“Crashing Down on Us” 59 Additionally, through its aerial attacks on civilians and internally displaced families in Kachin and Karenni states, the Myanmar junta’s acts have caused widespread terror among the civilian population. Article 13(2) of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions prohibits “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population.”149 Furthermore, in the case of Serbian military actions in Kosovo in the late 1990s, the U.N. General Assembly found indiscriminate and widespread shelling and mass forced displacement of civilians to be evidence of the systematic terrorization of civilian populations.150 The military junta’s decision to attack civilian and civilian objects in Kachin and Karenni states appears not only deliberate but also designed to inspire terror. Airstrike survivors told Fortify Rights of the fear and terror they experienced as a result of the attacks. Survivors and witnesses from Kachin and Karenni states believe the junta is deliberately attacking civilians. Based on available evidence, Fortify Rights also believes these attacks and their effects were deliberate and in violation of the laws of war. The 1998 U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement also articulate minimum standards required “to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons.”151 Although not binding, the principles provide authoritative guidance not only on preventing displacement but also protecting displaced persons. Principle 11 of the Guiding Principles expressly prohibits “acts of violence intended to spread terror among internally displaced persons.” Indiscriminate and widespread attacks on civilians, indiscriminate and widespread destruction of property, and mass forced displacement of civilians violate international humanitarian law, including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II.152 In October 2023, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, alleged the junta’s use of airstrikes against civilians constitutes collective punishment. His report states: 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.153 By the junta’s own admission in an MRTV broadcast in the aftermath of the October 2023 attacks in Kachin State, the KIA’s attacks on the Gundauyang Security Outpost on the Myitkyina-Bhamo Road—which precipitated the junta’s attacks and airstrikes on Laiza on October 31, 2023—were in line with international humanitarian law in that the KIA targeted combatants and military targets, according to the junta. The junta’s self-described “retaliatory attack,” however, targeted civilians and civilian objects either deliberately or indiscriminately, which may constitute a violation of the laws of war.154 The indiscriminate nature of the junta’s attacks, as well as the threat it poses to international peace and security, is also demonstrated by the deadly shelling of locations inside China. 149 Protocol I, Art. 51(2). 150 U.N. General Assembly, Situation of Human Rights in Kosovo, U.N. Doc. A/RES/53/164, February 25, 1999. 151 UNOCHA, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, January 2003, Principle 3(1), 18, https://www.unhcr.org/protection/ idps/43ce1cff2/guiding-principles-internal-displacement.html. 152 U.N. General Assembly, Situation of Human Rights in Kosovo, para. 8. 153 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, U.N. Doc. A/78/527. 154 “မြ�စ််ကြီး�း�နား�း-ဗန်းး�မော်�်� ကားး�လမ်းး�မကြီး�း�အားး� လုံံခြုံ� � �ံ ရေး�းဆော�ာင််ရွွက်ပေး ် �းနေေသည့််� ကန််တော်�်�ယန်လုံ ် ခြုံ� ံ� �ံ ရေး�းစခန်းး�အားး� KIA နှှင့် �် ပူးး�ပေါ�ါင်းး�အင််အားး�စုုအဖွဲ့့�� မှှ အင််အားး�အလုံးး��အရင်းး�ဖြ�င့််� ဝင််ရော�ာက််တိုက် ု� ခိုု ် က် � ် [KIA and Allied Forces Launch Massive Attack on Gundauyang Security Outpost Providing Security on Myitkyina- Bhamo Road],” MRTV.