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JOINT CALL FOR A GLOBAL ARMS EMBARGO ON MYANMAR: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL AND INDIVIDUAL UN MEMBER STATES

February 24, 2021/in Member statements

Two dead as Myanmar police open fire on protesters in deadliest day since military coup

February 21, 2021/in News

20 Feb 2021 06:23PM (Updated: 21 Feb 2021 12:01AM) MANDALAY: Myanmar’s security forces fired live rounds and rubber bullets at protesters in the country’s second-largest city of Mandalay on Saturday (Feb 20), leaving at least two dead and about 30 injured. Much of the country has been in an uproar since the military deposed civilian leader […]

JOINT CALL FOR A GLOBAL ARMS EMBARGO ON MYANMAR: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL AND INDIVIDUAL UN MEMBER STATES

February 24, 2021/in Member statements

Two dead as Myanmar police open fire on protesters in deadliest day since military coup

February 21, 2021/in News

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JOINT CALL FOR A GLOBAL ARMS EMBARGO ON MYANMAR: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL AND INDIVIDUAL UN MEMBER STATES

February 24, 2021/in Member statements

We, the undersigned organizations, call on the United Nations Security Council and UN member states to urgently institute a coordinated, global arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the February 1, 2021 military coup that has deprived the people of Myanmar of the right to democratically elect their government. Our concerns are heightened by ongoing violations of human rights and the security forces’ history of grave abuses against peaceful critics of military rule, as well as against the Rohingya and other ethnic minority groups.

Under the commander-in-chief, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the Myanmar military has detained the elected civilian leaders of the country, nullified the results of the November 2020 democratic elections, and installed a junta, the State Administration Council, under a manufactured “state of emergency.” Since February 1, the junta has increasingly used excessive and at times lethal force at demonstrations; threatened and arbitrarily detained activists, journalists, students, and civil servants; and imposed rolling internet shutdowns that put lives at risk.

Days after the coup, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated, “We will do everything we can to mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails.” The UN special rapporteur on Myanmar has called for targeted UN sanctions on the military and an arms embargo, while the deputy high commissioner for human rights has voiced support for targeted UN sanctions on the coup leaders.

In that spirit, we urge the Security Council to immediately impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar. Such a resolution should bar the direct and indirect supply, sale, or transfer of all weapons, munitions, and other military-related equipment, including dual-use goods such as vehicles and communications and surveillance equipment, as well as the provision of training, intelligence, and other military assistance. The embargo should be accompanied by robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.

Any sale or transfer of military-related equipment to Myanmar could provide the means to further repress the people of Myanmar in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Until the Council acts, individual UN member states should adopt measures at the national and regional levels to block sales and other transfers of weapons and materiel to Myanmar, with the goal of extending an arms embargo to as close to a global scale as possible.

For decades, the Security Council’s response to crimes by the Myanmar security forces has been inadequate, emboldening the military to continue committing abuses without fear of serious consequences. The current crisis demands a change in course.

On February 4, the Security Council spoke with a single voice to demand the release of all those arbitrarily detained and the protection of the country’s democratic institutions. Council members should use that newfound consensus to take swift and substantive action. An arms embargo would be the centerpiece of a global effort to shield the people of Myanmar from a return to abusive and autocratic rule.

The time to act is now.

Signatories

Access Now
Advocacy Forum-Nepal
AFL-CIO
All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
Arakan Information Center
Arakan Rivers Network
Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights
ARTICLE 19
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs
Asia Democracy Network
Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asian Human Rights Commission
Asian Migrant Centre
Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
Asian Resource Foundation
Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM)
Australian Centre for International Justice
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
BALAOD Mindanaw
Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan
Brotherhood For Democracy (BFD)
Burma Campaign UK
Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)
Burmese Rohingya Association in Japan
Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia
Bytes For All
Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR)
Cambodian Food And Service Workers Federation (CFSWF)
Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)
Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)
Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative
Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL)
Center for Peace Education, Miriam College
Center for Social Integrity
Centre for Human Rights and Development
Centre for Peace and Justice, Brac University
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Climate Change Working Group-Myanmar
Colorful Girls
Community Resource Centre Foundation (CRC)
Cross Cultural Foundation
CSW
Dawei Pro Bono Lawyer Network
Democracy, Peace and Women Organization
DHEWA (Development for Health, Education, Work, and Awareness) Welfare Society
Equality Myanmar
Equitable Cambodia
European Rohingya Council
Federal Association of Vietnamese Refugees in the Federal Republic of Germany
Fortify Rights
Free Rohingya Coalition
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Global Justice Center
Global Witness
Htoi Gender and Development Foundation
Human Rights First
Human Rights Foundation of Monland
Human Rights Law Centre
Human Rights Office-Sri Lanka
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Without Frontiers
Info Birmanie
Innovation for Change Network
Institute for Asian Democracy
Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
International Campaign for the Rohingya
International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS), Asia Pacific
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID)
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)
Jewish Alliance of Concern Over Burma
Jubilee Australia
Justice for All/Burma Task Force
Justice for Myanmar
Kachin State Women’s Network
Karapatan Alliance Philippines
Karen Human Rights Group
KontraS Aceh
Loka Ahlinn Social Development Organization
Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN)
MAP Foundation
Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)
Mekong Migration Network
Mennonite Central Committee
MeSheWe
Mother Nature Cambodia
Myanmar Human Rights Alliances Network (MHRAN)
National Campaign for Sustainable Development Nepal
Never Again Coalition
New School for Democracy
No Business With Genocide
Nonviolence International
Odhikar
Olof Palme International Center
OutRight Action International
PAX
Pax Christi Aotearoa New Zealand
Pax Christi Australia
Pax Christi International
Pax Christi Korea
Pax Christi Philippines
People’s Empowerment Foundation
People’s Watch
Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)
Progressive Voice
Prosecute; don’t perpetrate
Public Association “Dignity”
Pusat KOMAS
Refugees International
Restless Beings
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Rohingya Association of Canada
Rohingya Human Rights Initiative
Rohingya Today
Rohingya Women Education Initiative
Rohingya Youth for Legal Action
Smile Foundation
Swedish Burma Committee
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Taiwan Forever Association (台灣永社)
Tampadipa Institute
The Arakan Project
The May 18 Memorial Foundation
The PLAN: Public Legal Aid Network
The Swedish Rohingya Association
Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
US Campaign for Burma
Viet Tan
Vietnamese Women for Human Rights
Voice of Rohingya
Win Without War
World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
YMCA Mandalay
Youth Resource Development Program (YRDP)

Download PDF in English.

Download PDF in Burmese.

Two dead as Myanmar police open fire on protesters in deadliest day since military coup

February 21, 2021/in News

20 Feb 2021 06:23PM (Updated: 21 Feb 2021 12:01AM)

MANDALAY: Myanmar’s security forces fired live rounds and rubber bullets at protesters in the country’s second-largest city of Mandalay on Saturday (Feb 20), leaving at least two dead and about 30 injured.

Much of the country has been in an uproar since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on Feb 1, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets to protest against the junta.

On Saturday, hundreds of police and soldiers gathered at Yadanarbon shipyard in Mandalay, by the Irrawaddy river.

Their presence sparked fears among nearby residents that authorities would try to arrest workers for taking part in the anti-coup movement.

Banging pots and pans in what has become a signature gesture of defiance, protesters started yelling at the police to leave and throwing rocks at them.

But officers opened fire with live rounds, rubber bullets and slingshot balls, dispersing the alarmed protesters.

“Two people were killed,” said Hlaing Min Oo, the head of a Mandalay-based volunteer emergency rescue team, adding that one of the victims, who was shot in the head, was a teenager.

“About 30 others were injured – half of the injured people were shot with live rounds.”

The rest were wounded from rubber bullets and slingshots, he said.

Myanmar protest Feb 20 6 — A wounded man is carried by a medical team after security forces opened fire on protesters during a demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay on Feb 20, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

The death toll was confirmed by another emergency worker on the scene, who declined to be named for fear of repercussions.

“One under-18 boy got shot in his head,” he told AFP.

A volunteer doctor said of the two deaths: “One shot in the head died at the spot. Another one died later with a bullet wound to the chest.”

READ: Singapore says use of lethal force in Myanmar against unarmed protesters ‘inexcusable’ after deaths reported

The man shot in the chest was identified by relatives as Thet Naing Win, a 36-year-old carpenter.

“They took away the body to the morgue. I cannot bring him back home. Although my husband died, I still have my son,” his wife, Thidar Hnin, told Reuters by phone. “I haven’t been involved in this movement yet but now I am going to … I am not scared now.”

State television MRTV’s evening news broadcast made no mention of the protests or casualties.

Police were not available for comment.

A protester receives treatment after being injured during the clashes in Myanmar. (Photo: AFP/STR)

Myanmar Protest Feb 20 4 — Protesters hold images of detained Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 20, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Ye Aung Thu)

The protests against the coup that overthrew the government of veteran democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi have shown no sign of dying down. Demonstrators are sceptical of the army’s promise to hold a new election and hand power to the winner.

Authorities have arrested hundreds of people since the putsch, many of them civil servants who had been boycotting work as part of a civil disobedience campaign.

READ: Rallies mourn anti-coup protester’s death as US urges Myanmar junta to yield power

“SHOOTING CRUELLY”

Around the Mandalay shipyard and its surrounding neighbourhood, empty bullet cartridges were found on the ground, as well as slingshot ammunition including metal balls.

One woman received a head wound from a rubber bullet and emergency workers quickly administered first aid to her.

Myanmar protest Feb 20 7 — A police officer aims a gun towards protesters during a demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay on Feb 20, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

Police throw projectiles towards protesters during the Mandalay disturbance. (Photo: AFP/STR)

A Facebook video streamed live by a resident on the scene appeared to carry non-stop sounds of gunshots.

“They are shooting cruelly,” said the resident, who appeared to be taking shelter on a nearby construction site.

“We have to find a safer place.”

READ: Diverse Myanmar protesters united in opposition to coup

Since the nationwide protests started two weeks ago, authorities in some cities have deployed tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators.

There have been isolated incidents of live rounds in the capital Naypyidaw.

An anti-coup protester who was shot in the head during a Feb 9 demonstration in Naypyidaw died on Friday.

Source: Reuters/AFP/dv

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ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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