UN envoy: Myanmar crisis deepens, taking ‘catastrophic toll’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar is warning that the political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation is deepening and taking “a catastrophic toll on the people.” Noeleen Heyzer told a U.N. committee Tuesday that more than 13.2 million people don’t have enough to eat, 1.3 million are displaced, and the military continues operations using disproportionate force including bombings, burnings of homes and buildings, and the killing of civilians. She said “there is a new political reality in Myanmar: a people demanding change, no longer willing to accept military rule.”