Human Rights Watch criticized the Burmese military Thursday for using thousands of civilians as “expendable pawns” in its battle against insurgents. “The Burmese army is driving thousands toward the border with Thailand and herding villagers into squalid relocation sites or into the jungle away from their ruined homes and dying crops,” said Brad Adams, the group’s director for Asia.

Across the country, more than 82,000 have been forced to flee conflict, and at least 45 civilians have been killed by government forces, the report said.

Since 1996, to clear out villages, the army disrupts the harvest by laying thousands of landmines around houses and fields to deter civilians from approaching their villages and crops. “The Burmese military attacks villages, uses civilians for forced labor and steals their food and money, forcing people to flee,” Adams said. “The military acts like an occupying army, using the population as expendable pawns.

“The United States is seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Burma to end attacks on civilians and to stop causing displacement, the report said.