Activists urge UN Safety Council to refer Myanmar to court docket

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Human rights activists urged the U.N. Safety Council on Monday to refer Myanmar’s navy rulers to the Worldwide Prison Court docket and urged neighboring Southeast Asian international locations to assist the opposition pro-democracy motion.

The leaders of two ladies’s rights organizations spoke to reporters forward of a closed council assembly on Myanmar. Members heard briefings by U.N. particular envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer and Indonesia’s Overseas Minister Retno Marsudi, whose nation chairs the 10-member Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations.

Might Sabe Phyu, director of the Gender Equality Community, a coalition of organizations selling ladies’s rights in Myanmar, accused Myanmar’s navy of conducting “a terror marketing campaign” and committing “heinous acts” that constituted crimes in opposition to humanity. She stated the Safety Council ought to refer the junta’s actions to the Worldwide Prison Court docket for prosecution.

Myanmar’s navy has lengthy been accused of human rights violations, most notably throughout a brutal 2017 counterinsurgency marketing campaign in opposition to Rohingya Muslims within the western state of Rakhine. Worldwide courts are contemplating whether or not that crackdown was genocide.

In 2021, the navy ousted Myanmar’s elected civilian authorities, then moved to violently suppress public opposition to the takeover. Some consultants now contemplate the state of affairs in Myanmar to be a civil battle during which the military has conducting main offensives in opposition to widespread armed resistance.

ASEAN adopted a five-step consensus on restoring peace in April 2021 to which Myanmar agreed however has not applied, resulting in Myanmar’s exclusion from some top-level ASEAN conferences since then.

The Safety Council accepted its first-ever decision on Myanmar in December, demanding a direct finish to violence, urging its navy rulers to launch all “arbitrarily detained” prisoners together with ousted chief Aung San Suu Kyi and to revive democratic establishments. It additionally reiterated a name for dialogue and reconciliation and urged all sides “to respect human rights, elementary freedoms and the rule of regulation.”

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The activists known as for an arms embargo, for the U.N. particular envoy to have public engagements with pro-democracy actors, and for accountability for crimes perpetrated by the navy.

Phyu, who left Myanmar after the takeover and is now primarily based in america, requested the Safety Council to strain Myanmar’s neighbors to not assist the federal government however to publicly assist democratic forces, together with the Nationwide Unity Authorities, which she stated has the assist of the folks of Myanmar.

And she or he criticized U.N. envoy Heyzer for assembly Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing however not assembly publicly with pro-democracy teams together with the Nationwide Unity Authorities, which operates underground and calls itself the nation’s authentic authorities.

Naw Hser Hser, head of the Girls’s League of Burma, stated supporters of democracy really feel forgotten by the worldwide neighborhood.

Earlier than Monday’s council assembly, Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward stated the Safety Council totally helps ASEAN and the five-point council, however careworn that it’s time for progress now.

“The folks of Myanmar have been struggling for too lengthy,” Woodward stated. “Myanmar is the second deadliest place on the earth for civilians and the folks of Myanmar actually can’t wait.”

France’s deputy U.N. ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst instructed The Related Press after the council assembly that Marsudi introduced the implementation plan which requires motion on all 5 factors in parallel, not sequentially.

“They are saying they don’t need megaphone diplomacy,” Broadhurst added, expressing hope that the ASEAN effort will ultimately result in a nationwide inclusive effort and finish the “determined state of affairs” in Myanmar.

Brazil’s U.N. Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho instructed AP that council members supported ASEAN, and a few stated the Safety Council ought to be ready for additional motion, however no new council motion is predicted “in the meanwhile.”

The Safety Council in New York has been more and more divided because of a serious rift amongst its 5 everlasting members: China and Russia on one facet, Britain, France and america on the opposite.