United Nations
100 days in power, Myanmar junta holds pretense of control
After Myanmar’s military seized power by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, they couldn’t even make the trains run on time: State railway workers were among the earliest organized opponents of the February takeover, and they went on strike.
Health workers who founded the civil disobedience movement against military rule stopped staffing government medical facilities. Many civil servants were no-shows at work, along with employees of government and private banks. Universities became hotbeds of resistance, and in recent weeks, education at the primary and secondary levels has begun to collapse as teachers, students and parents boycott state schools.
Read:More than 200 NGOs call for UN arms embargo on Myanmar
One hundred days after their takeover, Myanmar’s ruling generals maintain just the pretense of control. The illusion is sustained mainly by its partially successful efforts to shut down independent media and to keep the streets clear of large demonstrations by employing lethal force. More than 750 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces, according to detailed independent tallies.
“The junta might like people to think that things are going back to normal because they are not killing as many people as they were before and there weren’t as many people on the streets as before, but... the feeling we are getting from talking to people on the ground is that definitely the resistance has not yet subsided,” said Thin Lei Win, a journalist now based in Rome who helped found the Myanmar Now online news service in 2015.
She says the main change is that dissent is no longer as visible as in the early days of the protests — before security forces began using live ammunition — when marches and rallies in major cities and towns could easily draw tens of thousands of people.
At the same time, said David Mathieson, an independent analyst who has been working on Myanmar issues for over 20 years, “Because of the very violent pacification of those protests, a lot of people are willing to become more violent.”
“We are already starting to see signs of that. And with the right training, the right leadership and the right resources, what Myanmar could experience is an incredibly nasty destructive, internal armed conflict in multiple locations in urban areas.”
Meanwhile, the junta also faces a growing military challenge in the always restive border regions where ethnic minority groups exercise political power and maintain guerrilla armies. Two of the more battle-hardened groups, the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east, have declared their support for the protest movement and stepped up their fighting, despite the government military, known as the Tatmadaw, hitting back with greater firepower, including airstrikes.
Even a month ago, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was describing the situation as grim, saying Myanmar’s “economy, education and health infrastructure have been brought to the brink of collapse, leaving millions of Myanmar people without livelihood, basic services and, increasingly, food security.”
It was not surprising that The Economist magazine, in an April cover story, labeled Myanmar “Asia’s next failed state” and opined it was heading in the direction of Afghanistan.
Read:Pro-democracy forces in Myanmar create "People's Defence Force"
The U.N.’s Bachelet made a different comparison.
“There are clear echoes of Syria in 2011,” she said. “There too, we saw peaceful protests met with unnecessary and clearly disproportionate force. The State’s brutal, persistent repression of its own people led to some individuals taking up arms, followed by a downward and rapidly expanding spiral of violence all across the country.”
Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has shunned all efforts at mediation, from the United Nations as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member.
Myanmar’s resistance movement, meanwhile, has organized widely and swiftly underground.
Within days of the junta takeover, elected parliamentarians who were denied their seats convened their own self-styled Parliament. Its members have formed a shadow National Unity Government with guidelines for an interim constitution, and last week, a People’s Defense Force as a precursor to a Federal Union Army. Many cities, towns and even neighborhoods had already formed local defense groups which in theory will now become part of the People’s Defense Force.
Aside from being morale boosters, these actions serve a strategic purpose by endorsing a federal style of government, which has been sought for decades by the country’s ethnic minorities to give them autonomous powers in the border areas where they predominate.
Promoting federalism, in which the center shares power with the regions, aligns the interests of the anti-military pro-democracy movement with the goals of the ethnic minorities. In theory, this could add a real military component to a movement whose armaments are generally no deadlier than Molotov cocktails and air rifles — though homemade bombs have been added to its arsenals in recent weeks.
In practice, at least for the time being, the guerrilla armies of the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east will fight as they always have, to protect their own territory. They can give military training to the thousands of activists that are claimed to have fled the cities to their zones, but are still overmatched by the government’s forces. But on their home ground they hold an advantage against what their populations consider an occupying army. That may be enough.
Read:Myanmar’s military disappearing young men to crush uprising
“The only thing that the military is really threatened by is when all of these disparate voices and communities around the country actually start working against it, not as a unified monolith, but all working against the military’s interests,” said the analyst, Mathieson. ”And I think that’s the best that we can hope for moving forward, that the people recognize that all efforts have to go against the military. And if that means fighting up in the hills and doing peaceful protests and other forms of striking back against the military in the towns and the cities, then so be it.”
It’s hard to gauge if the army has a breaking point.
Mathieson said he’s seen no signs the junta was willing to negotiate or concede anything. The Tatmadaw is “remarkably resilient. And they recognize that this is an almost existential threat to their survival.”
UN report says Myanmar poverty could double from coup chaos
Political turmoil and disruptions following the coup in Myanmar could undo years of progress and double the number of its people living in poverty to nearly half the population, a United Nations report said Friday.
The report by the U.N. Development Program, or UNDP, said 12 million people could fall into dire economic straits as businesses remain shuttered in a standoff between the junta and a mass civil disobedience movement.
“The hardest hit will be poor urban populations and the worst affected will be female heads of household,” Kanni Wignaraja, the UNDP’s assistant secretary-general for the region, told The Associated Press via a Zoom recording.
The Feb. 1 coup wrested power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained along with more than 3,400 other people. Since then, the military has severely restricted internet access and gradually stepped up violent repression of protests.
Many factories, offices, banks and other facilities have closed and trade has been disrupted by work stoppages and other disruptions at ports, economists and others familiar with the situation inside Myanmar say. That has worsened already bleak conditions due to the pandemic.
Also read: Myanmar airstrikes target ethnic forces on 2 fronts
The UNDP said conditions could deteriorate by early 2022 to a level of poverty last seen in 2005.
The economy grew rapidly after a previous military regime initiated a partial transition to a civilian government, while keeping control of key ministries and industries and seats in parliament.
Foreign investment in garment manufacturing, tourism and other industries helped create millions of jobs, providing a lifeline of support for many families living in rural areas.
But that progress has ground to a halt as the coup added to troubles from the pandemic.
“With the effects of the political crisis, we could see these gains removed in just a few months,” Wignaraja said.
The research agency Fitch Solutions has forecast that the economy will contract 20% in the current fiscal year, which ends in September. In a report released last week, economist Jason Yek noted that food insecurity is rising due to hoarding and inflation, while people struggle to access cash to pay for necessities due to the closure and cash limits put on ATMs.
A weakening of the Myanmar kyat to about 1,600 kyat per dollar from about 1,350 kyat before the coup also hinders the country’s ability to import much needed medicines and other supplies.
“We really cannot rule out any worst-case scenario,” Yek said in an online briefing.
So far, foreign governments and businesses have sought to levy pressure on Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and others in the junta through targeted sanctions meant to cut off financial support to the army, or Tatmadaw.
The UNDP report’s findings suggest that ordinary people already are suffering regardless of sanctions.
Also read: Myanmar guerrillas capture gov't base; airstrikes follow
The magazine Nikkei Asia Review said Thursday that the group Independent Economists for Myanmar issued a report urging the targeting of sources of foreign exchange, such as Myanmar’s exports of natural gas, its biggest revenue earner, and of gems and jade.
Sanctions could freeze deposits linked to the state-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank, it said.
It said targeting the junta’s sources of hard currency with international sanctions could reduce its revenues by roughly $2 billion annually.
It said the military was prioritizing spending on weapons and security operations over providing desperately needed public services.
Also read: ASEAN leaders demand Myanmar coup leaders end killings
The U.S. recently ordered sanctions against the company that controls most of Myanmar’s gems, pearls and jade sales, though a huge share of that trade is done illicitly.
So far, foreign energy companies involved in Myanmar’s natural gas industry have resisted calls for them to stop paying revenues to the government, saying such moves might endanger their employees and hurt access to already scarce electricity.
India objects to Bangladesh's submission to amend continental shelf limits in line with judgements
India has lodged its objection with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) over Bangladesh’s claim requesting the Commission not to "consider and qualify" the amended submission made by Bangladesh.
“The consideration and qualification by the Commission on the limits of the Continental Shelf of the amended submission by Bangladesh would prejudice the rights of India over the parts of the continental shelf,” reads a written communication made by the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations drawing attention to the relevant wing of the UN.
The document dated April 16 was posted on the website of CLCS. The “note verbale” is supposed to be circulated to the members of the Commission and Member States of the UN.
Bangladesh submitted the amended submission on the Continental Shelf to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) of the United Nations on October 22, 2020.
Pleas for more aid to Syria: 'We don't have nearly enough'
At age 19, Fatima al-Omar is at her wits’ end. In the last year alone, she lost her home to fighting in Syria’s last rebel-held enclave and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She became the sole breadwinner for her mother, three siblings and grandmother as they moved around between shelters.
Then the coronavirus struck, aggravating conditions in northwest Syria just as new fighting had uprooted 1 million people — the biggest wave of displacement in the country’s 10-year war. By late 2020, al-Omar contracted COVID-19, costing her the last job she had picking olives. She hasn’t been able to find work since and is now at risk of another eviction.
“It was all difficult, but it just keeps getting harder,” al-Omar said, speaking by phone from the latest home she moved to in Binnish, a small town in rebel-held Idlib province.
Also read: 10 years on, Syria is a hungry nation
Despite the worsening humanitarian situation across war-ravaged Syria, it’s been getting tougher every year to raise money from global donors to help people like al-Omar. The aid community is bracing for significant shortfalls ahead of a donor conference that starts Monday in Brussels and is being co-hosted by the United Nations and the European Union.
Pledges were already dropping off before the coronavirus pandemic mainly due to donor fatigue. Officials fear that with the global economic downturn spurred by the pandemic, international assistance for Syria is about to take a new hit just when it is needed most. Earlier this month, a U.N. appeal for aid to Yemen, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, was less than 50% funded, in what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called a disappointment.
Across Syria, the pandemic has compounded the worst economic crisis since the conflict began in 2011. The local currency has crashed and food prices have soared — increasing by 222% from last year. Nine out of 10 people live below the poverty line and in northwest Syria, close to three-quarters of the 4.3 million residents are food insecure.
According to the U.N., 13.4 million people in Syria, more than half the country’s pre-war population, need assistance. That’s a 20% increase from last year.
“We don’t have nearly enough money to provide all the services that are needed,” said Mark Cutts, the U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria.
“It is still just a struggle for survival for all these people and it is often the women, the children and the elderly and people with disabilities who are suffering most.”
Also read: UN chief asks for continuing to reach all Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance
The U.N. and other aid groups are seeking more than $4 billion for aid within Syria at this year’s conference, their biggest appeal yet. Another $5.8 billion are requested for nearly 6 million Syrian refugees who fled their homeland.
Over the years, pledges have typically fallen short. The humanitarian appeal for 2020 was 45% below its $3.82 billion target — nearly a 14% drop from the year before.
“We fully realize that in donor countries there is also a COVID effect, that budgets are strained,” said Fillipo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. “But clearly because of that same pandemic that has an effect on budgets, this is not the time to let go.”
In the rebel-held area, coronavirus pandemic restrictions have further slowed economic activity, closing schools and reducing trade and movement with Turkey — the enclave’s gateway to the world.
Women and children are being forced to find low-paying and risky jobs, including minors collecting trash, begging or being recruited by armed groups. Aid groups say reports of suicide attempts among young men and adolescents are on the rise.
One in three children are out of school, down from about 70% enrollment a year earlier, said Amjad Yamin, of Save the Children.
The World Food Program reduced its monthly food basket throughout Syria to stretch available funding and prevent a reduction in the number of people reached. That meant dropping calories from 2,100 per person to 1,264 — a 40% decrease. Some families said the rice ration in the basket has gone down by half.
Meanwhile, water needs have increased by 40% because of the pandemic, but funding has not kept up. In a letter shared with The Associated Press, local non-governmental organizations told donors that cuts could potentially force as many as 55 water stations across northwestern Syria to shut down, denying nearly 740,000 people access to water.
“The gaps are enormous,” said CARE International’s Tue Jakobsen.
Reports of anticipated aid cuts — as high as 67% by some of the largest donors — were leaked in emails or relayed in private meetings. Aid workers have tried to adjust budgets and plan for the reductions.
The cuts could also put thousands of people out of work and force a couple of displacement camps to close, the letter shared with the AP said.
It has already been a struggle for al-Omar and her family to get help.
Since her family lost their home, they have not received any food assistance, she said. Savings have been used to pay for part of for her mother’s cancer treatment. Charity and local donations financed the rest, including lengthy medical trips to Turkey. Cash assistance that has helped her pay rent is not guaranteed.
Al-Omar’s pantry, where she kept food reserves such as pickles and jams, is empty. “We have nothing. We have no water. No food,” said al-Omar, whose father abandoned the family 11 years ago. “We are below zero.”
Also read: Biden: Strikes in Syria sent warning to Iran to 'be careful'
Al-Omar’s best job was working from home, sewing masks and earning about $7 for every 1,500 masks completed. It meant staying safe and looking after her siblings. But she lost it when she moved to Binnish where rent is cheaper.
A year into displacement, she dreams of a room in one of the camps for displaced people. “It would be better than all this moving,” she said. “This is exhausting.”
UN condemn “systematic” attacks on peaceful protesters in Myanmar
The UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on Sunday issued a clear warning of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in Myanmar, following another day of widespread bloodshed by the Myanmar military.
The two senior UN officials strongly condemned the Myanmar military’s widespread, lethal, increasingly systematic attacks against peaceful protesters, as well as other serious violations of human rights since it seized power on 1 February 2021.
Thousands of people have also been arbitrarily arrested – many subjected to enforced disappearance. Saturday witnessed the bloodiest day since the demonstrations against the coup began, with security forces killing at least 107 individuals – including 7 children – according to multiple credible reports, with the number of deaths expected to rise as reports are confirmed.
Hundreds more were wounded and detained during these seemingly coordinated attacks in over 40 locations throughout the country, according to the statement issued from New York and Geneva.
Bachelet and Nderitu called on the military to immediately stop killing the very people it has the duty to serve and protect.
Also read: Rohingya Repatriation: Dhaka seeks Delhi’s strong role in UNSC
“The shameful, cowardly, brutal actions of the military and police – who have been filmed shooting at protesters as they flee, and who have not even spared young children – must be halted immediately. The international community has a responsibility to protect the people of Myanmar from atrocity crimes,” Bachelet and Nderitu said.
The Special Adviser and the High Commissioner called on the Security Council to take further steps, building on its statement of 10 March 2021, and for ASEAN and the wider international community to act promptly to uphold the responsibility to protect the people of Myanmar from atrocity crimes.
While the State has the primary responsibility to protect its population, the international community shares that responsibility, and in cases where the State is manifestly failing, the international community “should take timely and collective action in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations to protect civilian populations that are at risk of atrocity crimes.”
Nderitu and Bachelet called for an end to systemic impunity in Myanmar. “We must ensure accountability for past crimes and deter the most serious international crimes from being committed,” the two officials stated.
“The failure to address the atrocity crimes the Tatmadaw has committed in the past, including against Rohingya and other minorities, has brought Myanmar to this terrible pass. There is no way forward without accountability and fundamental reform of the military.”
The senior officials urged all parties – including defecting officials, police and military officers – to cooperate with international mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court and the Human Rights Council’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, in fighting impunity in the country.
Also read: US urged to lead in finding durable solution to Rohingya crisis
This situation has also put at further risk the already vulnerable ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar, including the Rohingya.
This population has long suffered horrific violence at the hands of the Myanmar military with impunity, as documented by the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar established by the Human Rights Council.
“We are deeply concerned about the impact that the current situation may have on these populations and are closely monitoring developments.
The rights of minority groups, including the Rohingya population must be fully respected,” the two UN officials stated.
They noted the diversity of the protest movement, and encouraged the newfound sense of unity across ethnic and religious divides, as well as the growing recognition of past crimes against minorities, including Rohingya.
Voice for genocide’s global recognition rings throughout Bangladesh
More than 1,500 anti-war crimes campaigners in Bangladesh took to the streets to press home their demand for getting the recognition of March 25 as the international genocide day by the United Nations.
Professionals, including university teachers, journalists, lawyers, writers, doctors, engineers among others, took part in as many as 34 different protest rallies simultaneously on Thursday evening on university campuses, in front of press clubs, and at the bases of shaheed Minars across the country.
Also read: PM urges global leaders to take action to prevent recurrence of any future genocide
Under the banner of One Bangladesh, a platform consisting of pro-liberation professionals, the protesters carried posters that read “UN should recognise March 25 as international genocide day”, “We demand an official apology from Pakistan”, and “Dear Pakistan, stop spreading smears against 1971 war crimes”.
Wearing masks and maintaining health protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic, the demonstrators also lit candles commemorating 3 million martyrs and hundreds of thousands of women violated by Pakistani occupation forces during the nine-month Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.
Read Mission in New Delhi observes Genocide Day
UN releases US$14mn for Rohingyas left homeless by camp fire
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has released US$14 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide urgent shelter and other assistance to tens of thousands of Rohingyas after a devastating fire tore through the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar on March 22.
Estimates indicate that the fire displaced more than 45,000 mostly Rohingya refugees, originally from neighbouring Myanmar, with many more affected.
A hospital and other critical health, nutrition and education structures were destroyed.
The CERF funds will help set up and rebuild shelter and provide affected people with urgent water and sanitation services, food, mental and psychosocial health assistance and other emergency services.
Also read: Rohingya Camp Fire: Australia announces additional $10mn for affected people
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, said this fire has ripped through one of the most vulnerable communities in the world and Rohingya refugees need our support now more than ever, as the pandemic continues to take its toll and they approach the monsoon season.
“Rohingya refugees themselves have always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the aid workers, volunteering their services to support response efforts in the camps. Now is the moment for the international community to stand by them.”
People displaced by the fire have sought refuge in nearby camps, shelters and learning centres, and at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees transit sites.
NGOs have set up child-friendly spaces at central points to receive and care for lost and unidentified children.
The central coordination body for humanitarian agencies serving the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar said reports from the camps indicate that at least 11 people lost their lives, more than 500 people required medical attention and about 400 people are missing.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Bangladesh-based international NGO BRAC, the fire destroyed more than 10,000 structures including shelters, mosques, community centres, learning centres, service centres, shops and offices.
The structures included two nutrition centres and one food distribution centre run by the World Food Programme (WFP) and a health clinic run by IOM in the camp.
Also read: Maldives sends message of sympathy over Rohingya camp fire
Two other WFP nutrition sites and one e-voucher outlet have been closed until the damage can be assessed.
Several teams from UN agencies and partners such as BRAC have been on the ground along with Government officials since the fire was reported.
They stepped in to contain the fire and provide first aid, food, health care, emergency shelter kits, protection and drinking water, and they are helping to trace missing family members.
The Kutupalong camp network is home to the vast majority of the more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees sheltering in Cox’s Bazar.
Also read: Home Minister pledges to punish those behind Rohingya camp fire
In January, more than 3,500 refugees were left homeless when a fire destroyed around 550 shelters and 150 shops in the Nayapara camp, about 30 kms (19 miles) south of Kutupalong.
CERF is one of the fastest and most effective ways to help people affected by crises. Since its creation, it has assisted hundreds of millions of people with almost $7 billion across more than 100 countries and territories.
This would not have been possible without generous and consistent donor support.
Virus variants, vaccine inequity responsible for rising Covid caseload: WHO
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Rabab Fatima calls for international solidarity against terrorism
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UN launches ‘Only Together’ campaign to support global vaccine equity call
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