The abuses depicted in a new report are brutal and systematic. The investigators have documented, among other things, assault, electric shocks, strangulations, gang rapes and other types of sexual violence, including burnings of intimate body parts, in Myanmar's prisons and detention centers.
The perpetrators are found among the junta's security forces and militias linked to the military regime, but also among armed opposition groups.
Myanmar has been marked by a bloody civil war since 2021, when the military in a coup seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government. After peaceful protests were put down with deadly violence, many opponents of the junta took up arms and the war became a reality.
According to the investigators, they have now made progress in the work of identifying security personnel involved in the abuses, including perpetrators accused of having carried out summary executions of both combatants and civilians.
We have uncovered significant evidence, including testimony from eyewitnesses, showing systematic torture in Myanmar's detention facilities, says investigation leader Nicholas Koumjian.
Among other things, abuses are being investigated in communities in the state of Rakhine, the scene of the extensive violence campaign against the Rohingya minority in 2016–2017, where the military and the opposition Arakan Army are still fighting for control.
The investigators have been working since 2018 under a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council to document human rights abuses in Myanmar.
