The United States is seeking more pressure on Myanmar’s junta through the United Nations and is urging the international community not to recognize upcoming elections, a senior official said Thursday.
“It is widely recognized that the regime needs to feel more pressure,” State Department adviser Derek Chollet, who is leading US diplomacy on Myanmar during the annual United Nations General Assembly, told AFP.
He pointed to outrage over an airstrike this month that killed 11 schoolchildren, as well as the July execution of four prominent prisoners by the junta that toppled the elected government in February 2021, ending a decades-long experiment with democracy.
Chollet said he held talks with both other governments and officials from the National Unity Government – which is dominated by the party of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi – and held a virtual meeting with armed ethnic groups inside the country, which also known as Burma.
He said he has been talking to other nations about a Security Council resolution, although the effort is “at a very early stage” and details are not yet clear.
“We believe we have to be realistic on all issues about the extent to which Russia and China are willing to let the Council act,” he said, referring to the veto-allied Myanmar military allies.
“We think it’s important to try,” he said.
He said he had also conveyed to other governments that “we should not give any credibility to the elections the junta is planning for next August.”
“I told them that we see no chance that these elections could be free and fair given that the regime does not control even half of the territory, political prisoners are imprisoned and killed, and Aung San Suu Kyi is practically isolated and no one has seen her for 20 months,” Chollet said.
Earlier Thursday, the UN special rapporteur on the legal situation in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, warned that the election would be “fraud”.
The United States has imposed a variety of sanctions since the coup, including on junta leaders.
But she has held back a move called by activists targeting Myanmar’s oil and gas industry amid opposition from ally Thailand, which imports energy from its neighbor.
Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a diplomatic way out of the crisis with the generals, and some US partners, notably Myanmar’s neighbor India, have hesitated to take tough action.
