UN human rights chief Volker Turk has issued a call to action, urging the international community to take "concrete steps" to halt the supply of weapons, jet fuel, and foreign currency to Myanmar's junta government. The plea was made during the Human Rights Council session in Geneva on Friday, as reported by the Turkish news agency Anadolu.
Turk emphasized the urgent need for collective action to prevent atrocities against all people in Myanmar, including the Rohingya minority. He urged countries to sever ties that enable the military to commit human rights violations by cutting off their access to arms, jet fuel, and foreign currency.
Highlighting the plight of the Rohingya, Turk underscored that decades of discrimination, persecution, and forced displacement have left them largely confined to villages and detention camps, subjected to grave human rights abuses.
The political turmoil in Myanmar intensified after the parliamentary elections on November 8, 2020, when Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) secured a landslide victory with 346 out of 412 seats. However, on the eve of the new session, the military ousted Suu Kyi's government and declared a year-long state of emergency on February 1, 2021.
Since then, Myanmar's junta forces have unleashed a wave of violence, resulting in the deaths of at least 4,500 civilians and the imprisonment of 25,000 individuals. Additionally, brutal attacks by the junta forces have destroyed at least 78,000 homes across the country.
In response to the junta's oppressive regime, several pro-democracy organizations, including the Arakan Army, have initiated resistance efforts. The Brotherhood Alliance, comprising three anti-junta armed groups, has reported significant losses for the junta forces in Rakhine state.
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