Weekly update on Human Rights situation in Karen, Mon States & Tanintharyi Region since the attempted coup [Fourth week of February 2022]

February 28, 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.

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Weekly update on Human Rights situation in Karen, Mon States & Tanintharyi Region since the attempted coup [Third week of February 2022]

February 21, 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.

Weekly Overview

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Karen State

  • On the bridge in Kaw Kyaik Village, Hpa-an Township, a group of junta security troops blocked the War-Sue Iron Bridge and forcibly stopped travellers. Young people were targeted and arrested.
  • At least five civilians were accused of supporting PDFs and NUG. Their homes and properties have been seized by the junta GAD since February 16, according to the reporters in Kawkareik Township.
  • Residents say at least four villages, with an estimated more than 1,000 IDPs, have been fleeing to the deeper Brigade 4 areas of the KNU.
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Students become COVID-19 victims as the junta focuses on stabilizing their power

February 17, 2022

HURFOM: For more than a year since the 2021 coup, the military junta has focused their attention and resources on stabilizing their power, while neglecting measures to control the pandemic. Students are one of the groups paying the price for this decision by the junta.

Case counts have been increasing steadily on a daily basis, and a cluster of COVID-19 infections was recently reported amongst high school students from Chaung Zone, Mawlamyine, Mudon and Thanbyuzayat Townships. 

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Disappearance of young detainees in Ye fuels worry of family members

February 16, 2022

HURFOM: Security forces for the military junta have been arresting young people for operating unlicensed motorbikes and detaining them at undisclosed locations.  

These young people have not been able to have contact with their family members once arrested.

Recently a number of young people were arrested by soldiers and the police on the Mawlamyine-Ye Highway Road between Lamine and Ye Township.

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NMSP urges Mon people to boycott their offices, workplaces and schools on Mon National Day

February 15, 2022

HURFOM: On February 11, 2022, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) released a statement urging Mon people not to go to government offices, workplaces or schools on February 16, 2022, .Mon National Day

February 16 falls on a Wednesday which would normally be a work day for  government staff and  students would normally attend school.

The NMSP, the Mon religious community and Mon community based organizations have long demanded that Mon National Day be a public holiday.  Governments have never acknowledged the demand.

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Weekly update on Human Rights situation in Karen, Mon States & Tanintharyi Region since the attempted coup [Second week of February 2022]

February 14, 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.

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Weekly Overview

Karen State

  • At 8:40 PM on 9 February, junta security forces stopped, searched, and abducted six youths in front of the TB control center near the Hpa-an University traffic light.
  • Junta soldiers and joint forces of the BGF indiscriminately fired ammunition and injured a man in Hpa-an. A local resident, Maung Kyaw Oo, was riding a motorcycle in front of Army camp No.1014, and was seriously injured when gunfire erupted.
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The military junta bars plantation workers from their workplaces

February 12, 2022

HURFOM: In August, 2021, the Oak Tara Myay Company Limited began an excavation project searching for  treasure and other valuables left behind by retreating Japanese troops during World War II.

The project site is based at Mount Mane Bala near Wae Kawa village, Thanbyuzayat Township, in Mon State.  Efforts to excavate treasure and other valuables from this site, was also attempted  by the Royal Eagle Myanmar Development Group in 2018. That company found nothing and stopped their project in early 2020. By February 2022 the Oak Tara Myay Company Limited project stopped due to a failure to unearth anything of value.

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Gasoline prices tripled since coup: Transportation and livelihoods experiencing increasing hardships

February 12, 2022

HURFOM: Since the February, 2021 coup ,  the price of gasoline has gradually been increasing.  One year later, the gas has tripled in price. 

On February 8, 2022, a liter of diesel  is  priced at about 1,700 Kyat and a liter of

premium diesel is priced at 1,800 Kyat. A liter of 92 octane is priced at 1,700 Kyat and the same amount of 95 octane is priced at 1,800 Kyat.

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People left helpless as charity/rescue teams face restrictions

February 11, 2022

HURFOM: The new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, is spreading across Burma.  On February 7, 2022, 40 schoolteachers and students from a high school in Kyaik Kha Mi Town, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State were found infected with the virus.

On January 11, 2022, a high-school teacher, ten students and their family members in Paung Township were infected with COVID-19.

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Statement: HURFOM Calls for An End to Unlawful Arrests of Innocent Civilians

February 8, 2022

HURFOM: The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) condemns the ongoing arbitrary arrest of innocent civilians and subsequent outlandish sentencing of political prisoners by the military junta. By the end of 2021, over 2500 people in target areas of Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi regions were unlawfully arrested and detained. Over the last week alone, HURFOM documented 19 arbitrary arrests. Arbitrary arrest is a human rights violation as it deprives civilians of their liberty to live protected under the law with the right to legal counsel. 

According to the Dawei Political Prisoners Network, three Dawei women who were arrested on suspicion of associating with local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) were sentenced on 4 February 2022 to nine years each in prison. Daw Aye Aye Khaing, a 51-year-old Tailor, Daw Mya Mya Lwin, a 52-year-old market vendor, and Daw Mya Mya Soe, 34, were arrested in August 2021 and charged under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code and Section 52 (c) of the Anti-Terrorism Law. They were sentenced and charged during closed-door military court hearings which the press and general public are denied entrance to. The lack of transparency speaks to the levels of corruption the regime is capable of. 

Eight women political prisoners from Dawei Prison, including these three, who were arrested on suspicion of associating with PDFs, were sentenced to between two and nine years in prison each by the junta-run court in Dawei:

Daw Aye Aye Khine, 9 years
Daw Mya Mya Lwin, 9 years
Daw Mya Mya Soe, 9 years
Ma Theint Theint Zin Phu, Dawei Tech University Student, 2 years and continued trial
Ma Lin Myat Moe, 2 years
Ma Hnin Hnin Yu, 2 years
Ma Myat Myat, 2 years
Daw Thet Thet Htwe, 2 years

A family member of one of the women told HURFOM: “It is too much to be sentenced to nine years in prison on terrorism charges. They are not terrorists.” 

Following their failed coup, the military junta has struggled to maintain control as the civilian population has spearheaded a powerful Spring Revolution in pursuit of safeguarding their fundamental rights and freedoms.

The continuation of arbitrary arrests and abductions is the result of the junta’s failed efforts to detain democracy activists in an attempt to stifle the pro-democracy movement. This will not succeed. Nothing can quiet the voices of the people in Burma whose long-time struggle for peace and freedom will outlast the junta’s incessant violence. 


HURFOM calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and for the military junta to be held accountable by the international community for their mass crimes against humanity and unjust treatment of innocent civilians. The leaders of the failed coup, and those complicit in the junta’s crimes must be held responsible and punished according to the rule of law for their actions through international accountability mechanisms. 

Media Contact
Nai Aue Mon, HURFOM Program Director
Email: info@rehmonnya.org
Signal: +66 86 167 9741

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