New Website Aims to Hold Myanmar Army Officers Accountable for Human Rights Abuses

Myanmar Army's High-Ranking Officers Profiled in Interactive Online Report by Security Force Monitor, Revealing Connections to Documented Atrocities Under Their Command

• The myanmar.securityforcemonitor.org website is an online version of a report which aims to hold high-ranking officers in Myanmar's army accountable for human rights abuses. The site exposes the chain of command, showing connections between alleged rights violations and specific commanders.
• The website was created by Security Force Monitor, a project from the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute. The team constructed a timeline of senior commanders, correlating their postings with the occurrence of alleged atrocities.
• The data shows that from 2011 to 2023, 65% of all senior army commanders had instances of disappearances, killings, rape, or torture committed by units under their command.
• The research identified General Mya Htun Oo as the officer with the most links to serious human rights violations. He became defense minister and a member of the ruling military council when the army seized power in 2021, and later became deputy prime minister in 2023.
• The tool draws from the doctrine of 'command responsibility', which allows for the prosecution of military commanders for war crimes perpetrated by their subordinates under international law.
• The website's methodology was developed from lessons learned in researching militaries globally and has previously been applied in allegations against the Mexican Army at the International Criminal Court.

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