by Zachary Lucas
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — A group of seven soldiers were sentenced to hard labor after a court found them guilty of killing civilians in a village. Four of the seven soldiers were officers.

A military court handed down the sentences to the seven soldiers following the family’s pursuit of justice for their loved ones. Sai Kaung Kham, an activist, helped the families pursue their claim after discovering nothing had been done.

The men were charged and convicted of killing villagers following a skirmish with an ethnic rebel group in eastern Shan state in Mong Yaw. The army entered the village and rounded up members of the Shan and Palaung ethnic groups. The villagers were suspected of aiding the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, a Palaungi militia that has been fighting the government for years. Days later five badly beaten bodies with knife wounds were found in a shallow grave and identified as the villagers.

Following the killings, the army released a statement saying the soldiers were responsible for the killings. The military court sentenced them to five years imprisonment under hard labor. Kham stated that “the fact they were sentenced is better than nothing.”

The army of Myanmar rarely admits to abuses or wrongdoings done by its soldiers. It is even more rare when they prosecute their own soldiers for those abuses. There were also two other incidents were soldiers were prosecuted for human rights violations earlier in the year that suggests a possible change in policy concerning human rights issues. While they exposed and prosecuted those incidents, they refused to investigate or prosecute the death of two other civilians that were killed fleeing the same village on a motorcycle.

The army ruled Burma, the name of the country before 2011, as a military junta for decades. The army fought violent conflicts with armed ethnic groups around the country. During this time, all sides are accused of numerous human rights violations that includes extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture. In 2011, democratic reforms occurred in the country allowing for a quasi-civilian leadership of the country under activist Aung San Suu Kyi. President Obama vowed to life decades old sanctions instated during the military junta’s leadership.

For more information, please see:

Bangkok Post — Myanmar soldiers jailed for killing villagers — 16 September 2016

BBC — Myanmar soldiers jailed for village murders in rare case — 16 September 2016

Gulf Times — Seven Myanmar soldiers jailed for killing villagers — 16 September 2016

Reuters — Myanmar soldiers jailed with hard labor for village killings — 16 September 2016