Global community must prioritize Myanmar’s worsening crisis

Just over a week ago, Myanmar’s legitimate, elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, marked her 79^th birthday in jail. It was her fourth birthday behind bars since the military in Myanmar seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, overturning her newly re-elected government and imposing its murderous, criminal reign of terror on the country.

The day before Daw Suu’s birthday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, gave yet another electrifying — and shockingly truthful — report to the UN on the much-neglected crisis unfolding in Myanmar.

“We are bearing witness to a country being suffocated by an illegitimate military regime,” Türk said. “Myanmar is in agonizing pain. And the disintegration of human rights continues at breakneck speed.”

Those are words seldom spoken by usually measured, balanced, temperate, diplomatic UN officials. And they echo the words of others, notably Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo last month, who said that his country is in an “unprecedented state of turmoil and suffering, which seems to have no end.”

So why have they not grabbed the headlines? And why has the horrific human tragedy in Myanmar not been higher up the international agenda?

Myanmar is, in many ways, Asia’s Ukraine. Admittedly, unlike Ukraine, it was not a foreign power that invaded and tried to snuff out a new democracy but an internal military cabal that overturned a democratically elected civilian-led government that was charting a pathway to democracy. Nevertheless, Myanmar has all the hallmarks of Ukraine and deserves more of the world’s attention.

As the UN Human Rights Commissioner described last week, “This is a crisis emblematic of a decades-long legacy of military domination, the stifling of dissent, and division.”

And equipped with new weapons from Russia and China, the military is deploying them in desperation. “We are hearing stories of horrific war tactics, such as beheadings. Midnight drone attacks. The burning of homes as people sleep. People being shot as they flee for their lives” reports Türk.

Over the past eight to ten months or so, Myanmar’s courageous armed opposition groups have gained the upper hand, against all odds, and pushed the much better-equipped military junta onto the backfoot, gaining strategically important ground and resulting in large-scale defections.

But, as Türk says, while “the military has lost control over a considerable amount of territory,” it is, as a result, “resorting to increasingly extreme measures” — such as forced conscription, indiscriminate bombardment of towns and villages, and “brutal atrocity crimes.”

I have worked in Myanmar for over a quarter of a century. I have traveled to Myanmar through the front door, legally, on a visa, and also across the borders from Thailand and China, illegally, more than sixty times.

I have also visited refugees and displaced people on the India and Bangladesh borders with Myanmar several times. I have been deported from Myanmar twice, and it was in Myanmar that on Palm Sunday 2013, I was received into the Catholic Church in St Mary’s Cathedral, Yangon, by my friend Cardinal Charles Bo.

I have hidden in the reeds beside the river along the Thailand-Myanmar border, to avoid being detected by soldiers patrolling the border, and only emerged when I received an all-clear message.

I have slept in bamboo huts in the jungle with rebels and hidden from senior Myanmar military commanders and Chinese soldiers along Myanmar’s border with Kachin state. I have snuck across China’s border with Myanmar under the cover of darkness and visited the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in the scorching sunlight.

So, it is not just that I care about Myanmar — much of my heart and soul is embedded in Myanmar. And my heart breaks when I see the current suffering and struggle over the past four years, following a decade of false dawn.

Right now, on top of the continuing tragedy across the country flowing from the conflict unleashed by the coup, the crisis in Rakhine State is most acute.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed particular concern about the situation in Maungdaw, where the predominantly Muslim Rohingyas are under fire from both the rebel Arakan Army and the junta.

Local people were warned to evacuate but, as Türk says, “Rohingya have no options. There is nowhere to flee.”

He sounds an alarm that the horrors faced by the Rohingyas between 2016 and 2018 may be about to repeat themselves. “I fear we are — yet again — about to bear witness to displacement, destruction and abuses,” says Türk.

In Byaing Phyu village, which was reportedly emptied of villagers, the UN — according to Türk — reports the following: “Men are separated from women. Dozens of men were allegedly tortured, shot and killed. Multiple reports allege that at least five women were also raped and killed in the incident. Their village was burned. Hundreds of men taken away are now missing”

And so, what do we now do?

Over the past quarter of a century or more, I have read report after report after report saying similar things, documenting similar heartbreaking, sickening atrocities. Indeed, I have written some of them.

Reports are necessary to inform and raise awareness. But surely, even this late in the day, it is time to transform them into action.

First, Myanmar’s crisis needs to move from the “forgotten,” “not important enough,” or “too difficult” pile to the “to-do” pile. It must be prioritized. The goals must be to end the conflict, move the military out of government, and establish a genuine, federal, all-inclusive democracy.

Second, there must be international assistance and aid. As Türk urges, “Over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are still living in limbo in dire conditions, with no prospect for durable conditions.” They and the total of approximately three million or more internally displaced people across Myanmar need help.

Indeed, for the three million, according to Türk “the vast majority still without proper shelter. Without access to food or water. Without essential medicines and healthcare. And so many more of the cruel consequences of the military’s continued denial of humanitarian access remain invisible and under-reported.”

Third, we have to cut off the Myanmar military regime’s access to aviation fuel. We have to stop their ability to bomb unarmed, innocent civilians from the sky.

And fourth, we must — as Türk emphasizes — ensure and guarantee “accountability.”

The perpetrators of atrocity crimes — crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide — across Myanmar must be brought to justice and held to account. Impunity must end.

The extraordinary determination, courage, and sacrifice of Myanmar’s people—particularly its youth—show that there is still hope for the country.

As Türk said, “There is a new generation of young people from all ethnic communities leading the struggle to create an inclusive vision for the future of Myanmar.” They deserve support as they pursue that vision. “With more attention, more investment, more political will and more action, this situation can be turned around for a better tomorrow for the people of Myanmar.”

Let’s urge the international community to increase its efforts to help save Myanmar.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.