The United
Nations (UN) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) must take
urgent action to hold the junta accountable for atrocities committed against
school children and teachers in Myanmar, said the Special Advisory Council for
Myanmar (SAC-M).
In a statement, SAC-M said the beheading of a National Unity Government (NUG)
school teacher by Myanmar junta forces is an act of terror under international
and Myanmar law.
To protect the lives of the Myanmar people
and bring the leaders of the military junta to justice, SAC-M urged the UN
Security Council (UNSC) to put to a vote a resolution on Myanmar to impose a
comprehensive global arms embargo on the junta, financial and economic
sanctions against the junta, and to refer the situation in Myanmar to the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
It also called on the UNSC to commence the
process of declaring the Myanmar military a terrorist organisation and require
UN member states treat it as such.
“Asean (needs) to engage formally with the
NUG, accept the NUG as the representative of Myanmar in Asean meetings and
forums, and use the Asean Summit in November to reach a new agreement on how to
respond to the junta-made crises in Myanmar, developed in consultation with the
NUG,” it said.
SAC-M also urged for UN officials, agencies
and other humanitarian actors to cease all activities that grant legitimacy to
the junta, including presenting credentials to Min Aung Hlaing and
participating in photo opportunities with the generals and their collaborators,
and adhere to humanitarian principles by engaging primarily with the NUG and
resistance organisations.
It also urged the UN General Assembly to
fully accept the credentials of Myanmar’s representative to the UN – NUG
appointee Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun – with all the rights and privileges of any
other member state, including representation in all other UN bodies and forums;
“SAC-M is calling ICC to accept the NUG’s
article 12(3) declaration accepting ICC jurisdiction in Myanmar dating back to
2002 and urgently expand the current investigation on the basis of the declaration,”
it said.
According to media reports, U Saw Tun Moe, a teacher at a civilian NUG-funded
school in Thit Nyi Naung village in southern Pauk Township, Magwe Region, was
abducted by junta troops on Sunday, Oct 16.
The next day, his body was found decapitated
and leaning against the gate of a school in the nearby village of Taung Myint.
His head was impaled on a spike on the school gate above his body, and three of
his fingers had been cut off and placed between his thighs.
SAC-M said education in Myanmar is
increasingly becoming a target for junta atrocities.
It said a school headmaster who was taking
part in the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement was reportedly stabbed to
death on Monday in Ayeyarwady Region; while on Sept 16, junta’s attack
helicopters fired heavy weapons into a school in a monastery in Sagaing Region,
killing at least 11 children and injuring 17.
“Such attacks are gross violations of the UN
Convention of the Rights of the Child,” it said.
Founding member of the SAC-M Marzuki Darusman said the atrocities being
committed by the junta in Myanmar have reached a new level of inhumanity.
“The junta is escalating its barbaric attacks
against children and teachers in a vain attempt to break the morale of the
population who steadfastly reject it and for whom education is a pillar of the
society they are sacrificing so much to create. If Asean supports the Myanmar
peoples’ vision of the future, it must take urgent action to end the senseless
junta-violence,” it said.
Chris Sidoti of SAC-M said beheading someone
and putting the body on display for the public to see is a clearly defined act
of terror.
He said Myanmar military leaders have waged a
bloody campaign of terror against the Myanmar people for more than 20 months.
“They must face international accountability…
The military needs to be declared a terrorist organisation under international
law,” he said. First published in The New Straits Times.
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