The Burmese junta now sees civilians as its enemies and is waging war against the people, the UN said on Friday.
Two years after the February 1, 2021 coup that overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the situation is a “worsening catastrophe,” says UN human rights chief Volker Türk, adding that the army is operating “with complete impunity.” . .
In a report examining the first two years since the military coup, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said at least 2,940 people had been killed, almost 30% of whom died in custody.
However, the actual number of deaths is likely much higher, concedes James Rodehaver, who heads the Burma office at the High Commission and to whom neither he nor his staff have direct access to the country.
According to him, the armed forces are now actively fighting on about 13 different fronts.
“There is increasing demand for the army,” he said at a press conference in Geneva.
It is therefore increasingly relying on the air force and artillery, with more than 300 airstrikes in the past year. According to the report, almost 80 percent of the country’s 330 townships are affected by armed conflict.
“There has never been a time or situation when a crisis in Burma has reached such national proportions,” said James Rodehaver.
According to UN reports, nearly 39,000 homes have been burned down or destroyed in military operations across the country since February 2022, “a more than 1,000-fold increase” from 2021.
The military and law enforcement agencies have made 17,572 arrests since the coup, the document said.
The junta uses a so-called “four cuts” strategy: cutting off food, recruitment, communications and access to money or livelihoods from opponents, Rodehaver said.
“What they are doing now is treating the Burmese people as their adversary and their adversary,” he said. “You have an army waging war against your own people.”
“They really created a crisis that has resulted in a loss, a decline in all human rights, and that includes the basic ability to live and have an economic future,” Rodehaver said.