Myanmar junta at war with its own people: UN
Myanmar's military rulers now see civilians as their adversaries and are making war on the country's own people, harming even the basic ability to live, the United Nations said yesterday.
Two years on from the February 1, 2021 coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, the situation is a "festering catastrophe", said UN human rights chief Volker Turk, adding that the military was operating with "complete impunity".
In a report examining the first two years since the takeover, the UN Human Rights Office said that at least 2,940 people had been verified as killed, of which nearly 30 percent died in detention. However, the true death toll is likely to be much higher.
James Rodehaver, head of the UN rights office's Myanmar team, said the armed forces were now actively fighting on around 13 different fronts.
"The military is stretched increasingly thin," he told a briefing in Geneva, so have relied increasingly on air power and artillery to clear the way for ground forces, with more than 300 airstrikes in the last year. Nearly 80 percent of 330 townships have been impacted by armed clashes.
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