The Observers – Two years after the coup, Myanmar’s junta fights opposition with fire

Issued on: 01/02/2023 – 17:52

Fire, an extreme weapon of war used to burn down homes, supplies and storehouses of food, has been at the forefront of the conflict in Myanmar. Since the 2021 coup d’état, the military junta has used it as it’s faced off against the resistance: the People’s Defence Forces and allied ethnic militias. 

The junta has been accused of grave human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrest, mass killings, sexual violence and torture. Activists say they’ve also been using fire to burn down buildings and villages that show sympathy to the opposition. 

Tracking these fires is difficult, but NGOs and rights groups have begun documenting them. One of them, Myanmar Witness, has been using open-source tools to verify and record alleged arson attacks, creating a Fire Map to gather evidence of fires. 

The map compiles instances of buildings and villages destroyed by fire. Each one begins with a claim from the media or eyewitnesses, which are then verified by analysts using real-time data from NASA and satellite imagery. 

In this episode of the Observers, we spoke to one of their analysts to learn more.

The military junta has been burning civilian properties dozens of times every month, at least since late 2021. And these numbers keep climbing. The military junta wants to instill fear in the local population that their shelter and their food are not secure if they side with the opposition.

One of the junta’s strategies is to create chaos in society. Fire creates possibly the highest level of chaos at the lowest cost for the military junta, from their point of view. It may be the most efficient strategy, which is why the military junta does it so often.

According to Myanmar Witness, fire incidents ramped up in December 2022 making it one of the worst months on record. 

We collect, document and preserve, analyse and verify cases of human rights interferences, including cases of fires. So we monitor the open source content online on the internet, such as public posts on social media and articles on news sites. 

We also use publicly accessible tools such as FIRMS, which is an online tool by NASA that provides information about active fires in near real time.

NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) map uses heat and infrared sensors to indicate fires around the world within hours. This database, alongside eyewitness footage and satellite imagery can give Myanmar Witness enough evidence to hold the military junta accountable through reports and media engagement. 

Other NGOs and international bodies are collecting evidence of international crimes committed by the military junta to present to the International Criminal Court.