Japan should sanction Myanmar as it has done for Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, a UN expert said on Thursday, slamming the junta’s “barbarism and oppression.”
UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Thomas Andrews also urged Japan to immediately end a training program for Burmese troops, saying that it was tarnishing the image of the country’s military.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted Burmese state councilor Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021, sparking fighting across swathes of the country, and tanking the economy.
Photo: EPA
An airstrike this month on a village in a resistance hotspot killed at least 170 people, local media and locals reported.
“The human rights situation in Myanmar is horrific and getting worse,” Andrews told reporters in Tokyo at the end of a trip to meet Japanese officials and businesses.
“I urge Japan to consider joining all other G7 countries in imposing targeted economic sanctions on the Myanmar military and its key sources of revenue, just as it is doing in response to the crisis in Ukraine,” he said.
Sanctions against the junta “would weaken its capacity to attack its people,” he added, accusing the military of “barbarism and oppression.”
Japan halted new aid projects after the coup, although existing programs were not affected.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense in September last year said it would not accept new recruits into a program that trains Burmese military personnel.
However, Andrews criticized the decision to allow soldiers already in the program to complete their training.
“They are receiving combat training and learning how to be effective soldiers and commanders,” and will return “to a military responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes,” he said.
“So long as the defense ministry continues to train Myanmar soldiers, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces will be linked to a brutal military regime,” he said.
Japan has longstanding ties with Myanmar, and was a major provider of aid as well as a source of investment, before the coup.
Andrews said he had urged Japan to redirect money that would have gone into new aid programs toward funding food rations for Rohingya refugees in neighboring Bangladesh.
About 1 million Rohingya are in the country, most of them arriving after a 2017 military crackdown by Myanmar that is subject to a UN genocide investigation.
Food rations were already cut by 17 percent last month, but face being reduced an additional 20 percent, Andrews said, risking “irreparable harm to Rohingya children.”
Some Japanese businesses, including drinks giant Kirin, have exited Myanmar, but Andrews said others continue to cooperate with partners that serve the junta, or have sold operations to junta-linked firms.
The international community is “failing the people of Myanmar,” he said. “The fact is, conditions are deteriorating quickly, and it means that we need to reassess our actions.”
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