BANGKOK — Call it the courtroom war of the colonels.

More than two dozen Myanmar Army colonels have bypassed the battlefield to fight their adversaries in civilian courts, using criminal defamation cases to stifle criticism of the army’s authority ahead of parliamentary elections next year.

The military’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, says the officers are simply defending the “dignity” of the armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw.

Since 2016, 25 officers — all of them colonels — have filed defamation cases with the police against 78 people, mainly over comments they posted on Facebook, according to Athan, a group that advocates freedom of expression and tracks such cases.

The number of defamation complaints brought by the military has surged this year, with the colonels filing 12 of their 25 cases since April 1, said the group, which is based in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.