UN envoy warns Myanmar risks coming to 'standstill'

WASHINGTON

The running of Myanmar's core state functions risks coming to a "standstill" amid the junta's ongoing mass bloodletting, and undeterred pro-democracy demonstrations, the UN's special envoy for the country said on Friday.

Briefing the Security Council from Thailand, Christine Schraner Burgener said the people's unified demands for the military to return power to the democratically-elected government "has created unexpected difficulties for the military in consolidating power and stabilizing the coup."

"In this situation, nobody wins and it is unlikely the State machinery will be able to carry on business as usual," she said, according to a copy of her remarks obtained by Anadolu Agency.

Nearly 760 people have been killed amid the Tatmadaw's, the official name of the Myanmar military, bloody crackdown on demonstrations, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group. Over 3,400 other people have been detained.

Schraner Burgener warned deaths are rising daily due in part to an "absence of a collective international response," as well as reported uses of improvised explosive devices by protesters.

"Calls for maximum restraint by all sides have been met with responses from some protestors asking who can blame them for their self-defense," she said.

"There are concerning reports that civilians, mostly students from the urban areas, are now receiving training in the use of weapons in the regions of the ethnic armed organizations. Violence only generates more violence. This Council must continue to condemn in the strongest terms any excesses committed," she added.

*Betul Yuruk contributed to this report from the United Nations