Date: 11 December 2021

• Mandalay-based civil society organizations have been involved and worked closely with successive governments in Myanmar on a wide range of development projects such as humanitarian aid assistance, emergency rescue processes, peace and democracy restoration processes, educational reforms, health and human resources development. We have been working on these types of development projects, which are being implemented together with INGOs, NGOs and have liaised with various local government agencies.
• On 1^st February 2021, the leaders of the democratically elected government were arbitrarily arrested and the terrorist military council attempted to illegally seize the state’s power unjustly. The people of Myanmar, including monks and students, staged peaceful protests across the country and civil servants joined the Civil Disobedience Movement against the military coup in Myanmar. Those peaceful protesters were faced with violent crackdowns by the military using live ammunition and war weapons, arrests, torture, shooting and killing like on the battlefield. Moreover, we are also witnessing the military junta destroying, burning and looting the properties of the people, rape and sexual assault against women, conducting night raids and arrests on a daily basis to intimidate and terrorize the public. Our Mandalay-based civil society organizations network issued a statement on 8^th May 2021, stating that we will not cooperate with any organization under the terrorist military council that continues to commit acts of violence against the people without complying with human rights standards.
• While the terrorist military council is trying to seize power by force, some of the INGOs and NGOs are collaborating with the terrorist military council under the name of development and humanitarian assistance, which lends legitimacy and recognition to the terrorist military council and is also a violation of international human rights standards and humanitarian principles such as the principle of “Do No Harm”. As the terrorist military council is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis, who are inhumanely and indiscriminately killing people and blocking humanitarian aid, there can be no effective assistance for the people of Myanmar. Therefore, INGOs and NGOs need to adhere to human rights, international humanitarian and human security standards, with a strong emphasis on the principle of “Do No Harm”.
• Although we, the Mandalay-based civil society organizations, support activities that directly assist the people of Myanmar, we strongly condemn the organizations who are cooperating with the terrorist military council. We also condemn projects being implemented under the terrorist military council directives or memorandums of understanding. We are now at a time when the people of Myanmar as a whole are struggling in various ways to break free from the systemic suppression by the military junta through force of arms and to become a prosperous nation that fully respects human rights principles. Therefore, INGOs and NGOs which are currently cooperating with the terrorist military council for the interest of themselves and their organization will be blacklisted by our Mandalay-based civil society organizations and we will not cooperate with them now or in the future.

116 Mandalay-based Civil Society Organizations Network

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