BANGKOK: In his speech last week to open the UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres bracketed Myanmar with Afghanistan and Ethiopia as nations for whose people “peace and stability remain a distant dream.”
“The military’s iron grip on power faces resistance from large segments of the society. Weapons of war continue to be deployed in towns and cities to suppress opposition,” Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement Thursday . “These disturbing trends suggest the alarming possibility of an escalating civil war.”
But there is at least one major impediment to prospective UN action, which could include such measures as a comprehensive arms embargo. China and Russia are among the top arms suppliers to Myanmar, as well as ideologically sympathetic to its ruling military. Both are members of the Security Council, and would almost certainly veto any effort by the UN to impose a coordinated arms embargo, or anything beyond an anodyne call for peace.
The peaceful protests in cities and towns across Myanmar that began in February were met with deadly force by the security forces. To date, more than 1,100 individuals have been killed, according to the UN’s Bachelet and human rights groups. The National Unity Government set the stage for an escalation of violence when, on Sep 7, it called for a nationwide uprising, declaring a “people’s defensive war".
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