Background 36 On February 5, 2021, elected parliamentarians who escaped the military’s arbitrary arrests formed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) as the political representatives of the people of Myanmar.4 On April 16, the CRPH formed the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar, comprising members of parliament, civil society leaders, and representatives of ethnic minority groups, with a mission to end military rule and restore democracy, and claiming to represent the legitimate government of Myanmar in the face of the illegitimate military junta seizing power illegally.5 On May 5, 2021, the NUG announced the formation of People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) to protect the people from the military junta, endorsing an armed resistance to the military junta in response to its atrocities.6 The PDFs have since grown in strength and numbers and have coordinated their efforts with ethnic resistance armies across Myanmar that have long fought for greater rights, democracy, and autonomy. By late 2024, armed conflict directly affected nearly 97 percent of Myanmar’s townships, with the junta maintaining control over only about 21 percent of the country’s territory and the remainder either under resistance control or contested.7 This report documents the junta’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in its air bombing campaign against civilians. These findings are consistent with the findings of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews. In October 2023, Special Rapporteur Andrews published a report noting how the junta’s use of airstrikes against civilians constitutes collective punishment: The military appears to be intentionally targeting civilian populations, repeatedly launching air attacks on villages, IDP camps, schools, hospitals, clinics, churches, and monasteries. In many cases, airstrikes on villages have followed attacks on military units by opposition armed groups, suggesting they are being used as a form of collective punishment.8 The Myanmar junta’s air force has intensified airstrikes against civilians and civilian objects since the launch of Operation 1027—a series of coordinated assaults against junta targets led by three of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic resistance armies: the National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army (AA), with the involvement of PDFs.9 In the year following the launch of Operation 1027, the period covered by this report, Myanmar’s military junta conducted an average of 177 airstrikes per month, including 66 targeting civilians. This represents a steep escalation from the period between the February 2021 coup and September 2023, when the military averaged 29 monthly airstrikes.10 4 The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament) is the de jure national-level bicameral legislature of Myanmar established by the 2008 National Constitution. The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw is made up of two houses, the Amyotha Hluttaw, a 224seat upper house, and the Pyithu Hluttaw, a 440-seat lower house. See, Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, “Background,”website, https://crphmyanmar.org/history-and-formation-of-crph/. 5 “Interview with Dr. Sasa on the Formation of the National Unity Government,” Al Jazeera, April 17, 2021, https://www. facebook.com/DrSasa22222/videos/728990474454546. 6 “Myanmar’s Anti-Coup Bloc to Form a ‘Defence Force’,” Al Jazeera, May 6, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2021/5/6/myanmars-anti-coup-bloc-to-form-a-defence-force. 7 Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, Between Cooperation and Competition: The Struggle of Eesistance Groups in Myanmar, November 26, 2024, https://acleddata.com/report/between-cooperation-and-competition-struggle-resistancegroups-myanmar; Rebecca Henschke, Ko Ko Aung, Jack Aung & Data Journalism Team, “Soldier-Spies in Myanmar Help Pro-Democracy Rebels Make Crucial Gains,” BBC, December 20, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ c390ndrny17o. 8 U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, A/78/527, October 12, 2023, para. 29., https://www.ohchr.org/en/ documents/country-reports/a78527-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-myanmar. 9 ​ Operation 1027, launched on October 27, 2023, is a significant military offensive in Myanmar’s ongoing civil conflict. The Three Brotherhood Alliance, comprising the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Arakan Army, initiated the assault. See, Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, “Myanmar: Momentum from Operation 1027 Threatens Military Rule,” February 1, 2024, https://acleddata.com/2024/02/01/ myanmar-momentum-from-operation-1027-threatens-military-rule/. 10 Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), ACLED Dataset, accessed July 23, 2025, https://acleddata.com/ data-export-tool/.