UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar Press conference: Launch of Annual Report

IIMM Reports Progress in Investigating Serious International Crimes Committed in Myanmar

Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), said today, the IIMM was launching its seventh Annual Report, in which it highlighted progress and preliminary findings. Its work involved collecting evidence of the most serious international crimes and sharing it with national and international courts willing and able to prosecute those cases.

Over the past few years, the IIMM had collected evidence from more than 1,300 sources, including more than 600 eyewitness accounts, along with photographs, videos, documents, maps, geospatial imagery, social media posts and forensic evidence. It had seen an increase in the crimes occurring, including in crimes against those in detention.

Documented torture included beatings, electric shocks, strangulations, pulling out fingernails with pliers, gang rape, burning of sexual body parts and other forms of sexual violence. Evidence from eyewitnesses indicated that children between two to 17 years old had been detained, often as proxies for their parents, who the regime could not get a hold of. Some of the detained children had been subjected to torture or ill-treatment.

The IIMM had also collected evidence identifying perpetrators who had summarily executed captured combatants or civilians accused of being informers. These killings had been perpetrated both by the Myanmar security forces and affiliated militias and by opposition armed groups. Several of these incidents were recorded and disseminated on social media by perpetrators. This was the kind of evidence that the IIMM preserved and used to hold perpetrators to account in judicial processes.

One area the Mechanism was particularly concerned by was aerial attacks, which were only committed by the Myanmar military. There had been an increasing number of aerial attacks on civilian targets, including schools, homes, hospitals, internal displacement camps, and places of worship, even after the earthquake occurred. Often, there was no apparent military target in the vicinity of strikes. Between May and July, there had been an air strike on a hospital managed by the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) in Tabayin township, in which 24 people were killed and more than 100 were injured; a strike in July on a Buddhist monastery in Lin Ta Lu village in Sagaing township, in which at least 22 people were killed; an air strike in Khin-U township where 15 were killed; and an air strike on a police station in Singu township in which 24 people, many of whom were detainees, had been killed. The Mechanism was analysing the composition of the Myanmar Air Force and its chain of command to identify the perpetrators involved.

The IIMM was also investigating atrocities committed against the Rohingya, particularly during the clearance operations of 2017. Rakhine State had become an area where there were ongoing crimes against the communities who resided there. The Mechanism would continue to collect evidence of international crimes, regardless of who the perpetrators were.

Later this month, Mr. Koumjian would travel to Cox’s Bazar for the stakeholders’ dialogue in the lead up to the High-Level Conference on the situation of the Rohingya, to be held in New York in September, where the Rohingya crisis would be addressed. He said he was grateful to Bangladesh, which was hosting the conference. There were over a million Rohingya refugees now in Bangladesh - people who had been forcibly displaced from their homes. There was an underlying belief that it was time to do something to address this crisis.

In response to questions, Mr. Koumjian said IIMM’s investigations, which involved speaking to people in detention and witnesses of events, had shown that torture was common. Women were routinely subjected to the threat of psychological violence and invasive body searches. The Mechanism was working hard to investigate torture cases and collecting evidence that could lead to identification of perpetrators of offences and prosecution.

There had been an increasing use of air power by the regime, which was tied to their loss of territory. De-facto authorities seemed to be intentionally targeting civilian areas with airstrikes. There was a reluctance of military fighters to engage in land combat, and air strikes were one way to engage in combat in difficult areas.

The IIMM had a unit that was investigating the financial aspects of crimes, looking into who was supplying equipment used in crimes such as the burning and bulldozing of villages. It was working with countries that had jurisdiction to prosecute these crimes. There were ongoing cases concerning the Rohingya at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and in Argentina and the United Kingdom. Argentina was an outlier in that its courts were able to investigate international crimes against humanity without ties to the country.

There had recently been an increase in evidence collected by the IIMM that opposition groups had committed crimes, including videos posted on the internet showing the execution of captured fighters. The Mechanism was interested in collecting evidence, regardless of the affiliations of the perpetrators or victims. It had sent several dozen requests for information regarding these crimes to the Myanmar military and opposition fighters, but only the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) had responded, providing evidence of crimes committed by their own soldiers.

Military commanders were responsible for their own actions if they failed to prevent or punish crimes, but they were not necessarily responsible for the actions of their subordinates. The IIMM wanted commanders to cooperate with the Mechanism, to enforce international rules regarding warfare and to help with investigations of crimes.

The IIMM did not disclose evidence of perpetrators or their names before criminal investigations had completed, as doing so could hinder investigations. The Mechanism could investigate only a portion of the crimes committed, but all perpetrators should be concerned that their names were in its files. There was a large amount of evidence and names in the IIMM database, but these could not currently be disclosed.

Regarding finances, Mr. Koumjian said these were tough times for many organisations, including the United Nations. The IIMM could spend only 73 per cent of its budget for this year. The Mechanism had a unit that was conducting open-source investigations, which had collected thousands of videos of suspected crimes, such as villages being burned and executions. If additional grants were not secured, the IIMM would have to close this unit, which had been vital in collecting evidence. The Mechanism also did not have sufficient funds to support the operations of its unit investigating gender-based violence and sexual crimes. The IIMM had lost two of its three grants from the United States, and other countries had also withdrawn funding. Many of the functions of the Mechanism would be in danger if additional funding was not received.

Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar Press conference: Launch of Annual Report - 12 August 2025

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