Myanmar violence escalating, creating 'rights catastrophe': UN
12 June, 2021
The United Nations rights chief said on Friday (Jun 11) that violence was escalating across Myanmar, warning that the country had plunged into a "human rights catastrophe" because the Feb 1 coup.
Pointing to reported military build-up in a number of regions of the country, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet needed a halt to the already spiralling violence to avert even greater loss of life and a deepening humanitarian unexpected emergency.
"In only over four months, Myanmar has gone from being a fragile democracy to a good human rights catastrophe," she said in a statement, adding that the military leadership was "singularly responsible" for the crisis.
The country has been around turmoil because the generals ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1.
The UN rights office pointed on Friday to credible reports showing that at least 860 civilians have been killed in a brutal crackdown by security forces on near-daily protests against the coup.
Fighting has flared in several communities - especially in townships that have seen a high death toll as a result of police - plus some locals have formed "defence forces".
Bachelet pointed to intensifying violence in lots of elements of Myanmar, including Kayah State, Chin State and Kachin State, "with the violence particularly extreme in areas with significant ethnic and religious minority groups".
HUMAN SHIELDS
"State security forces possess continued to use heavy weaponry, including air strikes, against armed groups and against civilians and civilian objects, including Christian churches," she said.
"There look like no efforts towards de-escalation but rather a build-up of troops in key areas," she lamented.
The UN rights chief pointed to "credible reports" that security forces have used civilians as human shields, shelled civilian homes and churches, and blocked humanitarian access, including by attacking aid workers.
"A lot more than 108,000 people contain fled their homes in Kayah State during the last three weeks alone," she explained, pointing out that many had fled in to the forest areas "with little if any food, water, sanitation or health care".
"These are persons in urgent want of humanitarian assistance."
Bachelet stressed that the military behind the coup, also called Tatmadaw, "have a duty to protect civilians".
The international community, she added, had a need to urgently "unify in its demand that the Tatmadaw cease the outrageous use of heavy artillery against civilians and civilian objects and respect the principle of distinction".
She also known as for the people's defence forces and other armed groups to "have all feasible measures to safeguard civilians".
Bachelet slammed the sweeping arrests in the united states of activists, journalists and opponents of the regime, citing credible sources declaring at least 4,804 people remain in arbitrary detention.
She voiced alarm at reports of detainees getting tortured, and of collective punishment meted out to family of activists.
"Rather than looking for dialogue, the military is branding its opponents as 'terrorists' and pursuing politically-motivated charges against the democratic leadership," she explained.
"The military leadership is singularly responsible for this crisis, and must be held to account."
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