Myanmar: if Security Council won’t act, other nations should step in, urges top rights expert
Horrific testimonies from civilians targeted by Myanmar’s military are yet another reason for the international community to take practical measures to halt the bloodshed, a top human rights expert said on Thursday.
“It is incredibly important for the world to give a damn,” said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. “It is very important for the nations of the world to stop failing the people of Myanmar and act.”
Mr. Andrews, who reports to the Human Rights Council, insisted that the military continued to bomb civilians, in an attempt to subdue opposition to their de facto rule.
He described how the junta’s military forces had attacked a school in Sagaing region last Friday, killing at least 13, including 11 children; the coordinated attack from the air and ground had ended with soldiers picking up children’s bodyparts and taking them away, the Special Rapporteur said.
“A school in a monastery, two helicopter gunships, foreign-made, foreign-provided swooping in on this school while soldiers entered the grounds with automatic weapons firing away; children terrified, running, looking for cover. Eleven of them at least killed, literally blown up, and the story of a young boy whose arm had been blown off screaming to mother to kill him because the pain was so great.”
The Special Rapporteur, who works in an independent capacity, told journalists in Geneva that since a coup by the country’s military last February, the generals in charge had been “holding a nation of 54 million people hostage. I think the best way to think of them is not as any kind of governmental entity but as a criminal gang that has literally taken over a country and are holding its leaders and its people hostage.”
In the absence of unified condemnation of the coup in the UN Security Council and the establishment of targeted economic sanctions, an arms embargo and a request for an international criminal inquiry, Mr. Andrews called for a “coalition of likeminded countries” to take action. “If it can’t be done by the Security Council, then it must be done by those nations who were speaking yesterday and will speak today in support of the people of Myanmar”, he said, in reference to the great gathering of world leaders attending the UN General Assembly in New York this week.
Without action, the situation risked spiralling out of control, the Special Rapporteur warned, noting that South-East Asian nations including China would be hardest-hit, in the first instance.
“I can see a major, major flow of refugees out of that country if the trajectory that we’re on right now continues,” he said.
Ahead of elections planned next year in Myanmar, Mr. Andrews urged countries not to give a “veneer of legitimacy” to them.
Among the war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Myanmar military was committing on a daily basis, the top rights expert listed sexual violence, torture and murder – including the execution of four opposition advocates in July. “They included a former parliamentarian and a prominent, pro-democracy activist,” the Special Rapporteur told the Human Rights Council on Wednesday.
“This is not an election, and to call it an election is to participate in a great wrongdoing of the people of Myanmar,” he said. “If the fundamentals of a free and fair election – the opportunity for people to have a choice, a voice in their future, it’s impossible if you’ve locked up and are killing the opposition”
ends
STORY: Myanmar Presser – Tom Andrews
TRT: 2 mins 59s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 22 September 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH) UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews: “A school in a monastery, two helicopter gunships, foreign-made, foreign-provided swooping in on this school while soldiers entered the grounds with automatic weapons firing away; children terrified, running, looking for cover. Eleven of them at least killed, literally blown up, and the story of a young boy whose arm had been blown off screaming to mother to kill him because the pain was so great.”
SOUNDBITE(ENGLISH) UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews: “If the UN Security Council will not convene and pass a resolution under Chapter Seven which would establish targeted economic sanctions, establish an arms embargo, make reference to the International Criminal Court, I mean, that’s what should be done, but that’s not going to be done, obviously, so if it can’t be done by the Security Council, then it must be done by those nations who were speaking yesterday and will speak today in support of the people of Myanmar.”
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the following announcement on the Office’s opening of a new mission in Bangladesh.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“The surge in the number of Afghans forced or compelled to return to Afghanistan this year is creating a multi-layered human rights crisis requiring the urgent attention of the international community,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called for accountability and justice for the killings and other gross human rights violations and abuses in the southern city of Suweida.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNHCR
Syria: hundreds killed in Sweida, ‘widespread’ violations as civilians flee for their lives
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNHCR , OHCHR
Rolando Gómez of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva the UN Human Rights Spokesperson Liz Throssell made the following statement on the latest number of civilian casualties in Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called for investigations into hundreds of killings of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers, warning against ongoing forced mass displacement of the Palestinian population.
1
1
2
Edited News | OHCHR , UNRWA
Nearly 900 people have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks trying to fetch food, with most deaths linked to private aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNOG , UNRWA , OHCHR , WHO
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and the World Health Organization.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the UN Human Rights Office have today released a report detailing the evolution of violent gang incidents beyond the capital Port-au-Prince since October 2024 up to June 2025, and the resulting loss of life and mass displacement.
1
1
1
Statements , Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani at the Geneva press briefing in response to questions about US sanctions imposed on UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese.