In the days leading up to the 2021 coup in Myanmar, Tom Andrews spent his time assuring people that a coup was not actually going to happen. Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, was making dinner at his home outside Washington when Myanmar’s military launched a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, overthrowing the nascent civilian-led government and plunging the country into a new period characterized by widespread violence.
“I argued that they just had too much to lose,” he told Foreign Policy. “I was very angry when I heard what was going on.”
Nearly two years have passed since then, and the situation on the ground in Myanmar has only gotten worse. More than 2,800 people have been killed, and over 13,600 people remain detained for resisting the coup. Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, has overwhelmingly turned to airstrikes and scorched-earth campaigns, displacing more than 1.5 million people within the country and committing what the U.N. Human Rights Office has said likely amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In the days leading up to the 2021 coup in Myanmar, Tom Andrews spent his time assuring people that a coup was not actually going to happen. Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, was making dinner at his home outside Washington when Myanmar’s military launched a coup on Feb. 1, 2021, overthrowing the nascent civilian-led government and plunging the country into a new period characterized by widespread violence.
“I argued that they just had too much to lose,” he told Foreign Policy. “I was very angry when I heard what was going on.”
Nearly two years have passed since then, and the situation on the ground in Myanmar has only gotten worse. More than 2,800 people have been killed, and over 13,600 people remain detained for resisting the coup. Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, has overwhelmingly turned to airstrikes and scorched-earth campaigns, displacing more than 1.5 million people within the country and committing what the U.N. Human Rights Office has said likely amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
To Andrews, what the international community should do has always been clear: Reject the Tatmadaw’s legitimacy, halt the flow of weapons into the country, and sanction the country’s oil and gas sector, which is where the military gets most of its revenue. Most of that has not happened.
Formerly a U.S. congressional representative from Maine, Andrews has served as the special rapporteur on Myanmar since 2020. He spoke with Foreign Policy about the post-coup crisis in Myanmar, its connection to the war in Ukraine, and why the international community doesn’t seem to care as much about the Southeast Asian country as he wishes it did.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Foreign Policy: Two years have passed since the coup, and the situation is worse than ever. Why has there been such little progress since then?
Tom Andrews: There has been change, but it has been painfully slow, and it certainly has not matched the challenge that we have with Myanmar, nor does it match the level of commitment and tenacity and courage that’s being demonstrated within Myanmar. Much of what the international community has done has been reactive. For example, announcements of a set of sanctions against this or that individual or entity often come on the heels of an atrocity that generates significant media attention, or it may be announced on the anniversary of something like the anniversary of the coup or the anniversary of the Rohingya genocide. More often than not, it’s incremental, disjointed, and reactive. Because of that, the people of Myanmar, despite all that they’re doing, have not been able to overcome the obstacles to greater progress.
FP: Has the crisis been normalized?
TA: I think it’s been forgotten. What’s missing more than anything is political will. We know what needs to happen, but we just have not seen the political will demonstrated to take this action. The military junta—they’re like mushrooms. They thrive in the darkness. They take extraordinary measures to keep as out of the public eye as possible. And the attention of the world is easily distracted. Obviously there’s an enormous focus on the crisis in Ukraine, and as a result of that, there has been less attention on the crisis in Myanmar. But public attention is necessary for governments of the world to take action, and I think public attention will help generate political will. That is a prerequisite for the kind of action we need to see from member states of the United Nations.
FP: Burmese activists often compare the situation in Myanmar to the war in Ukraine, pointing to how the international community’s response to the coup pales in comparison to the global response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Do you share those criticisms?
TA: Yes, I do. It’s very stark. People from Myanmar have asked me why it took the international community four days to do with respect to Ukraine what we continue to wait two years for them to do with respect to Myanmar. And frankly, I don’t know the answer to that. The fact is that with Ukraine and Myanmar, there is no expectation in either case for U.N. Security Council action for obvious reasons. But nonetheless, countries who support Ukraine drew together, formed a working coalition, and coordinated their approach and their actions—and that is precisely what the people of Myanmar are asking for.
And don’t get me wrong; there’s not a person I’ve spoken to in Myanmar who does not support and sympathize with the people of Ukraine and welcome the support the international community is providing them. But they simply don’t understand why there can be such a response to one crisis and a very, very different response to another crisis. There’s a lot of parallels, except when it comes to the willingness of the international community to respond in a coordinated and effective way. That’s where the biggest difference lies.
FP: And Russia is one of the main countries supplying weapons to Myanmar’s military.
TA: A member of the diplomatic corps in the United Nations pointed out to me that in one case, you have a foreign country invading another country, and that’s not the case in Myanmar. And I said, well that’s true, but that’s a distinction without a difference as far as the people of Myanmar are concerned. To them, they are under a foreign military occupation for all intents and purposes because the Myanmar military is isolated from Myanmar society. They are under siege. The military’s forces have declared war on their own people. And some of the very same weapons that are being used to attack Ukrainians are being used to attack and kill people in Myanmar. Those weapons are provided by Russia.
FP: The U.N. Security Council passed its first resolution on Myanmar since the coup in December last year. What’s your assessment of the resolution and the Security Council?
TA: What that resolution demonstrated is the limits of the Security Council. I wish that was not the case. I wish we could have action, not just resolutions of sentiment. But it is what it is, and now I think what is required are member states who are willing to step up and support the people of Myanmar and to do so in a coordinated fashion outside the formal structures of the United Nations.
The European Union has shown real leadership in these areas. They have established sanctions on the single largest source of revenue for the junta: the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise. It generates $1.5 billion a year for the junta. But unfortunately, they are the only ones who have done so. In order for sanctions or any kind of diplomatic or political or economic action to be truly successful, it needs to be coordinated and it needs to be strategic. But we have yet to see that take place.
FP: After two years of a junta-imposed state of emergency, the military is gearing up for so-called elections in August. What concerns you about that, and what should the international community do?
TA: The international community should resoundingly reject this farce and recognize it for what it is. You can’t have a free and fair election when you arrest, detain, torture, and execute your opposition. You can’t have a free and fair election when it’s a crime for journalists to report the news, and you can’t have a free and fair election when it’s a crime to criticize the junta. It’s very important for governments to not engage or support in any way—any kind of technical assistance or support for these elections. To do so would be aiding and abetting this fraud.
It’s just preposterous that they would try to orchestrate something that they would describe as an election. It’s fraudulent. It’s ridiculous. And if it weren’t so tragic, it would be laughable.
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