Conflicts & War

UN’s special envoy for Myanmar urges G7 to act ‘before it is too late’

Singapore, Apr 28 (EFE).- The UN rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, on Friday urged the G7 to include the Myanmar conflict on the agenda of its leaders’ summit in Hiroshima in May and to commit to an action plan in that country “before it is too late.”

“The deteriorating situation in Myanmar demonstrates that the international community’s response to this crisis is failing the people of Myanmar. I believe that it is time for the international community to undertake a fundamental reassessment of how we are responding to this crisis and make a course correction before it is too late,” Andrews warned in a press conference broadcast live from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.

The UN special envoy, who concluded a 10-day visit to Japan on Friday, said he came to the country because “the human rights situation in Myanmar is horrific and getting worse, and because I believe that Japan has an essential role to play in helping to resolve this crisis.”

The G7 – comprising Japan, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States -, is chaired by Japan this year.

Andrews highlighted that over 3,400 civilians had died at the hands of the armed forces in Myanmar since the military junta seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021.

He also denounced the recent escalation of violence by the military, which on Apr. 11 launched an airstrike in the northwestern Sagaing Region, killing over 170 people, including about 40 children.

Andrews urged Japan, one of the main investors in Myanmar, to “consider joining all other G7 countries in imposing targeted economic sanctions on the Myanmar military and its key sources of revenue, just as it is doing in response to the crisis in Ukraine.”

At the foreign ministers’ meeting on Apr. 18 in Karuizawa, Japan, the G7 released a joint statement calling on the Myanmar military to “immediately cease all violence, release all political prisoners and those arbitrarily detained, and return the country to a genuinely democratic path.” EFE

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