By Nway / MPA
The Myanmar military junta is arming criminal prisoners and forcing them to fight against revolutionary forces, according to a report by the Political Prisoners Network Myanmar (PPNM) on Friday.
Following extensive investigations, the PPNM confirmed that the military is coercing prisoners—especially those in conflict-zone prisons—to take up arms, guard detention facilities, and fight alongside junta troops against revolutionary forces.
A Yangon-based political columnist told MPA, “PPNM’s findings should be submitted to the international community with solid evidence. While global powers may only issue statements of condemnation, these human rights violations by the junta will be well-documented.”
PPNM also reported that in Bhamo and Mohnyin—where the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)-led forces have intensified their offensives—the military is arming long-term criminal prisoners, forcing them to guard prisons and fight alongside junta troops against resistance attacks.
Additionally, the junta has reportedly reassigned former military and police officers—previously detained for disciplinary violations—to counter a resistance assault on Loikaw Prison.
PPNM strongly condemned the junta’s forced conscription of prisoners and the reinstatement of detained military and police personnel into active service as a means of granting them amnesty.
