Russian-Backed Junta Destroys 75,000 Homes in Devastating War of Fire

Myanmar's military junta, an ally of Russia that also gets weapons from China, has burned down nearly 75,000 homes in a campaign of mass arson aimed at opponents of its coup, according to the latest monitoring group data.

The junta, which is under U.S. sanctions, seized power in February 2021, overthrowing and arresting Myanmar's elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It triggered widespread conflict in the country formerly known as Burma, which had already endured decades of ethnic wars. Fighting since then has left thousands of people dead and driven more than 1.5 million from their homes.

Despite the military's occasional denials, witnesses and local media have consistently reported that the junta's forces have burned homes and villages as they wage an increasingly difficult war against those who oppose its rule. The independent group Data for Myanmar registered 74,874 civilian houses burned down by the military and affiliated groups between May 1, 2021, and July 31, 2023. A total of 2,086 houses were burned in July alone.

The Myanmar junta did not respond to a request for comment submitted via the Ministry of Information.

"The burning of whole villages across upper Myanmar regions and in ethnic states is a systematic and widespread scorched earth operation," Khin Ohmar, Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the Progressive Voice rights and advocacy group told Newsweek.

"Local villagers affected have told me that in many cases the junta soldiers' columns would turn back along the village tract to ensure the entire village is completely burned down. It is a form of collective punishment to people who reject the military coup, while at the same time destroying their livelihoods to cut support to the democratic resistance movement," she said.

A recent report by the Myanmar Witness monitoring group, which uses open-source information for its analysis, gives a detailed examination of fires between September 2022 and January 2023, when a major upsurge of burning was reported. The evidence pointed clearly towards the use of arson by the military.

"The sharp increase in the numbers of fires reported around the end of 2022, and the destruction that has resulted as detailed by Myanmar Witness in this report, highlights the likely intentional use of fire as a weapon against the population by the military, including homes, infrastructure, and places of worship," said the report.

The group carried out an in-depth analysis using images from the ground, geolocating them and cross-referencing with satellite data on fires to verify incident times and locations.

According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it amounts to a war crime to carry out "extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly."

Western countries have called on Myanmar's army to relinquish power it seized after Suu Kyi won by a landslide in 2020 elections and to stop waging war against the widespread opposition to its coup.

Meanwhile, Russia has become Myanmar's closest ally, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing visiting Moscow and senior Russian officials making repeated visits to Myanmar. The United States has said Russia's support for Myanmar is destabilizing in Southeast Asia.

Russia is the main source of weapons, such as combat jets and helicopters, that have pummeled villages across swathes of Myanmar.

"Certainly the junta has its friends—Russia and China supplying a significant amount of weapons," UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, told Sky News last month. "But those on the other side are fighting for the people of Myanmar and for basic human rights in Myanmar, they need to have their friends step up in a more significant way."

At least 3,888 people have been killed in crackdowns by the military since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners group. This does not include all combatants killed.