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.
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