Myanmar junta is detaining and torturing children as young as 2, U.N. report says
The Southeast Asian nation of about 54 million people has been mired in turmoil since 2021, when democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the military. The coup set off mass protests across the country that were violently suppressed, followed by a nationwide armed resistance movement that has displaced millions of people.
Investigators said Tuesday there was evidence of 'a continued increase in the frequency and brutality of atrocities' across Myanmar, with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by government security forces and affiliated militias as well as armed opposition groups.
That includes an increase in crimes committed against those in detention, many of whom are being held without due process, said Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.
'We've documented torture against those in detention, including beatings and electric shocks, strangulations, pulling out fingernails, gang rape, burning of sexual body parts and other forms of sexual violence,' he told reporters in Geneva as his team released its annual report.
Koumjian said investigators had seen evidence that children as young as 2 years old were being detained, often in place of their parents if they are accused of being associated with the opposition and cannot be found.
'Some of the detained children have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment or sexual and gender-based crimes,' the report says.
Myanmar's military government has detained about 30,000 people in the past four years, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group that tracks arrests in the country.
The Myanmar military could not be reached for comment. It has denied any atrocities are taking place and blamed 'terrorists' for unrest.
The 16-page report, which covers a one-year period up to June 30, draws on more than 1,300 sources, including nearly 600 eyewitness testimonies, photographs, videos, documents, maps and forensic evidence.
Koumjian said the Myanmar military appeared to be increasing its use of airstrikes as it loses control of more territory. They continued even after a devastating earthquake in March, he said, often against 'blatantly civilian targets' such as schools, hospitals and places of worship.
'Often there's no military target that we can identify anywhere in the area that could have been the intent of the airstrike,' he said.
Koumjian said investigators were working to determine how the airstrikes were ordered, who was in the chain of command and who flew the planes.
In addition, he said, there is growing evidence of crimes committed by opposition forces, including summary executions of captured fighters from other armed groups.
The team is also still investigating the 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis, during which more than 700,000 people from the mostly Muslim ethnic minority fled a military crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh. Along with other ethnic groups, the remaining Rohingya population is again in danger as they are persecuted by the Arakan Army rebel group that now has effective control of Rakhine state, their ancestral home.
Koumjian said investigators had made progress in identifying some of the people responsible for crimes in Myanmar, including commanders overseeing detention facilities, and that 'we stand ready to support any jurisdictions willing and able to prosecute these crimes.'
'We are working towards the day when the perpetrators will have to answer for their actions in a court of law,' he said in a news release.
The work of Myanmar investigators is already being used in cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice and in Argentina. In November, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar's military government, for crimes committed against the Rohingya.
Min Aung Hlaing tightened his grip on power last month in an administrative restructuring as the junta said it was ending the state of emergency it declared in 2021. A general election is planned for December but faces a widespread boycott by critics who say it will be neither free nor fair.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Magazine
33 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
The Real Danger of the Trump-Putin Summit
It's symbolic that Alaska has been chosen as the location for Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's meeting on Friday to discuss Ukraine giving up occupied territory to Russia in the name of 'peace.' In 1867, the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia, then a colony of the Tsar, for a measly $7.2 million (around $150 million today). It's as if whoever selected the location is suggesting there's nothing particularly dramatic for lines on maps to be redrawn, that you can swap parts of countries as if they were mere real estate. But this ignores something vital—people. Russia's occupation of eastern parts of Ukraine isn't just a land-grab. Its aim is to wipe out independent Ukrainian identity; to re-define who the local people think and feel they are at the barrel of a gun. It's a vast project of enforced social engineering that takes us back to the Age of Empire, when colonizers imposed their will on conquered subjects. It's reminiscent of some of the darkest parts of the 20th century, when totalitarian dictatorships used terror to compel obedience on captured nations. If any 'deal' brokered in Alaska ignores the rights of Ukrainians in occupied lands then it will legitimize the return of some of the most evil chapters of our history. So whatever happens Friday, it's imperative to never normalize Russia's occupation. Some of the crimes Russia commits are blatant violations of international law. A U.N. report looked at accounts of civilian detainees in Russian-occupied Ukraine and found that 90% had been 'tortured or ill-treated.' Children have been executed. Believers outside the Kremlin-allied Moscow Patriarchate have been arrested, taken prisoner, tortured, and killed. Meanwhile, at least 19,546 children have been taken away from their guardians and families—spirited away to Russia where they are taught to forget Ukraine. This enforced deportation has led to Putin being indicted for war crimes. Read More: The Hidden War Over Ukraine's Lost Children Such crimes are easy to define under international law. We can open criminal proceedings against the perpetrators. But just as insidious are the more subtle forms of coercion that often get overlooked by courts. The way, for instance, Russia threatens to deny basic services like heating to Ukrainians who don't take up Russian passports. Or how millions of people across Ukraine—and not just in the occupied parts of the country—have been forced to flee their homes because the conditions Russia created made it too frightening to remain. Such displaced people currently have no recourse to justice. This needs to change. They should be allowed to claim reparations. Or consider the process of indoctrination. Over 1 million children are at school in occupied Ukraine. The Russian curriculum they are forced to follow wipes out the centuries-long struggle for Ukrainian independence. It barely mentions the mass famine of Ukrainians in the 1930s that killed 4 million, and which many historians consider a genocide. Parents who refuse to send their children to pro-Russian schools are threatened with losing their parental rights, witnesses have told The Reckoning Project, the war crimes NGO I helped found. Possession of Ukrainian textbooks can even lead to five year sentences. While Ukrainian identity is suppressed, a militarized form of Russian imperialism is rigorously promoted in occupied Ukraine. Children are expected to attend military youth groups reminiscent of the Hitler Jugend. Here students learn to shoot, sing patriotic Russian songs, and express 'unconditional love' to 'our holy Russian land' and 'readiness to join the holy fight.' Ukrainian officials and activists label this process 'brainwashing,' even 'cultural genocide.' But none of these are crimes under international law. Thus we risk the perpetrators getting away with the ultimate purpose of Russia's occupation—erasing Ukrainian identity. In order to ensure Russia doesn't get away with that, lawyers at The Reckoning Project have made a submission to the U.N. that details how Russia is in breach of the 'Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' that guarantees parents the right to give children the education they choose. A U.N. submission is a small step in itself, but it helps create the basis for sanctioning officials and demanding damages from Russia. It should be seen as part of a web of justice that includes naming and shaming through media, online advocacy, pressure on private companies and public bodies, reparations, and other tools to ensure the whole system of Russian occupation is not normalized. All of this can also help show the world it can move on from the age of brutal imperial conquest and totalitarian thought control. Which brings us back to the Alaska Purchase. It is not just a symbol of how easily great powers can negotiate land swaps. It's a testimony to how colonial powers callously ignore the local population. When Russia occupied Alaska in the 19th century, it made serfs out of the local Indigenous tribes, forced them to hunt for furs, and raked in the profits. Missionaries pushed Native Americans to adopt Russian Orthodoxy. During the sale of Alaska, the rights of the majority Native Americans were ignored over Russian settlers. Following the U.S. takeover, racial segregation laws were erected and a system of devastating boarding schools created to split up Native American families. The analogy to occupied Ukraine is imperfect but in both cases children were barred from speaking their language or following their traditions. Russia makes no bones about its desire to bring back a new Age of Empire. Its propaganda revels in its desire to subjugate small European countries—and celebrates the idea America could soon join it to carve up the continent. It is encouraging that Trump has shown a greater willingness to criticize Putin and Russia in recent weeks. But the ultimate test will be the message Trump sends from Alaska. It will show which way the U.S. wants history to move.
5 hours ago
Syrian factions committed 'widespread and systematic' attacks on civilians: UN
BEIRUT -- A U.N.-backed commission that investigated sectarian violence on Syria's coast earlier this year found that there was 'widespread and systematic' violence against civilians perpetrated by some government-affiliated factions, but found no evidence that it was directed by the central government. An extensive report released Thursday by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria examined the violence that began with clashes between armed groups aligned with former Syrian President Bashar Assad and the new government's security forces in March. It then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and massacres that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which Assad belongs. The violence came months after Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive in December and at a time when the country's new rulers were attempting to forge a new national army out of a patchwork of former insurgent factions. The commission named several government-affiliated factions whose members allegedly took part in 'extrajudicial killings and torture and ill-treatment of primarily the civilian population of Alawi majority villages and neighborhoods in a manner that was both widespread and systematic" during the coastal violence. They include the 62nd and 76th divisions of the new Syrian army, also known as the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza Division — both of them formerly part of a coalition made up of Turkish-backed armed factions in northwest Syria. The report also singled out the 400th Division, made up of former brigades of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist rebel group that was formerly led by Syria's current interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa. However, the report said the commission "found no evidence of a governmental policy or plan to carry out such attacks." It also found that pro-Assad armed groups had committed 'acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes" during the violence. A separate investigation into the coastal violence ordered by the government released its findings last month. It concluded that some members of the new Syrian military had committed 'widespread, serious violations against civilians,' but said there was no evidence that military leaders had ordered those attacks. The government investigation found that more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, were killed. In a letter in response to Thursday's U.N. report, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said the government takes 'serious note of the alleged violations' detailed in it the report and said that the recommendations — which included increased screening of recruits to the security forces and recruiting from minority communities — 'will serve as a roadmap for Syria's continued progress.' The U.N. commission's report noted that in the leadup to the coastal violence in March there had been scattered clashes between pro-Assad and new government forces as well as increasing incidents of 'harassment and violations" against Alawite communities, "including killings, abductions, looting or occupation of property.' In early March, pro-Assad armed groups launched a series of attacks on the General Security forces of the new government along the coast. During the clashes that followed, pro-Assad fighters also overran hospitals, shot at and abducted journalists coming to cover the conflict, and in at least one case shot and killed women and children, the report said. With the General Security forces overwhelmed, tens of thousands of fighters from allied factions, as well as armed civilians, converged on the coast. Many began raiding houses in Alawite-majority areas, where in many cases they 'asked civilians whether they were Sunni or Alawi' and 'Alawi men and boys were then taken away to be executed,' the report found. 'Most victims were men of Alawi background, aged between 20 to 50 years, though women and children as young as one year old were also killed during house raids,' the report said. In some cases, the bodies were then desecrated, and family members were prevented from burying their dead. The report also found that there had been widespread cases of robbery and looting by armed groups. The commission also investigated reports of kidnapping of Alawite women and found 'credible information' of at least six cases in the weeks preceding and following the main outbreak of violence in March. It is investigating 'dozens' of other reports. In at least two of the confirmed cases, the victims were 'abducted for the purpose of forced marriage,' while in other cases, the kidnappers demanded ransoms from the victims' families. In one particularly disturbing case prior to the coastal clashes, the report said masked men dressed in black and wearing black headbands inscribed with 'There is no god but God' abducted a woman from the street and gang-raped her, then sold her to an older man to whom she was forcibly married. 'The Commission is not aware of any individuals being arrested or prosecuted yet in connection with these abductions,' the report said. The investigation into the coastal violence comes as Syria is reeling from another outbreak of sectarian violence last month that has again threatened the country's fragile political transition after nearly 14 years of civil war. This time, clashes broke out in the southern Sweida province between government forces and local Bedouin tribesmen on one side, and fighters from the country's Druze minority on the other. Hundreds were killed and tens of thousands displaced, and allegations have surfaced of government fighters executing Druze civilians and looting and burning houses. The government has again launched an investigation into the allegations, but minority communities have become increasingly wary of the Sunni Muslim-led authorities. Last week, representatives of Syria's various ethnic and religious groups held a conference in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syrian city and called for the formation of a decentralized state and the drafting of a new constitution that guarantees religious, cultural and ethnic pluralism.
NBC News
7 hours ago
- NBC News
Aid groups call on Israel to end 'weaponization' of aid in Gaza
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, denied the letter's claims. It alleged the groups were being used as cover by Hamas to 'exploit the aid to strengthen its military capabilities and consolidate its control' in Gaza. 'The refusal of some international organizations to provide the information and cooperate with the registration process raises serious concerns about their true intention,' it said in a statement on Thursday. 'The alleged delay in aid entry … occurs only when organizations choose not to meet the basic security requirements intended to prevent Hamas's involvement.' Israel has long claimed that aid groups and United Nations agencies issue biased assessments. The aid groups stressed on Thursday that most of them haven't been able to deliver 'a single truck' of life-saving assistance since Israel implemented a blockade in March. A vast majority of aid isn't reaching civilians in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed, most of the population has been displaced and famine looms. U.N. agencies and a small number of aid groups have resumed delivering assistance, but say the number of trucks allowed in remains far from sufficient. Meanwhile, tensions have flared over Israel and the United States backing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to serve as the main distributor of aid in the besieged territory. The American contractor, meant to replace the traditional U.N.-led aid distribution system in Gaza, has faced international condemnation after hundreds of Palestinians were killed while trying to get food near its distribution sites. Israel has pressed U.N. agencies to accept military escorts to deliver goods into Gaza, a demand the agencies have largely rejected, citing their commitment to neutrality. The standoff has been the source of competing claims: Israel maintains it allows aid into Gaza that adheres to its rules, while aid groups that have long operated in Gaza decry the amount of life-saving supplies stuck at border crossings. 'Oxfam has over $2.5 million worth of goods that have been rejected from entering Gaza by Israel, especially WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) items as well as food,' said Bushra Khalidi, an aid official with Oxfam in Gaza.
