UN accuses Myanmar's military of mass killings, torture since 2021 coup

Three years into the conflict, the UN estimates that more than 19 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, with over three million displaced

The United Nations (UN) has accused Myanmar’s military of killing thousands of civilians and subjecting many more to torture and neglect in prisons since the February 2021 coup. In a report released on Tuesday, the UN detailed the systematic brutality inflicted by the junta, which includes summary executions, sexual violence, and the widespread use of torture.

James Rodehaver, head of the UN human rights team monitoring Myanmar, described the situation as a descent into a “human rights abyss”. Speaking to journalists, Rodehaver said that the absence of the rule of law has paved the way for increasing violence, particularly in military-controlled areas where civilians are suffering the most.

 

The report highlights the devastating toll of the civil war that has gripped Myanmar since the military ousted the democratically elected government. Three years into the conflict, the UN estimates that over 19 million people urgently require humanitarian assistance, with more than three million displaced.

Pro-democracy forces and ethnic militias continue to fight the military, which now controls less than 40 per cent of the country, according to Rodehaver.

Despite its weakening grip on power, the military has intensified its campaign of airstrikes and mass arrests. The UN report indicates that at least 2,414 civilians were killed between April and June 2023, including 334 children, with about half of the deaths attributed to military airstrikes and artillery bombardments.

The UN also documented 759 deaths in military custody during the same period, part of a grim tally of individuals who have died in detention since the coup. Former detainees shared harrowing accounts of abuse, including being suspended from ceilings without food or water, beaten with iron bars, and burned with cigarette lighters. Reports of rape and sexual torture were also widespread.

Rodehaver called the conditions in detention facilities ‘horrific’, with detainees forced to endure inhumane punishments such as crawling on sharp objects and being exposed to snakes and insects to instill fear. On average, four people have died in custody each day over the past three years, many as a result of torture or inadequate medical care.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimates that at least 50,000 people have been killed since the coup, including 8,000 civilians. The military’s violent crackdown on dissent has been cited as the root cause of the crisis, with nearly all forms of opposition criminalised.

However, the UN report also expressed concern over abuses by opposition forces. Armed groups have reportedly carried out targeted killings of suspected military informants and civilian administrators, with 124 such killings recorded in Myanmar’s central region in the first half of 2023. The increased use of drones by opposition groups has also contributed to rising civilian casualties, while attacks by the anti-junta Arakan Army in Rakhine State have resulted in the deaths of Rohingya Muslims.

Next week, UN human rights chief Volker Türk will present the findings to the Human Rights Council, urging the UN Security Council to refer the Myanmar crisis to the International Criminal Court. The court has been investigating Myanmar’s military since 2019 for its role in the mass killing and deportation of Rohingya Muslims in 2016 and 2017, with the UN now calling for further international action to hold the junta accountable.