UN Expert Warns Myanmar's Human Rights Crisis Could Worsen Amid Global Focus on Middle East Conflict

Kathmandu. The United Nations' top expert has warned that Myanmar's escalating human rights violations and humanitarian crisis risk becoming 'even worse' as global attention is focused on the Middle East conflict and aid.

Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, stated in an interview with AFP that more than five years after the military coup seized power, the junta continues to attack civilians and obstruct necessary humanitarian aid.

Andrews said, "The war in the Middle East risks dramatically escalating the Myanmar crisis and could push Myanmar further into the shadows from an international perspective."

"The situation is already dire. It could get worse," said Andrews, a former US congressman representing Maine for the Democratic Party, who also heads the Human Rights Practice at Harvard University's Southeast Asia Program.

Andrews warned that Myanmar was already suffering from a significant decline in humanitarian aid even before the war in the Middle East began following the joint US-Israel airstrike on Iran on February 28.

Last year, aid saw a dramatic drop due to cuts in global international funds after US President Donald Trump took office. That aid is now likely to decrease further as international attention and resources concentrate on the Middle East.

The Special Rapporteur noted, "The Middle East war has also deepened the perception that the United Nations, which is working to protect and promote rights and provide aid in Myanmar, is 'under siege'."

Andrews, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, condemned the fact that international relations are viewed as 'purely transactional'.

Andrews stated, "A world that accepts that might makes right is 'exceptionally dangerous'." The situation in Myanmar is already horrific, with attacks on civilians rapidly increasing.

"In the first year of the coup in 2021, the military carried out nine airstrikes on civilian targets," Andrews said. Last year, there were 1,140 airstrikes on civilian locations in Myanmar.

"People are not just caught in the crossfire of civil war. These people are being targeted."

He added, "International pressure in recent years has had a positive effect, leading to a significant reduction in the flow of weapons to the junta."