Campaigners call for commission of inquiry into junta crimes

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Campaigners say now is the time for the international community, particularly the United Nations, to call on the Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Burma’s military rulers.

With the recent sentencing of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the continued cleansing of minorities in remote areas of the country, Burma’s military rulers have clearly demonstrated their ruthlessness and stubbornness in ignoring calls for reform, three campaign group said on Wednesday.

Debbie Stothard, coordinator for the Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean Burma), one of the three groups that has called on the Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry, said the international community, while offering condemnation through rhetoric, has done little practical to push the junta to implement changes in Burma.

“It is high time that the international community stop accepting the junta’s actions and stand up,” Stothard told Mizzima on Thursday.

Altsean Burma, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Burma Lawyers Council (BLC) in their statement on Wednesday called on the European Union, which tightened economic sanctions on the junta in the wake of the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi, to support their call in setting up a commission of inquiry.

The statement said the new sanctions imposed by the EU are totally inadequate in the face of the worsening human rights situation and ongoing atrocities against ethnic nationalities in Burma.

“These sanctions reflect the political unwillingness of the EU to take a firm stance on this issue and increase dangerously the risk that the regime will consider this as a green light to continue committing international crimes,” said Souhayr Belhassen, President of FIDH, in the statement.

On August 11, a special court in Rangoon’s Insein Prison announced the verdict of the over two-month trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, finding her guilty and sentencing her to three years of prison with hard labor.

But the country’s military Supremo, Senior General Than Shwe, intervened the court session via a special order and commuted the sentence by half, contingent upon good moral behavior, while also allowing her to serve her time at her lakeside home.

Following the sentencing several countries have issued statements condemning the junta, though a few have hailed the junta for its apparent leniency in commuting Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence.

“The EU must not be fooled by the SPDC’s [Burma’s military government] phony attempt to show leniency on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The SPDC has fulfilled its strategy to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi out of the picture while, at the same time, the SPDC tells the world that Burma is on the path to democracy. How can the SPDC’s planned elections be given any credence when war still rages in Eastern Burma?” Stothard questioned.

Stothard said several thousand ethnic citizens in eastern Burma are currently being displaced as a result of fresh atrocities committed by the junta’s soldiers.

“If the junta is sincere in their plans and want to implement changes, the junta must stop killing the ethnics. Burma’s politics is not just about Aung San Suu Kyi and the regime but it is also the issue of ethnic nationalities,” Stothard emphasized.

Stothard added that the international community, particularly the United Nations, has not been taking effective measures to force the junta to cease their behavior.

“The UN has very little or no pressure at all on the SPDC. And the SPDC knows that they can continue playing around with international politics,” she said, referring to the junta’s official name of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Meanwhile, the US-based Global Justice Centre (GJC), in a press statement, denounced UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for his reaction over the Burmese junta’s sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi, the only detained Nobel Peace Laureate.

The GJC said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks on the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi are totally at odds with his mandate under the UN Charter.

“As a Representative of the UN, and given these circumstances, international law requires Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to call for an end to impunity, not convey his ‘disappointment’ and call for ‘reconciliation’,” argued the GJC in their statement.

The GJC said instead of calling the verdict “disappointing” and “deplorable”, Ban should refer the situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court, concluding that Ban’s remarks “undermine the rule of law.”

READ MORE---> Campaigners call for commission of inquiry into junta crimes...

Eastern Burma: Another Darfur?

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

You could say it runs in the family—45-year-old Saw Lubermoo’s grandmother and grandfather were IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), his parents were IDPs, and now he is an IDP.

The ethnic Karen says he has been constantly on the move and hiding in the jungle since he was four years of age.

He is among hundreds of thousands of ethnic Karen, Karenni, Mon and Shan civilians who have been displaced in eastern Burma for decades.

According to a 2008 report by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an umbrella group of donors and humanitarian organizations, the total number of IDPs in eastern Burma is likely to be well over half a million with at least 451,000 people estimated to have been displaced in rural areas alone. The group also says that many IDP cases in eastern Burma go unreported.

According to Shan and Karen relief groups, there are currently about 20,000 IDPs in hiding in the jungles of central Shan State and northern Karen State.

A separate group of some 4,000 Karen villagers fled during the joint Burmese army– Democratic Karen Buddhist Army offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in June and are presently being sheltered on Thai soil.

Shan community-based rights groups, including the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), reported on August 13 that in the previous two weeks, the Burmese army had burned down more than 500 houses and forced about 40 villages to relocate, mostly in Laikha Township in Shan State.

On Wednesday, a top US administration official expressed anxiety over the displacement of thousands of civilians in northeastern parts of Burma due to the Burmese army’s military activities.

“We have been deeply concerned by very recent reports of large-scale displacement, perhaps as many or more than 10,000 civilians,” the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Eric Schwartz, told reporters on Wednesday at a special briefing at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the US State Department.

Observers and human rights advocacy groups have said that the conditions under which villagers are forced to become IDPs in eastern Burma is conducive with the criteria regarded by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as “crimes against humanity.”

Aung Htoo, the general-secretary of the exiled Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC), said, “We can say with certainty that crimes against humanity and war crimes are being committed in Burma.

Charm Tong, a spokesperson for SWAN, said, “The regime brazenly committed these crimes even as the whole world was watching them during the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Several activists have said that crimes committed by soldiers of the Burmese regime include murder, rape, torture, looting, forced relocations and displacement. Many compare the situation in eastern Burma to the Darfur crisis in western Sudan where about 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced.

The ICC has issued a warrant for the arrest of President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan.

Since 1997, the Burmese regime has destroyed over 3,000 villages and displaced over half a million civilians in eastern Burma. Karen sources report that there have been many unreported displacements and destroyed villages in Karen State alone since 1949 when the Karen armed revolution began.

International and regional rights groups, such as the International Federation for Human Rights, Altsean-Burma and Burma Lawyers’ Council, have urged the European Union to support the establishment of a UN Security Council Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

Regional activist, Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of Altsean-Burma, said, “How can the SPDC’s planned elections be given any credence when war still rages in eastern Burma?”

A Karen rebel commander with the KNLA for more than two decades said he decided to join the fight against the Burmese army after he witnessed the bloodthirsty murder of children by Burmese soldiers.

He could not control his emotions as he told the story. “In one village, I saw the Burmese army kill women and infants. This event motivated me to pick up a gun and protect my Karen people,” he said.

“I have asked myself many times why Burmese soldiers are killing civilians. But, I have never found an answer.”

A Karen girl, Taw Oo Paw, 13, said, “I pray every night before I go to bed that I can be reunited with my mother and my sisters, and return to my village and live in peace.”

Her father was killed by the Burmese army and she has been separated from her mother and sisters for two years. She said that she hopes for a family reunion, one day.

Washington-based The Irrawaddy correspondent Lalit K Jha also contributed into this article.

READ MORE---> Eastern Burma: Another Darfur?...

An enduring byproduct of war

By Daniella Nayu

July 20, 2009 (DVB)–For half a century, Burma’s jungles and mountains have hosted a conflict where conventional weaponry has been traded for tactics designed to forever scar the ethnic population of the country.

The byproducts of the world’s longest running internal conflict, grossly under breported, have been so severe that international lawyers and rights groups believe that the ruling junta in Burma could warrant investigation for war crimes. Perhaps most chillingly, young girls have been subject to appalling sexual violence at the hands of a military bent on creating a means of intimidation that will far outlast the brandishing of a gun.

System of Impunity, a 2004 report by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), describes the case of a 13-year-old Shan girl, Nang Ung, who was detained by Burmese troops on false charges of being a rebel. “She was tied up in a tent and raped every day for 10 days [by five to six troops each day]. The injuries she sustained from the repeated rapes were so severe that she never recovered. She died a few weeks after her release.”

Naang Ung’s story has been echoed in every ethnic region of Burma for generations. Burmese rights organisations suggest that military rape of ethnic women has been rife in the country for the last five decades since the consolidation of military rule, and shows no signs of abating.

“It can happen in homes, in the villages, in the forests, in the paddy fields, whether the woman is working alone or whether they are going to their villages,” said Cheery Zahau, an activist from the India-based Women’s League of Chinland (WLC). “In some circumstances they just rape the women in front of the men.”

Sexual torture and violence often accompanies such acts. Testimonies from victims show cases of both old women and young girls being gang-raped by up to 20 men, while others report that women who have endured days of rape are then shot in the vagina or have their breasts cut off. Crimes in Burma, a report released in May by the Harvard Law School, said that on many occasions there had been “no attempt to conceal the bodies of dead women who were raped and subjected to other acts of violence.”

Such descriptions are perhaps indicative of a military which has been partially brutalized by debasement, poverty and high levels of institutionalized corruption. Yet this cannot account for all cases. During an interview, Cheery relayed an account of a woman from Chin state whose son had just been killed by the military. After she was gang-raped, the mother was strung up on a wooden cross: “She was hanging outside of the camp the whole night in the freezing winter weather,” said Cheery. “Why would they make the cross to hang the women? The cross is the symbol of Christianity in Chin state; it’s one of the mockeries against their beliefs.”

Religious persecution adds weight to a belief common among ethnic groups that the generals are attempting an ethnic cleansing campaign to strip non-Burmans of their identity. The regime’s suspected policy of ‘Burmanisation’, as referred to in a number of official reports including one by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), could also help to explain such widespread attempts to impregnate non-Burmese women. While some are convinced on ‘Burmanisation’, the UN’s torture rapporteur for Burma in 2006 reported that state-sanctioned violence against women was used as a control mechanism, and as “punishment” for allegedly supporting ethnic armed groups and “a means of terrorizing and subjugating the population”.

According to Ben Rogers, the Southeast Asia advocacy officer for CSW, it is important to note that “these incidents documented are not simply isolated acts by individual, badly behaved frontline soldiers”. Reports have shown that a high percentage of rapes committed by the Burmese military have been orchestrated by officers. Furthermore, an alarming number have been gang rapes. Moan Kaein, from the Thailand-based Shan Women’s Associated Network (SWAN), stated that 83 percent of the rapes SWAN had documented in Shan state were committed by officers, while 61 percent of all military rapes were gang rapes. Furthermore, there have been reports of officers ordering their men to rape ethnic women on threat of death. “Those who refuse to rape will be shot and killed,” Captain Ye Htut from Pah Klaw Hta army camp was quoted as telling his men in the Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) report, Shattering Silences.

“When we document all these cases, none of the perpetrators are punished,” says Cheery, referring to WLC’s 2007 Unsafe State report. Despite international publications of reports that specifically name high-ranking officials and officers involved, no actions have been taken by the Burmese government to punish perpetrators even though such crimes are illegal under Burmese law. “This impunity suggests it is a deliberate policy, and is condoned by the regime,” says Rogers.

While the consequences of rape can be horrific – they include unwanted pregnancy, contraction of HIV, and psychological damage for both victim and family – support for victims is virtually non-existent. Even women who manage to flee to the borders have no real hope of any professional psychological assistance, given that they are often not officially recognised by their country of arrival. While some women have been pushed to suicide, others are forced to keep their rape a secret in order to avoid social stigmas.

“The only solution for them is silence, and often they get rejected by their communities,” says Cheery, while Moan Kaein claims that “some husbands will not accept their wives after they have been raped”. Some women also get accused of “sleeping with” Burmese troops and are told to leave their villages.

There is also the real chance of retaliation from troops and government officials. Rape victims and their families have been the most severely punished when such sexual crimes have been reported. According to press releases from the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), four girls aged 14 to16 from a village in northern Kachin state were arrested and jailed after they relayed to independent Burmese media about having been gang-raped by three army officers and four soldiers from a local military base.

Reports of state-sanctioned rape have been consistently met with a tide of public smears within Burma, as well as mass intimidation and deliberate distraction by the military. The problem has been further aggravated by callous retorts from the Burmese government, including the release of a report, License to Lie, attacking authors of License to Rape.

Perhaps more worrying are threats of violence and even death against those who report such cases. System of Impunity describes how the local military officers threatened to “cut out the tongues and slit the throats” of villagers who had dared speak out to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during their visit to Shan State in January 2003. On 1 June this year, Kachin News Group reported that Kachin youths had been “brutally assaulted” for having prevented the gang-rape of a Kachin girl by four soldiers.

Inaction following international condemnation has also served to dampen hope that ethnic women and campaigners will see change in their lifetimes. On the 24 June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “If we ignore sexual crimes, we trample on the principles of accountability, reconciliation and peace. We fail not just women but all people." The statement coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Security Council’s adoption of resolution 1820 (2008), which notes that “rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict zones can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide”.

The irony of Ban’s proclamation is that sexual crimes in Burma were ignored on his recent visit to Burma earlier this month, just as they are ignored by countries like China and Russia who supply weapons to the junta and by neighboring countries which provide no support for the raped women pouring over the borders. “We call and call,” says Blooming Night, joint secretary of Karen Women’s Organisation, “but nothing happens”.

Increased militarization in many ethnic regions in lieu of the 2010 elections has led to increasing concern for the safety of women living there. “When we documented Unsafe State [in 2007], there were about 33 army camps. Now there are 55 camps, so they’re spreading” says Cheery, adding that “as long as [Burmese] troops are there, there will be sexual violence”. Burma shows no sign of abating its aggressive expansion of the military. If, as it would seem, rape of ethnic women is a byproduct of this, perhaps we should expect the stories of Naang Ung and the thousands of other women and children to continue echoing throughout Burma.

READ MORE---> An enduring byproduct of war...

Hunting the Junta

The Irrawaddy News
JULY, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.4

Lawyers launch a difficult mission to bring the generals to justice

CALLS for the members of Burma’s military junta to be arraigned before the International Criminal Court (ICC) are becoming louder with each new breach of human rights. The task of bringing the generals to face justice at The Hague, however, will not be easy—and some legal experts say it will prove impossible as long as the junta can rely on such powerful allies as China and Russia to block international action.

Despite the pessimism, a team of international lawyers is pressing the UN Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into allegations of crimes against humanity in Burma—a first step towards bringing the generals to justice.

If efforts by a team of international lawyers prove successful, Burmese junt a leader Than Shwe could one day find himself in the dock in The Hague once occupied by the accused Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. (Illustration: Harn Lay/Th Irrawaddy)

The initiative was undertaken by five of the world’s leading jurists, who instructed the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School in the US to draw up a report for the UN on the case for prosecuting members of the Burmese regime.

The Irrawaddy interviewed one of the report’s authors, Tyler Giannini, the Harvard Law School Clinic’s director, and began by asking him to explain why it will be difficult to bring the generals before the ICC in The Hague.

Answer: Since the Burmese military has not signed the treaty that created the ICC, any international process involving international justice and accountability would need to begin with the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council would need to refer the “situation” in Burma to the ICC. The ICC Prosecutor would then conduct investigations of its own before any further proceedings considering possible charges. Additionally, the transfer of any indicted individuals would have to occur before any trial could take place.

By referring the “situation,” the prosecutor is also obliged to look at all actors, not just the government, when considering possible charges.

Two other considerations are critical when considering ICC prosecution of international criminal law violations. First, the international community can only act if the nation in question is either not carrying out investigations and prosecutions of its own or if such actions are held to be not genuine processes. Second, the ICC only has jurisdiction over events since July 1, 2002, when the treaty creating it came into force.

Q: It is often pointed out that legal action was successfully taken in the cases of Darfur, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Can a similar route be taken in Burma’s case?

A: In all three cases, the United Nations Security Council followed a similar pattern to pursue the question of international justice and accountability. First, the Security Council took note that there were possible violations of international laws, including crimes against humanity and thus determined there was a threat to international peace and security. Second, the Security Council set up a Commission to investigate the scope and scale of violations, to assess whether potential international crimes were taking place, and to identify the perpetrators. Finally, the Security Council took steps to institute international justice. In the cases of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Security Council established specific international tribunals to hold perpetrators to account. With Darfur, the Security Council referred the situation to the ICC.

Q: This route leads, of course, through the UN Security Council, but the Harvard Law School report suggests the Security Council is failing to take action in Burma’s case. What specific action would the authors of the report like to see taken?

A: The study set out to look solely at UN documents such as General Assembly resolutions and reports of Special Rapporteurs to assess what the UN knows about possible international criminal law violations in Burma. After examining documents since the early 1990s, with a focus on the post 2002 period, the study found that multiple UN actors have consistently reported on “widespread” and “systematic” violations.

The use of such terms raises the specter that crimes against humanity may be taking place. For example, between 1996 and 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma stated that 3,077 villages had been displaced, destroyed or were forced to be abandoned based on “independent” and “reliable” sources. Such displacement is comparable to displacement that has occurred in Darfur.

The report concludes that in light of such documentation and previous precedents in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Darfur, the UN Security Council should create a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate international crimes in Burma. Security Council members should take up the issue of creating a COI, and the Security Council should be prepared to follow any recommendations that the COI delivers.

Q: Do you believe that the threat alone of legal action before an international court or tribunal could bring sufficient pressure on the Burmese regime to end its human rights abuses? Could the threat perhaps be sufficiently intimidating to cause second-echelon military commanders to press for political change?

A: Ending human rights violations in Burma will not be easy or immediate. The call for a COI investigation is not only important, however, because it highlights the need for the regime to uphold the rule of law and end the culture of impunity in the country to hold violators to account. In addition to accountability, a UN Security Council-endorsed investigation can help prevent further abuses by increasing scrutiny on the military and making it clear that violations such as forced displacement, sexual violence and extrajudicial killings are not acceptable.

The international community has rallied to condemn the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the outcry has caused the military to at least pause and consider how to handle the trial of the opposition leader more carefully. In a similar way, a COI focused on assessing crimes against humanity may help prevent some abuses.

READ MORE---> Hunting the Junta...

Jurists Want Security Council to Open Burma War Crimes Probe

By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
The Irrawaddy News

BANGKOK — Thanks to support from China and Russia, Burma’s military regime has escaped harsh criticism at the UN Security Council. But this diplomatic deal could come under pressure following the release of a report commissioned by leading international jurists, accusing the regime of committing "war crimes."

"We call on the UN Security Council urgently to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma," wrote the five jurists from Britain, Mongolia, South Africa, the United States and Venezuela in the introduction to the report, "Crimes in Burma."

"The world cannot wait while the military regime continues its atrocities against the people of Burma," added the jurists, who include South Africa’s Richard Goldstone, Britain’s Sir Geoffrey Nice and Venezuela’s Pedro Nikken. "The report’s findings are both disturbing and compelling."

The report, which was released in late May, accuses the regime in Burma of perpetrating "epidemic levels" of forced labor, the recruitment of tens of thousands of child soldiers, widespread sexual violence, extrajudicial killings and torture, and displacement of more than a million people.

The scale of violence—as the Burmese military continues its decades-long campaign to crush ethnic rebel movements in the eastern corner of this Southeast Asian nation—has also left a trail of destruction that has parallels with the brutal civil war in Sudan.

"One statistic may stand out above all others, however: the destruction, displacement or damage of over 3,000 ethnic nationality villages over the past 12 years—many burned to the ground," the report revealed. "This is comparable to the number of villages estimated to have been destroyed or damaged in Darfur."

Prodding the Security Council to consider the violations in Burma as it has done with Darfur is only one part of the argument being pushed in this initiative to trigger a probe. The other is the source of the details revealed about the on-going violations in Burma. The information was culled from reports submitted over the years by UN special envoys assigned as part of a monitoring mechanism to inform the world body about the situation in Burma.

"UN mechanisms have noted there are widespread abuses in Burma," says Tyler Giannini, a co-author of the report that was prepared by the International Human Rights Clinic at the law school of the US-based Harvard University. "There is a prima facie case for the UN Security Council to set up a commission to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma."

UN General Assembly resolutions on Burma reflect this. "Discrimination and violations suffered by persons belonging to ethnic nationalities of Myanmar [include] extrajudicial killing, rape and other forms of sexual violence persistently carried out by members of the armed forces," stated one resolution before the General Assembly in 2007.

But, for the Security Council to issue a binding resolution to establish a special commission of inquiry is a daunting task. "It is a very tough job," says Thaung Htun, UN affairs representative for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the democratically-elected government forced into exile.

"The Security Council is very much divided on Burma, with France, the US and UK in one camp and Russia and China in another," Htun told IPS. "Russia and China continue to say that the situation in Burma is not a threat to international peace and security."

That argument by the Burmese junta’s strongest backers in the Security Council embodies the hurdles that have been placed ahead of any resolution calling the regime to account for its litany of abuses. The first breakthrough was in 2006, when the Burmese situation was placed for discussion on the Council’s agenda.

That was followed in late 2007 by a statement released by the president of the Council following a harsh crackdown of peaceful, pro-democracy protesters led by thousands of Buddhist monks in September 2007.

In late May this year, the Council issued a unanimous press statement calling for the release of the over 2,100 political prisoners in Burma - including that of democratically-elected prime minister and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The statement also expressed concern over the recent trial Suu Kyi has been subject to.

This slight opening in the Council to comment on Burma came after the other available UN mechanisms proved ineffective. The military regime has barely demonstrated a shift in policy since 1992, when resolutions critical of the regime began to be placed annually at the General Assembly. The junta responded with a similar cold shoulder when hauled up for violations at the UN human rights body in Geneva.

But there was no mention of war crimes being committed by the regime in those UN reports and resolutions spanning the last 16 years. Consequently, the Harvard University report commissioned by the five international jurists marks a watershed.

"There has been some talk within the Burmese democracy movement about this issue of war crimes but it did not result in a report like the Harvard one," says Khin Ohmar, foreign affairs secretary at the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a network of Burmese political exiles. "This is the first time such a case has been made formally."

"But we should not let this move overshadow the need for dialogue and reconciliation in Burma," she said in an interview. "I see it as two separate issues. This is all about justice. Seeking justice cannot be undermined by the political process."

Another factor has also helped in placing the Burmese regime in this new line of fire - the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 in The Hague.

Currently the ICC—which has the authority under the international treaty that created it to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes—is probing violations in Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Darfur.

"The emergence of a new international justice order is a factor to push for a probe into crimes against humanity in Burma," says David Scott Mathieson, the Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based rights watchdog. "And the international community now knows more of what is now happening in Burma."

READ MORE---> Jurists Want Security Council to Open Burma War Crimes Probe...

Suu Kyi trial 'a chance' for UN inquiry on Burma

(DVB-AFP)–The international community should use global outrage about the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi to push for a UN inquiry over possible crimes against humanity in Burma, legal and rights experts said.

The case against the democracy icon, who faces up to five years' jail on charges of breaching her house arrest, has provided a "window of opportunity" to investigate Burma's junta, said Tyler Giannini of Harvard Law School.

Giannini co-authored a report in May calling for the UN Security Council to follow the precedent of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where inquiries led to special tribunals and prosecutions.

"The trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is putting additional scrutiny on Burma right now and really highlighting the lack of judicial independence," Giannini said at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand late Tuesday.

He said that with political unity there was a "very good chance... that (UN) member states will consider it seriously and it has a chance to get on the agenda in the fairly near future because of this current scrutiny."

Burma's military regime charged Aung San Suu Kyi last month over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home. She has already spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention.

The case has sparked international outrage, with US President Barack Obama calling the proceedings a "show trial".

The Harvard report quoted UN documents as saying Burma's military regime has uprooted or destroyed more than 3,000 villages in the past 12 years, executed innocent people and practiced widespread sexual violence and torture.

David Mathieson, a Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, supported the call for a UN inquiry in the country.

"What this report is trying to say is that this is about justice, and justice should be served regardless of the outcome of Aung San Suu Kyi's trial, but it does provide an opportunity," he said at the event in Bangkok yesterday.

Khin Ohmar, of the Forum for Democracy in Burma, said the world had already squandered a chance to act after being allowed some access to Burma following cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

"The international community should not miss this type of opportunity again," she said.

READ MORE---> Suu Kyi trial 'a chance' for UN inquiry on Burma...

What the U.N. Can't Ignore in Burma

By Pedro Nikken and Geoffrey Nice
Washington Post

The trial of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, has once again catapulted events in Burma onto the front pages of newspapers around the globe. The leader of Burma's struggle for human rights and democracy has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after an American citizen swam across a lake and broke into her home last month. Heads of state from Asia and the West, celebrities, and U.N. leaders such as human rights chief Navi Pillay have responded strongly, demanding not only an end to the trial in Burma's kangaroo courts but the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

With the verdict expected this week, many eyes remain glued to Burma. We hope this global attention will result in long-overdue action.

For while the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi, without trial, has long been denounced, a less-publicized travesty has been underway in Burma for much of the past 15 years. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First and Amnesty International have reported on the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed under the rule of Burma's military regime, including the recruitment of tens of thousands of child soldiers and attacks on ethnic minority civilians. The former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, reported last year that he had received information indicating that the military regime had destroyed, forcibly displaced or forced the abandonment of more than 3,000 villages in eastern Burma, where ethnic minorities predominate. At least 1 million people fled their homes as a result of the attacks, he said, escaping as refugees and internally displaced persons. This is comparable to the number of villages that have been harmed in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Inexplicably, the U.N. Security Council has not systematically investigated these abuses, which probably rise to the level of crimes against humanity and war crimes. So a group of jurists from the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa -- of which we were part -- commissioned a report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School to determine whether the United Nations is sufficiently aware of the seriousness of the charges and willing to pursue justice. The Harvard team -- relying only on U.N. documents and not information from human rights groups -- examined four international human rights violations documented by U.N. bodies over the past 15 years: sexual violence, forced displacement, torture and extrajudicial killings.

It found that, indeed, the United Nations is well aware that such abuses are taking place in Burma. Numerous U.N. special rapporteurs, the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (now Human Rights Council), and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women have repeatedly documented and cited human rights abuses that rise to the level of crimes, using language such as "widespread" and "systematic," which are key elements to proving the existence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Harvard report noted that the United Nations has acknowledged that rights abuses in Burma have taken place with impunity. Moreover, U.N. reports observe that most often the Burmese military commits these grave human rights abuses. Key U.N. experts have acknowledged that there is no independent judiciary in Burma, with Tomás Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, stating as recently as November that "There is no independent and impartial judiciary system" in Burma.

Tragedies such as last year's cyclone and this spring's sham trial inevitably draw the world's eyes to Burma. We should maintain our gaze. Given that the United Nations is aware of the scale and severity of rights abuses in Burma, it is incumbent on the Security Council to authorize a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma. In previous, similar cases -- such as the situation in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Darfur -- the council voted to create such a commission to investigate charges and recommend actions. So many U.N. bodies have documented severe human rights abuses that such a move on Burma is not only justified but long overdue.

Geoffrey Nice was the principal prosecution trial attorney in the case against Slobodan Milosevic in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Pedro Nikken was president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and is an executive committee member of the International Commission of Jurists.

READ MORE---> What the U.N. Can't Ignore in Burma...

Veteran politician laments Burmese independence

(DVB)–In a poignant reminder of the extent to which democratic development in Burma has been crippled by the current junta, a veteran politician said yesterday that the political climate under British rule was markedly freer.

Speaking yesterday at a ceremony to mark his 93th birthday, Thakin Thein Pe, a formerly active member of the Burmese struggle for independence from British colonisation, said that quality of life for Burmese citizens has spiralled since 1948.

“When we fought for our independence [from the English], the English gave us freedom for our [political] movements,” he said.

“But now under the Burmese government, we are in misery. Independence is not always good to gain.”

The speech was observed by politicians, including members of the opposition National League for Democracy party, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is currently on trial, and a number of ethnic leaders.

The political climate under the current ruling junta has been thrown into the spotlight in the last month as the iconic opposition leader faces a possible five year prison sentence under spurious charges of breaching house arrest conditions.

Burma currently holds upwards of 2,100 political prisoners, and ranks poorly on a number of political freedom barometers.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders last year placed the country 170 out of 173 in its Press Freedom Index, while Transparency International gave it the penultimate spot, alongside Iraq, in its Corruption Perceptions Index.

Similarly, the World Health Organisation in 2000 ranked Burma’s healthcare system second worst in the world, and a number of political analysts, lawyers and former Burmese politicians have said that human rights violations carried out by the junta warrant intervention from the International Criminal Court.

Britain first gained control of Burma in 1824 and occupied until independence in 1948. It was not until 1962 however that a coup heralded the start of military rule and the end of a civilian government.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

READ MORE---> Veteran politician laments Burmese independence...

Former Burmese intelligence official ‘would testify’ at ICC

(DVB)–A former Burmese senior intelligence official and ambassador to Washington has said he would testify against Burma’s ruling generals if they are eventually brought in front of the International Criminal Court.

On Saturday Burma marked the six-year anniversary of the Depayin massacre, in which 70 supporters of opposition National League for Democracy party were killed by a government-backed militia.

The massacre happened whilst Aung San Suu Kyi had been campaigning for supporters, and following the incident she was placed under house arrest.

Speaking to DVB on the anniversary, Aung Lin Htut, who served as the junta’s deputy ambassador in Washington before he sought asylum in the US in 2005, supported the idea of bringing the junta to the ICC.

“I myself would testify if [junta leader Than Shwe] is taken to the international court,” he said.

“Even if I am imprisoned, I could appear as witness.”

The comments were backed by the general secretary of the exiled Burma Lawyers’ Council, Aung Htoo, who is campaigning to take those responsible for the Depayin massacre to the ICC.

“The most obvious point about Depayin is that no one was arrested and no action was taken against a serious crime known to the country and the world,” he said.

“[The authorities] not only failed to take responsibility for the security, it was also arranged that people who take the security responsibility commit the crime.”

Burma’s military government, and Than Shwe in particular, are said to be shaken by the idea of being taken to the ICC.

A number of people have suggested recently that the spiraling human rights situation in Burma, particularly regarding the use of child soldiers and increasing numbers of political prisoners, warranted attention from the ICC.

Last week, Thai MP Kraisak Choonhavan, who also heads the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, said the junta should be brought to court.

“If they [ICC] are in their right mind and they go through the facts, there is no denying that [junta leader] Than Shwe and his cronies should be persecuted at the ICC,” he said.

Similarly, a group of over 60 British MPs last month called for a United Nations commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma.

And in April, former senior legal adviser to the ICC, Morten Bergsmo, said that the Burmese army’s use of child soldiers could constitute a war crime.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

READ MORE---> Former Burmese intelligence official ‘would testify’ at ICC...

Pinheiro Calls for UN Commission of Inquiry

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the United Nations special reporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, has called for the Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity by the Burmese junta with a potential indictment by the International Criminal Court.

In a column in The New York Times on Wednesday, Pinheiro said the action could deter future crimes against humanity and address the widespread culture of impunity in Burma.

The UN official said Aung San Suu Kyi should be released immediately along with all of the country's political prisoners as part of a process of national reconciliation.

During the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed more than 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups, Pinheiro said. UN reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor.

He said in December 2008 a Burmese soldier went into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Burma and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year-old girl.

A UN report in 2000 said that an estimated 625 women were systematically raped in Burma's Shan State over a five-year period.

Pinheiro said that since 1990, UN representatives have visited Burma 37 times in an attempt to facilitate dialogue with the political opposition and promote human rights.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council have passed more than 35 resolutions on Burma, he said, but the UN Security Council has yet to pass a single critical resolution. Permanent members of the Security Council have the right of veto, easily preventing the Security Council from taking critical actions against the Burmese government. China, Russia and India are frequent supporters of Burma.

Meanwhile, a global internet campaign was launched on Tuesday with support from world celebrities for detained pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi (www.64forSuu .org). Video, text, images and twitter messages are available.

Also, human rights campaigners are encouraging well-wishers to enter 64-word messages of support for Suu Kyi before her June 19 birthday on the "64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi" Web site (www.64forsuu.com).

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent birthday wishes to Suu Kyi on Wednesday, joining the online campaign.

Brown wrote: "I add my voice to the growing chorus of those demanding your release. For too long the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice. That is now changing. The clamor for your release is growing across Europe, Asia and the entire world. We must do all we can to make this birthday the last you spend without your freedom.”

The online campaign, launched on Wednesday, has already received more than 1,400 messages of support for the pro-democracy leader, Web designer Rachel Collinson told Reuters.

Critics have denounced Suu Kyi's trial as a legal charade designed to keep her in detention during the 2010 national election.

Eleven Nobel Prize Peace laureates appealed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in an open letter on May 18, urging him to take immediate action against the imprisonment of fellow laureate Suu Kyi.

READ MORE---> Pinheiro Calls for UN Commission of Inquiry...

Thailand reacts to Burma anger

(DVB)–Thailand insisted it had its neighbour’s best intentions at heart following Burma’s outrage at a statement released by Thailand that expressed “grave concern” over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.

On Sunday, the state mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper published an article rejecting the statement, made on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand is the current chair.

The statement, it said, was “not in conformity with ASEAN practice, incorrect in facts, [and] interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar”.

Burma also said that “consensus” on the statement should have been reached before it was issued.

It was a rare rebuke for Thailand, who maintains close ties to Burma’s ruling junta, and has repeatedly shunned pressure to implement sanctions on Burma.

Thailand reacted today by issuing a press release emphasizing that it was an ASEAN Chairman’s statement, rather than a Joint ASEAN Statement, and therefore did not require joint drafting by ASEAN leaders.

“[It] was issued with the best of intentions towards Myanmar and reflects the desire for the process of national reconciliation in Myanmar to move forward on the basis of inclusiveness, with the participation of all sectors of society,” the press release said.

The ASEAN bloc, whose members maintain a policy of non-interference in external affairs, has been criticised for not taking stronger action on the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Thai MP, Kraisak Choonhavan, who also heads the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, said yesterday that the situation in Burma, in light of Suu Kyi’s trial, now justified foreign intervention.

“It would be very difficult to arrive at that, but now there is a movement of those who want to protect the people of Burma by bringing the International Criminal Court (ICC) into play,” he said.

“If they [ICC] are in their right mind and they go through the facts, there is no denying that [junta leader] Than Shwe and his cronies should be persecuted at the ICC.”

Reporting by Francis Wade

READ MORE---> Thailand reacts to Burma anger...

Burma 'necessitates' foreign intervention

(DVB)–The political and humanitarian crisis in Burma has reached a point whereby it is affecting neighbouring countries and therefore justifies foreign interference, said the head of a pan-Asian coalition group on Burma.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, of which Burma is a contentious member, has come under fire recently for its policy of non-interference after refusing to go beyond vocal criticism of the trial of Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi.

Thailand, who holds the revolving chair of ASEAN, expressed “grave concern” last week but said it would not use strong measures or economic sanctions to pressure the regime into releasing Suu Kyi.

But Debbie Stothard, coordinator of Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma), says that the non-interference policy should not apply to Burma.

“We see that the situation in Burma is not just a domestic affair,” she said, adding that millions of refugees have left Burma for neighbouring countries.

“So this is a situation you must interfere in; if you don’t interfere all the other countries will also be affected.”

The comments were backed by Thai MP, Kraisak Choonhavan, who also heads the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus.

“I think it necessitates international or forced intervention,” he said.

“It would be very difficult to arrive at that, but now there is a movement of those who want to protect the people of Burma by bringing the International Criminal Court (ICC) into play.

“If they [ICC] are in their right mind and they go through the facts, there is no denying that [junta leader] Than Shwe and his cronies should be persecuted at the ICC.

“But politics gets in the way – Russia and China always opposes that, and that is the biggest obstacle to overcome.”

Reporting by Soe Naing and Francis Wade

READ MORE---> Burma 'necessitates' foreign intervention...

Harvard report calls on UNSC to investigate Burma

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A Harvard Law School human rights group said they have found evidence of human rights violations committed by Burma’s military rulers and have called on the UN Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

A new report titled ‘Crimes in Burma’ by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School says documents from the United Nations and reports from various Human Rights Rapportuers to Burma provide grounds for investigation into international crimes and called on the UN Security Council to initiate more concerted action vis-à-vis Burma.

Tyler Gianni, Clinical Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School and one of the report’s authors, told Mizzima on Friday that the report was based on reports of various sources, the studies of UN documents and the resolutions of the Human Rights Council.

Gianni said the report is based on incidences of human rights violations committed by the Burmese military regime since 2002 and particularly on four types of abuse - forced relocation, sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and torture.

He said the study finds “there is strong evidence of systematic and widespread human rights violations [in Burma] and based on legal terms that crimes against humanity are taking place.”

The report also compares the situation of human rights violations, particularly in eastern Burma, to that of the former Yugoslavia and Darfur and calls on the UN Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity committed by the ruling junta.

The report says at least 3,000 villages have been forcibly evacuated in eastern Burma, more than in Darfur.

“So that’s why the commission of inquiry should look at this issue in more depth and do a thorough investigation,” Gianni said.

The 114-page report was commissioned by five of the world's most prominent legal experts on human rights - Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa, Judge Patricia Wald of the United States, Judge Pedro Nikken of Venezuela, Judge Ganzorig Bombosuren of Mongolia and Sir Geoffrey Nice of Britain.

The jurists are known for their experience in investigating human rights abuses and prosecuting the alleged perpetrators in international rights tribunals.

The jurists in the preface wrote that UN resolutions and Special Rapporteurs have over and over again spoken out about abuses in Burma.

But “The UN Security Council has not moved forward as it should and has in similar situations such as those in the former Yugoslavia and Darfur," said the jurists, adding that in those cases the UN Security Council established a commission of inquiry once they were aware of the severity of the problem to further investigate the gravity of the violations.

“With Burma, there has been no such action despite being similarly aware (as demonstrated in UN documents) of the widespread and systematic nature of the violations,” the jurists argued.

Currently, Burma’s detained pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is facing trial in a special court inside notorious Insein Prison in Rangoon. She faces charges of breaching her detention law because an American, John William Yettaw, allegedly visited her after swimming about a mile across Inya Lake, which abuts her home.

The international community, including the UN and world leaders, has reacted with strong words of condemnation for the Burmese military junta for putting Aung San Suu Kyi on trial and has called the trial a trumped-up case to continue detaining her, as she is to complete her six years of house arrest at the end of May.

Gianni said the trial against Aung San Suu Kyi is a classic example of the junta’s violation of the rights of the citizens of Burma.

“The report is specifically calling on the UNSC to establish a commission of inquiry and follow-up like it does in other areas such as in Darfur,” Gianni concluded.

READ MORE---> Harvard report calls on UNSC to investigate Burma...

Suu Kyi Lawyer Says UNSC Should Meet if She’s Convicted

The Irrawaddy News

Lawyers representing Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will press for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council if she is convicted and imprisoned by the court now trying her in Rangoon,
according to her Washington-based counsel Jared Genser. He told The Irrawaddy in an interview that Suu Kyi’s lawyers also supported moves to arraign the Burmese military junta before the International Criminal Court.

The interview in full:

Jared Genser

Question: What is your professional assessment of the case against Aung San Suu Kyi and the way the trial is being conducted?

Answer: I believe firmly that the case is both deeply substantively and procedurally flawed. Substantively, Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest under Article 22 of the State Protection Law. But the junta had exclusive responsibility for providing security around her home. Particularly given that John Yettaw reportedly broke into her compound once before many months ago and this was reported to the junta, it was on notice of the potential security problems. The fact that the junta allowed Mr Yettaw to reenter the country and break into her compound again is entirely its responsibility.

Procedurally, the conduct of the trial has been deeply flawed. Problems with the trial include:

(1) failing to allow Suu Kyi her choice of counsel by revoking the law licence of Aung Thein;

(2) failing to provide adequate time for the defense to prepare for a trial;

(3) failing to provide a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal. There is no independent judiciary in Burma—the judges take instruction from the junta;

(4) failing to provide Suu Kyi a presumption of innocence;

(5) failing to comply with prior rulings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that the law under which she was held was itself in clear violation of international law.

Q: The case against Suu Kyi comes less than two weeks before she was due legally to be released after serving six years of house arrest. Do you think this is a political case rather than a legal one?

A: Yes. I think there is little doubt that this charge was a pretext for continuing to detain Suu Kyi and ensure that she remained imprisoned until well after the scheduled 2010 elections, despite the fact that those elections are already rigged by the rules established in the so-called constitution that was adopted in the flawed referendum.

Q: According to reports in The New Light of Myanmar and other official newspapers, Suu Kyi and her two personal assistants are accused of breaking Section 22 of the “Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts,” because they gave food and shelter to an American intruder. Do you think this is an appropriate charge?

A: I think this charge is patently ridiculous.

Q: What could you do if the court sentences her to a prison term, which could be as long as five years?

A: We will immediately file another case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention arguing that her sentencing under the State Protection Law is again in violation of international law. In addition, we will request an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Burma.

To be clear, this is not merely because of her sentencing, which I do believe has a destabilizing effect on the region, but actually because the Burmese junta has failed to abide by the demands of the Security Council's presidential statement issued in 2007 after the Saffron Revolution.

Among other demands, the Council urged an early release of political prisoners including Suu Kyi, a renewed effort towards achieving national reconciliation and a restoration of democracy in the country, and open access for humanitarian aid. The junta's continuing conduct has flouted the will of the Security Council and if the junta were to give Suu Kyi an additional term of imprisonment, it would be symbolic of the junta's ongoing oppression of the Burmese people. The Security Council should reengage on the situation in Burma because of the threat it poses to international peace and security.

Q: Exile opposition groups are trying to have leaders of the Burmese military government brought before the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity. Do you think their action has any chance of success in ending human rights abuses in Burma?

A: While I personally believe that crimes against humanity are being committed in Burma, I think it will be challenging to persuade the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court because of the veto right of China and Russia in particular.

As readers will recall, China and Russia previously vetoed a non-binding, non-punitive resolution on Burma proposed in January 2007. Because Burma is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the ICC, the only way to get the situation considered there is through a Security Council referral.

I think the best way to end the abuses in Burma will be for national reconciliation to be achieved. Ultimately, it should be for the Burmese people to decide how justice should be meted out.

All that said, however, there is definitely an important role for advocacy groups to play to press for a Security Council referral to the ICC to raise awareness of the terrible abuses taking place in Burma because these abuses fall squarely within the definition of crimes against humanity.

READ MORE---> Suu Kyi Lawyer Says UNSC Should Meet if She’s Convicted...

Top Jurists Want Probe Into Alleged War Crimes In Myanmar

BANGKOK, May 21 (Bernama) — Five of the world’s leading international jurists have commissioned a report from the International Human Rights Clinic at the Harvard Law School, calling for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to act on what they describe as more than 15 years of condemnation from other UN bodies on human rights abuses in Myanmar.

The Harvard report, “Crimes in Burma”, comes in the wake of renewed international attention on the country, with the continued persecution of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi who is now on trial on charges of harbouring a United States man who swam to her home.

On that charge, she faces up to five years in detention.

The report, released today, concludes with a call for the UNSC to establish a Commission of Inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Myanmar.

The Harvard report is based on an analysis of scores of UN documents, including UN General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights resolutions as well as reports from special rapporteurs.

The report said that the documents indicate that human rights abuses in Myanmar are “widespread, systematic and part of state policy” — the legal terms that justify further investigation and strongly suggest that the military regime may be committing crimes against humanity and war crimes prosecutable under international law.

Major abuses cited by the UN include forced displacement of over 3,000 villages in eastern Myanmar, mass exodus of at least 250,000 Rohingyas in 1992, and widespread and systematic sexual violence, torture and summary execution of innocent civilians.

“The UNSC, however, has not moved the process forward as it should and has in similar situations such as those in the former Yugoslavia and Darfur,” the jurists write in the report’s preface.

“In the cases of Yugoslavia and Darfur, once aware of the severity of the problem, the UNSC established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the gravity of the violations further.

“With Myanmar, there has been no such action from the UNSC despite being similarly aware of the widespread and systematic nature of the violations.”

The five jurists are Judge Richard Goldstone (South Africa), Judge Patricia Wald (United States), Judge Pedro Nikken (Venezuela), Judge Ganzorig Gombosuren (Mongolia) and Sir Geoffrey Nice (United Kingdom).

Tyler Giannini, the Clinical Director of the Human Rights Program at the Harvard Law School and one of the report’s authors, said its findings clearly demonstrate that a Commission of Inquiry on Myanmar should proceed.

“The UNSC has taken action regarding Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sudan when it identified information strongly suggesting the existence of crimes against humanity and war crimes,” said Giannini.

He said that UN documents “clearly and authoritatively” suggest that the human rights abuses occurring in Myanmar are not isolated incidents.

He warned that failure by the UNSC to take action and investigate these crimes could mean that violations of international criminal law would go unchecked.

– BERNAMA By D. Arul Rajoo

READ MORE---> Top Jurists Want Probe Into Alleged War Crimes In Myanmar...

Is it Time to Take Than Shwe to International Criminal Court?

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta and the Burma Lawyers’ Council have announced they are ready to appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge Snr-Gen Than Shwe with criminal acts.

The ICC was established in 2002 as a permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber can authorize its Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation on the basis of information received from outside sources.

Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said he would appeal to the ICC to investigate Burma’s ruling junta if it fails to free Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested last week and is standing trial on what many say are trumped up charges.

The Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) said on Saturday it will seek to restore the rule of law to Burma by asking the ICC to launch an investigation into human rights abuses and violations of international law in Burma.

Nan Shan Hpound, a team leader of the BLC Working Team for the International Criminal Court, told The Irrawaddy, "Now we are gathering evidence and collating information on how to prosecute the military generals in the International Criminal Court.”

Ramos-Horta said he will urge the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC to investigate and prosecute Sen-Gen Than Shwe and other responsible leaders of the State Peace and Development Council for crimes committed under their leadership.

The ICC has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes which have been committed or are being committed if a given state’s judicial system is unable or unwilling to investigate and take legal action to ensure justice.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now being tried for violation of her house arrest, is being detained under the State Protection Law of 1975. The government is permitted to detain her for five years under that law. Contrary to law, they have already held her in detention for almost six years.

The Women’s League of Burma (WLB) said it also supports a move to appeal to the ICC and called for the international community to join in referring Snr-Gen Than Shwe and others to the ICC.

Lway Aye Nang, the general-secretary of the WLB, told The Irrawaddy, "The time has come to say enough is enough. The United Nations should invoke its responsibility-to-protect mechanism and establish a commission of inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma. The Burmese military ignores all international laws and uses rape as a weapon of war. Snr-Gen Than Shwe is a real criminal.”

International condemnation against the Burmese military government has increased as a result of its recent arrest and prosecution of Suu Kyi, who faces a five-year prison sentence if she is found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest. She has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

READ MORE---> Is it Time to Take Than Shwe to International Criminal Court?...

British MP’s accuse junta of crimes against humanity

(DVB)–Over 60 British Members of Parliament, including two former Foreign Office ministers, have called for a United Nations commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma.

The Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by John Bercow MP, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma, urges the UN to act on the campaign of ethnic cleansing that the ruling State Peace and Development Council is carrying out against ethnic nationalities.

The EDM was supported by human rights campaign group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), and comes just two weeks before imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due for release from house arrest.

“CSW strongly urges the British government and other governments to take this call seriously and to initiate a commission of inquiry into the junta's crimes against humanity,” said Alexa Papadouris, advocacy director of CSW.

Human rights violations highlighted in the EDM include use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the use of human minesweepers, child soldiers, and the imprisonment of over 2,100 political prisoners.

“I have visited the ethnic peoples on both the Thailand-Burma border and the India-Burma border with CSW, and have been shocked by the horrific stories I have heard from victims of this barbaric regime,“ said John Bercow.

The EDM coincides with a statement released on Wednesday by Thailand-based Burma Lawyers’ Council that said the extent and severity of crimes committed by the junta are enough to warrant accusations of war crimes and genocide.

Similarly, last month, former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court, Morten Bergsmo, stated that the Burmese army’s use of child soldiers could constitute a war crime.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

READ MORE---> British MP’s accuse junta of crimes against humanity...

Lawyers accuse junta of war crimes

(DVB)–An exiled Burmese lawyers group recently ruled illegal by the Burmese government have said that the extent and severity of crimes committed by the junta warrant accusations of war crimes and genocide.

A conference yesterday convened by Thailand-based Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) and umbrella organisation, Human Rights for All (FIDH), discussed the government’s indifference to international pressure on human rights violations.

“There are crimes committed in Burma including war crimes, genocide and massacre that are untouchable by the courts inside the country due to a breakdown of judicial system,” said Thein Oo, chairman of BLC.

The judicial system in Burma is under the direct jurisdiction of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and lawyers representing activists and opposition members are regularly intimidated.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) puts the number of lawyers currently serving prison sentences at 16.

“During the seminar, we discussed finding a way to bring the Burmese regime to the International Criminal Court,” said Thein Oo.

“There was the Depayin massacre in 2003 and protests in September 2007, followed by cyclone Nargis a year later, and so many lives were lost during these events.

“If we fail to take action on the Burmese government, such events will continue.”

The statement echoes a claim made last month by former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court, Morten Bergsmo, that the Burmese army’s use of child soldiers could constitute a war crime.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

READ MORE---> Lawyers accuse junta of war crimes...

Burmese lawyers says junta should be taken to ICC

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima)– The Burma Lawyers’ Council in exile has said it is gathering evidence and collating ideas on how to produce the Burmese military generals in the International Criminal Court (ICC), for the crimes it had committed, including crimes against humanity.

The BLC, formed with Burmese lawyers in exile, on Tuesday said, it was looking for a way to file a case against the Burmese junta, for its crimes against the country’s citizens.

“We are looking at ways to determine how we can file a case against the junta, for their brutal actions against the Burmese people,” Thein Oo, Chairman of the BLC, told Mizzima.

He said, as a step towards looking for a way to bring the junta to the ICC, the BLC along with the International Federation for Human Rights (IFDH) is bringing together international experts, Burmese activists and others to a two-day seminar in Bangkok.

“This seminar is to brainstorm on how best to get justice for the suffering people in Burma and how the international community can take action against the brutal regime,” Thein Oo said.

The campaign to bring the Burmese military junta to the ICC began about two years ago, with a vague idea by the BLC. However, today, it has gained momentum and is able to draw the attention of international experts as well as the Burmese regime.

On Friday, May 1, 2009, Burma’s military regime in its official mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, declared the Burma Lawyers’ Council and other associated organizations and persons as unlawful.

The paper said, acts of the BLC and its members were harmful for the stability of the nation and therefore, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Snr Gen Than Shwe declared the BLC and its members unlawful.

Although this gesture of the Burmese regime may seem to be a mere coincidence, sources in the military establishment told Mizzima, the junta fears that the BLC’s efforts might gain greater momentum.

According to sources, the Burmese embassy in Bangkok was diplomatically approaching Thailand, where the seminar is being held on May 4 and 5.

During the seminar, Burmese activists and international experts discussed how the regime had perpetrated human rights abuses with impunity and how they could be made accountable for the crimes they had committed.

But, as Burma has not rectified the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court in July 2002, the ICC does not have any jurisdiction over Burma.

However, a clause under the statute of Territorial Jurisdiction of the treaty allows the ICC to act on a case based on a referral by the United Nations Security Council. The clause says the court is allowed to exercise jurisdiction, “where a situation is referred to the court by the UN Security Council”.

Thein Oo said, “The case of the UN Security Council referring it to the ICC might not take place soon but we are already in the process of campaigning for it.”

He said, they would present the case to the UNSC explaining how Burma’s military regime’s actions were threatening peace and security in the region.

Rights groups have accused Burma’s military junta of systematically abusing the rights of its own citizens, causing outflow of a large number of refugees and migrants. The junta’s military actions in eastern Burma have also particularly caused thousands of people to become homeless and live in the jungles.

READ MORE---> Burmese lawyers says junta should be taken to ICC...

Unlawful Convictions of Burmese Political Prisoners are Crimes Against Humanity – UNSC Should Refer Burma to the International Criminal Ct

Sourced: Global Justice Centre
19 November 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Unlawful Convictions of Burmese Political Prisoners are Crimes Against Humanity – U.N. Security Council Should Refer Burma to the International Criminal Court Certain judges in Burma, acting under the orders of Chief Justice U Aung Toe and Senior General Than Shwe, are themselves criminally liable as co-conspirators to crimes against humanity for their acts in “trying” and “convicting” 60 political activists last week. “These acts are the latest from the junta which uses the judiciary as one of its key weapons to commit grave crimes,” says Global Justice Center President Janet Benshoof. Judges including those listed below are criminally culpable and must be referred to the International Criminal Court.

• Chief Justice U Aung Toe
• U Thaung Nyunt, North District Court, Yangon Division
• Daw Soe Nyan, U Tin Htut, U Kyaw Swe, and U Sein Hla, Western District Court, Yangon Division
• Daw Aye Myaing, Hlaing Tha Yar Township Court, Yangon Division
• Daw Than Than, Tamwe Township Court, Yangon Division
• Daw Nyunt Nyunt Win, Kyauktadar Court, Yangon Division
• Daw Mya Mya Swe, North Dagon Court, Yangon Division
• Daw Thiri Tin, Ahlon township Court, Yangon Division

On November 11th approximately forty pro-democracy dissidents received prison sentences of up to 65 years. On November 13th twenty more activists were sentenced to terms ranging from 4½ to 9½ years. The convicted include members of the ‘88 Generation Students, labor rights activist Su Su Nway, musician Win Maw, HIV/AIDS activist Than Naing, blogger Nay Phone Latt, and members of Daw Aung San Sui Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. Even the defendants’ lawyers were not immune from the regime’s revenge; in October defense lawyers Nyi Nyi Htwe, Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein were sentenced to between four and six months imprisonment for submitting a complaint about the unfair trial conditions of eleven NLD activists.

Judges did not allow the defendants to question prosecution witnesses, many defendants did not have legal representation and those that did were not permitted to meet with their lawyers in private. Burma Lawyers’ Council General Secretary U Aung Htoo stated, “Rule of law in Burma cannot even be dreamt of when the judiciary has become an instrument of political oppression, exercised by the SPDC military junta.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said this past week in reference to these convictions, “There is no independent and impartial judiciary system [in Burma]." However, the judges actions go much further; these prison sentences are crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including violations of Article 7(1)(e) “Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law” and 7(1)(h) “Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender…or other grounds”.

GJC President Benshoof noted that top judges in Hitler’s criminal regime were convicted as co-conspirators of crimes against humanity and, more recently, in the Dujail1 decision, the Iraqi High Tribunal found Judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar jointly criminally liable for crimes against humanity committed with Saddam Hussein because he used the façade of “judicial authority and law” to “try” and then “execute” civilians. Burma Lawyers’ Council and Global Justice Center urge the international community to expose the regime’s criminal partnership with members of the judiciary and to join the call for a UN Security Council referral of all grave international crimes in Burma to the International Criminal Court.

Contact: Aung Htoo
General Secretary, Burma Lawyers’ Council
Mobile: 66 (0) 81 533 0605
Website: www.blc-burma.org
Email: blcsan@ksc.th.com
Contact: Janet Benshoof, Esq.
President, Global Justice Center
Tel: 1-212-725-6530 x203; Mobile: 1-917-601-6200
Website: www.globaljusticecenter.net
Email: jbenshoof@globaljusticecenter.net

1 A1-Mahkama al-jina’iya al-‘Iraqiya al-Uliya [The Iraqi High Criminal Court], al-Dujail Opinion, Unofficial English Translation, (Dec.26, 2006), www.law.case.edu/saddamtrial/documents/20070103dujailappellatechamberopinion.pdf

READ MORE---> Unlawful Convictions of Burmese Political Prisoners are Crimes Against Humanity – UNSC Should Refer Burma to the International Criminal Ct...