UN says Myanmar junta using ‘brutal violence’ to force people to vote

The UN said on Tuesday that Myanmar’s junta was using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in upcoming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups were using similar tactics to keep people away.

“The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views,” United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting Sunday, touting heavily restricted polls as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.

But former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed and her hugely popular party dissolved after soldiers ended the nation’s decade-long democratic experiment in February 2021.

International monitors have dismissed the phased month-long vote as a rebranding of martial rule.

Turk, who last month said that holding elections in Myanmar under the current circumstances was “unfathomable”, warned on Tuesday that civilians were being threatened by both the military authorities and armed opposition groups over their participation in the polls.

  

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