UN: Myanmar: Rights investigators reveal ‘systematic torture’, sexual violence
UN-mandated independent investigators have uncovered “systematic torture” in Myanmar’s military-run detention facilities – including beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and gang rape – a pattern of atrocities which is intensifying across the country.
In its annual report released on Tuesday, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said it had made “important progress” documenting crimes and identifying those responsible, including commanders of security forces overseeing detention facilities.
Myanmar descended into civil war following the military coup of February 2021 and the detention of civilian leaders, including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover sparked mass protests, a violent crackdown on dissent and a nationwide armed resistance movement.
The crimes detailed in Tuesday’s report include burning of sexual body parts, other forms of sexual violence and summary executions of captured combatants or civilians accused of being informers.