A/HRC/42/50 2. Kachin and Shan 30. The investigations conducted by the mission have furthermore substantiated patterns and trends of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in Kachin and Shan States from 2011 to 2018. The mission collected additional information on potential security units and individuals who may have contributed to those violations. The violations included the failure by the Tatmadaw to respect the right to life by means of acts of murder, including in the context of forced labour, and its use of unlawful detention, as well as apparent enforced disappearances, acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the perpetration of sexual and genderbased violence, including rape and gang rape of women and girls. In many cases, the violations committed by the Tatmadaw were directed at men and women suspected of being members of, or being associated with, ethnic armed organizations. The mission collected additional information on human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including unlawful forced recruitment, by those organizations. 31. The mission collected significant new information on Tatmadaw attacks in Tanai Township, Kachin State during the operations conducted from November 2017 to April 2018. It concluded that the Tatmadaw intended to make civilians who remained in the mining area the object of an airstrike on 26 January 2018, launch indiscriminate attacks against them or attack them without taking all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects, all of which are violations of customary international humanitarian law. 32. The mission also corroborated the facts and circumstances of the attack by the Tatmadaw on 11 April 2016 on Awng Lat village, Kachin State, and the killing of two residents of the Maing Hkawng camp for internally displaced persons in Mansi Township, Kachin State, last seen on 31 January 2018 in the custody of the Tatmadaw. 33. The mission also received further information on the Tatmadaw attacks in Laiza from 2012 to early 2013, including incidents in mid-April 2012, when Tatmadaw soldiers violently interrogated a woman about the whereabouts of her husband and placed a man in forced labour. The man, together with seven others, was accused of being a member of the Kachin Independence Army and was beaten with his hands and legs tied. 34. The mission’s investigations into the conduct of the Kachin Independence Army also raised serious concerns that it might not be taking all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population and civilian objects under its control against the effects of attack, or be taking measures to the extent feasible to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas. 35. The mission collected new information on the military units and the commander potentially responsible for the murder of two teachers on 19 January 2015 in Kawng Kha Shabuk village in Kutkai Township, Shan State. V. Conflict-related human rights developments A. Methodology and legal framework 36. The mission continued to base its factual findings on the “reasonable grounds” standard of proof (A/HRC/39/64, para. 6). Between February and June 2019, the mission conducted more than 400 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses, both targeted and randomly selected. It obtained and analysed satellite imagery, photographs and videos and a range of documents. It cross-checked the information against secondary information assessed as credible and reliable, including organizations’ raw data or notes, expert interviews, submissions and open source material. 37. The experts travelled to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to interview victims and witnesses and hold other meetings. The secretariat undertook six additional field missions between February and June 2019. The mission held consultations with other 7