UN: Myanmar Military Escalated Strikes Before Election
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- The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar reported that the military stepped up aerial attacks on civilians before the December 2025-January 2026 election, with all sides in the civil war committing war crimes and serious abuses — including torture and sexual violence — over the past year.
- IIMM investigators documented a pattern of deliberate aerial attacks on homes, schools, medical facilities, religious buildings, and camps for internally displaced people, with a notable escalation in the months preceding the election.
- Myanmar's military increasingly used low-cost paramotors, gyrocopters, and drones to conduct low-altitude strikes with unguided explosives; IIMM is investigating Sagaing Region incidents in which pilots allegedly cut their engines to glide silently toward targets, giving civilians little warning.
- IIMM head Nicholas Koumjian said investigators gathered extensive evidence of arbitrary detention, torture, and deaths in custody in military-run facilities, and are also examining allegations of conflict-related sexual violence by anti-junta armed groups.
- The December 2025-January 2026 election, which Western governments and rights groups called neither free nor fair, was won by a military-backed party, allowing then-junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to become president; he visited Thailand this month in search of international legitimacy.
Why it matters: The IIMM report directly ties escalated aerial attacks to the election period that installed Min Aung Hlaing as president, undermining his simultaneous push for diplomatic legitimacy through the Thailand visit. With an estimated 100,000 killed since the 2021 coup, the documented tactics — including silent gliding strikes on displacement camps — give international courts a concrete evidentiary record to pursue future accountability.
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