UN Security Council Calls for End to Violence in Myanmar

The body in New York called on the South-East Asian country’s military leaders to release “arbitrarily detained prisoners”, stop attacks on civilians and to respect human rights, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Twelve council member states voted in favor of the resolution, with Russia, India and China abstaining, Bernama reported.

Myanmar’s former de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted in a military coup in February 2021 and has since faced a string of convictions for charges including corruption, electoral fraud and violating the official secrets act.

Suu Kyi, 77, has been in solitary confinement at a prison in the capital Naypyidaw since June after being placed under house arrest in the wake of the military coup.

Myanmar’s military leadership has been widely accused of staging show trials intended to discredit previous civilian leaders like Suu Kyi and bolster the junta’s own standing.

In 2017, a military offensive began in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, targeting mainly the Rohingya Muslim minority. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fled, and the UN describes their persecution as genocide.

As early as 1983, the Rohingya had lost their citizenship due to a law passed by Myanmar’s military junta.

On Wednesday, the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, appealed for the swift rescue of a group of Rohingya refugees that have been languishing for weeks on unseaworthy boats adrift in the Indian Ocean.