Myanmar: Arbitrary arrests, torture of political prisoners and digital repression used to crush the anti-junta movement

Myanmar’s civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Since the 2021 coup, thousands of activists and protesters have been detained on fabricated charges including terrorism, incitement and sedition. Many have been convicted by secret military tribunals in unfair trials and given harsh sentences, including the death penalty. Some have been tortured or killed. There has also been an unrelenting crackdown on the media.

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and chairman of the State Administration Council declared himself acting president on 22nd July 2024 following reports that the incumbent Myint Swe is undergoing medical treatment for health problems. Responsibility for national defence and security matters was transferred to Min Aung Hlaing.

On 31st July 2024, the junta extended the state of emergency for another six months - the sixth time the junta has approved an extension since removing the civilian government from power in 2021.

Human Rights Watch reported in August 2024, that in recent months the junta and the opposition Arakan Army have committed extrajudicial killings and widespread arson against Rohingya, Rakhine, and other civilians in the western Rakhine State.

The junta intends to hold elections in November 2025, and is holding a census, which the junta says it will complete by mid-October. It will include only about 30 million people because only residents of major cities, which the junta still controls, are being counted. Civil society has called the planned elections a sham lacking any form of legitimacy. Scores of parties have been barred from the election and dissolved, including the former ruling National League for Democracy (NLD).

In a resolution in July 2024, the UN Human Rights Council reiterated its deep concern over the crisis in Myanmar, amid reports of widespread abuses by the military and opposition armed groups, including forced conscription of Rohingya community members and their use as human shields. It also called for addressing the root causes of the crisis and forging a viable, lasting and durable solution, as well as eliminating statelessness and institutionalised discrimination against members of ethnic and religious minorities, particularly the Rohingya.

On 9th September 2024, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) addressed the Human Rights Council and said it had received many reports and testimonies regarding crimes against the thousands in detention, including torture and sexual assault. The situation is particularly alarming in Rakhine state, the site of a brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya community by the military in 2017, leading to the exodus of nearly 750,000 members into neighbouring Bangladesh.

On 17th September 2024, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published its latest report on the human rights situation in Myanmar, detailing a range of serious violations that continue to underscore the deepening crisis and lack of rule of law throughout the country. Since the coup, at least 5,350 civilians have been killed and more than 3.3 million displaced.

The report documented the vast scope of detentions undertaken by the military. Nearly 27,400 individuals have been arrested since the coup. Credible sources indicate that at least 1,853 people have died in custody, including 88 children and 125 women. Many of these individuals have been verified as dying after being subjected to abusive interrogation, other ill-treatment in detention, or denial of access to adequate healthcare.

In recent months, there have been arrests of individuals for supporting the ‘Flower Strike’ while a protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing was sentenced to another 20 years’ jail. Torture and il-treatment of political prisoners has persisted while some are also at risk of execution. The junta has also targeted aid groups and social workers in Sagaing region. Journalists continue to be targeted by the junta, which is also undertaking digital repression to suppress activism.

Association

Scores arrested for taking part in the ‘Flower Strike’

The police arrested scores of individuals who were seen wearing or carrying flowers as part of “Flower Strikes” on 19th June across Myanmar to commemorate the birthday of detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to push for her release and the release of over 20,000 political prisoners.

Police conducted random inspections on buses and arrested those who were selling and buying flowers in markets. Junta supporters also reported the accounts of Facebook and Telegram users who posted photos of “flower strikes.”

In Mandalay, at least 20 people were arrested while in Sagaing Region, four people were arrested. In Ayeyarwady Region another four were arrested

Even someEuropean embassies posted photos of flowers on social media which indicated their support for the call to release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Protest leader sentenced to another 20 years jail

Jailed anti-junta protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing was found guilty of high treason under Article 122 of the Penal Code in May 2024 by the Monywa Prison court. He was sentenced to an additional 20 years by a junta court, taking his total sentence to 54 years.

The 28-year-old pro-democracy activist was violently arrested in April 2021, when junta troops rammed him with a car as he led a motorbike protest in Monywa, Sagaing Region.

He has faced 10 charges, including sedition, unlawful assembly, abduction with the intent to murder, murder and treason, for his role in Monywa’s protests. The junta sentenced him to 34 years in prison under eight charges.

Torture and il-treatment of political prisoners

There have been continued reports of political prisoners held by the junta who have been tortured or killed in detention with no one held accountable for these crimes.

In June 2024, prison authorities physically assaulted about 80 female political prisoners in the Bago region’s Daik-U Prison. critically injuring five of them. Prison authorities sparked a protest when they confiscated food and personal belongings of about 40 political prisoners. When the women demanded their items back, prison authorities punched and beat them and fired shots into the air.

In the same month, junta soldiers in in Rakhine State interrogated dozens of detained villagers and tortured several to death. The soldiers beat three of the arrested residents from Byain Phyu village until they were rushed to the hospital, two eventually dying from their injuries. More than 40 people were then sent to Sittwe Prison following the military interrogation.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), over the past three years the junta continues to conduct interrogation using brutal measures in police stations, interrogation centres and prisons, torturing them physically, mentally and sexually. From February 2021 to June 2024, a total of 1,853 people were killed after being arrested and detained under various circumstances across the country.

Documentary film maker dies following torture and inhume treatment in prison

Renowned Myanmar documentary filmmaker Pe Maung Same died in August 2024, due to complications from tuberculosis, three days after being transferred from Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison to a hospital. He was 51 years old.

Pe Maung Same was arrested at a Myanmar military regime checkpoint in Karenni State’s capital, Loikaw, in late May 2022. Junta officials prosecuted him for allegedly contacting local People’s Defence Force groups and sending his video records to the National Unity Government and local media outlets. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.

He was initially detained in Loikaw Prison, where four of his ribs were broken during interrogation. Je transferred to Insein Prison in Yangon on 13th July 2024 to receive medical treatment. He also said he was denied proper food and medical treatment in both prisons.

Political prisoners at risk of execution

The junta executed two anti-junta activists and plans to execute more political prisoners. Maung Kaung Htet and his wife Chan Myae Thu were executed on 23rd September 2024, the Women’s Peace Network said in a statement.

The junta military arrested the couple and sentenced them to death without due process and a fair trial over their alleged involvement in a parcel bomb attack on Yangon’s Insein Prison in October 2022. Chan Myae Thu is the first woman to be executed since the military coup in February 2021, according to the Women’s Peace Network.

According to the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), five more pro-democracy activists – Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, Zeyar Phyo, Hsann Min Aung, Kyaw Win Soe and Myat Phyo Myint – were also at risk of execution. The five were convicted in a closed court in May 2023 after being imprisoned since September 2021 for the alleged fatal shooting of four police officers on a Yangon train. APHR also said that over 120 detainees could face execution in the coming weeks.

Junta targets aid groups and social workers in Sagaing region

The junta is targeting welfare groups assisting people displaced by conflict as well as social volunteer workers in the country’s northern Sagaing region, where armed clashes between the military and rebel groups are intensifying.

According to RFA, on 23rd May 2024, amid the humanitarian crisis, six social workers from Sagaing region were arrested in early May 2024. A social worker who spoke to RFA said that they are afraid to continue their humanitarian work after the junta arrested the six volunteers. Of the six arrested, three are members of the Thukhakari Health and Social Welfare Association and the other three are volunteers in Sagaing township.

Junta troops raided the association’s office located in Sagaing township’s Lay Kyun Myay monastery. Six members of the association were arrested during the raid on allegations of ties to the anti-junta People’s Defence Force. RFA said that pro-junta accounts on the social media platform Telegram claimed that the six social workers had been charged with violating the Counter Terrorism Law for allegedly “supplying the PDF.”

Expression

Journalists continue to be targeted by the junta

Journalists still operating in Myanmar continue to be at risk of arrest, prosecution and even being killed for their reporting.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), journalist Htet Aung was sentenced to five years in prison with hard labour on 28th June, in a court in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State. His sentence was in connection with a report the outlet published in August 2023, on the sixth anniversary of the genocide in Arakan State. Htet Aung was convicted of abetting terrorism under Section 52(a) of the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law.

In August 2024, journalists Win Htut Oo and Htet Myat Thu were killed in a military raid on a home in southern Mon State. According to CPJ, the bodies of Win Htut Oo, a journalist with the media group Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Htet Myat Thu, a freelance reporter with the local Than Lwin Times outlet, were cremated without being returned to their families.

In the same month, Dawei Watch journalists Aung San Oo and Myo Myint Oo, were sentenced to 20 years and life in prison respectively by a military court inside Myeik Prison The reporters were arrested in the coastal town of Myeik in December 2023, three days after returning home from hiding. Authorities beat Aung San Oo and Myo Myint Oo during interrogations at a detention centre and denied them legal counsel.

Digital repression of activism by junta

The junta has continued to seek ways to impose digital restrictions to block the flow of information within and from outside the country.

In June 2024, VOA reported that the junta had launched a major effort to block free communication on the internet, shutting off access to virtual private networks — known as VPNs — which can be used to circumvent blockages of banned websites and services. The attempt to restrict access to information began at the end of May 2024. Junta soldiers in some cities have begun randomly inspecting the mobile phones of pedestrians, threatening those who use VPNs with steep fines and even arrest.

In July 2024, some Google apps, along with the popular messaging app Signal, appeared to be blocked inside Myanmar. Several residents said they had been unable to access either the encrypted messaging service or Google apps except when using a VPN. The junta has not released a statement saying they have blocked the apps, but it has banned a range of messaging apps, social media apps and VPNs since coming to power.

A report by nonprofit Athan Myanmar in June 2024 shows that more than 80 townships have had phone and internet service cut so far in 2024. Resistance that arose following the coup has relied heavily on social media, especially Facebook, to organise street protests. As nonviolent resistance escalated into armed struggle and other independent media were shut down or forced underground, the need for online information has increased.

According to Justice for Myanmar, two Chinese companies are helping the junta to limit citizens’ access to the internet. The group linked the two companies, Geedge Networks and the state-owned China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation, or CEIEC, to scientist Fang Binxing, who was instrumental in creating China’s “Great Firewall” that controls access to the internet. Leaked plans show two products from the Chinese company Geedge Networks for the junta's surveillance and censorship system. The group said CEIEC has been involved in “a proposed location tracking system for the junta-controlled communications ministry.”