International Adherence to ‘Neutrality’ Facilitates Myanmar Junta’s Impunity, Rights Group Warns

Burma News International (BNI) is a network of 15 independent media and news organizations based in and around Burma The international community’s policy of neutrality regarding the Myanmar crisis effectively grants the military junta a green light to arbitrarily arrest, kill, and commit widespread human rights violations with total impunity, the Kachin Human Rights Watch (KHRW) warned in a new report. The report, titled ‘Inhumane Acts: Exposes Human Rights Violations in Kachin State’ and released on July 13, highlights ongoing breaches of international law by the junta. The rights group argues that global inaction and a failure to enforce international legal frameworks are actively enabling the regime's atrocities. Ko Jacob, a spokesperson for KHRW, urged foreign governments and international bodies to abandon their neutral stance, impose decisive sanctions, and stand firmly with the population. "The international community should not choose neutrality. Not only in Kachin State but across the whole of Myanmar, the junta is arbitrarily arresting and killing civilians while deliberately targeting them with artillery attacks. In reality, the junta's actions amount to genocide against the people," Jacob said, calling on international organizations to immediately halt any form of support to the military regime. The KHRW report sharply criticized global actors for failing to implement concrete countermeasures, such as banning aviation fuel supplies and cutting off the flow of weapons and funding. The group stressed that refusing to sanction these lifelines is not a neutral decision, but an active choice that permits the junta to sustain its deadly aerial bombardment campaign against its own citizens. In northern Myanmar's Kachin State alone, the military’s offensives have displaced nearly 250,000 people—a figure equivalent to more than one and a half times the population of the state capital, Myitkyina. KHRW documented that junta airstrikes, drone attacks, and artillery shelling killed over 130 civilians in 2025, including seven children. The humanitarian fallout is rapidly worsening as the military opens simultaneous battlefronts across the region, according to the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT). "Armed conflict is widespread across Kachin State. The junta has opened multiple frontlines within a relatively small area and is carrying out offensives simultaneously," said Daw San Htoi, spokeswoman for KWAT. "As a result, large numbers of displaced civilians are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. We urge the international community to respond from a humanitarian perspective and take action to stop the junta." Beyond kinetic attacks, the military regime is accused of weaponizing humanitarian aid by deliberately blocking relief access to displaced populations, using starvation and the denial of medical supplies as a weapon of war. Furthermore, prolonged junta-imposed internet and mobile communication blackouts continue to isolate the region, cutting off information flows to the outside world and severely delaying emergency relief operations. Myanmar has been engulfed in a bloody civil war since February 2021, when the military seized power in a coup, triggering widespread armed resistance across the country.