Many human rights organisations and Myanmar watchers have criticised the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Myanmar passed on 21 December 2022 as ineffectual and called for it to be strengthened.
Ahead of the UNSC’s 13 March session on Myanmar civil society organisation Progressive Voice has detailed below atrocities committed by the Myanmar junta since the resolution came into force last December.
Increased violence and attacks against civilians
Tensions have escalated in most areas as the Myanmar military continues to commit grave crimes across Myanmar, with an increase in conflict between armed actors as well as collective punishment directed against civilians. The legitimate government of Myanmar, the National Unity Government’s (NUG) Ministry of Justice said in a recent report that 116 civilians died in the junta’s attacks in January 2023, while at least 37 more people were injured.[9]
Collective punishment has taken the form of deliberate and indiscriminate shelling into villages, the burning and destruction of homes and property, and the torture, execution and burning alive of villagers. 189 incidents of shelling reportedly resulted in 62 fatalities.[10] In Ngazun Township, Mandalay Region, after resistance groups shot dead a junta-appointed village administrator in Yae Zin village, Myanmar military collectively punished the community by arresting and executing seven residents on 24 December 2022.
Junta troops have engaged in burning sprees destroying entire villages. In January 2023, Myanmar military burned down nearly 5,100 civilian houses in Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay and Tanintharyi regions and Chin, Mon and Karen (Kayin) states, according to an NUG report. The majority of these attacks took place in Sagaing, where around 4,700 civilian homes were torched.
On 14 January 2023, junta troops torched a 129-year-old Catholic church and at least 120 houses in the predominantly Catholic village of Chan Thar in Sagaing Region. This was the fourth arson attack on the village since last year.
Troops have slaughtered civilians in the process. The NUG said that in January alone, 138 junta arson attacks nationwide had burned 23 people to death.[14] While in some cases, the elderly and disabled were unable to flee and thus were burned alive in their homes, in other cases, junta soldiers deliberately hunted down villagers and burned them.
During a six-day raid of Ah Lel Sho village in Khin-U Township. Sagaing Region that began on 28 December 2022, the military junta burned houses and terrorized villagers, killing nine villagers, at least three of whom were tortured and burned to death.
On 6 January 2023, a junta column raided a village in Kyunhla Township, Sagaing Region, killing two villagers and then burning their bodies along with the rest of the village. Three more bodies, also badly burned, were found near Kanbalu Township. Local sources said that the soldiers didn’t just chase villagers from their homes—they also pursued them into the nearby forests as they attempted to flee.
Arbitrary arrests have increasingly been followed by extreme acts of torture and murder. On 23 January 2023, in Tamu Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar military arrested two men and a 14-year-old boy at a military checkpoint, before beating them to death.
On 4 January 2023, in Natogyi Township, Mandalay Region, junta forces reportedly arrested three villagers, then tortured and killed them while in custody. On 24 and 25 January 2023, in Thabeikkyin Township, Mandalay Region, Myanmar military junta detained and tortured a villager they accused of being a People’s Defence Force (PDF) member. They then arrested three more villagers, executing all four.
Junta forces also engaged in a week-long killing spree in Sagaing District that began on 25 February 2023.
Five resistance fighters were dismembered, two of whom were likely beheaded alive. The same troops then murdered 17 locals in Tar Taing village in Sagaing Township on 1 March 2023. Bullet wounds were found in the heads and chests of the slain civilian victims, and their bodies also showed signs of torture. One victim, a resistance leader, was found disemboweled and dismembered, with his head, legs and arms cut off.
As the troops continued to Myinmu Township, 14 villagers, including three females, were taken as human shields, then killed. The three women were also brutally raped before being stabbed and shot. Three days later, the same troops beheaded two children, aged 12 and 13, whom they abducted as human shields. Another two resistance fighters were beheaded while defending the village.
These acts are in direct contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security and other relevant resolutions, as well as protection of children in armed conflict.
On 17 February 2023, 17 villagers were abducted by the Myanmar military following clashes in Sagaing Region’s Kawlin Township. Witnesses said they saw the abductees being beaten on the way to Koe Taung Boet. There were also unconfirmed reports that one of the abductees had been beaten to death with a metal rod and that some of the others had been slashed with knives. As of 23 February, the whereabouts of those 17 villagers is unknown.
In Dawei, Tanintharyi Region, in January 2023, the junta abducted at least nine people, including a 17-year-old girl and other young civilians, accusing them of supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and the NUG. The police also stopped a minibus with 14 passengers and grabbed people suspected of supporting the CDM.
Airstrikes
Since 22 December 2022, the junta has conducted at least 125 airstrikes, killing 97 people. While Sagaing Region and Chin, Kachin and Karen states were already heavy targets of the military junta’s aerial bombardments and strafing, the military has intensified its campaign of airstrikes on both civilian and resistance targets in these areas since early January 2023.
During the first two months of 2023, the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) reported 53 separate airstrikes by the junta’s air force, with at least 138 heavy bombs dropped in four townships in Chin State. The air campaign significantly escalated in February following the declaration of martial law and the fall of the junta’s key outpost in Thantlang. Over 40 bombs were dropped on Thantlang and surrounding areas in a single day on 16 February 2023.
The Myanmar military also carried out multiple airstrikes on IDP camps in eastern Loikaw Township, Karenni State, and shelled IDP areas in Phekon, Demoso and Pruso townships over a two-week period from 22 January to 3 February 2023, killing two civilians and injuring 13, including two children under the age of 5. In one attack, the Myanmar military dropped two 500-pound bombs around an IDP camp. On 3 February, the Myanmar military’s airstrike set fire to an IDP clinic and a teaching shelter. At the time, there were no clashes in the area.
The junta has continued to launch heavy airstrikes in two districts of Karen State. In January alone, the junta carried out 57 air strikes in Mu Traw and Dooplaya districts. Eleven deaths were reported for airstrikes during the first two weeks of January. Due to the onslaught of attacks in Dooplaya District, a local 45-year-old widow from Kyainseikgyi Township stated, “The Burmese Army’s jet fighters and surprise artillery attacks are terrifying. You cannot indicate when and how you will be attacked. I couldn’t sleep or eat for almost a week ago of great anxiety. There are children and old people in my family.”
On 3 January 2023, four junta aircraft dropped more than 50 bombs and fired more than 20,000 rounds of machine guns on farmlands in Me Wai village tract in Dwe Lo Township in Mu Traw District. A few days later on 7 January, the junta sent seven fighter jets to Me Thu village tract, killing six civilians.
On 12 January 2023, four junta fighter jets conducted air strikes in Lay Wah village, Lu Thaw Township, Mu Traw District. The Baptist church in the village was completely demolished, while two school buildings and the Catholic church sustained damages. Five villagers, including the Roman Catholic priest and the Baptist pastor, were killed, and two others were injured. According to a community member, the school was open that day and all students could have died if they hadn’t been dismissed early.
Seven civilians were killed and at least 30 injured in Katha Township, upper Sagaing Region on 18 January 2023 when two Myanmar military jets bombed a large village of 1,800 households. A bomb landed on one of the houses, and three people in the house were burned alive.[35]
New illegal martial law orders and increased arrests
On 1 February 2023, two years since the attempted coup, the illegitimate military junta extended the state of emergency for another six months. Since 22 February 2023, the junta has illegally imposed new martial law orders in 50 townships in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, and Mon States, as well as in Yangon and Mandalay Regions. The new orders by the illegal and illegitimate junta declared that all administrative and judicial work in the junta-specified areas must be led by regional military commanders, who can now initiate military tribunals for 23 offences, including discrediting the “state”, illegal association, and unlawful possession of a weapon. They are also authorised to hand out maximum punishments such as the death penalty and indefinite imprisonment for these offenses. All of the affected townships are in areas where anti-junta forces have a strong presence. Giving military courts such disproportionate and over-broad power has no precedent in Myanmar.
According to local reports, more than 50 people from Kawkareik Township, Karen State have been arrested since martial law was imposed in February. A resident of Kawkareik stated, “According to martial law, locals are instructed not to leave the house between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am. As soon as they see people on the street who violate that rule even a little bit, they arrest them. We also heard that detainees were charged in court, were all sentenced to 6-month prison terms. Family members who want to send food to them are turned away.”
Ongoing restrictions on humanitarian access and attacks on humanitarian and medical personnel
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 17.6 million people – nearly one third of the population – are in need of humanitarian assistance with 1.6 million people currently internally displaced across Myanmar, though this number is likely conservative.
With surging displacement and ongoing restrictions on the transportation of essential goods, the resources of host communities and those on the move are being rapidly depleted. Nutritious food is becoming increasingly scarce and more unaffordable. The sick continue to have little access to medicine and life-saving treatment.
Meanwhile, OCHA’s report states that the access situation remains “substantially constrained” and that “Heavy fighting, including airstrikes, tight security, access restrictions, and threats against aid workers have continued unabated.”
Medical professionals persistently face arrest and imprisonment under counter terrorism laws. The junta has also been forcing medical facilities in resistance strongholds to shut down.
In Mahaaungmyay and Chanayethazan townships in Mandalay, five private hospitals were forced by the military junta to close on 27 December 2022.
On 5 January 2023, in Kyainseikgyi Town, Karen State, the Myanmar military occupied the township hospital after forcing dozens of patients to immediately leave the building. Many patients who were forced to leave the affected hospitals lacked access to health care since the remaining public and private hospitals did not have the capacity to admit them.
Ongoing persecution and deprivation of rights of the Rohingya and failure to protect
The voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees remains impossible under the current multiple crises in Myanmar. The Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State face systematic abuses that amount to ongoing atrocity crimes, including apartheid like conditions, persecution, and deprivation of liberty. They are confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement, cut off from access to adequate food, health care, education, and livelihoods.
Moreover, on 29 December 2022, the junta notified IDPs of their intention to shutdown 25 temporary IDP camps near Sittwe in Rakhine State, which amounts to forced evictions. IDPs had to sign pledges to leave and choose between returning home despite the lack of security guarantees, moving to a place of their own choosing without any support, or resettling in junta-designated areas.
One IDP said that, given the alternatives, most felt compelled to choose to move where the military sent them. The junta is also planning the permanent closure of over 20 IDP camps in and near Myitkyina, Kachin State in 2023. It will reportedly give their inhabitants the same three choices.
