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Myanmar military airstrikes 'killed civilians' during conflict with insurgents says report

A Rakhine woman who fled Rathedaung township due to an ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army - Shutterstock
A Rakhine woman who fled Rathedaung township due to an ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army - Shutterstock

A human rights group has found that Myanmar military deployed deadly airstrikes and killed civilians amid intensified conflict between the army and insurgents in the country’s northwest Rakhine and Chin states.

Amnesty International identified burned villages from satellite images and video footage of airstrikes and shelling carried by the Myanmar military.

Conflict between the military and the Arakan Army (AA), a rebel group seeking more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states, has been ongoing since last January.

The targeting of ethnic minorities in Rakhine and Chin comes less than three years after the world was horrified by the military’s ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

Amnesty International spoke with more than two dozen ethnic Rakhine and Chin people affected by the military operations. They found that villagers from Paletwa Township in Chin state witnessed the airstrikes in March and saw fighter jets launch further attacks.

36 year old Mro (a sub-group of Rakhine ethnic people) ethnic woman carrying her 9 months old daughter stands near bamboo-thatch tents - Shutterstock
36 year old Mro (a sub-group of Rakhine ethnic people) ethnic woman carrying her 9 months old daughter stands near bamboo-thatch tents - Shutterstock

One family told Amnesty International that an airstrike killed nine people in the community, including a 7-year-old boy. “Our family is destroyed,” the boy’s father said.

An ethnic Rakhine farmer from Lel Hla village tract in Paletwa Township saw fighting erupt around a nearby village in April. He said two columns of smoke rose from burned properties after the airstrikes, thought to have killed seven people and injured another eight.

According to the UN, fighting between the AA rebel group and the military army surged between March and May, with over 30 civilians killed and injured in May alone as a result of the conflict.

The UN estimated an additional 10,000 people fled their homes amid the intense fighting and warnings of advancing military operations.

Amnesty International claim Myanmar soldiers arbitrarily detained civilians in Rakhine state for perceived connections with the AA.

The wife of a detained man said her husband was beaten with rifles in the back and that soldiers kicked his chest for five days. He was not given food or water.

Rakhine people who fled Rathedaung township due to an ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army - Shutterstock
Rakhine people who fled Rathedaung township due to an ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army - Shutterstock

In another incident, soldiers held a knife to the detainee’s throat and obtained a forced “confession” about his supposed links to the AA. He was then charged under the Counter Terrorism Act, which has been increasingly used in recent months against people perceived to have ties with the insurgents, according to the rights group.

Amnesty International also found that Myanmar soldiers regularly confiscated or destroyed civilian property, as well as commandeering monasteries as temporary bases in Rakhine state and northern Shan state in 2019. Residents said soldiers took rice, firewood, blankets and clothes, mobile phones and personal documents, and jewellery.

Amnesty International called for the UN Security Council to refer to Myanmar’s situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). They argue that under customary international humanitarian law, an indiscriminate airstrike is a war crime if it leads to civilian deaths.

“The atrocities have not stopped – in fact, the Myanmar military’s cruelty is only getting more sophisticated,” Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Nicholas Bequelin said in a statement.

“This relentless pattern of violations is clearly a matter for the ICC. The Security Council must act."