Myanmar’s Military Is Not a National Army — It Is an Armed Terrorist Organization

Oo Kyaw Thar, Contributing Author December 30, 2025

On December 10 — International Human Rights Day — Myanmar’s military carried out a deliberate airstrike on a hospital in Mrauk-U, Arakan State, where civilians had sought treatment. More than 30 people were killed and nearly 80 injured. Women, children, and the elderly were among the dead.

That the attack occurred on a day dedicated to human dignity is not merely symbolic. It is revealing. It underscores a reality long understood by Myanmar’s people: the military has never respected human rights, civilian life, or even the most basic norms of humanity. The Mrauk-U airstrike was not an isolated incident. It was part of a sustained campaign of violence against civilians that has intensified since the military seized power in the 2021 coup.

Dictator General Min Aung Hlaing Ruling Country and Its People Ruthlessly

Even yesterday, junta air strikes in famous Ngapali town of Thandwe killed at least 9 and injured another 12 civilians. This reality raises a fundamental question that can no longer be ignored: Can an institution that systematically targets its own population credibly call itself a national army? Or is Myanmar’s military, in practice, an armed terrorist organization — one equipped with heavy weapons and fighter jets, but devoid of legitimacy, ethics, or accountability?

Targeting Civilians as Policy

In any country, the primary purpose of a military is to protect its people. Armed forces exist to defend civilians, not to terrorize them. By that most basic definition, Myanmar’s military has failed completely.

Decades of military rule have produced an incalculable toll of civilian abuse — including torture, killings, imprisonment, and sexual violence — much of it never fully documented. Yet history provides unmistakable evidence. During the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed students within days. In 2007, during the Saffron Revolution, the military fired on Buddhist monks, raided monasteries, and imprisoned religious leaders, despite portraying itself as the guardian of Buddhism and national unity.

These episodes established a clear pattern: whenever its authority is challenged, the military responds not with restraint or dialogue, but with lethal force against civilians.

That pattern has intensified dramatically since the 2021 coup. According to data released in mid-December, more than 7,600 people have been killed and over 30,000 imprisoned by the military. Airstrikes and artillery attacks have repeatedly struck non-military targets — including hospitals, schools, religious buildings, and residential areas. These are not battlefield errors. They are deliberate acts.

The military no longer treats Myanmar’s population as citizens to be protected, but as enemies to be crushed. When an armed force wages systematic violence against its own people, it forfeits any legitimate claim to being a national army.

An Armed Group Without Ethics or Accountability

A legitimate national army is bound — at least in principle — by ethical standards, rules of engagement, and accountability under domestic and international law. Even in war, there are limits. Myanmar’s military recognizes none.

When it fails to defeat armed resistance groups on the battlefield, it redirects its firepower toward civilians. Schools, hospitals, monasteries, and churches are bombed. Villages are burned. Civilian property is looted. Homes are destroyed not as collateral damage, but as punishment.

These actions do not reflect the conduct of a professional military force. They are hallmarks of an armed group that uses terror as a governing strategy.

Equally revealing is the military’s habitual reliance on disinformation to conceal its crimes. Following the Mrauk-U hospital airstrike, the military claimed that those killed were members of the Arakan Army (AA). State media recycled old photographs of deceased AA fighters taken from social media platforms, despite overwhelming evidence — including images and reporting by reputable international media — showing that the victims were civilians.

The deception convinced no one. Yet the military persists in such fabrications, not because they are credible, but because lying has become routine — a reflex rather than a strategy. This behavior reflects not strength, but institutional decay.

A Military in Name Only

Myanmar’s military continues to describe itself as a “standard army” and the protector of national sovereignty. But an institution that bombs hospitals on Human Rights Day, kills thousands of civilians, and governs through fear cannot credibly claim such a title.

What defines a national army is not the number of weapons it possesses or the sophistication of its fighter jets. It is legitimacy, accountability, and a commitment to protecting the population. By those standards, Myanmar’s military qualifies as none of the above.

Instead, it functions as an armed terrorist organization — one that controls territory through violence, enforces obedience through fear, and sustains itself through systematic abuse of civilians.

Recognizing this reality is not merely a matter of terminology. It is essential for shaping how the international community understands, responds to, and ultimately holds accountable an institution that has long abandoned any claim to lawful authority.

Until Myanmar’s military is treated not as a legitimate state actor but as a perpetrator of terror against its own people, the cycle of violence will continue — unchecked, unpunished, and unrestrained.