Myanmar’s permanent envoy to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, on Friday appealed to the organisation to restore democracy in the country and “to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military,” to do so.
“We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people and to restore the democracy,” Moe Tun told Reuters. Myanmar has been in the state ever since the military, on February 1, ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, claiming her victory in the November elections were fraudulent.
Protesters have been taking to the streets, demanding the release of Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League of Democracy party. Suu Kyi, who is on trial on charges of illegally possessing talkies, has been detained at an unknown location in Naypyidaw. Even as the police were out on the streets of Yangon and other parts of the nation, protesters gathered, singing and chanting. They, however, melted away into side streets as police set off stun grenades and firing into the air.
Moe Tun said the leaders represented the country’s legitimate government. He ended his speech with a three-fingered salute, the protesters have been using. Moe Tun’s counterparts responded with applause to his address.
UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said the UN should send a “clear signal in support of democracy” and urged that none of the member nations should recognise the military rulers.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said: “We urge every member state here today to use any channel available to tell the military that violence against the people of Myanmar will not be tolerated. Together we all show the people of Myanmar that the world is watching. We hear them and we stand with them.”
Myanmar’s army, which has imposed a state of emergency for a year, has promised an election but hasn’t given a date yet.
“It is important the international community does not lend legitimacy or recognition to this regime,” Schraner Burgener said. “The result of the election of November 2020 was clear with 82 % of the votes for the NLD, she added.
Guterres has pledged to mobilise enough international pressure “to make sure that this coup fails”.
