The United Nations (UN) has rejected the Myanmar junta’s nomination for ambassador to the UN and instead it has decided to continue letting the National Unity Government representative, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun continue as Myanmar’s representative to the UN.

Kyaw Moe Tun was appointed in 2020 to represent Myanmar at the UN prior to the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar. The junta tried to fire him but he refused to leave the job and the UN General Assembly Credentials Committee refused to recognize the military's appointee.

On hearing that the UN had agreed to Kyaw Moe Tun’s re-appointment, the director of the civil society organisation (CSO) the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), Chris Gunness said: “General Min Aung Hlaing has inflicted on the people of Myanmar violence of a scale not seen in southeast Asia since Pol Pot unleashed the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror on Cambodia.

“The junta’s murderous campaign against its own people reached a new low in July with the execution of four prominent prisoners of conscience which was widely condemned by the international community and led to further diplomatic isolation.

“To highlight this barbarity, we projected the image of Ko Jimmy onto the UK Houses of Parliament.”

According to General Assembly Resolution 396(V) (1950), when the question of a State's representation at the UN “becomes the subject of controversy … the attitude adopted by the General Assembly [..] should be taken into account in other organs of the United Nations and in the specialised agencies”.

In accordance with Resolution 396(V) MAP demands that the NUG’s representation is implemented across the UN system.

MAP believes that the people of Myanmar have suffered enough injustice and being deprived of the right to representation at the UN by their legitimate government deepens this injustice.

“We urge the UN to ensure that Ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun is afforded ‘all rights and privileges and that the NUG is allowed to represent Myanmar in all UN bodies,” said MAP’s Protection Director, Damian Lilly.

He explained that: “At present, there are glaring inconsistencies, with the NUG Ambassador sitting in the General Assembly, the junta’s agents at the International Court of Justice and Myanmar’s seat left empty at the UN Human Rights Council. This latest move must pave the way to resolving these anomalies which are

depriving 55 million people in Myanmar of the opportunity to be represented at the UN by the government which they elected by a landslide in 2020.”