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SINGAPORE: Myanmar’s military is still yielding under international pressure, even if it has said in the past that it is waterproof, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews said on Monday (February 8).
Such pressure includes economic and diplomatic sanctions and these jobs, Andrews noted, “because they have worked.”
“We know that in the past, the military has said that they are immune to international pressure … But we have learned that is not true. They care, they want to participate in the international economy,” Andrews said. CNA.
READ: Martial Law Declared in Parts of Myanmar as Demonstrations Pile Pressure on Coup Leaders
“They want to make money. They want to be prosperous. They understand the consequences of a country being in deep isolation like Myanmar was for so long,” he added.
Andrews spoke about a week after the Myanmar military detained the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as other senior officials from the National League for Democracy party.
He quickly seized power after the arrests, which he said were in response to “electoral fraud,” and imposed a state of emergency for one year.
READ: Young Myanmar residents get tattoos in show of resistance against military coup
On February 6, Sean Turnell, Australian economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, became the first known foreign national to be arrested since the coup.
Since then, thousands of people have taken to the streets of Myanmar to denounce the military regime, prompting authorities to use force to quell crowds, including firing water cannons at protesters gathered on a road in the capital, Naypyidaw.
“The people of Myanmar now understand the difference as well,” Andrews said. “And they don’t intend to go back. So we’ve seen it work in the past. I think it could work again.”
“I know that leaders around the world are discussing the application of a new round of economic sanctions. I think that is good.”
READ: Comment: Myanmar’s military never intended to give up power
Andrews said it is important that there be an “unmistakable signal” to the Myanmar military, “that whatever and whatever they do, they will be held accountable.
The use of water cannons is a “distressing sign”, said the UN expert.
“The use of violence by the military is unacceptable … It must stop and the international community will do everything possible to protect people and their fundamental human rights,” he said.
“We are on the side of the protesters who are in the streets, demonstrating for the future of their children and their basic rights.”
