A human rights group has called for a global arms embargo on Myanmar’s military junta after accusing it of committing war crimes against civilians.
“The Myanmar junta is murdering people with weapons procured on the global market, and that must stop,” said Ismail Wolff, regional director at Fortify Rights, in a press release on Feb. 15.
Wolff called for “clear and definitive action” to compel the Myanmar junta to rethink its attacks on civilians. “The UN Security Council must urgently impose a global arms embargo on the Myanmar military, and it would be strategic and sensible for ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] to support it,” he said.
The Myanmar military has killed civilians, used people as human shields and committed other atrocities in eastern Karenni state, also known as Kayah state, which may amount to war crimes, Fortify Rights said in a new report.
The report is based on the testimony of 31 eyewitnesses, survivors, internally displaced persons (IDPs), religious leaders, humanitarian and civil society workers and members of armed resistance groups.
The rights group documented attacks on civilians, residential homes, churches, camps for displaced people and other non-military targets in Karenni state between May 2021 and January 2022.
Some had their mouths stuffed with cloth, so we were pretty sure these people were gagged. Almost every skull was fractured and badly cracked
At least 61 civilians have been killed in the predominantly Christian region, according to the group.
The report also includes the Christmas Eve massacre in Moso village in Hpruso township where the military killed at least 40 civilians including a child and two staff from Save the Children.
A doctor who conducted autopsies on bodies retrieved from the massacre told Fortify Rights that autopsies were not possible on many of the bodies because they were so thoroughly burned but they identified at least 31 bodies, including five of women and one girl under the age of 15.
“Some had their mouths stuffed with cloth, so we were pretty sure these people were gagged. Almost every skull was fractured and badly cracked … [In some bodies], we could gather enough evidence to say they were burned to death alive,” the doctor said.
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The report documented the military’s use of civilians as human shields, such as an 18-year-old student, his uncle and two other men from Mobye township on the Karenni-Shan state border in early June 2021.
“The soldiers put their guns on our shoulders and PDFs (People’s Defence Forces) staying behind us. We were kept tied up and blindfolded. We were tortured a lot, in so many ways. They kicked our bodies, hit our heads with gun handles, and more,” a man told the rights group.
At least 170,000 civilians in Karenni state or more than half of the state’s population of 300,000 have been forced from their homes due to the ongoing conflict, according to the Karenni Civil Society Network.
Ignoring repeated calls by the UN and the ASEAN, the junta has continued its reign of terror against civilians in ethnic areas as well as villages in Bamar-majority regions by burning homes, killing civilians, torturing people and looting properties.
The junta’s brutal crackdown has claimed more than 1,500 lives including hundreds of children. Over 12,000 people have been detained since the coup in February 2021.
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