(Yangon) The Burmese junta on Sunday called “incitement to violence” the latest UN reports on human rights in the country, which has been in chaos since a military coup in February.
Since the putsch, the repression of protesters in Burma has left more than 1,100 dead, according to a local NGO doing the count.
Tom Andrews, the UN rapporteur for human rights in the Southeast Asian country, told the United Nations General Assembly in New York (United States) on Friday that he feared that the situation worsens, accusing the junta of “massing tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons” in the north of the country and fearing “even more mass atrocities”.
“These tactics are grim reminiscent of those employed by the armed forces prior to their genocidal attacks against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017,” he added.
The junta rejected these statements on Sunday, accusing the United Nations of using human rights as “a political means to interfere in the internal affairs of Burma”.
UN information “can only create more divisions within the nation and is an incitement to internal violence,” retorted the military regime in a statement.
Almost nine months after taking power, Burmese generals still fail to control the opposition, as local vigilantes regularly clash with the military on the ground.
More than 70 soldiers and 93 police officers have perished since the unrest began in February, the junta said on Sunday. Analysts believe the military is minimizing its losses in combat.
The military are under increasing pressure from the international community to engage in dialogue with their opponents.
Last week, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), doubting the Burmese regime’s willingness to end the deadly unrest, announced the exclusion of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing from the next summit of the bloc, formed by ten countries. A strong measure against the military power, which said it was “extremely disappointed”.
The UK has also decided not to invite the junta to a future summit of G7 and ASEAN foreign ministers.
The coup destroyed Burma’s decade of democratic attempts. The former civilian leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is now being prosecuted for reasons that could earn her decades in prison.
The head of his team of lawyers said recently that the regime had banned him from speaking to the press, foreign diplomats and international organizations.
His other lawyers are threatened with the same restrictions, which would muzzle central sources of information on the court hearings of the former leader, prohibited from the press.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of his life resisting Burmese generals, is due to be heard in court on Tuesday, for the first time since the coup.