More than 140,000 Karen civilians have been killed, tortured, forcibly displaced, sexually violated, forced to work, or otherwise subjected to widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law between November 2005 and November 2008. These violations amount to crimes against humanity yet this human rights crisis has received little attention from the international community.
The Karen are the second largest of the 135 ethnic minorities in Myanmar.They are of Sino-Tibetan origin and are usually Buddhists, Christians or animists. According to official statistics, nearly 3,500,000 Karen live in
Myanmar, with more than 830,000 residing in Kayin State in eastern
Myanmar.
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What are crimes against humanity?
Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court2 defines crimes against humanity as certain acts that, irrespective of whether they are committed in times of war or peace, form part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. Isolated acts do not amount to crimes against humanity, but where an individual commits a single act that is part of a idespread or systematic attack on civilians he or she may be guilty of committing crimes against humanity. Some of the acts referred to in Article 7 include: murder, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer of the population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, persecution and enforced disappearance.
Is Myanmar a party to the Rome Statute?
Myanmar is not a party to the Rome Statute, but the definition in this Statute of crimes against humanity, reflects rules of customary international law which are binding on all states, regardless of whether or not they are parties to the Rome Statute.
Why did the military offensive target civilians in eastern Myanmar?
The Myanmar armed forces offensive between November 2005 and November 2008 in eastern Myanmar does not seem to have been a security or counter-insurgency measure against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) which is an armed group that operates in eastern Myanmar. The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union (KNU). Instead there is evidence that the offensive primarily targeted civilians. The government has a long standing “Four Cuts” strategy, designed to destroy links that armed opposition groups have to food, financial support, recruits, and information. This strategy seems to have been implemented in eastern Myanmar and provides an explanation about why the Myanmar armed forces offensive violated international humanitarian law by targetting civilians.
Who are the KNU and the KNLA?
Since Myanmar gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, armed opposition groups from different ethnic minorities have fought against the central government for independence or greater autonomy. The KNU and its armed wing, the KNLA, were formed in 1949 with the aim of independence or greater autonomy for the Karen. While the majority of other ethnic armed groups have reached cease-fire arrangements with the government, which have granted them certain administrative powers over their territories, the KNU has continued to fight for a political settlement.
What sorts of crimes were committed against civilians in eastern Myanmar?
Many civilians in eastern Myanmar have been subjected to widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including unlawful killings;torture and other ill-treatment; enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests; the imposition of forced labour, the destruction of homes and whole villages; and the destruction or confiscation of crops and food-stocks and other forms of collective punishment. A number of cases about forced labour, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions are detailed below. For a full overview about the violations of international human rights and humanitarian law which were committed in eastern Myanmar please see the Amnesty International report titled “Crimes Against Humanity in Eastern Myanmar”.
Forced labour
Unpaid forced labour contravenes the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, 1930 (No. 29), which the government of Myanmar ratified in 1955. This has been a long standing issue in Myanmar as can be seen by a statement made by an ILO Commission of Inquiry in 1998:
“There is abundant evidence before the Commission showing the pervasive use of forced labour imposed on the civilian population throughout Myanmar by the authorities and the military for portering, the construction, maintenance and servicing of military camps, other work in support of the military, work on agriculture, logging and other production projects undertaken by the authorities or the military, sometimes for the profit of private individuals, the construction and maintenance of roads, railways and bridges, other infrastructure work and a range of other tasks, none of which comes under any of the exceptions listed in Article 2(2) of the Convention.”
In eastern Myanmar between November 2005 and November 2008 civilians including men and women, and on occasion children too, were regularly pressed into unpaid forced labour by the Myanmar army. The work they were forced to do included carrying heavy bags of ammunition or provisions for the soldiers, splitting rocks, cutting bamboo, cooking for soldiers and some were forced to take part in
military operations and made to walk in front of the soldiers to act as a human shield.
A 30 year old women from Papun District, Kayin State explained the impact of carrying out unpaid forced labour on her and her family:
“I ran away because the forced labour just became too much. At least one person has to go from the family – for example the wife goes if the husband is not there. Sometimes they ask for two people, in which case children have to do it too. During 2005 and 2006, we have had to work every single day. There has been no time to grow our own food, because almost everyone has to go. We have really
been facing starvation.”
Torture / ill-treatment as collective punishment -
Civilian villagers informed Amnesty International of acts which amount to torture and other ill-treatment that were used to collectively punish villagers for acts carried out by others.
For example a woman testified that in March 2005, she and all the others from her village in Hpa’an District, Kayin State were required to gather at the headman’s house, because a small device exploded outside their village. She made the following statement:
“Soldiers made all villagers stand up and sit down again and again in public… [They] were also beaten with big bamboo canes. There were no broken bones but lots of painful bruises and swelling. It was humiliating…”
Extrajudicial executions -
International humanitarian law, which governs non-international armed conflicts such as the one in eastern Myanmar, states that, those not taking active part in the hostilities must not be the target of attacks and that “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds” is prohibited”.
Despite this Amnesty International received reports that at least 25 Karen civilians had been unlawfully killed by the 5 ILO: Forced labour in Myanmar (Burma), Commission of Inquiry, Official Bulletin, Vol. LXXXI, Series B, special supplement, 1998, para. 528.
Myanmar armed forces or a paramilitary group aligned with them between July 2005 and July 2007 in Kayin State and Bago Division. The reported extrajudicial executions took place in three ways, some civilians were executed in detention, others were shot on site, often when they were working in their fields and some were executed as a form of collective punishment.
Another example is the case of Tu Tu, a 22 year-old farmer who was returning home from his farm in Bago Division in December 2005. Soldiers detained and accused him of having links with the KNU or the KNLA on the basis that he was returning to his village at seven o’clock in the evening. His beaten body was later discovered nearby, with his throat slit and his mouth and teeth burned.
Enforced disappearances and risk of extrajudicial execution -
In March 2006, two students Then Nu aged 18 and Kar Bar aged 20 were reported to have been arbitrarily arrested in central Hpa’an District by the Myanmar armed forces after they got caught in crossfire between the KNLA and the Myanmar armed forces. Four months after this event a representative from Amnesty International spoke with some of the villagers, one gave the following report:
”The soldiers arrested them and accused them of being KNU, because they had soft hands and not rough ones like the farmers.The villagers tried to persuade the soldiers that they had soft hands because they were students. Nothing was heard of them since. I think that they were killed in the military camp in Leke”.
States have a duty to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law States have the duty to prevent gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law that constitute crimes under international law. They also have the duty to investigate such violations effectively, promptly, thoroughly, and impartially, and where appropriate, to take action against those allegedly responsible in accordance with domestic and international law. They must provide victims with access to justice and effective remedies, including reparation.