UN rights expert calls Min Aung Hlaing the ‘same ruthless dictator’ as Myanmar’s death toll passes 100,000

Mizzima

Myanmar’s military ruler remains the same dictator using the same tactics despite assuming the presidency, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar told the UN General Assembly on 27 October. She reported that the country’s conflict death toll since the 2021 coup has passed 100,000, the vast majority of them civilians.

Addressing the Assembly’s Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) in New York, Kelley Anne Eckels-Currie said junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who declared himself “president”, “may have changed his outfit, but he’s still the same ruthless dictator.”

The military seized power in February 2021, claiming fraud in the 2020 elections, which the National League for Democracy (NLD) had won in a landslide. Min Aung Hlaing later took the presidency after military-run elections. The European Union told the same session that those elections could not legitimize military rule rebranded as a civilian administration.

According to Currie, the military intensified its attacks during the 100-day plan Min Aung Hlaing announced to restore peace and prosperity. She said the regime also used new coercion and surveillance technologies, supplied by its Chinese and Russian allies, to shut down dissent. She cited reports that three humanitarian workers were tortured and killed in Dawei in July for helping local communities. She also warned that regional efforts to normalize relations with the regime risk prolonging civilian suffering. At the same time, she pointed to local governance in areas outside military control, including community-run resource management in Karenni State and education and health services for displaced people in Karen State.

Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), said the military is increasingly relying on air power. He said planes, drones and paramotors, which are powered paragliders, have hit homes, hospitals, places of worship, displacement camps and schools. Two weeks earlier, he said, aircraft bombed a monastery in Sagaing Region and a church complex in Chin State, while last month a market bombing in Rakhine State killed more than 50 people. The mechanism is also investigating a growing number of alleged atrocities by armed groups opposed to the military.

Koumjian said more than 155,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since early 2024. The mechanism has now gathered evidence from over 1,600 sources and more than 750 witness testimonies, up from over 1,300 sources and 600 testimonies a year earlier. It has shared that evidence with international courts and with several states that have opened preliminary investigations.

UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar Julie Bishop warned that conditions do not exist for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingya refugees. She noted that the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group in western Myanmar, now controls 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships.

During the dialogue that followed, Russia’s representative rejected the UN assessments as seriously imbalanced, saying “it is unacceptable to brand Naypyidaw as being to blame” for the crisis. China’s representative cautioned Currie against misleading the public.

Myanmar’s representative to the UN held up a scarf bearing the names and ages of civilians killed in the conflict. “The youngest was just two months old. The oldest was 105,” he said, urging states to stop supplying jet fuel, weapons and money to the military.