Mizzima-Sept 11
On 9 September 2024, Mr. Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), delivered a statement to the Human Rights Council during the 57th Regular Session. The statement is as follows. “Over the past year, the Mechanism has seen evidence of increasingly frequent and brutal war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed by many different parties to the ongoing conflicts. In many instances, civilians are not just collateral damage but rather the target of attacks, which appear intended to create terror. Aerial attacks by the Myanmar military intensified across the country. Planes bombed a wedding party and monasteries in Sagaing region; a displaced persons’ camp in Kachin State; and schools in Kayah, Kayin and Chin States. Just last week, airstrikes near a night market in Northern Shan State reportedly killed about a dozen people, including a pregnant woman and two children. The Mechanism has collected many reports and testimonies regarding crimes against the thousands now in detention, including torture and sexual assault. Victims and witnesses have recounted beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and torture by pulling out fingernails with pliers. There is evidence that minors and other victims of all genders have been subjected to gang rape, burns on sexual body parts and other violent sexual and gender-based crimes. The intensity of warfare across Myanmar has escalated, including in Rakhine State where fighting between the military and the Arakan Army has impacted thousands of civilians. The Mechanism is actively investigating horrific reports of killings, torture, rape and the burning of villages. All ethnicities in Rakhine State have suffered, but the Rohingya population that remains there is in a particularly precarious situation, caught between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. They have been directly targeted and thousands forcibly displaced from their homes. Read more at:
