Junta Forces Kill Humanitarian Workers and Civilians in Dawei Special Economic Zone

 

As Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing deepened political and economic ties with Russia during his visit in August, new evidence shows that his soldiers committed grave abuses against civilians in Yebyu Township, Tanintharyi Region, Fortify Rights said today. In July 2026, junta forces arbitrarily detained, tortured, and killed at least five civilians, including three humanitarian aid workers, while burning villages and forcibly displacing thousands during a major military operation in and around the Russian-backed Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The military operation and occupation of the area were ongoing at the time of publication. The attacks followed reported orders from the junta’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief Kyaw Swar Lin to secure strategic economic assets in Tanintharyi, including the Russia-backed Dawei SEZ deep-water port, and to “wipe out” resistance fighters along a key highway. Survivors told Fortify Rights they believed the subsequent large-scale military operation was aimed at securing territory around the SEZ, which the junta is seeking to revive through agreements with Russian companies, including state-controlled energy company Inter RAO. “The Myanmar military junta is terrorizing civilians while attempting to consolidate control over an area containing one of its most strategically important economic projects, a Russian-backed deep-water port and Special Economic Zone,” said Winter Berry, Communications Specialist at Fortify Rights. “Members of ASEAN, Russia, and other governments and companies pursuing economic projects with the junta should end business relationships that provide the junta with resources or legitimacy, recognizing that investment in these areas risks contributing to military violence against local communities.” In July and August 2026, Fortify Rights interviewed four individuals, including survivors, local residents, and humanitarian aid workers, and reviewed photographs of the victims' bodies showing multiple wounds, including injuries to the neck and wounds to the head. Fortify Rights also reviewed photographs documenting the aftermath of the burning of Wa Zun Taw village in Yebyu Township and photographs showing burned civilian homes. Fortify Rights has changed the names of people quoted in this release for security reasons. According to residents, on July 9, 2026, a junta military column stopped six passenger vehicles and detained drivers and passengers in Khamaung Chaung village, Yebyu Township. Among those detained were three humanitarian workers: Eh Thar, 24; Leon, 24; and Myat Thu, 19. The three worked with The Ants Humanitarian Aid Team, a humanitarian group founded by local youth in October 2024 to provide life-saving assistance to communities displaced by conflict in hard-to-reach areas of Tanintharyi Region. The three humanitarian workers were taken to a monastery in Khamaung Chaung village and were later found dead, according to residents and people closely affiliated with The Ants Humanitarian Aid Team.

Map showing the villages where Myanmar junta soldiers detained civilians, and where the bodies of The Ants team members were found. ©Fortify Rights, 2026.

Fortify Rights spoke with a resident of Yebyu Township, “Leo,” a 32-year-old Civil Disobedience Movement teacher, who discovered the bodies on July 20 in an oil-palm plantation between Aye Ka Ni and Wa Zun Taw villages, near a connecting road. He said: I personally saw the bodies. … Their throats had been slit. Their faces had been beaten until they were crushed. … We could identify them only by the clothes they normally wore. Ko Myat Thu had a wallet with him, and his identity card remained. … We don’t know exactly when they were killed. Maybe [the junta soldiers] left them there with the intention that the bodies would be washed away during the next flood. The three humanitarian workers were found near the body of another civilian, a farm worker from West Sanchi village, on the same day. “Leo” told Fortify Rights: Around 1 p.m. on July 20, [another] body was found. [It was] a person who had been detained from another village, dressed in a People’s Defence Force (PDF) uniform [by the soldiers who detained him], and killed. [He] was a civilian from West Sanchi village. He worked on a farming compound. He was tied up and shot in the ear. “Leo” and other residents cremated the three humanitarian workers on July 20. “Leo” also told Fortify Rights that he spoke with drivers who had been detained alongside the three humanitarian workers. According to a released driver, the three humanitarian workers were last seen alive in junta custody. A humanitarian worker closely affiliated with The Ants, “Min Myat,” 24, told Fortify Rights that members of the humanitarian group decided to relocate to a safer place before the incident due to a large military deployment in the area. He said: Around July 7 and 8, the military junta deployed a large force into Yebyu Township. … We had never seen such a large military deployment before. … Because of that, Ko Leon, Ko Myat Thu, and Ko Eh Thar decided to relocate to a safer place. [T]hey faced a junta military column and were detained. The soldiers took them to [Khamaung Chaung village] monastery. When we first heard [the news of their detention], I felt somewhat hopeful that perhaps they would survive. But I did not realize that they [The Ants team members] had been carrying electronic devices, including laptops and mobile phones containing data [about their work]. “Min Myat” told Fortify Rights about the last known information concerning the three humanitarian workers from a released villager: We were able to contact one person who was released [from the junta soldiers’ detention]. ... He was released around July 10 [2026] after being among those arrested. According to what he told us, [they were detained together and] Ko Eh Thar and the others were still alive and in good health at that time. That was what we learned from him.  “Min Myat” explained to Fortify Rights that he believed the junta soldiers killed the humanitarian workers because of the assistance they provided to communities, including mine-risk education and airstrike awareness, as well as their work documenting killings, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations in the Dawei area. He added that the soldiers appeared to have accessed information stored on their confiscated electronic devices: We’re concerned about security. [On July 21, the day after their bodies were found], we noticed that Ko Eh Thar’s and Ko Myat Thu’s Telegram accounts became active. … No one has contacted us through those accounts. We tried sending them messages, and they were marked as seen. … We're concerned that the military may now be able to identify and trace the organizations and partner groups that had been in contact with us. Fortify Rights also spoke with “Ko Oo,” a 30-year-old resident of Wa Zun Taw village, who was detained and beaten during the junta’s occupation of the village on July 13. He said: It was around 8 a.m. At that time, I was going to visit my grandmother. [The junta soldiers] had entered the village and were moving around. I ended up coming out behind them, and that was when I was detained. … There were many [junta soldiers]. … They also detained my grandfather, grandmother, and mother. … [The soldiers] beat me two times while detaining me. Later on, they beat me three or four times. … We were all kept in a house that the soldiers were occupying. Ko Oo and his family were detained for three days and were released when the junta column moved on toward the neighboring village. During the junta’s occupation of villages in Yebyu Township, Leo also described witnessing the aftermath of the burning and looting of civilian homes in Aye Ka Ni and Wa Zun Taw villages as the junta soldiers left the area. He said soldiers searched homes and took residents’ belongings before setting fire to houses. Everything had been searched through, and belongings were looted. In my case, I didn’t even have clothes left to wear. ... They burned down houses in the village. Ten houses had been completely burned to ashes. In total, I think there were more than 20, around 30 [houses burned]. After two or three days, they came back again and burned one clinic and two other houses in the village. Leo also told Fortify Rights that a monk in Kone Thar Yar Inn village, who was sheltering displaced villagers, was forced by junta soldiers to change out of his robes and was killed. However, Fortify Rights has been unable to independently verify the killing because junta soldiers remain in the area. Burned homes in Wa Zun Taw village after Myanmar military junta soldiers set fire to the village in July 2026. The homes were photographed by a resident after the soldiers left the village. ©Private, 2026. Due to the continued presence of junta military columns in the area, survivors told Fortify Rights that additional civilian casualties may remain undiscovered because villagers have been unable to safely return to their homes or search for bodies in the area. Several communities remain displaced without access to humanitarian support while junta soldiers continue operating in the area.   The documented attacks took place against the backdrop of accelerating Myanmar-Russia cooperation over the Dawei SEZ and explicit military orders to secure strategic economic assets in the region. Several survivors interviewed by Fortify Rights believed the military operation was linked to the junta’s efforts to secure territory around the Dawei SEZ following the junta-controlled Launglon Economic Development Company’s agreement with Inter RAO, a major Russian state-controlled energy holding company sanctioned by the European Union in July 2026. The Dawei SEZ, which seeks to create a deep-water port, spans Yebyu and Dawei townships, placing communities affected by the military operation in and around the planned development area.   The Dawei SEZ is a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure and industrial development project in Tanintharyi Region, southern Myanmar. The project was initiated as a joint venture between the governments of Thailand and Myanmar in 2008, but was suspended in 2013. On February 23, 2025, the Myanmar military junta and Russia signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding on investment cooperation for Dawei SEZ, followed by a power plant project agreement with Inter RAO on June 5, 2026. The agreements include plans for major infrastructure projects, including a 660-megawatt coal-fired power plant and an oil refinery, in addition to the deep-water port. Map showing the Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and villages where Myanmar military junta soldiers committed abuses that may amount to war crimes during operations to secure the SEZ in Yebyu Township. ©Fortify Rights, 2026. On June 24, 2026—approximately two weeks before the large-scale military deployment documented by Fortify Rights—the junta’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief Kyaw Swar Lin visited Tanintharyi Region and reportedly instructed military forces to secure strategic economic assets, including the Dawei SEZ deep-sea port project. He also ordered forces to “wipe out” resistance fighters along National Highway 8, which connects key hubs including Ye in Mon State and Dawei, Myeik, Bokepyin, and Kawthaung in Tanintharyi Region.   On August 18, 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Min Aung Hlaing and the junta-appointed Chief Minister of the Tanintharyi Region, and signed agreements that reportedly cover electric power, oil and gas, satellite navigation systems, and manned spaceflight.   Putin, his former minister of defense Sergei Shoigu, his commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova, chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov, the former commander of long-range aviation Sergei Kobylash, and the commander of the Black Sea fleet Viktor Sokolov are all under arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, while the judges of the court are currently considering a similar arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity committed in Myanmar.   Although armed resistance groups operate in parts of Yebyu Township, the survivors and eyewitnesses interviewed by Fortify Rights consistently said that no resistance forces were present in the attacked villages at the time of the attacks. Fortify Rights found no evidence that the attacked villages were military objectives at the time of the attacks.   Given the war crimes being committed by the Myanmar military junta around the Dawei SEZ, governments and companies involved in the Dawei SEZ and other junta-led “development” projects should immediately divest their interests and publicly announce their divestments, said Fortify Rights.   Myanmar has a decades-long history of military abuses connected to major “development” projects. In southern Myanmar in the 1990s and 2000s, the Myanmar military used forced labor, forced displacement, land confiscation, torture, rape, and killings of civilians during the construction and operation of the Yadana and Yetagun gas pipelines to Thailand. Evidence documented by Earth Rights International found that the companies involved in the projects knew about, benefited from, and were complicit in abuses committed by Myanmar military forces securing the pipeline corridor. The Yadana project ultimately produced landmark litigation against American oil company UNOCAL—now Chevron—which settled claims brought by villagers alleging complicity in forced labor, rape, and murder. Under international humanitarian law, parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives. Parties must also take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of hostilities, allow civilians to move to safety, and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance. Humanitarian workers are entitled to heightened protection under international humanitarian law: deliberately attacking or murdering detained humanitarian workers would constitute a war crime. Directly attacking civilians or civilian objects such as hospitals and homes may also amount to war crimes.   The history should serve as a warning to Russian companies and other investors pursuing projects with Myanmar’s junta today that their collaboration may implicate them in war crimes and serious human rights abuses, said Fortify Rights. “Russia has spent years arming the Myanmar military with fighter jets and other weapons that the junta uses to bomb and kill civilians across the country,” said Chit Seng, Senior Human Rights Specialist at Fortify Rights. “Russia is continuing to deepen its relationship with a dictator and a military that has never stopped committing widespread abuses against the people of Myanmar. The ongoing violence around Dawei SEZ shows what that relationship means for civilians on the ground. The people of Myanmar should not have to pay with their lives for Russia and Myanmar’s economic ambitions.”