A child stands at the door foot of her house at the Khaung Dote Khar Rohingya refugee camp in Sittwe, on May 15, 2023, after Cyclone Mocha made landfall carrying winds of up to 195 kilometers (120 miles) per hour, the biggest storm to hit the Bay of Bengal in more than a decade. (Photo: AFP)
Jul 10 2023
Myanmar is in “deadly freefall” into “even deeper violence and heartbreak,” with the military regime engaging in a “systematic denial” of humanitarian aid to its people, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week.
Perhaps most significantly, he called on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, saying that “the path out of this crisis must be anchored in accountability for the grave human rights violations and other violations of international law that are occurring.”
Any political solution for Myanmar’s “protracted emergency,” Turk added, “must include accountability.”
As he presented his latest report, Turk recalled that there had been “report after report” on Myanmar’s human rights crisis — and “with each successive update, it is almost impossible to imagine that the people of Myanmar can endure more suffering.”
Turk is absolutely right. His statement, and the full report published by his office, make harrowing reading. Focused on the systematic denial by the military of life-saving humanitarian aid for civilians, it paints a heartbreaking picture not only of the regime’s brutality but also its inhumanity and criminality.
Not only is the military regime conducting a horrific campaign of airstrikes against civilians in the ethnic states, not only has it killed at least 3,747 individuals, not only has it scorched at least 70,000 homes, not only has it caused the displacement of 1.5 million people, not only has it arrested at least 23,747 people and continues to hold 15,408 political prisoners in jail, and not only is it perpetrating “sexual violence, mass killings, extra-judicial executions, beheadings, dismemberments and mutilations,” as the UN High Commissioner reports, but it has also put in place what he describes as “a raft of legal, financial and bureaucratic barriers to ensure people in need do not receive and cannot access assistance.”
“This crisis is largely caused by the military’s inhumanity, whether in conflict, public health crisis or natural disaster”
This obstruction is “deliberate and targeted, a calculated denial of fundamental rights and freedoms,” adds Turk — in a situation where one-third of the entire population requires urgent aid.
According to the UN, at least 17.6 million people in Myanmar require some form of aid, while 15.2 million need urgent food and nutrition support. This represents a dramatic escalation in dire poverty in an already poor country. This crisis is largely caused by the military’s inhumanity, whether in conflict, public health crisis or natural disaster.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the military denied urgent supplies of oxygen or personal protective equipment to civilians and stole them for themselves. In the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha, the military prevented independent needs assessments, obstructed access to information, and froze all aid unless it was delivered by the military apparatus.
The High Commissioner’s report details the multiple ways in which the military prevents, restricts, steals, or destroys humanitarian aid and the means for daily survival. The requirement for non-profit organizations to register with the military imposes onerous bureaucratic procedures and limitations on them.
Applications must include the personal information of staff, funding sources, project details and operational locations — the disclosure of which, in the current context, represents an immediate security risk to those involved. Failure to comply, however, can result in a five-year jail sentence.
And yet, as one interviewee told the UN, “If you register, you cannot do your work because you cannot do anything the military does not permit.”
Military checkpoints, travel authorizations and restrictions on freedom of movement all impede the distribution of urgently needed. Procurement of medicines and other supplies is restricted by the denial of import licenses and funding is hindered by banking restrictions.
Internet shutdowns and telecommunications restrictions hamper humanitarian efforts, making the dissemination of information about attacks, needs and training more challenging.
Landmines present a grave humanitarian crisis, as does the military’s policy of stealing or destroying food. The UN report describes reports of the military looting and destroying food stocks, killing livestock, destroying paddy fields and burning harvests.
One interviewee reported that soldiers had destroyed the water well, “so that people cannot drink.” There were also multiple reports of the military purchasing all rice stocks in a local area, by forcing traders to only sell to the military.
“Ambulances have been attacked and burned, clinics have been bombed, hospitals destroyed”
One of the most egregious aspects of this crisis is the military’s direct attacks on medical professionals and aid workers, and the right to health altogether. Indeed, in Myanmar today, to be a doctor, a nurse, or an aid worker is not only about trying to save the lives of others — it is about taking your own life in your hands.
According to Turk, up to 40 humanitarian workers have been killed since the coup, and over 200 arrested. In two high-profile instances, the Director of the Public Health Department who led Myanmar’s Covid-19 vaccination program, Dr. Htar Htar Lin, and the Director-General of the Public Health Department, Dr. Soe Oo, have been arrested under spurious charges of corruption, and sentenced to three and two years respectively.
Even more shockingly, ambulances have been attacked and burned, clinics have been bombed, hospitals destroyed, medical supplies incinerated, and health workers assaulted.
The military has also turned clinics and hospitals from places of care and healing to places of fear and arrest. According to the UN report, a villager who had been tending his goats was shot by the military and then arrested at the clinic after receiving treatment. Another individual was arrested while being vaccinated for Covid-19.
“People, therefore, avoid seeking medical care, and several interlocutors reported numerous deaths due to restricted access,” the UN report claimed.
This crisis is unleashing unimaginable, massive harm. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their villages into the jungles, to escape the military’s bombings. They live under tarpaulins in what the UN calls “extremely precarious conditions.”
Children are dying of snake bites because they have no access to medicine. Many are dying of disease due to dire living conditions.
Every government with a conscience in the world should read the UN report — and reflect on what they can do.
How do they respond, for example, to an incident when 80 soldiers set fire to 175 houses in a village in Sagaing, burning seven elderly people, including two with disabilities, to death because they could not escape?
And what will they do about the military raid on a clinic in Karenni (Kayah) state, in which four doctors, 13 nurses and one volunteer were arrested and medical supplies and food rations confiscated?
“There have been so many wake-up calls before, and still, the international community remains asleep”
Or how about the bombing, on April 11 this year, of the inauguration ceremony for a community building at Pazigyi village in Sagaing, followed minutes later by a helicopter opening fire on the injured and those trying to rescue them?
Later that same day, a military aircraft shot at people collecting the dead. This attack reportedly resulted in the deaths of up to 168 people, including at least 45 women and 38 children. Who will hold the perpetrators to account?
The depths of depravity to which Myanmar’s illegal regime will sink know no bounds.
Over a hundred people were arrested on June 19 for the crime of buying, selling, carrying, or wearing a flower to celebrate Myanmar’s jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s 78th birthday.
Volker Turk’s appeal to stop the supply of arms to the military, and for targeted measures to limit the generals’ access to foreign currency, aviation fuel and other means that enable their attacks on Myanmar’s people, should be heard. He is right to urge the UN to consider how to bring to light the business interests that keep the military afloat.
There have been so many wake-up calls before, and still, the international community remains asleep. I hope the UN Secretary-General will end his moral siesta and take action in response. And so do the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and European Union and the Association of South-East Asian Nations. The international community must cut the lifelines to the military regime and provide a lifeline to the people of Myanmar — before it is really too late.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
