Since a coup five months ago, dozens of children have been slain and hundreds have been unlawfully incarcerated in Myanmar, according to UN rights experts.
Since February 1, the UN Child Rights Committee has received “reliable information” that 75 children have been slain and nearly 1,000 have been imprisoned in Myanmar.
In a statement, committee head Mikiko Otani stated, “Children in Myanmar are under siege and face catastrophic loss of life as a result of the military coup.”
Since the coup that deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the country has seen large protests and a harsh military response.
Every day, children are subjected to indiscriminate violence, random shootings, and arbitrary detentions, according to Otani.
“They have guns leveled at them and see their parents and siblings suffer the same fate.”
The committee is made up of 18 independent specialists tasked with overseeing Myanmar’s adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which it ratified in 1991.
“The death of children by the junta and police is severely denounced,” the experts said, adding that “some victims were killed in their own homes.”
Deeply disturbed by the sad news of the killing of a friend, Danish Seddiqi in Kandahar last night. The Indian Journalist & winner of Pulitzer Prize was embedded with Afghan security forces. I met him 2 weeks ago before his departure to Kabul. Condolences to his family & Reuters. pic.twitter.com/sGlsKHHein — Farid Mamundzay फरीद मामुन्दजई فرید ماموندزی (@FMamundzay) July 16, 2021
Deeply disturbed by the sad news of the killing of a friend, Danish Seddiqi in Kandahar last night. The Indian Journalist & winner of Pulitzer Prize was embedded with Afghan security forces. I met him 2 weeks ago before his departure to Kabul. Condolences to his family & Reuters. pic.twitter.com/sGlsKHHein
— Farid Mamundzay फरीद मामुन्दजई فرید ماموندزی (@FMamundzay) July 16, 2021
According to the statement, one of them was a six-year-old girl who was shot in the stomach by police in Mandalay.
The experts also denounced the frequent use of arbitrary imprisonment of children in police stations, prisons, and military detention facilities.
They cited a five-year-old girl in Mandalay whose father helped organize anti-junta protests as an example of the military authorities’ claimed practice of holding children hostage when they are unable to capture their parents.
The experts also expressed grave concern about widespread interruptions in crucial medical services and educational education.
Children’s access to safe drinking water and food in rural regions has also been hampered, they claimed.
They noted that the UN Human Rights Office had received convincing information that security forces were occupying hospitals, schools, and religious institutions in the nation, which had been damaged as a result of military actions.
They cited UNICEF data showing that one million children in Myanmar were losing out on critical immunizations and that over 40,000 children were no longer receiving the treatment they needed for severe acute malnutrition.
“If this crisis persists, an entire generation of children faces severe medical, psychological, emotional, educational, and economic implications, robbing them of a healthy and productive future,” Otani said.
