A year with shootings, explosions, killings, arrests, deaths, and the burning down of houses

Myanmar Spring Chronicle – December 24 Scenes
MoeMaKa, December 25 2022

A year with shootings, explosions, killings, arrests, deaths, and the burning down of houses

 

When I think back to the year 2022, it was a year full of shootings, battles, firings with heavy artillery, deaths, arrests, assassinations, the burning of houses and barns, lootings, killings, robberies, imprisonments, and executions.

 

At the same time, even though the words “peace, development, and stability” are being read in the news, what is actually happening outside these words is completely opposite events.

 

If we look back at the year 2022, the second year after the military coup, we can see that armed battles have become more widespread. In addition to the areas of armed conflict in 2021, the expanded conflict area was Rakhine State, which had previously ceased fire. Fierce battles took place in approximately one third of the state for 4 months, from August to the end of November, and there were not only armed personnel casualties but also many civilian deaths. Recently, there was an incident where there was a falling on a village in Maungdaw Township where the naming ceremony of a child was held and 13 villagers were killed.

 

In Sagaing Division, rather than clashing in battle, the military council troops rampaged the villages, tortured, interrogated, and killed the remaining residents who were unable to flee, and then burned down the houses in the villages. These events were taking place in one village after another, again and again. Within a year, there were no more villages left to be burned, and there were also many villages that had been burned more than once. As for the houses that were not burned down in the previous rampage by the military council troops, it cannot be considered lucky as there is still the risk of being burned down next time.

 

The arrests, killings, and burnings of houses experienced in Sagaing Division and the upper part of Magway Division are worse than in other regions, and it can be assumed that the military council has adopted the strategy of the scorched-earth system to demolish armed attacks. For residents of those regions, they can’t even plant or harvest in their respective seasons and are experiencing additional hardships of loss of food, famine, and lack of income.

 

One notable feature of 2022 was the increased use of air strikes by the military council. Because it has become more difficult to send reinforcements through the roads and waterways that connect one city to another on the ground, the military council has started attacking with airstrikes by helicopters and fighter jets everywhere and launching sudden attacks after dropping soldiers from helicopters. Although the military council rarely carried out airstrikes and sent troops from the air in the past, they are sending air support wherever the battle is this year. The military council is using more air support as there is fewer and fewer routes ruled by them in the country.

 

During the year 2022, hundreds to thousands of people were assassinated and executed across the country. Most of the cases were committed by the military council, and some were killings with the accusation of being junta informants by PDF groups and urban guerrilla groups fighting against the military council. The execution and killing of civilians in absentia will be politically difficult to accept according to human rights standards, and may lead to calls for accountability for justice at some point.

 

It is not comparable to the number of crimes committed by the military council, but as revolutionary organizations, assassinations with a mere accusation or complaint can damage the reputation of the revolution in the long run. Again, there have been many cases of arrests and killings due to friction or conflicts between PDFs depending on their rights and the territory, and when we review the year 2022, the number is increasing. Although it can be said that the number has increased because of fighting, I think that these issues should be considered and prepared for so that they do not become a problem relating to quality.

 

It is also important to consider what diplomatic achievements were made in 2022 and whether those diplomatic successes contributed to the actual battle on the ground. It was able to maintain the position of permanent representative at the United Nations for another year, and the Security Council has adopted a resolution with no punishment at the United Nations. It remains to be seen how much this Security Council resolution will reduce the number of civilians being killed and houses burned on the ground.

 

Before the end of 2022, the decision to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in non-weapon aid to opposition organizations and ethnic armed groups called the Burma Act, which was included in the United States government’s defense budget, was approved and signed by the 2 houses of the United States Congress and the President. The extent to which this aid can support the armed revolution will be determined in the coming year.

 

In short, it is not wrong to say that 2022 is a year that cannot be said to have ended the worst situation for Myanmar or a year with more bad experiences than the previous year.