The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar has warned of mass deaths from starvation and disease amidst fighting between rebel groups and junta forces in the east of the country.
Tom Andrews said in a statement said the junta’s brutal, indiscriminate attacks are threatening the lives of many thousands of men, women and children in Kayah state.
Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the February putsch and a brutal military crackdown on dissent that has killed over 800, according to a local monitoring group.
Fighting has flared in several communities—especially in townships that have seen a high death toll at the hands of police—and some locals have formed defence forces.
Locals have accused the military of firing artillery shells that have landed near villages and the UN estimates around 100,000 people have been displaced.
Diplomatic efforts to halt the bloodshed have been led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Myanmar is a member but the bloc is riven with infighting and has managed to put little pressure on the junta.
An emergency summit in April produced a “five-point consensus” statement that called for an immediate halt to violence and a visit to Myanmar by a special envoy.
China—which enjoys exceptional leverage over Myanmar—has also been unwilling to condemn the junta and has refused to label its power-grab a coup.
Its foreign minister Wang Yi said Tuesday that Beijing’s policy towards its neighbour “is not affected by changes to Myanmar’s domestic and external situation.”
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