Britain advises its citizens to flee Myanmar amid rising tensions
The British government has urged its citizens to flee Myanmar after one of the bloodiest days since February’s coup left at least 12 people dead amid an increasingly violent crackdown by the military regime.
The UK Foreign Office released the advice on Friday for British nationals to leave the troubled south-east Asian country if they could, warning that “political tension and unrest are widespread since the military takeover and levels of violence are rising”.
Weeks of clashes between security forces and pro-democracy activists angry at the ousting of an elected government have plunged the country into chaos.
Activists called for strikes and civil disobedience campaigns that have paralysed swathes of the economy to continue on Friday despite the brutal crackdown.
Tensions in the country were also heightened after the civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since 1 February, was accused by the military of taking bribes worth $1.3m in cash and gold.
The release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held on the relatively minor charge of possessing illegal walkie-talkies, has been one of the protesters’ main demands
But although her lawyer dismissed the accusations that she took payments from the chief minister of Yangon as a “joke”, they would carry a longer prison sentence and represent an escalation of the regime’s attempts to silence her.
Amid the deteriorating situation in the country, a leading United Nations expert said the military has likely committed “crimes against humanity” in its attempt to stay in power.
Thomas Andrews, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told the UN’s human rights council in Geneva that the crimes likely included “acts of murder, enforced disappearance, persecution, torture” carried out with “the knowledge of senior leadership”, including junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.
While stressing that such offences can only be determined in a court of law, he said there was clear evidence that the junta’s crimes were “widespread” and part of a “coordinated campaign”.
He said the count of arbitrary detentions since the coup had topped 2,000 as of Wednesday night and the deaths attributed to the security forces was rising.
“As of this moment, credible reports indicate that Myanmar security forces had murdered at least 70 people,” he said.
Diplomatic pressure has been building on the generals, who have tried to quell daily protests by force.
At least eight people were killed on Thursday in Myaing, a town in the central Magway region, according to local press reports and posts on social media. There were also fatalities in Yangon, Mandalay, Bago and Taungoo.
The Guardian
