UN special rapporteur condemns regime’s human rights violations

By Admin 22 Oct 2025

DMG Newsroom

22 October 2025, Mrauk-U
 
Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, has strongly condemned the human rights violations committed by Myanmar’s military regime against its people across the country.
 
A report by Andrews submitted to the UN General Assembly on October 20 cites widespread human rights abuses across Myanmar in the nearly five years since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup.
 
The report found that the military regime’s gross human rights violations included airstrikes, military executions, and the shooting and killing of peaceful protesters.
 
The report includes the incident of a school bombing in Ohhteintwin Village, Sagaing Region, on May 12, 2025, in which 22 students and two teachers were killed, and many others were injured.
 
The report also included a junta airstrike on a monastery housing displaced people in Sagaing Region, killing at least 23 people, including four children, on July 11.
 
The report also details incidents in which at least 75 civilians were killed in military regime airstrikes in Mawchi Township, Kayah State, on August 17; on a wedding ceremony in Kyonggyi Village, Bago Region, on May 25; and in Kyauk Ni Maw Village, Ramree Township, Arakan State, in January.
 
“The military regime’s idea is to violate human rights as much as they want and then protect international action with the help of China and Russia, which have veto power at the UN. Myanmar’s military leaders have never cared about basic human rights,” said a young man studying international relations in Thailand.
 
The report also details the arrest and torture of opponents of the military regime under political charges, and it also states that out of nearly 30,000 people arrested, more than 22,000 political prisoners are still behind bars.
 
In addition, the report said that junta troops have also committed sexual violence, including killing civilians and gang rape, by entering civilian villages in military columns.
 
Currently, the military regime is trying to gain international legitimacy by holding multi-party democratic general elections.
 
Former political prisoners criticise the military regime for using the name of democracy to further legalise killings.
 
“If the military regime respects democracy, it should only enact laws that the public can accept and hold elections,” said a former political prisoner. “It is really ridiculous that the military regime is using the 2008 Constitution, which allows it to do whatever it wants, to arrest the opposition according to the law. The military regime claims to arrest the opposition according to the law. You know how much those who are arrested are tortured and subjected to violence. Is it acceptable for the young people who are trying to change this to be considered criminals?”
 
The report states that the military regime massacred about 90 Arakanese civilians and gang-raped women in Sittwe’s Byainephyu Ward in May 2024.
 
Andrews urges the international community to condemn and oppose the military regime’s attempt to hold an illegal, sham election.
 
The military regime is currently bombing areas occupied by revolutionary forces and nearby villages across the country with airstrikes, drone strikes, and artillery shelling, causing civilian casualties to rise daily.