Weekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region
Week One June 2022
June 6, 2022
Weekly update on the situation in Karen, Mon & Dawei since the attempted coup:
13+ Arrested
8+ Detained
6+ Injured
3 killed
In May alone, HURFOM reported 52 medical workers were dismissed and 6 activists were sentenced to 2 to 5 years in prison.
Full Analysis:
As the month of May ended, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) released findings which found evidence of a worsening humanitarian crisis with nearly 30,000 newly displaced people across target areas. In addition, extortion, bribery and ransoms demanded by the military junta have continued to wreak economic turmoil. Livelihoods have been stunted by the General’s incompetency. Since 1 February 2021, peace has been denied to millions of civilians across the country as fighting occupies their villages. Many still dare not go home. Some have sought shelter and safety along the Thai-Burma border. However, they have largely been denied and deemed ‘illegal’ by Thai soldiers who refuse to allow them to cross. Humanitarian aid is urgently required to meet the growing needs of the sick, and vulnerable people trying to survive amid devastating circumstances.
Read moreWeekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [ Fourth Week of May 2022]
May 30, 2022
A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground.
Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
The targeting of innocent civilians remains ongoing. Over the last week, medics and doctors in the private sector who are affiliated with the Civil Disobedience Movement were actively sought out by investigating pro-junta health administrators in Mon State. In Dawei, the junta is also currently conducting major investigations into local money transfer services in the whole township and tracking people who are wanted by the junta, including opposition forces such as soldiers of the People’s Defense Forces, through phone numbers and addresses registered in the applications. Three people have been arrested and two local money transfer services were forced to stop their business.
In Hpa-An, Karen State, the military is failing to ensure the safety of the local people by allowing its alliances to arm and commit daily human rights violations. According to the locals, civilians were forced to pay 20,000 to 50,000 MMK to pass the checkpoint operated by plain-clothed junta forces.
The military’s staunch anti-democracy views have forced hundreds of civilians across the last year and a half into hiding. They are fearful of their lives, and their families. This is just one example of the climate of fear that the junta has created across the country. Tensions are running high. And yet, the military has not eased or halted their assaults on innocent lives. They are committing mass murder with impunity.
Reporters from all three regions confirmed that they had received more than 15 cases of motorcycle confiscations. Some people were forced to pay ransoms for the release of their possessions and family members. This news comes security tollgates and checkpoints are increasing across Mon and southern Karen State. There were ten complaints at least just from Kyainnseiki, Kyaikmayaw, Mudon, and Thanbyuzayat Township of the property being unlawfully confiscated. These attacks must end.
Weekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [ Third Week of May 2022]
May 23, 2022
A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
Across the last week, civilians in HURFOM targeted areas faced additional levels of stress and uncertainty as the military junta raided homes, torched villages, and arbitrarily arrested innocent villagers. Their murderous and violent trajectory continues as calls for the international community to respond to the situation on the ground remain vocal and continuous.
Read moreWeekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Second Week of May 2022]
May 16, 2022
HURFOM: A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
Weekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Week Two: May 2022]
May 9, 2022
HURFOM: A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
Weekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Week One: May 2022]
May 2, 2022
HURFOM: A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
In the many months which have passed since the Burma Army attempted to seize power through their failed coup, the people continue to suffer the most. In HURFOM target areas, field workers have reported rising cases of arbitrary arrest and detainment of prominent activists and rights defenders. Innocent villagers caught in the crossfire of violence have lost their lives to indiscriminate firing and shelling, as well as air and ground strikes that are unrelenting.
Weekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Week Four: April 2022]
April 25, 2022
HURFOM: A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region. Between 900 and 1200 #IDPs were forced to flee their homes across all target areas in the last week as junta violence wreaked terror.
Full Analysis:
The worsening military offensives in HURFOM target areas claimed more lives over the last week. On April 22, at 7:30PM, an innocent villager, Ko Sai Maung was shot dead by junta soldiers in a military truck. His body was taken away by the junta soldiers, according to local witnesses. He was murdered in Yan Taung village, Thayet Chaung Township. One truck stopped and parked at the Yan Taung village monastery. The other two military trucks went outside the village and parked outside. They shot and killed Sai Maung and then put his body on the truck, recalled a village witness to HURFOM. A Karen fieldworker commenting on the situation noted that the junta’s continued and illegal use of the ‘4 cuts’ strategy continues to isolate, target and terrorize innocent civilians: “They must end these systematic attacks on our people.”
Read moreWeekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Week Three: April 2022]
April 18, 2022
HURFOM: A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region.
Read moreWeekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Week Two: April 2022]
April 11, 2022
A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
The violence by the military junta is fueling a refugee crisis. In Karen State, airstrikes and heavy artillery fire has led to over more than 600 internally displaced people in Kawkareik township, Karen State. Those fleeing are in desperate need of food, shelter, medicine and life-saving materials. However, the situation is worsened by the fact that the Thai authorities are blocking pathways to aid and turning back displaced people directly back into a conflict zone.
Read moreWeekly Update in HURFOM Targeted Areas [Week One: April 2022]
April 4, 2022
A weekly update by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) on the situation on the ground. Summary data includes Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region.
Analysis
By the end of March 2022, HURFOM had documented a total of 12,177 people who have been displaced due to indiscriminate firing and shelling by the Burma Army in Kawkareik Township, alone. According to end of month summary documentation, there were at least 67 civilians arrested, 50 detained, 23 injured and 8 killed in target areas of Mon State, Karen State and Dawei.
This week violence perpetrated by the junta, which targeted civilians, killed two boys in Thaton Township Kamar Sai Village. Artillery shells were fired during clashes with the Karen National Liberation Army on the morning of March 29 near the Rangoon-Mawlamyine highway, locals said. A forty-year old man was also shot in the abdomen. Over the week, civilians once again were caught in the crossfire of fighting in Taungkyainn village, Kawkareik Township. The homes of local people and a temple, including a monastery, were damaged by heavy artillery shelling by the military. HURFOM contacted some villagers, requesting the destruction of house information in Taungkyainn village on April 1 morning. Many homes are affected. The junta opened fire toward the village, and some motor shells smashed the monastery.
No one feels safe or secure in Burma, especially amid the lingering of pro-junta forces, such as plain-clothed police officers and informers. Fighting across all of HURFOM’s target areas of Mon and Karen States and the Tanintharyi region reflect the military junta’s lack of sincerity to any kind of peace building initiative. As HURFOM documented in our December 2021 report, the Burma Army is undoubtedly on a ‘trajectory of terror.’ Civilians are regularly abducted, extorted and deprived of the most basic of human rights.
Latest Headlines
- Administrators warning workers not to stay overnight at plantation causes problems
- Junta raids gold mines and arrests 30 workers in Kyike Hto
- Weekly Analysis: Dozens of Homes Torched Across Dawei
- Informers and Junta-Backed Militias Increasingly Abusing Civilians in Mon State Ahead of Sham Election
- Schools in Yebyu close due to intense armed clashes
- Junta increases “conscription fee” to 10,000 MMK per household in Chaung Zone
- 97 undocumented Burmese citizens arrested in first week of September
- 12 political prisoners confined and tortured in Hpa-An Prison: One dead
- Local Resident Arbitrarily Arrested by Mawrawaddy Naval Forces in Kanbauk, Still Detained After Five Days
- Junta Burns 18 Houses and Arrests Villagers in Yebyu Township
Articles in Mon (PDF Format)
Categories
