• Home
• about
• Activities
• Contact
• Programs
• Manual

• Analysis
• Commentary
• Feature
• General Election
• Monthly Report
• News
• PDF Format
• Special Report
• Video Clips

Subscribe

Bearing Witness Under Fire: Documenting Abuses Despite Threats and Intimidation

For three decades, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has stood with the people of Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region. Since its founding in 1995, HURFOM has documented abuses that others have tried to hide—arbitrary arrests, forced displacement, extortion, and killings—and shared them with the world in the hope of ending impunity.

Our latest edition of The Mon Forum (Vol. 10, Issue 8, August 2025) highlights the challenges we face in keeping this commitment. Despite the ever-present risks, our team continues to gather and release information through our website and social media channels. Each month, HURFOM field reporters record between 40 and 50 cases of violations. In August alone, we published over 30 news articles from across 15 townships. These cases document the worsening patterns of violence and oppression that civilians endure daily.

Threats Against Civilians and Monitors

The cost of exposing truth remains painfully high. Since the attempted coup on 1 February 2021, the military has intensified its campaign of terror. Villagers are caught between junta troops and armed resistance groups, both of which station themselves close to civilian areas. Lawlessness has spread, and people who dare to speak out are at greater risk than ever.

This is not new. In the early days of the coup, when our office was still inside Burma, a village administrator threatened a local woman simply because she had shared a photo of abuses with HURFOM. To protect her, we stopped publishing reports in Burmese for years. Four years later, in August 2025, history repeated itself: another woman who sent a photo to HURFOM was arrested and threatened by an armed group. Once again, our team moved quickly to ensure her safety. These are not isolated cases—they show the grave dangers that ordinary people face when they try to tell the truth.

Continuing the Struggle

Operating from the Thai–Burma border has not shielded us from threats. Armed groups and junta forces continue to monitor, intimidate, and obstruct our work. On several occasions, we have been forced to take down or edit sensitive stories to protect sources and local communities. Our priority will always be the safety of the people who entrust us with their stories.

Still, the scale of the crisis demands that we persevere. Over 3.5 million people have been displaced nationwide, and in HURFOM areas alone, tens of thousands are forced to flee again and again due to airstrikes, artillery shelling, and landmines. Our field teams report hundreds of extortion cases every month: police taking 20,000 MMK at one gate, soldiers another 2,000 MMK at the next. Food transport is seized; travelers are harassed; families are threatened. These patterns, which we document case by case, reveal the junta’s systematic strategy to impoverish and control communities.

A Mission Without Retreat

Despite the threats, HURFOM has never given up its mission: to protect and promote human rights, to end impunity, and to contribute to a genuine peace built on federal democracy. Our role is not only to expose atrocities but also to honor the courage of survivors, whistleblowers, and community leaders who risk their safety for justice.

We know this work is dangerous. But silence would be more dangerous still—for victims, for communities, and for the future of our country.

As one elder from Thaton told our team this month: “If we stop speaking, it will be as if these abuses never happened. We cannot let the truth be buried.”

Looking Ahead

HURFOM remains committed to documenting every violation we can, and to ensuring that international actors cannot claim ignorance of the suffering in our areas. The road to federal democracy is long and difficult, but our work—grounded in truth, courage, and solidarity with the people—continues.

Our hope is that the testimonies we collect today will one day serve not only as evidence against perpetrators, but also as a record of resilience and dignity for future generations.

Commentary: Civilians in Mon State Living Between Two Fires as Junta Pushes Forward Sham Election

The people of Mon State are enduring unbearable suffering as the military junta escalates its campaign of fear and violence. While intensifying airstrikes, artillery shelling, and mass arrests, the regime is also pressing ahead with a sham election intended to manufacture legitimacy. For ordinary families, these parallel crises mean living each day in fear, displacement, and uncertainty.

The Humanitarian Crisis on the Ground

In Bilin, Kyaikto, and Ye townships, clashes between junta troops and resistance forces have driven thousands from their homes. Displaced families are struggling without food, shelter, or medicine, with many forced to survive on nothing more than rice porridge. “Children and the elderly are getting sick. We are appealing for aid as quickly as possible,” one villager in Ye Township told HURFOM fieldworkers.

Landmines contaminate fields, making even farming dangerous, while indiscriminate drone strikes and artillery fire continue to devastate villages. Monks and monasteries, once sanctuaries, now shelter frightened civilians caught in this relentless war.

Read more

Junta’s air assault forces residents from seven villages to flee home

HURFOM: On March 2nd, 2024, the military junta launched air assaults on Tha Yet Chaung Township, Dawei District, Tenasserim Division forcing residents from seven villages to flee their homes and find safe shelter.

After a “Pyu Saw Hitee” , a pro-military camp in Yaung Maw village was attacked, the junta responded with a Mi-2 helicopter led air assault. This forced residents from King Shae, Saw Phyar, Say Hpyat Gone, Moe Shwe Gone, Ann Pyin, Kyet Sar Pyin and Kyar Inn villages to flee their homes.

Read more

Mon people question conduct of the NMSP

HURFOM: At 3:13 pm on June 16, 2023, the 31st local military battalion launched indiscriminate artillery attacks on Kyouk Eye (Win Ta Maw) village, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Southern Ye Township, Mon State and killed a local woman.

Read more

Woman shot and killed in Lamine

HURFOM: At approximately 10 am on June 22, 2023, a 50-year-old woman from Lamine Town, Ye Township, Mon State was shot and killed by two unknown men, according to a local report.

Read more

Junta arrests nine Mawlamyine residents accusing them of involvement in “Flower Strike”

HURFOM: June 19, 2023 is the State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday, and the whole country had organized a “Flower Strike” to celebrate her 78^th birthday.

In Mawlamyine, Mon State, the junta arrested nine residents for contributing to the “Flower Strike” and detained them.

Read more

Travelers are in fear as junta attacks Thanbyuzayat-Ye highway roads

HURFOM: On June 20, 2023, the 27th Battalion of the 5th Brigade of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the People Defense Forces (PDF) stopped and checked travelers on the Thanbyuzayat-Ye-Dawei Highway Road.

Read more

NLD lawmaker’s house seized in Kyaikmayaw

HURFOM: On June 20, 2023, the military junta sealed and seized the house of Daw Khin Myo Myint, a Mon State lawmaker with the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the #2 constituency of Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State.

Read more

Junta arrests and tortures father of Dawei Strike Committee Leader

HURFOM: A Dawei based strike committee released a statement saying,  U Aung Phay, the father of Ko Min Lwin Oo, the leader of their strike committee, was beaten and arrested by the junta council today at noon on June 19.

Read more

Junta arrests a married couple in Yebyu

HURFOM: According to local residents, junta forces raided the home of a married couple living in Thiri Minglar Ward, Kanbauk area, Yebyu Township, #Dawei District, in the middle of the night and abducted them.

Read more

Next Page »