UN says Myanmar junta using ‘brutal violence’ to force people to vote
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The run-up to the Dec 28 election has seen none of the feverish rallies that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi commanded.
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GENEVA – The United Nations said on Dec 23 Myanmar’s junta is using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in forthcoming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups are using similar tactics to keep people away.
“The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said.
He also denounced “serious threats from armed groups opposing the military”.
Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting on Dec 28, touting heavily restricted polls as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.
Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed and her hugely popular party dissolved after soldiers ended the nation’s decade-long democratic experiment in February 2021.
International monitors have dismissed the phased month-long vote as a rebranding of martial rule
Mr Turk, who has said holding elections in Myanmar under the current circumstances is “unfathomable”, warned on Dec 23 that civilians were being threatened by both the military authorities and armed opposition groups over their participation in the polls.
He highlighted the dozens of individuals who have reportedly been detained under an “election protection law” for exercising their freedom of expression.
Many have been slapped with “extremely harsh sentences”
The UN rights office said it also received reports from displaced people in several parts of the country, including the Mandalay region, who were warned they would be attacked or their homes seized if they do not return to vote.
“Forcing displaced people to undertake unsafe and involuntary returns is a human rights violation,” Mr Turk stressed.
He said people were also facing “serious threats” from armed groups opposing the military, including nine women teachers from Kyaikto who were reportedly abducted in November while travelling to attend a training on the ballot.
They were then “released with warnings from the perpetrators”, said Mr Turk.
He also pointed to how the self-declared Yangon Army bombed administration offices in Hlegu and North Okkalapa townships in the Yangon region, injuring several election staff, and vowed to “keep attacking election organisers”.
“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” Mr Turk said.
“There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly that allow for the free and meaningful participation of the people.”
‘Almost no one is interested’
The country of around 50 million is riven by civil war, and the vote will not take place in rebel-held areas.
In junta-controlled territory, the first of three rounds of voting is due on Dec 28 from 6am (7.30am in Singapore), including in constituencies in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw.
“The military are just trying to legalise the power they took by force,” one resident of the northern city of Myitkyina said, pledging to boycott the poll.
The run-up has seen none of the feverish public rallies that Ms Suu Kyi could command, with just a smattering of low-key events.
“Almost no one is interested in this election. But some are worried they may face trouble if they abstain,” said the Myitkyina resident, 33, speaking anonymously for safety reasons.
Under Myanmar’s current constitution, 25 per cent of parliamentary seats are reserved for the armed forces.
The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins in a burst of optimism and reform.
But after Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party trounced pro-military opponents in the 2020 elections, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup
Ms Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence for offences ranging from corruption to breaching Covid-19 restrictions, charges rights monitors dismiss as politically motivated.
“I don’t think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way,” her son Kim Aris said from his home in Britain.
The NLD has been dissolved along with most parties that took part in the 2020 vote, when 90 per cent of the seats went to organisations that will not appear on the Dec 28 ballots, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is by far the biggest participant, providing more than a fifth of all candidates, it added. AFP
