On August 16, the United Nations Special Envoy Noeleen Heyzer made her to Myanmar amid a deteriorating situation in the war-ravaged country.
“Myanmar has been in chaos since the military overthrew the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi early last year, followed by a bloody crackdown on protests against the coup,” of the trip.
The day before Heyzer’s arrival, a military-controlled court sentenced Suu Kyi to an additional six years in prison on what critics call “baseless corruption charges.”
Suu Kyi had already to 11 years on a raft of other charges that were tried behind closed doors.
The day of Heyzer’s arrival, Myanmar’s military leader, Min Aung Hlaing, addressed a Moscow-hosted conference on international security by video link.
Min Aung Hlaing said that after the state of emergency ends (it was extended by one year on August 1), more work will be done to prepare the country for an election to be “carried out in accordance with democratic standards.”
In turn, the Russian state broadcaster Sputnik on August 16:
“The national stability and peaceful environment in Myanmar ‘are the most important factors for elections,’ the prime minister [Min Aung Hlaing] said, adding that the incumbent government ‘is doing its best to maintain the rule of law, national security, and stability.’”
But claiming the junta is creating “stability” under “rule of law” is false. In fact, the military is the primary driver of lawlessness and instability in the country.
Since the coup, Myanmar’s junta has maintained its grip on power against the popular will through violence. Rather than pave the way for fair elections, the junta continues to persecute former members of the elected government it ousted.
The U.N.’s gathered evidence revealing that “since the military takeover in February 2021, crimes have been committed in Myanmar on a scale and in a manner that constitutes a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population.”
Those crimes against humanity include murder, torture, deportation, forcible transfer, rape and other forms of sexual violence. The IIMM also found “substantial evidence” the junta has engaged in “the widespread burning of villages and towns, and of targeted or indiscriminate killing of civilians.”
Human rights groups like Britain’s Amnesty International how the military rulers “inflicted collective punishment on civilians,” carrying out both widespread and systematic attacks that kill and injure noncombatants.
As of August 16, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), run by Myanmar citizens in exile, 2,201 “people, pro-democracy activists and other civilians” have been killed in the post-coup crackdown.
The U.N. said the IIMM’s annual report was released shortly before the fifth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s “widespread and systematic campaign of violence” against the Rohingya Muslim minority, the United States and others have called genocide and that sparked a mass exodus of refugees.
Last month, Myanmar announced it had executed four democracy activists – the country’s first executions in decades. The men were tried in closed military courts and denied the right to appeal.
The IIMM said the circumstances in which those men were sentenced to death “could constitute the crime of murder, openly carried out by an organ of government.”
The junta more than 100 others to death since the coup. On August 17, Heyzer called on the military to "impose a moratorium on all future executions."
fresh elections, tentatively planned for next year, will be used to install a pro-military government.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken the United States “strongly encourages the international community not to endorse the regime's plans for sham elections next year,” adding, “[T]hey can be neither free nor fair under present conditions.”
Analysts the prosecution of Su Kyi and other members of her government is intended to sideline the opposition ahead of the elections.
The military-controlled Union Election Commission recently said political parties could see their registration “dissolved” if they meet with foreign organizations or individuals.
Myanmar’s neighbors are by the junta’s actions.
On August 3, Malaysia Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Myanmar’s military rulers had frustrated other Association of Southeast Asian Nations members by failing to progress on .
On August 6, foreign ministers from ASEAN’s 10 member nations said Myanmar’s military rulers from further ASEAN meetings until that changed.