The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) called for decisive action of UN member states to bring the Myanmar military junta to justice following the latest junta attack which killed at least 29 internally displaced people (IDPs) and injured more than 50 in Myanmar’s Kachin State on the night of 9 October.
The junta attack on Munglai Hyket IDP village, where 100 families displaced by junta violence were taking refuge, near the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army/Kachin Independence Organisation (KIA/KIO) occurred around 11:30 pm. Children and women were among the casualties and injured persons.
At least 11 of the 29 people killed were children and 56 people were injured. This could constitute a war crime.
Yanghee Lee, an international human rights expert and founding member of SAC-M said on 12 October: “Myanmar military is so emboldened by the indifference of the international community in response to its decades of atrocity crimes that it is now attacking camps for internally displaced people.”
She continued to say, “The military is flagrantly massacring the most vulnerable people in society, and yet UN entities in Myanmar will not even publicly name the military as the perpetrator. At what point will the UN decide to stand with the Myanmar people?”
The recent attack of the junta on civilians was the highest death toll in Kachin State this year, and it took place almost a year after a junta airstrike on a music concert killed at least 60 people in the village of A Nang Pa, Kachin State, on 23 October last year.
Marzuki Darusman, another founding member of SAC-M and the former Chair of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, also said, “The junta is a rogue criminal gang that cannot be reasoned with.”
He added, “Attacking a camp for displaced people is an act so utterly depraved that it defies humanity. Such depraved acts of violence are the reason the Myanmar people have been forced into a nation-defining struggle to liberate themselves entirely from the Myanmar military’s influence.”
The statement of SAC-M urged the UN Security Council to enforce the junta’s compliance with its resolution using its powers under chapter VII of the UN Charter, through the imposition of a global arms embargo and targeted financial sanctions against the junta, and the referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It also suggested that if the Security Council won’t, or can’t, act. Member States must take action through the General Assembly and pass an urgent resolution during the current 78th session.
Chris Sidoti, another founding member of SAC-M and a former member of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said, “The abhorrent junta attack in Munglai Hyket is a result of the utter failure of the international community to act for the protection of the Myanmar people, adding that continued failure of UN member States to take collective concrete action to end Myanmar military impunity is a betrayal of the Myanmar people.
On 10 October, the French Embassy in Myanmar issued a statement saying that France condemns the attack in the strongest terms.
The Embassy of Canada in Yangon, on 11 October, also condemned the attack on the IDP village, and reiterated its calls, echoing those of partners, the UNSC, ASEAN, the Human Rights Council and the ILO, for an immediate cessation of violence, an end to the targeting of civilians, adherence to international law, and full and unrestricted humanitarian access in Myanmar.
