GENEVA, March 1, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Three years of military rule in Myanmar
have inflicted unbearable cruelty, leaving people trapped in an unending
nightmare as the conflict spreads, the UN human rights chief said Friday.

The junta is crushing all forms of dissent with total impunity, Volker Turk
told the UN Human Rights Council, urging the United Nations' top rights body
and countries to focus on preventing further atrocities.

"The human rights situation in Myanmar has morphed into a never-ending
nightmare, away from the spotlight of global politics," Turk said.

"Armed conflict has escalated and spread to nearly every corner of the
country. Three years of military rule have inflicted -- and continue to
inflict -- unbearable levels of suffering and cruelty on people in Myanmar."

He said the junta was cracking down on any opposition with "total abuse of
power", while development in the southeast Asian nation was now in freefall.

The junta came to power in the February 2021 coup that ousted Aung San Suu
Kyi's democratically-elected government, ending a 10-year experiment with
democracy and plunging the country into bloody turmoil.

The junta is struggling to crush resistance to its rule by long-established
ethnic rebel groups and newer pro-democracy People's Defence Forces.

Turk told the council that credible sources had verified that over 4,603
civilians, including 659 women and 490 children, had been killed by the
military since February 2021.

"The actual toll is almost certainly much higher," he noted.

He said around 400 civilians, including 113 women, had been burnt -- either
alive or after being executed.

Turk said the violence had intensified since late October, when ethnic armed
groups launched coordinated attacks, triggering punishing retaliation from
the military.

He said that in January, 145 out of 232 verified civilian deaths were
attributable to air strikes and artillery attacks as the military
increasingly directs its jets on towns and cities.

"This is horrific," said Turk.

"For the last three years, people in Myanmar have sacrificed everything, and
kept alive their aspirations for a better and safer future.

"They need the entire international community to support them."