GENEVA — Myanmar’s individuals are already feeling the “crushing impression” from the “sudden, chaotic withdrawal” of U.S. and different humanitarian support, an unbiased human rights skilled mentioned Monday, calling on the world neighborhood to do extra.
Tom Andrews, a monitor on rights in Myanmar commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, mentioned he would attraction to its 47 member international locations to concern a “declaration of conscience towards this unfolding catastrophe” — a humanitarian disaster — “and I’ll urge them to comply with up these phrases with motion.”
“Motion that features funding very important, life-sustaining packages which might be being slashed and burned and jeopardized,” he instructed reporters on Monday, earlier than addressing the council on Wednesday. ”If the Human Rights Council doesn’t (take motion), then who will?”
Andrews, a former Democratic congressman from the U.S. state of Maine, acknowledged that the particular fallout wasn’t clear to this point. The American embassy in Myanmar mentioned on its web site, in a press release dated Oct. 25, that the U.S. had supplied $141 million in humanitarian support since Oct. 1, 2023.
Andrews mentioned the lower in support was “pointless and merciless” and ill-timed: A robust motion of nationwide resistance and a weakening of Myanmar’s army rulers has raised hopes of its individuals.
Myanmar has been in turmoil because the military seized energy from the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, triggering widespread widespread opposition. After peaceable demonstrations had been put down with deadly drive, many opponents of army rule took up arms, and huge components of the nation are actually embroiled in battle.
The violence is constant: An airstrike Friday reportedly killed and injured dozens in a village held by resistance forces.
Tom Andrews, Particular Rapporteur on the state of affairs of human rights in Myanmar, presents the most recent replace state of affairs of human rights in Myanmar to the media throughout a press convention, on the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, March 17, 2025. Credit score: AP/Salvatore Di Nolfi
Tuberculosis and HIV sufferers have been lacking their remedy for weeks; disabled kids have been locked out of rehabilitation facilities; rights teams have confronted cuts of their capacity to distribute meals and water to individuals, he mentioned.
“The sudden, chaotic withdrawal of help — help principally by the federal government of the USA — is already having a crushing impression on the individuals of Myanmar,” Andrews mentioned
The Trump administration and lots of of its supporters have argued that the USA, the world’s single largest humanitarian support supplier, has shouldered an excessive amount of of the burden for too lengthy.
Andrews alluded to efforts by a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk by way of the Division of Authorities Effectivity to cut back waste and spending within the U.S. authorities, together with on the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, referred to as USAID — which has distributed many billions of {dollars} in overseas support over time.
“You’ve gotten this unimaginable rhetoric that’s primarily based upon nothing besides creating headlines,” Andrews mentioned, to indicate how “this whole program goes to be thrown right into a wooden chipper … Nicely, it’s harmless people who find themselves being tossed into that wooden chipper.”
“We have to take a stand about this,” he added.
