International Criminal Court: Investigate Arakan Army's Filmed Execution Of Prisoners Of War

(BANGKOK, January 23, 2025) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) should investigate war crimes committed by the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State, Myanmar, said Fortify Rights today. New leaked video footage shows several AA soldiers and plain-clothed men cutting and hacking the throats of two detainees in front of a shallow dirt pit in the ground.

“Torturing and summarily executing civilians or captured enemy soldiers are war crimes,” said Ejaz Min Khant, Human Rights Associate at Fortify Rights. “Captured enemy soldiers should always be treated with dignity as prisoners of war and afforded the protections of the Geneva Conventions, and those responsible for war crimes against detainees should be prosecuted.”

Fortify Rights analysed two leaked video recordings of the possible executions and believes they are authentic. The two victims do not appear to be dead by the end of the videos but are unlikely to have survived the incident due to the nature of their injuries and the attack. Fortify Rights was unable to verify the exact location of the incident.

The first video, which lasts two minutes and 52 seconds, appeared online on December 25, 2024. A second video of the same incident, filmed from a different camera, is three minutes and 20 seconds long and was sent to Fortify Rights on January 19, 2025.

The longer video begins by showing eight men—one in full military dress and three in partial military dress—standing over two captives on the ground, one of whom has been stripped to his underwear. Several of the standing men are armed with military-grade firearms, including those in civilian dress, and several hold long, machete-like knives. At least one perpetrator is wearing a full AA uniform with visible AA insignia, and all those speaking in the videos appear to be native Rakhine speakers. As two perpetrators attempt to cut the clothing off one victim, others kick the second victim in the head, face, and back at least a dozen times as he lies helpless and half-clothed on the ground.

In the longer video, one of the perpetrators can be heard saying, “Is the Battalion Commander coming?” Another responds, “Why should we care if he comes? … No, nothing will happen if he comes. He [the Battalion Commander] gave us these people to do this.” This dialogue suggests an AA commander may have given orders for the two captives to be killed, raising questions of command responsibility.

Several perpetrators violently kick the backs of the two victims before two men—one of whom is wearing a full military uniform with a lit cigarette in his mouth—force the two victims to kneel, facing the cameras and a shallow dirt pit. “Hey, start slaughtering," says one person in the video. "Move them near the pit.” Two perpetrators then saw and hack at the victims’ throats and then push one of them into the shallow pit. Others then take part in stabbing, cutting, and kicking the victims. There are at least ten people visible in the videos, in addition to the two victims and the two people filming.

Throughout the footage, the captors can be heard taunting the two prisoners, asking them what it felt like to kill Rakhine people. One person filming the scene instructs the armed men: “Don’t kill them at once, kill them one by one, slaughter them by cutting their throats. … Good, good, keep doing it like that.”

“The perpetrators position themselves to be filmed while they casually commit war crimes for the camera,” said Ejaz Min Khant. “This shows a deep and disturbing culture of impunity developing within the ranks of the Arakan Army.”

One man wearing a longyi — a traditional Myanmar sarong-like garment worn by men and women — can be heard at the beginning of the video, saying: “Motherfucker, can't you stand up, can't you stand up. Stand up, old man.” Then, the man recording the incident can be heard saying: “Your voice isn’t the same. It’s different when you kill our Rakhine.” Later in the video, someone else can be heard saying: “Look at the camera over there, sit up, keep sitting, go down in the pit, sit here… Whoever wishes to kill them, feel free and carry on.”

The dialogue in the videos suggests the two victims may have been Myanmar junta soldiers; however, Fortify Rights was unable to identify their identities or affiliations.

The AA has publicly committed to ensuring justice for war crimes. For example, on February 29, 2024, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha told journalists, “We will take decisive action to get justice for the victims of war crimes.” More recently, on December 23, 2024, Khaing Thukha said the AA would “systematically and thoroughly investigate” possible war crimes committed by captured Myanmar junta soldiers, and he said the AA is committed to ensuring due process rights and proportionate and suitable punishments.

The brutal executions documented in these films are part of a pattern of war crimes committed by the AA and the Myanmar military junta, Fortify Rights said. Fortify Rights called on the AA and all parties to armed conflict in Myanmar to cooperate with international justice mechanisms, including the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, a body established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect and preserve evidence of atrocity crimes in Myanmar for future prosecutions.

Since launching a deadly coup d’etat in February 2021, the Myanmar military junta has carried out a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population nationwide. Revolutionary forces like the AA have also committed atrocity crimes. For example, on August 5, 2024, AA troops massacred Rohingya civilians as they attempted to cross the Naf River, which separates Myanmar from neighboring Bangladesh. According to a Fortify Rights investigation, AA drones, artillery, and gunfire killed over one hundred Rohingya men, women, and children. The AA publicly denied responsibility for those killings.

In October 2024, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, reported to the General Assembly that he was “concerned by allegations of Arakan Army forces committing grave human rights abuses in northern Rakhine State.”

On November 27, 2024, the ICC chief prosecutor announced that his office was seeking an arrest warrant for junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in connection with his role in the forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya civilians from Myanmar to Bangladesh in 2017, noting: “This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official that my Office is filing. More will follow.”

In 2019, the ICC ruled that it has jurisdiction over the forced deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, as the latter is a state party to the Rome Statute, and forced deportation is a crime against humanity. While a crucial advancement to end impunity in Myanmar, the court’s current jurisdiction over crimes in the country is limited and does not cover ongoing atrocities nationwide.

However, Fortify Rights said ICC member states can and should immediately refer the situation in Myanmar to the Chief Prosecutor under Article 14 of the Rome Statute.

In August 2021, Myanmar’s democratic National Unity Government (NUG) submitted a declaration to the ICC giving the court jurisdiction under article 12(3) of the court’s statute, also known as the Rome Statute. On February 9, the ICC formally acknowledged receipt of the NUG’s declaration. Article 14 of the Rome Statute gives ICC Member States the right to refer crimes under the court’s jurisdiction directly to the ICC chief prosecutor if there is a reasonable presumption that the court would have jurisdiction, and the NUG’s 12(3) declaration satisfies that requirement.

Fortify Rights said today that the ICC should investigate AA war crimes using powers already conferred by the NUG. Failing this, ICC member states should refer these crimes to the Chief Prosecutor directly under Article 14 of the Rome Statute.

International humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, protects prisoners of war from torture and summary executions. Common Article 3 of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, which applies in situations of non-international armed conflict and to state and non-state actors alike, protects “members of armed forces who have laid down their arms” and those no longer playing an active part in the hostilities because of injury, detention, or other cause. Article 8(2)(c)(i) of the ICC’s Rome Statute also explicitly prohibits, as a war crime, summary executions in the context of non-international armed conflict.

International law also prohibits torture, murder, and mutilation. Violations of Common Article 3 constitute war crimes, and those responsible for such crimes should be held accountable under international law.

“These types of atrocity crimes will continue as long as impunity prevails,” said Ejaz Min Khant. “ICC member states should act now and refer the situation to the court, sending a message to all warring parties that atrocity crimes will be prosecuted and punished according to international law.”

© Scoop Media