The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said at the 52nd Human Rights Council Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland on March 6 that there is little hope for Burmese people after more than two years since the military took power.
As the three years of military rule entered, the people of Burma faced severe human rights violations. The military authorities committed crimes but were not prosecuted. He said the country is facing a growing humanitarian and economic crisis, and military conflict attacks are worsening across the country.
According to the investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in the second year of military rule, aerial attacks increased by 141 percent, and schools, 100 percent of civilian buildings, including hospitals and churches, were shot with heavy weapons. He said that the military council forces have burned down 380 percent of houses across the country and the number of houses destroyed has increased to 120 percent.
Although the military council officially announced that these attacks were targeting groups opposed to the military rule, Mr. Volkartuk said that according to the investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were no such groups hiding in the places where they were attacked.
Especially in Sagaing, In the northern parts of Mandalay, Myanmar army soldiers entered village after village and destroyed the homes of civilians. Every day, we get news of cases of farm property being stolen, destroyed and burned. He said that civilians who could not escape were being burned to death and those who escaped were living as war refugees.
Since the military coup in Myanmar, there have been 2,947 civilian deaths, most of whom died while in custody by the authorities. In addition, he said that those arrested by the military are being ordered and punished in military courts that do not meet judicial standards, and that there is no right to appeal even for death sentences.
The Burmese military continues to not take human lives seriously. The high commissioner for human rights said that the lack of care is an act of contempt for humanity as a whole.
Rohingyas who have fled from Myanmar since 2017 are also facing various hardships in Bangladesh and are unable to return home.
He also urged the member states of the Human Rights Council to send humanitarian aid directly to the people, including sending it across the border, and to hold meetings with representatives representing the will of the Burmese people in order to end the conflict in Myanmar.
The Security Council urges the Military Council to take action as soon as possible
The crimes against humanity committed by the military council army during the two years of the coup. Democracy and human rights activists say that because war crimes are systematically committed every day, the United Nations Security Council should take action as soon as possible.
He said this when contacted by RFA regarding the annual report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released on March 3.
According to the Human Rights Report, nearly 3,000 people were killed and nearly 18,000 were arrested during the two years of the military coup from February 1, 2021 to January 31, 2023. It is said that armed conflicts are taking place in 255 townships out of 330 townships in Myanmar.
There were only 125 airstrikes in 2021, when the government seized power, and 301 in 2022. In 2021, there were only 376 gunshots, from 756 in 2022. In 2021, there were only 282 village burnings in the country, which increased almost fivefold to 1,355 in 2022.
When the army attacks from the air, it harms innocent civilians more than the defense forces, said the commander of the CDF brigade in Kanpetlek Township, Chin State.
"If air is involved, it will be quite difficult for us. On the war front, if the air force comes, there is no air support from our side, so we have to retreat after returning. We have also had a situation where the war stopped. towards our military bases, However, when their direction and what they shoot can be different, there is a lot of harm to the people as well. Another thing is that many of our camps have been destroyed." The report also revealed that the military is committing extrajudicial killings and committed at least 24 mass killings of five or more people in 2022 alone.
On March 2, 2023, during a raid by the Military Council troops on Kiekan Village, Welet Township, Sagaing Region, four members of the People's Defense Forces and three civilians were massacred, a total of seven people.
As the coup d'état went on, the brutality of the military council's army got worse, said Lieutenant James Bond of the Wetlet Township Public Defense Force.
"Keikan killed seven corpses in one village. Within a month, Tin killed more than 15 people. About 1,700 houses were also burned down. I lost a lot. The brutality gradually increased. There is such a pattern. This is the statistics that I told you about our township in about a month. If these things happen every month, if they are more severe, More people may find it more difficult. It would be best if the international community cooperated to overthrow the military council as soon as possible."
General Zaw Min Tun, the spokesman for the military council, has repeatedly told RFA that their forces do not target civilians and do not burn houses.
In the two years since the coup, the Burmese military has used the cut-four-cut system to block villages, Firearms Airstrikes have forced local civilians to flee their homes and communities have been cut off from aid in a holocaust-like manner, according to a UN human rights report.
"Residents fleeing have no shelter and have to live with what they have.
The Burmese military said the violence began in late 2021, and the situation is worst in the northwestern and southeastern regions of the country.
Most of the local residents migrated from the villages to the jungles, but they did not escape the air raids of the Military Council, said a resident of Kok Krait Township in the southeastern part of the country.
"The sounds of heavy weapons and the sound of airplanes continue. They don't treat humans as human beings anymore. They don't choose between friends and enemies, and people don't choose enemies anymore. We are suffering from the shooting of everyone in Karen State. The locals fleeing to the forest region have no shelter and live with what they have. They think this is a military camp and they are chasing them."
The Burmese army not only raids villages, but also arrests and detains men and women during interrogations and other places. Other forms of sexual violence, including rape against women and LGBT people, were also committed, the report said.
Human rights watchdogs also say that the Burmese military is actually committing human rights violations on the ground that are worse than the contents of the previous letter.
U Kyaw Win, Director of the Myanmar Human Rights Network, said that the Military Council Army is systematically committing crimes against humanity everywhere.
"What is currently being committed in Myanmar is a crime against humanity. Genocide has also been perpetrated on the Rohingya. No matter how we analyze this, we see that it is systematic and ubiquitous. If what is considered a crime against humanity? Based on the data, crimes that violate human rights have been systematically and systematically carried out in the same way everywhere."
The report of the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner urged that urgent action be taken to guarantee the basic human rights and freedoms that the people of Myanmar should have. These measures must be implemented by the National Unity Government (NUG), including the Military Council, and the entire international community, he said.
National Unity Government (NUG) Prime Minister's Office Spokesman U Ne Boorn Lat urges that this statement, which systematically describes the human rights violations of the military coup, is a good move, but it needs to be dealt with more quickly.
"If we have to talk about what we want to happen, it is a situation where tens of thousands of people are being killed every day. People's property is also being burned every day. If we drag on for a day, people will suffer. Therefore, we can only cure the suffering for our people if we find the correct rule cost, choose the right solution quickly, and take effective action as soon as possible."
In the conclusion of the report, to stop the violence that is happening in Myanmar, To immediately stop the operations of the military council. In addition to the release of those arrested, it has been submitted to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees fleeing their homes.
In parallel, the Human Rights Commissioner presented seven recommendations regarding Myanmar.
Among them, the Security Council should take steps to submit the full current situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and submit the current limited cross-border investigations to the ICC.
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