The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, confirmed that violence is escalating across Burma (Myanmar), warning that the country is witnessing a “disaster” in the field of human rights since the coup last February.
“In just over four months, Burma has gone from a fragile democracy to a human rights disaster,” Bachelet said in a statement, noting that military leaders “solely bear the responsibility” for the crisis.
The military coup that took place in early February sparked a protest movement that was violently suppressed by the security forces, which in recent months caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including children and women, according to the Association for Support of Political Prisoners.
Since the military coup, about 150 political officials and activists have been arrested, according to the Yangon-based Prisoners Support Association.
The scene of the movement against the military coup is no longer just demonstrations and protests, which are met by arrests and shootings. The scene has begun to move towards armed confrontation, and it may become more bloody unless the country witnesses a dialogue and consensus through regional or international mediation that brings it out of the tension that has escalated since the military coup, according to by a report previous Al Jazeera Net. .
The army is arresting critics and has published the names of more than 200 wanted under a law criminalizing encouraging rebellion, at a time when Western countries – including the United States and Britain – imposed sanctions or tightened existing sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders in response to the coup, arrests and repression