GENEVA – An investigator with backing from the U.N. reported discovering substantial proof of ongoing “systemic torture” within Myanmar’s detention facilities over the past year. The findings include evidence of electric shocks, strangulations, gang rapes, and the burning of sexual body parts.
Speaking as his international independent team published its latest annual report on Tuesday, Nicholas Koumjian highlighted findings from a one-year period ending June 30.
Myanmar has faced chaos since the military takeover from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021, leading to civil conflict. After the military suppressed peaceful protests with violence, many government opponents resorted to armed resistance, resulting in widespread conflict across the country.
The investigation team has progressed in identifying security personnel involved in operations at detention centers, as well as “perpetrators who have summarily executed captured combatants or civilians labeled as informers.” The involved parties include the military, affiliated militias, and opposition groups, according to the report.
The report outlines documented torture practices in Myanmar’s detention centers, including beatings, electric shocks, strangulations, gang rapes, and burning of sexual body parts, among other sexual violence, as summarized in its findings.
“Our report marks an ongoing increase in both the frequency and severity of the atrocities occurring in Myanmar,” Koumjian stated. “We are striving for a future where those responsible are held accountable in a court of law.”
“We have uncovered significant evidence, including eyewitness testimony, showing systematic torture in Myanmar detention facilities,” he said.
His team has opened new investigations into atrocities committed against communities in Rakhine state as the military and the opposition force known as the Arakan Army battle for control of the territory.
More than 700,000 people from the Rohingya minority fled to neighboring Bangladesh in 2017 to escape persecution in Myanmar. About 70,000 others crossed the border last year when the Arakan Army effectively took over Rakhine.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar has been working since 2018 under a mandate from the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council to help document rights abuses and violations in the country.
It has shared evidence with authorities looking into cases involving the Rohingya at the International Criminal Court and the U.N.’s International Court of Justice.
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