Myanmar army detaining two-year-olds as proxies for parents, witnesses tell UN

The Guardian

5 days ago

Children as young as two years old have been detained by Myanmar's military, often as proxies for their parents, and held in prison facilities where there is systematic torture, UN investigators have warned.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which was set up to document and share evidence of abuse with national, regional and international courts, said in a report that the 'frequency and brutality' of atrocities inside the country had continued to escalate, more than four years after the military seized power in a coup in February 2021.
The IIMM said it had collected evidence from witnesses indicating that children aged from two to 17 had been detained, often in lieu of their parents. The military and police may detain children in cases where parents who are perceived to be associated with opposition movements cannot be found to arrest. Some of the detained children had been subjected to torture, ill treatment or sexual and gender-based crimes, the report said.
The military has conducted mass arrests since the coup, detaining almost 30,000 people, including political opponents, journalists and activists accused of resisting junta rule, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a local group that tracks arrests.
The IIMM said it had gathered significant evidence that there was systematic torture inside prison facilities, including beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, torture by pulling out fingernails with pliers, and forms of sexual violence, including rape and gang-rape. Torture had resulted in death, the report said.
Investigators had made progress in identifying specific members and units of security forces 'involved in operations at identified detention facilities', the report added, including direct perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes as well as high-level commanders.
They had also gathered evidence of the identity of individuals – in the security forces and opposition armed groups – who had perpetrated summary executions, the IIMM report said.
'It's very important that perpetrators believe that somebody is watching, somebody is collecting evidence,' said Nicholas Koumjian, the head of IIMM, who said the conflict that had gripped Myanmar since the coup had become 'more and more violent'.
It was crucial that there was 'commitment from the international community to see justice is done – not just for the people of Myanmar but as an example to the rest of the world also', said Koumjian.
The IIMM report, based on the period July 2024 to June 2025, warned that an unprecedented funding crisis was threatening investigators' ability to collect and analyse evidence.
It said funding constraints had affected the ability of investigators to travel, train and buy the necessary software to conduct their work. Staff positions would be reduced by 20% next year, it added. 'These financial pressures threaten the mechanism's ability to sustain its critical work and to continue supporting international and national justice efforts,' the report said.
The UN is pursuing a cost-cutting drive, asking dozens of agencies, offices and operations to cut 20% of their staff, as it faces funding challenges.
The IIMM is funded by the UN regular budget, as well as through grants from individual donor countries. Two US funding grants were terminated this year, though one continued, Koumjian said.
The Trump administration has dismantled the US Agency for International Development, a major funder of humanitarian aid programmes around the world, and withdrawn from some UN agencies and ordered a broader review of US participation in the agencies.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has previously said efforts to cut back UN costs were due to a liquidity crisis, as member states were failing to pay their annual dues on time or in full.
The IIMM has made more than two dozen requests to the Myanmar military, including for information relating to alleged crimes and for access to the country, but received no response.
The military could not be reached by the Guardian for comment. It has previously denied atrocities have taken place and said its operations were in response to 'terrorists' who were causing unrest.