Unlawful killings: Amnesty urges Myanmar military war crimes investigation
Al Jazeera
Allegations centre on military response to Operation 1027, the biggest challenge to the regime since the coup.
Amnesty International has said the Myanmar military should be investigated for war crimes over a new offensive by an alliance of ethnic armed groups and anti-coup fighters, which has emerged as the biggest challenge to the generals since they seized power in a coup nearly three years ago.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA) began Operation 1027 in late October in northern Shan state and western Rakhine and claim to have taken control of hundreds of military outposts as well as key towns near the Chinese border since fighting intensified.
Civilian armed groups known as People’s Defence Forces (PDF) that were established in the wake of the coup have also joined the alliance, prompting a furious response from the military and an intensification of the “four cuts” strategy under which it targets civilians to separate the resistance from potential sources of food, funds, intelligence and fighters.
The military has “unlawfully killed, arbitrarily detained and stolen from civilians,” Amnesty said in a report released on Thursday and based on interviews with affected civilians.
The United Nations estimates more than two million people in Myanmar have been forced from their homes by the conflict that has engulfed the country since the military’s February 2021 power grab, with the latest fighting fuelling a growing humanitarian crisis.
