A senior UN official has denounced the double standards of the international community in taking robust action on Ukraine while failing the people of Myanmar. Meanwhile, there have been calls for the British government to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, as it did with Ukraine.
Speaking on UN Human Rights Day, Tom Andrews, the UN Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar said “international justice mechanisms were simply not available to the people of Myanmar. The UN Security council held sessions specifically on the invasion of Ukraine in just in a matter of days once the invasion occurred. The people of Myanmar continue to wait, more than 18 months on. There was later a special emergency session of the General Assembly, but the people of Myanmar wait for justice.”
Mr Andrews said the number of those tortured and killed continues to escalate, with over 2,500 lives lost according to conservative estimates, and over 16,000 detained or forcibly disappeared.
Meanwhile, at a candlelight vigil at London’s Marble Arch to mark UN Human Rights Day, the Director of the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), Chris Gunness, called on the UK and other governments to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, the ICC, just as they did with Ukraine.
“The case for an ICC referral is overwhelming, with indiscriminate aerial bombardments of civilian areas taking place on an almost daily basis. We demand action just as there was for the people of Ukraine,” said Gunness.
MAP also lit up the UK Houses of Parliament with an image by the Portuguese artist, Paulo Andringa, of Ko Jimmy, a prisoner of conscience who was executed in Myanmar. at the end of July.
The image was composed of thousands of headshots of political prisoners monitored by the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, the AAPP.
AAPP Director, Ko Bo Kyi who was imprisoned with Ko Jimmy in 1988 said, “Ko Jimmy is an example for other political prisoners in prison. He is the hero of the new generation. He is the hero for the Burmese people.”
