C. Impact of conflict, violations and abuses on civilians
1. Fear, trauma, displacement and humanitarian impact
374. Irreversible harm has been inflicted on civilians by all parties to the conflicts in northern Myanmar: civilians were killed and injured; families were separated and displaced multiple times; homes, churches and schools were looted or destroyed, also preventing many children from attending school regularly;814 and entire villages were burned and destroyed.
The civilian population continues to live in constant fear and terror of an army that has thoroughly failed to protect them, and in many instances directly attacked them.
375. Victims have informed the Mission of how their lives have been altered as a consequence of the perpetration of human rights violations. Victims remain highly traumatised.815 For example, a source mentioned that children are afraid of opening doors and
804 PI-014.
805 PI-110.
806 K-145.
807 K-143, QI-077.
808 Unclear if Shan State Army-S (RCSS) or Shan State Army-N (SSPP).
809 QI-077.
810 K-143.
811 K-143, V-305.
812 K-137.
813 K-144.
814 PI-087, DI-067, PI-016.
815 PI-042, PI-103.
hide when they see or hear planes.816 Other victims are no longer able to work to sustain a livelihood.817 For instance, a tea plantation farmer explained that she can no longer work on her plantation after she was injured from shrapnel and bullet wounds on her leg and arm during a Tatmadaw attack in northern Shan State on 2 May 2017. She remained hospitalised for several weeks and she can hardly move. Her husband has since become a monk and her only income is from the work undertaken by her children. Their house was also destroyed during the attack and they now live in a rented home.818 A torture victim shared that since an incident in northern Shan State in August 2017, and because of injuries inflicted by Tatmadaw soldiers, he can no longer work and sustain his family: “The Tatmadaw soldiers tortured me and destroyed my life”.819 Other torture and ill-treatment victims have stated that they suffer from severe trauma, cognitive dysfunction, and other mental and physical consequences that require medical care.820
376. Many victims reported that it had been extremely challenging to obtain medical services to treat their injuries, and some have felt compelled to travel to China to seek medical attention.821 Victims have also reportedly died because of the lack of timely medical care.822 For example, a victim from the Monekoe area in Shan State reported that on 15 January 2016 a mortar shell exploded in her compound, close to a main road, causing injuries to herself and her daughter:
The shell pieces are still in our bodies. My daughter is not normal now. She doesn’t respond to me sometimes. When I was in the hospital, doctors didn’t take the shell pieces out of my body because it was too risky. Doctors said it might harm the baby as I was already 8 months pregnant then. I had to have a surgery to deliver my baby because my whole body was swollen.823
377. Victims and witnesses’ accounts indicate the Tatmadaw frequently went to the villages of individuals who had escaped detention or forced labour looking for them,824 and in some cases beat family members of the escaped individual.825 For example, one victim from Myitkyina, Kachin State, who was arrested and detained overnight in 2012 and whose brother was killed by the Tatmadaw during this detention, reported that after he escaped detention and fled the country, the Tatmadaw went to his village to look for him. His parents and siblings were afraid to stay in the village so they fled to an IDP camp.826Another victim from Myitkyina, Kachin State reported how, as retaliation for her escape after several months of forced labour in 2012, her house was destroyed and her mother beaten, and made to undertake forced labour for the Tatmadaw.827
378. An estimated 97,000 people in Kachin and 9,000 people in Shan remain in displacement camps or camp-like situations, many in overcrowded conditions with inadequate shelters, which are in urgent need of repair and provide little privacy. Many of them have been displaced for extended periods of up to seven years. Displaced peoples, particularly in non-government controlled areas, have told the Mission that the quality of education afforded in camps is poor and not recognized by the authorities to attain higher education.828 Meeting food needs is, in the words of one local organization working in these camps “a constant struggle”, with limited food rations and a rate of chronic malnutrition well above the national average.829 Access to health care remains limited, and psycho-social
816 PI-103.
817 PI-042, PI-046, PI-072.
818 PI-073.
819 PI-035.
820 PI-021, PI-035, PI-115.
821 PI-029, PI-055, PI-065, DI-057.
822 DI-070, PI-105.
823 PI-115.
824 PI-066, PI-067, PI-077, PI-078.
825 PI-007, PI-068.
826 PI-062.
827 PI-068.
828 PI-087, QM-014.
829 PI-056.
support is largely non-existent. Insecurity levels in camps are high and many displaced persons have a sense of despair for the future.830 Thousands of others, approximately 68,000 since 2017 alone, have suffered from temporary displacements over the reporting period.
Some of these individuals have been displaced multiple times.
379. Many families have been separated because of the war and many do not have contact with family members left behind.831 For example, a woman explained that she was separated from her child while fleeing a Tatmadaw attack on her village in November 2017 in Kachin State and had not seen her since.832
380. Victims frequently told the Mission that after being released or escaping from detention they were too afraid to return to their villages,833 in particular if the Tatmadaw had taken their identification documents.834 Many victims decided to leave the country,835 and in some cases family members also had to leave.836 Leaving Myanmar also impacted victims that fled and family members left behind. A man said that his aunt had to mortgage her land to pay for his trip to Malaysia, after he had escaped arbitrary detention by the Tatmadaw.837 381. Civilians continually suffer as a consequence of the continuing conflicts between the Tatmadaw and the EAOs.838 Many express a feeling of being caught in the middle: for example, one witness mentioned that, “villagers want nothing to do with this, all they want is to live in peace and farm their land. Instead we are caught in between so many wars.”839 Another stated that, “it is very difficult to live in the KIA controlled area. It is also very hard to live under the Tatmadaw controlled areas. Why can’t we live in peace?”840
(a) Consequences on women
382. The consequences for women, especially for those who lost their spouse or fathers as a result of attacks, killings or whose husbands were forcibly disappeared, are particularly severe.841 Many face a dire economic situation having lost the main breadwinner of the family, and are vulnerable to other violations, including sexual and gender-based violence.
The mother of a victim killed by the Tatmadaw in June 2017 in Namhsan Township, Shan State, stated the following:
Before my son died, we relied on him to pay for medicine and food as we are aged.
Now without him it is very difficult to survive, and our life is very hard now. I live with my husband, but he is also old. There is no one else to care for us anymore.842 383. Another woman recalled the impact of the disappearance of her husband in Kachin State in 2014:
I became the head of the household. My children lost their father, and I had to find income to maintain my children and my aging parents. I had to start selling vegetables and to travel from one village to another. That is where Tatmadaw soldiers raped me in February 2018. Ever since my husband was taken away by the Tatmadaw, we have been struggling for survival. I decided to leave my children in Kachin State with my elderly parents so I can work abroad and ensure they stay alive.843
830 QM-014, QM-017.
831 PI-020, PI-027, PI-074, PI-084, PI-086.
832 PI-086.
833 PI-089, PI-085, PI-084, PI-079, PI-078.
834 PI-011, PI-029.
835 PI-062, PI-033, PI-029, PI-006.
836 PI-001, PI-008, PI-012, PI-027, PI-062, PI-096, QI-089.
837 PI-079.
838 PI-044, PI-074, PI-095, PI-094, PI-097, QI-077, QI-079, QI-080, QI-087.
839 PI-094.
840 PI-044.
841 PI-070, PI-073, PI-074.
842 PI-074.
843 PI-069; see this chapter, section A.4: Sexual and gender-based violence.
384. The impact of sexual and gender-based violence on women and men reported to the Mission is severe, varied and long-lasting. The Mission found one case of rape that resulted in death caused by contracting HIV.844 Other injuries reported by women included experiencing pain in the vagina and lower abdomen region during sexual intercourse.845 Similarly, men who experienced sexual torture in detention continue to suffer enduring physical and psychological injuries, including bleeding from the anus, loss of cognitive function, loss of emotional control, loss of erectile function and inability to work.846 385. The lack of specific medical expertise related to rape exacerbates the effects of sexual violence in the region. As victims are predominantly women, this creates gender-based inequality in access to medical services. In several cases, women did not have the access to medical attention and women have fallen pregnant, sometimes even after seeing a doctor immediately after the rape, because they were not given medication to prevent pregnancy.847 A 2017 report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar had also found that the limited capacity of providers, as well as restrictions on women’s freedom of movement due to increased militarization, limited access to life-saving services for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.848