Myanmar’s military has created a perpetual human rights crisis through the continuous use of violence, including the killing, arbitrary arrest, torture and enforced disappearance of anti-coup opponents, a report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says. The report published Friday documents a litany of human rights abuses from 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023, accompanied by a sharp rise in violence especially in the north-western and south-eastern parts of Myanmar.
“Two years after the military launched a coup, the generals have embarked on a scorched earth policy in an attempt to stamp out opposition”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said.
The report echoed calls by the UN Security Council and ASEAN for, among other things, an immediate halt to the violence, the release of all those arbitrarily detained, accountability, and unhindered humanitarian access. It cites credible sources as having verified the deaths of at least 2,940, and 17,572 arrests by the military and its affiliates since the coup. Some 255 of the country’s 330 townships have been impacted by armed clashes.
“Tragically, regional and global efforts for peace and restraint have largely fallen on deaf ears. The military, emboldened by continuous and absolute impunity, has consistently shown disregard for international obligations and principles. Urgent, concrete action is needed to end this festering catastrophe”, Türk said.
According to OHCHR, the Myanmar military employs its so-called four-cuts approach - including through indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery shelling, razing villages to displace civilian populations, and denial of humanitarian access - to cut off non-State organized armed groups and other anti-military armed elements from access to food, finances, intelligence and recruits.
Among the numerous incidents of airstrikes, on 16 September - in Let Yet Kone village, Tabayin Township, Sagaing - four helicopters opened fire on a school killing at least six children and injuring nine others. After some 60 soldiers deployed from helicopters to the ground, they reportedly raided the village, executing a school technician and five villagers before arresting wounded children and teachers.
In another incident, on 20 October, an airstrike against a newly opened hospital in Man Yu Gyi village, Banmauk Township, Sagaing, killed one woman and injured five others. A source reported that the hospital had been inaugurated a day earlier and victims were all volunteers at the facility.
The report said one of the most frequently used tactics by the military is the systematic and widespread burning of villages and dwellings. Consistent with their modus operandi documented over decades, including in Kachin in 2011 and Rakhine in 2017, UN reports indicated that nearly 39,000 houses nationwide have been burnt or destroyed in military operations since February 2022, representing a more than 1,000-fold increase compared to 2021.
Sagaing was the most affected region, accounting for over 25,500 homes. In an incident on 1 May 2022 in Ah Shey See, Kale Township, Sagaing, satellite images suggest the burning of almost the entire village with 621 structures destroyed. Satellite imagery coupled with interview reports suggest that between 16 and 28 September in Taze Township, Sagaing, the military destroyed 458 houses and damaged another 319 across eight villages during a series of raids and attacks.
“Across Myanmar, people are continuously exposed to violations and crimes, including killings, enforced disappearances, displacement, torture, arbitrary arrests, and sexual violence. There are reasonable grounds to believe that the military and its affiliated militias continue to be responsible for most violations, some of which may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes,” the UN Human Rights Chief said.
The OHCHR report said five years after the 2017 military operations that killed thousands and displaced over 700,000 Rohingya, the estimated 600,000 community members remaining in Myanmar continue to face grave risks and systemic discrimination. Renewed conflict between the rebel group Arakan Army and the Myanmar military exacerbated Rohingya community’s protection concerns. Both sides were accused of fighting close to Rohingya villages, deliberately putting Rohingya civilians at risk. The report found conditions in Rakhine State remain unconducive for safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable returns of refugees.
The military’s mismanagement of the economy has provoked an economic crisis for much of the population, resulting in the doubling of poverty rates compared to March 2020. Nearly half of the population now lives in poverty, and rural populations are reported to be at risk of starvation as the military imposes further restrictions on access to areas affected by violence and conflict. Compounding the situation, main supply routes and waterways across the country have been blocked, preventing humanitarian actors from reaching millions of people in need.
Myanmar faces multiple overlapping humanitarian needs caused by genocide, persecution, protracted armed conflicts, human rights violations and inter-communal violence. Humanitarian needs in the country have continued to grow due to armed violence and political unrest since the military coup in February 2021. Ongoing fighting across Myanmar continues to endanger the lives, safety, and health of civilians. Heavy armed clashes, including airstrikes, artillery fire and ambushes are reported predominantly in the northwest and southeast of the country, as well as in Rakhine and southern Chin state.
The United Nations estimates that 17.6 million people in Myanmar need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2023, an increase of more than 3 million compared to 2022. Among the population requiring humanitarian aid are some 5.6 million children.
As of January 2023, there were an estimated 1.55 million internally displaced people (IDP) across Myanmar, including some 1.22 million people who have been displaced within the country since the military takeover on February 1, 2021. 330,000 People are internally displaced due to conflict prior to February 2021, mainly in Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, and Shan state.
More than one million refugees and asylum-seekers from Myanmar – mostly from the Rohingya ethnic group - have fled to neighboring countries. Nearly half of the refugees and internally displaced people are children. Over 70,000 people have fled the country since the military takeover in February 2021.
For decades, the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority, have faced institutionalized discrimination in Myanmar, such as exclusion from citizenship. In August 2017, the Myanmar government launched a military campaign that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh. The United Nations called the campaign ethnic cleansing; the United States declared the Myanmar government committed genocide against the Rohingya.
More than a million Rohingya refugees are living currently at the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region. An estimated 600,000 Rohingya people, living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, are unable to move freely and are subject to government persecution and violence. Rising despair in Bangladesh’s refugee camps and ongoing violence in Myanmar are driving a dramatic increase in ethnic Rohingya risking perilous journeys across the Andaman Sea.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR) is the leading UN entity on human rights. The mission of the UN Human Rights Office is to work for the protection of all human rights for all people, to help empower people to realize their rights, and to assist those responsible for upholding such rights in ensuring that they are implemented. The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 and is headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the United Nations System and acts as the secretariat of the UN Human Rights Council. OHCHR is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Further information
Full text: A/HRC/52/21: Situation of human rights in Myanmar since 1 February 2022 - Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published March 3, 2023
https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5221-situation-human-rights-myanmar-1-february-2022-report-united