UN rights chief urges leaders to pressure Myanmar to halt violence

Michelle Bachelet demands quick restoration of civilian rule in the country almost a year after the military takeover.

The United Nations human rights chief has urged world leaders to ramp up the pressure on Myanmar’s military rulers to cease violence against the country’s own people and quickly restore civilian rule.

Almost one year on since the military seized power in the country, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the country’s people had paid a high price in terms of lives and freedoms lost.

Bachelet said that while there had been near-universal condemnation of the coup and ensuing violence, she branded the international response as “ineffectual”, saying it “lacks a sense of urgency commensurate to the magnitude of the crisis”.

“It is time for an urgent, renewed effort to restore human rights and democracy in Myanmar and ensure that perpetrators of systemic human rights violations and abuses are held to account,” she said.

The former Chilean president said the UN Security Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had not done enough to convince the coup leaders to facilitate humanitarian access.

Bachelet said she had spoken with civil liberties defenders in Myanmar who were pleading with the international community not to abandon them.

“I urge governments – in the region and beyond – as well as businesses, to listen to this plea,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

Myanmar’s military seized power on February 1 last year, ousting the civilian government and arresting its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

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