US SANCTION HUMAN RIGHTS OF MYANMAR MILTARY'S COMMANDER -CHIEF MIN AUNG HLAING AND OTHER MILITARY LEADERS

7/18/2019 Public Designation, Due to Gross Violations of Human Rights, of Burmese Military Officials - United States Department of State
https://www.state.gov/public-designation-due-to-gross-violations-of-human-rights-of-burmese-military-officials/ 1/4
Today, the Department of State is publicly designating the following individuals and their
immediate family members for the named individuals’ responsibility for gross human rights
violations, including in extrajudicial killings in northern Rakhine State, Burma, during the ethnic
cleansing of Rohingya:
These designations are made under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2019 Department of State, Foreign
Operations, and Related Programs Act. Section 7031(c) provides that, in cases where there is
credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or a gross
violation of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible
PRESS STATEMENT
MICHAEL R. POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE
JULY 16, 2019
Public Designation, Due to Gross Violations of
Human Rights, of Burmese Military Officials
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Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing
Deputy Commander-in-Chief Soe Win
Brigadier General Than Oo
Brigadier General Aung Aung
Travelers

7/18/2019 Public Designation, Due to Gross Violations of Human Rights, of Burmese Military Officials - United States Department of State
https://www.state.gov/public-designation-due-to-gross-violations-of-human-rights-of-burmese-military-officials/ 2/4
for entry into the United States. The law also requires me to publicly or privately designate such
officials and their family members.
The Department of State is focused on policies that will change behavior and promote
accountability. We believe this action is one step toward achieving these goals.
With this announcement, the United States is the first government to publicly take action with
respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military. We designated these individuals
based on credible information of these commanders’ involvement in gross violations of human
rights.
We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable
those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the
Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country.
One egregious example of the continued and severe lack of accountability for the military and its
senior leadership was the recent disclosure that Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing ordered
the release of the soldiers convicted of the extrajudicial killings at Inn Din during the ethnic
cleansing of Rohingya. The Commander-in-Chief released these criminals after only months in
prison, while the journalists who told the world about the killings in Inn Din were jailed for more
than 500 days.
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Bureau of East Asian and Paci c A airs
Burma Human Rights Human Rights and Democracy O ce of the Spokesperson
The Secretary of State
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7/18/2019 On Public Designation, Due to Gross Violations of Human Rights, of Burmese Military Officials - United States Department of State
https://www.state.gov/on-public-designation-due-to-gross-violations-of-human-rights-of-burmese-military-officials/?fbclid=IwAR1VGjhBsxhFuOr0dd7R… 1/11
MODERATOR: Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today’s
on-background call on the State Department’s designation of Burmese military officials as
ineligible for entry into the United States due to their involvement in gross violations of human
rights, including in northern Rakhine State, Burma.
Joining us today are [Senior State Department Official One], who will be referred to as Senior
Department Official Number One. Also with us is [Senior State Department Official Two], who
will be referred to as Senior Department Official Number Two. Just a reminder that today’s call is
on background and embargoed until the call is complete. I’ll now turn it over to Senior State
Department Official Number One, who will open our call with brief remarks.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Thanks, [Moderator]. This is [Senior State
Department Official One]. The United States remains deeply concerned about the human rights
situation in Burma, especially in conflict-affected areas in Rakhine State, as well as other violence-
affected areas across the country such as Kachin and Shan states.
SPECIAL BRIEFING
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS
VIA TELECONFERENCE
JULY 16, 2019
On Public Designation, Due to Gross Violations
of Human Rights, of Burmese Military Officials
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Travelers

It’s now nearly two years after the August 27 – August 25th, 2017 crackdown on Rohingya in
Northern Rakhine State which was perpetrated by the Burmese security forces, and the
Government of Burma and the military have made no progress on holding accountable those
responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.
Although the commander-in-chief of the Burmese military, Min Aung Hlaing, cited the arrest, trial,
and conviction of the soldiers who committed extrajudicial killings at Inn Din as evidence of the
military’s commitment to accountability, those criminals were released considerably less than a
year later on the CINC’s own orders, making a mockery of accountability for the military and its
senior leadership. In contrast, the Reuters journalists who told the world about the killings in Inn
Din were jailed for over 500 days.
Numerous credible international investigations, including those conducted by our government
and by the United Nations, have detailed the grossly disproportionate violence, including ethnic
cleansing, committed by security forces before and after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
attacks on August 25th, 2017.
To date, the U.S. has taken a number of actions to promote accountability for these atrocities,
including the sanctioning of five Burmese generals and two military units for serious human
rights abuses in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states.
Today, the Secretary of State has announced publicly that the commander-in-chief of the
Burmese military, Min Aung Hlaing; the deputy commander-in-chief, Soe Win; and commanders
of the 33rd and 99th Light Infantry Divisions, Than Oo and Aung Aung, and their immediate
family members have been designated under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State Foreign
Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2019 for their involvement in gross
violations of human rights, including extrajudicial killings, against Rohingya, particularly from
August through September 2017.
As many of you may know, Section 31(c) of the Appropriations Act provides that in cases where
the Secretary of State has credible information that officials of foreign governments have been
involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights, those individuals and their
immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.
These four senior officials are well-known to the international community to be responsible for
gross human rights violations across the country, not only in Rakhine State but also in Kachin and
Shan states over the past decade. They are specifically cited by the UN factfinding mission as

being among the six senior officers bearing considerable command responsibility for human
rights violations and crimes.
We designated two other generals in 2018, Lieutenant General Aung Kyaw Zaw and General
Maung Maung Soe, back in 2018.
The announcement of today’s designations is the first governmental action publicly targeting the
most senior leadership of the Burmese military, and that is, we are the first government in the
world to publicly take action against these two individuals, the CINC and the deputy CINC. The
department decided to publicize these designations based on information we received on these
commanders’ involvement in horrific abuses and because the Burmese Government has taken
no actions to hold accountable these individuals for the atrocities they’ve committed. Reports
continue of members of the military committing gross human rights abuses throughout the
country.
We believe these designations send a message to other Burmese officials that should they
commit atrocities or other serious human rights abuses, there will be consequences under U.S.
law.
The Burmese military has a proper role to play as a national defense force. However, under the
command of Min Aung Hlaing, and often at his direct order, members of the Burmese military
have committed appalling violations of human rights across the country. For the sake of his own
reputation and that of the country, Burma’s military must cease such atrocities, hold those
responsible to account, and pursue a path of reform.
The United States will continue to work with the international community to pursue
accountability for gross human rights violations in Burman and promote respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms across the country. These efforts will continue to include
bilateral and multilateral diplomacy with our partners and allies, including at the United Nations.
That’s it for my brief.
MODERATOR: We can open up the conversation to questions if there are any from our media
colleagues.
OPERATOR: Once again, if you have a question, you may hit * 1. Our first question comes from
the line of Shaun Tandon. Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Yeah, hi, thanks for doing this call. I was wondering how you determined to go
ahead with travel sanctions specifically. Often sanctions posed by the United States are dealing
with people’s assets, for example. Is there a sense that this is something that will have an impact
on the – on these generals in particular? And related to that, is there a way for them potentially
too to get off this, I mean, if there are – if there is accountability that comes forward in the
process?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Thanks for the question. These sanctions are
specifically within the authority of the Secretary of State, so we are able to exercise these on our
own. Economic sanctions, such as those that have been posed against the other two generals,
do require action by the Treasury Department and by the State Department. So in this case, we
decided to use our own authorities to sanction these two individuals.
What is unique about these travel sanctions is that we are able to publicize the fact that we are
doing so. Virtually all other visa sanctions are not publicly – or publicizable. So we have decided
to publicize these as a way of indicating our determination that these four individuals are
culpable for the atrocities that occurred in Rakhine State, as well as serious human rights abuses
elsewhere.
And to my knowledge, there is no ability once these travel sanctions have been imposed for
them to be revoked, although there is waiver authority accorded to the Secretary under these
provisions, and it may be the case that that could be exercised later on. I don’t know whether my
CA colleagues who are on the line could clarify that latter – the answer to that latter question.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL THREE: Yeah, that’s exactly right. The designations
themselves are based on the individual’s involvement in gross violations of human rights, so
while that doesn’t change, there are waivers of the restrictions available. So for example, the
Secretary is – the Secretary can waive the restrictions if he determines that there’s a compelling
national interest in the individual’s travel.
MODERATOR: Hi. Just for everyone’s awareness, that last speaker was [Senior State
Department Official Three], and he will be referred to as Senior State Department Official
Number Three. Any other questions?
OPERATOR: Yes, our next question comes from the line of Lesley Wroughton with Reuters.
Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Hi, good afternoon. A couple of questions. The first one is that the UN has asked
for the – for Myanmar to prosecute for genocide the army chief. So far, the U.S. has only called
this ethnic cleansing. What is preventing you from taking it one step and calling it genocide as
the UN has claimed?
And number two, how do you – what do you expect of Myanmar to – when you say they need to
be held accountable, what do you expect from them to do?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Thanks for the question. First of all, on legal
determination – further legal determination as to what these crimes constitute, I would note first
that Secretary Tillerson did make a finding that these crimes amount to ethnic cleansing, which
Secretary Pompeo has affirmed. The process for deciding whether and when to make this type
of a determination is – has historically been reserved within the Executive Branch to the secretary
of state.
He has not obviously come to the point at which he has decided to make a further
determination. Generally, our policies are focused on changing behavior, promoting
accountability. We’ve taken today’s actions with those goals in mind, and obviously, any decision
to make a determination about – further determination about what these acts constitute would
be made in conjunction with our own assessment of what the policy impact would be.
So just to make it clear, there’s no legal obligation to make any of these determinations. So
typically, they are made when there is a view here at the department or within the U.S.
Government that they will have a policy impact that we’re looking for.
In terms of accountability, indeed our first preference would be for the Government of Burma to
hold any individuals responsible for atrocities, serious human rights abuses accountable within
the Burmese judicial and legal system. That has not happened to date. I mentioned in my
opening remarks that a few individuals were held – very low-ranking individuals were held
responsible for some of the atrocities committed at Inn Din, but they were released not long
thereafter, and there’s been no other person held accountable within Burma.
But that would be – our first preference, of course, would be for the Burmese Government to
hold these sorts of individuals accountable.
MODERATOR: Next question, please.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: Can I – [Senior State Department Official One],
can I add something to that?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Please, [Senior State Department Official Two].
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: Just to make one point clear, part of the problem,
obviously, is that we would like to see the military take responsibility for what its members and
its leadership have done. And that is the crux of the issue and that they are not taking any
internal disciplinary action against their personnel, and because they are basically operating
outside of any civilian authority in Burma, it is – it’s really only the military that can do anything
about the atrocities committed by the military at this point. For this reason, we feel like it’s very
important to send a message that the senior – we view the senior leadership of the military as
responsible for the acts of the military.
MODERATOR: Thank you, and just as a reminder, that last speaker is [Senior State Department
Official Two], and she should be referred to as Senior State Department Official Number Two.
Any other questions?
OPERATOR: Once again, if you have a question, you may hit *1 at this time.
MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you very much for participating, and just again, as a reminder —
STAFF: Oh, we have two questions lined up.
MODERATOR: You have two questions?
STAFF: (Off-mike.)
MODERATOR: Sure. We can take the two questions.
OPERATOR: Okay. We have a question from the line of Conor Finnegan with ABC News. Please,
go ahead.
QUESTION: Hey, thanks very much for doing the call. I just wanted to ask about the timing of
this. It’s been nearly two years now since the events that we’re talking about in August 2017.
Why did you wait until today to make these designations? Was there some sort of new evidence
that came to light? Or did you recognize that the situation hadn’t been changing?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Well, first of all, I would again note that we –
previously taken action against five other senior military officials and two military units. We did
so, I believe, in two tranches over the past couple of years. Making this type of determination,
particularly for a commander-in-chief, a deputy commander-in-chief, is a complicated one,
requires evidence, and it has taken us a while to collect the necessary evidence to reach these
determinations. As well, we are coming up on the second anniversary of the attacks that
precipitated these atrocities in Rakhine State and we felt it was an important time to again
demonstrate our interest in accountability, in promoting accountability, and doing what we can
to hold those individuals responsible who committed these acts.
OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Shaun Tandon with AF Press. Please, go
ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah, hi. If there’s – nobody else is in queue, I thought I would – if you could indulge
me with one more question. Senior Official Number Two touched on this, but I wanted to ask
you explicitly: The role of the civilian leadership – Aung San Suu Kyi – she’s come under a lot of
criticism for not speaking out more. Is she at all affected or is there any message sent to the
civilian leadership by this, or do you see this as – purely as an issue with the military command?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: We are targeting the military leadership because
they are responsible in – on the basis, as [Senior State Department Official One] said, that we
have evidence that says that they are responsible for the commission of these atrocities,
therefore we – they are subject to these visa exclusions. The statute actually doesn’t give us a lot
of latitude that – once we determine that someone meets the threshold for the statute, we have
to exclude them, so just to kind of put that – to put that out there.
With regard to the civilian government, if we would like – we would like to see the kind of
constitutional reform that would bring the military under civilian control, that would actually
advance the democratization of Burma in a way that is not currently possible as long as the
military controls 25 percent of the legislative seats, controls its own budget, controls its own –
basically stands outside of all civilian control at this point and is a law unto itself, controls
businesses and all of these things that allow it to operate basically autonomously from the
civilian government. And so we have been engaged across the board – for decades the United
States has been leading the fight to bring democracy, to support democratic change in Burma,
and we continue to want to see that as the outcome here.

So we want to support civilian control of the military, effective civilian control of the military. We
believe that that is the long-term solution to the terrible history of abuses that have been
committed by this military since it’s been in control of the country.
OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Lesley Wroughton with Reuters. Please, go
ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah, hi. Just to follow up on that one, did you believe that these actions could
somehow impede the U.S. engagement with the civilian government as well as the military on
some kinds of changes?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: [Senior State Department Official Two], do you
want to address, or want me to?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: However you want to do. Go ahead, [Senior
State Department Official One].
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Just to start, I mean, I can imagine the
commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief are not going to be finding – are not going
to be happy about these determinations. We don’t have a particularly close relationship with
them now, so we don’t see any significant changes on that. Our hope is that these actions will
strengthen the hand of the civilian government, will help to further delegitimize the military –
current military leadership, and can help the civilian government gain further control or gain
control of the military in the way that [Senior State Department Official Two] described.
OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Jennifer Hansler with CNN. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi there, thanks for doing the call. I wanted to follow up on my colleague from
ABC’s question. Did the rolling out of these designations coincide intentionally with the
ministerial or was this coincidental?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: We have been working on this for some time, so I
would say coincidental. I mean, it is a useful thing for us to be able to announce this or amplify
this at the ministerial, but we have been working on this for some time and intended to do it
regardless of the ministerial.
OPERATOR: And there are no further questions in queue.

MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you all very much for participating. Have a great afternoon,
evening.
Atrocities Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Bureau of East Asian and Paci c A airs Burma Human Rights
Human Rights and Democracy O ce of the Spokesperson
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7/18/2019 US sanctions Myanmar generals over killings of Rohingya - StarTribune.com
www.startribune.com/us-sanctions-myanmar-generals-over-killings-of-rohingya/512801042/?fbclid=IwAR3cnwu2DaoH5v1pcczyXN0wZG54ZFSjPxLPI… 1/1
NATIONAL
US sanctions Myanmar generals over
killings of Rohingya
Associated Press JULY 17, 2019 — 3:05AM
WASHINGTON — The United States has hit four top Myanmar generals, including the
country's commander in chief and his deputy, with sanctions over the mass killings of
Rohingya Muslims.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Tuesday that the four are
responsible for "gross human rights violations" involving extrajudicial killings in an
ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar's
northern Rakhine state.
The sanctions bar those targeted and their immediate families from traveling to the
United States.
The four men are: Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy Soe Win, and two
subordinates deemed responsible for the abuses.
Myanmar's military has been accused of widespread rights violations leading about
700,000 Rohingya to flee the country since August 2017. Critics have urged that its
actions be judged by the International Criminal Court.
"We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold
accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are
continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and
abuses throughout the country," said the official announcement of the sanctions from
the State Department. The U.S. government generally refers to Myanmar as Burma, the
country's name before it was changed by a military regime in 1989.
A Myanmar military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, said the sanctions constituted
a blow against the entire military.
"As the Tatmadaw is an institution that is run by orders from top to the bottom, this
sanction is meant to be not only against the top leaders but also against the whole
Tatmadaw," he said, using the local name for the military.
Zaw Min Tun , a member of the military's special public relations outfit known as the
Tatmadaw True News Information Team, said the military has been investigating
incidents in Rakhine state since they were first reported. He said many investigative
committees had been set up and action taken against some personnel.
"The international community and the U.S. should respect the judicial system of the
Tatmadaw," he said.
The State Department statement cited the case of Min Aung Hlaing ordering the release
of the soldiers convicted of the extrajudicial killings of Rohingya as an "egregious
example of the continued and severe lack of accountability for the military and its senior
leadership." It contrasted their fate with that of the two Myanmar journalists who
exposed the killings and were jailed for 500 days before being pardoned.
The human rights group Fortify Rights, which has reported frequently on Myanmar, said
on Twitter that the State Department action "alone is not sufficient but a step toward
more justice and accountability."

7/18/2019 Israel to bar Myanmar officials from arms expos - Israel News - Haaretz.com
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-to-bar-myanmar-officials-from-arms-expos-1.7532506?fbclid=IwAR3Q4xUmLaA4IqmWPIlvMQ0… 1/9
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Home > Israel News
Israel to Bar Myanmar
Officials From Arms Expos
Decision to stop issuing visas for this purpose comes after
Haaretz documented officers attending Tel Aviv expo, despite
international embargo over serious human rights violations
Jul 17, 2019 6:26 AM
A representative of Myanmar's military at the Israel Defense and Homeland Security
Expo in Tel Aviv, June 4, 2019. Credit: Moti Milrod
Israel denies arming Myanmar. But its officials are still visiting a
Tel Aviv arms expo
Israeli educators and academics demand Netanyahu cancel
agreement with Myanmar
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● Arming dictators, equipping pariahs: Alarming picture of Israel's
arms sales
The Israeli government will bar military representatives from
Myanmar from attending arms expositions held in Israel as long as
Myanmar remains under an international arms embargo over its
human rights violations, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has decided.
The decision followed a Haaretz report that army officers from
Myanmar, the East Asian country formerly known as Burma, had
attended the Israel Defense and Homeland Security expo in Tel Aviv
last month. From now on, the ministry said, requests for visas to
attend arms expositions coming from the nationals of countries to
which Israel refuses to sell arms will be rejected.
Last year, the United Nations concluded that Myanmar had
perpetrated ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim
minority in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled
Myanmar and are still classified as refugees. This year, international
agencies also reported war crimes by Myanmar’s army against
Buddhists living in the country’s west.
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Last month, Haaretz reported that the official visitors to the ISDEF
expo in Tel Aviv included military representatives from several
countries that don’t have official relations with Israel. According the
Haaretz report, representatives from South Sudan, another country
under an arms embargo over human rights violations, also attended
the expo.
Arms sales halted
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Israel insists that it has stopped all arms sales to Myanmar, but they
prompted Haaretz to ask why, if that was the case, Myanmar
officials were still being allowed to come to inspect the latest Israeli
military technology on offer. Sales personnel at several of the Israeli
booths said they were unaware that sales to Myanmar had been
banned. Others said there was no problem with showing Myanmar
officials the merchandise, since they understand the restrictions on
their country.
The officials from Myanmar at the Tel Aviv exposition declined to
respond to a question from Haaretz regarding whether they planned
to buy the products they were examining. ISDEF’s organizers issued
a statement to Haaretz at the time saying: “This is an international
expo with presenters from Israel and around the world. The guests
come from more than 90 countries and register online for the expo,
which is open to anyone who registers.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said at the time
that “Israel does not sell arms to Myanmar and this policy has not
changed.” With regard to the presence of visitors from South Sudan,
Nahshon said that “Israel complies with the UN resolutions on the
arms embargo.”
Other government officials also said the arms expo was open to
anyone who wished to attend, but to avoid future embarrassments
of this kind, the Foreign Ministry decided to stop issuing visas to
Myanmar army officers to attend such events in Israel.
File photo of Myanmar Border Guard Police in Tin May village, where the
Myanmar government and military claimed the existence of Muslim terrorists.
Credit: Esther Htusan/AP
Last September, the United Nations described Myanmar’s
treatment of the Rohingya as a textbook example of ethnic
cleansing. Human rights organizations have said that since August
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2017, the Myanmar army has also subjected Rohingya to mass
extrajudicial executions and systematic sexual violence and has
torched many Rohingya villages.
Some 400,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh. Others
have been trapped on the border.
Israel’s defense ties with Myanmar continued even after the crimes
became known, and after an arms embargo was imposed on East
Asian country by the European Union and the United States. In
September 2017, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued a ruling on
a petition filed by a lawyer, Eitay Mack, who had sought an order
barring arms sales to Myanmar.
Usual gag order
In an exceptional move, the court issued a gag order at the state’s
request on the contents of the ruling, but the government has
insisted ever since that its arms sales to Myanmar have stopped.
Israel has continued to boost its civilian ties with Myanmar in any
event. In December 2018, for example, the two governments signed
an agreement on cooperation in education.
As Haaretz reported at the time, the agreement calls in part for joint
development of a school curriculum on the Holocaust and lessons
on the negative effects of intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism and
xenophobia. It also calls for peer-to-peer contacts between
educators and students from the two countries.
Amnesty International’s Israeli branch said it expects Israel to
refrain from selling arms to South Sudan and some other countries.
“These decisions must be made not only by the Foreign Ministry,
but also, and particularly by the Defense Ministry. This is the Israeli
government’s obligation under international law and according to
the conventions it has signed.”
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The Israeli branch of Amnesty said the public campaign on arms
sales will continue until the Israeli law governing oversight of arms
exports and the Defense Ministry’s policies and regulations are
changed.
According to Defense Ministry data, Israel exported about $7.5
billion around the world last year. The sales included missile
systems, drones, radar systems and electronic warfare and
cybertechnology systems. Most of Israel’s defense exports went to
Asia, but that was mainly the result of several very large sales to
India.
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Carol Scheller | 08:51
well done, Haaretz ! (no content)
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7/18/2019 Progressive Voice » Torture and Death in Myanmar’s Military Detention
https://progressivevoicemyanmar.org/2019/07/11/torture-and-death-in-myanmars-military-detention/ 2/7
“Don’t give me water, Mom. I will not last
long. My organs are badly damaged. I
can’t breathe. Don’t give me water, Mom. I
have to go,”
— Zaw Win Hline
Posted July 11th, 2019 • Posted in Blog Posts • Author: Progressive Voice
Torture and Death in Myanmar’s Military Detention
The situation of human rights in Myanmar[1] is increasingly
deteriorating with the Myanmar military becoming evermore
emboldened to act with impunity, continuing to evade
accountability for the grave crimes they have committed in
Rakhine State. Just days after the UN Special Rapporteur on
the situation of human rights in Myanmar delivered her oral statement at the 41st Regular
Session of the UN Human Rights Council, warning of possible fresh war crimes being committed
. 103
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under the blackout of information due to the ongoing internet shutdown, reports of the military
burning down villages emerged as civilians, such Zaw Win Hline who was tortured, continue to
die while in military custody.
Fifteen days after the Myanmar government shut down the internet in eight townships in
Rakhine State and in Paletwa Township in Chin State, the Myanmar military burned down
villages in Rathedaung Township as they carried out “clearance operations” against the ethnic
armed organization, the Arakan Army (AA). A school teacher residing in Amyet Taung Village
where the Myanmar military torched homes stated that while the Myanmar military assumed AA
members were residing in the village, this “wasn’t true” and that “It [the attacks] only affects
the civilians…The villagers are now fleeing their homes and are in trouble.”
While the Myanmar military steps up its presence in Rakhine State as they conduct such
heinous operations, they have also continued to arrest and detain those suspected of being
members of the AA. Most recently, a local resident from Shwe Tun Phyu Village in Mrauk-U
Township, Zaw Win Hline, was arrested by the Myanmar military on 20 June, 2019, suspected
of being a member of the AA. He died on June 24th after being subjected to several days of
interrogation and torture. According to his mother, when he was brought to the Sittwe hospital
having sustained severe injuries, he was vomiting blood and unable to eat or drink water.
Reportedly his last words, “Don’t give me water, Mom. I will not last long. My organs are badly
damaged. I can’t breathe. Don’t give me water, Mom. I have to go,” were shared widely on the
internet drawing outrage among rights activists, sparking a campaign demanding justice.
According to reports, soldiers had beaten him with packed stones in a longyi (traditional
Burmese sarong) on his back and chest.
Such cases of torture, as well as extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests that continue to be
reported widely in Rakhine State, constitute war crimes under international law. According to
reports by Radio Free Asia, some 14 civilians have died in custody of the military or the police
since March 2019 during the intensification of the Rakhine conflict. Meanwhile, the Myanmar
Police Force has filed charges against four of the top leaders of the AA under the Counter-
Terrorism Law. This is the first time leaders of any ethnic armed organization have been
charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law.
The Myanmar military is also becoming evermore intolerant of criticisms against them. A report
by Athan, a freedom of expression activist organization, found that the Myanmar military has
sued nearly 80 individuals over a three and a half year period, with numbers surging in the past

three months. Many have been charged under the outdated and repressive colonial-era penal
code – Article 505(a) – and are accused of “causing or intending to cause members of the
armed forces to mutiny, fail or disregard their duties.” In addition, there is a wider trend of
increasing numbers of political prisoners under the National League for Democracy-led
government. The recent numbers of political prisoners documented by the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners indicate a total of 466 political prisoners with 34 currently
serving their sentences, 161 awaiting trial inside prison and 271 awaiting trial outside prison.
This is an increase of 78 political prisoners since last month.
Meanwhile, Christopher Sidoti, a member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission
on Myanmar (IIFFMM) has likened the conditions for Rohingya internally displaced person’s
camps in Rakhine State to a Nazi concentration camp. Speaking on the continuing restrictions
on the freedom of movement for the Rohingya, he stated “What has happened in the past two
years has strengthened the genocidal intent.” His comments come as the IIFFMM prepares
their report to the Human Rights Council, which will be delivered at the upcoming 42nd Regular
Session in September 2019.
Nearly two years after the genocide, Rohingyas have yet to see justice for the atrocities that
were committed against them and the Myanmar military has further been emboldened to act
with impunity, while the government increasingly turns authoritarian. As the UN Security
Council continues to face stumbling blocks to hold the perpetrators of the genocide to account,
efforts such as those made by the Dutch Parliament to pursue accountability under the
Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice are commendable. The UN Special
Rapporteur posed the question to Member States during her oral address: “are you going to
continue to fail to protect all the people of Myanmar?” Countries must respond to this by
immediately acting to end the ongoing impunity of the Myanmar military. As a statement by
civil society organizations calling for the referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International
Criminal Court states, “International inaction will only delay the justice owed to the people of
Myanmar.”
____________
[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the
country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’
in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of
inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development

Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the
people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.
Resources from the past week
Statements and Press Releases
ရခိုင္ျပည္နြယ္တင္ လက္ရွိျဖြစ္ပားေေနသာ လက္နက္ကိုင္ပဋိပကၡဒဏ္ ခံေနရသည့္ ျပည္သူမ်ား၏ ေအျခေအန
မ်ား၊ ၎တို႔ ရင္ဆိုင္ေနရသည့္ လူ႔အြခင့္ေအရးခ်ိဳးေဖာက္ခံေနရမႈမ်ားႏွင့္ စပ္လ်ဥ္း၍ အရပ္ဘက္ အြဖဲ႕အစည္း
မ်ား၏ ထုတ္ျပန္ခ်က္
By 15 Civil Society Organizations
Fresh Military Violations Highlight Ongoing Impunity in Myanmar: Amnesty International Oral
Statement at the 41st Session of the Human Rights Council
By Amnesty International
Myanmar: International Community Must Ensure Justice and Accountability
By Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Progressive Voice and
Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability (MATA)
BHRN Condemns Sentence Against Activist Ko Htin Kyaw
By Burma Human Rights Network
ထုတ္ျပန္ေၾကညာခ်က္
By Back Pack Health Worker Team
HRC41 Oral Statement on Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Myanmar

By FORUM-ASIA
India: Protect Refugees, Prevent Forced Returns
By Fortify Rights
ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, Requests Judicial Authorisation to Commence an Investigation
Into the Situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar
By International Criminal Court
Oral Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of
Human Rights in Myanmar
By International Federation for Human Rights
ထုတ္ျပန္ေၾကညာခ်က္
By Karenni National Women Organization
Statement of the 6th Congress of Karenni National Women Organization (KNWO)
By Karenni National Women Organization
ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ ေကာ္သူးေလတစ္ခုုလံုုးဆိုုင္ရာေက်းြရာပိုုင္ဘံုုသစ္ေတာ ႏွီးေနွာဖလွြယ္ပဲထုုတ္ျပန္ေၾကျငာခ်
က္
By The First Community Forest Forum
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar: Oral Update to 41st Session
of the Human Rights Council
By Yanghee Lee, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar
Reports

လက္ရွိအစိုးရသက္တမ္းအြတင္း ြလတ္လြပ္စာထုတ္ေဖာ္ေျပာဆိုြခင့္ကို ခ်ိဳးေဖာက္ေသာ တေပ္မတာ္၏ တရားြစဲ
ဆိုမႈမ်ား
By Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Myanmar: Briefing by the Special Envoy
By UN Security Council
Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that
was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10,
2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called
Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership
Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for
Progressive Voice.”
Related Posts:
တိုင္းရင္းသားအခ်င္းခ်င္း ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းြစာ အတူတြက ယွြဥ္တဲေနထိုင္ေရးကို ဟန္႔တားေႏွာင့္ယွက္ေေနသာ
လူ႔အြခင့္ေအရးခ်ိဳးေဖာက္မႈမ်ား
Rakhine Situation Continuing to Deteriorate During Conflict
ရခိုင္ျပည္နြယ္တင္ လက္ရွိျဖြစ္ပားေေနသာ လက္နက္ကိုင္ပဋိပကၡဒဏ္ ခံေနရသည့္ ျပည္သူမ်ား၏ ေအျခ
ေအနမ်ား၊ ၎တို႔ ရင္ဆိုင္ေနရသည့္ လူ႔အြခင့္ေအရးခ်ိဳးေဖာက္ခံေနရမႈမ်ားႏွင့္ စပ္လ်ဥ္း၍ အရပ္ဘက္ အ
ြဖဲ႕အစည္းမ်ား၏ ထုတ္ျပန္ခ်က္
Growing Military Impunity in Rakhine State
Drop Criminal Defamation Charges Against Kachin Activists
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7/18/2019 Mobile Data Shutdown in Burma’s Rakhine and Chin States - United States Department of State
https://www.state.gov/mobile-data-shutdown-in-burmas-rakhine-and-chin-states/ 1/3
The United States is deeply concerned by the ongoing shutdown of mobile data services in
violence-affected areas of Rakhine and Chin States in Burma, which has curtailed some forms of
Internet-based communication for as many as one million people.
Internet service should be restored without delay. Resumption of service would help facilitate
transparency in and accountability for what the government claims are law enforcement actions
aimed at preventing further outbreaks of violence in the affected areas, and would limit further
damage to Burma’s international reputation. The United States will continue to support efforts
toward a negotiated end to violence, calls for full humanitarian and media access to violence-
affected areas, and accountability for those who commit human rights abuses and violations.
PRESS STATEMENT
MORGAN ORTAGUS, DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON
WASHINGTON, DC
JUNE 29, 2019
Mobile Data Shutdown in Burma’s Rakhine and
Chin States
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7/18/2019 Asia Times | Suu Kyi, military on a collision course in Myanmar | Article
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/07/article/suu-kyi-military-on-a-collision-course-in-myanmar/?fbclid=IwAR2P42owylrPL5ZXFp_jCWfGmOaE0yYiOn1_… 1/8
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Suu Kyi, military on a collision course in Myanmar
Ruling NLD’s bid to legally amend a military-drafted constitution aims to win votes at 2020 polls but likely won’t succeed
n a move that could put Myanmar’s civilian government on a collision course with the powerful military, a
parliamentary committee submitted this week proposed amendments to the country’s constitution.
The anticipated report contains more than 3,700 recommendations for proposed changes to the military-drafted
charter, which carves out a strong political role for the armed forces including via control of the defense, home
and border affairs ministries.
In 2015, the National League for Democracy (NLD) scored a landslide electoral victory, capturing 135 of the 168
seats up for grabs in the upper house and 255 of 323 in the lower.
Despite the heavily touted transition from direct military to quasi-democratic rule, the military controls 25% of all
seats in each legislative chamber through constitutionally allowed appointments of its khaki-wearing
MYANMAR POLITICS
JULY 17, 2019
Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in a le photo. Photo: Twitter
By BERTIL LINTNER
Suu Kyi, military on a collision course in … China-led port project inches ahead in My… Rohingya refugee crisis is a ticking time b…

representatives.
The NLD’s resounding election victory was won partly on a promise to
amend the unpopular charter – and the party is now making the
politically sensitive moves as it prepares for pivotal 2020 elections.
The NLD has long advocated for changes to the charter’s article 436,
which requires approval from more than 75% of MPs to amend crucial
articles, and 59(f), which states that the president and vice president
must be born of Myanmar citizens and cannot have foreign spouses or
children.
Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi pays her respects on Martyrs’ Day in Yangon, July 19, 2017. Photo: AFP/Ye Aung Thu
That clause was likely included to prevent then-opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming head of state.
One of the popular leader’s two sons is a British citizen and the other is a naturalized American; Suu Kyi’s British
husband, academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.
The NLD’s way around the provision was to create a new government post for the long-time pro-democracy
champion, that of “state counselor”, making her the nominal head of government and making the president’s
position a more ceremonial role.
Such decisions, as well as minor constitutional changes, may be considered by the bicameral parliament if 20% of
its members submit a bill. However, a tangle of 104 clauses outlined in article 436 cannot be amended without the
prior approval of more than 75% of MPs, meaning military appointees wield de facto veto power.

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That means that the NLD would need at least one military MP to break ranks for any constitutional amendment to
pass, an unlikely scenario considering the military’s lawmakers are soldiers who take and obey orders from above.
The military’s veto power is the crux of the constitutional amendment debate and why the NLD is expected to fail
in any attempt to reform the charter in ways that aim to make the country a functioning, rather than cosmetic,
parliamentary democracy.
The idea to create the “state counselor” position was conceived by Ko Ni, then the NLD’s main legal adviser. But
that was as far as the now deceased respected legal expert could go under military-imposed restraints to change.
Ko Ni argued that it would be an impossible to fundamentally amend the military-protecting constitution, and
therefore suggested that the charter should be abolished altogether and replaced with a new one.
Now deceased Ko Ni delivers a public address on amending Myanmar’s 2008 constitution in Yangon in a 2013 le photo. Photo: AFP/Hong Sar
That nuclear option would not have posed any legal problems, as the military drafters of the current charter failed
to include any provisions barring its abolishment through a single majority vote, a scenario the NLD has the
parliamentary numbers to achieve.
Ko Ni was assassinated in January 2017 in circumstances that have never been made entirely clear, though many
of his associates believe that he was killed because of his quiet work on drafting a new constitution that would
have significantly curtailed the military’s powers.Suu Kyi, military on a collision course in … China-led port project inches ahead in My… Rohingya refugee crisis is a ticking time b…

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It is thus not surprising that the NLD has since been reluctant to seriously challenge the military’s hold on power
through attempted constitutional change. But, at the very least, the NLD can now show voters that they have at
least gone through the motions.
In 2020, the NLD will compete for votes against the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP), and amid widespread perceptions it has yielded too much power and control to the military in pursuit of
national reconciliation.
By-elections held in November showed that while the NLD may still have strongholds in Yangon and other major
cities, it is losing support in ethnic minority areas where a government peace initiative has failed to take hold.
The NLD’s bid to amend the constitution faces similarly narrow prospects for success.
Military appointed MPS sit in parliament for the historic presidential vote on March 15, 2016. Photo: AFP/Romeo Gacad
Even if changes were approved by parliament, an unlikely scenario considering the military’s de facto veto power,
a nationwide referendum must be held in which more than half of all eligible voters approve the suggested
amendments.
Those slim odds, coupled with Myanmar’s record of holding bogus referendums – the first in December 1973 for
the 1974 constitution and the other in May 2008 for the present charter, where nearly 94% reputedly voted in

favor – makes it virtually impossible to change the clauses which protects the military’s now indirect but firm hold
on power.
Indeed, one of the first sections of the 2008 constitution guarantees the military’s “national political leadership role
of the state” and, in case of an “emergency”, the “commander-in-chief of the Defense Services has the right to take
over and exercise state sovereign power” after consulting the president.
The constitution also states that no legal action can be taken against the military for its actions while exercising
such emergency powers.
In 2008, Myanmar’s generals passed a constitution that firmly protected their interests, while the country’s move
since from direct military to quasi-democratic rule has so far failed to change the country’s fundamental power
structure with the armed forces at its apex.
Any attempt to change the constitution’s fundamental spirit would put the NLD in conflict with the military, for
among the charter’s “basic principles” is a pledge that makes the defense services “mainly responsible for
safeguarding the constitution.”
In an interview with Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun on February 14, Myanmar’s military chief, Senior
General Min Aung Hlaing, stated that “In principle, we agree with the principle of constitutional amendment. But
the important point is that no amendment should harm the essence of the constitution.”

Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing at a Martyrs’ Day ceremony in Yangon, July 19, 2016. Photo: AFP via Mur Photo/U Aung
That “essence” has so far upheld the role of the military in politics after decades of direct rule. In fact, any attempt
to change the “essence” of the constitution – to use the words of Min Aung Hlaing – are a non-starter.
The hard truth is that after two general elections, in 2010 and 2015, Myanmar’s military will remain the country’s
most powerful institution for the foreseeable future, regardless of how its proxy party performs at the 2020
elections.
Myanmar’s military, in direct power for decades and still the country’s main political force, did not design its
carefully crafted constitution to yield easily its power and privilege to civilian authorities.
On the contrary, top brass aimed to ensure that no election or democratic government would undermine the
power it has wielded, often ruthlessly, since the military ousted the country’s last truly democratic government in a
fateful 1962 coup.
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US SANCTION HUMAN RIGHTS OF MYANMAR MILTARY'S COMMANDER -CHIEF MIN AUNG HLAING AND OTHER MILITARY LEADERS

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