The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Myanmar rights probe warns over ‘incredible brutality’ of warring forces
Conflict in Myanmar between the military junta and opposition forces is increasingly brutal, with both sides likely responsible for international crimes including summary executions, top independent rights investigators said on Tuesday.
In a call to regional bloc ASEAN to help end the violence and support efforts to bring perpetrators to justice, the head of the Human Rights Council-appointed probe into the Myanmar emergency, Nicholas Koumjian, described an increasingly “desperate” junta whose devastating military tactics were being matched by opposition fighters acting with total impunity.
“Aerial bombings have increased very substantially in this last year,” Mr. Koumjian told journalists in Geneva. “In Kayah state in February of this year, four children were killed and around 10 injured when fighter jets dropped bombs and deployed machine gun fire on the school.”
Mr. Koumjian added that his investigators had also seen a video “that showed resistance forces beheading two captured soldiers in Loikaw in Kayah state in November, December of last year”, along with another video posted on social media of two young men being burned to death in Magway region. “So, this kind of incredible brutality is going on,” he said.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) was created by the Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes committed in Myanmar since 2011. It released its latest annual report on Tuesday.
Civilians frequently targeted
“Unfortunately, what our report conveys is that the number of these crimes is only increasing and the armed conflict is increasing in intensity and in brutality and crimes are happening more and more frequently,” Mr. Koumjian noted.
The veteran rights expert and former international criminal justice prosecutor expressed his opinion that the junta which seized power in Myanmar on 1 February 2021 was becoming more “desperate” over the period covered by the report from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 - a time when armed conflicts increased across Myanmar as challenges to military rule intensified. “The targets of these bombings are usually civilian targets,” Mr. Koumjian said. “Schools and churches and hospitals are often the only structures in the area and those are the structures…that are being bombed.”
ASEAN influence
In a direct appeal to the regional bloc ASEAN, Mr. Koumjian urged it to respond to “substantial evidence” that the Myanmar military was committing war crimes and crimes against humanity “at an alarming rate”, by putting pressure on the junta to halt the conflict.
ASEAN - a “very key player in Myanmar”, according to the human rights investigator – has drawn up a five-point consensus to end the fighting that has been signed by “the junta itself”. Nonetheless, “we see instead an increase in violence and an increase in the violence targeting civilians,” he said. “So, I think absolutely, it's time for ASEAN to put some bite into its consensus. It's not enough simply to say we support ending the violence, there have to be steps taken to ensure that, in fact, the violence has ended.”
Broad reach
The head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) noted that the panel’s report was based on information and evidence collected from more than 900 sources, including more than 400 eyewitness testimonies, along with additional evidence such as photographs, videos, audio material, documents, maps, geospatial imagery, social media posts and forensic evidence.
Fighting impunity remains a core objective of the IIMM which has shared its findings and evidence with authorities at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and in Argentina, Mr. Koumjian said.
Myanmar conflict – rights probe update
TRT: 2 min 17s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 13 AUGUST 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium: UN Geneva flag alley.
- Medium-wide, Press room, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM): “Aerial bombings have increased very substantially in this last year; in Kayah state in February of this year, four children were killed and around 10 injured when fighter jets dropped bombs and deployed machine gun fire on the school.”
- Medium-wide, Press room and podium speakers, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM): “We have a video that showed resistance forces beheading two captured soldiers in Loikaw in Kayah state in November, December of last year. So this kind of incredible brutality is going on.”
- Wide, Press room, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM): “Our mandate is to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes in Myanmar and unfortunately, what our report conveys is that the number of these crimes is only increasing and the armed conflict is increasing in intensity and in brutality and crimes are happening more and more frequently.”
- Medium-wide, Press room, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM): “There’s no doubt that the military, the junta, is becoming more desperate and we've seen, for example, this big increase in the use of aerial bombing and the targets of these bombings are usually civilian targets; schools and churches and hospitals are often the only structures in the area and those are the structures that are being - major structures - that are being bombed.”
- Medium-wide, Press room podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM): “We see an increase in the violence targeting civilians. So, I think absolutely, it's time for ASEAN to put some bite into its consensus. It's not enough simply to say we support ending the violence, there have to be steps taken to ensure that, in fact, the violence has ended.”
- Medium-wide, journalists, participants, one taking video on mobile phone.
- Medium-wide, participant taking video of proceedings.
- Medium, participant.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday warned of the risk of the violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo escalating throughout the Great Lakes sub-region, following the recent takeover of Goma city by the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group.
1
1
1
Edited News | HRC
UN human rights chief Volker Türk expressed profound concerns at the ongoing violent escalation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused by the ongoing Rwanda-backed M23 offensive. “If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he told a Special Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNAIDS
US aid funding cuts create confusion, put HIV prevention at risk, says UNAIDS
The US pause in foreign assistance funding has created “a lot of confusion” in community HIV prevention work, despite the waiver issued for HIV/AIDS programmes, the UN agency to combat AIDS (UNAIDS) said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNFPA , OCHA , UNOG
UN agencies offered a dire assessment on Tuesday about the global impact of deep cuts to grassroots humanitarian funding by the incoming US administration and reiterated calls for Washington to retain its position as a global aid leader.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
While West Bank camp is destroyed, UNRWA delivers bulk of aid in Gaza
Large swathes of Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank have been completely destroyed following a series of controlled detonations by the Israeli security forces (ISF), the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday raised the alarm about the growing human rights crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the UN bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva, UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurence and the head of UN Human Rights Myanmar team James Rodehaver, describedunprecedented levels of killing in 2024, four years since the coup.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNRWA
The largest UN agency in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, UNRWA, said on Friday that its staff are still helping the people of Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem who depend on them “for their sheer survival”, a day after the Israeli parliament ban on its activities entered into force.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WFP , WHO
Goma: ‘Critical’ moment for population caught in crossfire – UN humanitarians
In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), civilians caught up in heavy fighting face a “critical” 24 hours, with food and water running low and aid unable to enter, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNOG
Nazi death camp survivor Ivan Lefkovits shared harrowing testimony of his experiences on Monday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, with a timeless message for present and future generations: “Don't be neutral, especially not towards human suffering."
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday said it was “deeply concerned by the use of unlawful lethal force in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank”, as part of an ongoing Israeli military operation.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“We are deeply alarmed at the heightened risk of an attack by the M23 armed group on Goma, the capital of North Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,” Ravina Shamdasani said.