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Myanmar: Arakan Army Admits to Executing Prisoners of War

January 25, 2025/in News

Responding to leaked execution videos, armed group acknowledges crimes, vows accountability “The Arakan Army’s acknowledgment of its forces committing these war crimes is a vital step toward accountability,” said Ejaz Min Khant, Human Rights Associate at Fortify Rights. “But it’s not enough to merely say that the perpetrators have been punished. The AA must be transparent about […]

Myanmar’s Arakan Army confirms torture, execution of POWs in leaked viral video

January 25, 2025/in News

The group’s spokesperson says the incident was retaliation for the deaths of AA family members. Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. Ethnic Rakhine rebels on Friday confirmed the torture and execution of two prisoners of war from Myanmar’s military after video clips of the killings went viral online. The videos have prompted an […]

Myanmar: Arakan Army Admits to Executing Prisoners of War

January 25, 2025/in News

Myanmar’s Arakan Army confirms torture, execution of POWs in leaked viral video

January 25, 2025/in News

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Myanmar: Arakan Army Admits to Executing Prisoners of War

January 25, 2025/in News

Responding to leaked execution videos, armed group acknowledges crimes, vows accountability

“The Arakan Army’s acknowledgment of its forces committing these war crimes is a vital step toward accountability,” said Ejaz Min Khant, Human Rights Associate at Fortify Rights. “But it’s not enough to merely say that the perpetrators have been punished. The AA must be transparent about who was held accountable, what actions were taken, and share this information with international investigators without delay.”

Yesterday, Fortify Rights published an analysis of two leaked videos it obtained showing a group of AA soldiers and plain-clothed men cutting and hacking the throats of two prisoners of war in front of a shallow dirt pit in the ground.

Hours after Fortify Rights published its findings, AA spokesperson Khaing Thuka acknowledged the authenticity of the videos, condemned the killings, and said that those responsible had been identified and punished, providing no further details. He confirmed to Myanmar news media that the two victims were captured Myanmar military junta soldiers and that the incident occurred during an army operation against the junta’s Military Operations Command 9 in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State, on February 7, 2024.

When asked about Fortify Rights’s report on the incident, Khaing Thuka suggested the executions were acts of revenge, telling BBC Burmese: “When they captured Myanmar military soldiers who had unlawfully arrested, tortured, and executed their own family members, some of our local resistance fighters could not control their anger and acted in this manner as an act of revenge, violating military discipline.”

Speaking with Narinjara News, he said: “This incident is completely against our policies. We do not condone such unlawful acts. Anyone who committed such offenses has been and will be punished. We will take the best measures to prevent such incidents from happening again while continuing our fight.”

“It’s very important that the Arakan Army condemned these heinous war crimes, but the narrative that the soldiers committed these killings in fits of personal rage doesn’t match the actual footage and is irrelevant under the laws of war,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “Crimes of passion happen in sudden fits of rage, but this footage shows up to ten soldiers casually murdering two prisoners, and the dialogue in the videos indicates the soldiers may have been acting on orders from a commander. The perpetrators also staged the killings for the camera, and the person filming provided instructions, none of which support the claim that these criminal acts were committed in the heat of passion.”

Fortify Rights said this case should be investigated and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

Under the laws of war and international criminal law, temporary emotional distress— such as rage, grief, or a desire for revenge—neither excuses nor mitigates criminal responsibility, said Fortify Rights. The Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit the execution or mistreatment of prisoners of war, regardless of motive, even if those prisoners previously committed atrocities. All combatants in armed conflict must adhere to the laws of war and rules of engagement, even under extreme emotional stress.

Moreover, under the Geneva Conventions, all captured enemy soldiers must be treated humanely, and serious violations are considered war crimes. Military leaders and commanders who fail to prevent, investigate, or punish such violations may be held criminally responsible under the doctrine of command responsibility and prosecuted for war crimes.

Fortify Rights called on the AA and all parties to armed conflict in Myanmar to cooperate with international justice mechanisms, including the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), a body established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect and preserve evidence of atrocity crimes in Myanmar for future prosecutions. Just days before the AA accepted responsibility for the killings, the IIMM published an explainer on its work, saying it is “investigating serious international crimes committed by all perpetrators, including recent atrocities in Rakhine State, as part of its mandate to collect, preserve, analyze and share evidence of the most serious international crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011.”

The AA is an ethnic armed group controlling vast areas of Rakhine State and fighting a revolutionary war against Myanmar’s illegal military junta. The junta is responsible for widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar, as well as genocide against Rohingya people in Rakhine State.

Fortify Rights has documented and exposed several instances of war crimes committed by AA, against the ethnic-Rohingya population in areas under its control, including a massacre of Rohingya civilians near the Naf River in Maungdaw on August 5, 2024, and an arson attack on Rohingya homes in May 2024. The AA has denied these allegations and has yet to take responsibility or hold its troops accountable for the crimes.

“These extrajudicial executions are not an isolated incident,” said Ejaz Min Khant from Fortify Rights. “Other atrocity crimes, like the Arakan Army’s arson attack in Buthidaung and the Maungdaw massacre of Rohingya, remain unacknowledged and uninvestigated. This video offers a glimpse into the brutality its forces are capable of on the ground. The Arakan Army must be transparent in holding those responsible accountable, strictly discipline its troops, and take proactive action, rather than only responding when exposed.”

fortifyrights.org

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Myanmar’s Arakan Army confirms torture, execution of POWs in leaked viral video

January 25, 2025/in News

The group’s spokesperson says the incident was retaliation for the deaths of AA family members.

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese.

Ethnic Rakhine rebels on Friday confirmed the torture and execution of two prisoners of war from Myanmar’s military after video clips of the killings went viral online.

The videos have prompted an NGO to call on the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into the incident.

While RFA has obtained several videos of junta troops torturing and killing enemy combatants in the nearly four years since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat, opposition forces have largely claimed to adhere to the rules of war with regards to the treatment of POWs.

A leaked two-minute video clip recently generated a buzz on social media in Myanmar that shows around seven men — some of whom are wearing Arakan Army, or AA, uniforms — kicking and beating two shirtless men who are lying on the ground.

Another video showed their brutal killing.

On Friday, AA spokesperson Khaing Thu Kha confirmed that the videos showed his group’s soldiers torturing and executing two junta POWs in Rakhine state’s Kyauktaw township on Feb. 7, 2024, during an offensive against Military Operations Command No. 9.

Speaking at a press conference, he said that the AA soldiers “were unable to control their anger” and committed the crimes in retaliation for junta troops arresting, torturing and killing their family members.

The AA’s admission came a day after Southeast Asia-based NGO Fortify Rights called on the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, to investigate reports of AA soldiers committing atrocities in Rakhine state, specifically mentioning the two video clips that went viral.

Sources with knowledge of the incident told RFA Burmese that it occurred in the mountains near Kyauktaw Mountain Pagoda during the February 2024 AA offensive.

The two junta soldiers were reportedly captured while fleeing from a battalion at Military Operations Command No. 9, said the sources, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

They said that the two men were killed while being taken to a location where other POWs were held, and claimed that the perpetrators included AA soldiers, AA militiamen, and members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF.

The incident followed a junta artillery barrage into Kyauktaw’s Kan Sauk village that had killed residents, including relatives of the AA soldiers, the sources said.

They said two men involved in the killing recorded the videos, one of whom shared the clips with residents after returning to Kan Sauk village. A villager sent the clips to a family member working in Malaysia, who posted them to Facebook, where they went viral.

Telecommunications and internet access have been cut in Rakhine state since late 2023, when the AA ended a ceasefire that had been in place since the coup, and RFA was unable to independently verify the social media accounts.

The AA has since gone on to take control of nearly all townships in the state and is now pushing into Myanmar’s heartland.

Attempts by RFA to contact the AA’s Khaing Thu Kha for comment on the killings went unanswered Friday.

Calls for accountability

Ejaz Min Khant, human rights associate at Fortify Rights, told RFA that the torture and execution of civilians or captured enemy soldiers are considered “war crimes.”

“It is crucial to take action against those involved in extrajudicial killings,” he said. “We welcome [that] the AA has acknowledged this and stated they have taken action.”

However, according to Fortify Rights, Khaing Thu Kha’s claim that the killings were retaliation for the deaths of AA family members contradicts what can be heard in the video, where the perpetrators said their commander had ordered them to kill the two POWs.

“If they were ordered to do so, who are their senior officers? What are their ranks? What specific actions have been taken?” Ejaz asked. “This must be clarified transparently.”

He said his group will urge the AA to cooperate with international judicial bodies to conduct an investigation into the incident and plans to monitor and document the army’s actions to prevent similar human rights violations.

The torture and executions drew additional condemnation from Salai William Chin, the general secretary of the Chin National Organization/Chin National Defense Force, another ethnic army battling the military in Chin state, in the northwest.

“It is absolutely unacceptable,” he said, adding that all anti-junta groups must work together to prevent such incidents.

“In the future, as armed opposition groups throughout the country wage war to capture junta camps and towns under junta control, we have to be mindful that this kind of incident should not occur again when we take POWs,” he said. “It is crucial that senior commanders don’t act like [leaders of] the terrorist military junta.”

RFA News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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Myanmar: Arakan Army Admits to Executing Prisoners of War

Myanmar’s Arakan Army confirms torture, execution of POWs in leaked viral video

Myanmar: Arakan Army Admits to Executing Prisoners of War

Myanmar’s Arakan Army confirms torture, execution of POWs in leaked viral video

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Myanmar: Arakan Army Admits to Executing Prisoners of War

Myanmar’s Arakan Army confirms torture, execution of POWs in leaked viral video

Calls for accountability

ND Burma

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