Myanmar: UN Experts Urge ‘Course Correction’ As Civilian Deaths Exceed 6,000

GENEVA (2 December 2024) – UN experts* today called for a “course correction” in the international response to the escalating crisis in Myanmar as the civilian death toll eclipsed 6,000.

“There are now 6,000 reminders that the international community is failing the people of Myanmar,” said the experts. “It is time for a change, starting with moving this disaster out of the shadows of international attention.

“We know that international action makes a difference. We have documented how it has reduced the junta’s access to weapons that it uses to attack civilians,” the experts said.

The junta’s procurement of weapons, dual-use technologies, and manufacturing equipment has declined by a third as Governments cracked down on networks supplying the junta and adopted impactful targeted sanctions. These actions followed the publication last year of a conference room paper by Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, titled “The Billion Dollar Death Trade”.

“As welcome as these actions have been, they remain grossly inadequate and lack the coordination and strategic targeting necessary to deliver the support the people of Myanmar need and deserve. We can and must do better,” said the experts.

“Thousands of lives have been cut short in indiscriminate attacks by the military, which often targets civilian homes and infrastructure. Unlawful killings by junta forces are common and are characterized by their brutality and inhumanity. According to credible reports, nearly 2,000 individuals have been killed in the custody of junta forces, 365 have been shot in the head, and 215 burned alive. Many victims have been tortured to death. Others have been subjected to acts tantamount to enforced disappearance before execution. Beheadings, dismemberment, and the disfiguration of bodies are shockingly common,” said the experts.

“We are also alarmed by the ongoing use of arbitrary detention and acts tantamount to enforced disappearance to silence those opposing the military junta,” the experts said. “Over 21,000 of those arrested since the February 2021 military coup remain in detention, many held incommunicado, and in many instances with their families and lawyers having no information on their fates or whereabouts.” Some of these acts are committed against civilians accused of breaking martial law or against villagers who are forced to act as human shields.

In addition to denying the junta access to weapons, UN Member States should also deny it the legitimacy it seeks. This includes publicly rejecting the junta’s plans to hold what they are trying to define as “elections” next year.

“You cannot hold an election when you deposed a democratically elected Government in an unconstitutional coup, and continue to arbitrarily arrest, detain, disappear, torture and execute opposition leaders, nor when it is illegal for journalists to report the truth. We urge UN Member States to call this exercise what it is, a fraud,” said the experts.

“Governments and donors also need to significantly step up assistance to civil society organisations documenting human rights abuses, protecting civilian populations, and delivering life-saving humanitarian aid. It would be unconscionable to allow thousands more innocent lives to be lost when options for effective action by the international community remain on the table.”

*The experts: Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; Gabriella Citroni (Chair-Rapporteur), Grażyna Baranowska (Vice-Chair), Aua Baldé, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez and Mohammed Al-Obaidi, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; Matthew Gillett (Chair-Rapporteur), Ganna Yudkivska (Vice-Chair on Communications), Priya Gopalan (Vice-Chair on Follow-Up), Miriam Estrada-Castillo, and Mumba Malila Working Group on arbitrary detention; and Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

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