Civil war in Myanmar is killing thousands of civilians. By some estimates, 11,000 civilians died in the first half of 2022. Violence against civilians by domestic state forces is already said to be higher than in Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Video evidence of atrocities abounds, and even the all-powerful army, known as the Tatmadaw, might be losing as many as twenty-five men a day, security analysts say.

This level of violence is rare in the annals of Southeast Asian conflict, where, aside from episodic bouts of politically motivated mass killings in modern times, modes of war fighting have erred on the side of protracted low-intensity guerrilla warfare that sustains a state of war but exacts a low toll on human life.

As a student of the region, I learned that traditional forms of warfare in Southeast Asia put a premium on preserving life rather than taking it. The main objective of war, usually involving combat between clashing rulers atop elephants, was to seize the enemy’s population for the purpose of growing the victor’s pool of labour. With rice cultivation so labour intensive, territory was a secondary consideration. ‘Put people in cities and rice in baskets’ was the motto coined by the princely rulers of northern Thailand. More than three hundred years of war between the kingdoms of Burma and Thailand resulted in the sacking of great cities and their populations being carted off in one direction or the other.

• Tags: Issue 29, Michael Vatikiotis, Myanmar