The UN’s war crime investigators group on Tuesday said it has uncovered significant evidence of systematic torture including sexual violence against detainees in detention centers operated by Myanmar’s military regime.
It is also a step closer to naming the perpetrators.
“We have uncovered significant evidence, including eyewitness testimony, showing systematic torture in Myanmar detention facilities,” said Nicholas Koumjian of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM).
“We have made headway in identifying the perpetrators, including the commanders who oversee these facilities, and we stand ready to support any jurisdictions willing and able to prosecute these crimes.”
The investigators said they have collected significant evidence of systematic torture, killing, and other serious abuse against detainees perceived as opponents of the regime.
This includes beating, electric shocks, strangulation, gang rape, and the burning of sexual organs.
The IIMM said it has documented systematic sexual and gender-based crimes against individuals of different ages and genders in the detention centers. That includes gang rape or multiple rapes, including the insertion of objects into anal and genital opening, sexual slavery, burning of sexual body parts with cigarettes or burned objects, sexualized touching, or forced full or partial nudity.
The IIMM also said that it has evidence that children aged two to 17 have been detained, often as proxies for their patients. Some have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment, or sexual and gender-based crimes.
“We are working towards the day when the perpetrators will have to answer for their actions in a court of law,” Koumjian said.
The IIMM said that it has also collected evidence identifying those who summarily executed combatant detainees or civilians accused of being informers—killings committed both by the regime and its militias and by opposition armed groups.
Since the coup in 2021, a total of 29,538 people including elected government leaders have been arrested by the regime, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) that monitors arrests and deaths at the hands of regime.
Some 22,297 of them remain in detention and 10,975 of them are serving sentences.
Dozens of political prisoners—including elected leaders from the National League for Democracy (NLD)—have died after being denied proper healthcare and treatment while many others were tortured to death under junta interrogation.
