Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was blunt in his assessment last week of the challenges facing the Myanmar people as a result of the actions of the Myanmar military junta.
“Each day, the people of Myanmar are enduring horrifying attacks, flagrant human rights violations and the crumbling of their livelihoods and hopes,” said Mr Turk, briefing the Human Rights Council – the UN’s primary body for the protection and promotion of rights globally, including findings since his July Myanmar report was issued.
As UN rights envoy highlighted, the Myanmar people are subject to a deadly threesome of strategies clearly aimed to kill, maim and demoralize. These strategies are: air strikes, massacres, and village burning.
Mr. Türk emphasized the military’s blatant disregard for fundamental principles of humanity as well as the Security Council’s repeated demands for an immediate cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access.
“We are faced here with a system of ruthless repression designed to coerce and subjugate its people and to erode a society so that the predatory interests of the military are preserved,” he told the council. “Senseless military attacks are exacerbating the human rights crisis with interconnected humanitarian, political, and economic impacts, imposing an unbearable toll on the people in Myanmar.”
The Myanmar junta is being deliberate in the targeting of anybody opposing its rule or thought to be sympathetic with the Spring Revolution resistance movement that sprung up after the military illegally grabbed power on 1 February 2021.
Deliberate brutality and ruthless repression are the hallmarks of the three main weapons. These include air strikes against soft targets, deliberate torture and slaughter of civilians, and the burning down of people’s houses. This deadly threesome is designed to instill fear – yet it encourages the resistance to fight back even harder in a never-ending cycle of violence.
The UN envoy said ground operations resulted in 22 documented mass killings – involving the murder of ten or more individuals. Witnesses described soldiers using horrific methods to inflicting pain on civilians, including burning alive, beheading, dismemberment, rape and more, he said.
“This is inhumanity in its vilest form,” the High Commissioner said, stating that entire villages were set ablaze, leading to the destruction of over 75,000 structures, driving displacement and increasing humanitarian needs.
The deadly threesome – air strikes, mass killings and burning of villages – are causing an “unbearable toll on the people of Myanmar,” he said, calling for an end to the suffering.
