‘Turning the soil’: A senior defector describes Myanmar junta’s policy of war crimes

U Zaw’s journey began within the ranks of Myanmar’s military, where he served under one of the junta’s regional commanders until his defection in July 2024. The turning point in his career came late the previous year, as the regime stepped up its brutal campaign of airstrikes in resistance-held territories, bringing it to new levels of intensity. As his superiors issued countless orders to hit their targets hard, U Zaw (not his real name) started to have deep misgivings about their willingness to inflict such suffering on the civilian population. At first he voiced his concerns among his peers; but over time, some of the top brass began to detect his reluctance to embrace their strategy of maiming and killing civilians as a means of instilling fear in them. And this made him a marked man. This tense situation came to a head during the second wave of Operation 1027, which saw the military suffer a string of humiliating defeats. The junta relied heavily on its air superiority to counter the demoralising effect of these losses on the rank and file, sacrificing hundreds of civilian lives in the process. It was at this point that U Zaw decided it was time to voice his objections to the regime’s punitive raids, which came at a devastating cost to local communities across the affected areas. “I spoke up during a meeting,” he recalled. “I said they shouldn’t be bombing civilians, only combatants.” This remark was dismissed by senior commanders present at the meeting, one of whom made it clear where the junta leadership stood on the issue: “He said they should not care about civilian casualties and should focus only on winning the war.” Other commanders echoed this sentiment, rejecting his warnings about potential war crimes. “They told me it was more important to win the fight than to worry about civilians,” he said. While his opinion was not taken seriously, it was enough to cast suspicion on his loyalties. U Zaw realised that he had crossed a line by raising an issue that his superiors preferred to ignore. He knew that it was just a matter of time before they took action against him. And so he made up his mind to leave. He went first to Ayetharyar, a scenic town just outside of the Shan State capital Taunggyi, where he was joined by his family. They stayed there a while, but soon discovered that they hadn’t gone far enough to escape the regime’s shadow. “We were subjected to scrutiny by the junta, including visitor inspections and surveillance by police and intelligence agents,” he said. Under constant pressure, he reached out to Nay Myo Zin, a former army captain who had risen to prominence as a civil rights activist under Myanmar’s previous regime. “He advised me to seek refuge in Karenni State.” An injured civilian is carried following aerial bombardments by Myanmar’s military in Mandalay Region’s Singu Township on March 14 (Photo: AFP) Life as a moving target U Zaw followed this advice, and soon found himself at the receiving end of the junta’s deadly attacks. The village where he was staying in Karenni State was hit by two airstrikes while he was there, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was the target. Both strikes came precariously close to hitting his residence, he said. But that wasn’t the only risk he faced. Just as he had lost the trust of the military, he had little luck gaining that of the resistance. Some regarded his presence as a threat, not just because he seemed to attract unwelcome attention from the regime, but also because there were suspicions that he was actually a spy. This made U Zaw’s stay in Karenni State increasingly untenable. Once again he turned to Nay Myo Zin, who this time helped him to escape to neighbouring Thailand. Now in hiding in a city that has become a magnet for many fleeing Myanmar’s despotic regime, U Zaw recounts how things have changed within the military since it seized power in February 2021. Previously, he said, it maintained internal records of civilian casualties and occasionally held soldiers accountable. But since the coup, its relentless focus on crushing resistance forces has erased such oversight. It is the very weakness of the regime that has made it so dangerous, he explained. Facing unprecedented opposition to its rule, the military’s senior leaders know they are fighting for their lives—or at least, for their self-declared right to rule after decades of successive military dictatorships. This means that they feel justified in taking any action that will allow them to hold onto power, according to U Zaw. The military even has a term for its practice of unbridled violence in the face of possible defeat: “turning the soil”. Taught to senior officers, this doctrine openly encourages commanders to destroy villages and civilian infrastructure when facing military disadvantage. This may be a clear violation of international humanitarian law, but such considerations carry little weight with Myanmar’s military rulers, who are long accustomed to acting with impunity. According to U Zaw, who routinely attended meetings of top brass, the only subject of discussion was how best to eradicate those opposed to their rule, at whatever cost. “The day-to-day priority is deciding where to airstrike and bomb," he said. “We were [only] focused on winning and crushing the resistance. They don’t care about how many women, elderly, and children are affected by this war.” Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing arrives to deliver a speech during a ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw on March 27 (Photo: AFP) ‘They will certainly be punished’ It’s a claim that is also echoed by other junta defectors. Kaung Thu Win, a former captain in the Myanmar military, told Myanmar Now that he witnessed numerous crimes against civilians by regime forces, including widespread looting and destruction of property. Soldiers frequently raided abandoned homes, taking anything useful or valuable, from motorbikes to air conditioning units, before burning entire villages to the ground. He added that the troops openly shared these stories among themselves. During meetings, Maj-Gen Than Htike, who heads the junta’s Northwestern Regional Military Command, encouraged soldiers to act without hesitation during operations, assuring them that he would handle any consequences and warning that he would show no sympathy for those who suffered because they were too slow or cautious. “Those kinds of doctrines affect the soldiers with a greater propensity to abuse civilians,” Kaung Thu Win said. “What is happening on the ground—war crimes such as blazing the houses, arbitrarily killing civilians, torturing and arresting civilians in Sagaing Region—are a result of these kinds of instructions.” Kaung Thu Win said military commanders ignore reports of misconduct, seeing them as unimportant during wartime. Soldiers routinely burn down villages if their inhabitants are suspected of supporting resistance forces, treating civilians deemed as disloyal as if they were enemies. “When the war is over, a string of Myanmar generals, who are all in the same boat, will face war crimes and genocide charges. The most responsible person is Min Aung Hlaing. One day, they will certainly be punished for their crimes,” Kaung Thu Win said. But the certainty that they will be punished if they lose also drives the generals to win at all costs, he added. Mourners react during a funeral for victims of a junta airstrike on the village of Ohe Htein Twin in Sagaing Region’s Depayin Township on May 12 (Photo: AFP) Repression beyond borders Meanwhile, army defectors and others who have fled to Thailand have reason to fear for their safety, especially if they have exposed the junta’s crimes. The regime reportedly has agreements with Thai authorities that put exiled dissidents at risk of deportation. “If we were sent back, it would mean imprisonment or death,” said U Zaw, reflecting the grim reality of what happens to those who end up back in the junta’s hands. The revelations about the military’s “turn the soil” policy significantly raise the stakes for the regime, as they could have serious implications on the international stage, according to Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates. “If evidence is produced that this is taking place, it would constitute systematic and pervasive crimes against humanity for which top [junta] leaders and battlefield commanders should be held accountable,” Robertson told Myanmar Now. “The international community has looked the other way on a lot of the atrocities happening in Myanmar, claiming that they are too preoccupied with other, more high-profile conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, but evidence of wiping out villages would be very hard to ignore,” he added. Once regarded as a safe haven for political activists fleeing repression in their home countries, Thailand has in recent years become known as a site for transnational repression—efforts by foreign governments or their agents to silence critics by targeting their own nationals outside of their country’s jurisdiction. These abuses, according to rights groups, include surveillance, harassment, violence, abductions, enforced disappearances, forced returns, so-called digital transnational repression, and harassment of family members. “If Thailand forces military defectors back into the hands of the regime, that’s a death sentence for those individuals,” Robertson said. “There is no way those defectors would survive the barrage of abusive interrogation and torture they would face.” And so U Zaw spends his days living with an unease that never quite fades. And he thinks often of those still trapped inside: the soldiers ordered to kill without question, the civilians caught between airstrikes and gunfire, and the families like his own, forced into silence and fear by the military they served. “The reason I joined the military was to protect people,” U Zaw said. “But then the military turned out to be an organisation that was targeting the civilians. It was the opposite of my belief. I’m no longer part of an institution that's killing civilians anymore.”

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