United Nations human rights envoys are warning Myanmar faces a profound crisis including human displacement and food scarcity as violence and instability increase in the country a year after the military coup.
Over the last year, UN representatives have been ringing the alarm bell about the worsening situation.
While there has been criticism of the UN failing to do more to tackle the Myanmar crisis, UN envoys typically have not minced their words when it comes to criticism of the Myanmar regime – though there was angst over one envoy suggesting some form of “power-sharing” with the junta.
WORSENING AN EXISTING CRISIS
Just this week, UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet told the 49th session of Human Rights Council (HRC) that the country's humanitarian crisis continues to expand as systematic brutality by the Myanmar security forces has inflamed pre-existing armed conflicts in multiple ethnic states.
Thousands of villagers have been forced to flee their homes, either to hide out in the country, or to flee the country altogether – escaping to Thailand, India and Bangladesh.
As Bachelet notes, the crisis revolves around both the attacks by Myanmar military forces and the emergence over the last year of “People’s Defence Forces” – what she calls “localized armed resistance groups” - who have triggered “widespread violence in areas that were previously stable” – including the Bamar heartland.
Major military crackdowns in clear violation of international human rights and humanitarian law, have taken place in Sagaing and Magway Regions, as well as in Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, and Shan States.
The clashes have worsened the supply chains for food and commodities. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has also recorded at least 286 attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel since February 2021.
The UN High Commissioner notes that since 1 February 2021, more than half a million people have been forced to flee their homes, with at least 15,000 reportedly fleeing the country – adding to the nearly 340,000 people internally displaced before the coup, and more than one million refugees, most of them mostly Muslim Rohingya who have found refuge in Bangladesh
THOUSANDS FLEE
Bachelet joins other UN envoys and commentators who are warning of a spiraling humanitarian crisis as Myanmar degenerates into a failed state.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Tom Andrews said in a recent report that the atrocities and repression of the junta have prompted thousands to flee. As he notes, half of the population has fallen into poverty. The World Health Organization is now projecting that there will be over 47,000 preventable deaths in Myanmar this year. In addition, 13 million people face food insecurity.
“The scale of these atrocities is immense. According to conservative estimates, at least 1,600 civilians have been killed by the junta’s forces. Nearly 10,000 people are currently detained because of their opposition to military rule, and the junta has amended the legal code to further criminalize the exercise of fundamental rights including the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. More than 500,000 people have been displaced since the coup bringing the current number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Myanmar to over 800,000. Tens of thousands who have sought safety in Bangladesh, India and Thailand have joined the approximately one million refugees from Myanmar in neighboring countries.”
Andrews says that junta attacks on civilians have been perpetrated on a widespread and systematic basis. These attacks constitute probable crimes against humanity including the crimes of murder, enslavement, forcible transfer, torture, rape and sexual violence.
BLOCKED FROM ENTRY
How much the UN has helped to bring about dialogue or provide much-needed humanitarian aid is unclear, in part due to the reluctance of the Myanmar junta to accept the visit of UN envoys - or to accept they have a crisis on their hands.
Writer Damian Lilly, in a story in Pass Blue that attempts to provide independent coverage of the United Nations, says the UN itself has been reluctant to play a bigger leadership role to bring the warring sides together. Compared with the war in Ethiopia, which erupted in December 2020, there has been minimal political investment by the UN Secretary General to engage the parties, he says.
The new UN Special Envoy, Noeleen Heyzer, has contacted regional governments, but she recently got caught up in significant backlash from Myanmar civil society, after suggesting that “power-sharing” with the junta should be considered, Lilly writes.
The UN needs to define a clear political strategy to end the crisis in Myanmar. Notwithstanding the lack of political support in the region and in the UN Security Council, there is much the UN system can do inside Myanmar, although it continues to face challenges of its own making, Pass Blue reports. According to Chris Sidoti of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), regarding the UN, the “fundamental problem has been a lack of leadership. The Resident Coordinator (RC) was not even in the country when the coup began and afterwards. Even now, there is only an interim person in place.”
Unable to enter the country, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights operates with a skeleton staff from Bangkok, where Special Envoy Heyzer is also based. The UN Refugee Agency
protection cluster is attempting to expand its footprint but is unable to gain access to many parts of Myanmar, Lilly notes.
HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
The UN knows where the responsibility lies but faces challenges in liaising with the key parties to the conflict in Myanmar, including the incarcerated members of the elected civilian government, including former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint.
The National Unity Government – the alternative or shadow civilian administration – has limited power and its personnel are dispersed either in-country or in exile.
A core issue for the UN – and for international aid organizations including the World Food Programme – is how to reach those in need, given the chaos in the country, the lack of support infrastructure, and a military regime seemingly intent on blocking outside players from helping those in need.
UN Envoy Andrews reports that the junta is directly responsible for the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Myanmar, which threatens human rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the rights to food, shelter, health, and an adequate standard of living. The junta’s obstruction of humanitarian aid and attacks on aid workers in the context of armed conflict violate international humanitarian law.
He notes that the military junta has driven Myanmar into a humanitarian catastrophe marked by crumbling health infrastructure, half the nation falling into poverty, rampant inflation, fuel price increases, the COVID-19 pandemic and the obstruction of aid delivery. At one stage, the junta even blocked the supply of oxygen cylinders when the COVID-19 pandemic peaked.
Andrews notes that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that a four-fold increase in funding from the donor community is needed to meet targets for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, with further support needed for refugee populations in Bangladesh and Thailand. Even if those targets are met, millions in need of aid will go without.
He notes, in his role of Special Rapporteur, that he is deeply concerned that, without stronger action from the international community, they will become considerably worse, resulting in untold numbers of deaths and suffering on a massive scale.
The UN envoys continue to ring the alarm bells about Myanmar on a monthly basis, but their cause is unlikely to be helped by the international diplomatic furor over the war in Ukraine.
The situation is so dire in the Golden Land that the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has forecast that “the combined impact of the coup and the COVID-19 pandemic could force nearly half of Myanmar’s population into poverty this year.”
Sources: UN, UNHCR, UN News, Pass Blue
