NEW YORK: More than 200 world organisations urged the UN Security Council on Wednesday (May 5) to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, saying the time for statements has handed and quick motion is required to assist shield peaceable protesters towards navy rule and different opponents of the junta.
An announcement by the non-governmental organisations stated the navy “has demonstrated a callous disregard for human life” since their Feb 1 coup, killing at the very least 769 individuals together with 51 kids as younger as six years outdated and detaining a number of thousand activists, journalists, civil servants and politicians. Hundreds of others have disappeared, it stated.
“No government should sell a single bullet to the junta under these circumstances,” the NGOs stated. “Imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar is the minimum necessary step the Security Council should take in response to the military’s escalating violence.”
The organisations urged the United Kingdom, the Security Council nation in control of drafting resolutions on Myanmar, “to begin negotiations on a resolution authorising an arms embargo as soon as possible”. This “will demonstrate to the junta that there will be no more business as usual”, they said.
Myanmar for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to leadership in 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country. The coup took place following November elections, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly and the military contests as fraudulent.
The 15-member Security Council has issued several statements since the coup demanding the restoration of democracy and the release of all detainees including Aung San Suu Kyi, strongly condemning the use of violence against peaceful protesters and the deaths of hundreds of civilians and calling on the military “to exercise utmost restraint” and “on all sides to chorus from violence”.
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It has additionally pressured “the need to fully respect human rights and to pursue dialogue and reconciliation”, and backed diplomatic efforts by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and UN particular envoy Christine Schraner Burgener to discover a answer.
“The time for statements has passed,” the NGOs stated. “The Security Council should take its consensus on Myanmar to a new level and agree on immediate and substantive action.”
They stated a UN world arms embargo towards Myanmar ought to bar the direct or oblique provide, sale or switch of “all weapons, munitions, and different military-related gear, together with dual-use items corresponding to autos and communications and surveillance gear”. Training, intelligence and different navy help also needs to be banned, they stated.
Amnesty International’s Senior UN Advocate Lawrence Moss advised a digital information convention launching the assertion that many nations provide weapons to Myanmar.
Citing Amnesty’s analysis and information from different trusted sources, he stated Russia has been supplying fight plane and assault helicopters to Myanmar whereas China has been supplying fight plane, naval weapons, armored autos, surveillance drones and aiding Myanmar’s indigenous naval trade. In addition, he stated, Chinese weapons, small arms and armored autos have been diverted to ethnic armed teams, particularly the Kachin Independence Army.
Moss stated Ukraine has additionally provided Myanmar’s navy with armored autos and is concerned within the joint manufacturing of armored autos in Myanmar, Turkey has supplied shotguns and shotgun cartridges, India has supplied armored autos, troop carriers and naval gear together with a submarine with torpedoes, and Serbia has recorded transfers of small portions of artillery techniques and small arms.
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Israel had provided frigates and armored autos to Myanmar together with police coaching however that stopped in 2017 although it might nonetheless be offering surveillance gear, Moss stated. South Korea transferred an amphibious assault system in 2019 however introduced a halt to additional navy exports after the coup.
Human Rights Watch’s UN Director Louis Charbonneau stated: “This is the beginning of what we hope will be an escalation of advocacy to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Security Council, wringing its hands, sticking with inaction and the occasional statement of concern.”
But getting the Security Council to undertake a decision authorising an arms embargo faces an uphill wrestle, particularly with China and Russia’s basic opposition to sanctions.
China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun, whose nation holds the council presidency this month, advised a information convention on Monday that China is “a friendly neighbor of Myanmar” and is placing extra emphasis on diplomatic efforts. It is “not in favor of imposing sanctions” which can hinder diplomacy and result in struggling of unusual individuals, Zhang stated.
Amnesty’s Moss countered that an “arms embargo would not hurt the ordinary people of Myanmar in any way, shape or form … and I hope that China will consider that”.
Simon Adams, executive director of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, said Myanmar’s “murderous, military-led regime” shouldn’t be allowed to purchase bombs and even “camouflage underwear” and “should be treated like the pariahs that they are”.
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“I think all of us share concern that the country could become a failed state, armed conflict could intensify, and so an arms embargo now is also a kind of preventive against a refugee crisis that flows across borders in the region, and an armed conflict which serves nobody’s interests,” Adams stated.
Myra Dahgaypaw, managing director of the US Campaign for Burma who recalled fleeing from previous navy airstrikes, stated an arms embargo won’t resolve all of the nation’s issues however “it will significantly increase the safety of the people on the ground, including the ethnic and the religious minorities”.
“Today I just want to tell the UN Security Council that the people of Burma need your help, and they need it urgently,” she stated. “Please don’t let the efforts, the struggle and the resilience of the people on the ground who are trying to survive go in vain.”
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source https://infomagzine.com/more-than-200-ngos-call-for-un-arms-embargo-on-myanmar/
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