(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced six soldiers to 10 years in prison with hard labour for killing three civilians in war-torn Kachin state, officials said, in a move welcomed by rights groups. The Kachin state police office said the tribunal handed down the sentence Friday after finding the soldiers guilty of killing three ethnic Kachin civilians in September. Min Zaw, a Kachin state police officer, said that during the hearing the six confessed that they were responsible for the killings. Kachin state is home to an ethnic rebel army that has been fighting the Myanmar military for more than seven years. Most recently it has been accused of abuses during what it calls “clearance operations” against ethnic Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

Source: Indian Express January 21, 2018 07:41 UTC