Human Rights Situation weekly update (May 1 to 7, 2023)

Military Junta troops launched an airstrike and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Chin State and Shan State from May 1st to 7th. They used 500lb bombs that caused burning of civilians’ houses, killed 10 civilians including children and over 17 injured. Military troops beheaded 8 civilians including 5 PDF fighters from Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region. Pyu Saw Htee group who work under Military Junta killed 2 civilians including a child from Mingaladon Township, Yangon Region.

Military Junta troops burnt and killed 2 civilians from Myinmu Township in Sagaing Region. The Military junta troops arrested about 179 people and used them as human shields within a week. Civilians left their places and fled because the Military is committing the raiding of local people’s places, attacking with heavy and light artillery, arresting, torturing, buring the civilians’ buildings and using the local people as human shields along their marching.

Military and allies detain 12 men, torch village in southern Kanbalu Township

Soldiers and pro-junta militia members reportedly took the hostages, one of whom is underage, from the burned village and subjected them to beatings

A junta force raided and torched Htauk Shar Aing village in southern Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region on Sunday morning, taking 12 of the residents hostage, according to local sources.

A column consisting of some 100 soldiers and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members arrived at the village—which contains some 300 households and is located approximately 35 miles southeast of Kanbalu by road—at around 5am on Sunday.

Around 150 houses, or nearly half of the homes standing in Htauk Shar Aing, were destroyed in an arson attack carried out by the junta column, according to a local woman in her 30s.

“They also killed the pigs and cows. Even my house was destroyed. Everything inside was destroyed as well. I couldn’t do anything but cry. A full half of the village suffered the same fate,” the woman said.

The soldiers from the column had come from their long-term base in Ya Ma Nay, a village located about two miles south of Htauk Shar Aing, according to the same woman.

“If a junta garrison is stationed in a village, the residents have to live in huts outside the village. The military came and took the men from those shelters as hostages,” the woman said.

The military reportedly also ransacked the village monastery’s basement and looted the goods stored there, which villagers had donated for the monks.

The village burned until around 8am on Sunday, after which the military brought the people they had captured to the monastery to hold and question them. They released the women and continued to hold 12 male hostages, one of whom was only 15 years old. 

The hostages were beaten while they were held inside the monastery, according to the local woman, citing what the released captives had told her.

“The male hostages were beaten and struck when they couldn’t answer questions,” she said.

Having heard from released individuals that the military was using torture, she added that she was worried for her nephews, whom the junta was still holding captive.

“My own nephews are among the hostages and it pains me even more than getting my house burned down. At least we can rebuild the house. We can’t replace human life,” she said.

An officer serving in Battalion 4 of the anti-junta Kanbalu District People’s Defence Force also claimed the 12 hostages from Htauk Shar Aing were being interrogated and tortured in Ya Ma Nay, according to their information.

“We heard they were tying the captives’ hands behind their heads and leaving them out and exposed to the sun. Just imagine how painful it must be in this scorching heat,” the officer said.

The military and its allies have been known to take hostages in Sagaing Region to protect themselves from attacks by anti-junta armed groups. Civilians used as human shields by the regime forces are often later found dead

Myanmar Now News

Use of Child Soldier

ကလေးစစ်သားဆိုသည်ကို အဓိပ္ပါယ်ဖွင့်ဆိုခြင်း (Child Soldier) (က) နိုင်ငံတကာ ဥပဒေအရ ကလေးစစ်သားတဦးအဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်သည့် အင်္ဂါရပ်များကား အဘယ် နည်း။ ကလေးစစ်သား အဖြစ်သတ်မှတ်၍ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုတခုအဖြစ် မှတ်တမ်းတင်နိုင်ရန် အ တွက် အောက်ဖေါ်ပြပါ အင်္ဂါရပ် (၃) ခု ထင်ရှားကြောင်း ဖော်ပြရပါမည်။ – တပ်သားသစ်စုဆောင်းခြင်း၊ သို့မဟုတ် စစ်တပ်အတွင်း ပါဝင်ဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်း – အသက် ၁၈ နှစ်အောက် အရွယ်ကလေးများဖြစ်နေခြင်း – လက်နက်ကိုင်တပ်ဖွဲ့များအတွင်း၊ လက်နက်ကိုင် အုပ်စုတခုအတွင်း သို့မဟုတ် စစ်ပွဲများအတွင်းသို့ ပါဝင်စေခြင်းတို့ ဖြစ်သည်။

Civilian deaths mount in Myanmar amid surge in junta airstrikes

At least 452 civilian deaths in Myanmar’s Shan and Kayah states since coup.

Civilian deaths are growing in Myanmar’s civil war amid a jump in airstrikes by the military junta, whose ground forces have faced stiff resistance from rebels and ordinary citizens who have taken up arms.

The military has killed at least 452 civilians in southern Shan and Kayah states in the 26 months since the February 2021 coup, rebel groups said Monday.

The latest death toll sheds new light on the situation in southeast Myanmar, where decades-long conflict between the military and ethnic armies has worsened since the junta began an offensive targeting People’s Defense Force paramilitaries and the armed groups that harbor them.

The airstrikes often target villages where PDF fighters are believed to be, killing civilians in the process. While the military denies targeting civilians, members of the opposition say the deaths are no accident and instead are a tactic used by the regime to wear down popular support for the rebels.

A new focus by the military on suppressing its adversaries in the southern Shan and Kayah state townships of Pinlaung, Pekon and Mongpai – also known as Moebye – has driven up the number of casualties in recent months, the Progressive Karenni People’s Force, or PKPF – a local offshoot of the PDF – announced Monday.

Since the coup, civilian casualties have steadily risen. At least 172 people were killed in the region in 2021, 248 in 2022, and 33 in the first quarter of 2023, said an official with the group, who spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

The official said that while the military has targeted civilians throughout the conflict as part of a bid to undermine support for the armed resistance, the number of casualties has risen dramatically with its pivot to airstrikes.

“We saw a lot of civilian deaths due to small arms fire, artillery shelling and landmines in 2021 and 2022,” the official said. “But in 2023, the major cause of civilian deaths is junta shelling and airstrikes. The junta has been attacking non-military targets where civilians reside with artillery shelling and airstrikes, which we consider a serious war crime.”

Casualties mounting

The PKPF said that clashes in the region mostly occur between the military and a joint force of fighters from the ethnic Karenni Army and the Karenni National Defense Force. 

Casualties on both sides “are mounting,” it said.

The group said that 41 members of the defense forces were killed in the fighting in 2021 and170 in 2022. As of the end of April, 48 defense soldiers have been killed in fighting this year, bringing to 259 the total number killed by the military since its coup.

The funeral for two people killed by Myanmar military artillery, Feb. 28, 2023. Credit: KNDF/Baa
The funeral for two people killed by Myanmar military artillery, Feb. 28, 2023. Credit: KNDF/Baa

An information officer with the KNDF, who also declined to be named, confirmed that more resistance fighters and civilians are being killed by airstrikes, which the military has increasingly come to rely on this year as anti-junta forces enjoy greater success on the ground.

“Whenever there is a clash on the ground, it is certain that the junta planes will come to that area to attack us,” said the officer, noting that prior to 2023, the military mostly deployed troops without air support.

The junta carried out only two airstrikes in Kayah and southern Shan states in 2021 compared to 182 in 2022 and 179 in the first four months of 2023 alone, according to the PKPF. Since the coup, the group said, the region has seen 663 battles that claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 junta troops – 448 in 2021, 1,115 in 2022, and 432 in 2023, as of the end of April.

RFA was unable to independently verify the PKPF’s claims. Attempts by RFA to contact the junta’s spokespersons for Shan and Kayah states went unanswered Monday.

Junta ‘bluntly violating’ code of war

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers, dismissed the PKPF’s announcement as “propaganda.”

“It’s the nature of war that each side spreads propaganda,” he said. “For example, if an enemy soldier dies, they report three casualties for propaganda purposes … Since the other party is using this strategy a lot, we have to be very careful.”

However, the PKPF claimed that its data was collected “systematically” from the battleground.

In addition to the number of casualties since the coup, the PKPF also said that military airstrikes and shelling over the same period had destroyed 34 Christian and Buddhist religious buildings and 1,497 civilian buildings, including medical centers.

Banyar, director of the Karenni Human Rights Organization, said the number of destroyed buildings alone is proof of the junta’s war crimes.

“You are prohibited from attacking certain buildings, even during heated battles,” he said. “[Belligerents] need to minimize damage. There are codes that soldiers in battle must follow to avoid killing civilians and destroying their buildings, but the junta is bluntly violating all of them.”

Since the coup, conflict has forced some 200,000 people to flee their homes in Kayah and southern Shan states, most of whom endure brutal living conditions in the jungles of Demoso and Hpruso townships and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to aid workers.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

RFA News

Myanmar junta targets health, education facilities to undermine shadow government

The military is unapologetic about using air power against National Unity Government clinics, schools and offices.

In the past six months, in addition to their increased targeting of civilians as part of its “four-cuts” strategy–denying the opposition access to food, finances, intelligence and recruits–the Myanmar military has made a concerted effort to target the shadow National Unity Government’s nascent civil administration and the provision of health and education.

The April 11 air strike on a gathering for the opening of a NUG government office in Sagaing’s Pa Zi Gyi village, which coincided with the distribution of food for the Lunar New Year’s celebration, led to the death of at least 186 people. 

A single plane dropped two 500-pound (227-kilogram). bombs, followed by attacks by helicopter gunships. Almost all the casualties were civilians or civil administrators, and included 40 children; the youngest was six months old. 

While most of the shadow government’s limited fundraising is going towards its military efforts, it’s providing basic social services in some liberated zones. Of the 330 townships in the country, 23 have a NUG prosecutor’s office and 118 judges have been appointed to date. 

The shadow government claims to have established 154 “Pakafwe” township governments and to be providing some degree of education in 95 townships, and limited health services in 198. 

The room of a hospital in Hsaung Phway village, Pekon township, Myanmar, is seen after an airstrike by junta forces on April 25, 2023. Credit: Mobye PDF, KNDF
The room of a hospital in Hsaung Phway village, Pekon township, Myanmar, is seen after an airstrike by junta forces on April 25, 2023. Credit: Mobye PDF, KNDF

The National Unity Government has long had popular legitimacy, evidenced in the daily flash mobs, acts of civil disobedience, or nationwide stay at home strikes, as seen during the anniversary of the coup or the Lunar New Year. The NUG has bolstered its legitimacy through the battlefield courage and tenacity of their People’s Defense Forces (PDFs). 

But increasingly, the NUG will have to base their legitimacy on performance and the provision of social services. This is all the more important as the military’s government’s effective control is diminishing. 

And for that reason the military has stepped up their attacks on the NUG’s and the various Ethnic Resistance Organizations’ (EROs) civil administration. Since the bombing of the NUG office in Pa Zi Gyi, the military has destroyed two NUG offices in Magway. It had only targeted one other NUG office in the past six months. Of the four, two were destroyed by air attacks.

Targeting health care and public services

The NUG’s provision of health care seems to be a case in point.

In the six-month period from November 2022 to April 2023, I have documented 35 separate attacks on health care facilities, either directly controlled by the NUG or EROs, or in areas under their influence. Health care providers were amongst the first and staunchest supporters of the civil disobedience movement. 

These attacks have led to the death of four, with 13 people wounded. In 17 attacks, the health care facilities were completely destroyed, while eight suffered major damage; the remainder had minimal damage.

Fifteen of those attacks were from either air-dropped bombs, or rocket fire and machine gun attacks from helicopter gunships. Four health care facilities were damaged by artillery fire. The rest of the attacks on health care facilities were caused by ground forces or pro-regime militias.  

A school bag lies next to dried blood stains on the floor of a school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Sept. 17, 2022, the day after a junta airstrike hit the school. Credit: Associated Press
A school bag lies next to dried blood stains on the floor of a school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Sept. 17, 2022, the day after a junta airstrike hit the school. Credit: Associated Press

Fourteen of the 35 attacks, or 40 percent, were in Sagaing, which has seen a disproportionate amount of violence, and four were  in neighboring Magway. Four occurred in Kayin, while the remainder were spread in Shan, Kachin, Tanintharyi, Kachin, and Kayah. 

In the latest attack, a helicopter dropped a 500-pound (227 kilogram) bomb on a health clinic in Shan State, though the bomb failed to detonate. Only three people were wounded. 

The military has also routinely targeted both the NUG’s education system and rural schools that are technically part of the state system but which are actively supporting and staffed by members of the Civil Disobedience Movement. 

Since November 2022, it has either bombed, struck by artillery or destroyed by ground forces some 20 schools. Six were destroyed in Kayin and Sagaing states, each, with two in Kachin and Kayah, and one each in Mandalay, Magway, Tanintharyi, and Chin. 

Unapologetic military

The military has refused to concede that the targeting of health, educational and other social services represents a war crime. It often justifies the attacks by alleging that the PDFs were using the facilities for military purposes or that the militia members were receiving health care treatment. The military has been unapologetic in targeting those facilities.

The executive director of the the pro-military ThayNinGa Institute for Strategic Studies in Yangon, Thein Tun Oo, justified the attack on Pa Zi Gyi and others like it, calling it “ordinary … from an anti-terrorism standpoint” and said, “No government of a country can accept a declaration of autonomy within its sovereign territory.”

The attacks on the NUG’s civil administration also comes when the military has increased their own budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year by 51 percent, from $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, to deal with the escalating war.

Although the economy is no longer in freefall, the two percent growth in 2022 and three  percent growth predicted in 2023 has not made up for the 18 percent decline in 2021. Revenue collection remains down. Increased military spending is coming at the expense of public health and education, where enrollment and matriculation numbers are plummeting.

A young waste collector paddles a polystyrene boat looking for plastic and glass to sell in Pazundaung Creek in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 14, 2023. Dozens of Myanmar citizens are taking to the murky creek waters after being unable to find work amid the post-coup economic crisis. Credit: AFP
A young waste collector paddles a polystyrene boat looking for plastic and glass to sell in Pazundaung Creek in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 14, 2023. Dozens of Myanmar citizens are taking to the murky creek waters after being unable to find work amid the post-coup economic crisis. Credit: AFP

The NUG’s provision of health, education, and civil administration pose a threat as the regime acknowledges its own loss of control. 

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the State Administrative Council, as the junta is formally known, conceded in an event marking the second anniversary of the coup that only 198 of the 330 townships are “100 percent stable,” while the remainder required “security attention”. Leaked minutes of December 2022 Ministry of Interior meeting warned of losing control and predicted escalating attacks. 

The military has admitted losing control in 132 of the 330 townships, or 42 percent. As a sign of their tenuous control, the military declared martial law in 47 townships, 14 percent of the total.  It’s their only form of government administration that appears to be functioning.

The military government has gutted their own civil administration to wage war on its own population and an opposition government that is committed to serving the people.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or RFA.

RFA News

Myanmar junta airstrikes kill three in Bago’s Htantabin Township

Three others were injured in the attack, which was the first of its kind in the township

Three civilians were killed and another three were injured when junta fighter jets dropped bombs on Karen National Union (KNU) territory in Bago Region’s Htantabin Township on Tuesday, according to sources.

The attack took place at around 6pm and was the first of its kind in the township, the sources said.

The targets were Thayet Tan and Kywel Lan, two neighbouring villages located on the western bank of the Sittaung River near the border with Karen (Kayin) State.

Ye Soe Aung, 30, and Hsu Hlaing Aye, 22, both from Kywel Lan, were killed instantly, while Lei Lei Khine, 30, died later of her injuries, residents of the area told Myanmar Now.

The injured victims were identified as Poe Ei Theint, 12, from Thayet Tan, and Maung Tun Win, 22, and Nyunt Maung, 55, from Kywel Lan. Their condition was unknown at the time of reporting.

The attack took place about an hour after shooting broke out near a junta base in Bon Ma Tee, a village of around 400 households located west of Thayet Tan and Kywel Lan.

Two fighter jets were involved in the assault, according to a local woman who witnessed the incident.  

“One dropped bombs and the other opened fire on the villages,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A video seen by Myanmar Now shows the moment the villages were hit by loud explosions. The video is believed to have been taken by junta troops, as voices can be heard talking about the possible presence of resistance forces in the targeted villages.

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video or confirm the casualty figures provided by its sources.

Htantabin Township is located in the KNU’s Taungoo District, which is under the control of Brigade 2 of the Karen National Liberation Army, an armed wing of the KNU.

Myanmar’s military has relied heavily on its air force to attack resistance strongholds around the country.

On April 11, an airstrike carried out against the village of Pa Zi Gyi in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township killed at least 160 people, including dozens of children.

Myanmar Now News