Myanmar monks signal rift with authorities after bloody crackdown

Yangon

MYANMAR'S most powerful Buddhist monks' association called on the junta to end violence against protesters and accused an "armed minority" of torture and killing innocent civilians since last month's coup, media said on Wednesday.

In its most forthright condemnation of the military's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, the government-appointed organisation also said in a draft statement that its members intended to halt activities, in an apparent protest.

The State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee planned to release a final statement after consulting the religious affairs minister on Thursday, the Myanmar Now news portal said, citing a monk who attended a meeting of the committee.

Monks have a long history of activism in Myanmar and were at the forefront of a 2007 Saffron Revolution against military rule - an uprising that, although suppressed, helped usher in democratic reforms.

Committee members could not immediately be reached for comment, but their reported stance would signal a significant rift between authorities and a group that usually works closely with the government.

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Pope Francis appealed on Wednesday for an end to bloodshed in Myanmar. "One more time and with much sadness I feel the urgency to talk about the dramatic situation in Myanmar, where many people, most of them young, are losing their lives in order to offer hope to their country," he said. The appeal - his latest since a Feb 1 coup - was made at the end of his weekly general audience.

In language symbolising what protesters have done, he added: "Even I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say 'stop the violence'. Even I open my arms and say 'Let dialogue prevail'." The pope may have been referring to a video and photographs of a Catholic nun pleading with security forces on her knees not to shoot protesters last week in the Myanmar city of Myitkyina, both of which went viral on the Internet. The nun, Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng, later told reporters she had told the police to spare the children and shoot her instead.

Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, said: "Blood does not resolve anything. Dialogue must prevail."

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on Feb 1, detaining her and members of her party, drawing international condemnation. Ousted members of parliament (MPs), most from Ms Suu Kyi's party, pushed for a united stand against the coup in the multi-ethnic country, saying the designation of terrorist would be lifted from all autonomy-seeking insurgents fighting for democracy.

The ousted MPs said they recognised all insurgent groups committed to a "federal democratic union" and thanked them for helping coup opponents who had fled to their zones. "Evil must be repelled by our united hands," they said on Twitter.

More than 180 protesters have been killed as security forces try to crush a wave of demonstrations, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group says.

A United Nations (UN) team of investigators on Myanmar appealed on Wednesday for people to collect and preserve documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military since the coup, in order to build future cases against its leaders. "The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions," said Nicholas Koumjian, the head of the UN team. "They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed. To prove their responsibility requires evidence of reports received, orders given and how policies were set."

People with such information should contact the investigators through secure means of communication, he added, citing apps such as Signal or a ProtonMail account. The UN investigators are collecting evidence of the use of lethal force, unlawful arrests, torture, and detentions of people whose families are not told of their whereabouts - an illegal practice known as enforced disappearance, the statement said.

The Geneva-based Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar was set up by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2018 to consolidate evidence of the most serious crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011. REUTERS