Guwahati: It’s now 1,000 days since the Burmese junta orchestrated a military coup to oust the democratically elected government in NayPieTaw under the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of National League for Democracy. The February 1, 2021 coup put the southeast Asian nation in more troubles as the Land of Pagodas turned out to be a place of civil war where the government forces and ethnic armed groups along with many civilians continue gun fighting for territorial controls.
Min Aung Hlaing led junta forces have been resorting to extreme violence and terror to try and suppress a defiant, organized and determined people’s revolution, said the Progressive Voice, a participatory rights-based policy research and advocacy organization, adding that over 4000 activists and civilians were killed in the conflict situation leaving more number of people injured. The military rulers have detained over 20000 across the country. Hundreds of thousands of families rendered homeless and many are still taking shelter in the refugee camps.
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The UN General Assembly, understandably preoccupied by the latest Gaza conflicts, should not neglect the severely affected people of Myanmar, asserted the forum, adding the UN Member States must take all measures to hold the military junta accountable for its mass atrocity crimes, to work towards an arms embargo, and to ensure that international aid agencies uphold the principle of do no harm by ceasing engagement with the junta and ensure aid reaches those in need through the frontline humanitarian responders.
“Stopping the flow of arms and related materials, including aviation fuel, to the military junta is all the more urgent given the junta’s increasing use of airstrikes as a reaction to its losing control of more territory and even important towns, as seen in recent days in northern Shan State,” said the forum, adding that no less than 272 airstrikes were carried out by the junta forces between May and August 2023, killing 163 citizens.
The UNGA must take measures to pursue justice and accountability under international law for the atrocity crimes committed by the military junta, asserted the forum, adding that the Burmese junta’s decades-long impunity will continue to prevail where thousands of lives will continue to be lost, unless and until the military faces prosecution and is held to account for its genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Days back, the Geneva-based global media safety and rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) expressed serious concern over the arrest and imprisonment of the working journalists in Myanmar since the military coup and urged the authorities to ensure fair trials to nearly 40 journalists still behind the bars. The military dictators detained around 145 journalists and forced many media outlets to shut down their offices in the counrty.