Myanmar Military Junta: Global Pro-Democracy Organisations Urge UNSC For Urgent Action
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
3 January
2024
As Myanmar
marked the third anniversary of the military coup a large number of global
pro-democracy organisations urge the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to
act in accordance with its mandate for peace & security and take concrete
actions against the Myanmar military junta. These actions must reflect the
gravity of the mass atrocity crimes against the people of Myanmar (also known
as Burma or Brahmadesh) committed by the junta for which the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights called on
the UNSC to refer the Myanmar crisis to the International Criminal Court, said
an open letter addressing the members of the UNSC.
League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (File Photo).
------
“We find
that the UNSC’s adoption of Resolution 2669, which passed its one-year mark in
December 2023, not only came too little and far too late – after decades of
atrocities by the Myanmar military – but also produced no concrete progress
towards halting the military's genocide, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity, which have only intensified since the adoption of the resolution,” asserted
the letter, endorsed by 462 civil
society organizations, adding that since its adoption, the military junta has
launched at least 909 airstrikes, killing more than 364 civilians including
scores of children, and torched nearly 80,000 houses.
Over the
last year, it is undeniable that the military junta’s violence has become more
targeted against civilian populations with blatant attacks on villages, towns,
internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps, religious sites where the refugees
were seeking space, schools, and hospitals.
Since the coup attempt, the junta has killed at least 4,450 people and
arrested more than 25,900 people, with more than 19,900 individuals still
detained, including President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi.
“Today,
dire humanitarian needs are alarmingly increasing across the southeast Asian
country, with more than 2.6 million people having been displaced. Civil society
has repeatedly called on international actors, including ASEAN, UN agencies,
and international non-governmental organizations, to cease any attempts at
partnership with the junta in the name of humanitarian aid. Partnering with the
junta only exacerbates the crisis at hand, including by allowing the military
rulers to continue to block aid from reaching the populations under its
attacks,” added the letter.
Myanmar’s
future can only be defined by the will of the people, not the misguided
initiatives of the international community. The people of Myanmar have bravely
and courageously proven their aspirations and determination to end the
military’s decades-long violence and to achieve long-lasting peace in Myanmar
where people of diverse backgrounds can co-exist with equal rights and dignity
in a truly inclusive federal democracy. It is time for the international
community, particularly the UNSC, to align itself with the will of the people
of Myanmar through swift, meaningful action.
Meanwhile,
the anti-junta outfits of Myanmar denounced the plan of military dictators to
conduct the elections arguing that 27.5
million voters had already given their mandate in the November 2020 general
elections to rule the country without the intervention of militaries. The
pro-democracy groups pointed out that the current batch of military rulers are
planning ‘to hold a sham election as one of its hallmark attempts to claim a
democratic mandate, gain international legitimacy, and normalize its relations
with foreign countries’.
“The
military junta, which is plunging the country into a dire human rights,
humanitarian, and economic catastrophe, lacks any legitimacy to conduct a
national election,” said Progressive Voice, a participatory rights-based policy
research and advocacy organization of Myanmar, adding that the last national
polls showcased the unwavering commitment of its nationals for a democratic
future without military control. But the military dictator Min Aung Hlaing led
a coup on 1 February 2021 to oust the democratically elected government in Naypietaw.
“Since the
military coup, the Myanmar people have united and coordinated a resistance
movement against the military junta. They have collectively prevented the junta
from seizing an effective control over the country. Today, because of the
people’s resistance, the junta lacks the administrative control of major parts
of Myanmar. Across the country, resistance groups have been building Myanmar’s
federal future from the ground up with inclusive, people-centric governance,”
said Khin Ohmar, chairperson of Progressive Voice, asserting that the illegal
and murderous junta has no legitimacy to organize and conduct an election.
The
international community must not fall prey to the junta’s desperate grasp at
legitimacy that would only be weaponized to misrepresent the grave reality of
Myanmar’s multi-faceted crisis and prolong the military junta’s decades-long
oppression of the people, stated Ohmar, while talking to this writer from an
undisclosed location of Myanmar. She also insisted that the international
community ‘must denounce the military junta’s sham election plans, and instead
actively support the people of Myanmar in their pursuit of genuine federal
democracy and sustainable peace’.
Needless to
mention, the junta’s election plans go hand in hand with its relentless
violence against the unarmed civilians across Myanmar. Over the last three
years, the junta has imposed illegal draconian laws to terrorise the opponents,
disband many political parties (including the Suu Kyi-led National League for
Democracy) and also guarantee its
success in the polls. The National Unity Government, an interim government formed by the elected
lawmakers, who were not allowed to function, seemingly holds the public mandate
to work with ethnic councils and various resistance organizations for establishing
a genuine federal democracy in Myanmar.
------
Nava
Thakuria is a northeast India-based professional journalist who is an
engineering graduate.
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/myanmar-military-junta-democracy-unsc/d/131645
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism