(Reuters) – Hundreds of children have been killed and tortured by Burmese security forces since the 2021 coup, not just as collateral victims of the clashes but as deliberate targets for the junta to sow terror, said a UN expert on Tuesday.
Minors were beaten to death or stabbed, some had their nails and teeth pulled out, others suffered mock executions, details Tom Andrews, United Nations rapporteur for human rights in Burma, in a report released Tuesday.
The military junta, which regularly denounces interference by the UN and Western countries, could not be immediately contacted to react to these accusations.
According to the report, which draws on information from UN agencies, aid organizations and human rights groups, some 250,000 children have been displaced by the fighting in Burma and at least 382 have been killed. some of them in aerial bombardment or artillery fire.
“The junta’s relentless attacks on children underscore the perversity of the generals (of the junta, editor’s note) and their willingness to inflict immense suffering on innocent victims to subjugate the people,” wrote Tom Andrews in a press release.
“The junta’s attacks on children constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes,” he added.
Last year’s military coup and subsequent brutal crackdown plunged Burma back into civil war, with many groups taking up arms to resist.
In this context, the UN has gathered information that at least 142 children have been tortured by soldiers, police or pro-junta militias, the report says, which also points to an increase in forced labor of minors. , including as child soldiers.
Tom Andrews calls on members of the United Nations to financially isolate the junta and to “respond to the crisis in Burma with the same urgency as for the crisis in Ukraine”.
(Written by Martin Petty, French version Tangi Salaün, edited by Sophie Louet)