Michaungkan Protestors Stage One-day Hunger Strike

Protestors from Michaungkan began a hunger strike at Maha Bandula Park on Wednesday calling for the release of Sein Than, a community leader from the eastern Rangoon village who was arrested and jailed for staging an unauthorised protest in July.

The protestors have occupied the site in central Rangoon for seven months, demanding the return of seized lands […]

Replacing Impunity with Accountability

On September 21st, the body of Saw Ta Noh, a private in the Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA) 6th Brigade, was found in the Moei River, near Myawaddy, after having been arrested on September 16th by soldiers from Border Guard Force (BGF) Battalion #1022.Captain Hla Min […]

Myanmar Takes Global Lead on Company Ownership Transparency

25 oil and gas companies in Myanmar have set a global precedent by publishing who their real owners are, said Global Witness in a new report published today.

“People need to know who is buying up their most valuable assets – this is a global first in one of the places you might least expect it,” said […]

Silent Offensive: How Burma Army Strategies are Fuelling the Kachin Drug Crisis

Summary

This report, based on interviews with Kachin drug users, their family members, drug sellers, and community leaders in eight townships of northern Burma, paints a disturbing picture of the drug crisis in Kachin areas. It shows how the renewed conflict against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since June 2011 is fuelling drug production and worsening existing drug abuse among Kachin communities. […]

World Bank Should Promote Human Rights in Burma, NGOs Say

RANGOON — Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Burmese civil society organizations have urged the World Bank Group to put human rights at the center of its new Burma country strategy.

They said the bank should encourage an improvement in respect for rights within the Burmese government, while also ensuring that its development projects do not exacerbate ethnic conflict and the land rights’ situation […]

“Winds of Change” Blow a Gale of Human Rights Abuses

Burma’s Foreign Minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, gave a glowing report on the progress towards democracy and respect for human rights in Burma at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) yet given the deteriorating human rights situation on the ground, it is difficult not to view his words as a North Korean-esque sting in the tail.
Wunna Maung Lwin specifically requested that Burma be taken off the agenda of the Human Rights Council as well as the Third Committee of the UNGA, citing that “all major concerns related to human rights have been addressed to a larger extent in the new Myanmar.” Yet on closer inspection, this statement is preposterous, with the realities on the ground providing a striking contrast to these words.

Remarking on the peace process, the government is apparently “serious in its commitment” to making this work. The problem is that the government and the Burma Army say and do different things. As the government is making promises to ethnic armed groups, the Burma Army is still launching offensives in Kachin State and northern Shan State. Even with groups that have a ceasefire, the Burma Army continues its aggression, as seen in Kyeithi Township, Shan State over the weekend where it attacked Shan State Army – North positions yet again. Around 300 villagers have been forced to flee in this township alone in recent months due to attacks. This is emblematic of the current state of the peace process, where too much attention has been placed on the signing of a nationwide ceasefire agreement. Yet as recent clashes indicate, a ceasefire simply isn’t enough to rein in the Burma Army, and this state of affairs remains volatile, as the recent briefing paper produced by Burma Partnership explains […]

Michaungkan Protestors Stand Fast as Deadline Passes

As Saturday dawned, dozens of protestors from the Rangoon suburb of Michaungkan, who have been conducting a vigil outside Maha Bandula Park in the city centre to protest land grabs, were still occupying the public street despite a 3 October deadline ordered by local police to dismantle their camp and leave.

As Friday’s deadline struck, police did not appear at the protest site where many feared that force might once again be used to disperse the villagers […]

Phillip Hammond Urged To Take Action To Free Htin Kyaw

Burma Campaign UK today urged Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond to pressure the military-backed government in Burma to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Htin Kyaw, a political prisoner in Burma. Burma Campaign UK today highlights the case of Htin Kyaw as part of the No Political Prisoner Left Behind campaign […]

Myanmar: UN Chief Urges Country to Move beyond ‘Narrow Agendas’ and towards Cooperation

Myanmar has shown progress in areas of socio-economic development, national reconciliation and democratization, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon confirmed today, while also warning that the Asian country still faced “critical hurdles” as it approached its impending elections […]

Arrest of Student on Trumped-up Charges is a Damning Indictment of Justice in Burma

On 13 September 2014, police arrested female human rights defender (HRD) Phyu Hnin Htwe at her house in Patheingyi Township, Mandalay Region, and sent her to Monywa Prison, Sagaing Region, where she is currently being detained. Phyu Hnin Htwe is a second-year Burmese student at Mandalay’s Yadanabon University, and is also an activist and member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU). She has helped farmers who have been forcibly evicted to make way for the infamous Chinese-backed Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Region, going to the Letpadaung area at weekends and supporting displaced farmers.
Her arrest ostensibly relates to a murky incident that took place on 18 May of this year. Two Chinese workers – employees of Wanbao company, the main company involved in the joint venture – were seized from the Letpadaung area, taken to a monastery in Hsete Village, and held there for about 30 hours. The incident followed efforts by Wanbao employees to restart measuring plots of land for which compensation had not even been provided, in spite of villagers’ protests, thereby provoking their anger.

As a result, Phyu Hnin Htwe and six villagers were charged with kidnapping and abduction under Articles 364 and 368 of the Penal Code, which prescribe sentences of up to ten years’ imprisonment. While the case against five of the villagers was quickly dropped, charges still remain against Phyu Hnin Htwe and local villager Win Kyaw, neither of whom attended court in May […]