GENEVA, March 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations Security Council should impose a “global arms embargo” and targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s military, a top UN rights expert said, voicing alarm at the brutal repression of anti-coup protests.
In a fresh report, Thomas Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, called for the international community to “act urgently and decisively” to support those demanding a return to democracy in the country.
The UN Security Council, he said, should urgently “impose a global arms embargo” and “impose targeted economic sanctions against the Myanmar military and its sources of revenue”.
It should also refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court “to investigate and possibly prosecute atrocity crimes that have occurred, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity”, the report said.
The UN and the international community must meanwhile deny the military junta recognitions as the country’s legitimate government, the expert said.
“I urge the members of the (Security) Council to consider the unrelenting brutality that we are witnessing in Myanmar,” he said in a statement.
Myanmar has been in uproar since the military seized power on Feb 1, ending a decade-long experiment with democracy and triggering a mass uprising that the junta has increasingly sought to quash with lethal force.
Wednesday marked the bloodiest day so far, with the UN saying at least 38 people died, as online images streamed out of Myanmar showing security forces firing into crowds and blood-covered bodies with bullet wounds in their heads.
The UN Security Council is due to discuss the crisis on Friday, as international pressure mounts.
Western powers have repeatedly hit the generals with sanctions, and 41 states have imposed arms embargoes on Myanmar. — NNN-AGENCIES
