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| New comer child IDP in Minbya in April 2020 |
Sittway. April 25, 2020.
Three brotherhood alliance issued statement yesterday and accused Myanmar army is committed war crime and conducting ethnic cleansing campaign against Rakhine people.
The brotherhood alliance is comprised with Arakan Army, T’aung National Libration Army, and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
It said ‘the Myanmar armed force have continued their offensive assaults in Arakan and Chin states to have brazenly committed war crime such as waging a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing.’
The alliance said it has extended a 30 days ceasefire in April to support COVID-19 preventive measurement and infection protection work in the war zones in Rakhine and in the northeast of Shan State.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba welcomed ethnic armed organizations initiation of unilateral ceasefire in mist Covid-19 threat and reiterated UN General Secretary calls for global ceasefire.
She said, “I welcome the ceasefire already announced by several armed group in the country and call for their effective implementation.”
The Special Representative is very concerned increasing child casualties in the conflict zones. Her statement compared and said ‘the number of child killed and maimed in the first three months of 2020 already amounts to more than half of the total of killing and maiming in 2019.’
She also condemned the attack of WHO’s employee and health worker in Rakhine state while delivering Covid-19 suspected sample to the ministry of health in Yangon.
“The rate of child killed and maimed in Rakhine State has increased double in the first quarter of 2020 than the entire child causality in 2019,” Sue Aye said.
Miss Sue Aye is data analysist of Arakan Information Center (AiC) that monitors civilian casualty in Rakhine State.
She said, “Our center has registered 113 children killed and maimed in 2020, age ranging from months old to 16 years as 11 in January, 45 in February, 35 in March, and 22 in April.”
“We roughly registered 63 child causalities in 2019,” Sue said.
With deep concern of US, UN, and European nations over the raising of violence and civilian causalities and high risk of vulnerable IDPs amid COVID-19 virus threat in Rakhine State, they called on Myanmar government for a ceasefire.
But both the government and Tatmadaw made blanket rejection and ignored the international calls for peaceful solution.
AiC predicts more child casualties will be increased ahead of coming months unless international community steps up to halt the hostility and farce military operations.
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