Myanmar ‘risks becoming a forgotten crisis’, UN envoy warns

 Criminal networks operating from Myanmar have spiralled 'out of control' with 3.4 million people displaced by fighting, special envoy says

The United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar has denounced what she called a "zero-sum mentality" among those involved in the long-simmering conflict there, saying that only a stop to the violence would open the door to reconciliation.

Julie Bishop made the comments on Tuesday in her first address to a UN General Assembly committee since being named to the position in April.

Myanmar's military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, has faced intensified fighting for the past year from armed groups across the Southeast Asian nation, especially an alliance of ethnic rebel groups.

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"Any pathway to reconciliation requires an end to violence, accountability and unfettered access for the UN and its partners," especially marginalised groups such as the mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya, she added.

"The Myanmar conflict risks becoming a forgotten crisis. The people of Myanmar, having suffered so much, deserve better."

Bishop, a former Australian foreign minister, said everyone involved in the conflict agrees that "the human suffering has reached unprecedented levels", highlighting the plight of the 3.4 million people displaced by the fighting.

The UN envoy said she had been able to visit Myanmar, and met with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.

General Min Aung Hlaing inspects troops in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw. Photo: Reuters

Bishop also met with representatives of ethnic rebel groups and various political parties, including that of jailed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was ousted in 2021.

But she seconded the scepticism expressed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about the possibility of the junta organising elections while fighting is ongoing.

The envoy also lamented that criminal networks operating from Myanmar had spiralled "out of control".

"The sheer scale of arms production and trade, human trafficking, drug manufacture and trafficking, and scam centres means Myanmar now ranks highest among all member states for organised crime," she said.

Nicholas Koumjian, who heads the UN mechanism tasked with independent investigation of crimes committed in Myanmar, denounced an increase in the "frequency and brutality of war crimes and crimes against humanity" there.

He specifically criticised an uptick in the number of air strikes by Myanmar forces, which killed "hundreds of civilians" in recent weeks, but noted his group was also collecting evidence about crimes committed by other armed groups.

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