Discrimination against the Rakhine

expand all
collapse all

Websites/Multiple Documents

Description: This news service covers Bangladesh-Burma relations, the Bangladesh-Burma border, events in Arakan and human rights violations against both the Buddhist and Muslim population of Arakan. Email delivery of the reports may be requested from [email protected]
Source/publisher: Narinjara News
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
more
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "...Up to 4,000 people in Kyauktaw Township have been newly displaced over the course of one week, it has been reported. Among them, approximately 2,000 are in Kyauktaw town, with about 2,000 seeking safely in surrounding villages. According to the emergency relief committee secretary U Maung Tun Kin, a number of different settlements have sprung up within Kyauktaw town. 1,704 IDPs are staying in open camps,107 in Kan Kyi Shin Monastery, approximately 100 in Tharthanar Biman Monastery and about 100 ethnic Mro in a Christian church..."
Source/publisher: BNI media group
2020-03-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
more
expand all
collapse all

Individual Documents

Description: "Myanmar’s junta says it is working to bring back Rohingya refugees who fled Rakhine State for Bangladesh following the military’s supposed counter-insurgency operations in 2017. Junta leaders, including International Cooperation Minister U Ko Ko Hlaing, Border Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Tun Tun Naung, Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Minister Dr. Thet Thet Khaing and Immigration and Population Minister U Myint Kyaing, visited Maungdaw on the Bangladesh border on Sunday and instructed the authorities to prepare transit camps for repatriation. One Maungdaw resident said: “I heard they asked departments to make transit camps ready, that they would take back refugees from Bangladesh, that they would make preparations whether [Rohingya] come back or not.” Some Muslim and Hindu leaders from Maungdaw were summoned to Sittwe to meet junta ministers. Ko Khin Maung from a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh said whether the Rohingya will return to Maungdaw depends on the junta’s honesty and the refugees have little trust in the repatriation program. “We do want to return. We are experiencing hardships, after staying for a long time in refugee camps. But the question is if we will be allowed to go back to our homes. It is not OK for us if we will just be held at the Hla Poe Kaung transit camp. The repatriation program will not be successful if the regime is dishonest,” he said. Rohingya rights activist U Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Germany-based Free Rohingya Coalition, said the Rohingya would not return unless their rights are guaranteed. “The news of junta ministers making inspection tours at the border to take back refugees is no longer news to us. We are used to hearing such news. And refugees are not excited anymore. The military moves slightly when there are growing pressures from the international community and China. Nothing more than that,” U Nay San Lwin said. Recently, the regime sent back over 900 Rohingya detained in Yangon and elsewhere in Myanmar to Maungdaw. They will reportedly be accommodated at transit camps but The Irrawaddy could not independently verify this. The regime’s repatriation moves, according to some Rohingya activists, are an attempt to salvage its international reputation and help its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Myanmar faces genocide charges. A brutal military crackdown in the wake of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks on police outposts in Rakhine in 2017 forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee across the Bangladesh border. In response The Gambia in November 2019 brought a case at the ICJ, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya. On November 23, 2017, Bangladesh and the now-ousted National League for Democracy government signed a repatriation agreement but there has been no progress. Rohingya refugees have been widely referred to as “Bengalis” by Myanmar’s authorities, implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Topic: Burma, conflict journalism, corporate politics of immediation, emotion in media, journalism, politics of immediation, refugees, Rohingya
Topic: Burma, conflict journalism, corporate politics of immediation, emotion in media, journalism, politics of immediation, refugees, Rohingya
Description: "Burma is the second largest country in Southeast Asia, and prior to the current period of opening that began in 2010, had been under tight military control since 1962. Until recently, on the rare occasions when the country has invited inter- national attention, it has done so for its lack of democracy and its abusive human rights record. Despite Burma’s diversity, with 135 ethnic groups legally recognized by the 1982 Citizenship Law, the Rohingyas are not listed as such, although many have lived in Burma for generations. Thus the Rohingya remain stateless, with a total population in Burma of approximately 800,000, a component of the four percent of the Burmese population who are Muslim in a country that is 90% Buddhist. The Rohingyas have been much maligned, called ‘ugly as ogres,’dirty, terrorists, and ‘kalar,’ a racial slur. Myanmar’s government refers to the Rohingya as ‘Bengalis’ or ‘illegal Bengalis,’ which speaks of their status as uprooted Bangladeshi immigrants during the British occupation. Anti-Muslim violence occurred in 1978, 1997, and 2001, in different areas of Burma, and violence between the Muslim Rohingyas and the Rakhine Buddhists has been referred to by one UN official as a ‘chronic crisis’ (Fuller, 2012: 19). In the June 2012 violence, almost 5,000 Rohingya houses were burned down by Rakhine Buddhists, police, military, and other ‘security’ forces, more than 30,000 Rohingyas became homeless, and many lost their lives. The violence between June 2012 and March 2014, including a major wave of violence in October 2012, resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people and displaced another 140,000, the vast majority of them Rohingya. While there have been Rakhine victims, the majority have been Rohingya. While some Rohingyas are taking shelter in displacement camps, others have tried to enter neighboring countries such as Bangladesh. Most often they are denied entry, facing dangerous and often deadly conditions at sea. Their plight has triggered international calls by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights groups and other countries to grant them entry into Bangladesh and other countries according to international law. Despite elections in Burma in 2010 that led to a nominally civilian government, the military’s influence remains strong, as it is constitutionally guaranteed 25% of the parliamentary seats. Former military general and now president, Thein Sein, and Burmese opposition leader and now member of parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi, have both vowed to work towards democratic change. The nature of these changes, and the international interest in Burma that has skyrocketed since the first signs of democratic progress in the country, are the focus of much discussion and debate. Our purpose here is to analyze how the three media sources construct the story of the sectarian violence threatening to derail the reform process, and the implications this may have for Myanmar’s media and for media systems in countries in transition. We find that combining attention to Mutua’s SVS framework with attention to the politics of immediation provides insight into how different patterns of media representation imply different policy solutions. The next section contextualizes Mutua’s approach and framework..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "International Communication Gazette"
2012-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 161.34 KB
more
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)
2020-12-10
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Portions of ethnic states remain in internet blackout as criticism grows
Description: "Myanmar citizens living in some of the country's ethnic conflict zones are facing difficulties accessing the internet due to government restrictions and the low level of communications infrastructure, despite national leader Aung San Suu Kyi's push for a digital economy in the aftermath the coronavirus pandemic. "Although access to [the] internet is a human rights issue in the digital era, there are places with no internet, slow internet and imposed internet shutdown by the government, especially in the conflict zones," Athan, an activist group supporting freedom of expression in Myanmar, said in a report critical of the government that was released on Dec. 23. In 2014, the government allowed foreign mobile operators to enter the country, which significantly reduced the mobile phone charges. The number of mobile subscriptions per 100 inhabitants increased to 113 in 2018 from just 13 in 2013, according to the International Telecommunication Union, an international organization. A number of mobile money services, enabling people to transfer money to each other using their phones, emerged from 2016. The government stressed the importance of and opportunities for digitalizing the economy, such as utilizing technology in money transfers. A speech on Dec. 20 by Aung San Suu Kyi, who carries the title of state counselor, highlighted this policy. "COVID-19 has thrown light on the significance of the digital system and the need for digital transformation to be launched with increased momentum," she said, stressing that the government is collaborating with the private sector to build digital platforms such as for trading goods and services..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Nikkei Asian Review" (Japan)
2021-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Three rapists were jailed for 20 years with hard labour in a case that pitted a 36-year-old mother of four against the powerful military.
Description: "Lodging a legal complaint pitted the 36-year-old mother of four against Myanmar’s most powerful institution, whose soldiers have long been accused by rights groups of using rape as a weapon of war in the country’s conflict zones. The crime was committed in June in northern Rakhine state – the site of a nearly two-year battle between the military and the Arakan Army, which is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population. “Many women like me have already endured the same thing,” Thein Nu – who has been given a pseudonym to protect her identity – told the AFP news agency. “If I didn’t reveal this, it could lead to many more in Rakhine [being abused].” Her victory came after an initial denial from the military, which said she made up the allegations, and she still faces the glare of widespread social stigma, including from her husband who refuses to speak to her. Watershed moment? “I am both happy and sad,” she said, still in disbelief that the military tribunal ruled in her favour. “I don’t entirely believe this verdict will stop the rape and abuse against women in conflict areas because they (the military) are unreliable people with two faces.” In a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing, the military on Saturday announced the verdict and sentence against the three rapists, trumpeting its own “transparent” investigation of the case. But observers warned it is too soon to judge whether Thein Nu’s victory will be a watershed moment for the armed forces – which ruled Myanmar outright until 2011 and still holds sway over many aspects of life in the country..."
Source/publisher: Agence France-Presse (AFP) (France) via "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
2020-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: In a proposal regarding the Rohingya issue and other human rights situation in Myanmar placed before the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations, China and Russia yet again took stance in favour of Myanmar while India abstained from voting.
Description: "On Thursday, December 31, the last working day of 2020, the voting on the proposal was held during the 48th meeting of the 75th UNGA Session, according to a UN release. The 25-point proposal regarding allegations of alarming extent of human rights violations by the Myanmar military and security forces in Kachin, Rakhine, Chin and Shan states of the country was discussed in the Thursday meeting. A total of 130 countries voted against Myanmar, including nine which previously voted in favour of Myanmar, while 26 countries, including India, Bhutan, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, abstained from voting. China, Russia, Belarus, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam and Zimbabwe voted in Myanmar's favour. Defending Myanmar's position, the country's representative at the meeting said human rights is being made a political issue against Myanmar, adding that the issues being discussed are Myanmar's internal matter. Myanmar's newly elected government is against human rights violence and steps are being taken in the country to this end, the representative also said. Rejecting the UN proposal, the Myanmar representative said the country's government is interested to discuss the issues with the Rohingya and other minority communities in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" (Bangladesh)
2021-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Hundreds of thousands of people trapped near fierce fighting in Myanmar's far west may know nothing of Covid-19 thanks to a yearlong internet shutdown, according to rights groups. Last June, the Myanmar government, led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, cut internet access to nine townships in the area due to concerns that it was being used to inflame clashes between the Myanmar military and insurgents. One township its service restored in May, but eight others, with a total population of about 800,000 people, remain in an information blackout. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say the extended shutdown is putting lives at risk, not only because it's preventing people from reporting possible human rights abuses -- but because it has cut off them off from public health campaigns about the coronavirus pandemic. "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," Linda Lakhdhir, Asia legal adviser at Human Rights Watch said in a statement..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
2020-06-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Military says it will “take action” against soldiers who beat civilians in videos that went viral on Sunday
Description: "The Myanmar military has admitted its soldiers beat a group of civilian detainees in Rakhine state after videos of the incident went viral on social media this weekend. Five Rakhine villagers, all in their early 20s, were arrested in their hometown of Ponnagyun and charged under anti-terrorism laws in late April. They’ve been in Tatmadaw and police custody since. In three separate videos that went viral on Sunday, Tatmadaw soldiers are seen repeatedly beating the blindfolded and handcuffed young men on a boat on the way to Sittwe, the state capital, on April 27. “Some members of the security forces performed unlawful interrogations against them,” the military said in a statement on Tuesday evening. In the video, a man in a Tatmadaw hat shouts “we’ll kill all of you” as he steps on the detainees’ faces and stomps on their chests. After their initial arrest, a Tatmadaw spokesperson told reporters the men were arrested on suspicion of harboring ties to the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine armed group the government has deemed a terrorist organisation..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2020-05-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Less than two weeks after video of five men being beaten by Tatmadaw soldiers went viral online, the victims of the “unlawful interrogations” appeared before the Sittwe District Court on May 22 and were arraigned on terrorism charges, lawyer U Kyaw Nyunt Maung told DMG. The five men from Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township were among 38 people interrogated by the military on April 19. But while the other 33 were reportedly released the next day, Ko Nyi Nyi Aung, Ko Aung Myo Lin and Ko Maung Chay from Kyaukseik village; Ko Min Soe from Ponnagyun town; and Ko Kyaw Win Hein from Zeebingyi village were charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law days later, accused of having ties to the Arakan Army. Videos showing the men being repeatedly punched and kicked by soldiers aboard a Tatmadaw watercraft surfaced online on May 10, and two days later the military admitted that “some members of the security forces performed unlawful interrogations against them.” Ko Kyaw Win Hein emerged from the “interrogation” experiencing chest pain and was being provided medical treatment for the injuries he sustained at the hands of the security forces, his mother said..."
Source/publisher: "Eurasia Review"
2020-05-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Government forces are fighting the Arakan Army in the state.
Description: "Government soldiers are in Rakhine state again, more than two-and-a-half years after a military offensive killed thousands of Rohingya and drove out more than 700,000 others. This time, they are fighting the Arakan Army, an armed group founded in 2009 that says it is fighting for the rights of the ethnic, mainly Buddhist, Rakhine minority. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that conditions on the ground and an internet shutdown has made reaching people or gathering information increasingly difficult..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
2020-03-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
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)
2020-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Independent UN human rights experts on Tuesday voiced grave concern over the killing and displacement of civilians in north-west Myanmar during the intensifying conflict between the military and an armed group, the Arakan Army, amid an information blackout in some parts of Rakhine and Chin states.
Description: "“Civilians, including children, continue to bear the brunt of this escalating conflict,”said the UN rights experts, adding that “we are especially fearful for them as violence has increased in the areas where an internet shutdown was recently re-imposed.” In a joint statement, the experts said that since the beginning of February, the Mayanmr Government had imposed restrictions, including a three-month suspension of mobile internet services, in Muslim-majority Rakhine state and in Chin state, the experts explained in a statement. Further, credible reports showed that fighting and possible use of heavy weapons occurred near ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya villages. “We are gravely concerned that children are being killed and injured, and that reports suggest weapons are being used indiscriminately, and precautions are not being taken to protect civilians and civilian objects such as schools and monasteries, in violation of international humanitarian law,” the experts said. On the one hand, civilians continue to experience severe difficulties in moving around the conflict-affected area, particularly for those in need of assistance. On the other hand, heavy restrictions on humanitarian access in Rakhine state remain and access for the media and human rights monitors is extremely limited. “We call on all parties to the conflict to abide by international humanitarian law and international human rights law and protect civilians at all times,” said the experts..."
Source/publisher: UN News
2020-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "At least seven civilians, including four Rohingya Muslims, died and 30 residents were injured in the past 11 days in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, a local aid worker said Wednesday, as the number of noncombatant deaths grows amid fighting between government forces and the rebel Arakan Army. Nyi Pu, chairman of the Phyusin Metta Social Aid Group from Kyauktaw town, said his organization helped at least 10 injured civilians in the last week. “In just seven days, a Rakhine woman from Myauktaung village and three people from a Muslim village were injured, and a Muslim woman died,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “In another village, one of the five injured children died when a mortar dropped near them,” he said. “Yesterday, four more people were injured when another mortar shell dropped on Myauktaung village.” The civilian death toll in northern Rakhine reached more than 100, while the number of injured was over 250 as of December 2018 when hostilities between the two armies escalated, according to the Rakhine Ethnic Congress, a local relief group. The growing numbers come despite claims by both the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA) that their soldiers have been ordered to abide by the rules to avoid injuring villagers..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2020-02-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
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..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
2020-02-05
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "The surprisingly strong ruling against Myanmar by the United Nations’ top court this week is sure to increase international pressure on the country to protect its Muslim Rohingya minority, who critics say have been the victims of a government-sanctioned genocide. But on Friday — a day after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya and report back regularly on the steps it has taken to do so — it was still unclear what the country’s response would be. The government has said almost nothing about the ruling, except to deny that the widely documented killing and persecution of the Rohingya by Myanmar’s military amounted to genocide. Rights lawyers and an attorney for the African nation of Gambia, which brought the case, said the unanimous decision by the 15-judge panel had gone beyond even what Gambia had asked for. Myanmar and Gambia were each allowed to appoint a member of the panel, and even Myanmar’s choice — Claus Kress, a German law professor — sided with Gambia..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
2020-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Myanmar’s anti-money laundering authority alleged the Yangon eateries were used as fronts to fund the Arakan Army
Description: "The Central Body on Anti-Money Laundering ordered two Rakhine restaurants in Yangon to shut down last week, alleging the businesses were being used to launder funds to the Arakan Army (AA), an armed ethnic group warring with the Myanmar military in Rakhine state. One of the restaurants is co-owned by Aung Myat Kyaw, the brother of AA chief Twan Mrat Naing. The other is owned by well-known Rakhine singer Win Ko Khaing. Both restaurants specialise in Rakhine cuisine, known for its seafood and spice. Aung Myat Kyaw’s Tamwe township restaurant, Phoenix, opened in 2015. Win Ko Khaing opened Maha Nwe in South Okkalapa township in October. Aung Myat Kyaw has been on trial since being deported from Singapore last July for allegedly funding the AA, which the Tatmadaw has accused of terrorism. He was deported with five other Rakhine natives then living in Singapore; they currently face prison sentences of 10 years to life. Singapore’s home ministry accused the six of using the city-state “as a platform to organize support for armed violence” in Myanmar. Aung Myat Kyaw and several of the deportees were members of the Arakan Association Singapore, an organisation that held social and cultural events for Rakhine migrants living in Singapore. Association chair Hein Zaw was among them..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2020-
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: Rohingya rebels who had been holding him for weeks said he died during military attacks on Christmas Day
Description: "An official from Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party was killed in Rakhine state after planning a show of support for the leader’s defense of Myanmar against genocide allegations at The Hague, a spokesman said Thursday. The National League for Democracy’s Ye Thein, party chairman in Buthidaung township, had been held for weeks by the Arakan Army, insurgents fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. The rebels said he was killed in military attacks on Christmas Day but the claim could not be verified and NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt said the group bore responsibility. Ye Thein was detained on December 11 ahead of demonstrations backing Suu Kyi’s high-profile opening statements at the UN’s top court the same day. “We, all members of NLD, are very sorry for the loss,” Myo Nyunt told AFP. “His gathering to support her was righteous and it was not a crime.” The Arakan Army has carried out a series of daring kidnappings, bombings and raids against the army and local officials in Rakhine state. Myanmar’s military has hit back hard, deploying thousands of additional soldiers to the western state and carrying out what Amnesty International called enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
2019-12-26
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Topic: Rakhine, Arakan Army, Tatmadaw, 2020 election
Sub-title: As Myanmar marked Independence Day on January 4 with formal ceremonies, a national holiday and street games, a very different anniversary passed almost without mention in the country’s west.
Topic: Rakhine, Arakan Army, Tatmadaw, 2020 election
Description: "Exactly a year earlier, Arakan Army soldiers had staged coordinated attacks on four police stations in northern Rakhine State, killing 13 officers. The attacks have precipitated bloody clashes, mass displacement and human rights violations in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin State. More than 100 civilians have been killed and many more injured as a result of small arms fire, artillery barrages and landmines. The Rakhine Ethnics Committee, a local civil society group, estimates that around 100,000 people have been displaced. Official figures are less than half that, but even if the true figure is somewhere in the middle, it represents a significant and tragic toll. Rakhine was already reeling from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks in 2016-17 and the military’s subsequent crackdowns that sent almost 750,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. But the conflict with the Arakan Army has plunged the state into new depths of violence and chaos. The outlook is bleak. Despite early predictions that the Arakan Army would be unable to sustain its operations, it has proven remarkably resilient and the fighting continues to spread. Most recently, on Christmas Day, clashes were reported in Ann Township, a Tatmadaw stronghold and home of its Western Command. The AA appears to have no shortage of recruits, and continues to find ways to arm and supply its forces. Its success is built largely on strong popular support. The government and military have sought to undermine this through a range of harsh measures, including detaining those suspected of links to the AA, cutting supplies to camps for the internally displaced, shutting down mobile internet access and restricting the activities of civil society groups. Predictably, these seem to have had the opposite effect, by further antagonising civilians..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2020-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Topic: Myanmar, Rakhine State, Rohingya
Topic: Myanmar, Rakhine State, Rohingya
Description: "Shelling by Myanmar's military killed a woman and two infants, and wounded six others in Rakhine State on Monday (Dec 2), according to residents and a lawmaker in the town of Mrauk U, where security forces are fighting against an ethnic militant group. The army unleashed a counter-insurgency campaign against the Arakan Army, which recruits from the region's mostly Buddhist ethnic Rakhine population, almost a year ago. The militants are fighting for greater autonomy from the central government, and authorities cut Internet access to most of the region in June. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced across Rakhine since clashes began in December last year, bringing fresh chaos to the region, from which more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled a military crackdown in 2017. Two military spokesmen did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment, while a spokesman for the Arakan Army also blamed the army for the shelling, saying there were no clashes involving its fighters in Mrauk U..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
2019-12-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Myanmar’s human rights commission will not investigate alleged abuses committed against civilian detainees in war-ravaged northern Rakhine state, including deaths in custody of the government military, unless the army first finds soldiers guilty of such abuse, two lawmakers who requested probes told RFA’s Myanmar Service on Monday. Oo Tun Win and Myint Naing, two lawmakers from Rakhine’s Kyauktaw township, submitted a formal letter to Myanmar’s parliament on June 21 through the Committee for Compliant and Appeals, urging an investigation into incidents in which suspects died in military detention, and calling for legal action against violators. On Monday, nearly six months after submitting the letter, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) replied that it would take legal action only if current investigations by a Ministry of Defense tribunal found soldiers guilty. Oo Tun Win said the commission’s response is unsatisfactory. “I would like to hear the human rights commission’s conclusion on the case,” he told RFA. “It has the authority to investigate and expose the losses of citizens’ rights and present the findings to the relevant ministries.”..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
2019-12-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "One of the enduring mysteries in recent years is what happened to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi. Somehow, some way, the woman known as “the Lady of Burma”—who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 after she spent 15 years under house arrest in Myanmar for her democratic activism—seems to have lost her soul. Her drive to the top of Myanmar’s political hierarchy and quest to burnish her political legacy have been relentless, but also devastating for all those who once hailed her commitment to democracy and nonviolence. Since she became the de facto civilian head of Myanmar’s government following landmark elections in 2015, assuming the newly created position of state counselor, equivalent to prime minister, Aung San Suu Kyi has emerged as one of the most virulent defenders of the military junta that separated her from her family for years and ruled Myanmar for decades—and whose generals still wield most of the power in the country. This week, however, the Nobel laureate showed just how much she will compromise for the sake of power when she announced that she will personally lead the legal team defending Myanmar against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Next month, she will travel to The Hague to fight tooth and nail in a case brought to the ICJ recently by Gambia, with the support of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, alleging that Myanmar’s military committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in its campaign to drive minority Rohingya Muslims out of western Myanmar. The announcement comes at an inauspicious time for Myanmar, since this is not the only case seeking justice for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have been displaced from their homes since the military onslaught began in August 2017. As noted by Andrew Boyle at Just Security, in addition to the war crimes charges at the ICJ, government officials in the majority-Buddhist country are also facing additional charges of genocide and crimes against humanity brought on behalf of the Rohingya under a universal jurisdiction claim in Argentina. Meanwhile, judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague have also authorized the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to move forward with a formal investigation into charges that Myanmar’s leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi and her military compatriots, were complicit in genocide..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "World Politics Review (WPR)"
2019-11-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Villagers and students, abducted by an ethnic insurgent group in Myanmar's western Chin state during this year, reached 82 as of the end of October since Jan. 31, according to the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services Friday. The abductees taken away by the Arakan Army (AA) are from Paletwa township of the state. They were kidnapped during the months of January, June and August respectively. Families of the abductees complained to the authorities that they did not receive any contact from them until Oct. 31.The families were seeking help from the Chin state government and the National Reconciliation and Peace Center to save the detainees from the AA, according to the military office. The AA group was charged with conducting acts of disrupting peace and rule of law as well as abducting public servants and innocent civilians..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2019-11-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: This latest battle could be the army’s undoing.
Description: "MRAUK U, Myanmar—Here in the town of Mrauk U, in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, there has been little to celebrate during this October’s Thadingyut, the second-most important annual festival of the Buddhist calendar. Normally, the auspicious full moon would be hailed with a floating armada of delicate candlelit paper lanterns and song, theater, and dance. Yet this year, there are no celebrations. Instead, at 9 p.m. sharp, a curfew falls as soldiers from the Myanmar Army, known as the Tatmadaw, emerge from their posts to pull barbed wire and steel barricades across roads. Shops and businesses shutter, the streets empty and lights flickering out. Under the looming gaze of hundreds of medieval temples—relics of a time when this was the capital of one of the richest and most powerful states in Southeast Asia—parents gather up their children by flashlight and head into makeshift bunkers, dug into the soft clay beneath their houses. These gimcrack dugouts, ringed with old sand-filled cement bags, may not look much, but they provide at least some shelter from the shells, rockets, and bullets now increasingly flying between the Tatmadaw and local rebels, up above..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Foreign Policy" (USA)
2019-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Seven armed men have robbed gold and cash from five houses in two villages, shooting dead two cows in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, Myanmar Police Force said Tuesday. In civilian clothing, the seven armed men fired shots into the air and entered Yathedaung township's Sinkondaing village, robbing gold and cash from a house on Sunday and similarly, they also broke into another house in Luntaung village and committed the robbery on the same day. A case has been opened by the local police to arrest the robbers. Meanwhile, police seized a passenger vehicle in southern Bago region which refused to get checked in Ottha Myothit town on Sunday by crashing into the police vehicle. The two men on board attempting to run away were arrested with some psychotropic tablets and three tons of illegal teak timber being seized. The local police force also opened a case with the two men..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2019-10-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Yangon, 30 September 2019 -The United Nations in Myanmar urges the Government to end the shutdown of mobile internet services in Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, and Minbya Townships in Rakhine State. While welcoming steps taken to restore service to five out of the nine townships affected by the shutdown, the United Nations also notes that for those townships which remain cut off, the shut-down will have reached its 101st day on 30 September 2019. Uninterrupted availability of the internet is indispensable and mobile internet services are a key enabler of the humanitarian and development work of the United Nations in Myanmar. The shutdown has therefore been a significant impediment to our work, complicating our ability to communicate in field locations, including with affected people. More broadly, the public in these areas, many of whom were already severely affected by the ongoing armed conflict in the area and by related constraints on humanitarian access, are facing additional difficulties related to the shutdown and in their daily lives. The internet is critical for access to information and freedom of expression, which enable other fundamental human rights. The shutdown is in contradiction to the principles and values of the Sustainable Development Goals, signed by the Government of Myanmar, which call for no one to be left behind, and has the potential to further undermine basic rights around access to food, education, health services and information.
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar via Reliefweb
2019-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 80.26 KB 121.39 KB
more
Sub-title: European Parliament urges UNSC; calls for targeted sanctions
Description: "The European Parliament has called on the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations against the Rohingyas. It also called on the Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC). So far, the UN Security Council has been divided over any concrete action against Myanmar for opposition of veto powers -- China and Russia. The European Parliament adopted a resolution with 546 votes in favour, 12 against and 94 abstentions on Thursday on “Myanmar, notably the situation of the Rohingya”. Over 730,000 Rohingyas fled brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August 2017, which according to the UN independent investigators, amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. The Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh, and two attempts of repatriation failed as the refugees said the guarantee of citizenship and safety was not ensured. The remaining 600,000 Rohingya in Rakhine still face the threats of genocide, according to the UN investigators. They are subjected to ongoing discriminatory policies and practices, systematic violations basic rights, while there are tight military controls in place limiting access to aid agencies and media in Rakhine..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" ( Bangladesh)
2019-09-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: European Parliament urges UNSC; calls for targeted sanctions
Description: "The European Parliament has called on the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations against the Rohingyas. It also called on the Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC). So far, the UN Security Council has been divided over any concrete action against Myanmar for opposition of veto powers -- China and Russia. The European Parliament adopted a resolution with 546 votes in favour, 12 against and 94 abstentions on Thursday on “Myanmar, notably the situation of the Rohingya”. Over 730,000 Rohingyas fled brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August 2017, which according to the UN independent investigators, amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. The Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh, and two attempts of repatriation failed as the refugees said the guarantee of citizenship and safety was not ensured. The remaining 600,000 Rohingya in Rakhine still face the threats of genocide, according to the UN investigators. They are subjected to ongoing discriminatory policies and practices, systematic violations basic rights, while there are tight military controls in place limiting access to aid agencies and media in Rakhine..."
Source/publisher: "The Daily Star" ( Bangladesh)
2019-09-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Topic: Rakhine, Chin State, Arakan Army,Tatmadaw, IDPs, United Nations, Yanghee Leetorture
Topic: Rakhine, Chin State, Arakan Army,Tatmadaw, IDPs, United Nations, Yanghee Leetorture
Description: "Tens of thousands of people have been displaced across Myanmar's Rakhine and Chin states this year, as the military battles the Arakan Army, a UN rights expert said Monday. "Up to 65,000 people have been displaced by the conflict across northern Rakhine and southern Chin States since January," said Ms Yanghee Lee, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar. Myanmar's army has deployed thousands of troops there in recent months to try to crush the AA, which is fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine. Presenting an update on the situation in Myanmar to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Lee pointed out that the military had been "using helicopter gunships against the Arakan Army." "Both sides are accused of indiscriminate use of heavy artillery fire, gunfire and landmines in civilian areas," she said. At the same time, humanitarian access "remains heavily restricted by the state government in conflict-affected townships, significantly depriving at least 100,000 people of assistance and basic services." And "imposed curfews are preventing people from reaching livelihoods, medical treatment and safe passage," she warned. Lee said in recent months she had continued to receive reports of civilians, including children, being killed, either because they were targeted or hit with indiscriminate fire in the region..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar) via AFP
2019-09-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business and three partners have launched a campaign to highlight the impact of an internet blackout on residents of four townships in Rakhine State. The campaign will culminate on September 30 with “Myanmar Internet Blackout Day 101” to “show solidarity with over 600,000 people in Rakhine who will have had not access to the internet for 101 days,” MCRB said in a statement on its website. “On that day, MCRB encourages anyone who cares about internet access, whether from business, government or non-government organisations and individuals to turn off their mobile data, turn off their wifi, put an out-of-office message on email, and close Facebook, and see what it feels like,” it said. “Alternatively, tell us why you can’t survive one day without internet access, let alone 101.” The campaign to highlight the government’s “unprecedented order” on June 20 to shut down all mobile phone operators in eight Rakhine townships and Paletwa Township in neighbouring Chin State, which affected more than one million people, also involves civil society groups Free Expression Myanmar, Myan ICT for Development Organisation (MIDO) and community tech hub, Phandeeyar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "At least three children were killed and three others seriously injured in an artillery shell explosion today at a village under Minbya township, 50 miles east of Arakanese capital city of Sittwe. The incident took place at 10 am near the Pan Myaung village hospital, when one of artillery shells fall in the village. According to village sources, Aung Zin Phyo (6 years old son of U Aung Than Mying) and Min Htet Kyaw (9, son of U Kyaw Win) were killed on the spot near their residences. On the other hand, Ma Nyo Nyo Win (15, daughter of U Kyaw Thein) died at the hospital. Few other villagers are also being hospitalized as they received serious injuries. A local villager accused that the artillery shell fall during the Myanmar Army’s exercises nearby Pan Myaung village. “I don’t know if the artillery shell could fall due to intention of the security forces. We know that an army column stationed in the mountain adjacent to our village on 21 August. Since then, they are firing artillery shells to a distant location,” he added. Several residents of the village informed Narinjara News through telephonic conversations that the artillery shell fall down as the security forces started firing from the mountain. The villagers are worried about their safety and security after the tragedy..."
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group" via Narinjara News
2019-08-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "The situation of human rights in Myanmar[1] is increasingly deteriorating with the Myanmar military becoming evermore emboldened to act with impunity, continuing to evade accountability for the grave crimes they have committed in Rakhine State. Just days after the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar delivered her oral statement at the 41st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council, warning of possible fresh war crimes being committed under the blackout of information due to the ongoing internet shutdown, reports of the military burning down villages emerged as civilians, such Zaw Win Hline who was tortured, continue to die while in military custody. Fifteen days after the Myanmar government shut down the internet in eight townships in Rakhine State and in Paletwa Township in Chin State, the Myanmar military burned down villages in Rathedaung Township as they carried out “clearance operations” against the ethnic armed organization, the Arakan Army (AA). A school teacher residing in Amyet Taung Village where the Myanmar military torched homes stated that while the Myanmar military assumed AA members were residing in the village, this “wasn’t true” and that “It [the attacks] only affects the civilians…The villagers are now fleeing their homes and are in trouble.” While the Myanmar military steps up its presence in Rakhine State as they conduct such heinous operations, they have also continued to arrest and detain those suspected of being members of the AA. Most recently, a local resident from Shwe Tun Phyu Village in Mrauk-U Township, Zaw Win Hline, was arrested by the Myanmar military on 20 June, 2019, suspected of being a member of the AA. He died on June 24th after being subjected to several days of interrogation and torture. According to his mother, when he was brought to the Sittwe hospital having sustained severe injuries, he was vomiting blood and unable to eat or drink water. Reportedly his last words, “Don’t give me water, Mom. I will not last long. My organs are badly damaged. I can’t breathe. Don’t give me water, Mom. I have to go,” were shared widely on the internet drawing outrage among rights activists, sparking a campaign demanding justice. According to reports, soldiers had beaten him with packed stones in a longyi (traditional Burmese sarong) on his back and chest. Such cases of torture, as well as extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests that continue to be reported widely in Rakhine State, constitute war crimes under international law. According to reports by Radio Free Asia, some 14 civilians have died in custody of the military or the police since March 2019 during the intensification of the Rakhine conflict. Meanwhile, the Myanmar Police Force has filed charges against four of the top leaders of the AA under the Counter-Terrorism Law. This is the first time leaders of any ethnic armed organization have been charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law. The Myanmar military is also becoming evermore intolerant of criticisms against them. A report by Athan, a freedom of expression activist organization, found that the Myanmar military has sued nearly 80 individuals over a three and a half year period, with numbers surging in the past three months. Many have been charged under the outdated and repressive colonial-era penal code – Article 505(a) – and are accused of “causing or intending to cause members of the armed forces to mutiny, fail or disregard their duties.” In addition, there is a wider trend of increasing numbers of political prisoners under the National League for Democracy-led government. The recent numbers of political prisoners documented by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners indicate a total of 466 political prisoners with 34 currently serving their sentences, 161 awaiting trial inside prison and 271 awaiting trial outside prison. This is an increase of 78 political prisoners since last month. Meanwhile, Christopher Sidoti, a member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) has likened the conditions for Rohingya internally displaced person’s camps in Rakhine State to a Nazi concentration camp. Speaking on the continuing restrictions on the freedom of movement for the Rohingya, he stated “What has happened in the past two years has strengthened the genocidal intent.” His comments come as the IIFFMM prepares their report to the Human Rights Council, which will be delivered at the upcoming 42nd Regular Session in September 2019..."
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice
2019-07-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Burma Human Rights Network remains extremely alarmed by the number of civilian casualties and injuries suffered by members of various ethnic groups in the areas of conflict between the Burmese Army and the ethnic armed group, the Arakan Army. Civilians have been killed or maimed by guns, landmines, and artillery shells with near silence from the international community. Among those casualties are Rakhine, Rohingya and Chin civilians. As of now, nearly 40, 000 civilians in Rakhine have been displaced due to this conflict. “The fighting between the Burmese Army and the Arakan Army has significantly harmed the communities of all ethnic groups living in the region. As minorities their lives are too often treated as less valuable to the military. It is imperative that Rohingya and Rakhine can achieve some unity now to amplify their voices to call for peace and that the international community acts to help them do so,” said BHRN Executive Director Kyaw Win. Between March of 2019 and today, BHRN believes that at least 35 civilians have died in the conflict based on confirmed ground sources and news reporting, though this number is a conservative estimate. Among the dead were five children and at least two elderly individuals. All of these deaths were the result of direct violence such as gunshots, artillery shelling, landmines, or aerial bombardments and do not include deaths which may have occurred due to sickness or starvation resulting from displacement. It is worth noting that the Burmese Military has not utilized the same scorched earth policy against civilians they deployed against the Rohingya in response to Rohingya militant attacks in 2016 and 201 but the disregard for civilian life while using heavy artillery, aerial bombardments, and landmines remains excessive and deadly. On top of deaths and injuries, Rohingya continue to frequently find themselves unable to seek medical help due to travel restrictions imposed on them by the Government and NGO access during the conflict is extremely limited. At the same time, reports are now emerging that Chin civilians are being forced to serve as porters in the conflict by the Burmese army, a serious human rights violation. In this conflict the Burmese Military continues to show disregard for International Law and guiding principles and norms. In particular, the Military has clearly violated the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 3 which guarantees the right of life liberty and security of person, Article 4 which prohibits slavery or servitude, Article 5 which prohibits the use of torture, Article 9 which prohibits arbitrary detention, and Article 13 which assures freedom of movement. The Burmese military have also disregarded the Principle of Proportionality which states, “Before launching an attack there is an obligation to assess whether or not the impact on the civilian population is excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.” Finally, the Military is operating in defiance of the ASEAN Charter Article 2 2(I) and 2(J) which call for the protection of human rights and upholding of International Humanitarian Law. The Burmese Government must be reminded that these cases should be referred to the International Criminal Court and that the civilian government also bears responsibility for the military operations taking place in Rakhine State. While the National League for Democracy has often escaped blame for Military operations, their continued enabling, excusing, and minimising of the violence of the military has made them culpable as well. These instances should be pertinent to the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and when conducting further military actions Burma should be aware that any crimes are being monitored and documented. BHRN calls upon the international community to increase pressure on the Burmese Military to cease the conflict in Rakhine State and immediately end arbitrary attacks on civilians and the use of heavy weapons in civilian areas. The international community must impose targeted sanctions on the Military’s economic interests, including businesses connected to senior military and known cronies. An arms embargo against the Burmese Military is also necessary and requires the participation of all ethical governments. Simultaneously, the Arakan Army must stop the use of landmines and IEDs in or near civilian areas. Unimpeded access for NGOs must be granted and all residents in Rakhine State must be allowed freedom of movement, especially in order to obtain medical treatment..."
Creator/author: Kyaw Win
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "Burma Human Rights Network"
2019-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "Myanmar authorities should immediately drop charges against Aung Marm Oo, the editor and executive director of the Development Media Group (DMG) based in Rakhine State, said Fortify Rights today. Aung Marm Oo, also known as Aung Min Oo, faces charges under the Unlawful Association Act for his involvement in the Sittwe-based DMG, a media outlet that reports on human rights violations in Rakhine State and other parts of the country. “This is part of a widespread and ongoing crackdown against basic rights and free expression in Myanmar,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “The authorities should immediately drop this case against Aung Marm Oo and DMG.” On May 1, the Special Branch (SB) Police, operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs, filed charges against Aung Marm Oo at the Sittwe Myoma Police Station No. 1 in Rakhine State for alleged violations under Section 17/2 of the Unlawful Association Act. Section 17/2 of the Unlawful Associations Act prohibits the management or promotion or assistance in the management or promotion of an unlawful association and carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine. Aung Marm Oo is currently in hiding. The Sittwe police summoned and questioned DMG’s Reporter-in-Charge Nay Win San and Senior Reporter Thet Naing on their work with the DMG for approximately one hour on May 5 and three hours on May 6. Police reportedly asked Nay Win San about an article published by the DMG entitled “Moonless Night in Mrauk-U,” which focused on a violent police crackdown against peaceful protesters in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U in January 2018 that left seven protesters dead and others wounded. Police also questioned DMG journalist Thet Naing about the group’s news coverage of Rakhine State and questioned both journalists about DMG’s daily activities, publishing permits, circulation, and names of the staff. The chief of the Sittwe Police Station Captain Aung Mya Oo told the Irrawaddy, “We are questioning [the DMG reporters] because SB has filed a case against the Editor-in-Chief U Aung Min Oo under 17(2).” On May 8, Aung Marm Oo issued a statement on the charges, calling for the Myanmar Press Council (MPC) to “intervene to its full capacity.” The DMG was founded on January 9, 2012, and it was based on the Thailand-Myanmar border before registering in Myanmar and moving to Sittwe and Yangon in January 2014. DTV Daily News Programme and the bi-monthly Development News Journal operate under the DMG. DMG publishes in English and Burmese languages. Myanmar authorities have long used the sweeping provisions of the Unlawful Associations Act to arrest and imprison human rights defenders and journalists. The vague and overly broad provisions of the Unlawful Associations Act pose a sustained threat to human rights and the authorities’ selective enforcement of the law against minority groups and human rights defenders constitute violations of the right to freedom of expression and association. “Myanmar Parliament can and should repeal this colonial-era law without delay,” said Matthew Smith. “This law has no place in a rights-respecting democracy.” Despite the recent release of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who spent more than 500 days in detention for their investigation into a massacre of 10 Rohingya men by Myanmar security forces in northern Rakhine State, the Government of Myanmar continues to prosecute and jail journalists and human rights defenders. Myanmar authorities have recently brought charges against other media outlets reporting on events in Rakhine State. For example, the Irrawaddy and Radio Free Asia are facing defamation-related charges for their reporting on clashes between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA)—an armed opposition group operating in Rakhine State. The Myanmar military and AA have engaged in armed conflict since 2015. Clashes between the two armies intensified in recent months and weeks, displacing more than 30,000 civilians in seven townships of Rakhine State since January 2019. Fortify Rights has received credible reports of Myanmar Army soldiers killing, torturing, and arbitrarily arresting Rakhine civilians since January 2019—violations that would amount to war crimes. In 2016, Fortify Rights documented how the Myanmar Army forced Rakhine civilians to dig graves and carry supplies under the threat of death during fighting with the AA in Rakhine State. In January 2019, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her administration met and advised the Myanmar military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to “crush” the AA. “The president’s office has instructed the military to launch an operation to crush the terrorists,” government spokesperson Zaw Htay told a news conference in Naypyitaw. The Government of Myanmar should drop all charges against human rights defenders and journalists and free all remaining political prisoners in the country, said Fortify Rights today. On May 8, United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee and U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression David Kaye, said: “We remain terribly concerned about the state of media freedom and the democratic space in Myanmar.” “Media freedom is not a privilege, it’s a right,” said Matthew Smith. “In the context of war crimes and forthcoming national elections, crackdowns on media freedom are particularly egregious and should be fixed without delay.”..."
Creator/author: Nickey Diamond, Matthew Smith
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "Fortify Rights"
2019-05-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "Grandi who concluded his five-day visit to Myanmar on Friday, had "constructive and substantive" meetings on Thursday with State Counsellor Daw Aung San SuuKyi and other senior officials, and conveyed UNHCR call. He noted the positive efforts of the government to develop a national strategy on closure of IDP camps, and stressed the need for sustainable, safe and voluntary solutions to their plight in full consultation with the communities concerned. On Thursday, Grandi also signed a separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Disaster Management of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement covering UNHCR's broader activities throughout the country. The High Commissioner indicated his satisfaction that the Tripartite MoU will soon be extended for a further year and appreciated the commitment of the government to improve conditions. Small projects are carried out by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and UNDP teams, under the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the government of Myanmar in June 2018 and have the potential to help foster positive relations between communities, according to UNHCR..."
Source/publisher: The Daily Star
2019-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "We, the 24 organizations of the CSO Working Group on MNHRC Reform, call on the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) to act independently of the Myanmar military, and take firm, decisive action in regards to gross human rights violations committed in ethnic, conflict-affected areas. We are particularly disappointed that the MNHRC has unquestioningly accepted the Myanmar military’s version of events after six ethnic Rakhine villagers were shot dead while in custody of the military, despite on the ground reports that their killings were unlawful. On 30 April, 2019, the Myanmar military detained all male villagers between the ages of 15 and 50 from Kyauk Tan Village, Rathaedaung Township, Rakhine State on suspicion of having ties with the ethnic armed organization, the Arakan Army (AA). On 2 May, six of the detainees were shot dead and at least eight were injured. The Myanmar military has sought to absolve itself of any liability, claiming that the actions of their soldiers were in self-defense. Yet according to eyewitnesses, the soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd after one of the detainees started yelling and trying to run away. This is just the latest in a series of allegations that the Myanmar military is committing gross human rights violations throughout northern Rakhine State as it seeks to flush out the AA. Just last month, another three villagers from Latka Village, Mrauk Oo Township died in custody, after 27 people had been detained on suspicion of being part of the AA. The military claimed the causes of death were suicide, heart attack, and withdrawal from drug addiction, but the rushed cremation and the fact the families were not notified of their death points to extrajudicial killing. In this context it is vital that the MNHRC fulfils its mandate as a national human rights institution to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the deaths of these civilians. Yet in its statement, dated, 3 May, 2019, it simply echoes the military’s version of events, stating that “during detention, about 2am, May 2, 2019, some detainees started shouting and attempting to attack the security force. Therefore, the security forces fired to defend themselves and to separate the mob which caused 6 deaths, 8 injuries and 4 missing.” There was no attempt by the MNHRC to verify the claims of the Myanmar military, which contradict what eyewitnesses and other detainees have said what has happened. A similar statement was made by the MNHRC to Parliament in May 2018, when two Kachin men who, according to witnesses, were arrested while tending to buffalo in January 2018, were later found buried after being executed by the Myanmar military. A Kachin Independence Army (KIA) uniform had been put on one of the men. Despite medical reports that said they could have been tortured, the MNHRC stated that they were KIA soldiers, and had been killed in battle, contradicting all reports and testimony from the people on the ground that they were merely civilians and the Myanmar military had taken them away while they were in the fields. In times of armed conflict, where unspeakable human rights abuses are being committed against civilians, Myanmar needs a strong, effective and independent national human rights institution. In the cases outlined above, the MNHRC has been the opposite, unquestioningly siding with the Myanmar military’s version of events, despite the decades of misinformation and propaganda that the military has disseminated to try and hide its abuses. At best, the MNHRC is whitewashing the military’s crimes, and at worst, is complicit in them. We therefore urge the MNHRC to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the killings of Kyauk Tan Village. It must accompany such an investigation and any subsequent recommendations with public pressure to ensure that relevant parties, especially the Myanmar military, are held accountable. It is time for the MNHRC to show whether it is on the side of human rights, or the Myanmar military..."
Creator/author: Moe Thway, Thet Thet Aung
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "24 Civil Society Organizations"
2019-05-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 566.75 KB 248.81 KB
more
Description: "One million Rohingya refugees continue to live in Bangladesh, with little prospect for safe return to their homeland in western Myanmar. Forcibly displaced by years of persecution and a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign at the end of 2017, the Rohingya are understandably afraid to go home. The government of Myanmar has neither addressed the atrocities committed in the past nor improved the wretched conditions for the few hundred thousand Rohingya estimated to still be living in the Rakhine region of Myanmar. In fact, the government is pursuing policies that are causing the situation of the Rohingya to deteriorate further. This population continues to be denied citizenship and faces severe human rights abuses, heavy restrictions on their daily lives, and little access to humanitarian aid or basic services. In February and April 2019, Refugees International interviewed Rohingya who had arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar just days before. Those interviewed described ongoing harassment, arbitrary detention, and forced labor at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces. The newly arrived refugees also reported that the security situation in the Rakhine region had recently deteriorated. In early 2019, the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group from the non-Rohingya Buddhist community in Rakhine State, carried out several attacks against police stations in the region. In response, Myanmar security forces initiated a crackdown that displaced more than 20,000 people and contributed to a sense of growing insecurity in those areas to which Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh would seek to return. The long-term trendlines for the Rohingya in Rakhine show no signs of improvement. For example, more than 120,000 Rohingya have been living in displacement camps since 2012 in what the UN has described as deplorable conditions. The government’s plans to close the camps have resulted in little more than shifting the displaced to structures next to the camps with no greater degree of freedom of movement or opportunity to return to their lands of origin..."
Creator/author: Daniel P. Sullivan
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "Refugees International"
2019-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 793.72 KB
more
Description: "Myanmar authorities should independently investigate the killing of detainees held by the military in Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 2, 2019, army soldiers shot and killed at least six villagers from among several hundred who had been detained in Kyauk Tan, Rathedaung township, for suspected links to the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group. On May 5, the military said that it had created a team of five officers that has been investigating the incident since May 3. However, the Myanmar army has a long history of failing to effectively or credibly investigate alleged abuses by its own forces, rarely holding military personnel accountable. “The Myanmar military concedes that they killed six villagers that they were holding in Rakhine State, but only a genuinely independent investigation will get to the bottom of what happened,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “An independent and impartial investigation is needed to bring to justice anyone responsible for wrongdoing.” Fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army has displaced over 33,000 people in Rakhine and Chin States since November 2018. The media have reported that the army has detained scores of people during military operations. On the morning of April 30, soldiers rounded up about 275 villagers in Kyauk Tan – all men and boys between the ages of 15 and 50 – on suspicion of involvement with the Arakan Army, according to media reports. The men and boys were detained in a local schoolhouse for two days of interrogation, with some reports that they were denied food and water..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
2019-05-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''Its creation follows at least eight other special government inquiries and boards conducted since 2012 in Rakhine State alone. In a five-page legal briefing, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) assesses the inquiry in reference to standards on the conduct of investigations. The ICJ finds that the ICOE cannot reasonably be seen as having any chance of being independent, impartial, or making an effective contribution to justice or accountability for the crimes under international law. To the contrary, giving any recognition to it is likely to undermine and delay effective international measures for justice and accountability...''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
2018-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 272.19 KB 540.9 KB
more
Description: ''“The Court’s decision effectively punishes these two courageous journalists for exposing human rights violations, following a grossly unfair trial,” said Frederick Rawski, Asia Pacific Director for the ICJ. “The decision is a miscarriage of justice that inflicts needless suffering on them and their families, threatens freedom of expression, damages Myanmar’s global standing, and undermines its justice institutions all at once,” he added. The ICJ has monitored the case since the journalists’ initial detention in December 2017. As previously noted by the ICJ, the detention and trial has violated numerous basic fair trial guarantees. The prosecutors had a duty to drop charges and the judge should have dismissed the case given the lack of evidence and the unlawfulness of detention because of fair trail rights violations...''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
2018-09-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''New government curbs on aid activities in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State “are affecting at least 50,000 people,” the United Nations has said in an internal note, highlighting the growing impact of recent fighting on the civilian population. The Rakhine State government this month blocked non-governmental organizations and UN agencies from travelling to rural areas in five townships in northern and central parts of the state affected by conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross and UN World Food Programme were exempted from the ban on aid activity in the region, where fighting between government troops and autonomy-seeking ethnic Rakhine rebels has displaced thousands. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) summarized recent information gathered from aid organizations on the impact of the restrictions in the two central Rakhine townships of Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun...''
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''New government curbs on aid activities in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State “are affecting at least 50,000 people,” the United Nations has said in an internal note, highlighting the growing impact of recent fighting on the civilian population. The Rakhine State government this month blocked non-governmental organizations and UN agencies from travelling to rural areas in five townships in northern and central parts of the state affected by conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross and UN World Food Programme were exempted from the ban on aid activity in the region, where fighting between government troops and autonomy-seeking ethnic Rakhine rebels has displaced thousands. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) summarized recent information gathered from aid organizations on the impact of the restrictions in the two central Rakhine townships of Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun...''
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''Six border guard police officers were wounded in an ambush by the Arakan Army (AA) on Wednesday in northern Rakhine State, according to Myanmar Army spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun. He said the AA ambushed a vehicle with border guard police on board at around noon north of Maungdaw Township’s Kyee Kan Pyin Village, where the board guard police have a base. “One was seriously wounded and the rest sustained minor injuries,” Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy. “It happened in the north of Kyee Kan Pyin, not near the [border] fence. It was closer to the motor road. As far as I know, they were ambushed, which was followed by an exchange of fire.” All the six wounded officers have been sent to Yangon for medical treatment, he added. Khine Thu Kha, a spokesman for the AA, claimed that there was no clash in Maungdaw on Wednesday...''
Creator/author: Min Aung Khine
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''Six policemen, including one police colonel, were wounded during an ambush by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Wednesday in northern Rakhine State, according to an announcement on State media on Saturday. Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) announced on Saturday that a police van with security forces from No. 2 Border Guard Police Headquarters on board was attacked near Wat Kyein Village in Maungdaw Township. The government said ARSA, a Rohingya insurgent group which also launched serial attacks on police outposts in northern Rakhine State in 2017, was behind the ambush. The group has been denounced by the government as a terrorist organization since the 2017 attacks. Despite the attack taking place a few days ago, the government’s announcement came only after a short video allegedly recorded at the scene went viral online early on Saturday. The footage includes the date of the attack and bears an ARSA logo...''
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''Three officers were wounded by artillery shells in a two-hour assault on a police post in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township Thursday morning by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), according to the General Administration Department (GAD). It was the militant Muslim group’s second reported attack on police in the area in as many weeks. U Hla Tun Tin, an official with the GAD’s Kyein Chaung office in northern Maungdaw, said the attack near Wai Lar Taung Village began at about 7 a.m., according to an initial police report. Citing the report, he said about 40 ARSA fighters crossed into Myanmar from Bangladesh near border marker No. 41 and tried to seize the post, which lies some 200 meters from the border. But he said the officers managed to repel the assault with the help of reinforcements from a neighboring regiment after two hours. “They broke through the border fence and ambushed them with artillery.” U Hla Tun Tin told The Irrawaddy. The police, he added, said the militants were well armed and managed to destroy some structures before retreating back across the border. He said ARSA had also mounted an attack near Maungdaw’s Wat Kyein Village on Jan. 16...''
Creator/author: Moe Myint
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''In its latest report issued on Thursday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) urged China to put pressure on the Myanmar Army to extend its unilateral ceasefire to Rakhine State in order to address ongoing armed clashes there between government troops and the Arakan Army (AA). The report, entitled “A New Dimension of Violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State”, contains five sections detailing the insurgency waged by the AA, arbitrary arrests of prominent Rakhine politicians, the indiscriminate killings of protesters in Mrauk-U last year and the political grievances between Arakanese political parties and the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as encouraging both sides to restrain from further offensives in the region. Regarding the ICG’s advice, Yangon-based ethnic affairs analyst U Maung Maung Soe said China has been playing a major role in facilitating the peace dialogue for the Northern Alliance group for several years, adding that a Chinese envoy even recently disused the ongoing violence in Rakhine with AA leaders in Kachin State’s Laiza, where the Kachin Independence Army and the AA headquarters are located. But any encouragement to the military to extend the ceasefire to cover Rakhine State should firstly involve negotiations between the actors, U Maung Maung Soe said. “Without having any negotiations between them, it’s really tough to discuss possibilities,” he said. As part of the solution, the ICG suggested the Myanmar government initiate dialogue with ethnic Rakhine representatives over key political, economic and social issues. It also recommended the authorities consider releasing Aye Maung and other ethnic Rakhine political prisoners. The report mentioned that political dialogue between the Union government and Arakanese stakeholders should cover the repatriation process for Rohingya refugees who have been sheltering for more than one year in Bangladeshi camps, the rebuilding of Rohingya communities, economic development and power sharing between the central and state governments...''
Creator/author: Moe Myint
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''A military column raided an entire village and looted gold, jewelry, cash and dozens of mobile phones from the villagers of Tha Mee Hla Village in Rathedaung Township in northern Rakhine State on Saturday, according to Arakanese lawmakers. Rathedaung Township representative, Lower House lawmaker Daw Khin Saw Wai said that she was initially informed by a villager over the phone on Saturday. Considering how serious the allegations were, she asked regional lawmaker U Than Naing to get firsthand accounts from the victims on Sunday morning. U Than Naing then went to the village to confirm the incident. “Firstly, I thought it’s hard to believe because we never expect such kind of treatment from the army,” said Daw Khin Saw Wai. U Than Naing posted on social media on Sunday stating that he found only 10 homes in the village spared of bullets out of a total 84 homes. Some homes were struck by artillery fire and had bullet holes. He wrote that a seven-year-old child had been wounded by an artillery explosion near his home and had to be immediately transported to Sittwe General Hospital for medical treatment. Another two women from Tha Mee Hla were also wounded by artillery shells...''
Creator/author: Moe Myint
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
1970-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: ''The Burma Human Rights Network is alarmed by reports of Burmese military and police arbitrarily detaining ethnic Rakhine villagers following fighting between the Burmese military and the Rakhine ethnic armed group, the Arakan Army. Fears have also emerged that aid may be blocked to Rakhine villages suspected of aiding or sheltering Arakan Army fighters, as has been done in the past. “Civilians are always those who suffer most from war and conflict, and it is imperative that the Burmese army respect the human rights of the Rakhine civilians in the areas they are operating in. The use of collective punishment and arbitrary detention by the Burmese Army is not only a violation of human rights but furthers resentment among civilians and will ultimately prolong the conflict,” Said BHRN’s Executive Director Kyaw Win. On December 27th security forces entered Yae Gaung Chaung village in Rathedaung township, Rakhine State, following days of fighting between the Arakan Army and the Burmese security forces. Civilians were forced to enter a local monastery where they were questioned and several were detained. These skirmishes come after the Burmese Military unilaterally declared a ceasefire in the country but explicitly excluded conflict in Rakhine State. On January 4th, Burma’s Independence Day, the Arakan Army attacked again, killing 13 members of the Burmese security forces. In response Burma has vowed to “crush” the insurgents and increased efforts to eliminate local support for them...''
Source/publisher: Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN) via Progressive Voice
2019-01-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 185.19 KB
more
Description: ''Ethnic Rakhine rebels killed 13 Myanmar police officers Friday in a coordinated attack on the country’s Independence Day, according to the army. Rakhine state has seen a surge in violence in recent weeks between the Arakan Army (AA) rebels – who are demanding greater autonomy for their Buddhist ethnic group – and security forces, displacing thousands. It has added a fresh layer of complexity and danger to the violence in an area already scored by deep ethnic and religious enmity, which saw hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims forced over the border by a brutal army crackdown in 2017...''
Source/publisher: Asia Times
2019-01-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "Aung Than is 26 years old, enthusiastic and positive young Arakanese man from the Chin State, whose determination of acquiring an education has kept him going through difficult and challenging times in his life. When Aung Than was only six years old, he and his family had to leave everything behind and flee to India, due to the brutal Burmese military oppression in his village. Although his biggest wish had always been to gain good education, it somehow always seemed to be out of reach, and moving away from him. Fleeing from Burma to India, and India to Bangladesh, Aung Than grabbed onto every study opportunity, attending school in Mizoram language in India, as well as being taught by Buddhist monks, Muslims, and an American teacher in Bangladesh. After years of hard work and fleeting study opportunities, Aung Than had a chance to complete his studies on the Thailand-Burma border, where he eventually co-founded AHREM (Arakan Human Rights and Environmental Movement), aiming to teach young Arakanese about environmental issues and human rights. Always keen to give back to his people, Aung Than now dreams of running an orphanage where he can help children whose dreams seem out of reach, just as his were one day."...See the Alternate link for part 2.
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "...For many years we have received reports that people in Arakan state are forced to labour and serve in the military, and are constantly disturbed in their daily lives by heavy taxes, confiscation of land and property, cultural repression, and restriction of movement and activity. During this time, we have tried to collect evidence and accounts of victims inside Arakan state. Our attempts have failed due to communication difficulties and the constant presence of military personnel and intelligence agents. Good relations between the SPDC and neighboring Bangladesh and India also present obstacles to reaching victims in Arakan state. Transportation and communication difficulties from Rangoon and other areas within Burma into Arakan state also hinder the collection of information and our ability to meet with residents. After these attempts were exhausted, we decided to look for Arakanese victims among refugees and migrants in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Thailand. In December 2005 we traveled to Malaysia to interview Arakanese migrants. We visited several towns and held meetings in which we explained our projects and requested to interview those that had experienced forced labour, arbitrary arrest, torture, rape, forced relocation, abuse or land confiscation. Among the three hundred migrants that we met, twenty volunteered to be interviewed. Two underage boys and two women were among those interviewed. During the interviews, shocking stories emerged. It became clear that in Arakan state, the basic needs of human survival - food, clothing, shelter, land and sanitation - do not meet minimum standards. There is constant use of forced labour and disruption of daily life in order to carry out state projects. We met many people that were forced to give up their families, livelihoods and education. Many people, especially children, face malnutrition..."
Creator/author: Nyi Nyi Lwin, Antonia McDougall
Source/publisher: Arakan State Human Rights Commission (ASHRC)
2006-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-01-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 273.1 KB
more