OPEN LETTER: THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL’S MEETING ON MYANMAR MUST LEAD TO FIRM MEASURES AGAINST THE JUNTA
Original released on Progressive Voice Myanmar
AUTHOR: 546 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
To: The Member States of the United Nations Security Council
CC: The United Nations Secretary-General
17 April 2023
Your Excellencies,
We, the undersigned 546 Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations (CSOs), welcome the United Kingdom’s request for an urgent Security Council discussion on Myanmar to address the illegal military junta’s worst civilian massacre since its failed coup, as well as the junta’s categorical refusal to comply with Security Council Resolution 2669 on Myanmar (December 2022). This “Any Other Business” discussion on 13 April must be followed by a dedicated Council meeting on the situation in Myanmar that leads to punitive measures against the junta under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
On Tuesday 11 April 2023, the illegal military junta in Myanmar launched an aerial attack on a civilian gathering of around 300 people in Pa Zi Gyi Village, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region. At least 168 people were killed, including 24 women and 40 children. During the attack, a junta’s fighter jet flew over the village in the morning and dropped two bombs on the gathering. It was followed by a junta helicopter gunship that then opened fire on the crowd. Some of the victims’ bodies were so badly maimed they could not be identified. A second attack on the same location was launched by the junta in the evening, with four more bombs dropped, while victims’ bodies were still being retrieved.
The junta’s actions are a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2669, which demanded “an immediate end to all forms of violence throughout the country” (OP1). Yet, since the Security Council adopted the Resolution in December 2022, the military junta has only escalated its campaign of terror and violence against the people of Myanmar.
The airstrike on Pa Zi Gyi Village came just one day after junta airstrikes in Va and Waibula Villages of Falam Township in Chin State, which killed nine civilians and destroyed homes and schools. Throughout March 2023, the junta’s so-called “Ogre Column” has carried out a series of raids on villages in southern Sagaing Region, massacring more than 30 people, including children, and decapitating and dismembering victims’ bodies. On 11 March, junta forces killed 29 civilians, including three monks, at a monastery in Pinlaung Township, Shan State. On 14 and 16 February 2023, the junta’s jet fighters dropped bombs in Mutraw District, Karen State, destroying two rice warehouses and seven schools.
Last week, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution on Myanmar (A/HRC/52/32) by consensus that condemned the junta’s deliberate, widespread, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians. The resolution referred directly to the junta’s airstrike against a school in Let Yet Kone Village, Sagaing Region in September 2022 that killed 11 children, and its airstrike one month later targeting a concert in Hpakant, Kachin State, that killed more than 60 people. The Human Rights Council Resolution demanded that the junta immediately cease all air strikes. The junta responded with the April 11 attack on Pa Zi Gyi Village.
At the same time as launching ground and increasing aerial attacks on civilians in many states and regions where the people’s resistance movement has taken strongholds, the junta is deliberately forcibly displacing people and cutting off humanitarian access to vast parts of the country. According to the most recent figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1.8 million people are now displaced inside Myanmar, but this number of displacements is likely higher. The junta is deliberately fuelling a nationwide humanitarian emergency to advance its political and military agenda.
Excellencies, the military junta has no regard for the lives of the Myanmar people, no regard for the rule of law, and no regard for international peace and security. The junta will not respond to words, only to action. Therefore, we call on the UN Security Council to adopt firm measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to enforce the military junta’s compliance with Resolution 2669. Those measures should include targeted economic sanctions against the military junta, a comprehensive arms embargo including on aviation fuel, and referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal.
Resolution 2669 also calls for “concrete and immediate actions, noting the military’s commitments to ASEAN Leaders, to effectively and fully implement ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus” (OP6). But there will be no progress made towards the implementation of the Five Point Consensus while the junta’s violence continues and its use of airstrikes against civilians increases. If the Security Council does not act now, we fear the crisis in Myanmar will rapidly reach the point of no return.
For more information, please contact:
- Khin Ohmar, Progressive Voice; info@progressive-voice.org
- Salai Za Uk Ling, Chin Human Rights Organization; zauk@chinhumanrights.org
- Grace, Youths for Community Myaung; gracecily2021@gmail.com
Signed by 546 civil society organizations, including 248 CSOs who have chosen to not disclose their name:
- #MilkTeaAlliance Friends of Myanmar
- 8888 Generation (New Zealand)
- Action Against Myanmar Military Coup
- Action Committee for Democracy Development (Coalition of 14 grassroots networks)
- Active Youths Kalaymyo
- Ah Nah Podcast – Conversations with Myanmar
- La. Ka (12) Hta Khwe. Primary Education Student Union
- All Burma Democratic Front in New Zealand
- All Burma Indigenous People Alliance
- All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP)
- All Religions Strike Column
- All Young Burmese League
- ALTSEAN-Burma
- Anti Dictatorship in Burma – DC Metropolitan Area
- Anti-Myanmar Military Dictatorship Network Australia (AMMDNA)
- ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights – APHR
- ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
- ASEAN Youth Forum Secretariat
- Asia Citizen Future Association
- Asia Democracy Network
- Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR)
- Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition
- Asian Cultural Forum on Development Foundation (ACFOD)
- Asian Dignity Initiative
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
- Association for Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
- Association Suisse-Birmanie
- Associazione per l’Amicizia Italia Birmana Giuseppe Malpeli
- Athan – Freedom of Expression Activists Organization
- Auckland Kachin Community NZ
- Auckland Zomi Community
- Aung Myay Thar Zan Education Schools Strike Column
- Aung Pin Lae Main Strike Column
- Aung San Suu Kyi Park Norway
- Australian Coalition for Democracy in Burma
- Australian Karen Organisation
- Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organization (Magway Region)
- Backpack Health Workers Team
- Bandugvala Civil Call
- Blood Money Campaign (BMC)
- Blooming Padauk
- Burma Action Ireland
- Burma Campaign UK
- Burma Human Rights Network
- Burma Lawyer Council
- Burma Medical Association
- Burma Support
- Burmese American Democratic Alliance (BADA)
- Burmese Community Development Collaboration
- Burmese Community Group (Manawatu, NZ)
- Burmese Community South Australia
- Burmese Community Support Group
- Burmese Medical Association Australia
- Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
- Burmese Rohingya Welfare Organisation New Zealand
- Burmese Women’s Union
- Campaign for a New Myanmar
- Campaign for Popular Democracy (CPD), Thailand
- CDM Support Team Mandalay
- Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS)
- Chan Mya Thar Si Township People Strike Column
- Chin Community in Norway
- Chin Community of Auckland
- Chin Community of USA DC Area
- Chin Human Rights Organization
- Chin MATA Working Group
- Citizen of Burma Award – New Zealand
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Civil Rights Defenders
- Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
- Cooperative University Student Strike Column
- CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
- CRPH Funding Ireland
- CRPH Support Group, Norway
- CRPH, NUG Support Team Germany-Deutschland
- Daung Sit Thi
- Dawei Development Association (DDA)
- Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization
- Democratic Youth Council
- Digital Rights Collective
- Doh Atu – Ensemble pour le Myanmar
- Dream Hope’s Goals (Media & Productions)
- Dunedin Myanmar Community New Zealand
- Education Family (Anti – Fascists Education Strike Columns Coordination Committee)
- Education Initiative Prague
- Equality Myanmar
- Ethnic Youth General Strike Committee
- European Karen Network
- Falam Chin Community South Australia
- Federal FM – Mandalay
- Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group (NZ)
- Finland Myanmar Society Ry
- Former ABSDF International
- ForumCiv
- Free Burma Action Committee – Central Valley
- Free Burma Action Committee – Northern California
- Free Burma Action Committee – Sacramento
- Free Burma Action Committee – San Francisco
- Free Burma Campaign (South Africa) – FBC (SA))
- Freedom and Labor Action Group (FLAG)
- Future Light Centre
- Future Thanlwin
- General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN)
- Generation Wave
- German Solidarity with Myanmar Democracy eV
- Gimpo Myanmar Friends Korea
- Global Myanmar Spring Revolution
- Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (Japan)
- Global Myanmar Spring Revolution (Korea)
- Grass-root People
- Help Myanmar
- Helping Hands for Burma
- HTY Scout Channel
- Human Rights Educators Network
- Human Rights Foundation of Monland
- Industrial Training Centre (ITC) Family Sydney
- Info Birmanie
- Information & Scout News (Hlaing)
- Initiatives for International Dialogue
- Insein Scout Channel
- Institute for Asian Democracy
- Inter Pares
- International Association, Myanmar-Switzerland (IAMS)
- International Campaign for the Rohingya
- Justice For All
- Justice For Myanmar
- Kachin Association Australia
- Kachin Association Norway
- Kachin National Forum
- Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
- Karen Community in Norway
- Karen Human Rights Group
- Karen Organization of America
- Karen Peace Support Network
- Karen Swedish Community
- Karen Women’s Organization
- Karenni Association – Norway
- Karenni MATA
- Karenni National Women’s Organization
- Karenni Society New Zealand
- Kayan Women’s Organization
- K’cho Ethnic Association
- Keng Tung Youth, Shan MATA
- Korean Civil Society in Support of Democracy in Myanmar
- Kyae Lak Myay
- Kyaukse University Students’ Union
- Kyauktada Strike Committee
- Kyimyindaing Scout Channel
- La Communauté BIRMANIE de France
- Lanmadaw, Latha & Pabedan Scout Channel
- LGBTIQ Strike of Mandalay
- Maha Aung Myay Township People Collective Strike Column
- Mandalar University Student Strike Column
- Mandalay Alliance Strike Collective Column
- Mandalay Based People Strike Column
- Mandalay Civil Society Organizations
- Mandalay Engineer Group
- Mandalay Engineer United Force
- Mandalay Regional Youth Association
- Mandalay University Student Alumni Union
- Mandalay Wholesale Strike Column
- Mandalay Youth Strike Column
- MATA Sagaing Region
- Matu Burma Foundation
- Matu Chin Community – NSW/UPU Chin Association
- Matu Chin Community South Australia
- Mayangone News
- Medical Family – Mandalay
- Metta Campaign Mandalay
- MIIT Student Strike Column
- Minbu Farmer Group
- Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute Foundation, Inc. (MPI)
- Mindat Chin Community NSW
- Minhla Development Organization
- Minority Affairs Institute
- Mizo Community South Australia
- Mon National Council
- Muslim Youth Network
- Muslim Youth Union
- Mya Taung Strike Column
- Myanmar Accountability Project
- Myanmar Action Group Denmark
- Myanmar Anti-military Coup Movement in New Zealand
- Myanmar Baptist Churches in Norway
- Myanmar Campaign Network
- Myanmar Catholic Community In Norway
- Myanmar Community Coffs Harbour (MCC)
- Myanmar Community Group Christchurch New Zealand
- Myanmar Community Group Dunedin New Zealand
- Myanmar Community in Norway
- Myanmar Cultural Research Society
- Myanmar Engineers – New Zealand
- Myanmar Gonye (New Zealand)
- Myanmar Hindu Community – Norway
- Myanmar Muslim Organization – Norway
- Myanmar Muslim Revolution Force
- Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
- Myanmar Professionals Association Australia (MPAA)
- Myanmar Railway, Region (3) CDM Strike Column
- Myanmar Students’ Union in New Zealand
- Myaung Education Network
- Myaung Medical Team
- Myinmu Helping Hands
- Naphe Development Organization
- National Advocacy Group – New Zealand
- Nelson Myanmar Community Group New Zealand
- Netherlands Myanmar Solidarity Platform
- Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma (ND-Burma)
- New Rehmonnya Federated Force – NRFF
- New York City Burmese Community
- New Zealand Doctors for NUG
- New Zealand Karen Association
- New Zealand Zo Community Inc.
- NLD Solidarity Association (NSW chapter)
- No 7 State High School Alumni Strike Column
- No Business With Genocide
- NOK Information & Scout Echo
- North Dagon & East Dagon News
- Norway Falam Community
- Norway Matu Community
- Norway Rvwang Community
- NSW Karenni (Kayah) Communities
- Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar
- Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
- One Dollar For People Of Burma
- Overseas Mon Association, New Zealand
- Padauk, Suomi-Myanmar Seura
- Pakokku Youth Development Council
- Pan Pa Wash People Strike Column
- Phayagye Peace Strike Column
- Private Pre- school Teachers Association
- Progressive Muslim Youth Association
- Progressive Voice
- Pwintphyu Development Organization (Magway Region)
- Pyi Gyi Ta Gon Strike
- Pyithu Gonye (New Zealand)
- Rohingya Community in Norway
- ROTARY Peace Fellowship Alumni Association, Makerere University, Uganda
- Rvwang Community Association New Zealand
- Sangha Samaga Strike Column
- Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas
- Save Myanmar (San Francisco)
- Save Myanmar Fundraising Group (New Zealand)
- Save Myanmar USA
- SaNaR (Save the Natural Resources)
- SEA Junction
- Sein Pan Strike Column
- Shan Community (New Zealand)
- Shan MATA
- Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
- South Dagon Scouting Infos (SDG)
- Southern Dragon Myanmar
- Southern Youth Development Organization, Tanintharyi MATA
- Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network
- Spring University Myanmar
- Strike Column of Representatives of Arbitrarily Arrested People
- Strike Column of Teachers from Universities and Degree Colleges of Mandalay
- Support Group for Democracy in Myanmar (The Netherlands)
- Swedish Burma Committee
- Swedish Foundation for Human Rights
- Sydney Friends For Myanmar
- Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
- Ta’ang Legal Aid
- Ta’ang Women’s Organization
- Taekwando Sport Association
- Tamwe Nway Oo Channel
- Tanintharyi MATA
- Tenasserim Student Unions’ Network -TSUN
- Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma
- Thaketa & Dawbon Scout Channel
- Thapaynyo Newsletter
- The Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)
- The Ladies
- The National Council of Swedish Children and Youth Organizations (LSU)
- Think Centre, Singapore
- Transparency International Czech Republic
- S Campaign for Burma
- Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
- United Hands for New Myanmar (American-Myanmar Society)
- Volunteers in Myanmar
- We Pledge CDM (Australia)
- WITNESS
- Women Activists Myanmar
- Women Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar
- Women’s League of Burma
- Women’s Peace Network
- Yangon Medical Network
- Youth for Democratization of Myanmar
- Youth Scout For Democracy
- Youths for Community Myaung
- Z Fighter News
- Zomi Association Australia Inc.
- Zomi Christian Fellowship of Norway
- Zomi Community Norway
- မြန်မာမွတ်စလင်အစည်းအရုံး (BMA)
- အထက်အညာလွင်ပြင်ရပ်ဝန်း
- အလင်းရောင်လူငယ်များ – Light Of Youth Myanmar
