Nations such as China, Russia and India are helping prop up Myanmar's military junta by supplying them with weapons, Human Rights Watch said yesterday as it appealed for an arms embargo.
The New York-based watchdog called on the UN Security Council, which -- currently meeting in New York -- to impose and enforce a ban on the sale of arms to Myanmar, which it said used the weapons to commit abuses against its people.
"It's time for the Security Council to end all sales and transfers of arms to a government that uses repression and fear to hang onto power," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
"Instead of continuing to protect Burma's abusive generals, China and Russia should join other Security Council members to cut off the instruments of repression," he said.
At least 13 people were killed and about 2,100 arrested in a violent crackdown on rallies across Myanmar last month.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday reached a broad consensus on a statement which "strongly deplores" the recent bloody crackdown, after pressure from Myanmar's allies China and Russia to water down a stronger draft.
"The nations of the world are arming and training the Burmese military at the same time that they condemn Burma's human-rights violations," Adams said.
"These countries should back up their rhetoric with actions to avoid complicity in attacks on the Burmese people," he said.
Human Rights Watch singled out India as one of the main suppliers, saying it had sold Myanmar maritime surveillance aircraft, tanks and artillery.
China, meanwhile, has supplied Myanmar with advanced helicopter gunships, fighter planes, naval vessels, tanks and small arms including mortars, landmines and assault rifles, the group said.
Russia signed a deal to supply Myanmar with MiG-29 fighter planes in 2002, it added.
The statement said Myanmar had received technical assistance from South Korean company Daewoo, rocket systems from North Korea and cited reports of Israel selling tanks to the regime.
The military used the arms bought from overseas to put down numerous ethnic insurgencies, but in the process destroyed villages and terrorized civilians, Human Rights Watch said.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS