In its report, released on August 8th, the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) has highlighted that there is strong evidence of repeated war crimes in Myanmar.
The IIMM described the crimes being committed by the Myanmar military and its affiliates as becoming more “frequent and brazen”, citing evidence of airstrikes and bombings which have killed hundreds of civilians, as well as the executions of detained combatants and civilians.
It gave the specific example of the air strikes in the Sagaing region in April this year.
The IIMM claims to have examined over 200 witness testimonies, photographs, videos, audio files, geospatial imagery, documents and more from over 700 sources.
It said that it has presented their findings to the International Criminal Court, especially with those working on ongoing investigations regarding the Rohingya people.
“Our evidence points to a dramatic increase in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country, with widespread and systematic attacks against civilians. We are building case files that can be used by courts to hold individual perpetrators responsible”, said Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the IIMM.
There has yet to be an official statement regarding this matter from Myanmar’s military-led government.
