Source: Amnesty International NZ
Responding to reports that at least 91 people, including a five-year-old boy, were killed by Myanmar security forces across the country on 27 March in its ongoing brutal crackdown on protesters, Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, said:
“This is just the latest example of the military authorities’ determination to kill their way out of nationwide resistance to the coup. These abhorrent killings again show the generals’ brazen disregard for the inadequate pressure applied so far by the international community.
The cost of international inaction is being counted in bodies, including children shot dead in their homes.
“This comes a day after the military announced that further protests would be met with shots to the head.
“The cost of international inaction is being counted in bodies, including children shot dead in their homes. Amid the horrifying death toll is a nation of over 50 million held hostage, subjected to arbitrary arrest and sweeping surveillance, living in fear of death and torture.
“The people of Myanmar continue to protest, all while they grieve more killings by the hour. The nations that participated in the military’s Armed Forces Day events today in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw, particularly China and Russia, are the same states that have shielded the Tatmadaw from accountability time and time again, supplying them with the means to carry out mass slaughter.
“UN Security Council member states’ continued refusal to meaningfully act against this never-ending horror is contemptible.”
Background
At the time of writing, media reported that the military killed nearly 100 people in Yangon, Mandalay and other towns today, including a five-year-old boy. On 26 March, state television announced protesters were “in danger of getting shot to the head and back”.
According to estimates from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPPB), the minimum death toll since the 1 February coup stood at 328 on 26 March.
While a small number of protesters have armed themselves with crude homemade weaponry including molotov cocktails, slingshots and homemade air-pressure rifles, the protests have overall remained peaceful and in the incidents that Amnesty International has examined, lethal force used by the military has been unlawful and excessive.
Elsewhere in the country, armed conflict is escalating between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups. Amnesty International has grave concerns about the potential for further mass atrocities as well as the resumption of large-scale conflict and associated mass displacement adding to the country’s existing internally displaced population of over 300,000.
Amnesty is calling on the UN Security Council to impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar, and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
The Security Council must also impose targeted financial sanctions against Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (Myanmar’s military chief now in charge of the country) and other military leaders responsible for atrocity crimes against various ethnic minorities across the country, including the Rohingya.
The UN Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar has previously called for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials to be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
EARLIER: 24 March 2021, 13:07 UTC
Responding to the adoption of a resolution on Myanmar by consensus at the UN Human Rights Council, Amnesty International’s Representative to the UN in Geneva, Hilary Power, said:
“Speaking with one voice today, the UN Human Rights Council has sent a clear and unequivocal message to the Myanmar military that they must halt their violations, and to businesses with ties to military-owned companies in Myanmar that they must end those partnerships immediately.
As the military further escalates its all-out assault, the people of Myanmar cannot wait another day for justice
“UN member states have tasked the UN human rights office to investigate the economic interests and business ties of the Myanmar military, and report back to the Human Rights Council with a comprehensive report and recommendations.
“Now it remains for the UN Security Council to move beyond statements of concern, and take the long-overdue action needed to halt violations and hold perpetrators to account.
“We urge all members of the Security Council to set aside politics and stand with the people of Myanmar – and not the generals ordering daily killing sprees against peaceful protesters, bystanders and political opponents.
“The Security Council must urgently refer the situation to the International Criminal Court and impose, without further delay, a comprehensive global arms embargo and targeted financial sanctions on senior military officials responsible for atrocity crimes.
“As the military further escalates its all-out assault, the people of Myanmar cannot wait another day for justice.”
Background
On 24 March, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar by consensus.
In September 2019, the former Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar presented a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Council on the economic interests of the Myanmar military, in which they identified businesses with commercial ties to the military-owned Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEHL and MEC).
The resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council today recalls the recommendation made by the FFM that no company active in Myanmar or with business links to Myanmar should do business with the Tatmadaw or one of their business entities, until and unless those businesses are restructured and transformed.
The resolution also mandates the UN human rights office to follow up on the findings and recommendations of the FFM’s 2019 report on the economic interests of the military, and to report back to the Human Rights Council on a regular basis and to deliver a comprehensive written report in September 2022.
The resolution renews the important mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, and puts in place more comprehensive and regular monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation on the ground, by the Special Rapporteur and the UN human rights office. Both actors have been asked to keep the Human Rights Council and “other United Nations bodies,” including the Security Council, updated.
Amnesty International’s Military Ltd. report, published in September 2020, demonstrates how a number of the international and local companies identified in the FFM’s report have been linked to the financing of Myanmar’s military units implicated in crimes under international law. Since then, the Myanmar military (individual members and units of which are shareholders of MEHL) has been involved in the commission of serious human rights violations and crimes under international law following the military coup of 1 February 2021.
Many of the companies that Amnesty International and the FFM urged to end business ties with MEHL have not yet done so, including South Korean steelmaker POSCO and Chinese Wanbao Mining, which continue to operate in Myanmar in partnership with the military.
