Seeking justice in the wake of Myanmar’s coup

Seeking justice in the wake of Myanmar’s coup

The country’s military leaders have acted with impunity for decades, but now there is a mechanism to bring them to justice

Nationwide protests against the coup have been responded with murders, torture and mass arrests by the military regime. (Myanmar Now)

On March 8, U Ko Ko Lay, a 62-year-old teacher, bled to death on a street in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina. He had been shot in the head while protesting the military coup of February 1. That same night, U Zaw Myat Lynn, an official from the National League for Democracy, was taken from his home in Shwepyithar on the outskirts of Yangon and tortured to death. The list keeps growing.

In the more than six weeks since Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power, images of soldiers and police officers shooting, beating, and arresting protesters have flooded social media and Myanmar and international news outlets. So far, the regime’s forces have killed well over 200 people (more than half of them in the past week) and seriously injured many more. The junta has also arrested nearly 2,200 people, some of whom, like U Zaw Myat Lynn, have died in custody.

Each day, Myanmar human rights organizations update lists with names, dates, locations, and causes of death. Around 600 police and a handful of soldiers have decided they do not want to be involved in such actions. They have left their posts and even joined the anti-coup movement.

Many soldiers, police officers, and commanding officers are acting with impunity now. But they can face prosecution, not only in Myanmar’s courts but also internationally. Like any country, Myanmar is subject to international law. Because of its history of atrocities, most recently against the Rohingya people, Myanmar is also already subject to special international legal proceedings that apply to the current situation.

 

 

The most relevant is the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). The IIMM was created in 2018 after the Myanmar military’s brutal campaign against the Rohingya people, but it applies to the whole country. Its mission is to investigate “international crimes” from 2011 to the present.

International crimes are generally defined as “widespread and systematic” in nature, involving many victims and locations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

 

 

In keeping with its mandate, the IIMM is collecting information on the current situation. In a statement released on February 11 (available in Myanmar here), it highlighted the “use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the detention of political leaders, members of civil society and protesters.”

More recently, on March 17, the IIMM also called on recipients of illegal orders to share this evidence so that those ultimately responsible for these crimes can be held accountable.

"The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions. They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed,” the head of the IIMM, Nicholas Koumjian, says in the statement (available in Myanmar here).

The crimes the IIMM investigates could be tried in Myanmar courts, courts in other countries, or international courts. International crimes are crimes that are so serious that they are considered to be against the international community, and are therefore not limited to courts in one country.

In other words, an international crime committed in Myanmar—for example, widespread and systematic attacks on civilians—can be tried in a court in another country or in an international court.

The Myanmar military is used to getting away with murder. Decades of well-documented killing, rape, and torture of civilians in ethnic minority areas have gone unpunished. No one has ever been tried for the killing of protesters during previous mass uprisings against military rule in 1988 and 2007.

But this time may be different. On March 4, the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement that “the killing of peaceful protesters by Myanmar’s security forces should be independently investigated as possible crimes against humanity.”

The IIMM is already set up and working. It provides a mechanism for just such an investigation. Those doing the shooting should be aware of this.

For further information:

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) on Facebook

International Accountability Mechanisms for Myanmar (learning materials in English, Myanmar, and Karen)

Lin Htet is a pen name for a team of Myanmar and international writers

Myanmar military, not EAOs, only terrorist organisation in Myanmar, CRPH says

The committee of elected lawmakers removes the ‘terrorist’ and ‘unlawful’ designations once used against ethnic armed organisations

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 17, 2021
Military troops are seen on Bargayar Road in Yangon’s Sanchaung on February 28. (Myanmar Now) 

A committee representing elected lawmakers-- who have been unable to take their seats in parliament following the February 1 coup in Myanmar-- announced the removal of all ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) from the country’s list of terrorist groups and unlawful associations on Wednesday.

The Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) issued a statement condemning all arrests and detentions under Section 17(1) of Myanmar’s Unlawful Associations Act, which prescribes up to three years in prison for affiliation with an “unlawful association.” The CRPH said that it considers the Section 17(1) arrests and charges leveraged against EAOs fighting for national equality and self-determination illegitimate. 

The CRPH “expresse[d] its profound gratitude” to EAOs that have provided “care and protection” to civil servants participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in opposition to the military junta. The committee recognised and congratulated these EAOs for their “strong commitment to the building of [a] federal democratic union.”

In the wake of violent crackdowns by the junta’s armed forces on anti-coup protesters nationwide, the CRPH labelled the Myanmar army a terrorist organisation on March 1. 

Of the more than 20 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, 10, including the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the previous National League for Democracy government and the military.

Affiliation with EAOs not signatory to the NCA, such as those in the Northern Alliance, has led to charges under Section 17(1). These cases have been disproportionately brought against civilians belonging to ethnic nationalities. 

The military coup council announced on March 11 that it would remove the Arakan Army, a Northern Alliance member with which it had been engaging in intensifying clashes for nearly two years in Rakhine State, from its list of terrorist groups. 

No other EAOs were removed from the list. 

The military continues to engage in ongoing clashes with EAOs in Kachin and northern Shan State, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), another Northern Alliance member. In Karen State and Bago Region, the junta’s armed forces have been fighting with NCA signatory the KNU. 

While the KIA has not commented directly on the coup, in a February 10 statement it said it would protect the people’s anti-military movement if the armed forces violently suppressed it. 

The KNU has also said it would protect protesters, and has provided asylum for police officers who joined the CDM. 

The RCSS/SSA issued a statement condemning the military coup, and has offered to protect civil servants participating in the CDM. 

The 10 NCA-signatory EAOs announced on February 20 that they would suspend the peace process, and on March 11 they held an online meeting to discuss ways to stop the killing of civilians by the military council.

On March 5, the CRPH called for the military-drafted 2008 Constitution to be abolished and a federal, democratic Constitution to be established. Ten days later, the CRPH issued a law protecting the public’s right to defend themselves from the military’s violent crackdown on protesters with the aim of establishing a federal army. 

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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At least six killed after factory owner calls in military in Hlaing Tharyar 

Police publicly executed a woman who was the leader of the workers

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 17, 2021
The site of a protest in Hlaing Tharyar that saw an intense face off between the protesters and the junta’s armed forces on March 14 (Supplied)

At least six people were killed on Tuesday following a wage dispute at a Chinese-owned shoe factory in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township after the owner called in the junta’s armed forces. 

The workers had gone to the Xing Jia factory in Industrial Zone (1) to collect their wages, but conflict arose when they were not given the full payment they were owed, according to a Hlaing Tharyar resident from Daing Su ward who was familiar with the incident. 

The owner, a Chinese national, then called the military and police, according to local sources. 

“The soldiers and police came into the factory and surrounded it. The police slapped a girl who was the leader of the workers. When she hit back, they shot her,” the Hlaing Tharyar local told Myanmar Now. 

The troops and police then arrested around 70 workers and loaded them onto two prisoner transport trucks. When people gathered to demand their release, the armed forces opened fire into the crowd, killing five more people, all men. 

“The confrontation at the factory happened in the morning. When we gathered and went to demand the release of the arrested workers, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon,” the Hlaing Tharyar local said. 

“They used live ammunition to shoot us. We all had to run, but five were killed. We couldn’t bring their bodies back, so we had to drag them away and put them in ditches.”

They were able to recover the body of one fallen worker at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, and some of the remaining bodies by 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday. 

“We had to hide all night. There were six dead, we got four bodies back. They’re being kept at a Buddhist hall in the ward. We can’t take back two of the bodies, that of the girl shot in the factory and another man,” the local said. 

At the time of reporting, he said he was on the run, along with 17 others, after being reported by another local for leading the protest. That individual is now also reportedly in hiding. 

Injured protesters are being treated at Pun Hlaing hospital. 

Myanmar Now is still gathering further information about the incident, and other reports of new fatal crackdowns in Hlaing Tharyar.  

An official at the Hlaing Tharyar hospital said that no bodies or injured persons had been sent there on March 16 or 17. 

“No one came in last night. The hospital is not far from places like Aung Zeya bridge or Mee Kwat market, so we’d know if there were something happening. The streets were relatively calm in the morning today,” another doctor from the same hospital said.

A local aid group reported that shots had been fired in Yay Oak Kan ward in Hlaing Tharyar, but further details were not known at the time of reporting. 

 

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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High-ranking Buddhist abbots move to suspend activities, echoing Civil Disobedience Movement

Ma Ha Na members say it is ‘an undeniable truth’ that the people of Myanmar are suffering

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 17, 2021
Monks in Mandalay protest against the military regime on February 27 (Myanmar Now) 

The 47-member State Saṅgha Maha Nayaka Committee, a government-appointed body of high-ranking Buddhist abbots, have announced a decision to suspend their activities amid the junta’s violent crackdown on anti-coup protesters. 

The committee, locally known as Ma Ha Na, met on March 16 and called for an immediate end to attacks on protesters, a committee member told Myanmar Now on Tuesday night. 

The abbot said that an official statement would be issued only after the decision had been submitted to the Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture on March 18. 

“It is similar to the CDM,” the committee member said of Ma Ha Na’s move, referring to the ongoing Civil Disobedience Movement 

“After the decision is submitted to the religious affairs minister, the statement may change. I want you to know what the original says, because it may be changed. This is the decision of the 47 abbots.”

Among the Sangha Maha Nayaka’s five demands were calls for the violent crackdown on and arrests of unarmed civilians to be halted, and as well as for the looting and destruction of people’s property to be prevented. 

The committee said that the future and pride of all Myanmar citizens-- especially the younger generation-- must be taken into account. It called on the responsible authorities to refrain from acts that could tarnish the image of the nation, its races, religions and cultures. 

The abbots also urged all stakeholders to find solutions to the crisis by holding on to the principle of loving kindness and engaging in dialogue. 

The committee said that it would completely halt its activities until the political situation had eased, stability was achieved and the citizens could move freely. 

There was no argument among the Ma Ha Na abbots about whether to ask the junta to end its violent crackdown on civilians, the committee member said. The point that did raise debate in the meeting was whether examinations for Buddhist monks could still go ahead. 

The statement described it as “an undeniable truth” that the people of the country were suffering because of the current political situation. 

If the people are unhappy, Buddhist monks would also be unhappy and miserable, the letter said. If rulers and politicians remain divided, all Myanmar citizens would suffer, and that was why the abbots had made the request, the statement read. 

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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