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UN expert urges Japan to sanction Myanmar junta
Thomas Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also urged Japan to immediately end a training programme for Myanmar troops, warning it was tarnishing the image of the country's military.
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Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, takes part in an interview with AFP at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur on June 23, 2022. Southeast Asia's regional bloc, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), needs to increase pressure on Myanmar's junta otherwise there will be more death and suffering, a UN expert warned June 23. (AFP/Arif Kartono)
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apan should sanction Myanmar as it has done for Russia over its Ukraine invasion, a United Nations expert said Thursday, slamming the junta's "barbarism and oppression".
Thomas Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also urged Japan to immediately end a training programme for Myanmar troops, warning it was tarnishing the image of the country's military.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's government in February 2021, sparking fighting across swathes of the country and tanking the economy.
An air strike on a village in a resistance hotspot this month killed at least 170 people, according to media and locals.
"The human rights situation in Myanmar is horrific and getting worse," Andrews told reporters in Tokyo at the end of a trip to meet Japanese officials and businesses.
"I urge Japan to consider joining all other G7 countries in imposing targeted economic sanctions on the Myanmar military and its key sources of revenue, just as it is doing in response to the crisis in Ukraine," he said.
Sanctions against the junta "would weaken its capacity to attack its people," he added, accusing the military of "barbarism and oppression".
