London, 1 February 2022: A global campaign to delegitimise the Myanmar military – ‘Junk the Junta’ has been launched at a rally in London to mark the first anniversary of the coup, in which the democratic movement elected by a landslide was ousted.
Speaking outside the Myanmar Embassy to a crowd of over three hundred people, Chris Gunness, campaign director and founder of the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP) said: “the ‘Junk the Junta’ campaign would build on the decision of the UN General Assembly which voted unanimously in December 2021 not to recognise the junta. We will keep tabs of junta representatives if they attempt to take up seats UN bodies and other international organisations. We will call out and condemn this illegitimate regime and their operatives, just as the world called out and condemned the apartheid regime of South Africa”.
In the year since the coup, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is accused by the UN of unleashing “a brute force terror campaign” which has seen over half a million people displaced — tens of thousands of them into China, India, and Thailand. At least fifteen hundred people have been killed in the last year: some tortured to death in prison; others lost their lives in massacres, such the now notorious “Christmas Eve Massacre”, in which 38 people were bound, gagged, and burnt alive; over 9,000 people have disappeared.
The Golden Globe winning Israeli film maker Yoni Goodman has created a short animation for the campaign whereby Min Aung Hlaing is represented as a paper hyena which is screwed into a ball, and thrown into the bin.
Gunness, who covered the 1988 democracy uprising in Burma (now Myanmar) for the BBC said: “after the 88 revolution was crushed, the international community forgot about the country. We must not allow history to repeat itself. The world must never again forget the suffering of the people of Myanmar under this barbaric dictatorship”.
In December 2022 the UN General Assembly will vote again on the credentials of the junta. Addressing the crowd in London, Gunness appealed to world governments to recognise the National Unity Government (NUG) made up of ousted democratic parliamentarians. “In the next year, UN member states must accept the democratic will of the people of Myanmar and grant diplomatic recognition to the NUG”, said Gunness. “The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court must follow this lead so that Min Aung Hlaing can be held accountable
for a year of industrial scale criminality and brought to justice”.
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For further information or interview requests, please mail cgunness@outlook.com. Broadcast quality footage of the demonstration in London is also available on request.
Myanmar Accountability Project
Law In Action