Voices of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand

Published on Oct 20, 2015

Migrant workers operate on a fishing boat in Mae Klong district, Samut Songkhram province, Thailand, 07 May 2015. Photo:Narong Sangnak/EPA

It is estimated that 2.5 to 3 million Myanmar workers are toiling away in Thailand, at least half a million of whom are in Samut Sakhon alone, a province next to Bangkok. Yet only around 3,000 voters have registered for advance voting at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Win Maung, Myanmar’s ambassador to Thailand, told Myanmar Now in a telephone interview.

The low figures are a result of many factors - a lack of awareness and information about voter registration procedures, a lack of trust in government officials, busy work schedules and travel restrictions placed on migrant workers.

Myanmar Now spoke to migrant workers who expressed their desire to vote but are either unable to do so or do not know how to.

Kyaw Lwin Maung, 36, from Kayin state, works in a tyre factory in Mahachai

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“I’ve been here for over 2 years now. I have not checked the voter list to see whether my name is there. But I’m wondering whether I should go back or not. If my name is in the voter list, I’d like to go back.

“But I cannot go back without permission from the workplace. Otherwise I would be sacked.

“It doesn’t take too long to reach my village. If I go back at night then I arrive in the village by morning. But I’d have to carefully plan it.

“There isn’t much trust in the (system as yet). You can’t also say for sure who’s going to win. If my country is improves, I will go back. If I can have land and can make a living, I would go back. You have to leave your parents and children at home to come here. There are a lot of difficulties. My wife is here with me but our children are back in the village.

“I used to be a carpenter, but I also worked in agriculture. We left because we could no longer find jobs. We don’t have capital so it’s very difficult to have your own business too.”

Soe Tun, 33, from Rakhine state, works in a tyre factory in Mahachai

“I was a farmer when I was young. Then I became a monk for a while. When I left monkshood, without any capital, I didn’t have any work. There aren’t any factories like in this country. What was I going to survive on? That’s why I came here three years ago.

“I was still a monk in 2010 so couldn’t vote. I haven’t asked my family whether my name is in the voter list.

“If I can go back easily, I want to go back and vote. But it might take about 10 days to get back because I would have to go to Yangon first and then back up to Rakhine on a bus.

“I know we should vote so that you can elect a president that can help develop the whole country and make it peaceful.

“It was really hard when I first arrived. I couldn’t speak the language, I didn’t know where to go. Living in someone else’s country is not easy.”

Tin Tin Htay, from Tanintharyi Region, 30

“I’ve been in Thailand for about 16/17 years already, since when I was around 13. I came with my parents who were coming here to work.

“But I only started working when I turned 18. I’m working in a fish processing factory. I get 300 baht a day with only the Sunday off.

“I want to vote. If I can vote from Thailand, I would like to. If not, I want to contact my family and see whether they can vote on my behalf. I don’t know whether this can be done.

“My parents are back home in Dawei and their names are on the voter list but mine isn’t. I don’t know the voter list display has ended already.”

“I’ve never voted before. I was too young in 1990 and wasn’t there for 2010.”

Nge Nge, from Tanintharyi Region, 24

“I’ve been in Thailand for almost 10 years. I first came here when I was 14. My sister was already here.

“We came here illegally. We left our village around 5pm on a motorbike and arrived in Dawei around 6pm. Then we walked in the jungle for four nights. There were about 20 of us. There were no tents or shacks. I came with my aunt and her husband.

“After a month I started working at a fish processing place. My job was to pick out fish based on their sizes and line them up, and also to cut out the dirty bits.

“It is tiring of course, but my parents have a lot of children. There’s not enough to eat. There are six of us.

“I was thinking of going back when things improve at home but I was told that it’s still not so I’ll have to stay here a bit longer.

“My mother and two younger sisters at still at home. My sister has her own family now and can’t send money back. My brother said he’s not doing so well. So I have been sending my family 100,000 kyats (about $80) per month.

“I know there’s an election. I want to vote. But I still don’t know whether my name is in the list or not. If it is, I want to vote for Daw Suu.”

Myanmar Now

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Win Htein to be tried by tribunal of two judges, says his lawyer

Announcement came as court postponed the 82-year-old’s third hearing, meaning his request for bail on health grounds was not considered

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Win Htein arrives for the opening ceremony of the second session of the Union Peace Conference in 2017 (EPA-EFE)

Detained National League for Democracy party stalwart Win Htein is to be tried by a special tribunal of two judges following an order from the military-controlled Supreme Court, his lawyer said on Friday.

“It was just one judge before, and now there’s two,” Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now.

“District judge Ye Lwin will serve as chair, and deputy district judge Soe Naing will be a member of the tribunal,” she added.

Win Htein faces up to a 20-year prison sentence for sedition under section 124a of the Penal Code.

His third hearing, scheduled for Friday, was postponed, with the court citing the internet shutdown as the reason because it made video conferencing impossible, Min Min Soe said.

“The arguments will be presented at the next hearing, we applied for bail but since they’re setting up a tribunal for the lawsuit, that will be discussed at the next hearing as well,” she said.

At the second hearing on March 5, Win Htein requested an independent judgement, a meeting with his lawyer, and bail due to his health issues, but the court said those requests would be heard on March 19.

Win Htein, 82, uses a wheelchair and suffers from breathing problems that means he often requires an oxygen tank. He also suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Min Min Soe was allowed a brief call with her client on Friday to tell him that his hearing had been postponed until April 2.

Aye Lu, the chair of the Ottara district administration council in Naypyitaw, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Win Htein. Ottara district is where the NLD’s temporary headquarters are located.

Aye Lu filed the charge on February 4 and Win Htein was arrested that evening at his home in Yangon. He has been kept in the Naypyitaw detention center and denied visits from his lawyers.

He was detained after giving media interviews in the wake of the February 1 coup in which he said military chief Min Aung Hlaing had acted on personal ambition when seizing power.

On Wednesday the military council announced that it was investigating Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption, on top of other charges announced since her arrest.

Many other NLD leaders, party members and MPs have been arrested or are the subject of warrants.

Kyi Toe, a senior figure in the NLD, was arrested on Thursday night in Hledan, Yangon.

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Op-ed

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

Lin Htet

Published on Mar 19, 2021

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

Lin Htet

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At least eight killed in junta’s bloody crackdown in Aungban, Shan State

A resident said armed forces used drones to monitor the crowd before opening fire on them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Men carry a wounded protester in Aungban, Shan State, on the morning of March 19 (Supplied)

At least eight anti-coup protesters were killed in Aungban, southern Shan State, during an attack by the military junta on demonstrations on Friday morning, according to the Aungban Free Funeral Service Society.

Sixteen military trucks carrying more than 100 policemen and soldiers arrived at the protest site at around 9:00 a.m. and began shooting at protesters. Seven died at the scene, and another protester who had been shot in the neck was taken to Kalaw Hospital and died by 11:00 a.m.

All eight victims were men.

The body of the man who died at the hospital was sent to his family’s home, but those who were killed at the protest site were taken away by the junta’s armed forces, a representative of the Free Funeral Service Society told Myanmar Now.

Aungban resident Nay Lynn Tun told Myanmar Now that police and soldiers had destroyed the doors of nearby homes in order to arrest people, and that at least 10 people had been detained.

“Initially, police arrived at the site. When the crowd surrounded the police, armed soldiers arrived at the site and began firing,” he told Myanmar Now. “In the coming days, if we cannot gather to protest, we will do it in our own residential areas.”

Since March 13, around 300 volunteer night guards have watched over these residential areas to protect locals from the dangers posed by the junta’s nighttime raids. These forces use drone cameras to monitor the activities of the night guards from 3:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. every day, Nay Lynn Tun said.

He added that hours before Friday’s crackdown, military and police had also used drone cameras to monitor the gathering of protesters in Aungban.

Over the last week, at least 11 protesters have been arrested in Aungban. Only three-- the protesters who were minors-- were released.

South of Shan State, in the Kayah State capital of Loikaw, two pro-democracy protesters were also shot with live ammunition by the regime’s armed forces on Friday. One, 46-year-old Kyan Aung, was shot in the lower abdomen and died from his injuries. The other wounded protester was a nurse, according to eyewitnesses.

According to a March 18 tally by the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 224 people have been killed across the country by junta’s armed forces since the February 1 coup. Thousands more have been arrested.