POPE FRANCIS CALLS FOR RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN MYANMAR

Thu 04 March 2021:

Pope Francis said on Wednesday the hopes of the people of Myanmar cannot be “suffocated by violence” and again called for the release of political prisoners.

At least 30 people have been killed since a coup on Feb. 1. The pope, who visited Myanmar in 2017, made his comments at the end of his general audience in the Vatican.

Meanwhile, a former United Nations expert on the country on Wednesday urged foreign firms to suspend all business activity in Myanmar to send a clear message to the military that its coup will hurt its people and ruin its economy.

Chris Sidoti was part of an UN-led fact-finding mission, which in 2019 urged foreign firms to cut business ties with Myanmar’s military over human rights abuses and pursue private sector investments there instead.

That position has hardened since a February 1 coup and an ensuing bloody crackdown on protesters, Sidoti said, because the military has retaken control of the country it ruled for almost half a century, making it now risky to do any business there.

“If businesses are responsible, they will put everything on hold at this point,” said Sidoti, who has formed an independent advisory group on Myanmar with some other former UN investigators.

“It will send a very clear message to the military that may, hopefully, cause them to rethink their actions. The country cannot revert to military dictatorship without enormous harm to the people of Myanmar,” he said.