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 Possible War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Ongoing in Myanmar, 30 Rohingya Muslim Refugees Died, 400 Dehdrated on a Boat

May 1, 2020

Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

Myanmar military deputy Commander in Chief inspects military officers on Armed Forces Day in 2017	Rohingya refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in Myanmar, file photo

 

Myanmar: “Possible war crimes and crimes against humanity ongoing in Rakhine and Chin States” – UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee 

OHCHR, Myanmar version

GENEVA / BANGKOK (29 April 2020) –

A UN human rights expert today called for an investigation into allegations of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin States.

“While the world is occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Myanmar military continues to escalate its assault in Rakhine State, targeting the civilian population,” said Yanghee Lee, who is concluding her tenure as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

“Calls for a ceasefire, including by the Arakan Army, have gone unheeded. Instead, the Tatmadaw is inflicting immense suffering on the ethnic communities in Rakhine and Chin,” Lee said. “The Tatmadaw is systematically violating the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and human rights. Its conduct against the civilian population of Rakhine and Chin States may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. All parties to the conflict, including the Arakan Army, must also protect civilians.”

The expert said accountability was critical to ending the conflict. “Having faced no accountability, the Tatmadaw continues to operate with impunity. For decades, its tactics have intentionally maximised civilian suffering; we all know what they did to the Rohingya in 2017. They are now targeting all civilians in the conflict area, with people from Rakhine, Rohingya, Mro, Daignet and Chin communities being killed in recent months. Their alleged crimes must be investigated in accordance with international standards, with perpetrators being held accountable.”

An armed conflict has raged in Rakhine and Chin States since December 2018 between the Myanmar military known as the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army but in recent weeks the Tatmadaw has ramped up attacks against civilians. More than 157,000 people have been displaced, and hundreds including women and children killed and wounded since the conflict started.

The Arakan Army has also conducted its hostilities in a manner that has had negative impacts on civilians, including kidnapping local officials and parliamentarians. Most recently, on 12 April, the Arakan Army is reported to have abducted an elected member of a Paletwa Township committee. However it has declared a unilateral ceasefire which has the effect of increasing civilian protection. The focus of all authorities, including security forces, should be on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

The Special Rapporteur said recent Tatmadaw air and artillery strikes in civilian areas in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin State have killed and injured scores of adults and children, and the Tatmadaw has prevented some of the injured from accessing urgent medical care. Men suspected of links to the Arakan Army have been detained for days and tortured. Schools, houses and a Buddhist temple have been burned or destroyed, even an entire village of up to 700 homes.

“In one artillery attack on 13 April, the Tatmadaw killed eight civilians, including at least two children, when it targeted Kyauk Seik village, in Ponnagyun township, with artillery from its nearby Battalion 550 base,” Lee said.

Witnesses say entire populations of villages have fled following the attacks.

The UN expert said the military has disappeared, arrested, tortured or killed dozens of men. After burning up to 700 homes in Tin Ma village in Kyauktaw on 22 March, 10 men disappeared. One man was found shot dead and decapitated bodies were later located in a nearby river.

In the face of tight restrictions on humanitarian access since January 2019, the Tatmadaw is blocking aid from reaching certain areas, including Paletwa Township in Chin where there are over 8,000 displaced people, with dire consequences for local populations, she said. It is also stopping people from accessing urgent medical care. Most heinously, a severely injured teenage boy died at a military checkpoint in Rakhine after the Tatmadaw forced the vehicle transporting him to wait there on the way to hospital.

Aid workers also have been targeted in the conflict. Last week, a WHO driver and Ministry of Health and Sports worker were injured, and the driver later died, after their UN-marked car was shot at. “Humanitarian workers should not be a target; attacking them is a serious violation of international humanitarian law. There must be an investigation into who was responsible for the attack, with perpetrators held accountable,” Lee stressed.

The Special Rapporteur said that despite a mobile internet shutdown since June 2019, and recent terrorism charges against journalists creating fear and hampering reporting, she continued to receive information from people on the ground.

“I have also received information about ethnic Rakhine journalists who have gone into hiding in fear of arrest as they work for news outlets that have reported on the conflict. I repeat my call to fully lift the mobile internet shutdown and to allow the media to operate freely in order to report on these critical issues.

“I also call on the United Nations to step up its efforts to protect civilians in Rakhine and Chin and ensure that there is not another systemic failure like in 2017.”

The human rights expert said Myanmar and its security forces must abide by the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures and its own Presidential directive to respect the Genocide Convention.

Check all the reports by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

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Yanghee Lee (Republic of Korea) was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2014 as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. She is independent from any government or organization and serves in her individual capacity. Ms. Lee served as member and chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2003-2011). She is currently a professor at Sungkyunwan University, Seoul, and serves on the Advisory Committee of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. Ms. Lee is the founding President of International Child Rights Center.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms. Special Procedures mandate-holders are independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. They are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary for their work.

UN Human Rights, country page: Myanmar 

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25838&LangID=E

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UN human rights office calls for compassion following Rohingya deaths at sea   

UNHCR, 17 April 2020

The UN human rights office (OHCHR), is calling for compassion for people desperately seeking shelter, after 30 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar died on a boat in the Bay of Bengal that had spent nearly two months at sea.

Nearly 400 others onboard were found dehydrated, malnourished and in need of immediate medical care. They disembarked in Bangladesh on Thursday morning and are receiving assistance from UN refugee agency UNHCR, and its partners.

“We are aware of reports that this boat had repeatedly sought a safe harbour, but the vessel was unable to land in Malaysia”, OHCHR Spokesperson Richard Colville said on Friday.

“Whatever efforts are taken to combat people-smuggling, this should be a time for compassion towards those in desperate need of assistance and protection”.

With reports of other vessels in similar circumstances still at sea, the UN has urged countries to step-up timely search and rescue efforts.

Countries were reminded that any response should be based on international human rights and refugee law, and to avoid “dangerous interception practices”, such as preventing boats from landing.

Sea tragedy a ‘sad reminder’

Mr. Colville said the refugees’ journey was a “sad reminder” of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from Rakhine state, in northern Myanmar, over the past four years.

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group and are not recognized as citizens of the country. Members have fled persecution at the hands of the authorities, escaping overland and on boats to Bangladesh and other countries in the region.

More than 670,000 alone fled the latest wave in August 2017 and are now living in camps in the Cox’s Bazar region in southern Bangladesh.

The UN rights office reported that the situation in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin state is again dire. A recent surge in violence between the ethnic Arakan Army armed group and the national forces has affected civilians of all ethnic groups.

Violence and Internet blackout

Mr. Colville also reported that the Myanmar army has been carrying out almost daily airstrikes and shelling in populated areas. At least 32 people have been killed, and more than 70 injured, since 23 March.  Despite the UN Secretary General’s recent appeal for a global ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for a ceasefire have been ignored.

“Further complicating the situation, there has been an internet blackout in nine townships across Rakhine and Chin States since June 2019”, he said.

“This blackout has greatly hampered the availability of reliable public information on hygiene, physical distancing precautions and other preventative measures. Internet restrictions have also been applied by the Bangladesh authorities to the Rohingya refugee camps.”

OHCHR called on all parties to the conflict to heed the UN chief's appeal.

The UN agency also urged the Myanmar authorities to lift the internet ban and allow humanitarians to access all conflict-affected areas, while Bangladesh should allow Rohingya refugees free access to information and communication.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061972 

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U.N. Envoy Brings New Allegations Of War Crimes Against Myanmar

NPR, April 29, 20206:25 AM ET

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

Myanmar military deputy Commander in Chief, Vice Senior Gen. Soe Win, center, inspects military officers on Armed Forces Day last year. A U.N. human rights monitor is accusing the military of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The United Nations' outgoing chief human rights monitor for Myanmar is calling for an investigation into allegations of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the southeast Asian country's Rakhine and Chin States.

"While the world is occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Myanmar military continues to escalate its assault in Rakhine State, targeting the civilian population," Yanghee Lee said in a blistering farewell statement.

"Calls for a ceasefire, including by the Arakan Army, have gone unheeded. Instead, the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] is inflicting immense suffering on the ethnic communities in Rakhine and Chin," Lee said.

The Arakan Army is an ethnic Rakhine rebel group seeking greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government. Fighting between the Arakan Army and Myanmar's military has escalated over the past six months and civilians in Rakhine and Chin states have been increasingly caught in the middle.

Lee, known as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said that Tatmadaw artillery and air strikes in both states have killed and injured "scores" of civilians, including children, and have prevented the injured from getting urgent medical care.

Myanmar is already facing allegations of genocide for its brutal crackdown on Muslim minority Rohingya in Rakhine state in August 2017, when more than 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. About 1 million Rohingya now live in the world's largest refugee camp there, unable or unwilling to return.

This January, the U.N.'s highest court instructed Myanmar to stop genocidal violence against Rohingya who remain in Rakhine state. Today the special rapporteur urged the international community to act to protect all innocents in Rakhine and Chin states.

"Having faced no accountability, the Tatmadaw continues to operate with impunity," Lee said. "For decades, its tactics have intentionally maximized civilian suffering; we all know what they did to the Rohingya in 2017. They are now targeting all civilians in the conflict area, with people from Rakhine, Rohingya, Mro, Daignet and Chin communities being killed in recent months," the special rapporteur said.

"Its conduct against the civilian population of Rakhine and Chin States may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity," she said.

In language that evokes the 2017 attacks against the Rohingya, Lee described how the military disappeared, arrested or tortured dozens of men and burnt down entire villages, including one where more than 700 homes were destroyed. The U.N. estimates tens of thousands have been displaced since the conflict began.

Since January of last year, Myanmar's military has also been blocking aid from reaching many areas and aid workers have been targeted in the conflict. Just last week, a driver for the World Health Organization carrying swabs from patients tested for the coronavirus was killed when his vehicle was targeted with gunfire in Rakhine state.

"Humanitarian workers should not be a target," Lee said. "There must be an investigation into who was responsible for the attack, with perpetrators held accountable."

Internet access has been blocked in many areas affected by the pandemic, making it difficult for people to learn how to protect themselves against the virus—and also making it more difficult to document abuse by either side in the conflict. Lee called on the United Nations to "step up its efforts to protect civilians in Rakhine and Chin and ensure that there is not another systemic failure like in 2017."

Myanmar's government has not commented on the special rapporteur's statement. Since late 2017, it has repeatedly blocked her from entering Myanmar, accusing Lee of being biased against the military.

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847733031/u-n-envoy-brings-new-allegations-of-war-crimes-in-myanmar 

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