Statement 1458 Views

An open letter to the UN Security Council to immediately intervene to protect the people of Myanmar

February 24th, 2021  •  Author:   468 Civil Society Organizations  •  13 minute read
Featured image

24 February, 2021

Dear President and Members of the Security Council,

We, the undersigned protesters around Myanmar and CSOs call on the UN Security Council to immediately dispatch an intervention mission to Myanmar to stop violence from being inflicted against peaceful protesters, prevent further bloodshed and loss of life and release all those arbitrarily detained.

Since the 1 February, seven people have been killed and several others have been injured in relation to the illegitimate military coup in Myanmar. As requested in an open letter from the 177 CSOs to the Security Council on 12 February 2021, it is important that the UN Security Council respond immediately to the current political and human security crisis in Myanmar. Since this letter was last sent, we have witnessed the following escalating use of violence and intimidation by the military regime.

  1. On 20 February, two people were killed, and dozens were injured when police, with support from soldiers, fired live ammunition into the dockworkers protestng at the Yadanarbon shipyard in Mandalay. At least one sniper from Light Infantry Division 33 – a shock unit deployed in ethnic regions that has historically inflicted brutal violence – was photographed on the streets at the place and time of the incident. Photos and videos of innocent bleeding protesters, dying in the streets, are placing an emotional strain on the people.
  2. On February 9, Ma Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, a 19-year old female student was shot in the head by police in Naypyidaw, later dying in hospital as a result of this incident on 19 February 2021.
  3. The use of excessive forces, including rubber bullets, water cannons, and beatings by the police is now a common occurrence. On 14 and 19 February, in Myitkyina, Kachin State, the police beat, arrested and fired on crowds, causing panic among the people. Rubber bullets were also fired into the crowd in Yangon, as well as Mawlamyine, Mon State and in Myawaddy, Karen State.
  4. Journalists and media reporting on the peaceful protests are facing intimidation and threats such as being followed, beaten and arrested.
  5. Since the early hours of 14 February, the Internet has been cut off every night between 1am and 9am, and a social media ban persists. In addition, the military has added other draconian restrictions by enacting and amending series of laws related to cyber security.
  6. There have been increased presence of army tanks and soldiers in the streets of major cities, including Yangon.
  7. Protesters, especially civil servants and public-sector workers who join the CDM movement, continue to be arrested at night. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a total of 684 people have been arrested charged or sentenced in relation to the military coup as of 22 February.
  8. On 12 February, authorities released more than 23,000 prisoners, who were escorted by security forces into city streets and neighborhoods, setting fire to houses, creating disturbances and inciting violence. Some still had their prison release papers when they were arrested while committing acts or attempting to commit violence.

The lack of human security situation is extremely worrying. More people are dying; our rights are becoming more restricted and we live in constant fear. We are being treated like enemies in combat.

Yet, we are also determined to continue opposing this illegitimate military coup. We will continue to go out on the streets and peacefully oppose the violence that is being inflicted upon us. However, we need urgent support from the Security Council. The current situation in our country is a major emergency. Therefore, it is with great urgency, that we reiterate our call from the letter dated 12 February for the UN Security Council to:

  • Immediately dispatch an enhanced monitoring and intervention mission to Myanmar to stop the violence being inflicted against peaceful protesters, prevent further bloodshed and loss of life and release all those arbitrarily detained.
  • In addition, it is imperative that the member states urgently impose a coordinated, global arms embargo on Myanmar. Our lives may depend on your concerted action.

Please accept the assurance of our highest consideration.

Signed by: (list updated on 25 February)

  1. A Lin Pya Kyal
  2. A Lin Tan
  3. A Lin Thi Tan
  4. A Nar Gatt Thit Group
  5. Access Myanmar StudentsNetwork
  6. Action Committee for Democracy Development
  7. Action Group for Farmers Affair (စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း)
  8. Action Group for Farmers Affair (ပဲခူးတိုင်း)
  9. Action Group for Farmers Affair (မကွေးတိုင်း)
  10. Action Group for Farmers Affair (မန္တလေးတိုင်း)
  11. Action Group for Farmers Affair (ဧရာဝတီတိုင်း)
  12. Ahlin Tagar Rural Development Organization
  13. Alinsaetamarn Library & Resource Center
  14. Alinthitsar Environmental and Development Group
  15. Alinyaungpandaing Environmental and Development Group
  16. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
  17. Andin Mon Youth group
  18. Anin Region enviromental conservation group
  19. Ann Township Pipeline Monitoring Group
  20. Area Peace and Development Forward
  21. Arr Marn Thit Social Development Organization
  22. Arr Thit Yaung Chi
  23. Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
  24. Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
  25. Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organization (Minhla)
  26. Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organization (Ngaphae)
  27. AYY Famar Union
  28. Ayyar Pyo May Women Development Organization
  29. Ba Ann Media Group
  30. Backpack Health Workers Team
  31. Banmaw Youth Network
  32. Basic Lawyer Network
  33. Bawdi Youth (Ethnic Youth group)
  34. BEE House
  35. Bu Thee Taung Youth Network
  36. Burma Human Rights Network
  37. Burma Medical Association
  38. Burma Monitor (Research and Monitoring)
  39. Candle Light Group
  40. CBT Gaw Ran Gyi Island (Nan Thar Pu)
  41. Center for Social Integrity
  42. Child Prevention Network
  43. Child Protection Group
  44. Chin Agency
  45. Chin Community Base Rehabilitation
  46. Chin Institute of Social Science
  47. Chin MATA Working Group
  48. Chin Resources Center
  49. Chin Women Development Organization
  50. Chin Youth Organization (Kanpalet)
  51. Chindwin Region Natural Resources Watch Group
  52. Chinland Natural Resources Watch Group
  53. Cho Chin Women Organization
  54. Citizen Action for Transparency
  55. Civic Engagement Development Network
  56. Civic Engagement Network for M2
  57. Civil Call
  58. Community Association Development
  59. Community Development Youth Network
  60. Community Observer Association
  61. Community Peace Support Group
  62. Community Response Group – ComReG
  63. Da Nu Youth group
  64. Daily Educations
  65. Dawei Development Association
  66. Dawei Watch Foundation
  67. Dawei Women Union
  68. Democracy, Peace and Women Organization
  69. Diversity and Public Truth
  70. Doe Myae Civil Social Development Organization
  71. Empower Youth Enlightenment
  72. Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation – EMReF
  73. Environmental Conservation Association
  74. Equality Myanmar
  75. Farmer Agricultural Network
  76. Farmer and Land Activity Group
  77. Farmer and Land Worker Union (Myeik Region)
  78. Farmer Union (Bago)
  79. Farmers and Agricultural workers group
  80. Farmers And Land Rights Action Group
  81. Farmers Development and Environmental Watch Group
  82. Farmers Network ဝမ်းတွင်း
  83. Farmers Union (Ayar)
  84. Forest User Association
  85. Free & Fair (youth) Network
  86. Free and Justice
  87. Free Education Service Organization
  88. Freedom and Labor Action Group
  89. Freedom Society
  90. Future Light Center
  91. Future Light for Child
  92. Future Light Social Development Organization
  93. Future Star Youth Organization
  94. Future Star မတ်တရာ
  95. Generation Wave
  96. Generation Wontho
  97. Genuine People’s Servants
  98. Global Family
  99. GOAL Organization
  100. Golden Future Social Development Organization
  101. Golden Heart Organization
  102. Good Hope Foundation (Bhamo)
  103. Green (Chin)
  104. Green Development Network
  105. Green for All (NTI)
  106. Green Justice Institute
  107. Green Network (Mergui Archipelago)
  108. Green Network (Tanintharyi Region)
  109. Green Right Organization
  110. Halcyon
  111. Heartland Foundation
  112. HeinNae Region Longterm Development Group
  113. HinTha Da PIDP Group
  114. Hinthar Tagon
  115. Hkumzup Development Committee
  116. Hna Lone Hla (AL)
  117. Homalinn Youth Network
  118. Hope For Children Development Organization
  119. Hsar Ka Paw Group
  120. Hsar Mu Htaw Group (ဆာမူထော် အဖွဲ့)
  121. Hsar Mu Waw Group (ဆာမူဝေါ် အဖွဲ့)
  122. Htaw Me Par Group (ထော်မဲပါ အဖွဲ့)
  123. Htee Gyaing Network
  124. Htoi Gender and Development Foundation
  125. Htum Thit Sa Rural Development Organization
  126. Htuu Region Development Group
  127. Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
  128. Human Rights Foundation of Monland
  129. Humanity Institute
  130. Justice For All (လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ခြင်းနှင့် တရားမျှတမှုလက်လှမ်းမှီရေးအဖွဲ့)
  131. Justice Movement for Community Inlay
  132. Ka Nyut Kwin Youth Center
  133. Kachin State Women Network
  134. Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
  135. Kachin Women’s Union
  136. Kan Chay Arr Man Fishery Development Organization
  137. Kan Latt Myar
  138. Kanaung Institute
  139. Kani Natural Resources Watch
  140. Kanpetlet Land Development Organization
  141. Karen Affairs Committee
  142. Karen Environmental and Social Action Network
  143. Karen Grassroots Women Network
  144. Karen Human Rights Group
  145. Karen Organization for Relief and Development
  146. Karen Peace Support Network
  147. Karen Refugee Committee
  148. Karen Rivers Watch
  149. Karen Student Network Group
  150. Karen Teacher Working Group
  151. Karen Women’s Organization
  152. Karen Youth Organization
  153. Karenni Ever Green
  154. Karenni Legal and Human Rights Center
  155. Karenni MATA
  156. Karenni National Women’s Organization
  157. Karenni National Youth Organization
  158. Karenni State Farmer Union
  159. KatanKyun Development Group
  160. Kaung Myat Hnalonethar Health Care Organization
  161. Kayan Earth Right Action Network
  162. Kayan New Generation Youth
  163. Kayan Women Organization
  164. Kayin Culture and literature committee
  165. K’Cho Land Development Association
  166. KECO
  167. Keng Tung Youth
  168. Khaingmyaethitsar Environmental Maintain Group
  169. Khanti Youths
  170. Khitlight Development Group
  171. Kin Oo Natural Resources Watchs
  172. Kin Ywar (Ma da yar Youth)
  173. Kindness Foundation (Shan)
  174. KOG
  175. Kyaik Hti Yo Mountain Range Lover Association
  176. Kyaingtone Youth
  177. Kyaukse Youth Network
  178. Kyike Mayaw MATA
  179. Kyonemaku Chaung Network
  180. Lamyan Farmers Network
  181. Lan Pya Kyal Sin Group
  182. Land Activist Group
  183. Land and Environmental
  184. Lat Pa Daung Monitoring Group
  185. LatButta Farmer Union
  186. Lawyers Network (Ayeyarwaddy)
  187. Legal Knowledge Sharing Group
  188. Let’s Help Each Other
  189. Life Light
  190. Light Civil Society Organization
  191. Light Social Development Organization
  192. Lin lake Kyal Social Development Organization
  193. Local Development Network (Kayah)
  194. Loka Ahlinn (Social Development Organization)
  195. Lu Mu Htar Group
  196. Ma Day Island Youth Development Association
  197. Ma Naw Phyu
  198. Magway Region Youth Network
  199. Mandalay Affairs Team
  200. Mandalay Regional Youth Association
  201. Mandalay Regional Youth Network
  202. Mandalay Women Political Federation (MWPF)
  203. Mann Thingaha (Gender GBV Team)
  204. Manoeyone Future Light Enviromental and Development Group
  205. Maramagri Youth Network
  206. Marga
  207. MATA Sagaing Region
  208. Matu Women Organization
  209. Meiktila Youth Network
  210. Metta Development Foundation
  211. Mhine Nyein Network
  212. Mi Karen Youth
  213. Mitta Blood Health Group
  214. Mitta San Yae (Magway)
  215. Mitta San Yae (Shan)
  216. Mitta Shin Group
  217. Mitta Yake Group
  218. Mitta Yaung Sin group
  219. Mohn Chaung Lover
  220. Mon green develop group
  221. Mon State Community Association
  222. Mon State CSO Network
  223. Mon-region Social Development Network
  224. Mother Land Network
  225. MRDJO Magway Regional Rules of law and Justice group
  226. Mu Se Multi Development Association
  227. Mudidar ZiwadarNa and Social Association
  228. Muditar Organization
  229. Mudon CSO Network
  230. Mudon Township Development Group
  231. Mung Chying Rawt Jat
  232. Municipal Monitoring Group
  233. Muu basin Environmental Save Group
  234. Mwetaung Area Development Group
  235. Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability
  236. Myanmar Cultural Research Society
  237. Myanmar Deaf Society
  238. Myanmar Muslim Youth Association (Kachin State)
  239. Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
  240. Myat Darna Group
  241. Myeik Lawyer Network
  242. Na Phat Hla
  243. Nant San Environmental Save Group
  244. Natural Green Alliance
  245. Northern Spectrum Youth Association
  246. Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
  247. Olive Organization
  248. Open data Myanmar
  249. Open Development Foundation
  250. Our Home
  251. Pan Daing Shin
  252. Pan Thi Kyo LGBT Organization
  253. Parchan River Maintain Group
  254. Pauk Khaung Youth Network
  255. Pauktaingchaung Development Group
  256. Paung Ku
  257. Paungsee Myittar Organization
  258. Peace Development Committee (မိတ္ထီလာ)
  259. Peace, Development & Civic Engagement
  260. People Oriented and Development Group
  261. People Resource Alliance
  262. Phyu Sin Mitta
  263. Phyu Sin Myittar Social Development Organization
  264. Pluralistic Society
  265. Pone Yate Sit Regional Development Organization
  266. Progressive Voice
  267. Public Service Committee (Taunggoke)
  268. Pwint Lin Voluntary Group
  269. Pwint Lin Youth
  270. Pwint Phyu Development Group
  271. Pyar Mountain Conservation Group
  272. Pyi Thue A Kyoe Pyue Group
  273. Pyin Nyar Youth Association
  274. Rakha Arr Marn Group
  275. Rakhine Disable Association
  276. Rakhine National Network (Lay Taung)
  277. Rakhine Social Network (Myay Pone)
  278. Rakhine Women’s Union
  279. Rakhine Youth Generation
  280. RanByae Township Development Group
  281. Resources Center
  282. Responsible Waste Collecting Group
  283. Retired voluntary Group
  284. Rivers and Creeks Monitoring Group
  285. Rule of Law Watch Group
  286. Rural Social Development Organization
  287. Sagaing Region Youth Network
  288. Sal and KyaySin Mining Watch Group
  289. Sarnar Kyi Phyu Social Development Organization
  290. SarPhyu Farmer Network
  291. Say Da Nar Mon Voluntary Group
  292. Say Da Nar Shin
  293. Saytana Shaesaung Youth Organization
  294. Second Tap Root
  295. Sein Lan (Mogoke)
  296. Sein Lan (Tha Pake Kyin)
  297. Sein Lan Lwin Pyin Group (Laputta)
  298. Sein Lan Myay (Kyun Hla)
  299. Sein Yaung So (Katha)
  300. Shan Literature
  301. Shan MATA
  302. Shan State Peace Task Force
  303. Shan Women Development Network
  304. Shantinmae Environmental Maintain Committee
  305. Shwe Kyin Lover
  306. Shwe Minn Tha Foundation (Myanmar)
  307. Shwe Nathar Farmer Development Organization
  308. Shwe Network
  309. Shwe Paing Nyin Group
  310. Shwechinthae Farmers Network
  311. Sit Man Thaw Sanda Social group
  312. SKY-Youth, Kyaukphyu
  313. Social Development and Peace Network
  314. Southern Youth Development Organization
  315. SPACE
  316. Spectrum Organization
  317. Swam Su Ti Rural Development Organization
  318. Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
  319. Ta’ang Women’s Organization
  320. Tarkapaw Youth Group
  321. Tedim Youth Fellowship
  322. Tgyit Watch Group
  323. Than Dwe Development Association
  324. Than Lwin Thar Chin Group
  325. Thanlwin Network
  326. Thazi Youth Network
  327. The Seagull:Human Rights, Peace & Development
  328. The Wings Institution
  329. Theindaw Region Environmental Maintain Group
  330. Thingantaung Waterfall Maintain Group
  331. Thit Sar Yae Sin
  332. Thurira Sanda Group
  333. Thwee Community Development Network
  334. Tonzang Fellowship
  335. Tonzang Youth Association
  336. Transparency and Accountability Network Kachin State
  337. Tree Lover group
  338. TRI STAR
  339. TRY Organization
  340. Union of Karenni State Youth
  341. Unity Erch Bridge Organization
  342. University Muslim Students Network – Myanmar
  343. Upper Chindwin Youth Network
  344. Upper Myanmar Watch Group
  345. Waingmaw CSO Network
  346. Waingmaw Women CBO
  347. Western beach Ayeyarwaddy Environmental Conservation Group
  348. White hand Social warefare group
  349. White Marker Group
  350. Windayea Village Social group
  351. Women & Youth’s Development Organization
  352. Women Development (Bago)
  353. Women Development Group (Ayeyarwaddy)
  354. Women Empowerment Group (Karen)
  355. Women’s League of Burma
    • Burmese Women’s Union
    • Karenni National Women’s Organization
    • Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
    • Kuki Women’s Human Rights Organization
    • Karen Women’s Organization
    • Kayan Women’s Organization
    • Lahu Women’s Organization
    • Pa-O Women’s Union
    • Shan Women’s Action Network
    • Ta’ang Women’s Organization
    • Tavoy Women’s Union
    • Women’s forJustice
  356. Women’s Peace Network
  357. Wonthoe Youths
  358. Worker Development Organization
  359. World View Monitoring and helping Group
  360. Yangon Youth Network
  361. Yatanar Youngyi Social Development Organization
  362. Yaung Chi Thit public Library group
  363. Yaung Ne Oo Women Group
  364. Yaung Zin Arr Man Group
  365. Yaung Zin Hlaing
  366. Yaye Alliance Development Group
  367. Yi Ywal Yar Community Development
  368. Yi Ywal Yar Youth Development Organization
  369. YMCA (Mandalay)
  370. YoeMa Civil Society Group
  371. Young Ni Oo Social Development Organization
  372. Young Ni Oo Women Social Development Organization
  373. Youth Arr Man Group
  374. Youth Champion Network
  375. Youth Circle
  376. Youth Initiative for Human Rights
  377. Youth Society Network
  378. Zinlum Committee (Tanphaye)
  379. Zomi Youth Association
  380. ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် စဥ့်ကူး
  381. ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် မြစ်သား
  382. ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် မိထ္တီလာ
  383. ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် သပိတ်ကျင်း
  384. ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် သာစည်
  385. ကျောက်ပန်းတောင်း လူငယ်ကွန်ယက်
  386. ကလျာဏမိတ္တလူမှုစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (ခင်ဦး၊ ရှားတော)
  387. စိမ်းရောင်စို (တံတားဦး)
  388. ညီမော်ဒူ
  389. တမာရိပ်
  390. တို့တောင်သူလယ်သမားအသင်း
  391. တောင်သမန်ကွန်ယက်
  392. ဒို့တိုးတက်ရာ အစည်းအရုံး
  393. ဒို့တောင်သူလယ်သမားအဖွဲ့အစည်း
  394. ပန်းပျိုးလက် ဗန်းမော်  လူမှုရေးအဖွဲ့
  395. ပျော်ဘွယ် လူငယ်ကွန်ယက်
  396. မဇ္စျိမမေတ္တာ ရေလှူအသင်း (မိတ္ထီလာ)
  397. မတ္တရာ လူငယ်ကွန်ယက်
  398. မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး လူငယ်ရေးရာကော်မတီ ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များ
  399. မန္တလေးလူထုနေရာ (Mandalay Community Center)
  400. မြင်းခြံ နိုင်ကျဉ်းအဖွဲ့
  401. မြင့်မြတ်ဧရာဝတီ လူငယ်လူမှု့ကွန်ယက်
  402. မြေလတ်မျိုးဆက်အင်စတီကျု
  403. မိတ္ထီလာခရိုင် အလင်းတန်းအဖွဲ့
  404. ယုံကြည်ရာ အသိပညာပြန့်ပွားရေးအသင့်
  405. ရွှေခြံအားမာန်အဖွဲ့ မြင်းခြံ
  406. ရွှေတြိဂံတောင်သူလယ်သမားအဖွဲ့
  407. ရွှေတောင်တိုက်နယ်တောင်သူ့အားမာန် ဝမ်းတွင်းမြို့နယ်အဖွဲ့
  408. ရှစ်လေးလုံးသွေးသစ် (မိုးညှင်း)
  409. လမ်းပြကြယ် LGBT Group
  410. ဝါးစိမ်းတောင်ကာကွယ်စောင့်ကြည့်ရေးကော်မတီ (WPWC)
  411. ဝိုင်းမော်မြို့နယ်လုံးဆိုင်ရာ သျှမ်းလူငယ်များစည်းလုံးညီညွတ်ရေးအဖွဲ့
  412. သင့်မြတ်လိုသူများ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးပရဟိတအဖွဲ့
  413. သုခမိန်အင်စတီကျု
  414. အိမ်ယာမဲ့ပြည်သူများ အစည်းအရုံး
  415. အောင်သာစည်အဖွဲ့

 Supported by:

  1. Burmese – Canadian Network (Canada)
  2. Burmese Community in France
  3. Burmese Democratic Force (Indonesia)
  4. Burmese Democratic Force (New Zealand)
  5. Burmese Democratic Force (USA)
  6. Burmese Rohingya Organization UK
  7. Burmese Student Democratic Organization – BSDO (Canada)
  8. Calgary Karen Community Association (CKCA)
  9. Edmonton Karen Community Youth Organization
  10. European Karen Network
  11. Free Burma Action (Global),
  12. Free Burma Action Committee (San Francisco)
  13. International Karen Organization
  14. Joint Action Committee For Democracy in Burma, Sydney
  15. Karen American Association of Wisconsin, WI, USA
  16. Karen Association of Huron, SD, USA
  17. Karen Community of Akron, OH, USA
  18. Karen Community of Canada (KCC)
  19. Karen Community of Czech Republic
  20. Karen Community of Finland
  21. Karen Community of Hamilton
  22. Karen Community of Iowa, IA, USA
  23. Karen Community of Ireland
  24. Karen Community of Israel
  25. Karen Community of Kansas City, KS & MO, USA
  26. Karen Community of Kitchener & Waterloo
  27. Karen Community of Leamington
  28. Karen Community of Lethbridge
  29. Karen Community of London
  30. Karen Community of Minnesota, MN, USA
  31. Karen Community of North Carolina, USA
  32. Karen Community of Ottawa
  33. Karen Community of Regina
  34. Karen Community of Saskatoon
  35. Karen Community of Thunder Bay
  36. Karen Community of Toronto
  37. Karen Community of Windsor
  38. Karen Community of Winnipeg
  39. Karen Community Society of British Columbia (KCSBC)
  40. Karen Organization of America
  41. Karen Organization of Illinois, IL, USA
  42. Karen Thai Group – Karen Youth Network
  43. Karen Youth Education Pathways, USA
  44. Karen Youth of Norway
  45. Karen Youth of Toronto
  46. Karen Youth Organization
  47. Korea Karen Organization
  48. Korea Karen Youth Organization
  49. Myanmar Refugee Communities in New Delhi
  50. NLD(OC)KOREA
  51. Oversea Karen Organization Japan
  52. Perth Burmese Community (Australia)
  53. Union of Myanmar Citizen Association (UMCA) – Japan

Download PDF in English.

Download PDF in Burmese.