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Myanmar crisis: don’t wait for UN Security Council nod to punish junta, Suu Kyi ally and experts say
- With China likely to use its veto to shield Myanmar’s generals, like-minded countries can opt to discuss the matter openly in the UN General Assembly
- Myanmar’s oil and gas sector must be next in line for sanctions to curb the junta’s revenue streams, experts say
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Dr Sasa, the exiled special envoy of Myanmar’s disbanded parliament, has urged the embattled country’s global well-wishers to coordinate punitive measures against the military generals among themselves instead of awaiting action by the deadlocked United Nations Security Council.
Speaking in an online discussion on international efforts surrounding the putsch, Dr Sasa – currently overseas and wanted in Myanmar – also said that it was “frustrating” that neighbours including China, India and Southeast Asian nations were not exerting maximum pressure on the junta as violence against anti-coup protesters continued.
“They have absolute power to … stop these crimes against humanity happening again and again,” said Dr Sasa, an ally of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the webinar organised by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.
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“It’s not a question of can they do it, but a question of why they don’t do it,” said the medical doctor, who escaped the military’s dragnet against members of the democratically elected National League for Democracy.
Other speakers, including Thomas Andrews, the UN’s rights investigator for Myanmar, and Matthew Smith, chief executive of the Fortify Rights group, agreed with Dr Sasa’s complaints and said these countries should be “incentivised” to act.
If “left to their own devices”, China and Asean nations would watch the Myanmar military “slaughter unarmed innocent protesters”, Smith said.
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