Myanmar junta abducting children of people targeted for arrest, says UN expert

[Bob20]

Special rapporteur says children as young as 20 weeks old are being seized by military in bid to force suspects to hand themselves in

 

Myanmar’s military junta is systematically abducting the relatives of people it is seeking to arrest, including children as young as 20 weeks old, according the UN special rapporteur for the country.

Tom Andrews told the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday that conditions in the country have continued to deteriorate and that “current efforts by the international community to stop the downward spiral of events in Myanmar are simply not working”.

The military junta and its forces have murdered more than 1,100 people, Andrews said, including dozens of children. As of July, the junta had killed at least 75 children ranging in age from 14 months to 17 years.

The military, he added, was routinely abducting family members when it is unable to locate individuals it is seeking to arrest.

“I have received credible reports that junta forces have arbitrarily detained at least 177 individuals­ when the initial target of a raid had successfully eluded arrest. These victims include very young children as young as 20 weeks old,” he said.

More than 8,000 people have been detained since the military seized power on 1 February. The junta, which faces widespread public opposition, has arrested anyone who has challenged its rule – from elected politicians, to activists, medical workers and journalists.

Andrews urged a “change of course” by the international community, to avert further human rights abuses and deaths, warning there are now more than 230,000 civilians who have been displaced as a result of the junta.

Over recent days, virtually the entire population of a town in western Myanmar, home to 7,500 people, were forced to flee, after clashes between the military and its opponents, according to media reports.

The Global New Light of Myanmar, which is controlled by the junta, said the military was ambushed by “some 100 terrorists” while patrolling Thantlang in Chin state, near the border with India.

Residents began to flee on Monday after soldiers “began to randomly shoot out the windows” of houses in the town, according to a resident who spoke to AFP anonymously.

“Almost everyone has left,” he said, adding he was sheltering in a nearby village with about 500 people, and that several hundred had already headed towards India. 

Another resident said she travelled for three days with her elderly parents to reach India after soldiers bombed her house and fighting escalated around the town.

“I never thought of running from my own house even after the military bombed it … but as things got worse … I finally had to flee,” she told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The independent outlet Myanmar Now reported that soldiers shot dead a Baptist pastor, who had gone outside to extinguish fires. His body was discovered with his left ring finger missing, the chair of the Thantlang Association of Baptist Churches told Myanmar Now, adding that he believed troops had stolen his wedding ring.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Thun dismissed such reports as fake news. He said 20 homes and a government building had been destroyed in a fire after a clash on 18 September clash.

Attacks on junta troops have increased after Myanmar’s self-declared parallel government, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians, announced a “defensive war” against the military earlier this month.

Speaking to the Human Rights Council, Andrews called for greater humanitarian aid for the more than three million Myanmar people who are in need of assistance.

“The international community must make a stronger commitment to ensuring lifesaving aid reaches those in need,” he said. “Myanmar civil society organisations who are saving lives need and deserve our support. The 2021 UN Myanmar Humanitarian Response Plan has received only 46% of requested funds to date. We can and should do better.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/23/thousands-of-civilians-flee-myanmar-town-after-military-clash-with-rebels

 

[palooka]

The Junta are thugs and scum and the international community should treat them as such.  A full embargo of anything in or out of the country would be a start.

OHH the UN wouldn't like that " oh lets talk to them, we need to have dialogue first for a peaceful resolution" while they butcher a few thousand more innocent and the UN spend weeks or longer doing their report that'll say they made some headway talking last time (some low life answered the phone when they rang) we need to to talk again. On and on it goes.

Full and total embargoes only hurt the thugs and scum not the people who are hiding in the jungle.

 

[gummy]

1 minute ago, palooka said:

The Junta are thugs and scum and the international community should treat them as such.  A full embargo of anything in or out of the country would be a start.

OHH the UN wouldn't like that " oh lets talk to them, we need to have dialogue first for a peaceful resolution" while they butcher a few thousand more innocent and the UN spend weeks or longer doing their report that'll say they made some headway talking last time (some low life answered the phone when they rang) we need to to talk again. On and on it goes.

Full and total embargoes only hurt the thugs and scum not the people who are hiding in the jungle.

All Juntas should be treated as such by the international community

[Rain]

What's an international community?

[gummy]

27 minutes ago, Rain said:

What's an international community?

An international community is a broad phrase often used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world. Of course it does not refer literally to all nations or states in the world.

[Rain]

26 minutes ago, gummy said:

An international community is a broad phrase often used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world. Of course it does not refer literally to all nations or states in the world.

Please. Stop. Drinking the that particular brand of Kool-Aid.

You're an intelligent and connected fellow, Gummy.

You should know better than to be drawn into this culturally-centric conditioning. 

How it is realistically defined: A very very selective Anglo-American "civilised" circle. 

International community, indeed.

 

Still love ya, though.

[Griff1315]

3 hours ago, gummy said:

All Juntas should be treated as such by the international community

That will include Thailand will it?