Impose arms embargo, UN urged

On the lookout: Security forces walking past shops as they search for protesters who were taking part in a demonstration against the military coup in downtown Yangon. — AFP

About 200 non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, called on the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the military junta in Myanmar.

A statement by the NGOs said the military “has demonstrated a callous disregard for human life” since their Feb 1 coup, killing at least 769 people including 51 children as young as six years old and detaining several thousand activists, journalists, civil servants and politicians. Hundreds of others have disappeared, it said.