06/19/2022 Myanmar (International Christian Concern) – A military junta has ruled the country of Myanmar since February 2021, when it deposed the democratically elected civilian government. In the intervening year and a half, the Buddhist nationalist junta disproportionately targeted religious minorities, including Christians, in order to suppress the opposing people’s defense forces. According to a recently released UN report, the military junta has also brutally attacked and killed hundreds of children.
Tom Andrews, who is a UN special reporter on human rights in Myanmar, told media outlets on June 13 that, “The junta’s relentless attacks on children underscore the generals’ depravity and willingness to inflict immense suffering on innocent victims in its attempt to subjugate the people of Myanmar.”
He continued with a graphic description of some of the crimes against children. “I received information about children who were beaten, stabbed, burned with cigarettes, subjected to mock executions, and had their fingernails and teeth pulled out during lengthy interrogation sessions,” Andrews said.
He later said the junta’s attacks on children are “crimes against humanity and war crimes” and called Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of the junta, and all who have committed these attacks to be “held accountable for their crimes against children”.
Soldiers, police officers, and military-backed militias have murdered, abducted, detained, and tortured children in a campaign of violence that has touched every corner of the country, according to the report.
It said that over the past 16 months, the military had killed at least 142 children. Around 250,000 children have been displaced by the military’s attacks, and over 1,400 have been detained without reason. At least 61 children, including several under three years of age, are reportedly being held as hostages.
Andrews has urged UN member states to work in coordination to alleviate the suffering of children by systematically increasing pressure on the junta.
“World leaders, diplomats, and donors should ask themselves why the world is failing to do all that can reasonably be done to bring an end to the suffering of the children of Myanmar,” he said.
Please pray for all those, especially children, who are suffering from the violence in Myanmar.
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