A new report found that more than 6,000 civilians were killed in Myanmar in the first 20 months of the February 2021 military coup.
Victims of Politically Motivated Murders
The report, which was published by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo on Tuesday, revealed that at least 6,337 civilians were reported as killed and 2,614 as wounded for “political reasons” in Myanmar between February 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022.
The researchers noted that this is “a larger number” than normally reported by the media, and “yet it is only an estimate,” based on “reliable media reports.” “The actual total is surely higher since many killings have likely gone unreported,” it said.
The report accused the junta government of being “the primary perpetrator of this violence,” responsible for 3,003 civilian casualties during the time period. However, it added that “armed opponents of the coup also contributed to the bloodshed, taking the lives of 2,152 alleged collaborators.”
The study found that politically motivated murders constituted the “dominant form of violence against civilians in both urban and rural areas, especially in regions populated by the ethnic Burman majority” and in the two major cities of Yangon and Mandalay.
At least 6,000 civilians killed by #military & resistance groups in 1st 20 months of #Myanmar #coup staged 1 Feb 2021 says new @PRIOresearch report. This much higher than often-cited @aapp_burma reporting number of deaths at 3,659 https://t.co/pJ8bwytSwp #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar https://t.co/wNZiRIUcrJ pic.twitter.com/NrP6LqQNrO
— May Wong (@MayWongCNA) June 13, 2023
Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay, and Yangon — have also reported the highest number of civilian deaths in the time period, due to both repression and politically motivated murders.
Meanwhile, in the same time period, anti-coup resistance groups killed 2,152 civilians, and unspecified perpetrators killed at least 1,170 civilians.
Possible Politicide
The authors of the paper also issued a “stark warning.” “Should the violence in Myanmar continue to escalate, the nation may be on the brink of a politicide,” they warned.
The report also voiced concern about the “great risk of further escalation of these killings” during the elections planned for the Fall of 2023.
Accordingly, the researchers called on the UN to establish a mechanism for monitoring and tracking the killing of civilians in the country, in alignment with Security Council Resolution 2669, which seeks “an immediate end to all forms of violence and urges restraint and de-escalation of tensions.”
The mechanism is similar to how civilian deaths are tracked in Ukraine by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
They also called on all parties to the conflict to engage in a humanitarian dialogue to stop the civilian killings.