BANGKOK: Myanmar’s junta appears to be “trying to destroy a country it cannot control,” the UN special rapporteur to the country warned on Thursday.
Clashes between an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups and the military have shredded a Beijing-brokered truce in January.
The ceasefire had briefly halted widespread fighting in the northern part of the Southeast Asian nation since a military coup ended democratic rule in 2021.
“The junta is on its heels, it’s losing troops, it’s losing military facilities, it is literally losing ground,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said during a briefing to the national security body of neighboring Thailand.
“It almost appears as if the Junta is trying to destroy a country that it cannot control.”
The military’s response to its losses has been to attack civilians, he said, adding there had been a substantial increase in the number of attacks on schools, hospitals and monasteries in the last six months.
“The stakes are very very high.”
Ethnic minority fighters seized a town from the military along a key trade highway to China’s Yunnan province earlier this week after days of clashes.
The northern Shan state has been rocked by fighting since late last month, when an alliance of ethnic armed groups renewed an offensive against the military.
The clashes have eroded a Beijing-brokered truce that halted an offensive by the alliance of the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.
Myanmar junta ‘trying to destroy country’: UN special rapporteur
https://arab.news/2rzg9
Myanmar junta ‘trying to destroy country’: UN special rapporteur
- Clashes between an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups and the military have shredded a Beijing-brokered truce in January
- The ceasefire had briefly halted widespread fighting in the northern part of the Southeast Asian nation
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
