GENEVA: The UN human rights expert on Myanmar said on Tuesday that Myanmar's ruling junta had murdered and tortured civilians while waging a "campaign of terror" in the year since taking power and he called for tightening sanctions against it.
Tom Andrews, a former US congressman serving in the independent post, said in a statement that he had received more reports of "mass killings, attacks on hospitals and humanitarian targets and the bombing and burning of villages" in recent months.
“The military junta is functioning as a criminal enterprise, committing murder, torture, abductions, forced displacement, all the while stealing the revenue and seizing the assets that rightfully belong to the people of Myanmar,” Andrews said. “The international community must take strong, meaningful steps to cut the junta’s access to weapons, funds and legitimacy.”
In this file aerial photo taken on Oct 29, 2021, smoke rises from fires in Thantlang in Chin State, where more than 160 buildings have been destroyed by shelling from junta military troops, according to local media. (AFP)