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

UN warns of ‘looming threat’ to Myanmar’s poorest as food and fuel prices spike in wake of coup 

Many in Myanmar may soon be unable to put enough food on the table if trends continue, World Food Programme official says 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 16, 2021
Opponents of the coup hold a candlelit vigil in Yangon on February 21 for protesters who have been killed and detained (Myanmar Now)

Rising food and fuel prices pose a “looming threat” to the poorest in Myanmar as the political unrest caused by the February 1 coup begins to affect supply chains, the United Nations has warned. 

The organisation’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that there had been “steep hikes” in the prices of staple goods in northern Rakhine state, with the average cost of cooking oil increasing 27% from January to February.  

The price of pulses in Maungdaw has jumped 15%, while rice prices have spiked by as much as 35% in some townships in Kachin state, such as Bhamo and Putao. Nationwide, rice prices have gone up by an average of 3%, the WFP said. 

And the price of fuel has increased 15% nationwide, which in turn may lead to further food price increases as the cost of transportation balloons. The problem is more severe in northern Rakhine, where petrol prices have jumped by 33% and diesel by 29%.

The WFP collected the data from 250 traders and shops across 70 townships nationwide. 

“These rising food and fuel prices are compounded by the near paralysis of the banking sector, slowdowns in remittances, and widespread limits on cash availability,” the WFP said in a statement. 

The programme’s Myanmar Country Director, Stephen Anderson, said the price increases were “troubling”. 

“Coming on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, if these price trends continue they will severely undermine the ability of the poorest and most vulnerable to put enough food on the family table.”

The WFP is stockpiling food to enable it to keep helping over 360,000 people in Myanmar, most of whom live in displacement camps.

Many parts of Myanmar’s economy have been brought to a standstill by strikes amid a massive popular uprising against the military regime. Foreign trade has virtually halted and banks have been forced to close their branches as employees refuse to work under the dictatorship.  

 

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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Military stops hundreds of Kachin State IDPs from reaching camp

Among the IDPs, currently sheltering in a church in the Myitsone area, are elderly persons and newborn infants. 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 16, 2021
A woman holds her baby after fleeing clashes between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar military in Injangyang Township on March 15 (Supplied)

Around 200 civilians fleeing clashes between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) were barred by the junta’s armed forces from entering a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina on Monday.  

Fighting has spread from the Kachin State townships of Hpakant to Mogaung to Injangyang since early March. 

A battle on Monday near the Injangyang villages of Gway Htaung and Tan Baung Yan forced 200 people from both communities to seek temporary refuge in a Catholic church in the village of Tang Hpre. 

Tang Hpre is in the Myitsone area, located on the Mali and N’mai rivers, which make up the confluence of the Irrawaddy River.

“The KIA attacked a [Myanmar] military base in Gway Htaung, Injangyang. The battle lasted from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.,” a local source said. “It seems like they [KIA] are trying to regain the bases that they’ve lost in the past.” 

During previous episodes of armed conflict in 2018, the IDPs had previously fled to Pa La Na camp in Myitkyina. Despite continued instability and tension in the region, they had returned to their respective villages in Injangyang during the Covid-19 pandemic to escape the crowded conditions in the IDP camp. 

As they tried to leave the church where they had been sheltering and in order to continue onward to the Pa La Na camp, regime soldiers stopped them, blocking the exit to Tang Hpre village and essentially trapping them in the community. 

Some IDPs crossed the Irrawaddy River in motorboats with the help of locals. Myanmar soldiers told those operating the motorboats to turn back to the Myitsone area with the IDPs by 5:00 p.m. on March 15, according to those who fled. 

“We were told that the Myanmar military has forbidden them from going to Pa La Na camp. They were told to stay where they are,” a local helping the IDPs told Myanmar Now. “They will be assisted with food supplies such as rice, cooking oil, and salt,” the person said, although at the time of reporting, it was not clear who would provide such necessities. 

Among displaced are children, including newborn infants and elderly persons unable to walk.  

Those who managed to arrive in Tang Hpre said more villagers from Tan Baung Yan were still hiding in the forest, unable to reach a safe place to shelter.  

The Myitsone area is the site of a now suspended China-backed hydropower mega-dam which has been widely opposed by the Kachin and Myanmar public

 

 

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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Soldier shoots man in head at close range as junta continues crackdown

At least 12 were killed across the country on Monday as mobile internet was shut off and martial law imposed in areas of Yangon 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 15, 2021
Security forces seen in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township on Sunday during a brutal crackdown on protesters (Supplied)

The coup regime’s forces continued their murderous campaign to crush Myanmar’s pro-democracy uprising on Monday, killing at least 12 people in Yangon and other cities across the country, rescue teams and witnesses said.

The killings came a day after at least 63 people were slaughtered in Yangon alone, marking the bloodiest day so far since protests against Min Aung Hlaing’s rule began in early February. 

In Hlaing Tharyar, where most of Sunday's killings took place, a man in his 50s was picking up trash after a protest had dispersed on Monday when a soldier walked up to him, pressed a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. 

“They shot the old man in the temple. He died right there,” a witness told Myanmar Now.

Mobile internet access was cut across the country on Monday, making it more difficult for people to share information about the attacks. Six towships in Yangon, including Hlaing Tharyar, were also placed under martial law.

At around 3pm, some 40 trucks full of soldiers arrived at the Aung Zeya Bridge in Hlaing Tharyar to break up a demonstration, a protester who lives in the township said.

Two women in their 60s were killed as armed forces fired at people from Da Bin Shwe Htee Road, the resident said.

Their bodies were brought to a local hospital with an ambulance, as were three people injured during the shootings, he added.

‘Punish the perpetrators’ 

Fires raged at a number of Chinese-owned factories in Hlaing Tharyar on Sunday. No evidence has emerged about who was responsible. 

China’s Global Times reported that 32 factories with Chinese investors were vandalized in Yangon, with the damage amounting $36.89 million. Two Chinese employees were injured, the newspaper said. 

The Chinese embassy in Myanmar on Sunday called on people to express their demands lawfully and not be incited to undermine China-Myanmar relations.

“China urges Myanmar to take further effective measures to stop all acts of violence, punish the perpetrators in accordance with the law and ensure the safety of life and property of Chinese companies and personnel in Myanmar,” the statement said.

On Monday afternoon an official from a hospital in Yangon said four more people injured in Hlaing Tharyar on Sunday had passed away, bringing the total killed by the crackdown in the township on that day to 38. 

In Chanmya Tharzi, Mandalay, two anti-regime protesters were killed and several others were injured on Monday, according to medical workers.

The dead were identified as 26-year-old Than Htike Oo and 22-year-old Wai Phyo Thein. No further details were available at the time of reporting. 

Three others were killed in Myingyan, a township in Mandalay region. Rescue workers there said their vehicles were attacked and that they were unable to reach injured people because of the shooting. 

Two men - aged 25 and 30 - were killed in Aunglan, Magway region, according to a witness and a doctor. One was shot in the head and the other in the chest. The regime’s forces were deployed in front of the Aunglan police station and then fired on demonstrators, the witness said.

Driver shot through windscreen 

In Monywa, Sagaing region, about 2,500 people arrived from surrounding villages to protest against the regime. 

A 45-year-old man who was driving a truck full of protesters into the town was shot in the chest, a witness told Myanmar Now.

The victim was identified as Ko Zaw and police and soldiers took his body away, the witness said.

“They shot the front wheels first and then fired from the front. There were two bullet holes in the windscreen,” said Aung Myint Tun, a protester. 

About 30 protesters riding in the truck were also arrested, he said.

In Bago, police and soldiers shot people in residential areas, killing at least one, on Monday afternoon, a resident told Myanmar Now.

An 18-year-old boy who was shot in the head and pronounced dead at a hospital in Bago at around 7pm, the resident said.

A 40-year-old man is receiving treatment after he was shot while riding a motorbike in the town.

“[Soldiers and police] were on their way out of the neighbourhood and shot the man on a motorbike. I think it was a random shooting to scare people,” he said.

Monday’s confirmed deaths mean more than 160 have been killed so far, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

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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