More than 200 civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, called on the UN Security Council on Wednesday to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar to help protect civilians peacefully protesting a military coup.
Since the military seized power on February 1 and ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar has seen daily protests and a surge of violence with security forces killing hundreds of civilians.
“Imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar is the minimum necessary step the Security Council should take in response to the military’s escalating violence,” the civil society groups from around the world said in a joint statement.
However, diplomats say such a move by the 15-member Security Council is unlikely because China and Russia — who are veto-powers along with the United States, France and Britain — have traditionally shielded Myanmar from any strong council action.
“We are not in favor of imposing sanctions and we do take it as the last resort in tackling conflicts,” China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said on Monday when asked whether Beijing would support stronger UN Security Council action on Myanmar.
Since the coup, the Security Council has held several closed briefings on the situation and issued statements expressing concern and condemning violence against protesters.
“The time for statements has passed. The Security Council should take its consensus on Myanmar to a new level and agree on immediate and substantive action,” the civil society groups said.
“Myanmar’s people cannot afford to wait any longer for the Security Council to take action.”
Anti-junta unity gov’t forms ‘defense force’
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), set up by opponents of army rule, said on Wednesday it had formed a “people’s defense force” to protect its supporters from military attacks and violence instigated by the junta.
Since the military seized power and ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, Myanmar has seen daily protests and a surge of violence with security forces killing hundreds of civilians.
The NUG said the new force was a precursor to a Federal Union Army and that it had a responsibility to end decades-old civil wars and deal with “military attacks and violence” by the ruling State Administration Council (SAC) against its people.
The unity government, established last month by an array of groups opposed to the junta, among them ethnic minority militias, has pledged to end violence, restore democracy and build a “federal democratic union.”
Among the NUG’s supporters is the Karen National Union, the country’s oldest rebel force, whose Brigade 5 on Wednesday told the Karen Information Center media group its fighters had killed 194 government troops since hostilities resumed in late March.
A spokesman for the junta did not answer a call seeking comment.
The military ruled Myanmar from 1962 to 2011, before launching a tentative transition to democracy and sweeping economic reforms.
The coup halted that, angering many people unwilling to put up with another phase of military rule.
Myanmar’s well-equipped army, known as the Tatmadaw, is one of the region’s most battle-hardened forces.
Despite that, its opponents have in some places been using crude weapons to fight troops, while others have sought training with ethnic armies who have battled the military since independence in 1948 from remote border areas.
