Heavy rain causes flooding in townships nationwide
An unknown number of people across Burma have been displaced from their homes nationwide due to flooding caused by heavy rains this week. Meteorologists predicted that the remnants of Typhoon Yagi would cause heavy rainfall and strong winds across the country until Wednesday. The storm arrived in Shan State on Monday.
There have been no reported casualties, but farmers have said that crop fields have been destroyed by the water. “The floods washed my rice away even though it wasn’t fully ripe [yet]. It was all ruined,” a resident of Naungshwe Township in southern Shan State told DVB.
In Myawaddy Township of Karen State and Tatkon Township of Naypyidaw Region, rising water levels have forced an unknown number of residents to evacuate their homes to safer places. “The water rose up to five and a half feet [1.67 m]. Officials came, took photos, and left. Now, locals are having to manage the situation on their own,” a Tatkon resident told DVB.
UN states that abuses are ‘widespread’ in Burma
Nicholas Koumjian, the head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), said that civilians are being deliberately targeted and being subjected to sexual violence and torture since the 2021 military coup, during a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday.
“Victims and witnesses have recounted beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and torture by pulling out fingernails with pliers. There is evidence that minors and other victims of all genders have been subjected to gang rape, burns on sexual body parts and other violent sexual and gender-based crimes,” he recounted.
Koumjian added that the IIMM is collecting evidence of war crimes that have been committed in Burma and sharing it with the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a court in Argentina. But he admitted that the IIMM faces challenges, including lack of access to crime scenes or witnesses inside Burma.
Migrant families told to send children to Thai schools
The families of over 500 students from Burma living in southern Thailand, who attended migrant education centers that were closed in Surat Thani Province on Sept. 4, were told to enroll their children in Thai public schools. The Thai authorities stated that the schools were in violation of the law.
“The Thai government will review and investigate the [closed] schools. I hope they will find another way to reopen them,” Htoo Chit, the executive director of the Foundation for Education and Development (FED), told DVB. “People like us don’t even know who to ask for help. My child has never attended [Thai] school,” said the mother of one student.
Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission expressed concern over the closure of the migrant education centers, which serve the children of migrant workers from Burma in Thailand. There are nearly 200 schools in Thailand that serve an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 students from Burma, according to the FED.
News by Region
AYEYARWADY—Thirty teachers attended a seven-day training course on how to conduct a population and household census at an immigration office in Pathein Township, located in eastern Ayeyarwady Region, last week.
“Administration and immigration offices pressured us to attend,” a teacher in Pathein Township told DVB. Min Aung Hlaing has announced that a census will be held Oct. 1-15 in preparation for elections that are tentatively scheduled for November 2025.
KAREN—Methamphetamine and ketamine valued at $16 million USD were seized by authorities at a checkpoint in Mae Sot, Thailand, which entered the country from Karen State. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported in December 2023 that opium cultivation in Burma has increased by 18 percent since the 2021 coup.
MON—The regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) stated that it has accepted the application for the registration of the Mon Unity Party (MUP) on Monday. The MUP was founded on July 11, 2019 after a merger of the All Mon Region Democracy Party and Mon National Party. Its headquarters is located in the Mon State capital Mawlamyine.
“We applied for the registration in February, last year,” an anonymous source in the MUP told DVB. The MUP won 12 seats, including the position of minister for Mon ethnic affairs in Mon and Karen states during the 2020 election. The UEC has accepted the registration of 52 political parties with four more parties to be considered.
NAYPYIDAW—A Tatkon Township administrator told DVB that rescue teams and authorities are trying to assist in the evacuation of residents from their homes in 20 villages due to flash flooding caused by heavy rainfall on Wednesday.
“Flooding has reached as high as the roofs of houses in the lowlands. People in those homes had to evacuate themselves to monasteries or other areas as there were no rescue teams,” said a Thitseintpin village resident.
