The Burmese military kidnapped civilians and forced them to work as human shields, attacked homes, churches and carried out massacres, said a report warning that recent atrocities in eastern Myanmar could amount to war crimes.
The report, by the Myanmar-founded human rights group Fortify Rights, documents abuses by the country’s military in Karenni State, also known as Kayah State, an area that has seen intense fighting between the army and groups opposed to last year’s military coup.
The military has faced strong resistance in the state, and has responded with brutal violence in an attempt to crush opposition.
Photo: AFP
The report includes allegations that the army used civilians as human shields and as forced porters — actions that have also been reported elsewhere in the country, including in Chin State.
An 18-year-old student from Moe Bye on the border between Karenni and Shan states, told interviewers that he was taken, along with his uncle and two other men, in early June last year and used as a human shield in clashes between the military and the local armed resistance.
The group escaped after having been detained for four days, during which time they were tied up, blindfolded and tortured, the student said.
Another interviewee said that he and nine others were captured by the military and forced to porter army equipment for five days.
The Fortify Rights report, a flash report providing preliminary documentation based on interviews with 30 people, including eyewitnesses and survivors, adds to growing evidence of military abuses.
Numerous international organizations have raised concern over recent atrocities in Karenni State, including a Christmas Eve massacre of at least 40 civilians, including a child and two humanitarians working with Save the Children, near the village of Moso in Hpruso Township. The victims were killed and burned.
The Karenni Civil Society Network estimates that 170,000 civilians, more than half of Karenni State’s estimated population, have been displaced since the military seized power last year.
The UN has estimated that about 91,900 have been forced to flee their homes.
The military has targeted shelters for those who are displaced, including camps and churches, resulting in the deaths of civilians, Fortify Rights said.
Last month, the military killed at least three people, including two children, when it bombed a camp for displaced people near the village of Ree Khee Bu in Hpruso.
Banyar Khun Naung, director of the non-profit Karenni Human Rights Group, said there were no indications that violence would reduce in intensity, and that he feared shortages of food and essential supplies would worsen.
“In Karenni we can see that our socioeconomic condition has collapsed. Ordinary people, even if they are not [internally displaced people], even if they are the host community of IDPs [internally displaced persons], they can hardly survive,” he said.
“We cannot grow rice, or vegetables, we cannot trade between township to township, the online banking system has failed,” he said, adding that the supply of food and medicine to Karenni State was also being blocked by the military.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including