Enforced disappearances of civilians in Karen State

A report released by a Karen human rights group found that the military have been responsible for enforced disappearances since they seized power two years ago.  Pro-democracy militias have also tortured and killed people for allegedly acting as spies and informants for the military regime. Meanwhile, resistance forces in northern Myanmar are making progress, pressing hard on junta forces.

Yangon (AsiaNews) – Myanmar’s ruling military junta has used enforced disappearances against civilians in southeastern Myanmar as a means of intimidation after it took power in a coup in February 2021 when it ousted the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi sparking a brutal civil war.

After more than two years, “crimes against humanity of enforced disappearance are dramatically increasing,” reads a report released yesterday by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), with “devastating consequences for local communities,” whose members are displaced and forced to live in fear “while receiving little international attention.”

The report, which looks at crimes committed in Karen State, notes that the military regime has targeted civilians who have broken martial law as well as villagers, accusing them of being part of the anti-coup resistance, and occasionally using them as human shields.

The report also points out that pro-democracy armed groups to have engaged in enforced disappearances in Karen State. Nevertheless, the State Administrative Council (SAC), the junta’s formal name, is responsible for most of these crimes, acting with total impunity,

The report bases its conclusions on dozens of interviews with survivors and family members of the missing.

The regime has targeted especially young men, aged 15 to 25, seen as dissidents or members of the Civil Disobedience Movement that emerged after the coup to counter. This has included grabbing people at home, at work in the fields, at checkpoints or when they break the curfew.

Militias fighting Myanmar’s military (or not aligned with either side) have also carried out enforced disappearances if they deem their targets to be spies or government informers. And they too have been accused of torture and extrajudicial killings.

This said, most of the violence, the report explains, is largely underestimated, because most of the residents prefer not to talk for fear of retaliation.

For survivors and the families of the missing, as well as the community at large, this takes a heavy emotional toll.

“The needs of the whole community are highly influenced by the insecurity generated after the disappearances, causing displacement, internally and across the border,” reads the report, especially since these crimes go unpunished.

Without much external support, it is always the community that takes care of survivors and the missing’s families. “[N]eighbours and local villagers respond to the immediate needs of the families of the disappeared. They provide emotional comfort, help to locate the disappeared or find out information, pray for the victims and provide practical support as needed.”

Meanwhile, ethnic militias continue their progress – from Shan State, they are now in Sagaing. Resistance forces have also taken control of some towns on the border with India, after recapturing the Kokang region on the border with China.

This is an unexpected development in the war, which could, according to some experts, lead to a change in Beijing's position vis-à-vis the Myanmar’s military regime.

• myanmar
• enforced disappearances
• ethnic militias
• china
• india
• borders
• civil war
• resistance
• karen
• shan
• sagaing