Myanmar\u2019s military has subjected ethnic civilians in Kayin and Kayah states to \u201ccollective punishment\u201d through aerial and ground attacks, detentions that lead to torture or extrajudicial executions, and the razing of villages, according to a new report by London-based rights group Amnesty International.<\/p>\n
The report, entitled \u201c\u2018Bullets rained from the sky\u201d: War crimes and displacement in eastern Myanmar\u2019\u201d and published Wednesday, found that clashes between the military and armed groups in the two regions reignited in the wake of the military\u2019s February 2021 coup and worsened significantly from December to March this year. Hundreds of ethnic Karen and Karenni civilians have been killed in the fighting and more than 150,000 people have been displaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world\u2019s attention may have moved away from Myanmar since last year\u2019s coup, but civilians continue to pay a high price. The military\u2019s ongoing assault on civilians in eastern Myanmar has been widespread and systematic, likely amounting to crimes against humanity,\u201d Rawya Rageh, senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International, said in a statement accompanying the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlarm bells should be ringing: the ongoing killing, looting and burning bear all the hallmarks of the military\u2019s signature tactic of collective punishment, which it has repeatedly used against ethnic minorities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amnesty based its report on research it carried out in March and April this year, including interviews dozens of eyewitnesses and survivors of attacks as well as three defectors from the military. The group analyzed more than 100 photos and videos related to rights violations, in addition to satellite imagery, fire data and open-source military aircraft flight data.<\/p>\n
Amnesty said that since the coup, the military \u201chas relentlessly attacked civilians\u201d to punish those who purportedly support a particular armed group or the wider anti-junta uprising, while at other times \u201cfir[ing] indiscriminately into civilian areas\u201d where there are also military targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cDirect attacks on civilians, collective punishment and indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacks on a civilian population must be widespread or systematic to amount to crimes against humanity; in Kayin and Kayah States, they are both, for crimes including murder, torture, forcible transfer and persecution on ethnic grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amnesty said it documented two dozen attacks by artillery or mortars between December and March that killed or injured civilians or that destroyed civilian buildings, adding that eyewitnesses said some of the attacks lasted \u201cdays at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group also documented eight air strikes on villages and camps housing refugees fleeing clashes in the first quarter of 2022 that killed nine civilians and injured at least nine others. Eyewitnesses described the attacks on locations where \u201conly civilians appear to have been present\u201d as extremely traumatic, leaving many unable to sleep or unwilling to return to their homes out of fear that they would be targeted again.<\/p>\n
Extrajudicial executions, looting and burning<\/p>\n
Additionally, Amnesty\u2019s reporting found that the military regularly carried out arbitrary detentions of civilians based on their ethnicity or because of their suspected support of an anti-junta group. Detainees \u201cwere tortured, forcibly disappeared or extrajudicially executed,\u201d Amnesty said.<\/p>\n
The group specifically pointed to an incident that drew international condemnation in Kayah state\u2019s Hpruso township on Christmas Eve last year, when the military stopped at least 35 women, men and children in multiple vehicles, killed them, and burned their bodies.<\/p>\n
An examination found that many of the victims had been tied up and gagged and were likely shot or stabbed to death. Amnesty has called for an investigation into the incident as a case of extrajudicial executions which, during armed conflict, constitute war crimes, the group noted.<\/p>\n
Other incidents mentioned in the report were related to what Amnesty called the military\u2019s \u201csystematic\u201d looting and burning of villages in Kayin and Kayah state.<\/p>\n
Together, violence in the two regions has displaced more than 150,000 people, the group said, \u201cincluding between a third and a half of Kayah state\u2019s entire population.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victims of this displacement are forced to shelter in \u201cdire conditions,\u201d it said, while aid workers are obstructed by the military from providing them access to much-needed food and health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonors and humanitarian organizations must significantly scale up aid to civilians in eastern Myanmar, and the military must halt all restrictions on aid delivery,\u201d said Matt Wells, Amnesty International\u2019s crisis response deputy director for thematic issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military\u2019s ongoing crimes against civilians in eastern Myanmar reflect decades-long patterns of abuse and flagrant impunity. The international community \u2014 including ASEAN and U.N. member states \u2014 must tackle this festering crisis now. The U.N. Security Council must impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar and refer the situation there to the International Criminal Court.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Radio Free Asia –Copyright \u00a9 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036Radio Free Europe–Copyright (c) 2015. RFE\/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Myanmar\u2019s military has subjected ethnic civilians in Kayin and Kayah states to \u201ccollective punishment\u201d through aerial and ground attacks, detentions that lead to torture or extrajudicial executions, and the razing of villages, according to a new report…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n