Summary
Summary
Four years after Myanmar’s military junta staged an illegal coup d’etat, the country remains
entrenched in a nationwide armed revolution for democracy and human rights, with armed
conflict directly affecting nearly 97 percent of its 330 townships. As of late 2024, the military
junta maintains full control over an estimated 21 percent of the country’s territory, with
the remainder either under resistance control or contested. The junta has lost control of
more than half of its bases in many parts of the country, marking unprecedented territorial
setbacks. In retaliation and desperation, the junta has escalated its use of indiscriminate
airstrikes on civilian communities.
This report documents ten specific, indiscriminate, and retaliatory airstrikes targeting
civilians in Kachin and Karenni (Kayah) states—two of Myanmar’s fourteen administrative
states and regions—that have faced relentless junta assaults since 2021.
While the junta’s airstrikes against civilians have been widely documented, far less is known
about the individuals who may be criminally liable for these alleged war crimes. This report
identifies 22 junta officials who should be investigated and potentially prosecuted for their
roles in war crimes in Kachin and Karenni states. It also names eight military commands
linked to the airstrikes documented in this report and identifies 12 military units responsible
for artillery attacks in Kachin and Karenni states that may amount to war crimes.
This report is based on 63 interviews conducted between 2022 and November 2024 with
individuals from Kachin and Karenni states—including survivors, displaced persons,
aid workers, and ethnic resistance members—as well as Myanmar military defectors
interviewed in Chin State, Myanmar, and locations in India and Thailand.
8
Junta’s jet firing
flares near Laiza,
Waingmaw
Township,
Kachin State,
after conducting
airstrikes on
October 31, 2023.
©Private, 2023