Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

March 18, 2024

HURFOM, Second Week of March 2024

Over the last week, civilians once again in target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) struggled to resume their daily activities in peace. While the junta continues to present a distorted illusion of business as usual. This incorrect and profoundly misleading narrative must not fool the international community. The reality is that the situation on the ground is that innocent civilians are being deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms and prevented from accessing safe and secure pathways to education, health care and legal assistance.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

March 11, 2024

HURFOM, First Week of March 2024

Across the first week of March, there continued to be widespread attacks against civilians who have been abducted and detained on baseless charges. The junta is rapidly losing bases and territory across target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM). In response, the Burma Army has scaled up attacks against the people, notably those spearheading the Spring Revolution.

On the evening of 28 February 2024, another teacher affiliated with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) was abducted in Kanbauk, Yebyu, Dawei.  Military junta troops arrested the 48-year-old CDM teacher, Daw Mee Mee Zaw, from Khaing Thazin Ward:

“They raided the house and abducted her. They put a black hood on her head. It’s confirmed that she was taken,” a woman from Khaing Thazin Ward reported to HURFOM. The woman continued to disclose that the CDM teacher, Daw Mee Mee Zaw, was arrested for allegedly teaching National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) education online.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

February 26, 2024

HURFOM, Fourth Week of February 2024

Over the last week, in target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), women were targeted by the military junta. The escalation of violence on the ground in Burma has impacted civilians the harshest, particularly in conflict-affected areas where women and children are among the majority of those displaced.

The regime also is enforcing stricter measures on mobility while repressing rights related to freedom of expression. This comes alongside a worrying rise in arbitrary arrests and abductions, which are rooted in baseless assumptions and a lack of evidence. In Mon State alone, according to a report by the New Ramanya Federal Force (NRFF), 105 civilians were killed, and more than 900 were unjustly arrested since the attempted coup.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

February 19, 2024

HURFOM, Third Week of February 2024

Over the last week, the military junta intensified and scaled up its attacks against civilians. In retaliation for the widespread support of the resistance movement, the Burma Army is targeting innocent civilians.

Dozens have been arbitrarily arrested and detained on baseless allegations and are charged in a legal system with no legitimate basis. Many have been forced into confessions and are tortured in the process. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) continues to monitor the situation closely.

The number of those arrested has sharply increased since the beginning of 2024. One local who was detained in Thanbyuzayat by the Burma Army was accused of supporting the local resistance forces in Mon State on 10 February 2024. The victim, age 43 years old and a motorcycle repairman was arrested in the evening by junta forces. The regime continues to crack down on fundamental rights and freedoms, including participation in protests.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

February 12, 2024

HURFOM, First Week of February 2024

On 1 February 2024, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) issued a statement to mark three years since the failed coup in Burma. Over the past three years, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has documented widespread suffering and evidence of crimes perpetrated by the junta. Human rights violations have steadily increased across Southeastern Burma, including in Mon and Karen States as well as in the Tanintharyi region.

HURFOM continues to call for immediate accountability for the widespread and systematic crimes committed by the Burma Army. For decades, the Generals and soldiers of the regime’s commands have violated the rights of civilians with impunity. The international community must take the criminality embedded in the Tatmadaw seriously. This includes acknowledging the pro-democracy movement and leaders and ending all engagements with the military junta. The shared oppressor of the people has no place in the future of the country’s democratic movement. 

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

January 29, 2024

HURFOM, Fourth Week of January 2024

As the first week of the year comes to an end, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) continues to observe an increase in the atrocities being perpetrated by the military junta across Southeastern Burma. Civilians have been attempting to return to their daily lives as much as the current circumstances permit. Still, it has been incredibly challenging, given the rising presence of soldiers in local villages. In recent months, particularly towards the second half of 2023, the Burma Army lost many military bases. In retaliation, the junta has been punishing local people with their usual tactics of isolation, fear and intimidation.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

January 22, 2024

HURFOM, Third Week of January 2024

Over the last week, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) received two devastating updates on the ill-treatment of political prisoners who died from preventable causes. Both young men died after failing to receive immediate emergency assistance. HURFOM condemned the response by the junta-backed medical staff who failed to take steps that would have saved the lives of the two victims. According to the rights monitoring group, the Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar (PPNM), seventeen political prisoners died in 2023 because their medical symptoms were ignored and treated too late by junta-staffed personnel.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

January 15, 2024

HURFOM, Second Week of January 2024

In conflict-torn Southeastern Burma, civilians are seeking refuge and urgently needed protection from the ongoing bombardments by the military junta. Across target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region, those displaced continue to rise as offensives intensify.

For example, in Mon State, nearly 3,000 local people in Thaton District, who have been fleeing the war for almost a month due to the fighting, require emergency assistance, including basic food, medicine, shelter, blankets, and warm clothes, which are urgently needed.  Since December 13th, the fighting between the two sides has intensified since the joint forces of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) blocked and attacked the junta’s Win Tar Pan camp based in Bilin.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

January 8, 2024

HURFOM, First Week of January 2024

The first week of the year in Southeastern Burma saw more violence by the junta in target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State and the Tanintharyi region. The situation of human rights continues to escalate, particularly in Mon State, where since 19 December, the junta has waged widespread and indiscriminate attacks against local, unarmed civilians. On 29 December 2023, HURFOM released a statement of concern after documenting the forced displacement of more than 22,000 people, the deaths of ten and nearly two dozen injured.

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Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

December 18, 2023

HURFOM, Second Week of December 2023

It has been a very long year for the people of Burma, who have been forced to endure ongoing violence perpetrated against them with impunity. The delayed and inadequate reply by the international community has only made things more challenging for those regularly being impacted by the atrocities deployed against them. With so much injustice and no reliable pathways for accountability and justice, the war is only worsening. Against all odds, civilians have remained resilient at the cost of their survival. They are on the run constantly and refuse to see the junta as any measure of humanity.

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