On 20 January, 2017, at the conclusion of her latest visit to Myanmar, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar[1], Ms. Yanghee Lee spoke of the “deteriorating” situation in northern Myanmar, condemned the Government’s response to “defend, dismiss and deny” abuses in northern Rakhine State and lamented the “feelings of optimism and hope slowly fading.” Furthermore, she spoke at length of ‘reprisal’ as a recurring theme of her 12-day visit. Among others, the recent cases that have come to light of nine students in Irrawaddy Region being sued and two Kachin pastors detained, show the gravity of the reprisals being carried out.

At the press conference that concluded her trip, Ms. Yanghee Lee expressed concern about the lack of political will for democratic reforms from the military and the obstacles put in the way of human rights by its “three legs of the Government” – the military-controlled ministries of Home Affairs, Border Affairs and Defence. This is exemplified by the military offensives in northern Shan State and Kachin State, which have increased in severity, with local populations suffering displacement, abuse and the other horrors of war. Ms. Yanghee Lee described how “the hope generated by the outcome of the 2015 election is starting to wane.” She also condemned the Government’s denials of the abuses that the Myanmar Army is committing in northern Rakhine State as part of their security operations as “incredible” and “far-fetched.”

Ms. Yanghee Lee also stated, that “there is one word that has hung heavily on my mind during this visit — reprisals.” These reprisals were feared by those who spoke to her during her visit and are certainly warranted due to the retaliatory actions of the Myanmar Army in other instances. One example is the two Kachin pastors in Mong Ko, Shan State, who had aided journalists that visited after armed conflict had waged in the town between the ethnic armed organizations’ (EAOs) alliance – The Northern Alliance – and the Myanmar Army.  After being summoned by the Myanmar Army on Christmas Eve these two pastors had been missing until a statement released by the Myanmar Army on the Facebook page of the office of the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces on 19 January, 2017, specified that they were detained and in custody accused of serving as “financial-supporter, informer, recruiter, [and] rumor-monger” for EAOs. It is clear that helping journalists report on the details of armed conflict is not something the military will tolerate.

While aiding fact-finding in conflict areas is deemed worthy of reprisal, so are expressions of anti-war sentiment in non-conflict areas. In Pathein, Irrawaddy Region, a satirical play by young students that mocked the pro-war demonstrators has angered the military. Nine students are now being sued for defamation by the Myanmar Army’s Southwestern Command for “damaging the reputation of the army.”

The human rights situation in Myanmar, particularly where the Myanmar Army is involved, continues to deteriorate. Furthermore, those who speak out against this or aid the exposure of their abuses face the consequences. Yet as Ms. Yanghee Lee stated, “They see speaking out as their only hope for change, and want desperately for the rest of the world to be aware of the situation that they are in.” While the Myanmar Army continues its abusive behaviour, the international community, especially the donor community supporting Myanmar’s transition, has a responsibility to do more to stop the further deterioration of the human rights situation in Myanmar and to honor the courage of those who continue to speak out. The international community must not stay silent but recognize the ground realities, condemn abusive actions and reprisals towards civilians and put pressure on the Myanmar Government to hold the Myanmar Army accountable and start a process of bringing it under civilian control.

_________

[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.

Resources from the past week

Statements and Press Releases

OIC Must Back UN Inquiry Into Rohingya Crisis
By Burma Campaign UK

2nd Anniversary of Kachin Teachers Rape and Murder: Petition Calls for Action
By Burma Campaign UK

BURMA: MPS Call  For Investigations  into Human Rights Violations  in Rakhine and  Kachin States
By Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Myanmar: Civil Society Calls for International Investigation in Rakhine State
By Fortify Rights

Myanmar: Kachin Christians Feared “Disappeared”
By Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights

Final Communiqué Extraordinary Session of The OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) on The Situation of The Rohingya Muslim Minority in Myanmar
By Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

Statement from Rohingya Communities Worldwide: Request OIC to support UN Commission of Inquiry
By Rohingya Communities Worldwide

End of Mission Statement by Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
By Yanghee Lee/ UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

Call for a Truly Independent Investigation into the Situation in Rakhine State
By 41 Myanmar Civil Society Organizations

Reports

Northern Burma Update: Burma Army Divides Kachin
By Free Burma Rangers

စားတမ္းတုိ ။ ။ ဒီမိုကေရစီပေဟဠိ အေျဖညႇိရန္ ေနာက္ထပ္ပုဒ္စာတစ္ပုဒ္- ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံအုပ္ခ်ဳပ္ေရးပုိင္းဆိုင္ရာ ဖြဲ႔စည္းတည္ေဆာက္ပံုအား မျဖစ္မေနျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲရန္လုိအပ္
By Progressive Voice

Briefing Paper: Another Piece of the Democratic – Puzzle:  Reform of the Administrative Structure of Myanmar Essential
By Progressive Voice

Aerial bombing by Burma Army jets kills three villagers, injures seven in Kyaukme, northern Shan State
By Shan Human Rights Foundation

Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”