BANGKOK, Oct 22: Up to 66,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes in eastern Myanmar in the past year because of systematic abuses by the country’s ruling military, an aid group said on Wednesday.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which provides aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees who flee Myanmar, formally known as Burma, said in a new report that the junta’s actions could constitute crimes against humanity.

“The extent of persecution and suffering in the border areas has been largely unseen and under-reported for decades,” said Jack Dunford, TBBC’s executive director. “Yet the same brutal army that crushed protests on city streets last September marauds with impunity in rural Burma, bringing fear and disrupting the lives of villagers on a day to day basis.” The TBBC report accuses the military of systematically forcing villagers from their homes in Myanmar’s eastern Karen and Shan states.

Forced labour, land confiscation, and restricting people’s access to farmland and markets also has a devastating economic impact, it added.—AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Counterterrorism ops
Updated 01 Feb, 2025

Counterterrorism ops

It must also maintain diplomatic pressure on the Afghan Taliban to ensure their soil is not used by anti-Pakistan actors.
Peca protests
01 Feb, 2025

Peca protests

DESPITE the immense pressures they routinely face, Pakistani journalists have always cherished and jealously...
Additional spectrum
01 Feb, 2025

Additional spectrum

PAKISTAN’S mobile operators need more spectrum, the radio waves that carry voice calls and wireless data, as their...
Cost of control
Updated 31 Jan, 2025

Cost of control

Islamabad cannot expect to get away with violating the commitments it has made to foreign partners.
Deep shock
31 Jan, 2025

Deep shock

THE AI wars have begun. For years, America sought to hold China back when it hindered access to its semiconductors,...
Provincial AIT laws
31 Jan, 2025

Provincial AIT laws

HARMONISING the provincial agriculture income tax regimes with federal personal and corporate income tax rates is ...