Hope For Burmese People by United Nations, groups

August 8, 2009
Subject: Recent Developments Give Hope for Burmese People's Justice
Activists,
This action alert shows the promise of progressive developments helping bring justice to the Burmese people and their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi , through the actions of various groups , governments and the United Nations. Although the verdict in her trial is set for August 11 with the outcome likely to be unfair and harsh, these legal possibilities for action in the Security Council of the United Nations seems to be fairly strong at this time. I've included several websites with updated and historic information here. Too, they have actions to be taken which we can contribute. With continued effort and pressure within legal and non-violent measures and actions chances for success in freeing the thousands of political prisoners in Burma remains hopeful.

"They assert that with such overwhelming evidence from its own documents, the U.N. Security Council should establish a commission to investigate war crimes in Burma, then create a special tribunal to try those responsible for them. "

1. Activists Laud U.S. Congress for Passing Burma Sanctions,

Ask President Obama to Organize UN Security Council Action

2. U.S. Senate's Webb to visit Myanmar this month

3. Burma Lawyers Council

4. Women’s Groups around the World Call on the UNSC to Prosecute Senior General Than Shwe at the International Criminal Court

5. Putting Burma's Junta on Trial

arn specter, phila. arnpeace@yahoo.com

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Activists Laud U.S. Congress for Passing Burma Sanctions, Ask President Obama to Organize UN Security Council Action
U.S. C A M P A I G N F O R B U R M A

July 24th, 2009

Contact: Jeremy Woodrum, (202) 246-7924

Activists Laud U.S. Congress for Passing Burma Sanctions, Ask President Obama to Organize UN Security Council Action

United Kingdom and United States to Chair UN Body in August, September

(Washington, DC) The U.S. Campaign for Burma today praised leaders in the U.S. Congress for passing a measure maintaining U.S. sanctions on the Southeast Asian country of Burma. The bill passed in the Senate after 11:00 pm on Thursday, July 23rd.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a similar bill on July 21st, 2009.

In an unprecedented move, 66 U.S. Senators co-sponsored the legislation, more than at any time since portions of the legislation originally passed in 2003. The bill was led by a bi-partisan group of senior senators, including Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Senator John McCain. At the same time, 11 of the 14 new U.S. Senators, who were elected in 2008, co-sponsored the measure. The legislation has now been sent to the White House for the signature of President Obama, who in May recently decided to extend a ban on U.S. investment in Burma.

“This strong, bi-partisan measure will help to deny hundreds of millions of dollars to Burma’s military regime,” said Aung Din, Executive Director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, who served as a political prisoner in the country for over four years.

The move comes as Burma’s military regime rejected overtures by U.S. Secretary of State Clinton appealing for the release of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi in exchange for new U.S. investment in Burma, a practice ended by President Bill Clinton in 1997. Referring to Clinton’s remarks, Burma’s state-run media said, “Demanding release of Daw Suu Kyi means showing reckless disregard for the law.” Burma’s military regime completely controls the country’s judiciary and according to the United Nations there is no independent judiciary in Burma, but the regime has pretended it can not free Aung San Suu Kyi because she is on trial and it can not interfere in a legal case.

Aung San Suu Kyi is not just a human rights leader — she led her political party the National League for Democracy to win 82% of the seats in parliament in Burma’s last election. Its legitimacy in danger, the regime, led by Senior General Than Shwe, effectively annulled the results.

Meanwhile, the regime has continued to carry out vicious attacks against civilians in eastern Burma, forcing thousands to flee over the border into Thailand as refugees. Since 1996, the regime has forced over a million people to flee their homes and destroyed 3,300 ethnic minority villages — attacks on par with the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. The regime has raped ethnic women and girls, burned food supplies, laid landmines throughout the region, and recruited thousands of children into its military ranks in its attempts to wipe out any and all resistance to its rule. Observers point out that such attacks are likely to ramp-up even further in the coming months in northern Burma, as the Burmese regime seeks to disarm ethnic groups opposed to military domination.

In May, a group of five of the world’s leading judges and jurists — including those with experience at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda and Yugoslavia, urged the UN Security Council to initiate a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity committed by Than Shwe’s regime. Fifty-five members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to President Obama urging him to take action to stop these crimes. Members of Congress are also pressing the administration to organize an international arms embargo against Than Shwe’s regime.

“This move by the Congress makes it clear that there is overwhelming, bi-partisan support for stronger action on Burma,” added Aung Din. “It’s time for the United States to lead an effort at the UN Security Council – which it will chair in September — to seek action on crimes against humanity and an arms embargo. The longer the U.S. waits, the more people will die in Burma.”

The United Kingdom chairs the UN Security Council in August. ##

Latest News
» Is the Lady Wrong? (Opinion by Htet Aung, The Irrawaddy)
» Women’s Groups Want to See Than Shwe before the ICC (The Irrawaddy)
» Suu Kyi Is “Part of the Problem”: Goh Chok Tong (The Irrawaddy)
» Burmese Army Equipped with the New Arms (The Irrawaddy)
» Putting Burma’s Junta on Trial (Andrew Marshall, Time)
Press Releases
» Activists Laud U.S. Congress for Passing Burma Sanctions, Ask President Obama to Organize UN Security Council Action
» Ban: UN awaits response from Myanmar on democratic reform
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» Verdict in Trial of Burmese Democracy Leader Postponed (VOA)
» Suu Kyi trial sparks helpless outrage in Myanmar
» Arrest Yourself 2009
» Email Your Member of Congress Today
» Sign the Petition
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http://uscampaignforburma.org/

U.S. Senate's Webb to visit Myanmar this month
Thu Aug 6, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Jim Webb will visit Myanmar this month, the first member of Congress to travel to the southeast Asian country in more than a decade, his office said on Thursday.
Webb, who chairs a Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs, leaves on Sunday for a five-nation, two-week trip "to explore opportunities to advance U.S. interests in Burma (Myanmar) and the region," a statement from his office said.

A Vietnam war veteran and former U.S. Navy Secretary who speaks Vietnamese, Webb will also meet government representatives and industry leaders in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, his office said.

U.S. lawmakers are pushing for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, but Webb, a Virginia Democrat, is not expected to see her during his visit, an aide to the senator said.

U.S. relations with Myanmar's military junta have been strained for years. In May, President Barack Obama extended for one year a ban on U.S. investment first imposed in 1997 because of the authorities' repression of the opposition. Last week, Obama renewed sanctions targeting imports

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http://www.blc-burma.org/aboutus.html

Burma Lawyers Council

In May, at a Bangkok hotel, it held a three-day seminar entitled, "Advancing human rights and ending impunity in Burma." Among the subjects discussed by the 100 or so delegates were the criminal accountability of individual junta members and how the U.N. Security Council might be persuaded to investigate Burmese war crimes.

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http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ One of the leading groups supporting human

rights in Burma. Action campaigns we can take part in today.

Women’s Groups around the World Call on the UNSC to Prosecute Senior General Than Shwe at the International Criminal Court
7 August 2009

The Women’s League of Burma (WLB) joined by sixty four leading women’s organizations sent a letter to the Secretary General and members of the United Nations Security Council calling for the prosecution of Senior General Than Shwe at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and an immediate end to the longstanding impunity that has been afforded to the brutal military junta in Burma.

The letter states that:

Well-documented reports of past violations, continued systematic repression, and an incapacitated judicial system stand as solid witness to the necessity of strong international intervention. We call for the UN Security Council to start with a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the horrific campaign of terror by the military regime and to refer Senior General Than Shwe and his cronies to the international Criminal Court for all crimes including for the imprisonment of Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in violation of international law.

The Secretary General’s historic Report on July 15, 2009 on Security Council resolution 1820 makes clear that gender crimes by the military in are covered by the firm legal mandates of Security Council resolution 1820. These include the rights to criminal accountability, the prohibition of any amnesty for the military, and in this case an ICC referral.

The report discusses in two places and these words speak volumes.

At page 7:

In Myanmar, recent concern has been expressed at discrimination against the minority Muslim population of Northern Rakhine State and their vulnerability to sexual violence, as well as the high prevalence of sexual violence perpetrated against rural women from the Shan, Mon, Karen, Palaung and Chin ethnic groups by members of the armed forces and at the apparent impunity of the perpetrators.

At page 9:

In , women and girls are fearful of working in the fields or traveling unaccompanied, given regular military checkpoints where they are often subject to sexual harassment.

At page 10:

Furthermore, in countries such as Afghanistan, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sierra Leone, the Sudan and Timor-Leste, the effective administration of justice is hampered not only by a lack of capacity, but also by the fact that some justice officials do not give serious consideration to reports of sexual violence.

At page 12:

In , although there has been documentation and identification of military personnel who have committed sexual violence, including relevant dates and battalion numbers, disciplinary or criminal action is yet to be taken against the alleged perpetrators.

Accordingly, UN Security Council resolution 1820 affirms the urgent need to end impunity and protect civilians in conflict and post conflict situations. Impunity for sexual violence committed during conflict perpetuates impunity and WLB calls on the Security Council to act on the mandate of UN Security Council resolution 1820 and halt the systemic use of rape and other sex crimes against the ethnic women of who have been brutalized for decades with no redress or reparations.

This letter is being issued to coincide with the open debates at the Security Council on the Secretary General’s Report, and underscores that for the women of debate must lead to immediate action and the only access for justice for them is the ICC.

For media Contact:

Thin Thin Aung: +919 891 252 316

Lway Aye Nang: +66 89 434 2841

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Putting Burma's Junta on Trial
By Andrew Marshall Friday, Aug. 07, 2009
Burma military ruler Senior General Than Shwe reviews troops on the 60th anniversary of the Myanmar Armed Forces Day in Yangon, March 27, 2005
Adrees Latif / Reuters (photo with article at www.time.com)

Last month two famous defendants — one adored, the other despised — appeared in courts nearly 10,000 km apart. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, is being tried by a special tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape, torture and other war crimes allegedly committed during the decade-long conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor — known as "Pappy" to child soldiers who, say prosecutors, were abducted, drugged and dispatched to commit atrocities on his orders — used his first appearance on the stand on July 14 to dismiss the charges as "disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumors." (Read "'Lies and Rumors': Liberia's Charles Taylor on the Stand.")

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Meanwhile, and much more convincingly, Aung San Suu Kyi was protesting her innocence before a court in Rangoon. The Burmese democracy icon faces up to five years in prison for violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside home in Rangoon. The charges are farcical, the verdict a foregone conclusion: Suu Kyi is expected to be declared guilty on Aug. 11. But some in Burma's embattled democracy movement will turn to The Hague for solace. Taylor is the first African head of state to face an international war-crimes tribunal. Could Senior General Than Shwe, leader of the Burmese junta, be the first Asian? (Read "Viewpoint: Why Foreigners Can Make Things Worse for Burma.")
This is not as far-fetched as it might initially seem. A compelling case for investigating war crimes in Burma is made in a May 2009 report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School. Called "Crimes in Burma," 114 pages. PDF

(see; http://www.google.com/cse?cx=001646205185009856832:qlkxw_z2pnq&ie=UTF-8&...)

its authors are heavy hitters: they include one former judge and two former prosecutors from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including the British lead attorney in the case against Slobodan Milosevic.

Referring only to U.N. documents, the report lays out the "systematic and widespread" atrocities committed in Burma in recent years: killings, torture, rape, "epidemic levels" of forced labor, a million people homeless, the recruitment of tens of thousands of child soldiers, and — here they draw comparisons with Darfur — the displacement or destruction of more than 3,000 ethnic-nationality villages. These abuses were usually committed during armed conflict, which "strongly suggests" they are war crimes and crimes against humanity, says the report.

A precedent for acting on such abuses has been set by the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Darfur, the authors continue. They assert that with such overwhelming evidence from its own documents, the U.N. Security Council should establish a commission to investigate war crimes in Burma, then create a special tribunal to try those responsible for them. "The [U.N. Security] Council is the only body that can take the action necessary to respond adequately to the crisis in Burma," conclude the authors, before warning of "the painful consequences of inaction."

The Security Council held its first ever debate on Burma in 2005, but has done little but talk since. The chances of the U.N.'s most powerful body establishing a Burmese war-crimes commission are slim so long as permanent members China and Russia exercise their veto. But this shouldn't stop the U.S., U.K., and France from demanding one. It would certainly be noted in Naypyidaw, the junta's remote new capital. As the ongoing persecution of Suu Kyi amply demonstrates, Burma's generals are impervious to global condemnation. But don't be fooled by common depictions of them as blinkered, paranoid and xenophobic. "These caricatures ignore the fact that the regime contains intelligent officers who are close observers of the international scene," observed Andrew Selth of Australia's Griffith University last year. And there is some evidence that international justice is something those officers view with alarm. (Read about the 2007 crackdown in Burma.)

Just look at the military-drafted constitution, which was "approved" by a sham referendum in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. It not only formalizes the junta's rule, by reserving for the military a quarter of seats in the new parliament after elections next year. It also grants junta officials immunity from prosecution. "This clause won't protect them from international prosecution, but it shows they're worried about it," says Mark Farmaner, director of the advocacy group Burma Campaign UK. (See pictures of Burma after Cyclone Nargis.)

So does the regime's sudden interest in a little-known exile group called the Burma Lawyers' Council. In May, at a Bangkok hotel, it held a three-day seminar entitled "Advancing human rights and ending impunity in Burma." Among the subjects discussed by the 100 or so delegates were the criminal accountability of individual junta members and how the U.N. Security Council might be persuaded to investigate Burmese war crimes.

Days before the seminar began, the junta outlawed the lawyers' group, which previously had barely blipped on Naypyidaw's radar, then requested Thailand to halt the seminar. It went ahead, but the harassment continued. As Burmese spies prowled the hotel lobby, delegates heard reports that agents had been dispatched to kidnap or kill the group's chairman Aung Htoo. He was smuggled out of the seminar and spent three weeks in hiding in Thailand before fleeing for Sweden.

Aung Htoo says a war-crimes commission "very much concerns the Burmese leadership." He believes the prospect might cause reform-minded officers to break ranks and topple Than Shwe. Of course, it could also have the opposite effect, causing the generals to tighten their grasp on power — although ethnic minorities suffering ongoing military atrocities in eastern Burma might think this was a risk worth taking. "At the moment Burmese soldiers know they can act with impunity," says Farmaner. "A threat of consequences might change behavior on the ground."

The sad and wretched history of Burma is relentless. Its civil war — the world's longest — rages on. Cease-fires between the junta and other insurgent groups are looking shaky. Piecemeal and uncoordinated sanctions by the U.S. and Europe have failed. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, is comatose, and more than 2,000 political prisoners are in Burmese jails. Convincing the U.N. Security Council to investigate Burmese war crimes might seem like an uphill struggle. "But that is why we campaign — to change things," says Farmaner. That campaign could galvanize Burma's weary democrats, even as their leader prepares for yet another lengthy spell in the junta's custody.

See pictures of the decades-long battle for democracy.

Read about Burma's ethnic minorities.