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Myanmar
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Nearly 250,000 people in Myanmar displaced by junta crackdown: UN envoy

  • UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar said ‘the world must act immediately to address this humanitarian catastrophe’
  • At least 738 people have been killed and 3,300 jailed in the junta’s crackdown on mass demonstrations against the February 1 coup

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A demonstrator gestures near a barricade during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar in March. Photo: Reuters
Agence France-Pressein Yangon
The Myanmar military’s crackdown on anti-coup protesters has displaced close to a quarter of a million people, according to a United Nations rights envoy.
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The junta has stepped up its use of lethal force to quash mass demonstrations against a February 1 coup which ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

At least 738 people have been killed and 3,300 are languishing in jails as political prisoners, according to a local monitoring group.

Relatives and friends wait outside Insein Prison in Yangon, as Myanmar’s junta released 23,184 prisoners across the country on April 17 under a New Year amnesty. Photo: Reuters
Relatives and friends wait outside Insein Prison in Yangon, as Myanmar’s junta released 23,184 prisoners across the country on April 17 under a New Year amnesty. Photo: Reuters

“Horrified to learn that … the junta’s attacks have already left nearly a quarter [of a] million Myanmar people displaced, according to sources,” UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews tweeted on Wednesday. “The world must act immediately to address this humanitarian catastrophe.”

More than 2,000 Karen people have now crossed Myanmar’s border into Thailand and thousands more have been internally displaced, said Padoh Mann Mann of the Karen National Union, a rebel group active in Myanmar’s mountainous eastern border regions. “They all hide in the jungle nearby their villages,” he said.

Free Burma Rangers, a Christian aid group, estimated at least 24,000 people were displaced in Karen state amid mortar ground attacks and air strikes earlier in the month.

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