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Military junta using fire as a weapon

INTERVIEWS

30 January 2023

Fire

France 24

This week on The Observers, we focused on Myanmar, where it's been two years since the military junta seized power, ousting the country's democratically elected leaders. The coup d'état sparked widespread protests and a fierce opposition movement manned by the People's Defence Forces and local militias. But the junta is responding with force, using every weapon at their disposal to crush dissent -- even fire. They've been accused of burning down entire villages to cut off supplies to resistance fighters and stamp out morale.

Tracking and documenting these fires is difficult, but the team at Myanmar Witness has been using open-source tools to verify and record arson attacks since the coup. We spoke to one of their analysts to learn more about how fire has been used as a weapon of war.

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