May, 29 2019, 12:00am EDT
Military in Myanmar Commits War Crimes in Latest Operation in Rakhine State
Following a recent investigation in Myanmar's Rakhine State, Amnesty International has gathered new evidence that the Myanmar military is committing war crimes and other human rights violations. The military operation is ongoing, raising the prospect of additional crimes being committed.
WASHINGTON
Following a recent investigation in Myanmar's Rakhine State, Amnesty International has gathered new evidence that the Myanmar military is committing war crimes and other human rights violations. The military operation is ongoing, raising the prospect of additional crimes being committed.
The new report, "No one can protect us": War crimes and abuses in Myanmar's Rakhine State, details how the Myanmar military, also known as the Tatmadaw, have killed and injured civilians in indiscriminate attacks since January 2019. The Tatmadaw forces have also carried out extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances.
The report examines the period of intense military operations that followed coordinated attacks on police posts by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine armed group, on January 4, 2019. The new operation followed a government instruction to 'crush' the AA.
"Less than two years since the world outrage over the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya population, the Myanmar military is again committing horrific abuses against ethnic groups in Rakhine State" said Nicholas Bequelin, Regional Director for East and Southeast Asia at Amnesty International. "The new operations in Rakhine State show an unrepentant, unreformed and unaccountable military terrorizing civilians and committing widespread violations as a deliberate tactic."
Amnesty International conducted 81 interviews, including 54 interviews on the ground in Rakhine State in late March 2019 and 27 remote interviews with people living in conflict-affected areas. They included ethnic Rakhine, Mro, Rohingya and Khami villagers, belonging to the Buddhist, Christian and Muslim faiths. The organization also reviewed photographs, videos and satellite imagery, and interviewed humanitarian officials, human rights activists and other experts.
While ethnic Rakhine communities have long fostered political grievances against Myanmar's central government, the AA is led by a younger generation of ethnic Rakhine nationalists. Today the AA is estimated to have a fighting force of up to 7,000 troops. Established in 2009, it has fought alongside other ethnic armed organizations in northern Myanmar and in recent years has clashed sporadically with the military in Rakhine and neighboring Chin State. Fighting intensified in late 2018.
Newly-deployed units, same pattern of atrocities
Amnesty International's new report uncovers evidence of abuses committed by military troops implicated in past atrocity crimes, including specific divisions and battalions under the Western Command. Amnesty International has further confirmed that newly-deployed units from the 22nd and 55th Light Infantry Divisions (LIDs) are responsible for many of these fresh violations.
From interviews and other evidence, including satellite imagery, Amnesty International documented seven unlawful attacks which killed 14 civilians and injured at least 29 more. Most of these attacks were indiscriminate, and some may have been direct attacks on civilians. In one incident in late January, a seven-year-old ethnic Rakhine boy died after a mortar that almost certainly was fired by the Myanmar military exploded in Tha Mee Hla village, Rathedaung Township, during fighting between the military and the AA. Although the boy was severely injured, it took several hours before Myanmar soldiers gave his family permission to take him to a hospital. He died the following day.
In another incident in mid-March, a Myanmar military mortar exploded in Ywar Haung Taw village, Mrauk-U Township, injuring at least four people and destroying a house belonging to Hla Shwe Maung, a 37-year-old ethnic Rakhine man. He recalled, "I heard an explosion. It was very loud and there was a big fireball that fell around us... I grabbed my daughter in my arms... [when] we looked back half of our house's roof was gone."
Review of satellite imagery confirms the destruction of a building in Ywar Haung Taw village, as well as the presence of new artillery at the police base close by.
While ethnic Rakhine communities have borne the brunt of violations committed by theMyanmar military in this campaign, other communities, including the Rohingya, have also suffered. On April 3, 2019, a military helicopter opened fire on Rohingya laborers cutting bamboo, killing at least six men and boys and injuring at least 13 others. "The helicopter came from behind the mountain," a survivor of the attack told Amnesty International. "Within minutes it fired rockets. I was running for my life thinking about my family and how I would survive." Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians are war crimes.
Amnesty International also documented how the military has taken positions within ancient temple complexes of Mrauk-U and fired recklessly in the area. Satellite imagery confirms the presence of artillery close to the temples, and photographs show destruction of temple sites. While the organization has not been able to determine who was responsible for the attacks, by basing themselves close to the monuments, the Myanmar Army exposed historical and cultural property to destruction and damage, which violates international humanitarian law.
Amnesty International further documented seven cases of arbitrary arrest in Rakhine State since January 2019. These arrests were exclusively of men, usually ethnic Rakhine men of fighting age, and were often accompanied by torture and other ill-treatment aimed at obtaining information about the AA. A 33-year-old ethnic Rakhine man recalled, "[The soldier] asked, 'Where do the AA keep their weapons?' I replied 'I don't know, I'm not AA'... I remember a punch and a kick, then they hit my head with a rifle... I tried to cover my head with my hands but they started kicking and beating [me]. There was blood on my hands, face and head."
Amnesty International also documented the enforced disappearance of six men - one ethnic Mro and five ethnic Rakhine - in mid-February. A witness said she last saw one of the men in military custody. Since then, families have had no information about their loved ones' fate and whereabouts.
More than 30,000 people have been displaced in this latest violence, however the Myanmarauthorities have blocked humanitarian access to the affected areas.
"The authorities are compounding the misery of civilians by blocking the supply of medicine, food and humanitarian relief to those in need, including children," said Nicholas Bequelin. "Civilians in Rakhine State are paying the heaviest price from the military's assaults and their aftermath - yet the government continues to choose to remain silent about this spiraling crisis."
Arakan Army abuses
While the Myanmar military was responsible for the overwhelming majority of violations documented by Amnesty International, the AA has also committed abuses against civilians, including abductions, the report shows. On May 3, AA fighters abducted four ethnic Rohingya men from Sin Khone Taing village, Rathedaung Township. According to a source with direct knowledge of the incident, four were taken to a remote location in the forest. Two subsequently escaped, however the fate and whereabouts of others remain unknown.
AA soldiers have endangered civilians, at times conducting operations in a manner that has placed civilian villagers at risk of harm. The AA has also threatened and intimidated village administrators and local business people, warning them in letters against interfering with the group's activities. The letters were each accompanied by a bullet and bore the AA's official seal.
Threats to freedom of expression
As reports of military violations mount, the security forces have resorted to tried and tested tactics to silence critical reporting, filing criminal complaints in recent months against the editors of three local Myanmar-language news outlets.
"While earlier this month the authorities finally released Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo after arbitrarily detaining them for more than 500 days, the global indignation over their case hasn't stopped the authorities using the same fear tactics to make an example of others," said Nicholas Bequelin.
"The NLD-led government has the power to change this. It holds a parliamentary majority and must use it to repeal or reform the repressive laws so often used against journalists."
Time to step up international pressure
The latest military operation in Rakhine State was launched less than 18 months after theMyanmar security forces perpetrated crimes against humanity against the Rohingya population. More than 900,000 Rohingya refugees are still living in camps in neighboring Bangladesh, and Amnesty's new report provides yet more evidence that it is not safe for them to return.
This fresh evidence lends even greater urgency for the UN to act on the full range of atrocity crimes committed by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State and in northern Myanmar's Kachin and Shan States. A UN Fact Finding Mission has called for senior military officials to be investigated and tried for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
In the absence of any domestic accountability, Amnesty International is calling on the UN Security Council to urgently refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and impose a comprehensive arms embargo. Myanmar's international partners must also rethink their relations with the Myanmar military leadership and implement targeted sanctions against senior officials through multilateral bodies like the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations.
"With Myanmar's military committing atrocities as brazenly as ever, it's clear international pressure needs to intensify," said Nicholas Bequelin. "Again and again, the international community has failed to stop the Myanmar military's crimes and protect the civilian population. The Security Council was established to respond to exactly these kinds of situations, it's time it took its responsibility seriously."
This release is available online at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/no-one-can-protect-us-war-crimes-and-abuses-in-myanmars-rakhine-state
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Supreme Court Signals It Will Uphold 'State-Sanctioned Discrimination' in Transgender Care Case
"We the people means all the people," said the ACLU. "There is no 'transgender' exception to the U.S. Constitution."
Dec 04, 2024
Attorneys who argued against Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming healthcare at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed hope that the court's nine justices will take "the opportunity to affirm the essential freedom and equality of all people before the law," while reports indicated that the right-wing majority is inclined to uphold the ban.
"Every day this law inflicts further pain, injustice, and discrimination on families in Tennessee and prevents them from receiving the medical care they need," said Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, staff attorney at the ACLU of Tennessee, which represented three families and a physician. "We ask the Supreme Court to commit to upholding the promises of the U.S. Constitution for all people by putting an end to Tennessee's state-sanctioned discrimination against trans youth and their families."
The law, S.B. 1, which was passed in March 2023, bars medical providers from prescribing puberty-delaying medications, other hormonal treatment, and surgical procedures to transgender minors and youths with gender dysphoria.
The Supreme Court case, United States v. Skrmetti, applies only to the ban on puberty blockers and hormonal therapy for minors; a lower court found the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to challenge the surgery ban.
The ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and a law firm were joined by the Biden administration in arguing that Tennessee allows doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and other hormonal treatments for youths with congenital defects, early puberty, diseases, or physical injuries.
As such, said the plaintiffs, Tennessee's ban for transgender and nonbinary youths violates the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment under the law.
"My heart—and the heart of every transgender advocate fighting this fight—is heavy with the weight of what these laws mean for people's everyday lives."
The court's three liberal justices—Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—all indicated they believed Tennessee has tried to classify people according to sex or gender with the law.
"One of the articulated purposes of this law is essentially to encourage gender conformity and to discourage anything other than gender conformity," said Kagan. "Sounds to me like, 'We want boys to be boys and we want girls to be girls,' and that's an important purpose behind the law."
Matthew Rice, the lawyer representing Tennessee in the case, claimed the state simply wants to prevent "regret" among minors, and the court's six conservative justices signaled they were inclined to allow Tennessee to ban the treatments—which are endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other top medical associations.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the nine justices should not overrule the decision made by lawmakers representing Tennessee residents, considering there is debate over the issue, and pointed to changes some European countries have made to their gender-affirming care protocols for minors.
Representing the Biden administration, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar acknowledged that there has been debate about gender-affirming care in the U.S. and abroad, but pointed out that countries including the U.K. and Sweden have not outright banned treatment.
"I think that's because of the recognition that this care can provide critical, sometimes lifesaving benefits for individuals with severe gender dysphoria," she said.
Following the arguments, plaintiff Brian Williams, who has a 16-year-old daughter in need of gender-affirming care, addressed supporters who had assembled outside the Supreme Court.
"Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming medical care is an active threat to the future my daughter deserves," said Williams. "It infringes not only on her freedom to be herself but on our family's love for her. We are not expecting everyone to understand everything about our family or the needs of transgender young people like our daughter. What we are asking for is for her freedom to be herself without fear. We are asking for her to be able to access the care she needs and enter adulthood knowing nothing is holding her back because of who she is."
Sotomayor said there is "very clear" evidence "that there are some children who actually need this treatment."
A 2022 study led by researchers at the University of Washington found that transgender and nonbinary youths aged 13-20 were 60% less likely to experience moderate or severe depression and 73% less likely to be suicidal after receiving gender-affirming care.
Prelogar asked the justices to "think about the real-world consequences of laws like S.B. 1," highlighting the case of a plaintiff identified as Ryan Roe.
Roe had such severe gender dysphoria that "he was throwing up before school every day," said Prelogar. "He thought about going mute because his voice caused him so much distress. And Ryan has told the courts that getting these medications after a careful consultation process with his doctors and his parents, has saved his life."
"But Tennessee has come in and categorically cut off access to Ryan's care," she added. "This law harms Ryan's health and the health of all other transgender adolescents for whom these medications are a necessity."
Tennessee is home to about 3,100 transgender teenagers, and about 110,000 transgender youths between the ages of 13-17 live in the 24 states where gender-affirming care is restricted.
More than 20 states have laws that could be impacted by the court's ruling in United States v. Skrmetti.
"My heart—and the heart of every transgender advocate fighting this fight—is heavy with the weight of what these laws mean for people's everyday lives," said Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project. "But I also know that every out trans person has embraced the unknown in the name of living free from shame or the limits of other people's expectations."
"My heart aches for the parents who spent years watching their children in distress and eventually found relief in the medical care that Tennessee now overrides their judgment to ban," said Strangio. "Whatever happens today, tomorrow, and in the months and years to come, I trust that we will come together to fight for the realized promise of our Constitution's guarantee of equal protection for all."
A ruling in the case is expected in June.
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Small Town Sues Utility for Climate Deception
"We have to speak truth to power as we continue to fight the existential threat that is climate change," said the mayor of Carrboro, North Carolina.
Dec 04, 2024
The town of Carrboro, North Carolina filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the utility company Duke Energy of carrying out a "knowing deception campaign concerning the causes and dangers posed by the climate crisis."
The municipality—which is near Chapel Hill and is after compensation for damages it has suffered or will suffer as a result of the alleged deception campaign—is the first town in the United States to challenge an electric utility for public deception about the dangers of fossil fuels and seek damages for the harms those emissions have created, according to the town's mayor, Barbara Foushee.
The case was filed in North Carolina Superior Court and argues that Duke Energy has engaged in a "greenwashing" campaign to convince the public it sought to address the climate emergency.
"In reliance upon these misrepresentations, the public has continued to conduct business with Duke under the mistaken belief that the company is committed to renewable energy," according to the filing.
"We have to speak truth to power as we continue to fight the existential threat that is climate change. The climate crisis continues to burden our community and cost residents their hard-earned tax dollars," said Foushee, according to a press release.
Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell added that "it's time for us to hold Duke Energy accountable for decades of deception, padding executives' pockets while towns like ours worked to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. This suit will allow the Town of Carrboro to invest new resources into building a stronger, more climate-resilient community, using the damages justly due to our residents to reimagine the ways we prepare for our climate reality."
According to the lawsuit, Carrboro will be forced to spend millions of dollars either repairing or shoring up public infrastructure as a result of more frequent and devastating storms, which scientists agree are caused by climate change.
The complaint comes not long after the release of a report, Duke Energy Knew: Documenting the Utility’s Early Knowledge and Ongoing Deception About Climate Change, from the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group. According to the report, Duke Energy well understood the risks posed by burning fossil fuels as far back as the 1960s, but chose to take part in promoting disinformation about climate science. In more recent years, the utility continued to pursue fossil fuels while blocking renewable energy development, according to the report's authors. Much of this research is referenced in the lawsuit.
As one example of its "deception," the lawsuit points to Duke Energy's participation in the the Global Climate Coalition, an entity created with the intent of opposing action to curb the climate crisis.
Duke Energy was the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in 2021, according to a breakdown from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, which ranked U.S. companies in terms of their CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.
More than 20 states, tribes, cities, and counties have brought similar climate deception lawsuits. Maine, for example, recently became the ninth state to sue a major oil and gas company for deceiving the public about its products' role in the climate crisis.
"We’ll soon have a climate denier-in-chief in the White House, but Carrboro is a shining light in this darkness, taking on one of the country's largest polluters and climate deceivers," Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release. The Center for Biological Diversity is advising on the case.
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"If you're trying to ram through nominees without Senate and public scrutiny, it's a pretty good guess that you have something to hide."
Dec 04, 2024
Dozens of civil rights and pro-democracy organizations teamed up Wednesday to express opposition to President-elect Donald Trump's push to use recess appointments to evade the Senate confirmation process for his political nominees, many of which have
glaring conflicts of interest.
The 70 groups—including People For the American Way, Public Citizen, the Constitutional Accountability Center, and the NAACP—sent a letter to U.S. senators arguing that Senate confirmation procedures provide "crucial data" that helps lawmakers and the public "evaluate nominees' fitness for the important positions to which they are nominated."
"The framers of the Constitution included the requirement of Senate 'Advice and Consent' for high-ranking officers for a reason: The requirement can protect our freedom, just as the Bill of Rights does, by providing an indispensable check on presidential power," reads the new letter. "None of that would happen with recess appointments. The American people would be kept in the dark."
Since his victory in last month's election, Trump has publicly expressed his desire to bypass the often time-consuming Senate confirmation process via recess appointments, which are allowed under the Constitution and have been used in the past by presidents of both parties. The need for Senate confirmation is already proving to be a significant obstacle for the incoming administration: Trump's first attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew amid seemingly insurmountable Senate opposition, and Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth appears to be on the ropes.
"Giving in to the president-elect's demand for recess appointments under the current circumstances would dramatically depart from how important positions have always been filled at the start of an administration," the groups wrote in their letter. "The confirmation process gathers important information that helps ensure that nominees who will be dangerous or ineffective for the American people are not confirmed and given great power, and that those who are confirmed meet at least a minimum standard of acceptability."
"The American people deserve full vetting of every person selected to serve in our nation's highest offices, and Trump's nominees are no exception."
Scholars argue recess appointments were intended as a way for presidents to appoint officials to key posts under unusual circumstances, not as an exploit for presidents whose nominees run up against significant opposition.
The Senate could prevent recess appointments by refusing to officially go on recess and making use of pro forma sessions, but incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said that "we have to have all the options on the table" to push through Trump's nominees.
"We are not going to allow the Democrats to thwart the will of the American people in giving President Trump the people that he wants in those positions to implement his agenda," Thune said last month.
Trump has also previously threatened to invoke a never-before-used provision of the Constitution that he claims would allow him to force both chambers of Congress to adjourn, paving the way for recess appointments.
Conservative scholar Edward Whelan, a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, denounced that proposed route as a "cockamamie scheme" that would mean "eviscerating the Senate's advice-and-consent role."
Svante Myrick, president of People For the American Way, said in a statement Wednesday that "if you're trying to ram through nominees without Senate and public scrutiny, it's a pretty good guess that you have something to hide."
"The American people deserve full vetting of every person selected to serve in our nation's highest offices," said Myrick, "and Trump's nominees are no exception."
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