27 September 2021: The illegal Myanmar military junta engaged in acts of extreme violence, even while UN Member States met in New York and Geneva over the past two weeks, and should be designated as a terrorist organisation, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M).

The crisis in Myanmar came under international scrutiny as the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council convened.

The Tatmadaw, seeking to return Myanmar to full military rule, committed public torture and executions while the two UN bodies were in session. It also took family members of democracy activists as hostages, including children as young as two, and planted landmines under the bodies of civilians they had killed, intended to detonate when family and friends returned for their deceased.

“These are the same terrorist tactics used by the nascent Islamic State group in the Iraqi desert in the mid-2000s,” said Chris Sidoti of SAC-M. “The UN Security Council should immediately commence the process of declaring the Tatmadaw as a terrorist organisation.”

According to credible reports, junta forces committed multiple massacres of civilians – including children – torched entire villages, and fired randomly into homes, killing residents, in Chin state and Magway, Sagaing, and Mandalay regions throughout September.

“Min Aung Hlaing’s forces are using the same tactics they used during the genocidal atrocities committed against the Rohingya,” said Yanghee Lee of SAC-M. “If you juxtapose the pictures of recent massacres with those of 2017 in northern Rakhine, you cannot see any difference. No one has been held to account for those terrible crimes, and now people are being massacred and villages burned up and down the country.”

SAC-M deplores the international community for repeatedly failing the people of Myanmar.

“The international community should end its hypocrisy and cease to mindlessly call on all parties to refrain from violence,” said Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M. “They full well know it is the Tatmadaw that is the source of violence and calamity.”

Download the statement in English: SAC-M PR Massacres ENGLISH