Geneva: In Myanmar, a land scarred by turmoil, the air grows heavy with the weight of a relentless violence. Since the military junta seized power in a February 2021 coup, the nation has spiralled into chaos, with over 6,600 lives extinguished in the crossfire. Tom Andrews, a seasoned human rights investigator, sounded the alarm on Thursday, painting a grim picture of a country under siege. The Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, is lashing out with increasing ferocity, targeting monasteries, schools, and fragile camps sheltering those uprooted by a brutal civil war. These sacred and safe spaces, once havens, now lie in the path of destruction.
The junta’s grip is slipping. Resistance fighters have wrested territory, soldiers, and soldiers, resources from the generals, who are haemorrhaging ground both literally and in the hearts of their people. Yet, bolstered by foreign allies, the military has unleashed a barrage of airstrikes, raining devastation on civilian targets to choke the opposition’s supply lines. “The use of aircraft and bombing is escalating,” Andrews told journalists in Geneva, his voice steady but urgent. Schools have crumbled under “indiscriminate” attacks, and camps for the displaced—meant as sanctuaries—have become graves. He recounted the anguish of a father who sought safety for his two daughters at an IDP centre, only to lose them both in a bombing. The generals, Andrews declared, are “loathed” by a population battered by forced conscription and rampant abuses.
On the sidelines of the Human Rights Council, Andrews revealed the junta’s chokehold on dissent: over 22,000 political prisoners languish behind bars, their only crime daring to speak out or march against tyranny. Despite their losses, the generals cling to power, fueled by a steady stream of foreign weapons and funds. “As long as those resources flow, they’ll wreak havoc without hesitation,” Andrews warned. Even nature’s wrath—a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that rocked Myanmar on March 28—offered no reprieve. The junta, he alleged, hijacked relief aid, funnelling it to loyalist areas while evicting quake survivors from shelters, weaponising humanitarian aid to tighten their control.
Amid the darkness, glimmers of hope emerge. Andrews hailed a one-third drop in weapons reaching the junta, thanks to international financial measures. Singapore slashed 90 per cent of its arms flow to Myanmar, while Thailand’s Bangkok Bank cut ties with the junta-controlled Myanmar Economic Bank, starving the military’s war chest. “These actions are fruitful,” Andrews noted, urging the world to reject the junta’s planned elections—its first since the coup—as a hollow sham designed to whitewash their crimes. He called for solidarity with Myanmar’s people, who face a humanitarian catastrophe: 3.5 million internally displaced, up from 1.5 million before the coup, and 1.4 million refugees scattered abroad. A third of the population grapples with acute food insecurity, and with 21.9 million in desperate need of aid—yet the global response plan is only 12 per cent funded, leaving millions in limbo.
As Myanmar’s people endure this crucible, their resilience shines through, a quiet defiance against a regime that seeks to crush them. Andrews, an independent Special Rapporteur unbound by UN payroll, says he stands as their voice, imploring the world to act before the nation’s spirit breaks.
– global bihari bureau
