We Need to Talk about Florida: Daily Brief

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January 24, 2023
By Andrew Stroehlein
Contact me at DailyBriefTeam@hrw.org and Twitter @astroehlein.

In today's Daily Brief:

Why Is Japan helping the junta?
We Need to Talk about Florida
Iran’s Hurried Murders
Take Note: Other Key Stories
Quote of the Day: Seeking Justice for ISIS Victims

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Members of the Myanmar military stand atop trucks loaded with missiles during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 77th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2022. © 2022 AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo

Japan Enabling Myanmar Atrocities

It may sound harmless at first, but it’s textbook example of what NOT to do after a military coup and mounting atrocities.

Japan’s Yokogawa Bridge Corp. transferred over US$1 million last year to Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) for a Japanese government development aid project in Myanmar. Development project, you may think, so, hey, that’s maybe OK, right?

Wrong. Here’s the key detail: MEC is owned by Myanmar’s abusive military.

This is the same military that has committed widespread, systematic crimes since its coup in February 2021. Junta security forces have killed over 2,700 people, including at least 277 children. They’ve arrested more than 17,000, and they are murdering political prisoners after bogus “trials” before secret military tribunals.

And let’s not forget the same military’s earlier mass atrocity crimes, including crimes against humanity and possible genocide, against the Rohingya minority.

If there’s any group you shouldn’t be doing business with right now, surely it’s these guys.

My colleague, Teppei Kasai, HRW’s Asia program officer, puts it bluntly: “Through Yokogawa Bridge Corp.’s business dealings with MEC, the Japanese government has effectively helped fund junta atrocities.”

By contrast, the US, UK, EU, and Canada have all sanctioned MEC and Myanmar’s other military conglomerate, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, for their role in generating significant revenues that help fund the military.

Still, more is needed. In September 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report, saying that not enough had been done to cut off the junta’s access to revenue. It urged the international community to, “step up efforts to support the people of Myanmar and to ensure the military’s financial isolation in a coordinated fashion.”

And clearly, one of the weak points in the international front is Japan. The Japanese government needs to stop enabling the junta’s atrocity crimes.

We Need to Talk about Florida

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis was busy last week. And not in a good way.

It was an ugly trifecta of announcements...

First, DeSantis spread false information about Covid vaccines, with a risk of endangering public health.

He then asked Florida’s state universities for a list of transgender students. In particular, he wanted the numbers and ages of students who sought or received gender-affirming treatment, like hormone prescriptions.

When a government starts making a list of a minority group, it’s often a bad sign – a possible first step to greater harassment or persecution.

But even if you don’t go that far, ask yourself this: why don’t those individuals have a right to the privacy of their medical records like everyone else does?

Finally, DeSantis’s hat-trick of nastiness concluded with his blocking of a college-level African American studies course for secondary school students. Why limit Americans’ access to the country’s history like this?

Taken together, all of these moves are disturbing. Spreading ignorance and stoking hatred can only be threats to people’s rights in the state of Florida.

Iran’s Hurried Murders

This newsletter has often drawn attention to the Iranian authorities’ violence-first response to country-wide protests and their rush to execute – that is, murder – protesters after bogus, rushed trials.

But a new report really drives the point home.

According to the BBC, 22-year-old Mohammad Mehdi Karami, who was hanged on 7 January, only 65 days after his arrest, had less than 15 minutes to defend himself in “court.”

Now, of course, the death penalty is always wrong. Whether it’s in Iran, Myanmar, China, the US, or elsewhere, it’s premeditated murder by the state. It’s uniquely cruel, inconsistent with human dignity, and irreversible if done in error.

But 15 minutes to defend yourself? That takes the cruelty to a new level.

And it shows that the authorities in Iran are as dismissive of justice as they are of human dignity.

Quote of the Day: Seeking Justice for ISIS Victims

“

The world condemned this movement [ISIS] and continues to condemn it, but then doesn’t try to support the victims in any way.”

—

Yasmin Waljee, international pro bono partner representing five Yazidi women held as slaves by an Islamic State fighter. They are appealing to the UN to intervene in their case for compensation.