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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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.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
December 11, 2023
HURFOM, First Week of December 2023
Human Rights Day was commemorated on 10 December 2023 with the theme of Consolidating and Sustaining Human Rights Culture into the Future. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has launched a report responding to the theme, “Culture in the Crosshairs: How the Junta is Systematically Targeting Human Rights Culture with Military Impunity.” Our report analyzes the current human rights situation in Southeastern Burma and how quickly it is deteriorating, particularly in Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region. Viewed through a cultural lens, the report also exposes how the junta is targeting the culture of local people when they force them from their homes and destroy their sacred places of worship.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
November 27, 2023
HURFOM, Fourth Week of November 2023
In Southeastern Burma, violence remains targeted against civilians who are living in parts of the country where conflict is intensifying. Among the most vulnerable are women and children, who comprise the majority of those displaced, and the last week included the beginning of the ‘16 Day Campaign to End Gender-Based Violence,’ which is acknowledged by many human rights groups in Burma. During these challenging times of turmoil and uncertainty, the commitment to ending gendered violence is affirmed, and the work to spread awareness is ongoing. For example, the Karen Women’s Organization shared their theme, including a call to create a community free from violence against women.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
November 20, 2023
HURFOM, Third Week of November
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.
As the conflict intensifies across Burma, civilians in the Southeastern part of the country also continue to face immense threats to their safety. Women and children are among the most vulnerable who have been routinely displaced. Their security is not guaranteed in IDP camps or temporary shelters as military aircraft can be heard circling above with the possibility of an attack imminent. There is trauma and widespread uncertainty as families struggle to cope amidst worsening circumstances.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
November 13, 2023
HURFOM, Second Week of November
Now, perhaps more than ever since the failed coup, it has become abundantly clear that the military junta is losing the war it started. Widespread opposition to the regime’s hostilities and attempted power-grab has resulted in military defections and a growing armed presence along the country’s borders. On October 27, 2023, the Northern Three Brotherhood Alliance started a 1027 military operation in Northern Shan State. The military junta has lost many of their bases as a result.
The 1027 operation also impacted Southern Burma, with the military junta tightening security more than usual in the Mon and Tenasserim areas, reported one resident. Combined groups consisting of soldiers, police members and security forces in civilian clothes are aggressively interrogating people at both entry and exit checkpoints to Mawlamyine in Mon State.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
November 6, 2023
HURFOM, First Week of November
Civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire of violence deployed by the military junta. By the end of October 2023, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) reported that at least 68 civilians had been arrested, five detained, four injured, and 15 killed. The fieldworkers based in HURFOM target areas of Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi region are reporting on the daily horrors committed by the junta with impunity.
On November 1st, an eighth-grade student who was being treated for medical treatment after being hit with artillery fire attacked by the military junta in Tanintharyi Township died two weeks after he was struck. Around midday on October 14th, without any fighting, the military junta troops stationed on Lay Thar Mountain in Taninthayi launched artillery weapons. One of the shells hit a 16-year-old, eight-year-old grade student, Mg Pyae Day Won, and a male family member from Tamok Choung.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
October 23, 2023
HURFOM, Third Week of October
Over the last week, the military junta has continued manipulating the Burma system to mock the rule of law as they target civilians. The regime does not consider fundamental freedoms and upholding and protecting human rights. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) reported several cases of more pro-democracy forces being assaulted and charged under fabricated charges and baseless allegations.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
October 16, 2023
HURFOM, Second Week of October
Over the last week, a devastating airstrike claimed the lives of dozens of civilians, including women and children in Kachin State. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) condemned the attack on civilians, including women and children, who were sheltering in an IDP camp when the attacks were launched. The violence against our communities must end. HURFOM amplified our calls for justice for the victims of this harrowing assault.
Even amid these atrocities, the international community, including the United Nations, has refused to name the perpetrator of the air and ground strikes perpetrated by the Burma Army. It is deeply unfortunate that despite the many opportunities to stand with the people, global actors engage with a terrorist regime responsible for the deaths of innocent villagers who have only wanted to live in peace for decades.
Read moreWeekly Overview: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region
October 9, 2023
HURFOM, First Week of October
Last week, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) released the findings from our monthly overview. In September 2023, HURFOM fieldworkers reported that 82 people were arrested, 50 detained, 38 injured, and 14 killed. These numbers continue to rise week after week, month after month, and now, two and a half years after the failed coup, the junta continues to commit acts of senseless violence.
In a reported release over the last week, between January and June 2023, HURFOM documented that 146 civilians were killed, 315 injured, and 840 civilians arrested and detained. These numbers are particularly worrying given that by the end of 2022, HURFOM reported that at least 1,155 innocent people had been arrested and detained, 146 killed, including 26 women and children, and nearly 500 injured, of which 120 were women and children. Across our findings, impunity for all the crimes committed remains consistent.
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Latest Headlines
- Junta cut off electricity and telecommunication in Zar D village
- Special Guerrilla Force shoots and kills a Min Yat villager
- Junta’s artillery kills local woman in Kyone Doe
- Frequent aerial patrol frightens local villagers in Ye Township
- KNU arrests three substance abusers and extorts money from them
- Local man injured by junta’s artillery attack in Kyike Hto
- Thai authority sends back nearly 600 Burmese citizens within three months
- Junta removes more than 200 houses labeling them illegal
- Junta arrest and detains 24 migrant workers and displaced persons in Dawei
- Junta launches “clearance operation” in villages nearby Dawei Special Economic Zone
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