In a remarkable piece of reporting, in a country where foreign journalists have no official access to the true story of Myanmar\u2019s civil war, Sky News recently released details<\/a> of an undercover mission deep into southeastern Myanmar. Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay encountered first-hand the Myanmar military regime\u2019s devastating campaign of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramsay and his team discovered shocking evidence of sustained attacks on civilian homes and infrastructure, including daily artillery and aerial bombardment as well as arson attacks, which are forcing people from their homes with over 1.5 million people currently displaced and in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Ramsay concludes that the military, known as the \u2018Tatmadaw\u2019, are pursuing a campaign of violence where: \u2018The idea is to break down society\u2026 schools, hospitals, places of worship, shops, and even\u2026 rice fields are being destroyed in the military’s attempts to crush the resistance\u2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Responding to this reporting, Myanmar\u2019s pro-junta embassy in London categorically denied<\/a> the current regime is indiscriminately killing its own people. They stated this was a \u2018wrong narrative\u2019 and that Myanmar is a \u2018responsible member of the international community\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The staggering statistics revealing the extent of the violence wrought on the people of Myanmar since the February 2021 coup testify to the contrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a report<\/a> published by the UN Human Rights Office in March 2023, from the beginning of the coup on 1 February 2021 until 31 January 2023, nearly 80% of the country\u2019s 330 townships experienced armed violence. The systematic and widespread burning of villages, a core and longstanding tactic of the Tatmadaw, has increased 1,000-fold since February 2022 compared with the previous year, with nearly 39,000 houses nationwide burnt or destroyed in military operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chan Thar village, a predominantly Catholic village in the worst-hit northwestern Sagaing Region has experienced continual assaults and arson attacks. In a raid on 14 January 2023, it was widely reported that a 129-year-old Catholic church and almost all of the few remaining houses in the village were set alight by regime troops. Myanmar Now recorded<\/a> an anonymous villager stating: \u2018They have raided over thirty times now and this is the fourth time our village has been torched\u2026essentially nothing is left\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation in Myanmar is so grave that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker T\u00fcrk, has termed<\/a> what is happening a \u2018festering catastrophe\u2019. He also warns that<\/a> the country is in a \u2018deadly freefall into even deeper violence and heartbreak\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reign of terror that the junta is inflicting on its people is in keeping with a longstanding counter-insurgency strategy that the Tatmadaw employs. This approach, known as \u2018Pya Ley Pya\u2019 or the \u2018Four Cuts\u2019 strategy, is designed to cut off sources of food, funds, information and recruits from any armed opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not strictly a military strategy though; what makes the \u2018Four Cuts\u2019 approach so brutal is that it is largely aimed at villages of unarmed civilians, crushing them to prevent or deter locals from supporting or joining the resistance. The engagement of this strategy provides a cruel rationale for a number of gross human rights violations and dehumanising activities, including, but not limited to, killings, sexual violence, displacement, torture, arbitrary arrest and the aforementioned devastation of homes, civilian infrastructure and places of worship, alongside the blocking of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Tatmadaw began utilising the \u2018Four Cuts\u2019 strategy in the 1960s<\/a> to subdue armed resistance in Karen National Union (KNU) controlled areas of eastern Myanmar. The ensuing series of military dictatorships returned to these methods time and again, such as in Kachin State, after a failed ceasefire between the military regime and the Kachin Independence Organisation in 2011, and again in Rakhine State where fighting between the ethnic Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw led to 230,000 people feeling for their lives from 2018 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this technological era the junta is adapting, blocking mobile internet data and networks in regions where the regime\u2019s soldiers are clashing with armed resistance fighters and using social media to spread disinformation and to hunt those suspected of being involved with the resistance. Such tactics do not distinguish between civilian and armed persons.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Digital banking has now also been weaponised through changes to banking laws that are parting both pro-democracy forces and ordinary people from their money. Mobile money systems have been a lifeline to many small civilian-run businesses as they sought to adapt to survive under the current regime. Radio Free Asia quotes<\/a> Sayar Kyaung, leader of Yangon UG Association explaining: \u2018The junta knows that people will not be able to pay attention to the revolution if making ends meet become more and more difficult. The junta is trying to cripple people\u2019s businesses so they will be less willing to support the revolution.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite catastrophic losses, severe repression and displacement, the \u2018Four Cuts\u2019 strategy is largely failing to deter the resistance. Far from it, Sky News\u2019 Stuart Ramsay listened as most people he met described how the Myanmar military is emboldening their resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The international community must act more decisively and with greater urgency to support the incredible efforts and bravery of the anti-junta resistance in Myanmar. Far from being the \u2018responsible member of the international community\u2019 that the current regime has characterised itself as, the Tatmadaw are committing war crimes and grave human rights abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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A festering catastrophe<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The cruelty of \u2018Four Cuts\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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An unbroken people<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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