At least 38 people died this Wednesday in Burma (Myanmar) in the bloodiest day due to the protests against the military junta, violently repressed by the security forces, according to the UN special envoy , Christine Schraner Burgener.
“Today was the bloodiest day since the coup occurred, ” Schraner Burgener said at a press conference to review the situation in the Asian country since the military took power last month.
The demonstrations in rejection of the military coup continued this Wednesday throughout the country, despite the brutal police repression, which only on Sunday claimed the lives of 20 protesters, most of them due to police shootings.
Schraner Burgener pointed out that the dead have already exceeded 50 since the coup and that there are many injured and he echoed numerous videos that apparently show police forces attacking medical teams or agents using machine guns against protesters.
In addition, he said that there are about 1,200 detainees, of whom in many cases the relatives have no news.
According to the diplomat, who attended the media by videoconference from Switzerland, in recent days she has not stopped receiving messages from “very desperate people waiting for actions from the international community.”
“How can we look at this any longer?” Asked the United Nations envoy, who called for strong measures against the Burmese Army.
The UN Security Council plans to address this Friday, in a closed-door videoconference, the situation in the country, as the rotating presidency of the body, which is occupied by the United States, made official on Wednesday.
“It is up to the states to decide what measures they want to take,” said Schraner Burgener, who assured that he had warned in his contacts with the Burmese military authorities that it is possible that the Security Council will impose sanctions on them. As he pointed out, the response of his interlocutors was that they are used to this type of measure and have little international support.
Last month, the Security Council already addressed the crisis as an emergency, but did not condemn the coup due to the opposition of Russia and China, which have veto power, so for now it seems unlikely that the body will take measures against the military.
Despite calls from the international community and sanctions from countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the Burmese military, led by coup general Min Aung Hlaing, continues to crack down on protests and arrests.
The protesters demand that the Army, which ruled the country with an iron fist continuously between 1962 and 2011, allow the return to democracy and recognize the results of the elections last November, in which the National League for Democracy swept away (NLD) of the Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi , detained by the military along with other elected leaders.