Myanmar on Trial
By Lianain Films
16 April 2020
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TC |
Visuals |
Audio |
Fact check |
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0:00 |
GRAPHIC: |
This programme
contains material that may be distressing to some viewers. |
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0:16 |
Secret footage - WS villages on fire |
VO Villages burnt to the ground. |
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0:21 |
Secret footage - Rohingya wading through river to
flee |
VO Hundreds of thousands displaced. |
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0:24 |
Secret footage – dead bodies |
VO Mass murder. |
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0:26 |
Gambia rep at the ICJ |
SOT There is compelling evidence of genocide and
genocidal intent. |
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0:32 |
UN footage – Gambia v Myanmar hearing at the Hague |
VO The Gambia has taken Myanmar to the International
Court of Justice - accusing it’s government of orchestrating a campaign of destruction
against the Rohingya people. |
The
Gambia’s application to the International Court of Justice: https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20191111-APP-01-00-EN.pdf |
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0:42 |
Aung San Suu Kyi |
SOT There will be no tolerance of human rights violations in the Rakhine. |
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0:47 |
Secret footage – woman dead, after being hit in
crossfire |
Upsound The shrapnel entered through here and went out from
there. VO But now, we have evidence showing that for many
Rohingya – the nightmare continues. |
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0:55 |
Secret footage – boy caught in crossfire between AA
and military Secret footage - Karima Khatun in tears |
Upsound Go inside the house! Go inside the house! They are
looking for the crowd to fire on! VO As the world awaits a verdict, 101 East has been
given access to years of secret videos… |
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1:09 |
Scared villagers in Nyaung Chaung |
VO and we travel to Myanmar’s Rakhine state, to meet a
people still facing danger and discrimination. |
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Fade |
Fade |
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1:22 |
AP footage of soldiers in Northern Rakhine State in
2016 |
VO The Gambia’s case is centred around a brutal military
crackdown which begin in late 2016, in response to attacks by an armed
Rohingya group. It led to a mass exodus of Rohingya into
neighbouring Bangladesh in the months that followed. |
The
Gambia’s application to the International Court of Justice: https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20191111-APP-01-00-EN.pdf “…against
the backdrop of longstanding persecution and discrimination, from around
October 2016 the Myanmar military (the “Tatmadaw”) and other Myanmar security
forces began widespread and systematic “clearance operations” – the term that
Myanmar itself uses – against the Rohingya group. The genocidal acts
committed during these operations were intended to destroy the Rohingya as a
group, in whole or in part, by the use of mass murder, rape and other forms
of sexual violence, as well as the systematic destruction by fire of their
villages, often with inhabitants locked inside burning houses. From August
2017 onwards, such genocidal acts continued with Myanmar’s resumption of
“clearance operations” on a more massive and wider geographical scale.” UNHCR
in 2017 said that an estimated 43,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh by the
end of 2016, with numbers growing into 2017 https://www.unhcr.org/
news/latest/ 2017/5/590990ff4/
168000-rohingya-likely-fled-myanmar-since-2012-unhcr-report.html |
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1:49 |
Secret footage – burnt bodies in Dar Gyi Zar |
Upsound It’s 18th November, 2016. Here we can see the
incident of killing and burning in Dar Gyi Zar. These are the dead bodies. |
Human
Rights Watch has also reported destruction in Dar Gyi Zar: https://www.hrw.org/
news/2016/12/13/burma-military-burned-villages-rakhine-state |
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2:01 |
Secret footage – burnt bodies in Dar Gyi Zar |
VO This video is
one of many filmed by local activists, determined to expose the Rohingya’s
plight to the world. They are a rare glimpse inside Rakhine state,
where journalists’ access is severely restricted. |
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2:21 |
Burnt bodies of children |
Upsound This is a leg. The boy would have been about 10
years old. VO 101 East has reviewed and verified more than
three years’ worth of footage. It tells a horrific story. Upsound This is a six to seven month old child. I am not
sure if you can see it clearly. This is the end of a leg. It has become like
this after being burnt. Oh, Allah. |
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2:47 |
Rohingya activist |
VO At a secret location outside Myanmar, we meet a
former member of the activist group. For his safety, we’re hiding his identity. SOT There is no justice for us there. We want to show
the world how the Myanmar government and the Rakhine are torturing us. That’s
why we have uploaded many videos. To get justice. |
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3:17 |
Secret footage – interview with Karima Khatun,
shortly after she was injured by the military |
Upsound VO He filmed this interview just before the mass exodus
in 2017, that saw hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. Upsound Karima I am exhausted, I have no more strength. I’ve run
out of tears. Activist Were you holding your son? Karima Oh, how could I let my son go? I was just holding
him. The bullet hit his stomach and his intestines came out. |
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3:51 |
Cover first half with pics of Karima |
SOT Activist The bullet went through the baby and then into the
mother. It was very hard. I felt the world was ending. |
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4:03 |
GVS Cox’s Bazar camps |
VO Nearly three years on, we manage to track down the
woman in the video. |
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4:08 |
Karima Khatun outside her hut in Cox’s Bazar |
VO She now lives in Bangladesh, inside the world’s
largest refugee camp. |
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4:15 |
Karima washes plates – scars visible on hand |
VO The scars on Karima Khatun’s arm are a constant
reminder of what happened to her in Myanmar. She says hundreds of soldiers attacked her home
in Chut Pyin Village on August the 27th 2017, when she and her
baby were shot. |
Physicians
for Human Rights has reported on the attack on Chut Pyin Village on 27 August
2017: |
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4:34 |
Karima Khatun Rohingya Refugee |
SOT My baby was almost dead in my arms but I couldn’t
get up as the military were in position. I had to cover his mouth. I couldn’t
get up and put his intestines back in. My arm got hit. My baby died on the
spot. |
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4:49 |
Karima inside her hut at the refugee camp |
VO Karima’s husband was also killed in the attack,
along with three other members of their family and hundreds of her fellow
villagers. |
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5:00 |
Karima Khatun Rohingya Refugee |
SOT First, they shot the religious leaders and then the
school teachers. They didn’t want to spare a single teacher. All of them were
killed. They entered houses, kicked the women and shot their husbands in
front of them. They threw small children in the air and stabbed them in the
stomach. They took the girls to the school and raped them. |
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5:22 |
Aung San Suu Kyi at the ICJ |
VO At the ICJ in the Hague, Aung San Suu
Kyi says Chut Pyin was one of a dozen main conflict areas in 2017. Upsound ASSK It is of the utmost importance that the court
assesses the situation obtained on the ground in Rakhine dispassionately and
accurately. VO She insists the military was merely responding to an
armed Rohingya group who had targeted more than 30 police stations and an
army base. But she also says this: |
Transcript of Aung San Suu Kyi’s testimony at the
ICJ: |
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5:58 |
Aung San Suu Kyi Myanmar Leader |
SOT It cannot be ruled out that disproportionate
force was used by members of the Defence Services in some cases in disregard
of international humanitarian law. If war crimes have been committed by
members of Myanmar’s Defense Services, they will be prosecuted through our
military justice system in accordance with Myanmar’s constitution. |
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6:23 |
Crowd singing, cheering, waving posters etc |
Upsound To protect the dignity of our country, we stand with Mother Suu! VO The
case against Myanmar has galvanised Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters back home. One day before her testimony at the
International Court of Justice, thousands gather in Myanmar’s largest city,
Yangon, in support of their leader. |
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6:48 |
Voxpop Woman |
SOT There is a fight between two sides. The
international view is different from the view in Myanmar. We are the ones
suffering in this conflict. Mother went there to resolve the issue. |
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7:00 |
Crowd sings Myanmar’s national anthem |
Upsound We will sacrifice our lives to protect our country!
This is our nation, our land and it belongs to us. VO For many here, the Gambia’s case is as an assault on
the dignity and sovereignty of their country. They insist the Rohingya are foreigners. Upsound And this is our very duty. To our invaluable land. |
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7:21 |
Voxpop Man in white |
SOT Actually, we have only 135 ethnic groups. Rohingyas are not citizens of this country. We don’t
consider them our citizens. |
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7:31 |
WS Cox’s Bazar camps |
VO But Rohingya refugees now sheltering in Bangladesh insist
Myanmar is their homeland. |
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7:45 |
Satara outside hut in Cox’s Bazar |
Upsound VO Satara Begum doesn’t know if she can ever return. She lost her husband during a military operation in
August 2017. They lived in Myo Thu Gyi, one of the 12 areas on
Suu Kyi’s list. As they were fleeing, her husband decided to go back
to lock their door. |
From Aung San Suu Kyi’s statement at the ICJ: “Myanmar’s defense services responded to the attacks
of ARSA fighters by the use of ground forces. There were armed incidents in
more than 60 locations. The main clashes occurred in 12 places: in Min Gyi
(Tula Toli) village, Chut Pyin village, Maung Nu village, Gu Dar Pyin
village, Alay Than Kyaw village, Myin Lut village, Inn Din village, Chein
Khar Li (Koe Tan Kauk) village, Myo Thu Gyi ward, Kyauk Pan Du village, wards
of Maungdaw Town, and southern Maungdaw.” |
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8:08 |
Satara Begum Rohingya Refugee |
SOT My husband got shot in front of our eyes. When I saw
that with my own eyes, the world fell apart. I thought it was written in my
destiny. I had no other options so my children and I followed the other
villagers who were fleeing. |
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8:30 |
Satara and kids inside their hut |
Upsound VO Satara is now struggling to look after her five
children. The youngest is just a toddler. Upsound My children ask me, “Where is Dad? What happened to
our Dad?” My children are very innocent and young. I don’t know what my
children’s future will be. Only God knows. |
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9:00 |
Ayas feeding his kids inside their hut in Bangladesh
refugee camp |
Upsound Your sister’s here. She’ll eat. VO Mohamad Ayas and his family also fled the same area
for Bangladesh in 2017. Upsound There’s meat here. |
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9:13 |
Mohamad Ayas Rohingya Refugee |
VO He’s kept a record of what happened there. Upsound In Myo Thu Gyi village, the total number of houses
was 1,051. Of those 1,051, not one remains there anymore. Cleared, burnt down
by the military. After burning them down, they bulldozed to clear the
remains. |
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9:33 |
Myo Thu Gyi videos |
Upsound VO Videos filmed by residents show the extent of the
destruction. Ayas says the attack was unprovoked. |
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9:53 |
Mohamad Ayas Rohingya Refugee Cover with villagers’ footage of burnt village |
SOT |
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10:14 |
Cover with shots of Ayas going through his list |
SOT |
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10:35 |
GVS – Ayas and other refugees in camp |
VO Myanmar’s government says it’s willing to take back
refugees like Ayas. But it wants them to register for a National
Verification Card, or NVC – a process that will supposedly pave the way to
citizenship. But many Rohingya are reluctant. The process assumes that they are “foreigners”,
leading to fears that even if they are granted citizenship, they won’t have
the same rights as regular citizens. Ayas insists the Rohingya should be treated equally.
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The
Guardian also reported on Rohingya being reluctant to return: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/21/not-without-our-rights-rohingya-refugees-refuse-to-return-to-myanmar Al
Jazeera report: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/genocide-card-myanmar-rohingya-verification-scheme-condemned-190903012922259.html
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11:19 |
Mohamad Ayas Rohingya Refugee |
SOT Our citizenship rights, our confiscated things, our
land and property, our right to education. Whatever rights that we and the community
demand, if you can give me all these things, I’d go back in time for dinner. |
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11:35 |
Travelling shots from bus, and then boat on the way
to Northern Rakhine State *not sure if we should say “rare” as Florence
visited a couple of weeks after us |
Upsound car honk VO We’re visiting Rakhine state, on a rare government-supervised
press tour. From Yangon, it’s a half day journey by air, land
and sea. It’s five days since the ICJ handed down a
preliminary ruling - ordering the Myanmar government to take all measures to
protect the Rohingya from genocide. |
https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/178/178-20200123-PRE-01-00-EN.pdf |
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12:04 |
Armed border police, security checkpoints on the way
to Maungdaw |
Upsound VO We’ll be spending the night in Maungdaw, near the
border with Bangladesh. Security is tight on the drive up. There are armed police everywhere. |
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12:17 |
Tracking shots past Myo Thu Gyi |
VO On our way, we pass Myo Thu Gyi. There’s nothing to suggest this used to be home to a
large Rohingya community. A fence and new buildings have been erected. The land is now occupied by a police outpost. |
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12:36 |
Entering district office, meeting with DA U Soe Aung |
VO Our first stop is a meeting with Maungdaw District
Administrator U Soe Aung. We ask for his reaction to the ICJ’s preliminary
ruling. |
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12:50 |
U Soe Aung Maungdaw District Administrator |
Upsound They are talking about genocide. There is no
genocide here. About the ICJ and genocide, we have nothing to do with
genocide. On. The local level. They said we shouldn’t destroy data and
evidence. We didn’t destroy. You might have seen on your way here, that the
burnt land is still as it was. We kept the land the way it was. We didn’t use
it. So regarding the ICJ, there’s nothing else for us to do at the local
level. VO We then ask him about Rohingya land that is now
occupied by the government. |
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12:33 |
U Soe Aung Maungdaw District Administrator |
SOT Any land can be used if it’s for the development of
the country. VO In his reply, the District Administrator uses the
word ‘Bengali’ to refer to the Rohingya - a controversial term that implies
that they are foreigners. SOT If the owner returns, we will pay him compensation.
But ‘Bengalis’ are not citizens. They are not owners. They only have a right
to work the land. |
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14:07 |
Tracking shots through car window |
Upsound VO During most of our three days in Northern Rakhine
State, we follow a schedule set out by the Ministry of Information. |
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14:18 |
Arriving at village 1 |
Upsound Minder 45 minutes! James 45 minutes. We stay here? Minder Yeah! James We stay here 45 minutes OK. |
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14:23 |
Negotiating for time
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Upsound James 30 minutes? Minder 20 minutes! James 20 minutes. Minder Yes. |
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14:28 |
Armed police in first village |
VO Armed police stand guard at the villages we visit. |
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14:33 |
Government camera guy filming as we get on boat |
Upsound VO A government cameraman films us as we go about our
work. |
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14:39 |
Minder records name of villager in Tatya village |
Upsound Minder Your name? Villager My name is Sayed Karim VO And minders record the names of everyone we talk to,
making it impossible to speak freely. |
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14:48 |
Nervous villager in Tatya village |
Upsound Rabiul Hasan We cannot talk about politics. |
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14:52 |
Kids in Ywa Ma Village singing, dancing |
Upsound kids singing VO In Ywa Ma Village, children at an NGO funded centre
are able to learn and play. But most Rohingya can’t receive more than a high
school education. |
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15:14 |
Musa outside child friendly space in Ywa Ma village |
VO Musa is 19 years old. Upsound Cape Can you go to university? Musa I can’t. We cannot go to the university or college. |
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15:25 |
Sayed Ahmad |
VO Musa’s father Sayed Ahmad says it’s because he
doesn’t have the right identity. documents. |
Identity
documents are an ongoing problem for Rohingya: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2018/03/01/identity-and-belonging-card-how-tattered-rohingya-ids-trace-trail-toward and https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2019/05/10/when-identity-documents-and-registration-produce-exclusion-lessons-from-rohingya-experiences-in-myanmar/ |
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15:32 |
Sayad Ahmad Rohingya villager |
SOT I applied for citizenship but I didn’t get it. One
of my sons passed his matriculation exams but he couldn’t get a job. |
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15:43 |
Minders taking Musa’s name |
Upsound minder Musa. VO But then minders from the Ministry of Information take
down Musa’s details and he declines to answer any more questions. |
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15:55 |
Maungdaw traffic |
Upsound VO One afternoon, we manage to walk into downtown
Maungdaw without our minders. |
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16:06 |
Trying to speak to man outside mosque, U Hla Thein
interrupts |
Upsound Cape We can talk to him. VO Outside a mosque a man agrees to talk to us. Upsound Cape I’d like to know if it’s OK for you living here? U Hla Thein Yes, OK, OK. Cape Any problems here? U Hla Thein No, everything is OK. In our town, there is no
problem. VO But we’re interrupted before we can even begin, by
the administrator of this area – U Hla Thein. |
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16:29 |
Conversation with U Hla Thein |
Upsound Cape Do the Rohingya people living here face any
restrictions, discrimination or difficulties? U Hla Thein Now? Nothing like this is happening. Everything is
peaceful in the downtown area. For us, it’s peaceful in the downtown area. On
the north side and the south side, we are fine. Everything is OK. |
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16:48 |
Phonecalls to villagers |
Upsound dialing VO We finally find a way to speak without our minders
listening in. Rohingya villagers who have kept their distance
during our visit have agreed to be interviewed by phone. For security reasons, they’ve asked us to hide their
identities. |
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17:12 |
Cover with GVS of villages, police |
SOT I cannot speak freely. If we speak up against the
government, we will be fined once the journalist leaves the area. |
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17:27 |
Phonecall Cover with GVS of villages, police |
SOT We are not allowed to leave the village. We are not
allowed to go out to inform people about what is going on here as there are
many checkpoints. Even with recommendation papers, if we can’t show NVC cards
at the checkpoint, we have to pay fines of 10,000 kyats ($7) each. Even if we
want to go for medical treatment, we are unable to travel. |
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17:54 |
Phonecall |
SOT We can’t travel from village to village to find
work. If you have money, you can move. If not, you cannot move around. |
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18:03 |
GVS Maungdaw town and villages |
VO In more than three hours of conversations, we learn
that life, for most Rohingya, is relentlessly stressful. They must observe curfews, cannot travel freely, and
have limited access to healthcare and education. And since early 2019, they’ve also had to cope with
a new crisis. |
Rohingya
refugees also told Reuters that they face curfews and travel restrictions: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rohingya-return/
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18:29 |
Activist video of boy stuck in the middle of village
square as villagers try to flee helicopter overhead |
VO Upsound Man Where did the bullet hit him? Woman The bullet is still lodged in his calf. VO The Rohingya have been caught in the crossfire
between the Myanmar military and a Rakhine armed group called the Arakan
Army. |
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18:44 |
Activist video of boy stuck in the middle of village
square as villagers try to flee helicopters overhead |
Upsound We heard two rounds of firing. Don’t gather here, go inside, go inside! VO In this clip, filmed by an activist in April 2019,
an injured boy lies on the ground as frantic villagers try to flee. Upsound Go inside the house! They are looking for the crowd to fire on! They’re
finishing us! Leave him there, leave him there! Don’t group
together! Upsound helicopter Upsound Two helicopters have just flown over! VO Military helicopters can be heard flying overhead. The boy was eventually taken to hospital. He survived. |
*We were shown footage of the boy in hospital |
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19:27 |
Villagers return home with remains of villagers who
died in crossfire |
VO But for others, the attack proved deadly. Upsound Do you know him? Villager 1 He is my son in law. Villager 2 He is their son in law. VO A bag of body parts is all that remains of two Rohingya
men killed during the same airstrike. They’d gone to the forest to cut bamboo. |
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19:54 |
A woman mourns her pregnant daughter – killed by a
rocket that crashed through her roof. |
Upsound VO Nowhere, it seems, is safe. In this video, shot just days before our trip to Rakhine state, a woman mourns the death of her daughter. Upsound crying Oh daughter I had expected all your wishes to be
fulfilled. To build a house for you. But I couldn’t fulfil your dreams, oh
daughter! Upsound Cameraman Did it penetrate directly? Villager Yes. Villager 2 The shrapnel entered through here and went out from
there. |
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20:22 |
Pan to roof of house of woman killed by rocket |
Upsound VO The victim had been hit by shrapnel from a rocket
that crashed through her roof. |
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20:30 |
Aye Thein Nu shows us her bunker |
VO The conflict has also affected locals who are not
Rohingya. Upsound Aye Thein Nu When they fire, we stay in there. VO In this Rakhine village, 68 year old Aye Thein Nu
shows us where she hides whenever fighting breaks out. |
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20:49 |
CU bunker Aye stands in front of bunker. |
VO She says there are several bunkers like this in the
area. Upsound What kind of danger are you afraid of? Aye Thein Nu Firing of heavy artillery. |
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21:00 |
Daw San Thida at village meeting |
VO Other villagers are just as frightened. Upsound Daw San Thida We’re scared for our children because they shoot big
guns which are very loud. So we run away with our children and don’t want to
stay in the village. Cape Did you see anything in the daytime? Daw San Thida Yes, I saw this in the daytime. Yes, sometimes they shoot from planes. We’re afraid
to stay here. Cape Who was shooting? Daw San Thida The military. |
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21:30 |
Tracking shots on our way to Paddin and Nyaung
Chaung |
Upsound VO It’s nearly the end of our tour but there are two
more Rohingya villages to visit. Both were partially destroyed in 2017. The Myanmar government says they will resettle
villagers who didn’t’ flee. |
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21:54 |
Paddin mosque |
VO In Paddin, remnants of a mosque are a reminder of
what happened here. Once home to more than 5000 people, only 300 remain
today. Village administrator Mohamed Hasan is unusually
candid - he says it will take more than new houses to make things right. |
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22:08 |
Mohamad Hasan Paddin Village Administrator |
SOT We lost our houses, fishing tools like our nets, our
farmland. It is very important for us to be able to go back to live on our
own land. Freedom of movement is also important for us. |
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22:42 |
School hall surrounded by armed police |
VO In Nyaung Chaung, villagers have been told to wait
for us in a school hall, watched over by minders and armed police. Inside, the atmosphere is tense and few are willing
to speak to us. Mohamad Reyas is 22 years old. Upsound I was not in the village when it was burning. I was
in another village. When the village was burning, the people remaining also
ran away. When we came back after a few days, the village was already burnt
down. Cape Do you know who set the fire? Mohamad Reyas I don’t know. Cape Has the government started to build houses? Mohamad Reyas They say they will but they haven’t done it. |
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23:27 |
Destroyed houses |
Upsound VO It’s not part of the government’s itinerary but we
manage to find the houses that were burnt down. |
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23:37 |
Man approaches camera near a burnt out house |
VO A villager approaches us. Upsound Villager Our village 193 house burnt. James Who is it do this? Villager Burmese military. |
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23:54 |
Interview with villager, informer visible in
background |
VO Another villager tells us it’s not safe for the
Rohingya to return. Upsound It’s safe only in name. In reality, it’s not safe.
In reality, this was all done by them. If I say this, it’s not good for me. |
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24:10 |
Pan from sleeve of villager, to “spy” |
VO It appears, we’ve been spotted. Upsound He’s an informer. He’s following us. I cannot say
anything. |
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24:25 |
POV shot – walking away. |
VO Here in Rakhine state, the Rohingya can only speak
in whispers, or in private about the violence and discrimination they’ve had
to endure. |
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24:38 |
Time to leave! Minders stop us from filming outside
abandoned mosque |
Upsound Minder No, no, no, no! Please! VO And journalists are closely watched over by
government minders. Upsound minder Steve! Let’s go! VO We end the tour acutely aware that there’s a lot we
haven’t seen. |
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24:56 |
Leaving Rakhine – shots from car. |
VO The International Court of Justice isn’t expected to
release its verdict anytime soon. But whatever the outcome, it’s clear human rights
violations against the Rohingya aren’t confined to the events in 2016 and 17. They’ve been happening for a long time.
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