TOP JURISTS WANT PROBE INTO ALLEGED WAR CRIMES IN MYANMAR

By D. Arul Rajoo

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 Thursday, 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