Sagaing, 10 August
The junta army and its allies are committing war crimes more frequently and brazenly, according to a report of the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) released on 8 August.
According to the report, there has been an increase in the mass killing of civilians and detained combatants, as well as the deliberate burning of civilian homes and buildings, resulting in the destruction of entire villages in some areas.
Furthermore, the military council is involved in assaults or use excessive force without avoiding civilians, such as the aerial bombardment in Sagaing in April of this year, which killed at least 155 people.
The IIMM collected new evidence from over 700 sources and information providers, including images, videos, audio recordings, documents, maps, geospatial imagery, social media posts, and forensic evidence.
A villager in Pauk Township, Magway, whose house was destroyed by regime forces, told Than Lwin Times that the military was responsible for numerous cruel and inhuman crimes.
“When the soldiers entered the village for the first time, they captured one of the villagers, killed him, and burned him on a haystack. The villages that resisted them were burned to ashes,” he said.
In addition, the junta-aligned Pyu Saw Htee members have ransacked the homes of innocent civilians and are abusing and killing them, so the residents no longer dare to stay in the village and all flee. Some entered Thailand illegally”.
According to IIMM’s report, the junta has also targeted schools and monasteries. The evidence in the report suggests the junta should have known, or should have been relatively certain, that there were civilians on or near military targets when such attacks took place.
Under international law, commanding officers are responsible for preventing war crimes committed under their command, and if they fail to do so, those officers may be held responsible for the crimes, the report said.
The United Nations’s Human Rights Council established the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) in 2018 to investigate crimes and violations of international law in Myanmar.
News-Than Lwin Times
Photo-IIMM
Thanlwintimes