A Myanmar rebel group has admitted to killing prisoners of war in what experts say is seemingly a rare admission of a war crime as it fights the ruling military junta.
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
In a two-minute clip that circulated on social media and went viral, about seven men, some wearing Arakan Army (AA) uniforms and holding firearms, kicked and beat two shirtless men on the ground.
In another video, the same alleged killers were seen beheading the captives with machete-like knives.
AA spokesman Khaing Thu Kha has admitted that the videos were authentic and the perpetrators were members of the AA ethnic armed group.
He said the incident, which "violated military discipline", occurred in February last year during an AA offensive on Kyauktaw township in Rakhine state.
He also confirmed the two victims were Myanmar junta soldiers.
"Our local (AA) militias were unable to control their anger and committed crimes … in retaliation for the terrorist Myanmar army soldiers who had unjustly arrested, tortured, and killed their families," he told AFP news agency.
He said the AA had identified and punished all those involved in the incident and added the group did not accept unlawful killings, but didn't provide further detail.
The wilful killing of a prisoner of war is a breach of the Geneva Convention which outlines the rules of war.
What is the Arakan Army?
Rakhine state in Myanmar's west is riven with ethnic and religious divisions.
[MAP]It came under the global spotlight after a bloody 2017 army crackdown that forced some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims over the border into Bangladesh.
The AA says it is fighting for autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine people from the ruling military.
The group is also accused of aiding the military in their expulsion of the Rohingya.
The military junta took control of the country in a 2021 coup against the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government.
The militant group claimed complete control of a key region along the Bangladesh border in December, piling further pressure on the junta battling opponents elsewhere across the country.
Videos 'raw evidence' of war crime
David Scott Mathieson, an independent analyst on Myanmar, said the videos of the killings were shocking.
"The video footage is raw evidence of a war crime, pure and simple," he told the ABC.
"That the incident occurred nearly one year ago in fighting around Kyauktaw suggests that similar incidents may well have been perpetrated as the conflict dramatically escalated over 2024."
He said it was critical that the AA took immediate steps to investigate and punish the perpetrators, but added it needed to be transparent about its internal justice systems.
However, he said it was important that the broader context of the war not be forgotten and that "the vast majority of human rights violations are perpetrated by the Myanmar security forces".
"Rakhine State cannot be looked at in isolation of the rest of Myanmar, where the State Administrative Council (SAC) [military junta forces] have been engaged in widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population, burning over 100,000 homes and staging daily air strikes on schools, hospitals, markets and people's homes, including civilian shelters," he said.
"Many other insurgent groups perpetrate atrocities against POWs and civilians, but nowhere near the level of routine sadism of the Sit Tat [Myanmar military]."
He said the recent renewed offensives in Rakhine state had resulted in thousands of dead and wounded on both sides.
"But as if to symbolise the savagery of fighting in Rakhine State, the SAC forces routinely bomb areas where POWs and their families are hiding, killing scores," he said.
"The SAC has for years directly targeted civilians, and as the AA offensive took over more and more towns in the state over the past year, using air strikes, drones, artillery and naval gunships, would pulverise the marketplaces and civilian homes as the SAC retreated."
In the past, the junta has denied it targets civilians, saying its forces only attacked legitimate targets of war.
Mr Mathieson said the reports of violations by the AA against prisoners of war and against civilians, including Rakhine civilians, Rohingya Muslims, ethnic Chin and other minorities, had been circulating for many years.
"The AA should be given credit for the swift admission of the recent reports, but needs to do far more in ensuring discipline of its forces," he said.
International concerns about war crimes
In October last year, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, reported to the UN General Assembly that there were concerns of abuses being carried out by the AA in northern Rakhine state.
The human rights organisation Fortify Rights last week called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes committed by the AA in connection with the beheadings.
A spokesperson for the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor, Karim Khan KC, told the ABC that its investigations are limited because Myanmar is not a party to the ICC, but neighbouring Bangladesh is.
"Thus, chargeable crimes within the Bangladesh/Myanmar situation are limited to those with a cross-border element, for example, the crime against humanity of deportation," the spokesperson said.
"In line with this jurisdictional limitation, the OTP [Office of the Prosecutor] investigation has focused on the waves of violence in 2016 and 2017 which took place in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and the exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh."
It declined to provide further information on its investigations, citing confidentiality.
The ICC last year announced it was seeking an arrest warrant for Myanmar military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing for the forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya civilians to Bangladesh in 2017.
