The Myanmar military’s targeting of children, civilians and peaceful protesters, human rights experts say, constitute acts of terrorism, designed to subjugate a population that has risen up against the army’s seizure of power. After an especially bloody weekend, protesters and human rights groups are calling for stronger action from the international community, and warn that children are at particular risk.
A day after security forces cracking down on anti-coup protests left more than 100 dead, witnesses said troops opened fire at a funeral in Bago, Myanmar. (Reuters)
“These are barbaric criminal acts, calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public with the purpose of terrorizing the entire population,” says Marzuki Darusman, a member of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar and the former chair of a United Nations fact-finding mission that investigated the military’s crimes against Rohingya Muslims. “The actions of the Myanmar military are the actions of a terrorist group, under any United Nations definition of the term.”
The council wants the Myanmar military’s actions referred to the International Criminal Court, and for the international community to join with countries like the United States in sanctioning the military’s enterprises and cutting off any economic lifeline to the generals.
UNICEF, meanwhile, said longer-term consequences of the crisis on children could be “catastrophic,” as delivery of critical services for children, including key vaccines and vitamin supplements, has ground to a halt in the impoverished country.
UNICEF’s tallies show more than 35 children have been killed by the security forces over the past two months since the Myanmar military took power. More than 450 people have died in total.
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