NEW YORK: The United Nations has said Myanmar’s military junta has imported arms worth at least $1bn dollars since seizing power in February 2021, despite “overwhelming evidence of its atrocity and crimes against civilians.
“Most of the arms came from Russia, China, and companies in Singapore,” United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews said in a report released on Wednesday in New York.
The exports covered arms, dual-use technology and materials used to manufacture weapons exported from the day of the coup from February 2021 to December 2022.
“These weapons, and the arms materials to manufacture more of them, have continued to flow uninterrupted to the Myanmar army despite overwhelming evidence of its responsibility for atrocity crimes,” said the report.
It identified over 12,500 unique purchases or recorded shipments directly to the Myanmar army or known Myanmar arms dealers working on the army’s behalf.
It added, “The diversity and volume of goods provided to the Myanmar military since the coup is staggering and the military had taken delivery of weapons and advanced equipment from fighter jets to drones, components for navy ships, and communications equipment.”
Myanmar plunged into crisis after the coup, which triggered mass protests. A deadly crackdown ignited armed resistance, with ethnic armed groups fighting the military, after they joined the so-called People’s Defence Forces to fight the generals.
The People’s Defence Forces are aligned with the National Unity Government (NUG) established by legislators removed in the coup and others opposed to military rule.
The United Nations and rights groups accuse the military of human rights abuses in its attempts to suppress opposition, saying a few incidents may amount to war crimes and violence against humanity.
In his report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Andrews pointed to the previous month’s attack on Pazigyi village in the central Sagaing region, where reports indicate near-daily confrontations between soldiers and resistance forces.
As some 300 villagers, including children, gathered to mark the opening of a new National Unity Government office, the military dropped 250kg bombs on the crowd via a Russian-made Yak-130 jet.
The report said, “The bomb detonated with deadly impact – ripping the bodies of women, men, and children open, turning their skin to ash, and inflicting critical shrapnel wounds to tothers.”
