Fortify Rights urges global jet fuel, arms embargo on Myanmar junta

Fortify Rights has called on UN member states to impose a global embargo on jet fuel and weapons supplies to Myanmar’s military junta, warning that the armed forces are committing war crimes through indiscriminate airstrikes on civilians.

A new 86-page report, “Crashing Down on Us: Myanmar Military Junta Aerial Attacks, War Crimes, and Impunity in Kachin and Karenni States,” released Thursday, names 22 junta commanders responsible for deadly airstrikes on schools, churches, displacement camps, hospitals, and homes between October 2023 and November 2024.

“These attacks didn’t happen by accident. They were planned, authorised, and carried out through a chain of command that remains intact and emboldened,” said Chit Seng, Human Rights Associate at Fortify Rights.

The investigation, based on 63 interviews as well as leaked military documents, photos, videos, and open-source data, directly links eight command centres, 12 military units, and several airbases to unlawful strikes.

One of the deadliest attacks occurred on 15 November 2024, when a junta aircraft bombed a Baptist church in Kachin State sheltering more than 70 displaced civilians, killing nine people, including a family of six. Another strike on 5 September 2024 on a camp for displaced persons in Pekon Township killed nine, including six children, and injured 19 others.

Fortify Rights said the junta repeatedly failed to distinguish between civilians and military targets, often using airstrikes as collective punishment following battlefield defeats.

“The international community must restrict arms and aviation fuel and pursue accountability against the Myanmar junta. This is a legal and moral obligation,” Seng said.

The organisation urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and warned that suppliers of aviation fuel and military equipment may be complicit in war crimes.

Fortify Rights noted that by late 2024 the junta had lost control of more than half its bases, holding only about 21% of Myanmar’s territory, while escalating indiscriminate air raids. Since its 2021 attempted coup, the military’s widespread attacks on civilians have displaced more than 3.4 million people and forced over a million to flee abroad, creating one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.