Burmese soldiers killed at least five civilians in their custody last month and will be prosecuted, a senior general announced on Wednesday in a rare case of the military taking responsibility for carrying out atrocities against ethnic minorities.
Head of Military Security Affairs Lieutenant General Mya Tun Oo told a news conference that the army is investigating the deaths of seven civilians in Shan State on June 25.
Five were taken away by soldiers and their battered bodies were found later in shallow graves, while two motorcyclists were killed in a separate incident for which the army has not taken responsibility, he said.
Shan and other local activists said many people witnessed the detention of the five and the shootings.
The incident occurred as the military was searching for Shan insurgents they had been battling.
Human rights groups have long accused the army of carrying out abuses of ethnic minority civilians, including torture and rape, usually while engaged in counterinsurgency campaigns in remote rural areas. However, even when the evidence is strong, the perpetrators have received little or no punishment.
Noting that those involved in the June 25 case would be tried by a military tribunal, Mya Tun Oo said the treatment of the five men found dead was “completely against military rules.”
“We will investigate and take action,” he said. “We will try to do our best for their families.”
Another officer told reporters that the five died during “interrogation.”
Amnesty International has urged that the soldiers responsible be tried in a civilian court.
“This case is an important reminder of the need to reform the military and judicial systems in Myanmar,” said Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“Although it is important that steps are taken to ensure those responsible for serious human rights violations are held to account, military tribunals are not the solution. The authorities in Myanmar must take immediate action to ensure that human rights violators can be effectively tried before independent, civilian courts — anything less would only serve to perpetuate the cycle of impunity,” Djamin said.
In Mong Yaw village, where the killings occurred, community activist Sai Han said: “Our lives are not secure in this region. These killings are too common here. We want the new government to end this and investigate the truth about the killings.”
More than a dozen ethnic minority groups have been struggling for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. Minority leaders are to meet with the government at a conference next month.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion