Human Rights Watch Reports on Burma/Myanmar

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Websites/Multiple Documents

Title: Human Rights Watch Burma page
Description: Full text online reports from 1989 (events of 1988), though 1991 seems to be missing and 2004 has no section on Burma.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Reports Archive
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of entry/update: 2012-05-27
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Title: UN Expert Reports on Myanmar’s ‘Raging Fire of Brutality’
Sub-title: Tougher Measures Needed to Impel Junta to End Abuses
Description: "A “raging fire of brutality” is engulfing Myanmar, where military forces have killed more than 4,000 civilians since seizing power in a 2021 coup, according to an independent United Nations expert on Myanmar. On Monday before a UN General Assembly committee, the UN secretary-general, the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, and a special UN investigative team presented separate reports detailing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country. Since taking power, the military junta has unlawfully attacked villages in areas controlled by anti-junta forces and ethnic armed groups, including schools, hospitals, and camps for displaced people. Airstrikes in some regions have increased more than 300 percent in the past year. The special rapporteur, Thomas Andrews, said the security forces have executed civilians in custody, “at times in mass killings.” They have “burned, beheaded, dismembered, and disfigured bodies in an apparent attempt to terrorize the civilian population.” Andrews reported that “[c]ruelty and dehumanization are defining features of sexual crimes perpetrated by the military, including gang rape.” In some cases, the bodies of the victims of extrajudicial killings have shown signs of rape or sexual violence. According to Andrews, “[these] victims have included children.” The UN special investigative mechanism stated that crimes are committed with “the highest levels of cruelty and harm to the victims.” The reports are shocking but none of them comes as a surprise. Myanmar’s military has a record of brutality that dates back decades: long-running atrocities against ethnic groups, violence against students, monks, and journalists since the 1980s, and post-coup abuses against pro-democracy and minority groups, including Rohingya Muslims who remain in apartheid conditions in Rakhine State. Myanmar’s generals have never faced any real accountability for these abuses. This impunity has fueled ongoing crimes. The UN Security Council should urgently impose an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on the military’s revenues. The council should also refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. China and Russia have opposed such measures. Without Security Council action, governments that have already imposed targeted sanctions on Myanmar’s military and its money flows, including restrictions targeting aviation fuel, should better coordinate to make those sanctions more effective. Neighboring countries, including Thailand and Singapore, should cooperate with these efforts. All concerned governments should be focusing their own legal systems on Myanmar’s military, using universal jurisdiction laws on war crimes and crimes against humanity to build cases for prosecution..."
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Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2023-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2023-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Japan-Trained Officer Among Abusive Forces
Sub-title: Tokyo Should Cut Military Ties, Pressure Junta to End Atrocities
Description: "(Tokyo) – A Myanmar air force lieutenant colonel who received military training in Japan is deployed with forces that have been implicated in serious abuses in Myanmar’s central Magway Region, Human Rights Watch and Justice For Myanmar said today. The Japanese government should immediately halt its training program and investigate whether other program participants are involved in operations involving laws-of-war violations. Myanmar Air Force Lt. Col. Hlwan Moe received training at Japan’s Air Command and Staff College from August 2016 to March 2017, according to the All Japan Defense Association and a defense ministry document. A media outlet reported that Hlwan Moe is a deputy commander, and two well-connected sources said he is based at Magway Air Base. Heavy fighting in the Magway Region since the February 2021 coup, including armed clashes and airstrikes, has displaced over 50,000 civilians. The Myanmar military has committed summary executions, arson, and other abuses, including possible indiscriminate airstrikes in Magway, media have reported. “The Myanmar military’s long history of committing war crimes with impunity should have been enough evidence for Japan that its military training program was going to risk making Japan complicit in atrocities,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia program officer at Human Rights Watch. “The Japanese government should give up its absurd, wishful thinking that its training program can change the Myanmar military’s abusive culture.” Hlwan Moe’s name, rank, position, and military ID 2321 are identified in a list of Myanmar air force personnel reportedly involved in airstrikes since 2021 that was leaked to Khit Thit Media, a Myanmar media group that published it in January 2022. Two sources with connections to Myanmar military personnel, who reviewed Hlwan Moe’s photograph, confirmed his name, military ID and rank. Since 2015, the Japanese government has accepted cadets and officers from Myanmar under article 100 of the Self-Defense Forces Act, which permits training and educating foreign nationals in Defense Ministry facilities with the defense minister’s approval. In 2021, following the coup, Japan accepted two cadets and two officers. In 2022, Japan again accepted two cadets and two officers for training. Human Rights Watch in December 2021 called on the Japanese government to immediately suspend the training program because it risks making Japan complicit in military atrocities. At the time, a Japanese Defense Ministry official replied that the ministry did not have any information about what the cadets and officers trained in Japan were doing once back in Myanmar. During a parliamentary committee session on security on April 26, 2022, however, a Defense Ministry official said the defense ministry “knows to a certain extent” what “positions” they currently hold, but declined to disclose any details due to Japan’s “relationship” with “the other country.” For decades, the Myanmar military has been responsible for war crimes in long-running armed conflicts with ethnic armed groups, and crimes against humanity and acts of genocide against ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine State. Since the February 2021 coup, junta security forces have carried out serious abuses including mass killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. The security forces have killed over 1,800 people, including at least 130 children, and arbitrarily arrested over 13,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The military has expanded abusive operations in ethnic minority areas and against anti-junta armed groups, displacing more than 550,000 people, while deliberately blocking aid to populations in need as a form of collective punishment. The military has carried out targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including airstrikes and heavy artillery barrages, causing loss of life and property. Accounts from displaced people and aid workers suggest that the junta has continued to use the military’s longstanding “four cuts” strategy, in which the armed forces maintain control of an area by isolating and terrorizing the civilian population. The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, in his February report on government weapons sales to the Myanmar military, said that jet aircraft, attack helicopters, armored vehicles, light and heavy artillery, missiles, and rockets were being used against civilians. Since the coup, the Japanese government has called for a restoration of democratic rule and the release of elected government officials, including Aung San Suu Kyi. On March 28, 2021, Japan’s Defense Ministry issued a joint statement with 11 other countries criticizing the military’s attacks against “unarmed civilians.” The Japanese government halted new non-humanitarian Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects earlier in 2021 while allowing existing aid projects to continue. The Japanese Diet passed a resolution in June that condemned the coup and called for a “swift restoration of the democratic political system.” “It is inexcusable for Japan to continue to train cadets from the Myanmar military, knowing that it commits atrocity crimes,” said Yadanar Maung, spokesperson for Justice For Myanmar. “Japan’s cadet training program emboldens the junta and provides support to military personnel that may be used in the commission of crimes against the people of Myanmar. We call on the Japanese government to immediately halt these trainings and take concrete steps to stop the Myanmar military from committing grave violations, including ending business with the Myanmar military and its conglomerates.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2022-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: US Recognizes Genocide Against Rohingya
Sub-title: Need for Global Action to Investigate, Prosecute Military Leadership
Description: "The United States government has formally determined that the Myanmar military committed the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity against ethnic Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. The US government should coordinate long overdue action with other countries to pursue justice, both for mass crimes committed against the Rohingya and for those committed against other ethnic minorities and prodemocracy protesters since the military coup in February 2021. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2022, announced, “I have determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya” The US became a party to the Genocide Convention in 1988. “The US government should couple its condemnations of Myanmar’s military with action,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “For too long, the US and other countries have allowed Myanmar’s generals to commit atrocities with few real consequences.” The same military leaders responsible for crimes against the Rohingya carried out the February 1, 2021 coup against the country’s elected civilian government. The junta then systematically attacked those who protested against the coup, subjecting them to mass killings, torture, and arbitrary detention, amounting to crimes against humanity. Escalating attacks on other ethnic minority groups have resulted in additional abuses and atrocities, including war crimes. Since the coup, security forces have killed at least 1,600 people and detained more than 12,000. Over 500,000 people have been internally displaced and the junta is deliberately blocking aid to populations in need, as a form of collective punishment. Rohingya remaining in the country have faced even greater movement restrictions and harsher treatment, abuses that amount to the crimes against humanity of persecution, apartheid, and severe deprivation of liberty. The US and other governments should seek justice for the military’s crimes against the Rohingya as well as abuses against protesters and ethnic groups, and impose stronger economic measures against the military leadership, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nations Security Council – largely because of concerns of a Chinese or Russian veto – has not taken substantive action in response to the Myanmar military’s atrocities. The US should nevertheless press for a council resolution that would refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC). At the same time, the US should press for council action to impose an arms embargo on the Myanmar military. The ICC prosecutor is presently investigating crimes against humanity related to the forced deportation in 2017 of more than 740,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, an ICC member state. Myanmar is not a member of the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty, so only the UN Security Council can refer all grave international crimes in Myanmar to the ICC for investigation. An ICC referral remains critical to address the full scope of criminality within Myanmar, including for alleged genocidal acts. An ICC referral would also give the court jurisdiction to address other alleged abuses, including by ethnic armed groups in Myanmar. If the Security Council fails to act, the US should assemble a group of like-minded countries in the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling on countries to impose bilateral arms embargoes on Myanmar and urging them to use their domestic legal systems wherever possible to investigate alleged crimes by Myanmar military personnel. Many countries have laws that allow their judicial authorities to investigate and prosecute certain serious crimes under international law no matter where they were committed or the nationality of the suspects or the victims. In 2019 Argentine judicial authorities commenced an investigation into Myanmar’s top military and civilian leaders for crimes committed in Rakhine State, including for war crimes and genocide. US officials should consider possible domestic investigations under its own statutes criminalizing genocide committed abroad. To deter future abuses, the US government should also impose tougher sanctions on the extensive foreign currency revenues the Myanmar military makes from oil and gas revenues, and ramp up enforcement of existing sanctions on military-controlled enterprises in the mining, gemstones, and timber sectors, Human Rights Watch said. The military utilizes the bulk of these revenues to support its expenditures, which include extensive purchases of arms and attack aircraft from Russia, China, and other countries. In addition to supporting action at the UN Security Council, the US should also support a strong resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, mirroring the above steps and ensuring that the UN special rapporteur and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar continue gathering and analyzing evidence of serious crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011. The US should formally support the ongoing case brought by Gambia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging that Myanmar’s atrocities against the Rohingya violate the Genocide Convention. The case before the ICJ is not a criminal case against individual alleged perpetrators, but a legal determination of state responsibility for genocide. The case could lead to orders that are enforceable under a UN Security Council resolution. “The Myanmar military will continue to commit atrocities so long as other governments fail to impose measures to hold them accountable,” Sifton said..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2022-03-21
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Global: Older People at Heightened Risk in Conflict
Sub-title: Governments, UN Should Do More to End Abuses, Ensure Protection, Provide Assistance
Description: "Older people are often at heightened risk of abuses during armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. All parties to armed conflict should end abuses against older people and facilitate humanitarian assistance to older people in need. The United Nations Security Council should ensure that the UN addresses the need for enhanced protection of older civilians in armed conflict in its work. The 49-page report, “No One Is Spared: Abuses against Older People in Armed Conflict,” describes patterns of abuses documented by Human Rights Watch between 2013 and 2021 against older people affected by armed conflicts in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Mali, Mozambique, Nagorno-Karabakh, Niger, South Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. The report also draws on the serious protracted violence in two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, Myanmar security force atrocities against older ethnic Rohingya in Rakhine State, and the experiences of older refugees in Lebanon displaced by conflict in Syria. “Older people face serious abuses, including summary execution, rape, and abduction, during conflicts,” said Bridget Sleap, senior researcher on the rights of older people at Human Rights Watch. “There is an urgent need for governments and the UN to recognize the specific risks and assistance needs of older people and act to protect them.” Government forces and non-state armed groups have attacked and committed serious abuses against older civilians in conflicts around the world, including unlawful killing, summary executions, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other ill-treatment, rape, abduction and kidnapping, and destroyed their homes and property. Older civilians have been killed and injured by small arms, heavy weapons, explosive weapons with wide area effects, and chemical and other banned weapons. Older people are often at heightened risk when they are unable or chose not to flee attacks. In Burkina Faso and Mali, armed Islamist groups, government forces, and ethnic militias have killed numerous older people, including prominent elders. On January 27, 2022, the Malian army executed two men in their 80s and 12 others in the village of Touna, Mali, in apparent retaliation for the death of two soldiers whose vehicle drove over an improvised explosive device. In South Sudan, a rape survivor in her late 50s said that during government operations against rebel forces in February 2019, a soldier made her carry looted property, beat her with a gun, and raped her repeatedly. Between December 2016 and April 2017, Syrian government warplanes carried out four aerial attacks with apparent nerve agents, a group of chemicals that includes sarin. Older people were among those who reportedly died in the attacks from chemical exposure. During hostilities, in many instances older people with limited mobility or other disabilities did not have support from others to flee when fighting neared and had to remain behind. In 2017, Rohingya who were forced out of Myanmar described security forces pushing older people who could not flee back into burning houses. "I saw them push my husband's uncle into the fire. I saw them push him back into the burning house,” one woman said. “He is weak, maybe 80 years [old].... I think they wanted everyone to leave and those that could not leave they put into the fire.” Other older people chose not to flee their homes because they wanted to protect their property. During the conflict in 2020 over Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic-Armenian majority enclave in Azerbaijan, most younger civilians fled. Those remaining, with few exceptions, were older people. An older woman and her husband, Arega and Eduard, both in their 70s, remained in their village to protect their property. In October, Azerbaijani soldiers found the couple at home and aggressively detained them, holding them initially in abandoned houses without food and water, then taking them to a detention facility in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku. Officials denied Arega medication for her high blood pressure. Eduard died in detention. When Arega viewed his body shortly after his death, she described his face as black and blue. Displaced older people can also face abuse and barriers to obtaining humanitarian assistance. In South Sudan in 2017, a 70-year-old man who was blind said aid was inaccessible on the island to which he was displaced. “Some organizations have registered older people, but I never got registered because they did not come to this particular island,” he said. “There’s no health clinic either on the island. To get medical assistance, I must travel to another island or to the mainland.” International humanitarian law, the laws of war, recognizes the protection of older civilians during armed conflict. It requires to the extent feasible the safe removal of older civilians, among others, from the vicinity of military targets, and the provision of suitable accommodations for detained civilians on the basis of age among other factors. Older people are also protected at all times by applicable international human rights law. “UN agencies, peacekeeping missions, and humanitarian actors should ensure that all protection and assistance activities are inclusive of older people and their specific needs,” Sleap said. “Older people, with their unique protection needs, should no longer be invisible victims of armed conflict..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2022-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 1.86 MB 1.13 MB
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Title: Myanmar: Scrap Draconian Cybersecurity Bill
Sub-title: Proposed Law Threatens Rights to Privacy, Expression, Access to Information
Description: "(Bangkok) – Myanmar’s military junta has revived a draconian cybersecurity bill that would provide sweeping powers to the authorities, Human Rights Watch said today. The current draft would allow the junta, in power since the military coup on February 1, 2021, to access user data, block websites, order internet shutdowns, and prosecute critics and representatives of noncomplying companies. The Cybersecurity Law was initially proposed a week after the coup. The current draft, an unofficial translation of which can be found here, includes new provisions that would ban use of virtual private networks (VPNs), abolish the need for certain evidentiary proof at trial, and require online service providers to block or remove online criticism of junta leaders. Ten international chambers of commerce in Myanmar issued a joint statement on January 28, 2022, that said the proposed law “disrupts the free flow of information and directly impacts businesses’ abilities to operate legally and effectively in Myanmar.” “Myanmar’s military junta has taken a terrible draft cybersecurity law and made it even worse,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. “The junta should scrap this bill, which would further devastate free expression and access to information across the country.” The draft law would apply to all those providing “Digital Platform Services,” defined to include “any over the top (OTT) service that can provide the service to express data, information, images, voices, texts and video online by using cyber resources and similar systems or materials.” The law thus applies not only to social media and other content-sharing platforms, but to digital marketplaces, search engines, financial services, data processing services, and communications services providing messaging or video calls and games. While companies licensed under the Telecommunications Act are excluded from the definition of Digital Platform Service providers, the restrictions on use of VPNs and the requirement that companies cooperate with investigations are made specifically applicable to such companies. Under a new provision, the use of VPNs to browse the internet would be a criminal offense without specific permission from an as-yet-unspecified ministry authorized to deal with cybersecurity. Use of an unauthorized VPN would be punishable by up to three years in prison. Virtual Private Networks, which allow a user access to blocked content, have played a critical role in enabling internet users in Myanmar to access sites blocked by the military since the coup and to access the internet without disclosing their true location. VPNs are also routinely used by businesses and individuals to ensure privacy and security. Another newly added provision would allow the authorities to order Digital Platform Service providers to block or remove content about which there is a “legitimate complaint” that the content “damages a person’s social standing and livelihood.” It would not require the information to be false or require a court order. In effect, the new provision would allow the authorities to order the removal of any content critical of individual military leaders or others linked to the junta, Human Rights Watch said. The draft law also retains provisions from the earlier draft requiring online service providers to block or remove a wide range of information at the instruction of the authorities. Prohibited content includes “misinformation and disinformation,” information “causing hate, disrupting the unity, stabilization and peace,” and statements “against any existing law.” Anyone who posts “misinformation or disinformation” faces a minimum of one year and up to three years in prison if they are found to have done so “with the intent of causing public panic, loss of trust or social division.” Since any criticism of the coup or the military could be deemed as intending to cause “loss of trust” in the junta or social division, the junta could use these provisions as sweeping censorship tools. Both Digital Platform Service providers and telecommunications companies would be required to cooperate with the authorities investigating a broad range of offenses, including those under the cybersecurity law. Failure to do so would be punished by a range of penalties up to and including revocation of their license to operate in Myanmar. The scope of the “interventions” with which businesses must cooperate is unclear, leaving open the possibility that this law could be used to force telecommunications companies to facilitate the live interception of communications. Last May, Reuters reported that the military, through the civilian government then in power, had forced telecommunications and internet service providers to install live intercept capabilities in the months leading up to the coup. The bill, as with the Telecommunications Act, would effectively dispense with the legal requirement for a prosecutor to bring digital evidence to court, providing that: the evidence relating to prosecuting an offense filed under this law is not easy to bring to court, it can be presented with a report or other relevant documentation on how the evidence is kept without going to court. Such submission shall be deemed to have been presented as evidence before the court and may be administered by the relevant court in accordance with the law. Any dispute over digital evidence would have to be submitted to the National Digital Laboratory created under the law, and the decisions of that body would be final. This provision violates defendants’ rights to a fair trial and due process, which require that any evidence be presented against them, Human Rights Watch said. Myanmar does not have any privacy or data protection laws that regulate the collection, use, and storage of personal data to safeguard against abuse when data is collected and retained even for legitimate purposes. The current version of the cybersecurity bill retains problematic provisions further undermining data privacy. Digital Platform Service Providers would be required to keep a broad range of user data, including the person’s name, internet protocol (IP) address, phone number, ID card number, physical address, “user record,” and “other information as directed” for up to three years. Providers with at least 100,000 users in Myanmar would have to ensure that devices storing that data are “maintained in accordance with data classification rules” – rules that the bill does not define. Those who fail to comply would face up to three years in prison. Given the broad applicability of the law, this provision also poses serious risks for those using online payment systems. Companies would have to provide this data to the authorities when requested “under any existing law.” The bill gives the authorities wide scope to block services and order internet shutdowns. The ministry assigned to implement cybersecurity matters, with approval from the junta, would be able to temporarily prohibit any digital platform provision, temporarily control devices related to provision of digital platform services, and issue a final ban on any digital service platform provider in Myanmar. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its General Comment No. 34 on the right to freedom of expression, states that governments may impose restrictions on free expression only if they are provided by law and are necessary for the protection of national security or other pressing public need. To be provided by law, a restriction must be formulated with sufficient precision to enable an individual to regulate their conduct accordingly. “Necessary” restrictions must also be proportionate, that is, balanced against the specific need for the restriction being put in place. Nor can these restrictions be overbroad. Myanmar’s cybersecurity bill falls far short of these standards. It fails to require that “disinformation” or “misinformation” would have to cause real harm to a legitimate interest, or to clearly define the content that is prohibited. The resulting lack of clarity would severely chill the discussion of controversial subjects out of fear of prosecution, Human Rights Watch said. Further, mandatory third-party data retention fails to meet international human rights standards on the right to privacy. Such measures are neither necessary nor proportionate, are particularly prone to abuse, and circumvent key procedural safeguards. They limit people’s ability to communicate anonymously and may increase the threat of hacking or other data breaches. “The proposed cybersecurity law would consolidate the junta’s ability to conduct pervasive censorship and surveillance and hamper the operation of businesses in Myanmar,” Lakhdhir said. “Governments that do business with the junta should recognize the information risks if the bill as drafted becomes law.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2022-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Japan Construction Giant Should End Military Partnership
Sub-title: Questions about Yokogawa Bridge Corp.’s Ties Since Coup Go Unanswered
Description: "(Tokyo) – Japan-based Yokogawa Bridge Corp. should end its partnership with a Myanmar military-owned conglomerate, Human Rights Watch said today. In a February 2, 2022, response to a Human Rights Watch letter, Yokogawa Bridge Corp. declined to disclose the status of its partnership with the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), saying it did not comment on specific business deals. On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military overthrew the government and detained the democratically elected civilian leaders. Since then, Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 1,500 people, including about 100 children, and detained over 10,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Foreign companies should end ties with Myanmar’s military enterprises. “If Yokogawa Bridge Corp. hasn’t done so already, it should immediately end its partnership with MEC without benefitting Myanmar’s military,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia program officer at Human Rights Watch. “Otherwise, it will be helping to fund military atrocities and risking its own reputation.” In March 2014, Yokogawa Bridge Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese Yokogawa Bridge Holdings Corp., signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MEC, according to a 2015 earnings document. MEC is owned by Myanmar’s Defense Ministry, controlled by the Quartermaster General’s Office, and is a “direct source of revenue” for Myanmar’s abusive military. According to the document, Yokogawa Bridge aims to “build a relationship through technical cooperation,” while “cultivating” MEC into an “amicable steel fabricator.” “Technological transfer through on-the-job training” for MEC by Yokogawa Bridge Corp. began in September 2014, including “measures to increase productivity and quality” and “technical guidance of construction engineering,” according to the document. Yokogawa Bridge Corp. also created an office in Yangon in July 2015, which the company says acts as a base for “information gathering and technological transfer.” In a Yokogawa Bridge Holdings Corp. document titled “Fifth mid-term business plan 2020 – March 2022,” the parent company said it will “strengthen” its relationship with MEC and seek “further development and expansion.” Yokogawa Bridge Corp.’s ties to MEC came under scrutiny after a local media outlet, Myanmar Now, reported in March 2021 that a MEC-owned steel mill in Hmawbi, Yangon, was supplying steel for two-thirds of the Japanese government-backed Bago River Bridge Construction project. In April 2021, Yokogawa Bridge Holdings Corp. stated that construction of the bridge has been halted due to the “situation on the ground,” and that it would “conduct business that respects human rights.” The 2015 earnings document detailing the nature of the MoU between Yokogawa Bridge Corp. and MEC was available for public viewing as of January 25, 2021. However, by May 12, 2021, documents dated before 2019, including the 2015 earnings document, had been removed. As of February 3, 2022, the documents remain unavailable on the company website. MEC is owned by the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, generating vast revenue through businesses in sectors including manufacturing, mining, and telecommunications, according to a 2019 report by a United Nations-backed Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. The fact-finding mission concluded that “any foreign business activity” involving Myanmar’s military and its conglomerates including MEC pose “a high risk of contributing to or being linked to, violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.” It added that “at a minimum, these foreign companies are contributing to supporting the Tatmadaw’s financial capacity.” The fact-finding mission advocated the “financial isolation” of the military to deter violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and Canada have sanctioned MEC and the other military conglomerate, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), for their role in generating significant revenues that help fund the military’s abuses and enshrine its impunity. On May 12, 2021, the United Nations Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises stated that “Businesses must uphold their human rights responsibilities and put pressure on the military junta to halt grave human rights violations.” Specifically, the Working Group urged companies to “act in line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to avoid contributing to human rights violations, or becoming complicit in crimes if they continue to operate in Myanmar.” The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights states that companies should “avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities, and address such impacts when they occur,” and “seek 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.” Meaningful engagement, including communicating to stakeholders the steps a company has taken to mitigate risks and remedy harm already caused, are distinct responsibilities under these principles. “Yokogawa Bridge Corp. and its parent company should be transparent about any existing business relationships with MEC and the steps they are initiating to end collaboration,” Kasai said. “Transparency and regular stakeholder engagement are important aspects of a company’s human rights due diligence responsibilities.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2022-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Coup Crushes Democratic Rule
Sub-title: Military Junta’s Abuses Amount to Crimes Against Humanity
Description: " The February 1, 2021 military coup in Myanmar overthrew democratic rule and plunged the country into steadily worsening rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022. Security forces under the junta led by Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing committed widespread and serious abuses that amount to crimes against humanity. “Myanmar’s long abusive military dismantled the democratically elected government, committed crimes against humanity against anti-coup protesters, and renewed atrocities in ethnic minority areas,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Concerned governments should respond to this human rights crisis with targeted sanctions and an international armed embargo, and by cutting off revenue streams to the junta.” In the 752-page World Report 2022, its 32nd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. Executive Director Kenneth Roth challenges the conventional wisdom that autocracy is ascendent. In country after country, large numbers of people have recently taken to the streets, even at the risk of being arrested or shot, showing that the appeal of democracy remains strong. Meanwhile, autocrats are finding it more difficult to manipulate elections in their favor. Still, he says, democratic leaders must do a better job of meeting national and global challenges and of making sure that democracy delivers on its promised dividends. Millions took to the streets across the country in largely peaceful protests to call for the military to relinquish power, while members of parliament, ethnic minority representatives, and civil society activists formed a National Unity Government to contest the junta. Myanmar security forces responded by committing offenses amounting to crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearances, and rape and other sexual abuse. Between February 1 and December 1 the police and military killed at least 1,300 protesters and bystanders, including approximately 75 children, and detained over 10,596 protesters, government officials, activists, journalists, and civil servants. The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was among the first arrested on February 1, and she remains in custody on fabricated criminal charges. Anti-junta People’s Defense Forces (PDF) militias formed throughout the country, targeting security force personnel and perceived civilian supporters of the junta. Some have carried out unlawful bombings of public areas and buildings. The military responded with attacks on civilians and the destruction of urban neighborhoods and rural villages. Intense fighting in ethnic minority areas, notably in the northwest Chin State and Sagaing Region, has displaced 30,000 people. The 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar since the military’s 2017 campaign of ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide in Rakhine State remain confined to camps and villages where they are subjected to the crimes against humanity of persecution and apartheid. They are denied access to adequate food, health care, education, and livelihoods. Following the coup, restrictions on humanitarian access increased, leading to preventable deaths and illnesses in Rohingya camps and villages. Increased fighting between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, and Shan States has hindered access to humanitarian aid. Food shortages have been reported throughout the country, and the United Nations estimated the number of people facing hunger could be as high as 6.2 million. Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States have imposed various targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s top military officials and military-controlled companies. However, no governments have imposed sanctions or other economic blocks on the junta’s oil and natural gas revenues, its single largest source of foreign currency. In June, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution strongly condemning the coup. The General Assembly also made several important recommendations, including calling for all member states to halt the flow of arms into Myanmar. However, the UN Security Council did not follow up to pass a binding resolution imposing a global ban on weapons transfers to Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2022-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-14
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Title: Myanmar Atrocities Show Need for International Action
Sub-title: Sagaing Massacre Latest in Military’s Escalating Terror Campaign
Description: "In a year where atrocities by Myanmar’s military have been commonplace, credible reports of a massacre of 11 people, including 5 children, who were bound, shot, and then burned, have sparked revulsion and outrage. Photos and video circulated online show the remains of the victims in Don Taw village, Sagaing Region, in northwestern Myanmar. Villagers returning from hiding after fleeing a military raid used their mobile phones to record the charred remains on December 7, 2021. Local media reported that government security forces committed the killings in retaliation for an attack earlier that morning by anti-junta militia. The United Nations issued a statement that it was “appalled and alarmed at the escalation of grave human rights abuses in Myanmar.” But the killings – and the burnings of the bodies – bear all the hallmarks of the Myanmar military. Decades of impunity for the worst crimes have created a mindset that soldiers can brazenly commit such atrocities without fear of being held accountable. Human Rights Watch has previously documented the Myanmar military’s scorched earth campaigns in ethnic minority areas in Kachin and Karen States, and in Rakhine State against the ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine populations. The Myanmar military is now deploying those tactics in the Sagaing Region, committing atrocities against civilians in response to attacks by People’s Defense Forces on security forces. From May to August, massacres were reported in villages across Kani township, with dozens of civilians killed in a series of incidents. In September, the military also was implicated in massacres against the ethnic Yaw people in Gangaw township and elsewhere in Magwe Region. Concerned governments should impose asset freezes that impact the flow of revenues to Myanmar’s military. But they should also press for the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. Prosecutors in many countries can also use the legal principle of universal jurisdiction to bring to justice to military commanders implicated in war crimes and other abuses. That’s happened recently in Argentina, where a national court will investigate the military’s crimes against the Rohingya, the first court to hear directly from the Rohingya victims themselves. The latest killings show Myanmar’s military is escalating its campaign of terror. Without urgent and coordinated international efforts to halt military abuses, more atrocities can be expected in the year ahead..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-12-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-15
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Title: Myanmar: Junta Blocks Lifesaving Aid
Sub-title: Donors Should Channel Assistance Via Local and Cross-Border Efforts
Description: "Myanmar’s military junta is blocking desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of displaced people and others at risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and concerned governments should press the State Administration Council (SAC) junta to urgently allow aid to reach all those in need. In recent months, the junta and its security forces have imposed new travel restrictions on humanitarian workers, blocked access roads and aid convoys, destroyed non-military supplies, attacked aid workers, and shut down telecommunications services. The February 1, 2021 military coup also triggered widespread infrastructure collapse and a severe devaluation of the Myanmar currency, leading to increasingly dire banking and supply chain crises and shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials. “Myanmar’s junta has worsened a self-created humanitarian catastrophe by displacing hundreds of thousands of people and then blocking the critical support they need to survive,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher. “The generals are callously denying lifesaving assistance to people affected by conflict since the military takeover, seemingly as a form of punishment.” Since the coup, the junta has carried out a nationwide crackdown on anti-junta protesters and the political opposition that amounts to crimes against humanity and other abuses. Fighting in some ethnic minority areas has expanded, resulting in war crimes. The crisis has displaced over 284,000 people, with an estimated 22,000 refugees fleeing to India and Thailand. While Myanmar authorities have long impeded access to aid for vulnerable groups, the military junta has established new restrictions, creating a nationwide humanitarian catastrophe. The UN estimates that the number of people needing assistance will grow from 1 million before the coup to 14.4 million by 2022, including more than 5 million children. About 25 million people, or half the population, could be living below the national poverty line. A man displaced in 2011 and now living in a camp outside Laiza, Kachin State, told Human Rights Watch: “Since the coup, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] that provide food couldn’t travel easily to the camp and they cannot transfer funding easily. Many people used to go outside of the camp for day jobs and to support families, but because of the coup and Covid-19, there aren’t many job opportunities left they could do.” The junta’s interference in relief operations has disregarded calls for unhindered aid delivery by the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council, and Security Council, the European Parliament, and donor governments. The UN relief chief, Martin Griffiths, said on November 8 that “access to many people in desperate need across the country remains extremely limited due to bureaucratic impediments put in place by the armed forces.” He called on the junta to “facilitate safe, rapid, and unimpeded humanitarian access.” On November 10, the UN Security Council issued a statement on Myanmar calling for “full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need, and for the full protection, safety and security of humanitarian and medical personnel.” The UN, regional bodies, and donors should pressure the junta to ensure the health and well-being of the population in accordance with Myanmar’s obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch said. At the same time, the international response to the humanitarian situation in Myanmar has been inadequate. The UN and other aid agencies have only received 18 percent of the US$109 million requested to respond to the post-coup humanitarian emergency. Funding requirements for 2022 have more than doubled due to the crisis, to $826 million. Donors including the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom should increase funding while channeling aid through local civil society groups, rather than through junta authorities, given the military’s track record of corruption and misuse of assistance funding and material. Effective aid delivery hinges on engaging independent and impartial local partners that have the networks and experience to navigate a difficult environment. In areas of armed conflict in Myanmar, the junta’s obstruction of humanitarian assistance violates international humanitarian law. All parties to an armed conflict are obligated to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded impartial humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need, and are forbidden from withholding consent for relief operations on arbitrary grounds. Unnecessary delays or obstruction of aid may also violate the rights to life, to health, and to an adequate standard of living, including food and water. The military has also attacked health facilities and medical workers, in violation of international law. Neighboring countries, including India, Thailand, and China, should facilitate emergency cross-border aid to internally displaced people in Myanmar and provide protection, support, and humanitarian aid to all refugees, including allowing the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) access to screen asylum seekers. The UN Security Council should go beyond issuing statements, and should urgently pass a resolution that institutes a global arms embargo on Myanmar, refers the military’s grave crimes before and since the coup to the International Criminal Court, and imposes targeted sanctions on the junta leadership and military-owned conglomerates. “Governments should press Myanmar’s junta to facilitate, not block, the delivery of assistance that millions of people depend on to survive,” Bauchner said. “Regional bodies and donors should work closely with local groups and cross-border efforts to make sure aid is reaching those in need and not being diverted by generals neck-deep in atrocities.” Humanitarian Crisis and Aid Blockages As opposition to the February 1 coup grew, the Myanmar security forces, including the military and police, violently cracked down on peaceful protests throughout the country. The military launched new offensives in ethnic minority areas, resulting in abuses against civilians. In some areas, newly formed anti-junta armed groups fought alongside long-established ethnic armies against military forces. In November, clashes were reported in every state and region in Myanmar. The UN has reported that the military has carried out targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including airstrikes and heavy artillery barrages. Accounts from displaced people and aid workers suggest that the junta has continued to use the military’s longstanding “four cuts” strategy, in which the armed forces maintain control of an area by isolating and terrorizing the civilian population. An estimated 638,000 people are displaced in Myanmar, including many who were forced to leave their homes years prior to the coup. Civilians displaced by fighting, particularly in Myanmar’s northwest and southeast, have faced dire restrictions on access to food, clean water, sanitation, shelter, and health care, leaving them at severe risk of disease and malnutrition. Military forces have seized food deliveries en route to displacement sites and arrested people on suspicion of supporting aid efforts. As the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar reported in September, “The junta is directly to blame for the lack of humanitarian access to internally displaced persons, where its forces have deliberately blocked access roads and turned back aid convoys.” The requisite travel authorization process for humanitarian workers, already highly bureaucratic and arbitrary, has grown even more constrained under the junta’s control, severely impeding aid delivery, in particular during monsoon season floods. Many international aid organizations’ memorandums of understanding with the government were signed prior to the coup and have since expired, raising concerns about travel authorizations for aid delivery. Visas for aid workers have also been delayed or denied. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported in October that “the need to procure travel authorization remains a major access impediment and a high constraint factor for the humanitarian partners’ capacity to reach people in need.” Where previously a negative Covid-19 test was sufficient for the application, for example, junta authorities began requiring all staff to submit a vaccination card and recommendation letter from the township medical officer for their travel authorization application, at a time when only 3 percent of the country was vaccinated. Since February, the junta has cut off mobile internet data and blocked public Wi-Fi and most broadband internet service. It has continued to impose communication blockades, particularly in areas of increased hostilities. In August and September, the junta cut phone and internet services in dozens of townships in Chin and Kachin States and Mandalay, Magway, and Sagaing Regions. “We have no internet and sometimes mobile reception is not available,” an aid worker in Chin State said. Disrupted supply chains, increasing prices and scarcity of goods, and loss of access to agricultural livelihoods have compounded food shortages around the country. The Myanmar currency, the kyat, has lost over 60 percent of its value since the coup, contributing to food crises in urban and peri-urban areas, including Yangon and Mandalay. According to the UN Development Programme, urban poverty rates are set to triple by 2022. Humanitarian agencies and UN human rights experts recently raised grave concerns about the food, shelter, and cash needs of thousands of families who have been forcibly evicted from settlements in Mandalay and Yangon, including Hlaing Tharyar and Dagon Seikkan townships, since late October. Northwest Myanmar Since May, an estimated 93,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Chin State and Magway and Sagaing Regions in Myanmar’s northwest. In Chin State, fighting has increased between the armed forces and the Chinland Defense Force (CDF), an anti-junta militia. The UN special rapporteur on Myanmar reported that the military, after declaring martial law in the town of Mindat in May, carried out air and ground attacks, committing indiscriminate attacks and sexual violence and using civilians as human shields. An estimated 30,000 people fled the fighting. After capturing Mindat, the security forces imposed drastic measures on the civilian population, effectively cutting the area off from all aid and supplies by closing all roads to the town; blocking nearby supply routes; turning back aid convoys; looting and destroying supplies; interrogating and arresting civilians entering the town for goods; and cutting internet services. In May, military forces fired at makeshift displacement sites marked with white flags. At least six displaced people reportedly died in the jungle from lack of access to health care. Local aid groups and host communities who have tried to support displaced people with food and other supplies have suffered harassment, arbitrary detention, violence, and constant surveillance by the security forces. Some humanitarian workers have been arrested and charged with incitement under section 505A of the penal code. An aid worker in Mindat said that when a team member and an international staff member planning a humanitarian project were arrested, “our operations on the ground got a lot more difficult.” The worker noted that in October, security forces had even arrested people going shopping for household products in Mindat. In July, the UN refugee agency received travel authorization to deliver emergency aid to displacement sites in Mindat, but displaced people in the area reported the aid never reached them after the junta denied aid workers access to any areas outside security force control. In late October, the military deployed tens of thousands of troops to the country’s north and northwest, in seeming preparation for wide-scale operations against anti-junta forces. Satellite imagery revealed that over the next month, hundreds of buildings were burned in Thantlang, Chin State, corroborating video and witness accounts. The aid worker in Chin State said that junta authorities were confiscating aid packages that local humanitarians had tried to bring to displacement camps. Since imposing martial law in Mindat, security forces have taken over the sale of products in town, reselling them at high prices, he said. Anyone attempting to buy more than the allotted amount of food or medicine is accused of supporting the Chinland Defense Force or anti-junta People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and risks arrest. About 3,000 children have been displaced from the town of Mindat, but local aid workers said they have been unable to acquire any educational supplies because of security force checkpoints and the risk of arrest. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in December that with food running low in Mindat township, “people are becoming desperate.” Groups continue to advocate urgently for access: “The humanitarian community has developed a plan outlining the assistance it would immediately be able to provide to up to 26,000 people in Mindat Township if access was permitted, and is advocating at all levels for the necessary travel authorisations to be urgently granted.” Southeast Myanmar Since the coup, there has been major insecurity and fighting in southeast Myanmar, notably Bago Region and Karen (Kayin) and Karenni (Kayah) States. Over 173,000 people have been displaced since February. The junta has imposed severe movement restrictions in the area, requiring permission letters from local State Administration Council administrators to travel, as well as widespread security force checkpoints and patrols. Meeting minutes of UN agencies from May show that the State Administration Council denied the World Food Programme’s request to provide one month of food support to about 4,500 recently displaced people in Myaing Gyi Nyu village in Karen State. Junta officials also suggested they take over the food distribution to the camp. In June, media reported that military forces burned 80 bags of rice, barrels of cooking oil, other food, and medicine in Pekon, southern Shan State, that local residents had gathered for 3,000 people recently displaced by fighting. An aid worker in Karen State said that both the Myanmar military and the ethnic armed group Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) had imposed obstacles to travel. In KNLA-controlled territory, the local aid workers had to get permission to deliver supplies or hand them off to the KNLA to distribute. Local aid groups have identified Myanmar military checkpoints in the area, which they avoid when transporting food or medical supplies due to the risk of detention, harassment, or confiscation. At a national humanitarian meeting in August, UNICEF discussed the contingency plan for people displaced by airstrikes and ground fighting in Hlaingbwe, Karen State, including identifying supplies “so that we can manage very quickly before the road blockages occur,” according to meeting notes reviewed by Human Rights Watch. Protracted Displacement About 370,000 people were already displaced in Myanmar prior to the coup, most living for years in protracted displacement in Rakhine, Kachin, and northern Shan States. Humanitarian organizations reported in October that they faced “significantly decreased access” to the preexisting displacement camps and “increased scrutiny of implementing partners [and] activities.” OCHA reported in August that constraints since the coup, including “new bureaucratic restrictions and access limitations linked to the TA [travel authorization] process,” had impeded more than half of all activities in Rakhine State, “negatively impacting the delivery of services and humanitarian assistance to around 440,000 people in need.” UN and international agencies meeting minutes noted the junta’s erratic approval process: “TA granted by RSG [Rakhine State government] is changing every month.” About 600,000 ethnic Rohingya are confined to camps and villages in Rakhine State, denied freedom of movement under a system of apartheid, without adequate access to food, health care, and education. An estimated 130,000 Rohingya have been arbitrarily held in open-air detention camps in central Rakhine State since 2012. Humanitarian agency documents detail the serious water scarcity in Rakhine State, noting that water availability there is affected by constraints on access, banking issues, limited funding for water transport and distribution, and increased fuel prices and scarcity. Only 12 percent of people in northern Rakhine State identified as needing humanitarian aid had access to safe drinking water as of September, and only 14 percent had access to functional latrines. Food shortages in the camps and villages grew after June, when the World Food Programme had to halt its monthly cash allowance and food ration distributions. In northern Rakhine State, the junta even obstructs efforts to assess the extent of the gaps and needs. “The full extent of WASH [water, sanitation, and hygiene] needs in northern Rakhine continue to be largely unknown due to access restrictions,” humanitarian agencies wrote in their input to the 2022 Humanitarian Needs Overview. In early November, as tensions between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army ethnic armed group grew, the junta closed down the Ponnagyun-Rathedaung road, forcing people from 60 villages in the area to travel by waterway. Restrictions on Water, Sanitation, Health Displaced people’s severe lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in Myanmar – underscored by recent humanitarian data – is life-threatening. UN agency documents stated that “AWD [acute watery diarrhea] cases were reported in 2021 due to the reduction of WASH in many camps in Rakhine and Kachin states.” In late May, at least nine Muslim children reportedly died in central Rakhine State following a month-long outbreak of acute diarrhea. “They have difficulties accessing drinking water, toilets, and sanitation products,” the Chin State aid worker said. “Kids in the camp had skin disease … because of dirty water. They don’t even have tanks to store water, they use plastic sheets to make water tanks.” He said that the Kyaukhtu camps in Magway Region have faced severe health crises: Some kids died from malnutrition, had skin disease. People died from not getting medical attention on time. There’s not enough medicine or medical supplies at camps. There are doctors who came to the CDF territory to provide health care to IDPs [internally displaced people] but they can’t do much when there’s not enough medical supplies. “IDPs have difficulty accessing food, clean water, and shelters,” an aid worker in Karen State said. “They’re now relying on rainwater…. There is seasonal flu, diarrhea because of no clean water, and Covid cases in the villages.” The Myanmar healthcare system effectively collapsed after the coup. With the junta cracking down on medical professionals for their role in the Civil Disobedience Movement, Myanmar has become one of the deadliest countries in the world to work in health care, according to data from the World Health Organization and Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. From February 1 to September 30, state security forces allegedly killed at least 29 healthcare workers and arrested 210, with another 580 warrants issued for doctors and nurses. There have been 297 reported attacks on health care – nearly all by the security forces – including 87 raids and 56 military occupations of healthcare facilities. Security forces have beaten and shot medical staff providing care to injured protesters and forced clinics operated by nongovernmental groups to close, driving medics and volunteers to work underground in poorly resourced makeshift mobile clinics. Despite moving frequently, hidden facilities have faced deadly attacks by junta forces. Police and military officials shot at or confiscated ambulances. At least 31 medical vehicles have been attacked since the coup. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) described the impact of the junta’s nationwide military deployment on access to health care: Patients in Myanmar are forced to travel farther to get care at a time when risks are much greater. Security forces at checkpoints scrutinise those moving around, search their belongings, intimidate them and contribute to a climate of fear. For patients with conditions requiring regular and long-term care, such as HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C, the ongoing insecurity and delays in accessing medicines could be life-threatening. Amid the healthcare system’s collapse, Myanmar faced its third and most severe wave of Covid-19 in mid-2021. The security forces blocked people’s access to hospitals for urgent treatment and hoarded oxygen supplies. They arrested aid volunteers for attempting to deliver oxygen to affected communities. The junta’s Health Ministry reportedly rejected a request from a top OCHA official visiting the country in September for greater humanitarian access to address the Covid-19 crisis, which had hit a 38 percent positive test rate at its peak in late July. Myanmar’s UN Country Team reported in May that attacks on medical workers jeopardized the Covid-19 response and essential health services, “with potential devastating consequences.” The pandemic has also been used as a pretext for enforcing increasingly stringent restrictions on aid and movement. Days before the coup, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had transferred US$372 million to the Central Bank of Myanmar for emergency Covid-19 support. How the junta has used the funds remains unknown. At a September briefing, the IMF stated, “It’s not possible for the Fund to ascertain whether the regime currently in effective control is using the IMF funds as they were intended. Namely, to tackle to COVID and support the most vulnerable people.” Covax, the global vaccine distribution facility, also delayed a shipment of vaccines, citing the junta’s opacity around distribution and refusal to prioritize vulnerable populations. UN Security Council resolution 2286 condemns attacks on medical facilities and health workers in conflicts and calls on all parties to armed conflicts to respect international law, prevent attacks, and hold those responsible to account. It also asks the UN secretary-general to “bring to the attention of the Security Council situations in which the delivery of medical assistance to populations in need is being obstructed by parties to the armed conflict.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-12-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Satellite Data Raise Fears Myanmar’s Army Setting Towns Ablaze
Description: "New satellite data analyzed by Human Rights Watch corroborates images and videos streaming out of Myanmar’s Chin State showing towns once again on fire. Human Rights Watch reviewed thermal anomaly data collected by an environmental satellite sensor (VIIRS) that detected the presence of multiple active fires in Thantlang town in Chin State in northwestern Myanmar. The thermal anomalies were detected for the first time on October 29 at 12:29 p.m. local time. The readings are consistent with reports of fires burning buildings during the day, depicted in photos and videos circulated around this time by the media and human rights groups. More than 12 hours later, additional thermal anomalies were also detected, consistent with reports of fires at night. The military spokesperson, Gen. Zaw Min Tun, claimed without offering any evidence that, after clashes with soldiers, the Chinland Defense Force-Thantlang set houses on fire as they left. The media outlet Myanmar Now quoted a spokesperson for the armed group who blamed the military for the damage, saying soldiers were burning houses for “no reason.” Myanmar’s military has a long history of widespread arson attacks, such as those on ethnic Rohingya villages in Rakhine State in 2012, 2016, and 2017, and has made similar claims many times before to deflect blame. Thantlang has been nearly completely uninhabited since September after its population, estimated to be around 10,000, fled mostly to other parts of Chin State because of ongoing fighting between the military and anti-junta militias that are part of a growing network of so-called People’s Defense Forces (PDFs). Parts of the town were reportedly previously damaged. On October 29 the international humanitarian organization Save the Children released a statement saying their office in Thantlang had been damaged, and raised concerns that the fires risk “destroying the whole town and the homes of thousands of families and children.” The laws of war applicable to armed conflict in ethnic minority areas of Myanmar prohibit deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian property. Intentional destruction of civilian property not being used for military purposes violate the laws of war and may amount to a war crime. A credible and impartial investigation of alleged war crimes is urgently needed, and those responsible should be held to account. The United States and Swedish governments have condemned the attacks on Thantlang. But governments and the United Nations should demand that humanitarian agencies have unhindered access to provide aid to affected communities, call for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to be allowed to investigate the sites, and impose coordinated sanctions against those implicated in abuses..."
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Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-11-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: New Reports of Torture in Myanmar
Sub-title: Stronger International Pressure Needed to End Abuses
Description: "“They placed a plastic bag over my head to suffocate me. They did this three times…. They held mock executions.… They pointed a rifle at me and pulled the trigger repeatedly.” This is how a detainee in Myanmar, recently released after arrest for anti-junta protests earlier this year, described to Human Rights Watch some of the torture tactics that Myanmar soldiers used during an interrogation session in a military facility. The detainee suffered extensive beatings even before the interrogation. “My back felt broken,” the former detainee said. “I was on my knees and they had kept kicking my head… There was so much blood. I really didn’t think I was going to come out alive.” Reports of torture by Myanmar’s long-abusive security forces are being increasingly well-documented. An expose by the Associated Press on October 28 includes credible and consistent accounts of torture of 28 detainees released in recent months, with information from victims, medical forensic analysts, and military defectors who witnessed abuse. Myanmar’s junta announced a partial prisoner amnesty on October 18. The announcement said 1,316 people would be pardoned and charges dropped against 4,320 people who “participated in protests.” But many of these people have yet to be released, and some of those freed have given harrowing accounts of their mistreatment. Several women released described to Myanmar media abuse they suffered at an interrogation center in Yangon, including mock executions and sexual assault. Human Rights Watch documented similar accounts at the same facility and elsewhere since the February 1 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Consistent accounts of torture of those critical of the junta, as well as widespread and systematic killings and other atrocities by Myanmar’s security forces, has led Human Rights Watch to conclude that abuses since the February coup amount to crimes against humanity. Concerned governments need to increase pressure on Myanmar to end this brutal crackdown. Targeted sanctions on the military leaders overseeing abuses have not been enough. Governments should block foreign currency transactions to overseas banks controlled by the junta, including billions of dollars in revenues from oil and gas, mining, and timber ventures that are paid to junta-controlled entities. The United Nations Security Council should impose an arms embargo and refer the country’s situation to the International Criminal Court. Failure to act will only invite more impunity, and more torture..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-10-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Prisoner Releases Fall Short
Sub-title: Deposed Political Leaders and Journalists Remain Detained
Description: "The Myanmar junta’s recent prisoner releases are limited in scope and do not reflect a broader change in the military’s respect for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 18, 2021, the State Administrative Council junta announced that it was pardoning 1,316 people and dropping charges against 4,320 who “participated in protests.” The junta provided no details about the terms of the releases or how they were being carried out. Concerned governments should increase pressure on the junta to release all political prisoners, end abuses against protesters and others, and commit to promptly restore democratic rule. “The partial release of wrongfully held detainees should not distract from the junta’s egregiously abusive rule, which hasn’t changed,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Some of those released have already been rearrested. The junta should release all those unjustly held since the coup, including high-profile political figures, and end all arbitrary arrests.” The junta did not provide a list of those being released or their locations. As of October 19, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local nongovernmental organization that has documented arrests, prosecutions, and releases since the February 1 coup, had only been able to confirm the release of 189 prisoners, including 14 journalists. Several of those released have reported torture and other ill-treatment in detention. The junta’s announcement suggests that the authorities are dropping charges of “incitement” under Section 505A of Myanmar’s Penal Code, a vague new law promulgated by the junta to punish comments critical of the coup or the military government. However, many of those charged with incitement are facing other charges as well and may continue to be detained on those charges. Eleven of the 38 people released in the city of Meiktila, including a National League for Democracy member of parliament, were rearrested immediately after their release and are now facing possible charges under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law. The authorities are also requiring all those released to promise not to participate in further anti-coup activities, in violation of their basic rights. A military spokesman warned that anyone rearrested would serve the remainder of their original sentence in addition to any new sentence. The AAPP reported that while the junta claimed to have released over 2,000 prisoners in June, they were only able to verify the release of 372. “The authorities’ lack of transparency and immediate rearrest of some released prisoners reinforce the need to keep the pressure on to release all political prisoners,” Lakhdhir said. “As with the prisoner release in June, the actual numbers released may prove to be far lower than claimed.” In the eight months since the coup, the junta has arrested more than 9,000 people, with more than 7,100 still in detention as of October 19, the AAPP said. Nearly 2,000 more are known to be evading junta arrest warrants. Those still detained include the senior leadership of the National League for Democracy, including its de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the deposed president Win Myint, elected members of parliament, and dozens of journalists. Security forces made at least 24 new arrests on the same day the junta announced the prisoner releases. Since the coup, the junta has committed widespread and systematic abuses against the civilian population that amount to crimes against humanity, including murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual violence, severe deprivation of liberty, and other inhumane acts causing great suffering. Many of those detained have said that security personnel tortured and otherwise ill-treated them and others in custody. Methods of torture reported include beatings, mock executions with guns, burning with cigarettes, and rape and threatened rape. Security forces have killed at least 1,181 people, including some who appear to have been tortured to death in detention. Concerned governments should impose tougher economic measures against the military, its leadership, and its vast business activities to cut off the military’s sources of foreign revenue, most of which are kept outside of Myanmar in foreign banks. The United Nations Security Council should impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar. “Governments should not mistake these releases as a sign that the junta is taking a new approach,” Lakhdhir said. “Instead, the releases appear to be a cynical gesture to blunt growing international pressure to sanction the junta and its generals.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-10-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-22
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Title: India: Release Detained Myanmar Asylum Seekers
Sub-title: Ensure Prompt Access to UN Refugee Agency for Protection
Description: "(New York) – Indian authorities should immediately free all detained Myanmar asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should investigate the deaths of two women who had fled Myanmar and died in custody in Manipur state from Covid-19 in June 2021. Since Myanmar’s military coup on February 1, tens of thousands of Myanmar nationals have fled the country to escape the violent crackdown. Approximately 16,000 Myanmar nationals have crossed into India in the four bordering states – Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, the media have reported. Those fleeing include parliament members, civil servants, military and police officials, and civil society and human rights activists. Most are in hiding, afraid of being arrested. “People from Myanmar fleeing threats to their lives and liberty should be offered a safe haven in India, not detained and deprived of their rights,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indian government should uphold its international legal obligations and work with the UN refugee agency to ensure prompt access to international protection mechanisms.” In June, two women from Myanmar, Ma Myint, 46, and Mukhai, 40, died from Covid-19 in a district hospital in Manipur state. Ma Myint and Mukhai were among 29 Myanmar nationals arrested on March 31 under the Foreigners Act for entering the country without valid travel documents. They were later placed in judicial custody by the district court. On July 2, the Manipur-based group Human Rights Alert wrote to the state human rights commission alleging that government officials were not providing immigration detainees with food and adequate health care, and that detainees were dependent on the charity of local civil society groups for food. Ma Myint and Mukhai were only taken to a hospital once their illness was critical, according to Human Rights Alert and both died within three days of being admitted. At least 13 other asylum seekers also contracted Covid-19 in detention in Manipur. Since February, the Myanmar junta and security forces have responded with increasing violence and repression to the nationwide anti-coup movement. Security forces have killed over 920 people and arbitrarily detained an estimated 5,300 activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. In March, the Indian government condemned the violence in Myanmar at the UN Security Council and called for the release of detained leaders, but at the same time the government ordered northeast border states to check the flow of “illegal immigrants from Myanmar.” The chief minister of Mizoram state, which has had the greatest influx since February, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying this directive was unacceptable and urged the national government to instead provide asylum to the refugees. While Indian border guards have not pushed back any arrivals from Myanmar since the coup and several village councilors in northeast states have expressed a willingness to accommodate the refugees, the Modi government has provided no clarity regarding their status, local rights groups said. In addition, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India requires asylum seekers to travel to one of the agency’s designated centers, none of which are in the northeast, to apply for refugee status. As a result, thousands of Myanmar nationals in India fleeing persecution remain vulnerable to arrest, detention, and possible return to Myanmar. UNHCR Detention Guidelines, which draw on international law, say that government authorities may detain adult asylum seekers only “as a last resort” as a strictly necessary and proportionate measure to achieve a legitimate legal purpose based on an individual assessment. Legitimate justifications for detention should be clearly defined in law, and conform to reasons clearly recognized in international law, such as concerns about danger to the public, a likelihood of absconding, or an inability to confirm an individual’s identity. Victims of torture and other serious physical, psychological, or sexual violence should, as a general rule, not be detained. Refugees in the border states are largely dependent on civil society groups, who are providing support. Several groups have written to the national government asking it to provide humanitarian aid to the asylum seekers and ensure that specialized humanitarian agencies, including UNHCR, have unhindered access to them. On May 3, the High Court of Manipur ordered safe passage for seven Myanmar nationals, including three journalists, to Delhi so that they could seek protection from UNHCR. “They fled the country of their origin under imminent threat to their lives and liberty,” the court stated, adding “They aspire for relief under International Conventions that were put in place to offer protection and rehabilitation to refugees/asylum seekers. In such a situation, insisting that they first answer for admitted violations of our domestic laws, as a condition precedent for seeking ‘refugee’ status, would be palpably inhuman.” Although India is not a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, the international legal principle of nonrefoulement is recognized as customary international law binding on all countries. Nonrefoulement prohibits countries from returning anyone to a country where they may face persecution, torture, or other serious harm. Since 2017, Indian authorities have repeatedly sought to return ethnic Rohingya to Myanmar despite serious allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide by the military. In March, Indian authorities in Delhi, Jammu, and Kashmir detained dozens of Rohingya with plans to deport them to Myanmar. In April, the Supreme Court rejected a plea to stop their deportation. Many of the detained Rohingya say they hold identity documents issued by UNHCR and that they feared for their safety in Myanmar. Over a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar, primarily to Bangladesh, most of them since the military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing that began in August 2017. The 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar’s Rakhine State face severe repression and violence, with no freedom of movement, no access to citizenship, or other basic rights. Abuses against the Rohingya in Rakhine State amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, Human Rights Watch said. Indian authorities say that they will deport irregular immigrants from Myanmar if they do not hold valid travel documents required under the Foreigners Act. But any forcible returns to Myanmar would violate the principle of nonrefoulement. India’s failure to provide fair asylum procedures or to allow UNHCR to make refugee determinations for those fleeing Myanmar because of the threat to their lives violates the government’s international legal obligations, Human Rights Watch said. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to ensure that the Indian government meets its obligations under international refugee law,” Ganguly said. “Indian authorities should treat those from Myanmar seeking refuge in India with dignity and provide them protection from further abuse.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-07-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-11
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Title: Paris Exhibition Puts Myanmar Junta's Repression on Display
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..."
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Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-09-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-17
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Title: Covid-19 Surge in Myanmar’s Prisons
Sub-title: Junta Packs Jails with Opponents as Virus Thrives
Description: "Myanmar’s Covid-19 crisis is spiraling out of control, as the coronavirus spreads among the most marginalized populations, including those in the country’s prisons. The escalation of politically motivated arrests since the February 1 military coup has corresponded with a surge in infections in the country’s overcrowded and unsanitary prisons, where access to health care is poor. Over 600 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Myanmar’s prisons. The Ministry of Health estimates there are almost 4000 new infections daily across the country. But due to lack of testing and little information coming forward from a military junta that claims it has the situation under control, the real figures are likely much higher. On August 8, prisoners held a protest inside Mandalay’s Obo prison after the Covid-19 related death of a pro-democracy activist in custody. Maung Maung Nyein Tun, a 45-year-old doctor who had been detained on June 13 for participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement, was initially held in a military interrogation center, then transferred to a police station before being taken to Obo prison despite showing severe symptoms. He later died at Mandalay hospital. On July 23, a protest erupted at Yangon’s Insein prison due to a worsening coronavirus outbreak there and the death from Covid-19 of Nyan Win, 79, a prominent National League for Democracy member. As of August 9, at least 12 inmates at Insein had died after having been infected with the virus. According to local media reports, only 600 of the 9000 prisoners at Insein prison have received a vaccine. To quell the rapid spread, officials at Insein, Taungoo, and Myaung Mya prisons have ordered lockdowns. Inmates who show symptoms are quarantined but few are tested or receive adequate medical treatment. Released detainees have told us that few measures are taken to stop the spread of the virus, that masks are insufficient, and sanitary conditions are abysmal. Prison authorities have apparently also not taken any special measures to protect groups at higher risk such as older inmates and those with preexisting medical conditions. At a minimum, Myanmar’s prison authorities need to carry out widespread testing of inmates, release all prisoners who pose little security risk, and make information on the prevalence of Covid-19 in prisons public. Otherwise, the virus and loss of lives among prisoners will continue unchecked..."
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Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-08-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-16
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Title: Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh at Risk During Monsoon
Sub-title: Crowded Camp Conditions, Lack of Permanent Shelters
Description: "Heavy rains over the past week have displaced more than 21,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The resulting flooding and mudslides have destroyed about 6,418 shelters. With months of monsoon season still ahead, the refugees face heightened risks because they are being prevented from taking measures that could lessen the devastation from flooding. In the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees who fled atrocities by the Myanmar military live, Bangladesh authorities have prohibited the construction of stronger shelters capable of withstanding not just the annual monsoon, but also frequent dry-season fires. This prohibition is a constant reminder to the Rohingya living in the world’s largest refugee camp that their stay in Bangladesh is temporary. Making that political point has cost lives. Ever since the vast majority of refugees arrived in 2017, humanitarian agencies have warned that shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin leave the inhabitants in danger. But the Bangladesh authorities have refused to let the agencies build any permanent structures that can be used as schools and double up as evacuation shelters in an emergency. “We wish the authorities would allow us to build a little stronger shelters so that we do not have to face the same tragedy every year,” one refugee said, explaining that his tarpaulin roofing was leaking even before the monsoon started. Others described a shortage of drinking water because of inundated wells, lack of food, and clogged sewage facilities. Some refugees said they were moving in with relatives, risking spread of Covid-19. An additional 5,000 Rohingya in the “no man’s land” at the Myanmar border are also experiencing floods. “Of over 500 shelters, only about 50 or 60 are still intact,” a 38-year-old Rohingya man said. Humanitarian workers fear the spread of water borne diseases; there are already hundreds of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) cases reported in the camps. Aid groups are experiencing a funding crisis, receiving only 30 percent of the US$943 million required for the 2021 joint response plan. Bangladeshi host communities are also affected. At least 17 people including six Rohingya refugees have died in the landslides and floods. Bangladesh authorities should act now to save lives, including by permitting permanent shelters and removing fencing that reduces mobility. International donors should immediately assist Bangladesh support both its nationals and the Rohingya who were forced to flee Myanmar’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide..."
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Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-08-07
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Title: Myanmar: Coup Leads to Crimes Against Humanity
Sub-title: 6 Months After Takeover, Urgent Need for Targeted Sanctions, Arms Ban
Description: "Myanmar’s military junta has committed numerous abuses against the population that amount to crimes against humanity in the six months since the February 1, 2021 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. Since the military takeover, millions of people have taken to the streets across the country and peacefully protested for a return to a democratically elected civilian government. As part of a widespread and systematic attack on the population, security forces have repeatedly fired on and otherwise used excessive force to disperse and harm protesters. Police and soldiers have killed over 900 protesters and bystanders, including about 75 children, forcibly disappeared over 100 persons, and tortured and raped an unknown number in custody. Several thousand people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained. “Myanmar’s junta has responded to massive popular opposition to the coup with killings, torture, and arbitrary detention of people who merely want last year’s election results to be respected and a government that reflects the popular will,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “These attacks on the population amount to crimes against humanity for which those responsible should be brought to account.” The concept of crimes against humanity dates to at least 1915 and was part of the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal that created the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), crimes against humanity are a series of offenses that are knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. The offenses of Myanmar’s junta against those opposed to the military coup have been both a widespread and systematic attack against the population, Human Rights Watch said. The nature of the response, broad-based and frequently consistent, reflects government policy rather than the actions of individual security personnel. Apparent crimes against humanity committed since February 1 include murder, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual violence, severe deprivation of liberty, and other inhumane acts causing great suffering. Human Rights Watch previously found that Myanmar’s military had committed crimes against humanity against the ethnic Rohingya population in 2012-2013 and again in 2017 as part of campaigns of ethnic cleansing. The authorities are committing crimes against humanity of apartheid, persecution, and severe deprivation of liberty against Rohingya currently living in Rakhine State. The UN-backed Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) is “closely following” events and is collecting evidence of possible crimes committed following the coup. The IIMM is also mandated to build case files to support efforts to hold individuals responsible for such crimes in criminal proceedings. The United Nations, regional bodies, and governments, including the European Union, United States, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), should respond to the continuing crimes against humanity in Myanmar by supplementing, strengthening, and coordinating international sanctions against the military and the State Administration Council (SAC) junta leadership under Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. Actions should include targeted sanctions on individuals, a global arms embargo, and financial restrictions that would reduce the junta’s revenues from extractive industries. Governments should act to reduce the junta’s gas revenues, which are the military’s largest source of foreign currency income, adding up to about US$1 billion annually in duties, taxes, royalties, fees, tariffs, and other profits. The US, EU, UK, and others should block payments to the junta and state-owned enterprises from foreign-financed oil and gas projects, such as those operated by PTT, Total, and Chevron. Such measures can be designed to target the junta’s access to foreign accounts while allowing for the continued production of gas and electricity in the country. Since the coup, concerns about vetoes by China and Russia have deterred the United Nations Security Council from adopting resolutions to address the human rights crisis in Myanmar. The Security Council should urgently take measures against the junta, including by referring the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said. The court’s prosecutor is currently investigating the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution following the 2017 ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, as those crimes were completed in Bangladesh, an ICC member. The council should follow the June resolution of the UN General Assembly with its own resolution to impose a legally binding arms embargo and targeted sanctions on junta officials and key military leaders. The Security Council and UN member countries should end the pretense that ASEAN will place sufficient pressure on the junta to restore a democratically elected civilian government, release political prisoners, and hold those responsible for abuses to account, Human Rights Watch said. Since its summit meeting on April 24, ASEAN has failed to appoint a promised special envoy and has taken no meaningful steps to press the junta to address grave human rights concerns in Myanmar. “The international response to the Myanmar junta’s crimes against humanity has been stymied by fears of Security Council vetoes, ASEAN’s feckless leadership, and the EU’s hesitance to target foreign gas companies,” Adams said. “The Security Council and influential countries, notably the US, EU, Australia, Japan, India, and Thailand, should apply coordinated sanctions to pressure the junta to end its brutal repression.” Alleged Crimes Against Humanity Since the February 1 Coup The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines crimes against humanity as one of several offenses “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” “Widespread” refers to the scale of the acts or number of victims. A “systematic” attack indicates a pattern or methodical plan. Crimes against humanity can be committed during peacetime as well as during armed conflict. The statute defines “attack” as a “course of action involving the multiple commission of acts … pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy.” The “attack” does not need to be a military attack as defined under international humanitarian law. Furthermore, “the term ‘population’ does not require that crimes against humanity be directed against the entire population of a geographical territory or area.” The ICC statute’s Explanatory Memorandum states that crimes against humanity “are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority.” Myanmar is not a party to the ICC, but the UN Security Council could refer the situation in the country to the ICC. The Myanmar military’s killing of numerous protesters, enforced disappearance of opposition supporters taken into custody, torture and rape of many of those detained, and mass political detentions throughout Myanmar since the coup indicate that these abuses are widespread. The authorities have made statements that suggest that the response to the protests has also been systematic. On February 21, the State Administration Council stated in the government’s Global New Light of Myanmar: “Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youth, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life.” On March 26, the state MRTV news channel announced that demonstrators “should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back” and warned that “parents should also talk their children out of it [joining protests], let’s not waste lives for nothing.” This language was widely interpreted to signal that the security forces were planning to respond with force to planned protests the next day, Armed Forces Day. In a May 8 statement, the junta formally designated the opposition National Unity Government (NUG), its parliamentary committee, and their offshoot militias as “terrorist groups” for alleged acts of incitement against the junta, seemingly to justify a broad suppression campaign. The junta said that the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) – composed of members of the majority party from the 2020 elections of the national parliament – and the NUG “constantly incited Civil Disobedience Movement participants to commit violent acts.” The following alleged crimes against humanity should be independently and impartially investigated: Murder Since the February 1 coup, the State Administration Council junta has responded to massive protests with excessive and lethal force. The police and military have killed over 900 people, most of whom were protesters and bystanders in many cities and towns across Myanmar, including Yangon (Hlaing Thayar, North Okkapala, and other townships), Mandalay, Bago, Monywa, and other townships in Sagaing region, Mindat township in Chin state, and other locations. International human rights standards permit law enforcement officials to use lethal force only as a last resort when there is an imminent threat to life. But in numerous cases reported in the media, and by the UN, Human Rights Watch, and other human rights organizations, the security forces fired on demonstrators who were unarmed and posed no apparent threat. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on April 13 denounced “yet another weekend of coordinated bloodshed in many parts of the country.” She said that “[t]he military seems intent on intensifying its pitiless policy of violence against the people of Myanmar, using military-grade and indiscriminate weaponry.” The UN Human Rights Committee, in its General Comment No. 37 on the right of peaceful assembly, has stated that “[f]irearms are not an appropriate tool for the policing of assemblies, and must never be used simply to disperse an assembly.… [A]ny use of firearms by law enforcement officials in the context of assemblies must be limited to targeted individuals in circumstances in which it is strictly necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury.” The crime against humanity of murder has been defined by ad hoc international tribunals as “the death of the victim which results from an act or omission by the accused, committed with the intent either to kill or to cause serious bodily harm with the reasonable knowledge that it would likely lead to death.” There have been a number of reports of large-scale shooting of protesters by the security forces. The UN reported that security forces killed 18 people on February 28. On March 3, security forces across the country fired live rounds at protesters, killing at least 38 and wounding more than 100, the UN reported. Killings were also reported in one day in Monywa, Sagaing region; Myingyan and Mandalay, Mandalay region; Salin, Magway region; and Mawlamyine, Mon state, according to media reports and local analysts. Human Rights Watch investigated incidents in which security personnel appeared to deliberately kill individuals. On March 3 in Yangon, at least 10 security force personnel were captured on video pushing a man ahead of a group of detainees and then fatally shooting him in the back at close range. Medical doctors told Human Rights Watch that security forces prevented them from reaching wounded protesters, some of whom died from blood loss. Doctors working in mobile clinics during protests said security forces used live rounds interspersed with rubber bullets and that many of the fatal injuries were from bullet wounds to the upper body. On March 13, the authorities killed at least nine protesters, including five in the Sein Pan area of Mandalay, when security forces reportedly shot into a crowd. On March 14 in Hlaing Thayar township, Yangon, security forces killed an estimated 58 people. On March 17, police pursuing protesters forced their way into Sandar Linn Shein’s family home in Bayintnaung, Mayangone township. She said they accused the family of sheltering protesters and began shooting indiscriminately, killing her older sister instantly and wounding her older brother in the chest and then arresting him. On March 27, Armed Forces Day, the day after the MRTV news channel announced that demonstrators “should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back,” security forces carried out violent crackdowns on protesters in at least 40 towns and cities, killing dozens, Fortify Rights reported: “Eyewitness photographs and videos filmed [on March 27] show dead bodies, including children, and soldiers firing weapons street-level, dragging lifeless victims away, and brutally beating people.” In one case, security forces shot and wounded Aye Ko during a night raid in Mandalay. Local media reported that security forces dragged him away and then set him on fire. Residents said soldiers threatened to shoot anyone who tried to help him. In a another widely publicized incident on March 27, a video shows soldiers shooting and killing Kyaw Min Latt at close range as he drove by them on a motorcycle. On April 9, military personnel killed an estimated 82 people in Bago in a dawn assault on protesters’ barricades and encampments, according to media reports. On May 26, the Associated Press, in conjunction with the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, published an extensive and detailed report documenting killings. The AP and Human Rights Center alleged that the junta was using the killings, including by dragging bodies through the streets and returning mutilated corpses to families, to terrorize the population into ending the protests. They identified more than 130 instances in which “security forces appeared to be using corpses and the bodies of the wounded to create anxiety, uncertainty, and strike fear in the civilian population.” Enforced Disappearances Since the coup, Myanmar authorities have taken into custody and forcibly disappeared more than 100 politicians, election officials, journalists, activists, and protesters, and refused to confirm their location in violation of international law. Enforced disappearances are defined in the ICC statute as the arrest or detention of someone by the state or their agents followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of the person, with the intention of “removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time.” Family members and friends of arrested anti-junta protesters told Human Rights Watch that not knowing where the person was being held heightened concerns about their safety and well-being. In many cases, families only received information informally about the location of their family member, such as when newly released detainees notified others that they had seen another person who had been detained. Some families believe that because a prison accepts a package for their family member, it is most likely the place where their relative is being held. However, there is no factual basis for this conclusion, and it does not relieve the authorities of their obligation to provide information on a detainee’s whereabouts, produce a detainee in court within 48 hours as provided by Myanmar law, and promptly allow access to counsel and family members. Torture Many of those detained for taking part in pro-democracy demonstrations said after their release that that security personnel tortured and otherwise ill-treated them and others in custody. Methods of torture reported include beatings, mock executions with guns, burning with cigarettes, and rape and threatened rape. While torture by police in criminal cases has long been a problem in Myanmar, coup opponents taken into custody have been at risk of routine beatings, torture, and gender-based violence, indicating that the mistreatment has been part of junta efforts to suppress the political opposition. One 19-year-old man told the media that on April 9 he was taken to a military compound on the outskirts of Bago after a deadly day of protests. He said the security forces used cables, the butts of guns, and bottles to beat him on his hands. “The commander tied my hands from the back and used small scissors to cut my ears, the tip of my nose, my neck and my throat,” he said. “[He] hit my head with a glass bottle, beat me up, pointed at me with guns but the bullets did not come out.” Protesters in Myeik, Tanintharyi region, said after their release that on March 9, security force members beat about 70 protesters detained during demonstrations with belts, rifles butts, pipes, wooden sticks, and chains. On April 19, the junta created a public outcry when it aired on MRTV the images of six young detainees who bore marks of torture suffered while they were detained. A 17-year-old boy told Human Rights Watch that he had been beaten for days while blindfolded, then forced into a pit and buried up to his neck in a mock burial. He said he and others arrested with him were denied food and water for four days and drank toilet water to survive. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said that since the coup, at least 22 people have been tortured to death during custody. Human Rights Watch investigated the case of Khin Maung Latt, 58, a ward chairman in Pabedan township in downtown Yangon. On the evening of March 6, witnesses saw soldiers and police forcibly enter Khin Maung Latt’s home, beat and kick him in front of his family, and then take him away at gunpoint. The next morning, after notification by the authorities, Khin Maung Latt’s family recovered his body from a hospital. The body had severe wounds to the hands and back and was covered in a bloody shroud, a witness said. Rape and Other Sexual Violence The UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence, Pramila Patten, condemned alleged sexual violence by the Myanmar authorities. She called for an end to the abuses and for unimpeded access for an independent investigation. In a June 25 statement she said: Night raids, arbitrary arrests, sieges of townships and neighborhoods, torture and deaths in detention, attacks on locations and sites where civilians are gathered or have fled, and reports of sexual violence in detention sites, particularly sexual assault, torture, physical and verbal abuse, and intimidation, have become an alarming feature of daily life. Mary Lawlor, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, noted in a July 19 statement on Myanmar that “[w]omen human rights defenders are particularly at risk in remote rural areas and are often beaten and kicked before being sent to prison where they can face torture and sexual violence with no medical care provided.” The opposition National Unity Government reported that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have been particularly vulnerable to sexual violence in custody. One transgender woman recounted after her release that she was raped in custody with an object, tortured, and severely beaten. Human Rights Watch investigated the case of a woman whom the police arrested on April 17 and accused of involvement in a series of bomb attacks against security forces in Yangon. Local media reported that police in Yankin township severely beat the woman, including on her genitals, causing vaginal bleeding, during interrogation at the police station. They beat her again at an interrogation center in Shwe Pyi Thar township, making it difficult for her to eat or urinate. Her cellmate said she herself was molested, threatened with a gun, and slapped during interrogation at another police precinct in Sanchaung township. On March 3 in Yangon, the authorities arrested two journalists, Han Thar Nyein and Nathan Maung, during a raid of their Kamayut Media office. Nathan Maung, who has been released, said the police beat them for days at an interrogation center and that Han Thar Nyein, who is now in Insein prison, was also burned with cigarettes and threatened with rape. Imprisonment or Other Severe Deprivation of Liberty in Violation of International Law On February 1, the military arrested State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and several dozen other senior officials in early morning raids in the capital, Naypyidaw. They remain in detention. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has reported that since the coup, security forces have arrested 6,990 people, of whom 5,442 remain detained. In some instances, security forces have arrested and detained family members and friends of activists, protesters, and opposition members as a form of collective punishment. The AAPP said that at least 119 people, including an infant, have been arrested during raids when security forces were unable to find the person they sought to arrest. At least 83 of them remain in detention and some family members have been sentenced to prison terms. The junta has particularly targeted members of the media for arrest. Since February 1, the authorities have arrested 98 journalists, 46 of whom are currently in detention, according to the AAPP. Six journalists have been convicted, including five for violating section 505A of the penal code, a new provision that makes it a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison to publish or circulate comments that “cause fear” or spread vaguely defined “false news.” Other Inhumane Acts Causing Great Suffering or Serious Injury The junta has harassed, arbitrarily arrested, and attacked medical professionals, sometimes as they treated injured protesters. Many healthcare workers were early leaders of the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement and refused to work in government hospitals as a form of protest. Since the coup at least 260 healthcare workers have been attacked while trying to administer medical aid, and 18 killed. The AAPP said 76 remain in detention and up to 600 medical professionals have outstanding arrest warrants against them. Many have been forced to work underground in makeshift mobile clinics or have gone into hiding to evade arrest. The UN Country Team in Myanmar has said that the attacks on medical workers have jeopardized the Covid-19 response. CCTV footage released online shows at least six police officers removing three workers from an ambulance of the Mon Myat Seik Htar (MMSH) volunteer rescue team, then beating the workers with their guns and batons and kicking them. The MMSH volunteers were subsequently arrested and released on March 24, Myanmar Now reported..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-07-31
Date of entry/update: 2021-07-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Junta Tribunals Impose 65 Death Sentences
Sub-title: Secretive Military Trials Violate Fair Trial Standards
Description: "The Myanmar junta’s military tribunals have sentenced 65 people to death following unjust trials since the military coup on February 1, 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. State media and local groups have reported that 26 of those sentenced are currently detained, while 39 were convicted in absentia. Military tribunals handed down the death sentences in areas of Yangon where the junta declared martial law in March. In imposing martial law, the junta transferred all executive and judicial power to the head of the relevant regional military command and instituted the death penalty as a possible sentence for 23 crimes. “The Myanmar junta has added to its mass shootings of protesters on the streets by having military tribunals hand down several dozen death sentences after egregiously unfair trials,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Apparently aimed to chill the anti-coup protest movement, these death sentences should serve as a stark warning to foreign governments that urgent action is needed to show the junta that there will be a reckoning for its crimes.” On March 14 and 15, the State Administration Council (SAC) junta declared martial law in 11 townships in Yangon and Mandalay, following a weekend in which security forces killed an estimated 120 people during anti-coup protests. The Yangon commander, Maj. Gen. Nyunt Win Swe, was granted oversight of all administrative and judicial powers in the designated Yangon townships. The martial law orders lay out 23 categories of crimes to be charged in military tribunals in the designated townships, all of them carrying a potential sentence of capital punishment. The designated offenses include several put in place by the junta since the coup. The majority are not capital crimes in civilian courts. The 65 death sentences have been imposed for murder charges under penal code sections 302, 396, and 397. The martial law regulations require the SAC chair, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to approve all execution orders. They also state there is “no appeal for decisions or convictions handed down” by a military tribunal. The only option for defendants sentenced to death is to apply to the SAC chair within 15 days of the conviction to reverse the decision. Min Aung Hlaing has the authority to overturn the decision, change the sentence to a lesser penalty, or approve the decision. The applications can only be filed through prison officials, not lawyers, Radio Free Asia reported. The execution orders were issued in six batches between April and June. The rushed and concealed legal proceedings, carried out against civilians by military courts not properly convened according to law, have gravely deprived detainees and those convicted in absentia of their basic fair trial rights. Military tribunals in Myanmar have long been conducted behind closed doors inside Yangon’s Insein Prison, where the rules of evidence and procedure applicable in civilian courts do not apply. Those on trial before military tribunals face almost certain conviction regardless of the validity of the charges against them, while the trials are held outside the scrutiny of the public or the international community. In the first death penalty case brought by the junta, state media reported that 18 men and a woman were sentenced to death on April 8 for allegedly attacking two military officers riding a motorbike, one of whom later died, in North Okkalapa township in Yangon on March 27. The 19 people were sentenced under penal code sections 396 and 397 for murder and robbery. Another man was sentenced to death on April 28 for the same incident. Three of those sentenced are in custody; the remainder were convicted in absentia. A Yangon military tribunal sentenced two women and five men to death on April 12 under penal code section 302(1)(b) for their alleged involvement in the murder of a woman in Hlaing Tharyar township who had reportedly supported the military. Four are detained; three others were convicted in absentia. On May 24, Insein prison’s military tribunal sentenced 18 people – 15 men, a woman, and 2 teenage boys – to death under penal code section 302(1)(c) on charges of allegedly killing a supporter of the military on March 29 in South Dagon. Seven are in hiding; eleven have been detained. The two teenagers, ages 17 and 15, were detained on April 17. State media reported that they were transferred to a juvenile court. Four of the detained men are brothers. Five men were sentenced to death on May 27, four of them in absentia, under penal code section 302(1)(b) for the alleged fatal attack of a man living in Shwe Pyi Thar township. In the latest reported convictions, a military tribunal sentenced 15 people – 13 men and 2 women – to death on June 21, charged under penal code section 302(1)(b) for allegedly killing an informant and two of his sons on March 15 in Shwe Pauk Kan Myothit, North Okkalapa township. Seven are detained; eight were sentenced in absentia. Since February, the junta and security forces have responded with increasing violence and repression to the nationwide anti-coup movement. State security forces have killed over 900 people and detained an estimated 5,300 activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. The martial law orders also allow for death penalty sentencing for treason and related offenses, several of which were put in place or expanded by the SAC to broadly criminalize protest activity and the Civil Disobedience Movement. Under the expanded treason provisions, it is unlawful to “excite disaffection against” the defense forces, effectively making any criticism of the military treasonous. The military courts have also been assigned to hear charges used to stifle dissent, including Penal Code section 505A, a new provision put in place by the junta that makes a criminal offense comments that “cause fear,” spread “false news” or “agitate directly or indirectly a criminal offense against a government employee.” Some detainees on death row reported being beaten by police in prison. Myanmar security forces have subjected many detainees arrested since the coup to torture and other ill-treatment, including routine beatings. Detainees are frequently kept incommunicado, unable to contact relatives or legal counsel. The victims, among them a 17-year-old boy who spoke to Human Rights Watch, described beatings, burnings from lit cigarettes, prolonged stress positions, and gender-based violence. Other sources interviewed said security forces often transported detainees to police precincts or military interrogation facilities, where they would be beaten and forced to stand, kneel, or lie in stress positions for hours. Myanmar has not carried out judicial executions of prisoners since 1988, although Myanmar law still retains the death penalty, and courts have continued to sentence people to death. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty under all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and irreversibility, and has long called on Myanmar to ban all capital punishment. “These bogus military tribunals are handing down unfair and unappealable death sentences under direction from a commander sanctioned by the European Union, United States, and others for committing the worst crimes under international law,” Bauchner said. “The United Nations, EU, US, and other governments should be demanding the release of all those wrongfully imprisoned and ramping up pressure so the junta knows that what they do – even behind prison doors – is being watched.”..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-07-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-07-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Teenager Describes Torture, Mock Burial
Sub-title: Many Tell of Beatings, Ill-Treatment in Detention
Description: " Myanmar’s security forces have arbitrarily detained thousands of people and, according to numerous credible sources, subjected many to torture, routine beatings, and other ill-treatment since the February 1, 2021 military coup, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar’s military and police often hold detainees in custody for extended periods, in overcrowded and unhygienic interrogation centers and prisons. Those detained are frequently kept incommunicado, unable to contact relatives or legal counsel. The victims, among them a 17-year-old boy who spoke to Human Rights Watch, described beatings, burnings from lit cigarettes, prolonged stress positions, and gender-based violence. “Since the coup on February 1, Myanmar’s authorities have been using torture without fear of repercussions,” said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The sheer brutality of the beatings and abuse shows the lengths to which Myanmar’s military authorities are going to silence anyone opposing the coup.” The 17-year-old boy said he was beaten for days while blindfolded and was forced into a pit, then buried up to his neck in a mock burial. The military arrested him in early May during a night raid of his home and accused him of being the ringleader of a protest group. He said that he was beaten on his head with a rifle butt during the arrest, blindfolded, and then taken to an interrogation center at a location he couldn’t identify. Over the following four days, military interrogators repeatedly hit him with a bamboo stick filled with cement, as well as grinding the rod against his shins during questioning, he said. “On the third day, they drove me to a forested area about an hour away from wherever the interrogation place was,” he said. “They forced me to lie down into a pit while I was blindfolded, and my hands tied. They also planned to hit my head with a mattock, and I thought I was going to be buried alive when they started covering me with the dirt.” The boy said he and others arrested with him were denied food and water for four days, and drank toilet water to survive. Authorities held him at the interrogation facility for seven days total before transferring him to Insein prison. There, the authorities finally acknowledged that he is a child and sent him to a juvenile detention center. He was eventually released after he signed a false confession, he said. Human Rights Watch found his statement credible because of multiple similar accounts from other people arbitrarily detained by the military. Other sources interviewed said security forces often transported detainees to police precincts or military interrogation facilities, where they would be beaten and forced to stand, kneel, or lie in stress positions for hours. Han Thar Nyein and Nathan Maung, both journalists, were arrested on March 9, and taken to the Ye Kyi Ai interrogation center, near Insein township, where authorities tortured them for two weeks, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported. The journalists were severely beaten, burned with cigarettes on their belly, thighs, and buttocks, and forced to kneel on blocks of ice during interrogations. The authorities later transferred them to Insein prison, where both were charged under penal code article 505A for “spreading fake news.” On June 14, the authorities dropped all charges against Nathan Maung, who has now left the country. However, Han Thar Nyein remains in custody and faces up to three years in prison under the charge. All charges against Han Thar Nyein and other journalists arrested in the wake of protests since the coup should be dropped, and they should be immediately released, Human Rights Watch said. Police arrested Yuki Kitazumi, a Japanese journalist, on April 19, and held him at Insein prison. After his release and deportation to Japan on May 15, Kitazumi told Human Rights Watch that other prisoners he was incarcerated with told him they were brutally tortured at a military-run holding facility before being sent to Insein prison. Kitazumi said they described torture, including beatings during interrogations that continued for days, and not being permitted to sleep. Kitazumi said the experience took a heavy toll on him mentally. “There were times when I became unstable, because there’s no one to stop you from thinking negatively, and no friends,” he said. On April 17, the police arrested a woman they accused of involvement in a series of bomb attacks against security forces during raids of homes in Yangon. Local media reported that the woman was taken to a police station in Yankin township, where she was severely beaten during interrogation, including on her genitals, causing extensive injuries. The woman was later taken to an interrogation center in Shwe Pyi Thar township, where she was again beaten. By the time she arrived at the Shwe Pyi Thar interrogation center, she had vaginal bleeding due to her injuries, and she could not easily eat or urinate, according to her cell mate – who also described to Human Rights Watch how she was molested, threatened with a gun, and slapped during her own interrogation at another police precinct in Sanchaung township. Under international human rights law, the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment is prohibited under any circumstance. Articles 330 and 331 of Myanmar’s penal code expressly prohibits the use of torture during interrogations and states that anyone who “voluntarily causes grievous hurt for the purpose of extorting from the sufferer” shall be punished with imprisonment up to 10 years, and a fine. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 870 people have died since the coup. Of those killed, at least 22 died from torture in custody. “The number of tortured to death while in custody is likely to be higher than confirmed,” the group said in a statement issued on June 11. “Myanmar’s military authorities cannot be trusted to undertake serious investigations of allegations of torture, let alone to prosecute the police and military abusers,” Maung said. “The United Nations and concerned governments should publicly demand an end to torture and other abuse of detainees and make clear to the military that failure to comply will mean redoubled efforts to impose additional targeted sanctions on senior military and police officials, and military-owned enterprises.”..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-22
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UN Shared Rohingya Data Without Informed Consent
Sub-title: Bangladesh Provided Myanmar Information that Refugee Agency Collected
Description: "The United Nations refugee agency improperly collected and shared personal information from ethnic Rohingya refugees with Bangladesh, which shared it with Myanmar to verify people for possible repatriation, Human Rights Watch said today. The agency did not conduct a full data impact assessment, as its policies require, and in some cases failed to obtain refugees’ informed consent to share their data with Myanmar, the country they had fled. Since 2018 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladeshi camps and the Bangladesh government has issued them identity cards, which are needed for essential aid and services. Bangladesh then used the information, including analog photographs, thumbprint images, and other biographic data to submit refugee details to the Myanmar government for possible repatriation. “The UN refugee agency’s data collection practices with Rohingya in Bangladesh were contrary to the agency’s own policies and exposed refugees to further risk,” said Lama Fakih, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “UNHCR should only allow data that it collects to be shared with countries of origin when it has properly obtained free and informed consent from participants.” Since 2016, over 800,000 Rohingya from Myanmar were expelled or fled crimes against humanity and acts of genocide across the border to Bangladesh. The Myanmar government continues to carry out the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against the remaining Rohingya population. From September 2020 to March 2021, Human Rights Watch interviewed 24 Rohingya refugees about their registration experiences with UNHCR in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh and spoke to 20 aid workers, analysts, local activists, journalists, and lawyers who observed or participated in the Rohingya registration. Human Rights Watch sent detailed questions and its research findings to UNHCR in February and April, and received responses from UNHCR on May 10. UNHCR denied any wrongdoing or policy violations, stating that it had explained all purposes of the data gathering exercise and obtained consent. The agency said that its data collection efforts were aimed at finding durable solutions for the refugees and that no Rohingya were put at risk. In 2018, the Bangladesh government sought to supplement previous registrations by beginning a joint registration exercise with UNHCR. The government aimed to provide an identity card for refugees – called a “Smart Card” – that allows them to obtain aid and services. The government also sought to gather personal data collected by UNHCR to submit to Myanmar for repatriation eligibility assessments. UNHCR said this would help protect the refugees’ right of return. In a January meeting with Human Rights Watch, UNHCR said that field officers had asked Rohingya for permission to share their data for repatriation eligibility assessments, explaining that a Smart Card would still be issued to those who did not agree. However, at the time of the registration exercise, UNHCR staff said publicly that the data was not linked to repatriations, including on a September 2018 Rohingya community radio show, and in November 2018 comments to international media. Rohingya refugees had in fact staged protests in the camps that month partly out of concern that data collection would be used to facilitate forced returns. The refugees Human Rights Watch interviewed also gave a different account than UNHCR staff had outlined in the January meeting. All but one of the 24 said that UNHCR staff told them that they had to register to get the Smart Cards to access aid, and they did not mention anything about sharing data with Myanmar, or linking it to repatriation eligibility assessments. Three said they were told after giving their data that it might be used for repatriation purposes. One said he noticed after leaving the registration center that the box to share data with Myanmar, on a receipt printed out and given to refugees only in English, had been checked “yes,” although he was never asked. He was one of only three among the refugees interviewed who could read English. Human Rights Watch viewed the English-only receipt that UNHCR gave to Rohingya refugees after their registration. It includes a box noting “yes” or “no” as to whether the information can be shared with the Myanmar government. Human Rights Watch interviewed 21 refugees whose names were included in the list verified by Myanmar for repatriation. Twelve of the 21 people were added to repatriation eligibility assessment lists in 2019 – lists drawn up based on the data collected by UNHCR. The 21 said that after being registered they later learned that their information had been shared with Myanmar and their names were on lists of people verified for return. They all went into hiding in other camps because they feared being forcibly returned. So far, Bangladesh has not forced any Rohingya in the camps to return against their will to Myanmar. One of the 24 refugees interviewed said that the UNHCR field officer registering him asked if he consented to have his data shared with the Myanmar government. He said he felt pressure not to refuse: “I could not say no because I needed the Smart Card and I did not think that I could say no to the data-sharing question and still get the card.” UNHCR in this case did not seek free and informed consent, which would have required making certain that the refugees knew and understood the risks of sharing their and their family’s data with Myanmar, that they had the ability to opt-out without prejudice, and that they could get the Smart Card even if they did not agree. UNHCR staff told Human Rights Watch that they did not discuss any specific risks with Rohingya before registering them, and the Rohingya interviewed said they were not told about any such risks. Between 2018 and 2021, the Bangladesh government submitted at least 830,000 names of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar along with biometric and other data for each person, for repatriation eligibility assessments. Myanmar reportedly agreed to allow about 42,000 Rohingya to return. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that it played no role in drawing up these lists but that the names and other data included in the lists submitted from 2019 onwards, including biometrics, came from analog versions of the data it had gathered during the joint registration exercise, for example, non-digital thumbprint images. In its global guidelines on sharing information on individual cases, UNHCR acknowledges the risks of sharing such information and says that “UNHCR should not share any [individual case] information with the authorities of the country of origin.” In the Myanmar context, risks include involuntary Rohingya returns to Myanmar, particularly given Bangladesh’s forced repatriation of Rohingya to Myanmar in the 1970s and 1990s. In those cases, UNHCR tacitly condoned Bangladesh’s coerced returns. Bangladesh’s submission of lists to Myanmar may also have put refugees, or at least the subset that Myanmar agreed to return, on track to receive Myanmar’s National Verification Cards (NVCs), which many Rohingya reject because they believe it undermines their claims to Myanmar citizenship. The UNHCR-Bangladesh exercise appears to have violated the agency’s policy on protecting personal data that it collects, which requires UNHCR to tell people in a language and manner they understand why it is collecting their data and whether it will be transferred to another entity. It also appears to have undermined the objective of UNHCR’s policies that aim to ensure that consent is not coerced. UNHCR’s Handbook on Voluntary Repatriation says that the agency should never directly link registration or other verification exercises with registration for voluntary repatriations because “[l]inking the two may create confusion for the refugees by giving the impression that one needs to register for voluntary repatriation in order to be entitled to assistance in the country of asylum. This may seriously jeopardize voluntariness.” Linking the eligibility assessment and registration for services did create confusion, Human Rights Watch said. Nearly all of the refugees interviewed did not understand that their data would be shared with the Myanmar government. In the one case in which the refugee was told that it would be, he said he felt he could not refuse consent without jeopardizing his access to services. UNHCR should have recognized that Bangladesh sharing data with Myanmar raised serious protection concerns. “[T]he idea of sharing data with Myanmar, or allowing data to be shared with Myanmar, on this community should have been out of the question until there were minimum guarantees in place – which there aren’t,” said an aid worker familiar with the process in Bangladesh. Finally, UNHCR has a policy requiring a data protection impact assessment before it enters into data transfer arrangements like the one in Bangladesh. However, staff said they did not carry out a “full-fledged” impact assessment, only undertaking several risk assessments prior to signing the data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh. The apparent failure to take into account the history of forced returns from Bangladesh to Myanmar, in those assessments, is important. UNHCR should not combine collecting people’s data for services or identity cards with data collection for repatriation eligibility, Human Rights Watch said. UNHCR should ensure that people who agree to have their data shared are able to withdraw that consent and know how to do so. The agency should only share data or allow data that it collects to be shared with countries of origin when it has taken all efforts to obtain free and informed consent. “Humanitarian agencies obviously need to collect and share some data so they can provide refugees with protection, services, and assist with safe, dignified, and voluntary returns,” Fakih said. “But a refugee has the right to control their data, who has access to it, and for what purposes, and UNHCR and other agencies should be accountable to those whose data they hold.” Purpose of the UNHCR-Bangladesh Registration Exercise In 2017, the Bangladesh government conducted its own registration of Rohingya refugees by collecting personal data, including biometrics, and collaborated with UNHCR through its Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission to conduct a family counting exercise. In 2018, the government asked UNHCR to participate in a joint exercise to link the registration data that it had collected and the data collected by UNHCR in collaboration with the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission. UNHCR signed a data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh in January 2018. Following Myanmar and Bangladesh’s November 2017 repatriation agreement (the Arrangement on Return of Displaced Persons from Rakhine State), which required Bangladesh to conduct a “pre-verification” exercise to vet refugees before Myanmar would carry out its own assessment of return eligibility, Bangladesh and Myanmar also entered into an agreement outlining the verification and repatriation process, including collecting and sharing refugee data. The agreement stated that “[r]elevant information or data generated by, and available with, relevant UN agencies may be used for reference, as and when necessary … Bangladesh may provide verified lists of returnees from Bangladesh to the UNHCR Representatives for ascertaining voluntariness from prospective returnee families.” The annexed verification form requested extensive identifying data. UNHCR’s independent evaluation of its emergency response, published in December 2018, noted that for the lists Bangladesh would need to prepare for Myanmar, authorities would “require a level of detail about place of origin, family composition and so on” that the government had not obtained in its initial registration. UNHCR’s independent evaluation found that the agency saw the joint registration exercise as an opening to assist the “durable documentation” of Rohingya for potential returns. In its May 2021 written response to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR said that this unique verification process stems from the discriminatory nationality restrictions that Rohingya face, because most now lack official documentation proving they are from Myanmar. UNHCR officials said that as part of the joint registration exercise, field officers asked Rohingya two questions: first, whether they consented to have their data shared with partners for assistance in Bangladesh and, second, whether they consented to have their data shared with Myanmar to assess repatriation eligibility. They said the agency began the registration exercise in June 2018, collecting “a significant amount of information about the family, place of origin and relatives overseas,” and fingerprints, iris scans, photographs, and shared much of that data with the Bangladesh government. Following the joint exercise, Bangladesh issued refugees over age 12 identity cards known as Smart Cards, which are linked to their biometric data. UNHCR officials said that they advocated successfully to include the phrase “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar National/Person of Concern to UNHCR” on the cards, as well as a written commitment that the card bearer should be protected from being forcibly returned. The cards gave Rohingya valid identification and allowed them access to food, aid, health care, and other essential services. During the registration exercise, some Rohingya raised concerns that the data would be used to facilitate repatriations and be integrated into the Myanmar National Verification Cards (NVC) system – an inherently discriminatory process that identifies Rohingya as non-citizens. A visit to the Bangladesh camps in early 2018 by Myanmar’s social welfare minister, Dr. Win Myat Aye, stoked those fears. He said during the visit that NVC cards would help to verify the identity of refugees returning to Myanmar. Some Rohingya held protests against the registration exercise in late 2018, which in a few cases the camp authorities met with violence. A 2020 study by the Engine Room, an international organization working with data and technology to encourage social change, said a number of refugees spoke of fears around data sharing with Myanmar, telling them, “We are still having doubts about one matter ... they assured us that they won’t share our biodata with the [government of Myanmar], but what if they cheat us and share this data … [and] send us back to [Myanmar]?” In response to refugee concerns, UNHCR officials made confusing public statements about the purpose of the data collection exercise. For example, in November 2018, after protesters complained that Myanmar would access the data, a UNHCR official told Reuters that the data was being collected for a verification process that would help Rohingya refugees get better protection and ensure their access to services in Bangladesh and was “not linked to repatriation.” In its May 10, 2021 response to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR said that Reuters had selectively excerpted this statement without providing more context and that UNHCR staff consistently said that Bangladesh may share data with Myanmar to verify eligibility for returns, and this would not be linked to any “actual return movement.” In September 2018, a UNHCR assistant registration officer had addressed the issue on a Rohingya community radio show, Bala-Bura: There isn’t any association between the Smart Card and the repatriation to Myanmar. Repatriation is based on your own willingness and it doesn’t look like it could actually happen right now. It could only happen when there is peace in your country, when you get your rights back, when you get your house, land and properties returned, when you get the freedom of movement—these are the criteria for voluntary [returns]. And this [Smart Card] is to live in Bangladesh, to stay safely in Bangladesh, to get assistance- this card is being given to ensure all of that. There is not any association with the repatriation to Myanmar. When you receive that identity card or the “Smart Card,” the first advantage you will get is that you can stay peacefully and safely in Bangladesh. At the same time, the official said that Bangladesh would share some limited information on who people were and what village they came from with Myanmar but did not explain that this would be linked to repatriation eligibility assessments, nor that it would include additional data including photographs or thumbprint images. In a January 2019 operational update, UNHCR said the exercise was intended to ensure that refugees had identity documents and could use those documents to get services, and “contribute to ensuring a refugee’s right to return.” The statements from UNHCR officials contributed to refugees incorrectly believing that the data UNHCR collected was not going to contribute to anything related to potential returns. As one aid worker, who at the time was attending meetings between Rohingya leaders and UNHCR on this issue put it, “UNHCR kept saying to them [Rohingya leaders] the memorandum of understanding it signed with Myanmar had nothing to do with repatriations and nor did the joint registration exercise. It was basically ignoring the Rohingya and their concerns that there was a link.” Free and Informed Consent UNHCR predicates its assistance and protection on free and informed consent by beneficiaries. A 2020 UNHCR guide for making refugee status determinations, for example, states that UNHCR should inform an individual of: the extent of the information to be disclosed, the recipient of the information, the purpose of the disclosure and the likely use of the information. Consent must be sought each time the information is to be disclosed to a different third party or used for purposes which the Applicant was not informed about and would not have reasonably expected at the time of the initial consent. In addition, to be valid: consent must be informed, that is consent must be based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications and consequences, which obliges UNHCR to inform the person of the purpose(s) of data collection, and how the data is, or is likely to be, used. Consent must also be freely given, meaning that the individual must have a genuine choice and be able to refuse or withdraw consent without adverse consequences. While UNHCR policy allows for processing data without consent under some circumstances, including emergency situations, this should not override the need for consent or appropriate alternatives during registration exercises so as to not expose individuals or groups to harm, or otherwise jeopardize their protection. UNHCR staff told Human Rights Watch in 2021 that when registering Rohingya for the joint registration exercise in 2018, field staff asked refugees whether they consented to have their data shared with Myanmar to assess their repatriation eligibility. They said that Rohingya could have registered for the Smart Card even if they did not want their data shared with Myanmar. They contended that the vast majority of refugees consented but did not say how many refused. The Rohingya interviewed by Human Rights Watch disputed these claims. Human Rights Watch believes that combining registration required for services with consent to a repatriation eligibility assessment is contrary to the principle of free consent. Rohingya refugees require a Smart Card to get all services in the refugee camps. UNHCR’s policies provide that the agency should never directly link registration or other verification exercises with registration for voluntary repatriations. UNHCR disputed the relevance of this principle by arguing it applies to registration for voluntary repatriation, not sharing names to assess eligibility for return. But the aim of the policy – to ensure that consent is not coerced – should also apply in the registration exercise that UNHCR conducted with Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch found that UNHCR gave refugees mixed messages about how their data would be used and did not provide enough information for people to understand when, how, and for what purposes their information would be shared with the Myanmar government. UNHCR said that when communicating with refugees and media about the registration exercise, UNHCR staff members consistently noted the possibility that the government of Bangladesh may share the data with the government of Myanmar for the purpose of verifying their eligibility for return, but this would not be linked to any actual returns. In February, a UNHCR official said the question about sharing data for eligibility assessments during the joint registration exercise was a “tick box” on a consent form that each refugee signed. She claimed the agency “always asked this question and the refugees understood what we meant very quickly.” This is contrary to the experience of 23 of the 24 Rohingya refugees interviewed, who said that they believed at the time that the data collection was only to get the Smart Card and access to services, and a counting exercise. They said they did not sign a form, but instead gave their data in their own language to a field officer typing into a computer, and received a printed English language-only receipt with that data at the end of the interview. One Rohingya man who shared with Human Rights Watch the English language receipt said he was shocked to see that his data could be shared with Myanmar: When I got to the [registration] center no one there told me why they were collecting my data, it was assumed that I knew like everyone that it was in order to receive services and for a counting exercise. After they took my data, they printed out a receipt. I walked back to my tent, and then I looked at the paper, and noticed that on the top there was a tick box that the person at the center had marked as “yes” without ever asking me, that my data would be shared with Myanmar. I was so angry when I saw that, but I had already given my data, and I needed services, so I didn’t know what I could do about it. And I am one of the few people who probably even realized that. Most Rohingya do not read English. But why did they do that? Why don’t they ask the person in front of them instead of just clicking and maybe even causing us harm by doing that? The man said that before his data was collected, a senior UNHCR official told a community meeting he had attended that, “in the future, if you agree, UNHCR and Bangladesh will share your information with Myanmar so the government can verify where you are from,” but that he was never told this collection exercise would be for that purpose. Another Rohingya man said: UNHCR did not tell us it would be used for anything linked to repatriations. When the registration exercise started, we had said we didn’t want to participate because we were worried about repatriations, but the UNHCR staff told us, “We will not share your information with Myanmar until you give us permission to.” And then they never came back to us to ask if they could share our information. He added that when field staff collected his data, they did not discuss consent in any detail. In its May responses, UNHCR stated that Rohingya refugees were provided extensive counseling on the sharing of their information with Myanmar for the purposes of verification of eligibility for return, but at the same time acknowledged that in some cases a more thorough explanation and counseling for refugees may have helped them better understand the process and its purpose. UNHCR said that the vast majority of refugees in 2017 and 2018 were expressing a desire to return home “if conditions were conducive” – a sentiment that refugees also expressed to Human Rights Watch at the time. The Rohingya refugees have repeatedly said that they wish to return to Myanmar when it is safe and their citizenship rights, right to freedom of movement, and other human rights are guaranteed. But when Bangladesh started submitting names to Myanmar for repatriation eligibility assessments in 2018, Rohingya refugees told Human Rights Watch that they still did not feel safe to return. The one Rohingya man who said UNHCR did ask his consent to share his data with Myanmar said he felt pressure not to refuse. He added that he assumed, based on UNHCR’s mandate to protect vulnerable people, the data would only be shared at a time when safe and dignified repatriations were possible. “We would be very worried to have our full information shared without those conditions, especially now with the Myanmar military in control of the government,” he said. Bangladesh officials said that by early 2021 they had submitted lists with at least 830,000 names to Myanmar. Bangladesh’s foreign minister reported that the lists included all the data the government had on each individual, including biometric data. Myanmar authorities verified the eligibility of 42,000 people for return, though UNHCR considered the situation in Myanmar not conducive for safe refugee returns. Once they were verified for return, UNHCR interviewed those selected, and almost all said they did not want to return, with some going into hiding out of fear of forced repatriation. Human Rights Watch believes that biometric data should only be gathered when necessary and proportionate, and when fully compliant with privacy and data protection legislation and internal data retention and privacy policies. If biometric data collection (such as fingerprint images) is deemed necessary, in line with various data protection regulations and established principles of data collection in sensitive contexts, UNHCR should collect and store as little data as possible about vulnerable people. Implementation of UNHCR Policy UNHCR has a policy and practical guidance to protect personal data that it collects on beneficiaries and shares with third parties. The policy specifies that “before entering into data transfer arrangements with Implementing Partners or third parties which may negatively impact on the protection of personal data of persons of concern, UNHCR needs to carry out a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA).” UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that it did not carry out a “full-fledged DPIA,” but undertook several risk assessments prior to signing the data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh and embedded and applied risk-mitigating measures into the agreement. In its assessments, UNHCR said it took into account “application of data protection provisions, refugees’ consent, UNHCR’s prior written authorization to disclose, limitations to the use of data, the format in which data are being shared, and balanced any identified risks against the benefits of upholding refugees’ right to return to their country.” It is important, though that it did not seem to take into account the context of historical involuntary returns from Bangladesh to Myanmar. A former senior UNHCR staff member said that while the agency has a policy in place, “UNHCR has not put procedures to enforce the policy. DPIAs are generally not conducted.” He added that while the policy document seeks “adequacy” with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, in practice staff deviate from the requisite standards including informed consent. UNHCR’s policy also dictates that when it collects personal data. it should inform the person “in a manner and language that is understandable” of the specific purpose for which the data will be processed and whether the data will be transferred to another entity. Twenty-one of the 24 Rohingya interviewed said they found out their names were on repatriation eligibility assessment lists only after the Myanmar government had verified them for return. UNHCR said it was unable to share a copy of its data-sharing agreement with Bangladesh without the government’s permission. Human Rights Watch asked the Bangladesh government for a copy of the agreement but has yet to receive a response. UNHCR said its protection staff in Bangladesh and Myanmar have monitored whether the sharing of refugee data has resulted in any harm to refugees or their families and had not identified any harm thus far. Potential Harm Involuntary Repatriations In a May meeting with Human Rights Watch, a UNHCR official defended the agency’s data sharing with Bangladesh – knowing that Bangladesh would, in turn, share this data with Myanmar as part of the process for verifying eligibility to return – by saying that UNHCR’s engagement would help to ensure that any returns would be voluntary. UNHCR said that an April 2018 memorandum of understanding between the agency and Bangladesh on the voluntary return of Rohingya to Myanmar includes a role for UNHCR to assist Bangladesh to register refugees who indicate a willingness to return and to ascertain the voluntariness of their decision after the eligibility for return is verified and confirmed between Bangladesh and Myanmar. It also states that UNHCR will assist in voluntary returns but only when the conditions for safe and dignified return are in place. In its May written response to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR repeated that Bangladesh is upholding its commitment not to involuntarily repatriate Rohingya and pointed out that in November 2018 and August 2019, Bangladesh did not force any Rohingya who had been verified for return to go back to Myanmar. It said that “UNHCR has insisted since the beginning of the Rohingya refugee crisis that the refugees have a right to return if conditions are conducive yet that this should be voluntary and on the basis of informed consent.” If the necessary conditions are not in place for safe and dignified return, UNHCR engagement on return is usually limited to planning, monitoring, counseling, advocacy, and ongoing analysis of obstacles to and conditions necessary for return, and identifying the necessary actions to address them. By indirectly assisting Bangladesh, through the collection of data, to draw up lists for verifying return eligibility, UNHCR has in effect assisted with potential repatriations, governed by the bilateral agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar. This comes in the context of previous forced repatriation from Bangladesh to Myanmar, first in 1978 and then between 1992 and 1997, including UNHCR’s involvement in those episodes of mass forcible return, or refoulement. A study by the Stimson Center found: In the 1970s and 1990s, UNHCR made choices that prioritized relationships with the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar over explicitly addressing human rights and protection concerns facing refugees… protection practices and norms such as individually interviewing refugees prior to return, were often sidelined in favor of maintaining these relationships. In 2021 Bangladeshi authorities have continued their rhetoric around the need for repatriations, including directly after the February 1 military coup in Myanmar. Human Rights Watch questions the extent to which UNHCR will be able to prevent forced returns should they be attempted, given its inability to prevent the Bangladeshi government from relocating – including involuntary transfers – Rohingya to facilities on the remote island of Bhasan Char, where they lack freedom of movement and sustainable livelihoods or education. The principle of nonrefoulement, the right of refugees not to be returned to a country where their lives or freedom would be threatened, is the cornerstone of international refugee protection, enshrined in article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Although Bangladesh is not a party to the UN Refugee Convention, it is bound to uphold the principle of nonrefoulement as a matter of customary international law. Returning Rohingya to Myanmar would put them at grave risk of arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill-treatment, and possible death. An estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement or access to adequate food, health care, education, and livelihoods. Approximately 130,000 internally displaced Rohingya have been arbitrarily held since 2012 in open-air detention camps. A 2020 report by Human Rights Watch found that that the repression imposed on the Rohingya amounts to the crimes against humanity of persecution, apartheid, and severe deprivation of liberty. The UN-backed Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar warned in 2019 that the Rohingya remaining in Myanmar faced a greater-than-ever threat of genocide in the face of ongoing marginalization and brutality by the authorities. The 21 Rohingya who told Human Rights Watch that their names had been on repatriation eligibility assessment lists and been verified for return fled their huts and went into hiding into other camps because they were afraid of being forcibly returned. One said his family fled because Bangladeshi security forces threatened that if they did not return to Myanmar, “then they would bulldoze our hut inside the camp.” Another Rohingya man said Bangladeshi authorities had told him he must return to Myanmar or he would be forced to, though he was not ultimately forced to do so. One aid worker who witnessed families fleeing their huts said that in November 2018, when authorities tried to get the first group of Rohingya that had been verified for return to leave, she saw camp leaders trying, and ultimately failing, to forcibly round them up and put them on buses. Denial of Citizenship and Potential Statelessness The Rohingya are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group who have lived for generations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. They are not listed among the 135 national ethnic groups Myanmar recognizes and are effectively denied citizenship under the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law. Without citizenship, they are for practical purposes stateless, facilitating long-term and severe Myanmar government human rights violations, including deportation, arbitrary confinement, and persecution. Myanmar authorities have issued documents under successive “citizenship verification” systems, including “white cards,” or temporary registration cards, which were nullified in 2015. The end of the “white cards” was followed by the current National Verification Card (NVC) process, which has been marked by coercion and deceit. Rohingya are also registered on documents under repressive travel authorization and administrative procedures, such as household lists, Form 4s, and “Village Departure Certificates.” At the time of their registration in Bangladesh, many Rohingya were concerned that their data would be integrated into the Myanmar NVC system, which they believe would undermine their claims to citizenship. A 2019 repatriation assessment conducted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with support from the Myanmar government stated that all returning refugees will be registered for NVCs upon arriving at Rakhine State “reception centers.” Arbitrary Detention In line with its repatriation agreements with Bangladesh, the Myanmar government has built “reception centers” and “transit camps” in northern Rakhine State to process and house returnees. They are surrounded by high barbed-wire fencing and security outposts, similar to the central Rakhine State detention camps. Such camps, constructed on land from which the Rohingya had fled, including villages that were burned and bulldozed in their wake, would invariably limit basic rights, segregate returnees from the rest of the population, restrict freedom of movement, and exacerbate persecution. The ASEAN repatriation assessment outlines “strict security measures,” including the extensive presence of armed border guard police at the camps that raise grave rights concerns. One Rohingya man told Human Rights Watch that his name had appeared on a Myanmar government list of suspected members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the ethnic Rohingya armed group. He said that around August 2019, he found out from a Bangladesh government-appointed representative in the camp that his name had been included on one of the repatriation eligibility assessment lists and he was verified for return. “I am worried that the Myanmar authorities added my name to the list as a trap, so they can bring me back to Myanmar and then arrest me for membership in ARSA,” he said. Recommendations Human Rights Watch appreciates the vital role that UNHCR plays in ensuring that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are issued identity documents and have access to basic services. Human Rights Watch also recognizes that Bangladesh authorities require some personal data to issue these documents. It is less clear, however, to what extent facial images, fingerprints, and other biometric data are necessary and proportionate to serve this purpose. As UNHCR guidelines recognize, there are significant risks that this information could be shared with refugees’ countries of origin and the personal information collected should only be shared with the country of origin after an individual confirms that they want to voluntarily return home. In its April 14 letter to UNHCR, Human Rights Watch included detailed recommendations for the agency to consider. These included investigating the manner in which data collection proceeded in Bangladesh in 2018. More broadly, Human Rights Watch recommends the following to UNHCR: Do not combine collecting data on individuals to provide services or identification documents with collecting data for repatriation eligibility assessment or repatriation. Data collection for repatriation purposes should remain a separate exercise, ideally with a strict firewall in the databases maintained; Instruct field officers to engage in detailed consent discussions with every person being considered for eligibility for repatriation, and for repatriation, which should include ensuring that refugees understand any risks of having their data shared and that they have the ability to opt-out without prejudice; Only share data or allow data that it collects to be shared by host countries with countries of origin, when individuals have given free and informed consent; Ensure that people who agree to have their data shared for repatriation purposes are able to later withdraw that consent, and are informed how to do so in a clear manner at the time they give initial consent; Impose restrictions and safeguards that limit the authorities who can access and share data within the government and prohibit access to this data by third governments and other parties; Carry out mandatory data assessments and, to ensure independence, use teams supervised by an independent body to conduct data impact assessments before engaging in new programming that requires sensitive data collection. Assessments of this risk should include an examination of the historical context of the communities and countries involved; and Ensure that all data collection, including biometric data, meets the requirements of necessity and proportionality. Human Rights Watch also recommends that donor governments play a greater role in ensuring rights-based data practices. This includes requiring agencies and organizations that collect sensitive data to use independently supervised entities for data protection impact assessments for new projects before data collection begins, and to conduct annual data protection audits..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh’s Unplanned Relocation of Rohingya Refugees to Bhasan Char Island is Risky
Sub-title: But the International Community Should Do Much More to Ensure that the Refugees Can Safely Return to Myanmar
Description: "In late May, thousands of Rohingya refugees whom Bangladesh authorities had relocated to remote Bhasan Char island broke out of their shelters during a visit by United Nations representatives. “We don’t want to live here,” they chanted. The protests indicate the extent of the problems on the silt island in the Bay of Bengal, where nearly 20,000 Rohingya, including over 8,000 children, have been moved in recent months from the refugee settlement in Cox’s Bazar. In research by Human Rights Watch for a new report, refugees described being lured to the island with false promises of adequate food and livelihood, monthly cash assistance and access to proper health care and schools. A recent cyclone that missed the island still caused strong winds and some flooding there, leading refugees to fear for their safety in the face of the upcoming monsoon season. Many concerns On May 31, the refugees protested during a meeting with a visiting high-level delegation from United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the UN refugee agency, to share their concerns about conditions on the island. Bangladeshi security forces had warned them to stay inside, but if asked, to only praise the arrangements on the island. They had complied with such orders during previous visits by foreign officials, but this time many of the refugees grew desperate and surged forward, only to be beaten back by the police. “The Rohingya who are there became unruly the moment the UNHCR representatives landed [on the island] by helicopter today,” the local police chief, Alamgir Hossain, told AFP. “They came at the police...Their demand is they don’t want to live here.” UNHCR issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” that refugees, including women and children, were injured. The government blamed international media and civil society organizations for opposing Bhasan Char relocations to “undermine the magnanimous humanitarian gestures and the sincere efforts of Bangladesh”. After the delegation had left, Bangladeshi officials threatened the refugees. “You all are finished,” one refugee says an official told him. How did it come to this? The Bangladesh government deserves praise for opening its borders in August 2017 to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who were fleeing the Myanmar military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing, including crimes against humanity and acts of genocide. Bangladeshis responded with an outpouring of sympathy. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina committed to help, saying that if the country could afford to feed its 160 million people, it could provide for the additional refugees as well. “If necessary, we will eat one meal a day and share another meal with these distressed people,” she said. Now, after more than three years, and with nearly a million refugees crowded into the settlement in Cox’s Bazaar, that warm welcome is fast fading. Myanmar has shown no signs that it will create conditions for the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of the refugees. Its failure to take any meaningful actions to address recent atrocities against the Rohingya or put an end to the decades-long discrimination and repression against the remaining population in the country, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, is at the root of delays and failures in refugee repatriation. Instead, since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, the country is fully controlled by the same generals who led the campaign of mass atrocities against the Rohingya in 2017, making the prospect of a safe and dignified return ever more distant. Since the coup, the junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has said that Myanmar will not repatriate people whom they do not consider its citizens. Heavy-handed tactics This is increasingly vexing the Bangladesh host community. In what appears to be an effort to show that the Rohingya refugees are temporary residents, the authorities have denied Rohingya the right to build permanent housing, restricted their movement by erecting barbed-wire fencing, and denied their children any access to formal education. The Bangladesh government, resorting to heavy-handed tactics, has not stopped its security forces from committing serious abuses, including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings, against any Rohingya suspected of crimes. Access to the internet and telecommunications was blocked for nearly a year after the refugees had staged large demonstrations in the camps to demand their right to return to Myanmar. The Bangladesh government is frustrated by having been left to shoulder the refugee burden alone. Malaysia, Thailand, and India have all attempted to push refugees that turn up at their coasts or borders back to Bangladesh. “Has Bangladesh been given the global contract and responsibility to take and rehabilitate all the Rohingya or boat people of the world?” said Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen last February. “No, not at all.” In May 2020, after Bangladesh authorities rescued about 600 Rohingya refugees who had been stranded at sea, they detained over 300 of them on Bhasan Char instead of reuniting them with their families in the refugee camps. The government has ignored refugee pleas to return to the mainland, and stalled UN officials who sought visits to assess their protection needs. Bangladesh says it has invested up to $300 million to develop infrastructure on the island. But the government broke its promise to first accept an independent assessment of technical and protection needs on Bhasan Char, and to act on the report’s recommendations, before starting any voluntary relocation. Instead, since December the government has brought thousands of Rohingya refuges from the camps to Bhasan Char. Bangladeshi officials told Human Rights Watch in December 2020 that the relocations were voluntary, and claimed that “the 13,000-acre island has year-round fresh water, an uninterrupted supply of electricity, agricultural plots, cyclone shelters, two hospitals, four community clinics, mosques, warehouses, telecommunication services, a police station, recreation and learning centers, playgrounds and more”. The refugees, who generally agreed that the shelters and open areas on Bhasan Char were better than in the mainland camps, said though that there were only informal classes for young children instead of proper schools, and that the healthcare services were inadequate. Of the 14 people we interviewed about their health needs, four had passed away by the time we published our report. Family members said they died because of a lack of proper medical care. One man said his wife died in childbirth because he could not get permission in time to transfer her to a hospital on the mainland, which is three hours away by boat followed by a two-hour drive. The refugees also described food shortages. Without proper livelihood opportunities, they said they did not have the money to supplement their rations or afford fish, which is their staple. Whether the move to Bhasan Char was voluntary is also in question. Several refugees said that they had no idea how they had ended up on the lists to be relocated or that the authorities had made false promises as they compelled the refugees to relocate. Scores have started fleeing Bhasan Char. Those caught escaping have been detained and beaten by security forces. The Bangladesh authorities know there are shortcomings on Bhasan Char and it is not quite the “beautiful resort”, they once claimed. But instead of waiting to conduct proper consultations to assess the island’s emergency preparedness, habitability, and safety, the government sought to present the United Nations and international donors with a cruel fait accompli, putting pressure on them to start supporting the refugees on the island or take responsibility for the consequences. What is more, the authorities are still stalling on policy and technical dialogue with agencies and donors about humanitarian operations. The government says that any “undue criticism” of its temporary arrangements for the Rohingya refugees “will only shift the focus from the permanent solution, which lies in repatriation and reintegration of Rohingyas in Myanmar”. While there is no doubt that the international community should do much more to ensure that the Rohingya can safely return to Myanmar with justice and dignity, the Bangladesh government should also accept that it needs to protect the rights of the refugees in its care. Bhasan Char should first be thoroughly and professionally assessed and deemed safe – with proper emergency and logistical response preparations– for refugees, for humanitarian workers, as well as for the Bangladeshi officials and security personnel who support them. There needs to be a civilian governance structure. Relocations from mainland camps should be fully informed and voluntary. This means that the Bangladesh authorities should allow any refugee who wants to return to Cox’s Bazar to do so. With the monsoon fast approaching, the Bangladesh government should stop stalling, and once again focus on securing Rohingya refugee lives..."
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Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Human Rights Watch Letter to the Heads of States and Governments ahead of the G7 Summit
Description: "Last week, in a public letter, Human Rights Watch called on the leaders of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan to take concrete and decisive action facing the unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and global warming, as well as by worrying developments in China, Israel/Palestine, Belarus, Russia, and Myanmar, ahead of the G7 Summit on June 11-13. G7 members should use this Summit to collectively reaffirm and demonstrate their commitment to international human rights law and deliver on its promise to build back better. June 2, 2021 Dear G7 leaders, As the world undergoes profound changes, the forthcoming G7 Summit meeting to be held on 11-13 June should deliver on its promise to build back better. The respect and advancement of human rights are intrinsic to building back better, yet human rights are facing unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and global warming, as well as by worrying developments in China, Israel/Palestine, Belarus, Russia, and Myanmar. The G7 Summit should be an opportunity for the assembled Heads of State and Government to collectively reaffirm and demonstrate their commitment to international human rights law through concrete and decisive actions. In that regard, I am writing to draw your attention to recommendations made by Human Rights Watch that we urge the G7 to adopt at the Carbis Bay summit. Covid-19 The Covid-19 pandemic has precipitated human rights crises across the globe, with widespread and devastating social and economic consequences. While the scale and severity of the pandemic’s public health threat justified some restrictions on rights, many governments ignored public health guidance and even used the pandemic as a pretext to abusively strengthen their grip on power. Meanwhile, rich governments have made opaque deals and prebooked the vast majority of vaccine supplies, exacerbating inequalities and largely opposing measures that could ensure poorer countries’ quicker and more affordable access to vaccines. Human Rights Watch calls on G7 members to urgently change course and ensure a rights-respecting exit from this public health crisis by: Supporting India’s and South Africa’s proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily waive certain intellectual property rights under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While we applaud the US government's decision to support a waiver and Japan's announcement that it would no longer obstruct text-based negotiations at the WTO’s TRIPS Council, we deeply regret that negotiations on the proposal remain stalled because other G7 members are still undecided or in opposition. Human Rights Watch is among the hundreds of civil society organizations around the world urging support for the TRIPS waiver to expand access to lifesaving vaccines and other health products. The measure has received increasing support ever since its initial proposal in October, including by 175 Nobel laureates and former Heads of State and Government, and the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO); and Boosting manufacturing capacity in the developing world. While we welcome G7 leaders' attention to purchasing and distributing vaccine doses through the COVAX facility, which is worryingly underfunded, we urge the countries attending the G7 summit to go further by committing financial and logistical resources to develop a plan of action to scale up manufacturing and to use their regulatory powers and funding clout to enable technology transfers and sharing of data, know-how, and other intellectual property through open and non-exclusive licensing. Human Rights Watch also calls on G7 members to support all governments’ ability to provide urgent economic relief to people whose livelihoods have been devastated by the pandemic, including by: Exercising their outsize voting power on the boards of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and regional development banks to enable robust investment in public health systems and bottom-up economic relief. Members should use all avenues available to them to promote transparent and accountable use of pandemic-related funding. At the same time, they should oppose conditionalities that harm rights, such as imposing fiscal targets that force governments to cut spending on health, education, housing, and social protection; Increasing and directing development assistance to scale up social protection systems. Such assistance could help co-finance social protection floors during the time of crisis, and provide financial and technical support to put in place more permanent structures; and Supporting debt relief where it interferes with governments' ability to provide economic relief essential to people's rights or to procure Covid-19 vaccines or other health products. Climate Change Since 2016, the G7 governments have all committed to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, a commitment reiterated last week by the G7 Climate and Environment Ministers. To fulfill this commitment, Human Rights Watch encourages the G7 to: Deliver time-bound and transparent action plans this year detailing how G7 members will meet stated commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025; and Immediately commit to no new international public finance for coal, oil, or natural gas projects, and to deliver time-bound and transparent action plans this year detailing how they will eliminate existing support for fossil fuels from international public finance institutions by 2025, including indirect support such as through related infrastructure, advisory services, technical assistance, or financial intermediaries. China The Chinese government is deepening repression in mainland China as well as Hong Kong, and is seeking to muzzle critics abroad. It is arbitrarily detaining human rights defenders and lawyers, tightening control over civil society, media, and the internet, and deploying invasive mass surveillance technology. The government imposes particularly heavy-handed control in the ethnic minority regions of Xinjiang and is responsible for serious, widespread and systemic violations against Uyghurs and other Muslims that amount to crimes against humanity. In this regard, Human Rights Watch urges the G7 to: Call on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to proceed with an investigation into grave abuses in Xinjiang, -even absent access to China, noting Beijing’s intransigence with regard to access and cooperation; Pursue G7-wide coordinated targeted sanctions against officials responsible for abuses. An obvious target should be Chen Quanguo, the Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (only the US has sanctioned these two; other recent sanctions have focused on lower-level officials); Insist that those responsible for crimes against humanity in Xinjiang should be held accountable and face justice; and Support and commit to work for the establishment of a standing mandate at the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on human rights violations across China. Israel-Palestine Israel maintains entrenched discriminatory systems that methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. To maintain Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land, Israeli authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, the deprivations perpetrated by the Israeli government against the Palestinian population are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. Considering these crimes, Human Rights Watch calls on the G7 to: Urge the Israeli government to ensure without delay to Palestinians in the occupied territory protection of the civil rights that they are entitled to, using as a guide the protections it ensures for its own citizens; and to assess Israel’s conduct on this basis; Issue statements expressing concern about the Israeli government’s practice of apartheid and persecution; Vet agreements, cooperation schemes, and all forms of trade and dealing with Israel to screen for those directly contributing to the commission of the crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians, mitigate the human rights impacts, and, where not possible, end the activities and funding found to facilitate these crimes; Support the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in its ongoing investigation into crimes committed in Palestine, including into individuals credibly implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution; and Urge Israel to reverse its policy of denying access to the Gaza Strip to human rights organizations seeking to investigate violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Russia Repression in Russia is the most severe than it has ever been in the post-Soviet era and targets political opposition, critical media, peaceful protesters, independent groups, foreign organizations, and internet traffic. Russia is also responsible for assassinations and assassination attempts of Russians abroad. Human Rights Watch, therefore, urges the G7 to: Jointly and publicly condemn the unprecedented crackdown on human rights defenders and civil society and restrictions on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression; Jointly call on Russia to repeal the “foreign agents” legislation and the law on “undesirable” organizations, to amend the vague and overly broad extremism legislation, to end politically motivated prosecutions, and to stop all forms of persecution and harassment of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and other civil society activists; and Urge Russia to release Alexey Navalny, drop abusive charges against him, drop the extremism court case against his organization, ensure effective investigation of the credible allegations that Federal Security Service officers poisoned him with Novichok nerve agent in 2020, and stop harassing, intimidating, detaining, and persecuting his supporters and other peaceful civic activists. Belarus In Belarus, the political opposition, democracy activists, lawyers, human rights groups, and independent media face severe abuses, including arbitrary arrests, bogus charges and trials, enforced disappearances, torture, and dismissals by the authorities. A shocking illustration of this repression occurred on May 23, when the government forced a civilian plane traveling between two EU member state capitals to land in Minsk and arbitrarily arrested prominent activist and journalist Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, Sofya Sapega. In the face of such acts, Human Rights Watch calls on the G7 to: Continue to jointly and consistently condemn the widespread, brutal crackdown on rights and peaceful protesters in Belarus, the politically motivated arrests of key opposition figures, and efforts to intimidate and silence dissenters, workers, students, journalists, human rights activists, and others peacefully exercising their rights to free expression and assembly; Condemn in the strongest terms the actions that led to the arbitrary arrest and detention of Pratasevich and Sapega, and convey serious concerns that they are at grave risk of torture and face long prisons terms on spurious charges; Press the Belarusian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners held arbitrarily such as for political reasons, including all those arrested in relation to the protests against the August 2020 presidential elections, journalists, media workers, bloggers, and human rights defenders; Use all means possible, including further targeted sanctions against individuals and entities involved in the crackdown and continued impunity, to put pressure on the Belarusian authorities to put an end to gross and widespread human rights violations committed in the country since August 2020; Condemn the continued impunity for grave violations of international human rights law, including torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and killings by security forces, as well as the disproportionate and lethal use of weapons; and Insist that those responsible for serious violations of international law must face justice, and pledge G7 support for the UN Fact-finding mission established by the Human Rights Council, and for the Accountability Platform supported by a large group of states from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to gather, analyse, and preserve evidence of human rights violations in Belarus with a view to support justice for grave crimes. Myanmar In Myanmar, on top of the hundreds of killings and thousands of arrests since the 1 February coup, of increasing concern are attacks on the media, including the arrests of journalists who are citizens of G7 countries. The military has raided the offices of newspapers and online media and banned media outlets and satellite television. More than 70 journalists have been arrested since the coup, of whom at least 48 remain in detention. Meanwhile, the escalation of armed conflict in ethnic minority areas has forced almost 60,000 people to flee their homes. The country’s humanitarian situation is worsening across the board, with food and economic security plummeting. The United Nations Development Programme has warned that half of Myanmar’s population, about 25 million people, could be living below the national poverty line by early 2022. Despite the desperate situation, the people of Myanmar continue to protest and actively oppose the military. Civil society, protest leaders, and representatives of the democratically elected government are all continuing to call on the international community to impose economic sanctions on the companies that benefit the Myanmar military. They are calling on the G7 to act. Human Rights Watch consequently appeals to the G7 to: Adopt a tougher position on imposing economic sanctions and other economic measures to target the Myanmar military and its leaders. Sanctions imposed so far — on military leaders and companies, including MEC and MEHL and the gemstone and timber enterprises — are an important step forward. But governments now need to better target the massive foreign currency revenues that are bankrolling the military and giving it the capacity to purchase weapons and other items on the international market — transactions that are almost entirely conducted in currencies of G7 members. Every month, hundreds of millions of US dollars are paid to entities that are either already sanctioned by most G7 members or controlled by sanctioned entities. This flow of funds can and should be stopped. The G7 should announce new measures to target those revenues, focusing more on financial institutions that process payments that benefit sanctioned entities; Adopt a common position, or state unilaterally, that they support efforts to table a UN Security Council draft imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar; and Signal that they will pursue all possible avenues for international justice, which include support for investigative efforts by UN bodies, referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court, and, where applicable, investigation under domestic law under universal jurisdiction laws. It is essential that G7 governments demonstrate to the junta that its abuses — and unwillingness to engage meaningfully with the UN and outside actors about restoring democratic rule — is coming at a severe cost to its economic interests and standing on the international stage, and that engaging in atrocities with impunity will result in international efforts to hold its leadership criminally liable. Hoping for concrete and decisive action by the G7 at the Corbis Bay summit, I remain at your disposal should you require any further information. Yours sincerely, Kenneth Roth Executive Director Human Rights Watch..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UN General Assembly Action Needed on Myanmar
Sub-title: Resolution Should Be Adopted, Urging States to Halt Arms Transfers
Description: "The United Nations Security Council, entrusted by the UN Charter to be the world’s guardian of international peace and security, has done little to help the people of Myanmar besides issuing statements asking the junta to end the violence and release prisoners. But the UN General Assembly can help motivate the council take action to stem the rampant abuses. In the absence of robust Security Council action, the 193-nation General Assembly should adopt a resolution condemning the junta’s rights violations and calling on all UN members to halt arms transfers to Myanmar. While not legally binding on states, such a resolution would carry significant political weight. As the UN’s most representative body, it would send a powerful signal to the junta and press members of the Security Council to adopt a legally binding resolution – as recently urged by a group of 205 nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch. Governments should recognize that arms and materiel sold to Myanmar’s military will likely be used to commit abuses against the population. Arms embargoes can help prevent such crimes, a possibility recently highlighted by UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet who warned Myanmar could escalate into a “full-blown conflict” like in Syria. Last week, a scheduled vote on a draft resolution circulated by Liechtenstein calling “for an immediate suspension of the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer of all weapons and munitions” to Myanmar was postponed. A vote could come as early as this week, though a revised version by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) removes mention of suspending arms sales. The United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and other sponsor countries should work with Liechtenstein to ensure a vote is rescheduled as soon as possible, with the language on halting arms sales. They should not play the game of saying this is a regional issue and hiding behind ASEAN to avoid their own responsibilities; ASEAN is built on the principle of noninterference and will never deliver on Myanmar. Instead, they should lobby UN members to ensure a robust resolution receives support from the General Assembly. Concerned governments should then use the resolution to press the Security Council to act. Inaction by UN member states will only embolden Myanmar’s military and encourage more abuses. General Assembly action is needed now..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Global Civil Society Statement on Myanmar
Description: "We, the undersigned organizations, call on the United Nations Security Council to urgently impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar to help prevent further violations of human rights against peaceful protesters and others opposing military rule. In recent weeks, Myanmar security forces have killed hundreds of people, including dozens of children, merely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Since the February 1, 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military junta has responded with increasing brutality to nationwide protests calling for the restoration of democratic civilian rule. As of May 4, security forces have killed at least 769 people, including 51 children as young as 6, and arbitrarily detained several thousand activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. Hundreds have been forcibly disappeared, the authorities unwilling to provide information on their well-being or where they are being held. Over the past few months, the military has demonstrated a callous disregard for human life that has driven its strategy for decades. In video footage from cities and towns across the country, soldiers can be seen shooting down protesters, including children, brutally beating medical aid workers, and firing shotguns into crowds of peacefully protesting doctors. In addition to the latest violations of human rights, Myanmar’s security forces have a history of grave abuses against peaceful critics of the government and military, and war crimes and other international crimes against the Rohingya and other ethnic minority groups. Of particular note is the military's widely documented use of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon against ethnic communities. No government should sell a single bullet to the junta under these circumstances. Imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar is the minimum necessary step the Security Council should take in response to the military’s escalating violence. Arms and materiel provided to Myanmar’s security forces are likely to be used by the security forces to commit abuses in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. For this reason, the undersigned organizations urge the United Kingdom, the Security Council’s “penholder” on Myanmar, and other Security Council member states to begin negotiations on a resolution authorizing an arms embargo as soon as possible. This will demonstrate to the junta that there will be no more business as usual. Security Council members have increasingly spoken with one voice on Myanmar. The Council has called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and others arbitrarily detained, including civilian leaders. It has condemned the military’s crackdown on peaceful protesters and called for an end to the ongoing violence. But unity is not an end in itself. The Council should now build on that unity and negotiate a resolution that would include an arms embargo and other substantive measures. 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. We note with disappointment the failure of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) April 24, 2021 summit to take more robust action to protect Myanmar’s people. Less than a day after the summit’s conclusions were published, the military’s violence continued, which only highlights the need for UN member countries and the Security Council to take decisive action to pressure the junta to reverse course. The time for statements has passed. The Security Council should take its consensus on Myanmar to a new level and agree on immediate and substantive action. An arms embargo would be the centerpiece of a global effort to protect the people of Myanmar from further atrocities and help bring an end to impunity for crimes under international law. Myanmar’s people cannot afford to wait any longer for the Security Council to take action..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-05-05
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: ASEAN: Withdraw Invite to Myanmar Junta Leader
Sub-title: Southeast Asian Leaders Should Press for Return to Democratic Rule
Description: "The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should immediately withdraw its invitation to Myanmar’s junta leader, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to attend its upcoming summit, Human Rights Watch said today. ASEAN has scheduled an emergency meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 24, 2021, to discuss the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s inclusion of Min Aung Hlaing lends unwarranted legitimacy to the junta’s State Administrative Council over Myanmar’s democratically elected government, which the military overthrew in a coup on February 1. Before and since the coup, the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union have imposed financial and travel sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing for his involvement in grave human rights violations as military commander-in-chief. “Min Aung Hlaing, who faces international sanctions for his role in military atrocities and the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, should not be welcomed at an intergovernmental gathering to address a crisis he created,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “ASEAN members should instead take this opportunity to impose targeted, economic sanctions on junta leaders and on businesses that fund the junta, and press the junta to release political detainees, end abuses, and restore the country’s democratically elected government.” On November 8, 2020, Myanmar’s voters overwhelmingly elected members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, to the national parliament. The NLD secured 83 percent of the contested seats. Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, claimed that the election was marred by massive fraud but has produced no credible evidence to substantiate that charge. Both domestic and international election monitoring organizations found the elections credible and rejected the Tatmadaw’s unsubstantiated claims. Myanmar’s generals refused to accept the massive electoral defeat of the military-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and acted to deprive Myanmar’s people of their right to choose their government, a right enshrined in international law. Early on February 1, the day that the new parliament was to sit for the first time, the military arrested and detained President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, along with scores of other NLD ministers, members of parliament, and regional administrators. The state security forces have arbitrarily arrested numerous local NLD officials, at least two of whom have been tortured to death in detention. The authorities have also arrested commissioners of the national Union Election Commission and many of its state and regional offices. Malaysia and Indonesia have publicly expressed concern about the coup, and Singapore and the Philippines have urged the Myanmar security forces to exercise restraint. However, ASEAN as a group has done little more than call on “all parties” to refrain from violence and to seek a peaceful solution through “constructive dialogue.” This call ignores the reality that the violence has overwhelmingly been committed by state security forces against peaceful protesters, and the State Administrative Council has declared unlawful two bodies that would be likely parties to any dialogue. On March 21, the SAC declared the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group representing elected lawmakers, an “unlawful association.” On April 20, the SAC issued the same declaration for the recently formed National Unity Government, established by opponents to the coup. Ongoing nationwide protests organized by the national Civil Disobedience Movement have demonstrated widespread opposition to rule by the military, which has governed the country for most of the past 60 years. The junta’s response to the largely peaceful protests has been increasingly brutal. Since the coup, security forces have killed over 700 people, including at least 45 children as young as five, and detained an estimated 3,200 activists, journalists, civil servants, and politicians. Hundreds have been forcibly disappeared, which may amount to crimes against humanity. Over the past weeks, the military has demonstrated the callous disregard for human life that has driven its strategy for decades. In video footage from cities and towns across the country, soldiers can be seen shooting down children, brutally beating medical aid workers, and firing shotguns into crowds of peacefully protesting doctors. In the city of Bago on April 9, military and police used grenades against barricades erected by protesters, killing scores of people. The State Administrative Council has also ordered the shutdown of mobile data and public Wi-Fi connections, resulting in the shutdown of much of the country’s internet, and placed areas of the country under martial law. In these areas, protesters, other opponents of military rule, and journalists face trials in closed military courts under unfair trial procedures, with no right to appeal. Under the council order, those convicted by military courts may be sentenced to death or hard labor for unlimited periods of time. Since the declaration of martial law, military tribunals have sentenced at least 19 people to death. “ASEAN should be playing a constructive role in resolving Myanmar’s crisis, not providing a podium to the general most responsible for creating it,” Adams said. “ASEAN should make clear that it stands with Myanmar’s democratically elected government and will demand accountability from Min Aung Hlaing and other junta leaders responsible for the deaths of hundreds protesting for democracy.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Why Britain Should Champion UN Action on Myanmar
Topic: United Nations
Topic: United Nations
Description: "Update: Shortly after this was published, the UN Security Council issued its third statement on Myanmar. Myanmar police enforcing the military junta’s crackdown on protesters stopped an ambulance in March, dragged four paramedics out of the vehicle, and beat at least three of them bloody, then hauled them off to jail. The shocking attack on paramedics is just one example we have seen of the junta’s brutality as it struggles to crush protests against the military’s February 1 coup and subsequent jailing of the country’s democratically elected leaders. Everyday Myanmar security forces arbitrarily arrest, beat, and kill more protesters and political opponents; and violence by the authorities is on the rise. On March 27 alone, security forces killed at least 114 people, among them children. What has the United Nations Security Council done? As the UN’s most powerful body, it has the authority to sanction Myanmar’s military leaders and impose a global arms embargo on the country. Instead, it has issued two statements calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to the violence. Council diplomats emphasise that the 15-nation body has spoken twice “with one voice.” But these baby steps do little more than highlight the failure of the Security Council to even try to do anything that would have a meaningful impact on the generals. If post-Brexit Britain wants to demonstrate global leadership at the UN, it should start by pushing the rest of the Security Council towards substantive action on Myanmar. The United Kingdom is the Security Council’s “penholder” on Myanmar, which means it takes the lead on any council statements or resolutions. Britain, the United States, France and most other council members have shown that they stand with the people of Myanmar, not with the military. The best way to do that is to urgently draft and negotiate a strong resolution that would target the military’s leadership and its funding. Of course, as permanent members of the Security Council, China or Russia – or both – might veto such a resolution. But that’s no reason not to try. Even the ever-diplomatic UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres declared that governments around the world need to “put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails.” Beijing hasn’t explicitly threatened to use its veto, though the expectation among council members that it wouldn’t hesitate to do so looms over all Myanmar negotiations. It’s the explanation diplomats typically offered for the council’s pathetic response to the Myanmar military’s 2017 campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslims, which drove 750,000 survivors to Bangladesh. The military’s threat to the Rohingya remaining in the country is so serious that the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to take all necessary measures to protect the Rohingya from genocide. The council’s inaction stands in sharp contrast to national responses. Britain, the US, and the European Union have all taken important, though insufficient, unilateral steps to impose sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders and military enterprises. Yet they have avoided pushing such steps at the Security Council. Britain did try including language calling for “further measures” against Myanmar’s military in a recent Security Council presidential statement, but it dropped that and other language after China, Russia, India and Vietnam objected. The strategy by Britain, the US and other council members has been to prioritise speaking “with one voice” in the form of anodyne statements instead of pushing for a resolution that includes substantive measures and might elicit abstentions and “no” votes. Unity is great when achievable, but it shouldn’t be an end in itself. A Security Council resolution needs nine votes and no vetoes from the five permanent members to pass. Resolutions often pass without consensus, such as two recent ones by Britain on Somalia and Libya. A Myanmar sanctions resolution doesn’t need to be an exception. If China decides to stand with Myanmar’s military instead of with the people whose democratically elected government was overthrown, then they risk paying an enduring price in Myanmar and around the world. So far, Beijing has demonstrated a willingness to condemn Myanmar’s long-reviled military. The Chinese government’s willingness to join to council statements demonstrates that it is also unhappy with the coup. Could Beijing allow UN sanctions to pass with a mere abstention? The only way to identify China’s limits is to circulate a draft resolution calling for targeted sanctions on junta leaders and an arms embargo; and start negotiating..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-04-06
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Urgently Investigate NLD Official’s Death in Custody
Sub-title: Immediately Produce Another NLD Official’s Forcibly Disappeared Father
Description: "Myanmar’s junta should promptly and impartially investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the torture and death in custody of a National League for Democracy (NLD) official, Human Rights Watch said today. The junta should also urgently produce U Peter, the forcibly disappeared father of an NLD elected official and all others “disappeared” since the February 1, 2021, coup. On the evening of March 6, 2021, witnesses saw soldiers and police arrive at the home of Khin Maung Latt, 58, a ward chairman in Pabedan township in downtown Yangon. After forcibly entering his home, the security forces beat and kicked Khin Maung Latt in front of his family, then took him away at gunpoint. The next morning, Khin Maung Latt’s family recovered his body from a hospital after notification by the authorities. The body had severe wounds to the hands and back and was covered in a bloody shroud, a witness said. “Myanmar’s junta runs the security forces and can quickly find out who killed Khin Maung Latt if they want to,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “If they want to show they believe in the rule of law, all those responsible should be held to account. Sadly, Myanmar’s security forces seem intent on using nighttime raids and brutal mistreatment to create fear and break popular resistance to military rule.” A witness told Human Rights Watch that at 9:15 p.m., four military trucks arrived and stationed themselves on Anawrahta Road between 29th and 30th streets. Soldiers identified as being from the 77th Light Infantry Division lined up on 30th Street, where Khin Maung Latt lived, while others stood on 29th Street. Between 9:15 p.m. and 10.30 p.m., 15 gunshots were heard, the witness said. All the military trucks left at 11 p.m. The authorities informed Khin Maung Latt’s family around 7:30 a.m. on March 7 that they should retrieve his body from the Mingladon military hospital. A member of the Muslim community who helped prepare Khin Maung Latt’s body for a Muslim burial said there were deep wounds on his back and hands consistent with torture..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-03-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: End Lethal Force Against Protesters
Sub-title: UN Security Council Should Impose Targeted Sanctions, Arms Embargo
Description: "Myanmar’s military junta should order its security forces to end the use of excessive and lethal force against largely peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 3, 2021, security forces fired live rounds at protesters, killing at least 38 and wounding more than 100 at demonstrations across the country, the United Nations reported. One of the deadliest incidents took place in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, where security forces opened fire on largely peaceful protesters. Security forces fired on some protesters as they attempted to rescue an injured man. Earlier in the day, police detained and brutally beat medical workers. Human Rights Watch reviewed an incident in which a man in custody appears to be shot in the back. “Myanmar’s security forces now seem intent on breaking the back of the anti-coup movement through wanton violence and sheer brutality,” said Richard Weir, crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The use of lethal force against protesters rescuing others demonstrates how little the security forces fear being held to account for their actions.” At a March 3 briefing, the United Nations special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, reported that 38 people had been killed during the day’s violence, bringing the tally of those killed since the protests began a month ago to more than 50. At least four of those killed were children, according to Save the Children. Through the analysis of 12 videos and 15 photographs, Human Rights Watch documented three incidents in which security forces apparently used live fire against protesters along the Thudhamma Road in Yangon on March 3. In a Facebook live video posted on March 3, Human Rights Watch identified a line of at least five military vehicles positioned on the overpass road that merges into the Airport Road near Okkala Thiri Park on Thudhamma Road. The video shows hundreds of protesters shielding and taking shelter from ongoing gunfire coming from the direction of the overpass..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-03-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Japan: Take Action Against Myanmar Coup
Sub-title: Join Targeted Economic Sanctions, Global Arms Embargo; Review Aid
Description: "The Japanese government should take urgent action to pressure the leaders of the military coup in Myanmar to restore the democratically elected government and respect human rights, Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, Japan International Volunteer Center, Justice For Myanmar, and Japan NGO Action Network for Civic Space said today. In a letter to Japan Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on February 25, 2021, the organizations urged the Japanese government to take joint action with other countries, including imposing targeted economic sanctions against the Myanmar military and companies that it controls, supporting a global arms embargo, and triggering human rights-based conditionals enshrined in Japan’s Official Development Assistance programs and charter. “As a major and influential donor, the Japanese government has a responsibility to take action to promote human rights in Myanmar,” said Teppei Kasai, Asia program officer. “It should urgently review and suspend any public aid that could benefit the Myanmar military.” The organizations also said in their letter that Japan should join other concerned governments in imposing targeted economic sanctions against the military-affiliated companies, including Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), while assisting Japanese companies with direct or indirect ties to the military to terminate their business relationships responsibly..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-02-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: UN Security Council: Impose Arms Embargo on Myanmar
Sub-title: Weapons Transfers Fuel Junta, Abuses
Description: "The United Nations Security Council should urgently impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the military coup and to deter the junta from committing further abuses, 137 nongovernmental groups from 31 countries said today in an open letter to council members. Governments that permit arms transfers to Myanmar – including China, India, Israel, North Korea, the Philippines, Russia, and Ukraine – should immediately stop the supply of any weapons, munitions, and related equipment. Since the February 1, 2021 coup, the Myanmar military has detained civilian leaders, nullified the November 2020 election results, and installed a junta, the State Administration Council, under a manufactured “state of emergency.” In the ensuing weeks, Myanmar security forces have used excessive and at times lethal force against demonstrators; arbitrarily detained activists, students, and civil servants; and imposed rolling internet shutdowns that put lives at risk. “Given the mass atrocities against the Rohingya, decades of war crimes, and the overthrow of the elected government, the least the UN Security Council can do is impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Supplying any equipment to the military enables further abuses and bolsters the junta’s ability to repress Myanmar’s people.” The groups’ call reinforces UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s vow to “do everything we can to mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails.” The UN special rapporteur on Myanmar has called for a global arms embargo, while he and the deputy high commissioner for human rights have voiced support for targeted UN sanctions. Security Council members should draft a resolution that bars the direct and indirect supply, sale, or transfer to the junta of all weapons, munitions, and other military-related equipment, including dual-use goods such as vehicles and communications and surveillance equipment, as well as barring the provision of training, intelligence, and other military assistance, the groups said. This should be accompanied by a robust monitoring and enforcement mechanism, including close scrutiny of sales to third parties that may be likely to resell such items to Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-02-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Is Your Business Funding Myanmar Military Abuses?
Sub-title: Even Before Coup, Companies Should Have Cut Ties to Armed Forces
Description: "The military coup in Myanmar this week should sound alarm bells in corporate boardrooms around the world. Since Myanmar’s transition from decades of military dictatorship to a civilian government began in 2011, transnational businesses have cautiously reentered the country. But the coup highlights the question company directors should already have been asking: “Is our company directly or indirectly funding the Myanmar military?” The human rights, reputational, and legal risks of continuing to do business with Myanmar’s military are immense. The Tatmadaw, as it is known, has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya Muslims, and war crimes against other ethnic minorities. And now it has overthrown a civilian government that won a massive re- election, with over 80 percent of the vote, in November 2020. Companies doing business in Myanmar have long had access to credible information about the military’s grave abuses and corruption. A 2019 United Nations report found that companies with commercial ties to the Myanmar’s military and its conglomerates, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), “are contributing to supporting the Tatmadaw’s financial capacity.” The report said these companies are at “high risk of contributing to or being linked to, violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.” The UN team’s recommendation was clear: companies operating or investing in Myanmar should not do business with “the security forces of Myanmar, in particular the Tatmadaw, or any enterprise owned or controlled by them, including subsidiaries, or their individual members.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Serious Rights Abuses Persist
Sub-title: No Justice for Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity, Apartheid
Description: "The Myanmar government has repeatedly violated basic civil and political rights, and failed to hold the country’s security forces accountable for atrocities against ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2021. The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party overwhelmingly won the November 8, 2020, election, which was marred by serious problems. Prior to the vote the government prosecuted its critics, censored opposition party messages, and did not provide equal access to state media. Systemic problems include the continued ethnic Rohingya disenfranchisement, the 25 percent of assembly seats reserved for the military, and the lack of an independent and transparent Union Election Commission. The commission cancelled voting in 57 primarily ethnic minority townships for security reasons, but provided little or no consultation or explanation to affected political parties and candidates. “Aung San Suu Kyi and the ruling National League for Democracy have turned their backs on human rights concerns since taking power, betraying promises to Myanmar’s people to revoke repressive laws and break with abusive past practices,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “By winning a significant parliamentary majority, the NLD has an opportunity to introduce rights-respecting reforms that would protect everyone.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Kirin Should Sever Military Firm Ties
Topic: Business
Sub-title: Japanese Beverage Giant Should Release Investigation Report
Topic: Business
Description: "Japan-based Kirin Holdings Company, Ltd. should publish its investigation report on the military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (MEHL) and swiftly cut ties with the company, Human Rights Watch said today. Kirin announced the conclusion of an investigation by Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC on January 7, 2021, but declined to publish the report for confidentiality reasons. “Kirin should regain some trust of consumers, investors, and rights groups by releasing the details of its investigation into the operations of its Myanmar military business partner,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Kirin’s business association with MEHL raises serious human rights concerns that need urgent action, not further obfuscation behind an investigation whose results are kept secret.” In its January 7 statement, Kirin said the investigation by Deloitte was “inconclusive as a result of Deloitte being unable to access sufficient information required to make a definitive determination.” Kirin said the investigation aimed to determine the “destination of proceeds received by” MEHL from Myanmar Brewery Ltd. (MBL) and Mandalay Brewery Ltd. (MDL), and that it would provide a “further update” on its business activities in Myanmar by the end of April. Kirin owns a majority stake in Myanmar Brewery Ltd. and Mandalay Brewery Ltd. in partnership with the military-owned-and-operated MEHL. In 2015, Kirin bought 55 percent of Myanmar Brewery Ltd., 4 percent of which it later transferred to the military-owned firm. In 2017, Kirin acquired 51 percent of Mandalay Brewery Ltd. in a separate joint venture with the firm. Myanmar’s armed forces, the Tatmadaw, have been responsible over many years for numerous grave violations of human rights and war crimes against the country’s ethnic minority populations. These abuses culminated in the August 2017 campaign of ethnic cleansing against the ethnic Rohingya population in Rakhine State, including killings, sexual violence, and forced removal. Human Rights Watch found that Myanmar’s security forces committed crimes against humanity and genocidal acts in those 2017 operations against the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2021-01-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Human Rights Watch Statement: Impacts of Covid-19 on Internally Displaced People in Myanmar
Topic: Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas , Landmines , Internally Displaced People
Sub-title: Statement of Manny Maung, Myanmar Researcher, Human Rights Watch Subcommittee on International Human Rights Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development
Topic: Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas , Landmines , Internally Displaced People
Description: "Study of the Impacts of Covid-19 on Internally Displaced People in Myanmar Thank you to the Chairperson and Honorable Members of Parliament for inviting me to appear before this Committee to discuss the impacts of Covid-19 on internally displaced people in Myanmar. My name is Manny Maung and I am the Myanmar Researcher for Human Rights Watch. Decades of conflict have resulted in over 360,000 internally displaced peoples across the country. They are mainly members of ethnic minority communities spread across northern Myanmar, in Kachin and Shan States; in western Rakhine State; and in the southeast near the Myanmar-Thai border. Renewed conflict has created fresh displacements in 2020 in both Rakhine and Shan States. Humanitarian agencies reported that the government did not take measures to ensure that they could deliver emergency aid under the government-imposed travel restrictions to protect against the spread of Covid-19. In October, Human Rights Watch released a report, “An Open Prison without End,” on Myanmar’s detention of 130,000 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State since 2012.[1] Human Rights Watch found that the squalid and oppressive conditions imposed on the interned Rohingya and Kaman Muslims amount to the crimes against humanity of persecution, apartheid, and severe deprivation of liberty. Starting in August 2017, a military campaign of killings, sexual violence, arson, and forced eviction of Rohingya in northern Rakhine State forced more than 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch determined the Myanmar security forces committed ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: End World’s Longest Internet Shutdown
Sub-title: Lift Restrictions in Embattled Rakhine, Chin States
Description: "The Myanmar government should immediately lift all internet restrictions in eight townships in Rakhine and Chin States, Human Rights Watch said today. The mobile internet shutdown, which began on June 21, 2019, is affecting more than a million people living in a conflict zone. The internet shutdown, along with restrictions on access by aid agencies, has meant that people in some villages are unaware of the Covid-19 outbreak, humanitarian workers told Human Rights Watch. Local groups report that the shutdown has made it difficult to coordinate the distribution of aid to conflict-affected communities, and to communicate with their field teams to ensure staff safety. A local editor said the shutdown greatly impedes media coverage of the fighting between the Myanmar military and the ethnic Arakan Army, making it hard for villagers to get up-to-date information. “Myanmar should immediately end what is now the world’s longest government-enforced internet shutdown,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. “With armed conflict between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army in Rakhine State amid a pandemic, it’s critical for civilians to get the information needed to stay safe.” The government first imposed restrictions on mobile internet communications in the townships of Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon, Ponnagyun, and Rathedaung in Rakhine State and Paletwa township in Chin State. The government temporarily lifted restrictions in five townships from September 2019 until February 2020, when they were reinstated. On May 2, the authorities lifted the restrictions in Maungdaw..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Kirin Should Cut Ties to Military
Sub-title: Japan Beverage Giant Pledges to Address Human Rights Concerns
Description: " Japan-based Kirin Holdings Company, Ltd. should end its partnership with Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (MEHL) because of its connections to Myanmar’s abusive armed forces, Human Rights Now, Human Rights Watch, Japan Volunteer International Center, and Shapla Neer said today. The organizations wrote to Kirin on May 22, 2020, urging the global beverage company to terminate its partnership with the military conglomerate, and the company responded on June 12. “Kirin is putting money right into the pockets of Myanmar’s military, which is responsible for countless atrocities against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “Kirin should repair its damaged reputation by disentangling itself from the Myanmar military’s business conglomerate and its abusive armed forces.” Kirin currently owns a majority stake in Myanmar Brewery Ltd. (MBL) and Mandalay Brewery (MDL) in partnership with the military-owned MEHL. In 2015, Kirin bought 55 percent of Myanmar Brewery Ltd, 4 percent of which it later transferred to the military-owned firm. In 2017, Kirin acquired 51 percent of Mandalay Brewery in a separate joint venture with the firm. Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, have long been responsible for grave violations of human rights and the laws of war against the country’s ethnic minority populations. These abuses culminated in the August 2017 campaign of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, including killings, sexual violence, and forced removal, against the ethnic Rohingya population in Rakhine State..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-06-18
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Displacement Camps Are COVID-19 Tinderboxes
Sub-title: Lift Restrictions on Movement, Health Care, Internet, Aid
Description: " The Myanmar government should take urgent steps to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission among the estimated 350,000 people displaced by conflict and violence across the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Overcrowding, a mobile internet shutdown, blocks on humanitarian aid, and movement restrictions have left displaced communities in Rakhine, Kachin, Shan, Chin, and Karen States especially vulnerable to a virus outbreak. While concerns have been raised about Myanmar’s capacity to manage the coronavirus given its poor healthcare infrastructure, the country’s displaced populations face even greater risks. Most are trapped in dangerously overcrowded camps with severely substandard health care and inadequate access to clean water, sanitation, and other essential services. Many displaced people have underlying medical conditions and chronic diseases, putting them at high risk of suffering serious effects from the virus. State media announced the government was drafting a COVID-19 response plan for internally displaced persons (IDPs), but humanitarian workers told Human Rights Watch they had not been consulted on the draft or given guidance about responding to a potential spread. “Years of conflict, neglect, and abusive policies by Myanmar’s government and military have left hundreds of thousands of displaced people sitting in the path of a public health catastrophe,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The authorities need to ensure these groups have access to information, humanitarian aid, and health services, including prompt testing and isolation for those who show symptoms.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-03-30
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Hundreds Jailed for Covid-19 Violations
Sub-title: Prison Time for Breaking Curfew, Quarantine Is Excessive and Unsafe
Description: "At least 500 people, including children, returning migrant workers, and religious minorities, have been sentenced to between one month and one year in prison in Myanmar since late March 2020 for violating curfews, quarantines, or other movement control orders, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar authorities should stop jailing people for Covid-19-related infractions. Most have been sentenced under the National Disaster Management Law, Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases Law, and various penal code provisions. Authorities have charged hundreds more in cases that are ongoing or resulted in fines. Imprisoning people for violating curfews, quarantine, and physical distancing directives is almost always disproportionate as well as counterproductive for reducing threats to public health. “Limiting public health risks through social distancing is crucial, but jailing people for being outside at night just adds to everybody’s risk,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Throwing hundreds behind bars in crowded, unhygienic prisons defeats the purpose of containing the spread of Covid-19.” In March and April, national, state, and local authorities announced several directives and restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus. Measures include a mandatory 28-day quarantine for foreign arrivals, nighttime curfews, a ban on gatherings over five people, and several township-level lockdowns. On March 28, government media announced that “those breaking public health order can face jail time.… The Covid-19 pandemic is also a natural disaster, and those who do not comply with the law can face fines and even prison time.” Local authorities oversee enforcement and criminalization of violations, with wide variations across the country..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-05-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Imagery Shows 200 Buildings Burned
Topic: Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas Refugees and Migrants Crisis and Conflict Religious Freedom Refugee Rights Asylum Seekers Internally Displaced People
Sub-title: Independent Inquiry Needed in Embattled Rakhine State
Topic: Explosive Weapons in Civilian Areas Refugees and Migrants Crisis and Conflict Religious Freedom Refugee Rights Asylum Seekers Internally Displaced People
Description: "Satellite imagery shows that about 200 homes and other buildings were destroyed by fire on May 16, 2020, in Myanmar’s embattled Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. An impartial investigation is urgently needed to determine responsibility for this mass destruction of residential property in the predominantly ethnic Rakhine village of Let Kar, Mrauk-U township. Since January 2019, fighting between the Myanmar military and the ethnic Rakhine Arakan Army has resulted in numerous civilian casualties and destruction of civilian property. The imagery of Let Kar bears a close resemblance to patterns of fires and widespread arson attacks by the Myanmar military on ethnic Rohingya villages in Rakhine State in 2012, 2016, and 2017, Human Rights Watch said. “The burning of Let Kar village has all the hallmarks of Myanmar military arson on Rohingya villages in recent years,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “A credible and impartial investigation is urgently needed to find out what happened, punish those responsible, and provide compensation to villagers harmed.” Satellite imagery recorded on May 16, 2020 at 10:30 a.m. shows no signs of damage in Let Kar. But at 2:12 p.m., an environmental satellite detected extensive fires burning there. The Human Rights Watch damage analysis of 200 buildings burned is most likely an underestimate as internal damage to buildings is not visible..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-05-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh: Cyclone Endangers Rohingya on Silt Island
Sub-title: Refugees Allege Torture, Limited Health Care, Food on Bhasan Char Print
Description: "The Bangladesh government has kept over 300 Rohingya refugees confined on Bhasan Char, a remote silt island in the path of a “super cyclone” without adequate protections or safety measures, Human Rights Watch said today. Three people were reported killed in Bangladesh soon after the storm struck the coast. The authorities should take immediate steps to ensure safety and transfer the refugees, including nearly 40 children, to the camps in Cox’s Bazar as soon as possible. The United Nations refugee agency and other humanitarian organizations are there, prepared to provide them with critical services and reunite them with their families. “The Bangladesh government properly brought Rohingya refugees stranded at sea ashore, but holding them on a tiny island during a cyclone is dangerous and inhumane,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Our fear that Bhasan Char would become a ‘floating detention center’ has now turned into a fear of a submerged one.” Cyclone Amphan made landfall on the Bangladesh coast on the evening of May 20, 2020, though it shifted course slightly so Bhasan Char is no longer in its direct path. Bangladesh’s Land Ministry has previously reported that Bhasan Char could be submerged by a strong cyclone at high tide. About 300 Bangladesh security officials are also on the island..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-05-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Thailand: Let UN Refugee Agency Screen Rohingya
Sub-title: End Inhumane Indefinite Detention of Asylum Seekers
Description: "Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) unhindered access to Rohingya from Myanmar to determine whether they qualify for refugee status, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s inhumane policy of holding Rohingya arriving in Thailand in indefinite detention should be immediately repealed. The latest group of Rohingya arrived in Thailand by land, crossing from Myanmar into Mae Sot district of Tak province on May 20, 2020. Thai authorities arrested at least 12 Rohingya and sent them to the Mae Sot immigration detention facility. Approximately 200 Rohingya are being held in immigration detention and other facilities across Thailand. “The Thai government should scrap its policy of summarily locking up Rohingya and throwing away the key, condemning them to indefinite detention in cramped and unhygienic detention centers now susceptible to a Covid-19 outbreak,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Rohingya have been brutally persecuted in Myanmar. Thailand should permit the UN refugee agency to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status.” Refugee screening is crucial for protecting Rohingya asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said. The Myanmar government and military have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority group who have lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine State for generations. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, who have been effectively denied citizenship in Myanmar, have fled repression and dire poverty. Human trafficking gangs have abused and exploited many of those who eluded death during their dangerous journey..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-05-21
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Civilians Caught in Surge of Fighting
Sub-title: Internet Shutdown, Aid Blockage Worsens Humanitarian Crisis in Rakhine State
Description: "A surge in fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine State during February 2020 has killed and injured numerous civilians, adding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict-riven region, Human Rights Watch said today. The Myanmar military and the insurgent Arakan Army should safeguard civilians from the fighting, abide by the laws of war, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. On February 29, five civilians were killed and at least eight others were injured in clashes between Myanmar forces and the Arakan Army near Mrauk-U town, according to media reports. An ethnic Rakhine nongovernmental organization estimated that at least 18 civilians were killed and 71 were injured during fighting in February, though the actual casualties could be higher because the government’s mobile internet blackout has slowed information-gathering. “The Myanmar military and the Arakan Army need to take immediate steps to minimize harm to civilians during the fighting and allow aid to reach all villages and communities in need,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “The government should immediately restore full internet access so that abuses can be reported, and aid agencies can do their jobs.” Since January 2019, fighting between the Myanmar military, called the Tatmadaw, and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group, has resulted in numerous civilian casualties and destruction of civilian property. At least 21 children were injured on February 13, when artillery fire reportedly hit a school in Khamwe Chaung village, Buthidaung township..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Release Four Activists Jailed For Peaceful Protest
Description: "The Myanmar authorities should immediately and unconditionally release four activists who have been convicted and sentenced to one month in prison simply for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders said today. On January 17, 2020, the Myawaddy Township court in Kayin/Karen State, south eastern Myanmar, sentenced four activists – Naw Ohn Hla, Maung U, U Nge (aka) Hsan Hlaing, and Sandar Myint – to one month in prison after finding them guilty of protesting without authorization under Article 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law. The law officially only requires notification of a protest but in practice, authorities treat the notification requirement as a request for permission. It has frequently been used to target peaceful activists, in particular those campaigning for justice for communities affected by human rights violations and abuses. Police charged the four activists after they participated in a peaceful demonstration organized by residents of the Shwe Mya Sandi housing project in Kayin/Karen State on April 19, 2019. Residents had been protesting against demolition of their homes in February 2019, after the government declared that the land used for the project had been acquired unlawfully and began demolishing their homes. Protest organizers Maung U, U Nge (aka) Hsan Hlaing, and Sandar Myint had notified authorities of their intention to march along the Myawaddy road. Naw Ohn Hla was not involved in organizing the protest, however she joined in a show of solidarity..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Australia: Don’t Cozy Up to Myanmar’s Army
Sub-title: Suspend Military Ties; Press for Accountability
Description: "Australia should avoid dealings with Myanmar that play down its military’s egregious rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne. Human Rights Watch urged the Australian government to immediately end military ties with Myanmar. A meeting on January 29, 2020 between Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar, Andrea Faulkner, and Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, overlooked the general’s responsibility for grave crimes committed against ethnic Rohingya Muslims since 2017. Min Aung Hlaing used the meeting to bolster his public image and to present a picture of normal relations between the Australian and Myanmar militaries that undercuts efforts by other governments to isolate a commander implicated in serious abuses. “Australia should be sanctioning Min Aung Hlaing, not taking photos and exchanging gifts with someone who should be investigated for mass atrocities,” said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “In its meetings with Myanmar officials, Australia should never give the impression that it’s business-as-usual with no repercussions for Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.” In 2018, the United Nations-backed Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar recommended that Myanmar’s top military generals should be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The UN report named six high-ranking military commanders, including Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Lift Internet Restrictions in Rakhine and Chin States
Sub-title: Mobile internet blackout in four townships in Rakhine State among the world’s longest running
Description: "We, the 29 undersigned organizations, call on the Government of Myanmar to immediately lift restrictions on mobile internet communications in eight townships in Rakhine State and one township in Chin State. We are particularly concerned by the Government of Myanmar’s recent reinstatement of restrictions on mobile internet access in five townships on February 3, 2020, after lifting restrictions in those townships earlier. We call on the Government of Myanmar to release publicly the justification for the internet shutdown and all information related to the process by which these restrictions were imposed. The government first imposed restrictions on mobile internet communications on June 21, 2019 in Buthidaung, Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon, Ponnagyun, and Rathedaung townships in Rakhine State and Paletwa Township in Chin State. On September 1, the government lifted restrictions in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Myebon, Paletwa, and Rathedaung townships. On February 3, 2020, a telecommunications provider reported that the Myanmar Ministry of Transport and Communications ordered the reinstatement of the restrictions in those five townships. The company published a statement on its website saying that the Ministry referenced “security requirement and public interest” in issuing the order..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-02-13
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar Again Cuts Rakhine State’s Internet
Sub-title: Restore Telecommunications, Allow Aid to Conflict Areas
Description: "Myanmar authorities have issued a surprise order reinstating the shutdown of mobile internet traffic in five townships in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine and Chin States. Added to four other Rakhine State townships where mobile internet service has been blocked since June 2019, this leaves nine townships unable to get online, causing an information blackout that affects approximately one million people. The Ministry of Transport and Communications’ directive to internet and telecommunications providers cited security requirements and public interest as the reasons for re-imposing the shutdown, which had been lifted in the five townships in September. The Norwegian Telenor Group issued a statement to inform the public of the directive, and said it was seeking further clarification from the ministry. This communications shutdown places civilians at risk as the fighting between the ethnic-Rakhine Arakan Army and Myanmar’s military intensifies. About 106,000 civilians have been displaced by the conflict. Blocking local communities’ ability to communicate makes it harder for civilians to obtain help when needed, and significantly more difficult for humanitarian agencies to assist vulnerable populations. The Rakhine State government has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis by imposing restrictions on aid access in eight townships..."
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Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-02-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Government Rohingya Report Falls Short
Sub-title: War Crimes Admitted, but Full Findings Not Released
Description: "Myanmar’s investigation of its 2017 “clearance operations” contains selective admissions of military wrongdoing but does not begin to address the massive violations by government security forces against Rohingya Muslims, Human Rights Watch said today. Myanmar’s donors and concerned governments should be clear that the Independent Commission of Enquiry’s report falls well short of creating the conditions for justice and accountability or the safe return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. The 15-page executive summary released by the Office of the President on January 21, 2020 acknowledged that members of Myanmar’s security forces committed war crimes and serious human rights violations against “Muslims” in northern Rakhine State. Yet it found “no evidence of gang rape committed by Myanmar’s security forces,” despite extensive documentation of widespread rape against Rohingya women and girls by the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch. The summary found no evidence of genocidal intent and did not address alleged crimes against humanity. The government has yet to release the full report..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Seeking International Justice for Rohingya
Sub-title: Crackdown on Free Expression Tightens
Description: "The Myanmar government faced increasing pressure during 2019 for international justice for its human rights violations against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020. Respect for free expression and assembly also declined sharply during the year as the authorities escalated their use of repressive criminal laws. “Myanmar’s failure to hold its military accountable for atrocities against the Rohingya is finally turning the wheels of international justice,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “Two international courts are now examining whether Myanmar committed genocide and who should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.” In the 652-page World Report 2020, its 30th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth says that the Chinese government, which depends on repression to stay in power, is carrying out the most intense attack on the global human rights system in decades. He finds that Beijing’s actions both encourage and gain support from autocratic populists around the globe, while Chinese authorities use their economic clout to deter criticism from other governments. It is urgent to resist this assault, which threatens decades of progress on human rights and our future..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2020-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Bangladesh: Rohingya Children Denied Education
Sub-title: Unlawful Restrictions on Schooling Risk Creating a Lost Generation
Description: "The government of Bangladesh is blocking aid groups from providing any meaningful education to Rohingya children in refugee camps and banning the children from attending schools outside the camps, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The government should urgently lift the restrictions that unlawfully deprive almost 400,000 Rohingya refugee children of their right to education. The 81-page report, “‘Are We Not Human?’: Denial of Education for Rohingya Refugee Children in Bangladesh,” documents how Bangladesh prohibits aid groups in the refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district from providing Rohingya children with accredited or formal education. There is no secondary-level education, and groups are barred from teaching the Bengali language and using the Bangladesh curriculum. Rohingya children have no opportunity to enroll in or continue their education at private or public schools outside the refugee camps. “Bangladesh has made it clear that it doesn’t want the Rohingya to remain indefinitely, but depriving children of education just compounds the harm to the children and won’t resolve the refugees’ plight any faster,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The government of Bangladesh saved countless lives by opening its borders and providing refuge to the Rohingya, but it needs to end its misguided policy of blocking education for Rohingya children.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-12-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Gambia Brings Genocide Case Against Myanmar
Sub-title: International Court of Justice to Address Atrocities Against Rohingya
Description: "The Gambia’s case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violating the Genocide Convention, filed on November 11, 2019, will bring the first judicial scrutiny of Myanmar’s campaign of murder, rape, arson, and other atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, 10 nongovernmental organizations said. States that are party to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide agreed that genocide “whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish” and, by extension, have an obligation not to commit it. The convention permits member states to bring a dispute before the ICJ alleging another state’s breach of the convention, and states can seek provisional measures to stop continuing violations. Myanmar became a party to the Genocide Convention in 1956..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-11-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Japan: Hold Myanmar to Account for Atrocities
Sub-title: Oppose Investments Harming Ethnic Rohingya, Benefiting Military
Description: "The Japanese government should publicly hold Myanmar to account for military atrocities committed against Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said today. It should discourage Japanese investment that would benefit the military or at the expense of minority groups. On October 21, 2019, Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, is slated to speak in Tokyo at a conference sponsored by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to promote investment and business opportunities in Myanmar. When she has spoken at previous investment forums in Japan, Aung San Suu Kyi has downplayed or ignored the military’s serious abuses against the Rohingya. “The Japanese government has been pitifully reluctant to speak out against abuses by Myanmar’s military, so officials should use Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to raise these issues directly,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Japan’s recent re-election to the UN Human Rights Council should encourage the government to improve its human rights foreign policy, including by calling on Japanese companies not to contribute to rights violations in Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Myanmar: Rohingya Jailed for Traveling
Sub-title: End Arbitrary Restrictions on Persecuted Muslim Minority
Description: "Myanmar authorities should immediately release 30 Rohingya Muslims detained for attempting to travel from Rakhine State to the city of Yangon, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should lift all travel restrictions on ethnic Rohingya and repeal discriminatory regulations that limit their right to freedom of movement. Police arrested the group of Rohingya on September 26, 2019. A week later, a court sentenced 21 of them to two years in prison, and sent eight children to a child detention center. The youngest, a 5-year-old, is being held at Pathein prison with his mother. “Myanmar authorities seem intent on persecuting Rohingya whether they stay at home or try to travel freely in the country,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “These 30 men, women, and children are being punished for simply seeking an escape from the daily brutality they’ve been subjected to for years.” The authorities apprehended the group for traveling without official permits and documentation after they arrived in Ayeyarwady Region via boat from Sittwe township in central Rakhine State. The group was en route to Yangon, where they planned to seek work or attempt to continue onward to Malaysia, according to media reports..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-10-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Critics of Myanmar Government Facing Prison Time
Sub-title: Civilian Officials’ Intolerance of Criticism Rivaling Military’s
Description: "Speech critical of the government is under increasing attack in Myanmar. While the military has long been intolerant of criticism, members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) are not far behind. In the past two weeks, NLD officials have filed several criminal defamation charges against government critics. On September 18, the NLD’s Mandalay region office filed defamation charges against Aung Pyae San Win and Swam Ka Bar for posting memes on a satirical Facebook page about the Mandalay chief minister. The same week, the chairman of the NLD’s Maubin township branch filed a criminal complaint against cartoonist Naing Zaw Oo (known as “Ahtee”), alleging that he defamed the NLD and its local branch in social media posts criticizing the local party’s record. All of these cases were filed under section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act, which as amended in August 2017 provides for up to two years in prison for anyone who “defames” any person using a telecommunications network. Both the Myanmar military and the NLD have repeatedly used the provision to silence their critics. Others currently facing charges include the editor of local media outlet The Irrawaddy, members of a group that put on a satirical thangyat (slam poetry) performance critical of the military, and filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who has already been sentenced to a year in prison at hard labor under a provision of the penal code for criticizing the military’s role in politics on Facebook..."
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Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication: 2019-09-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Title: Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children
Description: "International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch welcome the opportunity to provide input to the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children on the topic of safeguards for the protection of the rights of children born from surrogacy arrangements. We appreciate the Special Rapporteur’s attention to new issues arising from innovations around assisted reproduction. We share the view that these developments raise important human rights issues. International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch have decades of experience examining issues relevant to this topic in countries around the world. IWHC has a long history advocating to advance sexual and reproductive rights at the global and regional levels. The organization currently supports grantee partners’ advocacy on these issues in Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Egypt, Fiji, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Turkey and Uruguay. We are also currently doing documentation work on the impact of the global gag rule in Nepal, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, as well as documentation on the impact of refusals to provide care on the ground of conscience in Chile. Human Rights Watch has extensive experience documenting human rights abuses including trafficking of children and women, sexual exploitation of children and women, violations of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls, and criminalization of sexual and reproductive actions and decisions. We have conducted research on these topics in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Mauritania, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Poland, South Africa, Sierra Leone, the United States of America and Zimbabwe. The issue of surrogacy arrangements, particularly compensated surrogacy arrangements, requires careful consideration of several sets of intersecting rights, and the interests of multiple rights holders. This is particularly important given that human rights analysis around surrogacy is relatively nascent and given the key principles of universality and interdependence of human rights. We have reviewed the Special Rapporteur’s previous work on this issue and appreciate the strong focus that work has brought to the rights and interests of children born of surrogacy arrangements. Our goal, in this submission, is to highlight the other rights and rights holders also essential to this discussion. We are concerned by any over-broad view of the applicability of the prohibition on the sale of children to surrogacy that would unnecessarily, disproportionately or in a discriminatory fashion limit the options of surrogacy as a means of founding a family and exercising reproductive rights. The optional protocol prohibits “any act or transaction whereby a child is transferred by any person or group of persons to another for remuneration or any other consideration.” People acting as surrogates may do so for no remuneration (money paid for work or a service) or no consideration (money in exchange for benefits, goods, or services), and in other cases may receive compensation that constitutes fair recompense for lost wages and other opportunity costs, health care and nutrition expenses, and restitution for the significant burdens and risks associated with pregnancy. We submit that such arrangements do not and should not in and of themselves constitute sale of children under the optional protocol. In this submission we outline our recommendations regarding: 1) relevant human rights that should inform discussions around surrogacy; 2) relevant rights holders who should be part of discussions regarding surrogacy; and 3) longstanding human rights principles that should guide and inform legal and policy framework development on this issue..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-06-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: “Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go” Trafficking of Kachin “Brides” from Myanmar to China
Description: "Seng Moon’s family fled fighting in Myanmar’s Kachin State in 2011 and wound up struggling to survive in a camp for internally displaced people. In 2014, when Seng Moon was 16 and attending fifth grade, her sister-in-law said she knew of a job as a cook in China’s neighboring Yunnan province. Seng Moon did not want to go, but the promised wage was far more than she could make living in the IDP camp, so her family decided she shouldn’t pass it up. In the car, Seng Moon’s sister-in-law gave her something she said prevented car sickness. Seng Moon fell asleep immediately. “When I woke up my hands were tied behind my back,” she said. “I cried and shouted and asked for help.” By then, Seng Moon was in China, where her sister-in-law left her with a Chinese family. After several months her sister-in-law returned and told her, “Now you have to get married to a Chinese man,” and took her to another house. Said Seng Moon: My sister-in-law left me at the home. …The family took me to a room. In that room I was tied up again. …They locked the door—for one or two months.… Each time when the Chinese man brought me meals, he raped me…After two months, they dragged me out of the room. The father of the Chinese man said, “Here is your husband. Now you are a married couple. Be nice to each other and build a happy family.” My sister-in-law left me at the home. …The family took me to a room. In that room I was tied up again. …They locked the door—for one or two months.… Each time when the Chinese man brought me meals, he raped me…After two months, they dragged me out of the room. The father of the Chinese man said, “Here is your husband. Now you are a married couple. Be nice to each other and build a happy family.”
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-03-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar Must Provide Justice in Decades-Old Land Grab Cases: HRW
Description: "Myanmar should move quickly to settle decades-old claims by farmers forced from their land by the country’s military, a rights group said on Tuesday, adding that the country’s new civilian-led government has largely failed in its pledges to provide justice for those dispossessed. The government should also put new laws in place to protect farmers and other small landholders from further land grabs in the future, Human Rights Watch said in a report, “Nothing For Our Land: Impact of Land Confiscation on Farmers in Myanmar.” Those deprived of their land have been refused adequate compensation, cut off from the only work they know, and denied access to basic services such as health care, schooling, and education, HRW says in its 33-page report, prepared from interviews conducted with farmers, workers, and land-rights activists from October 2016 to March 2017. “Many farmers have [also] faced criminal prosecution for protesting the lack of redress and refusing to leave or cease work on the land that was taken from them,” HRW said in its report, which described the “devastating effects” of confiscations in Myanmar’s southern Shan state and Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions. “Once deprived of the ability to cultivate land and to sell crops, people are commonly forced into manual labor jobs that pay far less and ultimately diminish access to sources of food,” HRW said. “Widespread land confiscations across Myanmar have harmed rural communities in profound ways for decades,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch in a statement tied to the release of the report. “Aung San Suu Kyi’s government should promptly address illegal land confiscations, compensate aggrieved parties, and reform laws to protect people against future abuses,” Robertson said. 'They just took it' Government figures confirm that hundreds of thousands of acres of land have been taken over the last 30 years, though activists believe the true number of acres seized may be in the millions, HRW said in its report, adding that “confiscations often occurred with little or no compensation,” creating a “profoundly harmful” impact on those forced from their land. Confiscations often occurred with little or no warning given, HRW said. “I didn’t know, they just took it,” said one 61-year-old farmer in Ayeyarwady named Thein Win, who was forced to dig fish ponds on the land that was seized and was threatened with jail for complaining, according to the report. “We got nothing. We literally got nothing for our land,” Thein Win said. Meanwhile, in Shan state, Myanmar’s military seized thousands of acres in one village to create plots for military veterans to farm, forcing one family that remained to pay rent for five years on the land they had just lost. “When the land was taken from them, there was no offer to compensate and no other land was given to them,” HRW said. “After years of filing complaints to all levels of the government, they still have received nothing, and the military claims the right to retain ownership of the land..."
Creator/author: Richard Finney
Source/publisher: Radio Free Asia (RFA)
Date of publication: 2018-07-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar: Women, Girls Trafficked as ‘Brides’ to China - (video)
Description: "The Myanmar and Chinese governments have failed to stem the trafficking of ethnic Kachin women and girls as “brides” to families in China. Trafficking survivors said that trusted people, including family members, promised them jobs in China, but instead sold them for the equivalent of US$3,000 to $13,000 to Chinese families. In China, they were typically locked in a room and raped so they would become pregnant..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-03-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Kachin
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Title: Myanmar: Investigate Police Use of Force in Karenni State
Description: ''The Myanmar authorities should immediately investigate the alleged excessive use of force by police against protesters in Karenni State and hold those responsible for abuses to account, Human Rights Watch said today. On February 12, 2019, police fired rubber bullets and water cannon at ethnic Karenni youth who attempted to move beyond police barricades, injuring more than 20 protesters. Since February 1, police have arrested 55 people in the Karenni state capital for protesting against the installation of a statue of Gen. Aung San, the father of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Gen. Aung San is considered the founder of modern-day Myanmar and of the Myanmar army, the Tatmadaw. On February 12, an agreement was reached between protest leaders and the Karenni state government to drop all charges in exchange for promises to suspend further protests for one month while the opposing sides discuss the fate of the statue...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar: Peaceful Critics Prosecuted
Description: ''Myanmar’s first democratically elected civilian government in decades has prosecuted large numbers of peaceful critics in violation of basic human rights, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Concerned governments should press Myanmar to protect the rights to expression and assembly, and reform laws penalizing peaceful speech to bring them in line with international standards. The 87-page report, “Dashed Hopes: The Criminalization of Peaceful Expression in Myanmar,” documents the use of broad and vaguely worded laws against activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy-led government. While discussion of a wide range of topics now flourishes in the media and online, those speaking critically of the government, military, or their officials, as well as abuses in Rakhine or Kachin States, are frequently subject to arrest and prosecution...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-01-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Rohingya Refugees Caught Between India and a Hard Place
Description: ''Recently, 31 Rohingya refugees who had fled atrocities in Myanmar found themselves trapped at the border between India and Bangladesh. Neither Indian nor Bangladeshi border guards were willing to accept them. The Indians insisted that the refugees were attempting an illegal entry from Bangladesh, while Bangladeshi authorities said that the refugees were being forcibly pushed out of India. One thing was certain: Going back to Myanmar was not an option. Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims are among the most persecuted communities in the world. Long denied citizenship rights in Myanmar, subjected to pervasive discrimination and targeted in violent attacks, many have fled or been expelled. In their desperation, these refugees have walked long distances, swum across rivers to safety, or paid human smugglers for a place on flimsy boats to carry them across treacherous seas...''
Creator/author: Meenakshi Ganguly
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Massacre by the River
Description: ''On August 30, 2017, Hassina Begum, a 20-year-old ethnic Rohingya woman, was among the few survivors of a massacre of unspeakable brutality. Just days after a deadly attack by Rohingya militants against Burmese security forces, hundreds of Burmese soldiers in uniform, along with ethnic Rakhine villagers armed with machetes and wooden sticks, attacked the village of Tula Toli, officially known as Min Gyi, in Maungdaw Township in Burma’s Rakhine State, also known as Arakan State. The advancing soldiers trapped several hundred unarmed Rohingya Muslim villagers, including Hassina, on the large bank of the river, which surrounds Tula Toli on three sides. As they approached, some fired at the crowd, others toward people trying to flee. While some Rohingya managed to escape, swimming across the fast-moving river or dashing to the surrounding hills, many terrified villagers could not run away or swim. Families with young children had no chance to flee...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar: Disband Panel on Crimes Against Rohingya
Description: ''(New York) – Myanmar should disband its commission of inquiry into abuses in Rakhine state because it is clearly unwilling to seriously investigate alleged grave crimes against ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said today. At a news conference on December 12, 2018, Rosario Manalo, chair of the Independent Commission of Enquiry, stated that the commission had found “no evidence” to support allegations of human rights abuses in the four months since it officially opened its investigation. Her statement shows that the commission is disregarding evidence and testimony collected by United Nations fact-finders, the United States State Department, and international human rights organizations since violence broke out in Rakhine State in 2016...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2018-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Myanmar: Rights Catastrophe Deepens
Description: ''(New York) – The Myanmar government committed grave abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities throughout 2018, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2019. Democratic space diminished in the face of increasing government actions to stifle free speech and peaceful assembly. A United Nations investigation found that the Myanmar military had committed the “gravest crimes under international law” in operations in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan States since 2011, calling for senior military officials to face investigation and prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes...''
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2019-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Burma: Dismantle Infrastructure of Repression - Repeal or Amend Laws Criminalizing Speech and Assembly
Description: (Rangoon) ? Burma?s new government should use its parliamentary majority to repeal or amend the many military and colonial-era laws used to criminalize peaceful speech and assembly, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. ?Successive Burmese governments have enacted broad, vaguely worded laws to control and criminalize basic freedoms, creating thousands of political prisoners,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. ?The new government, led by the National League for Democracy, has moved quickly to release many of those imprisoned for peaceful expression or protest and to drop charges against others. But it?s crucial that the legal infrastructure of repression be dismantled so that there is no chance Burma will ever hold political prisoners again.” The 113-page report, ??They Can Arrest You at Any Time?: The Criminalization of Peaceful Expression in Burma,” documents the use and abuse of a range of broad and vaguely worded laws to criminalize peaceful expression, including debates on matters of public interest, and provides specific recommendations for the repeal or amendment of those laws..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2016-06-29
Date of entry/update: 2016-06-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English (available also in العربية 简体中文 Français 日本語 )
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Title: Myanmar should dismantle laws blocking free speech - Human Rights Watch
Description: "Myanmar?s government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy (NLD), should amend and abolish laws that threaten freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Wednesday. Laws covering areas from telecommunications to defamation have been used to arrest at least 70 people this month, said the report?s author, Linda Lakhdhir. The arrests come despite reforms by former President Thein Sein and the NLD, which won the November election in a landslide, giving it control of both houses of parliament and installing Suu Kyi as the country?s de facto leader..."
Creator/author: Soe Zeya Tun, Timothy Mclaughlin, Aung Hla Tun
Source/publisher: Reuters UK
Date of publication: 2016-06-29
Date of entry/update: 2016-06-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: "They Can Arrest You at Any Time" - The Criminalization of Peaceful Expression in Burma
Description: Summary: "While the country is more open than before, the people?s rights are being neglected. They can arrest you at any time under these laws. There is no guarantee. ?Pang Long, attorney, Rangoon, January 2016 The past five years have been a time of liberalization and change in Burma. The abolition of prior censorship and a loosening of licensing requirements has led to a vibrant press, and the shift from formal military rule has emboldened civil society. The change has not been without conflict, however, and, under President Thein Sein, those who embraced the new freedoms to vocally criticize the government or military too often found themselves arrested and in prison. The backlash against critics was facilitated by a range of overly broad and vaguely worded laws that violate internationally protected rights to expression and peaceful assembly, some dating from the British colonial era, some enacted under successive military juntas, and others the products of reform efforts, or ostensible reform efforts, by the Thein Sein government. This report examines how Burmese governments have used and abused these laws and the ways in which the laws themselves fall far short of international standards. It sets forth a series of concrete recommendations to the new Burmese government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy (NLD), aimed at dismantling the inherited legal infrastructure of repression..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2016-06-29
Date of entry/update: 2016-06-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Title: HRW Letter to President U Htin Kyaw Re: Human Rights Priorities for the New Government (English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Description: "Human Rights Priorities for the New Myanmar Government: 1. Release All Political Prisoners ...2. Reform Laws that Violate Basic Rights: *Right to Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act, Article 4; *Penal Code, Section 124(a) (sedition); *Telecommunications Act, section 66(d); *News Media Law, Section 9; *Electronic Transactions Act, Section 33; *Contempt of Courts Act; *Official Secrets Act 1923, Section 3; *Printing and Publishing Enterprise Law, Article 8; *Emergency Provisions Act 1950, and the *State Protection Act 1975; *Unlawful Associations Act 1908. ...3. Protect and Facilitate the Work of Civil Society Organizations...4. Reform National Human Rights Commission...5. Invite the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to Open an Office with a Full Mandate and Adequate Staff...6. Protect and Promote Women?s Rights...7. Protect and Promote Land Rights...8. Protect and Promote the Right to Health...9. End Persecution of Rohingya and Other Muslims...10. Amend Myanmar?s 1982 Citizenship Law...11. Press the Military to End Human Rights Violations in Conflict Areas...12. End All Recruitment and Use of Children as Soldiers...13. Accountability for Past and Ongoing Abuses...14. Constitutional Reform: *Section 6(f); *Section 20; *Section 59(f);*Section 232(b) [ii, ii]; *Chapter 7; *Chapter 8; *Section 436."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2016-05-04
Date of entry/update: 2016-05-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Title: HUMAN RIGHTS IN ASEAN: Briefing Materials for the US-ASEAN Summit: Sunnylands Estate, California, February 15-16, 2016
Description: SUMMARY: "When US President Barack Obama first articulated his administration?s goal of a diplomatic rebalance to Asia, he outlined three areas in which the US government would focus its attentions: increased strategic and military ties, better economic integration, and greater attention to promoting democracy and human rights. Obama outlined the last prong of the rebalance in a speech in Australia on November 17, 2011: -Every nation will chart its own course. Yet it is also true that certain rights are universal; amongthem, freedom of speech, freedom ofthe press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and the freedom of citizens to choose their own leaders. -These are not American rights ... or Western rights. These are human rights. They stir in every soul, as we?ve seen in the democracies that have succeeded here in Asia. Other models have been tried and they have failed - fascism and communism, rule by one man or rule by committee. And they failed for the same simple reason: they ignore the ultimate source of power and legitimacy - the will ofthe people. On February 15-16, 2016, President Obama will host 10 government leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) fora summit at the Sunnylands estate in California. For decades, the United States government has viewed ASEAN as an important economic, security, and political partner, and has forged closer ties with ASEAN countries as they have undergone major economic and political changes. In recent years, some countries, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, have made steady though uneven progress toward becoming democratic states with increasing respect for basic human rights. Most recently, in November 2015 the military junta in Burma allowed the opposition to contest elections and accepted the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy— though it still maintains broad constitutional powers and de facto control over security forces and large parts ofthe economy. Many ASEAN countries, however, continue to be plagued by deep-seated political and economic problems. As the chapters below outline, most of ASEAN?s 10 members have extraordinarily poor human rights records. Beyond the lack of basic freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in many countries, problems across ASEAN include restrictions on civil society, failures on women?s rights, the political use of courts, high-level corruption, lack of protection of refugees and asylum seekers, human trafficking, and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. For President Obama, the February 2016 US-ASEAN summit represents another chapter in the continuing efforts to rebalance attention to the Asia region. For many of ASEAN?s leaders—in particular those who have not come to power through free and fair elections— the summit represents an unearned diplomatic reward: a robust US reaffirmation of their sought-for legitimacy as leaders ofthe 615 million people who live in ASEAN. One particularly egregious example is the invitation to the summit for Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, who took power in a 2014 military coup, dismantled democratic institutions, and has led a relentless crackdown on critics and dissidents. Prayut has consistently delayed the date for a return to democratic rule, making it clear that he expects the army to manage the country?s affairs even after a vote for a new parliament is held. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam and President Choummaly Sayasone of Laos preside over one-party authoritarian states that deny basic freedoms and use censorship, detention, and torture to maintain their party?s hold on power. The communist party of each country has been in power since 1975 and have shown no interest in moving towards pluralism or genuine elections. The sultan of Brunei, Hassal Bolkiah, is one ofthe world?s few remaining hereditary government leaders and has imposed a near complete ban on freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. He plans to increase the imposition of Islamic law punishments, including whipping and stoning, foradultery, sex between unmarried persons, and homosexual activity. The prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, retained power in 2014 after a deeply flawed electoral process in which his party, which has been in power since 1967, lost the popular vote. Implicated in a major corruption scandal, he has engaged in a broad crackdown on Malaysia?s political opposition, civil society organizations, and media..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2016-02-16
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 5.6 MB 14.8 MB
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Title: World Report 2016: Burma: Events of 2015
Description: "The transition from military to civilian rule in Burma that started in 2011 slowed down and reversed in some sectors in 2015. Despite a significantly improved environment for freedom of expression and media, in key areas the government?s commitment to improving its human rights faltered or failed. The landslide victory of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) in November elections, the first relatively open national elections in 25 years, seemed poised to reenergize reforms in some areas, but it was too early to gauge at time of writing."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2016-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 1.47 MB
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Title: World Report 2013: Burma (events of 2012)
Description: "Burma?s human rights situation remained poor in 2012 despite noteworthy actions by the government toward political reform. In April, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won 43 of 44 seats it contested in a parliamentary by-election; the parliament consists of 224 seats in the upper house and 440 in the lower house, the majority of which remain under the control of military representatives or former military officers. President Thein Sein welcomed back exiles during the year, and released nearly 400 political prisoners in five general prisoner amnesties, although several hundred are believed to remain in prison. Freed political prisoners face persecution, including restrictions on travel and education, and lack adequate psychosocial support. Activists who peacefully demonstrated in Rangoon in September have been charged with offenses. In August 2012, the government abolished pre-publication censorship of media and relaxed other media restrictions, but restrictive guidelines for journalists and many other laws historically used to imprison dissidents and repress rights such as freedom of expression remain in place. Armed conflict between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) continued in Kachin State in the north, where tens of thousands of civilians remain displaced. The government has effectively denied humanitarian aid to the displaced Kachin civilians in KIA territory. In conflict areas in Kachin and Shan States, the Burmese military carried out extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, torture, forced labor, and deliberate attacks on civilian areas, all which continue with impunity. Ceasefire agreements in ethnic conflict areas of eastern Burma remain tenuous. Deadly sectarian violence erupted in Arakan State in June 2012 between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a long-persecuted stateless minority of approximately one million people. State security forces failed to protect either community, resulting in some 100,000 displaced, and then increasingly targeted Rohingya in killings, beatings, and mass arrests while obstructing humanitarian access to Rohingya areas and to camps of displaced Rohingya around the Arakan State capital, Sittwe. Sectarian violence broke out again in 9 of the state?s 17 townships in October, including in several townships that did not experience violence in June, resulting in an unknown number of deaths and injuries, the razing of entire Muslim villages, and the displacement of an additional 35,000 persons. Many of the displaced fled to areas surrounding Sittwe, where they also experienced abuses, such as beatings by state security forces. Despite serious ongoing abuses, foreign governments—including the United States and the United Kingdom—expressed unprecedented optimism about political reforms and rapidly eased or lifted sanctions against Burma, while still condemning the abuses and violence..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2013-02-01
Date of entry/update: 2013-02-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: "BURMA (MYANMAR): WORSENING REPRESSION"
Description: Arrests of Opposition Party Leaders and Candidates... The Ruling Against Aung San Suu Kyi... Restrictions on Freedom of Speech and Assembly... Forced Relocations of Civilians... Restrictions on Freedom of the Press... The Border Conflict... Forced Porterage... Student Refugees in Thailand... U.S. Policy... RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM ASIA WATCH
Source/publisher: Human Right Watch/ Asia
Date of publication: 1990-03-11
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 88.87 KB
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Title: "BURMA: POST-ELECTION ABUSES"
Description: BURMA: POST-ELECTION ABUSES... Background... Recent Demonstrations... Arrest and Torture of Political Prisoners Since the Elections... Execution of Political Prisoners... Continued Detention of Political Prisoners... Abuses of Civil Liberties... Abuses Against Refugees Returning from Thailand... Recommendations...
Source/publisher: "Human Right Watch/ Asia"
Date of publication: 1990-08-14
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 67.12 KB
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Title: "BURMA: TIME FOR SANCTIONS"
Description: BURMA: TIME FOR SANCTIONS... Introduction... Recommendations... APPENDIX I... Arrest and Torture of NLD officials and other dissidents... Arrest of Diplomatic Staff... List of other NLD National Assembly representatives arrested... APPENDIX II... Continuing Detention of Opposition Leaders... RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM ASIA WATCH
Source/publisher: Human Right Watch/ Asia
Date of publication: 1991-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 270.67 KB
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Title: "CHANGES IN BURMA?"
Description: CHANGES IN BURMA?... I. INTRODUCTION... II. CHANGES AT THE TOP... III. RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS... IV. FAMILY VISITS ALLOWED FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI... V. PLANNING MEETINGS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION... The Meetings... VI. SITUATION ON THE BURMA-BANGLADESH BORDER... The Repatriation Agreement... The Aftermath... Effect on Refugees... Deteriorating Conditions and Ongoing Abuses... Ongoing Negotiations... VII. SLORC?S SUSPENDED FIGHTING WITH THE KAREN... VIII. ACADEMIC FREEDOM... X. INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE... United States... Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)... Japan... Australia/Canada... Poland... United Nations... XL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS... United Nations... The United States, On ASEAN:, On Investment:, On Trade:, On China:... Japan... APPENDIX A: Members of Parliament recently released from prison:... APPENDIX A: Members of Parliament (MPs) still known to be in prison:... APPENDIX C: Disqualified MPs by the General Election Commission of SLORC:... RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM ASIA WATCH
Source/publisher: Human Right Watch/ Asia
Date of publication: 1992-09-06
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 204.75 KB
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Title: "Testimony of Holly Burkhalter, Asia Watch"
Description: Testimony of Holly Burkhalter, Asia Watch... before the Asia and Pacific Affairs and Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittees...
Source/publisher: Human Right Watch/ Asia
Date of publication: 1989-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 411.49 KB
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2011 - Events of 2010: Burma section (English and Burmese)
Description: "Burma?s human rights situation remained dire in 2010, even after the country?s first multiparty elections in 20 years. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continued to systematically deny all basic freedoms to citizens and sharply constrained political participation. The rights of freedom of expression, association, assembly, and media remained severely curtailed. The government took no significant steps during the year to release more than 2,100 political prisoners being held, except for the November 13 release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Calls mounted for an international commission of inquiry into serious violations of international law perpetrated by all parties to Burma?s ongoing civil conflict. The Burmese military was responsible for ongoing abuses against civilians in conflict areas, including widespread forced labor, extrajudicial killings, and forced expulsion of the population. Nonstate armed ethnic groups have also been implicated in serious abuses such as recruitment of child soldiers, execution of Burmese prisoners of war, and indiscriminate use of antipersonnel landmines around civilian areas..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date of publication: 2011-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 42.93 KB 58.29 KB
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2012 - Events of 2011: Burma section
Description: "Burma?s human rights situation remained dire in 2011 despite some significant moves by the government which formed in late March following November 2010 elections. Freedoms of expression, association, and assembly remain severely curtailed. Although some media restrictions were relaxed, including increased access to the internet and broader scope for journalists to cover formerly prohibited subjects, official censorship constrains reporting on many important national issues. In May and October the government released an estimated 316 political prisoners in amnesties, though many more remain behind bars. Ethnic conflict escalated in 2011 as longstanding ceasefires with ethnic armed groups broke down in northern Burma. The Burmese military continues to be responsible for abuses against civilians in conflict areas, including forced labor, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, the use of ?human shields,? and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Despite support from 16 countries for a proposed United Nations commission of inquiry into serious violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to Burma?s internal armed conflicts, no country took leadership at the UN to make it a reality. Foreign government officials expressed their optimism about government reforms despite abundant evidence of continuing systematic repression..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date of publication: 2012-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 63.94 KB
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Title: World Report 2004 - Human Rights and Armed Conflict
Description: This report, covering human rights and armed conflict, has no specific Burma section, but there are a number of references to the country, which can be found with the pdf search.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Date of publication: 2004-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Burma?s Continuing Human Rights Challenges
Description: "One year ago Burma conducted tightly controlled elections that transferred power from a ruling military council to a nominally civilian government in which the president and senior government officials are all former generals. In 2011 the new government has taken a number of positive actions, enacted new laws that purport to protect basic rights, and promised important policy changes. The real test, however, will be in the implementation of new laws and policies and how the government reacts when Burmese citizens try to avail themselves of their rights. Meanwhile, the main elements of Burma?s repressive security apparatus, and the laws underpinning it, remain in place. In ethnic areas, the human rights situation remains dire. While there are grounds for hope that fundamental change will come to Burma, it is too early to conclude that it has in fact begun..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2011-11-07
Date of entry/update: 2011-11-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 105.24 KB
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2005 - Events of 2004: Burma section
Description: Events of 2004..."Burma remains one of the most repressive countries in Asia, despite promises for political reform and national reconciliation by its authoritarian military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The SPDC restricts the basic rights and freedoms of all Burmese. It continues to attack and harass democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest at this writing, and the political movement she represents. It also continues to use internationally outlawed tactics in ongoing conflicts with ethnic minority rebel groups. Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world, and its forces have used extrajudicial execution, rape, torture, forced relocation of villages, and forced labor in campaigns against rebel groups. Ethnic minority forces have also committed abuses, though not on the scale committed by government forces. The abrupt removal of Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt, viewed as a relative moderate, on October 19, 2004, has reinforced hardline elements of the SPDC. Khin Nyunt?s removal damaged immediate prospects for a ceasefire in the decades-old struggle with the Karen ethnic minority and has been followed by increasingly hostile rhetoric from SPDC leaders directed at Suu Kyi and democracy activists. Thousands of Burmese citizens, most of them from the embattled ethnic minorities, have fled to neighboring countries, in particular Thailand, where they face difficult circumstances, or live precariously as internally displaced people..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2005-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 105.28 KB
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2010 - Events of 2009: Burma section
Description: "Burma's human rights record continued to deteriorate in 2009 ahead of announced elections in 2010. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) systematically denies citizens basic freedoms including freedom of expression, association, and assembly. More than 2,100 political prisoners remain behind bars. This, and the politically-motivated arrest and trial of Aung San Suu Kyi only to send her back to house arrest for another 18 months, confirmed that Burma's military rulers are unwilling to allow genuine political participation in the electoral process. The Burmese military continues to perpetrate violations against civilians in ethnic conflict areas, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and sexual violence..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2010-01-20
Date of entry/update: 2010-01-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1997 - Events of 1996: Burma section
Description: Any hope that the July 1995 release of opposition leader and Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi might be a sign of human rights reforms by the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) government were destroyed during 1996 as political arrests and repression dramatically increased and forced labor, forced relocations, and arbitrary arrests continued to be the daily reality for millions of ordinary Burmese. The turn for the worse received little censure from Burma's neighbors, who instead took the first step towards granting the country full membership in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and welcomed SLORC as a member of the Asian Regional Forum, a security body.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1997-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-01-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2002 - Events of 2001: Burma section
Description: There were signs of a political thaw early in the year and, for the first time in years, hopes that the government might lift some of its stifling controls on civil and political rights. By November, however, the only progress had been limited political prisoner releases and easing of pressures on some opposition politicians in Rangoon. There was no sign of fundamental changes in law or policy, and grave human rights violations remained unaddressed.....Human Rights Developments... Defending Human Rights... The Role of the International Community
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2002-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-01-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2008 - Events of 2007: Burma section
Description: Burma?s deplorable human rights record received widespread international attention in 2007 as anti-government protests in August and September were met with a brutal crackdown by security forces of the authoritarian military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Denial of basic freedoms in Burma continues, and restrictions on the internet, telecommunications, and freedom of expression and assembly sharply increased in 2007. Abuses against civilians in ethnic areas are widespread, involving forced labor, summary executions, sexual violence, and expropriation of land and property......Violent Crackdown on Protests...Lack of Progress on Democracy...Human Rights Defenders...Continued Violence against Ethnic Groups...Child Soldiers...Humanitarian Concerns, Internal Displacement, and Refugees...Key International Actors.
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2008-01-31
Date of entry/update: 2009-01-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2009 - Events of 2008: Burma section
Description: Burma?s already dismal human rights record worsened following the devastation of cyclone Nargis in early May 2008. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) blocked international assistance while pushing through a constitutional referendum in which basic freedoms were denied. The ruling junta systematically denies citizens basic freedoms, including freedom of expression, association, and assembly. It regularly imprisons political activists and human rights defenders; in 2008 the number of political prisoners nearly doubled to more than 2,150. The Burmese military continues to violate the rights of civilians in ethnic conflict areas and extrajudicial killings, forced labor, land confiscation without due process and other violations continued in 2008....Cyclone Nargis...Constitutional Referendum...Human Rights Defenders...Child Soldiers...Continuing Violence against Ethnic Groups...Refugees and Migrant Workers...Key International Actors
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2009-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2009-01-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2006 - Events of 2005: Burma section
Description: Events of 2005..."Despite promises of political reform and national reconciliation, Burma?s authoritarian military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), continues to operate a strict police state and drastically restricts basic rights and freedoms. It has suppressed the democratic movement represented by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under detention since May 30, 2003, and has used internationally outlawed tactics in ongoing conflicts with ethnic minority groups. Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them from ethnic minority groups, continue to live precariously as internally displaced people. More than two million have fled to neighboring countries, in particular Thailand, where they face difficult circumstances as asylum seekers or illegal immigrants. The removal of Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt in October 2004 has reinforced hard-line elements within the SPDC and resulted in increasing hostility directed at democracy movements, ethnic minority groups, and international agencies..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2006-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-03-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2007 - Events of 2006: Burma section
Description: Events of 2006..."Burma?s international isolation deepened during 2006 as the authoritarian military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), continued to restrict basic rights and freedoms and waged brutal counterinsurgency operations against ethnic minorities. The democratic movement inside the country remained suppressed, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political activists continued to be detained or imprisoned. International efforts to foster change in Burma were thwarted by the SPDC and sympathetic neighboring governments..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2007-01-11
Date of entry/update: 2007-03-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 - Events of 2002: Burma section
Description: With the release of opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May after nineteen months of de facto house arrest, hope arose that the military junta might take steps to improve its human rights record. However, by late 2002, talks between Suu Kyi and the government had ground to a halt and systemic restrictions on basic civil and political liberties continued unabated. Ethnic minority regions continued to report particularly grave abuses, including forced labor and the rape of Shan minority women by military forces. Government military forces continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers.....Human Rights Developments...Defending Human Rights... The Role of the International Community
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2003-01-15
Date of entry/update: 2003-08-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1989 - Events of 1988: Burma section
Description: Events of 1988... "The Bush administration's stance on Burma (Myanmar) was generally positive, although the U.S. embassy in Thailand has been slow to respond to requests for refugee status by Burmese students fleeing repression. The human rights situation in Burma continued to deteriorate sharply throughout 1989, following the bloody end in September 1988 of Burma's pro-democracy demonstrations, when at least 3000 students and other largely unarmed civilians on the streets of the capital and other cities were massacred. The Reagan administration was quick to suspend its small military and economic aid program, and the Bush administration continued to speak out against Burmese rights violations. As one diplomat in Rangoon told the Washington Post in March, "Since there are no U.S. bases and very little strategic interest, Burma is one place where the United States has the luxury of living up to its principles." ..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1989-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1990 - Events of 1989: Burma section
Description: Events of 1989... "The military government in Burma, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, intensified political repression in the wake of the opposition's landslide victory in elections for a new National Assembly held in May 1990. Soon after taking power in September 1988, following an unprecedented nationwide uprising against the 26-year-old rule of General Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party in which security forces are believed to have killed an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 protestors, SLORC promised to deliver power to a civilian government as soon as elections could be organized..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1990-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1992 - Events of 1991: Burma section
Description: Events of 1991..." Refusing to respect the results of the 1990 general elections, Burma's military leaders intensified their crackdown on political dissent throughout the country in 1991. Repression was worse than any other time in recent years, marked by a complete lack of basic freedoms and the continuing imprisonment of thousands of suspected opponents of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). By the middle of the year, the crackdown extended beyond members of the main opposition parties to include a massive purge of those employed in the civil service, schools and universities. In late 1990 and early 1991, SLORC also heightened its offensive against ethnic minority insurgent groups, resulting in widespread civilian casualties and the displacement of tens of thousands of people along Burma's borders. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi helped to focus attention on SLORC's disastrous human rights record. The crackdown on members and supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was especially severe..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1992-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1993 - Events of 1992: Burma section
Description: Events of 1992...Human Rights Developments Burma (Myanmar) in 1992 remained one of the human rights disasters in Asia. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi continued under house arrest, and an unknown number of political dissidents remained in prison. Reports of military abuses against members of ethnic minority groups were frequent. Certain positive measures were taken by Burma's military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (slorc), such as the release of several hundred alleged political prisoners and slorc's accession to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. But the changes were largely superficial, and human rights violations persisted unchecked. ..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1993-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1994 - Events of 1993: Burma section
Description: Events of 1993... "The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council or SLORC continued to be a human rights pariah, despite its cosmetic gestures to respond to international criticism. Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, was permitted visits from her family but remained under house arrest for the fifth year. SLORC announced the release of nearly 2,000 political prisoners, but it was not clear that the majority had been detained on political charges, nor could most of the releases be verified. At least one hundred critics of SLORC were detained during the year, and hundreds of people tried by military tribunals between 1989 and 1992 remained in prison. Torture in Burmese prisons continued to be widespread. Foreign correspondents were able to obtain visas for Burma more easily, but access by human rights and humanitarian organizations remained tightly restricted. A constitutional convention met throughout the year, but over 80 percent of the delegates were hand-picked by SLORC..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1994-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1995 - Events of 1994: Burma section
Description: Events of 1994..."The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), a military body established as a temporary government in Burma after the pro-democracy uprising in 1988, continued to be responsible for forced labor, especially on infrastructure projects; arbitrary detention; torture; and denials of freedom of association, expression, and assembly. Fighting with armed ethnic groups along the Thai and Chinese borders continued to diminish, as the SLORC reached a cease-fire agreement with the Kachin Independence Organization in February and opened talks with others. Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the democratic opposition, remained under house arrest but for the first time since her detention in July 1989 was permitted to meet with visitors outside her family. On September 21, as the U.N. General Assembly opened in New York, she was allowed out of her house for a televised meeting with the chair and secretary-1 of the SLORC, Senior General Than Shwe and Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt. A second meeting took place on October 28..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1995-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1996 - Events of 1995: Burma section
Description: Events of 1995..."The most significant human rights event in Burma in 1995 was the release on July 10 of Nobel laureate and opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi after six years of house arrest. Paradoxically, the governing military State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) took an increasingly hard-line stance during the year, and there was no overall improvement in the human rights situation. In some areas abuses increased, notably in the Karen, Karenni and Shan States where there was fighting, while throughout the country thousands of civilians were forced to work as unpaid laborers for the army. The SLORC continued to deny basic rights such as freedom of speech, association and religion and the right of citizens to participate in the political process..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1996-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1998 - Events of 1996-1997: Burma section
Description: Events December 1996-November 1997..." Respect for human rights in Burma continued to deteriorate relentlessly in 1997. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) continued to be a target of government repression. NLD leaders were prevented from making any public speeches during the year, and over 300 members were detained in May when they attempted to hold a party congress. There were no meetings during the year of the government's constitutional forum, the National Convention, which last met in March 1996; the convention was one of the only fora where Rangoon-based politicians and members of Burma's various ethnic movements could meet. The government tightened restrictions on freedom of expression, refusing visas to foreign journalists, deporting others and handing down long prison terms to anyone who attempted to collect information or contact groups abroad. Persecution of Muslims increased. Armed conflict continued between government troops and ethnic opposition forces in a number of areas, accompanied by human rights abuses such as forced portering, summary executions, rape, and torture. The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) continued to deny access to U.N. Special Representative to Burma Rajsoomer Lallah. Despite its human rights practices, however, Burma was admitted as a full member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1998-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 - Events of 1997-98: Burma section
Description: Events December 1997-early November 1998..."Ten years after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising was crushed by the army, Burma continued to be one of the world?s pariah states. A standoff between the government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, general secretary of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), and other expressions of nonviolent dissent resulted in more than 1,000 detentions during the year. Many were relatively brief, others led eventually to prison sentences. Human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, rape, forced labor, and forced relocations, sent thousands of Burmese refugees, many of them from ethnic minority groups, into Thailand and Bangladesh. The change in November 1997 from the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to the gentler-sounding State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) had little impact on human rights practices and policies; the SPDC?s euphemism for continued authoritarian control—?disciplined democracy?— indicated no change. In addition to pervasive human rights violations, an economy in free fall made life even more difficult for the beleaguered population..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 1999-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2000 - Events of 1999: Burma section
Description: Events of November 1998-October 1999)..."The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) offered no signs during the year that fundamental change was on the horizon. The SPDC's standoff with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) continued. No progress was made on ending forced labor. Counterinsurgency operations by the Burmese military in several ethnic minority areas, accompanied by extrajudicial executions, forced relocation, and other abuses, led to the displacement of thousands inside Burma and the flight of yet more refugees across the border into Thailand. In one of the few positive developments during the year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reopened its office in Rangoon in May and was able to visit Burmese prisons on a regular basis. Bilateral and multilateral policies towards Burma remained largely unchanged during the year, with sanctions in place from much of the industrialized world. Various governments tried combinations of diplomatic carrots and economic sticks to improve human rights and encourage negotiations between the SPDC and the opposition, but none had succeeded by late October. Arrests and intimidation of supporters of the NLD continued, part of a campaign that began in August 1998 after the NLD announced its intention to convene a parliament in line with the 1990 election result. This was foiled by mass arrests, and the NLD subsequently established a ten-member Committee Representing People's Parliament (CRPP), a kind of parallel parliamentary authority whose creation was seen as a direct challenge to the government. Some sixty parliamentarians remained under detention while thousands of NLD registered voters were forced to resign their party membership..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2000-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Title: Human Rights Watch World Report 2001 - Events of 2000: Burma section
Description: Events November 1999-October 2000..."The Burmese government took no steps to improve its dire human rights record. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continued to pursue a strategy of marginalizing the democratic opposition through detention, intimidation, and restrictions on basic civil liberties. Despite international condemnation, the system of forced labor remained intact. In the war-affected areas of eastern Burma, gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law continued. There, the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), and Karen National Union (KNU), as well as some other smaller groups, continued their refusal to agree to a cease-fire with the government, as other insurgent forces had done, but they were no longer able to hold significant territory. Tens of thousands of villagers in the contested zones remained in forced relocation sites or internally displaced within the region. Human Rights Developments The SPDC continued to deny its citizens freedom of expression, association, assembly, and movement. It intimidated members of the democratic opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) into resigning from the party and encouraged crowds to denounce NLD members elected to parliament in the May 1990 election but not permitted to take their seats. The SPDC rhetoric against the NLD and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, became increasingly extreme. On March 27, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, in his Armed Forces Day address, called for forces undermining stability to be eliminated. It was a thinly veiled threat against the NLD. On May 2, a commentary in the state-run Kyemon (Mirror) newspaper claimed there was evidence of contact between the NLD and dissident and insurgent groups, an offense punishable by death or life imprisonment. In a May 18 press conference, several Burmese officials pointed to what they said were linkages between the NLD and insurgents based along the Thai-Burma border, and on September 4 the official Myanmar Information Committee repeated this charge in a press release after Burmese security forces raided the NLD headquarters in Rangoon..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
Date of publication: 2001-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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