UNITED NATIONS—The international community has failed the people of Myanmar since a military junta took power last year, the UN human rights rapporteur for the Southeast Asian country said Wednesday.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup, with swathes of the country engulfed by fighting.
More than 2,300 people have been killed in the military’s crackdown on dissent since the coup, which rights groups say includes razing villages, mass extrajudicial killings and air strikes on civilians.
“The pattern of the response of the international community to this horror has not changed,” said rapporteur Thomas Andrews.
“And because of that, there is not the requisite pressure necessary to generate any kind of change in the behavior of the military junta.”
He called this incomprehensible for the people of the nation formerly called Burma.
“The world is failing the people of Myanmar, to me there’s no question whatsoever,” said Andrews, also denouncing what he called inaction by the UN Security Council.
“There is a leadership vacuum, here in the UN and the international community,” he added.
He noted there are ties between the junta and Russia and acknowledged that a Myanmar resolution imposing sanctions or an embargo on arms sales would be vetoed.
“Then what do we do? Do we just throw our hands up?” Andrews asked.
“What I urged member states to do and what I’m urging them individually and what I urge them to do today is to establish a coalition of nations who are willing to stand with and for the people of Myanmar,” the diplomat said.
He noted that Russia’s veto in the Security Council did not prevent many countries from punishing Moscow with sanctions for invading Ukraine.
Andrews urged the international community not to make things worse by granting legitimacy to elections announced by the junta, which he called a farce. He singled out India, which has defended its ties with the junta.
He also criticized Malaysia for deporting Myanmar asylum seekers back to their home country.
