The Burmese military kidnapped civilians and forced them to work as human shields, attacked homes, churches and carried out massacres, said a report warning that recent atrocities in eastern Myanmar could amount to war crimes.
The report, by the Myanmar-founded human rights group Fortify Rights, documents abuses by the country’s military in Karenni State, also known as Kayah State, an area that has seen intense fighting between the army and groups opposed to last year’s military coup.
The military has faced strong resistance in the state, and has responded with brutal violence in an attempt to crush opposition.
The report includes allegations that
Nearly a year after his son was last seen being hauled away by Myanmar junta troops, 66-year-old Win Hlaing says he just wants to know whether he is alive. One night last April, a neighbour phoned to tell him his son, Wai Soe Hlaing, a young father who ran a phone shop in Yangon, had been detained in connection with.
Military does not notify relatives when a person is arrested, and prison officials often do not do so when they arrive in jail, so families laboriously search for their relatives by calling and visiting police stations and prisons or relying on accounts from local media or human rights groups
One night last April, a neighbour phoned to tell him his son, Wai Soe Hlaing, a young father who ran a phone shop in Yangon, had been detained in connection with protests against the February 1 military coup.
Nearly a year after his son was last seen being hauled away by Myanmar junta troops, 66-year-old Win Hlaing says he just wants to know whether he is alive.