Pointing to Kyauktaw airstrike, Myanmar ambassador to the UN urges cut off of arms supply to military junta

Mizzima

Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, has urged UN member states to cut off and halt the supply of weapons, ammunition, aviation fuel, and dual-use (military-civilian) items to the military junta, highlighting the civilian casualties caused by a recent airstrike on a market in Kyauktaw, Rakhine State.

Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun made these remarks during the high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 29 September. More than 90 UN member states, including Myanmar, delivered statements at the meeting.

He expressed deep concern over rising global expenditures on nuclear weapons, elevated nuclear security risks, and the growing sharing and proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The Ambassador emphasized that any use of nuclear weapons, whether intentional or accidental, would result in catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences. Thus, the total elimination of nuclear weapons is the only absolute guarantee against these existential threats.

Furthermore, he urged that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) must remain the cornerstone of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. He called for universal adherence to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and urged countries that have not yet signed or ratified the treaty to do so without delay.

Kyaw Moe Tun noted that under its elected civilian government, Myanmar had ratified the CTBT and signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Although plans were underway to ratify the TPNW, the process was derailed by the military coup in 2021.

He went on to state that peace and stability in Myanmar have been shattered due to the military junta’s escalating violence, which includes airstrikes, heavy artillery shelling against civilian populations, and the misuse of dual-use technologies.

According to local rescue groups and the Arakan Army (AA), an airstrike near a market in Kyauktaw, Rakhine State, on September 28 killed at least 50 civilians and injured 58 others.

Pointing to this tragic incident, Kyaw Moe Tun stressed that it is impossible to believe that a military junta, which actively destroys civilian lives and property, would use dual-use items for constructive or peaceful purposes.

Additionally, he expressed grave concern regarding the ongoing cooperation on nuclear power projects between the Myanmar military junta and a nuclear-armed state.

He asserted that international assistance and cooperation in nuclear energy for peaceful purposes should only resume in Myanmar once peace and stability are restored, democracy is revitalized, and the military is placed under strict civilian oversight.

To protect the lives and property of the people of Myanmar, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun earnestly appealed to all UN member states to immediately cease and cut off the supply of military weapons, ammunition, aviation fuel, and dual-use items to the military junta.