A Burmese military tribunal has sentenced six soldiers to 10 years in prison with hard labor for killing three civilians in war-torn Kachin State, officials said on Saturday, in a move welcomed by rights groups.
The Kachin State police office said the tribunal handed down the sentence on Friday after finding the soldiers guilty of killing three ethnic Kachin civilians in September last year.
The prosecution came after an internal investigation by the Burmese military.
Photo: EPA
During the hearing, the six confessed that they were responsible for the killings, Kachin State police officer Min Zaw said.
The state is home to an ethnic rebel army, the Kachin Independence Army, which has been fighting the Burmese military for more than seven years.
More than 100,000 people have fled the fighting and live in refugee camps.
The three civilians were among a group of five detained by soldiers in May last year while they were heading back to their refugee camp after gathering firewood near Hka Pra Yang village.
Two of the men were released and returned to the camp, while the bodies of the other three were found in a shallow grave three days later.
Rights groups said the prosecution of the six soldiers was rare and the first step down a long road to ending military impunity in Myanmar.
Still they raised concerns about the trial being held behind closed doors.
“There’s a good reason for the military to keep these trials behind closed doors. It makes it a lot easier to cover up widespread and systematic abuses,” said David Baulk, Myanmar human rights specialist for Fortify Rights.
Myanmar’s military has been accused of violating human rights with impunity for decades, including in its conflicts with rebel groups.
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