HRW denounces the worsening of the repression in Burma after two years of military coup

31 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced this Tuesday the worsening of the repression in Burma after two years of the coup in the Asian country, for which it has urged the international community to coordinate “greater pressure on the junta”.

“Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in particular should signal to the US and the EU that they will support strengthening and enforcing existing sanctions against the junta. Without stronger targeted sanctions, the Myanmar Army will only tighten its brutal control over the population.” , has pointed out the director for Asia of HRW, Elaine Pearson.

The organization has lamented that the junta has “brutally repressed any opposition and has severely restricted the freedoms of expression, association and assembly”, since the military actions of February 1, 2021.

“Myanmar’s military junta has spent the two years since the coup mired in an escalating spiral of atrocities against the Burmese people amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes,” he said.

“Rather than proceed with an inevitably phony ‘election’ in August, Burma’s generals should face international consequences for their crimes,” Pearson said.

Various NGOs have denounced that at least 17,000 protesters and activists have been arrested and 2,900 killed, while security forces have carried out arbitrary arrests, torture, sexual violence and mass murders, abuses that amount to crimes against humanity.

In addition, the junta has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching the millions of people who are displaced or in conflict zones, such as the Rohingya, a Muslim minority that lives essentially in the Burmese Rakhine state and who are stateless, deprived of their rights and victims of numerous abuses.

“In Rakhine State, where the Rohingya have long suffered systematic abuse and discrimination amounting to crimes against humanity, including persecution and apartheid, security forces have imposed new restrictions on movement and aid,” reads a statement from HRW.

Thus, it has reported that these restrictions have worsened food and water shortages, increasing the risk of disease and severe malnutrition.

The UN Security Council approved its first resolution on the situation in the Asian country in December, calling for an end to the violence and attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as the release of all political prisoners.