The UN Security Council should urgently pass a global arms embargo to prohibit the sale of weapons and dual-use technology to the Myanmar military junta, said Fortify Rights on Friday.
The UN Security Council is expected to convene today in a private meeting on the situation in Myanmar.
The primary responsibility of the UN Security Council is the maintenance of international peace and security. Military coups, humanitarian emergencies, cross-border refugee crises, extreme repression of civilian populations, and failures to hold perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable can all constitute “threats to the peace, reads a statement. Since launching a coup d’état on February 1, 2021, the Myanmar junta has killed more than 1,400 people and arrested more than 11,000, with over 8,000 currently in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The crimes currently being perpetrated against the people of Myanmar fit with the Myanmar military’s long history of atrocity crimes, including the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State and decades of abuse against the country’s other ethnic minorities, said Fortify Rights.