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CHRO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14 APRIL 2021

Junta Escalates Gross Rights Violations in Campaign to Exert Control in Western Burma/Myanmar

New documentation of human rights violations published today by CHRO finds that since the February 1 coup, as many as 21 Chin civilians have lost their lives, including a mother and her teenaged daughter who were gang-raped and killed by Burmese soldiers in Kalay Township, Sagaing Region while at least 179 have been arbitrarily arrested by the junta security forces to date. As many as 67 people are still being detained and are facing various criminal charges, including under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code.

A total of 30 activists and campaigners, including nationally famous celebrities, are facing outstanding criminal warrants for their arrests with shoot-on-sight orders issued against many of them. The whereabouts of seven police personnel who were arrested and detained on charges of desertion remain unknown. They are feared to have been severely tortured while in military custody.

Torture practices used in military detention and documented by CHRO include the routine use of caning, resulting in severe wounds. Many detainees who are now awaiting trials or have now been released reported that they were caned as many as 40 times with wooden sticks during their initial period of detention at Tactical Operations Command military base on Mount Rung, in Hakha.

“We are gravely concerned by the junta’s increasing use of terror tactics to intimidate the Chin public. This has included taking hostages in an attempt to coerce family members wanted by security forces for their peaceful protest activities to come out of hiding,” says Salai Bawi Lian Mang, Executive Director of CHRO.

On 7 April, the Burmese military arrested and detained Rev. Bual Sang and his son Pastor Cung Lian Thawng in attempts to force Salai Robinson, the former’s son-in-law, to turn himself in to the police in connection with his alleged involvement in helping to ship goods containing self-protection gears meant for protesters to use during protest marches.

In a separate incident in Tedim on 11 April, Rev. Khup Khen Pau and his wife were detained by junta’s security forces in a similar attempt to coerce their son Do Suan Pau, a civil servant who participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement, to come out of hiding. In both instances, the police and military soldiers raided the homes of the Christian religious clergymen.

For more information please contact:

Email: [email protected]
Tel: +91 9362 297958

PDF Download Available here: Press Release_14 April 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2 APRIL 2021

Junta Arrests 171 Chins since Coup As Crackdown Intensifies

Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) today published an updated list of ethnic Chin individuals who have been arrested and arbitrarily detained over the last two months since the coup de’tat on 1 February 2021. The list is a compilation of reported cases of arrest ─ both within and outside of Chin State – which CHRO has been able to confirm, and contains the status and whereabouts of detainees.

The updated list shows that as of 2 April 2021, a total of 171 Chin people have been arrested at various points and in different places, of which 112 have been released with or without charges. Of these numbers, 11 have been put on trial while 48 are awaiting charges. Half of those who have been put on trial have been charged with Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code.

“We remain extremely concerned about the arbitrary nature of the ongoing arrests and detention, which are now accelerating quickly with security forces now operating as if they have no bounds and arresting anyone they see on the streets,” said Salai Bawi Lian Mang, Executive Director of Chin Human Rights Organization.

CHRO is particularly concerned by the alleged use of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, especially during their initial stage of detention before they are transferred to police custody from the army base. CHRO is calling on the junta to immediately release all those it has detained since 1 February and to refrain from any further arrests and detention.

BACKGROUND

Chin Human Rights Organization continues to condemn the Burmese military junta’s systematic use of arbitrary arrest and detention of civilians as part of a broader campaign to intimidate the public and silence dissent. Since the coup de’tat on 1 February, the self-styled State Administration Council (SAC) military junta has made scores of arrests beginning with government leaders and members of the Election Commission. As public protests widen, the junta resorted to targeted arrests and illegal raids on private homes, as well as indiscriminate and arbitrary arrests and detention of ordinary civilians on the streets.

For more information please contact:

Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +91 9362 297 958

PDF Download Available here: For Immediate Release_2 April 2021

16 February 2021

The Honourable Scott Morrison
Prime Minister of Australia
Canberra, Australia

Dear Prime Minister Morrison,

Through the kind introduction by our very good mutual friend Senator Dean Smith, I had the privilege of meeting you at your office in Canberra in December 2018, as part of a delegation of Chin community leaders from different parts of Australia who came to speak to you to thank you in person and to talk about their situation there.

I now write to you with a deep sense of urgency and great expectation to draw your attention to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Burma/Myanmar following the military coup on 1 February 2021. The events following the coup de’tat have witnessed massive display of public opposition and bold civil defiance in the face of brute force of the Tatmadaw, which is notorious for their long history of gross human rights abuses against the peoples of Burma.

On the surface, the crises facing Burma/Myanmar now may seem like a mere power struggle or a contest of ideologies between democracy and dictatorship. Burma’s still unfinished long road ahead towards democracy is to be understood with the structural injustices and grievances long suffered by ethnic and religious minorities in historical context. Sustainable peace, stability and democracy will only take firm root when there is a federal constitutional arrangement accommodative of and agreeable to all the ethnic states in Burma. It is for this reason that strengthening democratic and civic institutions and entrenching the ideals of civilian supremacy and the rule of law must be supported and promoted in parallel with addressing the aspirations of self-governance for the ethnic nationalities within a federal constitutional framework.

The ways in which the Burmese military has responded to peaceful protests, civil disobedience campaigns and general strikes have been roundly condemned by the UN Secretary-General, the UN Human Rights Council and the larger international community. We applaud the strong statement by the Australian Foreign Minister condemning the coup and calling for the release of high-profile leaders and detainees immediately following the coup. We are also highly encouraged that Australia, through its Embassy in Myanmar, has been among the key foreign diplomatic missions in Yangon at the forefront of sounding alarms and taking a firm stand on the side of all the peoples of Myanmar.

The people of Burma cannot afford another decade of living under a military dictatorship. This has been voiced loudly not just on the streets of Burma, but in capitals around the world, including in Australia. Last week, the United States took the initiative to impose tough unilateral sanctions against the coup leaders in Burma. We believe that Australia under your leadership can and should take similar measures to lead a coordinated, effective and decisive global response to the situation in Burma by:

  • Introducing targeted economic sanctions aimed at crippling the economic infrastructures of the junta
  • Rallying international public opinion on the invocation of the UN doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and
  • Suspending and redirecting all existing Australian official bilateral aid programs towards supporting civil society organizations’ efforts to strengthen democratic and human rights development in Burma.

Yours sincerely,

Salai Bawi Lian Mang
Executive Director
Chin Human Rights Organization

PDF Download Available here: CHRO_Letter_Prime Minister Morrison

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
17 Feb 2021

Since 1 Feb 2021, there have been 45 politically motivated arrests of the Chin population in Rakhine and Chin States. On 1 Feb, 9 members from the democratically elected government were arrested in the middle of the night including the Chief Minister, Ministers of Immigration, Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, Social Affairs and Planning and Finance. Furthermore, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the house were arrested and remain detained. Held at the tactical command in Hakha, the condition of the elected representatives remain unknown.

On 10 Feb, the junta then initiated a wave of arrests of 24 Union Election Commission (UEC) members representing all townships in Chin State and taken to military bases across the state. As protests began, a number of civilians have also been arrested for exercising their right to peaceful protest. On 4 Feb, police arrested four youths and an elderly man in Hakha who were charged under the Penal Code’s 447 specifications on causing “mischief” as they engaged in the nationwide 8 p.m. protests against the coup. As they were detained all were forced to sign confessions at the police station and were given 8-day prison sentences under the legislation.

On 9 Feb, a further 6 youths from Ann Town, Rakhine State were arrested for engaging in peaceful protests in response to the military coup. They have been charged with Art. 25 of the Natural Disaster Management Law and are remanded in custody. They could face up to three years in prison under the legislation.

The detention of Myanmar/Burma’s elected leaders held incommunicado and without the right of habeas corpus is unacceptable. Furthermore, authorities should immediately end arbitrary limits on freedom of expression, information, peaceful assembly, and association which currently poses grave threats to the liberty of all citizens in the country currently protesting the actions of the military junta.

For further information please contact:
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +95 (0) 9781843341

3 FEBRUARY 2021
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Statement by Chin Human Rights Organization on the Myanmar Tatmadaw’s Coup d’etat in Burma/Myanmar

The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) unequivocally condemns the actions of the Tatmadaw which staged a coup d’etat on the 1 February 2021. This action sets the country on a dangerous course of backsliding from the path towards democratization.

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