Myanmar faces unimaginable regression since coup, says UN human rights chief

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – Two years after Myanmar's military launched a coup against the democratically elected government, the country has sunk deeper into crisis and has undergone a wholesale regression in human rights, the UN human rights chief said Friday.

Rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence read out a statement by the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk at a UN press conference reflecting on the "spiraling crisis" since the coup of Feb. 1, 2021.

"By nearly every feasible measurement, and in every area of human rights – economic, social and cultural, as much as civil and political – Myanmar has profoundly regressed," said Turk, an Austrian jurist.

"Despite clear legal obligations for the military to protect civilians in the conduct of hostilities, there has been a consistent disregard for the related rules of international law."

Far from being spared, civilians have been the targets of attacks, he said.

They have been victims of targeted and indiscriminate artillery barrages, airstrikes, extrajudicial executions, torture, and burning whole villages, said the UN rights chief.

"At this somber time, I want to acknowledge the courage of all those whose lives have been lost in the struggle for freedom and dignity in Myanmar and the continuing pain and suffering of their families and loved ones."

- Some 3,000 died at hands of military

The Human Rights Office cited credible sources saying at least 2,890 people have died at the hands of the military and others working with them, of whom at least 767 were initially taken into custody.

"This is almost certainly an underestimation of the number of civilians killed as a result of military action," said the UN rights chief.

"A staggering further 1.2 million people have been internally displaced, and over 70,000 have left the country – joining over one million others, including the bulk of the country's Rohingya Muslim population, who fled sustained persecution and attacks over the past decades."

Credible information indicates that over 34,000 civilian structures, including homes, clinics, schools, and places of worship, have been burned over the past two years.

Myanmar's economy has collapsed, with nearly half of the population living below the poverty line.

Since launching the coup, the military has imprisoned the country's democratically elected leadership and detained over 16,000 others – most of whom face specious charges in military-controlled courts, said Turk.

"There must be a way out of this catastrophic situation, which sees only deepening human suffering and rights violations daily," said Turk.

In 1948, its first year of independence, Myanmar was among the first UN member states to vote in favor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Sadly, as we mark 75 years since the declaration's adoption, the military is actively engaged in violating its fundamental values, principles, and rights enshrined in it," Turk said.