The United Nations has denounced Friday that attacks against civilians in Burma have increased «dramatically» and assured that it is keeping track of the crimes committed by the Burmese military junta, no matter how «slow» the process appears from the outside.
Burma has been mired in civil war since the military seized power following a coup in 2021. Since then, more than 2,500 people have been killed as part of operations carried out by the junta and another 16,500 have been detained, according to data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma (AAPP).
«Criminal investigation requires a long-term commitment to gather evidence,» the head of the so-called Independent Investigative Mechanism for Burma, Nicholas Koumjian, has explained.
Koumjian has pronounced this Friday through a statement issued on the occasion of the anniversary of the massacre of 35 people committed on December 24, 2021 by the Burmese Army in the town of Moso, as denounced at the time by international NGOs such as Save the Children, two of whose workers were killed during the massacre. Their bodies were, like the rest of those killed, including a child, cremated by the military.
The head of the UN mechanism has assured that, in the last twelve months, his team has obtained evidence of a «spectrum of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, including evidence of murder, rape, torture, illegal detention and forced deportation», in addition to this «dramatic increase in deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians or civilian areas such as schools, hospitals or churches».
«The evidence is not destined to gather dust in a file, but will eventually be used in a court of law to bring those responsible to justice,» he said.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)