Image source,Reuters
The “Political Prisoners Aid Association”, an organization that aids political prisoners in Myanmar, said that so far, Myanmar security forces have killed more than 860 people and detained nearly 5,000 people.
The United Nations (UN) has rarely passed a resolution calling on all countries to stop selling weapons to Myanmar and respond to the violent military coup that took place in Myanmar this year.
The General Assembly passed this resolution condemning the Burmese military government, which overthrew the democratically elected government in February this year. The United Nations also called on the Myanmar military to release detained political prisoners, such as Aung San Suu Kyi (Aung San Suu Kyi, also translated as Aung San Suu Kyi), the democratically elected leader of Myanmar, and stop violence against peaceful protesters.
Although the UN resolution is not legally binding, it has political significance.
“The risk of a large-scale civil war is real,” Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, told the conference. “Time is of the essence. The chances of reversing military takeover are shrinking.”
This resolution was supported by 119 countries, but Belarus was the only country that voted against it.
Another 36 countries abstained, such as Thailand and Cambodia, as well as Russia and China, the two largest arms suppliers to the Myanmar military.
Some abstaining countries said that the crisis is an internal issue in Myanmar. Other countries said that the resolution did not address the brutal military repression of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar four years ago, forcing nearly 1 million people to flee the country.
According to China’s state media CCTV, Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, responded to the resolution, saying, “The current problem in Myanmar is a setback in the process of political transformation. It belongs to Myanmar’s internal affairs. Whether it can be properly resolved depends on Myanmar itself. The side respects Myanmar’s sovereignty and creates a favorable external environment for Myanmar’s domestic political reconciliation.”
The EU’s ambassador to the United Nations, Olof Skoog, said that the resolution “delegated the military government and condemned the latter’s violence and abuse against the people of the country, and demonstrated the global isolation of the Burmese military government” .
But Kyaw Moe Tun, the UN ambassador who represents Myanmar’s democratically elected government, said he was disappointed that it took so long for the General Assembly to pass what he believed was a resolution that “dilutes” the situation.
In fact, since the coup, 75-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest. Apart from a brief appearance in court, almost no one has seen or heard about her.
The Myanmar military provided the so-called justification for the February coup, accusing it of election fraud in the Myanmar general election held in November last year.
However, international independent election observers said that the election was basically free and fair, and the allegations against Aung San Suu Kyi were widely criticized for being politically motivated.
The coup d’état triggered large-scale demonstrations, and the Myanmar military brutally suppressed protesters, rights defenders and journalists fighting for democracy. The Aid Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an organization that aids political prisoners in Myanmar, said that so far, Myanmar security forces have killed more than 860 people and detained nearly 5,000.
Last month, Human Rights Watch urged the UN General Assembly to pass this resolution calling for an arms embargo, stating that “although it is not legally binding on countries, such a resolution will have significant political influence.”
Human Rights Watch added: “The governments of other countries should recognize that weapons sold to the Myanmar military may be used to abuse the people.” “The arms embargo can help prevent such crimes.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier urged the UN General Assembly to take action. He told reporters: “We cannot live in a world where military politics has become the norm. This is totally unacceptable.”
Image source,Getty
In February, the student unions of 18 universities in Myanmar issued an open letter to Xi Jinping, asking China to respect the wishes of the Myanmar people.
Myanmar-China Relations
Since the military coup erupted in Myanmar on February 1, China has also fallen into a whirlpool of public opinion, making the relationship between the two countries more delicate.
In the past few decades, the military dictatorships of China and Myanmar have established close ties, and Beijing has also expanded its influence in Myanmar through the “Belt and Road” initiative in recent years.
The Chinese government has not explicitly expressed support for the Myanmar military’s coup, but China has previously refused to condemn the Myanmar military’s takeover of power at the UN Security Council, which has aroused dissatisfaction among many people in Myanmar.
This time the UN General Assembly passed a resolution, and China abstained. According to a report by China’s state media CCTV, Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, stated that China is a close neighbor of Myanmar, and the situation in Myanmar is directly related to China’s interests.
“China sincerely hopes that all parties in Myanmar will resolve their differences through political dialogue as soon as possible under the constitution and legal framework, avoid recurring violent incidents, restore the country’s social stability as soon as possible, and restart the domestic democratic transformation process.”
Zhang Jun also said, “The current problem in Myanmar is a setback in the process of its political transformation. Fundamentally speaking, it is its internal affairs. Whether it can be resolved properly depends mainly on Myanmar itself. History has proved that the external pressure is blindly exerting pressure on Myanmar. Not only will the sanctions not work, they will backfire, intensify conflicts, and ultimately hurt the people of Myanmar.”
Dr. Feng Ka-shing, Director of ASEAN and East Asia Studies at the Hong Kong Institute of International Studies, previously analyzed Radio Free Asia, headquartered in the United States, that after the coup in Myanmar, Beijing’s position was “relatively tolerant and out of touch, not commenting or interfering.”
He said, “On different international occasions, including the UN Security Council or the UN Human Rights Council, China’s position seems to want to downplay the Western or international condemnation of the coup in Myanmar. This is the main reason and the basis for anti-China sentiment.”
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