was enforced in Yangon, snipers were used, and protesters were shot on sight. To restrict news coverage of their crimes and to impede the organisatiojn of protests, the military ordered telecommunication companies to restrict internet and mobile phone coverage. Independent media outlets had their licences withdrawn, offices were raided and trashed. Journalists were targeted and hunted by soldiers and police. Obscure laws were added to the penal code and used to restrict freedom of speech and expression. State-controlled media published pages of arrest warrants and photographs of the wanted, including journalists. To avoid arrest, independent journalists went underground or sought refuge with border based ethnic armed organisations. Myanmar journalists are well aware that being “arrested” and held in detention by the military doesn’t come with respect for their legal or human rights. The military uses a wide range of obscure laws, some dating back to colonial times, to detain, intimidate and silence its critics — academics, medics, journalists, students and workers. 95 journalists arrested Independent website, Reporting ASEAN, recorded that, as of August 18, 95 journalists had been arrested and 42 were being held in detention. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) estimated by August 29 that the military has now killed at least 1026 people, arrested 7627, issued warrants for 1984 and are still holding 6025 in detention. They want names Those arrested are taken to interrogation centres and held indefinitely without contact with family or legal representation. Torture is used to extort names and contacts from the detained to be added to the military’s long list of those to be hunted down and suppressed into silence. One of those names on the military’s wanted list is that of journalist Nyan Linn Htet, now in hiding, after a warrant under Section 505 (a) was issued for his arrest. Nyan Linn Htet, managing editor of Mekong News, in an interview with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) explains the impact of being hunted has had on both him and his family. “If I’m arrested it means I lose everything. When we had to run and go into hiding, we lost our home and our possessions. You lose your income. Your equipment. You never feel safe when hiding. Living like this affects all of us. If the military does not find me, they will pressure and threaten my family with arrest.” Nyan Linn Htet said he is still working despite the risk of arrest. “Losing a journalist is a big loss for our struggle for democracy. We’re only doing our job as reporters, but our news coverage exposes the military and its abuses – this is why we’re the enemy.” Despite the danger to him and his family, Nyan Linn Htet worries about the safety of those who helped him avoid arrest. ‘Caught in hiding’ “If I’m caught in hiding, the SAC (military-appointed State Administration Council) will persecute the people who gave me a place to live. I’m afraid they [the military] will arrest those who helped me.” His fears are well founded. Journalist and political analyst Sithu Aung Myint was high on the military’s wanted list for his political commentary and published opposition to the coup. On Sunday, August 15, the military raided the home of his colleague, BBC freelance producer, Htet Htet Khine, and arrested both of them. A week later, in its Sunday, August 21, edition, the military-run newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar, said Sithu Aung Myint had been charged with sedition, spreading “fake news” and being critical of the military coup leaders and its State Administration Council under Sections 505 (a) and 124 (a) of the Penal Code. He could be sentenced to life in jail under Section 124 (a) of the penal code. Htet Htet Khine was arrested for giving shelter to Sithu Aung Myint, and charged under section 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act for working with the recently formed National Union Government’s radio station, Federal FM. Held in interrogation centre Friends and colleagues of Sithu Aung Myint and Htet Htet Khine told IFJ they are concerned both journalists were held at an interrogation centre for more than a week before having access to either legal help or contact with colleagues or family. Nyan Linn Htet told IFJ he is aware his legal and human rights will not be respected if he is arrested. “They will not let us get legal help until they’ve got what they want from us. The military amended 505 (a) of the Penal Code to prevent giving us bail. We know they will jail us even if we have legal representation. “We know SAC is torturing journalists because of the work we do.” Reports by local and international humanitarian groups have detailed the severe beatings — hours of maintaining stressed positions, use of sexual violence — and killing of people while held in detention. Nyan Linn Htet said if arrested, he knows it will come with beatings. He admits that the thought of being tortured keeps him awake at night. “They will jail me, but only after they torture me. I will not be released until I sign a statement that I will never criticise them. I’m not afraid of being arrested, but torture scares me. There are nights when I’m too afraid to sleep.” International media drop Myanmar He and other local journalists told the IFJ it was disappointing that international media has dropped Myanmar from its news agenda and moved on to cover other stories. Nyan Linn Htets said despite access difficulties, the international media can use local reporters who are willing to help. “We know the difficulties media has getting ground access to Myanmar. Covid-19 restrictions also make it impossible to legally cross borders from neighboring countries, but we are already here in the country and are capable of doing the job.” Despite the fear of arrest and torture, he is still reporting and urged local journalists to keep doing the same. “It’s important we use what we can to still work and report news events of interest to people. People are accessing news and information in many different ways now.” The military, while trashing local and international laws and ignoring its constitution, is quick to use and amend laws to jail its opponents for being critical of the coup and for reporting military violence, abuse and corruption. We have no rights Nan Paw Gay, editor-in-chief at the Karen Information Center, says the military council has no respect for journalists or their right to publish information in the public interest. “There is no freedom of the press. If journalists try to report news or seek information from the military’s opponents — CRPH, NUG, CDM, G-Z and PDF — the State Administration Council prosecutes them under Section 17/1 of the Illegal Association Act. “Since the military launched its coup, sources we use have had their freedom of speech and expression made illegal and they now risk arrest for talking to us and… we can be arrested for speaking with them. “Independent media groups have been outlawed and totally lost their right to speak freely or write about news events.” Nan Paw Gay points out if journalists are “critical of the military, its appointed State Administration Council or its lack of a public health plan to tackle the covid-19 pandemic now ravaging the country, section 505 (a) is used to arrest journalists for spreading false news.” Essentially torture is used to terrorise journalists, he says. “When the military council arrests and detains journalists, the torture is both physical and psychological. Even before being detained threats are issued and then during the arrest the violence becomes real – shootings, people being kicked and dragged from homes by their hair and beaten.” Women journalists tortured Nan Paw Gay says women journalists are more likely to be “tortured using psychological abuse – kept in a dark room and constantly told that they will be killed tomorrow – to mess and generate fear with their thoughts. You can see the effects of the tortured on some journalists when they appear in court – shaking hands and body spasms.” Military brutality is a daily reality for Myanmar’s people. At the time of writing, the army is preparing to deploy and reinforce its bases with hundreds of extra troops into areas of the Karen National Union-controlled territory and where anti-coup protesters, striking doctors and politicians have been offered refuge and safety. A senior ethnic Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) soldier told the IFJ that army drones and helicopters have been surveying the area in recent months. “We know they’ve sent munitions and large troop numbers to our area… last time we had drones flying over our area, they later attacked villages and our positions with airstrikes. They’re already fighting in our Brigade 5 and 1 and have started in 6 and 2.” Since the military launched its coup on February 1, there has been at least 500 armed battles between the KNU and the military regime and 70,000 Karen civilians have been displaced and are hiding in makeshift camps as a direct result of these attacks. Fighter jets have flown into Karen National Union-controlled areas 27 times and dropped at least 47 bombs, killing 14 civilians and wounding 28. Naw K’nyaw Paw, general secretary of the Karen Women Organisation, in an interview with Karen News, said villagers displaced by the Myanmar Army attacks are now in desperate need of humanitarian aid. ‘Shoot at villagers’ “They shoot at villagers if they see them on their farms, burning down their rice barns and killing the livestock left behind. The Burma Army also arrests people when they see them and use them as human shields to protect them when attacked by Karen soldiers.” Naw K’nyaw Paw said accessing the displaced villagers is difficult, especially during the wet season. “The only accessible way in is on foot, supplies have to be carried through jungle. Given the restrictions due to covid-19 as well as the increasing Burma Army military operations, villagers are unable to return to their homes and they will need food, clothing and medicine, especially the young and old.” Nan Paw Gay says the military’s strategy to muzzle the media is a familiar tactic that has been used before. “Stop international media getting access to conflict areas, shut down independent media, hunt local journalists and when there’s no one to left to report, launch attacks in ethnic regions, displacing thousands of villagers.” Phil Thornton is a journalist and senior adviser to the International Federation of Journalists in South East Asia. This article was first published by the IFJ Asia-Pacific blog and is republished with the author’s permission. Thornton is also a contributor to Asia Pacific Report..."
Source/publisher: Asia Pacific Report
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-01
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Title: The Women’s League of Burma reinforces our condemnation of the junta’s illegal and unjust seizure of power and urges international community to act
Description: "On the day marking seven months since the Burmese military’s attempted coup, the Women’s League of Burma (WLB) reinforces our condemnation of the junta’s illegal and unjust seizure of power and categorically rejects the assault on civilian livelihoods including the infringement of basic human rights freedoms and protections by the Burmese Army, and in particular the targeting of women and girls through sexual violence as a weapon of war. WLB also condemns the junta’s efforts of using its controlled media and personnel to defame women who have joined resistance forces fighting against them, particularly the junta’s spokesperson shameful use of sexist and patriarchal language against these brave women. Since February the first, the whole country has been pushed back to living under constant threats and insecurity. The military has used all forms of violence including arrest, killing, torture and sexual assault to suppress any actions taken against the coup. Over 1,000 civilians have been killed by security forces, including over 73 women. More than 1,084 women were among 7,300 people arrested simply for their political views. Moreover, the junta has launched military offensives including airstrikes in Kachin, Karen, Karenni/Kayah, Rakhine and Shan State and Sagaing Region. As a result, more than 240,000 people have been internally displaced across the country adding to the already-existing numbers of IDPs. Among those, 80 percent, are women and children who face risks of malnutrition and sexual violence by the Burmese soldiers. Pregnant women have been forced to give birth while hiding in the jungle without proper health care. An increase number of rape and sexual abuse by the junta’s security forces against women has been reported daily. Besides its brutal attacks against the people, the Burmese military is blocking the routes to transport humanitarian aid to those in need, or even arresting relief workers. This humanitarian crisis unfolding across the country has heightened the needs of vulnerable communities against the backdrop of a raging pandemic. The COVID-19 has allowed the junta to restrict the movement of opposition forces and to limit civilian access to health care. WLB reiterates our commitment fighting against all forms of dictatorships in our country alongside with our alliances in the federal democracy movement as well as with various international and regional actors to raise awareness about the situation inside Burma, in particular highlighting the plight of women, girls including all human rights defenders. On this occasion, we urge international community to act as follows: To the International Community Categorically reject the military junta by supporting and standing with the people of Burma to topple the military dictatorship; To apply pressure on the junta for the immediate and unconditional cessation of military violence and the release of all arbitrarily detained protesters and political prisoners including female detainees as well as an end to the use of sexual violence by security forces against female detainees;..."
Source/publisher: Women's League of Burma
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-01
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Title: Enforced Disappearances by the Military Junta
Description: "On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, AAPP calls on international actors to recognize the enforced disappearances perpetrated by the military in its terror campaign against the entire population in Burma since the military coup. As of AAPP’s most recent database, the current condition of 82% of people on the under-detention lists are detained in an unknown location. The international community must demand the junta reveals the location to civil society of all of those arbitrarily detained. In the junta’s efforts to shield itself from accountability, the location of these detainees is withheld from civil society and independent media. In fact, intelligence on the fate or whereabouts of any of the total 7627 people detained since the coup has not been disclosed by the junta. AAPP Secretary U Tate Naing said “in Burma’s previous dictatorship, families of the detained were never notified of their loves ones transfer to prisons or the event that led to arrest. Families must spend time going to police stations or prisons to inquire about their relatives as well as asking other inmates’ families, often using bribes. Sometimes, information is revealed through media outlets instead. Even the whereabouts of the democratically elected leaders, President U Win Myint and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, have not been disclosed and access to lawyers restricted. Such intentional disappearances pose a serious threat to public security and basic international law”. According to the 2002 Rome Statute, enforced disappearances occur when a detention of an individual is “followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time”. Even children are being enforced disappeared as hostage by the junta. In night-time raids or at peaceful protests everyone is at risk of being detained in secret locations by the junta. If one is taken to an interrogation center or military barracks, they could be tortured to death in Burma without anyone knowing where one was. AAPP Joint-Secretary U Bo Kyi said, “enforced disappearances are an attempt to create a climate of fear across Burma, to stop anti-coup protests, and begin dictatorial rule. The result of enforced disappearances is not only to bully the detainees, but forces families and friends to suffer. Not knowing the fate or whereabouts of a loved one, this is a kind of physiological torture as well as physical abuse of one’s human rights. For this reason, it is one of the worse kinds of crimes against humanity”. Article 7 (i) of the Rome Statute declares that enforced disappearances constitute crimes against humanity, when it is committed as part of a widespread and/or systematic attack, which it most certainly is in Burma. On 20 August, the National Unity Government released a statement accepting jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court with respect to crimes committed in Burma since July 1, 2002. Enforced disappearance falls within the jurisdiction created by the Rome Statute, accountability for these crimes against humanity must be ensured. Recognizing the political legitimacy of the National Unity Government at the United Nations General Assembly will strengthen these international accountability mechanisms, including to end the Burma junta’s use of enforced disappearances with impunity. Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Download link for English Forced Disappearances by the Military Junta **On 28 May AAPP released a report and database[1] on missing persons since the military coup, these were split into different categories including missing in detention and disappeared on the streets. AAPP released this report to report on the repression and chaos created by the military coup, but firmly stipulated the fate of all those missing as of 28 May has not been verified to junta involvement, but rather strong suspicion..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-30
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Title: Enforced Disappearances by the Military Junta - အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ပြည်သူများကို အဓမ္မပျောက်ဆုံးနေစေမှုများ
Description: "ယနေ့တွင် ကျရောက်သည့် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ အတင်းအဓမ္မအစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေမှုဒဏ် ခံရသူများနေ့၌ စစ်တပ်အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်ကတည်းက မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးကို ခြိမ်းခြောက်လျက်ရှိနေသည့် ၎င်းတို့ ၏ လူမဆန်သော ကျူးလွန်မှုများထဲတွင် ပါဝင်လျက်ရှိသော ပြည်သူများအား အတင်းအဓမ္မ အစအန ပျောက်ဆုံးစေမှုများကို နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုက်အဝန်းအနေဖြင့် သတိမူ၍ အရေးယူမှုများ ပြုလုပ်ရန် မိမိတို့ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်းမှ တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းမှု စတင်သည့် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလကတည်းက အတင်းအဓမ္မ အစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေမှုများမှာ ယခု အချိန်ထိ ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေဆဲဖြစ်ပြီး AAPP ၏ အချက်အလက်များအရ စစ်တပ်၏ မတရားဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်း ခံထားရသူများထဲမှ (၈၂) ရာခိုင်နှုန်းမှာ မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံထားရသလဲဆိုသည်ကို မသိရှိရပေ။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ တရားလက်လွတ်ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းချုပ်နှောင်ခံထားရသူများအား မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်း ထားကြောင်းကို စစ်အုပ်စုမှ ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောကြားရန် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုက်အဝန်းအနေဖြင့် တောင်းဆိုရန် လိုအပ်သည်။ စစ်တပ်အာဏာသိမ်းချိန်မှ စတင်၍ ယနေ့အချိန်အထိ ဖမ်းဆီးခံခဲ့ရသူ စုစုပေါင်း (၇၆၂၇) ဦးရှိခဲ့ရာ စစ်အုပ်စု အနေဖြင့် ဖမ်းဆီးခံများကို မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ချုပ်နှောင်ထိန်းသိမ်းထားကြောင်းကို ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုမှု လုံးဝမပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ပေ။ မိသားစုကိုယ်တိုင်နှင့် အရပ်ဖက်လူမှုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ ရှေ့နေများ၊ မီဒီယာများ စသည်တို့၏ ကြိုးစားအားထုတ်မှုကြောင့်သာ ဖမ်းဆီးခံရသူအချို့မှာ မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ရှိနေသည်ကို သိရှိရခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ AAPP ၏ အတွင်းရေးမှူး ဦးတိတ်နိုင်မှ “ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စစ်အာဏာရှင်အဆက်ဆက်မှာ ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းတာ၊ ထောင်ပြောင်းတာတွေကို ကာယကံရှင်များရဲ့ မိသားစုများကို ဘယ်သောအခါမှ အသိပေးတာမရှိခဲ့ဘူး။ မိသားစုများက ထောင်တွေ၊ ရဲစခန်းတွေကို သွားရောက်စုံစမ်း မေးမြန်းတာ၊ အကျဉ်းကျနေသူတွေရဲ့ မိသားစုတွေကတဆင့် စုံစမ်းမေးမြန်းတာတွေကို အချိန်ကုန်၊ ငွေကုန်၊ လူပန်းခံပြီး ခက်ခက်ခဲခဲ စုံစမ်းကြရတယ်။ တစ်ခါတရံ မီဒီယာတွေကမှ တဆင့်သိကြရတယ်။ နိုင်ငံတော်သမ္မတ ဦးဝင်းမြင့်နဲ့ လူထုခေါင်းဆောင် ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်ကိုတောင် ဒီကနေ့အထိ ဘယ်နေရာမှာ ထိန်းသိမ်းထားတယ် ဆိုတာကို မထုတ်ပြန်တဲ့အပြင် ရှေ့နေတွေနဲ့တွေ့ခွင့်ကိုပါ ပိတ်ပင်တာတွေလုပ်လာခဲ့တယ်။ ဒီလို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ အစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေခြင်းဟာ ပြည်သူတွေရဲ့ လုံခြုံရေးကို ကြီးမားစွာ ခြိမ်းခြောက်တာ ဖြစ်ပြီး နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေတွေကိုလည်း စိန်ခေါ်ရာ ရောက်ပါတယ်” ဟု မှတ်ချက်ပြုသည်။ ရောမစာချုပ် (၂၀၀၂) ၌ အာဏာပိုင်များအနေဖြင့် ထိန်းသိမ်းချုပ်နှောင်ထားသည့် တစ်စုံတစ်ဦးကို အချိန် ကာလကြာမြှင့်စွာ ဥပဒေ၏ အကာအကွယ်ပေးမှုမှ ကင်းလွတ်စေရန် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ဖြင့် မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ရှိနေသည်ကို ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုခြင်း၊ လွတ်လပ်မှုဆုံးရှုံးနေခြင်းတို့ကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုရန် ငြင်းဆန်ခြင်းသည် အတင်းအဓမ္မ အစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေမှုမြောက်သည်ဟု ပြဌာန်းထားသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် အလိုရှိသူကို ဖမ်းမမိသည့်အခြေအနေမျိုးတွင် မိသားစုဝင်များကို ဓားစာခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းများလည်း ပြုလုပ်လျက်ရှိနေသလို ထိုဓားစာခံများကို မည်သည့်နေရာတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းထား ကြောင်းလည်း ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုခြင်းမရှိပေ။ ထိုအထဲတွင် အရွယ်မရောက်သေးသည့် လူမမယ်ကလေး သူငယ်များပင် ပါဝင်သည်။ ညအချိန်ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်း၍ ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း သို့မဟုတ် ဆန္ဒပြပွဲအတွင်း ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း ခံရသူများသည် လျို့ဝှက်သောနေရာများတွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းချုပ်နှောင်ခံနေကြရသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ဖမ်းဆီးခံရပြီး နောက် စစ်ကြောရေးစခန်းများတွင် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရ၍ မည်သူမှ မသိလိုက်ရဘဲ အသက်သေဆုံးသွား ရမှုပင် ကြုံတွေ့ရနိုင်သည့် အန္တရာယ်ကို မြန်မာပြည်သူများမှာ နေစဉ်နှင့်အမျှ ရင်ဆိုင်နေကြရသည်။ AAPP ၏ တွဲဖက်အတွင်းရေးမှူး ဦးဘိုကြည်က “အတင်းအဓမ္မ အစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေမှုတွေဟာ အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို အသက်သွင်းပြီး သူတို့ကိုဆန့်ကျင်နေမှုတွေ ရပ်တန့်စေဖို့ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုက မြန်မာတနိုင်ငံလုံးအနှံ့ ကြောက်ရွံ့မှုတွေကို တိုးလာအောင် ဖန်တီးဖို့ ကြိုးစားနေတာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဒီလိုလုပ်ရပ် ဟာ အထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူတွေကို ခြိမ်းခြောက်နေတာတင်မကဘဲ မိသားစုဝင်တွေနဲ့ မိတ်ဆွေသူငယ်ချင်းတွေ ကိုပါ ထိခိုက်နစ်နာခံစားရအောင် လုပ်ဆောင်နေတာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ချစ်ခင်ရသူတစ်ဦးဦးကို ဘယ်နေရာမှာ ထိန်းသိမ်းထားတယ်ဆိုတာ တရားဝင်အသိမပေးဘဲ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ထိန်ချန်ထားခြင်းဟာ စိတ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှု အသွင်တစ်ခုဖြစ်သလို ရုပ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာအရပါ ဖိစီးနှိပ်စက်ခြင်း မြောက်ပါတယ်။ ဒါကြောင့် ဒီနည်းလမ်းတွေကို ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့်နဲ့ စနစ်တကျ အသုံးပြုကျူးလွန်နေတာဟာ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်တဲ့ အဆိုးရွားဆုံး ရာဇဝတ်မှုတွေထဲက တစ်ခုဖြစ်ပါတယ်” ဟု ဆိုသည်။ ရောမစာချုပ်၏ အပိုဒ် ၇ (ဈ) တွင် အတင်းအဓမ္မ အစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေခြင်းကို စနစ်တကျနှင့် ကျယ်ကျယ် ပြန်ပြန့် ကျူးလွန်လာပါက လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့်ရာဇဝတ်မှု၏ အင်္ဂါရပ်တစ်ခုအဖြစ် ထည့်သွင်းပြဌာန်းထားသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက ဇူလိုင်လ (၁) ရက်၊ ၂၀၀၂ ခုနှစ်မှ စတင်၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်း ကျူးလွန် ခဲ့သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ တာဝန်ရှိသူများကို အရေးယူနိုင်ရန် နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး၏ တရားစီရင်မှုများကို လက်ခံမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ဩဂုတ်လ ၂၀ ရက်နေ့က ကြေညာခဲ့သည်။ အတင်းအဓမ္မ အစအနပျောက်ဆုံးစေခြင်းသည် ရောမစာချုပ်အရ အပ်နှင်းထားသော တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်အတွင်း၌ တည်ရှိ ပြီး အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်၏ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သောရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှု၊ တာဝန်ခံမှုရှိစေရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရကို ကုလသမဂ္ဂအထွေထွေညီလာခံတွင် နိုင်ငံရေးအရ တရားဝင်အစိုးရတစ်ရပ် အဖြစ် အသိအမှတ်ပြုခြင်းသည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် အရေးယူခံရခြင်းမှ ကင်းလွတ်နေမှုကို အဆုံးသတ်နိုင်ရန် အပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံတကာတာဝန်ယူမှု၊ တာဝန်ခံမှု ယန္တရားများကို ခိုင်မာအားကောင်းစေခြင်း ပင် ဖြစ်သည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း စတိတ်မန့်အပြည့်အစုံ ဒေါင်းလော့ရယူရန် Burmese Forced Disappearances by the Military Junta..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-30
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 163.55 KB
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Title: More than 100 prisoners died at the hands of the military council - စစ်ကောင်စီလက်ထဲ သေဆုံးရသူ နိုင်ကျဉ်း ၁၀၀ ကျော်ရှိ
Sub-title: စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှုကြောင့် ဖမ်းခံရပြီး ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း သေဆုံးရသူ ၆၆ ဦးအပြင် ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု လုံလောက်စွာ မရသဖြင့် သေဆုံးရသူများလည်း ရှိနေသည်ဟု AAPP က ဆိုသည်
Description: "စစ်ကောင်စီလက်ထဲတွင် သေဆုံးရသူ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား ၁၁၀ ရှိကာ ဖမ်းဆီးစဉ် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရသဖြင့် ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသူများနှင့်အတူ ဆေးကုသခွင့် ကောင်းစွာမရသဖြင့် သေဆုံးရသူများလည်း ပါဝင်ကြောင်း နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ ကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း (AAPP) က ဆိုသည်။ ထိုနိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသား ၁၀၀ ကျော်မှာ အကျဉ်းသားအခွင့်အရေးမရရှိဘဲ နှိပ်စက်ခံရပြီး သေဆုံးရသူများဖြစ်ကာ အများစုမှာ အရပ်သားများဖြစ်ကြပြီး အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် (NLD) ပါတီဝင် ၇ ဦး၊ ဆရာဝန်နှစ်ဦးနှင့် ကျောင်းဆရာသုံးဦးလည်း ပါဝင်ကြောင်း AAPP စာရင်းများအရ သိရသည်။ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရမှုကြောင့် ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း သေဆုံးရသူများ ရန်ကုန်၊ ပန်းဘဲတန်းမြို့နယ် NLD ဥက္ကဋ္ဌဖြစ်သူ အသက် ၅၈ နှစ်အရွယ် ဦးခင်မောင်လတ်မှာ မတ် ၆ တွင် ဖမ်းဆီးခံရပြီး နောက်တစ်နေ့ နံနက်တွင် မိသားစုကို အလောင်းလာထုတ်ရန် စစ်ကောင်စီက အကြောင်းကြားခဲ့သည်။ ဦးခင်မောင်လတ်ကဲ့သို့ ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်းသေဆုံးရသူ ၆၆ ဦးထိရှိကြောင်း AAPP က ပြုစုထားသည့် စာရင်းအရ သိရသည်။ တချို့ကို ကိုဗစ်နိုင်တင်းရောဂါ ကူးစက်ခံရ၍ သေဆုံးသည်ဟုလည်း စစ်ကောင်စီက အကြောင်းပြခဲ့သည်။ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရပြီး ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသူများတွင် ဦးဇော်မြတ်လင်း၊ ကိုအေးကို၊ ကိုအောင်မြင့်လှိုင်(ခ) ကိုကျေး၊ ကဗျာဆရာ ခက်သီ ခေါ် ကိုဇော်ထွန်း၊ စိုးစံ၊ ကိုမင်းမင်း၊ ကိုမျိုးဇော်ဇော်၊ ဇေယျာလင်း၊ မိုင်နွမ်ဇာထျန်၊ ကိုဇော်ထက် (ခေါ်) ဆလိုင်းဗန်ထာကျုံ၊ ကိုဇင်ကိုထွန်း၊ သက်နိုင်ဦး၊ မျိုးမြင့်သန်း၊ ခင်မောင်ကြည်၊ ကိုထက်ဇော်လင်း(ခေါ်)) ဉာဏ်စူးတို့ သေဆုံးမှုကို Myanmar Now က အတည်ပြုကာ သတင်းရေးသားဖော်ပြခဲ့သည်။ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ကနီမြို့နယ်တွင် ရွာသူရွာသား ၂၆ ဦးမှာလည်း ဖမ်းဆီးခံရပြီး ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း အစုအလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ကာ အသတ်ခံရခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း AAPP က ဆိုသည်။ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ကလေးမြို့နယ်တွင်လည်း ကျောင်းဖောက်ခွဲမှုသံသယဖြင့် အဖမ်းခံရသူတစ်ဦးဖြစ် သော ကိုမင်းမင်းဆိုသူမှာလည်း ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း သေဆုံးခဲ့သူဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်ကျဆုံး၍ တော်လှန်ရေးအောင်မြင်ချိန်တွင် အမှန်တရားပေါ်ပေါက်၍ ကျူးလွန်သူများ အပြစ်ခံရစေလိုကြောင်း၊ နစ်နာသူမိသားစုဝင်များကိုလည်း ပြည်သူ့အစိုးရက ကူညီထောက်ပံ့ပေးစေလိုကြောင်း ကိုမင်းမင်း၏ ဆွေမျိုးတစ်ဦးက ပြောသည်။ “နိုင်ငံတကာက ဟိုပိတ်ပင် ဒီကန့်ကွက် အဲဒီလိုပြောတာ မဟုတ်ဘူး။ ကြိုးမိန့်ပေး၊ တန်းစင်တက်၊ ဒါပဲ လိုချင်တာ။ သူတို့အသက်တွေ ပေးဆပ်ရကျိုးနပ်ချင်တယ်” ဟု ကိုမင်းမင်း၏ ဆွေမျိုးဖြစ်သူက ဆိုသည်။ မကွေးတိုင်း၊ ပခုက္ကူမြို့တွင်လည်း မတ်လအတွင်းက အသက် ၃၉ နှစ်အရွယ် ကလေးသုံးဦးမိခင် ဒေါ်ခင်မာလာဝင်းကို စစ်ကောင်စီက ဖမ်းဆီးပြီး နောက်တစ်ရက်တွင် အလောင်းလာထုတ်ရန် မိသားစုကို အကြောင်းကြားခဲ့သည်။ ဒေါ်ခင်မာလာဝင်းက ဒူးထောက်တောင်းပန်ခဲ့သော်လည်း စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များက ပစ်ခတ်ဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့သည်။ ထို့ပြင် အလောင်းတွင် ဒဏ်ရာဒဏ်ချက်များ တွေ့ရှိရသည်ဟုလည်း ဒေသခံတစ်ဦးကို ကိုးကား၍ AAPP ၏ စာရင်းပြုစုချက်၌ ဖော်ပြထားသည်။ ရန်ကုန်၊ ရွှေပေါက္ကံမြို့သစ်နေ အသက် ၃၃ နှစ်အရွယ် အောင်ခန့် (ခေါ်) ပါခန့် ဆိုသူမှာလည်း အဖမ်းခံရပြီး ၂၄ နာရီအတွင်း သေဆုံးခဲ့သည့်အပြင် အလောင်းကို ကျပ်သုံးသိန်းဖြင့် ရွေးယူခဲ့ရကြောင်း AAPP က ဆိုသည်။ လုံလောက်သော ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု မရသဖြင့် သေဆုံးရသူများ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီလက်ချက်ဖြင့် သေဆုံးရသူများတွင် ဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းခံထားရစဉ် လုံလောက်သော ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု မရသဖြင့် သေဆုံးရသည့်ဖြစ်စဉ်များလည်း ရှိသည်။ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ မင်းကင်းမြို့နယ် စည်ပင်သာယာရေးကော်မတီဥက္ကဋ္ဌဟောင်း အသက် ၅၀ အရွယ် ဒေါ်ခင်မာရီ (ခေါ်) ဖွားချိုမှာ အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု (CDM) တွင် ထဲထဲဝင်ဝင်ပါဝင်သည်ဟု စွပ်စွဲခံရကာ ရာဇသတ်ကြီး ပုဒ်မ ၅၀၅ (ခ) ဖြင့် တရားစွဲဆိုကာ မတ်လအတွင်း ဖမ်းဆီးခံရပြီးနောက် ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု ကောင်းစွာ မရသဖြင့် ဇူလိုင် ၂၁ တွင် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ ဒေါ်ခင်မာရီမှာ ဆီးချိုရောဂါနှင့် နှလုံးအားနည်းခြင်းကြောင့် မင်းကင်းမြို့အချုပ်ခန်းတွင် ကွယ်လွန်သည်ဟု AAPP စာရင်းက ဆိုသည်။ NLD ဗဟိုအလုပ်အမှုဆောင်ကော်မတီဝင်နှင့် အတွင်းရေးမှူးအဖွဲ့ဝင် အသက် ၇၉ နှစ်အရွယ် ဦးဉာဏ်ဝင်းမှာလည်း အင်းစိန်ထောင်တွင် ထိန်းသိမ်းခံထားရစဉ် ကိုရိုနာဗိုင်းရပ်စ်ကူးစက်ခံခဲ့ရပြီးနောက် ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှု အားနည်းခြင်းကြောင့် ဇူလိုင် ၂၀ တွင် သေဆုံးခဲ့သည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ သတ်ဖြတ်မှုကြောင့် ဩဂုတ် ၂၆ ထိ သေဆုံးသူ ၁၀၁၉ ဦးရှိ ကာ ဖမ်းဆီးခံထားရသူ ၅၉၆၉ ဦး ရှိ​ကြောင်းလည်း AAPP က ထုတ်ပြန်ထားသည်။ AAPP တာဝန်ရှိသူတစ်ဦးကမူ ၎င်းတို့၏ စာရင်းမှာ လက်လှမ်းမီသလောက်သာ ပြုစုထားခြင်းဖြစ်ကာ တစ်နိုင်ငံလုံးကို မလွှမ်းခြုံနိုင်သဖြင့် အမှန်တကယ်သေဆုံးရသူမှာ စာရင်းထက်ပိုများရန်သာရှိပြီး မလျော့နိုင်ကြောင်း ပြောသည်။ “တစ်ချိန်မှာ တရားမျှတမှုရရှိဖို့ဆိုရင် ဒီလိုအထောက်အထားတွေ မရှိဘဲနဲ့ ဘာမှလုပ်လို့ မရဘူး။ ဒီလို အထောက်အထားတွေ ရှိတော့မှ ဘယ်တုန်းက ဘယ်သူက ဘယ်လိုဖြစ်သွားတယ်။ ဘယ်သူက ကျူးလွန်လိုက်တယ်ဆိုတဲ့ဟာတွေ တကယ့် သက်သေသက္ကာယ ခိုင်ခိုင်မာမာနဲ့ လုပ်နိုင်မှာ ဖြစ်တယ်” ဟု ၎င်းက Myanmar Now ကို ပြောသည်။ ယခင်က ပေါ်ပေါက်ခဲ့သည့် ၁၉၈၈ လူထုအရေးတော်ပုံနှင့် ၂၀၀၇ ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး ဖြစ်စဉ်များတွင် ယခုကာလကဲ့သို့ သတင်းစီးဆင်းမှု မမြန်ဆန်ခြင်း၊ ဆက်သွယ်ရခက်ခဲခြင်းများကြောင့် နစ်နာဆုံးရှုံးမှုများကို သေချာ မှတ်တမ်းမတင်နိုင်ခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ ၂၀၂၁ တွင်မူ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်နှင့် လက်ချက်များကို သက်သေ၊ အချက်အလက် အတိအကျဖြင့် ကမ္ဘာသိတင်ပြနိုင်ရန် ဆက်လက်စုဆောင်းမည်ဟုလည်း AAPP က ဆိုသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) ၏ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီး ဦးအောင်မျိုးမင်းကလည်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ပြည်သူအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်မှုများသည် လူမျိုးသုဉ်းသတ်ဖြတ်မှု မြောက်သဖြင့် ကမ္ဘာသိအောင် ကြိုးပမ်းသွားမည်ဟု ဆိုသည်။ "အနာဂတ်မှာ နောက်တစ်ခါ ဒါမျိုး ဘယ်တော့မှမဖြစ်အောင် ပြင်ဆင်လျက်ရှိပါတယ်” ဟု ဦးအောင်မျိုးမင်းက ပြောသည်။..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-28
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
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Title: Writer and journalist Tu Tu Tha spends her 50th birthday behind bars
Sub-title: The lover of betel nut, music and painting is deprived of the freedom to be with her loved ones on what should have been a milestone in her life
Description: "Myanmar writer and journalist Tu Tu Tha is not known for hosting grand birthday celebrations. Most of her previous parties have been simple but memorable gatherings marked by singing and time shared with loved ones, laughing. This year she was deprived of such an occasion. On Saturday, she turned 50 after spending more than four months behind bars. Tu Tu Tha is not a criminal. She is an author of several books, a trainer of journalists, and a former editor with nearly two decades of experience in a range of newsrooms. She was arrested at her home in Yangon’s Thanlyin Township on April 24 along with one of her two sons, 18-year-old Nyan Lu Thit; her younger brother, Ye Naung; and a friend of her son’s, under the pretext that they failed to report themselves as overnight guests to the military authorities. Family and friends hoped that they would be freed shortly after they were detained, but all four remain jailed. Tu Tu Tha was sent to the infamous Insein Prison after spending three nights at the military’s Shwepyithar interrogation centre. She was later charged with incitement under Section 505a of the penal code, a violation that carries a three-year prison sentence if convicted. In the four months she has been in prison, she has not been allowed an in-person visit from any of her relatives. Tu Tu Tha’s trial initially commenced in a closed prison court but was suspended in late June, when all hearings were halted due to the Covid-19 outbreak both inside and outside the jail. She is one of thousands of people subjected to the junta’s arbitrary arrests that followed the February 1 military coup. The regime has detained nearly 6,000 people in prisons across the country, charging most of them with incitement and terrorism for participating in anti-coup activities. Compelled to write Tu Tu Tha initially trained as an engineer at the prestigious Government Technical Institute (GTI) in Yangon’s Insein Township. She attended the school as per the wish of her late father, well-known cartoonist A Naung whose works were featured in newspapers and magazines from the 1970s until his death in the early 1990s. Raised in a family that celebrated creativity and the arts, Tu Tu Tha found that she was not suited to a career in engineering, instead changing her pursuit to literature, a passion since her childhood. Still, her love of the more than 120-year-old GTI school and the years she spent there were reflected in her most recent novel, published in early 2020. The title of the book, Bandamar Lan Ka Alwan Chay Yar, is inspired by the tree-lined streets in front of the dorm where she once lived. “The inspiration [for that book] was always in my heart. But I lost my computer when I was writing the book and was already halfway finished with it. It took me two more years to rewrite it from the start,” Tu Tu Tha said in a media interview at her book launch in March last year. Her commitment to writing works inspired by real life events was also apparent in her first novel, A Phay Kyaung, or Father’s School. Published in 2015, it tells the stories of four Burmese migrants to Thailand and explores the struggles surrounding migrant children’s access—or lack thereof—to education. The inspiration for that book came from her experience working in exile as an editor for The Irrawaddy news magazine in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she wrote under the pen name Aye Chan Myae. The book followed a film by the same name, for which Tu Tu Tha wrote the script. It was made in 2012 but released in 2016, directed by filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who is also currently detained in the same prison as Tu Tu Tha after being arrested on the day of the coup. The lead actor, Ye Deight, is also detained in Insein. He was charged with the same offence as Tu Tu Tha and was arrested in early April. After five years in Thailand, Tu Tu Tha returned to Myanmar in 2013 with her colleagues when The Irrawaddy opened an office in Yangon. Ye Ni, the editor of The Irrawaddy’s Burmese edition described his former colleague Tu Tu Tha as a committed journalist and writer who should not be spending time in prison, and called for the immediate release of all political detainees including journalists, authors, poets and filmmakers. In 2016, Tu Tu Tha founded the Thanlyin Post, dedicated to and operating from her home township. She ran the publication for around two years until she could no longer afford to continue. Tu Tu Tha then went on to work as a part-time trainer at the Myanmar Journalism Institute. Lover of betel nut Friends, former colleagues and relatives of Tu Tu Tha have said they are worried about her health amid reports of widespread Covid-19 infections within Insein Prison. In a letter to her family dated August 20, she wrote that she indeed had fallen sick for a few days but had since recovered, according to a relative who asked not to be named for security reasons. "She brought her betel nut container with her even during a trip to Norway. She would be really sad if she could not have it while still inside Myanmar" Imagining her in detention, friends and relatives commented on Tu Tu Tha’s years-long addiction to chewing betel nut, once a health concern but now a simple pleasure that her loved ones hope she can still access. “She brought her betel nut container with her even during a trip to Norway. She would be really sad if she could not have it while still inside Myanmar,” her friend of nearly two decades, Tin Zar, told Myanmar Now. Humour and satire Friends say that Tu Tu Tha’s sense of humour and ability to create satire, two of her most celebrated qualities, are arguably best showcased in her 2015 collection of short stories—Phoot Din, a Burmese play on the English word “pudding.” “She always sees things in an artistic and loving way. Even when she faces hardships, she transforms them into witty satirical pieces of poetry and writing,” longtime friend Tin Zar said. US-based Myanmar poet and author Aung Way described Tu Tu Tha as one of the finest contemporary writers on the Myanmar literary scene since the early 2000s. “She contributed a lot [to Myanmar] from exile with her writings,” Aung Way told Myanmar Now. In addition to her writing, Tu Tu Tha’s relatives and friends also know her as a lover of music, painting and environmental conservation. “She is spontaneous and full of positivity. She loves people, especially children,” said another longtime friend and former colleague. If she were not imprisoned, the friend said, Tu Tu Tha’s 50th birthday would have certainly been a “joyful occasion” with close friends from across the Myanmar arts scene, and would have featured songs by her favourite singer Htoo Eain Thin. “She would be so happy and laughing out loud—her usual self,” the friend said, speculating that Tu Tu Tha may have even created and unveiled a piece of writing or a painting for the day. A former detainee at Insein Prison alongside Tu Tu Tha told Myanmar Now that the writer is being held in a shared group cell with around 60 female inmates. “She exercises there and encourages other people to do so, too. She keeps herself healthy and reads books at night,” the now released detainee said. Tu Tu Tha was sent and received several books by loved ones in the early days of her detention. But restrictions for inmates have recently tightened and her family reports that they are currently only allowed to send her one book each month. The military council has released thousands of detainees in recent months, including those who have been charged with incitement. Tu Tu Tha’s family and friends say they hope that she too will be among the released in the coming months. Another friend said that while his own hope for the imprisoned journalist on her 50th birthday would be that she would soon be reunited with her family for a proper party, he believes her own wish on the occasion would be different. “She would surely wish for only one thing—democracy,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-28
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Title: At Least 12 Civilians Killed by Myanmar Junta in Week
Description: "At least 12 civilians, including a 72-year-old man and 10-year-old boy, have been killed by junta forces in Myanmar in a week. On Thursday night, junta soldiers opened fire indiscriminately in 122nd Street near a market in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in Yangon Region, killing U Thein Min Tun, 42, a vendor, who was shot in the neck. His body was found in an alley and taken away by soldiers and returned to the family on Friday for a funeral. Pedestrians and vendors fled and residents said the unprovoked shooting was in response to taunts from drunken men. Soldiers also destroyed parked vehicles, residents said. At least three deaths were reported on Wednesday. Salai Van Bawi Thang, 10, was shot dead during gunfire by junta forces in Thantlang Township, Chin State. The incident happened amid a shootout with civilian defense forces on Wednesday evening. Van Bawi Thang was hit in the neck and other civilians were injured, news outlets reported. Ko Thet Naing Soe, a 29-year-old philanthropist living in Monywa, Sagaing Region, died in detention, less than 24 hours after being apprehended. He was detained on Tuesday and on Wednesday his mother was informed of his death, a resident told The Irrawaddy. Junta forces blamed COVID-19 for his death but his mother told the media that she found torture marks on his body, including cigarettes burns on his cheeks, blood in his ears and fatal head injuries. In Yangon, philanthropist Ko San Win Aung, 19, from the Kaung Hmu Saung Charity, was killed during military interrogation on Wednesday. He was detained under suspicion of involvement in a bomb blast at the General Administration Department in South Okkalapa Township on August 22. A source close to his family told The Irrawaddy that troops asked the family to pay to retrieve his body. As the family could not pay, the body has not been returned. Ko San Win Aung volunteered with his group to help the sick and needy during the COVID-19 surge. He was taken from the charity’s office. Ko Soe Paing, also known as Ko Kyaw Khaing Win, a private teacher from Thaketa Township, Yangon Region, was detained by junta forces on August 22 and the next day his family was informed of his death. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which monitors fatalities and detention since the February coup, reported that Ko Min Aung of Kayan Township, Yangon Region, was tortured to death in detention on the day of his arrest. He was detained by junta troops on Tuesday while passing Kayan police station on a motorbike while returning from his mother’s house. Kan Htauk, 72, was kicked and punched to death on August 18 during a raid on Hnan Khar village in Gangaw Township, Magwe Region. He died on Saturday. Since the coup, at least 1,019 civilians have been killed by junta forces, according to the AAPP. The dead have included pedestrians, children, protesters, medics who helped the injured during crackdowns on protests and members of the National League for Democracy..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-27
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Title: Junta arrests Kachin National Congress chair
Sub-title: M Kawn La is the first leader of an ethnic political party to be arrested since the coup
Description: "The chair of the Kachin National Congress (KNC), M Kawn La, was arrested by the junta in Naypyitaw on Wednesday afternoon, according to a source close to him. “I heard that he was arrested on his way back from Thapyegone Hospital at around 3:00pm yesterday. It is not clear why he was arrested, ” the source told Myanmar Now on Thursday, adding that it was still unknown where M Kawn La was being detained. He was charged with Section 505a of the penal code for incitement, Kachin News Group reported on Thursday. M Kawn La had been critical of the military’s actions since Myanmar’s February 1 coup and was openly opposed to the coup regime. After the Kachin Independence Organization issued a statement on August 24 urging armed groups to avoid fighting, M Kawn La wrote that the time in which fighting could be limited had ended. In April, M Kawn La and a coalition of Kachin politicians co-founded the Kachin People's Political Front to discuss federal affairs and advocate for the interests of the ethnic Kachin people. Gumgrawng Awng Kham, the vice chair of the Kachin State People’s Party, told Myanmar Now that he was concerned about the KNC chair’s arrest. "We were worried when our friends reported that he had been arrested, and we also have to be very careful,” he said. While the military junta has been targeting members of the ruling National League for Democracy and its associates, M Kawn La is the first leader of an ethnic political party to be arrested since the coup. The KNC is a major Kachin party founded in 1949. They contested in the 2020 general election for the position of ethnic affairs minister, two Upper House seats, five Lower House seats, and 12 seats in the Kachin State parliament, but did not win. The KNC is a member of the United Nationalities Alliance. Initially, the party was involved in the push for the unification of ethnic Kachin political parties, but ultimately chose to run for election independently..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-27
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Title: More than a thousand killed in Myanmar as repression of activists continues unabated
Description: "Nearly seven months on following the coup, Myanmar remains on the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist due to the ongoing repression of civic freedoms on the country by the military junta. On 27th July 2021, the military junta revoked the results of the 2020 general election, in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory, claiming the poll was “not free and fair” and “not in compliance with” the constitution and the law. On 1st August, junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing named himself prime minister and said emergency rule may now extend to August 2023. He also pledged to hold a "free and fair multi-party election" but also described the ousted NLD as "terrorists". On 4th August 2021, ASEAN finally appointed Erywan Yusof, the second foreign minister of Brunei Darussalam as its special envoy to Myanmar more than 100 days after the Southeast Asian bloc’s members agreed to send an emissary to help resolve the post-coup crisis there. Observers have greeted the appointment with scepticism. Myanmar civil society groups rejected the appointment and expressed “deep disappointment with ASEAN and their lack of inclusive decision-making process”, said a statement from 413 groups. More than a thousand civilians have been killed in Myanmar since the 1st February coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a human rights group that records killings by the junta. As of 18th August 2021, the NGO said 1,006 people had been killed since the junta seized power, triggering nationwide protests and a mass civil disobedience movement. Among those killed are more than 100 teenagers. Some were killed while troops suppressed protests, but others fell in random and unprovoked shootings. As of 23rd August, at least 5,821 political prisoners remain in detention according to the AAPP. On 31st July 2021, Human Rights Watch reported that Myanmar’s military junta had committed numerous abuses against the population that amount to crimes against humanity in the six months since the coup. Apparent crimes against humanity include murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual violence, severe deprivation of liberty, and other inhumane acts. Activists have mobilised ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021 when UN member states will select the country’s ambassador. The General Strike Coordination Body (GSCB) launched the “Accept NUG, Reject Military” campaign in August 2021, which called on social media users to support the National Unity Government (NUG) and its UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun. The United Nations Secretary-General’s special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said the junta had not responded to her request for talks as it tries to consolidate its rule. Over the last month, concerns have been raised by the UN around the situation of human rights defenders as arrests and attacks on activists continue. A new report shows the systematic targeting of healthcare workers. The crackdown on the media has continued with arrests and sentencing of journalists. Civil society groups criticise the exit of Norwegian telco, Telenor. Protests continued across the country, including in prisons by political prisoners. There were reports of attacks on protests by the junta. Association Terror campaign against human rights defenders On 19th July 2021, UN human rights experts expressed their concern for the situation of human rights defenders in Myanmar and called for a stronger international response to the military coup, including coordinated sanctions and an arms embargo against the junta by an “emergency coalition of nations”. The experts highlighted credible information they had received concerning human rights defenders being forced into hiding after having arrest warrants issued against them under section 505(a) of the Penal Code. Their homes were raided, their possessions seized, and family members threatened and harassed. Many others, unable to flee, have been arbitrarily arrested, including labour rights defenders and student activists. Lawyers representing people detained following the coup have themselves been detained, as have journalists covering the protests. Women have played a leading role in the protest and civil disobedience movement that has emerged in the country in response to the military's seizure of the State apparatus in February, and the experts expressed particular concern for the situation of women human rights defenders in the country. “The brute force terror campaign we are witnessing in Myanmar continues to be directed towards human rights defenders,” said Mary Lawlor, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and Tom Andrews, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. “For years, human rights defenders have been doing essential work promoting human rights in the country,” Lawlor said. “Since the coup, and despite enforced internet blackouts along with difficulties accessing basic resources, especially for defenders forced into hiding or living in rural areas, they have been documenting the mass violations being perpetrated by the military. As a result, they have been targeted,” the expert said. Two pro-democracy activists died and three others were seriously injured when they jumped from a building in Yangon to avoid capture by the junta. Ye Min Oo and a woman, Wai Wai Myint, also called Pan Thee, lost their lives when they and three friends jumped from the roof of a building as junta forces stormed their apartment in Botahtaung township in Myanmar’s largest city. The three who survived the jump - Wai Phyo Aung, Thiha Kaung Set and Poe Kyaw Kyaw - were arrested by police and taken with the bodies of those killed to a military hospital in Mingaladon township in northern Yangon. Tin Zaw, the father of Ye Min Oo, said he was told by witnesses that his son was still alive after the fall but was beaten to death. A witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA the fleeing activists apparently got trapped on the rooftops of the old buildings. A police report circulating on social media says the raid on the activists’ apartment was carried out by a team led by Tactical Commander Col. Soe Tun of the ruling junta. A youth leader from the Mandalay Protest Alliance Force was arrested by the military junta while driving near Mandalay University on 17th August. Plainclothes soldiers stopped a motorbike driven by activist Kyaw Thiha, beat him, and took him with them at gunpoint, according to an eyewitness. Thura Aung, a friend who had been staying with him and another leader of the alliance, said that over 20 troops later inspected Kyaw Thiha’s former home in Patheingyi Township that night. The Mandalay Protest Alliance Force has been a frequent target of the brutal crackdowns by the military on anti-coup resistance. The Mandalay Protest Alliance Force was formed when multiple Mandalay protest columns joined forces to revolt against the dictatorship. They include Daung Sit Thi (Peacock Warriors); All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU); Academics; Labourers; Farmers; Mandalay University Students; BEHS (7) Students; and Sein Pan. Threats and attacks on healthcare workers A new report by Insecurity Insight, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Johns Hopkins University Center for Public Health and Human Rights (CPHHR) in August 2021 found that there were at least 252 attacks and threats against health workers, facilities and transport that have been perpetrated in Myanmar from 1st February to 31st July 2021 The country’s armed forces and police reportedly committed the vast majority of attacks. Health workers have been targeted for providing medical care to injured civilians and for their participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which is protesting the military takeover. 190 health workers were arrested, 37 health workers were injured and 25 health workers killed. Hospitals were raided at least 86 times and occupied at least 55 times. The report also highlights that staff from the World Health Organisation (WHO), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international NGOs have been threatened and forced to return to work by the military council. There are reports that the junta is trying to replace NGO workers believed to be close to the CDM with government appointees. The military junta has continued to arrest and prosecute journalists.Two journalists were arrested on 15th August 2021 at an apartment where they had been hiding in Yangon’s Bahan Township. Sithu Aung Myint, a Frontier Myanmar columnist and contributor to Voice of America, now faces a charge of sedition under section 124a of the Penal Code on top of an outstanding incitement charge. Sithu Aung Myint has been evading arrest since 24th April 2021, when the junta opened a case against him under section 505a for incitement. Htet Htet Khine, a freelance producer for BBC Media Action, has been charged under section 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act for associating with the NUG, which the junta labels a terrorist group. According to Human Rights Watch on 27th July 2021, since the coup the junta has arrested 98 journalists, 46 of whom are currently in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Six journalists have been convicted, including five for violating section 505(a) of the penal code, a new provision that makes it a crime to publish or circulate comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.” Those sentenced under section 505(a) are: Kaung Myat Hlaing, from Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), who was arrested at his home in Myeik, Tanintharyi Region, and sentenced to two years in prison; Min Nyo, from DVB, who was arrested while reporting on a protest in Pyay Region, and sentenced to three years;Thet Naing Win, from DVB, who was arrested in Bago Region and sentenced to three years; Zaw Zaw, a freelance reporter who was arrested while covering demonstrations in Myeik, Tanintharyi Region and sentenced to two years; and Htoo San, a freelance photographer in Myeik, Tanintharyi Region, who was sentenced to three years. On 28th July 2021, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a report, “Bitter reversal: Myanmar military coup wipes out press freedom gains,” which found the country has become one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists. The broadened language of penal code 505(a) has effectively made independent journalism a crime. The threat of arrest has driven many news organisations to close their offices and forced journalists underground or into exile. Further complicating access to information and the ability to report, authorities have banned satellite media and imposed rolling restrictions on the internet. Journalists who spoke with CPJ said their colleagues behind bars have been subjected to abuse and torture; at least three have reported health problems. International reporting from Myanmar is also restricted. Few foreign journalists have been allowed access. Civil society groups criticise exit of Norwegian telco In a letter to Gunn Waersted, the chair of Telenor Group’s board, a group of 45 global and Myanmar human rights, media and other organisations called on Norway’s Telenor Group to halt the controversial sale of its Myanmar operation to the M1 Group, a Lebanese company with ties to Myanmar’s junta. The group included ALTSEAN-Burma, Free Expression Myanmar, Global Witness, PEN America, Justice for Myanmar and dozens of other international and Myanmar organisations. Saying they were “surprised and dismayed” by Telenor’s deal with M1, the organisations said Telenor had acted “without seeking the views of the civil society stakeholders with whom it previously significantly engaged on responsible business, including some of our undersigned organisations. Furthermore, there was no evidence that Telenor had undertaken the “credible assessment of potential adverse human rights impacts of disengagement” from Myanmar required under the UN Principles on Business and Human Rights. Telenor announced on 8th July 2021 that it had agreed to sell its Myanmar operations to M1, which was added to the Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List in 2019 for doing business with the Myanmar military. Telenor confirmed that as part of the deal it would transfer the call records of its more than 18 million subscribers to the Lebanese company. Rights activists say allowing the junta to access such information would be dangerous, pointing out that phone subscribers in Myanmar must supply ID cards and addresses when registering SIM cards. Protests continued across the country in Yangon, Mandalay and other townships including by youth, workers and LGBTQI+ activists. On 28th July 2021, the junta shot three people, killing at least one, during a crackdown on an anti-coup demonstration in Mandalay. Around 20 people were taking part in a flash mob protest near the east gate of Mandalay’s famous Mahamuni pagoda when they suddenly came under attack. On 2nd August 2021 it was reported that a 22-year-old anti-coup protester in Mandalay, who was shot and injured before being detained during a raid, had died in military custody. Political prisoners inside Myanmar’s most notorious jail held a protest on 23rd July 2021, singing popular songs opposing the military government and chanting political slogans, according to nearby residents and video uploaded to social media. One video showed a street close to Insein Prison in Yangon with clear audio of voices shouting support for ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint. According to a lawyer representing some of those detained, the prisoners were demanding the release of all those held on political charges, an easing of prison regulations and medical treatment for those who have fallen sick amid spiralling cases of the coronavirus. A representative of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said: “We are concerned about torture and potential additional charges being filed against the political prisoners as a consequence if the protest is dubbed a prison riot. Such incidents happened under the previous military dictatorships” Following the incident at Insein Prison, prisoners at Shwe Bo Prison in Sagaing Region and Obo Prison in Mandalay Region also protested, according to the AAPP. Anti-coup protesters mark 1988 uprising anniversary On 8th August 2021, protesters came out in cities across Myanmar to protest against the military junta and to mark the 33rd anniversary of an uprising against military rule that was violently put down. Protests took place across Myanmar, including the main cities of Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, Mongwa and Myitkyina, according to local news reports. Protesters remembered the thousands of people, many of whom were students, who rose up against military rule in 1988. That uprising was crushed in a bloody crackdown. They also organised online campaigns, bringing people out dressed in red to show the eight-finger salute, which has become one of the symbols of the protest movement, and to hold banners saying: "Let's return the old blood debt of 1988 in 2021."..."
Source/publisher: Civicus (Johannesburg)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-26
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Title: Over 400,000 Myanmar Civil Servants Still on Strike Against Military Regime
Description: "Over 400,000 civil servants have been on strike against the military regime since February, according to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG). The NUG’s Planning and Finance Minister, U Tin Tun Naing, said on Tuesday that almost 410,000 government staff have “steadfastly joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) so far”. The exact number of civil servants in the country is unknown. Some estimates suggest that there are over one million government staff. By those figures, almost half of all state employees are on strike in protest at military rule. Since the junta’s February I coup, government workers ranging from directors to junior officers and clerks, and even some police and soldiers from the Home Affairs and Defense Ministries, have refused to work for the regime, preventing the junta from running the country properly. Many of the civil servants who are on strike have been sacked or threatened with arrest. Others are in hiding. The NUG, which was formed by the country’s elected lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy government and their ethnic allies, is trying to fund salaries for civil servants participating in the CDM, especially junior staff. The regime’s ability to govern has been hit hard by the CDM. At the end of February, coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing decried the fact that nearly one-third of Myanmar’s 1,262 public hospitals had been unable to function for nearly three weeks because so many healthcare workers were on strike. In July, as the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country, hospitals were overwhelmed because of the shortage of medics and the devastated coup leader ordered them to hire doctors and nurses on a contract basis. The banking sector has also been paralysed by the CDM, with both private and government banks barely able to operate due to striking staff. It is believed that the actual number of government workers on strike is higher than the figure reported, in part because many civil servants have been forced to return to work by the regime in the last few months. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of soldiers and police deserting their units. As of this month, nearly 2,000 of them have joined the CDM since the coup. “Make no mistake, the striking workers have joined the CDM not for the NUG’s financial assistance to them but for the sake of a brighter future for the next generation,” said U Tin Tun Naing. “We (the NUG) are fully responsible to support them,” he added. The NUG has tried to assist striking civil servants since its formation in April, but with intermittent success. In order to raise more funds for them, the NUG launched an online lottery this month. 70 percent of the proceeds from the lottery will go to support people on strike. The lottery has proved hugely popular, with all tickets sold out in just over an hour on the day of its launch, despite threats from the regime that it will punish anyone who plays it. As of Tuesday, almost 250,000 tickets had been sold in just five days. The lottery is currently on hold for system management..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-26
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Title: Myanmar Junta Cuts Internet Access in Hpakant
Description: "Myanmar’s military regime has cut off internet access in Hpakant, Kachin State since Friday. Mobile internet services were blocked around 8.30pm on Friday, followed by a shutdown of wifi internet hours later, said residents. Telecom operators said that they did not know why internet services were blocked or when they would resume, according to locals. “Not only is the internet blocked, but we also can’t make phone calls or send SMS now. And we can’t top up our mobile phones either. From previous experiences, when the internet is shutdown in Hpakant it normally means military operations are in progress, so we are concerned,” said a female resident who requested anonymity. Last Saturday, police from Police Battalion 30 based in Seik Mu village on the outskirts of Hpakant left their base and joined the Hpakant Township police inside the town. The same evening, the ethnic armed group the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) torched the barracks of the police battalion in Seik Mu. Junta troops have been seen patrolling in Hpakant at midnight following the internet shutdown, said residents. Previously, they normally stayed in their outposts at that time. “They are patrolling almost every night now. My house is by the road and I could not get to sleep once they drove past. Around 40 to 50 of them drove past around 2am today,” said a resident of Lone Khin village. Hpakant residents said they felt unsafe talking about the situation on the phone because the military regime is monitoring phone calls. The junta has ordered the country’s telecom and internet service providers to install spyware that allows the military to eavesdrop directly on calls, read text messages, emails and other web traffic, as well as tracking the locations of users. There have also been rumors in Hpakant that the military regime will install checkpoints to isolate the town. On Monday, some people were leaving the town for fear of fighting, said one Hpakant resident. Telecom operators were also ordered to restrict internet access in Rakhine from June 2019 until the February 1 coup, as the military was engaged in heavy fighting with the Rakhine ethnic armed group the Arakan Army. However, the regime’s spokesperson, Major General Zaw Min Tun, denied that there was an internet blackout in Hpakant. “There is no internet shutdown in any part of the country,” he said. Any military operations in Hpakant are being done in response to the attacks of the KIA and the local People’s Defense Force, said the military spokesman. Hpakant is home to the world’s largest deposits of high-quality jade, as well as gold and other precious gems. All the jade mining companies operating in Hpakant have ties to Myanmar’s military or the KIA. Prospectors have to pay taxes to the military and the KIA if they find jade or precious gems, and both the KIA and the military rely on Hpakant’s mines to generate crucial funds. KIA brigades 6 and 26 are active in Hpakant, while battalions under the command of Division 33 of the Myanmar military are based in the township. By THE IRRAWADDY 24 August 2021 Myanmar’s military regime has cut off internet access in Hpakant, Kachin State since Friday. Mobile internet services were blocked around 8.30pm on Friday, followed by a shutdown of wifi internet hours later, said residents. Telecom operators said that they did not know why internet services were blocked or when they would resume, according to locals. “Not only is the internet blocked, but we also can’t make phone calls or send SMS now. And we can’t top up our mobile phones either. From previous experiences, when the internet is shutdown in Hpakant it normally means military operations are in progress, so we are concerned,” said a female resident who requested anonymity. Last Saturday, police from Police Battalion 30 based in Seik Mu village on the outskirts of Hpakant left their base and joined the Hpakant Township police inside the town. The same evening, the ethnic armed group the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) torched the barracks of the police battalion in Seik Mu. Junta troops have been seen patrolling in Hpakant at midnight following the internet shutdown, said residents. Previously, they normally stayed in their outposts at that time. “They are patrolling almost every night now. My house is by the road and I could not get to sleep once they drove past. Around 40 to 50 of them drove past around 2am today,” said a resident of Lone Khin village. Hpakant residents said they felt unsafe talking about the situation on the phone because the military regime is monitoring phone calls. The junta has ordered the country’s telecom and internet service providers to install spyware that allows the military to eavesdrop directly on calls, read text messages, emails and other web traffic, as well as tracking the locations of users. There have also been rumors in Hpakant that the military regime will install checkpoints to isolate the town. On Monday, some people were leaving the town for fear of fighting, said one Hpakant resident. Telecom operators were also ordered to restrict internet access in Rakhine from June 2019 until the February 1 coup, as the military was engaged in heavy fighting with the Rakhine ethnic armed group the Arakan Army. However, the regime’s spokesperson, Major General Zaw Min Tun, denied that there was an internet blackout in Hpakant. “There is no internet shutdown in any part of the country,” he said. Any military operations in Hpakant are being done in response to the attacks of the KIA and the local People’s Defense Force, said the military spokesman. Hpakant is home to the world’s largest deposits of high-quality jade, as well as gold and other precious gems. All the jade mining companies operating in Hpakant have ties to Myanmar’s military or the KIA. Prospectors have to pay taxes to the military and the KIA if they find jade or precious gems, and both the KIA and the military rely on Hpakant’s mines to generate crucial funds. KIA brigades 6 and 26 are active in Hpakant, while battalions under the command of Division 33 of the Myanmar military are based in the township. In Waingmaw Township, which is separated from the Kachin State capital Myitkyina by the Ayeyarwady River, the military’s Battalion 58 shelled nearby villages every night from August 3 to August 19, following a KIA attack on July 29. Residents from at least four villages near the battalion’s base have been forced to flee their homes amid the daily shelling. KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu said that the regime has been continuously reinforcing its troops. The junta brought in some 5,000 additional soldiers after the coup, and hundreds more reinforcements are being sent either by road or by the river, he added. Hpakant residents have formed anti-regime protest groups in their wards and villages to organize demonstrations and other forms of daily defiance against the junta. Locals are continuing their anti-coup protests, despite the internet shutdown, said Hpakant residents.
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-24
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 23 August 2021)
Description: "As of 23 August, (1013) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (4) fallen heroes today. These (4) fallen heroes from Taunggyi Township in Shan State, Yesagyo Township in Magway Region and Khin-u 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 August 23, a total of (5821) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Soe Lwin Lwin was a primary school teacher at a Thein Kone Village Basic Education Middle School in Taunggyi Township, Shan State, arbitrarily arrested by the terrorist junta, and had been involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Soe Lwin Lwin contracted COVID-19 while detained in Taung Lay Lone (Nyaung Shwe) Prison and died on August 22. On the evening of August 22, the terrorist junta raided and opened fire in Hinthar Village in Yesagyo Township, Magway Region, after a junta-appointed village administrator informed on them. Five villagers were shot at in an attempt to make arrests. Chit Ye Yint, one of five, was shot dead in the forehead. On August 21 around 8 pm, Maung Aye and a nurse, Nweat Nweat Aye, from Kan Thit Village in Khin-u Township, Sagaing Region, were shot to death by terrorist junta’s soldiers who were patrolling in the area. The husband and wife were returning home by motorbike from selling agricultural products. It is reported that Maung Aye was shot in the head and Nweat Nweat was shot in the stomach. 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: [email protected] [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-23
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Title: Detained Myanmar Columnist Faces Life in Prison
Description: "Detained political columnist U Sithu Aung Myint is facing life in prison on sedition charges for being critical of Myanmar’s junta and for allegedly backing the shadow National Unity Government (NUG). The junta arrested U Sithu Aung Myint, an outspoken junta critic, and Ma Htet Htet Khine, a freelance producer working with the BBC, from a hideout in Yangon on August 15. The junta-controlled media announced on Saturday that the columnist wrote articles criticizing the military for the Voice of America and Frontier Myanmar after the February coup. It said he also posted articles on Facebook criticizing the regime’s governing body, the State Administrative Council, inciting government employees to join the civil disobedience movement and backed the NUG, which has been declared a terrorist organization. An arrest warrant was issued for U Sithu Aung Myint in April for allegedly spreading false news under Article 505(a) of the Penal Code, which carries up to three years’ imprisonment. The junta-controlled media said he was also charged with Article 124(a) of the Penal Code which prohibits “any attempt to cause hatred, contempt and disaffection” towards the military or government. The charge carries a sentence of life in prison. Ma Htet Htet Khine was charged under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act for allegedly working as a volunteer editor for Federal FM launched by the NUG and for harboring U Sithu Aung Myint. Ma Htet Htet Khine was the presenter of a program for audiences in Myanmar called “Khan Sar Kyi” (Burmese for “Feel it”) for BBC Media Action, the corporation’s international development charity. “We are concerned by the detention and charges against our freelance producer, Htet Htet Khine,” BBC Media Action said, adding that it was monitoring the situation. The two journalists have had no access to a lawyer since their arrest. U Khin Maung Myint, the legal adviser to Ma Htet Htet Khine, said the two were had been relocated to police custody from a military interrogation center and are likely to be moved soon to Insein Prison, where he expects to have contact with her. The two join around 50 jailed journalists as the junta continues to crack down on journalists with arrests and lawsuits to silence coverage of its atrocities. Since the February coup, the junta has arrested 95 journalists and media staff. Of them, six have been convicted under Article 505(a) and one was sentenced under Article 188 of the Penal Code for defying government orders..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-23
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Title: Myanmar military arrests more journalists
Description: "Myanmar's military government has arrested two more local journalists, army-owned television reported on Saturday, the latest among dozens of detentions in a sweeping crackdown on the media since a Feb. 1 coup. Sithu Aung Myint, a columnist for news site Frontier Myanmar and commentator with Voice of America radio, and Htet Htet Khine, a freelance producer for BBC Media Action, were arrested on Aug. 15, Myawaddy TV reported. Sithu Aung Myint was charged with sedition and spreading false information that Myawaddy said was critical of the junta and had urged people to join strikes and back outlawed opposition groups. Htet Htet Khine was accused of harbouring Sithu Aung Myint, a criminal suspect, and working for and supporting a shadow National Unity Government. BBC Media Action said in a statement it was concerned about Htet Htet Khine's safety and the charges against her, and was closely monitoring the situation. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the pair were being held incommunicado. "We strongly condemn the arbitrary conditions of their detention, which reflect the brutality with which the military junta treats journalists," said its Asia-Pacific desk head Daniel Bastard. Myanmar remains fraught with instability and opposition to army rule, under which more than 1,000 people have been killed, according to an activist group that has tracked killings by security forces. The military, which has revoked the licenses of many news outlets, says it respects the role of media but will not allow news reporting it deems false or likely to create public unrest. A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists last month said Myanmar's rulers had effectively criminalised independent journalism. Human Rights Watch late last month said the army government had arrested 98 journalists since the coup and should stop prosecuting media staff. Of those arrested, 46 remained in custody as of the end of July..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-22
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 21 August 2021)
Description: "As of 21 August, (1009) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen heroes today. (1) from Gantgaw Township in Magway Region died today and (1) from Shwepyithar Township in Yangon Region was killed on August 19 and was 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 August 21, a total of (5787) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. On the evening of August 18, terrorist junta soldiers raided Hnan Khar Village in Gantgaw Township, Magway Region. 72 years old Kan Htaunt who was not able to run away from the village because of his age was punched and kicked continuously by entering junta troops. Kan Htaunt died on the morning of August 21 from this torturous assault. On the evening of August 19, a large number of security forces raided a hostel in Shwepyithar Township, Yangon Region, having accused it of housing the PDF. A young man named Lin Lin Tun a.k.a Bo Phyu was shot in the stomach and died on the spot while he was attempting to jump out of the window to escape. In addition to this, Hnin Ei Khaing, a young woman, was arrested. Tun Win, living in Shan State’s Muse Town, who contracted COVID-19, was arrested at his home by terrorist junta troops on August 20 as they did not find his son they were looking for. 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: [email protected] [email protected] ..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-21
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Title: More than 1000 Junta Killings of the Pro-Democracy Movement against the Coup - အာဏာသိမ်း ရက် ၂၀၀ အတွင်း စစ်အုပ်စုက အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ ၁၀၀၀ ကျော် သတ်ဖြတ်
Description: "In 200 days, the terrorist-like so-called ‘State Administrative Council’ has murdered (1007) civilians from the pro-democracy movement against the illegitimate coup attempt. Our organization, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has been monitoring human rights violations since long before the military coup and began documenting recent fatalities with the fatal shooting of Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing on 9 February in Naypyidaw. Proportionately, an average of five innocent civilians is killed each day by junta. “We’ve seen how the military junta followed a pattern with its escalation of deadly and arbitrary force” said AAPP, “At first they used rubber bullets and tear gas, when this did not produce the desired subordination to dictatorial rule, a campaign of terror began in March”. Cases of arson, looting, arbitrary assaults, torture, artillery, and massacres are no widespread across the country. The paragraphs below detail categories of occupations, demographics, and events to illustrate the sweeping destruction this murderous military coup was wrought. Professions At the onset of the coup, teachers, doctors, have been some of those most systematically targeted for their involvement in anti-coup protests, the civil disobedience movement, and offering support in crackdowns. Since the coup, (6) medics, (7) engineers, (10) teachers and (71) students have been killed by the junta. Deadliest Day On 27 March, AAPP documented the deadliest day of the military’s brutal crackdown attempts. (164) courageous civilians lost their lives, across the country including in Insein and Dala Township, Yangon, in Meiktila and Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay, in Monwya and Shwebo, Sagaing, in Kawthaung, Tanintharyi Region. (2) 18-year-olds and (14) under-18’s were killed by the junta. Total (16) 18 and under killed on this day. Regions The inhumanity of this terrorist like military has forced people Burma across the country in daily life-threatening situations. Since the coup (241) people have been murdered in Yangon Region, (217) people murdered in Mandalay Region, and (204) in Sagaing Region. Vulnerable Groups International humanitarian law has requirements for the protection of children, found throughout the Fourth Geneva Convention and in its additional protocols. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also states that parties must take “all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by armed conflict”. Yet, since the coup in Burma, (20) 18-year-olds and (62) under-18’s were killed. Total (82) 18 and under have been murdered by the junta. Since the coup at least (70) women people been murdered according to AAPP’s most recently published fatality list. International humanitarian law recognizes that males are afforded the same protection as women and vice versa, but specific vulnerabilities guarantee protection for females. This equally applies to persons not confirming to traditional gender roles, who are systemically exposed to egregious human rights violations. On 4 June Thaw Thaw, a transgender woman, was shot in the arm and rib by junta troops in in Kyaukpadaung Township, Mandalay, and died from lack of medical treatment. Protests People are being killed at peaceful protests, often spontaneous gatherings but always the movement has remained a leaderless organic rejection of an illegitimate coup attempt. (649) have been killed at pro-democracy demonstrations since 1 February. Some of the most violent and least indefensible, even for this murderous junta, have been the unprovoked shootings and raids in neighbourhood and homes. Even on streets in the middle of day, youths racing to get back home are murdered by junta terrorists in unmarked vehicles. One of the most heinous atrocities was on 23 March when the junta troops raided a family home in Mandalay City. Khin Myo Chit a 6 year-year-old, was shot covering in her fathers’ arms. When a teenager is shot in the back of the head, it signifies hostility and intent of the perpetrator. An incident which garnered international attention was the murder of Kyal Sin Lin also known as ‘Angel’, who on 3 March was gunned down running back from a barrier at a pro-democracy protest in Mandalay City. Since the coup (107) have been shot dead in the head. Torture to Death There are many other strategies a violent institution like this military will practice, and it does not stop at indiscriminate but intentional shootings. Torturing activists, striking workers, or every-day civilians has been a tactic of this junta. Since the coup (106) have been murdered this way. Conclusion The evidence is overwhelming, the intent has been to suppress dissent against dictatorship and for democracy by inflicting crimes against humanity on an entire country. The international response should have been swift and remains to be significant enough to end the impunity. International recognition of the political legitimacy to the National Unity Government sends a message that these crimes will not be tolerated and will begin the process of accountability..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-21
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 19 August 2021)
Description: "As of 19 August, (1007) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Myingyan Township in Mandalay Region died today and was 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 August 19, a total of (5747) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Thet Naing Oo from Kyauk Kan Village in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Townshipwho, who was arrested by the terrorist junta’s troops on the night of August 18, died on the morning of August 19. Thet Naing Oo was reportedly beaten and tortured the whole night. He was stopped and arrested because of his flashlight while he was returning home from the south of a school where the terrorist junta had set up camp. On the afternoon of August 18, junta police and soldiers raided the homes of three NLD MPs of Tabayin Township in Sagaing Region and arrested some family members as hostages. In Sai Pyin Town, the home of Pyithuhluttaw MP Win Myint Aung was raided and his wife Khin Ohn Myint, the son, and younger brother San Lin were all arrested. In the raid of Moe Min Win’s home, regional hluttaw MP for No (2) constituency, his older brother Hmet San and nephew were also arrested. In addition to this, the terrorist junta raided the home of Hnin Khaing Soe, regional hluttaw MP for No (1) constituency in Sai Pyin Town. The father of Hnin Khaing Soe was reportedly not arrested because he contracted COVID-19 and was having to breathe from oxygen supplies. Political analyst Si Thu Aung Myint, who has been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, was arrested on the night of August 15 whilst evading arrest in an apartment in Yangon Region’s Bahan Township. He is a regular columnist for Frontier Myanmar and VOA and wrote articles and satire criticising the coup council for which he was charged. 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: [email protected] [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-19
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Title: Myanmar: Engage the International Criminal Court to Hold Military Perpetrators of Mass Atrocity Crimes Accountable
Sub-title: New report finds Myanmar’s National Unity Government can grant jurisdiction to ICC
Description: "The National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar can delegate jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute mass atrocity crimes that occurred in the country since 2002, according to a legal analysis published by Fortify Rights today. The NUG can do this in two ways: First, by lodging what is known as an “Article 12(3) declaration” with the ICC, and second, by formally acceding to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the Court. “The NUG has an opportunity to bring Myanmar significantly closer to justice and accountability,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “Our analysis finds that the NUG can enter Myanmar into the Rome Statute under international law, and U.N. member states would do well to support these efforts.” The 48-page legal analysis, entitled Ending Impunity in Myanmar, explains how the NUG could address past, present, and future atrocity crimes in the country by issuing a declaration under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute while also initiating the process to accede to the Rome Statute. An Article 12(3) declaration could provide immediate jurisdiction to the Court to address specific atrocity crimes in Myanmar, including past and future crimes. Full accession to the Statute would further entitle Myanmar to all the rights of a State Party to the Statute. Fortify Rights recommended the NUG pursue both paths without delay. Only State Parties to the Rome Statute can challenge a validly deposited accession to the Statute. As explained in the Fortify Rights report, the states that would be expected to challenge the NUG’s ability to accede to the Rome Statute—such as China, the Russian Federation, or certain Southeast Asian governments—are not parties to the Rome Statute, meaning they have no standing to challenge or contest the NUG’s accession to the Court. The Myanmar junta also could not challenge an accession to the Rome Statute by the NUG unless the junta itself became a State Party to the Statute. Therefore, according to the legal analysis, a successful challenge to the NUG’s accession to the Rome Statute is unlikely. “There are limits to the power of spoiler states to block international justice and accountability,” said Matthew Smith. “States that historically protected the Myanmar military from legal accountability would have no direct power to block this. The people of Myanmar are demanding justice, and while it will take time, the NUG can do its part to help deliver it.” In recent months, Fortify Rights presented the findings of this report to NUG Vice-President Duwa Lashi La and four NUG ministers in separate briefings. Representatives of the NUG have spoken publicly about engaging the ICC since the coup. Fortify Rights recommended the NUG delegate jurisdiction to the ICC for any atrocity crimes that may have occurred since 2002—the date that the Rome Statute came into force—and all future crimes. Myanmar’s many diverse ethnic minorities—the NUG’s constituents—collectively comprise a sizable share of the national population. They have faced mass atrocity crimes for decades with little to no access to justice or accountability. By lodging an Article 12(3) declaration and acceding to the Rome Statute, the NUG could help deter future crimes in Myanmar by requiring military leaders to consider the possibility of prosecution by a neutral international court. “While these measures alone would not suffice to end and remedy all ongoing atrocities, they would bring the country closer to ending deadly cycles of impunity,” the report says. As Ending Impunity in Myanmar explains, past practice suggests that governments with some level of international recognition can represent and act on behalf of the state even in situations where the government does not exercise effective control over the territory or people, such as in the case of a coup d’état. The people of Myanmar overwhelmingly recognize the NUG as their democratically elected government, and the NUG already has significant support from members of the international community. In September, the military junta and the NUG are expected to seek official credentials to represent Myanmar at the United Nations General Assembly. On August 6, U.S. authorities arrested two Myanmar men for allegedly plotting to harm or kill Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun—who denounced the coup at the U.N. General Assembly—unless he stepped down from his position as Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the U.N. On August 9, in a statement, the Myanmar junta denied any involvement in the plot but demanded the U.S. extradite Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun in order to prosecute him for high treason. Successfully engaging the ICC in the ways outlined in this report would help confer deserved political legitimacy on the NUG. It would also help deny the Myanmar junta political legitimacy, which is “crucial for promoting and protecting human rights and preventing atrocity crimes,” said Fortify Rights. The Rome Statute is a multilateral treaty that came into force in 2002, providing the legal framework to establish the ICC in The Hague, the Netherlands. The ICC has the authority to investigate and prosecute mass-atrocity crimes as a “court of last resort”—that is, in situations in which the home state is unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute atrocities. There are 123 States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC. By ratifying or acceding to the Rome Statute, states may delegate their jurisdiction to the ICC to prosecute individuals responsible for atrocities committed on their territory or by their nationals. For states that have not delegated jurisdiction to the Court, the ICC can only consider situations referred by the U.N. Security Council. For years, China and Russia have effectively blocked any meaningful action by the Security Council in response to atrocity crimes in Myanmar. On February 1, 2021, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and the Myanmar military overthrew the elected Government of Myanmar in a coup d’état. The junta immediately arrested President Win Myint, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and other senior civilian leaders. The military and police have since killed more than 900 men, women, and children—primarily peaceful protesters—and imprisoned several thousand others for opposing the junta’s rule..."
Source/publisher: "Fortify Rights"
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-19
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Title: Real Stories Not Tales, A Collection of Youth Stories (Part 2): Hope is the last to die
Description: "In Part 2 of a 3-part series by Real Stories Not Tales (RSNT), Ko Democracy (pseudonym) tells us how the coup has affected his life and his loved ones in Myitkyina. Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a 3-part special feature of stories from a report by Real Stories Not Tales. Access to the full report will be available in Part 3 of this series. Ko Democracy is a young Gorkha man working for a social enterprise in Kachin State. He was interviewed on May 6. We live in a globalized world. A fight for democracy in one place is a fight for democracy everywhere, for all citizens. I want to ask the world to help us, not as hypocrites but honestly and truly as human beings. KO DEMOCRACY When I woke up on the morning of February 1, I noticed I had no phone signal. Then my dad came back from the bazaar and said the Myanmar military was everywhere, especially around the NLD party headquarters and residences of NLD representatives. I decided to go for a ride on my motorbike to see what was going on, and indeed there were military trucks and soldiers with guns blocking the roads. It felt so wrong—as if we were going backwards. I feared we would be disconnected from the outside world very soon. I had all these thoughts spinning around in my head, and I knew that the military was going to torture us. Despite the tragic news, I decided to go to the office. On the way, I got stopped by a soldier that wouldn’t let me enter the district where our office was. I had to talk to him for a while, until he finally let me go. When the coup happened, I was working as a field staff and interpreter in a social enterprise. Our main office was in Myitkyina, but we mostly worked in villages close to the Chinese border. Everything became so difficult for us after the coup. First off, we suddenly had no access to money because the banks closed, so we couldn’t pay salaries or transport fees. Then, because of the internet shutdown, it became challenging for us to communicate with the local partners implementing our projects. After two months, we finally decided we couldn’t keep the enterprise running, so I’m jobless now. All my work worries haven’t stopped me from participating in the resistance movement. As soon as the coup happened, we went out into the streets, and we continue to do so, this time in the form of so-called ‘guerrilla strikes’. Unfortunately, one of my friends from the student union has already been arrested, and we don’t even know where he is. Another friend is in jail and has been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code. I have just come back from hiding myself. I was away from home for a month: I feared the military would come look for me after arresting my friends. As I have been very involved in the movement, I am paranoid now. I am scared that one day they’ll take my phone and find out all about my involvement and my contacts. I am not directly involved with the KIA or KIO, but I do have some contacts, and I have been giving them to people who want to join the armed resistance. I encourage them and would also do it myself if it weren’t for my parents. I am their only child, and I know it would break their heart. Still, we have agreed that if things get worse, they will allow me to go and fight for our freedom. Until then, I will continue practicing ‘civil resistance’: not paying taxes and not attending university. The military sees young people across the country as their enemies. They have been arresting, kidnapping, and killing people every single day. People are under serious pressure to go back to work, since the military arrests anyone participating in the CDM. If they don’t or can’t find the strikers, they arrest their family members instead. Recently the focus has been on teachers and students who do not want to go to school. Last night we heard six bomb explosions very close to our house. These terrible troubles are what dominate our lives now. It is a difficult time for us all. To stay strong, I listen to spiritual leaders. I very much like Sadhguru, who said that that no one can torture you unless you accept the torturing yourself. What he meant by that is that the power inside of us cannot be taken away unless we give it away ourselves. I also get inspired by the strength and resilience of IDPs in the Kachin and Karen Hills. I tell myself that I still have food and shelter, so I shouldn’t complain. We live in a globalized world. A fight for democracy in one place is a fight for democracy everywhere, for all citizens. I want to ask the world to help us, not as hypocrites but honestly and truly as human beings. We do not have that much hope in the UN anymore due to its bureaucracies, but we do need the National Unity Government (NUG) to be recognized in order for other countries to be able to legally sell arms to them. So please help us with this. At the same time, the military regime must not be recognized as a legal government. Please also allow our Myanmar citizens to get visa extensions in your countries; don’t force them to return to an unsafe place. And finally, I would like to ask the international world to send humanitarian assistance to Myanmar. We need urgent help. Read Part 1 and Part 3 here. (Link for Part 3 will be live on August 23) Real Stories Not Tales (RSNT) is a dedicated team in and out of Myanmar that aims to bring awareness to the reality of young people’s lives since the Myanmar military staged a coup on February 1st, 2021. Stories are collected through interviews with each protagonist by the team, either in Burmese or in English. Each character is drawn by a professional illustrator bringing a visual context to the story. The RSNT report also proposes some tips on how it is possible to support Myanmar these days. They are pleased to share selections from their first report and are now in the process of collecting more stories all around the country..."
Source/publisher: Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-19
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 18 August 2021)
Description: "As of 18 August, (1006) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (7) fallen heroes today. These (7) fallen heroes from Minkin Township and Shwebo Township in Sagaing Region and Pauk Township in Magway 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 August 18, a total of (5730) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Terrorist junta’s soldiers who were drunk pointed a gun to the temple of Zaw Myo Myint and shot him dead at close range among people at a port in Minkin Town, Sagaing Region on the evening of August 17. Junta troops beat and then shot Zaw Myo Myint for not wearing a face mask while he was sitting and chewing the betel nut in the port. Zin Mar Win from Min Sar village in Minkin Township who heard the sound of gunshots and witnessed Zaw Myo Myint’s dead body, died on the spot from a heart attack. Terrorist junta’s troops raided Kyauk Khel Tat Village in Sagaing Region’s Minkin Township and arrested three villagers named Bo Aung, Chit Lwin and Phoe Toke on August 16. They killed these three villagers on August 17 and concealed the bodies in Chindwin River. Hla Myint Oo, living in Thapyay Yay Village in Magway Region Pauk Township, who had opened a shop, was shot with a tumee (traditional hunting) rifle used by junta troops on the evening of August 13. The junta then set a bomb on an old motorbike in front of his shop. In addition, junta troops raided Paline, Gonetan and Kanthar Villages in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township, then arrested and shot dead a local from Gonetan Village called Nan, on August 12. The incident happened at a school in Paline Village where they had set up camp after they questioned Nan who came past but failed to reply. 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: [email protected] [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-18
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Title: Death toll since Myanmar coup tops 1,000, says activist group
Description: "The death toll as a result of Myanmar's Feb. 1 coup topped 1,000 on Wednesday, according to an official of the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group, which has been recording killings by security forces. A spokesman for the ruling junta did not respond to a call to request comment. The military authorities have previously said the AAPP figures, widely cited by international organisations, are exaggerated. The army has also said scores of members of the security forces have been killed. The AAPP does not include them in its count. "According to AAPP records, 1,001 innocent people have been killed," AAPP secretary Tate Naing told Reuters. "The actual number of victims is much higher." The Southeast Asian country has sunk into chaos since the coup, with protests continuing daily, insurgencies flaring in border regions and widespread strikes that have severely damaged the economy. The army overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, alleging irregularities in an election swept by her National League for Democracy party in November 2020. The then electoral commission and international monitors said the army accusations were wrong. The military authorities say their seizure of power should not be called a coup because it was in line with the constitution..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-18
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Title: Women’s League of Burma - Situation Update, July 2021
Sub-title: As part of an ongoing monthly analysis, WLB would like to share our July briefer on the situation of human rights amid the military coup in Burma/Myanmar and the recent outbreak of COVID-19.
Description: "Six months have passed since the Burmese Army seized power in a coup. Since that dark day, the people of Burma/Myanmar have continued to suffer the consequences. In the months following Feb 1, it has become abundantly clear that the terrorist junta has neither the political will nor the ability to govern with compassion and humanity. Something must be done to reverse the devastation. But dismantling the junta’s legacy of violence and impunity is not without its challenges. Yet, the on-going civil movements and growing calls for action alongside campaigns for accountability, signals that the struggle for freedom, equality and peace for the people of Burma/Myanmar will continue. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already devastating political, economic and social climate. At the time of this writing, the country has reported over 300,000 confirmed cases Ethnic areas are also seriously affected by the pandemic. Exploitation of the pandemic has led to countless preventable deaths. The junta’s negligence has been made clear in their hoarding of oxygen tanks for themselves as they threatened health care workers, forcing many to go underground. Pharmacies have been forced to close due to insufficient stock, and those that remain open are inaccessible to many due to price inflation. For displaced populations and refugees, their situation comes with a lack of direct access to healthcare facilities. Children and the elderly are facing many difficulties because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ‘war on health’ is the latest battle the people of Burma/ Myanmar are now facing. The military is moving backwards by arresting health care workers who share anti-coup views. According to recent statistics, the majority of health workers involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) are women, and they too are putting themselves at risk providing medical services to the infected. In this new struggle, women are disproportionately impacted. Across generations, women take on many responsibilities in the household, including being a primary caretaker. As they give their energy to their infected loved ones, they put themselves at more risk of catching the virus. Meanwhile, unlawful arrests and persecution of pro-democracy activists continues. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 1,084 women have been arrested and 65 killed since Feb 1. Another 100 youth have been killed by the junta, including 75 children. Additionally, 1,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 19 have been detained. Of those arrested, 65 have been sentenced to death through military tribunals, including four women. Burma/Myanmar has not evoked the death penalty since 1988. These sentences are excruciatingly punitive and they lack legitimacy. Peaceful protest is not a crime, and yet under the junta’s control, those with different views are persecuted. Impact of the Military Coup: The junta continues to deny and dismiss the severity of the multiple crises unfolding within the country. International intervention to curb the rate of infections and carry out an effective humanitarian response is urgently needed. Women and children have suffered enormous consequences since the junta’s ruthless takeover. Surviving under an authoritarian regime has been immeasurably difficult for the most vulnerable. In Burma/Myanmar, women are unfairly recognized as the weaker gender. The military often treats them with severe disrespect, abusing and intimidating them to maintain their control. Since the military overthrew the democratically elected government, sexual harassment, rape, and arrests have increased. There is no compassion shown for the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities or young. To the Burmese Army, they are simply the threats to their new political order. Women have also been threatened by the junta for their pro-democracy activities. A weak legal system has undermined all prospects for justice and accountability. Women’s access to justice referral pathways is also limited by patriarchal and cultural stereotypes. Isolating civilians from life-saving services is another branch of the junta’s deceitful tactics. Many of the victims of their atrocities are from low-income communities who lack the financial capacity and legal literacy to access services. The junta has a long history of committing sexual abuse against young women and girls. The abuse leaves survivors traumatized, often without reparations for the crimes committed against them. In detention, prisoners are allowed limited access to water. Due to the unsanitary conditions, women in the prison often take contraceptives. Even though there may be consequences to their health, women political prisoners in Dawei Township have no choice but receive the contraceptive injections through the clinics in the prison. Inadequate access to sanitary conditions while unlawfully detained is yet another violation they are forced to endure. As tens of thousands of positive cases and hundreds of deaths from COVID-19 are being reported, prisons throughout the country are also affected by the coronavirus. Making it worse is the military’s unwillingness to contain the pandemic and provide proper medical care. Dr. Htar Htar Lin, the Director of the National Immunization Program and one of the leading experts on COVID-19 in Burma/ Myanmar, who was arrested with her family on June 20, is now infected with the virus. While two women reportedly died in Insein Prison in the month of July due to being denied medical care. One was Moe Thu, a 42-year-old anti-coup protest leader from Khayan Township in Yangon Region, whose colleagues believed she died of COVID-19. In response to the negligence of the prison’s management over the deteriorating COVID-19 pandemic and its discriminatory medical treatment within prison, women from the two female detention blocks in Insein Prison staged a protest in the morning of July 23 spreading across the prison. Young children are not exempt from this horrendous treatment. Ko Soe Htay, a Burmese human rights activist, says his five-year-old daughter was arrested and detained in his place with his wife and elder daughter. The family was forced to endure stress positions by the junta. Since her release, he says his young daughter has been traumatized. His eldest, who remains in prison, is suffering from life-threatening injuries..."
Source/publisher: Women’s League of Burma
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-18
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Title: The ‘Apple’ that fell in 44th street
Sub-title: The fatal fall of Wai Wai Myint—or “Apple” to her friends—was testament to her refusal to give in to injustice
Description: "In early August, 29-year-old Wai Wai Myint and her 35-year-old husband Soe Myat Thu decided to leave Yangon for a short trip to Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin. The couple, who had recently recovered from Covid-19, just wanted a break from the stress of life in Myanmar’s largest city, where post-coup political tensions and anxiety over the third wave of the pandemic seemed to be coming to a head. They took their much-needed vacation and were due to return to Yangon by plane on August 10. However, when they learned that their flight would be delayed until the afternoon, they decided to rent a car the day before so they could get back to Yangon by morning. It proved to be a fateful decision. Just hours after they arrived at their home on 45th Street at around 9am, Wai Wai Myint—known to her friends and family as “Apple”—would be lying dead in a nearby alleyway. After resting from their journey, Wai Wai Myint went out at around 3pm to meet with friends who lived a short distance away on 44th Street, according to her husband. “She took 10 or 15 thousand kyat with her to give to her friends. It was soon after she left that it happened,” he recalled. “I can’t help but blame myself. If only we taken the plane, we wouldn’t have arrived until 6pm,” he said as he tried to make sense of the tragic events of that day. Lost hope Soe Myat Thu learned about his wife’s death on social media. There were reports that five people had fallen from the rooftop of a three-storey apartment building on 44th Street. The details were unclear, but it appeared that they had been trying to escape from a raid by junta troops looking to arrest members of the anti-coup resistance movement. It was believed that the 50-foot fall had left at least some of the wanted activists dead. Photos shared on Facebook showed seemingly lifeless bodies lying in an alley behind No. 38, 44th Street, including one of a woman in a blue and yellow dress, like the one worn by Snow White in the classic Disney movie. It was the sight of this dress that shook Soe Myat Thu to the core. “I kept hoping that it wasn’t her, but at the same time, I could see that the woman in the photo was wearing the exact same dress as my wife,” he said. Even in the face of this evidence, he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that it was Wai Wai Myint. He posted something on Facebook to see if he could get more information, and it slowly began to sink in that it was true: his wife was dead. But this did not end his quest for some glimmer of hope. The following morning, he contacted a doctor he knew at Yangon General Hospital to ask if she had been admitted there. When this failed to yield any new leads, he went directly to the hospital’s emergency department, only to be told that they hadn’t seen any patients fitting Wai Wai Myint’s description. "The Facebook post said there was one person barely alive at the hospital. I couldn’t help but hope it was my wife. She was always a lucky person." He then went from one cemetery to another, beginning with the Kyu Chaung Cemetery in Shwepyithar Township, where the military often takes the bodies of its victims. Next he went to the Kyi Su Cemetery in South Dagon, and then the Yay Way Cemetery in North Okkalapa. As his grim search continued, he read on Facebook that the five people who had fallen from the building the day before had all been taken to the 1,000-bed military hospital in Mingaladon Township, where one was said to still be clinging to life. “The post said there was one person barely alive at the hospital. I couldn’t help but hope it was my wife. She was always a lucky person,” said Soe Myat Thu. But the thought that he might see Wai Wai Myint alive again proved short-lived. Friends at the hospital confirmed that she had died. Four hours later, he would see this with his own eyes when he went to identify her. After making a futile request for permission to take her body, which was tightly wrapped in white cloth, for burial (she had often said that she didn’t want to be cremated), he was denied another last wish: to keep her ashes. “We couldn’t take her body home. And we couldn’t have her ashes,” he recalled sadly. “They said that they couldn’t make any exceptions—that everything had to be done according to the orders from the higher ups.” ‘A peculiar girl’ He still hasn’t told their five-year-old daughter, Nan Hteik Yati, what happened to her mother. A gemstone dealer by profession, Wai Wai Myint was often away on business. Perhaps that is where their daughter thinks she is now, Soe Myat Thu suggested, before adding that that may no longer be the case. “I think she found out about her death this morning while we were praying with the monks. She started crying while she was praying,” he said. Wai Wai Myint was a devoted mother who would only bend her will to please their daughter, Soe Myat Thu recalled, remembering his wife as the sort of person who would never give up in a fight. “When we argued, she would only start talking to me again if our daughter told her to,” he said. Wai Wai Myint had lost both of her parents—her father when she was just a child, and her mother while she was in university. Perhaps it was this that made her so fiercely independent, and at the same time protective towards those who had suffered some injustice, according to some of her closest friends. “Many people called her Apple. She was such a peculiar girl. She couldn’t stand injustice. She was fierce, and tall—she always wore high heels,” said Htet Arkar Kyaw, a former classmate. “By fierce, I don’t mean she fought with or bullied people. She was a brave girl. Everyone at school knew that. She used to fight with teachers known to act like dictators with students,” he recalled. "She always stood on the side of the weak." An honours graduate with a degree in English language from Dagon University, she always spoke up when she had to. “She would always ask the teachers questions, and never gave up until she got an answer that satisfied her. And she was never afraid to tell the truth,” said her close friend Soe Soe. Seen as “mouthy” by some, to those who really knew her, she was best known for being always ready to come to the aid of those in need, Soe Soe added. Her husband said this applied as much to strangers as to friends. “There were many times when she would yell at restaurant managers for scolding waiters,” he said. “She always stood on the side of the weak.” ‘No interest in politics’ Until the coup in February, however, Wai Wai Myint’s strong sense of justice never really extended to the political sphere. As relatively well-off members of Myanmar’s middle class, she and her husband had friends who supported both the now-ousted National League for Democracy and the army’s proxy party, and they felt no desire to pick sides. “We weren’t interested in politics at all before the coup. We weren’t on either side,” said Soe Myat Thu, noting that he and his wife both preferred to put most of their energy into their work, which in his case was running a private dental clinic. But that changed just over a week after the military takeover, when a young protester in Naypyitaw became the first casualty of the newly installed regime’s brutal efforts to crush opposition to its rule. Mya Thwe Thwe Khine was just 19 years old when she was shot in the head during an anti-coup demonstration in the capital on February 9. Her subsequent death a few days later made a deep impression on Wai Wai Myint. “It shattered her when Mya Thwe Thwe Khine died,” Soe Myat Thu said about the change in his wife’s political views. Over the ensuing months, she joined many protests, even when the junta was massacring dozens or even hundreds of civilians on a daily basis. She did so against her husband’s wishes, and eventually stopped telling him what she was doing, he said. Much of her activity involved cooking and donating food to protesters, according to her friend Soe Soe. In April, she was briefly detained for her involvement in the resistance movement. "She’d always say that she wanted to swap places with the people who died. She just couldn’t stand injustice." During her detention, she suffered a spinal injury after she was slapped and kicked by her captors. But more than that, it pained her that she was released while others were forced to remain behind bars. “She wasn’t happy, because only she and a few other people were freed. She felt guilty about that. She’d come to me and cry about it,” said Soe Soe. “She’d always say that she wanted to swap places with the people who died. She just couldn’t stand injustice,” she added. Through her work in the movement, she made many new friends, including those who were with her on the day she died. According to the junta, Wai Wai Myint was guilty of supporting a group of youths who were making explosives. Soe Myat Thu said he didn’t know any of the people she was with when the apartment she was in was raided. The four others who fell that day were all young men. In Soe Myat Thu’s mind, there is no doubt about who is responsible for his wife’s death. She herself had told him that she would take her own life before she allowed herself to be captured and tortured again. “I’m not the only one crying now. It’s all the system’s fault. My wife wouldn’t have had to die if it wasn’t for that,” he said, laying the blame for her death squarely on the shoulders of Myanmar’s military rulers..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-18
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 17 August 2021)
Description: "As of 17 August, (999) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Kyauksei Township in Mandalay Region died on August 16 and was 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 August 17, a total of (5712) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Than Sein, a local villager from Kyauk Sauk Kalay Village in Kyauksei Township, Mandalay Region, who was arrested by the terrorist junta’s troop around 10 am on August 15, died on the morning of August 16 due to severe beatings. Three of his teeth fell out due to the punching, and beating with wire and bamboo sticks because Than Sein did not open his phone lock. Than Sein was beaten this way until in the evening, according to locals. Than Sein was actively involved in his community and in-hiding after the terrorist junta came to search and arrest NLD supporters. He was arrested because a junta-appointed administrator informed that he had arrived home from hiding. Kyaw Thiha, a protest leader with the Mandalay Boycott Forces Column, was hit by a private car driven by the terrorist junta’s troop wearing plain clothes yesterday. Kyaw Thiha was beaten and arrested at gunpoint at 5pm on August 16 on his way driving a motorbike. In addition to this, the terrorist junta raided houses where protestors were hiding and Pi Ti, one of the protestors in that boycott column, was arrested that day. 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: [email protected] [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-17
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Title: Military arrests leader of Mandalay protest alliance
Sub-title: Kyaw Thiha, the youth head of an alliance of multiple protest columns, was stopped on his motorbike, beaten and arrested at gunpoint by plainclothes junta soldiers
Description: "A youth leader from the Mandalay Protest Alliance Force, was arrested by the junta’s forces while driving near Mandalay University at around 5pm on Monday. Plainclothes soldiers, arriving in domestic vehicles, stopped a motorbike driven by activist Kyaw Thiha—who is in his 20s—beat him, and took him with them at gunpoint, according to an eyewitness. Thura Aung, a friend who had been staying with him and another leader of the alliance, said that over 20 troops later inspected Kyaw Thiha’s former home in Patheingyi Township at 8pm that night. “They also raided the place where we were staying. We’re all on the run now. I still don’t know about our other comrades, but I’m in a safe place now,” Thura Aung told Myanmar Now. The Mandalay Protest Alliance Force has been a frequent target of the brutal crackdowns by the military on anti-coup resistance. Junta vehicles drove into the protest column in both May and June, injuring demonstrators. Six protesters including a university lecturer were arrested near Mandalay University on the morning of June 14 after the column was hit by a car driven by military personnel. The Mandalay Protest Alliance Force formed when multiple Mandalay protest columns joined forces to revolt against the dictatorship. They include Daung Sit Thi (Peacock Warriors); All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU); Academics; Labourers; Farmers; Mandalay University Students; BEHS (7) Students; and Sein Pan. Thura Aung said that they would not be stopping their resistance to military rule. “They can arrest us all they want but they can’t break our revolutionary spirit. We’re not backing down, not by an inch. We will fight for the truth until the end,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-17
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Title: Myanmar’s Junta Seen Moving to Dissolve NLD to Ensure Grip on Power
Sub-title: The military has arrested more than 300 party members, including 98 lawmakers, since February.
Description: "Myanmar’s junta is targeting members of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD), including its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dozens of lawmakers, in a bid to disband the party and secure its tenuous hold on power six months after overthrowing the government, ousted lawmakers and analysts said Monday. A member of the NLD’s Central Committee told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the military regime has arrested a total of 324 NLD members—98 of whom are members of parliament (MPs)—since its Feb. 1 coup d’état. Among the detained are 15 members of the NLD’s Central Committee, as well as five regional and state chief ministers, the committee member said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. Other senior NLD members have died in detention since the coup, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s personal attorney Nyan Win on July 20 and Bago region MP Nyunt Shwe, who died of COVID-19 in prison on Monday. Three party members—Khin Maung Latt and Zaw Myat Lin of Myanmar’s largest city Yangon and Kyaw Kyaw from the capital Naypyidaw—were allegedly tortured to death at interrogation centers, according to the committee member. Meanwhile, 10 people, including Magway Region Chief Minister Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, have been sentenced by the military to between two and three years in prison and face additional charges. NLD chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi, former president Win Myint, and several other party leaders remain in detention on a variety of anti-state charges after being rounded up in the aftermath of the coup. The Central Committee member told RFA that the junta is targeting the NLD with the goal of removing the party from politics altogether. “The junta is afraid of losing the state authority it unlawfully seized,” they said. The committee member said they believe the military’s leadership was unhappy with the socio-economic development, transparency, and other reforms that the NLD delivered after winning the country’s 2015 elections, and afraid of being held to account for the corruption and other crimes it had committed during its 1962-2011 rule. “That must be why they are trying to completely remove the NLD from Myanmar politics, hoping that afterwards they’d be free to do what they want,” the committee member said. “[NLD] party leaders and party members are being unlawfully persecuted, and people are being brutally suppressed so that they cannot interact with the party.” Holding on to power The junta says a landslide victory by the NLD in the country’s November 2020 general election was the result of voter fraud, but has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed widespread prot4ests, killing 998 people and arresting 5,711 since the coup, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) announced on July 26 that the 2020 election results had been officially annulled, although the NLD has dismissed the decision as illegal, saying it invalidates the will of the people. The military has called for a change in the format of the election to include proportional representation ahead of a new ballot. Political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that the military’s actions are aimed at holding on to power. “It doesn’t matter when elections are held—as long as the people wholeheartedly support the NLD, it will be difficult for the military to maintain power,” he said. “This is why the junta is working towards the abolition of the NLD and the long-term imprisonment of its leaders.” In the aftermath of the coup, the military raided NLD offices across the country, confiscating documents and office equipment and destroying party signboards. Party officials say grassroot-level NLD offices have since removed all signs, citing security concerns. Aung Kyi Nyunt, a member of the NLD Central Committee, said that despite the military’s efforts, the party will endure because it continues to represent the will of the people. “I don’t believe that the people will accept the annulment of the election results or participate in new elections, as they already made their decision,” he said. “As long as the people are there, the party will be there.” Little hope for justice Meanwhile, family members of imprisoned NLD lawmakers told RFA on Monday that they have little hope for justice while the junta remains in charge of the country. Lin Naing, the husband of jailed Taungup township MP Ni Ni May Myint, said that the military had arrested his wife and many other NLD members with complete impunity. “We didn’t know where people were interrogated after being taken away—most were taken to court from interrogation centers and imprisoned straight away,” he said. “There is no transparency. Those arrested were not allowed to speak with their lawyers and were jailed on random charges. Almost all the cases are like that. Anyone who is charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code [for ‘defamation of the military’] has no legal protection.” Ni Ni May Myint was arrested in Yangon on May 12 along with NLD youth leader Chit Chit Chaw and sentenced to three years in prison for defaming the military. The pair have been denied visits with family members, Lin Naing said. Thant Zin Tun, a Pyithu Hluttaw member from Dekkhina Thiri township, has been in detention in Naypyidaw Prison since March 2, when he was arrested in the capital along with Naypyidaw Council Development Committee member Min Thu, NLD MP Kyaw Min Hlaing, and Amyotha Hluttaw member Maung Maung Swe. A member of Thant Zin Tun’s family, who declined to be named, said the junta has been devoting a significant amount of effort to building a case against the MP. “We were allowed to see him 12 days after his arrest, but we haven’t seen him since,” the relative said. “They are meticulously constructing a case so that they can sentence him to prison. They have called in ‘witnesses’ that they want to testify in the case. There is nothing we can do for him.” Attempts by RFA to reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Monday..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-17
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 16 August 2021)
Description: "As of 16 August, (998) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (27) fallen heroes today. (1) was an MP from Bago Township in Bago Region who died today and (26) from Dawei Township in Tanintharyi Region, Bago Township in Bago Region, Hlaing Thayar Township in Yangon Region and Kani 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 August 16, a total of (5711) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Nyunt Shwe, MP of Bago Region Hluttaw in constituency No. (1) of Bago Township and also executive committee chairman of the NLD in Bago Township, contracted COVID-19 in prison and died in the early morning of August 16 from the disease while at Bago Hospital receiving medical treatment. Nyunt Shwe had been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code and detained in Bago Prison. A civilian named Aung Yu from Dawei Township in Tanintharyi Region, who was arrested on the night of August 11, died on August 14, three days after his arrest. His wife was informed Aung Yu died due to COVID-19, but his wife has denied that her husband caught the disease. On the night of August 14, a young man playing a game on a bench in front of a shop panicked and ran into the house in front of him when he saw a junta soldier patrol in Paya Gyi Town, Bago Township, Bago Region. The other young man in that house named Ye Htet Ko was shot dead in his left chest as the junta troops opened fire into the house with the door closed. Han Zaw Tun a.k.a Toke Pye who suffers from mental illness and lives in Pa Dan Village, was beaten by the terrorist junta’s appointed night guards and died on the spot. The incident happened in front of the Ward (20) administrator’s office in Hlaing Thayar Township in Yangon Region at 2:30 am on August 13 while Han Zaw Tun a.k.a Toke Pye was returning from his mother’s home. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-16
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Type: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Update 14 August 2021)
Description: "As of 14 August, (971) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. These (3) fallen heroes from Falam Township in Chin State, Waingmaw Township in Kachin State 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 August 14, a total of (5604) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. A woman called Lang Pyung was shot by the 58th Infantry Battalion after returning from purchasing groceries from Waingmaw on the evening of August 13 when their motorbike passed through a road in front of the 58th Infantry Battalion, her husband managed to escape. The couple, from Wu Yan village in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State. Lang Pyung died at Waingmaw Hospital from a gunshot wound from left to right rib. On August 12, Joshua from Parmun Chaung village in Falam Township, Chin State, was arrested by the terrorist junta’s troop, and shot dead in the back of the head. On the night of August 10, the terrorist junta’s troop raided Kyi Kone village in Sagaing Region’s Myaung Township and beat unprovoked a local villager called Nyi Nyi Latt. The junta soldiers shot him to death when he then ran away. The body of Nyi Nyi Latt was found in a port in the village with many injuries on his body, and gunshot injuries to the neck and head, according to locals. 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: [email protected] [email protected] ..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-14
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Title: Myanmar: The woman who jumped to her death while fleeing police
Sub-title: Even after six months of horrifying news from Myanmar, it is an incident that's shocked the country - five people who chose to jump from a building they were hiding in, some to their deaths, rather than face arrest.
Description: "The police have condemned the group as terrorists, but the husband of one victim tells the BBC she was a compassionate wife and mother who felt she was working to alleviate the people's suffering. This is the tale of her untimely death. It was on Tuesday afternoon that eight young activists found themselves trapped by a police raid. The military had seized power months earlier in February, throwing the country into turmoil as millions protested against the coup. At least 900 people have been killed by the military's violent response, and thousands more arrested. Wai Wai Myint was one of those caught up in the movement opposing the military junta. She was one of the five who jumped off a commercial building in downtown Yangon as the police charged in, falling onto a concrete pavement. She and at least one other person died at the scene. The other three have been taken to a military-run hospital. In the first photograph of Wai Wai Myint that began circulating on social media after news of her death, she stands ramrod straight, looking defiantly at the camera. Her fingers are raised in the three-finger Hunger Games salute that has become the trademark gesture used by young dissidents in South East Asia. The military authorities have described the group she was with as terrorists who were planning to plant bombs. They have published confessions by two of the activists who did not jump and were arrested there, and photographs of what they say were ingredients for explosives. But that is not the image painted by her husband, Soe Myat Thu. He had to say goodbye to Apple, as he calls her, at a military-organised mass cremation for her and four other people, including the young man who died with her when they jumped. No photographs were allowed, and the families were not permitted to take away the ashes. The military junta in Myanmar has been trying to restrict the funerals of those killed in the uprising against the coup, as they often turn into anti-military demonstrations - sometimes cremating bodies in secret rather than returning them to their relatives. Soe Myat Thu held up a flower for her, and took that back home in place of her remains. The move towards politics They were a comfortably middle-class couple, both ethnic Chinese, with a six year-old daughter. Soe Myat Thu is a dentist, and Wai Wai Myint was a gems and jewellery trader. She had been brought up by two aunts, he told the BBC, and always had plenty of money to enjoy life. Photographs of her show a well made-up young woman posing in stylish clothes. She liked going out clubbing with girlfriends, he says, but had a strong social conscience, regularly donating money to poorer neighbours or to animal welfare groups. He said the couple had not been interested in politics at all, with Wai Wai Myint even saying that they should stay away because it could be dangerous. When the coup happened, she did not react much at first. But she was kind-hearted, he says, and became upset when the first protester to die, a young woman called Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, was fatally shot in the capital Nyapyitaw a week after the coup. Her death was widely mourned and triggered further anger against authorities. The shooting of a young protester Wai Wai Myint donated money to Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing's family, and began posting on her Facebook page about other victims of the increasingly violent military response to the civil disobedience movement. He said the couple both knew they could not change things themselves, but when she saw people being shot by the military she became more outspoken in her comments. He describes her as a bold character who was more ready to take risks than he was. Soe Myat Thu says she was arrested once during a protest, and he had to negotiate to get her out of custody. She was very angry about that, he remembers, because of the way she had been kicked and beaten. He had then warned her not to go to any more protests, reminding her that she had a daughter to care for. After that, he believed that his wife was no longer involved with the opposition. It has evolved from a non-violent protest movement in the weeks after the coup to an underground resistance which today uses handmade guns and bombs, and is believed to be behind the assassination of officials who co-operate with the military. He says he knew the other activists who were caught with Wai Wai Myint, in the building where they were staying on 44th Street in downtown Yangon, not far from their home. They were all members of the Pzundaung Botahtaung Young Strike Committee, one of many groups formed in Yangon in the first days after the coup to resist it. She used to hang out with them, he says, and sometimes brought them to their house to eat and use their internet. "I admired and felt sorry for them as they were prepared to go out and face danger when I would not," he said. But he had no idea she was going to join them in their hideout on Tuesday; she had only told him that she was going out for a little while, and left the house without changing her clothes and putting on make-up, as she usually did. It is not clear what Wai Wai Myint's role was in the group, or whether she was even a member. It was possible that she was only paying the rent and offering other kinds of material support. Activists opposing the coup in Myanmar have to keep moving from place to place to avoid arrest. Soe Myint Thu believes it was what she felt about the suffering of the people, and her determination not to accept the military junta, that eventually drove her to her fate..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-14
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 13 August 2021)
Description: "As of 13 August, (968) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Myingyan Township in Mandalay Region and Minkin 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 August 13, a total of (5571) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. A young girl around one-years-old was shot in the head and stomach and died on the spot in the morning of August 12 at Myingyan Township in Mandalay Region when the terrorist junta’s soldiers opened fire on three young men on motorbikes near the child’s house. In addition to this, Nyein Chan, father of the child, was shot twice in the arm, and the mother was also shot in the leg. On August 5, junta soldiers and the Pyu Saw Htee detained five Than Pauk villagers near Obo village in Sagaing Region’s Minkin Township allegedly for being involved in the anti-coup revolution. A 26-year-old was beaten to death, called Hlaing Wai Oo, right in front of the detained persons at a school in Pan Sat village. Two sons had taken their mother to Yar Village which is close to Pan Sat village because she was suffering from illness. A total of five people including two sons and their mother and two other men were arrested while returning together. Hlaing Wai Oo was killed in front of his mother. A few days later, three of the villagers were released, but nothing has yet been heard about the one remaining villager. Win Zaw was arrested when terrorist junta troops wearing plain clothes did not find his son when they searched his home in Dawei, Tanitharyi Region on the morning of August 12. Myint San, MP of Magwe Region Hluttaw in the constituency No. (2) of Pauk Township and also NLD party member, who was charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code and had a warrant issued against her, was arrested in Nattalin Town in Bago Region on the night of August 11 by local junta police. 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: [email protected] [email protected]..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-13
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Type: Individual Documents
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Size: 1.36 MB 5.38 MB 1.81 MB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 12 August 2021)
Description: "As of 12 August, (966) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen heroes today. This (1) fallen hero from Botahtaung Township in Yangon Region was killed on August 10 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. In relation to the apartment raid by the terrorist junta on 44th street in Botahtaung Township, today, AAPP added Wai Wai Myint a.k.a Apple to our fatality list as we confirmed she had died then. AAPP will continue to verify and report information regarding this incident. As of August 12, a total of (5562) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. At least five philanthropists including Naing Lin and Jue Mar were arrested on the morning of August 11 whilst they were planning to provide rice to the poor in Wakema Town, Ayeyarwady Region. A local said it is unknown why they were arrested. On the evening of July 31, Poe Ei Khaing, the wife of Aung Kyaw Htet and his one-year-old daughter were arrested as hostage when the terrorist junta did not find Aung Kyaw Htet from Mandalay who is accused of having relations with the PDF. Poe Ei Khaing was suffering from an illness when she was arrested. The one-year-old daughter was released on August 2 two days after her arrest. The day his one-year-old daughter was released, the police station announced they would allow part-time breastfeeding, but they did not end up allowing this the next day, at which point they said Poe Ei Khaing contracted COVID-19. After this, he did not hear anything about his wife, according to Aung Kyaw Htet. The nephew of Nay Myo named Myat Noe Lwin was detained as a hostage when the junta did not find Nay Myo, NLD Ward and Village Secretary of Kyauk Gyi Su Ward in Bago at home on the night of August 5. Nay Myo is charged under Section 505 of the Penal Code. In addition to this, the parents and son of Han Tun were detained as hostages when the junta did not find Han Tun, NLD campaigner of Pyan Kya Village in Sagaing Region’s Tabayin Township on the afternoon of August 8. 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: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-12
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Type: Individual Documents
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Size: 1.36 MB 5.33 MB 1.82 MB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 11 August 2021)
Description: "As of 11 August, (965) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. In relation to the terrorist junta’s raid of the apartment on 44th street in Botahtaung Township, Yangon, some media outlets have said five people died, others that six died. It is without doubt there were deaths, but we are continuing to inquire and confirm the exact figure and identities. As of August 11, a total of (5550) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Terrorist junta’s troops entered Htauk Kyant village in Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township on the afternoon of August 10 and arrested the father-in-law and mother-in-law of Maung Phyu when they did not find Maung Phyu living in that village. 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: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-11
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Title: Myanmar military leaders attempting to legitimize power: UN Special Envoy
Sub-title: Six months after seizing power in a coup, Myanmar’s military leaders now appear to be moving to consolidate their rule, the UN Special Envoy for the country said on Tuesday, in her latest briefing to journalists in New York.
Description: "Christine Schraner Burgener said the situation in Myanmar “is still very worrisome”, amid a “severe” third wave of COVID-19 infections. Last week, senior army general Min Aung Hlaing announced he was appointing himself Prime Minister, and pledged to hold elections by 2023. Solidifying their grip “In my view, the Commander-in-Chief appears determined to solidify his grip on power with the latest caretaker government announcement; also, with the formal annulment of the election result from last year and declaration of the Commander-in-Chief to be Prime Minister of the country,” the UN envoy said, speaking from Switzerland. Ms. Schraner Burgener also expressed fear that the National League of Democracy (NLD), which won the November 2020 election, could also soon be forcibly disbanded. State Counsellor and party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, alongside President Win Myint, were detained in the 1 February coup. “This is an attempt to promote legitimacy against lack of international action taken”, she said. “And I have to make (it) clear that the UN does not recognize Governments, so it’s up to the Member States.” She underlined that “as long as Member States do not make any decision”, Myanmar’s Permanent Representative in New York, Kyaw Moe Tun, remains the country’s legitimate UN Ambassador, while Ms. Suu Kyi and President Myint are its leaders. Recently, international media reported that a plot was uncovered to kill or injure Ambassador Tun, who denounced the coup in the General Assembly Hall in New York. “I was really shocked to hear this, and clearly it’s now up to the investigation team to find out who is behind this attack,” said Ms.Schraner Burgener. Violence and pandemic The situation on the ground in Myanmar remains “very difficult”, she reported. “There is no freedom of speech, and I have still grave concerns about attacks against the free press. And I urge always in my discussions with the army to release political prisoners, including many media workers.” The military cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations in the wake of the coup, and more than 960 people have been killed so far. Thousands more were arrested and detained, including foreigners and over 100 children. Meanwhile, clashes between the army and local defense forces continue. Violence has risen, and the defense groups are increasingly using “professional weapons”. At the same time, Myanmar is also facing a devastating battle against the coronavirus. More than 331,000 cases have been reported. UN agencies and partners are working to resume provision of health assistance, with priority given to vaccine rollout through the global solidarity initiative, COVAX, and to revitalizing immunizations generally. Ongoing UN engagement Ms. Schraner Burgener continues her engagement to find a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Myanmar, although she has yet to be allowed to travel there. The UN Special Envoy has been holding talks with the military, ethnic armed organizations, and other stakeholders, who include the National Unity Government (NUG), formed by exiled lawmakers ousted in the coup. Representatives come from the NLD, other parties and ethnic armed groups. Over the past two months, she has been promoting the idea of an inclusive dialogue organized around four “clusters” covering pandemic response, humanitarian assistance, and issues related to the Rohingya community. The final and biggest cluster would address root causes of the crisis, such as discussions around the federal system, the constitution, law reforms and the electoral system. She has also proposed establishing an international observer group on Myanmar. Membership would comprise China, India, Japan, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland, in addition to the UN, the European Union and the Southeast Asian regional bloc, ASEAN. Promoting inclusive dialogue “The ethnic armed groups were in the majority very positive of this idea, and really want to find a peaceful solution,” she said, referring to the dialogue proposal. “The NUG…was interested in the idea but clearly would have pre-conditions to start such a dialogue.” Ms. Schraner Burgener held “a long conversation” with Soe Win, the army’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief, on 16 July. Although receptive to some of her ideas, including integrating health workers in COVID-19 prevention measures, “on the dialogue, I didn’t receive an answer: not a positive, not a negative.” She hoped that with the recent appointment of an ASEAN Special Envoy on Myanmar, an all-inclusive dialogue will take place, otherwise “it goes more and more in the direction of a civil war,” she warned..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-11
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 10 August 2021)
Description: "As of 10 August, (965) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (3) fallen heroes today. (1) from Falam Township in Chin State was killed today and (2) from Myaing Township in Magway Region and Myanaung Township in Ayeyarwady 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 August 10, a total of (5534) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. 60 year-old Pi Ngeih Tling was shot dead in the chest at home in an unprovoked shooting by the terrorist junta’s soldiers on the morning of August 10 at Falam Township in Chin State. On the afternoon of August 9, three junta police wearing plainclothes entered Pike Thin village and opened fire because a protest leader San Ko from Pike Thin Village escaped from arrest when three junta police tried to arrest him at a COVID-19 checkpoint. Aung Zay Ya, a villager from Pike Thin village in Magway Region’s Myaing Township, was dragged into their car because he was holding a slingshot when he went out of the house to look. When junta police arrived near a pond at the top of the village, they told Aung Zay Ya to get out of the car and told him to run towards the pond. While Aung Zay Ya was running, they shot him from his back. Aung Zay Ya died on the spot from this gunshot injury, according to a local. A family was informed that San Win from Tha Pyay Kone village in Ayeyarwady Region’s Myanaung Township, who was arrested by Tha Pyay Kone Village Police Station in the morning of August 7 for questioning, died at the hospital at 2 pm that day due to severe injuries. It is reported there were beatings all over his body consistent with torture. Win Tun and Aung Myint Oo from Tha Pyay Kone village were arrested with him and were released the same day. On the morning of August 9, local police Kyaw Kyaw Maung and a person wearing plain clothes came to his family to settle the case for 3 million kyats. It is reported that his family members will not accept this negotiation. 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: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-10
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Type: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Law Student Serving Three-Year Prison Sentence After Protesting Junta-Loyal Court
Description: "Twenty-year-old law student Theint Sandi Soe had been visiting her mother and four-year-old sister at their family home in Mogok when military police burst in and detained all three of them. Against the backdrop of Myanmar’s ongoing military coup, the arrests themselves did not send shockwaves. It was what happened next—an act of courageous defiance met with draconian law enforcement measures—that propelled Theint Sandi Soe’s name into news headlines, and that continues to fuel a frantic search for answers amid reports that the law student’s health is rapidly deteriorating in prison. Bargaining Chips Backfire Few were surprised when Myanmar’s military police burst into the family home; after all, Theint Sandi Soe’s father, U Soe Htay, was a prominent local protest leader, making him an obvious target for the oppressive regime. Since Myanmar’s military leadership, known as the Tatmadaw, overthrew the country’s elected government in February, millions have taken to the streets in protest. As of August 9, more than 7,000 people had been arrested, 962 had died (including, according to Human Rights Watch, some 75 children), and nearly 2,000 people remained in hiding from arrest warrants, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a human rights advocacy group that tallies these figures daily. Few were surprised, even, when the authorities instead arrested his wife and two daughters after discovering their target was not at home the morning of June 13, despite only having arrived with a search warrant for the home and an arrest warrant for U Soe Htay. Reports of this grim tactic, detaining an activist’s family to lure him or her out of hiding, have abounded since the early days of the coup. Upon hearing Theint Sandi Soe had been detained, her friends worried for her, especially given her ongoing struggle with rheumatoid arthritis, which required frequent treatment and vigilant medical observation. Still, none of the individuals whom we spoke with for this interview had suspected at that point that she would be formally convicted of a crime, let alone sentenced to prison time. Common wisdom held that the authorities would use the women as bargaining chips to compel U Soe Htay to come forward, before ultimately releasing them. The release of the youngest daughter, four-year-old Su Htet Win, on June 30—two days after her fifth birthday, according to local media—seemed at first to affirm this theory. Had they played by the rules, Theint Sandi Soe and her mother Kyi Kyi Khaing, 44, would likely have walked free. But Theint Sandi Soe and Kyi Kyi Khaing refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of a court purporting to uphold the laws imposed by the Tatmadaw, whose very rule was illegal as far as they were concerned. The two women protested a routine hearing, and shortly thereafter were sentenced to three years incarceration on the grounds that they had violated article 505(a) of Myanmar’s penal code—a law on incitement that has attracted much controversy. In the aftermath of the sentencing, as Theint Sandi Soe’s family remains in hiding, we spoke with close friends about the promising young law student and the days and months leading up to her sentencing. JURIST conducted these interviews via video chat from Myanmar, with the assistance of a local translator on JURIST’s staff. Our interviewees will remain anonymous for the time being due to concerns for their security. Her Father’s Daughter By the time his wife and daughters were arrested, U Soe Htay had come full circle. He first made a name for himself as an impassioned proponent of Myanmar’s 1988 student uprising—a movement that championed democratic values, before being violently suppressed by the country’s military dictatorship. In more recent years, Myanmar appeared to have been charting a gradual course toward democracy; in 2008, the Tatmadaw established a new constitution that secured the military’s grip on power while also opening the door to civilian leadership. Between 2011 and 2021, power shifted from the military junta to a pro-military civilian administration before ultimately reaching the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been broadly recognized as the face of the 1988 uprising, and who had spent some 15 years under house arrest by the time of her release in 2010. Once the Tatmadaw overthrew the NLD in February 2021, U Soe Htay swiftly reclaimed his role in the pro-democratic protest movement. Given their lack of a relevant warrant, the Tatmadaw forces were likely unaware at the time of her arrest that Theint Sandi Soe had also been an active member of the opposition. “She thought that the coup was a violation of human rights, and she protested both on the streets and via social media,” said a close friend who had spent three years living in student dorms with Theint Sandi Soe. “She quickly joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and advocated vocally for the opposition.” The impassioned advocacy was in keeping with her character: “She lives for the truth,“ said another friend and fellow law student. “And she’s so brave. If she believes something is right, she will never give up in fighting for it.” Despite their innate understanding of Theint Sandi Soe’s courage and commitment to the movement, her friends were frantic upon learning of her arrest. “When I found out she had been detained, I panicked. Before she was arrested, she had been very active in donating money to the CDM. I was worried that if I spoke out too much, she’d be tortured,” said one friend, who explained that her initial impulse was to attempt to control the potential damage from Theint Sandi Soe’s protest activities. “The first thing I did was get access to her and her mom’s social media accounts and deactivate them. I then set about looking for lawyers to put her family in touch with. All the while I felt like I was in a mist—I didn’t know what was happening or what I could do, and just felt so helpless and angry,” they said. Dire Conditions Much of what is known about Theint Sandi Soe’s prison conditions came from her five-year-old sister, who remained with her mother and older sister for nearly three weeks after their arrest. “Her baby sister told me how horrible it was in there—how they were forced to sit in stress positions for hours at a time, how they were forced to bathe in toilet water,” a friend and former dormmate recounted. Other detainees who were subsequently released also spoke of her declining health. “We were told that she’s extremely ill, and that she has not received any medical treatment for her rheumatoid arthritis,” the friend said. Audibly distressed as she spoke of the situation, the friend added: “I was so upset when I heard about her worsening health, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there’s really no difference between her and the other detainees who have been arrested by the military junta. They are so used to torturing people by this point—they have no humanity left in them,” she said. “This has become everyday life for the people of Myanmar.” Her friends were thrown for another loop when, less than a month after they were arrested, following their refusal to comply with what they saw as a show trial, Theint Sandi Soe and Kyi Kyi Khaing were sentenced to three years in prison for incitement. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard she was sentenced so quickly. I figured she and her mom were essentially being held as bargaining chips, as a means of forcing her dad to present himself to the authorities. But I wasn’t as shocked when I learned that she had protested the legitimacy of the court and the judges, who were not members of the CDM. I don’t think her bravery just came because she was arrested; I think her bravery is in her character,” a friend said. Another friend seconded this point: “I think her courage is in her character. If I were arrested, I wouldn’t have the courage to protest the court. She is unbelievably brave.” Reverberations Across the Globe The degradation of Myanmar’s justice system has been lambasted by human rights advocacy groups. As stated by Human Rights Watch Asia researcher Shayna Bauchner in a recent article: “These bogus military tribunals are handing down unfair and unappealable death sentences under direction from a commander sanctioned by the European Union, United States, and others for committing the worst crimes under international law… “The United Nations, EU, US, and other governments should be demanding the release of all those wrongfully imprisoned and ramping up pressure so the junta knows that what they do—even behind prison doors—is being watched.” In an open letter, Amnesty International has expressed similar sentiments: “Activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and other individuals opposed to the military’s brutal crackdown have been arrested and charged on spurious grounds. There are allegations of those arrested and detained being denied the rights to prompt access to legal counsel of their own choice and other fair trial rights. Those detained are also allegedly being denied access to healthcare and the medications on which they are reliant. Amnesty International has also received credible reports of ill-treatment and torture, including at least two deaths in custody.” As they continue to work through the fallout of her arrest, Theint Sandi Soe’s friends are left with a palpable sense of anger. “The way her trial started, the way it ended, and the way she was arrested was simply evil. She wasn’t given the chance to defend her case, and the military fabricated a case against her. They charged her without any reasonable grounds,” one said. But they remain undeterred in their fight against injustice: “Unjust and unlawful as her and so many other stories are, we hope that law students outside of Myanmar will help protest, raise awareness and fight for the release of all our political prisoners.” In the days that have passed since our interview with her friends, Theint Sandi Soe has been diagnosed with COVID, which at present is spreading uncontrolled through Myanmar. With this diagnosis compounding her chronic condition, those who know the fearless law student, as well as members of the Burmese diaspora around the world, are watching the story unfold with increasing concern for her health.
Source/publisher: JURIST
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-10
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 9 August 2021)
Description: "As of 9 August, (962) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. (1) from Myingyan Township in Mandalay region died today and (1) from Mandalay died yesterday. 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 August 9, a total of (5526) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Doctor Maung Maung Nyein Tun, lecturer of surgery of University of Medicine of Mandalay, who is involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), was arrested on June 13 and sued three counts of charges, died on August 8 at Mandalay General Hospital due to COVID-19. It is reported that he was contracted COVID-19 while detained in the Interrogation Center of Mandalay Nandwin. At first, it is heard that the terrorist junta did not transfer him to the hospital and detained him at the No.9 police station for two weeks. He was transferred to the Mandalay General Hospital when his condition was worse as he did not receive sufficient medical treatment in the cell. Maung Htay from Kywe Chan Village in Myingyan Township in Mandalay Region, who was arrested on July 10 allegedly because he kept youth protesters and charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, died in Myingyan Prison on August 9. According to a friend of his family member, although the Prisons Department said Maung Htay died due to atherosclerosis and hypertension, his body was covered and only allowed to look at the face. 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: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-09
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Type: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 7 August 2021)
Description: "As of 7 August, (960) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (12) fallen heroes today. These (12) fallen heroes from Kani 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 August 7, a total of (5512) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Khun Nyein Chan, Khun Bay and Khun Phoe O, living in Kayan Tharyar Village in Kayah State’ Loikaw Township, were arrested by the terrorist military at the Kayan Tharyar checkpoint in Loikaw on August 6. They were arrested on suspicion of an alleged connection to the PDF after inspecting their phones. Wai Yan Tun a.k.a Myo Myo, a dance teacher, who was arrested on June 24 for allegedly being a protest leader in Mohnyin Town, Kachin State, was charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code on July 31. 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: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”...."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-07
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Type: Individual Documents
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 6 August 2021)
Description: "As of 6 August, (948) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of August 6, a total of (5502) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Peter Aung, Pyithu Hluttaw MP for Hpei Hkon Township, Shan State and also NLD member Maung Lwat, Zin Thaw Hein, Sai Lu, Maung Thet, were arrested by the junta at a checkpoint in Shan State’s Nant Hsan Township on July 30. Nan Sandar Win and Nan Hsu Paing Phue, 4 th year students of Mawlamyine University, living in Sin village in Mon State’s Paung Township, were arrested by the terrorist junta on August 3, and charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code then sent to Mon State’s Kyeikmaraw Prison on August 4. 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: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-06
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Title: Bi-weekly situation update by the Karenni Civil Society Network, July 19-Aug 1, 2021: Summary of SAC violations in Karenni State and Pekhon Township - ကရင်နီလူမှုအသင်းအဖွဲ့များကွန်ယက်၏ နှစ်ပတ်တကြိမ် အခြေအနေ တင်ပြချက် ဇူလိုင် ၁၉ ရက် – သြဂုတ် ၁ ရက်၊ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် – ကရင်နီပြည်နယ်နှင့် ဖယ်ခုံမြို့နယ် အတွင်း စစ်ကော်စီ၏ ချိုးဖောက်မှုများ အကျဉ်း
Description: " People arrested In Karenni State the total number of people arrested since the coup has increased from 132 to 135 during the past two weeks. The three arrested, including a young woman, were aid volunteers, who were on the way to provide assistance to one of the IDP camps on July 30, 2021.  Ongoing military aggression The SAC troops have been continuing clearance operations in the areas where KNDF and IDPs are staying, so on July 23 the KNDF issued a statement that fighting could occur at any time. On July 19, SAC troops who had set up a camp near Kalilyah village, Nan Peh village tract, in Bawlake township fired artillery into the village. On the same day, SAC troops based in Bawlake town also shelled artillery into Nan Peh village, about 10 kilometers away After the shelling, SAC troops in civilian clothes patrolled around the villages of Taw Khu, Kalilyah, Nan Peh and Tah Leh. Most of the villagers of Kalilyah and Nan Peh have now fled to hide in the jungle. On July 20, 2021, the SAC shelled into Pruso town for no apparent reason. Residents of Pruso suddenly heard loud explosions of shells, but luckily no one was injured or killed. On July 22, 2021, at 4 pm, KNPP troops and KNDF troops ambushed a convoy of SAC trucks transporting rations and troops near Kayan Thayar village and Kyauk Kone village in Loikaw township. On July 31, 2021, at 11:45 am, KNPP troops and KNDF troops clashed with SAC troops near Pah Tima village and Daw Muklah village in Loikaw township. The SAC troops, from LIB 261 and LIB 250, were heading to IDP camps in Kayan Thayar village tract and Pakyeh village tract in Loikaw township, on the instructions of the Eastern Regional Command and Loikaw-based military command.  Situation of IDPs and humanitarian aid The new displacement of 812 villagers from Kalilyah and Nan Peh villages in Bawlake township, due to ongoing SAC artillery attacks on civilians, has raised the total numbers displaced to almost 120,000 in all townships of Karenni State and Pekhon township. This has increased the need for food, medicine and shelter for the IDPs. Some villagers have risked returning to their original villages to try and farm their lands, but dare not bring their children with them in case fighting breaks out again. They therefore leave their children in the IDP camps, where makeshift schools have been set up..."
Source/publisher: Karenni Civil Society Network
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-05
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 5 August 2021)
Description: "As of 5 August, (948) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Ye Township in Mon State and Minkin 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 August 5, a total of (5497) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Pyay Thein, who was arrested while protesting in Ye Township, Mon State on March 22 and charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code and detained at Kyeikmaraw Prison, died on August 4 in prison. Even though police said he died from diabetes, Pyay Thein had never suffered from diabetes according to his family’s friend. Myo Chit, a member of Minkin PDF of Sagaing Region’s Minkin Township, who was trapped and arrested along with over 50 members of Minkin PDF on July 28 at Taung Phyu Village in Sagaing Region’s Minkin Township, was killed on August 3 in an interrogation center in Kalay Town. Thet Htar Hnaung, MP for Kachin State Hluttaw of No (1) Constituency of Mohnyin Township, Kachin State and also NLD member, was arrested and beaten around 2am of August 4 by junta soldiers and those wearing plain clothes. Approximately six people were arrested along with her at the home. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses: [email protected] [email protected] “Our uprising must succeed”..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-05
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Title: Political Violence and Journalism in a Multiethnic State - A Case Study of Burma (Myanmar)1
Description: "By focusing on the situation of journalists from Burma (Myanmar) living in exile in Thailand, this article explores the consequences of political violence on the development of indigenous journalism in a multiethnic state. Drawing on data gathered from participant observation and in-depth interviews with Burmese journalists in Thailand and along the border between Thailand and Burma, the research examines how local journalists are struggling to develop a context-appropriate model for media development that adequately addresses their need to deal with disagreement and difference in a context of political violence. The research calls into question the relevance of the dominant U.S. approach to “objective” journalism. In this often dangerous context, the definition of concepts such as unity, media independence, and censorship must be seen as provisional and contested, given the various pressures brought to bear on journalists. The model of journalism arising organically in this context is influenced by the recent surge in foreign funding for journalism training yet borrows elements of the normative, objective model and the model of peace journalism. The inappropriate nature of imported journalistic ideologies, however, suggests the need for a more complex model of media development in such complicated and conflictual contexts.....Violence and Ethnicity in Burma: Home to the world’s longest-running civil war, Burma is characterized by great ethnic diversity, with more than 100 different languages and dialects identified (Smith, 1999).2 Population statistics are generally unavailable, and contentious when they are, because there has been no attempt to take a count of the population since the British census in 1931 (Smith, 1991). The 1974 Constitution identifies seven divisions and seven ethnic states—Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah (Karenni), Mon, Rakhine (Arakan), and Shan. There are several other large minority groups in the country, as well as many Chinese, Tamils, Bengalis, and others of Indian origin. The most recent figures available, from 1983, list the majority Burmans as constituting 69% of the population (Steinberg, 2001). Annexed by Britain in stages between 1824 and 1886, Burma was governed at first as a province of India. The British divided its administration in Burma into two divisions: Ministerial Burma in the central area of the country, and the Frontier Areas, in which the ethnic minority groups were given autonomy to govern themselves. During World War II, the Burmans fought with the Japanese against the Allies while the hill peoples such as the Karens and Kachins stayed loyal to the British. The British exacerbated existing tensions between the various groups by using ethnic minority soldiers to police the Burmans agitating for independence in central Burma. After independence in 1948, civil war broke out between ethnic minority groups and the Burman government, and Burma experienced only a few years of civilian rule before a coup brought the military into power in 1962 under the leadership of General Ne Win. Despite reshuffling of personnel over the years, the military has remained firmly in power, and political violence has been a defining characteristic of its rule. Worsening economic conditions throughout the 1970s and 1980s, along with the regime’s abuses of its own people, led to the massive protests in 1988. Initially led by students, the demonstrations eventually involved hundreds of thousands of civilians who took to the streets. The Burmese military reacted with violence, gunning down thousands of people during the protests, which with few exceptions were nonviolent.3 The uprisings eventually led to a coup and the takeover by a reshuffled military under the name the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). At the time of the 1988 uprisings, nearly 20 insurgent forces were active over about one third of the country, controlling vast rural areas (Smith, 1995), and it is estimated that perhaps 60% of Burma’s land area, home to only 10% of the population, was not secured by the government (Steinberg, 2001, p. 186). The ethnic insurgencies and the government’s counterinsurgency operations have led to massive numbers of casualties4 and to the pattern of violence perpetuating long-standing distrust, especially between the Burmans and the non-Burmans, although factionalism is also widespread within the Burmese opposition groups.5 Shortly after taking power in 1988, the SLORC began arranging ceasefires with ethnic nationality groups, who would agree to stop fighting in exchange for government promises of more assistance with development in education, health care, transportation, and infrastructure (Steinberg, 2001). These two things together—the ceasefires and their relationship to infrastructural development—offered the government a cloak of legitimacy despite its status as an international pariah after the bloodshed of 1988. Yet many ethnic minority leaders believed, as did Hkun Okker, president of the Pa-O People’s Liberation Organization, that the military regime got the upper hand by making deals with groups individually. The military regime cleverly recognized that the ethnic power has a major role to play in Burmese politics, so immediately they picked up the armed ethnic groups and they spread out their power. . . . They recognized that he who rules the ethnics, rules Burma. (Hkun Okker, personal communication, July 5, 2000) Nevertheless, the resistance gained new impetus in 1988 when the border-based ethnonationalist movements were joined by thousands of Burman student activists who fled the country in the crackdown after the uprisings. Burma’s revolutionaries, so energized back then, have continued to struggle; however, after close to two decades since the 1988 uprisings, they now recognize how slow the process of genuine social and political change can be. The Burmese opposition today must be understood as a dynamic, ever-negotiated “movement” of groups constantly slipping into and out of tensions and alliances. In general terms, the movement is widely conceptualized as having, on the one hand, an “ethnic” element, a coalition of minority groups with the shared goal of a dignified measure of self-determination for the ethnic nationalities within multiethnic Burma. The opposition’s most visible element, however, is the Burman majority, primarily concerned with the development of democratic governance. Despite much genuine agreement and cooperation between Burman and ethnic nationality groups, significant tensions remain. The actions of the current incarnation of the military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), have added to the volumes already dedicated to documenting abuses by the Burmese government. Human Rights Watch (2005) sums up the current regime’s abuses in this way:6 The SPDC restricts the basic rights and freedoms of all Burmese... [and] continues to commit systematic, widespread, and well-documented abuses in ongoing conflicts with ethnic minority rebel groups, including extrajudicial executions, rape, torture, forced relocation of entire villages, and forced labor. As of late 2004, an estimated 650,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Burma alone, and at least 240 villages have been destroyed, relocated or abandoned since 2002. Some 2 million Burmese have moved to Thailand, including 145,000 refugees living in camps. (n.p.) In addition to the struggle for their survival, Burma’s ethnic minority groups are concerned about preserving their cultures, especially because many are convinced the military regime is conducting a campaign to “Burmanize” the country. The SPDC promotes an (apolitical) cultural diversity by celebrating public ethnic minority cultural performances while committing abuses against these peoples in the rural areas. Meanwhile, the ceasefires between the regime and various ethnic factions continue, although with much mutual suspicion. In addition to the violence perpetrated against ethnic minority peoples, much attention is paid to the ongoing detention of Burma’s democratic leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. Beginning with her arrest before the country’s 1990 elections, which were won by the opposition in a landslide but subsequently ignored by the regime, to her release from house arrest in 1995, rearrest in 2000, release in 2002, and rearrest in 2003, her detentions have garnered international media attention. Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest as of this writing. It is within this context of political violence against dissident Burmans and ethnic minorities that the Burmese opposition in exile is attempting to transform patterns of behavior that have led to such a factionalized, militarized pattern of leadership. Media, and especially journalism, are seen as key components in the transition to a more open and transparent democratic process and a reduction in political violence. I have seen the Burmese media in exile develop in impressive ways since my first contact with Burmese activists when I lived in Thailand as a volunteer teacher in a camp of refugees from Burma from 1989 to 1992. It is this development, a result of and also in tension with foreign assistance for media development, that is the focus of this research..."
Source/publisher: Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-05
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Title: Civilian Dies in Myanmar Junta Custody
Description: "A civilian detained by the junta for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks has died in military custody, according to relatives of the victim. The August 1 issue of regime-controlled newspapers claimed that the 23-year-old victim Ko Htet Ko Oo was arrested with two other people and a homemade gun and explosives at a warehouse in Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan Township on July 20. Ko Htet Ko Oo’s family said that he left his hometown of Pyapon in Ayeyarwady Region on May 15 along with friends to work in Yangon. They learned of his arrest only after it was reported in newspapers. “Those who arrested him have told us nothing. But we have been told by a reliable source that he is dead. We can confirm that he is dead,” a family member told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. The regime had accused Ko Htet Ko Oo of having undergone military and explosives training in Karen State in territory controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA) Brigade 5. The KNLA is the armed wing of the powerful ethnic organization, the Karen National Union. Relatives said that they want justice for Ko Htet Ko Oo. The military regime’s spokesperson has not yet responded to The Irrawaddy’s question about his death. Dozens of people, including members of the National League for Democracy, are feared to have died in military custody since the junta’s Feb. 1 coup. Among the dead are Ko Soe Moe Hlaing, a veteran pro-democracy activist and the younger brother of Lieutenant General Than Hlaing, the junta’s deputy home affairs minister and police chief. As of Tuesday, 946 people, including children, have been killed by junta forces since the coup. 5,478 people have been detained and arrest warrants issued for another 1,964 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-04
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 4 August 2021)
Description: "As of 4 August, (946) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. Today there were no confirmed fallen heroes. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of August 4, a total of (5495) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1984 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Khin Mar Lin, a chair of Myittar Lay Nyin Social Association of Nan Mar Town in Kachin State’s Mohnyin Township, was arrested at 1am on August 4 by the terrorist junta. Other people were arrested along with her. In addition to this, Min Min Tun, a political activist from Pyay Town and NLD member of Pyay Township in Bago Region, was arrested on the morning of August 3 by the terrorist junta when his father’s funeral ceremony was being held. Nan Sandar Win and Nan Su Paing Phue, 4th year students of Mawlamyine University, living in Sin Village in Mon State’s Paung Township, were arrested at their homes by the terrorist junta in the evening of August 3. Moreover, Thinzar Tun, third year student of University of Nursing, living in King Ma Village in Magway Region’s Pauk Township, was arrested on the way from King Ma Village to Kan Ma Village on August 2. Three youths from King Ma Village were also arrested with Thinzar Tun. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-04
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Type: Individual Documents
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Title: Two New Deaths in Custody Bring Total to 32 Since Myanmar Coup
Sub-title: Police once again blame COVID-19, despite the bodies exhibiting signs of severe trauma.
Description: "Two more people have died under suspicious circumstances while undergoing interrogation by security forces in Myanmar, bringing to 32 the total number of such deaths since the military seized power in a coup d’état six months ago. In nearly all the cases, authorities have blamed the deaths on COVID-19, despite markings on the bodies of decedents that are consistent with torture. Family members have also been given limited access to view the remains of their loved ones before they are cremated or buried. The latest to die in police custody was Htet Ko Oo, who was arrested on July 19 in connection with the bombing of the Shwe Nandaw (Golden Palace) jewelry shop in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon. The July 8 incident was the second in less than a month targeting a business owned by Thet Thet Khine, the junta’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement. According to Burma VJ, a website formed by a group of citizen journalists that documents human rights abuses by Myanmar’s military, Htet Ko Oo died on July 31 after being severely beaten during an interrogation session. The website said that authorities never informed his family members of his death and that they only learned of it after seeing a report on social media. RFA was unable to contact Htet Ko Oo’s family for comment on Tuesday. Lan Ko Thang, a resident of Sagaing region’s Kalay township, was arrested along with a friend on July 29 while returning home from the Chinese border, where he had labored as a migrant worker for nearly a year. Police had set up a checkpoint to control the spread of the coronavirus following a surge in cases in China and claimed to have “found weapons” on him after stopping the bus he was riding on for an inspection. Lan Ko Thang died a day after his arrest at an area interrogation center and his family was informed that the cause of death was COVID-19, even though his body exhibited signs of heavy trauma, a relative told RFA’s Myanmar Service, speaking on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal. “When we asked how he died, the military said he died of COVID, but our brother had a lot of injuries all over his body,” said the relative. “There was a big wound on his head and one of his legs and one of his arms were broken. There were beating marks on his back and leg. There were also marks on his neck, as if he had been strangled. We are furious.” RFA was unable to verify police reports that Lan Ko Thang was armed, but a resident of Kalay called him “calm and quiet,” adding that it was “totally impossible” that he would have had any weapons on him. Lan Ko Thang is the fifth person to die from suspected torture while in custody in Kalay since the military ousted Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a Feb. 1 coup. Government troops have engaged in a major offensive in the region with members of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) militia, formed to protect the public from the military. A resident of Kalay, who declined to be named, said the rise in arrests and deaths from torture during interrogation has made residents “very insecure.” “These days, many houses are being raided and people are being arrested. It’s not safe even on the streets in the afternoon. People are always scared,” they said. “I don't know where [the troops] are getting all their information. They search any house they want without a warrant. Most of those arrested were kept in detention without any reason. Troops have been stationed at the city gates for some time. People have been arrested there too.” Veteran lawyer Kyee Myint told RFA that any death that occurs during an interrogation should be considered wrongful and families of victims are entitled to file a lawsuit seeking compensation. Family members have said they were unaware of how to file a complaint against the military and questioned what kind of justice they could expect if they did. Seeking accountability On Feb. 1, the military overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government, claiming voter fraud had led to a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the country’s November 2020 election. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide demonstrations calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 946 people over the past six months. Last month, the family members of those killed or maimed by junta soldiers urged the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute those responsible for the death or dismemberment of their loved ones. They say the military’s leadership must be held to account for its actions, which they believe fall under the court’s jurisdiction according to its founding treaty, the Rome Statute. Under the statute, the ICC can accept cases related to four main crimes—genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. The actions by the junta would most likely fall under crimes against humanity—which include murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, and torture as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population. Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), recently told RFA that torturing someone to death and not providing the actual cause of death is “a grave violation” of a person’s right to life. He said the NUG is systematically collecting data on extrajudicial killings and plans to bring the perpetrators to justice at the ICC. Before the ICC will investigate a case, the Office of the Prosecutor must determine whether there is sufficient evidence of crimes of sufficient gravity falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction, whether there are genuine national proceedings, and whether opening an investigation would serve the interests of justice and of the victims. After gathering evidence and identifying a suspect, the prosecution requests that the ICC judges issue an arrest warrant or summons against a suspect and—based on summations presented by the prosecution, the Defense, and the Legal representative of victims—the judges decide if there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial. Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Tuesday..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-04
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 3 August 2021)
Description: "Updated 3 August 2021: As of 3 August, (946) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (1) fallen hero today. This (1) fallen hero from Myingyan Township in Mandalay Region was killed on a previous day and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of August 3, a total of (5478) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1964 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Moe Zaw, who was arrested with four other villagers from Sone Ywar Kone Village in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township on July 6, died on July 31 at Myingyan Hospital and found with injuries consistent with torture from interrogation. Injuries on his dead body included knife cuts, cigarette burns on his back and his ribs and abdomen were bruised with gunstock. Policeman Phyo Zaw Hein from Yesagyo Town in Magway Region, who is involved in Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), was assaulted and arrested on August 1 by police wearing plain clothes. In addition to this, three youths named Soe Thura Moe, Aung Myo Chit and Zaw Khet, who were involved in the Motorbike Strike Column in Pyinmana, Nay Pyi Taw, were arrested at their homes on the night of August 1. Moreover, Aung Sein, Pyithu Hluttaw MP from Dawei Township in Tanintharyi Region, was arrested at his home in Dawei on the night of July 30. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-03
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.32 MB 5.17 MB 1.73 MB
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Title: Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup (Updated 2 August 2021)
Description: "Updated 2 August 2021: As of 2 August, (945) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (5) fallen heroes today. These (5) fallen heroes from Mandalay in Mandaly Region, Kalay Township and Kani 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 August 2, a total of (5474) people are currently under detention. (255) people have been sentenced in person, of them 26 have been sentenced to death (incl. 2 children). 1964 are evading arrest warrants. 118 people have been sentenced in absentia, of them 39 sentenced to death in absentia. In total 65 sentenced to death, in person and absentia. We are also continuing to verify the recently released detainees. Sai Ye Yint a.k.a Myo Chit Thu, who was shot in the groin and detained when the terrorist junta raided a home where youth protesters were staying in Patheingyi Township, Mandalay Region in the morning of July 31, died that same morning. The body was not returned to his family. Moreover, the condition of Khaing Tun who was shot in the leg and detained remains unknown, as with Sai Ye Yint a.k.a Myo Chit Thu initially. Lam Khant Htan and Lar Kein from Thar Yar Kone Village in Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township were arrested on July 30 on suspicion over weapons allegedly found in a private car they were passengers in when they arrived at the entrance of Kalay Town returning home from work in China. His family was informed on July 31 that Lam Khant Htan died due to COVID-19. However, it is reported his leg and hand were broken, with many injuries to the head, back, leg and neck. Lar Kein who was detained along with Lam Khant Htan is still being detained. 12 men who were arrested by terrorist junta’s troops on July 26 and July 27 in Sagaing Region’s Kani Township, were later found killed with injuries consistent with torture. These men included three brothers named Aung Myint Thu, Chin Twin Maung, and Phyo Kyaw Aung from Kani Town, seven men including a 14 year-old child from Thayet Taw Village, and two men from Kho Twin Village. Their bodies were found in the forest near East Taung Pauk Village in Kani Township on July 31. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-02
[field_licence]
Type: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.52 MB 5.38 MB 1.74 MB
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