OUSTED MYANMAR SOLONS EYE ICC PROBE OF JUNTA KILLINGS

Ousted Myanmar lawmakers are exploring whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) can investigate any crimes against humanity committed since the Feb. 1 coup, as an activist group said three more people had died in clashes with security forces, bringing the death to at least 224.

Military and police are using increasingly violent tactics to suppress daily demonstrations by supporters of detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The total number killed in weeks of unrest has risen to at least 224, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said, noting another death in the commercial hub of Yangon and two in the cities of Monywa and Bago on Thursday.

Myanmar’s UN envoy, who publicly broke with the junta, said a committee of ousted lawmakers was looking at ways people can be held accountable for violence following the coup. “The ICC is one of them,” Kyaw Moe Tun told an event in New York. “We are not a state party to the ICC, but we need to ... explore the ways and means to bring the case to the ICC.”

In Geneva, United Nations human rights experts denounced forced evictions, arbitrary detentions and the killings of pro-democracy protesters. They said foreign governments should consider pursuing those responsible for crimes against humanity.

A junta spokesman has said the security forces have used force only when necessary. Coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing took part in a video conference with other Southeast Asian defense chiefs on Thursday, his first international engagement since seizing power, state television showed.

During the meeting, the head of Indonesia’s armed forces, Hadi Tjahjanto, expressed concern over the situation in Myanmar, according to the website of the Indonesian military.

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