Myanmar’s junta chief created a special command a day after last year’s coup that was solely responsible for deployment and operations of troops in urban areas, and authorized lethal attacks on unarmed civilians, human rights investigators said.
The group Fortify Rights and Yale Law School’s Schell Center said after a joint investigation the junta leadership deployed snipers to kill protesters to instill fear, while soldiers were instructed to commit crimes and given a “fieldcraft” manual that contained no guidance on rules of war.
The investigators, in a 193-page report released Thursday, analyzed the leaked documents and 128 testimonies from various sources, including survivors, medical workers, witnesses and former military and police personnel, about the turmoil in Myanmar in the six months after the coup on Feb. 1 last year.
They said they had obtained and verified internal memos to police ordering them to arbitrarily arrest protesters, activists and members of the ousted ruling party, and cited testimony from victims of torture and other abuses.
“All individuals responsible for these crimes should be sanctioned and prosecuted,” said Matthew Smith, head of Fortify Rights and co-author of the report, which recommends members of the United Nations push for a global arms embargo on Myanmar and international legal action against its generals.
The spokesperson for Myanmar’s military did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the report’s findings.
Fortify Rights is an independent nonprofit organization based in Southeast Asia and founded in 2013, funded by donations from Europe, Asia and the United States, including from private foundations. It has carried out extensive work in Myanmar.
The Schell Center was set up at Yale Law School in 1989 for law students and graduates to specialize in international human rights and to assist human rights organizations. -Agencies
