UN: Attack against Myanmar’s civilian population has increased sharply
Frankfurt am Main, Geneva (epd). The United Nations has denounced the increasing violence against the civilian population in Myanmar. UN expert Nicholas Koumjian said in Geneva on Friday that there was a dramatic increase in deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and churches. The violence affects almost all parts of the country.
Attacks of this art are prohibited under international law and could be punishable as war crimes or crimes against humanity, said Koumjian, reporting to the UN Commission of Inquiry into Myanmar. The Independent Inquiry Mechanism introduced by the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 has collected evidence of murders, rapes, torture, unlawful detention and deportations, among other things.
The investigative mechanism is about investigating crimes that have started in the Southeast Asian country since 2011. This also includes the persecution of the Muslim Rohingya and attacks and violence against other minorities in the multi-ethnic state of Myanmar.
Especially in the strongholds of resistance against the military regime, the junta is brutal with the putsch. This is how Koumjian commemorated the massacre of civilians a year ago in the eastern state of Kayah. At that time, the charred bodies of more than 30 people, including women, children and the elderly, were found in burned-out vehicles. The massacre had been committed on Christmas Eve.
At least 2,640 people have been killed in protests and nearly 16,600 arrested since the military coup in February 2021, according to the AAPP, a charity for political prisoners. Most of them are still behind bars. At the same time, more and more local groups are fighting the junta. Young people in particular have joined the armed resistance.