Sierra Leone invites Myanmar regime officials to ‘autonomous weapons’ conference

The Myanmar junta has received an invitation to a conference on arms policy and security set to take place in the West African country of Sierra Leone this week, Myanmar Now’s investigations have found. The written invitation was delivered to Myanmar’s United Nations (UN) mission in Geneva, which is illegally operated by junta officials. The conference, entitled “Peace and Security Aspects of Autonomous Weapons” is scheduled for April 17 and 18 in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. While the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs website says there is “no commonly agreed definition” of lethal autonomous weapons systems, the phrase frequently refers to robotic weapons, or military systems capable of identifying or deploying deadly force against a target without human operation. Some definitions include land and naval mines. The Sierra Leonean government and the nongovernmental organisation Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL) will host the conference. According to CARL’s executive director Ibrahim Tommy, the hosts sent “save the date” letters to all UN missions in Geneva based on the Blue Book listings of permanent missions published by the Protocol and Liaison Service of the UN in Geneva. “Myanmar has not registered for participation, and even if they do their participation will not be accepted as their issue of credential has not been decided by the UNGA,” Tommy said, referring to the UN General Assembly, which includes all UN member states. The UN missions of Sierra Leone in Geneva and New York did not respond to requests for comment, although they were copied in Myanmar Now’s correspondence with Ibrahim Tommy. When asked why the junta-controlled mission was included in the Blue Book listings, the UN’s press office in Geneva responded that the diplomats included in the Blue Book are those provided by the permanent missions of each country. While the junta has succeeded in staffing Myanmar’s permanent mission to Geneva, Myanmar’s representative to the UN in New York, Kyaw Moe Tun, was appointed to the position by the civilian government before the 2021 coup d’etat. He has maintained the position despite his loyalty to the ousted civilian government and the military regime’s attempts to replace him. An investigation in 2021 found that members of Kyaw Moe Tun’s staff in New York were involved in a plot to assault or possibly assassinate him for pay, with the proposed payment brokered by one of the Myanmar military’s known arms suppliers. The staff members were tried and convicted on conspiracy charges in American courts. When Myanmar Now asked the UN’s Geneva press office whether there was a conflict in the junta representing Myanmar in Geneva while Kyaw Moe Tun serves as Myanmar’s permanent representative in New York, they responded that they had no comment and said the question should be referred to Myanmar’s permanent mission. Sierra Leone is currently one of the 10 non-permanent members of the UN’s 15-member Security Council (UNSC). During a UNSC open briefing on Myanmar on April 4, Sierra Leone’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Amara S. M. Sowa, expressed concern over violence against minorities, human rights abuses, and sexual and gender-based violence in Myanmar. A summary of the speech published by the Sierra Leonean government said Sowa “reiterated Sierra Leone’s commitment to supporting efforts to bring the conflict in Myanmar to an end.”

Sierra Leone invites Myanmar regime officials to ‘autonomous weapons’ conference

Despite previously decrying the military’s human rights violations in the UN Security Council, the Sierra Leonean government sent a ‘save the date’ letter to Myanmar’s junta-controlled UN mission in Geneva

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