KHTHON FIELD INTELLIGENCE
REGION: SOUTHEAST ASIA
CLASSIFICATION: OPEN SOURCE
16°51'N 096°11'E
ALT: 36,000 FT
PASS: 001 OF 001
SENSOR: SAR / HUMINT
MODE: HUMINT + SOCMINT
STATUS: ACTIVE
TRIBUNAL: ICJ / ICC
ROHINGYA FLED: 700K+
LAST UPDATED: 2024
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Myanmar

Country Overview Tatmadaw Rohingya Genocide
01 · Overview

Country / Region Overview

Myanmar has endured decades of military rule and violent conflict with its many ethnic minorities, reaching global attention during the 2017 crackdown in Rakhine State.

The army, the Tatmadaw, has long deployed scorched-earth tactics — burning villages, committing sexual violence, and forcibly displacing communities. Security forces targeted the Rohingya Muslim minority in what the UN later described as possible genocide. Hundreds of thousands fled across the border into Bangladesh, while those who remained faced systematic violence: killings, torture, and disappearances carried out by soldiers and local militias under state command.

"Systematic forensic investigation has been blocked by military authorities, leaving evidence hidden, contested, and politically dangerous to uncover."

— Khthon Field Assessment

Mass graves are an integral part of this campaign. The most widely confirmed case is the Inn Din massacre, where ten Rohingya men were executed and buried in a single grave, acknowledged by the military after Reuters exposed it in 2018. Survivor testimonies, satellite imagery of burned villages, and clandestine photographs suggest many more burial sites throughout northern Rakhine. These graves are typically shallow, located on village edges or in fields quickly abandoned during mass flight, making them nearly impossible to detect through satellite imagery alone once vegetation regrows.

For Khthon, Myanmar underscores the importance of HUMINT and SOCMINT: eyewitness accounts from survivors in Bangladesh camps, leaked images from soldiers' phones, and investigative journalism have proven more revealing than remote sensing. Systematic forensic investigation has been blocked by military authorities, leaving much of this evidence hidden, contested, and politically dangerous to uncover.

700,000+ Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh following the 2017 military crackdown in Rakhine State
10 Rohingya men executed at Inn Din — the only massacre acknowledged by the Myanmar military
2021 Year of the military coup that ended democratic governance and renewed widespread atrocity crimes
ICJ International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures against Myanmar in 2020 following Gambia's genocide case
02 · Timeline

Key Events

1948

Independence and the beginning of ethnic conflict

Burma gains independence from Britain. Almost immediately, ethnic insurgencies — from Karen, Kachin, Shan, and other groups — begin against the central government. These conflicts, some of the world's longest-running, establish the foundational pattern of Tatmadaw operations: scorched earth, mass displacement, and summary executions in contested areas.

1978 & 1991

Early Rohingya expulsions

Operation Nagamin (1978) and Operation Pyi Thaya (1991) drive hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh. Both operations involve killings, rape, and village destruction. The systematic denial of Rohingya citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law establishes the legal architecture for subsequent persecution.

2016

ARSA attacks and military response — Rakhine State

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacks police posts in Rakhine State, triggering a disproportionate military response. Villages are burned, women are raped, and hundreds are killed. Human rights organisations document widespread abuses, foreshadowing the larger campaign of 2017.

2017

"Clearance operations" — the Inn Din massacre

Following further ARSA attacks, the Tatmadaw launches systematic "clearance operations" across northern Rakhine. Over 700,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh. At Inn Din village, ten Rohingya men are arrested, executed, and buried in a mass grave — the only massacre the military has formally acknowledged. Reuters journalists who exposed it are imprisoned.

2018

UN Fact-Finding Mission — possible genocide finding

The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar concludes that military commanders should be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The report documents mass graves, burned villages, and systematic sexual violence. Myanmar rejects all findings.

2020

ICJ orders provisional measures

Following Gambia's genocide case filed at the International Court of Justice, the court orders Myanmar to take provisional measures to protect the Rohingya. It is the first time the ICJ has issued such an order in a genocide case against a state. Myanmar's compliance remains contested.

2021

Military coup — new wave of atrocities nationwide

The Tatmadaw seizes power on February 1, 2021, ending a decade of partial democracy. Mass protests are met with lethal force. A civil war between the military and the People's Defence Force (PDF) escalates across Sagaing, Magway, Chin, and Kayah states. Massacres, including Kani (2021) and Let Yet Kone (2022), produce new mass graves.

Ongoing

Khthon monitoring — HUMINT and SOCMINT led

With direct access blocked, Khthon monitors Myanmar through survivor testimony from Bangladesh camps, leaked soldier phone footage, and cross-referencing satellite imagery of burned village sites with SOCMINT from conflict-monitoring networks. Mass grave detection is complicated by rapid vegetation regrowth over shallow pits — making human intelligence the primary detection tool.

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