Streets of blood in the city of Myanmar as UN fears ‘crimes against humanity’

In one unverified graphic image, a body can be seen with the head blown apart and brain debris spilled on the road.

“He said it’s worth it to die for,” she said. “He is concerned that people will not join the protest. If that is the case, democracy will not return to the country.”

State protesters pull back from the front line after riot police fired sound bombs and rubber bullets in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 11.
At least 80 people have been killed since the military invalidated the country’s democratic election results, the United Nations Human Rights Office said, and hundreds more were injured. At least four of the deaths in recent days are individuals arrested and detained by the junta, including two officials from the ousted party National League for Democracy (NLD). According to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, all four died in custody.

More than 2,000 people have been detained arbitrarily since the coup, according to AAPP, many of whom have kept out of contact with family and friends, their condition or place unknown.

CNN cannot independently verify the arrest numbers or the death toll of AAPP.

Myanmar’s state – run daily published a statement on Wednesday reinforcing the army’s statement that it was using minimum force against protesters.

Tom Andrews, on Thursday, said the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that a “growing collection of reports” indicated that the junta’s security forces “murder, imprisonment, prosecution and other crimes as part of a coordinated campaign against a civilian population, in a widespread and systematic manner, with the knowledge of the junta’s leadership. ‘

The ‘brutal response’, he said, is therefore likely to meet the legal threshold for crimes against humanity. ‘

He called on UN member states to halt the flow of revenue and weapons to the junta, saying multilateral sanctions should be “imposed” on senior leaders, military-owned and controlled enterprises and state energy firm Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

His statement comes after the rights group Amnesty International released a report saying the army was launching a ‘murderous attack’ in Myanmar, with increasingly deadly tactics and weapons commonly seen on the battlefield against peaceful protesters and bystanders.

By verifying more than 50 videos of the ongoing repression, Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab confirmed that security forces appear to be implementing planned, systematic strategies, including the use of deadly force, indiscriminate spraying of live ammunition in urban areas, and that many of the documented murders amount to extrajudicial executions.

“These military tactics in Myanmar are far from new, but their killings have never before been seen live for the world,” said Joanne Mariner, director of crisis response at Amnesty International. “It is not the actions of overwhelming, individual officers who make poor decisions. It is unrepentant commanders who have already been involved in crimes against humanity, deploying their troops and killing methods in public.

Flight to India

There is evidence that the violence is forcing people to flee the country. Between 200 and 300 people crossed the border from Myanmar to the northeastern state of Mizoram of India, fleeing the unrest, Mizoram’s prime minister told CNN.

This includes the police, civil servants, their relatives and other civilians, and the number of people fleeing is increasing daily, according to Prime Minister PU Zoramthanga.

“We (the Mizoram government) do not send them back as a humanitarian point of view. If anyone enters the country, the border, we can not simply send them back. They are not criminals. This is a political issue,” he said. he said.

Zormanthanga added that people get food and shelter, and that many in Mizoram have family. He said it depends on the Indian central government on how to deal with people crossing the border.

Suu Kyi accused of bribery

The ousted civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was accused by the army of bribery and corruption on Thursday, adding four more charges against her that could lead to years in prison.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told a news conference that Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments worth $ 600,000 as well as gold, according to Reuters.

The spokesman added that the information had been verified following a complaint from a former Yangon regional minister, and that an anti-corruption committee was investigating.

Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, told CNN “the allegations are a complete fabrication.”

“I have been in politics in Myanmar for almost 40 years, and in all those years I have not seen such shameless allegations,” he said. “We are in a country where people have seen a lot of corruption in the past and had a lot of misconduct, but Aung San Suu Kyi is not in the corruption sphere.”

He added that although he had “a lot of disagreements” with Suu Kyi, “in terms of corruption, bribery, greed – it’s not her, but not a woman.”

Along with Suu Kyi, ousted President Win Myint, his wife and several cabinet ministers are being investigated for allegedly asking and accepting money from some entrepreneurs, the spokesman told Reuters without explaining it.

Suu Kyi and Win Myint remain under house arrest.

The army, led by Head of State Genl. Min Aung Hlaing, took full control of the country last month and ousted Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government, which was elected in November 2020.

The military has justified its actions by alleging widespread voter fraud in the poll – only the second democratic vote since the previous military junta began a series of reforms in 2011.

Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Chan Aye said in a video statement to the UN Human Rights Council: “In recent days, the relevant authorities have paid attention to the maintenance of law and order in the country,” and “authorities have exercised the greatest self-control to deal with the violent protests.”

People pay tribute by laying flowers and lighting candles next to dried blood at the site where Chit Min Thu was killed in clashes on March 11 in Yangon, Myanmar.

Chan Aye also said the military leadership was committed to ‘free and fair democratic elections with more parties’.

But with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN, said the country did not need new elections as the latest poll was free and fair.
His comments come after the 15 UN Security Council countries unanimously supported the strongest statement since the coup, saying “strongly condemned the violence against peaceful protesters” and called on the military to “exercise the greatest restraint.”
UN diplomats told CNN that China, Russia and Vietnam had objected to more stringent language events being called “coup d’etat” and in one draft removed the language that would threaten further action, possibly sanctions.

In a statement, China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said “it is important that the members of the Council speak with one voice. We hope that the message from the Council will be conducive to alleviating the situation in Myanmar.”

Kyaw Moe Tun said the message “does not meet the expectations of the people” and that he is against the cruelty of the army ‘we all feel helpless’ and called on the international community to protect.

CNN’s Sarita Harilela, Vedika Sud, Richard Roth and Radina Gigova reported.

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