UN Urged To Implement Arms Embargo Against Myanmar Military Junta

Myanmar's human rights group on Wednesday urged the United Nations to implement an arms embargo against Myanmar's military junta de facto rulers, amid ongoing persecution of Muslims in the country.

The Burmese Human Rights Network group called on the UN Security Council to "end its negligence and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court" and implement "binding global arms embargoes including bans on security assistance, arms sales and transfers, multiple use technologies, and suspending aviation fuel supplies."

The group also urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reject the upcoming junta's "fake election" which is scheduled for later this month and to take action against the junta, including blocking Myanmar from all its meetings.

The group also called on neighboring countries, including India, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh, to "design a comprehensive regional response to the refugee crisis, provide protection, support, and humanitarian assistance as well as law to all refugees fleeing Myanmar, and to allow cross-border assistance to internal refugees."

Myanmar Muslims continue to face persecution even 77 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the group said, marking the anniversary of the declaration.

In Myanmar, principles such as the right to the same safety, dignity and protection under the law "have been systematically violated for decades by the military, through maltreatment, confiscation, and unlawful violence," the group said.

"Muslims and other minorities, including the Rohingya, have suffered under the control system, segregation, and removal' engineered by the military for nearly eight decades," he explained.

"These violations include forced eviction, rejection of citizenship and legal status, mass murder, and destruction of houses, religious places, and the entire community," he explained as quoted by Anadolu (11/12).

"The Muslim community faces targeted attacks and collective penalties, including airstrikes against Muslim villages, destruction and closure of mosques, surveillance of religious life, raids on associations, and blasphemy or destruction of funerals for military projects," he noted.

The Rohingya ethnic minority, mostly Muslim in Myanmar, faces harassment, discrimination, and citizenshiplessness, and often tries dangerous sea crossings to escape the hardships.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since 2017 due to a crackdown by the military and armed groups. More than 1.3 million people have sought refuge in Bangladesh, with some of them reaching Indonesia and Malaysia after dangerous sea travel.

The group also called on governments around the world to target supporters of military supply chains and financial networks, take international legal action against the junta, including by joining the Gambia case at the International Court and actively conducting investigations and prosecutions based on universal jurisdictional principles, as well as increasing engagement and recognition of stakeholders of democracy and resistance.

It is known that Myanmar, which is a member of ASEAN, has been banned from attending annual meetings since the 2021 coup which brought the junta to power, could only send non-political representatives.

On the other hand, ethnic clashes have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, which has been hit by civil war since the February 2021 military coup.