Myanmar's military has killed scores of civilians. The military has also used civilians as human shields. Fortify Rights, a Myanmar-based human rights group, said the military's continued atrocities in the country's eastern Kaya state could be considered war crimes. This has been said in a report of the organization published on Tuesday. According to Khazar Al Jazeera's Fortify Rights, they have collected information on military raids on churches, homes, shelters for displaced people and other civilian targets in the state of Kaya. These attacks have taken place from May 2021 to last January. At least 61 civilians have been killed so far.
The Fortify Rights report is based on interviews with 31 eyewitnesses and survivors of those military attacks. In addition, the verified images and video evidence have been analyzed in making the report.
The human rights group's report provides new details of a pre-Christmas massacre in Harass Township, Kaya State. At least 40 civilians, including children and two employees of the international organization Save the Children, were killed in the killings. A doctor who conducted the autopsy told Fortify Rights that some bodies were burned in such a way that they could not be autopsied. However, doctors were able to identify the bodies of five women. One of them was 15 years old.
The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told Fortify Rights that "some of them had their faces covered, so we were almost certain they had been killed by suffocation." They were burned alive. We have been able to gather enough evidence in this regard.
In another incident, the Myanmar army used a 16-year-old boy, his uncle and two others as human shields during clashes with Karen People's Defense Force (PDF) fighters in the border town of Mo Bad Township, Fortify Rights said. One man told Fortify Rights: "Soldiers with guns on our shoulders aimed their shots at the PDF forces, and they took up positions behind us." During that time, many tortures were done in various ways. The soldiers kicked us in the body, hit us on the head with the handle of a gun and tortured us in various ways.
The report comes as Cambodia prepares to begin a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Myanmar's military agreed to a five-point agreement with ASEAN in April last year to restore democracy. So far, no progress has been made in implementing those clauses. Meanwhile, ASEAN is preparing for a meeting in Cambodia.
Fortify Rights says now is the time for ASEAN to support an arms embargo on Myanmar.
Ismail Wolff, regional director of Fortify Rights, said in a statement that the Myanmar junta was killing people with weapons produced in the world market. It must stop.
The statement further said that some clear and precise steps are needed. So the junta in Myanmar is forced to think twice before launching an attack on civilians. The UN Security Council should urgently impose an arms embargo on Myanmar's military. And from a strategic and responsible point of view, ASEAN must support this UN decision.
The Myanmar army staged a coup on February 1 last year. Top politicians, including the country's state councilor Hung San SU Ky, were arrested. At the same time, a state of emergency was declared in the country for one year. Later, ordinary people began protesting in the country, demanding the release of SU Ky and the restoration of democracy. Protests continued despite widespread repression and loss of life by army authorities. About one and a half thousand people have lost their lives in the protests so far. More than two thousand people including politicians, students and local and foreign journalists have been detained.
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