Myanmar’s UN envoy seeks protection for kids

Myanmar’s UN envoy seeks protection for kids

Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations has appealed for help as children remain targeted by the military junta in the conflict-stricken Southeast Asian nation.

During the Third Committee of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly on Oct 10, Kyaw Moe Tun, appealed to global organizations to take swift and decisive action, especially to protect the lives and rights of children.

“It is well overdue that the international community including the UN Security Council take responsibility to protect Myanmar people,” Tun said.

Tun, a diplomat aligned with the National Unity Government, remains Myanmar’s permanent representative at the UN following the credentials committee deferring the decision on Myanmar’s representation last year despite the junta proposing to appoint its own ambassador.

He said the military coup last February continues to put children’s lives at risk, their liberties under restrictions and their rights deprived by the military regime.

Tun cited the military attack on a school in Let Yet Kone village in Myanmar’s northwest Sagaing region on Sept. 16 which killed at least 11 children, sparking global outrage for contravening international humanitarian law against attacks on children in times of conflict.

“What did those students do wrong that they had to encounter such senseless death and tragedy?”

The junta did not return the bodies to their parents and detained students and teachers who were seriously injured.

“May I ask what did those students do wrong that they had to encounter such senseless death and tragedy?” Tun said.

UN investigators said the attack on Let Ye Kone “may be considered a war crime with commanders criminally liable.”

Myanmar bishops have repeatedly called for respect for human life and the sanctity of places of worship, hospitals and schools in the country.

A UN rights report released in June said the military junta has brutally attacked and killed scores of children caught in the crossfire of conflict as well as being targeted for violence.

Tom Andrews, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said that over the past 16 months the military has killed at least 142 children, over 250,000 children have been displaced by military attacks and over 1,400 have been arbitrarily detained. At least 61 children, including several under three years of age, are reportedly being held as hostages.

More than 1.3 million people remain displaced across the country, with more than 1 million being displaced since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Oct. 1.

Global charity, Save the Children, said in a January report that of the total number of people displaced across Myanmar, an estimated 37 percent are children, many of whom are living outside in jungles in makeshift shelters and vulnerable to hunger and illness.

More than 2,300 people, including scores of children, have been killed and over 15,700 people have been detained by the junta since the military coup in February last year, rights groups say.