Myanmar juntatrying to destroy country, says UN

Myanmar’s junta appears to be "trying to destroy a country it cannot control”, the UN special rapporteur to the country warned yesterday. Clashes between an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups and the military have shredded a Beijing-brokered truce in January. The ceasefire had briefly halted widespread fighting in the northern part of the southeast Asian nation since a military coup ended democratic rule in 2021. "The junta is on its heels, it’s losing troops, it’s losing military facilities, it is literally losing ground,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said in Thailand. "It almost appears as if the junta is trying to destroy a country that it cannot control.” The military’s response to its losses has been to attack civilians, he said, adding there had been a substantial increase in the number of attacks on schools, hospitals and monasteries in the last six months.