Amnesty International: Myanmar military using battlefield weapons against demonstrators

Amnesty International in a report on Thursday said Myanmar’s military is using “increasingly lethal tactics” and deploying battlefield weapons against peaceful anti-coup protesters.

The human rights group verified more than 50 videos of the ongoing crackdown on protesters and confirmed that Myanmar’s military is “implementing planned, systematic strategies including the ramped-up use of lethal force.”

“These Myanmar military tactics are far from new, but their killing sprees have never before been livestreamed for the world to see,” Joanne Mariner, Amnesty International’s director of crisis response, said in the report. “These are not the actions of overwhelmed, individual officers making poor decisions. These are unrepentant commanders already implicated in crimes against humanity, deploying their troops and murderous methods in the open.”

According to the group, many of the documented killings amounted to extrajudicial executions.

Amnesty International called on the U.N. Security Council to bring the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, requesting that top commanders in Myanmar’s military be brought “to justice.”

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday condemned the military’s actions against protesters and called for restraint, though it fell short of threatening actions against the country, reportedly due to opposition from neighboring countries like China and India.

“The Security Council expresses its continued support for the democratic transition in Myanmar, and stresses the need to uphold democratic institutions and processes, refrain from violence, fully respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and uphold the rule of law. It encourages the pursuance of constructive dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the will and interests of the people of Myanmar,” it said in a statement.

“The Security Council has done nothing, and today we see the same military units turn their fire on protesters,” Mariner said in the report.

“The military authorities must immediately cease their deadly onslaught, de-escalate the situation nationwide, and release all those arbitrarily detained,” Mariner said.