According to UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk, up to 40 charity workers have been slain in Myanmar since the military coup in 2021 that deposed democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Turk decried “direct attacks” on humanitarian workers, who mostly work for local organizations, in a report to the UN Human Rights Council, amid conflict between the military junta behind the coup and its opponents.
He said the deaths were part of “deliberate and targeted” efforts to obstruct aid and “a calculated denial of fundamental rights and freedoms for large swathes of the population”.
The United Nations has previously cautioned that obstructing or denying humanitarian assistance may constitute significant violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.
According to Turk’s assessment, the junta has killed and injured thousands of civilians while destroying essential goods and infrastructure, like as food, housing, and medical facilities.
According to the report, an estimated 1.5 million individuals have been internally displaced, and roughly 60,000 civilian structures have been burned or damaged.
More than 17.6 million people, or one third of the overall population, require some form of humanitarian assistance.
“Civilians live at the whim of a reckless military authority that relies on systematic control tactics, fear and terror,” Turk told the council.
“Credible sources indicate that as of yesterday, 3,747 individuals have died at the hands of the military since they took power, and 23,747 have been arrested,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
Those estimates only contain reported cases, implying that the true toll is likely substantially greater.
In June, the US imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s defense ministry and two “regime-controlled” banks that facilitate transactions between the military leadership and global markets in order to purchase weaponry and other goods.
