Mar 3, 2023 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Dozens of parliamentarians from several Southeast Asian countries urged the ASEAN and the international community at large to take swift and concrete action against the illegal military junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and provide real assistance to the pro-democracy forces in Myanmar, following a roundtable discussion on the Myanmar crisis held today in Jakarta.
The discussion, which was part of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights’ (APHR) annual members’ forum, was held at the Indonesian House of Representatives and included parliamentarians and civil society organizations from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Myanmar itself.
“The crisis in Myanmar is causing a humanitarian catastrophe of gigantic proportions. The junta’s atrocities have displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Adding to previous displacements before the coup, the number of internally displaced persons in Myanmar now stands at more than a record 1.3 million. The sole responsible for this disaster is the junta led by Min Aung Hlaing, and it is high time that ASEAN stop treating it with kid gloves. Strong pressure to isolate the Myanmar military is more imperative and urgent than ever,” said Mercy Barends, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives and APHR Chair.
According to the local organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), over 16,000 political prisoners are currently jailed in abysmal conditions, and at least 3,075 people have been killed by the military since the coup, although AAPP believes that the number is likely many times higher.
These conditions also extend to parliamentarians in the country. According to APHR monitoring, 84 members of the national and sub-national parliaments remain in detention, facing not only the risk of torture in prison but also possible risk of execution following the executions of four pro-democracy activists, including former lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw. Most ousted parliamentarians continue their work in hiding and are at risk of detention or even death. Some have had their family members harassed and their properties seized by the junta.
“What is happening in Myanmar is an affront to humanity and we, as fellow humans, should take it seriously and not stand idly as the military continues to violate the human rights of the Myanmar people. We, Parliamentarians across Southeast Asia must work together in putting the country back into a path towards democracy. One of the first steps is to recognize the National Unity Government and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) as the legitimately elected representatives of the people of Myanmar and involve them in any future negotiations,” said António de Sá Benevides, member of Parliament of Timor Leste and APHR Member.
The International Parliamentary Inquiry (IPI) into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar, which was organized by APHR in 2022, found that the global community has largely failed to provide the help that the people of Myanmar sorely need. ASEAN and the international community at large have hidden behind the Five Point Consensus, which the Myanmar junta has continually and blatantly flouted.
“As Chair of ASEAN this year, the biggest and most democratic country in the region, Indonesia has a duty to step up and tell the generals in Naypyidaw that enough is enough. After the failed approach of Cambodia last year, appeasing the generals and ignoring the pro-democracy movement, Jakarta should put significant pressure on the Myanmar military, and support the pro-democracy forces led by the NUG, if it is serious about solving the crisis,” said Charles Santiago, former member of the Malaysian Parliament, and APHR Co-Chair.
Click here to read this statement in Thai.
Feb 3, 2023 | DFF, Opinion Articles
By Charles Santiago.
Two years after the coup d’état in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, the country has descended into a downward spiral as the junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing tries to consolidate its power with increasing brutality. Amid the fog of war engulfing Myanmar, two facts have become increasingly clear: the military has failed to take over the country amid widespread popular resistance; and the global community has failed to provide the help that the Myanmar people so badly need in their struggle for democracy.
Those were two of the main conclusions that an International Parliamentary Inquiry (IPI) into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar, organized by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), reached in a report published in November. The report laid bare the many inadequacies of the international community on Myanmar, in particular how it has hidden behind ASEAN, despite the regional bloc’s evident fecklessness in handling the issue so far. Little has changed since the report came out.
On both the domestic and international fronts, 2023 presents itself as a pivotal year for Myanmar. It is a time fraught with danger, as the junta plans to hold an election which will not serve to solve the crisis and is likely to trigger even more violence; for the time being, such plans have been put on hold, as Min Aung Hlaing extended on 1 February the state of emergency for another six months. He even admitted that more than a third of Myanmar’s townships are not controlled by the military.
What the military is unable to admit is that, in the conditions currently prevailing in Myanmar, there is not a remote possibility that any election organized by the junta can be minimally free and fair. And it is Min Aung Hlaing who has created these conditions. The military is persecuting the opposition with criminal ferocity while also viciously killing their own citizens on a daily basis. According to the local organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), over 13,600 political prisoners are currently jailed in abysmal conditions, and at least 2,810 people have been killed by the military since the coup, though the organization believes that the number is likely many times higher.
It is thus crucial that international actors, including ASEAN, do not get fooled by the electoral charade planned by Min Aung Hlaing as a desperate attempt to legitimize its illegal takeover. The Myanmar people already voted in 2020, and gave a resounding victory to the incumbent National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi. And the generals have never shown any evidence that those elections were marred by fraud, as they claim as their flimsy rationale for the coup.
The Myanmar people have clearly shown that they are not willing to accept a return to military rule. The representatives of the elected government and parliament who have managed to avoid being jailed, the National Unity Government (NUG) and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), along with leaders of the ethnic minorities, are working in drafting a new constitution that would establish a democratic federal system.
The global community should support those efforts. And, as Chair of ASEAN, Indonesia should take the first step by breaking with the regional group’s failed approach over the last two years, particularly under the chairmanship of Cambodia in 2021, with the government of Hun Sen engaging with the junta and thus conferring it a legitimacy it does not deserve.
The Myanmar military has disregarded from the outset the Five Point Consensus, which was signed by ASEAN member states and Min Aung Hlaing’s junta in April 2021, and was aimed at putting an end to the violence, foster negotiations between all stakeholders and deliver humanitarian aid. Such disregard only shows the utter contempt of the junta towards ASEAN itself and its member states, including Cambodia; and the group has proved incapable, or unwilling, to enforce the implementation of the agreement.
It is encouraging that the Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, squarely blamed the junta for failing to implement the Five Point Consensus in November last year. Now, as Special Envoy to Myanmar, she should step up and lead ASEAN into changing tack on Myanmar.
Ibu Retno should begin with publicly acknowledging the NUG as the legitimate government in Myanmar, and engage with it, alongside allied ethnic organizations and the pro-democracy movement at large, on all issues. As a first step, the Minister should promote within ASEAN a new agreement to replace the failed Five Point Consensus. This new agreement should be negotiated with the NUG and allied forces, not with Min Aung Hlaing, and it should include clear benchmarks and enforcement mechanisms.
The Indonesian government should also recognize that the junta is repeatedly weaponizing aid, and cannot be trusted to deliver it in an effective manner. ASEAN should work through the NUG, ethnic organizations and Myanmar’s vibrant civil society to assist those affected by the humanitarian catastrophe befalling the country since the coup.
Lastly, Indonesia should promote sanctions against the generals, including efforts to impose an arms embargo, cutting the financial flows to the junta and travel bans in the region. The ASEAN Chair should also take a leading role in making the junta accountable for its horrible crimes.
As one of the largest democracies in the world, with experience in sending its own military back to the barracks after decades of dictatorship, Indonesia can, and should, play a positive role in supporting democracy in Myanmar. Indonesia’s chairmanship of ASEAN presents a unique opportunity for the regional group to change course and begin to help at last the Myanmar people in their struggle against the murderous military. Let’s not miss this opportunity.
Charles Santiago is a former member of Parliament from Malaysia, and the co-chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
This article first appeared in The Jakarta Post.
Feb 2, 2023 | DFF, Statements, Uncategorized
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
Jan 31, 2023 | DFF, Statements
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.
Jan 26, 2023 | DFF, Statements
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.
