Myanmar

Despite hopes for major reforms and a new semi-civilian government serious human rights violations persist in Myanmar. Some 2,100 prisoners of conscience are still detained; torture and ill-treatment during interrogations, the abuse of prisoners as porters of the army and inhumane prison conditions still are a major problem. Myanmar’s heavily censored media is one of the most severely restricted in the world. Journalists are imprisoned and press freedom is denied. Even media in exile, covering the human rights situation in Myanmar, has been targeted by punitive and unlawful campaigns by the authorities of Myanmar. Some positive steps have been taken in September 2011 with the lifting of the ban on some foreign news websites.

The human rights situation in ethnic border areas has deteriorated since the civilian government took over in April 2011. Deliberate attacks on the civilian population, arbitrary arrests, rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, land confiscations, extrajudicial killings, abuse of child soldiers, torture, the use of villagers as mine shields and internal displacement are widespread in ethnic minority areas. Impunity for massive human rights violations prevails. There is still no credible attempt to bring to justice perpetrators of human rights violations in past and present. The founding of a National Human Rights Commission in September 2011 might be a positive step, but a previous human rights body established in Myanmar more than a decade ago has remained largely ineffective.

Armed conflict in ethnic minority areas escalated in the year 2011. Some 70,000 people from ethnic minority were internally displaced due to armed conflicts since the new government took power in April 2011. This pushes the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) up to more than half a million. Most of them are children and women. To date these newest IDPs are either in hiding and widely dispersed in hostile terrain (Karen and Shan) or gathered in makeshift, unofficial camps along the border (Kachin). Some IDPs have been allowed to stay in urban areas.The land rights of indigenous peoples in ethnic minority areas still are ignored by the authorities. Some 40 controversial hydroelectric dam projects and new pipeline, mining and huge agricultural projects in ethnic minority areas are planned or under construction without any credible participation of the local population. This denial of basic human rights of the indigenous population has incited violence and armed conflict.

Increasing violence in ethnic minority areas

One day after the elections in November 2010, the fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups caused the exodus of about 25,000 Karen, the largest single exodus in the last 20 years. They fled across the border into Thailand. Kept under Thai military supervision, most of them were pushed back within one day, although fighting had not yet subsided on the other side. Many have gone into hiding, not daring to return to largely destroyed villages and neglected fields.

Fighting broke out in June 2011 between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), ending a 17-year ceasefire and displacing 30,000 ethnic minority people. The conflict escalated around the controversial Myitsone dam project affecting thousands of indigenous inhabitants of Northern Kachin State. More than 15,000 people in 60 villages are being forced to relocate for the mega-project without proper resettlement plans. Kachin women associations have been criticizing the gang-rape of 32 Kachin women in June/July 2011 by regular soldiers. At least 13 of the victims of sexual violence were murdered by their rapists.

In neighbouring Northern Shan State, some 31,700 people were displaced since Myanmar’s Army has started an offensive on March 13, 2011, breaking its 22-year-long ceasefire with the rebel movement Shan State Army North (SSA-N). Despite numerous detailed reports on lootings, extortion, beatings of villagers, rapes, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings by regular soldiers between June and August 2011, no action has been taken by the authorities to end impunity and to bring the perpetrators of these massive human rights violations to justice. Furthermore, numerous times national and international aid agencies were denied access to the suffering civilian population in conflict areas.

Humanitarian situation in the conflict areas

Food, clean water, medicine and materials to build basic shelters are urgently needed, yet to date there has been no concerted, systematic support - financial or otherwise - from the international community to make these items available. The government of Myanmar continues to severely restrict access to the areas where the (non-urban) IDPs are staying, and although they have permitted some distribution of rice via the World Food Program (WFP) to IDPs in cities, overall demand by far outstrips supply. An increasing number of people, especially children fall ill and even die.

The most effective way to deliver aid remains via the well-developed infrastructure in the border area (Thailand and China), where networks can serve to transport funds and goods to the recent crisis areas that remain inaccessible from Rangoon and the rest of Myanmar. Some INGOs have so far provided small amounts of funding and supplies to Kachin IDPs, however, targeted and coordinated provision of international government funds would make the largest difference.

The report “Diagnosis: Critical - Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma” (October 2010) describes the serious health and human rights situation in Eastern Myanmar. Statistics like a maternal mortality ratio three times the official national rates, 60 percent of children die from preventable diseases, and one in 14 women infected with Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria (amongst the highest rates in the world) highlight the complete absence of official basic health care provision in the east of the country. A dire link is established between human rights abuses (forced displacement, labor, or destruction and seizure of food) and health impact on children. For example, in households experiencing at least one human rights violation in the preceding year, the odds of death were increased 50% for infants and 40% for children under age five. The odds of suffering from severe malnutrition, in comparison to infants and children living in households that did not experience any human rights violation were doubled. These statistics emphasize the urgent need - now heightened due to the escalation of violence - for the provision of health services and humanitarian assistance in the conflict areas.

Child soldiers

Nine years after the Tatmadaw Kyi, the Myanmar state Army, was first listed in the annexes to the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict, an action plan for the prevention of underage recruitment into the Myanmar armed forces is yet to be signed.

In the meantime, while negotiations for an action plan continue, the recruitment and use of children under 18 continue on a large scale. Findings of the UN Secretary-General and NGO-reports such as the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) show that patterns of recruitment and use have not significantly changed in recent years and that the number of children under 18 illegally recruited remains high.

The drivers of underage recruitment in Myanmar remain the continued expansion of the armed forces and high rates of attrition; the existence of a system of incentives for military recruiters and civilian brokers to achieve recruitment quotas and punishments for those who do not; and processes by which an individual wishing to leave the armed forces must identify one to two new recruits to replace them. Unaccompanied children are especially vulnerable to recruitment due to the absence of effective age verification procedures and lack of independent monitoring and accountability. Underage recruits are also reported to have been threatened and beaten into saying they are 18 years old.

Access for monitoring was explicitly mentioned by the UN Secretary-General as among the crucial elements that needed to be included in the action plan being negotiated with the government of Myanmar.

The government continues to prevent UN actors from engaging with non-state armed groups in a meaningful dialogue aimed at demobilizing and rehabilitating children, and preventing recruitment. The government also continues to ignore calls to take effective action against military perpetrators of illegal recruitment. Penalties for failing to meet recruitment targets are usually more severe than those applicable for underage recruitment.

Children in detention

According to credible reports children who attempt to escape from the army continue to be arrested, tried in military courts and sentenced to one to two years’ imprisonment, possibly longer, for the crime of “desertion”.

The failure of government authorities to actively identify children in the army and the practice of falsifying their ages has resulted in a situation where children, who escape the army and are arrested, are detained in prisons together with adults. The HREIB has received unconfirmed reports of sexual abuse of child soldiers detained in Thayet prison, Magwe division by fellow prisoners and torture and other ill-treatment by prison staff.

Justice system

With regard to underage recruitment cases received and verified by the International Labor Organisation (ILO) although suspected perpetrators have been identified under its mechanism, to date none of them has been prosecuted under the Penal Code for their actions.

There are serious concerns about the independence and impartiality of the justice system in Myanmar and therefore its capacity or willingness to investigate and try members of the military for serious human rights violations, including child recruitment and use. This is consistent with the concerns expressed by the UN Human Rights Council for the widespread impunity for serious human rights violations in Myanmar. In an effort to address the accountability gap, the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in Myanmar called for the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into crimes in violation of international law. If established, such a commission would serve as a fundamental accountability mechanism for serious crimes under international law, including against children.

In relation to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the UN Security Council as well as bilateral and EU-relationships we expect from the German government to:

• urge the government of Myanmar to end armed conflict in ethnic minority areas and to ensure the respect of basic human rights

   

   

• urge Myanmar to end impunity

   

   

• urge Myanmar to release all political prisoners

   

   

• urge Myanmar to guarantee the respect of ethnic minorities and their land rights

   

   

• urge Myanmar to ensure free access for humanitarian relief in all conflict areas

   

   

• allocate substantial funds for humanitarian relief in the conflict areas

   

   

• urge Myanmar to end the recruitment of child soldiers in the government armed forces and sign an UN action plan, including an independent monitoring mechanism

   

   

• urge Myanmar to allow UN actors to engage with armed opposition groups in a dialogue aimed at demobilizing and rehabilitating children, and preventing recruitment

   

   

• urge Myanmar to stop the detention of children, especially together with adults

   

   

• support the call for an independent investigation commission of the United Nations to document possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar.