UN Human Rights Briefing by James Rodehaver on Myanmar

“There are a number of concerns about holding a vote in the present environment in Myanmar. As you know this crisis has been unravelling for almost five years,” James Rodehaver, head of the UN Human Rights team for Myanmar, told reporters.

The growing insecurity and the lack of measures to protect civilians raise serious concerns about the safety of voters who choose or are forced to participate.

“We are also investigating claims from displaced persons that they are being ordered by the military to return to their villages to vote,” Rodehaver, speaking from Bangkok, said.

“Some groups have been targeted in air strikes and told ‘you must return to town, if you do not we will continue to bomb you,”he said.

The elections are taking place in an environment in which the military is actively suppressing participation. Many major political parties are excluded and over 30,000 of the military’s political opponents, including members of the democratically elected government and political representatives, have been detained since 2021.

“Yesterday, the military claimed that they had issued pardons – some 4,000 of whom were issued to dissidents who had been charged or convicted of sedition or incitement,” Rodehaver said.

Adding “It is important to note, however, that the military has issued announcements of pardons or commutations in past. Rarely do the numbers released match those actually released and rarely are political detainees among who are actually allowed to leave detention centres.”

Discrimination also looms large in the electoral process, with Rohingya, Tamils, Gurkhas, and Chinese, among others, excluded from voting. Civil society and independent media have little to no voice. The military has stepped up mass electronic surveillance to identify dissidents, and there are fears this will be used at the polling stations.

Additionally, the military lacks control over large areas of the country and it will be unable to cover the entire country in a meaningful and representative manner. Some 56 townships, in which martial law declarations remain active, will be excluded. Some 31 townships in the first round will have no actual voting due to the absence of candidates.

“At the same time, the military is boasting of over a hundred persons it claims to have arrested under its newly imposed ‘election-protection’ rules,” said Rodehaver.

“While we are still investigating these claims, we have credible information showing that among the dozens who have been arrested include three young people who hung up posters depicting a bullet on a ballot box. They reportedly received 49 years in prison.”

Far from being a process that could spear-head a political transition from crisis to stability and the restoration of democratic, civilian rule, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk says this process seems nearly certain to further ingrain insecurity, fear and polarization throughout the country. The utmost priority must be to end the violence and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact

In Geneva:

Ravina Shamdasani: +41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org

Jeremy Laurence: +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org

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