Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 18/Jan 00:20

Myanmar: ‘Scorched Earth’ Tactics Intensify, HRW Says

Myanmar’s military junta ramped-up its “scorched earth” tactics against opposition areas amid a growing armed resistance and territorial losses during 2024, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2025. The military committed unlawful attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including indiscriminate airstrikes, killings, rape, torture, and arson amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies. “The Myanmar military has increasingly committed grave crimes against civilians and civilian infrastructure in response to heightened resistance from armed anti-junta groups and ethnic minority armies,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The suffering of villagers has been made all the worse by the junta’s determination to block humanitarian aid from reaching those in need.” Myanmar’s military has increasingly carried out aerial and artillery attacks using explosive weapons in populated areas, increasing the risk of resulting indiscriminate attacks. Myanmar is one of only four countries using banned cluster munitions and landmines. The junta has further tightened restrictions on humanitarian aid and telecommunications services as a method of collective punishment. Aid blockages and economic collapse have left millions of people at risk of starvation and half the population in poverty. More than three million people have been internally displaced. After the enactment of a conscription law in February, military authorities forcibly recruited young adults and children through abductions and detention of family members. Conscripts have been used as human shields and porters on the front lines. Junta forces and the ethnic Arakan Army have committed mass killings, arson, and unlawful recruitment against Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State. The United Nations Security Council should pass a resolution instituting a global arms embargo on Myanmar, imposing targeted sanctions on junta leadership and military-owned companies, and referring the country situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said. To better support people in need, donors should channel aid through civil society groups and cross-border efforts, support independent organizations, and allow the transfer of funds to these groups outside Myanmar’s formal banking system.