• Burmese
Friday, December 8, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
33 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

EU Says Police Training ‘Still Needed’ After Crackdowns Draw Criticism

by The Irrawaddy
March 11, 2015
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
EU Says Police Training ‘Still Needed’ After Crackdowns Draw Criticism

A demonstrator holds a sign protesting the European Union’s police training program on Friday in Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

4.2k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RANGOON — As the first phase of an EU-funded program designed to professionalize Burma’s police comes to an end, its beneficiaries find themselves in the spotlight after three violent crackdowns on peaceful education reform protestors in less than a week.

Student protestors in Letpadan, Pegu Division, were on the receiving end of brutal police baton charges on Tuesday, bringing a violent end to a tense standoff there, and demonstrators were met with force on the same day in Rangoon. The incidents followed a similar effort to break up a rally on Thursday in Rangoon, where police were aided by plainclothes thugs using tactics that critics have said harkens to the dark days of repression under Burma’s former military junta.

RelatedPosts

Five Civilians Killed as Myanmar Military Unleashes Bombers in Battle for Namkham

Five Civilians Killed as Myanmar Military Unleashes Bombers in Battle for Namkham

December 8, 2023
20
Bodies of Myanmar Resistance Fighters Slain Near India Border Town Show Signs of Torture

Bodies of Myanmar Resistance Fighters Slain Near India Border Town Show Signs of Torture

December 8, 2023
174
Junta’s Latest US Dollar Move is Enflaming Myanmar’s Fuel Crisis  

Junta’s Latest US Dollar Move is Enflaming Myanmar’s Fuel Crisis  

December 8, 2023
139

One of the peripheral victims of fallout from the episodes has been the European Union, which has come in for criticism on social media and from human rights groups for its 18-month program training the Myanmar Police Force (MPF) on crowd control techniques.

The European Union has directed as much as 10 million euros (US$11 million) in funding toward the training, which involves courses on media relations and community policing initiatives as well. It has also included the provision of nonlethal equipment such as helmets and riot shields, according to an officer working for the EU program with knowledge of its details.

Last week, protestors in front of the office of the EU Delegation to Myanmar demanded answers about the training initiative, the first phase of which ended this month.

“Given what happened now, those trainings are somewhat like [assisting in] the beating and arrest of students and people. So we condemn it. We are staging a protest here today to let the EU know about it,” said a student demonstrator during a protest on Friday against the government’s handling of the City Hall protestors the day prior.

The EU Delegation released a statement on Tuesday, saying it was “deeply concerned to hear reports of the use of force against protesters in Letpadan,” and calling for an investigation into the crackdown.

“The fundamental purpose of the training is to increase the respect of human rights, stress the importance of negotiation and—only as a last resort—consider the use of proportional force. Any actions which go against these principles are of great concern to the EU,” read a Facebook post on its official account.

The delegation defended its relationship with the police and said events over the last week reinforced the need to continue training the MPF, but added that the EU “cannot make decisions on the ground.”

To date, the program has trained some 4,000 MPF officers out of approximately 72,000 nationwide.

A spokesperson from the EU project confirmed that training would be extended for an additional six months, and that the EU Delegation was considering a “follow-up project” to come afterward.

She declined, however, to take further questions from The Irrawaddy, saying she was following the instructions of her superior. She said she could provide no further specifics on why this order was in place, and referred The Irrawaddy to another EU staffer who did not respond to multiple attempts to seek clarification this week.

Images of the violent crackdowns in Rangoon and Letpadan have circulated widely on social media, drawing condemnation of the MPF, Burma’s government and the European Union.

“Don’t waste your time and money EU. Burmese government are not human. They will never change their mind,” posted Facebook user Sethu Minn, in apparent reference to the EU statement’s assertion that “In a country with a history such as Myanmar’s, changing mindsets is needed, but takes time.”

Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, said any further training should be contingent on a repeal of repressive laws in Burma.

“[The] EU training Burma’s police in crowd control can only be effective if their political masters are willing to accept that people have the right to protest,” Farmaner told The Irrawaddy. “The government is still using the police as a means to control people, not protect them.”

David Mathieson, a senior Burma researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, echoed calls for a conditional approach to more training.

“The EU should be deeply troubled by the security forces rejecting almost every principle of effective policing during the protest in Rangoon, and ensure that any future training or engagement is firmly rooted in best practice and the highest human rights standards,” he told The Irrawaddy.

Plainclothes Controversy

Thursday’s violent dispersal of protestors in front of Rangoon’s City Hall—in particular the role played by plainclothes ruffians wearing red armbands inscribed with the Burmese word for “duty”—has focused attention on Article 128 of the Burmese Code of Criminal Procedure. That provision allows authorities to raise a male civilian force in order to break up the gathering and assist with arrests in the event that an unlawful assembly refuses to disperse.

Rangoon Division Police Chief Win Naing denied any involvement from his command in the plainclothes vigilantes’ presence, saying local township authorities were responsible for bringing them in.

“We didn’t know anything about them,” he told The Irrawaddy.

The EU Delegation made reference to the plainclothes men in its statement, saying it has “stressed the importance of using trained, professional police officers in these situations, not parallel security structures which may be written into law, but lack legitimacy.

“It must be made clear that the EU does not train non-police forces and does not condone their use in police actions.”

That would appear to put the European Union at odds with the government, which has defended its right to call upon civilian support under Article 128.

President’s Office Director Zaw Htay, whose Facebook account is under the name Hmuu Zaw, posted Article 128 to his Facebook wall on Thursday evening, but deleted it about an later. On Sunday, members of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society met with Rangoon authorities, and told The Irrawaddy that the division’s Chief Minister Myint Swe had also voiced support for the law.

Events over the last week come more than two months after police shot dead a female protestor in her 50s on Dec. 22 at Sagaing Division’s Letpadaung copper mine. About two years prior, police at the same site controversially used incendiary devices containing white phosphorous to disperse protestors, injuring dozens of Buddhist monks and others.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: More
Previous Post

Letter From the Jungle: Hours in Hiding After Letpadan Crackdown

Next Post

Opposition MPs Criticize Police Actions Against Students

The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy

...

Similar Picks:

Freelance Photographer Released After Three-Day Detention

Freelance Photographer Released After Three-Day Detention

March 2, 2015
12.1k
ABSDF Report Finds Torture

ABSDF Report Finds Torture, Leaves Questions in Killing of Its Own

March 16, 2015
6k
Migrants’ Hopes and Fears in Little Burma

Migrants’ Hopes and Fears in Little Burma

July 16, 2016
10.2k
Girl Who Accused Employer of Rape Faces Charges of Theft

Girl Who Accused Employer of Rape Faces Charges of Theft

February 26, 2013
13k
‘Twilight Over Burma’ Tells Tragic Tale of Austrian Shan Princess

‘Twilight Over Burma’ Tells Tragic Tale of Austrian Shan Princess

May 30, 2016
11k
A Story of Modern Slavery in Thailand

A Story of Modern Slavery in Thailand

August 21, 2015
5.8k
Load More
Next Post
Opposition MPs Criticize Police Actions Against Students

Opposition MPs Criticize Police Actions Against Students

Young People

Young People, the Old Guard and Enduring Antagonism

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Myanmar Regime Stops Fuel Supplies to Yangon Factories

Myanmar Regime Stops Fuel Supplies to Yangon Factories

3 days ago
9k
Charting the Shifting Power Balance on Myanmar’s Battlefields 

Charting the Shifting Power Balance on Myanmar’s Battlefields 

6 days ago
7.1k

Most Read

  • Kyat Depreciates Further After Myanmar Central Bank Abandons Dollar Forex Rate

    Kyat Depreciates Further After Myanmar Central Bank Abandons Dollar Forex Rate

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Asks China to Pressure Brotherhood Alliance to End Offensive

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • UN Calls for Urgent Action to Stop Arms Flow to Myanmar Junta as Civilian Casualties Soar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Coup Leader Showers Medals on Troops as String of Defeats Erodes Morale

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Uses Chemical Warfare: Arakan Army

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Features
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.