Myanmar Spring Chronicles (MoeMaKa)
January 27 —
The Myanmar people living amid increasingly frequent and brutal killings
Since the coup, crimes have risen to levels never seen before in many generations, and the brutality of those crimes has reached degrees that people in Myanmar had never encountered in their lifetimes. The public is living in fear and anxiety.
One recent atrocity in Mowbi Township illustrates this trend: after beheading his wife, the perpetrator carried her severed head in one hand while holding a long knife in the other, walked out onto the Yangon–Pyay road, stopped a car by brandishing the knife, and then took the severed head to the Mowbi tollgate on the Yangon–Pyay road. Whether this savage act was driven by drugs, mental illness, or something else is not yet clear, but everyone has noticed that such gruesome killings are occurring more often in Myanmar society.
In another report dated January 28, there is an item that in Lashio a senior monk was stabbed and killed — struck on the head and beheaded.
Over recent months we have seen both politically-related atrocities and crimes unrelated to politics — for example robberies and killings to seize money and valuables. There have been many incidents in which entire families are murdered, and sometimes toddlers aged three, four, or five are killed along with their parents. These killings occur not only in towns and cities controlled by the junta but also in liberated areas held by resistance forces and in contested frontline areas where fighting is ongoing.
Why have these crimes increased so noticeably now? Why the extreme brutality and the killing of very young children who are not even of school age? Looking into the causes, several factors stand out: perpetrators often go unarrested and unprosecuted; rule-of-law institutions have largely ceased functioning; weapons are widely available and easily obtained; people witness similar crimes repeatedly in their surroundings and may copy them; economic hardship drives people to desperate acts to get money; and drugs are easy to buy and use. All these conditions encourage and enable the rise in these crimes.
Before the coup, family massacres did occur from time to time, but nowadays family killings happen with alarming frequency. In mid-December there was a case in KN (KNU) Brigade 4 territory in which a CDM (Civil Disobedience Movement) teacher and her husband were murdered at their home. KNU/KNLA said it had arrested those responsible, though some local sources and news outlets note discrepancies between KNU’s statement and other local information.
Such family massacres have occurred in Tanintharyi Region, in Sagaing Region, and in many border areas. In territories controlled by the junta, crimes cannot be thoroughly investigated or perpetrators arrested; similarly, crimes in resistance-held areas often go unexposed. While the junta focuses on investigating political crimes that threaten its power, it does not seriously investigate family massacres, brutal killings, and robbery-murders that terrify the population.
The public suffers not only from war-related deaths but also from the harm caused by the rise in crimes that occur because the rule of law has broken down. Those with financial means can move to somewhat safer cities or send family temporarily across the border to places like Thailand, but 99% of the population cannot relocate that way.
People are living under multiple dangers: junta airstrikes and military violence kill civilians; residents of conflict zones face the risk of artillery and small-arms fire, arrest, torture, and execution; they also face risks of robbery, murder, and other abuses. Everyday life has become a struggle for survival amid these varied threats.
Resistance forces should, within their ability, work to ensure rule of law and reduce crime in territories they control. It is not acceptable to excuse inaction by saying that being in wartime makes enforcing law impossible; instead, resistance areas should demonstrate that their governance is meaningfully different from the junta’s. Only by showing a clear contrast between junta rule and administration by resistance groups will public trust and support for the revolution be meaningful.