Global efforts to stop Myanmar’s civil war were “clearly not working,” a United Nations expert warned Thursday as he urged leaders to deprive the country’s junta of the means of continuing its attacks on civilians.
Describing a situation that has “gone from bad, to worse, to horrific,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said more than three million people have been displaced by fighting in the Southeast Asian nation in as many years.
The conflict is on the table at this week’s meeting in Laos of Southeast Asian leaders, who pressed Myanmar’s junta and its opponents to take “concrete action” to stop the bloodshed.
Since Myanmar’s military seized power in February 2021, the regime has arrested more than 20,000 people in its crackdown on dissent and bombed opposition. . .