Human Rights and international relations
Individual Documents
Description:
"KATHRYN GIFFIN
The Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) overthrew the democratically elected government in a coup d'état on 1 February 2021. A violent military crackdown and civilian armed resistance followed, pushing displacement to record levels. Over 236,000 people fled their homes in the first half of the year, the majority since February. This is the highest number of new displacements ever recorded in Myanmar, and three times more than the 70,000 recorded for all of 2020. As violence surges and the humanitarian situation worsens, our understanding of the true scale of the crisis remains limited.
THE COUP IS FUELLING OLD AND NEW CONFLICTS
Conflict is not unheard of in Myanmar. The country is home to some of the world's longest-running civil wars and about 505,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), as of December 2020. However, in recent years, fighting has been localised, with Rakhine State accounting for 80 percent of new conflict displacements last year. The coup changed this. Many of the country's Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) have opposed the military takeover, bringing new intensity to simmering conflicts.
In Kachin State, after two years with no new displacement, fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the MAF reignited in March. Since then, more than 11,000 people have fled. In the country's southeast, clashes between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the MAF have driven small-scale displacement for decades but, following an escalation on 27 March, the MAF launched airstrikes in the area for the first time in 20 years, displacing 40,000 people over three days.
These areas have experienced conflict in the past, but the coup is also driving insecurity in previously unaffected states. Since April, local civilian resistance forces, or People's Defense Forces (PDFs), have emerged to defend anti-coup protestors and repel military attacks. As the military responded violently to PDFs, hostilities forced tens of thousands to flee.
In the northwestern state of Chin, fighting between the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) and the MAF erupted in April. By mid-May, the MAF seized the town of Mindat, and 9,000 people were displaced as a result. In June, fighting spread to Hakha township and neighboring Magway Region, bringing the number of IDPs to 24,000. On the opposite side of the country in Kayah State, violence between the Karenni People's Defense Force (KPDF) and the MAF exploded on 21 May, forcing one-third of the state's population to flee. IDMC has never recorded a conflict displacement in Kayah, but today, it is the state with most new displacements so far this year.
THE TRUE SCALE OF DISPLACEMENT REMAINS UNKNOWN
Displacement is surging in these areas, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Humanitarian access in Myanmar is dependent on travel authorisations which are rarely granted. Data from the Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU) paints a bleak picture of how this has worsened, with humanitarian presence in the country decreasing by 27 percent between August 2020 and May 2021. This limited humanitarian access, coupled with restrictions on press and growing insecurity, has hampered data collection efforts across Myanmar.
In areas where humanitarian presence was already limited before the coup, the situation is particularly dire. Increased insecurity since February has potentially displaced thousands in these areas. By April, reports of striking workers being evicted from government housing and tens of thousands fleeing neighbourhoods in cities like Yangon and Mandalay were common. At the same time, Sagaing Region became a hotspot of resistance, with masses of people reportedly fleeing Kani, Kale, and Depayin townships, though as of 1 July, only 5,000 IDPs have been confirmed by UNHCR.
In these cases, available data is based on a patchwork of media reports with unverified and differing figures, making it challenging to paint a comprehensive picture of what is happening Myanmar.
Even if these data gaps were filled, we need more than just a headcount of displaced people, which often excludes the temporary and repeated displacement that is common in Myanmar. Humanitarian partners indicate this is the case in Sagaing or Kayin, where people flee and return home once fighting ceases, sometimes permanently, sometimes for just long enough to gather supplies before retreating to the forests in fear of further fighting. In Mindat, the shelling of IDP sites means the real number of displacements could be higher than what is reported since people are forced to flee repeatedly.
AN ADEQUATE RESPONSE REQUIRES ADEQUATE DATA
The system for monitoring displacement in Myanmar relies on a network of local partners. With limited reach in certain areas and a tendency to provide a snapshot of IDPs at a given time rather than the dynamic movements described above, estimates are likely a significant undercount. This has implications for humanitarian response and displaced people, particularly as the political crisis spirals into a multi-faceted humanitarian one, with IDPs in increasingly dire need.
As flooding swept through Kayin, Mon, and Rakhine in July, all home to thousands of conflict IDPs, the response was hampered by movement restrictions and shortages of funding, both of which have deteriorated since February. The coup's economic fallout is likely to push millions into poverty, forcing IDPs to choose between staying hidden and returning to insecure villages to sustain their livelihoods. The near-collapse of Myanmar's health system and reports of COVID-19 patients fleeing are reminders that safe healthcare is not possible in many conflict-affected areas.
Local civil society organisations are filling the gap left by constrained international organisations and are best positioned to collect information on displacement. The lack of data, particularly in urban areas, is recognised in the Interim Emergency Response Plan, which targets two million people in areas affected by conflict since February. However, the scale of and severity of the crisis could be far higher. Tens of thousands of displacements are likely uncounted and IDPs in previously unaffected areas have not built up stockpiles of supplies, worsening their resilience to shocks and aggravating their humanitarian needs. We cannot garner the political will to strengthen local capacity and establish the international cooperative effort required to address the crisis in Myanmar without data that reflects its true scale..."
Source/publisher:
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-01
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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., Human Rights and international relations
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"This regular update, covering humanitarian developments from 24 August to 30 September, is produced by OCHA Myanmar in collaboration with the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group, UNHCR and WFP. The next update will be issued towards the end of October 2021.
HIGHLIGHTS
The humanitarian situation in several townships in Sagaing and Magway regions is deteriorating with an estimated 63,000 people temporarily displaced in Sagaing between 4 and 13 September and more than 12,000 currently displaced in Magway, according to local partners.
In Chin State, clashes between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and local People’s Defense Force (PDF) escalated, particularly around Thantlang. As of 13 September, close to 12,000 people remain displaced in several townships and neighbouring regions.
The security situation in south-eastern Myanmar continued to deteriorate throughout September, particularly in Kayah State and the bordering townships of southern Shan. An estimated 142,000 people remain displaced, mostly in Kayah State, due to clashes and insecurity since 1 February.
Despite access, security and other operational constraints, WFP and partners have started to overcome challenges in food and cash distributions in conflict-affected areas and elsewhere.
An estimated 34,000 people have fled across Shan State since the beginning of 2021; close to 13,380 remain displaced.
Across the country, access to vulnerable people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance and protection services remains significantly restricted due to escalating armed clashes, overall insecurity and COVID-related restrictions.
As of 27 September, less than half of the US$276.5 million requested under the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), and only 15 per cent of the US$109 million requested under the Interim Emergency Response Plan have been funded, according to the FTS.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
DIRE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND DISPLACEMENT IN SAGAING AND MAGWAY: The humanitarian situation in Sagaing and Magway regions of central Myanmar remains dire, with armed clashes reported between the MAF and local PDFs with security incidents recorded in several townships since early April. On 16 September, airstrikes were reported for the first time in Sagaing, targeting local PDFs in Chaung-U Township and resulting in civilian deaths. The ongoing hostilities have caused thousands of people to flee their homes and destruction of property. Houses have been burnt in both regions. It remains difficult to determine the full humanitarian impact, including the exact number of people cumulatively displaced, the number of civilian casualties and the damage to civilian property because humanitarian partners have not been granted access to the regions with travel authorizations pending.
In Sagaing Region, the conflict has affected about 18 townships. The most affected areas include Kani, Myaung, Tabayin, Shwebo and Yinmarbin. According to partners, an estimated 63,600 people were displaced from many villages in 11 townships in September. Some 45,000 of this group were temporarily displaced from 8 townships between 4 and 13 September and about 18,600 people in 3 townships were temporarily displaced between 7 and 10 September. In Magway Region, armed clashes and security incidents have reportedly affected several townships, mostly in Gangaw, Myaing, Pauk and Saw. More than 12,000 people fled to nearby safer villages and into the forest, according to local sources. About half of them are newly displaced from four villages in Gangaw and from one village in Saw township due to clashes in early September. Around 4,900 remain displaced in Saw and another 1,100 remain displaced in Pauk townships since mid-May and mid-June respectively, having fled from neighbouring Chin State due to MAF-PDF clashes.
Since 15-25 September, 10 townships in Sagaing and 4 townships in Magway have experienced blackouts of mobile internet and Wi-Fi services. In addition, three Sagaing townships – Kawlin, Pinlebu and Wuntho – have also been experiencing loss of mobile telecommunications since 25 September. There have been further reports of Mytel Telecom towers across Sagaing Region and other areas being destroyed. The internet blackout across those townships has deprived affected populations of access to timely information, access to mobile banking and remote health care, as well as communication channels for online learning being used while schools have been closed..."
Source/publisher:
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (New York) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-01
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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Food Security and nutrition in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations, Education in Burma/Myanmar - general
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"Since the military takeover on 1 February, insecurity and armed clashes continue to be reported across much of the country. Disruptions to banking services, communications, healthcare, and supply chains ensue, while armed conflict in the north and the South-East between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), and/or People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) have resulted in civilian casualties and the displacement of thousands of people.
Natural hazards, such as flooding, has further exacerbated the vulnerability of communities.
Throughout the reporting period, UNHCR and partners continued providing critical life-saving humanitarian assistance, while following the development of the situation closely to understand the full impact on people of concern (PoCs), including IDPs, stateless populations and host communities. Early warning systems, initiated by UNHCR and partners, are employed to detect changes on the ground which could impact on operations and PoCs with the view to inform timely mitigating measures and responses.
The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis continues to pose additional challenges to already strained or disrupted health services, particularly with the surge in cases mid-year, which plunged the country into its most severe wave of infections to date. While integrating COVID-19 prevention and response into regular programming, UNHCR takes proactive measures to adapt in an agile manner to the evolving context to minimize risks to PoCs and to devise ways in which to continue interventions that support them..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Food Security and nutrition in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations, Education in Burma/Myanmar - general
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"30 September 2021: The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) mourns the death of Mohib Ullah, one of the Myanmar Rohingya people’s leading human rights advocates and defenders. Mohib Ullah was murdered on 29 September 2021 in the Rohingya refugee camp of Lambashia, Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. He was chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights.
SAC-M co-founder and member Yanghee Lee said, “I knew Mohib Ullah well from my work over many years as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar. He was passionately committed to the human rights of the Rohingya people. He was a man of courage and determination, an irreplaceable leader of the Rohingya people’s struggle for peace and justice.”
Marzuki Darusman, co-founder and member of SAC-M, was chairperson of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM). He said, “Mohib Ullah provided invaluable assistance to the FFM’s investigations. He and his colleagues in the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights chronicled the events during and after August 2017 when the Myanmar military conducted one of the most brutal operations in recent times. His efforts led directly to international support for the Rohingya people and efforts to bring the military leadership to justice.”
In 2017, Myanmar’s military unleashed a genocidal campaign of violence on Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state, forcing three quarters of a million people to flee to Bangladesh. Those who fled joined a quarter of a million earlier Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh where they are now confined to sprawling camps and continue to endure dire conditions.
“Mohib Ullah’s death must lead to stronger and more determined international support for the struggle for human rights in Myanmar, for the Rohingya and for all the other peoples of Myanmar,” said Chris Sidoti, the third member of SAC-M and also a member of the UN FFM. “The most important tribute we can pay him is more effective action for peace and justice for all Myanmar’s peoples.”
SAC-M calls on Bangladeshi authorities to investigate Mohib Ullah’s murder thoroughly and to charge, prosecute and punish the perpetrators according to law. It urges UN human rights mechanisms to monitor and report on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Bangladeshi investigations. Bangladeshi authorities have a duty to protect the lives of the one million Rohingya refugees confined to camps in Bangladesh whilst ensuring this tragedy is not exploited to impose further restrictions on the lives of those who have already lost so much..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-30
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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75.79 KB
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"27 September 2021: The illegal Myanmar military junta engaged in acts of extreme violence, even while UN Member States met in New York and Geneva over the past two weeks, and should be designated as a terrorist organisation, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).
The crisis in Myanmar came under international scrutiny as the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council convened.
The Tatmadaw, seeking to return Myanmar to full military rule, committed public torture and executions while the two UN bodies were in session. It also took family members of democracy activists as hostages, including children as young as two, and planted landmines under the bodies of civilians they had killed, intended to detonate when family and friends returned for their deceased.
“These are the same terrorist tactics used by the nascent Islamic State group in the Iraqi desert in the mid-2000s,” said Chris Sidoti of SAC-M. “The UN Security Council should immediately commence the process of declaring the Tatmadaw as a terrorist organisation.”
According to credible reports, junta forces committed multiple massacres of civilians – including children – torched entire villages, and fired randomly into homes, killing residents, in Chin state and Magway, Sagaing, and Mandalay regions throughout September.
“Min Aung Hlaing’s forces are using the same tactics they used during the genocidal atrocities committed against the Rohingya,” said Yanghee Lee of SAC-M. “If you juxtapose the pictures of recent massacres with those of 2017 in northern Rakhine, you cannot see any difference. No one has been held to account for those terrible crimes, and now people are being massacred and villages burned up and down the country.”
SAC-M deplores the international community for repeatedly failing the people of Myanmar.
“The international community should end its hypocrisy and cease to mindlessly call on all parties to refrain from violence,” said Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M. “They full well know it is the Tatmadaw that is the source of violence and calamity.”.....ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့၀င်နိုင်ငံများအနေဖြင့် လွန်ခဲ့သည့် ရက်သတ္တပတ် နှစ်ပတ်အတွင်း နယူးယောက်မြို့နှင့် ဂျီနီဗာမြို့များတွင် အစည်းအ၀ေးများ ကျင်းပနေသည့်အချိန်တွင်ပင် မြန်မာ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် အလွန်အမင်း အကြမ်းဖက်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည့်အတွက် ၄င်းတို့အား အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းအဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်သင့်သည်ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီမှ ပြောကြားလိုပါသည်။
ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ အထွေထွေညီလာခံနှင့် ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီ ညီလာခံတို့ စတင်လာသည်နှင့် တစ်ပြိုင်နက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေးကိစ္စသည်လည်း နိုင်ငံတကာ၏ အသေးစိတ်စောင့်ကြည့်ခြင်းခံရမှုကို ကြုံတွေ့လာရသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအား စစ်အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးပြန်လည်အသက်သွင်းလိုသည့်် တပ်မတော်သည် ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ အဖွဲ့အစည်းနှစ်ခုအနေဖြင့် ညီလာခံများ ကျင်းပနေစဥ်တွင်ပင် ပြည်သူများအား လူသိရှင်ကြား ညှင်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်းနှင့် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းများကို ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၏ နှစ်နှစ်သားအရွယ် ကလေးငယ်များ အပါအ၀င် မိသားစု၀င်များအား ဓားစာခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ ၄င်းတို့ သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့သော အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ၏ မိသားစု၀င်များနှင့် မိတ်ဆွေများမှ ၄င်းကြွင်းကျန်ခန္ဓာများအား ပြန်လည်သယ်ယူရန် လာရောက်ကြသည့်အခါတွင် ဖောက်ခွဲပစ်ရန် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ဖြင့် သေဆုံးသူများ၏ အလောင်းများအောက်တွင် မြေမြှုပ်မိုင်းများ တပ်ဆင်ထားခြင်းတို့ကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။
“ဒါတွေဟာ ၂၀၀၀ ခုနှစ် နှစ်လယ် ကာလတွေတုန်းက အီရတ်သဲကန္တာရမှာ အစပြုလာတဲ့ IS (Islamic State) အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းက ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်တွေပါပဲ။ ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီအနေနဲ့ တပ်မတော်ကို အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းအဖြစ် ကြေညာတဲ့ လုပ်ငန်းစဥ်ကို ချက်ချင်းအစပြုရပါမယ်။” ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီ အဖွဲ့၀င် Chris Sidoti မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။
ယုံကြည်စိတ်ချနိုင်သည့် အစီရင်ခံစာများအရ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ကလေးငယ်များ အပါအ၀င် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအား ရက်စက်စွာ သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ခြင်း၊ ရွာလုံးကျွတ်မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ အိမ်များအတွင်းထိ ပစ်ခတ်ခြင်းနှင့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအား သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းတို့ကို ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ မကွေးတိုင်း၊ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းနှင့် မန္တလေးတိုင်းတို့တွင် စက်တင်ဘာလတစ်လလုံးတွင် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြသည်။
“မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ရဲ့ တပ်ဖွဲ့၀င်တွေဟာ ရိုဟင်ဂျာတွေကို လူမျိုးသုန်းသတ်ဖြတ်မှုကျုးလွန်ခဲ့ကြစဥ်က လုပ်ရပ်တွေအတိုင်း အခုပြန်လုပ်နေကြတာဖြစ်တယ်။ အခုချိန်မှာ ကြုံတွေ့နေကြရတဲ့ အစုလိုက်၊ အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှု ရုပ်ပုံတွေကို ၂၀၁၇ခုနှစ်မှာ ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့တဲ့ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ် မြောက်ပိုင်းက ဖြစ်ရပ်ပုံရိပ်တွေနဲ့သာ နှိုင်းယှဥ်ကြည့်မယ်ဆိုရင် ဘယ်လိုကွဲပြားခြားနားမှုမျိုးကိုမှတောင် မြင်နိုင်မှာ မဟုတ်ဘူး။ အဲ့ဒီတုန်းကလည်း အဲ့ဒီ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်တဲ့ ရာဇ၀တ်မှုတွေအတွက် ဘယ်သူကမှ တာ၀န်မခံခဲ့ဘူး၊ အခုချိန်မှာ လူအများကြီး အစုလိုက်၊ အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခံနေကြရတဲ့အပြင် နိုင်ငံတစ်၀ှမ်းမှာ ရွာပေါင်းများစွာ မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခံနေကြရပါတယ်။” ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီ အဖွဲ့၀င် Yanghee Lee မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအ၀ိုင်းမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုကို ကာကွယ်ပေးရန် ထပ်တလဲလဲ ပျက်ကွက်မှုများအပေါ် ရှုံ့ချလိုက်ပါသည်။
“နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအ၀ိုင်းအနေနဲ့ သူတို့ရဲ့ အပြောနဲ့အလုပ် မညီကြတဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်တွေနဲ့ မြန်မာပြည်တွင်းမှာရှိနေကြတဲ့ အစုအဖွဲ့များအားလုံးအနေနဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ရှောင်ရှားကြဖို့ ခပ်လွယ်လွယ်လေး အဓိပ္ပာယ်မရှိ ပြောဆိုနေတာတွေကို ရပ်တန့်ကြဖို့ ကောင်းပါပြီ။ လက်ရှိဖြစ်နေတဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတွေနဲ့ ကပ်ဘေးဆိုးတွေရဲ့ တကယ့် အရင်းအမြစ်က တပ်မတော်ကြောင့် ဆိုတာကိုလည်း နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအ၀ိုင်းအနေနဲ့ ကောင်းကောင်းသိကြပါတယ်။” ဟု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအရေး အထူးအကြံကောင်စီအဖွဲ့၀င် Marzuki Darusman မှ ပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-28
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Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Collected resolutions of the GA on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations
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Title: IOM Bangladesh Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Response - Monthly Situation Report (August 2021)
Description:
"IOM Supports COVID-19 Vaccination for Rohingya Refugees
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar camps started on 10 August. As part of the Government of Bangladesh National Committee on COVID-19 vaccination plan, the vaccination campaign was for the refugees who are 50 years and above.
The first dose of the vaccine was given to 36,943 refugees -- 21,673 male and 15,270 female -- at the first phase of the campaign, which aimed to reach 43,093 refugees through this facility-based approach. By covering 86% of the targeted beneficiaries, the campaign’s first phase ended on 23 August while eligible community leaders who are supporting the camp operations were also vaccinated.
Out of the 34 selected sites for vaccination, 10 were IOM health facilities where 17% of vaccinated refugees were provided first dose of the vaccine. A total 46 IOM health workers were trained on vaccination Standard Operating Procedures as well as guidelines on Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI).
Community Health Workers (CHWs) played a key role in mobilisation and were also responsible for vaccination card distribution. There were Risk Communication and Community Engagement activities that took place prior, during and after the campaign, for raising awareness, promotion of this campaign, and establishment of trust and feedback mechanisms from the community.
For this campaign, IOM has distributed 11,693 Information, Education & Communication (IEC) materials related to vaccination and reached 134,666 beneficiaries through house to house visits, and conducted awareness-raising sessions. The next round for the second dose will begin in early September.
In addition, through the provision of tablets and orientation for staff on data entry, IOM also supported five government facilities in Cox’s Bazar with COVID-19 vaccination registration for the host community, with 423 registrations done this month..."
Source/publisher:
International Organization for Migration (IOM) ( Switzerland) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-27
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
IOM Burma/Myanmar, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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"On Wednesday, United States Magistrate judge Zia M. Faruqui issued an order in the highly important case of The Republic of Gambia v. Facebook, Inc. The Gambia seeks content from Facebook that relates to the genocide in Myanmar in order to assess “responsibility for genocide” against the Rohingya before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Facebook’s role in propagating hate speech against the Rohingya and facilitating the genocide is well documented.
As the judge points out in his opinion, Facebook argued that The Gambia’s request “(1) violates the Stored Communications Act (SCA), and 2 is unduly burdensome.” But Faruqui ruled in favor of The Gambia. Stating that while Facebook did the right thing in deleting content targeting the Rohingya, he criticized the company for failing to provide the evidence needed to hold those responsible for the genocide to account. “Failing to do so here would compound the tragedy that has befallen the Rohingya,” he wrote.
The decision has important implications for what access investigators will have to content deleted from social media platforms going forward. For a better understanding, we posed a set of questions to Dr. Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law, and founder of the Human Rights Investigations Lab, asking her to discuss the judge’s decision and its broader consequences.
1. How might this ruling potentially empower international tribunals to access certain kinds of evidence?
This ruling potentially empowers international tribunals to obtain information that has been removed from social media sites for violation of terms of service but that social media companies can still access internally. The judge made a number of interesting findings: the most significant is his determination that content that has been taken down for violation of Facebook’s terms of service falls outside the ambit of the Stored Communications Act (SCA). This was the basis for the court’s ordering Facebook to share the requested content with The Gambia, including posts from Myanmar officials and Facebook’s internal investigation documents (pp. 28-29 of the opinion) related to those posts.
The SCA bars social media companies from knowingly sharing their users’ content with others with only a few exceptions, and it does so for several important reasons, namely the protection of users’ privacy and to protect “fourth amendment-like” concerns (order p. 9), including the prevention of unreasonable searches and seizures. In this case, the court determined that the SCA does not stand in the way of Facebook disclosing the requested data.
In addition, the court’s ruling underscores the ability of foreign governments to use a federal statute (28 USC § 1782) as a mechanism to request help from U.S. courts to obtain social media content that has been removed for terms of service violations and is no longer publicly available online. Typically, foreign governments like The Gambia would make a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) request for information. That process has been repeatedly criticized for being unwieldy and slow. Another mechanism is for foreign governments to use the CLOUD Act to request information. The CLOUD Act provides for a more streamlined process than the traditional MLAT process, but it requires the United States to have first entered into a bilateral agreement with the foreign country after assessing that the country has sufficient due process protections in place to support permitting a fast tracked process. Most countries do not yet have such an arrangement with the United States, and so this isn’t an option for most foreign government requests. Section 1782 is yet another mechanism that foreign governments can use; they can ask US courts for help in compelling the production of data. Courts have significant discretion about whether to issue an order based on a §1782 request. That was the mechanism used here.
2. The decision applies to content that was previously public, including self-declared “private” groups that include large numbers of people. What do you think of where the court drew the line here?
The court in The Gambia decision sweeps information that many might consider “private” into the “public” exception to the SCA. The Court spends quite a bit of time establishing that private Facebook groups might be considered public in situations where, for example, administrators automatically grant access to a private group such that it functions like a public page. They also emphasize that the Myanmar officials whose posts are at issue “clearly” intended their posts to reach the public, given their desire to spread hate, which–to be widely effectuated–depends on having a relatively broad reach.
I think the court was trying to find a way to ensure that critical information that could be helpful for evidentiary purposes could be made available. The fact that this is a case involving allegations of a particularly horrific crime like genocide–with widespread and shocking examples of the ways in which social media was used to incite physical violence against the Rohingya–likely played a role in its analysis. The court seems to recognize how critical the content could be for helping The Gambia better understand who may have been involved in inciting genocide, how the process played out, and the relative impact the posts might have had with regard to what transpired on the ground in Myanmar.
While it makes sense that purportedly private posts that reach millions of people may be functionally public and thus operate within a grey zone–and that people who are trying to disseminate dangerous hateful content shouldn’t be able to hide behind a private account that has broader reach than most public ones–this is a potentially slippery slope that could become dangerous if not carefully guarded.
Ultimately, the court attempts to narrow the applicability of its finding (and any future damage) by stating that “it is the rare case here that the authors nakedly displayed their intent to reach the public and such intent was independently confirmed”–emphasizing that this is a relatively circumscribed set of circumstances in which private groups might be considered functionally public.
3. Does this decision disincentivize Facebook from permanently deplatforming bad actors? Because if they permanently deplatform the decision applies, but does not necessarily apply if they do not permanently deplatform.
There are a lot of moves that Facebook could make in response to this, including not permanently deplatforming bad actors but also not holding onto the information that’s taken down as part of that de-platforming process. However, allowing bad actors to continue to act out on its site is a potentially onerous and dangerous path for Facebook, as it will have to repeatedly and continually assess the behavior of deeply problematic accounts — not to mention the outrage if the company allows dangerous communications and other behavior to continue to proliferate on its sites even after that’s been flagged internally or by external watchdogs. However, this decision also creates a potential incentive for Facebook to expand its participation in ongoing conversations about how to handle social media content at risk of removal that has significant potential evidentiary value. One option, should it not want to hold onto the content, is to share that information with an external repository, such as a digital evidence locker designed to hold content related to social media content relevant to international crimes like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The creation of such an evidence locker is something that several human rights organizations and academics have called for, including Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley, and affiliates of Harvard, among others. Of course, any system that is created will need to have significant due process protections to safeguard and balance the competing human rights and civil rights issues at stake. But we’ve seen several potential precedents for such a system, ranging from the evidence collection mechanisms that have been created to aggregate evidence of atrocities in Syria and Myanmar, including social media evidence; to hash repositories for terrorism-related content; to information sharing mechanisms for European law enforcement.
4. What unanticipated negative consequences could emerge from this ruling for human rights activists and others? For example, the decision places emphasis on the fact that these were inauthentic accounts. What might it mean for anonymous accounts in repressive countries?
The opinion is relatively narrow in ways that limit the risk of significant downstream harms with respect to this set of concerns. However, all decisions raise the potential for unanticipated negative consequences–and there’s a long line of examples where a case apparently supports civil or human rights, but eventually becomes a problem for the very people it originally seemed to help. One significant concern, of course, is that governments will try to use this decision to secure information about human rights activists and other disfavored individuals and groups by arguing that their accounts are inauthentic or that they are part of a network engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior. We’ve seen so many instances of human rights activists posting videos, photos and text to social media of violent or graphic incidents to bring global attention to those atrocities, and having that content removed and their accounts shut down–sometimes temporarily, but also permanently. These are individuals and networks that are already vulnerable, and might become more so if governments successfully use this court order — or the reasoning of the judge’s opinion — to increase their access to removed content.
Of course, other unintended negative consequences could include Facebook and other social media companies becoming even less aggressive about removing harmful content, as already discussed above, or being less clear about whether the deplatforming of particular accounts is permanent. This is likely to be a focus of future litigation in situations where the permanence of the removal is ambiguous.
5. What do you make of Facebook’s arguments?
I think Facebook is right to argue in support of privacy and to defend the privacy interests of its users, and its lawyers raise an important policy consideration with their argument that this holding could make a large number of deactivated accounts subject to disclosure along with content removed by other social media companies. However, legitimate legal processes, with significant due process protections, can minimize the potential harm to privacy. In addition, the court stresses that this fact pattern concerns coordinated, inauthentic behavior–not “genuine communications from real users”–suggesting that the risk is far less than Facebook suggests.
Ultimately, none of the values that are implicated by removal processes–including privacy–can be considered in a vacuum. From a rights perspective, this case also implicates freedom of expression, access to information, and accountability interests. It’s important for courts to try to strike a balance between those other competing human rights interests, or at least determine in which direction the balance of justice should tilt based on the relevant law and the specific facts of a case. In this decision, the court is struggling to apply a highly outdated law to a contemporary fact pattern; in many ways, the tool they are forced to apply isn’t fit for purpose. I think this case puts additional pressure on Congress to update the SCA and bring it more squarely into the 21st century.
As for Facebook’s argument that the removed information is a backup and thus is subject to SCA protections because it is stored adjacent to active content: that seems like a stretch. In addition, the Court raises an important point about the legislative intent underlying passage of the SCA. As stated in the order, “the SCA was created to allow platforms to flourish for users not to protect records for a provider” (opinion at p. 17). It’s unlikely that Facebook is suddenly going to struggle to keep users or gain new ones as a result of this decision, as the judge notes as well.
Facebook also argued that providing the requested information would be “unduly burdensome,” the standard for whether a court should exercise its discretion as to whether to allow discovery under §1782, and that The Gambia’s request is overly broad. However, the court rejected these arguments, pointing out that The Gambia asked for a specific set of records, namely those that Facebook had identified and deleted from its platform due to terms of service violations specific to hate speech and related to genocide in Myanmar. Given the scale at which Facebook operates, and the many variables involved (removed content, content removed for a specific reason, within a given date range, and specific to a particular geographic region), it seems Facebook could make a good faith attempt to comply with the order.
Finally, with regard to Facebook’s argument that the SCA makes the disclosure of exempted content discretionary to Facebook since the SCA states that when there is an exception, the provider “may” share content: that’s a difficult argument to sustain. As expressed in the judge’s opinion, it’s more logical that the word “may” signifies permission, but not discretion, to share content in the face of a lawful request. As stated in the order, “the Court cannot logically conclude that Congress gave Facebook greater power over discovery than the judiciary” (order at 21), which would be the case if Facebook had the authority to decide whether to turn the content over or not.
6. The opinion turns on the fact that the content was not in “backup storage” because the original version was now permanently deleted (hence no longer a “backup”). Do those parts of the opinion introduce any significant change into the SCA’s protections for other (private) communications in cases where there is only one copy, or where a service provider has deleted the messages but retains one copy?
This will be interesting to watch play out. Of course, any case is specific to the facts of that case. Thus, what is and is not considered permanent removal of content versus backup storage in other contexts will probably be getting some attention in courts.
As you noted earlier, the court emphasizes that “much of the content The Gambia seeks was posted publicly” before it was removed. This suggests that there is also future work to be done to hammer out the nature of content that falls into a grey zone between public and private information (see fn. 14). Where exactly information falls along that spectrum will ultimately dictate which exceptions apply to the SCA’s ban on sharing content.
7. Could this decision incentivize companies not to hold permanent records or else to use novel encryption technologies or other mechanisms to avoid ever possessing or retaining records of communications?
Absolutely. That’s probably why the court is so laudatory of Facebook’s efforts to store and analyze the content it removed for the potential role that content played in furthering atrocities in Myanmar–the opinion recognizes the potential disincentivizes this decision may have on doing the “responsible thing” before or after violence breaks out, including removing inflammatory content and the accounts of those who foment violence, and analyzing how activities on the Facebook may have triggered or exacerbated that violence. It’s critical that social media companies also analyze the role of algorithmic prioritization and deprioritization of content, and that they are engaged in preventing and accounting for human rights violations and international crimes like genocide that are facilitated by their platforms in order to comply with corporate social responsibility norms. No one will ever have as much relevant data as the companies themselves and therefore it is in the public’s interest that the companies play a major role in the detection of and response to how their platforms are being used to commit atrocities.
8. If you were an investigator on the January 6 committee, what opportunities would this ruling open in terms of obtaining information that one might otherwise think is protected by the Stored Communications Act?
There are a lot of ways to limit the applicability of this case to the January 6 inquiry based on both the underlying facts and law. First, this decision centers on a request by a foreign government, not a domestic entity. Second, investigations by members of our executive branch have a different purpose than and are subject to different rules than investigative processes triggered by Congress, as Elizabeth Goitein spells out in her recent Just Security article on preservation requests made by Congress to telecommunications and media companies related to the events of January 6. According to her analysis, there are quite a few grey areas with regard to the scope of congressional authority to access the records that are the target of its preservation request, including the scope of the applicability of the SCA to such requests. Much of her analysis concerns congressional authority to obtain private communications content (rather than logs etc that do not involve content). The court’s reasoning in The Gambia case could be persuasive with regard to how to define the boundaries between private and public communications and whether the SCA would protect information in permanently deleted accounts.
In addition, as discussed earlier, the Court swept quite a bit of information that some might consider “private” into the “public” exception to the SCA. However, a significant swath of the content at issue in the January 6 context–such as instant messages–would likely fall outside the consent exception. Even content shared in private groups may be regarded quite differently, if clearly intended to be private because strict admission rules were in place, for example, or posts were seen by a relatively small percentage of Facebook’s users.
Further, what is being asked for in each situation is quite different. There is an important distinction between authority to make a preservation request and the authority to obtain the information. The human and civil rights interests implicated by requests to preserve content for potential later acquisition (as in the January 6 context) are less extreme than those implicated by requests to access that content (as with The Gambia). One of the arguments we’ve made in the international context is that there should potentially be a wider array of actors empowered to make preservation requests of social media companies–given the acute risk of removal if the content is particularly graphic (the very content that might have the greatest value for later accountability), government actors’ relatively frequent complicity in human rights violations and international crimes, and the sometimes quite lengthy delays before international legal investigators are authorized to commence an investigation–while access should likely be limited to law enforcement and other legal investigative bodies given the more acute privacy, security and other human and civil rights risks.
Finally, what The Gambia case and the January 6 situation have in common is that they shine a spotlight on how critical such digital open source information–and digital communications more generally–have become to the investigation of both domestic and international crimes. The court’s emphasis in its decision on the 1000 posts used by reporter Steven Stecklow to illustrate how Facebook was used by Myanmar officials to advance genocide in Myanmar (posts that our Investigations Lab team helped identify) underscores the importance of advancing the jurisprudence related to the use of such content.
9. How might this decision affect the way other governments design their technology and communications policies, that is, in the way they decide to protect online communications? What’s the potential influence beyond the United States?
The United States has an important role to play in setting thoughtful precedent for the handling of digital content. Although U.S. decisions aren’t binding on other jurisdictions, they can be persuasive and can help to set global norms and expectations. Right now, a significant percentage of the major social media companies are based in the United States and subject to U.S. law. But of course there are an ever-increasing number of social media companies that reside outside of the United States, and U.S. control over social media content will likely become proportionately less with time. We really need to be thinking about the precedent the United States is setting for other countries and making sure that we continue to support and foster strong privacy laws and norms domestically, with clear due process protections when exceptions are made. Data localization laws are another player in this space, of course. The trend toward localization may be further exacerbated by decisions that compel disclosure of social media content in ways that run counter to foreign governments’ interests–as here, where Myanmar officials will probably dislike the disclosure of any content that reveals complicity in genocide..."
Source/publisher:
Just Security (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Human Rights and international relations
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"Madam President, Special Rapporteur,
The people of Myanmar have been pushed beyond the breaking point by the military junta’s continuous atrocities. Since the attempted coup, the junta has killed at least 1,114 and arrested 8,289 people. At least 6,637, including children, are still in detention, with many subjected to torture.
The junta continues to respond to the nationwide resistance with unimaginable cruelty and violence, inflicting countless human suffering on the people of Myanmar. It continues to escalate and expand military offensives in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni and Mon States and in Magway and Sagaing Regions, deliberately and indiscriminately targeting civilians. It is blocking and destroying aid, attacking aid workers, setting villages on fire, looting, destroying properties, conducting mass killings and using people as human shields and forced labourers. In July, the junta killed at least 43 villagers in four mass killings in Sagaing Region.
In Mon State, on 3 September, the junta soldiers shot and killed Ei Thwe Moe and her unborn child, and severely injured her husband Puu Day. In Kachin State, the ruthless Infantry Battalian 58 stationed near Waingmaw Township, continues to kill civilians indiscriminately. In Central Myanmar, the junta burned and destroyed essential supplies donated to villagers in Kin Ma village in Magway Region. As recent as on September 18, in Chin state, the junta shot dead a Christian pastor, cut off finger and looted his wedding ring as it burned at least 19 houses in Thantlang Township and shot indiscriminately at civilians, forcing most residents to flee.
For nearly eight months the people of Myanmar have bravely resisted the military’s merciless violence while the international community has stood by and watched with no concrete action. These atrocities, that amount to crimes against humanity, are enabled by many states, especially those in the UN Security Council, that continue to prevent action to hold the military to account. Coordinated actions, including global arms embargo, targeted sanctions, and the referral of Myanmar to the ICC, are essential to stop further bloodshed and prevent a nationwide civil war in Myanmar.
Thank you..."
Source/publisher:
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Sub-title:
UN Human Rights Council – 48th session
Description:
"UN Human Rights Council – 48th session
Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
22 September 2021
Mister Vice-President, Mister Special Rapporteur,
FIDH and its member organizations ALTSEAN-Burma and Women Peace Network welcome this oral progress report.
The downward spiral of Myanmar’s human rights situation is accelerating and the country has effectively descended into civil war. The military junta has escalated arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions of human rights defenders and journalists - among them many women. Too often, detentions mean death. Since the February coup, we have recorded 115 civilian deaths (including seven women) in prisons, police stations, and military interrogation centers due to torture and lack of adequate medical care.
Under the military, there will never be accountability for its war crimes and crimes against humanity inflicted on Myanmar’s diverse population. The risk of further atrocities is being fueled by the military’s increasingly hateful propaganda against the Rohingya. This is why we reiterate our call for a UN Security Council referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
Mister Vice-President,
Accountability for human rights violations, international pressure, targeted sanctions against the military, and non-recognition of the junta as the government of Myanmar are all demands unequivocally made by the country’s civil society and the National Unity Government.
We back these demands and so should the international community. Stronger international action is urgently needed to prevent further suffering for the people of Myanmar and a threat to the region’s peace and security.
Thank you..."
Source/publisher:
International Federation for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, International Criminal Court, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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pdf
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Sub-title:
48th Session of the Human Rights Council
Description:
"23 September 2021
Madam President,
Excellencies,
Since my last update to this Council, the human rights situation in Myanmar has deteriorated significantly as the far-reaching impacts of the military coup continue to devastate lives and hopes across the country. Conflict, poverty and the effects of the pandemic are sharply increasing, and the country faces a vortex of repression, violence and economic collapse.
The military's iron grip on power faces resistance from large segments of the society. Weapons of war continue to be deployed in towns and cities to suppress opposition. Over 1,100 individuals have reportedly now died at the hands of the security forces since the coup.
Over 8,000 individuals – including children – have been arrested since the coup, with over 4,700 remaining in detention. Most are held without any form of due process, and lack access to legal counsel, or even the ability to communicate with their families. We continue to receive reports from multiple locations of interrogation techniques that amount to ill-treatment and torture, and have credible information that more than 120 detainees have died in custody – some within 24 hours of their arrest.
Over 260 attacks on health-care facilities and personnel have been reported since February, including targeting and shooting medical personnel, ambulances and hospitals; arbitrarily detaining medical professionals; military occupation of hospitals; and confiscation of medical supplies such as COVID-19 vaccines and oxygen. These attacks gravely compound the humanitarian consequences of the violence and a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our report A/HRC/48/67, which is before you today, documents many serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of person; the prohibition against torture; fair trial guarantees; freedom of expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly. Several of these violations may amount to crimes against humanity committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population – or, to the extent arising in armed conflict, war crimes.
Excellencies,
Faced with this overwhelming repression of fundamental rights, a movement of armed resistance is growing, alongside the peaceful protests that have taken place for seven months. Local self-defence groups have taken up arms, and many have joined a growing so-called Defence Force movement. Earlier this month, the interim President of the National Unity Government – which comprises representatives elected in 2020 who oppose the coup – issued a call for nation-wide armed uprising against the military.
Armed clashes now occur regularly in many heartland areas where conflict has not been seen in generations. In recent weeks, the Tatmadaw has been conducting offensives in Magway and Sagaing Regions and in Chin State, reportedly killing villagers and burning houses.
In border areas that have faced conflict for many years – including Kachin, Shan, Kayin, and Kayah states – some ethnic armed organisations have assisted People’s Defence groups and, in some instances, have conducted joint military operations with them.
The Army has launched offensives and reprisal raids against villages perceived to be the bases of people’s defence forces or ethnic armed groups, including artillery barrages and airstrikes against civilian areas. Hundreds of individuals have been killed and injured, and many have been forcibly displaced amid escalating humanitarian needs for food, water, shelter, and medical care.
I appeal once again to all armed actors to respect human rights and ensure that civilians and civilian structures are protected. Use of airstrikes and artillery in residential areas, and any form of military operation that targets health centres, places of worship, schools or other protected structures must immediately cease.
Excellencies,
These disturbing trends suggest the alarming possibility of an escalating civil war.
I urge action by members of this Council to actively support a political process that engages all parties to this crisis, including the National Unity Government, civil society, and representatives from the ethnic minority communities, especially women.
ASEAN’s initiative should urgently be accompanied by other influential Member States, using a mix of incentives and disincentives to reverse the military coup and desperate spiral of violence.
I encourage all parties, especially the military, to allow unrestricted access to facilitate humanitarian assistance, including vaccination efforts and other forms of health-care that should be made available in a non-politicized manner. Medical personnel must be protected, not targeted – and local community groups should be the primary instrument of delivery.
To create conditions for peace and dialogue, there must be immediate release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders.
Accountability remains crucial to any solution going forward. The human rights violations crimes being committed by the Tatmadaw today are built upon the impunity with which they perpetrated the shocking campaigns of violence against the Rohingya just four years ago – and also against many other ethnic minorities over decades.
It is crucial that the perpetrators of the most serious international crimes, including potentially genocide, are duly held to account. In this regard, the expanded work of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, with its ongoing mandate over current events, has become even more important. Steps taken by the democratic opposition to engage the International Criminal Court and other bodies may also open new avenues for accountability. I also hope that many more military personnel will grasp that their own futures will not be served by following unlawful orders to commit international crimes.
Myanmar’s stability and path to democracy and prosperity have been sacrificed over these last months to advance the ambitions of a privileged and entrenched military elite. Many people who seek only to safeguard democracy and human rights have lost their lives. The national consequences are terrible and tragic -- the regional consequences could also be profound. The international community must redouble its efforts to restore democracy and prevent wider conflict before it is too late..."
Source/publisher:
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"A former under-secretary-general of the United Nations who had warm relations with Myanmar’s previous regime and their proxy government is tipped to be the next UN special envoy for the country after the incumbent’s term expires next month.
Though her appointment has yet to be officially confirmed by the UN, diplomatic sources close to the matter said Noeleen Heyzer would be the new envoy for the country, which she became familiar with as head of the UN’s regional economic commission in the early 2000s. Trained as a social scientist, Heyzer has also served as the UN secretary-general’s adviser for Timor-Leste to support peace-building and sustainable development.
The post of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Myanmar was first created in 2018, mainly to tackle the Rohingya Muslim issue in Rakhine State in western Myanmar, in partnership with the country’s government.
If appointed, the 73-year-old Singaporean would not only take over duties from current envoy Christine Schraner Burgener but would also be likely to inherit her predecessor’s failed mission of persuading Myanmar junta leaders to engage in dialogue to settle the ongoing political and social turmoil caused by the coup in February.
As a former head of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Heyzer is no stranger to Myanmar. She visited the country several times under the previous military regime that ruled the country until March 2011 and knows well the poverty endured by many in the Southeast Asian country. She was also a supporter of the country’s transition to democracy, which was halted by the coup.
When the then regime was reluctant to allow international relief assistance in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which wreaked havoc in the country’s Irrawaddy Delta area in 2008, killing more than 130,000 people, the then head of ESCAP was also involved in getting aid delivered to those in need by organizing a post-Nargis recovery conference in Bangkok. The junta’s Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu, who was coordinating international assistance at the time, was a main speaker there. Finally, ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, was able to fly the aid in.
“Noeleen Heyzer thought that the key was to see things from the Burmese (Myanmar) junta’s perspective, to talk in a language they understood, and thereby break the impasse,” writes Thant Myint-U in his latest book The Hidden History of Burma.
After the then junta released Myanmar’s popular democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in late 2010, the UN official stepped up her dialogue with the generals for the sake of the country’s development, telling them, “We can bring the best minds here to work with you,” according to the book.
Then she invited Nobel Prize-winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz to Myanmar. In Naypyitaw’s Myanmar Convention Center, before an audience packed with civil society representatives and government officials, including then Prime Minister U Thein Sein, who would become the country’s president a few months later in the regime’s proxy government, Stiglitz stressed the need to increase spending on health and education, invest in rural development and use revenues from oil and gas wisely.
When community strife between Rakhine and Rohingya people deteriorated in Rakhine State in 2012, the Thein Sein government asked Heyzer to help devise an economic development strategy that would be good for both communities.
“Heyzer passed this request on to the UN headquarters in New York. Nothing happened,” Thant Myint-U writes.
She also has good relations with Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). When the news of her would-be appointment as the special envoy circulated, some elected lawmakers—since ousted by the coup—welcomed it, hoping that she would break the political impasse.
The current military regime leaders in Naypyitaw would likely feel more comfortable talking to Heyzer than some other international diplomats, as she is one of the few to have earned the trust of their predecessors. But Heyzer shouldn’t take the significance of her old friendship with the former regime for granted, as current junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is unpredictable. Basically, like its predecessor, the current regime is interested only in maintaining power, not in compromising with its adversaries. It will show up at the table only when it has no choice or sees potential benefits in talking..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-23
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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Description:
"22,000 Estimated refugee movements to neighbouring countries since 1 February 2021
980,000 Refugees and asylum-seekers from Myanmar in neighbouring countries as of 31 December 2020
208,000 Estimated total internal displacement within Myanmar since 1 February 2021
370,000 Estimated internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Myanmar as of 31 December 2020
HIGHLIGHTS
Displacement within Myanmar substantially increased in the first half of September, following new violence and military operations. There are now approximately 208,000 people displaced within Myanmar due to conflict and unrest since 1 February 2021, an 18% increase over the previous two weeks. IDPs across the country continue to have extremely limited access to basic services, especially healthcare. Although COVID-19 positivity rates have declined and some related restrictions have been eased, the pandemic continues to place additional limitations on IDPs’ livelihoods as well as humanitarian access to them.
New displacement has taken place in Chin State, Magway and Sagaing regions, as well as Kayah State, but may be short-term if IDPs are able to return to their places of origin once fighting subsides. In Kayah State, for example, the re-escalation of conflict in Demoso Township displaced over 21,000 people, but some 18,000 IDPs returned to their places of origin during the reporting period. Continuing armed clashes throughout Southeast Myanmar also displaced people in Tanintharyi Region, and Kayin State. In Chin State, Magway and Sagaing regions, the newly displaced fled increased fighting between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and both ethnic armed organizations and people’s defence forces, as well as the continued destruction of private property and desecration of religious sites. In Kachin State, continuing clashes between the MAF and Kachin Independence Army additionally displaced several hundred people in Waingmaw and Putao townships..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
7.5 MB
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Sub-title:
Situation in Myanmar worsening following Feb. 1 coup; children being targeted
Description:
"WSU Myanmar students and alumni are urging their family back home to stay hopeful as the Myanmar military coup that started on Feb. 1. continues.
Thaw Zin Naing
Civil engineering major Thaw Zin Naing came to the U.S. in May 2016, in pursuit of a higher education. Now only a year away from graduating, the future of his education is uncertain.
Naing said the state of his country greatly affects his mental health and education. Along with the stress of the coup, Naing also lost his father eight days after the conflict started due to unrelated health reasons.
His remaining family was forced into hiding because of his mother’s role as a student leader in the 1988 Myanmar uprising. While no longer off the grid, they have been forced to lie low and close their business to keep her identity a secret.
Naing is unable to receive money from his family for his tuition as the Myanmar military is currently in control of the nation’s banks. WSU placed a hold on his tuition. But if Naing is unable to pay the fees by this December, he will no longer be a student at WSU.
He plans on making a crowdfunding account in the near future to help pay his tuition but is having doubts about whether he can raise the money.
Naing stressed that while he and his peers struggle, so many other people in Myanmar are losing their homes and loved ones and need the help even more. He said the lack of media coverage led to an absence of knowledge and aid.
“It’s a long fight,” he said. “It’s already been eight months. I just hope they can hang on until the military buries themselves.”
Sandi Win Thu
A few months ago, Sandi Win Thu’s family found themselves in hiding, on the run and at times under direct gunfire, according to a Daily Evergreen article.
Since then, Thu, biological sciences doctoral student, said her family reached some level of safety and she has continuous contact with them.
She said the only thing that kept her going the last few months is talking to family every day to make sure they are safe.
Thu said this is the second year Myanmar has no schooling available. The nation did not have the same access to virtual opportunities as students in the U.S throughout the pandemic. The military continued to keep schools closed in 2021, leaving many without proper education.
Thu is very worried for her younger sister and her education as she continues to miss out on another year of school. She said she wants people back home to keep their heads high and to not lose hope.
“I don’t want them to be afraid to go back to the academic way,” Thu said.
Thu encourages her peers and the WSU community to help by spreading the word in order to gain support and aid for those fighting in Myanmar.
To the people in Myanmar, Thu said she wishes they stay safe, stay healthy and do not lose hope.
Wint Mon Mon Kway
WSU alumni, Wint Mon Mon Kway, said the military’s control over Myanmar’s health care led to many unnecessary deaths resulting from COVID-19 and other diseases.
Medical resources are either extremely limited or expensive leaving many people without options for adequate health care. She said those who have contracted COVID-19 had a difficult time obtaining proper oxygen supply, leading to more deaths.
Kway said her country is no longer safe for the youth following the military’s takeover. Children are being targeted, with many being arrested or shot. Kyaw began applying to universities in the U.S. for her brother hoping it will get him away from the crisis.
She manages her mental health by ignoring the news. Instead, Kway said she gets her information through her parents to avoid any corrupted media. She tries not to focus too much on the state of Myanmar but is concerned about the possibility of war.
For now, Kway said she is focusing on her career first so that she can give back to her country later.
Garmanie Kyaw Swar Tun
Garmanie Kyaw Swar Tun, senior public relations major, said when the military initially cut off communications, he just kept thinking about the “what ifs.” His parents struggled to fund his education but were able to get some help from friends in the U.S.
Tun said half of his friends growing up are brainwashed by the military. While he cut off contact with anyone holding those ideals, his father is unable to do the same.
The coup majorly affected the Myanmar economy and the success of his father’s business. In order to continue making an income, Tun’s father is forced to stay in contact with military personnel.
Tun said that after months of unrest, people feel they can no longer fight against the daily routine of shootings in the streets and bombings. He said the military’s use of weapons desecrated places that once were considered safe.
“Where I used to go out, where I used to play around, where I used to eat,” he said. “We can’t even go out.”
Tun said he hopes the coup ends soon and the country returns to what it was before. He wants people to know how beautiful and rich Myanmar can be; the country controlled by the military is not the same he once knew.
“Never give up on hope. We’ve been under the military for 60 years and this is our chance to win,” he said. “This is our endgame. Either they win or we win.”..."
Source/publisher:
The Daily Evergreen
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-22
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations
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Description:
"Announcement: 2021 MacBride Peace Prize recipients
Alexander Kmentt, Ambassador and Director of the Department of Disarmament, Arms-Control and Non-proliferation, Austria
Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), Myanmar/Burma
About the Sean MacBride Peace Prize
Every year the IPB awards a special prize to a person or organization that has done outstanding work for peace, disarmament and/or human rights. These were the principal concerns of Sean MacBride, the distinguished Irish statesman who was Chairman of IPB from 1968-74 and President from 1974-1985. MacBride began his career as a fighter against British colonial rule, studied law and rose to high office in the independent Irish Republic. He was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1974)
The award is decided by the IPB Steering Committee. IPB members are welcome to make suggestions and provide background documentation on potential candidates.
The Prize is a non-monetary one.
Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), Burma
Established in 2000, AAPP is a human rights organization that advocates for the release and rehabilitation of all political prisoners within Burma/Myanmar. The organization is headquartered in Mae Sot, Thailand, close to the Burman border as many of AAPP’s staff members are former political prisoners exiled from the country. The organization accurately states that “As long as political prisoners exist inside Burma, Burma will not be free”. Since the military coup d’état staged by the Burman military on February 1 2021, the AAPP have continued to tirelessly and diligently documented each and every death caused by the Junta. Their work makes them targets of the Junta, but this is a sacrifice they willingly embrace, placing the future and wellbeing of their country before themselves. In recognition of their bravery and commitment to securing the freedom and democratic rule of Burma, the IPB decided to award AAPP the Sean MacBride Peace Prize for 2021. The AAPP has graciously accepted this award which will be officially given during a ceremony in 2022.
Alexander Kmentt, Ambassador and Director of the Department of Disarmament, Arms-Control and Non-proliferation, Austria
Mr Alexander Kmentt is the President-designate for the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a role he fulfils alongside his Directorship of the Department of Disarmament. Arms-Control and Non-proliferation within the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Kmentt has a long career behind him of advocating for a reduction in arms production, sale and use, especially nuclear weapons, bringing these issues to the highest levels of government and imploring decision makers to take notice and take action. Mr Kmentt was one of the key architects to the TPNW. In 2014 he organized the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons which culminated in the Humanitarian Pledge which was endorsed by 135 States and played a significant role in the TPNDW’s fruition. For these reasons, among others, the IPB board decided to award Mr Kmentt the Sean MacBride Peace Prize for 2021. Mr Kmentt has humbly accepted this award, which will also be given during a ceremony in 2022.
Source/publisher:
International Peace Bureau ( Berlin)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-21
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights Defenders
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332.38 KB
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"Today, September 21, the world commemorates the International Day of Peace. This annual event was created by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in 1981. It is a day on which armed actors across the world are expected to cease hostilities for 24 hours as a celebration of the spirit of peace and the shared hope that we will one day live in a world where conflict is resolved without resorting to violence.
This year, International Day of Peace is observed in the context of the February 2021 Myanmar military coup. Since this day, the junta has committed serious crimes and violations of international law against the people of Myanmar, including but not limited to the disproportionate use of force against peaceful protestors, arbitrary killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence. Other fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of expression have also been severely curtailed through the restriction of internet and communication services, as well as the junta’s enacted laws that criminalise the legitimate exercise of free expression. All of these have happened against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic that has continued to have detrimental effects on the health and livelihood of the people.
Since March 2021, in Karen State, there has been intense fighting between the State Administration Council’s (“SAC”) military and ethnic armed groups. In particular, the SAC’s military has conducted airstrikes and ground attacks that are indiscriminate in nature. The aerial bombings and mortar shelling have caused death and serious injury to villagers, as well as the destruction of homes and other civilian objects. In turn, this has led to a severe humanitarian crisis marked by the displacement of thousands of villagers from their homes and ancestral lands, food shortages, and the lack of adequate healthcare in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The increased militarisation and resumption of intense armed hostilities in Karen State have also led to other violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. KHRG and KWO have been receiving reports of soldiers pillaging villages, the use of women as human shields, forced labour, as well as the use of landmines by all armed actors in a seemingly indiscriminate manner that have maimed and even killed villagers who were often on their way to work at the markets or farms.
The theme of this year’s International Day of Peace is “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.” For Myanmar particularly, this message is a reminder that the ethnic people of the country, who have been marginalised, must have a seat at the table concerning all matters relating to the resolution of the current crisis and the future of Myanmar. It is also a reminder that for peace to be sustainable there has to be justice and accountability for the crimes committed by all armed actors regardless of their ethnic affiliations.
In commemoration of International Day of Peace, KHRG calls on the SAC and all other armed actors to observe this important event by participating in the international ceasefire. Let this Day of Peace be a moment of reflection on the countless deaths that have occurred as a result of the conflict and remember the shared responsibility of all actors in bringing about peace in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-21
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) reports, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
86.03 KB 97.3 KB
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"Imprisoned Myanmar actress Eaindra Kyaw Zin has won the Best Performance Award at Germany’s Oldenburg International Film Festival.
The famous actress was arrested and jailed for anti-regime activities in early April and is currently spending her 164th day in Yangon’s Insein Prison, alongside thousands of other political prisoners.
She won the Seymour Cassel Best Performance Award for the melodrama What Happened to the Wolf? The movie follows two women who meet and fall in love while patients at a hospital for the terminally ill, with Eaindra Kyaw Zin and fellow Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Award winner Paing Phyoe Thu playing the women.
At the September 15 opening ceremony of the Oldenburg International Film Festival, the festival director Torsten Neumann and others wore t-shirts in honor of the detained actress.
Eaindra Kyaw Zin is among the highest-profile supporters of Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). She was arrested along with her husband Pyay Ti Oo, who is also a famous actor. The two face potential three-year prison terms for sedition for their opposition to the military regime
The couple, reputedly the highest-paid actors in Myanmar, joined street protests demanding a return to democracy following the junta’s February 1 coup. They urged civil servants to refuse to work for the regime and join the CDM.
What happened to the Wolf? is directed and produced by Na Gyi, who made the film before the coup. Na Gyi, along with his wife Paing Phyoe Thu, is in hiding after arrest warrants for sedition were issued for the couple for allegedly using their celebrity status to oppose the coup. Also in hiding are two other actors in the film, Kyaw Htet Aung and Aung Myint Myat.
Paing Phyoe Thu was also nominated for the Seymour Cassel Award for Best Performance.
“Na Gyi’s What happened to the Wolf? and the performances of the lead actresses left us breathless,” said award-winning actress and festival jury member Deborah Kara Unger as she announced the award.
“We celebrate her [Eaindra Kyaw Zin] elegance, her soul, her invaluable gift to cinema with hope that this reaches her,” she added.
Over 8,200 civilians including protesters, activists, politicians and celebrities have been detained by the junta since the coup. Another 2,000-odd people are the subject of arrest warrants.
The junta has also banned the showing, broadcasting or publishing of works by artists arrested or wanted for their involvement in anti-regime activities..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"1. Ministry of Human rights, National Unity Government of the Republic of the
Union of Myanmar, has submitted the report on human rights violations by the
Myanmar Military in Magway and Sagaing regions since July 2021 to the UN Human
Rights Council today. The report compiled first-hand accounts of human rights
abuses committed by the military council in those two regions by interviewing
those who suffered the abuses.
2. The report stated arbitrary arrests, tortures to death and massacres
happened in July, August and September during the offensive clearance
operations carried by the military towards civilians in two Regions.
3. The ministry urged the council to tighten arms embargo, help stop the
military assistance, to help stop human rights abuses and to effectively act by
means of international mechanisms including International Criminal Court to be
able to bring about justice, and to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar
people including those people being terrorized in Sagaing and Magway regions.
4. The Ministry of Human rights of the National Unity Government is trying to
effectively bring about justice and to end the culture of impunity as soon as
possible by documenting the evidences o f human rights abuses th rou gh ou t the
country by cooperating with relevant ministries and civil society organizations..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-19
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations, International Criminal Court
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
19.4 KB
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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
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Genocide, Human Rights and international relations, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
69.82 KB
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Description:
"Statement on submission of update on human rights situations in Sagaing and Magway Regions to UN Human Rights Council..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-19
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations, International Criminal Court
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
191.32 KB
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Description:
"The Morrison Government must support the end of the military junta and the return of democracy to the people of Myanmar. This includes the recognition of the National Unity Government (NUG) as the true representatives of the people of Myanmar, and not the military junta, at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly which convenes this week. The ACTU is joining unions around the world today on the UN International Day for Democracy to support the recognition of the NUG.
The NUG is the democratically elected government of Myanmar, which was ousted by the military in a coup in February. The junta is responsible for over 1000 civilian deaths.
The military junta are attacking and repressing trade unionists and workers, with trade union leaders being arrested, hunted, and driven into hiding. Sixteen trade unions and labour rights organisations have been outlawed. Over 300,000 workers have been dismissed for peacefully protesting and striking against the military. The coup and COVID-19 have pushed more than 25 million people into poverty.
Australia is shamefully out of step with international efforts to end military rule in Myanmar. While the USA, UK and EU have all implemented sanctions against the coup leaders and military linked businesses, the Morrison Government is looking to deepen its ties by pushing ahead with ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement.
The Government introduced the enabling bill for RCEP into Parliament on 1 September and is expected to be debated when Parliament resumes in October. The ACTU reiterates its call for the Morrison Government to renegotiate the RCEP agreement to address a number of flaws, and to not ratify RCEP with Myanmar until democratic rule is restored.
Quotes attributable to ACTU President Michele O’Neil:
“The Prime Minister must use Australia’s position at the UN General Assembly to recognise a democratically elected government, and not a military junta which has killed over 1000 civilians since the coup.
“The Morrison Government is dangerously out of step with the rest of the world – while the USA, UK and EU have implemented sanctions against the military leaders and businesses, the Morrison Government has failed to implement sanctions and is instead deepening ties by pushing ahead with the RCEP trade agreement with the military junta – in turn legitimising the regime.
“25 million people are now living in absolute poverty in Myanmar due to the military coup and COVID 19 – it is critical that Australia shows leadership in the region and stands up for democracy rather than legitimising the military junta.
“The Australian union movement stands in solidarity with the trade union movement in Myanmar who are resisting the military dictatorship. They are calling on the international community to support their struggle for democracy through the implementation of sanctions and recognition of the NUG – it’s well past time the Morrison Government took meaningful action to support the people of Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Australian Council of Trade Unions" (Melbourne)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-18
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
General Assembly - Press releases, Human Rights and international relations, National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Burmese Artists Send Message to France, Global Community to Address Rights
Description:
"The Myanmar military’s February 1 coup sparked the largest and most widespread protests in the country's recent history, showing people’s determination not to be dragged back into a dark past of military dictatorship.
The military responded with ruthless repression, killing more than 1,000 people, arbitrarily arresting and detaining thousands, banning independent media, and cutting off internet access. The junta’s widespread and systematic abuses, including murder, rape and other sexual violence, and torture amount to crimes against humanity.
From the early months of the protests, many Burmese artists also took to the streets, using their art and creativity to peacefully call for a return to democratically elected civilian government and the end of the junta’s abuses.
These artists created amazing visual materials in response to the events. Combining social activism, creativity, and an increasing resolve not to give in to military intimidation, most of their artworks were not designed to be hung in galleries, but rather to serve as messages and images to be displayed at marches or posted on social media.
A unique selection of these artworks is being shown in Paris through Fighting Fear: #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar, a month-long exhibition of 14 works from seven young artists from Myanmar set up at the Place du Palais Royal, in the center of the French capital.
The exhibition opens on September 18, which coincides with an infamous day in Myanmar’s history when soldiers killed thousands of protesters during a 1988 mass uprising in Yangon, then Myanmar’s capital. Now again in 2021, the people of Myanmar are risking their lives to demand restoration of democratic rule and respect for human rights.
These powerful artistic testimonies warn of the urgent need to break the global apathy that has arisen in the face of the junta's brutal crackdown. The Paris exhibition is a wake-up call to France and other governments to be bold and work together in response to the Myanmar junta's atrocities. Coordinated sanctions on oil and gas revenues, which are the junta’s main source of income, and a global arms embargo are urgently needed. This is the least governments around the world can do to support the courageous citizens and artists of Myanmar standing up and risking their lives to resist the junta’s ferocious crackdown..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-17
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Under the previous military regime, Myanmar was known as a “diplomatic graveyard”, chiefly for the UN’s failed missions to the country on issues ranging from humanitarian assistance to national reconciliation between the junta’s old boys and their democratic opponents—primarily the now ousted and detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
That bad reputation persists for the country, which has been undergoing a new bout of military rule since February. Just ask Christine Schraner Burgener!
On Tuesday, the 58-year-old, who has been the UN’s special envoy for Myanmar since 2018, acknowledged that she is the latest diplomat to be consigned to the graveyard, tweeting that her efforts to facilitate an “all-inclusive dialogue in the interest of the people were not welcomed by the military,” confessing that her months-long attempts, in the wake of the takeover, to persuade the coup leaders in Naypytaw to engage in dialogue to settle the ongoing political and social turmoil caused by the coup had failed. Her term will end soon.
“I regret this clear lack of will for a peaceful solution which could have prevented other stakeholders from feeling they have no choice but to seek violent means,” the Swiss diplomat wrote.
She is right to feel regretful, especially after her “several talks” and “long conversation” over the phone with the regime’s second in charge in Naypyitaw, in which she urged him to engage in dialogue, bore no fruit.
Another blow to her efforts was dealt by Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) with its recent declaration of revolt against the regime. The parallel government largely made up of elected lawmakers from the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government and its ethnic allies reasoned that it had no option but to resort to armed resistance due to the “diplomatic failure” to pressure the regime to stop its arbitrary killings and arrests of civilians, among other atrocities, and restore to the NLD the political power it seized through the coup. For someone who lobbied for a “peaceful solution” in Myanmar, nothing could be more depressing than learning that a majority of Myanmar’s people heartily embraced the NUG’s call to arms.
Myanmar people have good reason to support the NUG’s declaration. By the time Schraner Burgener pressed “Tweet” on her apologetic post about her failed Myanmar mission on Tuesday, 1,089 people had been killed by the regime since February. Another 6,477 had been detained. As they have had firsthand experience of successive regimes’ brutality following coups in 1962, 1988 and now in 2021, many in Myanmar are skeptical of the nonviolent or peaceful approaches favored by the international community, because those means have historically proved ineffective in taming the rogue soldiers who hold power in Myanmar.
As the UN special envoy to Myanmar, Schraner Burgener first talked to the regime’s No. 2 leader three days after the takeover. During her phone call to Vice Senior General Soe Win, she warned him that the world’s nations and the UN Security Council “might take huge strong measures” against the regime and that Myanmar would become isolated.
“We are used to sanctions and we survived those sanctions in the past. We have to learn to walk with only a few friends,” the special envoy quoted him as saying, during a press conference in March.
Since then, the diplomat said, she has spoken several times with the deputy commander-in-chief, whom she described as “always open for my request for meeting” to have “frank and open discussions.” She tried to get the regime’s permission to visit the country, but in vain. At the same time, the regime’s killing spree continued. Despite its condemnation of the coup and subsequent atrocities, the UN proved to be toothless on the Myanmar issue, as China and Russia stood against any resolutions proposed at the Security Council that were critical of the regime.
In her effort to find a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Myanmar through dialogue, Schraner Burgener reached out to every stakeholder. She said the country’s ethnic armed organizations “were in the majority very positive of this idea” while the NUG members were “interested in the idea but clearly would have pre-conditions to start such a dialogue.” When she presented her idea of an inclusive dialogue during her long conversation with the regime’s second leader Soe Win in July, “I didn’t receive an answer: not a positive, not a negative,” she recalled during a briefing to journalists in August.
Despite the regime’s rebuffs, she refrained from making harsh criticisms of it until now, apart from condemning its crackdowns on protesters. When the junta said no to her request to visit Myanmar, she never took it as a message that they didn’t want to talk to her anymore.
“But I assumed that people on the ground would be very encouraged by my presence in the country and that’s something the army doesn’t want to see,” she said, as if she knew the thinking of the regime. Probably her several talks with Soe Win over the months made her think so. It would be interesting to see what she thought of the second-most-powerful person in the Myanmar regime—a moderate or a hardliner?—as the meetings must have left her with some impression of him.
With Tuesday’s tweet, Schraner Burgener has made public her view that the Myanmar regime clearly lacks the will to find a peaceful solution to the country’s crisis through dialogue. But she must have seen the writing on the wall before that. She said in August when Senior General Min Aung Hlaing appointed himself prime minister that he would seek to maintain his grip on power. The junta’s annulment of the results of the November 2020 election, which was won by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, prompted the UN diplomat to express her fear that the NLD would soon be disbanded.
Bertil Lintner, a Swedish journalist who has covered Myanmar for decades, said the call for daialogue was doomed to fail from the beginning because the junta is interested only in maintaining power, not in engaging in talks or to compromise with its adversaries.
“So it’s hardly surprising that people in Myanmar have resorted to armed struggle against the junta,” he said.
As recently as last month, the Swiss diplomat was still hoping that the recent appointment of an ASEAN special envoy on Myanmar would bring an all-inclusive dialogue, as the regime approved the appointment. The ASEAN envoy called for a truce in Myanmar. But, with the NUG’s declaration of war and the regime’s ongoing attacks on civilians in the country, Erywan Yusof’s call for a truce was thrown out of the window.
It took Schraner Burgener nearly seven months to see the Myanmar military rulers’ true colors. Coming to her senses, she finds herself in the diplomatic graveyard. “Never Waste Your Time With the Generals in Naypyitaw!” would make a perfect epitaph for her. Yusof will no doubt be her neighbor soon..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-16
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), National League for Democracy (NLD), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Re: Sinotruk’s business dealings with Myanmar’s military
We are writing to you to express our concerns regarding the deployment of fleets of Sinotruk vehicles in the ongoing violent repression and lethal crackdown on anti-coup protests, civil society and independent journalists by military forces of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Since 2009 MAN SE has owned 25 percent of Sinotruk Hong Kong and – as a blocking minority shareholder – has significant influence on the governance of Sinotruk’s operations.
Myanmar’s military ousted the civilian government in an attempted coup on 1 February that shattered the country’s limited democracy. In the bloody and ongoing crackdown on public protests opposed to the attempted coup, more than 1000 civilians including children have been killed by military and security forces under their command, in what may amount to crimes against humanity. Thousands have been arbitrarily arrested and tortured. It has been well-documented that the Myanmar military forces have used Sinotruk vehicles during the crackdown of anti-coup protests in several cities across the country. Extensive photo and video evidence of the deployment of Sinotruk vehicles – what appear to be Sinotruk’s HOWO truck model – to execute the crackdown were published on social media, in Myanmar media and in a Süddeutsche article on 28 March 2021. This includes armed soldiers being transported to protest sites in Sinotruk vehicles, soldiers shooting at protesters with slingshots and air rifles from these vehicles, and arbitrarily detained protesters being taken away in these vehicles. It is likely that the Myanmar military may also be using Sinotruk vehicles within its military operations in ethnic areas, in which war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed.
In 2011, Sinotruk entered into a business partnership with No. 1 General Heavy Industries Enterprise in Myanmar to upgrade the No. 1 Myanmar Automobile Plant. This upgrade allowed for production and assembly of Sinotruk’s HOWO model truck at the plant. There are also unconfirmed reports that the Myanmar military produces heavy duty MILTRUK vehicles under a Sinotruk licence. Myanmar’s armed forces are in the possession of MILTRUK military trucks mounted with rocket launch systems, as seen during military parades in Myanmar in recent years.
In response to requests by Süddeutsche Zeitung in March 2021, a MAN spokesperson stated that it had been unaware of Sinotruk vehicles being deployed by the Myanmar military. MAN furthermore reported that Sinotruk provided assurance in a letter that there is “no cooperation whatsoever between Sinotruk and the current military regime in Myanmar.”
After writing to MAN and 11 other international corporations in April about their activities in Myanmar, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has written to them again in July, urging them to take concrete steps to ensure its companies are not in businesses with the military junta, either directly or indirectly, in order not to be complicit in the relentless horrific crackdown currently under way. MAN noncommittally responded to the first letter and so far has not reacted to the second letter.
In light of the widespread and grave human rights abuses perpetrated by Myanmar’s military with the aid of Sinotruk military vehicles and potentially MAN technology, we strongly believe that it is insufficient to merely rely on this assurance by your business partner. We urge you to conduct a thorough investigation into Sinotruk’s business links to the Myanmar military and security forces under their command, including possible active licence agreements. Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business, MAN has the responsibility to ensure that human rights are respected in all its business operations and relationships. The UN Guiding Principles stipulate that businesses have the responsibility “to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.”
We therefore call on MAN SE to act promptly to conduct a transparent investigation into any links between Sinotruk Hong Kong and the Myanmar military, either directly or indirectly through other Sinotruk subsidiaries and associates. Should any links exist, MAN must take immediate action to ensure the company cuts all business ties to the Myanmar military, as recommended by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar in August 2019, and to ensure that MAN technology does not benefit the military in any form..."
Source/publisher:
FIAN Deutschland, Info Birmanie, Justice For Myanmar, Reporter ohne Grenzen, Stiftung Asienhaus, urgewald and U.S. Campaign for Burma
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-15
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
430.54 KB
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Description:
"1. The countries around the world have proudly celebrated the international day of democracy
events on 15 September annually since 2007 to promote democracy, human rights, and human
dignity.
2. The theme of this year for International day o f democracy is " Is democracy really in crisis
" and it truly reflects the current and concrete situation in Myanmar where all the people are
bearing the brunt o f the junta's tyranny. The inhumane persecution o f the entire population by
the terrorist military council reveals that the democracy is in peril and the dictatorship is
making a comeback with a vengeance.
3. The fact that the terrorist military junta abrogated the outcome o f the 2020 General Election
which was held according to electoral laws and by-laws and unseated the democraticallyelected
government means democracy was supplanted by dictatorship. Nullifying the people's
votes for democracy by the brute force o f arms is a grave threat to Myanmar as well as to the
world's democracy.
4. The entire people o f Myanmar are outraged by the military junta who demolished democracy
in Myanmar by rejecting the results o f the free and fair 2020 general election held in accordance
with electoral laws and by-laws and removing the people's democratic government
through military force against the constitutional protocols. The coup d'etat by the terrorist military
council put an end to the nascent democratic transition evolving under the severe constraints
o f the military-crafted constitution. Simultaneously, all the democratic institutions
such as judiciary, legislature, executive and free press and news media as well as the people's
fundamental rights were nipped in the bud.
5. The terrorist military council have been committing crimes like arresting arbitrarily, imprisoning
and killing the MPs truly representing the people, massacring the democracysupporting,
peacefully-demonstrating innocent people, looting their possessions until
now. Despite these atrocities, the Myanmar people are sacrificing their lives and blood in
order to abolish military dictatorship, to reinstate democracy, and to build a nation where
human rights and human dignity are respected.
6. Additionally, because o f the suppression and mismanagement of the junta's lackeys,
there has been a higher rate o f covid 19 infection in prison, and the political prisoners, activists
are badly in need o f rights for health care and other human rights. Therefore, we
strongly exhort the UN organizations, the international governments, and the regional
groupings to do their utmost to protect and fulfi l these rights as soon as possible.
7. We, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), pledge again to continue
to do our utmost to reinstitute democracy and abolish military dictatorship once and
for all in accordance with the people's mandate bestowed upon us.
8. We solemnly urge the international governments, the United Nations, MPs from the
democratic community, and fraternal democratic countries to cooperate and collaborate
with the Myanmar People in their endeavor to prevent the military junta from committing
terrorist crimes, to reinstitute democratic system, and to build the future federal democratic
union o f Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-15
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
110.39 KB
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Description:
"၁။ ၂၀၀၇ ခုနှစ်မှစ၍ နှစ်စဉ်စက်တင်ဘာလ ၁၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကမ္ဘာတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိ နိုင်ငံများတွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့် လူသားဂုဏ်သိက္ခာစံနှုန်းများပိုမိုအားပေးမြှင့်တင်နိုင်ရေး ရည်ရွယ်ချက်များဖြင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီနေ့အခမ်းအနားများ အလေးထားကျင်းပလေ့ရှိပါသည်။
၂။ ယခုနှစ်အတွက် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ဒီမိုကရေစီနေ့ ဆောင်ပုဒ်(Theme)မှာ “ ဒီမိုကရေစီ သည် တကယ်ပင် အကြပ်အတည်းနဲ့ရင်ဆိုင်ရနေပြီလား(Is democracy really in crisis)” ဖြစ်သည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးအပေါ် ဖိနှိပ်သတ်ဖြတ်နေခြင်းသည် ဒီမိုကရေစီအကြပ်အတည်းဆိုက်ရုံမျှသာမက အာဏာရှင်စနစ်များ ပြန်လည်ဦးမော့လာစေမည့် လက္ခဏာများ အစပြုနေခြင်းပင်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ယင်းသည် ယခုလက်ရှိ စစ်အာဏာရှင်တစ်စု၏ မတရားဖိနှိပ်မှုကို အပြင်းအထန်ရင်ဆိုင်ခံစားရ လျက်ရှိသည့် မြန်မာ ပြည်သူလူထု တစ်ရပ်လုံးနှင့် ယနေ့ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသည့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အခြေအနေမှန်နှင့် ပကတိ အနေအထားကို ထင်ဟပ်နေပါသည်။
၃။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ရွေးကောက်ပွဲဆိုင်ရာ ဥပဒေများ၊ နည်းဥပဒေများ နှင့် အညီ တရားနည်းလမ်းကျစွာ ကျင်းပခဲ့သည့် ၂၀၂၀ ပြည့်နှစ် အထွေထွေရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ရလဒ်များကို အဓမ္မနည်းလမ်းဖြင့် ပယ်ဖျက်ခဲ့ခြင်း၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီနည်းကျ ရွေးကောက်ခံထားရသည့် အစိုးရအား ဖယ်ရှားခြင်းသည် ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ်ကို အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ဖြင့် အစားထိုးလိုက် ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ပြည်သူများ၏ ဒီမိုကရေစီဆန္ဒမဲများကို လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် ဖျက်စီးခြင်းသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အတွက် သာမက ကမ္ဘာ့ဒီမိုကရေစီအတွက်ပါ ခြိမ်းခြောက်မှုဖြစ်သည်။
၄။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်သည် ရွေးကောင်ပွဲဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေများ၊ နည်းဥပဒေများနှင့်အညီ ကျင်းပခဲ့သည့် လွတ်လပ်၍ တရားမျှတသည့် ၂၀၂၀ ပြည့်နှစ် အထွေထွေရွေးကောက်ပွဲရလဒ်များကို လျစ်လျူရှုခဲ့ပြီး ပြည်သူလူထု၏ လွတ်လပ်သောဆန္ဒမဲဖြင့် ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ခဲ့သည့် ပြည်သူ့အစိုးရ၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီ အစိုးရကို လက်နက်အားကိုး၍ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ၊ လုပ်ထုံးလုပ်နည်းများနှင့် ဆန့်ကျင်လျက် အာဏာသိမ်းယူ၍ ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ်ကို ဖျက်သိမ်းခဲ့သည့်အတွက် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု တစ်ရပ်လုံး မခံမရပ်နိုင်ဖြစ်ခဲ့ရသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုသည် ၂၀၀၈ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေ၏ အကန့်အသတ်များစွာ အောက်တွင် ဆောင်ရွက်နေရသည့် နုနယ်သော ဒီမိုကရေစီ အသွင်ကူးပြောင်းမှုကို အပြီးတိုင်ဖြိုဖျက်လိုက်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီဆိုင်ရာ မဏ္ဍိုင်များဖြစ်သည့် ဥပဒေပြုရေး၊ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေး၊ တရားစီရင်ရေး၊ လွတ်လပ်သောသတင်းမီဒီယာ တို့နှင့် ပြည်သူတို့၏ ဒီမိုကရေစီဆိုင်ရာ အခွင့်အရေးများအားလုံးကို အညွန့်ချိုးလိုက်ခြင်းလည်း ဖြစ်သည်။
၅။ ပြည်သူလူထုကို ကိုယ်စားပြုသည့် ဥပဒေပြုလွှတ်တော်အမတ်များကို မတရားဖမ်းဆီး သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ထောင်သွင်းအကျဉ်းချခြင်း၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ်ပြန်လည်အသက်သွင်းရန်အတွက် ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်ကြသည့် အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူများကို ရက်စက်စွာ ပစ်ခတ်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ ၎င်းတို့၏ ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုများကို လုယက်သိမ်းယူခြင်းများကို အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီက ယနေ့တိုင် ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ယင်းသို့ ရက်စက်သော ဖိနှိပ်မှုများ ရှိနေသည့်တိုင် မြန်မာပြည်သူ များသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် ချုပ်ငြိမ်းရေး၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီပြန်လည်ထွန်းကားရေး နှင့် လူ့အခွင့် အရေး များကို လေးစားတန်ဖိုးထားပြီး၊ လူ့ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာနှင့်လျော်ညီသည့် နိုင်ငံတစ်ခု တည်ဆောက်ရေး အတွက် အသက်သွေးချွေးများကို ပေးဆပ်ကာ ခုခံတော်လှန်နေကြသည်။
၆။ ထို့ပြင် စစ်ကောင်စီလက်ပါးစေများ၏ ဆိုးရွားစွာဖိနှိပ်မှု၊ အထွေထွေစီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုအလွဲများ ကြောင့် ထောင်အတွင်း ကိုဗစ်၁၉ ကပ်ရောဂါကူးစက်မှုနှုန်း မြှင့်မားခဲ့ရပြီး နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဥ်းသားများ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများသည် အကျဉ်းထောင်အတွင်း၌ ၎င်းတို့ရရှိရမည့် ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာ အခွင့်အရေးနှင့် တခြားသော လူ့အခွင့်အရေးများ လုံလောက်စွာရရှိရေး အဆောတလျင် လိုအပ်လျက် ရှိပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာအစိုးရများနှင့် ဒေသတွင်းအဖွဲ့ အစည်းများအနေဖြင့် ထိုအခြေခံအခွင့်အရေးများ ကာကွယ်ပေးရေးနှင့် ပြည့်ဝစွာရရှိရေး အဆောတလျင် ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်ရန် ဖြစ်နိုင်သမျှသော နည်းလမ်းများဖြင့် ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးကြပါရန် တိုက်တွန်းတောင်းဆိုပါသည်။
၇။ မိမိတို့ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီအနေဖြင့် ပြည်သူလူထုက အပ်နှင်းထား သည့် အခွင့်အာဏာကိုကျင့်သုံးလျက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီပြန်လည်ရရှိရေးနှင့် စစ်အာဏာရှင် စနစ် အပြီးတိုင်ချုပ်ငြိမ်းရေး အစွမ်းကုန်ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်းသွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထပ်လောင်းကတိ ပြုပါသည်။
၈။ ကမ္ဘာတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိ နိုင်ငံတကာအစိုးရများ၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီ အသိုက် အဝန်းမှ လွှတ်တော်အမတ်များနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီမိတ်ဖက်နိုင်ငံများအနေဖြင့် အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်တပ်မှ အကြမ်းဖက် လုပ်ရပ်များရပ်တန့်ရေး၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ် ပြန်လည်ထွန်းကားရေးနှင့် အနာဂတ်ဖက်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ဆောက်နိုင်ရေး မိမိတို့နှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက် ကြပါရန် လေးနက်စွာ တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။
ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ..."
Source/publisher:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-15
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Individual Documents
Category:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"Madam President,
Excellencies,
It is an honour to present the third annual report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.
In accordance with its mandate from this Council, the Mechanism continues to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011 and to prepare files focusing on the criminal conduct of persons responsible.
Tragically, serious crimes and violations of international law continue to be committed in Myanmar. The nation’s long history of impunity continues to impact the lives of its people. Men, women and children from diverse regions and ethnic groups are suffering. Four years since the military’s 2017 clearance operations in Rakhine state, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya remain living in temporary shelter in Bangladesh, their lives on hold hoping to return to homes many of which have been burned and bulldozed. Since the military seized power in February this year, the Mechanism has received reports on the use of unjustified force against peaceful protestors, arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances and killings. Thousands of people have fled their homes in various regions, devastating the economy of Myanmar and straining the resources of neighboring states. More than ever, there is a need to end impunity and to break this cycle of violence.
To date, the Mechanism has collected over 219,000 information items related to post-coup events. Our initial analysis indicates that these crimes are both widespread and systematic in nature. Preliminary evidence shows that about a thousand civilians have been killed, including in Yangon, Nay Pyi Taw, Bago, Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing. The evidence shows security forces acting in a coordinated manner across different regions, systematically targeting specific categories of persons, such as journalists and medical professionals. Many thousands have been detained without due process of law.
Under international law, crimes such as killings and arbitrary detentions committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population are crimes against humanity and thus fall within our mandate. The Mechanism is working to verify and analyse the available evidence concerning these events, and to identify individuals who bear criminal responsibility.
Madam President,
In the past year, the Mechanism has:
established a secure and state-of-the art information management system;
engaged in outreach to key stakeholders;
recruited personnel with a diverse range of expertise and specializations; and
collected and processed over 1.4 million information items.
We are mobilizing additional resources to enhance our capacities, especially those related to the analysis of open-source and financial information. We are pursuing innovative strategies for collecting evidence, which we consider essential given that the authorities in power in Myanmar have denied us access to crime scenes and potential witnesses.
We are committed to ensuring that the Mechanism always upholds the core principles of independence and impartiality. We pursue accountability irrespective of the race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation of the victims or the perpetrators.
We place particular attention on the investigation of sexual and gender-based crimes and crimes against children because while very prevalent in conflict situations and devastating to societies, these crimes are often under-reported and under-prosecuted in criminal justice systems. These investigations require particular skills and sensitivities, and our recruitment and training policies reflect our determination to build such capacities.
We seek to always ensure the safety and privacy of victims, witnesses and information providers by emphasising the confidentiality of our work, ensuring the security of information and obtaining the informed consent from those we contact regarding how we will use any information that they share.
Our mandate is to collect evidence and build case files that can facilitate criminal prosecutions in national, regional or international courts. Many challenges remain. Building files on serious international crimes is a complex, time-consuming process. It requires proof to the high standards necessary for criminal convictions. Since the Mechanism is not a court, accountability for the crimes we investigate depends upon finding competent authorities willing and able to hold the perpetrators accountable in fair proceedings. We will then share our evidence as we have begun to do for proceedings in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
Madam President,
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have helped with the Mechanism’s efforts to collect and verify evidence, including victim and survivor groups, civil society organizations, businesses and many brave individuals. With the support of this Council, we will continue to do all we can to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes so that one day, there will be justice for victims from Myanmar and all will know that impunity for such crimes will no longer be tolerated..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-15
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Resolutions and Decisions on Myanmar at regular sessions of the Human Rights Council, Human Rights and international relations
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"Burma Human Rights Network calls on the United Nations Credentials Committee to reject the Burmese military’s attempt to represent the country at the UN. UN member states must instead support the credentials of the National Unity Government as the legitimate representative of the people of Burma. The NUG is composed of party members of the elected government of Burma that the military overthrew on 1 February 2021. To recognize the military would give credibility to brute force and ignore the will of the people of Burma.
“The crisis facing Myanmar is not just about the coup or the power struggle between two entities. It is a war between corrupted authoritarian and democratic forces. It is a struggle between a mass murderer and defenseless civilians,” said BHRN’s Executive Director Kyaw Win.
The UN’s Credentials Committee is set to meet today to consider who will represent Burma at the UN. Disputes between parties seeking representation at the UN are settled by the body, which is composed of nine member states.
This is the junta who have been accused of committing genocide against the Rohingya people in 2017 by UN Fact Finding Mission. Since February coup the junta has killed more than 1200 peaceful protesters. By accepting the military’s credentials the UN would give credibility to their ill-gotten claims to power and solidify their control. In doing this they would help ensure that the people of Burma would continue to suffer under the military’s tyranny. If they instead accept the credentials of the NUG they would send a sign to Burma and the world that authority comes from the people, not from cruelty and force.
Over the past 30 years, the UN has rejected credential claims from regimes that gained power through force. To change course now and allow Burma’s military to claim power would undermine any progress the world has made for democracy and representation. In considering what party is given authority in a divided nation the UN has and must continue to consider the rights of the civilians in those countries. In the case of the Junta, they have already proven that they have no respect for human life, democracy, or any fundamental freedom. The UN cannot reward this with any legitimacy.
“Although the decision could be based on national interests, this is a much bigger issue. Any decision made by UNGA would be historical with deep ramifications. We can’t let the mass murderers win,” said Kyaw Win. Yet, by accepting the NUG’s credentials the UN would signal to the world the value of human rights and the value of the democratic will of the people of Burma. The NUG represents a new page for Burma, one where the civilian government may represent the interests of all of Burma’s people, including minorities that have been oppressed and marginalised for years. While supporting the NUG may not solve all of Burma’s problems overnight, it is a step towards achieving justice and peace for the country.
Organisation’s Background
BHRN is based in London and operates across Burma/Myanmar working for human rights, minority rights and religious freedom in the country. BHRN has played a crucial role in advocating for human rights and religious freedom with politicians and world leaders..."
Source/publisher:
Burma Human Rights Network
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-15
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
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General Assembly expected to determine Myanmar representation at U.N. tomorrow
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"United Nations member states should recognize the credentials of the serving Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the U.N., Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, during the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly, Fortify Rights said today. U.N. member states convene tomorrow in New York for the annual General Assembly.
“The Myanmar junta is an unlawful, criminal, and terrorizing enterprise that should have no place within the halls of the U.N.,” said Matthew Smith, CEO at Fortify Rights. “Member states should support the credentials of Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun.”
Fortify Rights and 357 Myanmar and international civil society organizations today published an open letter to all U.N. member states’ permanent representatives urging them to accept Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun’s credentials, which empower him to attend and speak within the U.N. as Myanmar’s representative. Myanmar’s military junta is expected to seek U.N. credentials for an opposing representative, sparking a dispute that could be settled, for the time being, on procedural grounds by the General Assembly’s Credentials Committee.
The Credentials Committee is appointed by the General Assembly on the first day of the session. The committee comprises representatives of nine U.N. member states proposed by the president of the General Assembly. It has become well-established practice that the U.S., Russia, and China all take seats on the committee, and the remaining six members are selected on the basis of equitable geographic coverage. The committee is mandated to examine credentials of proposed representatives of member states and report to the General Assembly on its findings.
Prior to the February 1 military coup d’état in Myanmar, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun served as Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. and, at the time of writing, retains his credentials. In a speech to the General Assembly on February 26, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun denounced the coup d’état and called on member states to use “the strongest possible action . . . to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people, and to restore the democracy.”
On April 16, elected legislators in Myanmar formed the National Unity Government (NUG) to represent the sovereign will of the people of Myanmar. Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun has pledged allegiance to the NUG.
The NUG has taken important steps to address past and present atrocity crimes and human rights violations in Myanmar. On August 19, the NUG announced it had delegated jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute atrocities dating back to 2002. It also acknowledged the rights of the Rohingya ethnic minority and atrocity crimes they faced at the hands of the military, which Fortify Rights, a U.N. fact-finding mission, and others have identified as genocide.
Since seizing power, the Myanmar military junta has killed more than 1,000 women, men, and children and arbitrarily arrested, detained, and charged more than 8,000 people in a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population.
The U.N. General Assembly issued a resolution on June 25 that “strongly condemned” the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and, in a rare move, called for a global arms embargo against the Myanmar military. The resolution received widespread international support, with 119 member states voting in favor of it and only one, Belarus, voting against it.
When dealing with past disputes, the Credentials Committee has either voted for one party over the other or has deferred their decision, leaving the incumbent Permanent Representative provisionally in place.
No authoritative rules or guidance have been developed to assist the credentials committee to decide between rival claims for credentials; however, a General Assembly resolution from 1950 states:
[W]henever more than one authority claims to be the government entitled to represent a Member State in the United Nations and this question becomes the subject of controversy in the United Nations, the question should be considered in the light of the Purposes and Principles of the Charter and the circumstances of each case.
Article 1(3) of the U.N. Charter notes that the purposes of the global body include “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all.” Further, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights notes in Article 21(3) that “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.”
“Member states should urgently support the NUG and the people of Myanmar in their efforts to hold the junta accountable for its crimes,” said Matthew Smith. “The international community is failing the people of Myanmar and should do everything now to correct course.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Fortify Rights"
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-14
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National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"The United States and China have brokered an agreement that will effectively block Myanmar’s military rulers from addressing the United Nations’ General Assembly next week, according to diplomats, dealing a blow to the junta’s quest for international legitimacy after it took power in a coup earlier this year.
But the pact—which was hammered out during weeks of behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations—will require Myanmar’s defiant, still-serving U.N. ambassador who represented the previous government to hold his tongue during the high-level event, refraining from the tough rhetoric he deployed last year in denouncing the military’s power grab. It will also delay any effort by Myanmar’s rulers to press for U.N. membership to recognize it as the legitimate government in Myanmar, at least until November.
The arrangement, which was described by multiple diplomatic sources and representatives of advocacy groups familiar with internal deliberations, has been informally endorsed by representatives of the European Union, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Russia. It comes as the U.N. General Assembly plans to announce the appointment of a nine-member panel on U.N. credentials on Tuesday, which will be charged with determining the rightful U.N. representative of Myanmar. The committee will be chaired by weden and include representatives from Bhutan, the Bahamas, Chile, China, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and the United States.
If there is a credential dispute, the incumbent representative keeps his or her seat until a decision is assessed by the credentialing committee and approved by the General Assembly, according to General Assembly rules.
The United States and its European allies were concerned that a country sympathetic to the military regime’s claims might appeal to the credential committees to take up the matter before its first scheduled meeting in November. They are hoping to delay any decision on Myanmar’s representation as long as possible, preserving a diplomatic stalemate that ensures Myanmar’s current ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, will maintain his right to Myanmar’s U.N. seat. “We’re interested in keeping the status quo as long as we can,” said one diplomat from a country involved in the discussions.
In a brief telephone interview, Kyaw Moe Tun confirmed that international negotiations are underway to determine how to move forward on Myanmar’s U.N. seat. He said he would “most likely not” deliver an address to the U.N. General Assembly, even though the list of speakers for the assembly includes Myanmar along with other countries that face questions about their diplomatic standing, such as Afghanistan, Guinea, and North Korea.
“We are still waiting for some sort of outcome from the discussions within the credentials committee,” Kyaw Moe Tun added.
The deal involved an arrangement in which U.N. member states would agree to put off any discussion in the U.N. Credentials Committee of the military junta’s diplomatic status until after the U.N.’s annual diplomatic jamboree. In the meantime, Kyaw Moe Tun, who has faced death threats since publicly breaking with the military regime, has agreed not to address the assembly during the session or sit in Myanmar’s seat in the General Assembly. In the telephone interview, Kyaw Moe Tun did not confirm whether Myanmar’s seat will remain empty during the high-level debate. But he said, “now, everything is OK with regard to my security.”
In August, the United States arrested and accused two Burmese citizens with conspiracy to assault and possibly kill Kyaw Moe Tun. The alleged plan—which involved tampering with the ambassador’s car—involved a Thai weapons dealer who did business with Myanmar’s military, according to court papers.
This behind-the-scenes diplomacy sheds light on how the United States and its allies are seeking to maintain pressure on the ruling junta in the aftermath of the military coup that ousted the elected government in February. It also reflects how seemingly simple logistical matters—such as who gets credentials to speak at an event—can turn into tricky diplomatic battles at the United Nations. The agreement to freeze the military junta out of U.N. deliberations also provides fresh evidence that the United States and China are looking to find areas of diplomatic cooperation, even as they clash over a range of other matters, including China’s detention of millions of Uyghur Muslims in labor and reeducation camps in Xinjiang, a policy the Biden administration has characterized as genocide.
Discussion on the fate of Myanmar’s diplomatic representation will be put off until at least November, when the U.N. Credentials Committee will convene to consider a request by Myanmar’s military regime to install its chosen envoy to represent Myanmar at the world body.
“What we are hearing, and this seems to be increasingly solid, is that the credential committee will defer. They will say they can’t draw a firm conclusion now, and that will encourage [Kyaw Moe Tun] to stay on,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. representative at the International Crisis Group. But Kyaw Moe Tun will not represent the country’s National Unity Government, made up of ousted Burmese leaders and anti-coup protesters.
“Apparently, there has been a quiet gentleman’s agreement that the current ambassador will keep a low profile during [this] high-level week and won’t use it as an opportunity to attack the regime,” Gowan added.
Myanmar’s military rulers seized power on Feb. 1, jailing senior government leaders, including then-Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after her party won an overwhelming election victory. The military claimed it removed the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party from power in February because it ignored allegations of fraud in the country’s elections last November. International observers at the time described the elections, where the NLD soundly defeated the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, as mostly free and fair.
Kyaw Moe Tun refused to recognize the new regime, denouncing it in an emotional address before the U.N. General Assembly. Flashing the three finger symbol of the Burmese resistance, Kyaw Moe Tun urged the international community to use “any means necessary” to restore democracy in Myanmar.
The diplomat then ignored a late-February decision by the regime to fire him and has continued to act as Myanmar’s official representative at the United Nations. The military junta’s choice to represent it at the United Nations, Aung Thurein, has not been able to secure accreditation for the post at the United Nations.
The credentialing matter emerged as one of many diplomatic proxy battles for Myanmar’s new rulers as they try to garner international legitimacy after the coup. Human rights organizations and prominent civil society activists in Myanmar have called on the international community to pressure the junta to withdraw from its power grab and reinstate the former government.
“The military junta has no democratic legitimacy: It is unable to establish government functions, it does not have effective control over the territory of Myanmar, and it is a persistent perpetrator of international crimes,” wrote more than 350 Myanmar and international civil society groups in a letter to the U.N. Credentials Committee last week.
But there is growing fear that aftershocks from the coup could trigger a civil war. Earlier this week, the National Unity Government aligned with deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, calling for support in a “people’s defensive war” to challenge the junta’s rule. A new spate of violence in recent days between the military and opposing militias killed at least 20 people, Reuters reported.
Despite the fighting, the United Nations has yet to table a resolution on Myanmar’s situation, with China and Russia still keeping ties with the regime in Naypyidaw. Some in Washington see the effort to keep the junta away from the U.N. gathering as a key step to denying it further international legitimacy.
“It would be useful to ensure that the Tatmadaw [military] does not have representatives at the U.N., as you know, because I think that gives them automatic credibility,” said one congressional committee aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s something we don’t want to see.”
The former government was widely condemned by the international community for not preventing the country’s military from orchestrating a widespread ethnic cleansing campaign against its Muslim minority population, prompting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Even so, protests swept through the country following the coup, and the military unleashed a massive campaign to crack down on demonstrators, which left an estimated 1,000 people dead and thousands more detained..."
Source/publisher:
"Foreign Policy" (USA)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-14
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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
China-Burma-US relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, National Unity Government (NUG)
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Both sides have applied for role, raising fears military leadership could be emboldened if chosen
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"The United Nations will face a dilemma when its general assembly convenes next week, after both Myanmar’s military junta and the country’s shadow national unity government (NUG) launched rival bids to fill the country’s seat.
Myanmar’s military, which seized power in February, has sought to replace the current representative, Kyaw Moe Tun, an outspoken critic of the coup. Both the junta and the NUG, which was set up partly by ousted politicians, are believed to have submitted applications to the UN’s credentials committee.
Anti-coup campaigners have warned that a decision that favours the military could further embolden the junta, which has used brutal violence against unarmed civilians and is accused of killing more than 1,000 people since February. Leaving the seat empty, they say, could undermine the chances of a political solution. Others argue that appointing an NUG representative risks isolating the military at a time when regional diplomats are pushing for a ceasefire to deliver humanitarian aid.
The junta’s rule is widely opposed by the public, which launched a civil disobedience movement after the coup, with many refusing to work under military rule. Over recent months, groups of civilians have taken up arms, launching guerrilla-style attacks on military targets and defending their areas from raids by security forces.
The conflict and unrest after the coup have left an estimated 176,000 people displaced within Myanmar, according to the UN, while the economy is collapsing and the health system is in crisis.
A legal opinion signed by a 11 prominent legal scholars argues that the NUG’s representative should be accepted, stating the military has a deplorable record on human rights, has largely ignored condemnation by the UN and others, and that there are “no prospects of dialogue”.
“While the NUG does not have effective territorial control over the entire territory of Myanmar, neither does the junta,” it says. It is signed by legal experts including Richard Goldstone, the founding chief prosecutor of the United Nations international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Chris Sidoti, a member of the special advisory council for Myanmar, Yuyun Wahyuningrum, the representative of Indonesia to the Asean intergovernmental commission on human rights, and Dr Sriprapha Petcharamesree, a former Thai representative to the Asean commission.
The official criteria for approving envoys is vague, but various factors have been considered in past cases – including “effective territorial control, democratic legitimacy and respect for international human rights standards”, according to the analysis, published by the Myanmar Accountability Project advocacy group.
The UN’s credentials committee, which will also consider Afghanistan’s representation after the Taliban’s return to power, could defer a decision. This could mean an empty seat, or it could allow Kyaw Moe Tun to continue on a provisional basis.
The junta announced it had fired him after his dramatic address to the general assembly in February, where he called for the “strongest possible action from the international community”. Last month, two Myanmar citizens were arrested in New York for plotting to kill or injure Kyaw Moe Tun in an attempt to force him to step down from the post.
Some observers argue that leaving Myanmar’s chair empty is the most pragmatic solution. “An ostracised military would make things difficult for Asean,” said Sharon Seah Li-Lian, a coordinator of the Asean Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
Asean – the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – has led efforts to alleviate the crisis, with its envoy to the country, Erywan Yusof, stating last week that the military had accepted his proposal for a ceasefire until the end of the year to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Days later, the NUG announced a “defensive war” against the junta, calling for civilian armed groups to target the military and to protect the public.
“All eyes [in Myanmar] are on that chair, but I don’t think there is going to be a decision,” said Seah. She said it was most likely the committee would defer the matter and that no update would be announced until December..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-13
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Type:
Individual Documents
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2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations
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"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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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations
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"Letter dated 10 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 worsening situation in Myanmar, together with the weekly information update on current situation in Myanmar as of 5 September 2021..."
Source/publisher:
Permanent Mission of Myanmar to the United Nations (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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Human Rights and international relations, National Unity Government (NUG), Articles and reports about the NLD, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports
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"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
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG)
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"After more than 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.
Nevertheless, demonstrations against the military, anti-coup movements, and pro-democracy activities are still actively and coordinately continued across the country.
Deaths and Arbitrary Arrests
As of 5 September 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a total of people 7,876 have been arrested, 6,230 people have still been detained, whereas 1,984 people have been issued with warrants and 1,046 people were ruthlessly murdered by the military since 1 February 2021 when the military unleashed systematic and targeted attacks and violence against innocent civilians.
AAPP also reported that at least 110 political prisoners have died in custody since the coup d’état. Dozens of them died within 24 hours of their arrests after being tortured, whereas many others died due to lack of health care in prisons. A relative of one of the victims reportedly stressed, “We don’t want the international community just to keep sanctioning and condemning the military. We just want them hung. We need to make all the spilled worth something”.
Never- Ceasing Groundless Seizures and Arrests
On 30 August 2021, in Ingapu township in Ayeyarwady Region, it is reported that the three sons of Mr. Shwe Win (trishaw driver) were arrested at home when they did not find their father. The boys were aged only 11, 13. The 13-year- old was reportedly released the following day. However, the other two were still detained. According to a resident, Mr. Shwe Win is a supporter of the NLD party, and he had attended rallies for the party. Detaining children as a hostage is illegal under customary international laws. The Myanmar military has no regard for international laws.
On 31 August 2021, in Sintgaing township in Mandalay, hundreds of police officers and soldiers reportedly arrested 31 young men. According to the news received, the security troops went to Mon Pin, Kan Gyi, and Ywar Bo villages in 10 military trucks. In Mon Pin village, they arrested 25 people after ransacking the village for an hour. A resident reportedly said, “the troops didn’t say what they were looking for. They were here for illegal portering, and those who were detained were farmers. They didn’t involve in political activities ”.
During this week, Ms. Win Mar, the mother of Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, who was shot dead while protesting against the military in late February, was reportedly arrested at home as a hostage when the security forces could not find the twin brother of the fallen hero.
Due to changing the NUG support profiles on Facebook, four youths named Mr. Dezin Htan, Mr. Htaal Twee, Mr. Htaung Pein, and Mr. San Thein, from Chan Pyan Village Matupi Township of Chin State were reportedly arrested on 20 and 22 August 2021. They were charged under Section 52(a) of the Counter-terrorism Law on August 24.
Unstoppable Brutal Killings
On 30 August 2021, Mr. Kyaw Myo Zin, a village administrator under the NLD government in Thae Phyu Wa Ywarma village in Myingyan Township of Mandalay Region, was reportedly apprehended, and his hands were tied on his back. He was later shot dead at the top of the village.
On 1 September 2021 in Paung Township of Mon State, Mr. Min Nay Lwin and his wife, Ms. Ei Thwe Moe, were reportedly shot by the military troops returning from a farm around 10 pm. Mr. Min Nay Lwin reportedly injured eyes and leg, but his wife, Ms. Ei Thwe Moe, who was five months pregnant, died on the spot. According to a local, the incident happened while the military troops were on patrol; around ten gunshots were heard, and they just left the couples at the scene after the shots.
On 1 September 2021, in Khin Thar village in Pale Township of Sagaing Region, military troops reportedly killed a local villager named Than Htay. According to the witness, knife injuries were found in the victim's stomach, chest, and neck.
On 4 September 2021, Mr. Kan Tun from Falamchai village in Taze Township of Sagaing Region was reportedly shot and killed when he ran into the soldiers to Chaung Sone Village. According to the eye witness, gunshot injuries to his leg and stomach and knife cut injuries were seen on his neck.
Destroying Religious Buildings in Chin State
It is reported that three regiments have attacked in villages around Mindat Township of Chin State since mid-August. During attacks, the military troops reportedly ransacked and destroyed a church in Chat village on 30 August 2021 and a monastery near Khwee Rein village on 24 August 2021. According to the photos from the credible report, furniture and Bibles were destroyed in the church, and the monastery was looted. The military also reportedly burned motorbikes, destroyed houses, and robbed the villagers. According to the Mindat People’s Administration spokesperson, the soldiers who committed the actions belong to the Myanmar military's 101st and 11th Light Infantry Divisions (LIDs).
Failing to Recruit New Military Officers
On 2 September 2021, the SAC announced on its controlled media that it had extended the deadline for applications to the military academies for the second time. The deadline was extended to one during August, supposedly due to the COVID-19. According to Captain Lin Htet Aung, who defected from the military, around 100 applications have been submitted to join the military academies. Most of the applicants are from military families.
Following the coup d’état in February, it is reported that more than 1,500 soldiers, including a hundred officers, had defected from the military.
Activities of the National Unity Government
On 27 August 2021, the Ministry of Human Rights of the National Unity Government issued a Statement on International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance on 30 August. In the statement, the definition of the enforced disappearance was explained. That enforced disappearance happened in many countries when dictator governments intentionally arrest or make human rights defenders, their families, and documents for human rights violations disappear. It was further stated that enforced disappearance not only affects individuals, their families, and the justice system, it also is a violation of human rights that affects the right to life, security, and development of every citizen in a country. In the statement, the Ministry has informed that the data collection and archiving is of great importance for those who suffered the human rights violations and the crimes committed by the military group and that it will work together with international organizations, civil society organizations, and people to prevent the crimes from happening again, to reveal the truth, and to remedy the grievances for each disappeared or fallen individuals.
The Ministry of Human Rights released an Announcement on the Formation of Advisory Board on the same day. According to the announcement, the Advisory Board was formed to obtain technical inputs in handling human rights issues and is comprised of several activists and experts who have been continuously engaged in the promotion of women’s and ethnic minorities’ rights, including human rights activist U Aung Kyaw Moe and peace educator and member of Muslim of Myanmar Multi-Ethnic Consultative Committee and will be expanded as necessary. The Ministry also stated in the announcement that on August 25, 2021, when Ministry officials discussed documentation and measures to bring justice for human rights violations and ensure NUG functions are in accordance with human rights norms, the
Advisory Board held their first meeting and provided recommendations.
On 30 August 2021, the Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Investment of the NUG has released the Announcement 10/2021, “Publication of a list of Illegal Investments and a Special Directive demanding their immediate and unconditional suspension.” In the announcement, the Ministry referred to the Announcement 1/2021 of the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations of the Cabinet of the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) which declared all investment permits and endorsements to be suspended without exception from 1 February 2021 and Announcement 3/2021 of the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment of the National Unity Government dated 16 May 2021, which reaffirmed the earlier statement. The Ministry further recalled the Announcement 6/2021 of 21 July 2021. The NUG stated that new investment proposals, agreements, or approvals made by military-controlled entities on or after 1 February 2021 would neither be recognized nor honoured.
In the announcement, the Ministry informed that the indiscriminate issuance of investment permits and endorsements by the Myanmar Investment Commission controlled by the illegal military council runs counter to the tenets of federal democracy, and such actions shall not be tolerated. Together with the Announcement, the Ministry has published a list of companies undertaking illegal investments by seeking permits and endorsements from the Myanmar Investment Commission controlled by the unlawful military council. As the Ministry instructs those companies on the list to cease and suspend those illegal investment activities immediately and unconditionally, the Ministry further warns that any listed company that fails to comply shall be liable to persecution according to the existing laws.
On 5 September 2021, the National Unity Government released an Announcement (9/2021), “Announcement on Military Offensive of State Administrative Council in Ethnic Areas. The statement stressed that since the illegal military coup on 1 February 2021, they have killed, detained, and tortured innocent civilians across the country, both in major cities and in rural and ethnic areas. Furthermore, despite the verbal pledges of military leadership and SAC that they are working for peace, they have been waging offensive military operations, including both ground attacks and airstrikes in a disproportionate and indiscriminate manner with excessive forces in EAO-controlled areas causing civilians who were living there to be forced to flee their homes.
The announcement further stated that according to the UN reports, the number of IDPs has been over 300,000 due to the ground and airstrikes of the military. It was informed that those military attacks in ethnic areas could further cause a major humanitarian crisis that millions of civilian populations will be forced to leave their homes and that with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, such a situation can seriously impact the security of neighboring countries along with regional stability and security.
The NUG has vehemently opposed the foreign governments and organizations cooperating in the procurement of weapons to support those violent acts of the military council against the civilians and requested the international community to work effectively to stop the offensive military operations of the Myanmar military as soon as possible, to end suppression and torture of innocent civilians and to bring an end to the coup d’état and hold generals accountable for the crmes they have committed.
Visit of China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs to Myanmar
Sun Guoxiang, Special Envoy for Asian Affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, paid a visit to Myanmar from 21 to 28 August 2021 upon invitation and met with the military leader Min Aung Hlaing, according to the Regular Press Conference by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin on 31 August 2021.
Regarding the Special Envoy’s visit, the Chinese side stated that the friendly policy of China towards Myanmar is for all the Myanmar People, based on the “pauk-phaw” friendship between China and Myanmar. The Press Conference by China’s Spokesperson of Foreign Ministry stated that China hopes for a proper solution through political dialogue with all parties and groups in Myanmar.
International Action and Pressure
The embassy of the United States in Yangon announced on 30 August 2021 that the United States is providing more than $50 million in critical humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar, among them over 700,000 refugees and others internally displaced in the country. The aid will support people fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar following the military coup on 1 February.
In the Inaugural Australia-France 2+2 Ministerial Consultations held on 30 August 2021, Ministers underscored their grave concerns about the crisis in Myanmar, particularly the deteriorating COVID-19 situations and its implications for regional stability. They called on the military to immediately end the violence, cease measures to curtail freedom of expression, release those arbitrarily detained, and revert the country to its democratic path. Ministers welcomed the appointment of the ASEAN Chair's Special Envoy on Myanmar, stressed the need for a political dialogue with all relevant parties, and urged the Myanmar military to engage with ASEAN to implement the “Five Point Consensus” fully and swiftly.
On 1 September 2021, German wholesale food distribution Company Metro announced that it would cease its operation in Myanmar by October due to its volatile investment and business environment. Following the military coup, 15 Foreign companies have suspended or terminated their operations in Myanmar, and Metro is the latest international company to leave Myanmar.
On 2 September 2021, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced new Myanmar sanctions against Myanmar businessman U Tay Za and his business empire Htoo Group, the key business associate of the military. Foreign Secretary said that the military junta had shown no signs of halting its brutal attack on the people of Myanmar, and the UK will continue to restrict the junta’s access to finance. The supply of arms is used to kill innocents, including children, and target those who support the junta’s actions.
In response to the new sanctions of the UK against Myanmar, the U.S. Secretary of the State Antony Blinken remarked on 2 September 2021 that he welcomes the announcement of the UK’s new sanctions against Myanmar businessman U Tay Za and his network of companies for providing financial support and arms to the military that help enable its brutal violence against the people of Myanmar.
On September 3, 2021, the Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah commented that the situation with the planned trip of the ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar, Brunei's Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof, is that the visit has not yet been scheduled and that Erywan is still trying every available resource and communication channels to do so. Malaysian Foreign Minister also highlighted that “the ASEAN Special Envoy must be given access to meet as many groups as possible in line with the point number five of the consensus.” In addition, he also highlighted the difficulty of providing humanitarian assistance to Myanmar, particularly to the conflict zone, through the AHA Centre.
ASEAN Special Envoy Erywan Yusof, Second Foreign Minister of Brunei, said on 4 September 2021 that he is still negotiating with the military for his visit to Myanmar and has requested the military to get access to State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. He also added that he wants to go to Myanmar before the ASEAN summit held in October, yet no date has been finalized for his visit to Myanmar. In addition, he remarked that there is an urgent need to go to Myanmar now, and it is also required to talk to all the parties concerned.
*****
Date: 5 September 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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Individual Documents
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Human Rights and international relations, National Unity Government (NUG), Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
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"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.
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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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Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Anti-coup protesters, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations
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"10 June 2021: Ahead of this weekend’s G7 leaders’ summit, the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) calls on the group to fill the vacuum left by the UN and ASEAN and take decisive action to defend democracy and human rights in Myanmar.
This weekend, leaders of the G7 nations will hold a three-day summit. The G7 group consists of the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy. These seven states will be joined for this meeting by Australia, India and the Republic of Korea and by representatives of the European Union. Meanwhile, as these democratic states meet, the military junta in Myanmar continues to wage its campaign of terror against the people, cracking down on the democracy movement across the country with extreme violence and fuelling a man-made humanitarian catastrophe.
Despite the gravity of the situation, the United Nations Secretary-General has not yet travelled to Myanmar or the Southeast Asia region. The UN Security Council is paralyzed, prevented from taking intervening measures, including targeted sanctions and arms embargos, by permanent members China and Russia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been given the lead role in responding to the crisis by the international community, but to date it has failed entirely to deliver on moving the situation forward.
The G7 must fill the vacuum left by the UN and ASEAN with decisive action on Myanmar.
“G7 members have been leading the way with targeted sanctions against the junta’s business enterprises,” says Yanghee Lee of SAC-M. “However, there is a glaring omission: the massive revenues the junta receives from oil and gas companies, including France’s Total and the US’ Chevron. Without cutting off this billion-dollar income, all other sanctions will be in vain. SAC-M is calling for a global three cuts strategy against the junta: cut the weapons, cut the cash, cut the impunity.”
“Leaders should use the G7 summit to apply pressure on ASEAN to step up to the plate,” says Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M. “This means engaging with all stakeholders, including the National Unity Government.”
“With the support of the people through their elected representatives and representative organisations, the National Unity Government is the legitimate government of Myanmar,” says Chris Sidoti of SAC-M. “Not only this, but the broad coalition formed among the people that the National Unity Government represents has the potential to end the decades of civil war and military oppression in Myanmar. G7 leaders must stand against authoritarianism, refuse to give any legitimacy to the junta and recognise the National Unity Government.”
SAC-M also calls on the G7 to increase desperately needed cross-border humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar. To reach those in need and avoid being exploited by the junta, assistance must be directed through the National Unity Government, existing local structures, civil society networks and ethnic administrations. Official Development Assistance should be immediately re-directed away from the junta or government agencies under the control of the junta and instead directed to the National Unity Government and civil society..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-11
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Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG)
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"Since the 1 February 2021 coup in Myanmar, three political bodies of the UN have discussed the situation and passed resolutions or adopted statements that include expressions of support for democratic processes, an end to violence and calls for the immediate release of political detainees. However, to date there have been no legally enforceable actions.
The New York-based UN Security Council has held formal and informal meetings on Myanmar but has not exercised the significant powers available to it to address the impunity enjoyed by the military and to stop the flow of weapons and cash to it.
Also in New York, in June the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that called for the military to respect the results of the November 2020 general elections, release political detainees and cease violence against protestors. It also called upon States to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar. Although not legally binding, the resolution is a politically significant international expression against the coup.
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council has passed three resolutions on Myanmar since the coup. Two called for the coup to be reversed through restoration of the elected government. A third resolution on the human rights of Rohingya and other minorities was also adopted, although it contained few specific references to the coup. Human Rights Council resolutions are not legally binding.
SAC-M has issued this briefing paper ahead of the start of the 48th session of UN Human Rights Council on Monday 13 September and the start of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday 14 September..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-10
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Type:
Individual Documents
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2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations
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"Now is the third time of the repeated coups by the fascist military with the
purpose to oppress and exploit the people for the benefit of their own kith
and kin. Throughout all those recurring coups of the fascist military, we,
students, have fought, handing on the unyielding red flag of the fighting
peacock, and our fight rages on to this day. Even amidst the crackdowns
by the military, the chants of Students’ Unions and youths against military
dictatorship are still covering the streets to this day. Overseas students are
still serving the revolution in every possible way as well. The common
goals of all the people are the absolute eradication of the fascist military
and dictatorship and building Federal Democracy Union.
We now observe that the fascist junta is relentlessly trying to earn
international recognition, including that of the United Nations. We,
students, and the people have demonstrated our objection against
ASEAN's attempts of helping the fascist junta gain recognition.
Furthermore, we, the Students’ Unions, earnestly request United Nations,
International Governments and Organizations not to acknowledge the
terroristic fascist junta. Concurrently, we declare unequivocally that we,
the Students’ Unions, condemn nations and organizations that are helping
the fascist junta to get recognition..."
Source/publisher:
246 Local and Foreign students' unions
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
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"Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 9 September 2021 – August 2021 marked four years since almost a million Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar, settling in a broad network of refugee camps in the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar. Rendered stateless, the Rohingya were seeking dignity, rights and protection from persecution. The Government and people of Bangladesh were the first responders to the crisis and even after four challenging years, they continue to generously host more than 860,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar district.
With the support of UN agencies and over 130 national and international NGOs, the Government of Bangladesh continues to provide life-saving assistance. All this time, UNFPA has had the honour of being a part of these efforts and continues to constantly devise new ways to respond to the varied and evolving needs of the refugees, and also support the local host communities of Cox’s Bazar.
Here are just some of the stories of the support UNFPA is providing to safeguard the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the refugees, and to help prevent and respond to gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls.
Safe places, emotional relief: UNFPA’s Women Friendly Spaces
As a result of the refugee crisis, Cox’s Bazar is home to some of the most vulnerable women and girls on Earth, many of whom were subjected to rape and other horrendous forms of gender-based violence in the past.
To help women and girls overcome their traumatic experiences, UNFPA supports a network of 28 Women Friendly Spaces in the camps and surrounding host communities. The Women Friendly Spaces provide women and girls a safe space where they gather to interact with each other and engage in recreational activities such as henna making, tailoring, tie-dyeing and drawing.
In addition, each Women Friendly Space employs midwives and caseworkers to provide emotional and psychosocial support and to host awareness raising sessions on crucial issues like gender-based violence, safe pregnancy and childbirth, family planning, , healthy relationships, child marriage and human trafficking.
Hamida, a 27-year-old Rohingya woman who began to attend the awareness raising sessions shortly after arriving in the camps in 2017 was immediately inspired by the new things she was learning about. “I realized that information is power and I started looking for opportunities to develop myself, as well as for ways to contribute to the collective betterment of my community,” she recalls.
In no time, she had become a teacher and mentor for other women in the camps through the Women Support Groups peer outreach initiative. The Women Support Groups are a network of thousands of female Rohingya camp volunteers, who advance the rights of Rohingya women to make autonomous choices about their bodies and lives.
“Through my efforts to help other women and girls in the camps, I have gained the respect of my community, family members and husband. At first, no one listened to me. However gradually, they started to embrace me as they understood that information gives them choices and opportunities,” Hamida proudly declares.
Family planning methods and male engagement
In addition to building the network of Women Friendly Spaces since 2017, UNFPA has been active in ensuring that family planning services remain available to women and girls in the camps. Currently, 40 partners in the UNFPA-led Sexual Health and Reproductive Working Group are collaborating to provide family planning information and services in 193 health facilities in the camps and surrounding host communities. Just between January-December 2020, almost 1.3 million condoms were distributed to men in the targeted communities, and about 135,000 women have been reached with a variety of contraceptive methods, ranging from contraceptive pills and intrauterine devices to intramuscular injectables and implants.
To ensure that family planning information reaches communities at the grassroots level, UNFPA actively collaborates with religious leaders in the camps as part of awareness raising efforts.
Nour Kolil is a Rohingya cleric working with UNFPA. “My role as an Imam is to guide young couples on achieving a healthy and fulfilling marital union,” he explains. “For this, I strongly encourage them to visit health facilities to receive more information on sexual and reproductive health and rights. My message is always about the happiness of the couples, making sure they have the ability to ensure health, education and food for their children. Managing the size of the family is also crucial.”
Through peer group counseling and courtyard meetings, special measures are also taken to ensure that information on family planning reaches men and boys in the camps. As men often carry more decision-making authority within Rohingya families, it is absolutely crucial that they are aware of the benefits of managing family size, birth spacing and women’s rights.
Midwifery services in the Women Friendly Spaces
In addition to securing the availability of family planning, significant measures have been taken to ensure that every pregnant woman in the camps has access to a safe delivery assisted by a midwife. Between 2018-2020, the number of deliveries performed in health facilities in the camps increased from 4,870 to 6,064, contributing significantly to preventing maternal deaths.
Midwifery services have also been integrated into the Women Friendly Spaces, an approach which has proven to be particularly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic with its movement restrictions and other challenges.
“Each day, I serve about a dozen women who come to our midwifery room to request family planning methods, counselling and general information on bodily health,” says Jannatul, a 24-year-old midwife working in one of the Women Friendly Spaces. “I also give advice on preventing and treating sexually transmitted infections. I am happy that the women trust me with such issues. It is because my counselling is always respectful, confidential and non-judgmental.”
Over a period of time, Women Friendly Spaces have become “go-to” places for women and girls to discuss sensitive topics.
“Since the midwifery room is always open, I find it a practical and comfortable place to consult about contraceptive methods. I like that I get to talk to another woman about women's issues,” explains Monowara, a resident of the camps who regularly visits the Women Friendly Spaces to discuss her needs with Jannatul.
Building the life-skills of adolescents through Psychosocial Support kits
In addition to ensuring the availability of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, UNFPA is working hard to address the various needs of the enormous youth population residing in the camps. Approximately 22 per cent of the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar consists of adolescents between the ages of 15 and 24.
Going through the complex psychological and physical changes of puberty is exceptionally difficult for them in the challenging conditions of the camps. To support Rohingya adolescents in making a smooth transition from childhood to adulthood, UNFPA has been providing gender-responsive life skills education in the camps since 2018. Just in 2020, almost 3,140 adolescent boys and girls participated in the programmes, equipping them with crucial skills to better cope with the daily challenges they face as adolescents in the camps.
17-year-old Mokaroma, a graduate of one of UNFPA’s life skills education programmes, cannot contain her enthusiasm as she describes the various things she learned about sexual and reproductive health, gender norms and COVID-19 during the sessions.
“Before coming to Bangladesh, I used to go to school, but I was taught little about things like the negative effect child marriage and early pregnancy have on young girls,” she shares. “After attending the learning sessions, both me and my parents now know why child marriage is harmful. I don’t want to get married now, as I want to study more. I am happy that my family fully supports me in this decision!”
As providing life skills education has been challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, UNFPA has launched novel initiatives to ensure that the youth population can continue to cultivate these skillsets remotely. With the generous support of Australia, psychosocial support kits containing a radio and a memory card full of pre-recorded, educational radio episodes were distributed to over 2000 adolescents in 2020. The radio episodes covered topics such as gender identity, peaceful conflict resolution, healthy nutrition and menstruation.
“From the episodes, I learned the dos and don’ts of menstruation. The information on healthy foods that are good for our body during our periods was completely new to me. I actually played the session for my mother, as she never had the opportunity to learn about these things when she was young. I have also shared what I have learned with my neighbors and friends, so my whole community is benefiting from the episodes,” shares 18-year-old Maimuna, one of the recipients of the kits and participant of UNFPA’s Champions of Change life skills programme.
A possible future?
Even after four years, operating in the refugee camps continues to be challenging. COVID-19 has particularly put established ways of working to the test and made organizations rethink the way they approach humanitarian response. Despite these challenges, UNFPA has not lost its determination, and new innovations and ideas have begun to flourish.
For example, this year UNFPA has started to address lack of access to adequate menstrual hygiene products in the camps by training Rohingya women to produce their own reusable sanitary pads. UNFPA has also constantly arranged focus group discussions with women in the camps to keep track of their evolving needs and build the capacity of our staff members through training, including sessions on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).
While mobility restrictions and climate-related emergencies during the pandemic may have impeded or slowed down UNFPA’s essential operations from time to time, UNFPA’s efforts to address the ongoing crisis are currently more dynamic and creative than ever. For this, UNFPA thanks its donors including the Australian High Commission, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the United States, Canada, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom, Friends of UNFPA, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Sweden and United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, all of whom have loyally continued to support UNFPA’s lifesaving work throughout these four years.
With renewed inspiration, UNFPA stands ready to push ahead despite the challenging times. Along with our many partners, we will not stop until every Rohingya person can be assured that their rights and choices are fully protected and that they have the opportunity to aspire for a better, more just future..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations Population Fund via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Education abroad, Human Rights and international relations, Akha (cultural, political, economic)
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"JAKARTA – More than 60 former and current parliamentarians from across Southeast Asia have signed an open letter to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, urging his administration to take urgent action to support human rights and democracy in Myanmar, and express concern about its stated policy to wait on action by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Although many of us had hoped ASEAN would rise to the occasion and formulate an effective response to the Myanmar crisis, in recent months it has become abundantly clear that the bloc has failed at all levels. ASEAN’s response has been not only lethargic, but also dangerous, by emboldening the military,” said Charles Santiago, chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (MP), and a Malaysian Member of Parliament (MP).
“As representatives of the people of ASEAN, we urge Australia to hold true to its democratic principles and foundations, and not hide behind the harmful response of its undemocratic neighbors,” Santiago said. “Australia should be a strong regional partner to the people of Myanmar and the people of Southeast Asia, not our region’s authoritarian leaders, who are working together to protect themselves from scrutiny and accountability.”
The signed letter was partly in response to comments made by Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne in June, who said that placing targeted sanctions on the Myanmar military would not advance Australia’s interests, as well as “interests in supporting the ASEAN-led solution and the ASEAN efforts that are being made.”
“Time and again, rather than standing up for the Myanmar people, who could not have made their rejection of the military any clearer, ASEAN has kowtowed to the murderous junta, by inviting its representatives to official meetings, granting it a veto over the choice of a special envoy, and even watering down a UN General Assembly statement aimed at preventing the sale of arms to the regime,” said Kasit Piromya, an APHR Board Member and former Thai Foreign Minister.
The MPs urged the Australian government to follow the actions of democratic allies including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union, who have placed targeted sanctions against the military and its business interests, including its major conglomerates, Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC).
“It’s crucial that the military’s business interests are targeted as heavily as possible, since it’s revenues from these entities that fund their deadly campaigns against the people, including killing more than 1,000 people since the coup,” Piromya said. “In addition, in contrast to ASEAN’s actions so far, Australia’s government must not lend any form of legitimacy to the regime, and should instead formally engage with the democratically-elected representatives of Myanmar, including the National Unity Government (NUG),” Piromya said..."
Source/publisher:
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-09
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Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations
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"Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) call on Tuesday for a war against the military regime generated mixed reactions. While the majority of Myanmar people, who have endured the regime’s atrocities such as arbitrary killings, arrests and indiscriminate shootings, heartily embraced the announcement of ‘the nationwide revolt’, the international community was not impressed.
On Tuesday, the UK’s ambassador designate to Myanmar, Pete Vowles, tweeted that “the UK supports peaceful efforts to restore democracy in Myanmar. We strongly condemn the junta’s coup and brutality; we call on all parties to engage in dialogue”. This means that the UK, which has supported the anti-regime movement since the coup, does not support the NUG’s call for a war to topple the junta. Echoing what the UK said, the US embassy in Yangon told The Irrawaddy that they encourage “all sides to be peaceful and to avoid an escalation of violence”, while continuing to push the regime to end all violence.
China, Myanmar’s biggest neighbor and one of the regime’s protectors at the United Nations Security Council, just repeated its unpractical old mantra on Myanmar, saying that “all parties and factions in Myanmar should find a proper way to address problems through political dialogue under the constitutional and legal framework”.
The NUG’s Foreign Minister Daw Zin Mar Aung has her say on the reason behind the declaration of war, and offers her view on the international response and the controversial ceasefire request made by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy for Myanmar.
What is the reason for the announcement of a nationwide defensive war and all-out revolt against the junta?
The [acting] president’s speech encourages the existing resistance movement to step up the momentum of its activities. Actually, the people have been acting in self-defense in their respective regions since before the NUG’s call for a war. The official announcement on Tuesday was a consequence of the diplomatic failures we have seen, because the international pressure and sanctions [on the regime] have proved to be ineffective in the seven months since the coup. So the call is an alert to the existing revolutionary movement.
What is the NUG’s response to the international community’s reaction to the announcement?
Some countries have asked why we announced it. Our answer is simple. We have people who are continuing the peaceful protests under the leadership of the strike committees, as well as the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule. The CDM and the non-violence movement aren’t stopping, while our political efforts [to get recognition and to reject the military regime] via international pressure and diplomatic channels will continue. But these efforts are not enough. Therefore, we have to put some momentum into the resistance movement. This is not a shift from a non-violent movement to violence. It is just that we will use all possible means to restore democracy.
What is the NUG’s stand on dialogue with the regime?
Every experienced person focused on peace building and conflict studies knows that there have to be pre-conditions before dialogue can happen. A period of time is needed. A change in political circumstance is needed before dialogue can happen. Such conditions and changes need to come first. Until then, we should not be pressured to hold dialogue.
The international community has always expressed their concerns since the coup. But there is no action. Our people are suffering all the time. We have been raising our voices loudly to the international community to intervene and to exert pressure on the junta.
The international intervention was sluggish. It took four months to appoint an ASEAN special envoy. During those four months, the number of civilian deaths and civilian arrests rose from the hundreds to the thousands. They could not even pressure the military’s State Administration Council to allow the ASEAN special envoy to visit Myanmar. Our people are too frustrated. We, the NUG, have a responsibility to reflect our peoples’ voices and suffering. Our call for a war is our response to the depressing lack of action by the international community.
What is the NUG’s position on the ASEAN special envoy’s proposal of a four-month ceasefire?
The envoy did not directly talk to us about the proposed four-month ceasefire. As far as we understand, the ASEAN special envoy is trying to visit Myanmar and has requested to meet all relevant stakeholders, including detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, strike committees, ethnic groups, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and the NUG. That has been ASEAN’s five-point consensus and we understand that ASEAN is trying to implement it.
Regarding the call for a ceasefire [until the end of this year], it is totally dependent on the regime as they are the ones who have been shooting civilians. People would not need to respond with defensive acts if the regime stopped attacking them. Our peoples’ actions in self-defense are the result of the military’s attacks against civilians and treating them as if they are an enemy on the battlefield. The junta has the sole responsibility and it must hold its fire.
The junta’s spokesperson has accused the NUG of inciting instability. What is the NUG’s response to that?
The NUG’s Defense Ministry has strictly instructed all the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) to follow its code of conduct. That is also publicized to make sure that the PDF’s under the NUG’s command abide by those instructions. I think people will not worry [about the NUG’s announcement on war]. They all know who is indiscriminately shooting passers-by, children and pregnant women. The reason the PDF’s were formed was because of the military’s aggressive actions. Instead of protecting the public, the military is treating the people as the enemy.
Targeting civilians is not the policy of the NUG or the PDF’s. Professional armed forces don’t go on killing sprees and commit indiscriminate attacks. The PDF’s are the first step towards changing Myanmar’s whole security sector, which has been in ruins for decades under previous military regimes as well as the current one.
Regarding the NUG’s call for a war, I think the people are excited rather than worried. They have been waiting for this day and some have said that the NUG’s declaration should have come earlier. The NUG has no responsibility for the instability in the country. It’s the coup leaders who created the instability in the country by seizing power and overthrowing the civilian government on February 1..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations
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"Re: Australia’s response to the crisis in Myanmar
Dear Prime Minister,
We, current and former parliamentarians from Southeast Asia, are writing to you to urge the Australian Government to take urgent action to support human rights and democracy in Myanmar, and to express our deepest concern at Australia’s stated policy to wait on action by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
As elected representatives of the people of the ASEAN region, we would like to respectfully urge you to anchor Australia’s response to the military coup in Myanmar to what its people have been demanding, and what other democratic nations have done, not ASEAN’s lack of action.
More than six months since the military coup and the subsequent campaign of violence unleashed by the Myanmar Army, ASEAN has failed in its responsibility to the people of Myanmar, and the broader international community.
Despite an initial meeting on 24 April 2021, during which ASEAN Member States reached a Five-Point Consensus, little further action has taken place. It took four months for ASEAN to reach an agreement to appoint on 2 August the second Foreign Minister of Brunei Darussalam, Erywan Yusof, as its Special Envoy.
We would, however, welcome with caution this appointment. It is important to keep in mind that the Minister, as the representative of ASEAN’s Chair, has led the bloc’s ineffective response so far, including a delegation to Myanmar in June, during which he not only met solely with the junta, but also pushed their narrative that elections could take place, even suggesting that ASEAN sends monitors. We are also concerned that the Minister of an absolute monarchy that does not abide by international human rights standards has been tasked with convincing a murderous army to respect these principles.
Furthermore, no humanitarian aid has been provided so far, and ASEAN is still yet to engage all relevant parties in Myanmar, in particular the National Unity Government.
ASEAN’s actions even raise questions as to whose interests it is truly representing when it invites Myanmar Army representatives to its official meetings, granting them political and regional legitimacy, or works to water down a UN General Assembly Resolution calling for the prevention of arms sales to the Myanmar military.
Meanwhile, the situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate. Both the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar and Human Rights Watch recently concluded that since the coup the Myanmar military has committed the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual violence, severe deprivation of liberty, and other inhumane acts causing great suffering.
In recent weeks as Myanmar has witnessed a rapid spike in coronavirus cases, the junta has confiscated oxygen, and attacked healthcare workers and facilities, actions that risk turning a crisis into a disaster.
Yet, ASEAN’s very own principles of non-interference and consensus-based decision making prevent the bloc from taking any meaningful steps towards an end of violence in Myanmar. Even its provisions of humanitarian aid, if it takes place, risks further legitimizing the junta, and not reach those in need.
In that regard we would like to echo the findings of our fellow parliamentarians from Australia who in their recent Inquiry into certain aspects of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Annual Report 2019-20 – Myanmar noted that: “there are complex relations within and between ASEAN nations, and that this led to concerns that ASEAN would not intervene decisively on the Myanmar crisis.”
ASEAN’s limiting founding principles and division among its Member States have allowed Myanmar’s military to stall the little efforts it has made so far and to use ASEAN as a shield to strengthen the junta’s position regionally and internationally.
Therefore, we are writing to you to ask you bluntly, is this really what Australia wants to align its foreign policy with? Instead, we would like to ask you to be a regional partner to the people of Myanmar and the people of ASEAN, not the authoritarian leaders of our region, who are working together to protect themselves from scrutiny and accountability.
We believe that, given Australia’s position in the region, strong democratic institutions, and its close ties with both ASEAN and democracies elsewhere in the world, it is perfectly placed to play a leading role in helping to put an end to the violence and support the desire of the people of Myanmar to live in a democracy that fully respects human rights of all.
That is why, while we call on your government to demand action by ASEAN, we urge you not to wait to follow the bloc’s lead. Instead, as a starting point, Australia must urgently use its position to impose targeted sanctions on the generals leading the junta, and the economic entities they control, as recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, implemented by Australia’s key partners such as the EU, US, UK, and Canada, and most importantly requested by the people of Myanmar.
In contrast to ASEAN’s actions so far, we also call on your government to not legitimize the military junta’s authority in any way, and instead follow the recommendations set out by Australia’s Parliament by formally engaging with the democratically-elected representatives of Myanmar, including the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and the National Unity Government (NUG)..."
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations, ASEAN-Burma relations
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"SITUATION OVERVIEW
Under the leadership of the Government of Bangladesh, the humanitarian community continued providing lifesaving assistance and support to Rohingya refugees and members of the vulnerable host community in an increasingly resource-strained environment. The COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by the effects of devastating monsoon rains, has exacerbated suffering and humanitarian needs.
The emergency health response was scaled up according to the rising trends of COVID-19 cases in the refugee camps and host communities, while increases in cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) required a simultaneous multi-sectoral response. In end-July, flash floods and landslides battered the camps, tragically causing six fatalities and affecting thousands of refugees. It is the second year in a row that the monsoon season was preceded by a period of reduced preparedness and disaster risk reduction activities due to COVID19 lockdown restrictions, contributing to a need for a more robust emergency response.
In line with a strict national COVID-19 lockdown, humanitarian activities in the camps were delivered at drastically reduced levels. Thousands of Rohingya refugee and host community volunteers worked tirelessly to deliver the most critical services in the response with COVID-19 prevention measures in place. However, the humanitarian community remained concerned by the deterioration of the overall protection environment in the camps; the need for reliable access to services including case management, psychosocial support and referrals, particularly in response to cases of gender-based violence and child protection issues, remained as critical as ever.
Despite these vast challenges, preparations for the upcoming launch of the COVID-19 vaccination for Rohingya refugees -- a demonstration of equity and inclusiveness as part of the Government’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan -- brought hope for vulnerable Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher:
Inter Sector Coordination Group via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Education and training of migrants and refugees from Burma, Right to Food - standards, definitions and mechanisms, Right to food: standards, mechanisms and resources, Human Rights and international relations
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"September 8, 2021, Myanmar: Ukraine is continuing to transfer arms to the Myanmar military, despite its illegitimate coup and ongoing mass killings, arrests and attacks against civilians.
Justice For Myanmar demands Ukraine impose an immediate arms embargo on Myanmar and cut ties with the Myanmar military. Justice For Myanmar calls on providers of military aid to Ukraine, notably the US, EU and UK, to use their leverage to ensure Ukraine abides by international law and norms.
An investigation by Justice For Myanmar, using Ukrainian export records and newly leaked documents, found shipments of aircraft, ship and tank parts dating from 2015 onwards. Air surveillance radars were also sent to the Myanmar military and private Myanmar arms dealers. The most recent shipment was turbojet engine parts that Ukrainian firm Motor Sich sent to the Myanmar army’s directorate of procurement. This was on 31 May 2021, as the air force increased indiscriminate airstrikes in ethnic areas.
Of particular concern is a joint project to produce BTR-4 armoured personnel carriers, MMT-40 light tanks and 2SIU self-propelled howitzers involving Ukrainian state-owned arms conglomerates Ukroboronprom and Ukrspecexport with the Myanmar army’s directorate of defence industry. The project provides an alarming boost to the Myanmar military’s arms manufacturing capabilities. This equipment fuels the Myanmar military’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, and can provide a future source of revenue to the military through arms exports.
The arms production plant was named by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar in 2019, which recommended arms transfer sanctions. Ukraine has so far failed to implement the Mission’s recommendations.
Ukroboronprom and Ukrspecexport did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar regarding their business with the Myanmar military and the status of the joint plant. Asked by Deutsche Welle if they will stop cooperating with the Myanmar military following the attempted coup, a spokesperson for Ukroboronprom responded that they export in accordance with Ukrainian law and international obligations, noting that Ukraine has not imposed sanctions or an arms embargo on Myanmar. That is despite Ukraine voting in favour of a June 2021 UN General Assembly resolution to stop the flow of arms to Myanmar.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Ukraine is enabling and profiting from atrocity crimes in Myanmar through its deep ties to the Myanmar military, flouting international law. Ukraine’s providers of military aid, such as US, EU and UK, must use their leverage now to end Ukraine’s support for the Myanmar military and its blatant disregard for the lives of the people of Myanmar. Military aid must be conditional on Ukraine imposing an arms embargo on Myanmar, shutting down their joint plant and ending all military ties. Ukraine’s arms sales have fuelled a shadow industry of Myanmar companies profiteering from the arms trade and enabling the military’s access to the weaponry it uses in ongoing atrocity crimes. Individuals and companies procuring arms for the Myanmar military must be sanctioned immediately and denied access to the international financial system and global markets, including in Singapore, where some arms dealers operate.”
Myanmar’s biggest arms dealer for Ukraine is Aung Hlaing Oo, who has been rewarded through his appointment as Ukraine’s honorary consul to Myanmar. Ukraine must remove him from this position..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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209.7 KB 134.72 KB
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"KEY DISPLACEMENT FIGURES
22,000 Estimated refugee movements to neighbouring countries since 1 February 2021
980,000 Refugees and asylum-seekers from Myanmar in neighbouring countries as of 31 December 2020
176,000 Estimated total internal displacement within Myanmar since 1 February 2021
370,000 Estimated internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Myanmar as of 31 December 2020
HIGHLIGHTS
Approximately 176,000 people are now displaced within Myanmar due to conflict and unrest since 1 February 2021. Total displacement declined slightly in recent weeks as some of those displaced in Kayah State and Shan State (South) temporarily returned to their areas of origin to tend to their farms or access healthcare, which was unavailable in areas of displacement. No significant displacement across Myanmar’s borders has been observed in the reporting period. In Thailand, borders remain closed as part of measures related to preventing the spread of COVID-19, though five temporary border crossing points are reportedly operational in Mae Hong Son province for the transport of goods only.
Recurrent internal displacement can be expected, however, as the security situation remains volatile inside Myanmar. Armed clashes increased in August across Southeast Myanmar, prompting new displacement in Shan State (South) and Tanintharyi Region. Intensifying conflict displaced hundreds in Waingmaw Township, Kachin State, with civilians reportedly killed and homes and livestock destroyed, while thousands of IDPs in the State were also affected by heavy rains and flooding. In Chin State, key transport routes and Mindat town remain insecure due to continued fighting, resulting in food and medicine shortages.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect IDPs in all States and Regions, with ongoing restrictions on their access to basic needs, health services, and livelihoods, as well as on humanitarian agencies’ access to IDPs. COVID-19 vaccinations are being administered to some IDPs, prioritizing individuals over 65 years old, and in Rakhine State this has included some Rohingya..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Human Rights and international relations
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"On 1st February 2021, the Myanmar military took power in a coup, announced a state of emergency, and formed the State Administrative Council (SAC) to rule the country instead of the elected parliament. The coup was justified under claims of electoral fraud, which were comprehensively rebuked by independent observers. The coup was widely condemned and millions of protestors took to the streets in protest participating in a Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). The military response to these protests was increasingly violent, with over 5,500 people arrested and more than 900 people killed since 1st February.
With the brutal backlash against the Civil Disobedience Movement in the urban areas, thousands of people sought shelter in the ethnic controlled areas. The National Unity Government (NUG) established by elected MPs and civil society leaders took steps to abolish the 2008 Constitution and to create a space for genuine Federal Democracy.
SAC interventions in the Central Bank of Myanmar and restrictions on internet access caused massive disruptions in the financial sector. The lack of cash liquidity constrained the operations of aid agencies alongside all other sectors with premiums increasing to at least 10% in informal money markets. The World Bank and UNDP have projected that the proportion of people living in poverty could double to almost half of the nation’s population by the beginning of 2022. This would reverse the gains made since 2005.
Indiscriminate artillery attacks against civilians in northern Karen and Kayah States have been the primary cause of displacement for 170,000 people. School buildings, health clinics and churches are amongst the community buildings that have been damaged by heavy artillery attacks. Patterns of systematic violence and abuse reflect the “four cuts” counter-insurgency strategies that have targeted civilians for decades to undermine the access of EAOs to food, recruits, intelligence and resources. These military offensives have disrupted access to fields just as upland farmers should be preparing hillside plots for the wet season rice crops, so food security for the coming year will be adversely affected.
More than 8,000 people crossed into Thailand, to be detained at the border by the Royal Thai Army and then sent back to Myanmar after the Thai army considered it safe, only to cross again when the airstrikes resumed but once again were returned back to Myanmar within days.
COVID -19 has surged in Myanmar with over 150,000 cases confirmed and 3,300 deaths exacerbated by the near collapse of the health system, targeting of health personnel, seizure of life saving equipment by the military and a slow roll out of vaccinations, hampered by mistrust of the military regime. By June only 3% of the country was fully vaccinated..."
Source/publisher:
The Border Consortium (Thailand) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
TBC, TBBC, : Annual reports and 6-monthly Programme Reports, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Food Security and nutrition in Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations
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"(Author’s note: The dates and locations (except for Shwe Pyi Thar and Insein) have been modified for security reasons. This letter was written mid-June 2021.)
May 2nd 2021, at 4 pm, is the last time I spoke to you. The following day, while I was having my first coffee of the day, I received a message from a friend in Yangon asking me if I knew – “If I knew what?” – The fact that you had been arrested by the military at 2 am in the apartment in which you had taken refuge in recent days. And that since then, no one knows where you have been taken to nor what happened to you.
In another life, I wish I had known on May 2nd what would happen that night. I hesitated to offer to speak directly to you since you seemed to have a good internet connection for once. I really wanted to swap our instant messaging habits for an actual face to face moment with you. I’m not sure why I didn’t suggest it to you. It might be because you told me that you now have a good connection available, that you no longer need to connect from the internet cafes in the city center to send news, and that we therefore, have time. Yes, we had, in short, a life ahead of us to talk to each other. Until that life was stolen from us overnight.
Since February 1, the day of the Coup, you have resumed your pace of political activism that you had decided to put aside to invest time in a green space outside of Yangon. You had even started growing organic vegetables. I liked to think that you had reconnected with nature, and I suspect that it did you good. Seeing pictures of you in a hammock by a small river appearing on my Facebook wall from time to time was soothing. I also noticed that you reconnected with your oldteam in your new environment, as if fate had started knocking on your door at the end of January. A few days later, the blow came, and it was together with them that you decided to continue the path of resistance, resuming the rhythm of underground activities. Our messages/photos of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers disappeared, the rhythm of our exchanges intensified, we were in touch every time you had access to the internet.
We are an encounter out of time and space, one that can be qualified as unexpected – where two very different worlds create a symbiosis: electric, at times explosive, but above all, full of compassion. With the news of the coup, I saw myself promoted to new functions: I became your database, your hard drive, your search browser, and your buddy; I knew if you were okay and when you were not. I followed the events in Myanmar by our exchanges: I walked with you in the streets of Yangon alongside thousands of peaceful demonstrators in February, and I walked a few months later in these same streets in fire and blood. I ran with you under fire from the soldiers. I felt the loneliness of those apartments where you lived, alone, where you were hiding. I experienced the sadness that sometimes assailed you when you saw the fate of some of your comrades. I feared the worst that night in April in your hideout in North Okkalapa; there was gun fire and soldiers right in front of your hiding place. It was all through you, ako, as in reality, I wasn’t there. You were in this mythology alongside thousands of others, face to face with fate, in a standoff with the inhumanity and injustice of the junta. You made your courage, and that of thousands of others in Myanmar, the light intending to burst the darkness. But darkness has this indescribable way of sticking to the surface; far from impossible, it requires persistence to be removed. And that perseverance you have all proven to possess.
Not to lie to you, but your fate began to worry me early on. You have always loved taking care of the young people you taught in recent years, and many have approached you asking for your support – which you gave. Make no mistake: Burmese youth need people like you, like the team right now. And fortunately, there is this solidarity and compassion that exists, among other things. However, connecting with many people and many different groups can slowly become a threat in an environment full of informers. And indeed, there was a mole. You had given me warnings; not about the mole which you did not know about, but the rest. You told me several times that you were ready to give your life for this revolution, for the Truth. Not that long ago, you told me again that you would continue until you would be arrested. I knew I was no match for you when trying to encourage you to leave the country, when arguing how much your safety depended on that move. Who was I to interfere with the plans you and the stars had agreed upon? You are a former political prisoner who had already been locked up for several years, and a new arrest would be brutal for you and your loved ones, of which today I am a part.
Then, on May 2nd, we lost track of you. You lost your new hiding place with wifi, and you have – frankly speaking – lost all your freedom and slipped into this other world. This dematerialized world makes one shiver down the spine. It’s silly, but habits are hard to change, and I thought several times about sending you a message to ask where you were and if you were holding on, before reminding myself that my message would certainly be read by the fools, the tormentors in green uniforms and boots. We didn’t know where you were; we didn’t even know if you were still alive. To replay your arrest in the middle of the night made me nauseous. However, I have replayed it so many times that I started wondering about the details; in particular – are activists arrested in their pajamas? I think these nonsensical thoughts kept me from overthinking about the distress you must have felt when you heard them smash in the apartment door at 2am.
So, we began those endless days searching for you – looking for a needle in a haystack. In contact with those in Yangon, and indirectly your family, we have tried to contact the groups of people who seem to be in the best position to obtain, in the long term – perhaps – information on your whereabouts. They managed to contract a lawyer who told us that you are most likely in Shwe Pyi Thar being interrogated. Pause – Fright. The words are chilling.
So, ako, you too were taken there. And I know that you already had experiences of physical and psychic miseries during your first imprisonment. We weren’t 100% sure if you were there, that was a guess – like many others. No one can go there, and no lawyer has access to the place. You are very sadly at the mercy of the boots, tortured to get information from you – we knew you too would never kneel down no matter how difficult it was and how unbearable the situation had become. Two weeks later, your family received a phone call from an unidentified source, who told them you had been injured during interrogation. Finally, we had found you, in what state? – we did not know – but you were still breathing ako.
Days later, you were finally transferred to Insein prison. And at that moment, we all felt a kind of relief. With this feeling, one can realize the human and destructive madness of what is happening in Burma. Insein has a dirty reputation and is described by former political prisoners as hell on earth. But now, it’s better than the worst of the worst. And you have a lawyer who can come and see you sometimes, he sure won’t be able to do much, but in a way, at least there is someone who is trying their very best. The fate of prisoners is now defined by an improvised courtyard in the corridors of Insein prison. Your sentence will be announced in a couple of weeks, or maybe months. And we suspect they won’t make it easy. They don’t have that reputation.
I don’t know how you fit within these walls or what you do to pass the time. I imagine you: sometimes meditating, sometimes contemplating the rain. I wish for you to have the company of other political prisoners as peacefully passionate as you are, and exchanges that allow your flame to remain alight. There are many political prisoners in Burma, and today some of them have become prominent figures of the opposition to the junta. Their journeys and the people they have become are a source of strength and hope to color the uncertainty of the future. Many of you in there are claiming this destiny and embodying the struggle for freedom. And we respect you all so very much for that. Ako, whatever they say, and you know it already – holding the light of freedom truly makes a difference. Your sacrifices are not in vain, and the sparkling lights are breaking through thick darkness.
… Take care of yourself. I ask it to the moon. On the other side of those grey walls, the revolution continues, and we are waiting for you. And even though we are disconnected for a while, we continue to share the same starry sky; and if we know how to listen, I was told the stars could also pass on messages. Until soon, ako. Nyima..."
Source/publisher:
Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military rulers have agreed to an ASEAN call for a ceasefire until the end of the year to ensure distribution of humanitarian aid, Japan's Kyodo news agency said, citing the envoy of the southeast Asian bloc to the crisis-torn nation.
Following a coup in February, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been trying to end violence in which hundreds have been killed in Myanmar, and open a dialogue between the military rulers and their opponents.
The envoy, Erywan Yusof, proposed the ceasefire in a video conference with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, and the military had accepted it, he told the agency.
"This is not a political ceasefire. This is a ceasefire to ensure safety, (and) security of the humanitarian workers" in their effort to distribute aid safely, Erywan said, according to Sunday's report.
"They didn't have any disagreement with what I said, with regards to the ceasefire," it quoted the envoy as saying.
Erywan had also passed his proposal indirectly to parties opposed to rule by the military, it added.
A military spokesman did not answer calls from Reuters to seek comment.
The junta could not be trusted to honour the deal, however,
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military rulers have agreed to an ASEAN call for a ceasefire until the end of the year to ensure distribution of humanitarian aid, Japan's Kyodo news agency said, citing the envoy of the southeast Asian bloc to the crisis-torn nation.
Following a coup in February, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been trying to end violence in which hundreds have been killed in Myanmar, and open a dialogue between the military rulers and their opponents.
The envoy, Erywan Yusof, proposed the ceasefire in a video conference with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, and the military had accepted it, he told the agency.
"This is not a political ceasefire. This is a ceasefire to ensure safety, (and) security of the humanitarian workers" in their effort to distribute aid safely, Erywan said, according to Sunday's report.
"They didn't have any disagreement with what I said, with regards to the ceasefire," it quoted the envoy as saying.
Erywan had also passed his proposal indirectly to parties opposed to rule by the military, it added.
A military spokesman did not answer calls from Reuters to seek comment.
The junta could not be trusted to honour the deal, however,
Myanmar pro-democracy activist Thinzar ShunLei Yi told Reuters, adding, "Ceasefires buy more time for the military to reload bullets."
Maw Htun Aung, a deputy minister in the National Unity Government formed of opponents of military rule, said ASEAN needed to tell the junta to stop "killing and terrorising" its own people.
In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, Erywan said he was still negotiating with the military over the terms of a visit he hoped to make before late October, and had sought access to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"What we are calling for now is ... for all sides to undertake a cessation of violence, especially with regards to distribution of humanitarian assistance," he said.
ASEAN nations and dialogue partners had pledged $8 million in aid for Myanmar, he added.
The military seized power after alleging irregularities in an election swept by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party. International monitors and the electoral commission at the time said the army accusations were wrong..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
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2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations
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"National Unity Government
Republic of the Union of Myanmar
https://nugmyanmar.org
Announcement (9/2021)
Announcement on Military Offensive of State Administrative Council in Ethnic Areas
Date: 05 , September , 2021
1. Min Aung Hlaing Led Military (State Administration Council) has seized the sovereign power on 1st February 2021 by use of terrorist means, killed, detained and tortured innocent civilians across the country. Violent acts of the military (SAC) can be seen clearly not only in major cities around the country but also in rural and ethnic areas.
2. Military leadership of junta and SAC may verbally make guarantees that they are working for peace but in reality, they are waging military offensive operations with excessive forces in EAOs’ controlled areas.
3. Myanmar military is carrying out not only ground military offensive attacks with excessive force but also air strikes so that civilian populations in respective ethnic areas have to leave their homes to escape.
4. The National Unity Government strongly condemns the hostile actions of the military and its offensive attacks with the use of excessive forces in ethnic areas, including their deployment in civilian infrastructure such as religious buildings, hospitals, schools, etc.
5. According to the UN reports, there have been over 300,000 IDPs due to the ground and air strikes of the military.
6. These military offensive attacks in ethnic areas can result in major humanitarian crisis and millions of civilian populations will face the situation where they will be forced to leave their homes.
7. During the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, such flux of people running away from their homes can seriously impact the security of neighboring countries along with regional stability and security.
8. Therefore, the National Unity Government strongly opposes the governments and organizations cooperating in the procurement of weapons to support these acts of violence perpetrated by the military council targeting and killing civilians.
9. The National Unity Government requests the international community to work effectively to stop the military offensive operations of Myanmar military as soon as possible, to end suppression and torture of innocent civilians and to bring an end to the coup d’état and hold it accountable for the crimes they have committed.
***********..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
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"အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
https://nugmyanmar.org
ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၉/၂၀၂၁)
၅ စက်တင်ဘာလ ၂၀၂၁
“အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ လက်နက်ကိုင်တပ်များ၏ ထိုးစစ်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်”
၁။ မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ဦးဆောင်သည့် စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို အကြမ်းဖက်နည်းလမ်းဖြင့် မတရားသိမ်းယူခဲ့ပြီး နိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိ အပြစ်မဲ့ အရပ်သား ပြည်သူများကို သတ်ဖြတ်၊ ဖမ်းဆီး နှိပ်စက်ခဲ့သည်မှာ (၇) လ (၄)ရက် တိုင်ခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို နိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိ မြို့ကြီးများတွင်သာမက၊ ကျေးလက်များနှင့်တိုင်းရင်းသား ဒေသများ တွင် လည်း ထင်ရှားစွာ တွေ့မြင်နေရသည်။
၂။ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များ နှင့် အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီတို့သည် ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေး အတွက် ဆောင်ရွက်နေပါသည်ဟု နှုတ်ဖြင့် မည်မျှ အာမခံ နေလင့်ကစား၊ လက်တွေ့တွင်မူ တိုင်းရင်းသား လက်နက်ကိုင် တော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၏ ထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေများတွင် သာလွန်အင်အား များဖြင့် ထိုးစစ်များ ဆင်နွှဲလျက် ရှိသည်။
၃။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ တပ်များသည် သာလွန်အင်အားဖြင့် မြေပြင်ထိုးစစ်များသာမက လေကြောင်း တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကိုပါ လုပ်ဆောင်နေသည့်အတွက် တိုင်းရင်းသားဒေသအသီးသီးမှ အရပ်သား ပြည်သူများသည် အိုးအိမ်စွန့်ခွာလျက် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။
၄။ ထို့အပြင် ဘာသာရေးဆိုင်ရာ အဆောက်အအုံများ ၊ ဆေးရုံ ၊ကျောင်း အစရှိသည့် အရပ်ဘက်ဆိုင်ရာ အခြေခံအဆောက်အအုံများတွင် တပ်စွဲခြင်း ၊ ပစ်မှတ်ထားတိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း အပါအဝင်တိုင်းရင်းသားဒေသများတွင် သာလွန်အင်အားများဖြင့် ထိုးစစ်ဆင်နွှဲလျက်ရှိသည့် စစ်ကောင်စီ ၏ ရန်လိုသည့်လုပ်ရပ်များကို အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက အပြင်းအထန် ကန့်ကွက်သည်။
၅။ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ကြည်းတပ်၊ လေတပ် ထိုးစစ်များကြောင့် အိုးအိမ်စွန့် ခွာ ထွက်ပြေး ရသူပေါင်း ၃ သိန်းကျော်ရှိလာပြီဖြစ်ကြောင်း ကုလသမဂ္ဂ အစီရင်ခံစာများအရ သိရသည်။
၆။ စစ်ကောင် စီတပ်များ၏ တိုင်းရင်းသားဒေသများအတွင်း ထိုးစစ်များသည် ကြီးမားသော လူသားချင်း စာနာမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကြပ်အတည်း (humanitarian crisis) များကို ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာစေနိုင်ပြီး၊ သန်းနှင့် ချီသော ပြည်သူများသည် အိုးအိမ်စွန့်ခွာ ထွက်ပြေးရမည့် အခြေအနေကို ကြုံတွေ့နေရသည်။
၇။ ကိုဗစ်-၁၉ ရောဂါ ပြန့်ပွားလျက်ရှိသည့် အချိန်ကာလတွင် ယင်းသို့ အိုးအိမ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးရမှုများ ကြောင့် အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများ၏ လုံခြုံရေး၊ ဒေသတွင်း တည်ငြိမ်မှု နှင့် လုံခြုံရေးကိုပါ ဆိုးရွားစွာ ထိခိုက်နိုင်မည့် အခြေအနေများဖြစ်ပေါ်လျက်ရှိသည်။
၈။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ အရပ်သားပြည်သူလူထုအား ပစ်မှတ်ထားသတ်ဖြတ် ညှင်းပန်းလျက်ရှိသည့်စစ်ကောင်စီ ၏ အဆိုပါ အကြမ်းဖက် လုပ်ရပ်များကို အထောက်အကူ ပြုစေသည့် စစ်လက်နက်ပစ္စည်း ဝယ်ယူရေးအတွက် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသော အစိုးရများ၊ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအားလည်း အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရမှ ပြင်းထန်စွာကန့်ကွက်သည်။
၉။ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုက်အဝန်း အနေဖြင့်လည်း အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ထိုးစစ်များ အမြန်ဆုံး ရပ်တန့် ရေး၊ အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူများအား ဖိနှိပ်ညှင်ပန်း နေမှုများ အဆုံးသတ်ရေးနှင့် အာဏာ သိမ်းမှု အဆုံးသတ်ကာ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် တာဝန်ခံ မှုရှိလာစေရေးအတွက် ထိရောက်စွာ ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးပါရန် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက အလေးအနက်တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။
*************************..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
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National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) has said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) special envoy to the country should have got an agreement from the military regime to cease civilian arrests, as well as an assurance to allow him to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, before calling for a ceasefire to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid.
On Saturday, ASEAN’s special envoy for Myanmar, Erywan Yusof, told Kyodo News that he had proposed a four-month ceasefire until the end of this year to the junta-appointed Foreign Minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, last Tuesday, and that the regime had accepted it.
The Brunei diplomat said that it was not a political ceasefire but to ensure safety, as well as the security of humanitarian workers distributing aid.
Erywan Yusof, Brunei’s second minister for foreign affairs, was appointed by ASEAN last month as a special envoy to Myanmar, as the regional bloc steps up its efforts to end the violence in Myanmar by encouraging dialogue between the regime and its opponents.
But the NUG’s Human Rights Minister, U Aung Myo Min, said that the current turmoil in Myanmar was political, and that humanitarian issues should be dealt with later.
“The human rights violations by the military persist and these abuses should not be forgotten, even though we understand the ASEAN special envoy wants to provide humanitarian assistance quickly and effectively,” said U Aung Myo Min, referring to the regime’s ongoing raids, arrests and killings of anti-coup protesters.
As of Sunday, the junta has killed 1,046 civilians, arrested 7,879 people and issued arrest warrants for another 1,984 people during brutal crackdowns against peaceful pro-democracy protesters. Some 6,230 people are still being detained, including ousted State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, who were both arrested in the early hours of the junta’s February 1 coup.
Myanmar has been in crisis since the military takeover and the ousting of the National League for Democracy government led by Daw Aung Suu Kyi. Armed resistance to the regime by civilian fighters and ethnic armed organizations (EAO’s) has spread to every part of the country, apart from Rakhine State.
On Sunday, the NUG called on the international community to help stop the junta’s crimes against innocent civilians.
The NUG requested that the international community work effectively to stop the military’s operations “as soon as possible, to end the suppression and torture of innocent civilians, and to bring an end to the coup d’état and hold it [the regime] accountable for the crimes it has committed”.
Myanmar junta forces are “waging military offensives with excessive force in EAO-controlled areas”, despite the pledges of the coup leaders and the State Administration Council, the junta’s governing body, that they are working for peace, added the NUG.
The request coincided with the ceasefire call by ASEAN’s special envoy.
Special envoy Erywan Yusof said that the first batch of aid consists of medical equipment that is urgently needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including oxygen compressors and personal protective equipment, and that it will go to “all the people of Myanmar”.
Humanitarian aid bound for border areas controlled by EAO’s may be routed by land via neighbouring Thailand, added the envoy.
Erywan Yusof said that he hopes to visit Myanmar this month and that he had requested a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. However, the military regime has not yet said if he will be allowed to do so..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
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National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, ASEAN-Burma relations
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Description:
"ယခု အင်တာဗျူးဆောင်းပါအား လူ့အခွင့်အရေး လေ့လာမှုဌာန (the Institute for the Study of Human Right (ISHR)) မှ ဒေးဗစ်မက်သီဆင်နှင့် ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည့် အင်တာဗျူးမှ အချို့သောအချက်များအား ကောက်နှုတ်ဖော်ပြခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ယခု အင်တာဗျူးတွင် ပါ၀င်သော အပိုင်းများအား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုအရေး အရေးကိစ္စများနှင့် စပ်လျဥ်း၍ သုတေသနပြုလေ့လာနေသော အလွတ်တမ်းသုတေသီ ဒေးဗစ်မက်သီဆင်နှင့် ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သော အင်တာဗျူးမှ ကောက်နှုတ်ဖော်ပြထားပါသည်။ ထိုမူရင်းအင်တာဗျူး အပြည်အစုံအား Tea Circle စာမျက်နှာပေါ်တွင်ဖတ်ရှုလိုပါက ဖော်ပြပါ အပိုင်း၁ နှင့် အပိုင်း၂၏ လင့်ခ်များတွင် ၀င်ရောက်ဖတ်ရှုနိုင်ပါသည်။
[အယ်ဒီတာ့အမှာစာ၊ ယခုပို့စ်တွင် ဖော်ပြခြင်းခံရသော ကောက်နှုတ်ချက်များနှင့် အစီရင်ခံစာများသည် ISHR မှ မြန်မာ့အရေးနှင့် ပက်သတ်၍ ကျင်းပနေသော ဆွေးနွေးပွဲများမှ ကောက်နှုတ်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ယခုပို့စ်ပါ ကောက်နှုတ်ချက်များအား ဖော်ပြခြင်းသည်လည်း Tea Circle နှင့် Institute for the Study of Human Rights တို့၏ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုဖြစ်ပါသည်။]
ခရစ္စတီးနား အီဘာဘတ်ချ်။ ။ အားလုံး မင်္ဂလာပါ။ မြန်မာ့ လူအခွင့်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ webinar အစီစဥ် နောက်တစ်ခုကနေ ကြိုဆိုပါတယ်။ ဒီနေ့ အစီစဥ်ကို တက်ရောက်တဲ့အတွက် ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်။ ဒီနေ့ ခေါင်းစဥ်ကတော့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ စဥ်းစားချက်များပဲ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဒီ ဆွေးနွေးမှု အစီစဥ်ကို ကိုလံဘီယာ တက္ကသိုလ် လူ့အခွင့်ရေးဌာနမှ စီစဥ်တင်ဆက်တာပါ။ ကျွန်မ အမည်ကတော့ ခရစ္စတီးနား အီဘာဘတ်ချ် ပါ။ ကျွန်မက ဒီဌာနမှာ ဒု ညွှန်ကြားရေးမှုးပါ။ မြန်မာပရောဂျက်မှာ ကျွန်မနဲ့အတူ ဦးဆောင် ဆောင်ရွက်နေသူ ဘန် ဖလန်းမင်း ကလည်း ဒီနေ့ ဆွေးနွေးမှု အစီစဥ်မှာ ကျွန်မနှင့်အတူ ဆွေးနွေး ပံ့ပိုးပေးသွားမှာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
ဒီနေ့ အစီစဥ်အတွက် နိုင်ငံတကာလူ့အခွင့်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့ စည်းများစွာမှာ ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့သူ၊ မြန်မာနှင့် ပတ်သက်၍ အတွေ့ အကြုံသက်တမ်း နှစ်ပေါင်း ၂၀ ကျော်ရှိသူ မြန်မာ့အရေးလေ့လာသုံးသပ်သူ ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်ကို ဖိတ်ခေါ်ထားပါတယ်။ ဒေးဗစ်မက်သီဆင်က ကျွန်မတို့ရဲ့ လူ့အခွင့်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ ပညာရေး တက္ကသိုလ် မြန်မာပရောဂျက်မှာလည်း ဧည့်ဆရာ၊ သင်ကြားပြသပေးသူ ဆရာ အဖြစ် မျှဝေပေးခဲ့ဖူးပါတယ်။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ် ခရစ္စတီနား နဲ့ ဘန် ရေ။ တက်ရောက်လာသူအားလုံးကိုလည်း ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်။ ကောင်းသောညနေခင်းပါလို့ ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံ ဘန်ကောက်မှ နှုတ်ခွန်းဆက်သလိုက်ပါတယ်။ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအကြောင်း၊ လက်ရှိမြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ ကြုံတွေ့ နေရတဲ့ လူသားချင်း စာနာ ထောက်ထား မှုဆိုင်ရာ ၀ိရောဓိတွေအကြောင်း စတဲ့ အရမ်းအရေးကြီးတဲ့ ခေါင်းစဥ်တွေပေါ် မှတ်ချက် တချို့ ပေးတာနဲ့ ကျွန်တော် စတင်လိုက်ပါ့မယ်။
သိပ်မကြာသေးခင်က UNOCHA ရဲ့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု လျှပ်တပြက် လေ့လာမှု အစီရင်ခံစာကို ကြည့်လိုက်မယ်ဆိုရင် လက်ရှိအခြေနေမှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုအခြေနေတွေဟာ အလွန် အန္တရာယ်ရှိတဲ့ အခြေအနေ ဖြစ်နေတယ် ဆိုတာနဲ့ ဖေဖော်၀ါရီလ အာဏာသိမ်းမှု မတိုင်ခင်ကတည်းက လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာ အခြေအနေတွေဟာ အလွန်မင်း စိတ်ပူစရာ ဖြစ်နေခဲ့တယ်ဆိုတာကို တွေ့ မြင်နိုင်ပါတယ်။ UNOCHA အချက်လက်တွေအရဆိုရင် တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာ အကူညီတွေလိုအပ်နေတာ လူပေါင်း ၁ သန်း ရှိတယ်။ လိုအပ်နေတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာအကူညီတွေကို ဖြည့်ဆည်းဖို့ ဒေါ်လာသန်းပေါင်း ၂၇၆ သန်းလိုအပ်မယ်လို့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂကလည်း ခန့်မှန်းတွက်ချက်ထားတယ်။ အခု ဖြည့်ဆည်းပေးခဲ့တာ ဒေါ်လာ ၃၉ သန်းပဲ ရှိသေးတော့ လိုအပ်ချက်ရဲ့ ၁၄ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းပဲ အမှန်တကယ်ဖြည့်ဆည်းနိုင်ခဲ့တဲ့ သဘောပေါ့။
ကျွန်တော်က မြန်မာနိုင်ငံပွင့်လမ်းလာတဲ့ ၂၀၁၀ ခုနှစ် မတိုင်မီ နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာကတည်းက လူ့အခွင့်ရေးနဲ့ လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားခြင်းဆိုင်ရာ ကိစ္စရပ်တွေမှာ ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့တာပါ။ အဲ့အချိန်တုန်းကတောင် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာ လိုအပ်ချက်တွေကို နိုင်ငံရေးသဖွယ် အလွန်ရှုမြင်ခဲ့တာပါ။ နိုင်ငံတကာရဲ့ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားမှုရယ်၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံပေါ် ထားတဲ့ နိုင်ငံရေးဖိအားရယ်နဲ့ တကယ့်မြေပြင်ပေါ်က လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ ပကတိအခြေနေရယ် နှစ်ခုအကြားမှာ အချိတ်ဆက်မရှိဘဲ ကွာဟနေ တယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော် အမြဲနားလည်ထားတယ်။ ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ ကာလတွေမှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ ဆွေးနွေးငြင်းခုံမှုတွေမှာ နိုင်ငံရေးရာ ဆွေးနွေးငြင်းခုံမှုတွေက ပိတ်မိနေတယ်။ ကျွန်တော်တို့ဟာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ ကိစ္စရပ်တွေကို ပိုပိုပြီး နိုင်ငံရေးသဖွယ်ရှုမြင် ဆောင်ရွက်လာတဲ့ ပတ်၀န်းကျင်အပြောင်းလဲသစ် တခုထဲကို ရောက်လာနေပြီလို့ ကျွန်တော်ထင်ပါတယ်။
လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ လေးလမှာ အာရုံလွှဲစေတဲ့ အကြောင်းအမျိုးမျိုးကြောင့် ဥပမာ ကာကွယ်ရမယ့်တာ၀န်၀တ္တရား (R2P) လိုအကြောင်းရာမျိုးကြောင့် ကျွန်တော်တို့တွေ ဘာမှမပြီးမြောက် ဖြစ်ခဲ့တယ်။ ပြန်ကြည့်မယ်ဆိုရင် အတွေးခေါ် အလွဲမှား တခုကိုမြင်ရတယ်။ အကောင်းကို ရည်ရွယ်တာတော့သေချာပါတယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် R2P ကိုပြောကြရာမှာ နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်း၀ိုင်းက အကောင်ထည်ဖော်လိမ့်မယ် ဆိုတဲ့ မျှော်မှန်းချက်တခု အရမ်းပါနေတယ်။ လေယာဥ်မပျံသန်းရ ဇုံ၊ ခိုလှုံရာ ဘေးကင်းဇုံ၊ လက်နက်ရောင်း၀ယ်မှု ပိတ်ဆို့တားဆီးရေး စတဲ့ တခြားအကြောင်းရာတွေပြောတဲ့ အခါမှာလည်း နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်း၀ိုင်းက အကောင်ထည်ဖော် ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးလိမ့်မယ်ဆိုတဲ့ မျှော်မှန်းချက်တွေ အရမ်းပါနေတယ်။ ဒီလိုပြောရာမှာ အနောက်နိုင်ငံတွေက တဦးတယောက်ချင်းနဲ့ အစုဖွဲ့တွေကို သေချာစဥ်းစားစီစဥ်ပြီး ပိတ်ဆို့မှုကောင်း အချို့ကို ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့တယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်ထင်ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် နိုင်ငံတကာရဲ့ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားမှုက မြေပြင်ပေါ်မှာ ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေတဲ့ အကျပ်တည်းတွေကို လိုက်လျောညီထွေစွာ မဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ခဲ့ဘူးလို့ ကျွန်တော်ထင်ပါတယ်။
မြန်မာမှာ ကမ္ဘာ့ကပ်ရောဂါ မရိုက်ခတ်ခင် ၂၀၂၀ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ အထိ နိုင်ငံတကာရဲ့ ဆောင်ရွက်မှုတွေမှာ လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားမှုဘက်အခြမ်းနဲ့ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးမှုဘက်အခြမ်းတွေမှာ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုတွေ မရှိတဲ့အတွက် အထိနာခဲ့တယ်။ နိုင်ငံတကာရန်ပုံငွေတွေ ရဖို့ နိုင်ငံတကာအဖွဲ့စည်း INGOs တွေအကြားမှာ ပြိုင်ဆိုင်မှုတွေ အများကြီးရှိခဲ့တယ်။ ပြီးတော့ ခင်ဗျားတို့သိတဲ့ အတိုင်းပါပဲ နှစ်ရှည်ကြာ ဖြစ်နေတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုနဲ့ လူ့အခွင့်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ အကျပ်တည်းတွေကို ဆောင်ရွက်ရာမှာ တော်တော်ခက်ခဲတဲ့ ကျင့်၀တ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ ပြဿနာတွေ ရှိခဲ့တယ်ဗျ။ အထူးသဖြင့် ရခိုင်မှာပေါ့။ တကယ်လို့ ဒီအကြောင်းရာတွေနဲ့ ပတ်သတ်ပြီးလေ့လာသုံးသပ်ထားတဲ့ ဆန်းစစ်ချက်တွေ ဖတ်ချင်ရင် Fieldview Solutions က လီယန်မက်ဟောနီရဲ့ အစီရင်ခံစာတွေကို ဖတ်ကြည့်ဖို့ ကျွန်တော် ညွှန်းချင်ပါတယ်။
ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ လေးလလုံးမှာ ၁၀နှစ်ကျော် ကြာ ဖြစ်ပေါ်ခဲ့တဲ့ အခြေနေတွေကို ကျွန်တော်ပြန်စဥ်းစားနေခဲ့ပြီး
ရှေ့မှာ ဘယ်လို ဆောင်ရွက်သင့်တယ်ဆိုတဲ့ လမ်းပြအချက်တွေကို ရှာဖို့ ကြိုးစားနေခဲ့တယ်။ မြန်မာဟာ များစွာသော လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု အရေးပေါ်လိုအပ်ချက်တွေ ၊ လက်နက်ကိုင်ပဋိပက္ခတွေ မျက်နှာစာပေါင်းများစွာမှာ ကြုံတွေ့နေရတယ်၊ ဒါတွေကို နားလည်ဖို့ကြိုးစားဖို့တောင် ရှုပ်ထွေးပွေလီတယ် ဆိုတာ သိသာထင်ရှားလာတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆောင်ရွက်နေတဲ့ အဖွဲ့ အစည်းက လုပ်ဖော်ကိုင်ဖက်တွေနဲ့ စကားပြောကြည့်တဲ့အခါမှာ နယ်စပ်ကနေ ဖြတ်ကျော်လုပ်ဆောင်တဲ့ နည်းနာပုံစံတွေ အထူးသဖြင့် ထိုင်းဘက်ကနေတဆင့် အကူညီတွေလာတဲ့ ပုံစံတွေ အပါအ၀င် ၂၀၁၀ မတိုင်မီက နယ်ပယ်အသီးသီးမှာ ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ကြတဲ့ နည်းနာပုံစံတွေကို ပြန်လေ့လာနေတာတွေ အများကြီးရှိနေတယ်။
ကျွန်တော့် လုပ်ဖော်ကိုင်ဖက်ကောင်းတယောက်ဖြစ်တဲ့ မဲလ်ဘုန်း တက္ကသိုလ်က ကျမ်းရှင် အန်းန် ဒေ့ကူဘဲ ရေးသားပြုစုခဲ့တဲ့ ဗမာနိုင်ငံကိုအကူညီပေးခြင်းနိုင်ငံရေး ဆိုတဲ့ အရမ်းကောင်းတဲ့ စာအုပ်ရှိတယ်။ ကျွန်တော် သူ့စာအုပ် ကိုပြန်ဖတ်ဖြစ်ပြီး ပဋိပက္ခဖြစ်နေတဲ့ ဒေသတွေမှာ ရှိတဲ့ အရပ်သားတွေ၊ ကျန်းမာရေး၀န်ထမ်းတွေနဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အလုပ်သမားတွေကို တိုက်ခိုက်တဲ့ စစ်အစိုးရရှိနေတဲ့ ဖိနှိပ်မှုများတဲ့ နိုင်ငံတခုမှာ အမှန်တကယ် အလုပ် လုပ်ဖို့ရာ ကျင့်၀တ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ ဝိရောဓိတွေ ၊လုပ်ငန်းပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ စိန်ခေါ်မှုတွေ အချို့ကို သူနဲ့ ပြောဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ ၂ လမှာ အရှေ့တောင်ပိုင်းမှာ အရမ်းပြင်းထန်တဲ့ ဖိနှိပ်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုတွေကို ကျွန်တော်တို့ မြင်တွေ့ခဲ့ရပြီးပြီ။ အလားတူ ကချင်၊ ချင်းနဲ့ စစ်ကိုင်းမှာ ကောပါပဲ။ ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပွားနေတဲ့ ပဋိပက္ခတခု နဲ့ အရမ်းဖိနှိပ်တဲ့ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်အောက်မှာ လူတွေအမှန် တကယ်အကူညီရဖို့ ကိုဘယ်လို ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းကြမလဲဆို တဲ့မေးခွန်းက ရှေ့ ဆက်ဖို့အတွက် တကယ့် စိန်ခေါ်မှုကြီးပါပဲ။
တချိန်တည်းမှာပဲ နိုင်ငံတွင်းမှာရှိတဲ့ နိုင်ငံတကာအဖွဲ့စည်းတွေတင်မက ပြည်တွင်းက လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားမှုအကူညီပေးတဲ့ အဖွဲ့ စည်းတွေ၊ အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့စည်းတွေ သို့မဟုတ် သူတို့ အခေါ် “ဒေသခံဖြေရှင်းကြသူများ” အားလုံးက အရင်လပေါင်းများစွာက တခါမှ စဥ်းစားတွေးမိမှာ မဟုတ်တဲ့ ရန်ကုန်ရဲ့ မြို့တွေ၊ လှိုင်သာယာ၊ ချင်းပြည်နယ် မင်းတပ်လိုမျိုး နေရာတွေမှာပါ ဖြစ်လာနေတဲ့ အကျပ်တည်းတွေကိုပါ စဥ်းစားဖြေရှင်း ရတော့မှာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ မြို့ပြမှာရွှေ့ပြောင်းနေရာချမှု၊ မြို့ ပြမှာလိုအပ်တဲ့ လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားမှု လိုအပ်ချက်တွေက ကျွန်တော့်လုပ်ဖော်ကိုင်ဖက်တွေ ယခုလက်ရှိ စုံစမ်းလေ့လာနေတဲ့ ကိစ္စတွေပါပဲ။
အာဏာမသိမ်းမီကတည်းက ကျွန်တော်နားမလည်တဲ့ အရာတခုက နိုင်ငံတကာ ဖွံ့ ဖြိုးမှု နှင့် လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ “ဆက်စပ်မှု” (nexus) လို့ ခေါ်တဲ့ ရှုပ်ထွေးမှု ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂနဲ့ အခြားသော အဖွဲ့စည်းက သူတွေ ယုံကြည်တာက မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဟာ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးနဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာအရေးတွေကို ပေါင်းစပ်ကိုင်တွယ်လို့ရတဲ့ အရေးကြီး ဥပမာ ဖြစ်တယ်ဆိုတာပါပဲ။ ဒါပေမယ့် အာဏာမသိမ်းမီနဲ့ ကမ္ဘာ့ကပ်ရောဂါ မရိုက်ခတ်မီ ကျွန်တော်ရဲ့ လေ့လာစောင့်ကြည့်မှုတွေအရနဲ့ ဆွေးနွေးမှုတွေအရ ဒီ ဆက်စပ်မှု ဟာ အလုပ်မဖြစ်နေဘူး ဆိုတာကို ပြသနေပါတယ်။ ဆက်စပ်မှုရှိတယ် ဆိုတဲ့ အမြင်ဟာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုတာ ဟောင်းနွမ်းသွားပြီ၊ အံမ၀င်တော့ဘူးဆိုတဲ့ အပေါ်မှာ မျှော်မှန်း တည်ဆောက်ထားတာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ကျွန်တော်တွေ့ သလောက်ကတော့ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်၊ မြောက်ပိုင်းဒေသအချို့ နဲ့ တောင်ပိုင်း ဒေသအချို့ တွေ့ မှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ စိုးရိမ်ရမယ့်ကိစ္စတွေ ရှိနေပေမယ့်လည်း ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးသမားတွေဟာ ဒေါ်လာသန်းပေါင်းများစွာ ပိုက်ပြီး ၀င်လာခဲ့ကြတာပဲ။ ဒီပုဂ္ဂိုလ်/အဖွဲ့ စည်းတွေဟာ ကြံ့ခိုင်ရေးနှင့်ဖွံ့ ဖြိုးရေးပါတီ၊ အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် နဲ့ နောက်ဆုံး တပ်မတော်နဲ့ ပါ အလုပ်တွေ တွဲလုပ်ခဲ့ကြတာပဲ။ အများစုက ဒီဖွံ့ ဖြိုးရေး လုပ်ငန်းစဥ်မှာ တပ်မတော်က ကျိုးကြောင်းဆင်ခြင်မှုရှိတဲ့ ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ဖော်ဖြစ်တယ်လို့ စဥ်းစားခဲ့ကြပါတယ်။ အခု အတိတ်ကို ပြန်ကြည့်ရင် ဒီအမြင်ဟာ ထင်ယောင်မှားမှုသာ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အခုတော့ ဒီဆက်စပ်မှုဟာလည်း လုံး၀ကျိုးပဲ့သွားခဲ့ပြီ။ အလှုရှင်တော်တော်များများလည်း တိုင်းပြည်ထဲက ထွက်သွားခဲ့ပြီ။ တံတားတွေ၊ လမ်းတွေ၊ အဆောက်အဦးတွေ၊ စတဲ့ အဆောက်အုံ စီမံကိန်း အကြီးကြီးတွေအတွက် ထုတ်ပေးမယ့် ကြွေးမြီတွေဟာလည်း ကာလတခုအထိ ရပ်တန့်သွားခဲ့ပြီ။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုတဲ့ အရာကသာ နိုင်ငံထဲမှာ အဓိကကျန်နေခဲ့တဲ့ တခုတည်းသော အရာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
ဒီနေရာမှာ ဆက်စပ်မှု ရဲ့ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးနှင့်ပတ်သတ်တဲ့အစိတ်ပိုင်းကိုလည်း ကျွန်တော်အနည်းငယ် ပြောချင်သေးတယ်။ ဘာကြောင့်လဲဆိုတော့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ဘယ်လိုရှေ့ဆက်သွားကြမလဲ ဆိုတဲ့အကြောင်းရာကို ပြောမယ်ဆိုရင် အရမ်းအရေးပါလို့ပါ။ မြန်မာရဲ့ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးဖြစ်စဥ်က အာဏာမသိမ်းခင်ကတည်းက သေနေခဲ့တာပါ။ ဒါကို အရင်ပုံစံတိုင်း ပြန်စဖို့၊ အသက်သွင်းဖို့ ကြိုးစားတာဟာ မိုက်မဲမှုပါ။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအနေနဲ့ လည်း ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးဖြစ်စဥ်မှာ တရား၀င် ဘယ်နေရာကမှ မပါ၀င်ပါဘူး သူကစောင့်ကြည့်သူ သက်သက်ပါ။ အနောက်နိုင်ငံက အလှုရှင်အတော်များများက ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးဖြစ်စဥ်ကို သီးသန့်ကင်းကွာနေတဲ့ ဖြစ်စဥ်တခု လို့ ရှုမြင်ခဲ့ကြတယ်။ ဒီဖြစ်စဥ်ကနေ ရခိုင်မှာ ရှိခဲ့တဲ့ ရှုပ်ထွေးမှုတွေ၊ သူတို့ရဲ့ မအောင်မြင်မှုတွေကနေ သက်သာရာရအောင် လုပ်ခဲ့တယ်။ ဒီအလှုရှင်တွေ စဥ်းစားတာက ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးလုပ်ငန်းစဥ်ထဲ ငွေတွေ သွန် ထည့်လိုက်ရင် ဖွံ့ ဖြိုးရေးလုပ်ငန်းကို ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့်လုပ်ဖို့ လမ်းပွင့်သွားမယ်၊ နိုင်ငံကို ကူညီ နိုင်မယ်လို့ ထင်ခဲ့ကြတာပါ။
ဒီငြင်းခုံမှုတွေက အခုတော့လုံး၀ နစ်မြုပ်သေဆုံးသွားပြီ၊ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုကသာ ယနေ့ထိကျန်ခဲ့တဲ့ တခုတည်းသောအရာပါ။ ဆိုလိုတာကတော့ ပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေပြုလုပ်၊ ကြေညာချက်တွေ ထုတ်ပြန်ရုံတင်မကဘဲ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာကနေ ကူညီဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်း နည်းနဲ့သာ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်း၀ိုင်းအနေနဲ့ အမှန်တကယ် လက်တွေ့ကျကျ ကူညီနိုင်မှာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ နိုင်ငံထဲမှာ အမှန်တကယ် လိုအပ်နေတဲ့ အရေးပေါ်လိုအပ်ချက်တွေကို ဖြေရှင်းနိုင်မှာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
နိဂုံးအနေနဲ့ ရှေ့မှာ ဖြစ်နိုင်တဲ့ လမ်းကြောင်းတွေအချို့ ကို ဆွေးနွေးပါ့မယ်။ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်း၀ိုင်း အနေနဲ့ အသက်တွေကယ်တင်မယ့် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆိုင်ရာ လုပ်ငန်းတွေကို ဆက်လက် စွဲမြဲခိုင်မာစွာ ဆောင်ရွက်ရန်လိုပါတယ်။ သီးသန့်ခွဲ ဆောင်ရွက်မယ့် ဘယ်လိုအလားအလာ၊ ဘယ်လိုနည်းလမ်းမျိုးကမှ လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာအကူညီတွေကို ဖမ်းဆုတ်နိုင်မယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်မထင်ပါဘူး။ ဒါ့အပြင် တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာ ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေတဲ့ အကျပ်တည်းတွေကို ချဥ်းကပ်ရာမှာ နည်းလမ်းများစွာ ရှိတယ်ဆိုတာကိုလည်း နားလည်ထားဖို့ လိုပါလိမ့်မယ်။ နိုင်ငံရဲ့ တနေရာမှာ ၀င်ရောက်ဖြေရှင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုက အခြားတနေရာမှာ တပုံစံတည်း ဆောင်ရွက်လို့ရမှာမဟုတ်ပါဘူး။
ဆက်လက်လုပ်ရမယ့် ဦးစားပေးတွေ ထဲကတခုက တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာရှိတဲ့ မြန်မာ အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့ စည်းတွေနဲ့ ဒေသခံ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့တွေကို ဆက်လက်ပံ့ပိုးဖို့ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အာဏာမသိမ်းခင်နဲ့ ကမ္ဘာ့ကပ်ရောဂါ မဖြစ်ခင် က လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အလှုရှင်တွေ၊ ဆောင်ရွက်သူတွေ အများပြားက ဒေသန္တရအခြေပြုခြင်း နှင့် အဝေးမှ စီမံခန့် ခွဲခြင်းတို့ ကို ပြောဆိုဆွေးနွေးခဲ့ကြပါတယ်။ ဒီ ထပ်တလဲလဲပြောခဲ့တဲ့ အသုံးနှုန်းတွေဟာ သီအိုရီအရ စဥ်းစားမှုကနေ အမှန်တကယ် အရေးတကြီး အကောင်ထည်ဖော်ရမယ့် ကိစ္စရပ်တွေဖြစ်လာပါပြီ။ ကျွန်တော့်ကို မျှော်လင့်ချက်ပေးတဲ့ တစုံတရာရှိမယ်ဆိုရင် တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာရှိနေတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ဆောင်ရွက်နေသူ မြန်မာတွေက ဒေသန္တရအခြေပြုခြင်းမှာ ရှေ့ရောက်နေတာပဲ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ကချင်၊ ကရင် ကလူတွေ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် နေရာအချို့ကလူတွေ ဟာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ စိန်ခေါ်ချက်တွေကို သူတို့ဘာသာဖြည့်ဆည်းနေကြဖူးပြီး ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ သူတို့ကို ပံ့ပိုးပေးဖို့လိုအပ်တယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်ထင်ပါတယ်။
စစ်ကောင်စီနဲ့ တပ်မတော်က အဓိကအတားဆီးဖြစ်တယ်ဆိုတာကို လူအများစု သဘောတူပါလိမ့်မယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့်လည်း အနောက်နိုင်ငံကအလှုရှင်တွေဘက်မှာ လိုက်လျောညီထွေ ပြောင်းလဲပေးမှုမရှိတာ၊ တမူ ဆန်းသစ် ဆောင်ရွက်မှု မရှိတာ၊ သတ္တိမရှိတာနဲ့ မစွန့်စားရဲတာကလည်း အဓိကပြဿနာတခုပါပဲ။
နောက်ဆုံးအနေနဲ့ ကတော့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂကို လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုတွေ ဆောက်ရွက်ပြီး မြန်မာကို ကယ်တင်မယ့်သူအနေနဲ့ ကြည့်တာ လွဲမှားနေပါတယ်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂက မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနဲ့ ပတ်သတ်ရင် အခြေနေများစွာမှာ ပုံစံမျိုးစုံနဲ့ကို လွဲမှားမအောင်မြင်ခဲ့တာပါ။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ စိန်ခေါ်မှုတွေကို အမှန်တကယ်ဖြေရှင်းပေးနိုင်မယ့် ယန္တရားတခုအနေနဲ့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂကို ကြည့်တဲ့သူ ဘယ်သူမဆို စိတ်ကူးလွဲနေပြီပဲ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဘယ်သူ့မှာမှ အဖြေမှန် မရှိပါဘူး။ ဒါပေမယ့် အဖြေမှန်နဲ့ အနီးစပ်ဆုံးကတော့ ဒေသခံအသိုင်း၀ိုင်းနဲ့ အမှန်တကယ်လက်တွဲဆောင်ရွက်ပြီး သူတို့ကို ကူညီပံ့ပိုးနိုင်မယ့် နည်းလမ်းတွေ ရှာဖွေဖို့ပဲဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
ခရစ္စတီနား အီဘာဘတ်ချ်။ ။ ဒေးဗစ်ရေ ဖွံ့ ဖြိုးရေးနဲ့ မတူဘဲ လူသားခြင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု မှန်ပြောင်းနဲ့သာအဓိက ရှုမြင်ရမှာဖြစ်တယ်လို့ ရှင်ပြောခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် လူ့အခွင့်ရေးနဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာ ထောက်ထားမှု အကူညီတွေကြားက အရေးကြီးတဲ့ ဆက်နွယ်မှုကိုလဲ ပြောသွားခဲ့တယ်။
လူ့အခွင့်ရေးနှင့် လူသားချင်း စာနာ ထောက်ထားမှုတို့ဟာ တခုနဲ့တခု ဖြည့်ဘက်ဖြစ်နေတာလား ၊ ဆန့်ကျင်ဘက်ဖြစ်နေတာလား ဆိုတာက ကိုယ်ဘယ်သူနဲ့ စကားပြောနေတာလဲ ဆိုတာပေါ်မူတည်ပြီး အမြင်ကွဲတယ်ဆိုတာကို ကျွန်မသိပါတယ်။ ဘယ်လိုအပိုင်းတွေက ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်လို့ရတဲ့ အပိုင်းတွေ ဖြစ်ပြီး ဘယ်လိုအပိုင်းတွေက တင်းမာမှုတွေ ရှိနိုင်တဲ့ အပိုင်းတွေ ဖြစ်မလဲဆိုတဲ့ အမြင်လေးလဲ ပြောပြပေးပါဦး။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ အငြင်းပွားစရာ အချက်တွေ အများကြီး ရှိပါလိမ့်မယ်။
ကျွန်တော့်အတွေ့ ကြုံအရကတော့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားရေးသမားတွေဟာ ဖွံဖြိုးရေးသမားတွေထက် လူ့အခွင့်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ အမြင် ရှုထောင့်နဲ့ ပိုသဟဇာတဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ မြန်မာမှာ ရှိတဲ့ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး လုပ်ငန်း ဆောင်ရွက်သူ အဖွဲ့စည်း/ပုဂ္ဂိုလ်တွေဟာ အရမ်း စိုးရိမ်လွန်ကဲပြီး အဓိပ္ပါယ်မရှိတဲ့ “ပဋိပက္ခကို သတိပြုကိုင်တွယ်တယ်” တို့ “ဘယ်သူ့မှ မထိခိုက်စေဘူး” တို့ စတဲ့ ဖန်တရာတေ စကားလုံးတွေနောက်မှာ အမြဲပုန်းလျှိုး နေတတ်ကြပါတယ်။ သူတို့ပြောတာကတော့ “အင်း၊ ကျွန်တော်တို့ အထူးဂရုပြု ကိုင်တွယ်ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ကျွန်တော်တို့ အစီရင်ခံစာ ပြင်ဆင်ပြီးပါပြီ၊ ပိုရှုပ်ထွေးအောင် ကျွန်တော်တို့ လုပ်မှာမဟုတ်ပါဘူး” ။ ပြီးရင် သူတို့ပဲ တချိန်လုံး လွဲမှားရှုပ်ထွေးအောင် လုပ်ခဲ့တာပါ။
မြန်မာက ကုလသမဂ္ဂအတွက် အခွင့်ရေးတွေနဲ့ပတ်သတ်ရင် အဓိက အောင်မြင်အောင်ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ခဲ့ရမယ့် ဥပမာ ဖြစ်ရပ်တခု ဖြစ်ခဲ့ရမှာပါ။ ဒါပေမယ့် အဆုံးသတ်ကြတော့ ဒီလိုလုံးဝဖြစ်မလာခဲ့ပါဘူး။ လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ ၁၀ နှစ်ကျော်ကို ကြည့်ရင် ကုလသမဂ္ဂက မြန်မာမှာ လူ့အခွင့်ရေး မြှင့်တင်ပေးတဲ့ ခေါင်းဆောင်တဦး မဖြစ်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။ လူ့အခွင့်ရေးနဲ့ ပတ်သတ်လာရင် ပါးစပ်နဲ့ပဲ ကူညီပံ့ပိုးပေးနေတဲ့ အနောက်နိုင်ငံကအလှုရှင်တွေ အများကြီးပဲ ရှိခဲ့ပါတယ်။ သူတို့တကယ်တွေးနေခဲ့တာက ငါတို့ဒေါ်လာသန်းပေါင်းများစွာကို သွန်ထည့်လိုက်ရင် လူတွေ အလုပ်တွေရကြမယ်၊ သူတို့ရဲ့ လူနေမှုအဆင့်တန်း တိုးတက်လာလိမ့်မယ်၊ ပြီးတော့ ငါတို့မှာ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေး ဖြစ်စဥ်တခု ရှိနေမယ်ဆိုရင် လူ့အခွင့်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ ကိစ္စရပ်တွေဟာလည်း တဖြည်းဖြည်းနဲ့ ခွဲထုတ်ပြီးသား ဖြစ်သွားလိမ့်မယ် ပြီးတော့လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ ကိစ္စရပ်တွေလည်း တဖြည်းဖြည်း လျော့နည်းသွားလိမ့်မယ်ပဲ တွေးနေခဲ့တာပါ။ သူတို့တွေးသလို မဖြစ်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။
အာဏာသိမ်းမှုက လူများစွာရဲ့ အာရုံကိုဖမ်းယူနိုင်ခဲ့ပြီ။ တပ်မတော်ကို စောင့်ကြည့်နေတဲ့ အာရုံစိုက်မှုတွေ သွေဖယ်ခဲ့ လို့ တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု အကျပ်တည်းပေါ်မှာ လူ့အခွင့်ရေး ဆိုင်ရာ အကျပ်တည်းတွေ အမြဲတမ်းဖြစ်ပေါ် ဖုံးလွှမ်းနေခဲ့တယ်ဆိုတဲ့ အချက်ကို မမြင်ခဲ့တာပါ။
ဘန် ဖလန်းမင်း။ ။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီပေးရေး ကိစ္စတွေမှာ ကျွန်တော့်အနေနဲ့မြင်တာကတော့ ခွဲ၀ေရေးမှာ ပြဿနာရှိကြတယ်လို့ မြင်ပါတယ်။ ခုဆိုရင် နိုင်ငံတော် စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ (SAC) ဟာ အာဏာသိမ်းမှု မတိုင်ခင်ကလို လွှတ်တော်မှာ ၂၅ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းပဲရှိတာမျိုး၊ ၀န်ကြီးဌာနသုံးခုကိုပဲ အပိုင်စားရထားတာမျိုး မဟုတ်တော့ပါဘူး။ သူတို့ဟာ ခုချိန်မှာဆို အစိုးရအဖွဲ့၀င် တခုလုံးကိုရော၊ ငွေကြေးစီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုကိုပါ လွှမ်းမိုးချုပ်ကိုင်နေနိုင်ပါတယ်။ ဒီတော့ ဒေသခံအဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေဆီကို ငွေကြေးပံ့ပိုးမှု ဘယ်လိုပေးမလဲဆိုတာက မေးစရာမေးခွန်းဖြစ်လာပါတယ်။ ဒီမေးခွန်းကို အမည်မဖော်လိုသူတဦးကလည်း မေးထားတယ်၊ သူမေးတာကတော့ ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံကနေတစ်ဆင့် နယ်မြေဖြတ်ကျော်ပြီး အကူအညီပေးမှုကို ဘယ်လိုရရှိနိုင်ပါမလဲ၊ ဒီလို အကူအညီပေးမှုကို အများပြည်သူရဲ့ ဖိအားကနေတဆင့် လုပ်မှာလား၊ ဒါမှမဟုတ် တိုးတိတ်ညင်သာတဲ့ သံတမန်အခင်းအကျင်းက သွားမှာလား ဆိုတာပဲ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ SAC အနေနဲ့ စီးပွားရေးကဏ္ဍနဲ့ ဘဏ်စနစ်ကြီးတစ်ခုလုံးကို ဖျက်ဆီးပစ်တာကတော့ အကြီးမားဆုံး စိန်ခေါ်မှုပါပဲ။ ဒါဟာ ငွေကြေးအကူအညီကို အမှန်တကယ် လိုအပ်နေတဲ့သူတွေဆီ အကူအညီ မရောက်ရှိအောင် ဖြတ်တောက်ပစ်လိုက်တာပါပဲ။ ဒါတင်မကပဲ ထုတ်လုပ်မှုလုပ်ငန်းတွေကိုပါ ရပ်တန့်စေပြီး ကုန်စည်စီးဆင်းမှုကွင်းဆက်ကြီး တခုလုံးကိုပါ ဖျက်ဆီးပစ်လိုက်ပါတယ်။ ဒါကြောင့်မို့လို့ ကျွန်တော့်အနေနဲ့က လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီတွေပေးကြဖို့ကို အထူးအာရုံစိုက်ပြောနေတာပါ၊ တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာရှိတဲ့ အသက်မွေး၀မ်းကြောင်းလုပ်ငန်းတွေဟာ ဒီစစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကြောင့် အတော်ကို ဖရိုဖရဲ ပျက်ဆီးသွားရပါပြီ။
ကျွန်တော့် အမြင်ကတော့ နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော် အကူအညီပေးရေးကိစ္စတွေက ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံကနေတစ်ဆင့် ကောင်းကောင်းမွန်မွန် အကူအညီပေးနိုင်ခဲ့တာကို နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ မြင်တွေ့ခဲ့ရပြီး ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီအပြင်မှာမှ အလုပ်ကို ပိုင်ပိုင်နိုင်နိုင်ရှိကြတဲ့ ကရင်၊ ကရင်နီနဲ့ မွန်ပြည်နယ်က အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေဆိုတဲ့ မိတ်ဆွေကောင်းတွေလည်း ရှိကြပါတယ်။ ဒီအရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေဟာ သူတို့လုပ်စရာရှိတဲ့ အလုပ်တွေကို ဆက်လုပ်နေကြတယ်ဆိုတာ နိုင်ငံတကာက အလှူရှင်တွေ ရောက်လာကြတာနဲ့ အရှေ့တောင်အာရှမှာရှိနေကြတဲ့ ပဋိပက္ခတွေဟာ ချက်ချင်း ပြေလည်သွားတာ မဟုတ်ဘူးဆိုတာကို သူတို့က ကောင်းကောင်းသိကြလို့ပါပဲ။ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးလုပ်ငန်းတွေရဲ့ ရှုပ်ထွေးမှုတွေကို ရုတ်တရက် ကြည့်လိုက်ရင်တော့ အရှေ့တောင်အာရှဟာ ပဋိပက္ခလွန် အဖွဲ့အစည်းတစ်ခုဖြစ်တယ်ဆိုတဲ့ အမြင်မျိုးနဲ့ ခင်ဗျားတို့ကို ဖြားယောင်းပါလိမ့်မယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် ဒါဟာ အခြေအနေတွေကို တကယ် ဂရုတစိုက်ကြည့်တတ်တဲ့ လူတွေအတွက်တော့ လုံး၀ကို ကြောင်းကျိုးဆီလျော်မှုမရှိတဲ့၊ အဓိပ္ပာယ်လုံး၀မရှိတဲ့ စကားမျိုးပါပဲ။ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့ သေချာမစဥ်းစားပဲ မြင်မြင်သမျှ အရာတွေအပေါ် နာမည်တွေလိုက်ကပ်ဖို့ ကြိုးစားတာတွေနဲ့ သူတို့လုပ်နေတဲ့အလုပ်တွေကိုပဲ ကြောငြာ်နေတာမျိုးကို ကျွန်တော်တို့ ထပ်ပြီး အလိုမရှိပါဘူး။ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့ တကယ်လိုအပ်တဲ့ ပြည်သူလူထုဆီကို ငွေကြေးအကူအညီ၊ စားနပ်ရိက္ခာအကူအညီနဲ့ အခြားလိုအပ်တဲ့ အကူအညီတွေ အများကြီးပေးဖို့ကို အထူးရှေ့တန်းတင် လုပ်ကြရမှာပါ။ ဒီကိစ္စမှာလည်း အလှူရှင်တွေဟာ လက်ရှိပဋိပက္ခဖြစ်ပွားနေတဲ့ နေရာတွေကိုပဲ အဓိကကြည့်ရမှာမဟုတ်ပဲ မြို့ပေါ်တက်ပြီး ရွှေ့ပြောင်းနေထိုင်နေရတဲ့ လူဦးရေတွေ အကူအညီရရေးကိုလည်း ဆောင်ရွက်ရမှာပါ။
ဘန် ဖလန်းမင်း။ ။ဒီတော့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု အရေးကိစ္စဟာ အပြစ်တွေမှန်သမျှကို ဖုံးအုပ်နိုင်တယ်ပေ့ါ၊ တိုက်ပွဲတွေအကြောင်းပြောရင်းနဲ့ပဲ အကူအညီပေးရေးကိုလည်း ပြောလို့ရတယ် ဆိုတော့ ခင်ဗျားပြောတာကို ကျွန်တော် နားလည်တာကတော့ ခင်ဗျားက ပြောက်ကျားစနစ်သုံးပြီး တော်လှန်ပုန်ကန်မှု အသွင်ဆောင်တဲ့၊ ပုံစံ အဟောင်းတွေကိုဖြိုချဖျက်ဆီးပြီး လိုအပ်သလို အကူအညီပေးရတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီပေးမှုမျိုးကို လှုံဆော်စည်းရုံးတယ်လို့ ခံစားမိပါတယ်။
ဒီတော့ ခုလည်း ဆယ်ကျော်သက်တယောက်က မေးထားတဲ့ “လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အခြေအနေတွေတိုးတက်လာဖို့အတွက် သူတို့လို ဆယ်ကျော်သက်တွေအနေနဲ့ ဘာတွေလုပ်နိုင်မလဲ” ဆိုတဲ့ မေးခွန်းကို မေးချင်ပါတယ်။ ကျွန်တော်ပဲ စာတွေဖတ်တာ တအားများနေတာလားတော့ မပြောတတ်ဘူး၊ ကျွန်တော့်အနေနဲ့တော့ အဲ့ဒီမေးခွန်းဟာ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုကို အားပေးတဲ့ အသွင်ဆောင်တယ်လို့ မြင်မိတယ်၊ တပ်မတော်ကို ပြန်လည်တိုက်ခိုက်တာတွေ၊ ရဲတွေကို ပြန်လည်တိုက်ခိုက်တာတွေနဲ့ စစ်တပ်နဲ့ရဲသတင်းပေးတွေကို သတ်ဖြတ်တာတွေကိုလည်း ကြားနေမြင်နေရပါတယ်၊ ဒီတော့ အဲ့လိုဗျူဟာမျိုးတွေအတွက် နေရာရှိသင့်ပါသလား၊ ဒီလိုနည်းလမ်းသည်သာ ကျွန်တော်တို့ လိုအပ်တဲ့ အချိန်ရဖို့အတွက် တခုတည်းသော နည်းလမ်းဖြစ်ပါသလား။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ ဒါကတော့ ကျွန်တော့်အနေနဲ့ ပြောပိုင်ခွင့်ရှိတဲ့ ကိစ္စလို့ မထင်ဘူးဗျ။ ခင်ဗျားအနေနဲ့ မိမိကိုယ်ကို ခုခံကာကွယ်ခြင်း လမ်းကြောင်းကို ရွေးမှဖြစ်မယ်ဆိုရင်လည်း ရတယ်၊ ရွေးပါ။ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူတယောက်အနေနဲ့ တစ်ဖက်ဖက်ကို မရွေးရင် ခင်ဗျား ၀ေဖန်ခံရတာပဲ၊ ဒီနေရာမှာ နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ ကျွန်တော်အသုံးပြုခဲ့တဲ့ နည်းလမ်းကတော့ ကျွန်တော်သည် နာကျင်ခံစားရသူဖက်ကပဲ ရပ်တာပဲ။ ပြီးတော့ ကျွန်တော့်အနေနဲ့ ပြောချင်တာက ခင်ဗျားက ခုခံတော်လှန်ရေးနည်းလမ်းကိုမှ ရွေးချင်တယ်ဆိုလည်းဖြစ်တယ်၊ ခင်ဗျားသဘောပဲ၊ အဲ့ဒီအပေါ်မှာ ကျွန်တော် ဘာမှ ၀င်ရောက်ဝေဖန်ဆုံးဖြတ်ခြင်း မလုပ်ဘူး။ ဒီနေရာမှာ နိုင်ငံတကာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ ဥပဒေနဲ့ လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ဥပဒေတွေရဲ့ အရေးပါမှုက ပေါ်လွင်လာတာပဲ၊ ကျွန်တော်တို့မှာ လက်နက်ကိုင်တိုက်ပွဲတွေရဲ့ အသွင်သဏ္ဍာန်တွေနဲ့ စီမံမှု ပုံစံတွေကို ၀ေဖန်လို့ရတယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် အဲ့ဒီထဲမှာ ၀င်ပါသင့်၊ မပါသင့် ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကိုတော့ သွားဝေဖန်လို့မရဘူးဗျ။
ဒါဟာ နိုင်ငံတကာ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့ အလွန်အကျွံ စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်နေကြတဲ့ ဖြစ်စဥ်ရဲ့ ဝိရောဓိတစ်ခုကိုလည်း ပြသရာရောက်ပါတယ်။ ပထမပိုင်းမှာတော့ သူတို့က “ငြိမ်းငြိမ်းချမ်းချမ်း ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်နေကြတယ်တွေ့လား၊ အဲ့ဒါ ဘယ်လောက်ကောင်းသလဲ” ဘာညာနဲ့ ပြောကြတယ်၊ အစပိုင်းတော့ နှစ်သက်ကြတယ်ပေ့ါဗျာ။ နောက်တော့ ဆန္ဒပြမှုတွေဟာ နည်းနည်း အကြမ်းဖက်တဲ့ အသွင်ဆောင်လာတယ်ဆိုရင် အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့က “တော်ပါပြီ၊ဒါကိုတော့ သည်းမခံနိုင်ဘူး၊ဒါကိုတော့ ထောက်ပံ့ကူညီမှု မပေးနိုင်ဘူး” ဆိုတာမျိုးတွေဖြစ်သွားကြတယ်။ ကျွန်တော့်အမြင်မှာတော့ နိုင်ငံတကာ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့က လုံး၀အဓိပ္ပာယ်မရှိတဲ့၊ ရူးနှမ်းတဲ့ စကားလုံးဖြစ်တဲ့ “ထွက်ပေါက်” ဆိုတာကို သုံးပြီး ဒီကိစ္စတွေကို ဖြေရှင်းဖို့မှာ SAC ကနေတဆင့်ပဲ သွားဖို့ ကြိုးစားနေကြတယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်မြင်တယ်။ ကျွန်တော်တို့အနေနဲ့က ရှေ့ဆက်သွားဖို့ရာမှာ ကိုယ်ကျင့်စံတန်ဖိုးဆိုင်ရာ ပဟေဠိတွေ အများကြီးကိုလည်း ရင်ဆိုင်ဖြေရှင်းရလိမ့်ဦးမယ်။ အလှူရှင်တွေပေးတဲ့ အကူအညီတွေကို အချို့သော လက်နက်ကိုင်တွေက ရရှိစံစားလိမ့်မယ်ဆိုတဲ့ အတွေးလောက်နဲ့တော့ နိုင်ငံတကာ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့ လက်တွန့်သွားတဲ့အထိ မဖြစ်သင့်ပါဘူး။
မြန်မာပြည်ကို ဆီးရီးယားနဲ့ ခိုင်းနှိုင်း သုံးသပ်ပြနေတာလည်း ရူးနှမ်းပြီး အဓိပ္ပာယ်မဲ့ပါတယ်။ မြန်မာပြည်ဟာ မြန်မာပြည်ပါပဲ၊ ဆီးရီးယားမှ မဟုတ်တာ။ ဘယ်သူကမှလည်း တစ်ဖက်တည်းကပဲ လက်နက်ကိုင်ဖို့ကို ပြောနေကြတာမှ မဟုတ်တာ၊ ဒီစကားကို ကျွန်တော် ဆီးရီးယားမှာရှိနေတဲ့ ပြည်သူတွေကို ကိုယ်ချင်းစာပြီး ကျွန်တော်ပြောတာပါ။ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့လည်း မြန်မာပြည်တွင်းမှာရှိတဲ့ အသက်ရှင်ရပ်တည်နိုင်မှုအတွက် အကူအညီလိုအပ်နေတဲ့ သန်းပေါင်းများစွာသောလူတွေကို အကူအညီပေးနိုင်ဖို့ နည်းလမ်းရှာပြီး မြန်မာပြည်တွင်းက ကိစ္စတွေကို အဓိက အလေးပေး စဥ်းစားရပါမယ်။
ခရစ္စတီးနား အီဘာဘတ်ချ်။ ။ ရှင့်အနေနဲ့ကတော့ ဒီအခြေအနေမှာ ဒေသခံပြည်သူလူထုကနေတဆင့် ပူးပေါင်းလုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းကသာ အကောင်းဆုံးရွေးချယ်မှုဖြစ်တယ်လို့ ပြောသွားပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် ခုဖြစ်ပေါ်နေတဲ့ ဖိနှိပ်မှု အတိုင်းအတာကို ကြည့်ရင် ဒါကြောင့်မို့လို့ ဒေသခံ၊အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေအပေါ် စိန်ခေါ်စွန့်စားရမှုတွေ သက်ရောက်လာစေမယ်လို့ မထင်မိဘူးလားရှင့်။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီပေးကြတဲ့ အချို့သူတွေကို တရားဥပဒေမဲ့ ဖမ်းဆီးတာတွေတောင် ကြားထားပြီးသားဆိုတော့လေ။ အလှူရှင်တွေအနေနဲ့ ဒေသခံပြည်သူလူထုနဲ့ ပူးပေါင်းပြီး ရှေ့ဆက်သွားလို့ရအောင်လုပ်တာရယ်နဲ့ ဒေသခံအဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေရဲ့ လုံခြုံမှုနဲ့ ဘေးကင်းမှုကိုလည်း ကာကွယ်ပေးရတဲ့ နှစ်ခုအကြား ဘယ်လိုမျိုးများ ဟန်ချက်ညီအောင် ထိန်းလို့ရမယ်လို့ ရှင်ထင်သလဲရှင့်။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ ဒါဟာ အရမ်းကောင်းတဲ့မေးခွန်းတစ်ခုပါပဲ။ ဒေသခံ၊အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေအတွက် စိန်ခေါ်စွန့်စားရမှုကြီးပါတယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် သူတို့တွေဟာ ဒီ စွန့်စားရမှုတွေကို နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ ထိတ်တိုက်ရင်ဆိုင်ပြီး အလုပ်လုပ်လာကြပြီးသားပါ၊ အထူးသဖြင့် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် အရှေ့တောင်ပိုင်းနဲ့ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် မြောက်ပိုင်းဒေသတွေမှာပေ့ါ။ ဒီကိစ္စကြီးမှာ ဘယ်လိုလှုပ်ရှားရမယ်ဆိုတာနဲ့ အလုပ်ဖြစ်အောင် ဘယ်လိုနည်းလမ်းရှာရမလဲဆိုတာကို ပြည်တွင်းမှာရှိတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီတွေပေးနေကြတဲ့သူတွေနဲ့ ပြည်တွင်းမှာရှိတဲ့ အစိုးရမဟုတ်တဲ့ နိုင်ငံတကာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေမှာ အလုပ်လုပ်နေကြတဲ့ ၀န်ထမ်းတွေက နိုင်ငံပြင်ပက နိုင်ငံခြားသားတွေထက် အများကြီး ပိုသိကြပါတယ်။ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုအလွန် ကာလဟာ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတွေ အများကြီး ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေပါတယ်၊ လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ ၆ လလောက်ကအထိ မမှန်းထားခဲ့တဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတွေပါ။ ဒါပေမယ့်လည်း လူတွေအများကြီးဟာ လုံခြုံရေးဆိုင်ရာ အကျပ်အတည်းတွေကို ဘယ်လိုရင်ဆိုင်ရမလဲ၊ ဒီ အကျပ်အတည်းတွေကနေ ဘယ်လိုနည်းလမ်သုံးပြီး ပါးပါးနပ်နပ် ကျော်လွှားရမလဲဆိုတာကို သိတဲ့သူတွေ ရှိကြပါတယ်။ ပြောချင်တာကတော့ သူတို့ရင်ဆိုင်ရမယ့် စိန်ခေါ်စွန့်စားမှုရမှုတွေကို လျှော့မတွက်ပဲ ဒီအရေးကိစ္စတွေကို ဘယ်လိုဖြေရှင်းမလဲဆိုတာကို ကောင်းကောင်းနားလည်ကြတဲ့သူတွေရှိတယ် ဆိုတာပါပဲ။
ဒါကြောင့်မို့လို့လည်း ကျွန်တော်က ဒီနေရာမှာ အနောက်နိုင်ငံက အလှူရှင်အချို့နဲ့ ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂအဖွဲ့အစည်းရဲ့ လုပ်ကိုင်ပုံတွေဟာ အားမလို၊အားမရ ဖြစ်စရာကောင်းတယ်လို့ ထင်မိတာပါ။ လူတွေဟာ သူတို့ဟာသူတို့ လုပ်ကိုင်နိုင်စွမ်း၊ စွမ်းရည်တွေပြည့်၀နေပြီးတာတောင်မှ လူတွေကို စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်ပြည့်၀အောင် လုပ်ပေးရမယ်ဆိုပြီး အဲ့ဒီစကားလုံးကိုပဲ သုံးစွဲနေတာဟာ တော်တော်ကိုပဲ ဆိုးရွားပြီး စွမ်းဆောင်ရည်ရှိကြပြီးသား လူတွေကို နှိမ့်ချရာရောက်ပါတယ်။ လူတွေမှာ လုပ်ကိုင်နိုင်စွမ်း ရှိကြတယ်ဆိုရင် လိုအပ်တဲ့ ငွေကြေးအကူအညီပဲ ပေးလိုက်ရုံပဲလေ။ သံရုံးထဲမှာ ထိုင်နေတဲ့ နိုင်ငံတကာအလှူရှင်ထက်တော့ ပြည်တွင်းကလူတွေက စိန်ခေါ်စွန့်စားရမှုတွေကို ပိုသိတာပေ့ါဗျ။ ခင်ဗျားတို့ကြောင့် သူတို့က ပိုပြီး စိန်ခေါ်စွန့်စားရမှုတွေရှိမယ်၊ သူတို့ကို အကျဥ်းအကျပ်ထဲ တွန်းပို့လိုက်သလိုဖြစ်မယ်လို့တော့ သွားမတွေးနဲ့ဗျ၊ အဲ့လူတွေက သူတို့ ဘာလုပ်နေရတယ်ဆိုတာ သူတို့ကိုယ်သူတို့ ကောင်းကောင်းသိကြပြီးသားပါ။
ဘန် ဖလန်းမင်း။ ။ ဒေးဗစ်၊ ခင်ဗျားအနေနဲ့ စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေနဲ့ သေချာ ထိထိရောက်ရောက်ဖြစ်အောင် ကြံစည်ထားတဲ့ စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေ ရောက်လာတာ မြင်ချင်တယ်လို့ ပြောခဲ့တယ်နော်။ ဒီတော့ အဲ့လို လုပ်ရပ်တွေဟာ ဘယ်လိုပုံသဏ္ဍာန် ဖြစ်သင့်သလဲ၊ ပြီးတော့ ဒီ စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေကနေတဆင့် ဘယ်လိုဖိအားတွေကို ပေးနိုင်မယ်လို့ ခင်ဗျားထင်သလဲဗျ။
ဒေးဗစ်မက်သီဆင်။ ။ မကြာခင်က ချမှတ်လိုက်တဲ့ စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေကြောင့် SAC နဲ့ မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ကများ အစိုးရကို အာဏာပြန်လွှဲပေးမယ်လို့ ထင်နေလား။ အဲ့လို ဘယ်ဖြစ်မလဲ။ ဒါပေမယ့် စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့သင့်တဲ့ လူတွေ၊ တကယ် ပိတ်ဆို့သင့်တဲ့ စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းတွေကို ပိတ်ဆို့တာရောဖြစ်ရဲ့လား၊ အဲ့ဒါတော့ ဖြစ်တယ်၊ ဒါဟာ တကယ်ကို မြင်သာထင်ရှားတယ်။ ကျွန်တော်တို့ လိုလားတောင့်တတဲ့ သက်ရောက်မှုက SAC နဲ့ ရွေးကောက်ခံ အမတ်တွေကို အာဏာပြန်လွှဲပေးဖို့အတွက်ဆိုရင်တော့ ဒီ စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေက လိုလားတောင့်တတဲ့ သက်ရောက်မှုကို ရနိုင်မယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်မထင်ပါဘူး။
အနောက်နိုင်ငံက လူတချို့ရဲ့ လွဲမှားနေတဲ့ အမြင်က ဘာလဲဆိုတော့ သူတို့က စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှု တချို့လုပ်မယ်၊ သံတမန်ရေးရာ အားထုတ်မှုတွေအတွက်တော့ ASEAN ကို ရှေ့ဆောင်အနေနဲ့ ထားလို့ရနေမယ်လို့ ထင်နေတာပါပဲ။ ဒါဟာ ကျွန်တော်မြင်ဖူးသမျှတွေထဲမှာ ကိုယ်ကျင့်သိက္ခာအရရော၊ ဥာဏ်ရည်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာအရရော၊ ကုန်ကုန်ပြောရရင် ကြောင်းကျိုးဆင်ခြင်နိုင်တဲ့ ဥာဏ်ရည်တောင်မှ မရှိတဲ့ တော်တော်ကို ရူးကြောင်ကြောင်နိုင်တဲ့ စိတ်ကူးပါပဲဗျာ။ ASEAN အနေနဲ့ ဂေါက်ရိုက်တာကလွဲလို့ တခြားဖြစ်ဖြစ်မြောက်မြောက် လုပ်နိုင်တာရှိတယ်လို့ ထင်နေကြသူ ဘယ်သူမဆိုဟာ ကိုယ့်ကိုယ်ကို လှည့်ဖျားနေကြတဲ့သူတွေပါပဲ။ ASEAN ကို မေ့လိုက်ပါ၊ လုပ်ရမယ့် စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေ ဆက်လုပ်ပါ။ ဒီကိစ္စမှာဆို သြစတေးလျားအနေနဲ့ ရှက်ဖို့တောင် ကောင်းတယ်၊ သူတို့အနေနဲ့က စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေ မလုပ်ပဲ စစ်တပ်ထဲမှာ သူတို့သိပြီးသား အဆက်အသွယ်ကနေတဆင့်၊ ASEAN ကနေတဆင့် အပြောင်းအလဲတွေကို ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်မယ်လို့ ထင်နေတာ တကယ်ကို ယုတ္တိမတန်တဲ့၊ အဓိပ္ပာယ်လုံး၀မရှိတဲ့ အတွေးပါပဲ။
နောက်တဆင့် စဥ်းစားရမှာက ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂရဲ့ ကြား၀င်ဖျန်ဖြေတဲ့ ကိစ္စတွေကရော အလုပ်ဖြစ်နိုင်မလားဆိုတာပဲ။ ကျွန်တော်ကတော့ ဟင့်အင်း….မဖြစ်နိုင်ဘူးလို့ပဲ ဖြေရမယ်၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂရဲ့ အထူးကိုယ်စားလှယ်အနေနဲ့ စေတနာပါတဲ့၊ အကောင်းဖက်ကို ရည်ရွယ်တဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်တွေဟာ တကယ်တော့ သက်ရောက်မှုသိသိသာသာ မရှိဘူးလို့ ထင်ပါတယ်။ သူမ အဲ့လိုလုပ်ပေးနေတာတွေက ဘေဂျင်းအတွက်တော့ အရေးကြီးပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီလုပ်ရပ်တွေကနေ ကျွန်တော်တို့ လိုလားတောင့်တတဲ့ ရလဒ်ရမလားလို့ မေးရင်တော့ မရနိုင်ဖို့ များပါလိမ့်မယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် ဒီလုပ်ရပ်တွေက ASEAN နဲ့ ဆက်သွယ်လုပ်ဆောင်ရတာထက်၊ သံတမန်အခင်းအကျင်းအရ ပိုပြီး အားစိုက်၊ အကုန်ကျခံရပါတယ်။ အိန္ဒိယ၊ ဂျပန်၊ တောင်ကိုရီးယား စတဲ့ နိုင်ငံတွေနဲ့ ဆက်ဆံဖို့ကိုလည်း ခဏမေ့လိုက်ပါ။ ရုရှားနဲ့ စကားပြောဖို့ကိုလည်း စဥ်းစားမနေနဲ့၊ သူတို့က မြန်မာပြည်ကို လက်နက်ရောင်းလို့ရတဲ့ စျေးကွက်ပန်းတိုင် တခုလိုပဲ မြင်နေတာ၊ ဒါပဲ။
တကယ်တော့ မေးခွန်းအကြီးကြီး ရှိနေတာက တရုတ်နဲ့ ပက်သတ်လို့ပဲ။ တရုတ်ရဲ့ လားရာကို ပြောင်းလဲပစ်ဖို့အတွက် ဗြိတိန်၊ အမေရိကန်၊ ကနေဒါ၊ ဥရောပသမဂ္ဂနဲ့ သြစတေးလျား နိုင်ငံတွေက သူတို့ရဲ့ သံတမန်ရေးရာ ကုန်ကျမှုတွေကို ထပ်မံတိုးချဲ့ကြမလား ဆိုတာ မေးစရာရှိပါတယ်။ အဲ့လို လုပ်ချင်မှ လုပ်မယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် ထပ်ပြောရရင် ဒီကိစ္စဟာ လက်နက်တင်သွင်းခွင့် ပိတ်ဆို့တဲ့ ကိစ္စလိုမျိုးပဲ၊ အကြောင်းပြချက်မျိုးစုံကြောင့် တကယ်ကတော့ အကောင်အထည် မဖော်နိုင်ဘူး။ ဒါပေမယ့် ဒီပြဿနာတွေရဲ့ အဓိက လက်သည်တရားခံက ဘယ်သူလဲဆိုတာကို လူတွေများများသိလာအောင် လုပ်တဲ့ ဖြစ်စဥ်တခုအနေနဲ့တော့ အရေးပါတယ်၊ ပြီးတော့ SAC ကိုရော မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ကိုပါ မတည်မငြိမ်ဖြစ်အောင် လုပ်နိုင်မယ့် ကိစ္စမှန်သမျှကိုတော့ လုပ်ဖို့ရာ ထိုက်တန်တယ်လို့ ကျွန်တော်မြင်တယ်။ သူသာ နေပြည်တော်မှာ ထိုင်နေပြီး အနောက်နိုင်ငံ အစိုးရတွေနဲ့ ဘေဂျင်းကြား ဆွေးနွေးဆက်ဆံမှုတွေလုပ်နေပြီဆိုတာကို သိနေရင် အဲ့ဒီ ဆွေးနွေးမှုတွေက အလုပ်မဖြစ်ဦးတော့၊ သူ ညည အိပ်လို့မရပဲ အိပ်ရေးပျက်တာတွေတော့ ဖြစ်မှာပေ့ါဗျာ။
ဘန် ဖလန်းမင်း။ ။ ကျွန်တော် မေးချင်တာ နောက်တခု ရှိပါသေးတယ်၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ မကြာသေးမီကမှ ဖြစ်ခဲ့တဲ့ နိုင်ငံရေးကိစ္စတွေကြောင့် တိုင်းပြည်အနှံ့အပြားမှာ ပဋိပက္ခတွေ ပုံသဏ္ဍာန်မျိုးစုံနဲ့ ပေါ်ပေါက်လာတာကို ကျွန်တော်တို့ တွေ့ရပါတယ်။ ဒီတော့ ကံမကောင်းစွာနဲ့ပဲ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကျပ်အတည်း ကြီးကြီးမားမား ဆိုက်လာတယ်ပေ့ါဗျာ။ ဆိုတော့ ဒီ အကျပ်အတည်းကို ဖြေရှင်းဖို့ရာမှာ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးဆိုတဲ့ နည်းလမ်းမျိုးနဲ့ရော ဖြေရှင်းလို့ရမယ်လို့ ထင်လားဗျ၊ ပြီးတော့ နိုင်ငံတကာအဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေအနေနဲ့ရော ဒီအချက်ကို ရည်မှန်းပြီး ကူညီသင့်တယ်လို့ထင်လား။ ဒီလို အကူအညီမျိုးကိုရော ပဋိပက္ခတွေမှာ ပါဝင်ပက်သတ်နေကြတဲ့သူတွေအနေနဲ့ ဘယ်လောက်ထိ လက်ခံသဘောတူနိုင်မယ်လို့ ထင်လဲဗျ။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ အဲ့ဒါက တော်တော်ကောင်းတဲ့ စိတ်ကူးပါ၊ ပြဿနာက တပ်မတော်အနေနဲ့ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေး သဘောတူစာချုပ်ကို လက်မှတ်ထိုးထားပြီးသား၊ ပြီးတော့ လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ သုံးနှစ်အတွင်းမှာလည်း အပစ်အခတ် မရှိခဲ့ဘူး။ တပ်မတော်က တစ်ဖက်သတ် အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးကို ကြော်ငြာပြီးလည်း သူတို့ဖက်ကနေ ပစ်ခတ်နေတာပဲ။ ဒါမျိုးလုပ်ရပ်ဟာ တပ်မတော်အနေနဲ့ တစ်သက်လုံး လုပ်လာခဲ့တဲ့ နည်းလမ်းမျိုး၊ အဲ့ဒီနည်းလမ်းဟာလည်း တနိုင်ငံလုံးမှာရှိတဲ့ လူအများအပါအ၀င် ဘယ်သူ့ကိုမှ ကောင်းကျိုးမဖြစ်စေပါဘူး။
လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ တနိုင်ငံလုံး အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးကတော့ ကျွန်တော့်အမြင်မှာ အလုပ်ဖြစ်မယ် မထင်ပါဘူး။ ပါ၀င်တဲ့ အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေက တအားအများကြီးကိုး။ ရပ်ရွာလူထု၊နယ်ခံတွေအတွက် အမှန်တကယ်အကျိုးရှိအောင် လုပ်ထားတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးက မူအားဖြင်တော့ သိပ်ကိုကောင်းပါတယ်၊ ကျွန်တော်လည်း လုံးဝဥဿုံ သဘောတူတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် ခုပြဿနာက နေရာအများကြီးမှာရှိတဲ့ အဖွဲ့အစည်းအများကြီးကို ဒါကြီးကို သဘောတူလာအောင် လုပ်ရမှာဗျ၊ ဘယ်သူက ဘယ်သူလဲဆိုတာကို သိဖို့ လုပ်ရတဲ့ အဆင့်မှာတင်ကိုက တော်တော်ကြီးကို ပြဿနာရှိတယ်၊ ခက်ခဲနေတယ်ဗျ။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးကိစ္စမှာ နောက်ထပ်ရှိနေတဲ့ ပြဿနာတစ်ခုကလည်း သူက ကာလတစ်ခုရောက်ရင် တစ်ဖက်ဖက်ကိုပဲ အကျိုးရှိစေတာမျိုးပဲ။ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ တနိုင်ငံလုံး အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေး အလုပ်မဖြစ်နိုင်တဲ့ ကိစ္စကလည်း အဲ့ဒီ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေး ကိစ္စမှာ ရိုးသားဖြောင့်မတ်မှု လုံး၀ကို မရှိတဲ့ တပ်မတော်ဆိုတဲ့ အဖွဲ့အစည်းကြီးနဲ့ ဆွေးနွေးညှိနှိုင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရမှာဗျ၊ ဒါကြောင့်မို့လို့လည်း ဒါဟာ တကယ့် အကျိုးသက်ရောက်မှုကို မဖြစ်စေနိုင်ဘူးလို့ ကျွန်တော်ပြောတာပါ။
ခရစ္စတီးနား အီဘာဘတ်ချ်။ ။ ပရိတ်သတ်ကနေမေးထားတဲ့ နောက်ဆုံးမေးခွန်းလေးတစ်ခု ဖြေပေးပါဦးရှင့်၊ ပြီးတော့ ကျွန်မတို့ နိဂုံးချုပ် မဆွေးနွေးခင် ဘန်ကလည်း မေးစရာတစ်ခုလောက် ရှိပါသေးတယ်။ ပရိတ်သတ်တစ်ဦးရဲ့ မေးခွန်းကတော့ “လိုအပ်နေတဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီပေးဖို့အတွက် အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်တဲ့ လှုပ်ရှားမှု CDM က ဘယ်လိုပုံစံနဲ့ ပါ၀င်ပက်သတ်နေပါသလဲ။ ဗမာလူမျိုး အများစုနေထိုင်တဲ့ မြို့ပေါ်လို နေရာတွေမှာဆိုရင် CDM ကြောင့် တပ်မတော်အနေနဲ့ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီတွေကို ပိတ်ဆို့တားဆီးတာမျိုး ပိုပြီးဖြစ်လာနိုင်ပါသလား။ တပ်မတော်ရဲ့ “ဖြတ်လေးဖြတ်” အစီအစဥ်ထဲက အတိုင်းပဲ အဲ့လို ပိတ်ဆို့တားဆီးမှုတွေ ဖြည်းဖြည်းချင်း တိုးပွားလာတာကို မြင်နေရတယ် မဟုတ်လား” ဆိုတာပါပဲ။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ ဒါကတော့ မြို့ပေါ်နေရာတွေမှာစဥ်းစားရတဲ့ ဝိရောဓိပေ့ါဗျာ။ ကိုဗစ်-၁၅ ကပ်ရောဂါဘေးကြောင့်ရော၊ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကြောင့်ရော စားနပ်ရိက္ခာကုန်စည်စီးဆင်းမှု ပြတ်တောက်မှုတွေရှိတယ်၊ ပြီးတော့ ဆင်းရဲတဲ့ လူအများစုလည်း အလုပ်လက်မဲ့ဖြစ်ကုန်တယ်။ သူတို့တွေအတွက်တော့ အသက်ရှင်ရပ်တည်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် အကူအညီတွေလိုမှာပဲလေ၊ အဲ့အတွက်လည်း ကမ္ဘာ့စားနပ်ရိက္ခာအဖွဲ့အစည်းအနေနဲ့ ကူညီနေတာကို ကျွန်တော် တွေ့ပါတယ်။
အသက်ရှင်ရပ်တည်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် အကူအညီပေးတယ်ဆိုတာဟာ အရမ်းကိုမှ အလွန်အကျွံ ထိခိုက်နိုင်တဲ့၊ ဒုက္ခတွေကြုံတွေ့နေကြရတဲ့သူတွေကို စားနပ်ရိက္ခာရဖို့ ကူညီတာပါ၊ အဲ့ဒါကို ဘာနဲ့မှ ပိတ်ပင်တားဆီးခြင်း မပြုသင့်ပါဘူး။ အစိုးရနဲ့ လုံခြုံရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့၀င်တွေရဲ့ လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွေကို နှောင့်ယှက်ဟန့်တားဖို့ နည်းလမ်းတွေအများကြီးရှိပါတယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် လိုအပ်နေသူတွေဆီ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ အကူအညီတွေ အလျင်အမြန် ရောက်ရမယ့် အရေးမှာတော့ ဘယ်ဖက်ကမှ ဒါကို ပစ်မှတ်ထား မတိုက်ခိုက်ဖို့ လိုအပ်ပါတယ်။
ဘန်ဖလန်းမင်း။ ။ အကြမ်းမဖက် အာဏာဖီဆန်တဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်တွေလည်း ရေရှည်သွားလို့ရသလောက် သွားနိုင်လိမ့်မယ်လို့ မျှော်လင့်ပါတယ်။ နောက်ဆုံးမေးခွန်းတစ်ခုအနေနနဲ့ မေးချင်တာလေးရှိပါတယ်။ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့ ဖွဲ့စည်းဖို့နဲ့ တိုင်းရင်းသားလက်နက်ကိုင်တွေကို စုစည်းပြီး ဖယ်ဒရယ်တပ်မတော်အနေနဲ့ ပေါင်းစည်းဖွဲ့စည်းဖို့ လုပ်နေတာတွေလည်း ကြားရပါတယ်။ တိုင်းရင်းသားလက်နက်ကိုင် အစုအဖွဲ့တွေရဲ့ လိုအပ်ချက်နဲ့ နည်းဗျူဟာတွေအပေါ်မှာ မူတည်ပြီးတော့ရော၊ မယုံကြည်မှုတွေရော အပေါ်မှာရော အခြေခံ စဥ်းစားမယ်ဆိုရင် ဒီ စုစည်းမှုမဟာမိတ်တွေဟ SAC ရဲ့ တချို့သော လုပ်ရပ်တွေကို လုံး၀ရပ်တန့်သွားအောင် လုပ်ပစ်နိုင်မယ်လို့ မျှော်လင့်လို့ ရနိုင်မလား ခင်ဗျ။
ဒေးဗစ် မက်သီဆင်။ ။ ကျွန်တော်လည်း အဲ့လို မျှော်လင့်ချင်တာပေ့ါဗျာ၊ ဒါပေမယ့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ တစ်ခုတည်းကပဲ သူတို့တွေအားလုံးကို အုပ်ချုပ်မယ်ဆိုတဲ့ မျှော်မှန်းချက်တွေလည်း ရှိနေပြန်ရော။ ကျွန်တော်ကတော့ အဲ့လို မျှော်လင့်တာဟာ လက်တွေ့မကျဘူးလို့ပဲ ထင်ပါတယ်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရမှာလည်း အားနည်းမှုတွေရှိနေပါသေးတယ်၊ ပြီးတော့ တရား၀င်မှုရရေး ကိစ္စမှာလည်း မေးစရာတွေရှိနေပြန်ပါသေးတယ်။ သူတို့တွေကို လုံး၀ထည့်မထွက်ဖို့ ပြောတာမဟုတ်ဘူးနော်၊ သူတို့ တော်တော် ကြိုးစားပမ်းစား လုပ်နေတာလည်း မြင်ရပါတယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် သူတို့အနေနဲ့ကတော့ ပြည်ပြေးအစိုးရအနေနဲ့ စင်ပြိုင်အစိုးရထောင်ဖို့တော့ တော်တော်လေး စိန်ခေါ်မှု များမယ် ထင်ပါတယ်။ လက်နက်ကိုင် အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေနဲ့ တိုင်းရင်းသားဒေသတွေမှာလည်း အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ် (NLD) က လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ ၁၀ နှစ်အတွင်း သူတို့တွေကို လျစ်လျူရှူခဲ့တယ်လို့ မြင်ထားခဲ့ကြတာကိုး၊ ပြီးတော့ ခုမှပဲ သူတို့ကလည်း အကူအညီသွားပြန်တောင်းနေသလိုတော့ ဖြစ်နေပါတယ်။
ကျွန်တော့်အမြင်မှာတော့ အစစအရာရာကို ထိန်းချုပ်ချင်တဲ့ ဖိအားတွေကို ဒီအစုအဖွဲ့တွေအနေနဲ့လည်း ခုခံတွန်းလှန်ရမယ်၊ “စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်မှု”ဆိုတဲ့ စကားရပ်ကိုလည်း ရှောင်သင့်တယ်လို့ ထင်ပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီ စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်မှု ဆိုတဲ့ စကားဟာ မြန်မာပြည်မှာ တကယ်ကို ပြဿနာ အကြီးကြီးရှိတဲ့ ကိစ္စပါ။ ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်နေကြတဲ့ အစုအဖွဲ့၊ အုပ်စုတွေကြားမှာ ဘယ်သူ့ကိုပြောလိုက်ရင် ရပြီဆိုတဲ့ ရှင်းလင်းတိကျတဲ့ ချိတ်ဆက်ဆောင်ရွက်မှု ပုံစံမျိုးနဲ့သွားချင်တဲ့ neat resistance complex လိုမျိုးကို ကျွန်တော့်အနေနဲ့ကတော့ လက်မခံ၊ ဆန့်ကျင်ချင်ပါတယ်။ သူ့ရဲ့ သတ်မှတ်ချက် အယူအဆမှာကိုတင် အလွန်ကို ရှုပ်ထွေးပွေလီပြီး၊ လုပ်ရကိုင်ရတဲ့ နေရာမှာလည်း အလုပ်မဖြစ်တာတွေ အရမ်းများနိုင်ပါတယ်။ ပြင်ပက လူတွေအနေနဲ့လည်း ဒါဟာ အင်မတန်ကို ရှုပ်ထွေးမယ်၊ ပြီးတော့ အရမ်းကို အကြမ်းဖက်မှုဆန်နိုင်တယ်ဆိုတာကို သတိမူမိဖို့ လိုပါတယ်၊ ပြောရရင်တော့ ဒါဟာ SAC ကြောင့် ဖြစ်လာရတဲ့ ပကတိအမှန်တရားပါပဲ။
ဆိုတော့ ခု ပြောနေကြတာတွေကနေတဆင့် ဖယ်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရက်တစ်နိုင်ငံတော်ဆိုတာ ဘယ်လိုပုံစံဖြစ်လာမလဲဆိုတာကို ပုံဖော်ဖို့ရာမှာ ကောင်းမွန်တဲ့ ပြောဆိုဆွေးနွေးမှုတွေ ထပ်ရှိလာလိမ့်မယ်လို့လည်း ကျွန်တော်ထင်ပါတယ်။ ပင့်ကူအိမ်လို ရှုပ်ထွေးပြီး ဆက်စပ်နေတဲ့ အမြင်တွေလည်း ရှိလာပါလိမ့်မယ်။ လက်တွေ့မှာ တိုက်ပွဲဖြစ်ပွားနိုင်မှု ရှိလာနိုင်တဲ့ အဖွဲ့တွေကတောင် NLD အနေနဲ့ မပြောတဲ့ စကားတွေကို ပြောဆိုပေးနေကြတာပဲလေ။ ဒီတော့ လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ အနှစ်နှစ်ဆယ်ကလို ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည် နေအိမ်အကျယ်ချုပ်အောက်မှာ နေခဲ့ရတုန်းက ပုံဖော်ခဲ့တဲ့ မြန်မာပြည်လို အနေအထားကနေ လွန်မြောက်အောင် ဆက်သွားနိုင်ဖို့အတွက် ကောင်းတဲ့ အလားအလာပဲလို့ မြင်ပါတယ်၊ သြဇာတိက္ကမ ကြီးမားတဲ့ ခေါင်းဆောင်တစ်ယောက်တည်းရဲ့ အောက်မှာပဲ နေပြီး ပုံဖော်ပြောဆိုနေမှုတွေ၊ ဆွေးနွေးနေမှုတွေဟာ တခုတည်း ရှိနေလို့ ရတာ မဟုတ်ဘူးဆိုတဲ့ အချက်ကို အမှန်တကယ်လက်ခံကြဖို့ပါပဲ။ လူတွေဟာ နိုင်ငံရေးအရ ဘက်ခွဲတာကို ခံခဲ့ကြရတာ၊ တချို့ဆို နိုင်ငံရေးအရ အစွန်းရောက်မှုမျိုးကိုတောင် အလုပ်ခံခဲ့ရတာဆိုတော့ဗျာ အခုအခြေအနေရဲ့ တချို့ အခန်းကဏ္ဍတွေကနေတဆင့် နိုင်ငံရေးအရ နိုးကြားတက်ကြွမှုကို ရလာပြီး၊ ရှေ့ဆက်တည်ဆောက်သွားဖို့အတွက် အကျိုးရှိမယ့်အရာတွေ ရလာကြမှာပါ။
ကျွန်တော်တို့လို နိုင်ငံခြားသားတွေအနေနဲ့ကတော့ ပြည်တွင်းကလူတွေလုပ်နေတဲ့ အလုပ်တွေကို ၀င်မရှုပ်ပဲနဲ့ သူတို့ကို ကူညီလို့ရတဲ့ နည်းလမ်းမှန်သမျှနဲ့ ကူညီနိုင်ဖို့ကိုပဲ ကြိုးစားရမှာပါ။ ဒီလူတွေ ဘာဆက်လုပ်သင့်တယ်၊ မလုပ်သင့်ဘူးဆိုတဲ့ ငြင်းခုံမှုတွေမှာ ဝင်မပါပဲ ပြည်တွင်းကလူတွေရဲ့ တော်လှန်ရေး အောင်မြင်ဖို့အတွက် ရုပ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာနဲ့ သယ်ယူထောက်ပံ့ရေးကိစ္စတွေမှာ လိုအပ်တဲ့ အားပေးကူညီမှုတွေ လုပ်ရမှာပါ။ ကျွန်တော်တို့ ရဲ့ အလုပ်က သူတို့တွေရဲ့ နေရာကို၀င်ပြီး၊ သူတို့မြင်သလို မြင်အောင်၊ နားလည်အောင် ကြိုးစားဖို့ပါပဲ။
ဒါပေမယ့် အပြုသဘောဆောင်တဲ့ မှတ်ချက်လေးနဲ့ ကျွန်တော်အဆုံးသတ်ချင်ပါတယ်။ ထိတ်လန့်ဖွယ်ရာကိစ္စတွေ ကြုံတွေ့ခဲ့ရတယ်ဆိုတာ သံသယဖြစ်စရာမလိုလောက်အောင်ကိုပါပဲ။ အခြေအနေတွေက ရှေ့ဆက်ပြီးလည်း ဆိုးရွားနိုင်ပါတယ်၊ ဒါပေမယ့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ အနှစ်နှစ်ဆယ်အတွင်း အလုပ်လုပ်ခဲ့ဖူးတဲ့ နိုင်ငံခြားသားတွေအနေနဲ့တော့ ကောင်းတာတွေရော၊ ဆိုးတာတွေပါ အများကြီး တွေ့ခဲ့ဖူးမှာပါ။ အခုလို မှောင်မိုက်နေတဲ့ကာလမျိုးမှာတော့ အနေအထားတွေက စိတ်ဓာတ်ကျစရာကောင်းတာပေ့ါဗျာ၊ ဒါပေမယ့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ အနာဂတ်ဟာ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုလက်ထဲမှာပဲ ရှိပါတယ်။ မြန်မာပြည်ရဲ့ အနာဂတ်ကို စီးပွားရေးပိတ်ဆို့မှုတွေ၊ ဖိအားတွေနဲ့ နိုင်ငံတကာ အလှူရှင်တွေက ဖန်တီးမှာမဟုတ်ပါဘူး။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ အနာဂတ်ကို မြန်မာ့ပြည်သူလူထုကပဲ ဖန်တီးမှာပါ၊ ကျွန်တော့်အတွက်တော့ ဒါဟာ သိပ်ကိုမှ အားကောင်းတဲ့ လွှမ်းမိုးမှုကောင်းဖြစ်စေပါတယ်။
တန်ပြန်ဆန့်ကျင်မှုတွေကိုရော၊ တော်လှန်ရေးကိုရော အောင်မြင်အောင် ကူညီချင်တဲ့ သူတွေအနေနဲ့ကတော့ တကယ် သေးငယ်ပြီး ရိုးသားနှိမ့်ချရာရောက်တဲ့ နည်းလမ်းတွေကိုသုံးပြီးတော့ပဲ တော်လှန်ရေးလုပ်နေတဲ့သူတွေကို ကူညီရပါလိမ့်မယ်။ သူငယ်ချင်းမိတ်ဆွေတွေအနေနဲ့ ရှိပေးတာပဲဖြစ်ဖြစ်၊ ငွေရေးကြေးရေး အကူအညီကို ပေးတာပဲဖြစ်ဖြစ်ပေ့ါဗျာ၊ ကျွန်တော်တို့ တတ်နိုင်တဲ့ နည်းလမ်းနဲ့ ကျွန်တော်တို့ ကူညီရမယ်၊ မြန်မာ့ပြည်သူလူထုကတောင် အရှုံးမပေးပဲ တိုက်နေတာဗျာ၊ ကျွန်တော်တို့က ဘာလို့ အရှုံးပေးရမှာလဲဗျ။
Institute for the Study of Human Rights မှ ဖော်ပြထားသော ဓာတ်ပုံအား ယူသုံးထားပါသည်။
ကိုလံဘီယာတက္ကသိုလ် (Columbia University)တွင် တည်ရှိသော Institute for the Study of Human Rights နှင့် ပက်သတ်၍ ထပ်မံသိရှိလိုပါက ၄င်းတို့၏ Twitter နှင့် Facebook စာမျက်နှာများအား ၀င်ရောက်လေ့လာနိုင်ပါသည်။ ..."
Source/publisher:
Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Burma/Myanmar
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Description:
"In August 2017 and in October-November 2016, Myanmar security forces advanced upon numerous
Rohingya villages in Rakhine state. The 100-300 assailants, comprised of the Myanmar military,
Border Guard Police (BGP), police, and mmobilized Rakhine civilians, besieged the villages from
their deployment stations, which typically included BGP camps, military camps, Rakhine villages,
schools, and temples.
Security forces killed and injured Rohingya villagers with indiscriminate gunfire; raped Rohingya
women, and unlawfully arrested Rohingya men. Security forces burned down Rohingya homes
and looted Rohingya property. In the terror after such mass-scale violence and killing, Rohingya
villagers escaped to Bangladesh, where they now live in temporary tents within precarious refugee
camps.
Premeditation and intent to commit genocide is apparent from security forces’ advance planning and
deployment. They commonly began intimidation tactics in the dark hours before dawn, by firing
guns, and then attacked the villages in the early hours of the morning. Security forces consistently
surrounded Rohingya villages, completely blocking escape or leaving only one of four sides open
for egress. They shot indiscriminate gunfire to incite panic and fired at Rohingya people as the
civilians fled.
Yet the systematic destruction of the Rohingya people began far earlier than August 2017. Starting
from decades earlier, the government confiscated land from Rohingya villagers.
And during the time period of 2012-2016, Rohingya experienced multiple and successive forms of
religious discrimination and persecution. This included prohibitions on giving religious sermons, on
holding religious events, on practicing Qurban (ceremonial sacrifice of livestock animals), and on
performing azan (making calls to prayer). They were forbidden to gather in groups of five or more
people, which abrogated religious fellowship. Nor could they freely use their mosque for prayer or
provide Islamic education to their children at the madrasa. Security forces physically beat, arrested,
jailed, and extorted money from those found in prayer or religious practice.
Marriage required payment of high fees, of up to 500,000 kyat, in order to obtain permission from
the authorities. As the permission was issued, the authorities directed the Rohingya to have no more
than two or three children, under threat of punishment.
The Rohingya had no freedom of movement but were forced to obtain a series of travel permits,
even to travel to a neighboring village. And despite obtaining such permission by paying large
amounts of money, security forces extorted money at checkpoints. Security forces beat, fined,
arrested, and jailed those who did not obtain travel permission. Later, the Rohingya were forbidden
to even leave their own homes between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The Rohingya faced discrimination in schooling, thereby foreclosing their education. The
government barred them from obtaining public employment. The military regularly conscripted
Rohingya men into forced labor. The Rohingya also faced discrimination in obtaining medical
treatment and healthcare.
Although the Rohingya voted before, this too was foreclosed after 2015. Finally, no Rohingya
person held Myanmar citizenship. Indeed, the authorities tried to force them to accept NVC, a card
which would register them as foreigners. In summation, Rohingya people were deprived of basic
rights in essentially every aspect of daily life.
With this history of discrimination and persecution of the Rohingya as the backdrop, we recommend
first that the international community provide affirmative support to having the entire matter of
genocide referred to the International Criminal Court or to a newly established special or ad-hoc
court for investigation and trial. The truth-seeking investigation must proceed without any grants
of immunity, for the wrongdoers occupy all levels of society. The bad actors include the Myanmar
military, BGP, and officials of the Myanmar government, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu
Kyi and other Cabinet Members, as well as civilians who were mobilized into paramilitary forces.
We also recommend that the Myanmar government provide remedy and relief to the victims and
survivors, founded first on restoration of previously-held rights, as well as financial recompense to
those for whom such restoration is insufficient, such as victims who have suffered psychological
harm. In such situations, it is critical to respect and decide the specific substance and form of
remedy and relief according to the wishes of the victims and the Rohingya community.
Further action includes the introduction of legislation and administrative measures to abolish
systems and practices that discriminate against the Rohingya, including those involving hate speech
and other forms of prejudiced information. Education is necessary to improve awareness of hatred,
bias, and discrimination.
The Myanmar government must cease registering the Rohingya with NVC identification cards
and must ensure restoration of their citizenship rights. Finally, the Myanmar government and the
international community must actively guarantee and ensure participation of Rohingya people in
discussions about possible repatriation..."
Source/publisher:
Asian Dignity Initiative
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-03
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, International Criminal Court, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
44.36 MB (Original version) - 112 pages, 4.87 MB (Reduce version) - 122 pages
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Sub-title:
The United Nations is set to consider whether to recognise the military regime or National Unity Government, and its decision could have major implications for a genocide case before the International Court of Justice.
Description:
"With the United Nations expected to soon decide whether Myanmar is represented in the General Assembly by the military regime or the National Unity Government, another important question may hang in the balance: who will represent Myanmar at the International Court of Justice?
The Gambia brought a case against Myanmar at the ICJ in 2019, accusing it of committing genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The allegations stem from the Tatmadaw’s brutal campaign of violence in 2017, which monitoring groups say killed thousands of Rohingya and forced more than 700,000 to flee across the border to refugee camps in Bangladesh. Nobel Peace Prize laureate State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi controversially defended the military’s actions before the ICJ in December 2019. Her administration was overthrown by the generals in February this year, and she is now being imprisoned by the very people she went to the Hague to defend
The NUG was formed in April by lawmakers elected in November’s polls, which the military later annulled, and consists of members from the National League for Democracy as well as representatives from ethnic minority groups and civil society.
With the military back in nominal control of the country but still largely unrecognised on the international stage, the case has become embroiled in the struggle between the regime and the NUG. Unlike the International Criminal Court, which hears cases against individuals, the ICJ is a United Nations body that settles disputes between states, and both the junta and the NUG are apparently eager to take the ICJ case to bolster their legitimacy.
Dr Sasa, the NUG’s Minister for International Cooperation, confirmed that the civilian government is seeking control of the case. “If the ICJ will allow us to represent Myanmar by appointing an agent at the case, then that is what we also will do,” he said in a recent interview with Frontier. Sasa made clear that the legitimacy issue is weighing heavily on the NUG’s decision to try and take the ICJ case. “It’s also very much to do with who will represent Myanmar as a state right now,” he said.
The UN Credentials Committee recommends to the UN General Assembly which government to recognise in the event of a dispute. The nine-member body currently includes Russia and China, who have shielded the junta from consequences at the UN Security Council, as well as the United States, which has already declared the events in Rakhine State ethnic cleansing and imposed sanctions against military-linked entities and individuals.
The issue could come to a head when the General Assembly meets on September 14. Myanmar’s seat at the UN is occupied by U Kyaw Moe Tun, who has remained loyal to the overthrown government; the junta has not only sought to replace him, it has charged him with high treason and demanded his extradition. Last month, America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation announced details of an alleged assassination plot targeting Kyaw Moe Tun involving Myanmar nationals based in the US. The military regime has denied any involvement in the scheme.
Despite being the target of most of The Gambia’s allegations, the military regime also appears keen to continue engaging with the ICJ; it recently announced a reshuffle of the team overseeing the case, appointing eight junta officials. Mr William Schabas and Ms Phoebe Okowa, foreign lawyers who previously served on Myanmar’s legal team under Aung San Suu Kyi, both confirmed that they are no longer working on the case but declined to comment further. “I resigned from the legal team soon after the military coup and have absolutely no insights into the case except what is publicly available,” Okowa said to Frontier in an email.
The military’s new legal team is led by the junta’s foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, and also includes Lieutenant-General Yar Pyae, a close ally of commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing who was recently named as minister of the Union Government Office.
But the NUG remains hopeful that the ICJ will not engage with the military’s legal team.
“I don’t think that the ICJ will accept those people that claim to be representing the state of Myanmar or the people of Myanmar,” Sasa said.
A tough spot
Taking charge of the case would put the NUG in a tricky position, however. Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision to defend Myanmar before the ICJ was wildly popular inside the country, where many people consider the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants, but she was condemned by human rights groups and other Nobel Peace Prize winners. Canada and the Netherlands joined the case against Myanmar, and other Western countries like the United Kingdom expressed support for it.
How then would the NUG, which has Aung San Suu Kyi still nominally as its state counsellor, fight the case, if it were accepted as Myanmar’s representative? Continuing to deny allegations of genocide would harm its efforts to secure international support for its cause, but conceding that genocide occurred is unlikely to go over well domestically, where anti-Rohingya sentiment is widespread even among pro-democracy supporters. This could be ameliorated to some extent by heaping the blame onto the Tatmadaw, and saying that it misled the NLD government about events on the ground in Rakhine State back in 2017, but accepting that genocide occurred could still cost the NUG some support.
Political analyst Mr David Mathieson said the NUG would be “deplored internationally if they argued against genocide and pilloried domestically if they agreed it was a genocide”.
There are some signs that attitudes towards the Rohingya are changing. The NUG has pledged to grant the Rohingya equal rights and replace the 1982 Citizenship Law, and some activists and protesters have apologised for their treatment or advocated for their rights – public displays of sympathy and support were rarely seen before the coup. Even the use of the word “Rohingya” in such a public manner would have been unthinkable before the coup.
But Mathieson said he didn’t think attitudes had changed that much. “I can’t imagine any deep-seated anti-Rohingya sentiments would have completely evaporated since the coup. They may well have altered, but I seriously doubt there has been a nation-wide epiphany of compassion. More likely there has been a nationwide awakening as to the brutality, oppression and greed of the Tatmadaw.”
But Rohingya activist U Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, said he believes perceptions have genuinely shifted. “There’s no question that we have seen a real change in public opinion since the coup. I and many other Rohingya have been flooded with messages on social media from people apologising for spreading hatred against us in the past,” he told Frontier.
Although some members of the NUG had denied atrocities were perpetrated against the Rohingya when the NLD was in power, Tun Khin said he believes the parallel government’s recent statements were a “step in the right direction”.
“We welcome the fact that the NUG is seeking to engage with the ICJ, and there is no question that it is a better choice to [represent Myanmar] than the Tatmadaw,” Tun Khin said.
The NUG’s position is made more difficult by the fact that the case has been brought under the Genocide Convention. This means the ICJ can only rule on whether genocide occurred, and cannot, for instance, dismiss the genocide accusation but confirm a charge of crimes against humanity – a middle ground that might have been acceptable to most of the NUG’s international and domestic supporters.
When Aung San Suu Kyi defended the case, she did not even acknowledge crimes against humanity, however, saying instead that any alleged war crimes were committed by individual soldiers who would be held accountable domestically. The Tatmadaw has tried some soldiers accused of atrocities at military tribunals, but these trials were widely seen as attempts to deflect responsibility from more senior officers. They were also not open to the public and some of those convicted were soon amnestied and freed from prison.
One of Myanmar’s former lawyers, Schabas, was more explicit, acknowledging during the ICJ hearing that the UN Fact-Finding Mission “concluded without equivocation that crimes against humanity and war crimes had been committed” but was “more circumspect” on the allegations of genocide. He noted at the time that the ICJ lacks jurisdiction to address those crimes.
Frontier asked Sasa several times whether the NUG would accept the allegations of genocide or argue against them in court, but he evaded the question each time.
“It is for the court to decide based on the evidence and proof if genocide happened or not. It’s not for the government or an organisation to decide. If it is found that there is evidence of genocide, who are we to say no?” he said.
When the NUG released a statement on the fourth anniversary of the crackdown on the Rohingya, it condemned “atrocity crimes” but did not explicitly call it a genocide. But even within the NUG there are divisions. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs released a statement calling the crackdown a genocide and highlighted acts of sexual violence, which the NUG did not mention and which Aung San Suu Kyi’s Facebook page previously referred to as “fake rape”.
Mathieson said the NUG could look foolish if it argued that genocide did occur, and then the court determined the crackdown did not qualify as genocide, an outcome he said “is not unlikely”.
Tun Khin argues it is crucial that the NUG publicly recognises the treatment of the Rohingya as a genocide. “Only by accepting the realities of the past will we be able to build a common future, and to take effective and genuine steps to end the ongoing genocide,” he said.
Sasa said the NUG is also working with its law firm, Volterra Fietta, to build a case against military leaders at the ICC. “We have received thousands of videos of atrocities” committed by the military since the coup, he said, pledging that the NUG will also “bring justice to our Rohingya brothers and sisters” either through the ICC or domestic legal mechanisms.
Although Myanmar is not yet a state party to the ICC because it has not ratified the Rome Statute, soon after his interview with Frontier Sasa the NUG announced that it lodged a formal declaration in July to accept the ICC’s jurisdiction as a non-state party for crimes committed since 2002.
Legitimacy not necessarily at stake
While the question of who represents Myanmar at the ICJ is symbolically important, the court adjudicates disputes between states, not governments. Legal experts say that if the junta were allowed to represent Myanmar, it would not imply legal recognition.
Mr Arsalan Suleman, a lawyer on The Gambia’s legal team, said they would continue to pursue the case even if the military regime is representing Myanmar.
“The Gambia sued the State of Myanmar in the ICJ. Since then, The Gambia has followed the procedures established by the Court, and it will continue to do so until a final judgment has been issued by the Court. This does not imply The Gambia’s diplomatic recognition of Myanmar’s current de facto government,” he said in an email.
Ms Emma Palmer, a senior lecturer at Australia’s Griffith Law School and an expert on international law, said the ICJ’s decision over who represents Myanmar could be “persuasive” in terms of popular perception of legitimacy, but is not legally binding.
“It would be the ‘state’ that the ICJ has jurisdiction over, rather than a particular government, so I agree that a change in government does not affect the ICJ case’s ability to proceed,” she said. Allowing the military to take the case “would not amount to any kind of formal change to the status of the military”.
Palmer said she would expect the ICJ to “avoid the issue” by delaying proceedings or waiting for the UN to make a decision.
This may already be happening. The last update on the ICJ website is from January 28, days before the coup, setting a deadline of May 20 for The Gambia to respond to Myanmar’s preliminary objections, which challenged the court’s jurisdiction over the case. These objections mean the case will not move forward until the court makes a decision on whether it has the authority to proceed.
Suleman confirmed that The Gambia countered Myanmar’s objections, and said he expects the court to set a date soon for oral arguments on the preliminary objections. But more than three months after the deadline for The Gambia’s response, the court is still yet to make any public statement on the case, let alone schedule oral hearings. In contrast, the January update came just eight days after Myanmar filed its preliminary objections on January 20.
The ICJ did not respond to Frontier’s request for comment.
No decision
A further complication for the court would be if the UN General Assembly does not make a definitive decision later this month on who should represent Myanmar.
Ms Sarah Williams, a professor in the Faculty of Law & Justice at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the UN could theoretically leave Myanmar’s seat at the UN empty as it did with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in 1997 and Taliban in Afghanistan in 1996. She said it could also maintain the status quo, allowing the incumbent ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, to retain his seat – at least for now – without deciding between the military regime and the NUG.
Williams said that if this happens, she would expect the ICJ to “say that it is unable to determine which person/entity is entitled to represent Myanmar and will not accept instructions from anyone” – a scenario that is likely to further stall the case. Even though the ICC is not a UN body and therefore “in theory has more flexibility”, it would still most likely take its cues from the UN and be reluctant to make its own determination.
Palmer said there is another scenario where the military takes the ICJ case, but then refuses to cooperate with the proceedings, given its history of rejecting the authority of international legal mechanisms. “If the military does notappear in Court, which seems potentially likely, then the Court will most likely just proceed with the case without ‘Myanmar’,” she said, adding that this has happened before, in a case between Nicaragua and the United States.
On August 24, the military regime filed a legal amendment criminalising genocide in Myanmar’s domestic law, and defining it by the recognised international standard. It has said little about the reasons behind the amendment, but observers say it could be an attempt by the military to undermine international legal mechanisms, as it can now try to argue that the crime of genocide can be investigated and prosecuted domestically and international action is therefore not needed.
But Tun Khin said only international mechanisms will suffice.
“The military has committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes with impunity in Myanmar for decades,” he said. “They must be held to account, and only the international community is in a position to provide justice.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-02
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Genocide, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice (ICJ) - General
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Description:
"Since the 1 February coup d’état in Myanmar, residents of the country have requested assistance from the international community. Particularly during the early stages of the coup, many protesters carried signs calling for “R2P,” seemingly in hope of foreign military intervention.
But seven months later, the international community has still not taken collective action under the R2P principle. The United Nations Security Council in particular has not taken any significant action at all to respond to the unlawful coup and the related human rights violations by the Myanmar military.
The briefing paper by SAC-M provides background information on R2P and how it is invoked, and offers some explanation as to why there appears to have been no collective response to the calls for R2P made during the protests.
Download the briefing paper: SAC-M Briefing Paper R2P
The paper also highlights that, while foreign military intervention in Myanmar is extremely unlikely, there are other actions that can and should be taken under R2P. These include arms embargoes, targeted sanctions and promoting accountability.
Some individual States and groups of States have already taken such actions since the coup, designed to protect civilians in Myanmar. SAC-M has called upon States to expand and strengthen these actions, through an international “three cuts” strategy:
Cut the weapons supply to the Tatmadaw;
Cut the cash supply to the Tatmadaw; and
Cut the impunity of the Tatmadaw.
Finally, the briefing paper also explores suggestions for people wanting to call on the international community to do more to protect the people of Myanmar, including by invoking R2P..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
318.57 KB
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Description:
"Today, 25 August, marks four years since our people fled genocidal attacks by Myanmar
security forces in Arakan State also known as Rakhine State, Myanmar in 2017. Today, 25
August, is the fourth Anniversary of the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day.
We mark this day so that all future generations of Rohingya will know what happened to our
people. We the undersigned organizations, remember, mourn, and call for accountability
for the atrocity crimes committed by the Myanmar security forces including genocide and
crimes against humanity.
The Myanmar security forces killed, raped, and burned our villages trying to destroy us.
The attacks led to the exodus of nearly one million Rohingya to Bangladesh, where we now
live in sprawling and overcrowded refugee camps.
On 1 February 2021, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and the Myanmar military overthrew
the elected Government of Myanmar in a coup. The military and police have since
killed more than 1,000 men, women, and children- p rimarily peaceful protesters- a nd
imprisoned several thousand others for opposing the junta's rule.
The junta that controls the country is the same military junta that led genocidal attacks against
our people and now are committing human rights violations against the whole country.
Rohingya are still at grave risk in Rakhine State where the junta commits crimes with impunity.
The military continues to confine thousands of Rohingya to internment camps and Rohingya
are still denied citizenship, freedom of movement, and other basic human rights.
We are citizens of Myanmar and support the resistance movement against the junta
including the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) the National Unity Government (NUG),
and all people working for democracy and human rights.
We support the international community and the NUG's commitment for international
justice including at the International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, and
through the universal jurisdiction case in Argentina. However, we call on the NUG to
expand on its Rohingya policy and appoint a Rohingya minster and other Muslim leaders.
We call on United Nations member states to impose targeted sanctions against the
Myanmar military and work to end impunity in the country. United Nations have been slow
to show coordinated action to hold preparators accountable for crimes.
We support the International Court of Justice genocide case at the World Court. We the
undersigned organisations, call on governments around the world including the United
States, United Kingdom, and others to make a clear genocide determination about the
crimes committed against Rohingya.
We Rohingya are still living in overcrowded and sprawling refugee camps. We thank the
Bangladesh government for welcoming us to the country and providing us safety. We long
to return home to Myanmar.
Four years on, we will work to be able to return to our homeland as citizens, to build
a country that ensures justice and rights for people regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity..."
Source/publisher:
Champions of Change, Education & Wisdom Development for Rohingya Women , Rohingya Refugee Committee , Rohingya Women Education Initiative, Rohingya Youth for Legal Action, Rohingya Youth Unity Team, Voice of Rohingya, Rohingya Student Union
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
65.96 KB
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Description:
"အသိအမှတ်ပြုသင့်သည့် အခြေအနေများ
(၁) အစိုးရ၏ အဓိပ္ပါယ်
လူ့သမိုင်းတွင် အစိုးရဟူ၍စတင်ပေါ်လာသည့် အချိန်ကထဲက ယနေ့အထိ အစိုးရ၏အရင်းခံအကျဆုံး
တာဝန်မှာ ပြည်သူလူထု၏လုံခြုံမှု ကို ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ရန်ဖြစ်သည်။ မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ခေါင်းဆောင်သည့်
စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များက ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် နိုင်ငံတကာအဆင့်ပြစ်မှုကြီးများ ကျူးလွန်ကြောင်း ကုလသမဂ္ဂ
အဆင့်ကပင် တရားဝင်နည်းလမ်းတကျ စွပ်စွဲထားသည်။ ထို့အပြင် စစ်ကောင်စီအာဏာသိမ်းသည့် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ
လ (၁) ရက်နေ့ ကစ၍လည်း ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် ဆက်တိုက်ဆို သလိုပင် နိုင်ငံတကာအဆင့်ပြင်းထန်သည့်
ပြစ်မှုကြီးများ ဆက်လက်ကျူးလွန်ဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ သို့ဖြစ်၍ နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်ကောင်အဆင့်သို့ ကျရောက်နေ
ပြီဖြစ်သော အဆိုပါစစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များအား ကုလသမဂ္ဂ နှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာက မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် လုံးဝ
အသိအမှတ် မပြုသင့်ပါ။ NUG သည် ယင်းနှင့်ပြောင်းပြန်ပင် လူထုကို ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်နိုင်ရန်
ဘက်ပေါင်းစုံမှနေ၍ ကြိုးစားလျက်ရှိသည်။
(၂) အစိုးရတရပ်၏ တရားဝင်မှုအဓိပ္ပါယ်
ကမ္ဘာ့လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကြေငြာစာတမ်း၏ အပိုဒ် (၂၀) ပုဒ်ခွဲ (၃)1 တွင် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ ဆန္ဒသည်
အစိုးရအာဏာ၏ အခြေခံဖြစ်ရမည်ဟု ပြဌာန်းထားသည်။ ပြည်သူလူထုသည် ၎င်းတို့၏ ဆန္ဒကို ၂၀၂၀ ခုနှစ် နိုဝင်္ဘာလ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲတွင် အတိအလင်းဖော်ပြခဲ့သည်။ ယင်းကို ဆန့်ကျင်၍ စစ်ကောင်စီက အာဏာ
သိမ်းခဲ့သောအခါတွင်လည်း စစ်ကောင်စီကို လက်မခံကြောင်းငြိမ်းချမ်းသည့် CDM လှုပ်ရှားမှုကြီးဖြင့်
လူဦးရေသန်းနှင့်ချီကာ တပြည်လုံးနီးပါးမျှ လွှမ်းခြုံဆန္ဒပြခဲ့ကြသည်။ ယင်းကဲ့သို့ ပြည်သူလူထုက အနေအထား
နှစ်ခုလုံးတွင် ၎င်းတို့၏ဆန္ဒကို ထုတ်ဖော်ခဲ့ပါလျက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာက အသိအမှတ်မပြုပါက
ကုလသမဂ္ဂသည်လည်းကောင်း၊ နိုင်ငံတကာသည်လည်းကောင်း ကမ္ဘာ့လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကြေငြာစာတမ်းကို
ချိုးဖောက်ရာရောက်ပါမည်။ ယင်းသို့မဖြစ်သင့်။ စစ်ကောင်စီကို လုံး၀ အသိအမှတ်မပြုသင့်ပါ။ ပြည်သူလူထု
အများစုကြီးဆန္ဒအရ ထောက်ခံမှုရရှိထားသော NUG ကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုသင့်ပါသည်။2
(၃) အစိုးရတရပ်ရပ်ကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုသင့်မသင့်အား ကမ္ဘာ့ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးကို အထောက်အကူပြုသည့်
ဘက်မှနေ၍ စဉ်းစားသင့်ခြင်း
ကမ္ဘာ့ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးကိုဦးတည်ပြီး ကုလသမဂ္ဂပဋိညာဉ်စာတမ်း၏ အခြေခံမူများအား လေးစားသည့်
အခြေခံမှနေ၍ နိုင်ငံများအတွင်း ဆက်ဆံရေးတည်ဆောက်စေရန်မှာ ကုသမဂ္ဂပဋိညာဉ်စာတမ်း၏ အရေးကြီး
သည့်အခြေခံမူတရပ်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
တောင်အာဖရိကနိုင်ငံတွင် လူဖြူလူမဲခွဲခြားမှုစနစ်ကို ကျင့်သုံးထားသော ၁၉၈၃ ခုနှစ် ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံ
ဥပဒေသည် ကုလသမဂ္ဂပဋိညာဉ်စာတမ်း၏ အခြေခံမူများနှင့် ဆန့်ကျင်ကြောင်းဖြင့် ၁၉၈၄ ခုနှစ်တွင်ကုလသမဂ္ဂ
လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီက ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်အမှတ် ၅၅၄ ဖြင့် ပျက်ပြယ်ကြောင်း ကြေငြာခဲ့ရသည်။3 စစ်အာဏာ
ရှင်စနစ်ကို ကျောရိုးပြုထားသည့် ၂၀၀၈ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေသည်လည်း ကုလသမဂ္ဂ ပဋိညာဉ်စာတမ်း၏
အခြေခံမူများနှင့် ဆန့်ကျင်ပါသည်။ သို့ဖြစ်၍ ၂၀၂၀ ခုနှစ်ရွေးကောက်ပွဲတွင် ရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ခြင်းခံရသည့်
ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များဖြင့် ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသည့် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ (CRPH) က ၂၀၀၈
ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံကို ပယ်ဖျက်ခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ အနာဂတ်ဖက်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရေစီဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေသစ်တရပ်
ပေါ်ပေါက်လာရေးကို ဦးတည်ကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိသည်။ ပြည်သူများတွင် တန်းတူရေးနှင့် ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပြဌာန်းခွင့်
ကိုလည်း အာမခံထားပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ CRPH/NUG သည် ကမ္ဘာ့ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးကို ဦးတည်သည့်လမ်းကြောင်းကို
လျှောက်လှမ်းနေကြောင်းထင်ရှားသည်။
စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို အခိုင်အမာအသက်သွင်းထားသည့် ၂၀၀၈ ခုနှစ် ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေကို
ဆက်လက်အသုံးပြုပြီး တိုင်းရင်းသားပေါင်းစုံ ပြည်သူလူထုကြီးတရပ်လုံးကို ဆက်လက်ဖိနှိပ်လျက် ရှိသော
အကြမ်းဘက်အဖွဲ့ စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ကမ္ဘာ့ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးကို ဦးတည်သည့်လမ်းကြောင်းမှ သွေဖည်
လျက်ရှိသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီကို တရားဝင်အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အသိအမှတ်ပြုလိုက်မည်ဆိုပါက နိုင်ငံတနိုင်ငံအတွင်း အကြမ်းဘက်သည့် အဆင့်မှနေ၍ နိုင်ငံတကာအကြမ်းဘက်အဖွဲ့အဆင့်သို့ တက်သွားပါမည်။ကမ္ဘာ့ငြိမ်းချမ်း
ရေးကို ခြိမ်းခြောက်သည့် အဆင့်သို့ရောက်လာနိုင်ပါသည်။
(၄) နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေများ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေ၏ စံချိန်စံညွန်းများ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာပြစ်မှုဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေ၊ နိုင်ငံ
တကာလူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားသည့်ဥပဒေ နှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာလူ့အခွင့်အရေးဥပဒေများ အတည်ပြု
ကျင့်သုံးခွင့်ရစေရန် တာဝန်ရှိခြင်း
NUG နှင့် စစ်ကောင်စီနှစ်ခုအနက် မည်သူ့ကို တရားဝင်အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အသိအမှတ်ပြုသင့်
ကြောင်းအား အထက်ပါအခြေခံမှ ရှေးဦးစွာလေ့လာရန် နိုင်ငံတကာအနေဖြင့် တာဝန်ရှိပါသည်။ နိုင်ငံတကာ
အဆင့်ပြင်းထန်ကြီးမားသော ပြစ်မှုကြီးများကျူးလွန်သူများအား ခွင့်လွှတ်၍မရ၊ အရေးယူရမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း
နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေ၏ စံချိန်စံညွှန်း (Peremptory norms/ jus cogen ) လူတိုင်း၊ နိုင်ငံတိုင်း လိုက်နာကြရမည့်
တာဝန် (Erga omnes ) ကို နိုင်ငံတကာအနေဖြင့် သတိပြုစေလိုပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီအဖြစ် အာဏာ မသိမ်းမှီ
နှင့် အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်းတွင်ပါ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်(တပ်မတော်)၏ ထိပ်ပိုင်းခေါင်းဆောင် များသည်ပြစ်မှု
ကြီးများအား ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြောင်းထင်ရှားပါသည်။ အာဏာမသိမ်းမှ ီ ရှေ့ပိုင်းတွင်ကျူးလွန ် ခဲ့သောပြစ်မှုကြီးများ
အတွက် ကမ္ဘာ့တရားရုံး ICJ တွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် အမှုရင်ဆိုင်ရလျက်ရှိပြီး4 နိုင်ငံတကာပြစ်မှုဆိုင်ရာ တရားရုံး
ICC တရားစွဲအရာရှိကလည်း တရားဝင်စုံစမ်းစစ်ဆေး (Investigation) လုပ်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။5
ကုလသမဂ္ဂနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာက စစ်ကောင်စီအား တရားဝင်အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အတည်ပြုလိုက်ပါ
က ရာဇဝတ်ကောင်ကို သူတော်စင်အနေဖြင့် အသိအမှတ်ပြုလိုက်ရာရောက်ပါမည်။ အထက်ပါ နိုင်ငံတကာ
ဥပဒေများနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာစံချိန်စံညွန်းများအား ပျက်ရယ်ပြုရာလည်းရောက်ပါမည်။ နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေ
ကော်မရှင်က ပြဌာန်းပေးပြီး ကမ္ဘာ့တရားရုံး ICJ ကပင် လိုက်နာကျင့်သုံးလျက်ရှိသော နိုင်ငံတကာ
အဆင့်မှားယွင်းသောပြုမူမှုများအတွက်နိုင်ငံများ၏ တာဝန်ရှိမှု ပြဌာန်းချက်အား6 ကုလသမဂ္ဂ ကိုယ်တိုင်က
ချိုးဖောက်ရာရောက်ပါမည်။ ICC အနေဖြင့်သော်လည်းကောင်း၊ ICJ အနေဖြင့်သော်လည်းကောင်း အရေးယူ
ဆောင်ရွက်နေသည့် မှုုခင်းကြီးများရှုံးနိမ့်စေရန် စစ်ကောင်စီက သက်သေခံပစ္စည်းများအား ဖျောက်ဖျက်နိုင်
ခြေကို နိုင်ငံတကာက အားပေးလိုက်ရာရောက်ပါမည်။ နိုင်ငံတကာအဆင့် တရားရုံးကြီးများ၏ လုပ်ငန်းများ ကို
ပံ့ပိုးပေးရာမရောက်ဘဲ၊ နှောက်ယှက်ရာရောက်ပါမည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီအား တရားဝင်အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် လုံးဝ
အသိအမှတ်မပြုသင့်ပါ။..."
Source/publisher:
Legal Aid Network
Date of entry/update:
2021-09-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
697.8 KB
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Description:
"Dear respected members of the Parliament of Australia, thank you so much for giving me this great opportunity to represent my people and the country of Myanmar in your audience. The people of Myanmar truly have suffered too much for far too long under the hands of the failed coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and his military junta regime’s reign-of-terror.
This is truly the darkest period in our history, and the people of Myanmar are facing the brunt of this darkness of the genocidal military junta. While the future of Myanmar is ultimately in the hands of the brave people of Myanmar, so many of whom have given their lives for the cause of freedom and democracy, and become symbols of hope, and heroes in the hearts of their fellow citizens, we deeply need the strong and continued support, friendship and recognition from the people, Parliamentarians, and Government of Australia, and its international alliance. Timely support and recognition by Australia is absolutely crucial in putting a quick end to this cruel military junta in Myanmar, and to building a new Myanmar - an inclusive federal democratic union for ALL the people of Myanmar, regardless of race, religion, culture, gender, background or ethnicity.
The 54 million people of Myanmar are facing brutal war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide at the hands of failed coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and his terroristic junta forces. Since February 1st, 2021, over 1,026 men, women and children have been murdered in cold blood, and over 7,627 innocent civilians have been illegally arrested without cause. More than 1,984 brave and innocent Myanmar people are being forced into hiding to evade illegal arrest warrants (according to the AAPP), and many of our democratically elected leader are facing show trials based on fraudulent and illegal charges. These trials have nothing to do with the rule of law or democracy, but instead serve as a tool with which the military junta seeks to prolong its self- serving reign-of-terror against the people of Myanmar. In addition, over 1.2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee for their lives from their homes, villages, towns and cities that have come under attack by the genocidal military junta (according to UNHCR). The UNDP projects that over 27 million people in Myanmar will be forced below the poverty line within less than a year now, and UN-WFP projects that a further 6.4 million Myanmar people will be without food by the end of October, this year.
Covid-19 cases have spiraled out of control under the watch of the military junta, and hundreds of innocent people are dying each day as the Delta variant ravages our country. The people of Myanmar have lost all faith in the ability of the military junta do to anything successfully, especially when it comes to prevention and treatment of Covid-19. Over 260 medical facilities nationwide have been attacked, with several hospitals currently being illegally occupied by troops. Over 27 medical personnel have been murdered, and over 600 arrested by this cruel junta. Due to this, over half the population of Myanmar could become infected by Covid-19, and Myanmar is becoming a breeding ground not only for the Covid-19 delta variant, but for potentially new and stronger variants as well. This is a serious threat not only nationally or regionally, but globally.
Our economy is collapsing to the ground; our health care, finance, education and other basic services are paralyzed, and food insecurity is sharply rising. Violence and murder is rampant, and crimes against humanity have become widespread across the nation. This triple-crisis is pushing the whole nation into an extremely desperate situation. We are being pushed ever closer to a great civil bloodbath - a civil war - and another genocide. This can be prevented only by the international community’s urgent, strong and coordinated actions against this genocidal military regime in Myanmar.
Over 4 months have passed since ASEAN’s five-point consensus on Myanmar was reached, but as yet there are zero actions on the ground. The ASEAN Special Envoy has been appointed, and the eyes of the world rest on him; yet no swift actions have been made on the ground, and the military junta continues to use the ASEAN platform as their propaganda tool to prolong their acts of terrorism and their illegal reign-of-terror against the people of Myanmar. The 76th UN General Assembly resolution on Myanmar was adopted more than two months ago; yet again with no results on the ground in Myanmar. The military junta shows zero respect for the International Community, our ASEAN brothers and sisters, or the people of Myanmar.
It is then absolutely unacceptable that children’s classrooms are being occupied by cruel soldiers, and that school children are instead being forced to flee for their lives. It is completely unacceptable that places of worship and community centers are being occupied by the junta forces, and that the communities, pastors, monks, and leaders are being forced to flee for their lives. It is not normal, nor is it acceptable under any circumstances that our hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, banks, and economy is crashing due to this military reign-of-terror. It is unacceptable in the highest degree that our teachers, tutors, professors, doctors, nurses, midwives, engineers, scholars and civil servants are being forced to flee for their lives because of their participation in the peaceful Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to end the military junta’s usurpation of power from the people’s elected National Unity Government.
We are grateful everyday to our Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAO), People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and Civilian Defense Forces (CDF) who are laying down their lives in defense of their families, loved ones and neighbors from being murdered in cold blood, and defending their homes, villages, towns and cities from being completely wiped out by the terroristic junta forces and their bloodstained battlefield weapons; all of which obtained from China, Russia and other countries by using the stolen wealth of the people and country of Myanmar.
During the last six months, we have received hundreds of thousands of emails, 151,000 emails of which contain documented cases of crimes against humanity, and over 310,000 videos and photographs of atrocities. 427 strong cases are being open by international human rights lawyers on behalf of 28,005 victims who suffered crimes against humanity committed by the military junta forces. These are being named with case details and case notes, and will be prosecuted accordingly.
In addition, the citizens of Myanmar have initiated strong domestic sanctions against the junta through the peaceful Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), general strikes and other acts of civil defiance. We are boycotting junta produced goods, and a large percentage of civil servants continue to refuse to support the junta’s work or supply chains. The sanctions that have been imposed thus far by the International Community have been a helpful start in showing a strong support for both our domestic efforts and the will of the people. However, greater help and support and recognition from the people, Parliament and Government of Australia and its allies from the international community is of critical and vital importance.
We urge the Government of Australia to engage with the National Unity Government of Myanmar as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Myanmar. We request the help of the people and Government of Australia in the upcoming credentialing challenges at the United Nations in September, and we critically need everything done that can be done in your power to ensure that the UNGA abides by its mandate to uphold the well-being of the people of Myanmar - the only way of which to accomplish this is to reject the genocidal and illegal military junta and accept the sole legitimate democratically elected Government of Myanmar - the National Unity Government - as the sole representative of the people and country of Myanmar.
This is the first time in the history of Myanmar that there has been a National Unity Government with the full support of the people. This is the first time in our history that elected members of Parliament, Political Parties, Ethnic Leaders, Ethnic Armed Organizations, and grass roots Civil Society Organizations have come together as one united people to oppose the common enemy - this military dictatorship - and to deliver justice to our Rohingya brothers and sisters, and to all the victims across Myanmar.
We have made our position clear that we will pursue freedom and justice for ALL, and we standby ready fully to cooperate with the ICJ and ICC to end impunity and hold all perpetrators accountable for their actions and crimes against humanity. The people of Myanmar recognize us as the sole legitimate government of Myanmar, and our hope is that you will also work with us as the sole legitimate government of Myanmar as well. We need the endorsement, recognition, acknowledgement and engagement from Australia and the free countries and leaders from around the world who believe in freedom, justice, and democracy. This is the greatest opportunity of the century. We must seize upon this window of opportunity to stop these horrendous crimes against humanity and put an end to this brutal military junta once and for all, and begin the building of an inclusive Federal Democratic Union of Myanmar for ALL the people of Myanmar.
We urgently need your help in addressing the growing humanitarian and political catastrophe and COVID-19 triple-crisis which is a direct result of the military junta’s acts of terrorism against the people of Myanmar. The National Unity Government knows how to get aid where it is most needed, and the most critically needed items are as follows: 1) COVID prevention, treatment and vaccines; 2) food; 3) medicines and medical supplies; 4) shelter; 5) and education (digital online/offline solutions).
Additionally, we, the people and Government of Myanmar, respectfully request the people and Government of Australia to impose harsh sanctions against all members of the illegal military council (SAC), the so-called military appointed “caretaker government”, military owned and linked businesses, and cronies who serve as brokers or pathways for the illegal military junta to obtain funding which it utilizes to destroy the people of Myanmar. The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada and others have stood with the people of Myanmar in imposing sanctions against these individuals and entities, and it is our sincere request that Australia will also do the same, and ban all dealings with these criminals.
Australia plays a key role in this situation as Australia is the key to Asia - Australasia - and it is therefore crucial that Australia step up to the occasion and do everything in its power to help put an end to the senseless murder of thousands of innocent people on it’s very doorstep. We are respectfully requesting that the Government of Australia and its alliance to ensure that no funds from any entity under the control of Australia, whether public or private, be allowed to continue to be transferred to the Junta, its business entities, leaders, or their families. The largest source of revenue to the junta, the oil and gas sector, remains largely unscathed by the international community. Coordinated and targeted sanctions and legislation from the Australia Parliament would make a clear legal obligation for companies to stop the flow of this revenue to the junta, and the sanctioning of individuals from the military junta and their cronies who are responsible for crimes against humanity are vitally important. We must not continue to allow this illegal junta to spend the wealth of the people of Myanmar in murdering the people of Myanmar.
Therefore, the Government of Australia and the International Community must continue to place sanctions against the junta leaders and their main income stream - Myanmar Oil and Gas, and all state-owned enterprises, including the transfer of dual use technology, and impose an international arms embargo and a strict no-fly-zone above the territory of Myanmar by any means necessary. These measures are absolutely vital to prevent a great civil war and another genocide from occurring in Myanmar.
We also express our deepest sympathy and regrets for what Australian national Professor Sean Turnell has been put through illegally by the merciless junta. He is a great hero of the people of Myanmar, and is highly regarded in all quarters. We are extremely sorry for the situation he is in under the hands of the brutal junta, and we pray for his well being and demand his unconditional and immediate release. The false charges against him have nothing to do with rule of law but have everything to do with the prolonging of the military junta’s reign-of-terror against our freedom, values and democracy. The people of Myanmar stand in solidarity with Professor Sean Turnell and his family, and we hope that the Government of Australia will also demand his immediate and unconditional release and repatriation, and offer severe consequences to the junta for any delays or non-compliance.
When the 54 million people of Myanmar have received your support and recognition, we, the frontline defenders of freedom, liberty and democracy in Myanmar will be able to put an end to this genocidal military dictatorship which has become a cancer to the nation and to the world, and to replace it with an ethical and inclusive armed force that belongs to and is comprised of the people of Myanmar, and is placed under civilian governance and control.
Together we will begin to build a new Myanmar and an inclusive Federal Democratic Union for ALL the people of Myanmar regardless of race, religion, gender, culture, ethnicity or background, and where all human rights are equally respected, protected and promoted. Myanmar will become a country where power and resource sharing will be based on the principles of equality and self-determination, and where the three branches of government - Parliament, Judiciary and Executive - will function independently; we will become a country where the rights of all will be protected and respected by the new federal democratic constitution of Myanmar. This will be brought about in an inclusive manner, and only with the consensus of ALL of our people and communities. A constitutional convention and referendum will be held on the permanent draft constitution which will belong to the people of Myanmar for all generations to come. We will win in our struggle to liberate Myanmar from the brutal military junta, and the Federal Democratic Union of Myanmar will soon become a powerful reality, and will bear testimony to our strong friendship and unyielding gratefulness with the people and Government of Australia.
We will emerge as an inclusive new Myanmar that is committed to federal democracy, human rights, and to being a responsible partner in the global alliance for liberty, freedom, peace, prosperity and stability around the world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Sasa
Union Minister of the Ministry of International Cooperation Spokesperson of the National Unity Government of Myanmar Former Myanmar Special Envoy to the United Nations..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-31
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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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"Dear respected members of the Parliament, people and Government of New Zealand, thank you so much for giving me this great opportunity to represent my people and the country of Myanmar, which have suffered too much for far too long under the hands of the failed coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and his military junta regime’s reign-of-terror against the 54 million people of Myanmar.
This is truly the darkest period in our history, and the people of Myanmar are facing the brunt of the darkness of the genocidal military junta. While the future of Myanmar is ultimately in the hands of the brave people of Myanmar, so many of whom have given their lives for the cause of freedom and democracy and become symbols of hope, and heroes in the hearts of their fellow citizens, we deeply need the strong and continued support, friendship and recognition from the people, Parliamentarians, and Government of New Zealand, and its international alliance. Your support and recognition are absolutely crucial in ending this cruel military junta in Myanmar as soon as possible, and building a new Myanmar into an inclusive federal democratic union for ALL the people of Myanmar, regardless of race, religion, culture, gender, background or ethnicity.
Under the hands of the failed coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing, and his genocidal military junta forces, the 54 million people of Myanmar are facing once again brutal crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. Since the 1st of February, 2021 when the failed coup was initiated, the genocidal military regime’s junta forces have killed 1,026 women, men and children in cold blood, and 7,627 innocent people have been arrested illegally, and without cause. Additionally, 1,984 innocent Myanmar people are evading illegal arrest warrants (according to the AAPP).
Many of our democratically elected leaders are facing show trials with fraudulent charges which have nothing to do with the rule of law, but instead has everything to do with the destruction of our democracy and freedom, and the prolonging of the military junta’s reign-of-terror against the people of Myanmar. Due to these genocidal military generals and their acts of terrorism against the innocent people of Myanmar, over 1.2 million civilians have been forced to flee for their lives from their homes, villages, towns and cities which have come under attack by the genocidal military junta forces. This rogue and cruel regime is guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. (UNCHR: 1.2 million IDPs, Refugees from Myanmar). Over 27 million people of Myanmar are projected to be living in extreme poverty within a year. (Half the population of Myanmar will live under the poverty line within a year - UNDP), and over 6.4 million people in Myanmar are projected to have no food by the end of October this year (UN - WFP).
During the last six months, we have received hundreds of thousands of emails, 151,000 emails of which contain documented cases of crimes against humanity, and over 310,000 videos and photographs of atrocities. 427 strong cases are being open by international human rights lawyers on behalf of 28,005 victims who suffered crimes against humanity committed by the military junta forces. These are being named with case details and case notes.
Covid-19 cases remain unchecked, under reported and out of control under the watch of the military junta, and hundreds of Myanmar people are dying each day. The people of Myanmar have profound and grounded mistrust in the military junta’s ability to handle this outbreak, or provide care of proper vaccine rollout. The main obstacle to COVID vaccination rollout programs across the country is due to more than 260 attacks on medical facilities, with several hospitals occupied by troops, and over 27 medical personal have been killed, with over 600 medical personal being arrested by this genocidal military junta. Due to this, over half the population of Myanmar could become infected by this virus, and Myanmar is becoming another breeding ground not only for the Covid-19 delta variant, but also for potentially new and stronger variants. This is a serious threat not only regionally, but globally.
Our economy is collapsing to the ground; our health care, education and other basic services are paralyzed, and food insecurity is sharply rising. The violence and killing, crimes against humanity against the people of Myanmar continue and are becoming more and more widespread across the nation. This triple-crisis is pushing the whole nation into extremely desperate situations which are pushing us ever closer to a great civil bloodbath - civil war - and another genocide. This can be prevented only by the international community’s strong and coordinated actions against this genocidal military regime in Myanmar.
More than four months have passed since the ASEAN five-point consensus on Myanmar was reached, but as yet there are no actions on the ground. The ASEAN Special Envoy has been appointed, and the eyes of the world rested on him, but no swift actions have been made on the ground, and the military junta continues to use the ASEAN platform as their propaganda tool to prolong their acts of terrorism and their reign-of-terror against the people of Myanmar. The 76th UN General Assembly resolution on Myanmar was adopted more than two months ago, again with no results on the ground in Myanmar. The military junta in Myanmar keeps showing zero respect for the International Community, our ASEAN brothers and sisters, and the people of Myanmar.
It is absolutely unacceptable that children’s classrooms are being occupied by brutish soldiers, and that the school children are being forced to flee for their lives. It is completely unacceptable that places of worship and community centers are being occupied by the junta forces, and that the communities, pastors, monks, and leaders are being forced to flee for their lives. It is not normal, nor is it acceptable under any circumstances that our hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, banks, and economy is crashing due to this military reign-of-terror. It is unacceptable in the highest degree that our teachers, tutors, professors, doctors, nurses, midwives, engineers, scholars and civil servants are being forced to flee for their lives because of their participation in the peaceful Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to end the military junta’s usurpation of power from the people’s elected National Unity Government. These brave people have shown that the CDM movement is more powerful than all the military junta’s acts of terrorism against the people of Myanmar.
Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAO), People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and Civilian Defense Forces (CDF) are laying down their lives every day in defense of their families, loved ones and neighbors from being murdered in cold blood, and defending their homes, villages, towns and cities from being completely wiped out by these genocidal military junta forces and their bloodstained battlefield weapons obtained from China, Russia and other countries by using the stolen wealth of the people and country of Myanmar.
The citizens of Myanmar have initiated strong domestic sanctions against the junta through the peaceful Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), general strikes and other acts of civil defiance. We are boycotting junta produced goods, and a large percentage of civil servants are refusing to support the junta’s work. The sanctions that have been imposed thus far by the International Community have been a helpful start in showing a strong support for both our domestic efforts and the will of the people. However, greater help and support and recognition from the people, Parliament and Government of New Zealand and its allies from the international community is of critical and urgent importance.
We urge you to engage with the National Unity Government of Myanmar as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Myanmar. We need your help in the upcoming credentialing challenges at the UN in September, and we sincerely request you to help us with everything in your power to ensure that the UNGA abides by its mandate to uphold the well-being of the people of Myanmar; and the only way to accomplish this is to reject the genocidal and illegal military junta and accept the sole legitimate elected Government of Myanmar - the National Unity Government as the sole representative of the people and country of Myanmar.
This is the first time in the history of Myanmar that there has been a National Unity Government with the full support of the people. This is the first time in our history that elected members of Parliament, Political Parties, Ethnic Leaders, Ethnic Armed Organizations, and grass roots Civil Society Organizations have come together as one united people to oppose the common enemy - this military dictatorship - and to deliver justice to our Rohingya brothers and sisters, and to all the victims across Myanmar. We have make our position clear that we will pursue freedom and justice for ALL, and we standby ready to fully cooperate with the ICJ and ICC to end impunity and hold all perpetrators accountable for their actions and crimes against humanity.
The people of Myanmar recognize us as the sole legitimate government, and our hope is that you will also work with us as the sole legitimate government of Myanmar as well. We need the endorsement, recognition, acknowledgement and engagement from New Zealand and the free countries and leaders from around the world who believe in freedom, justice, and democracy. This is the greatest opportunity of the century. We must seize upon this window of opportunity to stop the crimes against humanity and put an end to this brutal military junta reign-of-terror once and for all, and begin the building of an inclusive Federal Democratic Union of Myanmar for ALL the people of Myanmar.
We urgently need help in addressing the growing humanitarian and political catastrophe and COVID-19 triple-crisis which is a direct result of the military junta’s acts of terrorism against the people of Myanmar. The National Unity Government knows how to get aid where it is most needed. We need critical aid for the following: 1) COVID prevention, treatment and vaccines; 2) food; 3) medicines and medical supplies; 4) shelter; 5) and education (digital online/offline solutions).
Additionally, please help us put more financial pressure on the junta. It is critical for the nations of the world who stand with us to come together in a coordinated campaign and coalition for further sanctions that will cut the flow of revenue and weapons to this murderous military regime. We are respectfully requesting that the Government of the New Zealand and its alliance to ensure that no funds from any entity under the control of New Zealand (and its alliance), whether public or private, be allowed to continue to be transferred to the Junta, its business entities, leaders, or their families. The largest source of revenue to the junta, the oil and gas sector, remains largely unscathed by the international community. Coordinated and targeted sanctions and legislation from the New Zealand Parliament would make a clear legal obligation for companies to stop the flow of this revenue to the junta, and the sanctioning of individuals from the military junta and their cronies who are responsible for crimes against humanity are vitally important as well. We must not continue to allow this illegal junta to spend the wealth of the people of Myanmar in murdering the people of Myanmar.
Therefore, the Government of New Zealand and the International Community must continue to place sanctions against the junta leaders and their main income generator Myanmar Oil and Gas, and all state-owned enterprises, including the transfer of dual use technology, and impose an international arms embargo and a strict no-fly-zone above the territory of Myanmar by whatever means necessary. These measures are critically vital to prevent a great civil war and another genocide in Myanmar.
When the 54 million people of Myanmar have received your support and recognition, we, the frontline defenders of freedom, liberty and democracy in Myanmar will be able to put an end to this genocidal military dictatorship which has become a cancer to the nation and the people of Myanmar, and to replace it with an ethical and inclusive armed force that belongs to and iscomprised of the people of Myanmar, and is placed under civilian governance and control.
Together we will begin to build a new Myanmar and an inclusive Federal Democratic Union for ALL the people of Myanmar regardless of race, religion, gender, culture, ethnicity or background, and where all human rights are equally respected, protected and promoted. Myanmar will become a country where power and resource sharing will be based on the principles of equality and self- determination, and where the three branches of government, Parliament, Judiciary and Executive will function independently; we will become a country where the rights of all will be protected and respected by the new federal democratic constitution of Myanmar. This will be brought above in an inclusive manner, and only with the consensus of ALL of our people. A constitutional convention and referendum will be held on the permanent draft constitution which will belong to the people of Myanmar for all generations to come.
We will win in our struggle to liberate Myanmar from the brutal military junta, and the Federal Democratic Union of Myanmar will soon become a powerful reality, and will bear testimony to our strong friendship and unyielding gratefulness with the people and Government of New Zealand. We will emerge as an inclusive new Myanmar that is committed to federal democracy, human rights, and to being a responsible partner in the global alliance for liberty, freedom, peace, prosperity and stability around the world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Sasa
Union Minister of the Ministry of International Cooperation Spokesperson of the National Unity Government of Myanmar Former Myanmar Special Envoy to the United Nations..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
128.31 KB
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Description:
"1. August 30th m arks the Statement on International Day of the Victims of Enforced
Disappearances. Enforced disappearance m eans arrest without the will of a person or group
of people by a governm ent or an organization or som eone represented of it denying their
rights.
2. It can be found that people included in enforced of disappearance in many countries'
history. Dictator governm ents tend to intentionally arrest or make hum an rights defenders,
their fam ilies and hum an rights violation docum ents disappear.
3. Enforced disappearance effects not only on the individuals, each fam ilies but also on the
justice system. M aking a person disappear without his/her will is a hum an rights violation
and it affects the right to life, security and developm ent of every citizen in a country. Because
of unfair arrest and elimination, it causes sorrow and social, econom ic impacts on fam ily
levels. Likewise, as there is no access to legal rights according to the law, not being able to
prosecute those responsible, it can lead to the culture of impunity.
4. It is very important that the data collection and archiving process for hum an rights
violations, those who had to suffer the crimes of the military junta not only during the
M yanm ar spring revolution as well as in the ethnic areas since many years ago. Ministry of
Human Rights will work together with international organizations, civil society organizations
and people to prevent such events from happening again, to bring out the truth, and to heal
the sufferings of each of those who disappeared, fallen based on those records.
5. M em ory of the people is the characteristic of the people that the dictators despise of.
Preserving, archiving and handling of their hum an rights violations that the dictators want to
1
be forgotten is participating in the revolution. it is very important step to be m aking for
justice by preserving as much as possible of the history, events, stories and m em ories of
revolution com rades made disappear by the junta. We shall not forget the values they held
and continue our fight for hum an rights and equality..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
27.61 KB
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Description:
"အာဏာခွင့်ပြုချက်သုံး၍ ပျောက်ဆုံးသွားသောသူများအတွက် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ အထိမ်းအမှတ်နေ့ (International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances) ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
261.62 KB
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Sub-title:
Announcement on Illicit Printing of Banknotes - ငွေစက္ကူများ တရားမဝင် ရိုက်နှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေခြင်းနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်းသည့်ကြေညာချက်
Description:
"1. The Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Investment has received credible information that the
illegitimate military council has made approaches to foreign banknote and security printing firms in
order to seek assistance in printing new Myanmar kyat banknotes.
2. Issuance of currency is the sole prerogative of a nation's government. The National Unity
Government has determined the illegitimate military council to be an unlawful association under
Section 16 of the Unlawful Associations Act 1908. It shall remain so irrespective of its change of title,
composition, or dissolution under Section 18 of the said Act. As such, 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.
3. Causing inflation by printing excess banknotes is, in effect, the theft of our people's labour and
savings. As our nation faces unprecedented perils of conflict, poverty, and pestilence, all precipitated
by the military council, such a reckless and irresponsible act that will cause harm to labourers,
workers, households, businesses, and investors shall not be tolerated.
4. The National Unity Government calls upon the military council to desist from this act of economic
sabotage. Likewise, the National Unity Government implores foreign banknote and security printing
firms who have been approached, and those who may yet be approached by the illegal military
council, to refrain from the printing of Myanmar kyat banknotes and from providing any raw
materials, supplies, or system components that could be used in their production.
5. The National Unity Government calls upon all responsible firms to follow the example set by
Giesecke+Devrient GmbH in March when it took an immediate, principled, and ethical step in halting
all deliveries to the military council-controlled printer, Security Printing Works.
6. The National Unity Government shall consider any assistance provided to the illegal military
council to print illicit banknotes as an act of aiding and abetting an unlawful association responsible
for numerous and ongoing atrocities, including crimes against humanity and genocide.....၁။ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီသည် မြန်မာကျပ်ငွေစက္ကူအသစ်များ ရိုက်နှိပ်ရန်အလို့ငှာ ငွေစက္ကူပုံနှိပ်လုပ်ငန်း ဝန်ဆောင်မှုပေး သည့် ပြည်ပကုမ္ပဏီများထံ ချဉ်းကပ်လျက်ရှိကြောင်း ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ စီမံကိန်း၊ ဘဏ္ဍာရေးနှင့် ရင်းနှီးမြုပ်နှံမှု ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် ခိုင်လုံသည့် သတင်းအချက်အလက်များ လက်ခံရရှိထားပါသည်။
၂။ ငွေစက္ကူရိုက်နှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေခြင်းဆိုသည်မှာ နိုင်ငံတစ်ခု၏ တရားဝင်အစိုးရကသာ လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်ရှိသည့် လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်ဖြစ်သည်။ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ၁၉၀၈ ခုနှစ် မတရားအသင်းများအက်ဥပဒေ ပုဒ်မ ၁၆ အရ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီအား မတရားသင်းတစ်ခုအဖြစ် အတိအလင်းကြေညာပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်းအက်ဥပဒေပုဒ်မ ၁၈ အရ အိမ်စောင့်အစိုးရအမည်ခံ စစ်ကောင်စီမှဖြစ် စေ၊ ယင်းကိုဆက်ခံသည့် အဖွဲ့အစည်းတစ်ခုခုမှဖြစ်စေ၊ ယင်း၏လက်အောက်ခံ အဖွဲ့အစည်းတစ်ခုခုမှဖြစ်စေ ငွေစက္ကူရိုက်နှိပ် ထုတ်ဝေခြင်း သည် တရားဝင်မှု အလျဉ်းမရှိသည့် လုပ်ရပ်သာဖြစ်သည်။
၃။ တရားမဝင်ငွေစက္ကူများ ရိုက်နှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေခြင်းဖြင့် ငွေကြေးဖောင်းပွမှု ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေခြင်းသည် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ပြည်သူများ၏ လုပ်အားနှင့် ချွေးနှဲ စာစုဆောင်းငွေများကို တဖက်လှည့်ခိုးယူခြင်းပင် ဖြစ်သည်။ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့နိုင်ငံသည် တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အဆင်ခြင်မဲ့ လုပ်ရပ်များကြောင့် ယခင်မကြုံဖူးသည့် ပဋိပက္ခအန္တရာယ်၊ ဆင်းရဲမွဲတေမှုနှင့် ကပ်ရောဂါတို့ကို စုပြုံခံစားနေရချိန်၌ အိမ်ထောင်စုများ၊ စီးပွား ရေးလုပ်ငန်းများ၊ ရင်းနှီးမြုပ်နှံသူများနှင့် ပြည်သူလူထုအပေါ် ထပ်မံ၍ ဒုက္ခအကျပ်အတည်း ဆိုက်ရောက်စေသည့် ငွေစက္ကူရိုက်နှိပ်ထုတ် ဝေခြင်းသည် သည်းခံခွင့်လွှတ်နိုင်ဖွယ် မရှိသော လုပ်ရပ်သာဖြစ်သည်။
၄။ ထို့ကြောင့် ငွေစက္ကူပုံနှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေခြင်းလုပ်ငန်း ဝန်ဆောင်မှုပေးနေသည့် ပြည်ပမှ ကုမ္ပဏီများအနေဖြင့် တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ငွေစက္ကူရိုက်နှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေခြင်းအား တနည်းနည်းဖြင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်း၊ ကုန်ကြမ်းပစ္စည်းနှင့် နည်းပညာအထောက် အပံ့ ပေးခြင်းတို့ကို အထူးရှောင်ရှားကြရန် တိုက်တွန်းတောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်။
၅။ ပြီးခဲ့သည့် မတ်လတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီထိန်းချုပ်ထားသည့် ငွေစက္ကူ နှင့် ငွေကြေးဆိုင်ရာ စာချုပ်၊စာတမ်းများပုံနှိပ်စက် အတွက်အဓိက လိုအပ်သည့် နည်းပညာနှင့်ကုန်ကြမ်းတင်ပို့မှုများကို မူဝါဒခိုင်မာစွာ၊ ကျင့်ဝတ်မှန်ကန်စွာ၊ ချက်ချင်းရပ်စဲခဲ့သည့် Giesecke+Devrient GmbH ကုမ္ပဏီ၏ ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာရှိသည့် တာဝန်ခံဆောင်ရွက်မှုကို စံနမူနာထား၊ အတုယူ၍ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် စီးပွားရေးဆက်ဆံ ဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ လုံး၀မပြုလုပ်ကြရန်လည်း တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။
၆။ လူမျိုးတုံး သတ်ဖြတ်မှု၊ လူသားထုအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုအပါအဝင် ဆက်လက် ကျူးလွန်နေသည့် ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာမှုများ၊ မရေမတွက်နိုင်သော အကြမ်းဖက် လုပ်ဆောင်မှုများနှင့် ဆက်စပ်နေသည့် တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဥပဒေမဲ့၊ တရားမဝင် ငွေစက္ကူရိုက်နှိပ်ထုတ်ဝေခြင်း လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်တွင် တနည်းနည်းဖြင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်သည့် စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများ၊ ကုမ္ပဏီများအား အကြမ်းဖက်မှုကို အားပေးကူညီရာမြောက်သည့်လုပ်ငန်းများအဖြစ် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအဖွဲ့က မှတ်တမ်းပြုစု၊ အရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment - NUG
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-27
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Genocide
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Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
34.31 KB 194.25 KB
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Sub-title:
Atrocity Alert is a weekly publication by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect highlighting situations where populations are at risk of, or are enduring, mass atrocity crimes.
Description:
"DESPITE TALIBAN PROMISES, REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES EMERGE
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, reports of widespread human rights abuses are already emerging. A day after the capture of Kabul on 15 August, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council of “chilling reports of severe restrictions on human rights throughout the country,” particularly violations against women and girls. Over the past week small demonstrations against Taliban rule have also taken place across the Afghanistan and the Taliban have responded with violence, including shooting at protesters.
Although the Taliban declared a “general amnesty” on 17 August for those who worked for the previous Afghan government, there have also been numerous reports of their forces searching for Afghans who previously worked for United States (US) or North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, as well as former members of the security forces. Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, has reiterated their promise of no reprisals, but allegations of arrests and property seizures, as well as unverified reports of reprisal killings, continue to emerge. Internal UN reports indicate that their Afghan staff have also been beaten, harassed and threatened by the Taliban since 15 August.
Mujahid also issued a series of conditional assurances regarding the Taliban’s respect for human rights principles, including support for a free press that does not “work against national values” and no discrimination against women “within the limits of Islam.” However, freedom of the press and the fundamental rights of women and girls have previously been infringed upon, including the at least 30 journalists and media workers who have been killed, wounded or abducted by the Taliban and other armed extremists so far this year.
Despite Taliban assurances of safe passage for Afghans wishing to leave the country, at least 20 Afghans have been killed over the past week either by shootings or stampedes while attempting to flee via the airport. The US has suggested the potential extension of their troop presence to assist with evacuations from Kabul airport, but the Taliban has threatened that the presence of foreign forces beyond 31 August would be met with “consequences.”
Universal human rights are unconditional. There should be no diplomatic recognition of any Taliban-led government unless it is willing to honor Afghanistan’s international treaty obligations and demonstrate its commitment to uphold the human rights of all Afghans, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religious belief or sexual orientation. The UN Human Rights Council should immediately establish an independent international mechanism to monitor the human rights situation in the country.
TILLABÉRI BECOMES EPICENTER OF ATROCITIES IN NIGER
On 20 August suspected fighters from an Islamist armed group opened fire during evening prayers in the village of Theim in the Tillabéri region of Niger, killing 16 people. This attack followed the killing of 37 civilians, including 13 children, in the village of Darey-Dey in Tillabéri on 16 August. According to local authorities, the unidentified armed men “found people in the fields and shot at anything that moved.” This was the third such attack in Darey-Dey so far this year. A state of emergency has been enforced in Tillabéri since 2017, but civilians have come under increased attack as armed groups linked to the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara have made inroads in the region.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed his concern for “the cumulative impact of these frequent attacks on the humanitarian situation in the region of Tillabéri, where already more than 100,000 people have been displaced and 520,000 are in need of humanitarian assistance.”
Since the start of 2021 western Niger has experienced some of the worst atrocities in its recent history. More than 450 civilians have been killed by Islamist armed groups, with the majority of attacks targeting civilians along ethnic lines. The recent attacks in the tri-border region of Niger are also part of a wider conflict in the Central Sahel, encompassing Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Last Wednesday, 18 August, at least 59 civilians were killed in an attack near the town of Arbinda, northern Burkina Faso.
The ongoing violence is also exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Tillabéri. Since the start of the rainy season in June, armed groups have targeted civilians working in the fields, which has disrupted agricultural production and transhumance at a time when over 686,000 people are at risk of severe food insecurity. According to Human Rights Watch, Islamist armed groups have also destroyed 147 granaries so far this year in the Banibangou administrative area in Tillabéri. Over 100 civilians have been killed since the start of July, many of whom were attacked as they were farming.
All civilians, regardless of ethnicity or religion, are entitled to equal protection in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. The Nigerien government must apprehend and prosecute all perpetrators of alleged war crimes. The authorities should bolster the early warning capabilities of the army, protect vulnerable populations in the Tillabéri region, and ensure that these efforts do not lead to further human rights abuses.
FOUR YEARS SINCE THE ROHINGYA GENOCIDE IN MYANMAR
Today, 25 August, marks four years since Myanmar’s security forces initiated so-called “clearance operations” against the minority Rohingya population in Rakhine State. The operations were characterized by indiscriminate killings, sexual violence and forced displacement on a massive scale. More than 350 Rohingya villages were destroyed and 745,000 people were forced to flee. In 2019 the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar concluded that senior members of the military should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and war crimes as well as genocide against the Rohingya. This includes General Min Aung Hlaing, who subsequently led a military coup on 1 February 2021 that overthrew Myanmar’s civilian-led government.
The genocide was the culmination of decades of institutionalized persecution of the Rohingya, including the denial of citizenship and severe restrictions on their freedom of movement as well as access to education and employment. Four years later, all these discriminatory laws and policies remain in place. Impunity for their role in the genocide has emboldened Myanmar’s security forces to commit other human rights violations and abuses, including potential crimes against humanity perpetrated by the new military junta against civilian protesters.
More than 1,000 people have been killed by Myanmar’s security forces since the 1 February coup. Thousands more remain in detention where they face torture and other forms of cruel and degrading treatment.
The Rohingya continue to face an existential threat under the junta. During May General Min Aung Hlaing publicly rejected the term “Rohingya” and cast doubt on the return of refugees from Bangladesh. Amidst a catastrophic wave of COVID-19 infections, junta-appointed authorities said they had no plans to include the remaining Rohingya population in Rakhine State, who are forced to live in densely-packed displacement camps, in their vaccination plans.
Since the 2017 genocide some progress has been made in pursuing international justice for the Rohingya. During 2019 The Gambia brought a historic case to the International Court of Justice, accusing Myanmar of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court has also authorized the Chief Prosecutor to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya, resulting in their forced deportation to Bangladesh. Meanwhile, on 17 August a court in Argentina heard testimony from Rohingya survivors regarding a case initiated under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
“Since the military coup, the lives of the Rohingya as well as millions of other civilians in Myanmar are under heightened threat,” said Nadira Kourt, Program Manager at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. “The UN Security Council and the entire international community should publicly recognize that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya and impose punitive measures against the military, including targeted sanctions. All justice and accountability processes in relation to both past and current atrocities in Myanmar should be fully supported.”..."
Source/publisher:
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Burma/Myanmar, Human Rights and international relations, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
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Description:
"25 August 2021: Four years ago, decades of state persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar culminated in a campaign of genocidal atrocities committed against Rohingya by the Myanmar military. Today, the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) remembers the victims, those still facing persecution in Rakhine state, and the refugees in Cox’s Bazar and around the world.
The 25th of August marks the day in 2017 when the Myanmar military and security forces descended upon Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine state and unleashed a campaign of horror against Rohingya girls, boys, women and men. Thousands were killed, thousands more were raped and tortured, and three quarters of a million people were forced to flee to Bangladesh, where they remain. Those who fled joined a quarter of a million earlier Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
“We three have all been profoundly changed by our investigations into what was done to the Rohingya in August 2017, by meeting with survivors and hearing your stories,” the members of SAC-M said to the survivors. “Today, we remember the victims, we encourage you in your struggle and we reaffirm our commitment to the continuing fight for justice, reparation and the reinstatement of your rights.”
The one million Rohingya refugees confined to camps in Bangladesh continue to endure dire conditions. Deadly fires swept through the camps earlier in the year and now serious flooding has caused further destruction.
The coup launched by the Myanmar military in February has created further uncertainty around the prospects for establishing conditions in Myanmar conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified and durable return of Rohingya refugees.
The Rohingya who remain in northern and central Rakhine face deteriorating conditions and ongoing discrimination. Their access to COVID-19 vaccination programmes is reported to be restricted or prevented entirely. Meanwhile, the threat of more military rule – the same military responsible for the atrocities remembered today – threatens to entrench the military’s impunity for its crimes and render justice ever more remote.
“The fourth anniversary of the atrocities also serves as a moment for us all to recall the lessons of history, and what may come if racism, exclusion, persecution and impunity for human rights violations are allowed to prevail,” said SAC-M. “Those lessons must inspire the people of Myanmar as they rise up against the military and look to a future of peace, pluralism and a new democracy in which the Rohingya are full, equal participants in Myanmar society.”
Should a tragedy of such magnitude that fatefully befell the Rohingya, which is veritably a national tragedy, ever recur, that would spell the demise of the idea of the Myanmar nation.
On this day of remembrance SAC-M calls on the people of Myanmar and the international community not to forget. Not to forget what the Myanmar military has done. Not to forget what it continues to do. Not to forget what is at stake for all those striving to resist military rule. Not to forget the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
109.62 KB 536.29 KB
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Description:
"Four years ago, Burma’s military launched a horrific ethnic cleansing against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State. The brutality of the military’s atrocities on that day shocked the conscience of the international community – but we recognize the Rohingya had already suffered decades of grave human rights abuses, and that many of those abuses continue today. The United States remembers the victims and recommits to pursuing and demanding accountability for those responsible for these atrocities and other human rights abuses, and seeking justice for victims. We recognize the need to address the root causes of this violence and hold perpetrators accountable to help prevent such atrocities from recurring.
Today, the same military leaders who perpetrated the February 1 coup are committing abuses against pro-democracy activists and members of ethnic and religious communities across the country, and we have seen the same light infantry brigades that terrorized Rohingya communities in 2017 inflict brutal violence on pro-democracy protestors since the coup. The coup and the brutality of the military’s subsequent crackdown have exacerbated the already precarious situation for vulnerable people across Burma, including Rohingya. The United States continues to underscore the need for unhindered humanitarian access to all people requiring assistance in Burma.
At the launch of the 2021 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in May, the United States announced nearly $155 million in new assistance to sustain critical efforts to support Rohingya refugees and members of the host communities in Bangladesh and internally displaced Rohingya. and other affected people in Burma. Our assistance will help meet the immediate needs of nearly 900,000 refugees in Bangladesh, including women and children. This new funding, which includes life-saving COVID assistance, brought our total humanitarian aid for those affected by the crisis in Burma, Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region, to more than $1.3 billion – including more than $1.1 billion in Bangladesh and more than $238 million in Burma – since August 2017. We encourage other members of the international community to likewise support peace building and social cohesion work in Rakhine State, and to contribute to the Joint Response Plan.
The United States will continue to promote justice for victims and accountability for those responsible for atrocities and other human rights abuses. To that end, we have imposed visa restrictions and financial sanctions on top military leaders and units, including those linked to serious human rights abuse against Rohingya, and suppression of peaceful protests since the February 1 coup. We have also supported the UN fact finding and investigative mechanisms focused on Burma; and pressed Burma to implement the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures order.
The United States also welcomes the inclusive path forward envisioned by the NUG and other pro-democracy groups in Burma and their pledge to reform the 1982 citizenship law, among other actions intended to protect the rights of Rohingya and members of other ethnic minority groups. These steps will be necessary to safeguard the human rights and human dignity of all people in Burma, including Rohingya.
The United States will continue to partner with the people of Burma to support peace and justice, critical humanitarian assistance, a return to the path to democracy, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms..."
Source/publisher:
United States Department of State
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG)
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Today is a most memorable day for us, for our children and for our generations to come. On this day of August 25, 2017, the Burma/Myanmar brute forces, army, police and state-sponsored non-state actors and Buddhist Rakhine vigilantes started pre-planned genocidal onslaughts against our innocent people carrying out mass murder, widespread rape, systematic arson attacks and wholesale destruction of homes and villages.
Today we remember something that happened to us or to our communities. Similarly, we remember something that happened before 25 August 2017, and the mass atrocity crimes between 2012 to 2016 in Arakan and across the country. Today we also remember what befell our people before we were born, specifically the killing of about100,000 of our innocent people in 1942.
Today our people, the survivors in Arakan and refugee camps, are mere ruins. We are a people without a past for it was taken away from us, and without a future. Everything is broken and our homeland is irrecoverably destroyed.
The crimes never happen overnight. The Rohingya genocide is the last step in the continuity of destruction that began decades ago, largely from 1962 military takeover in Burma. Their aim is to destroy our people in whole or in part from our ancestral homeland to which we have physical, psychological and spiritual attachment.
There are many testimonies of survivors. They were unarmed people caught off guard, chosen as victims solely because of their ethnicity and religion. In spite of our repeated forewarning of genocide looming over our defenceless people, there was no international response.
Here, we are compelled to ask ourselves: how was this genocide possible at all? The answer lies in the inactivity of the international community, which according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes of Genocide (1948), was obliged to act, that is to “prevent and punish” genocide. Unfortunately, still almost all governments have avoided calling the crime by its proper name –genocide—eschew their obligation from the Convention, which, ultimately, implies intervening. Encouraged by the hesitancy of the international community, the perpetrators realized their criminal policy without punishment.
We thank the people and government of Bangladesh for sheltering and looking after our refugees on humanitarian grounds. We also appreciate the international community for their humanitarian aid.
We are grateful to The Republic of Gambia for filing a genocide case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with the backing of Bangladesh and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Despite Court (ICJ) Order on 23 January 2020, the Rohingya who are left behind in Arakan are under constant threat of genocide facing a great humanitarian disaster. Sponsored demographic changes are progressively made in the Rohingya Homeland of North Arakan.
Under the present unsafe conditions, the return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and elsewhere to Burma will put them at risk of further crimes. The international community must not fail them again, and it has a responsibility to protect them. The UNSC should refer the criminals to International Criminal Court. This is the time for the United Nations to intervene in Arakan/Rakhine State, if necessary, by seeking global consensus.
The punishing of crimes must be accepted as a personal moral imperative. Without embracing the responsibility for the crimes, there is no compromise with the criminals and the enemies of humanity. All perpetrators must be brought to justice.
In conclusion, today we remember and honour all those who were killed as heroes and shaheeds (martyrs). We will remember them forever. Today we also salute our female survivors, including the rape victims, for their courageous efforts to survive, even as refugee widows and orphans. The carnage is more than a tragedy. The extent of barbarity or methods employed in Arakan/Rakhine State against our people surpassed everything else that took place on the territory of Myanmar. That will not and cannot be forgotten..."
Source/publisher:
Arakan Rohingya National Organisation
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-25
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Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human Rights and international relations, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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"The crisis in Myanmar has slipped from the headlines. In a predictably peripatetic news-cycle world, the continued post-coup crackdown, Covid-19 surge and humanitarian catastrophe evinces little international attention. The corroded global conscience has been gripped by the debacle of Afghanistan, the Delta variant and pandemic social disorder in multiple countries.
Many of the condemnatory statements being released by Western states, much reduced now that the crisis has been sub-contracted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), remain ‘deeply concerned’. Crucially, they have refused to recognize the junta’s ‘interim government.’ That’s so far. But a combination of sanctions and the lackluster efforts of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Special Envoy Christine Burgener Schraner have replaced calls for the Responsibility to Protect. In other words, worn tools of inaction. Often included among these, but rarely elaborated on, is the option of imposing a UN arms embargo on Myanmar. But is that actually feasible?
Hopes were certainly bolstered by the non-binding UN General Assembly Resolution passed on 18 June, the text of which stated: “(I)n line with the Secretary General’s call for a global ceasefire as supported by the Security Council in its resolution 2532 (2020) of 1 July 2020, the need to de-escalate violence, and in that regard calls upon all Member States to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar”. That has been interpreted as a call supporting an arms embargo. The resolution, which had been delayed due to divisions within ASEAN, was passed with 119 votes, 36 abstentions, and one no vote from Belarus, Europe’s pariah state.
ASEAN split their votes with Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines voting for the resolution and Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Brunei abstaining. This doesn’t bode well for either ASEAN mediation or the likelihood of a comprehensive arms embargo.
On May 5, 200 international groups, including human right organizations and Myanmar community support groups, called on the UN Security Council to institute a global arms embargo. The statement called for “(a) comprehensive UN arms embargo on Myanmar should bar the direct and indirect supply, sale, or transfer of all weapons, munitions, and other military-related equipment, including dual-use goods such as vehicles and communications and surveillance equipment, as well as the provision of training, intelligence, and other military assistance. Such an embargo should be accompanied by robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms”. This wording is identical to a call by 137 groups in February.
Western military assistance to Myanmar has been restricted for years. Rigid arms embargoes were imposed by individual states for three decades. The United States (US), Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the European Union (EU) have had long-standing sanctions on the sale of weapons to Myanmar, including even dual-use technology. Those measures were maintained over the past decade, even as these states sought enhanced interaction with the military. However, those embargoes were ineffective in stopping atrocity crimes against the Kachin, Rohingya, Karen and Shan ethnic minorities.
There are an estimated 42 countries who have imposed arms embargoes on Myanmar over the past three decades. Many of these are EU member states or are aligned with the various common positions imposed since 1996. South Korea suspended defense ties and a ban on arms exports in March.
There are several obvious reasons why a call for a UN arms embargo faces intractable impediments to succeed. First, it’s highly unlikely to work because much of the firepower being directed at ordinary people is domestically manufactured. The Myanmar military produces almost all of the light arms and ammunition it needs to kill civilians and put down urban uprisings: the same hardware it used to wage war against insurgents and ethnic civilians throughout Myanmar.
This network of defense industries (Ka Pa Sa) are located mostly in central Myanmar, in Pyi, Bago and other locations, with an estimated 38 facilities in total. Anyone who has visited the Defense Services Museum in Naypyidaw will have been struck by the evident pride in domestic military self-sufficiency; perhaps also seized by just how over the top this pride, to the point of mania, really is. The Ka Pa Sa manufacture everything from small arms, ammunition, anti-personnel landmines, mortars, uniforms, mess kits, soccer balls, army rum and many other items. The military has constructed this system with a large amount of foreign assistance, particularly German, and in later years from North Korea, Ukraine and Russia, but now largely runs the system independently.
Watching police officers in diverse towns such as Dawei, Yangon, and Mandalay firing live rounds against unarmed civilians, the shots mainly come from the German-designed Heckler and Koch Gewehr 3 (H&K G3) 7.62mm assault rifles, once the standard infantry weapon for the Myanmar military, designated Burma Army Type 63 or BA63. These were provided by the German firm Fritz Werner starting in the 1950s and through a close partnership up until the 1990’s. Many of these weapons were transferred to the Myanmar Police Force as the Ka Pa Sa started to manufacture the MA series of assault rifles (with Israeli assistance) in the early 1990s, which the military now uses.
Should the members of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and the civilian resistance fighters of the People’s Defense Forces target the network of Ka Pa Sa – its facilities, supply chains, raw materials and personnel – that could potentially have a serious effect on production and supplies. Harrying domestic manufacture of armaments and non-lethal supplies (food, uniforms, basic equipment) could impact internal military morale and drive increased defections.
One officer from a defense factory who recently joined the CDM and fled to the border with India told Radio Free Asia’s Myanmar service that much of the raw materials for the factories is sourced from the Chinese defense firm China North Industries Group (NORINCO) and transited through Singapore. However, it is unclear to what extent the trail of spare parts and raw materials are sourced outside Myanmar. That is one potential avenue for further investigation: resupply, replenishment and sourcing links to the domestic arms industry.
The next major impediment is the continued close links the military has with Russia and China. China accounts for half of the arms exports to Myanmar, with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report of March 2021 estimating that, between 2016 and 2020, China accounted for 48 percent of imports. India accounted for 16 percent and Russia 15 percent.
China has been a major arms supplier for over 30 years, including NORINCO, and several large aerospace companies. China has supplied numerous fighter planes to the Myanmar Air Force, including F-7 fighters in the early 1990s and, in recent years, the joint China and Pakistan manufactured JF-17 Thunder fighter. Much of the lavish arms sales from the early 1990s was disappointing in terms of quality, but China remains a major supplier and also trainer of Myanmar’s armed forces. Jane’s Defence Group reported that Chinese supplied drones, the CH-3A ‘Rainbow’ surveillance UEVs, have been deployed in Mandalay to observe demonstrations.
China is also one of the major suppliers of weapons to the ethnic armed organizations, especially the United Wa State Army. Beijing, or more likely local officials in Yunnan, is the single biggest outside arms supplier to Myanmar’s multiple conflicts.
Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has turned to Moscow in recent years, expanding a relationship that started two decades ago and which has seen thousands of Myanmar personnel trained in Russian defense establishments. The commander in chief’s visit to Russia in June signaled continued firm ties, with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressing support for the junta leader. Arms sales have continued, with the Moscow Times reporting that the military had imported US$15 million worth of radar equipment since the coup. Just days before the military takeover, Justice for Myanmar reported that the military was buying Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Pantsir-S1 short range air defense systems.
The air force originally purchased second-hand MiG-29 fighter jets from Belarus, since sourced from Russia, and have announced plans to buy SU-30 fighter jets and Yak-130 training aircraft. These air assets sales should be a focus of intense attention for any arms embargo campaign, given how much more frequently air strikes, especially ones conducted at night, have been directed at civilian targets such as those in Kayin State in late March. An arms embargo campaign must also widely condemn the continued sales or support of helicopter gunships, such as the Mi-35 which has been used against both insurgents and civilians, as well as ground attack aircraft.
Ukraine is an often unacknowledged arms supplier to Myanmar. In 2004, the military purchased an estimated 1,000 BTR-3U armored personnel carriers (APCs) to be assembled in Myanmar, although the exact number in the order of battle is unclear. The BTR’s include German-made Deutz diesel engines and American-made General Motors Allison automatic transmissions. These vehicles made an appearance on the streets of Yangon in February (and were not manned by Chinese soldiers as was widely reported at the time) but are not reported to have been used against protesters.
Israel has had a long relationship with the Myanmar armed forces, since establishing formal ties in 1953. Israeli officials have helped train elite units, assisted with intelligence gathering and sold patrol boats to the navy, as well as providing technology for the domestic manufacture of the Uzi submachine gun, primarily used now by the police. It was a police officer firing an Uzi at unarmed protestors in Naypyitaw that resulted in the Spring Revolution’s first casualty: 19-year old Myat Thet Thet Khaing, who was shot in the head. Israel is reported to have suspended arms sales to Myanmar following an order in the Supreme Court in 2017, but this has not been confirmed.
Another challenge is one of unacknowledged but naked hypocrisy. Proponents of an arms embargo are calling on some of the world’s largest arms dealers to support imposing an embargo on one country, when the US accounts for the majority of arms sales globally, significantly more than China and Russia. The United Kingdom lauds its principled approach to Myanmar, but lavishes weapons on Saudi Arabia, resuming its sales of some £1.4 billion earlier in 2021 after a pause of two years following an outcry over the bombing campaign in Yemen. The Biden Administration has suspended sales to Saudi Arabia for the same reason, but continues to supply half of the weapons to the Middle East.
It is doubtful if Washington will dilute any diplomatic capitol to exert pressure on its allies in Israel and the Ukraine in order to have a questionable effect on the ability of the armed forces to violently suppress resistance in Myanmar. The Biden Administration resumed military support to Ukraine in March with a US$125 million arms sale. The credibility of the West suffered a crushing blow in its scramble out of Afghanistan.
So how could an arms embargo actually work? Who will provide leadership? Human right groups, beyond the flash-in-the-pan issuance of ‘joint letters’, have publicized no clear plans for how an arms embargo could operate. The special rapporteur Tom Andrews has done little more than repeat the rhetoric of condemnation and called for an arms embargo, but has failed to articulate how it could work. His mandate is ill-suited to taking a leadership role in any campaign for an arms embargo: he is an independent expert who reports to the UN Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Andrews may also be keeping one eye on his future in US politics, so cannot be relied upon to push the Biden Administration or Congress hard and expend political capital for a ban on arms sales.
International leadership for an arms embargo could be spearheaded by the venerable troika of the Special Advisory Council-Myanmar (SAC-M): former UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee, and Chris Sidoti and Marzuki Darusman, from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. Formed following the February 1 coup, but conceived before it, the SAC-M has formulated what it calls a ‘Three Cuts’ approach to pressuring the military: cut the weapons, cut the cash and cut the impunity. It has assembled some fine understanding of the cash and impunity cuts, with Chris Sidoti especially vocal on interdicting the military’s financial sector. But the SAC-M website has no details on cutting weapons. Nevertheless, given the more legible approach of the trio and their background on Myanmar going back years, they have the skills, energy and commitment to corral the global community into at least discussing forms of an arms embargo.
An arms embargo requires concerted diplomatic efforts backed up by skillful research and documentation. Where to get all the necessary details to make an effective arms embargo feasible? There are two possible sources that offer the best chance of success, if the West directed the requisite funding and technical support. The first is increased support for groups such as Justice for Myanmar, which has done the most impressively forensic work on the finances and arms supplies of the Myanmar military. This clandestine collective is effectively producing the schematics for sanctions and to scupper arms supply chains. It should receive even more resources: they are doing far more important and relevant work than the UN, Western governments and international research and rights organizations.
Another source of activity is to create numerous funds for investigative journalism and academic research, utilizing the human capital of the many Myanmar people who have been displaced or exiled by the coup. Increasing investigative journalism funding for Myanmar media outlets is one step, including The Irrawaddy, Burma News International, Myanmar Now and others. Another is for donors to fund projects dedicated to uncovering the domestic arms industry. Following the threads of domestic and international supply chains and finding ways to harry and disrupt production, recruitment and supply could be as effective as armed action.
This could be a component of what Western donors should have supported ten years ago: an ‘Understanding the Military’ initiative, which scrutinizes the internal dynamics of the armed forces and questions some of the canards built up around its size, internal culture and psyche, fissures and strengths, local economic behavior and relationships with varying communities. In other words, a Myanmar-driven research focus to assess the military’s vulnerabilities.
There is already some fine work being pursued by the Myanmar media and in academia, with the recent publication of crucial data on Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and top generals by the Institute of South East Asian Studies. The answer to toppling the military will always be a home-grown endeavor; trust in the West to assist on this should be tempered.
Calling for an arms embargo takes multi-staged, painstaking work, not just the rhetoric of performative activism. If there is no sincerity in pursuing an embargo, stop talking about one. The world has a responsibility to protect the expectations of people in Myanmar. Further failure will only compound the post-coup betrayal..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
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"Immediate Release
Date: August 21, 2020
Rohingyas and those that stand in solidarity with them, will mark the 3rd anniversary of Myanmar’s genocide, in the first ever worldwide multilingual online rally. The event will bring together more than four dozen international supporters including UN officials, human rights activists, genocide scholars, international law experts, and concerned journalists from all continents. They will join Rohingya survivors and refugees to memorialise and honour the thousands of victims slaughtered, raped and tortured in the violent purge by Myanmar government troops, that began on 25th August 2017.
Solidarity, messages of compassion, and calls to end the ongoing genocide will be delivered in 12 languages including Rohingya, Burmese, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Malay, Bahasa Indonesian, Mandarin, Khmer, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.
Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, the last OIC Special Envoy to Myanmar and former Minister of Foreign, Defence and Home affairs of Malaysia will open the global memorial service. He will be joined by former UN special rapporteur on human rights situation in Myanmar, Argentinian human rights lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) Nicholas Koumjian, Founding President of the Genocide Watch Prof. Gregory Stanton, Malaysian MP & Chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights Charles Santiago, former Secretary General of South Asia Forum for Human Rights Tapan Kumar Bose, South African author & TV journalist Imran Garda, Uzbek documentary filmmaker Shahida Tulaganova, British journalist Shafiur Rahman, and Cambodian genocide scholar Farina So.
“Neither pandemic nor repressive regimes can silence the voices of Rohingya people who demand accountability, restoration of full and equal citizenship and a homeland with inalienable rights of all peoples.” said Ro Nay San Lwin, Co-founder and Coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition.
Prominent Rohingya refugees and survivors – from Bangladeshi refugee camps and throughout the diaspora – will honour the memories of their fellow Rohingya victims who were murdered during past four decades of various waves of genocidal killings.
Among the Rohingya speakers are nominee for International Women of Courage Award for Malaysia (2018) by US State Department & Founder of Rohingya Women Development Network Sharifah Shakirah, Ms World Australia National Finalist 2020 Pan Sandar Myint, Co-author of “First They Erase Our Name” Habiburahman, President of Burmese Rohingya Association Japan Zaw Min Htut, and President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK Tun Khin.
Musicians from Asia, Africa, Europe and USA will perform live as an act of solidarity for Rohingya people.
The online rally will be Facebook Live at the Free Rohingya Coalition Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FreeRohingyaCoalition) at 1400 GMT (3PM UK) on 25th August. In addition, it will be live streamed on Turkish International news channel Anadolu Agency through its 13 world languages programme.
Rohingyas in Myanmar have been subjected to state policies of persecution which are widely considered to be a textbook example of genocide. Myanmar is currently facing a full investigation for its grave crimes in international law including the crimes of deportation and other crimes against humanity by the ICC. Last December UN’s highest court, International Court of Justice began the public hearing over Gambia’s allegations that Myanmar has violated its obligations under the genocide convention. This January ICJ judges had unanimously ordered Myanmar to immediately end any and all acts of genocide against Rohingya people, as they are protected by the genocide convention.
The memorial is hosted by the Free Rohingya Coalition in collaboration with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, one of the world’s leading genocide centres, and Forces of Renewal Southeast Asia, a region-wide grassroot network rights activists and scholars.
Free Rohingya Coalition is a global network of Rohingya activists and friends of Rohingyas who share common concerns about Myanmar’s ongoing genocide and the need for Rohingya survivors to play an active role in seeking a viable future for their group.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Maung Zarni +44 7710 473322
Ro Nay San Lwin +49 176 62139138..."
Source/publisher:
Free Rohingya Coalition
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
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Sub-title:
Despite enjoying broad public support, the National Unity Government is still struggling to manage sharp internal differences between the NLD’s “old guard” and those fighting for more radical change.
Description:
"Since February 1, youth activist and civil society leader Naw Thaboe has supported the National Unity Government steadfastly as it abolished the 2008 Constitution and recognised the Rohingya.
These revolutionary acts convinced Thaboe that the NUG was different from the NLD administration that the Tatmadaw removed from office on February 1. Lately, though, she said the NUG’s bold reforms have seemed to come to a halt.
“In the revolution, people need revolutionary leaders,” said Thaboe, who asked that her real name not be used. “Myanmar needs drastic change, the NUG or any political leaders need to be more proactive and take more radical action against the junta.”
Thaboe echoes the feelings of a growing number in Myanmar who, despite their support for the parallel government, are feeling increasingly frustrated with its lack of progress in establishing itself as a genuine rival administration to the military regime, let alone removing the Tatmadaw from power.
The COVID-19 outbreak has only increased the pressure on the NUG. Although most blame the military regime for the tens of thousands of COVID-19 deaths in recent months, they are also looking to the NUG for leadership to mitigate the health crisis.
The NUG’s struggles stem in part from deep internal divisions between long-time members of the National League for Democracy and more progressive individuals in cabinet. While the NUG was formed in mid-April by a diverse group that included community and ethnic leaders, the parallel government nominally led by acting president Duwa Lashi La remains dominated by NLD loyalists.
The NUG has “repeatedly stated that it is a revolutionary government first and foremost and has achieved a great deal given the pressure it has been under,” but some activists on the ground increasingly feel like the NUG senior leaders are focused on releasing statements, said Mr Kim Joliffe, a researcher on Myanmar politics and conflict.
“Most revolutionary forces aimed at defeating the incumbent power don’t start off operating like a government,” he said, noting that this strategy was seen as necessary in order to gain international recognition.
“Months ago the NUG had a lot of momentum and it has managed to sustain enough pressure to deny the SAC full control or recognition globally. But it has become increasingly clear that the battle to take full control one way or another will likely be a long and drawn out war, as neither side has the capacity or resources to fully defeat the other yet.”
On August 1, the military regime formed a caretaker government and junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who appointed himself prime minister, said he expected Myanmar’s state of emergency to run until August 2023, when elections are planned.
Although the military is overwhelmingly unpopular, time might not be on the NUG’s side. If history is a guide, the parallel government faces a growing risk of sliding into irrelevance as time passes. With its iconic leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in detention, a lack of support from neighbouring countries and historic tensions with ethnic minority groups, the NUG will likely need to regain its early momentum if it is to make any major progress.
Unity in name only
This government of “national unity” is yet to be united. Sources within the NUG and those engaged with it say the cabinet has been and remains deeply divided over critical issues ranging from the response to COVID-19, its approach to the economy and cooperation with ethnic communities.
One cabinet member who is not from the NLD told Frontier that trust was “a big challenge” between NLD and non-NLD officials.
“We are still weak in [terms of] collaboration [with] each other,” the minister said, adding that there had been only “very limited talk” among cabinet members on issues such as humanitarian aid and the economy.
The minister’s assessment was echoed by an NLD-aligned official inside the NUG.
“Decades of distrust are not easily overcome in months,” he said.
Ma Phyo, an analyst of ethnic policy who asked that her real name not be used, said there are clearly divisions within the NUG.
“Although there are people from civil society, ethnic people, and activists doing the groundwork and pushing them[NUG officials], sometimes I wonder why it is taking this much to move forward,” she said.
“From my own connections and what I’ve heard, the reality of NLD veterans calling the shots doesn’t seem to have changed within the NUG,” she said.
Ma Phyo also worries that the NUG seems to be overconfident about its ability to prevail over the Tatmadaw, and that popular support could wane if it doesn’t show concrete results.
“It is not helping that NUG ministers are being stubborn, and what’s crazy is that they are so confident that the people will [always] support them because they believe that they are on the moral high ground,” she said.
Exploiting the pandemic
While the junta has tried to exploit the pandemic to cement its control and legitimise its rule, activists and businesspeople in Yangon told Frontier they were worried the NUG was losing touch with the key issues on the ground.
With more than 10,000 officially recorded deaths since the start of June and one of the highest rates of positive tests in the world – at times last month it was above 40 percent – the COVID-19 third wave has inflicted massive suffering in Myanmar. Although the NUG established a COVID-19 Task Force with ethnic health groups on July 21 – a move welcomed by civil society – it has yet to unveil or even outline a policy on the provision of humanitarian aid. This has put international donors and aid agencies in a difficult position, because it is not yet clear what form of assistance is politically acceptable.
The task force has said it plans to focus on bringing vaccines into the country, an approach supported by civil society groups in Myanmar, such as Progressive Voice. The task force has also said ASEAN and the rest of the international community should provide aid through the task force as well as through cross-border channels, community humanitarian networks, and ethnic health service providers. It is unclear if this is advocating for bypassing the junta entirely. Frontier contacted the task force but did not receive a reply.
This policy confusion stems from a lack of agreement within the cabinet, according to a senior official. Some NUG ministers favour allowing donors and social welfare groups to work with junta-controlled local officials as long as they also engage with the parallel government and meet transparency requirements. Others have taken a more hardline attitude, insisting that no aid should go through junta officials.
An ethnic politician and human rights activist, whose name Frontier withheld for security reasons, acknowledged that the NUG was trying its best despite “limited space and opportunity”, but said it still had a lot of room for improvement.
“What people need are two things: the first is political leadership and the second is services,” she said. “The political leadership is very confusing and unclear, with ministers making statements here and there without consulting the others. As for services, they face constraints in their capacity to deliver.”
The lack of consultation is possibly illustrated by a July announcement by the Ministry of Communications, Information and Technology, which said the NUG would accept cryptocurrency donations. The cabinet apparently had not been collectively consulted over the move and concerns over financial transparency were raised, a senior official said.
Whatever the NUG’s capacity, the junta appears to feel threatened by its popularity. On May 5, its Ministry of Transport and Communications imposed a national one-hour internet blackout without warning, seemingly aimed at preventing the public from watching an NUG press conference. It has also frozen bank accounts that have been detected sending money to the NUG and other opposition groups.
Regional powers are less convinced of the parallel government’s influence. China and Russia are sceptical about the NUG’s prospects and have not actively engaged with it, and ASEAN has only engaged publicly with the junta.
A symbol of the past
Aung San Suu Kyi is another factor complicating efforts towards unity within the NUG. She remains a divisive figure among the more diverse cabinet drawn together by the resistance movement in an effort to unite the country, including its powerful but disparate ethnic armed groups, against the military.
When Aung San Suu Kyi was in power, she chastised ethnic armed groups and supported military campaigns against them, defended the Tatmadaw at the International Court of Justice against accusations that it had committed genocide against Rohingya Muslims, and supported an internet blackout that affected more than one million people in Rakhine and Chin states.
“If Daw Suu is released tomorrow and dismisses all the work the NUG has done, it could kill off the democracy movement,” said Ma Ei Ei, a CDM supporter in Yangon who asked to be identified by a pseudonym.
Although Ei Ei sympathises with Aung San Suu Kyi due to her many sacrifices in the struggle for democracy, she said the detained leader had quickly become a symbol of the past after February 1.
“Things have moved very quickly. Daw Suu would face a huge public backlash if she walks out tomorrow and calls the Tatmadaw ‘my father’s army’,” Ei Ei said.
The coup d’etat has also led to an unprecedented reckoning among the Myanmar people. In particular, the deadly force unleashed by the Tatmadaw against peaceful protesters has changed attitudes about the Tatmadaw’s “clearance operation” against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine in 2017.
In an attempt to establish military alliances with ethnic armed groups and seek support from ethnic communities, the NUG has presented itself as a more minority-friendly administration than the NLD’s cabinet and central executive committee, which were for decades dominated by older Bamar men.
Although the NUG has made overtures to minorities, such as the Rohingya policy, the NLD’s track record on minority rights means there is still scepticism from ethnic communities as to whether the NUG represents a real break with the past.
Dr Sasa, who joined the NLD relatively recently and hails from Chin State, is not one of the “old guard” who dominated the party, according to one senior diplomat in Myanmar. The source added that the more conservative, NLD-aligned elements in the NUG were not impressed by Sasa’s progressive politics. Sasa though has a unique position and leverage in the cabinet because he is seen as a part of the NLD and not an outsider, and also because he has built up a public following domestically and internationally since the coup.
Sasa said he would resist any attempt to reverse the stand taken by the NUG to recognise the Rohingya, observing that the military had used divide and rule tactics based on race and religion to create splits in society.
“Our voice matters. They [Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained leaders] cannot just push us into a corner [upon being freed],” he said. Sweeping the NUG’s progressive politics aside and returning to the policies of the past would amount to “political suicide” for any leader, he warned. “I am ready to stand up for what I believe in.”
In a dramatic reversal of Aung San Suu Kyi’s infamous defence of the Tatmadaw at the International Court of Justice in December 2019, the NUG said in late June that it was gathering evidence of Tatmadaw atrocities and was preparing to file a lawsuit for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
In another departure from the former civilian government’s shunning of the Rohingya, this week saw the first appointment of a member of the Rohingya ethnic group to the parallel government. U Aung Kyaw Moe, the founder and executive director of the Center for Social Integrity, is known in Myanmar for his humanitarian and peace-building work, and was appointed as an adviser to the human rights ministry, Sasa told Frontier.
Differences on policy
Policy disagreements have not been limited to ethnic rights. The NUG’s first budget has been delayed for weeks due to differences of opinion within the cabinet over how spending should be prioritised.
Although the exact nature of these debates is unclear, sources said the forthcoming budget is likely to prioritise aid over defence and spending on the response to a growing humanitarian emergency.
Minister for Planning, Finance and Investment U Tin Tun Naing said supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement would be a top spending priority. “Civil disobedience is an effective weapon that the people of Myanmar can wield in good conscience. It is also the weapon that the military junta fears the most. Equally important is humanitarian support.”
There are clearer differences of opinion within cabinet over foreign investment and how businesses should operate under the military regime.
“There are ideologues who want to take a hard line against businesses that cooperate with the military,” one NUG source said.
But part of the cabinet has a more realistic approach to companies that are in Myanmar and trying to behave responsibly. Tu Hkawng, the NUG’s environmental conservation and natural resources minister, told Nikkei Asia in May that the NUG acknowledged the dilemmas companies operating in Myanmar face if they wish to support human rights. Referring to Norwegian mobile operator Telenor, he said the NUG would not push the company “into a corner”.
Frontier understands Tin Tun Naing also wanted the NUG to take an approach that recognises the difficult position responsible foreign investors now find themselves in, a source in the finance ministry said.
In late July, the NUG finance ministry published a framework for investment in which it said it would not “recognise or honour investment agreements or approvals” made with the military regime since the coup. Those who had invested in the country over the past decade, though, would be treated differently.
“Companies such as Total Energy and Chevron generate a lot of revenue for the military and the NUG has called for steps to limit the revenue flow from them. Telenor has to pay its dues to the military but also does a lot of good for the people,” an NUG source said.
Some large foreign investors are already carefully considering their operations in Myanmar. A few have decided to leave, including Telenor, which announced in early July it was selling its Myanmar operation to Lebanese investment firm, M1 Group, for US$105 million, implying an overall value of around $500 million. The sale represented a significant loss for the Norwegian telco, which had invested more than $1 billion in Myanmar since being licensed by President U Thein Sein’s quasi-military government in 2013.
The hasty sale was widely seen as a desperate move by Telenor to leave Myanmar amid pressure from the junta to use surveillance technology that would allow the authorities to monitor users, said telecoms industry executives.
Tin Tun Naing told Frontier that the NUG regretted Telenor’s departure, but said it reflected the fact the junta had created an increasingly hostile environment for ethical businesses.
“We know that Telenor resisted the military’s pressure to install intercept and surveillance software and share users’ data, unlike the military-controlled operators MPT and Mytel. The company has tried to protect human rights in Myanmar as best it could,” he said.
The Lebanese M1 Group is a controversial buyer, given both its track record working in countries such as Sudan, Syria and Yemen and its links to the Tatmadaw through shares in Irrawaddy Green Towers, a company that builds telecom towers for military-run Mytel. Concerns over how M1 would run the business prompted 45 civil society organisations, including Justice for Myanmar, Free Expression Myanmar and Global Witness, to write to Telenor and the Norwegian government this month urging them to stop the sale.
“The NUG’s position on foreign investment is clear. There should be no new investment as long as the junta is in place. Existing investors should stay only if they are doing more good than harm,” Tin Tun Naing said.
The people strike back
The creation of the People’s Defence Force as the NUG’s armed wing in May has also sparked internal debates over the prospects for a united armed insurgency against the junta. Tin Tun Naing declined to say how much funding the NUG was allocating to the PDF, but stressed that its role was to protect civilians and safeguard communities.
“We are not raising a conventional army to wage an all-out war. Our victory will come from the fact that the people support us. Our priority therefore has to be on supporting the people. We will not buy guns if we cannot feed our people,” the finance minister said.
Another cabinet minister admitted that the goal of unifying all ethnic armed groups into a federal army would be extremely difficult. For the foreseeable future, the minister said, the priority was for the PDF to form a federal alliance with other armed groups.
Myanmar analyst Mr David Mathieson says it is too early to predict what direction the new insurgency of the NUG or PDF will take as the situation evolves. But he branded the idea of an alliance between the NUG and ethnic armed groups as a “chimera”.
“Why should they all be under unified command? That is such an NLD mania to control everything and subordinate ethnic grievances to their political agenda: that is partly why the country is in such a mess,” he said.
Not all PDFs are under the command of the NUG, either. While some local PDFs have pledged allegiance to the parallel government, they essentially operate on their own, without assistance from the NUG. Mr Mathieson warned that this could result in a “fragmented” security situation and even a “nightmare scenario” in which “many anti-SAC PDF’s through desperation … engag[e] in various acts of criminality to finance armed resistance … [and] overburden local communities and retard economic growth”.
Defence minister U Yee Mon in early August told Myanmar Now that the NUG plans to unify civilian defence forces throughout the country under one command, and again parroted the “D-Day” narrative, a term hyped up by the NUG in anticipation of an all-out offensive against the Tatmadaw at some future date.
U Kyaw Win, the pseudonym of a Yangon-based political commentator and activist, said the NUG’s constant talk and lack of action about a military offensive was creating frustration..
“The NUG needs to remember that without a controlled territory, there would not be any form of recognition from foreign governments,” he said. But despite a plethora of challenges confronting the NUG, Kyaw Win stressed the NUG is “still the hope for the people, even if we are disappointed in some of their performances”.
“As long as the revolution is not finished,” he said, “the NUG shall have to continue as the frontline political organisation of our revolution.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies, COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Human Rights and international relations
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"More than six months after the Myanmar military launched its coup d’etat on 1 February, neither the military junta nor the National Unity Government (NUG) established by elected parliamentarians on 16 April have been widely recognised internationally as the government.
The decision to recognise a new government can be made bilaterally by other States, but as a general rule most States avoid doing this.
One reason is so that in situations like Myanmar after the 2021 coup, a State can seek to maintain a diplomatic presence in the country, while trying to avoid legitimising an entity that has taken power unlawfully.
Despite the usual practice of States not recognising governments, sometimes their actions can suggest recognition, for example decisions on who attends a meeting or who is allowed to access money held abroad.
When the recognition of a new government is considered, three tests are usually applied: the entity’s effective control of the territory; its democratic legitimacy; and its adherence to international law.
This briefing paper gives an overview of the implications of recognition and outlines what the tests for recognition broadly entail. It then considers which entity in Myanmar best meets the criteria of being its government.
The paper concludes that ultimately, the political assessments of individual States will determine which entity, if any, they might choose to recognise as Myanmar’s government. However, SAC-M’s assessment of the three tests above finds that the NUG meets the criteria for international recognition as the government of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-23
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations
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342.67 KB
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"August 21, 2021, Myanmar: The Myanmar military is attending the International Army Games in Russia, participating in multiple events where they will hone skills that aid and abet the military’s ongoing atrocity crimes. The “games” are organised by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, along with the concurrent event, International Military and Technical Forum, ARMY 2021, which promotes arms sales and technical cooperation and will showcase military use of artificial intelligence.
The International Army Games, which begin on August 22, coincide with the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Myanmar military’s “clearance operations” against the Rohingya on August 25, which amounted to the crime of genocide.
At the Army Games, the Myanmar military will be competing in events including the “tank biathlon”, “sea cup”, “sniper frontier”, “airborne platoon” and “army of culture”. These events further equip the Myanmar military with skills to kill, as they continue deliberate attacks against Myanmar people with total impunity. The “games” also provide the Myanmar junta with a platform for multilateral military cooperation at a time when it is seeking international legitimacy following its illegitimate February 1 coup attempt.
For instance, the objectives of “sniper frontier” are “strengthening of international military cooperation among states…; raising the level of training of sniper units; learning sniper actions, implementing best practices, methods of sniper training; exchanging experience and increasing the prestige of military service”.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Russia has reached new depths of complicity by inviting the Myanmar military to participate in the Army Games, while this military continues its campaign of terror across the country and weaponises Covid-19 for political gain. Military cooperation, training, and arms sales amount to aiding and abetting the Myanmar military’s international crimes. We call on the international community to take immediate action to end Russian complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Myanmar military, including through a global arms embargo. The Myanmar military’s participation in the Army Games will embolden the illegal junta, which is murdering Myanmar people daily in a desperate attempt to entrench their power. This is not a “game” for the Myanmar people.”
While ASEAN has agreed to a five-point consensus on Myanmar, which includes the immediate cessation of violence, ASEAN member states and their regional supporters are participating in events with the Myanmar military in Russia, including the militaries of China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Lao, India and Bangladesh. Israel and the EU member states of Greece and Cyprus are also participating in the “games”.
Yadanar Maung continues: “The participation of some ASEAN member states and regional powers in games with the Myanmar military further calls into question their commitment to end violence in Myanmar and broker a peaceful solution in the interests of the Myanmar people. We reiterate calls for the UN to urgently intervene in the humanitarian and human rights crisis caused by the military through its brutal coup attempt and campaign of terror.”
The cost of Myanmar’s participation in the event is substantial but undisclosed, coming at the expense of the Myanmar people who are facing a severe humanitarian and human rights catastrophe as the junta’s collective punishment against people who categorically reject their coup attempt deepens and COVID-19 spreads exponentially. One of the more costly events is the “sea cup”, in which Myanmar will deploy a warship to the base of Russia’s Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-21
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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pdf pdf
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182.09 KB 124.88 KB
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Description:
"This Wednesday, August 25, marks the fourth year since the Myanmar military waged genocidal attacks on the Rohingya. The attacks led to thousands of deaths, mass rape, and the forced displacement of nearly 800,000 refugees to Bangladesh. Refugees International has consistently urged the U.S. government to recognize those attacks for what they are: genocide. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched a formal review on a Rohingya genocide determination in early 2021 and recently stated that it was being “very actively considered.” But the United States has yet to make a genocide determination.
Refugees International Senior Advocate for Human Rights Daniel Sullivan made the following statement:
“Four years ago, I witnessed hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh by foot with only the clothes on their backs. They described in disturbingly consistent detail the tactics of the Myanmar military: surrounding villages, setting fires, and shooting people as they fled. The U.S. State Department, among many other organizations, has collected a mountain of evidence since.
Secretary Blinken should hesitate no longer in making a genocide determination.
The Myanmar military continues to attempt to consolidate power, expanding its history of cruel tactics against ethnic minorities to anyone who opposes its coup. Impunity has only fueled the military’s actions. Failure to recognize past abuses will only encourage the perpetrators and increase the risk of further mass atrocities. The stakes could not be higher.
A Rohingya genocide determination would underscore the United States’ commitment to accountability and create the precedent for recognizing abuses against other minority groups. It would create momentum for further global actions, including new targeted sanctions, an arms embargo, and reinforcement of accountability efforts. A Rohingya genocide determination would also signal U.S. solidarity with the Rohingya and with countries like Bangladesh, which continues to host nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees. Such solidarity may encourage increased humanitarian aid and positive policies toward refugees, even as Bangladesh implements more restrictions in the camps.
Perhaps most importantly, the horrible facts justify a legal determination that the state of Myanmar is responsible for this crime.
A genocide determination matters. It matters to the Rohingya who have suffered from the Myanmar military’s attacks. It matters to the latest targets of the military’s abuses. And it matters as a strong message to future would-be genocidaires. The time to call it genocide is now.”
Refugees International led a recent joint letter signed by 95 organizations to Secretary Blinken urging a Rohingya genocide determination. The letter builds on previous efforts with the Trump administration as part of the #CallitGenocide campaign, which included a nearly 9,000-signature petition and a legal and human rights experts letter (signed by two senior officials in the Biden administration). Refugees International’s analysis on why the attacks on the Rohingya constitute genocide can be found here..."
Source/publisher:
Refugees International
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Genocide, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Human Rights and international relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"KEY DISPLACEMENT FIGURES
22,000 Estimated refugee movements to neighbouring countries since 1 February 2021
980,000 Refugees and asylum-seekers from Myanmar in neighbouring countries as of 31 December 2020
189,000 Estimated total internal displacement within Myanmar since 1 February 2021
370,000 Estimated internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Myanmar as of 31 December 2020
HIGHLIGHTS
• Some 189,000 people remain internally displaced (IDPs) in Myanmar as of 16 August, due to armed conflict and unrest since 1 February 2021. This includes some 156,500 IDPs in Southeast Myanmar and Shan State (South).
• In Southeast Myanmar, the security situation remains tense with increasing armed clashes across the Southeast. In the reporting period, armed clashes continued in Kachin/Shan (North) states.
• In Chin State, the situation in Mindat and surrounding areas deteriorated, as fighting between the Chin Defence Forces (CDF) and Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) resumed in recent weeks.
• The situation of internally displaced people within Myanmar has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, with close to 4,000 new cases and 400 official deaths reportedly registered each day. This makes the per capita death rate in Myanmar the highest in Southeast Asia.
• IDP camps in Kachin State have registered a surge of COVID-19 cases and more people have tested positive in Kayah and Kayin states. Hundreds of positive cases are reported across Kachin State and Shan State (North) among the IDP population, where access to health services remains very limited. Disruptions of food supplies have led to food shortages in some IDP sites in Rakhine and Kayin states.
• Seasonal floods continue to affect particularly the Southeast and thousands of people in Rakhine State. Heavy rains and flooding, combined with COVID-19 restrictions, continue to pose significant challenges for IDPs in the Southeast to access basic needs and health services.
• In Thailand, no movements have been reported towards the Myanmar-Thai border in recent weeks, in part due to closed borders and movement restrictions related to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Human Rights and international relations
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pdf
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7.48 MB
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"Republic of the Union of Myanmar
National Unity Government
www.nugmyanmar.org
20 August 2021
The National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar accepts the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Acting President Duwa Lashi La of the National Unity Government lodged a declaration with the registrar of the ICC, accepting the Court’s jurisdiction with respect to international crimes committed in Myanmar territory since 1 July 2002, which is the earliest date permitted by the Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute).
The declaration was lodged in accordance with article 12(3) of the Statue of the International Criminal Court, which enables a State not party to the Rome Statue to accept the exercise of jurisdiction of the Court. This declaration was transmitted to the Registrar of the Court on 17 July 2021 for further consideration.
The National Unity Government is committed to ensuring accountability and ending impunity for all human rights violations. The NUG continues to draw attention to the ongoing atrocity crimes being committed by the military, and it seeks justice for all past crimes. The NUG is steadfastly working towards a future where Myanmar will be known for its international cooperation and adherence to international law.
ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
www.nugmyanmar.org
၂၀ ဩဂုတ် ၂၀၂၁
ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်ခုံရုံး၏ တရားစီရင် ပိုင်ခွင့်ကို လက်ခံသည်။
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ယာယီသမ္မတ ဒူဝါလရှီးလသည် ဇူလိုင်လ ၁ ရက် ၂၀၀၂ ခုနှစ် နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၌ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့် စပ်လျဉ်းသည့် ခုံရုံး၏ တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်အား သဘောတူလက်ခံကြောင်း ကြေညာချက်ကို နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်ခုံရုံး၏ မှတ်ပုံတင်အရာရှိထံ တင်သွင်းခဲ့ပါသည်။ ဇူလိုင်လ ၁ ရက် ၂၀၀၂ ခုနှစ်သည် နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်ခုံရုံး၏ စာချုပ် (ရောမစာချုပ်)တွင် အစောဆုံး အကျုံးဝင်သော ရက်စွဲ ဖြစ်သည်။
အဆိုပါ ကြေညာချက်ကို နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်ခုံရုံးစာချုပ်၏ ပုဒ်မ ၁၂ (၃) နှင့်အညီ တင်သွင်းခဲ့ခြင်း ဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်းသို့တင်သွင်းခြင်းက ရောမစာချုပ်တွင် သဘောတူလက်မှတ် ရေးထိုးမထားသောနိုင်ငံကို ခုံရုံး၏ တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်ကျင့်သုံးခြင်းကို သဘောတူ လက်ခံနိုင်စေသည်။ အဆိုပါ ကြေညာချက်ကို ဆက်လက် စဉ်းစားနိုင်ရန် ခုံရုံး၏ မှတ်ပုံတင်အရာရှိထံ ၁၇ ရက် ဇူလိုင်လ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်တွင် လွှဲပြောင်းပေးခဲ့ပါသည်။
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ချိုးဖောက်မှု အားလုံးအတွက် တာဝန်ယူမှု သေချာစေရန်နှင့် ပြစ်ဒဏ်မှလွတ်ကင်းခွင့်အဆုံးသတ်စေရန် ကတိသစ္စာပြုထားပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် စစ်တပ်က ကျူးလွန်ဆဲဖြစ်သော ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာသည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ဆက်လက်၍ သတိပြုမိသည့်အပြင် အတိတ်တွင် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ အားလုံးအတွက်လည်း တရားမျှတမှုကို ဖော်ဆောင်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံတကာနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ ဥပဒေကို လေးစားလိုက်နာမှုအတွက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို လူအများသိကြမည့် အနာဂတ်တစ်ခုသို့ ဦးတည်ကာ မဆုတ်မနစ် ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်လျက် ရှိသည်။.."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), International Criminal Court, Human Rights and international relations
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38.26 KB 243.31 KB
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"As the world recognises International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, BHRN calls on the international community to remember the religious minorities of Burma who are facing ongoing violence and oppression for their beliefs. Muslims, Christians, and other religious minorities have suffered in Burma for years in the country at the hands of the military and ultra- nationalists and these offenses continue to this day.
“While the world commemorates the victims of violence based on religion or belief, we must do all we can for those who are suffering still. In Burma, religious persecution against Muslims and Christians remains one of the most serious issues in the country. The illegitimate military junta has maintained its attacks on minorities since seizing power and there is legitimate fear this will only get worse as they maintain control. The best way we can honour the victims of the past is to prevent others from being victimized in the future,” said BHRN’s Executive Director Kyaw Win.
Burma has been the site of ongoing violence against religious and ethnic minorities for decades. Christians in Kachin, Karen, Karennie and Chin states have all faced serious persecution and violence by the armed forces, and Christians across the country have faced restrictions on their freedom to practice their religion. Similarly, Muslims throughout the country have faced horrific violence, including the genocide of the Rohingya, as well as oppressive restrictions on their ability to practice their religion freely.
The observation of International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief falls just a few days short of the anniversary of the Rohingya genocide. While reflecting on these two important dates BHRN calls on the world to act to prevent any further suffering in Burma. Sanctions on all business interests of the military must be imposed and a global arms embargo must be enforced against the junta. The international community must work with Burma’s legitimate leaders in the National Unity Government to create a plan that will ensure the rights of all minorities and use every tool available to return the NUG to power to implement it.
Organisation’s Background
BHRN is based in London and operates across Burma/Myanmar working for human rights, minority rights and religious freedom in the country. BHRN has played a crucial role in advocating for human rights and religious freedom with politicians and world leaders..."
Source/publisher:
Burma Human Rights Network
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Genocide, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rakhine (Arakanese) periodicals
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
129.42 KB
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"1. Foreword
2020 was the deadliest year on record for refugee journeys in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Governments and leaders across Asia Pacific have been confronted with the question of whether we have collectively learned from history. Even more critically, we must ask ourselves whether we can sit by and repeat past tragic mistakes.
These past twelve months call to mind the events of 2015, another harrowing, landmark year for refugees and migrants at sea. The world was shocked by not one but two major, almost simultaneous humanitarian emergencies: the Andaman Sea crisis followed swiftly by the desperate journeys of more than a million men, women and children by sea to Europe.
Here in the Asia Pacific, the abandonment at sea of some 5,000 men, women and children by people- smugglers, with no government willing to bring them ashore, was a moment of reckoning. We watched in horror as human beings who had fled discrimination and persecution were left adrift, starving and sick, for months. Hundreds died. Not long afterwards, on the other side of the globe, the body of the young Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi, washed ashore in Turkey. The collective tide of emotion was not only one of grief, but shame that such tragedies could happen.
In South East Asia, governments resolved to prevent collective inaction and its fatal consequences. Through the 2016 Bali Declaration, States acknowledged the need for a reliable and concerted response to this genuinely regional challenge. In establishing the ASEAN Trust Fund, member states also committed in 2015 to provide financial support to emergency and humanitarian relief efforts during similar movements of people, so that such vessels are never denied entry for fear of carrying the responsibility for reception and solutions alone.
Today, some six years later, these mechanisms have failed to live up to their promise. We see once again increasing movements of Rohingya refugees in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. We know their voyages are becoming more deadly. The longer a ship remains at sea, the more refugees are exposed to life-threatening risks. Increasingly, a majority of those aboard are women and children.
International Laws and conventions stipulate clear obligations for States to provide a safe harbour for those in distress at sea. But these legal frameworks derive from a much older and more instinctive truth – that rescue at sea is a fundamentally humanitarian act.
We have seen this humanity reflected in myriad acts of ordinary citizens around the world and in Asia. Acehnese fisherman who, with no fanfare or agenda, quietly rescued some 470 Rohingya refugees and brought them ashore between June 2020 and June 2021. Host communities in Bangladesh who, despite limited resources, have taken in more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees and provided them with sanctuary.
This report sets out the developing trends in movements of refugees in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, and the clear need for more comprehensive solutions. Equally critically, however, it gives voice to the thousands of refugees who have risked their lives in desperation – to reunite with family, to access education, to support themselves through gainful employment.
Among them, a young Rohingya father who was reunited with his wife and daughter after their seven- month ordeal at sea. “It was the happiest day of my life,” he told UNHCR staff upon seeing his family for the first time in over six years. “We are faceless, homeless and left adrift; we need a solution. I want to say to the whole world, please find a solution for us.”
Finally, this report makes clear and actionable recommendations on how to avoid further tragedies. These include bolstering search and rescue efforts at sea, stopping the deadly practice of pushbacks, and working towards a regional mechanism for predictable and equitable disembarkation.
For as long as States bordering the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal are reluctant to rescue and land those in distress at sea, that collective failure to act will have tragic and fatal consequences. We can and must do better.
Indrika Ratwatte Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees..."
Source/publisher:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-19
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Human Rights and international relations, Discrimination against the Rohingya, Human rights and education, Public Health, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.)
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Sub-title:
Today (18/8) the European Union (EU) highlights its response to assist those in need in Myanmar in the context of the humanitarian crisis.
Description:
"At the Pledging Conference to ASEAN’s Humanitarian Assistance to Myanmar held by videoconference, EU announced that it is providing through the current EU-SAHA (EU Support to AHA Centre) programme, up to €370,000 for activities related to strengthen the capacity of the AHA Centre and ASEAN Emergency Response Mechanism in Myanmar, for example through funding of per diem costs and related activities.
This support comes as part of a long standing EU funding to reinforce the capacity of ASEAN and the AHA Centre to respond to disasters in the region. This €10 million EU-SAHA programme, launched at the beginning of 2020, supports the AHA Centre’s Capacity and the ASEAN’s Emergency Response Mechanisms. This initiative aims at enhancing mechanisms for ASEAN Leadership to Respond-As-One, through excellence and innovation in disaster management.
For 2021, the EU allocated so far a total amount of €22.5 million for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, including regional implications of the crisis. The EU will also continue to share experience and exchange with the AHA Centre on the operational landscape in Myanmar and the sub-region.
EU Ambassador to ASEAN Igor Driesmans said: “The European Union is committed to provide assistance to tackle the humanitarian crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar. The European Union has welcomed the appointment of the ASEAN Special Envoy on Myanmar, Brunei’s Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof. And we support ASEAN’s efforts in finding a peaceful solution to the current crisis and stress the need to implement quickly and faithfully the five-point consensus adopted by ASEAN Leaders at their summit on 24 April 2021. Humanitarian assistance by ASEAN and the AHA Centre is one of those five points”.
In the context of the current humanitarian crisis, the EU fully supports today’s international mobilisation for the many people in need in Myanmar. We welcome the contributions announced and we share ASEAN’s view that this assistance should be in line with humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, and embedded in the UN-led coordination architecture..."
Source/publisher:
Delegation of the European Union to ASEAN
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-19
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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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
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, International Criminal Court, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, National Unity Government (NUG)
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Description:
"မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် နှစ်ပေါင်း (၇၀) ကျော်ကြာ ဖြစ်ပွားနေသော ပြည်တွင်းစစ်အတွင်း တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူ အများစု မှာ စစ်အုပ်စု၏ နယ်မြေရှင်းလင်းရေးမူဝါဒအောက်တွင် မတရား ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရခြင်း၊ တရားမဲ့ သတ်ဖြတ် ခံရခြင်း၊ အဓမ္မပြုကျင့်ခံရခြင်း၊ မြို့ရွာများကို မီးရှို့ခြင်း၊ အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရခြင်း၊ အတင်းအကြပ် နေရာရွှေ့ပြောင်းခံရခြင်း စသည်များကို ခံစားနေရကြရသည်။ ထိုအခြေအနေများကို နိုင်ငံတဝှမ်းရှိ လူ့အခွင့် အရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် အရပ်ဘက် လူမှုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများမှ အစဉ်တစိုက် ထောက်ပြခဲ့ပြီး စစ်အုပ်စုအားအရေး ယူရန် တိုက်တွန်းချက်များ အကြိမ်ကြိမ်ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂမှလည်း အချက်အလက်ရှာဖွေရေးအဖွဲ့ကို (၂၀၁၈) တွင် ဖွဲ့စည်းပြီး စစ်အုပ်စု၏ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများကို စုံစမ်းမှတ်တမ်းတင်သည်အထိ ဆောင် ရွက်မှုများရှိနေသည်။ သို့သော် စစ်အုပ်စုသည် လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ချိုးဖောက်မှုများကို ရပ်တန့်သည်မရှိဘဲ စစ်ရာဇ ဝတ်မှုနှင့် လူသားဖြစ်တည်မှုကို ဆန့်ကျင်သည့်ရာဇဝတ်မှုကို ဆက်လက်ကျူးလွန်သည်အထိ ဆိုးဝါးရက်စက် လှသော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည်။
(၂၀၂၁) ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၁) ရက်နေ့တွင် ပြည်သူ့ဆန္ဒဖြင့် ရွေးချယ်ထားသည့် အရပ်သားရွေးကောက်ခံ ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များနှင့် နိုင်ငံ့ခေါင်းဆောင်များကို မတရားဖမ်းဆီးပြီး နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို အကြမ်းဖက် လုယူ သွားသည့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်ကို တစိုက်မတ်မတ် တွန်းလှန်ခုခံလျက်ရှိသည့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအနှံ့အပြား ဒေသအသီးသီး အနက် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး ယင်းမာပင်ခရိုင်အတွင်းရှိ ကနီမြို့နယ်သည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်ကို နည်းလမ်းပေါင်းစုံ အသုံးပြု၍ ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်နေသည့် ထင်ရှားသော အရပ်ဒေသတစ်ခု ဖြစ်သည်။
ထို့အတွက်ကြောင့်လည်း အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီက အညှိုးတကြီးဖြင့် နယ်မြေစိုးမိုးရေးအကြောင်းပြကာ ကနီ မြို့ပေါ်နှင့် အနီးအနားပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ကျေးရွာများတွင် ပစ်ခတ်ဖမ်းဆီးမှုများ၊ တောနင်းရှာဖွေမှုများ ပြုလုပ်လျက် ရှိနေသလို ကျေးရွာများအတွင်း စစ်အင်အားအလုံးအရင်းဖြင့် ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းမှုများကြောင့် ဒေသခံ ထောင် ပေါင်းများစွာမှာ နီးစပ်ရာ ကျေးရွာများ၊ တောအုပ်များအတွင်း ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရလျက်ရှိသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ကျေးရွာများအတွင်းဝင်ရောက်ကာ ကျွဲ၊ နွားများ အပါအဝင် ပစ္စည်းဥစ္စာများ လုယူခြင်း၊ သိမ်းပိုက်ခြင်းများကိုပါ ပြုလုပ်လာခဲ့သည်။
ကလေးမြို့ အခြေစိုက် တပ်ရင်း (၂၂၈) အပါအဝင် တပ်မ (၄၄) နှင့် (၉၉) လက်အောက်ခံတပ်ရင်းများမှ ဗျူဟာ သုံးခုခွဲ၍ အင်အားတစ်ထောင်ခန့်ဖြင့် ကနီမြို့နယ်အတွင်း ကျေးရွာတိုင်းနီးပါးသို့ ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းလျက်ရှိရာ ဒေသခံ အများအပြားမှာ အကြမ်းဖက်ဖမ်းဆီးခံရခြင်း၊ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရခြင်း၊ အသက်သေဆုံးသည်အထိ လူ မဆန်စွာ သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရခြင်းများကိုလည်း ရင်ဆိုင်ကြုံတွေ့နေရသည်။
ထို့အပြင် စစ်ဘေးရှောင် ပြည်သူများမှာ စားနပ်ရိက္ခာနှင့် ဆေးဝါးပြတ်လပ်မှုဒဏ်ကို ခံစားနေကြရပြီး မုံရွာနယ် ဘက်သို့ သွားရောက်ဝယ်ယူရာတွင်လည်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ လက်ပါးစေများက ပမာဏများပြားသော ငွေကြေးများ ကောက်ခံခြင်းအပြင် စစ်ဖိနပ်ဖြင့်ကန်ခြင်း၊ သေနတ်ဒင်ဖြင့်ထုခြင်းစသည့် အနိုင်ကျင့်မှုများကို လည်း ပြုလုပ်လျက်ရှိနေကြောင်း သိရသည်။
ကနီမြို့နယ်ရှိ ကျေးရွာအချို့တွင်လည်း ဇူလိုင် (၉) ရက်နေ့မှစ၍ အူရီဒူးနှင့် တယ်လီနောအော်ပရေတာများ၏ အင်တာနက်နှင့်ဖုန်းလိုင်းများ ပြတ်တောက်ခဲ့ပြီး ဩဂုတ်လ (၂) ရက်နေ့တွင် MPT လိုင်းပါ ထပ်မံ ပြတ်တောက် ခဲ့ရာ လက်ရှိအချိန်တွင် စစ်တပ်ပိုင် Mytel အော်ပရေတာ၏ ဖုန်းနှင့်အင်တာနက်လိုင်းသာ ရွာအချို့တွင် အသုံးပြု ၍ရနေကြောင်း ဒေသခံများကဆိုသည်။ ဤလုပ်ရပ်မှာ စစ်အုပ်စုသည် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအပေါ် ဖြတ် လေးဖြတ်ဗျူဟာကိုအသုံးပြု၍ တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်းပင်ဖြစ်သည်။
ထိုကဲ့သို့ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်၏ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိဖြင့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအပေါ် လူမဆန်စွာ ပြုလုပ်မှုများ ကြောင့် ဇူလိုင်လ တစ်လတည်းမှာပင် ကနီမြို့နယ်ရှိ ကျေးရွာများ၌ အရပ်သားများ၏ အလောင်းများ အစုလိုက် အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်စွန့်ပစ်ထားသည်ကို လေးကြိမ်တိုင်တိုင် တွေ့ရှိခဲ့ကြသည်။ သတ်ဖြတ်စွန့်ပစ်ထားသည့် ရုပ် အလောင်းစုစုပေါင်းမှာ အနည်းဆုံး (၄၃) ဦး ရှိနေသည်။
ပထမအကြိမ်ဖြစ်စဉ် (ရုပ်အလောင်း ၄ လောင်း)
စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး ယင်းမာပင်ခရိုင် ကနီမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ မုံအိုကျေးရွာနှင့် ရွာသာကျေးရွာအကြား ရှစ်ခိုး တက် တောပြင်၌ ဇူလိုင်လ ၁ ရက်နေ့ ညနေ ၄ နာရီနှင့် ၆ နာရီကြားအချိန်တွင် အမျိုးသား (၄) ဦးကို အကြမ်း ဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ ဖမ်းဆီး၍ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ကာ ဦးခေါင်းများကို သေနတ်နှင့်တေ့ပစ်ပြီး အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့သည်။
ထိုရုပ်အလောင်း (၄) လောင်းကို ဇူလိုင်လ (၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် ရှာဖွေတွေ့ရှိခဲ့ရာ ရုပ်အလောင်းများမှာ ဦးခေါင်းများ မရှိတော့သကဲ့သို့ ပျက်စီးနေပြီး အနီးတဝိုက်တွင်လည်း ဆိုင်ကယ် (၂၅) စီးခန့်ကို မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးထားသည်ကို တွေ့ မြင်ခဲ့ရကြောင်း ဒေသခံများကဆိုသည်။ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းခံရသည့် ရုပ်အလောင်း (၄) လောင်းမှာ စိန်ကုန်းရွာမှ (၁) ဦး၊ ဖန်ခါးကုန်းရွာမှ (၁) ဦး၊ ဆူးလေကုန်း ရွာမှာ (၁) ဦးနှင့် အင်ချောင်ရွာမှ (၁) ဦး တို့ဖြစ်ကြသည်။
ဒုတိယအကြိမ်ဖြစ်စဉ် (ရုပ်အလောင်း ၁၆ လောင်း)
ချင်းတွင်းမြစ် အရှေ့ဘက်ကမ်းရှိ ယင်းရွာ၊ ကုန်းသာရွာ၊ ကျောက်လှေကားရွာများသို့ ဇူလိုင် (၉) ရက် နှင့် (၁၀) ရက်နေ့များ၌ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်မှ အလုံးအရင်းဖြင့် ဝင်ရောက်လာသောကြောင့် ရွာလုံးကျွတ် ထွက်ပြေး တိမ်းရှောင်ကြရသည်။ ထိုထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေသူ ဒေသခံများအနက် (၂၆) ဦး ပျောက်ဆုံးနေသဖြင့် လိုက်လံ ရှာဖွေရာ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ကနီမြို့နယ်၊ ယင်းရွာ၏ အရှေ့ဘက် ခင်တန်းရှည် တောင်ကုန်းပေါ်မှ ချိုင့်ထဲတွင် တောထဲတွင် ဒဏ်ရာများဖြင့် ရုပ်ပျက်ဆင်းပျက်ဖြစ်နေသည့် အလောင်း (၁၅) လောင်းနှင့် နောက်တစ်ရွာတွင် အလောင်း (၁) လောင်းကို ထပ်မံ ရှာဖွေတွေ့ရှိခဲ့သည်။
အလောင်းများကို ဇူလိုင် (၁၁၊ ၁၂) ရက်နေ့များတွင် ယင်းရွာ၏ အရှေ့ဘက်တောင်ကုန်းပေါ်မှ ရှာတွေ့ခဲ့ ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ယင်းရွာမှ (၁၃) ဦး၊ ကုန်းသာရွာမှ (၁) ဦး၊ ပလူဇဝ ရွာမှ (၁) ဦးနှင့် ထောက်ကြံ့ကုန်းရွာမှ (၁) ဦး စုစုပေါင်း (၁၆) ဦး ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ယင်းရွာဒေသခံက ဆိုသည်။ သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရသူများအနက် အများစုမှာ အသက် (၃၀) နှင့် (၅၀) ကြားအရွယ် အမျိုးသားများဖြစ်ပြီး အသက် (၆၀) ကျော်အရွယ် (၁) ဦးလည်း ပါဝင်သည်။
ရုပ်အလောင်းအားလုံးတွင် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် နှိပ်စက်ညှဉ်းပန်းခံထားရသည့် လက္ခဏာများတွေ့ရပြီး အဆိုးရွား ဆုံးမှာ မျက်နှာနှင့် လည်ပင်းများကို လှီးဖြတ် နှိပ်စက်ညှဉ်းပန်းထားသည့် ဒဏ်ရာများတွေ့ရှိရခြင်းပင်ဖြစ်သည်။
တတိယအကြိမ်ဖြစ်စဉ် (ရုပ်အလောင်း ၁၂ လောင်း)
စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ကနီမြို့နယ်၊ ဇီးပင်တွင်းကျေးရွာအနီး ဇူလိုင် (၂၆) ရက် ညနေပိုင်းက အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်နှင့် ဒေသခံကာကွယ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (PDF) တို့ တိုက်ပွဲဖြစ်ခဲ့ရာ ရွာသားတချို့နှင့် PDF အဖွဲ့ဝင်တချို့ ပျောက်ဆုံးနေ ၍ လိုက်လံရှာဖွေရာမှ ဇီးပင်တွင်းရွာ အနောက်ဘက်ယာတောထဲတွင် ဒဏ်ရာများနှင့် ရုပ်အလောင်း (၅) လောင်း ကို ပထမအကြိမ်ရှာဖွေမှုတွင်လည်းကောင်း၊ နောက်ထပ် အလောင်း (၇) လောင်းကို ဒုတိယအကြိမ် ရှာဖွေမှု တွင်လည်းကောင်း စုစုပေါင်း ရုပ်အလောင်း (၁၂) လောင်းကို ဇူလိုင်လ ၂၇ ရက်နေ့၌ ရှာဖွေတွေ့ရှိခဲ့ပြန်သည်။
ဒုတိယအကြိမ်ရှာဖွေမှုတွင် ရွာသားများက မြေကျင်းတစ်ခုကို တူးဖော်ခဲ့ရာ မြှုပ်နှံထားသည့် အလောင်း (၄) လောင်း၊ သစ်ပင်တွင် ကြိုးဖြင့် ချိတ်ဆွဲထားသည့် အလောင်း (၁) လောင်း၊ မြေပြင်တွင် လဲကျနေသော ရုပ်အလောင်း (၂) လောင်းကို တွေ့ရှိခဲ့သည်ဟု သိရသည်။ အဆိုပါ ရုပ်အလောင်း (၇) လောင်းမှာ အသက် (၆၀) ကျော်အရွယ် သက်ကြီးပိုင်း (၂) ဦး၊ ကိုယ်လက်အင်္ဂါမသန်စွမ်းသူ (၁) ဦး၊ အသက် (၁၈) မှ (၃၀) ကြား (၄) ဦး၏ ရုပ်အလောင်းများ ဖြစ်ကြသည်။
ဇူလိုင်လ (၂၇) ရက်နေ့က ရှာဖွေမှုနှစ်ခုတွင် တွေ့ရှိခဲ့သည့် ရုပ်အလောင်း (၁၂) လောင်းမှာ ဇီးပင်တွင်းရွာမှ (၂) ဦး၊ ချင်းဖုန်းရွာမှ (၁) ဦး၊ သမင်ဇပ်ရွာမှ (၁) ဦး၊ သလောက်ရွာမှ (၁) ဦးနှင့် မုံရွာမှ (၇) ဦး ဖြစ်ကြောင်းသိရသည်။ ရုပ်အလောင်းအားလုံး၏ ခန္ဓာကိုယ်တွင် တူညီသည့်အချက်မှာ ရိုက်နှက်၊ နှိပ်စက်ညှဉ်းပမ်းခြင်းကြောင့် ဒဏ်ရာ အများအပြား ရှိနေခြင်းဖြစ်သည်ဟု ဒေသခံများက ဆိုသည်။
စတုတ္ထအကြိမ်ဖြစ်စဉ် (ရုပ်အလောင်း ၁၁ လောင်း)
အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်တပ်များနှင့် ကနီမြို့နယ် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်များ ဇူလိုင်လ (၂၆) ရက်နှင့် (၂၇) ရက်နေ့တို့တွင် ကနီမြို့နယ် တောင်ပေါက်အုပ်စု ထူးကျေးရွာအနီးတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်၏ ဝင်ရောက်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် ဒေသခံများက ပြန်လည်ခုခံရင်း တိုက်ပွဲဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည်။ ထို့နောက် နောက်တစ်ရက် (၂၈) ရက်နေ့ နံနက်တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က ကြပ်ချောင်းတောတိုက်တွင် တောင်သူလုပ်ကိုင်နေသော သရက်တောရွာသား ကိုအောင်ကျော်မြင့်၏ တဲအိမ်အတွင်းဝင်ရောက်၍ ကိုအောင်ကျော်မြင့်အပါအဝင် ထမင်းစား နေသောအမျိုးသား (၁၁) ဦးအား ဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့ပြီး တဲကိုပါ မီးရှို့ဖျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။
ထို့နောက် နံနက် (၁၀) နာရီခန့်အချိန်တွင် သရက်တောရွာသား ကိုမြင့်သိန်း၏ ယာခင်းအစပ်မှ သေနတ်သံ ဆယ်ချက်ကျော်ခန့် ကြားရကြောင်းကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရသည့်အထဲတွင် ပါဝင်သူ၏ ဇနီးပြောကြားချက်အရ သိရ သည်။
ဒေသခံများက လိုက်လံရှာဖွေရာ ကနီမြို့နယ် တောင်ပေါက် ကျေးရွာအုပ်စု ကျောက်တံခါးချောင်းနှင့် ကြပ်ချောင်း အဆုံ၊ ကိုမြင့်သိန်း (သရက်တောရွာ)၏ ယာခင်းအတွင်း အမျိုးသား (၁၁) ဦးအား အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ် ခံထားရပြီး ဆိုင်ကယ် (၂) စီး နှင့်အတူ မီးရှို့ခံထားရသည်ကို ဇူလိုင်လ (၃၁) ရက်နေ့က တွေ့ရှိခဲ့သည်။
သေဆုံးသူများမှာ အမျိုးသားများဖြစ်ပြီး ခိုတွင်းရွာမှ (၁) ဦး၊ သရက်တောရွာမှ (၆) ဦး၊ ကနီမြို့ပေါ်မှ (၃) ဦး နှင့် ညောင်သူများရွာမှ (၁) ဦး စုစုပေါင်း (၁၁) ဦးဖြစ်သည်။ ကနီမြို့ပေါ်မှ (၃) ဦးမှာ ညီအစ်ကိုများဖြစ် ပြီး သရက်တောရွာရှိ ဆွေမျိုးများထံ တောင်သူအလုပ်လုပ်ရင်း မီးသွေးဖုတ်နေကြသူများ ဖြစ်သည်ဟု သိရသည်။
တွေ့ရှိရသည့် ရုပ်အလောင်းများအနက် (၃) လောင်းတွင် မျက်နှာနှင့် ခန္ဓာကိုယ်အနှံ့ ညိုမည်းဒဏ်ရာများဖြစ်ပေါ် နေခြင်း၊ ဦးခေါင်းနှင့် ရင်ဘတ်များတွင် သေနတ်ဖြင့်ပစ်ခတ်ထားခြင်း၊ မျက်နှာများအား ဓါတ်ဆီလောင်း မီးရှို့ ထားခြင်းစသည့် ဒဏ်ရာများလည်းတွေ့ရှိခဲ့ပြီး အလောင်းများမှာလည်း ပုပ်ပွလျက်ရှိသည်။
ထိုအခင်းဖြစ်ပွားပြီး နောက်ဆက်တွဲအနေနှင့် ကနီမြို့နယ် ကင်းတောင်အုပ်စု ခိုတွင်းကျေးရွာနေ ဦးမောင်မြင့်က စစ်အုပ်စု၏အကြမ်းဖက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကြောင့် စိတ်ဖေါက်ပြန်သွားပြီး နောက်တစ်ရက် ဩဂုတ်လ (၁) ရက်နေ့ ညနေတွင် ကနီမြို့ပေါ်ရှိ အထက ကျောင်းနားသို့ ဆိုင်ကယ်ဖြင့် သွားရောက်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့နောက် ကျောင်းအတွင်း စခန်းချနေသော အကြမ်းဖက်တပ်သားများကို “မင်းတို့တွေကြောင့် တို့ပြည်သူတွေ သေရတာ” ဟုအော်ဟစ်ပြီး ကျောင်းအုတ်တံတိုင်းနားသို့ ကပ်သွားစဉ် မည်သည့်လက်နက်မျှမပါသော ဦးမောင်မြင့်အား အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့၏ တပ်သားများမှ ပစ်သတ်ခဲ့ကြပြီး အလောင်းအား ညတွင်းချင်းဖျောက်ဖျက်လိုက်ကြကြောင်း မိသားစုထံမှ သိရ သည်။
အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရက်စက်သော လူမဆန်စွာကျူးလွန်မှုများမှာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနေရာအနှံ့အပြားတွင် နေ့စဉ် နှင့်အမျှ ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေလျက်ရှိပြီး အထက်ပါ ကနီမြို့နယ်ဖြစ်စဉ်များမှာ တိကျသော သက်သေအထောက်အထား များဖြင့် ပေါ်ပေါက်လာရသည့် ဖြစ်ရပ်တစ်ခုပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ အဆိုပါဖြစ်ရပ်များမှာ အစုလိုက် အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ် မှုအပါအဝင် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ဆိုးဝါးရက်စက်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုမြောက်ပြီး မြန်မာပြည်သူ လူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံး၏ အသက်အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်ကို စစ်အုပ်စုက အကြီးအကျယ် ခြိမ်းခြောက်လျက်ရှိကြောင်း သက်သေခံလျက်ရှိသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုသည် ၎င်းတို့ ကျူးလွန်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို တာဝန်ယူ၊ တာဝန်ခံရမည် ဖြစ်သည်။
ကနီမြို့နယ်တွင် ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခံရမှုများသည် နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေအရ အမြစ် ပြတ် သုတ်သင်ရှင်းလင်းရေးလုပ်ရပ်တစ်ခုဖြစ်သည်။ (၁၉၄၉) ခုနှစ် ဂျီနီဗာကွန်ဗင်းရှင်းနှင့် (၁၉၇၇) ခုနှစ်၊ ဇွန်လ (၈) ရက်နေ့၌ ထပ်မံ ဖြည့်စွက်ထားသော နောက်ဆက်တွဲစာချုပ်များတွင် ပြည်တွင်း/ပြည်ပ စစ်ပွဲများကြောင့် အရပ်သားနှင့် အရပ်သားများ၏ ပစ္စည်းဥစ္စာများ၊ ယဉ်ကျေးမှုဆိုင်ရာ၊ ဘာသာရေးဆိုင်ရာ အဆောက်အဦများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထားမတိုက်ခိုက်ရန် အစရှိသည့် စံနှုန်းများကိုလည်း တိကျစွာ ဖော်ပြထားသည်။
ဂျီနီဗာသဘောတူ စာချုပ် (၄) ဖြစ်သော စစ်အတွင်း၌ အရပ်သားများကိုကာကွယ်ခြင်းဆိုင်ရာသဘောတူစာချုပ် (၁၉၄၉) ၏ အပိုဒ်(၃၂) အရ စစ်ပွဲအတွင်း ကာကွယ်ပေးရမည့်ပုဂ္ဂိုလ်များအား ရုပ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာနာကျင်မှုဖြစ်စေရန် ဆောင်ရွက်မှု (သို့) အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက်သတ်ဖြတ်မှု ဖြစ်စေနိုင်သော ဆောင်ရွက်မှုများကို တားမြစ်ထားသည်။ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်း၊ ရိုက်နှက်အပြစ်ပေးခြင်း၊ ဆေးပညာ (သို့) သိပ္ပံပညာအတွက် အသုံးချခြင်းတို့ကို အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ သာမက စစ်ဘက်ဆိုင်ရာအေးဂျင့်များကပင် ပြုလုပ်ခွင့်မရှိဟု ပြဌာန်းထားသည်။
ကနီဖြစ်စဉ်သည် ဂျီနီဗာကွန်ဗင်းရှင်းကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်းချိုးဖောက်ပြီး အရပ်သားများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ အမြစ်ပြတ် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် ထိုသို့ လူသားမျိုးနွယ် အပေါ် ကျုးလွန်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုကို ပြစ်တင်ရှုတ်ချရမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ထိထိရောက်ရောက် တရားစွဲဆိုရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ယခုကဲ့သို့သော ဖြစ်ရပ်များမှာ ကနီဒေသ တစ်ခုထဲတင်မဟုတ်ဘဲ ဒီပဲယင်းမြို့နယ်နှင့် အခြားသော မြို့နယ်များ တွင်လည်း ဖြစ်ပွားလျက်ရှိသည်ကို သိရှိရပြီး အဆိုပါဖြစ်ရပ်များနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် ဆက်လက် ထုတ်ပြန်သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။
ဒုတိယဖြစ်စဉ်တွင် အသက် (၆၀) ကျော် (၂) ဦးနှင့် မသန်စွမ်းသူ (၁) ဦး သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းခံရသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုသည် လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်းအတွင်းတွင် အားနွဲ့ပြီးထိခိုက်အလွယ်ဆုံးဖြစ်သည့် ကလေးသူငယ်များနှင့် မသန်စွမ်းသူများကိုပင် ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များကို အကြိမ်ကြိမ်ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ ထိခိုက်နစ်နာ ခံစားလွယ်သော လူအုပ်စုများကို နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် အကာအကွယ်ပေးရမည်ဟု တိကျသော ကတိကဝတ်များ ပြုထားသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံပေါင်း (၁၈၂) နိုင်ငံက အတည်ပြုခဲ့ရေးထိုးခဲ့သည့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ မသန်စွမ်းသူများ အခွင့် အရေးဆိုင်ရာ သဘောတူစာချုပ် အပိုဒ် (၁၅) ၌ “စာချုပ်အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများသည် မသန်စွမ်းသူများအား ညှဉ်းပန်း နှိပ်စက်ခြင်းမှ ကာကွယ်ရမည်” ဟု အသေးစိတ် ဖော်ပြထားသည်။ ထိုသူများအား လိုအပ်သော အကာအကွယ် ပေးမှုရရှိစေရေးအတွက် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့်လည်း တာဝန်ရှိမှုကို စောင့်ထိန်းလိုက်နာရမည် ဖြစ်သည်။
ထို့ကြောင့် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းမှ ထိုကဲ့သို့သော ကိစ္စရပ်များအတွက် အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စု၏ လုပ်ရပ်များကို အရေးယူ တုံ့ပြန်ဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ ပြုလုပ်ရန်လိုအပ်သည်ကို ရှင်းရှင်းလင်းလင်း တွေ့နိုင်သည်။ သို့ဖြစ်၍ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအထွေထွေညီလာခံတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စု၏ တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်း ကို ငြင်းပယ်ရမည်မှာ အသေအချာပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ တဆက်တည်းတွင် မြန်မာပြည်သူတရပ်လုံး၏ သဘောထားကို ထင်ဟပ်သည့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (National Unity Government) ကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ တရားဝင် အစိုးရအဖွဲ့အဖြစ် နိုင်ငံတကာမှ သတ်မှတ်ပေးရန် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။ NUG အစိုးရအဖွဲ့အနေဖြင့်လည်း ရောမ စာချုပ်ကို အတည်ပြုလက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးပြီး အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စုအား အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုတရားရုံး (International Criminal Court, ICC) သို့ တင်ရမည်ဖြစ်သလို အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာတရားရုံး (International Court of Justice, ICJ) ၌လည်း မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို တရားဝင်ကိုယ်စားပြုပေးရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica and Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-18
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations
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Format :
pdf
Size:
1.43 MB
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Description:
"In over (70) years of civil war in Burma, ethnic nationalities have suffered torture, extrajudicial killings, massacres, rape, villages burned to the ground, and residents forced to flee their homes in indiscriminate junta military so-called ‘Military Clearance Policy’. Human rights and civil society organizations across Burma have repeatedly called for action to end this military’s impunity. The UN formed a fact-finding mission in 2017 to investigate the repeated human rights violations. And yet, the junta has continued to perpetrate human rights abuses, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The military junta seized power and arbitrary arrested the country’s elected leaders on February 1, 2021. People across the regions and states have been resisting the junta in various ways. Kani Township, Yinmabin District, Sagaing Region is known as a prominent area of opposition to the coup. The juntas’ response has been to target and destroy areas in Kani Township, and surrounding villages and forests with shootings, arrests, and raids in military incursions. Thousands of residents have fled to nearby villages and forests. The junta has also entered these villages and killed buffaloes, cows, and looted property from the villages.
44th and 99th Light Infantry Division, including battalion 228th based in Kale Township, have attacked almost every village in Kani Township, using some thousand troops in three different strategic divisions. Many locals have endured inhumane atrocities by the junta. Arbitrary arrest, torture, and sometimes being killed through torture. It has also been reported that internal displaced persons are suffering from food and medical shortages. The terrorist (junta) group has been collecting money through extortion, as well as assaulting, intimidating, and beating locals like with rifle stocks when they travel to Monywa Township to purchase necessities.
Ooredoo and Telenor tele-com operators’ internet and phone lines were suspended on July 9, and MPT was cut off on August 2 in some villages in Kani Township. According to locals, only the military owned Mytel internet and phone line are currently available in some villages. The junta has been uses its four cuts doctrine to indiscriminately target civilians. In July alone, the junta committed 4 massacres in Kani Township villages. At least 43 people have been discovered killed in this way.
First massacre (4 fatalities)
Four men were arrested, tortured, and shot in the head on July 1, between 4 – 6 pm in Shitkoetat Forest between Mone O Village and Ywar Thar Village, Kani Township, Yinmabin District, Sagaing Region. According to locals, the (4) corpses were found headless from shootings on July 3. Some (25) motorcycles were found burned in a nearby fire. The (4) men were each from Sein Kone Village, Phan Khar Kone Village, Sule Kone Village, and Inn Chaung Village.
Second massacre (16 fatalities)
The junta stormed Yin Village and Kone Thar Village, located on the eastern bank of Chindwin River. They entered the village, forcing residents to flee to Kyauk Hle Ka Village on July 9 and 10. Missing were twenty-six villagers. When locals went searching for them, (15) dead bodies were discovered in the valley on Khin Tan Shay Hill, east of Yin Village, Kani Township, Sagaing Region, and (1) dead body was found in another nearby village. According to locals from Yin Village, the dead bodies were found on July 11 and 12 on the hill east of Yin Village.
The (16) murdered persons were from Yin Village (13), Kone Thar Village (1), Paluzawa Village (1), and from Htauk Kyan Kone Village (1). Most of the victims were men, aged between (30) and (50), one of the victims was a male in his 60’s. All the corpses were found with signs of severe torture, some with cuts and bruises on faces and necks.
Third massacre (12 fatalities)
A clash between the military junta and People Defense Force (PDF) happened near Zee Pin Dwin Village, Kani Township, Sagaing Region, on the evening of July 26. Some villagers and PDF went missing. Five dead bodies were found in the first search, by the paddle field behind Zee Pin Dwin Village, and another seven dead bodies were found in a second search. Total of (12) corpses were discovered on July 27.
During the second search, the villagers dug a pit and found (4) victims, (1) hanging from a tree, and (2) lying on the ground. Of these (7) fatalities found in the second search, (2) were elderly over the age of 60, (1) was disabled, and (4) others were aged between 18 – 30.
The (12) fatalities from this third massacre were from Zee Pin Dwin Village (2), Chin Phone Village (1), Thamin Zat Village (1), Tha Lauk Village (1), and Monywa Township (7). According to locals all the victims were found with wounds and injuries from beatings and torture.
Fourth massacre (11 fatalities)
Junta troops raided a small village near Htoo Village, Taungpauk Village Tract, Kani Township. A local People Defense Force (PDF) from Kani Township resisted the attack and a clash unfolded on July 26 and 27. On the morning of July 28, the junta raided Ko Aung Kyaw Myint’s house, a farmer from Thayat Taw Village, who was working in Kyat Chaung Taw Tike. (11) men, including Ko Aung Kyaw Myint, were detained, and his house burned down by the terrorist group. According to one of the victims’ wives, she heard (10) gunshots around 10 am close by to Ko Myint Thein’s farm, a local in Thayat Taw Village.
On July 31, the villagers went on a search and found (11) men massacred in Ko Myint Thein’s farm, in Thayat Taw Village. (2) motorbikes had also been set on fire at the intersection of Kyauktaga and Kyat Creeks, Taungpauk Village Tract, Kani Township.
The (11) victims were all men and from Kho Dwin Village (1), Thayat Taw Village (6), Kani Township (3), and Nyaung Thu Village (1). The (3) from Kani Township were brothers working as farmers in coal manufacturing in their relatives’ village. Among the dead, (3) had bruises on their faces and all over their bodies, they had been shot in the head and chest, with burns on their faces from gasoline. All the bodies were rotting by the time they were found.
In the aftermath of the incident, U Maung Myint, a resident from Kho Dwin Village, Kintaung Village Tract, Kani Township, was mentally distressed by the massacre and drove his motorcycle to a high school in Kani Township where junta troops were based on the evening of August 1. U Maung Myint shouted “civilians died because of you”. He went close to the school’s wall unarmed, the junta then shot. According to his family, junta troops disappeared the body over the night.
Atrocities committed by this terrorist group are happening across Burma daily. The massacres in Kani Township are but incidents which have emerged with concrete evidence. These events testify that the junta is committing crimes against humanity. It is the junta which is responsible for these crimes threatening the lives and property of civilians all over Burma.
The massacres in Kani Township are an act of extermination under the international law. The (1949) Geneva Convention and its June 8, (1977) additional protocols established international humanitarian law norms such as protection of the civilian population, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian, cultural objects and places of worship due to international or non-international armed conflicts.
According to article (32) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Geneva Convention related to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, taking any measure of such a character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected persons in their hands is prohibited. This applies not only to murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutilation and medical or scientific experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected person, but also to any other measures of brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.
The Kani Township massacres and targeting of civilians is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions. The junta’s torture and murder of civilians in Kani Township must be condemned by the international community as crimes against humanity and litigated accordingly. Similar incidents to Kani Township occurred in Depayin Township and other townships. These incidents will consequently be examined by civil society organizations.
(2) persons over the age of 60, and (1) disabled person were killed in the second massacre. This junta has repeatedly committed torture towards the most vulnerable members of society, such as children and the disabled. Groups which the international community has made specific pledges to protect.
Article (15) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by (182) countries, including Burma, states that “States Parties shall protect persons with disabilities from being subjected to torture”. The international community must adhere to its vital responsibility to ensure these groups are protected.
It is therefore necessary for the international community to act against this terrorist group and reject a murderous junta and illegitimate coup at the United Nations General Assembly. At the same time, the National Unity Government, with legitimacy granted by Burma’s people, must be recognized and given appropriate credentials by the international community as the legitimate government in Burma.
Upon ratifying the Rome Statue, the NUG must refer the junta to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and represent Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)..."
Source/publisher:
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica and Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-18
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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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
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Human Rights Defenders, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Women's rights, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"၂၀၂၁ ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီလ (၁)ရက် နေ့မှစ ၍ မြန်မာ စစ်တပ်သည် နိုင်ငံအတွင်းအင်တာနက်သုံးစွဲမှု့ကို ရုတ်ချည်း ပိတ်ပင် ခဲ့ပါသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုမှ မည်သည့်ဖိနှိပ်မှုနည်းလမ်းများအသုံးပြုခဲ့ပါသလဲ ၊ သူတို့အောင်မြင်ခဲ့ပါသလား နည်းပညာ ဆိုင်ရာ ကုမ္ဗဏီများ နှင့် ထည့်ဝင်လှူဒါန်းသူ များက အာဏာသိမ်းအပြီး မြန်မာပြည်တွင် ပေါ်ထွန်း လာသည့် ဒီဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေးမှု့ကိုမည်သို့တုန့်ပြန် ကြပါသလဲ ယခုထင်မြင်သုံးသပ်ချက် သည် အင်တာနက် အသုံးပြုပုံ နှင့် အရပ်ဖက် လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်းတော်လှန်ရေး ၏ အဓိကနယ်ပယ်များ အကြောင်းကို RightsCon 2021 တွင် သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူ (၃)ဦး ၏ ဆွေးနွေးချက်များ ပေါင်းစည်း တင်ပြထား ခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ဆွေးနွေးပွဲ ကို ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်လုံခြုံရေးသုတေသန၊လေ့ကျင့်သင်ကြားရေးနှင့် အားလုံးအတွက် ပိုမိုကောင်းမွန်သောဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်အနာဂါတ် ဖြစ်လာစေရန်မြေတောင်မြှောက် ပေး သည့် ကနေဒါနိုင်ငံ အကျိုးအမြတ်မယူသောအဖွဲ့အစည်း SecDev Foundation မှလက်ခံကျင်းပပေး ခဲ့ပါသည်။
“သူတို့တရားဝင်ဖြစ်တည်ရေးအတွက် ကြိုးစား ရာမှာ အင်တာနက် က အသက်တမျှအရေးကြီးတယ်ဆိုတာ စစ်တပ်က ကောင်းကောင်းသိပါတယ်” ဟု သုတေသီနှင့် တသီးပုဂ္ဂလအကြံပေးဖြစ်သူ အဲလက်စ် အောင်ခန့် ကပြော ကြားသည်။ အဲလက်စ်နှင့်အတူ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အခွင့်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူနှင့် မြန်မာ အိုင်စီတီ( သတင်းနှင့်ဆက်သွယ် ရေး နည်းပညာ) MIDO Development Organisation မှ ယခင် ပရိုဂရမ် မန်နေဂျာ ဖြစ်သူ မျိုးမင်းအောင်၊ အာဏာ မသိမ်းမီက ရန်ကုန်အခြေစိုက် နည်းပညာ ဗဟိုတွင် နည်းပညာစီစဉ်သူအဖြစ် ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့သူ Saijai Liangpunsakul တို့ဆွေးနွေးပြောကြားခဲ့သည်။
ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် ခေတ်အတွင်း လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ဆိုင်ရာ နှစ်စဉ်ညီလာခံ ကျင်းပသည့် RightsCon တွင် သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူ (၃)ဦး ၂၀၂၁၊ ဇွန်လ ၉ ရက်နေ့က အွန်လိုင်း ၌ တွေ့ဆုံကြပါသည်။ သူတို့က ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီ (၁)ရက်နောက်ပိုင်း ဖြစ်ပေါ်ပြောင်းလဲလာသည့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အခင်းအကျင်း တွင် စစ်အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ(စစ်ကောင်စီ ဆိုသည်မှာ အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့က သူတို့ကိုယ်သူတို့ ပေးထားသည့် ဂုဏ်ပုဒ်အမည်)ဆန့်ကျင်ဆန္ဒဖော်ထုတ်သူများ နှင့် ပုဂ္ဂလိက ကဏ္ဍ တို့မည်သည့်နည်းဖြင့် ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းနေကြသည်ကို ဆွေးနွေးခဲ့ကြပါသည်။
စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ဖိနှိပ်သည့်နည်းလမ်းများကို တန်ပြန်ခုခံသည့် အာဏာသိမ်းအပြီး တက်ကြွသောဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေး မှုု့တရပ်ထွန်းကားလာခဲ့သည်ကို ဆွေးနွေးပွဲက ရှင်းလင်း ပြသခဲ့ပါသည်။ သို့
စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ဖိနှိပ်သည့်နည်းလမ်းများကို တန်ပြန်ခုခံသည့် အာဏာသိမ်းအပြီး တက်ကြွသောဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေး မှုု့တရပ်ထွန်းကားလာခဲ့သည်ကို ဆွေးနွေးပွဲက ရှင်းလင်း ပြသခဲ့ပါသည်။ သို့သော် စစ်တပ်၏စောင့်ကြည့် ထောက်လှမ်း နိုင်စွမ်းအရ အာဏာသိမ်းဆန့်ကျင်သည့်လှုပ်ရှားမှုများမှာ အသိပညာကွာဟချက်များကြောင့်ကန့်သတ်ခံနေရသေးသည်။ ပြည်သူများ၏အင်တာနက်ရယူသုံးစွဲနိုင်မှုကိုဆက်လက်တည်တံ့အောင်ထိန်းထားပေးရန်နည်းပညာကုမ္ဗဏီများ နှင့် ထည့်ဝင်လှူဒါန်းသူများ က မိမိတို့၏ အခန်းကဏ္ဍ ကို ပြန်လည်စဉ်းစားပေးဖို့ သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူများမှ တောင်းဆိုကြပါသည်။[1]
စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် ဖိနှိပ်မှု့
အင်တာနက်ပိတ်ချခြင်းသည် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ဖိနှိပ်မှု့ဗျူဟာများတွင်လူသိအများဆုံးဖြစ်သည်။ အင်တာနက်ချိတ်ဆက်နိုင်မှု့ကို အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးအချိန်အနည်းငယ်အတွင်း စစ်တပ်မှပိတ်ဆို့လိုက်သည်။ ထို့နောက်တွင် ညပိုင်းအင်တာနက်ပြတ်တောက်မှုဆက်တိုက်ဖြစ်လာသည်မှာအနည်းဆုံးရက်ပေါင်း (၇၀) ကြာမြင့် ခဲ့သည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ဧပြီလ မှစပြီး ဖိုင်ဘာအော့ပ်တစ်ကေဘယ်လ်မှလွဲ ၍ အခြားမည်သည့်နည်းနှင့်မျှအင်တာနက်ချိတ်ဆက်မရအောင်စစ်ကောင်စီမှ ပိတ်ဆို့ထားခဲ့သည်။ အဓိပ္ဗါယ်မှာ ကုန်ကျစရိတ်နဲသောမိုဘိုင်းလ် ကွန်ယက်များနှင့် broadband ဆက်သွယ်မှုများကိုသာအားထားနေရသည့် မြန်မာပြည်သားအများစု အင်တာနက် လုံးဝချိတ်ဆက်မရတော့ခြင်းပင်။ ဖိုင်ဘာအော့ပ်တစ်ကေဘယ်လ်များမှာ လည်း မြန်နှုန်းလျော့ချခံထားရသည့်နှုန်းဖြင့်သာ ဝန်ဆောင်မှု ပေးနေရသည်။
အင်တာနက်ပြတ်တောက်ခြင်းကိုအရေးထားရန် တောင်းဆိုနေချိန်တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီကမြန်မာ့ဆိုင်ဘာ နယ်ပယ်ကို ရုတ်ချည်း လုံးဝထိန်းချုပ်လိုက်နိုင်သည်ဆိုသည့်အချက်ကိုတော့သုံးသပ်ဆွေး နွေးသူများမှ ကွဲပြားသည့်အမြင်ကိုတင်ပြကြသည်။ ဥပမာ တစ်ခုအနေနှင့် အင်တာနက်အမှောင်ချခံရခြင်းမှာ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှဖြစ်ပေါ်လာသည် မဟုတ် ဟု မျိုး က ထောက်ပြသည်။ ၂၀၁၉ ခုဇွန်လ နှင့် ၂၀၂၁ ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီ အကြားကာလ တွင် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်နှင့်ချင်းပြည်နယ် ၉ မြို့နယ် တို့ ၌ တင်းမာသည့်လက်နက်ကိုင် ပဋိပက္ခများဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့်ကြားက အင်တာနက်မှောင်ချထားရန်အမိန့်ကိုအမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီ ပါတီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် NLD အစိုးရမှ ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။အခြားအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့်အတူ MIDO နှင့် ဖန်တီးရာ တို့ကအင်တာနက်ပိတ်ပင်ခြင်းကို ရပ်ဆိုင်း ရန် ကာကွယ် ပြောဆို ခဲ့ကြသည် ၊ သို့သော် အာဏာသိမ်းသည့်ရက်မတိုင်မီ ( ၁ ) ရက်အလိုမှ ရပ်ဆိုင်း သွားခြင်း ဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်တပ်က အာဏာသိမ်းရန်အတွက် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင် အကြိုလေ့ကျင့်နေပုံရသည်ဟု မျိုးကပြောသည်။ ၂၀၂၀ နိုဝင်ဘာလတွင်လည်း Information Controls Fellow of the Open Technology Fund ဖြစ်သူ ဖြူဖြူကျော် မှ NLD လက်ထက်တွင် အွန်လိုင်းတားမြစ်စီစစ် ချက်များ၊စောင့်ကြည့် အကဲခတ်မှုများ ကိုလှစ်ဟပြခဲ့သည်။သူ၏ လေ့လာချက်တွင်မှတ်တမ်းတင်ထားသော ဖိနှိပ်မှု ဗျူဟာများ သည် အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးချိန်တွင် အလုံးအရင်းနှင့် ကျင့်သုံးခဲ့သော ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် ကိရိယာများသိမ်းဆည်းခြင်း၊ ပစ်မှတ်ထားသည့်ဝက်ဘ်ဆိုက် များကိုပိတ်ဆို့ခြင်း စသည့် ရှိနှင့်ပြီး ဗျူဟာ အမျိုးမျိုး ကို ရှေ့ပြေး နိမိတ်ပုံ ထင်ဟပ်စေသည်။[2]
အာဏာသိမ်းမှု့မတိုင်မီ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ဖိနှပ်မှု့များ အပေါ်ထပ်လောင်းထားသည့် များပြားလှသောရင်းမြစ်များ အကြောင်းကိုလည်း သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူ များက အလေးအနက်တင်ပြကြသည်။ တရုတ်၊ ဥရောပနှင့်အမေရိကန်နိုင်ငံ တို့မှတင်သွင်းလာပုံရသည့် တပ်မတော်၏ စောင့်ကြည့်ထောက်လှမ်း ခြင်းနည်းပညာ အကြောင်းကိုအဲလက်စ် မှဆွေးနွေးခဲ့သည်။ အများတကာသွားလာနေ သည့်နေရာတွင် လူမျက်နှာသွင်ပြင်ကိုမှတ်မိနိုင်သည့် တရုတ်နိုင်ငံ၏ နည်းပညာ ပစ္စည်းများ တပ်ဆင်မှုကို အဲလက်စ်မှ အထူးစိုးရိမ်သည်ဟုဆိုသည်။ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများဖြင့်သက်ဝင်လှုပ်ရှားနေပြီး အကြမ်းတမ်းဆုံး ဖြိုခွဲခံရသောနေရာများဖြစ်သည့် မန္တလေး၊ နေပြည်တော် နှင့်ရန်ကုန် မြို့ကြီး (၃) မြို့ တွင် ထိုသို့တပ်ဆင်မှု့ကို၂၀၂၀ နှင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်တို့တွင်စတင်ရန်ရည်ရွယ် ခဲ့သည်။ NLD အစိုးရ မှ အမေရိကန်ဒေါ်လာ၄့၆သန်း ကိုလူမှု့ကွန်ယက်စောင့်ကြည့်လေ့လာရေးနည်းကိရိယာများအတွက် ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ်တွင်သုံးခဲ့သည်ဟုဖြူဖြူကျော်၏ သုတေသန ပြုချက်ကိုမှီငြမ်း ၍ မျိုး မှလည်းပြော ဆိုသည်။ NLD အစိုးရသည် ၂၀၁၉ – ၂၀၂၀ အကြား ဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ ကြားဖြတ်သတင်းယူနိုင်သည့် စံနစ်ကိုတည်ထောင်ရန် အမေရိကန်ဒေါ်လာ ၄သန်းဝန်းကျင်ကို လျာထားသုံးစွဲ ခဲ့သော်လည်း ယခုချိန်အထိ ထိုစံနစ်မှာတည်ရှိ ပေါ်ပေါက်မလာသေးဟု မျိုးမှဆက်လက်ပြောကြားသည်။ ဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ ကြားဖြတ်သတင်းယူခြင်းဆိုသည်မှာ ပုံမှန်အားဖြင့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု့များကို ဖြေရှင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရာတွင် နိုင်ငံသားများအချင်းချင်းပုဂ္ဂိုလ်ရေးရာကိစ္စ များ ပြောကြားခြင်း ကို သတင်းရယူရာ၌ အကန့်အသတ် မရှိခွင့်ပေးထားသည့် ဥပဒေမူဘောင်ကိုရည်ညွှန်းသည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ထိုသို့အကာအကွယ်အထိန်းအကွပ်မဲ့ခြင်း က ဥပဒေအရမည်သို့မျှတန်ပြန် အရေးယူခံရမည်မဟုတ်သဖြင့် နိုင်ငံသားများအပေါ် စိတ်ကြိုက် လွတ်လပ်စွာသူလျို ထောက်လှမ်းနိုင်ရန် စစ်ကောင်စီကို အခွင့်ပေးလိုက်သကဲ့သို့ဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီမှ အင်တာနက် နှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့် လုံခြုံရေး ထိန်းချုပ်ရန် သူတို့ဖာသာ ကျင့်သား ယူထားပြီး၊ ကြိုတင်ကြံစည် တွေးထားပြီး ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူများမှ သံသယ များစွာဖြစ်ဖွယ်မရှိပါ။
မည်သို့ဖြစ်စေ အမြင်ကျဉ်းမြောင်းစွာအင်တာနက်အမှောင်ချခြင်းက အခြားနည်းဖြင့်ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ဖိနှိပ်မှု့ကိုအာရုံစိုက် ခြင်းမှသွေဖယ်သွားစေသည်ဟုမျိုးကဖြည့်စွက်ပြောကြားသည်။ စစ်ဆေးရေးနေရာများတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီအရာရှိများက လူထုထံမှဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ကိရိယာ (လက်ကိုင်ဖုန်း)များကိုစစ်ဆေးပြီး အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်တပ်ကို ခြိမ်းခြောက်သည့် ပို့စ်များ တင်မတင်စစ်ဆေးဖော်ထုတ်သည်။ “ပထမဆုံးသူတို့ကြည့်တာကတော့ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်၊နောက်ပီးတော့ (ဓါတ်ပုံတွေ)သိမ်းထားတဲ့ဖိုင်နဲ့ မက်ဆင်ဂျာပဲဗျ “ဟုမျိုးကပြောသည်။ “ဘာတွေပါနိုင်မလဲ ဖြစ်နိုင်ခြေရှိသမျှ အမျိုးစုံ သူတို့ရှာတယ် ၊ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းတာကိုထိခိုက်တာ တခုခုတွေ့တာနဲ့ ဒီအရာရှိတွေက( ဖုန်းပိုင်ရှင်ကို) ဖမ်းတော့တာပဲ။ စစ်ကောင်စီ က လူငယ်ဆိုလျှင် ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော် သူများဟုမှတ်ယူ ထားသဖြင့် ယင်းသို့ နှောင့်ယှက်မှုကိုအများဆုံးကြုံတွေ့နိုင်ခြေရှိသူများမှာ စစ်ဆေးရေးနေရာများကို အုပ်စုလိုက် ဖြတ်သန်း သွားလာနေကြသောလူငယ်များဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီမှ ဖုန်းများစစ်ဆေးသည့်လုပ်ရပ် ကိုဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်လှုပ်ရှား သူများ နှင့်သတင်းထောက်များ က စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်ဆုံး ဖြစ်သည် ဟု Saijai ကဖြည့်စွက်ဆွေးနွေးခဲ့သည်။ “ဒီလိုလုပ်တဲ့နည်းကပြည်သူ လူထုအကြားမှာ ကြောက်ရွံ့ ထိတ်လန့်မှုတွေ ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေတယ်၊ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူခေါင်းဆောင်ပိုင်းတွင်သာမက ရိုးရိုးပြည်သူ တွေကပါ ကိုယ့်ဖုန်းနဲ့ကိုယ် အပြစ်ရှိတဲ့ ရာဇဝတ်သားဖြစ်မှာကြောက်နေကြတယ်”
စစ်ကောင်စီ ၏ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် ဖိနှိပ်မှုတွေ ကပြီးပြည့်စုံရဲ့လား
အင်တာနက်ကိုလုံးဝဥဿုံ ထိန်းချုပ်ရန် အမျိုးမျိုးလုပ်ဆောင်နေရသော်လည်း အခက်အခဲများနှင့်သာရင်ဆိုင်နေရ သောစစ်တပ်အခြေအနေ ကိုထောက်ပြပြီးမြန်မာပြည်တွင် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ဖိနှိပ်မှုမှာ မပြည့်စုံကြောင်း သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေး သူများမှ တသဘောတည်း တင်ပြကြသည်။ပထမဦးစွာ- စတီဖင် ဖဲလ်စတိန်း အခေါ်အရပြောရလျှင် “အာဏာရှင်များ၏ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အကျဥ်းအကြပ်” တွင်စစ်ကောင်စီ ချောင်ပိတ်မိနေပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်းမှာ အာဏာရှင်ဆန်သည့် အုပ်ချုပ်သူများ မိမိတို့ ဖိနှိပ်မှုမှရရှိသည့်အကျိုးအမြတ်နှင့် အင်တာနက်ဖွင့်ပေးလိုက်ရသည့်အတွက် ရလိုက်သော အကျိုးအမြတ်ဆုံးရှုံးမှု့တို့ အကြား အလဲအလှယ် အပေးအယူဖြစ်သည်။ လူအများလက်ခံထားသကဲ့သို့ ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီ (၁)ရက်နေ့ နံနက်စောစော စစ်တပ် စတင် ဝင်ရောက်နေရာယူချိန်မှ စပြီး အင်တာနက်ပိတ်ခံရသည် ဆိုခြင်းမှာမဟုတ်ပေ၊ သူတို့အာဏာသိမ်းတပ်အချင်းချင်း ချိတ်ဆက်နိုင်ရန် အင်တာနက်ကို သုံးနေရ ၍ ဖြစ်သည်ဟု အဲလက်စ် ကထောက်ပြခဲ့ပါသည်။ တကယ်အင်တာနက်ဖြတ်ခံရချိန် ကနံနက် ၇နာရီခွဲ ခန့်ဖြစ်ပြီး လူထုထံမှ မကျေနပ်သံများ ချက်ခြင်း ပေါ်ထွက်လာသည်။ညစဉ် ညဉ့် ၁နာရီ မှ မနက် ၉ နာရီအထိအင်တာနက် ဖြတ်တောက်ခြင်းက ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ( ၆) ရက်နေ့မှစတင်သည်ဆိုခြင်းမှာလည်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏သူတို့ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်အကျဉ်းအကြပ်ကို တနည်းအားဖြင့် ဖြေရှင်းခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ နေ့ပိုင်း ပုံမှန်ရုံးချိန်တွင် လုပ်ငန်းများလုပ်ဆောင် နိုင်ရန်အင်တာနက်ခွင့်ပြုပေးထားပြီး ညအချိန်တွင် အကြောက်တရားလွှမ်းမိုးစေရန်၊အရပ်သားများကိုအကြမ်းဖက်ရန်၊ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများ အချင်းချင်း ချိတ်ဆက်မှုကိုဖြတ်တောက်ဖြိုခွဲရန် ဆိုသည့်တန်ပြန်ဆန္ဒကိုအကောင်အထည်ဖော် နေသည့် ထိုအချက်နှစ်ချက်မှာ အဲလက်စ်၏ သုံးသပ်ချက်အရ အလုပ်လုပ်ချင်သူများကို ဖော်ရွေလိုက်လျောပါသည် ဆိုသည့်ပုံရိပ်ကို အတင်းထိန်းထားနိုင်ရေးအတွက် စစ်အုပ်စု၏အထူးအားစိုက်ကြိုးစားထားရသည့် ရလာဒ်များ ဖြစ်သည်ဟုဆိုသည်။
ထို့အပြင် စစ်တပ် သည်လည်း အင်တာနက် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။ အများနှင့်အတူရောပြီးအင်တာနက်အကုန်ပိတ်သွားသည့်အတွက် တပ်အချင်းချင်းဆက်သွယ်ရန် မဖြစ်နိုင်တော့ပဲ မြေပြင်တွင်တာဝန်ကျနေသောစစ်သားများ၏စိတ်ဓါတ်ရေးရာ ကိုပါ အတားအဆီး အနှောက်အယှက်ဖြစ်လာစေသည်။ “ဖုန်းတစ်လုံးနဲ့ တစ်တော့ ဆော့နေကြပီး နားနေကြတဲ့စစ်သားတွေ ကျွန်တော်တို့အားလုံး တွေ့ဖူးကြတာပဲ” ဟုအဲလက်စ်ကပြောသည်။ ထိုတစ်တော့ ဗီဒီယိုများမှာ ကြည့်ရှုသူအတွက် အဆိပ် အတောက် မရှိသည်မဟုတ်ချေ၊ လူမှု ကွန်ယက်တွင်တင်ထားသော ဓါတ်ပုံများ၊ အသက်ကိုခြိမ်းခြောက်သည့်ပို့စ်များသည် စစ်တပ်အတွင်း ရာထူးအဆင့်အလိုက် အရေးမယူ၊ ဒဏ်မခတ်သည့် ထုံးစံ တရပ်ကိုပြန့်ပွားစေသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ စီးပွားရေးနှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့်အကျိုးစီးပွားနှင့် သူတို့တပ်အချင်းချင်းအကြား တရားဝင်အသိအမှတ်ပြုခံရမှုသည်လည်း အင်တာနက်ချိတ်ဆက်ရရှိနိုင်ခြင်း အပေါ်တနည်းနည်းဖြင့်မှီ နေသောကြောင့်လုံးဝအပြီးသတ်ပိတ်ချလိုက်ရန်မှာ ဖြစ်နိုင်ဖွယ်မရှိပါ။
စီးပွားရေး လုပ်ငန်းများလုပ်ဆောင်ရန်နှင့် စစ်တပ်အကျိုးစီးပွားကို အထောက်အကူပြုသည့် အင်တာနက်သုံးစွဲမှု ပုံစံကိုချဲ့နိုင်သမျှတိုးချဲ့ပြီး ၊ တော်လှန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှု ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေသည့် အင်တာနက်စွမ်းအင်ကို ချုံ့ နိုင်သော အဆင့်မြင့် ဆန်းကြယ်သည့် ထိန်းချုပ်နည်းများ စစ်ကောင်စီမှအကောင်အထည်ဖော်နိုင်မည်လားဟုမေးစရာရှိသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီရင်ဆိုင်နေရသည့် ဒုတိယ အခက်အခဲများ ကိုလည်း သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူများကထောက်ပြခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၎င်းမှာ စစ်တပ်တွင် အလုံးစုံလွှမ်းခြုံသည့် စောင့်ကြည့် ထောက်လှမ်းခြင်းဗျူဟာချမှတ်နိုင်သည့် နည်းလမ်းမရှိခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ မျိုး၏ဆွေးနွေးချက်အရ “စစ်တပ်ရဲ့စောင့်ကြည့်ထောက်လှမ်း နိုင်တဲ့စွမ်းရည်ဘယ်လောက်ရှိလဲအပြည့်အစုံမသိရပေမယ့်သေချာတဲ့ အချက်တစ်ခုကစစ်တပ်က ပစ္စည်းကိရိယာတွေ ဝယ်ယူပြီး ဆော့ဖ်ဝဲများတပ်ဆင်လိုစိတ် တော့ အလွန်ပြင်းပြနေတယ် ။ဒီအရင်းအမြစ်တွေ ကို စစ်အဖွဲ့မှညွှန်ကြားအသုံးပြုနိုင်ခြင်းရှိမရှိကလည်း အလွန်မေးခွန်းထုတ်စရာကောင်းနေတယ့်သူတို့မှာ ဗျူဟာမဲ့နေတယ်”ဟုဆိုသည်။ မျိုး ဆိုလိုသည်မှာ စစ်တပ်က ပြဿနာကိုဖြေရှင်းရာ တွင်ရှေ့အနာဂါတ်ကိုကြိုတွေးသည့်ဗျူဟာထက် ငွေကိုသာပုံအောသုံးတတ်ပုံရသည်ဟုဆိုလိုခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်း၏ရလာဒ်မှာ ပြည်သူပြည်သားများ၏ ကျရာအခြေအနေတွင်ဖြစ်အောင်လိုက်လျောညီထွေနေတတ်မှု နှင့် ကြံ့ကြံ့ခံနိုင်သည့် စိတ်ဓါတ်တို့ကို စစ်တပ်က တသမတ်တည်း လျှော့တွက်နေခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။
စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အလုံးစုံလွှမ်းခြုံမှု ဗျူဟာမဲ့နေခြင်းကို အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးစမှ ၅လအတွင်း ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ဖိနှိပ်ခြင်းကိုဆက်လက် အကောင်အထည်ဖော်နေ သော ၎င်းတို့၏ ဗရမ်းဗတာလုပ်တတ်သည့်စရိုက်တွင် တွေ့နေရသည်။ ကနဦးတွင် အင်တာနက်ပိတ်ဆို့ခြင်းကို အချိန်အတိအကျ လုပ်ဆောင်သည်။ တဖန် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်နှင့် တွစ်တာကဲ့သို့ ထင်ရှားသည့် အချို့ဝက်ဘ်ဆိုက်များကိုပိတ်ပြီး အင်တာနက်ကို လိုင်းပေါ်ပြန်တင်ပေးပြန်သည်။ မကြာသေးမီ ၂၀၂၁မေလ က Zoom၊ LinkedIn နှင့် အခြား မိုဘိုင်းလ် ဘဏ်ဝန်ဆောင်မှု့များကို မိုဘိုင်းလ်ဒေတာမှ လုပ်ဆောင်နိုင်ရန် “ခွင့်ပြုစာရင်း” ဗျူဟာ သို့ပြောင်းပြန်သည်။ အခြားအင်တာနက်သုံးစွဲမှုပုံစံများမှာ ဖိုင်ဘာချိတ်ဆက်မှုလိုနေသေးပြီး စောစောကတင်ပြခဲ့သည့် “နာမည်ပျက်စာရင်း”တွင်ပါသည့် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် နှင့် တွစ်တာ တို့မှာ VPN (Virtual Private Network)မရှိပဲ ချိတ်ဆက်အသုံးပြု ၍ မရသေးပေ။ မိုဘိုင်းဒေတာဖြင့်သုံးနိုင်သည့် “ခွင့်ပြုစာရင်း” ဆိုသည်မှာလည်း ကျရောက်လာမည့် စီးပွားရေးကပ်ကို ဟန့်တားနိုင်ရန်မျှော်လင့်ပြီးခွင့်ပြုခြင်းဖြစ်နိုင်သည်။ မည်သို့ပင်ဖြစ်စေပို၍အကြမ်းစား နည်းပရိယာယ်များကိုသုံးနေဆဲပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ၂၀၂၁ခု ဇွန်လ ၄ ရက်နေ့တွင်ကျင်းပသော အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ ပထမဆုံး သတင်းစာရှင်းလင်းပွဲပြု လုပ်နေချိန်တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီမှတနိုင်ငံလုံး အင်တာနက်မရအောင် ဖြတ်တောက် လိုက်သည်။ ယခုလိုစစ်တပ်က သိမ်းကျုံး ရန်မူသည့်နည်းပရိယာယ်များ နှင့်အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းကိုဆန့်ကျင်သည့်လှုပ်ရှားသူများမှ ယင်းပရိယာယ်တို့ကိုရှောင်လွှဲ ကျော်လွှားနိုင်မည်ဟုမျှော်လင့်ချက်ကို ပိုမိုနားလည်ရန် လိုသည်ဟု မျိုး ကပြောကြားသည်။ “ဒါက ကျွန်တော်တို့ တွေ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူတွေ ၊တော်လှန်ဆန့်ကျင်သူတွေအားလုံးပိုမို လေ့လာရမယ့် နယ်ပယ်ပဲ” ဟုမျိုးကဆိုပါသည်။
အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းကိုဆန့်ကျင်သည့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေးမှု့
မျိုး၏စကားအတိုင်းဖော်ပြရလျှင် “ စစ်တပ်ကအောင်မြင်ခဲ့ပါသလား ဒီမေးခွန်းရဲ့အဖြေကိုကျွန်တော်ဖြေရရင် မအောင်မြင်ပါဘူး လို့ပဲပြောပါမယ့်”ဟုဖြစ်သည်။ ယင်းမှာ ဖဲလ်စတိန်းပြောသည့် “အာဏာရှင်များရဲ့ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်အကျဉ်းအကြပ်” ကို ကိုင်တွယ်ရမည့် လမ်းကြောင်း သိနိုင်စွမ်းမရှိသည့်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အရည်အချင်းညံဖျင်းမှုကြောင့် တစိပ်တပိုင်းဖြစ်သလို၊ ဖိနှိပ်ခံရမှု့များကိုရှောင်ကွင်း ဖောက်ထွက်နိုင်သည့် အရပ်သားများ၏ အရည်အချင်း ကြောင့်ဟုလည်းပြောရမှာဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ဖိနှိပ်ခံရလျက်နှင့်ပင်မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတဝှမ်း ရှိအင်တာနက်သုံးစွဲသူများ မှ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းကိုဆန့်ကျင်သည့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေးမှု့ကိုအောင်မြင်စွာဖြစ်ထွန်းစေခဲ့ပြီး ထိုမှတဆင့် ဆန္ဒဖော်ထုတ်သည့်နည်းသစ်များ ၊ လူမှု့ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများစွာပေါက်ဖွားစေခဲ့ပြီး အချင်းချင်းလည်း အန္တရာယ်မှလုံခြုံစေရန်စောင့်ရှောက်နိုင်ခဲ့သည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများ၏ ဖန်တီးနိုင်မှုအရည်အချင်းကို နိုင်ငံတကာက သတိထားမိခဲ့ကြရာဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်လောကထဲသို့ပါ ပျံ့နှံ့ရောက်ရှိလာသည်။ထိုအကြောင်းအရာနှင့်ပတ်သက် ၍ Saijai က အချက်(၃)ချက်သတိပြုမိသည်။ ပထမအချက်မှာအရပ်သားများ ကဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံစေရန်နှင့်ပိတ်ဆို့မှုကိုရှောင်ကွင်းရန် အင်တာနက်သုံးကြသည်၊ ဥပမာ စောင့်ကြည့်ထောက်လှမ်းခံရ မည်ကို စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်မှုများမြင့်မားနေသည့်ကြားက တဖက်နှင့်တဖက် လျို့ဝှက်ပြောဆိုနိုင်သည့် Signal ကို အရပ်သားများ ပြောင်းသုံးကြသည်။ ဒုတိယ အချက်အနေနှင့် သုံးစွဲနိုင်သည့်application ပေါ်မူတည်ပြီး အရပ်သားများမှ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖေါ်သည့်နည်း ကိုပုံစံပြောင်း ကြသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းကာလတွင် တွစ်တာ အထူး လူသိများထင်ရှားလာသည်၊ အကြောင်းမှာ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများ တွစ်တာမှတဆင့် ပြင်ပကမ္ဘာနှင့်ဆက်သွယ်ရာတွင်ပိုမိုထိရောက်သည့်အတွက်ဖြစ်သည်ဟု Saijai ကဥပမာ ပြသည်။ သတင်းမီဒီယာမှထုတ်ပြန်သည့် သတင်းများပိတ်ပင်ခံရသည့်အချိန်တွင် မိမိ တွစ်တာ အချင်းချင်း မှဖြစ်စေ တရားဝင်ရှိနေသောတွစ်တာသတင်းဌာနများမှ ဖြစ်စေ အရပ်သားများက တွစ်တာကိုသုံးပြီး သတင်းရယူကြသည်။
#whatshappeninginmyanmar ကဲ့သို့ ခေတ်နှင့်အညီ Hashtag များသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကိုဆန့်ကျင်သည့် ပြည်သူများ၏စိတ်ခံစားမှု့ကိုသက်သေထူချက်ဖြစ်သည်။ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများ က တွစ်တာကိုသုံးပြီးနာမည်ကျော်သတင်းထောက်များ ကိုလည်း tag တွဲသည်၊ ထိုနည်းဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအပေါ် “နိုင်ငံတကာမှအာရုံစိုက်လာစေရန်” ဖြစ်သည်။ ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများက တွစ်တာ၏ တစ်ဦး မှ တစ်ဦး သို့ဆက်သွယ်ခြင်း နှင့် အများ မှ အများသို့ဆက်သွယ်ခြင်း နှစ်မျိုး စလုံးကို အကျိုးရှိရှိထိရောက်အောင် အသုံးပြုကြသည်။ တတိယအချက် တွင် အင်တာနက်ကိုသုံးပြီး ဆန္ဒပြသူများ တစ်ယောက်နှင့်တစ်ယောက် အားပေးကူညီ ကြကြောင်း Saijai ကဆွေးနွေးခဲ့သည်။ ဆန္ဒဖော်ထုတ်သူများသည်မြို့ကြီးများတွင် ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့တည်နေရာကို လမ်းကြောင်း ရှာဖွေနိုင်သော OpenStreetMap မြေပုံကိုသုံးသကဲ့သို့ Way Way Nay app သည်စစ်တပ်နှင့်ဆက်စပ်မှု့ရှိသည့်လူပုဂ္ဂိုလ်များလုပ်ငန်းများကိုဖော် ပြသဖြင့် သပိတ်မှောက်လှုပ်ရှားမှုများလွယ်ကူစေပြီး ချိတ်ဆက်ရ လည်း လွယ်ကူစေသည်။ ထို app များသုံးခြင်းက အွန်လိုင်း ချိတ်ဆက်မှု့များသည် လိုင်းပေါ်မှာမရှိသည့် ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများကိုမည်သို့ ဖြည့်တင်းကူညီရာရောက်သည်ကိုပြနေသည်။ လိုင်းပေါ်မှာမဟုတ်သည့် ရက်စက်ကြမ်းတမ်းစွာ ဖြိုခွင်းမှု များကြားကပင်၊ အွန်လိုင်းပေါ် ကလူမှု့ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းကိုလည်း ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများကလှုံ့ဆော်နိုင်ကြောင်းပြသည်။ “ လူငယ်တွေဟာ စိတ်မကျေနပ်မှုကို အခြားတမျိုး နဲ့ဖော်ပြပြီး ဒေါသကို အသစ်အဆန်းတွေအဖြစ် ဖန်တီး ပြောင်းလဲယူ နိုင်ကြတယ်၊ သူတို့အချင်းချင်း အားပေးကူညီနေတာတွေ့ရတာလည်းကျွန်တော့် ရင်ထဲတကယ်ခံစား ရတယ် “ဟု Saijai ကပြောပါသည်။
မြို့ကြီးများတွင် ခေတ်မီစမတ်ဖုန်းများ ကိုင်နိုင်ခြင်းကလည်း၊ သတင်းထောက်ဆိုလျှင် ပြည်တွင်းဖြစ်စေ ပြည်ပသတင်းမီဒီယာ ကဖြစ်စေ ဖမ်းဆီးခံရခြင်း၊ညှင်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခံရခြင်း နှင့်ထောင်ကျ ခြင်း တို့ကြုံရသည့်မီဒီယာကို မုန်းတီးရန်ရှာသည့်အခြေအနေ တွင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများမှသတင်းထောက်များကို ကူညီနိုင်ခွင့်ရစေသည်။ နှိမ်နင်းဖြိုခွဲပုံဗီဒီယို ဓါတ်ပုံများကိုရိုက်ကူးပြီး လိုင်းပေါ်တင်ကာ လူမှုကွန်ယက်တွင် မျှဝေသည်။ ယင်းမှာ မီဒီယာအသုံးပြုသူများနှင့် သတင်းထောက်များ၏ဆက်ဆံရေး အပြောင်းအရွေ့ဖြစ်သည်ဟု အဲလက်စ် ကရှင်းပြသည်။ သတင်းထောက်များအနေဖြင့် အန္တရာယ်အလွန်ကြီးမားသဖြင့် လူအုပ်ထဲတွင်မိမိမည်သူမည်ဝါဖြစ်ပါသည်ဟုပြောဆိုရသည့်အခါ မိမိမှ သတင်းပေးသည်ထက် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ၏ သတင်းပေးချက်အပေါ် မှီခိုအားထားနေရသည်။ အရပ်သားပြည်သူများဖက်ကလည်း သူတို့ လုပ်ဆောင်ရမည့်အပိုင်းကိုချက်ခြင်း အဆင်ပြေအောင်ကူညီကြပါသည်။ သတင်းထောက်များကို ပြည်သူမှပေး သောဗီဒီယိုများမှာ အာဏာသိမ်းခါစကာလ ကပေးသောဗီဒီယိုများထက် ယေဘုယျအားဖြင့် ပိုကြည်လင်ပြီး သတင်းထောက်များလိုချင်သည့်အချက်များဖြစ်သည့် နေ့ရက်၊အချိန်၊နေရာတို့ပါ ပါဝင်သည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ ဗီဒီယိုများမှာ အရေးပါသော်လည်း အရပ်သားများအတွက် အန္တရာယ်ကို ဖိတ်ခေါ်နေသည်။ ဥပမာ ဆန္ဒ ပြသူများ ပေးသည့် ဗီဒီယို မှ မြေပြင်အမှတ်အသား၊ မည်သည့်နေရာဆိုသည့် အတိအကျပုံရိပ်ဖမ်းစံနစ်တို့ပါဝင်သဖြင့် နှိမ်နင်းဖြိုခွင်းရန် နှိုးဆော်နေသကဲ့သို့ဖြစ်သည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းအလွန်ကာလ မြန်မာပြည်တွင် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်လုံခြုံရေး အသိမှာ ထိတ်တန်းအရေးကြီးကြောင်း ယင်းအန္တရာယ်များက ရှင်းရှင်းလင်းလင်း ညွှန်ပြနေသည်။
အင်တာနက်သည် အာဏာသိမ်းအပြီး ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်ရာတွင် အသွင်တမျိုးဖြင့် ဆက်သွယ်ပေးလေသည်၊ ထိုအရာမှာလျို့ဝှက် စာရွက်စာတမ်းများပေါက်ကြားခြင်းပင်။ ဤနည်းဖြင့်ပေါက်ကြားနိုင်ခြေမြင့်ကြောင်းအဲလက်စ် က TOTAL ပြင်သစ်ရေနံကုမ္ဗဏီနှင့် ဥပမာပြသွားသည်။ စစ်တပ်နှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်သဖြင့် TOTAL အကျိုးအမြတ်မည်သို့ရနေပုံကို မေလဆန်းတွင် Justice for Myanmar ဆိုသည့် လှုပ်ရှားတက်ကြွသည့်အဖွဲ့က၊ ပေါက်ကြားသည့်မှတ်တမ်းစာရွက်စာတမ်း များကို အသုံးပြုပြီး ပြသသွားသည်။ TOTAL လည်းဖိအားပေးခံရသဖြင့် ထိုအချိန်မှစ၍ စစ်တပ်သို့ အမြတ်ငွေကြေးခွဲဝေပေးခြင်းကို ရပ်ဆိုင်းခဲ့သည်။ “ဒီလိုသတင်းအချက် အလက်တွေက ပေါက်ကြားစေချင်သူမရှိပဲ ကျွန်တော်တို့ဘယ်လိုမှ ရနိုင်မှာမဟုတ်ဘူး၊ လူမှုမီဒီယာကွန်ယက်မှတဆင့် ပေါက်ကြား သည်အထိသတင်းကိုလုံလုံခြုံခြုံနဲ့ နာမည်မပေါ်အောင် ထုတ်သွားနိုင်တာဟုအဲလက်စ် က ပြောဆိုသည်။ယခုသုံးသပ် ဆွေးနွေးပွဲကို နိုင်ငံတကာမှ နားထောင် နေသူများကိုလည်း မီဒီယာကဏ္ဍ (ပုဂ္ဂလိကပိုင် လုပ်ရင်) လွတ်လပ်မှာ ပါဟု အနောက်နိုင်ငံ ဒီမိုကရေစီ အတွေ့အကြုံများကိုအခြေခံသည့် ယူဆချက်များကို မေ့ထားလိုက်ရန် အဲလက်စ်ကတိုက်တွန်း လိုက်သည်။ အရေးကြီးသည့် သတင်းအချက်အလက်များကို အများတကာကြည့်ရှု နိုင်သည့် မီဒီယာအားပြည်သူများလက်လှမ်းမမီနိုင်သည့် မြန်မာပြည်တွင် လက်ရှိဖြစ်ပျက်နေသည်များကို မှတ်တမ်းတင်ထားရန်လိုအပ်ချက်ကိုလျှော့တွက်၍ မဖြစ်ပေ။
နောက်ဆုံးတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဗရမ်းဗတာ အင်တာနက် ပိတ်ဆို့မှု့များရှိသည့်ကြားကပင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအွန်လိုင်းပေါ်ဆက်လက် နေနိုင်အောင် ကြံဖန်နိုင်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ ဥပမာ – အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးပထမသီတင်းပါတ်လောက်ကစ ၍ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်နှင့် အခြား ပိတ်ထားသော ဝက်ဘ်ဆိုက်များသို့ဝင်ရန်VPNs များသုံးပြီး အကွာအဝေးတို ဆက်သွယ်ပြောဆိုရန်အတွက် mesh network ကဲ့သို့အကွက်ကွန်ယက် ကိုသုံးသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးရက်များအတွင်း ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အခွင့်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများက မိုဘိုင်းဒေတာထက်စာလျှင်တာတို Bluetooth နည်းပညာကိုသုံးပြီး အကွက်ကွန်ယက် မက်ဆေ့ချ်စာပို့နိုင်သော Bridgefy app ကိုသုံးရန် ဆော်သြခဲ့ကြသည်။ အွန်လိုင်းပေါ်ဆက်ပြီး နေနိုင်အောင်အားထုတ်ကြိုးပမ်းကြသည့်ပြည်သူပြည်သား များ၏ အောင်မြင်မှုကို ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီလမှ ဧပြီလ အတွင်း နိုင်ငံတဝှမ်းဆင်နွှဲခဲ့ကြသည့် အကြောင်းအရာ ခေါင်းစဉ်အလိုက် ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်ပွဲများတွင်တွေ့မြင်နိုင်သည် ဟုအဲလက်စ်က ဆက်ပြောပါသည်။ လမ်းပေါ်တွင် ဆန္ဒပြသူများက သူတို့၏စည်းလုံးညီညွှတ်မှု့ကို ချိတ်ဆက်မှုရှိရှိ နည်းဗျူဟာများ၊ သင်္ကေတများဖြင့် ပြသ သွားခဲ့ကြသည်။ ၎င်းတို့တွင် ဖရဲသီးများ၊ ဆေးခြယ်ထားသည့်ကြက်ဥများ နှင့် ဖိနပ်များ ပါဝင်သည်။ ယင်းသို့ အားလုံးတညီတညာ တည်းကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့် ချိတ်ဆက်ဆောင်ရွက်ရန်မှာ အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအွန်လိုင်းပေါ်ရှိမနေပဲ မည်သို့မှမဖြစ်နိုင်ပေ။ တခါသုံးပြီး လွှင့်ပစ်လို့ရသည့်ဖုန်းများနှင့် မိမိနေထိုင်ရာအိမ်ကို ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းရှာဖွေခံရချိန်နှင့်စစ်တပ်၏စစ်ဆေးရေးနေရာများတွင် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် ဆက်သွယ်ချက်များကို ဝှက်ထားနိုင်သည့် Android app Second Space များတွင်ကျယ်စွာအသုံးပြုလာခြင်းကိုလည်း မျိုးကထောက် ပြသည်။ အင်တာနက် တင်းကြပ်ခြင်းပြဿနာကိုဖြေရှင်းနိုင်မည့် စိတ်ကူးကောင်းများကိုလည်း လှုပ်ရှားတက်ကြွသူများက ထပ်မံရှာဖွေ နေလျက်ရှိသည်။ “ ‘StarLink ’ ကတော့အကောင်းဆုံးနောက်တနည်းဖြစ်မယ်ထင်တယ်” ဟု SpaceX မှ ဦးဆုံးလမ်းပြခဲ့သည့် ဂြိုလ်တု အင်တာနက် စံနစ်ကို မျိုးကရည်ညွှန်းခဲ့သည်။ မြန်မာပြည်သူပြည်သားများကို StarLink ပေးရန် တွစ်တာဖြင့်စည်းရုံး လှုံ့ ဆော်ပေးခြင်း ရှိခဲ့သည်။ ဤ နယ်ပယ်တွင် ဆယ်စုနှစ်တစ်ခုခန့် အလုပ်လုပ်ခဲ့သူ မျိုး အနေဖြင့် “ယခု အကြပ်အတည်းကာလအတွင်းအဆိုးထဲက အကောင်း လို့ ဆိုရမှာက ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် လုံခြုံရေးအကြောင်း ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့်သိရှိမှုမြင့်တက်လာတာပဲနှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာမြန်မာ ပြည်ထဲကို စမတ်ဖုန်း တွေ ဝင်ရောက်ထိုးဖောက်လာတဲ့ နှုန်းက မြန်မာလူဦးရေရဲ့ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာသိနားလည်မှုနှုန်းကို ကျော်နေခဲ့တာ့အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် လုံခြုံရေးက အသက်ရှင်ရပ်တည်ရေးပညာတစ်ခု လိုဖြစ်လာတဲ့ဒစ်ဂျစ် တယ်လုံခြုံမှု့ အကြောင်းမသိရင် အပြင်ထွက်လို့မရဘူး” ဟုပြောပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် ဆန္ဒပြပွဲများကို စိတ်ကူးယဉ်မဆန်ကြဖို့ သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူအားလုံးကသတိပေးပါသည်။ အဲလက်စ်ပြောသကဲ့သို့ပင် “မြန်မာပြည်မှာဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အသိပညာဆိုတာ လိုအပ်ချက်အရမွေးဖွားလာတာဆန်းသစ်တည်ထွင်ယုံသက်သက်မဟုတ်ဘူး ” ဆန္ဒပြသူများအနေဖြင့် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ စောင့်ကြည့် ထောက်လှမ်းနိုင်စွမ်း ကို ပိုသိဖို့လိုပြီး သို့မှသာ အွန်လိုင်းပေါ်တွင်အမြဲနေနိုင်မည့် နည်းလမ်းများကိုလည်း ရှာဖွေနိုင်မည် ဟု မျိုးက ဆက်လက်ထောက်ပြသည်။ ထိုအခါမှသာ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကိုဆန့်ကျင်သည့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် ယဉ်ကျေးမှု့ ဆက်လက်တည်တံ့နိုင်မည် ဖြစ်သည်။
ကမ္ဘာ့ ထိပ်တန်းနည်းပညာ ကုမ္ဗဏီကြီးများ နှင့် ထည့်ဝင်လှူဒါန်းသူများ ဘာဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနိုင်မလဲ
နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်း က တိုင်းပြည်၏အစိုးရနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာအဖွဲ့အစည်းများကိုသာအာရုံစိုက်နေစဉ်တွင်ပုဂ္ဂလိက ကဏ္ဍအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာ့နိုင်ငံရေး လမ်းခရီးတွင် အရေးပါသောအခန်းမှဝင်ရောက် ပါဝင်နိုင်ကြောင်း သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူများက အလေးအနက်ပြောကြ သည်။ ” ကျွန်တော်တို့သိထားရမှာက နည်းပညာကုမ္ဗဏီကြီးတွေဆိုတာလက်ရှိအစိုးရထက်ပိုမကြီးတောင်မှ နီးပါး ကြီးမားကြတယ် ဆိုတာပါပဲ့့ဒါကြောင့် ဒီလုပ်ငန်းကြီးတွေရဲ့တာဝန်ခံမှုကို အစိုးရတွေ လို တန်းတူ ထားသင့်တယ့့်ကြားနေတယ်ဆိုပြီး စစ်တပ်က မကောင်းဆိုးဝါးလုပ်ရပ်တွေ လုပ်ချင်တိုင်းလုပ်နိုင်အောင်လမ်းဖွင့်ပေးနေတာကို ကျွန်တော်တို့မြင်တွေ့ခဲ့ရပီ” ဟုအဲလက်စ် ကပြောပါ သည်။
အချို့နည်းပညာ ကုမ္ဗဏီ တည်ထောင်သူများမြန်မာပြည်သို့လာရောက်ခဲ့ဖူးကြသည်။ ၂၀၁၈ ခုနှစ်တွင် တွစ်တာ၏ အမှုဆောင်အရာရှိချုပ် Jack Dorsey မြန်မာပြည်တွင် တရားစခန်း ဝင်ခဲ့ရာ ရိုဟင်ဂျာဆန့်ကျင်ရေး စိတ်ဓါတ်ကိုဆွပေးသည့်လူမှုမီဒီယာကွန်ယက်၏ အခန်း ကဏ္ဍကို ပေါ်လွင်တောက်ပြောင်လာစေသည်ဟုသူပိုင်တွစ်တာပေါ်တွင်ပင် ဝေဖန်ခံရသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုနှင့်ပတ်သက်ပြီး တွစ်တာ ကအချိန်အတော်ကြာ တိတ်ဆိတ်မြဲတိတ်ဆိတ်နေသည်။တစ်တော့ခ် မှာ စစ်တပ်၏ဝါဒဖြန့်ချီရေးပို့စ်များ စီးဆင်းနေခြင်းကို စီမံ ထိန်းကွပ်ရန်မနည်း ရုန်းကန်နေရသည်။ “အေးဆေး ကောင်းမွန် နေတဲ့အချိန်တွေတုန်းကတော့ ကျွန်တော်တို့ဟာ သူတို့ကို သစ္စာရှိစွာ အားပေးခဲ့သူ တွေပေါ့ဒါနဲ့ပတ်သက်လို့ လူတိုင်းလည်းစိတ်ချမ်းသာကြပါတယ်၊ မြန်မာကလည်းဒီလုပ်ငန်းကြီးတွေကို အားပေးခဲ့တယ်၊ ကျွန်တော်တို့လည်းဒီဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ပလက်ဖောင်းပေါ်တက်ခဲ့ကြတယ်၊သူတို့အမြတ်အစွန်းတွေအများကြီးရခဲ့ကြတယ်၊ မြန်မာပြည်ဟာ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်နဲ့ပတ်သက်လို့ထိခိုက်နစ်နာ လွယ်တယ်ဆိုတာမသိတာလား၊ ဂရုမစိုက်တာပဲလား မြန်မာပြည်မှာခြေကုပ်ရသွား ခဲ့ကြတယ်။ အခု အခြေအနေတွေကပြောင်းပြန်ဖြစ်ကုန်ပီ၊ (ဒီဂျစ်တယ် ပလက်ဖောင်းတွေကို) ကျွန်တော်တို့ဖက်မှာရပ်တည်စေချင်တယ်။ ဒီတော့ မေးခွန်း က- သူတို့ဘယ်မှာရပ်တည်မှာလဲ “ ဟုအဲလက်စ်ကပြောပါသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အင်အားအကြီးဆုံး လူမှုမီဒီယာဖြစ်သည့် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် မှာအခြား လူမှုမီဒီယာကုမ္ဗဏီကြီးများထက်ပိုမိုခက်ခဲ ရှုပ်ထွေးသည့် အခြေအနေတွင်ရှိနေပါသည်။ လေ့လာသူများက ၂၀၁၃ ခုနှစ်တွင် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် စာမျက်နှာများပေါ်၌ ရိုဟင်ဂျာဆန့်ကျင်ရေး သဘောထား များတွေ့မြင်နေရသည်ကို သတိပေးခဲ့သော်လည်း သူတို့က အလေးအနက်မထားခဲ့ပါ။ ၂၀၁၅ နှစ်ဆန်းတွင် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်သုံးသူမြန်မာ ၇သန်းကျော်ရှိသော်လည်း မြန်မာစကားတတ်သူ ၂ ဦး သာ အကြောင်းအရာဖတ်ရှလေ့လာစောင့်ကြည့်သူအဖြစ်ခန့်ထားခဲ့သည်။ အန္တရာယ်ဖြစ်စေသည့် အကြောင်းအရာများကိုဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်၏ အလိုအလျောက် စုံစမ်းထောက်လှမ်းသည့်စံနစ် က မြန်မာဘာသာဖြင့် အလုပ်မဖြစ် နိုင်ပေ။ ရိုဟင်ဂျာ( ၇) သိန်းရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်မှစွန့်ခွာ ထွက်ပြေးပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း ကုလသမဂ္ဂ အချက်အလက်မှန်ဖော်ထုတ်ရေး အဖွဲ့ကဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်သည်အမုန်းတရားများပျံ့ပွားအောင်လုပ်ရာတွင်အသုံးတည့်သော အရာဖြစ်သည်ဟု ၂၀၀၈ တွင် အစီရင်ခံတင်ပြ သောအခါမှ သာ ဆတ်ဆတ် ထိသွားခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ယခု စစ်ကောင်စီခေါင်းဆောင်ဖြစ်သူ မင်းအောင်လှိုင်လည်း ထိုအချိန်နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်မှ ဖယ်ရှား ခံလိုက်ရပြီး နိုင်ငံတစ်ခု၏ စစ်တပ် သို့မဟုတ် နိုင်ငံရေးအကြီးအကဲတစ်ဦးအား ပထမ ဦးဆုံး တားမြစ်ပိတ်ပင် လိုက်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်သည် သူ၏အမှားများမှ သင်ခန်းစာရခဲ့ပြီ ဟု Saijai နှင့် မျိုး တို့ကသတိရှိစွာဖြင့်အကောင်းမြင်ဝေဖန် ခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်၏ ချဉ်းကပ်ပုံ ၃မျိုး ကို Saijai က အကောင်းဖက်မှမြင်ကြည့်ပါသည် -၎င်းတို့မှာ စစ်တပ်၏ကြမ်းတမ်း ရက်စက်မှုများနှင့်ဆိုင်သည့်ပို့စ်များကိုဖြုတ်ချခြင်း၊ စစ်တပ်နှင့်ပတ်သက်သည့်သူများ နှင့် တပ်ပိုင်စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများ၏အကောင့်ကို တားဆီးထားခြင်း၊နှင့် မိမိအကြောင်းပရိုဖိုင်းလ်ကို သေ့ာခတ် သိမ်းထားနိုင်သည့် တီထွင်ဖန်တီးမှု့အသစ် ပါရှိခြင်းဖြင့် မိတ်ဆွေ မဟုတ်သူ များမှတစ်ဦးတစ်ယောက်၏ပို့စ်များဓါတ်ပုံများကိုဝင်ရောက်ကြည့်ရှုခြင်းမှာကာကွယ်ပေးထားခြင်းတို့ဖြစ်သည်။ နိုင်ငံအတွင်း ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် က တိုင်ပင်ဆွေးနွေးခြင်းကို ဝမ်းသာရသည်ဟု မျိုးကလည်းပြောပါသည်။
သို့သော် ယခုသုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးပွဲအပြီး တပါတ်အကြာတွင် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် ၏ အယ်လ်ဂိုရစ်သမ် များမှမြန်မာပြည်အတွင်းထိခိုက်နစ်နာ စေသည့်အကြောင်းအရာများကိုမည်သို့မည်ပုံ ဆက်လက်တင်ပြနေကြောင်း အစီရင်ခံစာ ကိုGlobal Witness မှ ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်ကိုထောက်ခံသောအကြောင်းအရာများ၊ အချို့ သော ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်သူများ၏ အမည်၊ဓါတ်ပုံနှင့်တကွ အသက်အန္တရာယ် ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခံရမှုများကျယ်ကျယ်လောင်လောင် ပျံနှံ့နေသည်ကို ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်သုံးသူများမှ အလွယ်တကုူ ကြည်ရှု့နိုင်ကြောင်း Global Witness မှ မှတ်တမ်းပြုထားသည်။ ထိုသို့အကြောင်းအရာများမှာ ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်မှလိုက်နာပါသည်ဟုပြောသည့် လူ့မှုကျင့်ဝတ်စံနှုန်း လေးစားခြင်း ကိုဆန့်ကျင်ဖောက်ဖျက်နေသည်။ ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာကဏ္ဍ နှင့်ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ်အပါအဝင်၊ မည်သူမဆို လူမှုမီဒီယာကွန်ယက်မှတဆင့် အများ ပြည်သူအပေါ်သက်ရောက်စေသည့် ဂယက်မှာ မည်မျှအထိတာသွားသည်ကို အပြည့်အစုံသိနိုင်ရန် ခက်ခဲကြောင်း ဤအရှုပ်အထွေးများက ပြနေသည်။ Saijai နှင့် မျိုးတို့မှ ထောက်ပြ သွားသည့် အာရုံစိုက်ရမည့် ဗျူဟာများ မှာလုံးဝ ဖြစ်နိုင်ချေရှိသော်လည်း သူ့ကိုယ်ပိုင်အယ်လ်ဂိုရစ်သမ်ဖြင့်ပင် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် မှာပြန်ပြီး ဒုက္ခရောက် နေရဆဲဖြစ်သည်။ယခုသုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေး ပွဲတွင် အချိန်မရသည့်အတွက် တိုင်းရင်းသားပဋိပက္ခနှင့် ဖေ့စ်ဘွတ်ခ် တို့ဆက်စပ်မှု့အကြောင်းမဆွေးနွေးလိုက်ရပေ။ ထိုကိစ္စမှာလည်း ပိုရှုပ်ထွေးသည့်အကြောင်းအရာများနှင့် ပြည့်နေဦး မှာဖြစ်ပြီး သတင်းအချက်အလက်မပြည့်စုံခြင်းကလည်း ရှိနေသေးသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းသည့်အချိန်မတိုင်မီက လေ့လာသူများ မှာ ရိုဟင်ဂျာအကြောင်း ကိုသာ မလွတ်တမ်းပြောနေကြပြီး စစ်ဒဏ်ခံ အခြားတိုင်းရင်းသား အုပ်စုများအပေါ် လူမှုမီဒီယာကွန်ယက်နှင့် အင်တာနက်တို့ ၏ သက်ရောက်မှုကိစ္စ ကို ကျော်သွားကြသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် နည်းပညာခေါင်းဆောင်များ အနေဖြင့် သူတို့အချင်းချင်းအကြားသော်လည်းကောင်း၊သူတို့နည်းပညာကိုအသုံးပြုသူ ဖောက်သည် များ အကြားသော်လည်းကောင်း၊ အာဏာ အကြီးအကျယ် မညီမမျှ ဖြစ်နေခြင်းကို နည်းပညာခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ ကုစားဖို့ အဓိကအရေးကြီးကြောင်း စဉ်းစားရန်အဲလက်စ်က ထောက်ပြသွားသည်။ နည်းပညာကုမ္ဗဏီများ အနေနှင့် အာဏာမညီမျှမှုကို အစဉ် အလေးအနက်ထားစဉ်းစားသည့် နေရာတွင်ရှိသင့်ပြီး သူတို့နည်းပညာကိုသုံးစွဲသူများ၏ အသံကိုလည်းနား ထောင်နိုင်သင့်သည်။ ပထမ ခြေလှမ်းအနေနှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှတိုင်းရင်းသား ဘာသာစကားများတတ်ကျွမ်းသူတို့ကို ငှားရမ်းပြီး နိုင်ငံတဝှမ်း ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ် အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာအဖွဲ့များနှင့်ချိတ်ဆက်စေရမည်။
နောက်ဆုံးအနေနှင့် အခက်အခဲကြားမှထွက်မသွားကြဖို့လည်း ပါဝင်လှူဒါန်းသူများကို Saijai ကတောင်းဆိုလိုက်ပါသည်။ ရှေ့ပိုင်းက ဆွေးနွေးသွားချက်များမှာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းကို ဆန့်ကျင်သည့်ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေးမှုမှာသူ့ချည်း သက်သက် ဖြစ်ထွန်း ပေါ်ထွက်လာသည်မဟုတ်၊ သို့သော် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်တပ်၏ပုံနှိပ်မီဒီယာချုပ်ကိုင်မှုကို တုန့်ပြန်ရင်း၊ ဒီဂျစ်တယ်ခေတ် အတွက်တံခါးဖွင့် ထားခြင်း နှင့်မြန်မာပြည်မှ ဆန္ဒဖော်ထုတ်သူတို့၏ဇွဲနပဲ ကြောင့်သာလျှင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုနည်းတူစွာ အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းကိုဆန့်ကျင်သည့် ဒစ်ဂျစ်တယ်ယဉ်ကျေးမှုတည်တံ့ခိုင်မြဲရေးမှာ လူထုတရပ်လုံး ကျန်းမာရေးကောင်းမွန် ရန်နှင့် ဖန်သားပြင်ကမ္ဘာ၏အပြင်ဖက်တွင် အသက်မွေးဝမ်းကျောင်း အလုပ်များ ဆက်လက်ထိန်းထားနိုင်ရေးတို့အပေါ်တွင်မူတည်သည်။ ဥပမာ စစ်ကောင်စီ ပညာရေးစံနစ် မဟုတ်သည့်Virtual Federal University နှင့် Spring University Myanmar ကဲ့သို့ အသစ်ပေါ်ပေါက်လာသော အခြားနည်းများ ဖြင့်လူအများ ပညာသင်ယူနိုင်ရန်မှာ VPN နှင့်စမတ်ဖုန်းများအတွက်ငွေကြေးအကုန်အကျခံနိုင်ခြင်းပေါ်မူတည်နေသည်။ လောလော ဆယ်ရှိနေသည့် အသိပညာ ကွာဟချက်များကို ဖြည့်ပေးရန်လိုအပ်ကြောင်း ကိုလည်း သုံးသပ်ဆွေးနွေးသူများမှ အရေးတကြီးပြောဆို ကြသည်။ နိုင်ငံ၏ စောင့်ကြည့်ထောက်လှမ်း နိုင်သည့် စွမ်းရည် နှင့် အာဏာသိမ်းပြီး ကာလ မြန်မာ့လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်း နှင့်စီးပွားရေးတွင် နည်းပညာ ကုမ္ဗဏီများ ၏အခန်းကဏ္ဍ ကို စစ်ဆေးရန် ငွေကြေးထည့်ဝင်သူများ ကို ငွေကြေးထောက်ပံ့ ဖို့တောင်းဆိုကြပါသည်။ ငွေကြေးထည့် ဝင်လှူဒါန်းသူများစွန့်ခွာသွားကြခြင်းမပြုပဲ လိုက်လျောညီထွေရှိသင့်ပြီး၊ ငွေသားရရန်အခက်အခဲအပါအဝင်ပြောင်းလဲ နေသည့် နိုင်ငံရေးအခြေအနေ ကိုတုန့်ပြန်ရန် ပြောင်းလွယ်ပြင်လွယ်အနေအထားတွင် နေသင့် ပါသည်။ ”မြေပြင်မှာ တကယ် ကောင်းကောင်းမွန်မွန် ဆောင် ရွက်နေကြတဲ့ အဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေအများကြီးရှိပါတယ်”ဟု Saijai ကပြောပါသည်။ ထိုအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ တဖွဲ့နှင့်တဖွဲ့ ချိတ်ဆက်နေနိုင်မည်လော၊ အဖွဲ့အစည်းကိုလူထုက ဆက်သွယ်နိုင်မည်လော ဆိုသည်ကမေးစရာဖြစ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-17
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations
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Description:
"As the UN Security Council prepares for a meeting today on the crisis in Burma, Burma Campaign UK is joining calls for the UN Secretary General António Guterres to personally spearhead the United Nations response.
The UN Security Council meeting is being held as Burma is in the grip of a third wave of the Covid pandemic, exacerbated by both military incompetence and by the military weaponising Covid as a tool for trying to secure its rule.
On 23rd July, 443 civil society organisations in Burma wrote to António Guterres calling on him to personally spearhead the United Nations response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Burma, including an end to military hostilities against the population.
“With the UN Security Council blocked by Russia and China from taking action, the UN Special Envoy ignored by the military, and no-one seriously believing ASEAN will be effective at achieving any significant breakthrough, the UN Secretary General taking personal leadership is the only credible option left for action,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK.
It will be much harder for the military to ignore requests from the UN Secretary General to visit Burma than it is to turn down the UN Envoy. António Guterres will also be able to speak personally with world leaders to support him in his efforts.
“Burma doesn’t need the United Nations to hold more meetings and issue more statements, it needs practical action,” said Anna Roberts. “It’s time António Guterres gets on a plane, goes to Burma and starts using his office to address the humanitarian and human rights crisis in the country.”
Burma Campaign UK will be campaigning for António Guterres to take personal leadership on the crisis in Burma, in support of voices on the ground calling on him to take action..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-17
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Health, right to: standards and mechanisms, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Joint Statement by the Ministry of Women, Youths and Children Affairs & Ministry of Human Rights Affairs of the National Unity Government of Myanmar
3/2021
13th August 2021
We view that the peaceful protests erupted across prisons – one at Insein prison of Yangon on July 23, 2021 and another at Oh Pho prison of Mandalay on August 8, 2021 on the 33rd anniversary of the 8888 Democracy Uprising – were caused by the junta’s mismanagement, especially of the coronavirus pandemic in those prisons. We pay tribute to those rights activists who have been wrongfully arrested in the first place for exercising their right to free speech and for opposing the terrorist military council, and who have fearlessly demanded for their unalienable rights, including access to healthcare, despite being imprisoned.
We understand that prison authorities have yet to provide an equal access to healthcare and treatment for prisoners even though authorities had agreed to increase Covid-19 prevention measures in prisons as demanded by protestors. We do not have further information about the condition of those activists who had staged recent prison protests. We are deeply concerned by the reports of the high rate of Covid-19 cases in Insein prison, and of the recent deaths of several senior political leaders. We are also highly concerned by the reports of military vehicles entering into Oh Pho prison in the wake of the protests last night.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is allowed to visit prisons in Myanmar as soon as possible to assess the worsening conditions of prisoners in order to take necessary measures to stop the further spreading of coronavirus.
Hence, we strongly urge the international community to increase their pressure and demand the terrorist military council to implement the followings:
Ensure equal access to healthcare for all Covid-19 patients in prisons, and access to adequate medicines, protective materials and resources for the prevention of Covid-19;
Allow prisoners infected with coronavirus to notify their families;
Lift the ban on family visits, mails and packages to prisoners;
Ensure an access to adequate water supply and health care for women’s personal hygiene and their health;
Ensure an unrestricted access to ICRC for political prisoners and CDM public servants through individual or group meetings to present their needs;
Ensure that prison authorities respect the dignity of prisoners and not to resort violence and to fulfil the needs of prisoners on a humanitarian basis.
We believe that only through the concerted efforts can we adequately pressure the junta to respect the rights of those who are unjustly being imprisoned. Thus, we appeal to you to speak up for those activists behind the bars and demand for their rights with one united voice.
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National Unity Government (NUG) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.....ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
အမျိုးသမီး၊ လူငယ် နှင့် ကလေးသူငယ်ရေးရာဝန်ကြီး ဌာန နှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာ ဝန်ကြီးဌာန တို့၏ ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်
ပူးတွဲကြေငြာချက်အမှတ် ၃/၂၀၂၁
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဩဂုတ်လ (၁၃) ရက်နေ့
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇွန်လိုင်လ ၅ ရက်
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇူလိုင်လ (၂၃)ရက်နေ့တွင် ရန်ကုန်မြို့ ၊ အင်းစိန်ထောင်အတွင်းဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် အကျဥ်းသားများ၏ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာဆန္ဒပြမှုနှင့် ၂၀၂၁ခုနှစ် ၊ သြဂုတ်လ (၈)ရက်နေ့ ၊ ရှစ်လေးလုံးဒီမိုကရေစီအရေးတော်ပုံ(၃၃)နှစ်ပြည့်အထိမ်းအမှတ်နေ့တွင် မန္တလေးအိုးဖိုအကျဥ်းထောင်တွင်ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် အကျဥ်းသားများ၏ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာဆန္ဒပြမှုများသည် ထောင်အတွင်းဆိုးဝါးလှသည့် ကိုဗစ်၁၉ ကပ်ရောဂါကူးစက်မှုကျန်းမာရေးအခြေအနေအပေါ် စီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုညံ့ဖျင်းခြင်းနှင့် အခြားသောစီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုညံ့ဖျင်းခြင်းများကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာခြင်းဖြစ်သည်ဟု မိမိတို့ သုံးသပ်သည်။
လွတ်လပ်စွာဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော်မှုနှင့် စစ်ကောင်စီကို ဆန့်ကျင်မှုတို့ကြောင့်မတရားဖမ်းဆီးခံရသော တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူတို့သည် ထောင်အတွင်းအကျဥ်းကျခံနေရသော်လည်း လူသားတိုင်းရရှိခံစားခွင့်ရှိသော ကျန်းမာရေးဆိုင်ရာအခွင့်အရေးနှင့် တခြားသော လူ့အခွင့်အရေးများအတွက် အန္တရာယ်ကိုမကြောက်မရွံ့ဘဲ တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ခဲ့မှုအပေါ် ချီးကျူးဂုဏ်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။
အင်းစိန်ထောင်တွင်းဆန္ဒပြမှုမှ တောင်းဆိုထားသည့် ထောင်တွင်း ကိုဗစ်ကာကွယ်ရေး အစီအမံမြှင့်တင်ပေးရေးကို အကျဉ်းဦးစီးအာဏာပိုင်များဖက်က လိုက်လျောပေးမည်ဟု ပြောခဲ့ဆိုသော်လည်း လက်တွေ့တွင် လူတိုင်းတန်းတူညီမျှစွာနှင့် လုံလောက်စွာ ကုသမှုရရှိအောင် ထိထိရောက်ရောက် မလုပ်ဆောင်သေးကြောင်း မိမိတို့ သိရှိရသည်။ ထို့ပြင် ဆန္ဒပြရာတွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့သော တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၏ လက်ရှိအခြေအနေကို တိတိကျကျမသိရသေးချေ။
ထောင်အတွင်းရှိ အကျဥ်းသားများအကြား ကိုဗစ်-၁၉ ကူးစက်ခံရမှုနှုန်း အထူးမြင့်မားနေသည့်သတင်းများထွက်ပေါ်နေပြီး ဝါရင့်နိုင်ငံရေးခေါင်းဆောင်တချို့ သေဆုံးခဲ့မှုနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ မိမိတို့အနေဖြင့် အထူးစိုးရိမ်ပူပန်မိသည်။ အထူးသဖြင့် အင်းစိန်ထောင်တွင် ဆန္ဒပြစဥ်က စစ်ကားများ၀င်ရောက်သွားပြီးဖိနှိပ်ခဲ့သည့်အတိုင်း အလားတူပင် မန္တလေးအိုးဖိုအကျဥ်းထောင်အတွင်း နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဥ်းသားများ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာဆန္ဒပြသည့်ဖြစ်စဥ်တွင် ထောင်အတွင်းမှ သေနတ်သံ(၂)ချက်ထွက်ပေါ်လာမှု၊ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဥ်းသားများ၏ ဆန္ဒပြကြွေးကြော်သံများထွက်ပေါ်လာပြီးနောက် အိုးဖိုထောင်အတွင်းသို့ စစ်ကားများ၀င်ရောက်သွားမှု၊ စသည့်အခြေအနေများအရ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဥ်းသားများအပေါ် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်ပါးစေများမှ ဆိုးရွားစွာဖိနှိပ်မည်ကို အင်မတန်စိုးရိမ်မိပါသည်။
ထို့ကြောင့် လက်ရှိထောင်တွင်းအခြေအနေများကို အမှန်အတိုင်းသိရှိပြီး ထောင်တွင်းဆိုးဝါးလှသည့်အခြေအနေများ အထူးသဖြင့် ကိုဗစ်ရောဂါကာကွယ်တားဆီးကုသနိုင်ရေးအတွက် လုပ်ဆောင်ရန်လိုအပ်သော အစီအစဥ်များအား အမြန်ဆုံးလုပ်ဆောင်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာကြက်ခြေနီကော်မတီ (International Committee of Red Cross) ကို ထောင်အတွင်းဝင်ရောက်ခွင့်ပြုပြီး လုပ်ဆောင်ခွင့်ပြုရန် အထူးအရေးကြီးသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် လူကြီးမင်းတို့၏ အစိုးရနှင့် သံရုံးများအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီကို အောက်ပါအချက်များ လုပ်ဆောင်လာအောင် ဖိအားပေးလုပ်ဆောင်ပေးကြရန် ပန်ကြားအပ်ပါသည်။
အကျဉ်းသားများအားလုံး တန်းတူညီမျှစွာ ကိုဗစ်ကပ်ရောဂါကုသခွင့်ရရှိစေရေးနှင့် ကိုဗစ်ကပ်ရောဂါကူးစက်ပြန့်ပွားမှုထိန်းချုပ်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် အကာအကွယ်ပစ္စည်းများ၊ ဆေးဝါး၊ အသုံးအဆောင်များကို တိုးမြှင့်စီစဉ်ပေးရန်၊
ကိုဗစ် ကူးစက်မှုခံရသော အကျဉ်းသားများအား မိသားစုထံသို့အသိပေး အကြောင်းကြားခွင့်ပြုရန်၊
ထောင်ဝင်စာတွေ့ခွင့်ပိတ်ပင်ခြင်းကို ပယ်ဖျက်ပေးပါရန်၊
အမျိုးသမီးများ၏ တကိုယ်ရည်သန့်ရှင်းရေးနှင့် အမျိုးသမီးဆိုင်ရာကျန်းမာရေးတို့အတွက် ရေအလုံအလောက်သုံးစွဲခွင့်ရရှိရန်နှင့် အမျိုးသမီးအတွက် လိုအပ်သော ကျန်းမာရေးအခွင့်အရေး၊ အသုံးအဆောင်ပစ္စည်းများရရှိခွင့်ပြုရန်၊
နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ၊ စီဒီအမ်ဝန်ထမ်းများအနေဖြင့် ICRC နှင့် တဦးချင်းစီသော်လည်းကောင်း၊ အုပ်စုလိုက်ဖြင့်သော်လည်ကောင်း တွေ့ဆုံပြီး လိုအပ်ချက်များ တင်ပြခွင့်ကို ခြွင်းချက်မရှိ ခွင့်ပြုရန်၊
အကျဉ်းသားများ၏တောင်းဆိုမှုများအား ထောင်ဦးစီး၊ ဝန်ထမ်းများက လူသားဆန်စွာလေးစားမှုပြသပြီး ဆက်သွယ်ပြောဆိုညှိနှိုင်းပေးရန်နှင့် အကြမ်းဖက်ဖိနှိပ်ခြင်းမပြုရန်။
ကျွန်ုပ်တို့အနေဖြင့် ထောင်တွင်းရှိ မတရားဖမ်းဆီးအကျဥ်းချခံရသော နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဥ်းသားများ၏ အခွင့်အရေးအတွက် ဝိုင်းဝန်းပူးပေါင်းလုပ်ဆောင်မှသာလျှင် စစ်ကောင်စီအား လုံလောက်သောဖိအားပေးနိုင်မည်ဟု ယုံကြည်ပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့်အထက်ပါ အချက်အလက်များနှင့်တကွ အဖမ်းအဆီးခံအကျဥ်းသားများ၏ ထောင်တွင်းအခွင့်အရေးများအတွက် အတူတကွ စုပေါင်းအသံလွှင့်ပေးကြရန် နှင့် တောင်းဆိုပေးကြပါရန် အထူးတိုက်တွန်းလိုက်ရပါသည်။
အရေးတော်ပုံအောင်ရမည်။
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အမျိုးသမီး၊ လူငယ် နှင့် ကလေးသူငယ်ရေးရာဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
လူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာဝန်ကြီးဌာန
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Women, Youths and Children Affairs and Ministry of Human Rights
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-13
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations, Anti-coup protesters, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"Both the National Unity Government (NUG) and the military junta seek to represent Myanmar in the United Nations.
At the UN General Assembly in New York, Myanmar is currently represented by Permanent Representative Kyaw Moe Tun, who has held the position since 2020. Now affiliated with the NUG, on 26 February 2021 in the General Assembly he called on States not to recognise or legitimise the military coup of 1 February.
A “Credentials Committee” of nine UN Member States will review the issue of Myanmar’s representation from mid-September, when the General Assembly opens its annual session.
The decision on Myanmar’s representation will occur in the General Assembly, by vote if necessary. It will affect Myanmar’s representation in all UN forums, including at the International Court of Justice.
By December 2021 at the latest, the General Assembly is expected to have come to a decision. It could “accept the credentials” of the representative of the NUG or the junta, enabling one to represent Myanmar in the UN. But it could be a more complicated outcome, such as a deferred decision.
This briefing paper: Myanmar’s Representation in the United Nations by SAC-M, outlines the processes of the Credentials Committee and possible scenarios in the current case of Myanmar.
Download the Briefing Paper: SAC-M Briefing Paper Myanmar’s Representation in the UN ENGLISH
It concludes that an acceptance of the military junta’s credentials in the current circumstances would be unprecedented in the UN. Furthermore, any action fully depriving the State of representation would likely be contrary to the UN Charter..."
Source/publisher:
Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, The UN and Burma - news and commentary
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427.73 KB
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"Aug. 12, 2021: Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd has requested that the United States’ Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) grant a general licence for their container terminal currently being developed under a build-operate-transfer agreement with Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), a conglomerate owned by the Myanmar military. MEC is a US sanctioned entity.
In its Q1 FY 2022 report, Adani Ports states that: “APSEZ believes that it is not in violation of any sanction guidelines issued by OFAC, and has, therefore, applied to OFAC for a general license to operate the Port.”
In response, the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and Justice For Myanmar have written to the OFAC this week to urge that Adani Ports’ request for a general licence is denied, given the company’s continuing commercial ties with a military conglomerate, the MEC, that finances the military to conduct operations that involve war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to Adani Ports’ lease payments, the container terminal will become a future asset for the Myanmar military on completion of the lease.
In March 2021, the US government introduced sanctions against the Myanmar military’s two conglomerates, including the MEC. Adani Ports’ direct business ties with MEC raise serious questions about the company’s complicity with the Myanmar military’s egregious human rights abuses, some of which amount to serious crimes under international law.
ACIJ and Justice For Myanmar reiterate calls for Adani Ports’ shareholders to divest from the company. Adani Ports’ direct business with MEC exposes shareholders to major legal and reputational risks.
Yadanar Maung, spokesperson for Justice For Myanmar says: “It is abhorrent that Adani Ports is continuing to build a port for the MEC in Yangon, a company which finances the Myanmar military, which is carrying out a campaign of terror against the people that has killed over 960 people since the illegal military coup. The US Treasury should take a firm stand against Adani Ports and strengthen measures to stop the flow of revenue to the Myanmar military. Don’t give Adani Ports a licence to whitewash their business with war criminals.”
Rawan Arraf, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for International Justice said: “We call on the US Department of Treasury to deny Adani Ports a licence to continue its business with MEC. Because Adani Ports is creating a lucrative future asset for the MEC – this should raise serious concerns about whether Adani Ports is providing material assistance to a US sanctioned entity. Adani Ports has an obligation to respect human rights and it has consistently failed to disengage from their business with the Myanmar military, as was recommended by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.”
Note to editors
Our 30 March 2021 report, Port of Complicity: Adani Ports in Myanmar, provided compelling evidence detailing Adani Ports’ ties to the Myanmar military and its repeated failure to respond to accusations of complicity in international law violations through its business in Myanmar.
Adani Ports has continued to provide misleading statements about its business with the MEC. See press release here.
In April 2021, Adani Ports was removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index over its links with the Myanmar military and Australia’s Carmichael coal project. See press release here.
A number of institutional investors have announced divestment from Adani Ports as a result of its links with the Myanmar military and Australia’s Carmichael coal project, including SEB, Nordea and DNB..."
Source/publisher:
Australian Centre for International Justice and Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, Sanctions, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Format :
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172.06 KB
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Description:
"Dear Secretary Blinken,
We, the undersigned organizations, write to urge you to publicly determine that the state of Myanmar has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people. We welcomed your launch of a process earlier this year to make such an official determination. Now, several months later, as the fourth anniversary of the brutal campaign against the Rohingya approaches - and with the ongoing risk of further atrocities - we urge you to publicly announce your determination and to refer to the crimes by their proper name: crimes against humanity and genocide.
The February 1st coup by the same military that perpetrated abuses against the Rohingya, and the ongoing abuses by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya, other ethnic groups, and the Burmese population in general, only underscore the importance of recognizing the military’s past crimes against the Rohingya for what they are. We have welcomed your attention to the coup and the sanctions measures you have imposed on those responsible. While the coup does not impact the factual and legal basis for a possible genocide determination, it does underscore the importance of the United States speaking forthrightly about gross abuses of human rights when they occur. Such action is critical in sending signals to governments and the Myanmar military, that abusers will be held accountable. Such signals also play a critical role in deterring further abuses.
In the case of the Rohingya, the evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity is clear and convincing and has been amply documented. As prominent legal and human rights experts, including former high-level State Department and White House officials (two of whom are now serving in senior positions in the Biden administration), concluded in a letter in August 2020 [attached]:
“[We] believe the information and assessments produced so far compels the United States, in its capacity as a government and not as a court, to publicly express its view that genocide has been committed and may be continuing against the Rohingya of Myanmar.”
The military coup places an increased urgency on this request as the last trappings of democratic restraints on the military are pulled away. The military’s actions are already greatly exacerbating the COVID pandemic and a growing humanitarian crisis. A U.S. government determination of genocide and crimes against humanity would subject Myanmar and its military to much needed international scrutiny at a time of increased risk of atrocities against the Rohingya and other ethnic minority groups including the Chin, Karen, Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan, as well as against the population of Myanmar as a whole, who have been targeted for opposing the coup. Such a determination would also be useful in exposing atrocities and preserving the truth ahead of any future transitional justice actions. A Rohingya genocide determination would in no way preclude further atrocity determinations regarding abuses committed by the military against other ethnic groups or others. Rather, it would demonstrate a commitment to evidence-based accountability as the struggle for a truly inclusive and representative democratic Myanmar continues.
A determination would also help to ensure continued international attention on the plight of the Rohingya, while enabling the United States to mobilize additional diplomatic and economic pressure on Myanmar to shift its behavior. This attention could offer a measure of protection for the Rohingya and others in Myanmar. It would also represent an expression of solidarity with the governments of Bangladesh and other refugee hosting countries, signaling the United States is committed both to accountability and supporting conditions for safe and voluntary return when conditions so permit.
Such a determination would be wholly consistent with findings of the Department of State, which concluded that the attacks on the Rohingya were “well-planned and coordinated” and that they were "extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seemingly geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents." The law group engaged by the State Department to investigate atrocities against the Rohingya conducted its own legal analysis and found reasonable grounds to believe that genocide was committed. Several other independent groups have reached similar conclusions including Refugees International, the International State Crime Initiative, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Fortify Rights in collaboration with Covington & Burling LLP. The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to recognize that “atrocities committed against the Rohingya by the Burmese military and security forces since August 2017 constitute crimes against humanity and genocide.” A UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission similarly found “a pattern of conduct that infers genocidal intent on the part of the State to destroy the Rohingya, in whole or in part, as a group.” The Fact-Finding Mission has further warned, “The State of Myanmar continues to harbour genocidal intent and the Rohingya remain under serious risk of genocide.”
Now is the time to use the words that fit the crimes. U.S. leadership matters. We call upon you to demonstrate the moral leadership and courage necessary to push global action in the face of genocide.
Again, we welcome your review and urge you to finalize it quickly. Should you have any questions, please feel free to be in touch with Daniel Sullivan ([email protected])..."
Source/publisher:
Refugees International
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Rohingya, Rohingya (cultural, political etc.), Genocide, Human Rights and international relations
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pdf
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Description:
"August 11, 2021, Myanmar: Brunei’s state-owned oil company is in business with the Myanmar military junta controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and crony conglomerate IGE Group, in a further sign of the unsuitability of Brunei’s second foreign minister Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof’s appointment as ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar.
BRUNEI Energy Myanmar, a company fully owned by the Brunei state, has a share in three oil and gas fields that were awarded in 2014 under the Myanmar military’s proxy government led by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). BRUNEI Energy’s local business partner is the IGE Group, owned by the son of former USDP Secretary 1 and minister Aung Thaung. The three blocks are I0R-5 in Htantabin, IOR-7 in Shwepyitha and EP-1 in Kyaukkyi-Mindon, Magwe Region.
Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Brunei’s business with the Myanmar junta and its notorious cronies makes a mockery of their second foreign minister’s role as ASEAN Special Envoy. Dato Erywan Pehin Yusof cannot be considered a neutral mediator when he is also representing Brunei’s business interests with the junta and its cronies. These concerns add to the serious problems already raised by civil society over the appointment of Erywan Yusof, including a lack of transparency and a failure to consult with Myanmar stakeholders, namely the National Unity Government and ethnic armed organisations. We call on the UN to urgently intervene in the humanitarian and human rights crisis created by the military’s attempted coup and campaign of terror. Relying on ASEAN will only cause more tragedy for the Myanmar people.”..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Business and the Military, ASEAN-Burma relations, Human Rights and international relations
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Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
208.01 KB 116.84 KB
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Description:
"Today, during an official visit to Thailand, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced $5 million in COVID-19 assistance for Thailand and more than $50 million in humanitarian aid for the people of Burma. Of this funding, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing nearly $28 million.
Today’s announcement includes $5 million in additional COVID-19 assistance for Thailand that will support health workers administering vaccines and strengthen the supply chain of vaccines. This assistance will reach vulnerable populations. USAID’s long-term assistance to the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Centre contributed to the rapid identification of the first traveler-imported COVID-19 cases in the country in January 2020. In addition to personal protective equipment for Thai health workers, USAID has supported national diagnostic and testing surge capacity, surveillance, contact tracing, and hygienic supplies. This assistance has helped mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the Thai people, especially the most vulnerable, such as low-income communities, ethnic minorities, and migrant workers, who often have limited access to quality and affordable health services. This new support builds on previous USAID assistance delivered during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when USAID accelerated efforts to deliver essential health services, safe drinking water, hygiene supplies, personal protective equipment, support to health workers, and other critical aid.
This new funding also includes nearly $23 million in USAID humanitarian assistance and more than $27 million from the Department of State. These funds will support Thailand’s efforts to address humanitarian challenges resulting from the crisis in Burma, in addition to providing life-saving assistance in Burma. It comes at a critical moment of rising humanitarian needs in Burma and the surrounding region, as people continue to flee their homes in the wake of the February 2021 military coup in Burma. With this new support, USAID is providing emergency food assistance to address secondary impacts of the pandemic, safe drinking water, mobile medical clinics, essential shelter, improved sanitation and hygiene services, and protection support for 600,000 of Burma’s people..."
Source/publisher:
United States Agency for International Development (Washington, D.C.)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-11
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Human Rights and international relations, COVID-19 (Coronavirus), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
An empty chair in New York would be a potent reflection of the situation on the ground in post-coup Myanmar.
Description:
"Across Myanmar, the battle continues between the military and those opposed to the military coup d’etat of 1 February 2021. Opposition to the coup began with non-violent resistance in the form of the Civil Disobedience Movement. The aim is now revolution and an end to the military’s decades-long dominance of political life. The revolutionaries have brought within their fold some of the armed ethnic organisations that have long fought against the military in the country’s borderlands. Civil war is looming.
A different battle for Myanmar is being fought in the United Nations.
On 14 September, the 75th UN General Assembly (UNGA) will meet in New York. Presidents, prime ministers and dictators from across the world – or their representatives – will gather to discuss, debate and make recommendations on global issues. The question de jour is who will represent Myanmar – the military’s representative or the representative of the democratically elected, ousted government?
It is the job of a nine-country Credentials Committee to make a recommendation to the UNGA about whose credentials to accept. It is rare for the Committee to accept the credentials of an ousted government that does not hold power or control territory, but it is not unprecedented (Haiti in 1992, Sierra Leone in 1997). In some contentious cases, the Committee has deferred making any decision at all (Afghanistan in 1996 and Cambodia in 1997).
What happens in the UNGA is another matter again. It is common practice for the UNGA to accept the recommendations of the Credentials Committee without a vote. But there is no rule that it must. In 1973, the UNGA voted to reject the credentials of the representatives of South Africa because of the country’s anti-democratic apartheid regime.
In the case of Myanmar, the UNGA stands with the democratically elected government. In June 2021, the UNGA passed a resolution calling on Myanmar’s armed forces to respect the will of the people – as freely expressed in the 8 November 2020 election – and called on all countries to end arms dealing with Myanmar. The resolution is not binding but it is significant – the UNGA very rarely condemns coups. The resolution was passed with only one vote against – that of Belarus – and with the support of more than half the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states.
A vote in the UNGA about the credentials of the Myanmar appointee would probably go the way of the ousted government.
In the run-up to September, Myanmar’s government-in-exile, the National Unity Government (NUG), is engaged in a worldwide lobbying effort for diplomatic recognition. Recognition – by powerful states or by many states – would boost the NUG’s case for recognition by the Credentials Committee.
Recognition of a government on a state-to-state basis is a unilateral political act – states are entitled to recognise whichever government they want. The general practice is that states recognise the government that exercises military control over the territory of the state – and holds the capital city. On this count, in Myanmar’s case, the military’s claim is stronger.
The military controls Myanmar’s airspace and while it does, the revolutionaries cannot win the battle for territory. China, Russia and many of Myanmar’s neighbours in ASEAN have effectively recognised the governing authority created by the military, the State Administrative Council (SAC).
The NUG is pursuing the argument that states should recognise the body that best represents the will of the people – and their right to self-determination. On this count, the NUG’s claim is undoubtedly the stronger. The National League for Democracy (NLD) was the clear winner of the 2020 election, despite the military’s claim that the election was tainted by irregularities. Key NLD members such as State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint form part of the NUG. Other members include parliamentarians from the ousted government and representatives of most of the country’s many ethnic states – and a Rohingya representative.
No state has yet granted recognition to the NUG, though many have met with NUG representatives. In recent meetings of the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organisation, neither the NUG nor the SAC has been given a seat. This may be the outcome in the UNGA as well.
It would be a historic moral victory for the men and women fighting in Myanmar if a representative of the NUG were to take the seat of Myanmar in September. But it would also seriously undermine the prospect of bringing the crisis to an end. With the symbolic support of the UN behind them, those on the ground in Myanmar would fight harder for a costly and improbable victory. The military, ostracised still further, would have fewer reasons to move forward with the only concession it has made to date – the Five-Point Consensus adopted at the ASEAN Leaders Meeting on 24 April.
ASEAN has now appointed a Special Envoy to Myanmar and the UN has committed to working with the Envoy to alleviate Myanmar’s growing humanitarian crisis. Leaving Myanmar’s seat vacant in the UNGA is the best representation of what is happening on the ground. It also provides the best chance of stemming the tide of civil war..."
Source/publisher:
The Interpreter
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, ASEAN-Burma relations, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar armed forces (known as the Tatmadaw) seized control of the country, following a general election that the National League for Democracy party won by a landslide. The military have since declared a state of emergency to last for at least a year, and numerous countries have condemned the takeover and subsequent violent crackdown on protestors.
Over the past six months, between February and July 2021, hundreds of people, including children, have been killed and many injured during the protests.
The military-run State Administrative Council (SAC) has targeted doctors and other health workers for taking a leading role in the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Doctors and nurses have been served with warrants and arrests, health workers have been injured while providing care to protestors, ambulances have been destroyed, and health facilities have been raided.
It has been reported that World Health Organization (WHO), NGO, and INGO staff are being threatened and forced to return to work by the military council. Most of them were either working from home or had stopped working due to the current security situation. There are reports that the SAC is trying to replace NGO workers believed to be close to the CDM with government appointees.
This document is the result of collaboration between Insecurity Insight, Physicians for Human Rights, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights as part of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC).
It highlights reported incidents of violence against or obstruction of health workers, facilities, and transport in Myanmar between February 1 and July 31, 2021, to highlight the impact on the health system as a whole. It does not include information on violence against patients.
The incidents referred to are based on the dataset 01 February - 31 July 2021 Violence Against Health Care in Myanmar Data, which is available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX)..."
Source/publisher:
Insecurity Insight via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
560.45 KB
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Description:
"Today, August 9, we celebrate the indigenous people of the world who are the protectors of their land and natural environment. In many parts of Myanmar, different groups of indigenous people possess unique practices, traditions and culture. Unfortunately, indigenous groups in Myanmar face many challenges that threaten their enjoyment of their rights and identity. Decades of conflict have brought suffering on ethnic groups like the Chin, Rohingya, Shan and Karen. At the same time, Myanmar’s ethnic people have also faced other violations of their rights including threats to their distinct cultures, languages, and identities; as well as development projects by the Tatmadaw leading to land confiscations, forced displacement, and negative environmental and social impacts.
On June 11, 2021, KHRG and Karen Rivers Watch released a joint statement condemning the State Administration Council’s (SAC) announcement to push ahead with the construction of the Hatgyi hydropower mega-dam on the Salween River. KHRG reiterates that the construction of the Hatgyi dam will be severely detrimental to the ecosystems in the area, as well as to people’s livelihoods, wellbeing, and cultural identity. Further, construction of the Hatgyi dam will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis in Southeast Myanmar caused by the ongoing SAC military offensives.
Since the February 2021 coup, hostilities between the SAC and ethnic armed organizations have intensified across the country. In Southeast Myanmar alone, the SAC has indiscriminately bombed and shelled villages which has killed, injured, and forcibly displaced thousands of villagers. Villagers who have been forced to flee into the jungles and caves, or across the Salween River into Thailand are in desperate need of basic supplies such as food, water, shelter, and medicines. Many villagers are also afraid to return to their lands as they fear the SAC’s indiscriminate airstrikes and ground artillery attacks.
In addition to the suffering faced by indigenous people as a result of intensified conflicts in ethnic lands, the COVID-19 pandemic also adds to the suffering of the ethnic people in Myanmar. In rural areas of Southeast Myanmar alone, where healthcare services are extremely limited, many villagers have no choice but to turn to home-based care. Rather than allowing patients access to life-saving medical care through non-SAC channels such as ethnic healthcare providers, in early July the SAC prohibited the sale of medical oxygen to private clinics and individuals throughout the country. At the same time, the SAC is actively undermining the Karen National Union’s COVID-19 response policies in Karen State. Recently, the SAC has destroyed the KNU’s COVID-19 screening checkpoints and disapproved of KNU travel restrictions in Karen State because of the potential impact on the movement of SAC soldiers in the region. The SAC’s weaponization of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many avoidable deaths.
As the COVID-19 pandemic and the SAC’s military coup have introduced new challenges to Myanmar’s indigenous people, KHRG would like to call upon the international community to not only support the country’s ethnic groups in defence of their rights, but also to celebrate their resilience in the face of adversity and persecution..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians, Human Rights and international relations, Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) reports, COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
83.83 KB 93.31 KB
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Description:
"Dear Friends and Supporters All Around the World,
Thank you all so much for showing unwavering support to people of Myanmar.
On behalf of the National Unity Government, formed by the democratic will of the people of Myanmar, I
am greatly honored to deliver the message to the Global Campaign for our movement.
This campaign is showing sense of unity and solidarity in our struggle; they are messaging that we are not
alone in this; and they are signaling that the strengths of solidarity transcend the boundaries.
The military thinks that our people will be silenced by instituting fears among us. However, history proves
that our people are never silent.
It has been six months since our democratic sovereignty was taken by force by the brutal military junta.
Within the past six months, all the people in Myanmar, either as an individual or a family or a society, have
been facing the tremendous challenges. The world has fully witnessed the extreme brutalities of the
military junta. Our fellow ethnic nationalities from all over the world have seen that Myanmar people are
struggling everyday to restore basic democratic rights.
The terrorist military (Tatmadaw) has repeatedly committed atrocities in our motherland for decades with
impunity until today. This is nothing short of the act of treason. We must end those atrocities in our
generation. Otherwise, we will owe to our next generations and our fallen heroes.
This August marks the 33rd Anniversary of 1988 Democracy Revolution. After 33 years, we are continuing
our struggles under the banner of "Spring Revolution". This time, each and every one of Myanmar people
are decisively marching towards the end of military dictatorship. Not only are the people inside Myanmar
fighting against the military junta and its supremacy in politics but also the people from different ethnic
nationalities all over the world are joining hands with their brothers and sisters in Myanmar. For that, I
would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you on behalf of the National Unity Government.
While the democratically elected civilian government and people of Myanmar are fighting the global
pandemic COVID-19 together, the military junta staged the coup d’etat just for the sake of power. Due to
the thirst of power of the military, the people in Myanmar are now facing crises not only in politics, but
also in healthcare, economic wellbeing, and social arena. While our people are suffering the attacks of
COVID-19 (Delta Variant), the military is using deceitful techniques to hold onto power at the expense of
our people’s life. Therefore, together, we must fight both COVID-19 pandemic and military dictatorship
and its supremacy in politics which has been internally eroding our country for many decades.
Brothers and sisters, this is the last chance we have. We want nothing, but unambiguous victory from this
Revolution; that is to establish Federal Democratic Union. If we all march together with our fullest
strengths to eradicate the military dictatorship once and for all, I sincerely believe that our next generations
will have the chance to be born in a society which human dignity is not exceptional.
Our Revolution shall win!.....နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီး ဒေါ်ဇင်မာအောင်သည် မြန်မာ့အရေးအတွက်ရည်ရွယ်၍ ကမ္ဘာအရပ်ရပ်တွင်ကျင်းပသော Global Campaign အတွက် မိန့်ခွန်းပြောကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။
အဆိုပါမိန့်ခွန်းတွင် မြန်မာ့အရေးအတွက် အစဥ်တစိုက်တက်တက်ကြွကြွအားပေးထောက်ခံနေကြသော ကမ္ဘာအရပ်ရပ်မှ မိတ်ဆွေများကို အထူးပင်ကျေးဇူးတင်ရှိကြောင်း။
အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ လူ့အခွင့်ရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများကို အားလုံးကသိရှိပြီးဖြစ်ကြောင်း။ အကြမ်းစစ်အုပ်စုကျရှုံးရေး အတွက် အစွမ်းကုန်ကြိုးစားသွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း။
ယနေ့ သည် ၈၈၈၈ အရေးတော်ပုံကြီး ၃၃ နှစ်ပြည့်သည့်နေ့လည်းဖြစ်သလို မြန်မာပြည်သူများကလည်း ၈၈၈၈ အရေးတော်ပုံမှသည် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးအထိ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် ဆုံးခန်းတိုင်ရေး တိုင်းရင်သားအားလုံးလက်တွဲ၍ အတူတကွကြိုးပမ်းလျက်ရှိကြောင်း။
ယခုအခါမြန်မာပြည်သူများသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့၏အကြမ်းဖက်ရက်စက်မှုများနှင့် Covid-19 ကပ်ရောဂါဆိုးကြီးကိုပါရင်ဆိုင်နေရကြောင်း။ ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုပေါ်ပေါက်ရေး စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်အပြီးတိုင် ကျရှုံးရေးတို့အတွက် အဆုံးတိုင်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း။
စသည့်အချက်များကို အဆိုပါမိန့်ခွန်းတွင်ထည့်သွင်းပြောကြားသွားခဲ့ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
44.81 KB 480.38 KB
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Description:
"I am grateful that law enforcement moved swiftly to respond to the horrific alleged plot to seriously injure or kill my colleague and UN counterpart, Kyaw Moe Tun, Burma’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The United States stands in solidarity with Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who continues to demonstrate remarkable courage and bravery in speaking on behalf of the people of Burma who demand a return to democracy.
We are all fortunate this alleged plot, that was to take place on U.S. soil, was thwarted and that the suspected perpetrators were arrested and are now facing justice. We unequivocally condemn this threat to Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, which fits a disturbing pattern of authoritarian leaders and their supporters reaching across the globe – including into the United States – to persecute and repress journalists, activists, and others who dare speak or stand against them.
As I arrive at the Olympics to represent the United States, I am thinking of Belarusian Olympian Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who has just landed in Poland as an asylum-seeker. She narrowly escaped the grip of the Lukashenka regime thanks to the quick intervention of Japanese law enforcement, and Poland’s offer of refuge.
Just last month, the U.S. thwarted an alleged Iranian plot to kidnap and imprison Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and U.S. citizen. Iran’s alleged effort to silence a journalist in our country for reporting on the regime’s behavior is intolerable and appalling.
These are only the most recent acts of transnational repression, and they must be met with the condemnation of the world and with full and certain accountability. We will not stand for efforts by authoritarian regimes and their supporters and enablers to repress people on our soil or across borders, and we will continue to coordinate with allies and partners, including at the United Nations, to stand against transnational repression anywhere..."
Source/publisher:
United States Mission to the United Nations
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"The United States on Saturday condemned a thwarted plot to attack Myanmar's U.N. ambassador in New York, saying it fits a "disturbing pattern" of authoritarian leaders and their supporters seeking to persecute opponents around the world.
Two Myanmar citizens have been arrested in New York state for plotting with an arms dealer in Thailand - who sells weapons to the Burmese military - to kill or injure Myanmar's U.N. ambassador, U.S. authorities said on Friday.
Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who represents Myanmar's elected civilian government which was overthrown by the military in February, told Reuters on Wednesday that a threat had been made against him and U.S. authorities had stepped up his security. read more
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Saturday that the threat "fits a disturbing pattern of authoritarian leaders and their supporters reaching across the globe ... to persecute and repress journalists, activists, and others who dare speak or stand against them."
Thomas-Greenfield cited Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian athlete who refused to return home from the Tokyo Olympics and sought refuge in Poland, and a thwarted plot by several Iranians to kidnap a New York journalist and rights activist who was critical of Iran.
"These are only the most recent acts of transnational repression, and they must be met with the condemnation of the world and with full and certain accountability," Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"1.1 Background
Once again like déjà vu the land of Myanmar splashed international front page headlines for its
recent brutal crackdown on protestors and monks in the autumn of 2007. People intercepted the
news with unsurprised horror as their memories flashed back to the infamous 1988 uprisings that
prematurely ended the lives of at least 1,000 civilians in Rangoon alone and possibly 3,000
nationwide.
1
This time around it was different with the international community and media
quickly coming to the aid of the protestors in voicing condemnation of the junta‘s actions and
calling for support for the protestors. Human rights and exiled Burmese activists further
increased pressure on the international community to take action against Myanmar and distance
themselves from the military regime. The 2007 anti-government protests (lasting from August
15th until approximately October 31st) were initially led by students and pro-democracy activists
in response to the government‘s increase of fuel prices, which consequently caused a spike in
public transport and staple food prices.2
In what was already an impoverished situation with
inflation at ahistorical levels, it was of course no surprise that social unrest ensued. This
particular fuel hike served as a watershed event for all the economic problems that had been
troubling the people of Myanmar for the last two decades since the last uprising of 1988 took
place. Monks from all over the country eventually joined in and took to the forefront of the
protests in what would be dubbed the ―Saffron Revolution‖ symbolizing the color of the robes
the monks wore. This did not appease the junta leaders as they proceeded forward with a brutal
crackdown on the protestors that resulted in the beating and killing of both civilians and monks
alike. The final death toll of the junta crackdown varies between the junta‘s own official figures
of 10 up to the 200 casualties claimed by dissident groups. In addition, many monks were
consequently detained and put in prison camps while some fear that many of them were
murdered. Upward to 6,000 demonstrators in all were arrested with many of them being
gradually released.3
As if it was not enough that Myanmar had garnered worldwide criticism for its loathsome
antics, Cyclone Nargis would draw renewed world attention and criticism to the country. On May 2nd of 2008, less than a year after the Saffron Revolution, Myanmar experienced the worst
natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar claiming the lives of over 100,000 people.
Abundant criticisms were directed toward the junta from the bungling of their own relief effort to
the blockage of international aid, and of their undeterred determination to proceed with elections
the following weekend. All of the mishandling and mismanagement of the crisis kept the junta
on the front page news while the international community desperately explored alternatives to
get help to those who needed it most. Yet again the junta reminded the world of its indifference
to its own people and mocked the world community for its inability to do anything. It is
unforeseen at this point whether this catastrophe has resulted in anything more than minimal
cooperation from the regime and often it is only for handouts of international aid. Cyclone
Nargis will presumably serve as a painful lesson that even in the worst state of crisis the junta of
Myanmar will still refuse to buckle to outside pressure.
Twenty years has now passed since the 1988 uprisings that initially brought international
attention to Myanmar and Nobel laureate Daw Aung Suu Kyi to the forefront of the democratic
opposition. Due to Aung San Suu Kyi and her party comrades‘ repeated arrests and detentions
for their political activities, the international community has adopted numerous diplomatic
strategies over the years with the hopes of coercing the junta into releasing the political prisoners
and into accepting the 1990 election results that favored Suu Kyi and her party, the National
League for Democracy (NLD). There has been consistent international pressure and activism
over the years for the release of the more than one thousand political prisoners locked up for
their participation in the 1988 demonstrations and/or other political activities. Despite the myriad
approaches undertaken by various actors the last two decades, Daw Aung Suu Kyi and many
others remain in captivity and the junta still rules the country with an iron fist. The most popular
approach utilized by state actors against the junta has by far been the imposition or threat of
economic sanctions. The historical timing of Suu Kyi‘s arrests and Myanmar‘s deplorable human
rights behavior against the backdrop of the post-Cold War relations proved a pivotal stimulus for
the use of economic sanctions as a diplomatic tool.
In terms of international cooperation in the United Nations, it wasn‘t until the end of the
Cold War that the international organization finally achieved unprecedented cooperation in the
United Nations Security Council (UN SC). Prior to this relations amongst the Security Council
permanent members had chilled from the start of the Cold War and dimmed any hopes for
cooperation in the Security Council. The renewed cooperation that brought an end to the chilly relations in the UN SC was marked by the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. As a result of this new unity,
a string of peacekeeping and enforcement activities followed suit, howbeit it was not military
activities that proved the most popular method of choice, but alternatively it was economic
sanctions that proved most appealing to Security Council members. It comes as no surprise then
that the 1990s has been dubbed ―the decade of economic sanctions.‖
4 Howbeit, not all these
economic sanctions consisted of multilateral mandatory economic sanctions as outlined under
article 41 of the UN Charter. On the contrary, many economic sanctions were and are indeed
today unilateral.
Since the rejuvenation of the UN SC following the Cold War, economic sanctions have
persistently been issued often to the detriment of the civilian population. A strong majority of the
literature on economic sanctions have questioned and raised doubts over the efficacy of
sanctions. A magnitude of political leaders, human rights activists, and scholars remain for the
most part oblivious and aloof to the detrimental harms of sanctions despite that nearly all are
aware that the infamous Iraqi sanctions campaign claimed the lives of half a million (of which
the majority were children). This is clearly another case of ―collective amnesia‖ since the
international community too often forgets the catastrophic errors of their time in spite of slogans
that cry “Never Again”. Sanctions are assumed to be a less costly alternative to armed force
when measuring the cost of lives, but as former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
expressed:
Sanctions, as is generally recognized, are a blunt instrument. They raise the ethical question of whether
suffering inflicted on vulnerable groups in the target country is a legitimate means of exerting pressure on
political leaders whose behaviour is unlikely to be affected by the plight of their subjects.
5
An overwhelming amount of literature and research by experts and scholars concede that
sanctions have had in fact drastic implications for vulnerable populations and frequently did not
achieve the objectives it had aimed for. My particular concern in this debate, which is needy of
more research, is the impact of sanctions on women. Women have appeared to suffer the brunt of
sanctions according to numerous anecdotal evidence since women are often times more
vulnerable to economic sanctions due to their gender and their relative impoverished and
disempowered position. Be that as it may, research in this area remains obsolete or very minimal
and is henceforth worthy of attention due to the urgency of this problem as this paper will show..."
Source/publisher:
Malmö University (Sweden)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-07
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Sanctions, Business and the Military, Sanctions - general, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Human Rights and international relations, Women and Politics in Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.41 MB (149 pages)
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Description:
"Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jacqueline Maguire, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Dermot Shea, Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”), announced the arrests of PHYO HEIN HTUT and YE HEIN ZAW for conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. HTUT and ZAW were charged in two separate complaints and will be presented later today in the U.S. District Court in White Plains before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “As alleged, Phyo Hein Htut and Ye Hein Zaw plotted to seriously injure or kill Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations in a planned attack on a foreign official that was to take place on American soil. We commend the tireless work of our law enforcement partners at all levels of government to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats and officials.”
FBI Acting Assistant Director Jacqueline Maguire said: “Time was of the essence when we received information about a threat to Myanmar’s Ambassador to the United Nations. I would like to thank our Westchester Safe Streets Task Force and each of our partner law enforcement agencies that worked quickly and diligently to track down the men allegedly hired in this plot to harm and potentially kill a foreign diplomat on U.S. soil. Our laws apply to everyone in our country, and these men will now face the consequences of allegedly breaking those laws.”
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said: “As alleged in today’s federal charges, these defendants reached across borders and oceans in designing a violent plot against an international leader on United States soil. But our NYPD investigators and prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York worked relentlessly with our law enforcement partners to bring them to justice before any harm could be done.”
According to the allegations in the two Complaints filed today[1]:
Between at least in or about July 2021 through at least on or about August 5, 2021, HTUT and ZAW, citizens of Myanmar currently residing in New York, conspired to injure or kill Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (the “Ambassador”). During the conspiracy, HTUT communicated with an arms dealer in Thailand (the “Arms Dealer”) who sells weapons to the Burmese military, which overthrew Myanmar’s civilian government in or about February 2021. In the course of those conversations, HTUT and the Arms Dealer agreed on a plan in which HTUT would hire attackers to hurt the Ambassador in an attempt to force the Ambassador to step down from his post. If the Ambassador did not step down, then the Arms Dealer proposed that the attackers hired by HTUT would kill the Ambassador.
Shortly after agreeing on the plan, ZAW contacted HTUT by cellphone and transferred approximately $4,000 to HTUT through a money transfer app as an advance payment on the plot to attack the Ambassador. Later, during a recorded phone conversation with ZAW, HTUT discussed how the planned attackers would require an additional $1,000 to conduct the attack on the Ambassador in Westchester County, and for an additional payment the attackers could, in substance, “finish off” the Ambassador. In response, ZAW agreed, in substance, to pay the additional $1,000 and to try to obtain the additional money.
HTUT, 28, and ZAW, 20, both citizens of Myanmar, are each charged in separate complaints with one count of conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.
Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force, which comprises special agents and task force officers from the FBI, NYPD, United States Probation Office, New York State Police, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Westchester County Department of Public Safety, Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, and the police departments of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Greenburgh, White Plains, Peekskill, Ramapo, and Clarkstown. Ms. Strauss also thanked the Pelham Manor Police Department and the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service for their assistance in the investigation.
Ms. Strauss said that the investigation is ongoing, and asked any individuals with relevant information to contact the FBI at (800)-CALL-FBI.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas S. Bradley is in charge of the prosecution.
The charges in the Complaints are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the texts of the Complaints and the description of the Complaints set forth in this release constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation..."
Source/publisher:
United States Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-07
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Human Rights and international relations, Human Rights Defenders
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"UNOPS-managed Livelihoods and Food Security Fund estimates that one in six Myanmar workers in low-skilled employment is in a situation of forced labour
Yangon, Myanmar - In the first major study on the prevalence of forced labour in Myanmar since 2015, the UNOPS-managed Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT) shows that one in six workers in low-skilled employment is in a situation of forced labour due to multiple gaps in existing labour protection frameworks.
The LIFT-funded report From the Rice Paddy to the Industrial Park: Working Conditions and Forced Labour in Myanmar’s Rapidly Shifting Labour Market assesses the practical experiences of over 2,400 low skilled workers in relation to freedom of association, wage protection, equal treatment of women, access to justice and other key labour rights.
The study reveals that despite advances being made in increasing workers’ rights, 91 percent of interviewed workers had no formal contract and 93 per cent of workers had no access to social security. This is largely attributed to the decades under neglect - leading up to 2000 - when workers in Myanmar were left without access to basic rights and unprotected by an outdated legislative framework. While reforms to labour governance were initiated in 2010, the labour market itself has continued to be dominated by informality and poor working conditions.
The research findings showed an alarming prevalence of the two elements of forced labour, ‘involuntary work’, experienced by a staggering 63 per cent of workers and ‘threat or menace of penalty’ among low-skilled workers reported by 19 percent of respondents.
Not being told about dangerous working conditions (32 per cent), working for very low wages (25 percent), degrading living conditions in employer-provided housing (16 per cent) and a job that differed to what was agreed upon (11 per cent) are named as the most common forms of involuntary work. These and other findings suggest a high prevalence of exploitative employment practices and a lack of decent work opportunities for workers which are compounded by considerable practical restrictions on freedom of association and collective bargaining as well as by limitations in the reach or effectiveness of available assistance.
The study also provides evidence of the informality of the labour market information system, with over 50 per cent of workers reporting having found jobs by word of mouth and 47 per cent securing their employment through direct hire by the employer. Only (1 per cent) of workers interviewed were recruited through a labour broker (pwe sar in Myanmar language).
The COVID-19 pandemic further accentuated workers’ vulnerabilities with the survey finding that nearly three-quarters of low-skilled workers (73 per cent) reported some reduction in income during COVID-19, while (43 per cent) lost their jobs entirely.
Following the 1 February military takeover of government and the current COVID-19 third wave there has been a further dramatic rise in unemployment amounting to up to 1.2 million job losses in the second quarter of 2021. The sectors hardest hit are those that are the focus of this study, construction, garments, tourism and hospitality. All indications are that the unfolding political and socio-economic crisis will roll back years of hard-fought gains made in expanding labour protection during recent years, particularly through the suppression of trade unions and labour organisations.
“The study provides a critical line in the sand for the status of working conditions before the military’s declaration of a state of emergency and the outbreak of the third wave of COVID-19,” remarked LIFT Fund Director Katy Webley. “The situation of forced labour in Myanmar was significant before 1 February, but there were many individuals and organisations working together to create a momentum of change; the past few months however have seen the situation deteriorate dramatically.”
Mass loss of employment and increased desperation for income will increase the vulnerability of Myanmar’s workers to exploitative labour practices and forced labour both in Myanmar and abroad. The impact of the political situation on workers in Myanmar must continue to be monitored closely with decisive actions taken to ensure that fundamental labour rights are safeguarded from abuse. LIFT’s donors remain committed to supporting the resilience and sustainable livelihoods of poor and vulnerable groups in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
United Nations Office for Project Services (Denmark) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services), Agriculture in Burma/Myanmar: general and research, Human Rights and international relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
4.35 MB
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Sub-title:
YANGON – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that its lifesaving operations in Myanmar are being held back by a major funding shortfall, with over 70 percent of its funding needs over the coming six months still unmet.
Description:
"A massive wave of COVID-19 infections currently surging throughout the country is compounding hunger, as families struggle amid job losses, rising food and fuel prices, political unrest, violence and displacement.
In April, WFP estimated that the number of people facing hunger could more than double to 6.2 million in the next six months, up from 2.8 million prior to February. Subsequent monitoring surveys carried out by WFP have shown that since February, more and more families are being pushed to the edge, struggling to put even the most basic food on the table.
“We have seen hunger spreading further and deeper in Myanmar. Nearly 90 percent of households living in slum-like settlements around Yangon say they have to borrow money to buy food; incomes have been badly affected for many,” said WFP Myanmar Country Director Stephen Anderson.
Starting in May, WFP launched a new urban food response, targeting 2 million people in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar’s two biggest cities. The majority of people to receive assistance are mothers, children, people with disabilities and the elderly. To date, 650,000 people have been assisted in urban areas.
More than 220,000 people have fled violence since February, and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. WFP has reached 17,500 newly-displaced people and is working to assist more in August. In total, 1.25 million people in Myanmar have received WFP food, cash and nutrition assistance in 2021 across urban and rural areas.
However, with US$86 million more required over the next six months, it is uncertain how far these operations can go.
“The people of Myanmar are facing their most difficult moment in living memory. It is critically important for us to be able to access to all those in need and receive the funding to provide them with humanitarian assistance,” Anderson explained.
“Now more than ever, the people of Myanmar need our support. We are deeply grateful for the backing of the international community – the people of Myanmar will never forget your generosity and solidarity.,” said Anderson..."
Source/publisher:
World Food Programme (Rome)
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
WFP (World Food Programme), Humanitarian assistance - emergencies, Human Rights and international relations, Burma: Internal displacement/forced migration of several ethnic groups., Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Your Excellency,
The National Unity Government (NUG) is closely following the discussion at the 54th
ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting, particularly on Myanmar. We noted the 54th AMM Joint
Communique and believed that Brunei Darussalam’s Chairmanship will be able to bring
ASEAN to a more peaceful, stable, and resilient Community with enhanced capacity to
respond effectively to challenges. We also welcomed your appointment as the ASEAN Special
Envoy for Myanmar. We believe your able leadership would bring differences in this situation
that the people of Myanmar are facing.
On behalf of the NUG, I wish to reiterate that our government continues to be
committed to engaging and working closely with ASEAN to ensure the success of ASEAN’s
objectives to create a humanitarian space and start an inclusive process towards resolving
Myanmar’s current political crisis. The NUG fully appreciates that these are long-term
commitments that ASEAN Member States have made towards a fellow member state.
Your Excellency,
In this regard, I would like to highlight a couple of points for your kind information
and consideration. First, while the NUG deeply appreciates the support and commitment of
ASEAN Member States to assist Myanmar and her people, we nevertheless remain greatly
concerned that the military junta gets to continuously representing Myanmar in many of
ASEAN platforms. I wish to highlight that the military junta has clearly put its own people
and other people in this region at risks by disrespecting Article 1 and Article 2 of the ASEAN
Charter. It has evidently belittled the 'Purpose' and ' Principles’ of our association. ASEAN
Charter is the main legally binding instrument that holds us and our people together, clear
violation of these purposes and principles clearly undermining all ASEAN Member States
goodwill in building a better region.
Secondly, while we appreciate greatly ASEAN’s efforts in creating an inclusive
platform for dialogue, the NUG would like to stress that there are pre-conditions for a
possible constructive dialogue with the military junta.
Thirdly, like many other ASEAN Member States understand and as widely reported in
many international media; the civil resistance movements persist despite continues
atrocities by the military junta which led to deteriorating humanitarian situation, economic
collapse, and more recently the rapid spread of the COVID-19 across the country. Our people
are dying every day. We plead your cooperation to support us in addressing humanitarian
and COVID-19 crisis. This has to be made into ASEAN's priority. The NUG has adopted a
people-centred response to prevent, mitigate, and control the spread of the COVID-19 within
Myanmar and at the border areas. We have set-up the Covid-19 Task Force (CTF) on 21st of
July in collaboration with Ethnic Health Organizations. We are looking forward to
collaborating with ASEAN, collectively through the AHA Centre, and in any possible bilateral
cooperation.
Your Excellency,
I understand the weight ASEAN is carrying, the complexity of the region. On behalf of
the people of Myanmar and as part of ASEAN family, I would like to extend our full
cooperation with ASEAN, especially in addressing the humanitarian and COVID-19 crisis we
are facing.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Human Rights and international relations, ASEAN-Burma relations, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
42.72 KB 609.99 KB
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