Myanmar may spiral into a ‘catastrophe’ – UN

Secretary-General Guterres warned in a report to the UN General Assembly circulated Wednesday that the opportunity to prevent the army from entrenching its rule could be narrowing and said it is urgent that regional and international countries help put Myanmar back on the path to democratic reform.

When Myanmar’s army ousted the elected Government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, it claimed with scant evidence that the general election her party won last November in a landslide was marred by widespread fraud.

The takeover almost immediately sparked widespread street protests that security forces tried to crush. The pushback has left more than 1,100 people dead, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and right groups.Guterres said the international and regional effort must be accompanied by the immediate release of Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and other Government officials as well as immediate humanitarian access and aid, especially to vulnerable communities, including some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in northern Rakhine state and the more than 700,000 who fled a 2017 military crackdown and are now in camps in neighboring Bangladesh. – HINDUSTAN TIMES