Nearly two years on from Myanmar’s military coup against the democratically-elected government, the country has sunk deeper than ever into crisis, undergoing a wholesale regression in human rights, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said recently.
“By nearly every feasible measurement, and in every area of human rights – economic, social and cultural, as much as civil and political – Myanmar has profoundly regressed,” he said Friday.
“Despite clear legal obligations for the military to protect civilians in the conduct of hostilities, there has been a consistent disregard for the related rules of international law.”
“Far from being spared, civilians have been the actual targets of attacks – victims of targeted and indiscriminate artillery barrages and air strikes, extrajudicial executions, the use of torture, and the burning of whole villages,” the head of OHCHR added.
The OHCHR said at least 2,890 people died at the hands of the military and others working with them, of whom at least 767 were initially taken into custody.
This is almost certainly an underestimate of the number of people killed by the military.
A staggering 1.2 million people of Myanmar were internally displaced, and over 70,000 left the country – joining more than a million others who fled, including the bulk of the country’s Rohingya Muslim population, who suffered decades of sustained persecution and attacks, the OHCHR said.
Over 34,000 civilian structures, including homes, clinics, schools and places of worship, were burned over the past two years, the rights office said.
Since February 1, 2021, the military has imprisoned the entire democratically elected leadership of the country and, in subsequent months, detained over 16,000 others – most of whom face specious charges in military-controlled courts, in flagrant breach of due process and fair trial rights, linked to their refusal to accept the military’s actions, the OHCHR said.
“There must be a way out of this catastrophic situation, which sees only deepening human suffering and rights violations on a daily basis,” Türk said. “Regional leaders, who engaged the military leadership through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed a Five-Point Consensus that Myanmar’s generals have treated with disdain.”
“Two of the critical conditions that were agreed – to cease all violence and to allow humanitarian access – have not been met. In fact, we have seen the opposite. Violence has spiralled out of control and humanitarian access has been severely restricted.”
Source: United News of Bangladesh