UN fears ‘mass atrocity crimes’ in northern Myanmar

(News 1st); The United Nations says that it fears a greater human rights catastrophe in Myanmar amid reports of thousands of troops massing in the north of the Southeast Asian country which has been in chaos since a February coup. UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews, who was presenting the findings of an annual human rights report on Myanmar to the UN General Assembly on Friday, said he had received information that tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons were being moved into restive regions in the north and northwest. He said that the findings also indicated that the military Government had engaged in probable crimes against humanity and war crimes. “We should all be prepared, as the people in this part of Myanmar are prepared, for even more mass atrocity crimes. I desperately hope that I am wrong,” said Andrews. More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in the country’s bloody crackdown on dissent and more than 8,000 arrested since the coup, according to a local monitoring group. “These tactics are ominously reminiscent of those employed by the military before its genocidal attacks against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017,” Andrews added. Andrews said Myanmar forces had displaced a quarter of a million people. Many of those who had been detained were tortured, he said, including dozens who had died as a result. He added that he had received credible reports that children had also been tortured.