“The military continues to conduct proceedings in secret courts that violate basic principles of fair trial and are contrary to the judiciary’s core guarantees of independence and impartiality.” , Volker Türk morecalled for a suspension of all executions and a return to a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty.
Handling death
On Wednesday, a military court sentenced at least seven college students to death.
“The military courts have consistently failed to maintain any level of transparency that goes against the most basic due process or guarantees a fair trial,” Türk said.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, reports revealed that as many as four additional death sentences had been issued against youth activists.
United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) is currently seeking clarification on those cases.
Unfair
In July, the military carried out four State-level executions – the first in about 30 years.
Despite calls from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community, a former MP, a democracy activist and two others were executed.
Nearly 1,700 detainees among the nearly 16,500 people arrested for protesting last year’s military coup were tried and convicted in secret by especially court, sometimes lasting only a few minutes.
They were routinely denied access to lawyers or their families, and no one was acquitted.
The latest sentences will bring the total number of people sentenced to death as of February 1, 2021 to 139 individuals.
Not affiliated with ASEAN
Mr. Türk reminded that the military’s actions are not in line with the ASEAN peace plan, known as the five-point consensus – which includes an “immediate end to violence in Myanmar” – which the regional bloc re-committed to last month during the ASEAN summit.
At the summit, Secretary General António Guterres yes warning said that the political, security, human rights and humanitarian situation in Myanmar was “sliding deeper and deeper into disaster”, condemned the escalation of violence, disproportionate use of force and “the state of human rights”. bad” in this country.
Military courts have consistently failed to maintain any level of transparency – UN human rights chief
“By using the death penalty as a political tool to suppress the opposition, the military affirms its disregard for the efforts of ASEAN and the international community at large to end violence. force and facilitate a political dialogue aimed at bringing Myanmar out of its human rights situation. crisis created by the military,” said the UN’s head of human rights.
Forced deportation
At the same time, Myanmar’s military is forcibly expelling more than 50,000 people from informal settlements and systematically destroying homes, according to two independent UN-appointed human rights experts. Is called a fundamental violation of core human rights obligations.
Without providing alternative housing or land, last month more than 40,000 residents living in informal settlements across Mingaladon, a town just north of Yangon, were evicted from their homes – most just had a few days to demolish the houses they had lived in for decades.
After receiving the eviction notice, the lack of options led some residents to stay while the two are said to have committed suicide out of desperation.
“Forced expulsion from Mingaladon is only part of the story. Arbitrary violent housing demolitions continue across the country,” the Special Rapporteur on the right to suitable housingBalakrishnan Rajagopal, and human rights situation in myanmarThomas Andrews, said in a statement.
UNHCR/Roger Arnold
Rohingya Muslims are forced to flee from Myanmar to Bangladesh
‘Destroy’ policy
According to experts, it’s not just people living in informal settlements in Myanmar’s cities who are subject to forcible deportation and house demolition.
“Houses continue to be systematically destroyed, bombed and burned down in organized attacks on villages by Myanmar security forces and militias authorized by the government,” they said. backing”.
Since last year’s military coup, more than 38,000 homes have been destroyed, displacing more than 1.1 million people on a large scale.
On November 23, 95 out of 130 houses in Kyunhla Town burned down when the Myanmar army set fire to the settlement.
These incidents follow the pattern of violence used against Rohingya villages during the genocide attacks in 2017.
The land-burning policies in Myanmar are widespread and follow a systematic pattern, experts say.
Special Rapporteur appointed by the United Nations based in Geneva Dong Nhan Quyen Association to check and report back on a particular human rights topic or country situation. The positions are honorary and professionals are not paid for their work.
