Mizzima
During the UN Security Council’s open-door meeting on 13 March, themed “Promoting Conflict Prevention – Empowering All Actors Including Women and Youth,” Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, voiced the concerns of the people of Myanmar, questioning when and how the UN will intervene to assist those in need.
In the meeting, Kyaw Moe Tun highlighted that he had repeatedly urged the Security Council to take concrete action to help address the suffering of the Myanmar people.
“The people of Myanmar and I myself are already tired of appealing to the UN in particular the UN Security Council to help the helpless Myanmar people as our appeals have so far met with lack of concrete action, even serious attention from them. Even the people of Myanmar are asking a valid question, where are you, the United Nations, to save lives in Myanmar? Therefore, I do not want to see that the UN Security Council is directly or indirectly responsible for loss of so many innocent lives in Myanmar after the illegal military coup in February 2021. Instead, I want the UN Security Council to become a part of the solution by taking concrete action to save lives in Myanmar,” he said.
He also emphasized that the Military Council is forcing Myanmar youth into mandatory military service, not to defend the country, but to use them as human shields and porters against the growing anti-coup revolutionary forces.
“This military draft together with the worsening humanitarian crisis is creating a serious regional problem. Since early February this year, we, the people of Myanmar and the National Unity Government have kept calling for the international community to take necessary action to stop the forced conscription of the military junta,” Kyaw Moe Tun said.
In addition, Myanmar’s representative added that the illegal junta has destroyed the rule of law and imposed its brutality.
“They have been waging inhumane widespread and systematic atrocious violence against the people of Myanmar, by committing massacres, conducting airstrikes against the civilian targets and burning down the civilian homes,” he said.
He pointed out that in many situations, the Security Council has responsibility and power, but unfortunately it is neither willing nor able to address these challenges.
Kyaw Moe Tun also urged the UN Security Council again to adopt an enforcement resolution as follow-up to its resolution 2669 adopted in December 2022.
Japan, holding the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council for March 2024, convened the meeting in which representatives from over 70 UN member states participated in the discussions.
