Two years after Myanmar’s military coup, human rights violations continue to escalate

Two years after Myanmar’s military coup, human rights violations continue to escalate

Two years after the Myanmar military launched a coup on 1 February 2021, civil society organizations strongly condemn the ongoing human rights violations, and call for accountability and the restoration of a legitimate government. The attempted coup breached Myanmar’s constitution and international law, and was met with massive and largely spontaneous protests that illustrated the lack of meaningful support for the junta among the people of Myanmar. To date, sustained opposition among the population has denied the junta full control over the country, despite an escalation in brutality. There are many well-documented cases of the military committing atrocities, including strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In this context, human rights defenders are more vulnerable because of their work and their visibility, and their safety in both Myanmar and neighbouring countries continues to deteriorate.

As of 30 January 2023, local human rights monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), has documented a total of 2,901 killings, 17,525 arrests of political prisoners with 13,719 still detained, and a total of 101 individuals on death row, including at least nine women human rights defenders. The real number is likely several times higher, due to the difficulty of documenting facts on the ground. The Penal Code, particularly sections related to treason, defamation and statements causing public disorder, is being widely used by the military junta to curtail freedom of expression and stifle dissent.

The military’s use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against detainees, including human rights defenders, political dissidents, journalists and civilian protesters, has been well documented. The executions of Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former member of the National League for Democracy, and prominent democracy activists Kyaw Min Yu, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw in July 2022, represented an escalation in the junta’s human rights violations to suppress pro-democracy movements.

Many human rights defenders in Myanmar have been forced into exile, where they continue to face numerous challenges. These range from the insecurity of living in refugee camps, to the fear of being tracked, arrested and deported back to Myanmar due to the lack of legal documents, and the challenges of ongoing trauma. Those human rights defenders who have valid travel documents face the impossibility of renewing their passports or requesting visa extensions in neighbouring countries once they expire.

Alongside human rights defenders, journalists are among those most at risk, as documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Many are detained under Article 505(a) of the Penal Code, an anti-state provision that broadly penalises “incitement” and “false news”, both ill-defined terms in law and arbitrarily interpreted by martial or military-influenced courts to hand down two- and three-year sentences.

The already dire situation of the Rohingya remaining in Myanmar has been further exacerbated in this context. As the military continues its violent campaign against any form of resistance, including by conducting airstrikes against ethnic areas and villages, over a million people have been displaced internally, and approximately 50,000 new refugees have fled to neighbouring countries as of November 2022. The attempted coup has also added to existing challenges to safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to their places of origin or choice in Myanmar. At the same time, all minority communities in Myanmar continue to bear the brunt of the junta’s ongoing violence in the country. The significant escalation of violence by the junta against ethnic communities in Myanmar bears hallmarks of the grave atrocities against Rohingya.

In this sense, the killing of Rohingya human rights defender and community leader Mohib Ullah, killed in Cox’s Bazar on 29 September 2021, is illustrative of the risks that many human rights defenders members of ethnic communities, incur.

On the 2nd anniversary of the coup, FORUM-ASIA, Front Line Defenders and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) urge the international community to:

  • Stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar, including by increasing financial support for human rights defenders and civil society organizations in the country and in exile;
  • Systematically and publicly call out violations against human rights defenders, request their immediate and unconditional release, and access to human rights defenders in detention; denounce the violation of fair trial rights, the use of military tribunals, and call to ensure access of family members and lawyers to those detained;
  • Recognise the precarious situation that many human rights defenders in exile face and ensure access to visas and other necessary travel documentation, as well as schemes for safe passage or temporary relocation in third countries;
  • Deny the junta any recognition or legitimacy as representatives of the people of Myanmar. This should include denying it access to international fora or meeting with its representatives;
  • Denounce the upcoming elections planned by the junta as a brazen attempt to legitimize the coup, recognising the increased risks for the population and in particular human rights defenders and journalists if elections were to go ahead;
  • Take necessary measures towards accountability for genocide against Rohingya, and well documented war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as widespread and systematic human rights violations against the people of Myanmar, including those in exile in neighbouring countries, by referring Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or setting up an ad hoc tribunal. Support Gambia in its case against Myanmar for the Rohingya genocide at the International Court of Justice, as well as initiatives to make the military accountable in national courts, such as Argentina and Germany most recently, using the principle of Universal Justice;
  • Impose a comprehensive global arms embargo and coordinated, targeted sanctions against the Myanmar military, its leadership and associates as well as businesses affiliated the military.

Signatories:

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights

Forum Asia

Front Line Defenders

MPs from Southeast Asia condemn the Myanmar junta’s parties registration law as an assault on democracy

MPs from Southeast Asia condemn the Myanmar junta’s parties registration law as an assault on democracy

JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia have condemned the new Political Parties Registration Law passed by the Myanmar military junta as an assault on democracy, drafted by an illegitimate authority, and designed to favor its proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), ahead of the sham elections planned for this year.

The new law, passed on 26 January, imposes a series of criteria to register parties that are extremely difficult to meet for most of the 91 political organizations currently registered in Myanmar, except for the USDP. For instance, according to Article 5(f), national parties are under the obligation to mobilize at least 100,000 members, 100 times more than the previous law, in 90 days, an impossibility given the instability and chaos that general Min Aung Hlaing threw the country into with the illegal coup he staged two years ago.

Now parties have two months to register under these draconian conditions, or they will be dissolved and declared illegal. The National League for Democracy (NLD), the party in government at the time of the takeover in February 2021, has announced its refusal to recognize the new law and the election commission. But other parties may face dissolution if the junta determines they have contacted a “terrorist organization,” including the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), set up to fight against the junta, or the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG).

“This law goes against all democratic principles not only because of its contents, specifically designed to make the military proxy USDP the only viable political party, but also because who has passed it. The junta led by Min Aung Hlaing has no legitimacy whatsoever to rule the country after an illegal coup d’état and two years of continuous atrocities against its own population, let alone to enact any law. The international community, starting with ASEAN, should condemn this new law in the strongest possible terms,” said Charles Santiago, Co-chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and former Member of Parliament in Malaysia.

The new law has been passed ahead of the general election planned by the junta this year. According to the 2008 Myanmar Constitution, the state of emergency that was put in place by the junta after its coup on 1 February can only last two years, after which the government has the obligation to hold new elections.

Over this period, Min Aung Hlaing and his generals have unsuccessfully attempted to consolidate its power in the face of widespread popular resistance to military rule. The junta is perpetrating crimes against humanity against its own people on a daily basis, including extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate aerial attacks against entire villages, arbitrary detentions and torture, often to death, of anyone deemed to be working with the opposition.

According to the local organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), there are 13,689 political prisoners in the country, and the junta has killed at least 2,894 people, with the real numbers likely several times higher. This all-out war waged by the junta against its own people has displaced hundreds of thousands, and ruined the Myanmar economy, creating a humanitarian catastrophe of gigantic proportions.

“In the terrible conditions currently prevailing in Myanmar, it is completely impossible to hold an election, especially if it is organized by the very same junta that created such conditions in the first place. This election is nothing but a desperate attempt by Min Aung Hlaing to legitimize his power, and will only result in even further bloodshed. The Myanmar people are not fooled by the junta’s electoral charade, and the international community should not be fooled either. It is imperative that international actors refuse to recognize the elections, and Min Aung Hlaing’s junta itself, and begin to seriously engage the democratic opposition in seeking the solution to the crisis in Myanmar,” said Santiago.

ASEAN governments must stop using ‘lawfare’ against critics, Southeast Asian MPs say

ASEAN governments must stop using ‘lawfare’ against critics, Southeast Asian MPs say

MANILA – The Philippines, as well as other ASEAN member states, must immediately halt the use of judicial harassment and politically-motivated charges against critics and political opponents, a phenomenon known as ‘lawfare’, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said today at a press conference held in Manila.

We call on Southeast Asian authorities to stop abusing the legal system to stifle dissent and urge ASEAN to reprimand member states that continue to use lawfare to attack political opposition. The Philippine government can take the first step by dropping all charges against Walden Bello and immediately releasing Senator Leila De Lima and any others that have been unjustly detained due to politically-motivated charges,” said Mercy Barends, Chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.

The press conference, titled “Stop Lawfare! No to the Weaponization of the Law and State-sponsored Violence,” was organized by APHR and the Walden Bello Legal Defense Committee, in solidarity with Walden Bello, an APHR Board Member and former Member of Parliament in the Philippines. Bello is facing politically-motivated charges of cyber-libel brought by a former Davao City information officer who now works as chief of the Media and Public Relations Division of the Office of the Vice President, Sara Duterte.

There have been many other victims of lawfare in the Philippines, including Senator Leila de Lima, who was arrested in February 2017 on trumped-up drug charges, shortly after she had launched a Senate investigation into the extrajudicial killings committed under the Rodrigo Duterte administration. She has remained in detention ever since, still waiting for her trial, despite the fact that several key witnesses have recanted their testimonies.

Lawfare is very common in the Philippines, but is happening everywhere in Southeast Asia and beyond. Governments in the region are using ambiguous laws to prosecute political opponents, government critics, and activists. This weaponizing of the legal system is alarming and incredibly damaging to freedom of expression. It creates an atmosphere of fear that not only silences  those who are targeted by such “lawfare” but also makes anyone who may want to criticize those in power think twice,” said  Charles Santiago, APHR Co-chairperson and former Malaysian Member of Parliament.

In Myanmar and Cambodia, for example, laws on treason and terrorism have been weaponized to crush opposition. The most tragic example took place in July last year, with the execution of four prominent Myanmar activists on bogus terrorism charges by the Myanmar junta. Those were the first judicial executions in decades, and provide an extreme example of how the law can be perverted by authoritarian regimes to cement their power, APHR has denounced. In Cambodia, members of the opposition are sentenced to lengthy jail terms on fabricated charges simply for exercising their right to freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, defamation laws are among the most often used for lawfare in Thailand, where, contrary to many other countries, it might be regarded as a criminal offense, rather than just a civil offense. Sections 326–328 of the Thai Criminal Code establish several defamation offenses with sentences of up to two years’ imprisonment and fines of up to 200,000 Thai Baht (approximately USD 6,400).

I think we, as parliamentarians, should do our utmost in our respective countries to repeal, or at least amend, these kinds of laws. Our democracies depend on it. But I also think that we cannot do it alone. We need to work together across borders, share experiences with parliamentarians from other countries and stand in solidarity with those who fall victim to them, because, ultimately, we are all on the same boat,” said Rangsiman Rome, Member of the Thai Parliament, and APHR member.

Southeast Asian MPs urge the Thai government to stop engaging with the Myanmar junta and help refugees

Southeast Asian MPs urge the Thai government to stop engaging with the Myanmar junta and help refugees

JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia urge the Thai government to stop engaging with the Myanmar junta, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, as it continues committing all sorts of atrocities against its own population in order to cement its power after the failed coup d’état in February 2021. They also petition the Thai authorities to provide help to refugees and asylum seekers fleeing persecution and military attacks from the neighboring country.

The call to disengage the junta comes after a meeting between the top leaders of the Myanmar and Thai armed forces in Rakhine State, western Myanmar. The Chief of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, General Chalermphon Srisawasdi, and Min Aung Hlaing met on 20 January with the aim of “further cementing mutual trust, mutual understanding and friendly ties between the two armed forces,” according to media controlled by the Myanmar junta.

As the high-level meeting was taking place, the Myanmar military was launching indiscriminate airstrikes in a village located in Sagaing region, killing at least seven villagers and injuring over thirty. On several occasions, stray shells have landed in Thai territory when the Myanmar military was conducting aerial attacks in neighboring Karen and Karenni states. 

“By engaging with the junta, the Thai military and government are turning into enablers of the crimes against humanity that it is perpetrating on a daily basis. No geopolitical interests can justify that. The junta has also shown utter disrespect to ASEAN, of which Thailand is also a member, by disregarding the Five Point Consensus it signed three months after the coup. No ASEAN member state should have ‘friendly ties’ with a military that has turned Myanmar into a center of instability which is threatening the whole region,” said Charles Santiago, former Member of Parliament in Malaysia, and Co-Chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

The Five Point Consensus was signed by the ASEAN member states and the Myanmar junta in April 2021 to put an end to the violence, seek a negotiated solution to the conflict and address the humanitarian crisis. As APHR has repeatedly stated, Min Aung Hlaing has not shown any willingness to comply with its terms from the beginning. The report of the International Parliamentary Inquiry into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar (IPI), organized by APHR, urged ASEAN to abandon the Five Point Consensus in its present form, as it has clearly failed.

“As we demanded in our IPI report, ASEAN should engage the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar, as the legitimate authority of the country, and re-negotiate a new consensus with it and aligned ethnic organizations. ASEAN decided early on not to invite representatives of the junta to high-level meetings, and countries like Malaysia and its current Chair, Indonesia, have shown willingness to engage the NUG. By meeting Ming Aung Hlaing, Thailand is undermining those efforts and furthering divisions within the regional group,” said Santiago.

In this vein, Thailand hosted a meeting in December to discuss the crisis in Myanmar, attended by the foreign ministers of the Myanmar junta, Laos and Cambodia, as well as the deputy foreign minister of Vietnam. Significantly, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore did not attend.

Thailand and Myanmar share a border of over 2,400 kilometers, and the attacks by the junta have displaced hundreds of thousands. Yet Thailand refuses to accept refugees fleeing the onslaught of the Myanmar military on the other side of the border, often pushing back those who cross it after a few days or even a few hours, as human rights organizations have often denounced in the last two years. Asylum seekers from the neighboring country do not fare much better in Thailand, where they have no legal protection and live in constant fear of deportation.

“Thailand has a history of welcoming refugees from Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam since the 20th century wars in Indochina. The government should open its borders to the refugees fleeing war in the Myanmar ethnic states along its borders, and provide legal protections to those who seek political asylum, including defectors from the Myanmar military. It should also facilitate cross-border aid by local civil society organizations and international NGOs. Once again, on these issues the main interlocutors the Thai government should engage with in Myanmar are the NUG, aligned ethnic organizations, and the vibrant civil society, not a criminal military completely unable to solve the crisis it has created,” said Santiago.

Click here to read this statement in Thai.

Southeast Asian MPs denounce threats made by Hun Sen against the opposition in Cambodia ahead of general elections

Southeast Asian MPs denounce threats made by Hun Sen against the opposition in Cambodia ahead of general elections

JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia are denouncing as a direct attack on democracy the threats of physical violence and legal action made by the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, to anyone who dares to criticize his party, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), ahead of the general election scheduled for July this year.

According to media reports, Hun Sen has warned the opposition that, if someone expresses any criticism against the CCP, “there are only two options: one is using legal action, the other is using sticks…. What do you want? Either you face legal action in court or I rally CPP people for a demonstration and beat you guys up.”

“Threats of physical violence, especially from a man who has ruled his country for almost four decades and has turned it into a dictatorship, should send chills down the spine of anyone who believes in democracy. Hun Sen and his regime have a long story of silencing, harassing, and persecuting the opposition, and his threats are fully consistent with that. He should be unreservedly denounced for eroding democratic institutions in Cambodia,” said Mercy Barends, Member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, and Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

The Hun Sen regime has steadily consolidated itself over the years. The main opposition party, and the only that posed a challenge to the CPP hegemony, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arbitrarily dissolved in 2017. That opened the way for the CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament at the national elections held the following year, turning Cambodia into a de facto one-party state tightly controlled by Hun Sen, in power since 1985, and his allies.

The CPP has used the judiciary as a tool to persecute and jail members of the opposition. Dozens of CNRP leaders and members have been charged with treason and sentenced in kangaroo trials, including the party’s former President, Sam Rainsy, and its Vice-President, and Board Member of APHR, Mu Sochua, both in exile. The leader of the opposition inside the country, Kem Sokha, was jailed in 2017, and then released in 2019, but he is not allowed to leave Cambodia or engage in political activities, and stands accused of treason in a case that has been dragging on for years.

“In contemporary Cambodia, the judiciary is just another instrument put at the service of Hun Sen and his cronies to cement their power, and separation of powers, one of the main pillars of democracy, simply does not exist. By threatening legal action against its critics in the same breath that he is threatening physical attacks by his followers, Hun Sen is making very clear how he sees both: as lackeys whose sole raison d’être is to do his bidding,” said Barends.

Currently the main opposition party operating inside the country is the Candlelight Party, which managed to get over 22 percent of the votes in the Communal and Sangkat Elections held in June 2022, despite a campaign of intimidation launched by the government during the campaign.

Yet harassment is not confined to politicians, as human rights activists, journalists or union leaders have also been persecuted by the regime. One of the most prominent cases is that of Cambodian-US lawyer Theary Seng, who was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in jail for criticizing Hun Sen on Facebook, along with dozens others. Meanwhile, the trade union leader Chhim Sithar was arrested in November for allegedly breaking the terms of her bail.

“As the general election in Cambodia approaches, ASEAN and the global community at large should not be fooled into believing that it can be a democratic process in the conditions prevailing now in the country. They should put real pressure on the Cambodian government to unconditionally release all political prisoners, stop its campaign of harassment against the opposition, and comply with the terms of the Paris Peace Accord, signed in 1991 and designed to put the country on a democratic path,” added Barends.

Southeast Asian MPs call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to rescue boat with up to 200 Rohingya refugees

Southeast Asian MPs call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to rescue boat with up to 200 Rohingya refugees

JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia urge ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to urgently rescue a boat carrying up to 200 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, which has been reportedly adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India for weeks.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the boat has been adrift in high seas since late November, and dozens of passengers have already died on the journey, while the surviving passengers have no access to food, water or medication. 

We urgently call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to fulfill their humanitarian obligations and launch search and rescue operations for the boat if it enters their waters, and to allow for the proper disembarkation of the refugees. It is disgraceful that a boat filled with men, women, and children in grave danger has been allowed to remain adrift. Neglecting the people on the boat is nothing short of an affront to humanity,” said Eva Sundari, Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and former Member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.

According to media reports and information from human rights organizations, two other boats carrying Rohingya refugees have been adrift ASEAN waters in the past weeks. One, carrying 154 refugees, was rescued by a Vietnamese oil service vessel on 8 December and handed over to the Myanmar navy. Another, carrying 104 refugees, was rescued by the Sri Lanka navy on 18 December, and disembarked at Kankesanturai Harbor.

The Rohingya have been suffering persecution in their country of origin, Myanmar, for decades. The overwhelming majority of them were rendered stateless in the early nineties by the authorities, and have suffered the most serious human rights violations since at least the late seventies. In 2016 and 2017 they were the target of brutal military operations, displacing over 730,000 to neighbouring Bangladesh and for which the Myanmar army has been accused of genocide.

In these desperate conditions, many of them put themselves at the hands of unscrupulous human smugglers to seek a better life in countries like Malaysia, in extremely dangerous journeys through the Andaman Sea.

In all likelihood, the delay in rescuing these boats has already caused untold suffering and loss of life. Any further delay is unconscionable. This neglect of Rohingya refugees stranded in the sea is nothing new, as it has been going on for years, and has resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths that could have been easily been prevented if the countries in the region fulfilled the most elementary humanitarian principles,” said Charles Santiago, Chairperson of APHR, and former member of Parliament from Malaysia.

APHR urges ASEAN to devise a comprehensive and coordinated regional response to the issue of refugees stranded at sea, in order to act effectively, and according to humanitarian principles, in such situations, as saving lives at sea must be a collective effort.

But ASEAN should also address the root causes of the tragedy that has befell the Rohingya for so many years, including putting pressure on the Myanmar authorities to restore their citizenship, and receiving the refugees currently living in precarious camps in Bangladesh. ASEAN should also help to hold the perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya people accountable, especially now that the army that launched the genocidal military operations against them in 2016 and 2017 has thrown Myanmar into chaos since staging an illegal coup d’état on 1 February 2021.

ASEAN and the international community at large have stood idly for too long as the Rohingya tragedy unfolded over the years. Those countries who claim to defend human rights have a moral obligation to address the root causes of the human rights crisis afflicting the Rohingya, or these humanitarian tragedies will only repeat again and again. ASEAN member states, as well as their partners in the region and beyond, must ensure that Myanmar restore the rights of the Rohingya people, end all discriminatory practices and holds those responsible for crimes against humanity to account,” said Kasit Piromya, APHR Board Member and former Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs.