‘Burned alive’: Myanmar military committed war crimes, report says

The Myanmar military has killed civilians, including children, and forcibly used many as human shields in an act that may amount to war crimes, according to a report.

Myanmar's military seized power on February 1 last year, ousting the civilian government and arresting its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fortify Rights, a Myanmar-founded human rights group, said in a report published on Tuesday, that the military junta intensified attacks in Karenni State, by bombing civilian-populated areas, and using heavy artillery, arson, and airstrikes between May 2021 and January 2022.

At least 61 civilians were killed during that time. 

The area, also known as Kayah state, has seen intense fighting between the army and groups opposed to last year’s military coup.

The flash report is based on interviews with 30 people, including eyewitnesses and survivors.

A student, 18, from Moe Bye on the Karenni-shan state border, his uncle and two other men were detained by the military in early June 2021.

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Soldiers then used them as human shields during armed clashes with People’s Defence Force, a group that fights government.

“The soldiers put their guns on our shoulders and shot PDFs, staying behind us,” the man told Fortify Rights, his name withheld for security.

“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.”

According to the report, the military has also targeted shelters, camps and churches, resulting in the deaths of civilians. 

In January, 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 Township.

The military junta’s attacks since the coup forced the displacement of an estimated 170,000 civilians in Karenni State, or more than half of the state’s estimated population of 300,000, according to the Karenni Civil Society Network.

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The internal-displaced figures have reached a new high of 441,500 people since the coup, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with approximately 91,900 displaced in Karenni State and 56,200 displaced in neighbouring southern Shan State as of January 31, 2022.

The report also includes details surrounding the Christmas Eve massacre near the Moso village in Hpruso Township last year, where the Myanmar military killed at least 40 civilians, including a child and two humanitarians working with Save the Children.

A doctor in Myanmar told Fortify Rights that autopsies were not possible on many bodies retrieved from the massacre site because they were so thoroughly burned, however, he and another doctor identified at least 31 bodies, including five bodies 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,” the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Fortify Rights. 

“Almost every skull was fractured and badly cracked . . . [In some bodies], we could gather enough evidence to say they were burned to death alive.”

Since the coup, at least 11,787 people have been arbitrarily detained for voicing their opposition to the military, of whom 8,792 remain in custody. 

And at least 290 have died in detention, many likely due to the use of torture, the UN Human Rights Office said.