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

June 19, 2023

HURFOM | June Week Three

As the people’s calls for justice and accountability grow, it is all the more concerning that some ASEAN countries refuse to condemn the military’s violence and gross negligence. Across the last week, it was revealed that the outgoing Thai Foreign Minister was planning secret meetings with the military junta. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) joined regional civil society organizations in expressing concern and frustration in further coordinating meetings that go against the people’s will. These meetings must not take place at the risk of legitimizing the junta.

While authoritarian leaders corroborate, the Burma Army continues its widespread attacks against civilians nationwide. In Southeastern Burma, indiscriminate firing by junta-backed soldiers indicates the impunity that goes unchallenged at the cost of human lives. According to residents, the junta troops shot and killed a young, internally displaced man from Ya Nge village, Thayet Chaung Township, Dawei District, on the afternoon of June 11. He fled as fighting descended upon Min Dap, Tain Kon, Ka Myaing, Ya Nge, Kyauk Kha Mauk, Kyaul Min Kon and Kanet Thiri villages.
The victim was 23-year-old Ko Wai Yan Hein, who was shot while trying to escape to a safe place with his family when the junta troops arrived. He was targeted while returning home to take medicine for his ill mother:

“At that time, the junta troops came to their house, and the soldiers saw him hiding behind the house and shot him,” a resident said.

In a separate incident of violence caused by the junta, artillery fired at 9:30 PM on 9 June caused an explosion beside a motorcycle repair shop in the northern ward No.5 of Hnit Kayin village, injuring a man from the town. The artillery shells hit the knee of Ko Kaung Kyi, age 30, from Hnit Kayin village. Although the injury was not serious, the locals were frightened that their lives were insecure due to being fired upon for days by the junta military. On June 9, after the junta council opened fire, warplanes were hovering, causing concern. Civilians from wards 4, 5, and 6 sought shelter at the monastery, and some moved to Mawlamyine.

Torture and abductions are also increasingly common. On the morning of June 13, according to local witnesses, more than forty troops from the junta raided and captured four men and two women from Thabyar village in Launglon Township, Dawei District, after torturing them violently:

“Initially, junta troops and police entered the village on foot. Later, they came near the entrance sign of the village with three lorries and a civilian car and sealed the road for inspection. After that, at 10:00 AM, they entered a restaurant near the place of the inspection and arrested four men and two women, including the shopkeeper. There was no reason why they arrested them like this,” a 40-year-old local man recounted what he witnessed. The junta troops have been arming their auxiliaries and supporting forces to use civilians as militia groups.

This week, HURFOM also reported cases of innocent civilians supporting the revolutionary forces being arrested and abducted. According to sources, a man from Kyauk Bon village, Kyaik Hto Township, Mon State, was arrested at his home after it was raised by the junta on 12 June at 7 PM by over ten soldiers.

While interrogating Ko Kyaw Moe, the junta forces beat him up, tied his hands and took him away: “Ko Kyaw Moe was selling goods in the village and was caught saying he supported the People’s Defense Forces. He may have been arrested because someone tipped off the junta,” said a Kyauk Bon local.

These arrests reveal the junta’s genuine fears of democracy and the power of the people who rally around a future that excludes the Burma Army and its volatile forces.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under Analysis, News