Burma: deposed deputies compile a dossier on human rights violations
Burmese anti-pustch protesters with banners supporting the CRPH, a committee made up of deposed parliamentarians from the National League for Democracy (LND), Aung San Suu Kyi's party, in Mandalay, March 6, 2021. AP
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Tens of thousands of evidence of human rights violations committed by the army since the putsch in Burma has been gathered, a group of ousted deputies from Aung San Suu Kyi's party said on Wednesday (April 7).
These elements will be transmitted to UN investigators.
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Nearly 600 civilians have been killed since the February 1 coup, according to the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Among them, about fifty children and adolescents.
The toll could be heavier: some 2,700 people have been arrested.
Many, without access to their relatives or a lawyer, are missing.
Extrajudicial executions, torture, illegal detentions: "
our committee received 180,000 items [...] showing large-scale violations of human rights by the military,
" said a resistance group called CRPH (Committee to represent the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw , the Burmese legislative body).
The CRPH brings together deposed deputies of the National League for Democracy (LND) of Aung San Suu Kyi, who went into hiding.
He claims the right to speak on behalf of the country.
Meeting with the UN
His lawyers, said the CRPH, will meet this Wednesday with UN investigators to discuss these alleged atrocities.
"
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the modalities of dialogue
" between the CRPH and the independent mechanism of investigation on Burma of the United Nations, explained the committee.
Created by the UN in 2018 after the abuses perpetrated by the Burmese army on the Rohingya Muslim minority, the independent investigative mechanism has started to gather evidence on the violations committed since the coup.
In mid-March, Thomas Andrews, the main independent expert commissioned by the United Nations, had already denounced probable “
crimes against humanity
”.
Pro-democracy mobilization continues
Despite the violence, pro-democracy mobilization does not weaken, with tens of thousands of workers on strike and entire sectors of the economy paralyzed.
In Mandalay, the country's second city, strikers took to the streets on Wednesday, some making a three-fingered salute which is a sign of resistance, according to images posted on social networks.
The anti-coup rally this morning (Apr 7) in Thaketa, Yangon, was joined by protesters from Insein.
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/HzIvMJjoY9
- Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) April 7, 2021
►
To read also: Burma: red paint to denounce the dictatorship
The junta takes advantage of international divisions
Internet
access
remains cut
for a majority of the population, the junta having ordered the suspension of mobile data and wireless connections.
A hundred personalities - singers, models, journalists - are targeted by arrest warrants, accused of having disseminated information likely to provoke mutinies in the armed forces.
Generals take advantage of divisions in the international community.
After China, Russia rejected any idea of sanctions against the regime on Tuesday April 6.
►
To read also: Burma: "
We implore the international community to face up
"
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