OPEN LETTER: FRANCE
MUST RALLY THE EUROPEAN UNION TO SUPPORT A UN INQUIRY INTO INTERNATIONAL
CRIMES IN BURMA
8 August 2011
Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy
President of the Republic of France
Palais de l’Elysée
Mr. Alain Juppé
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
Ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes
CC:
H.E. Mr. Thierry Mathou
Ambassador of France to Burma
On the 23rd anniversary of
Burma’s nationwide pro-democracy uprising on 8 August
1988 and the subsequent violent crackdown, Info-Birmanie, the
Ligue des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (LDH), the International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Alternative ASEAN Network
on Burma (Altsean-Burma) and the Burma Lawyers’ Council
(BLC) would like to seek your urgent attention and action to
address the deteriorating human rights situation in Burma as
well as the impact of the ongoing conflict in ethnic nationalities
areas.
In order to address impunity
which is the country’s biggest obstacle to reconciliation
and democratic transition, our organizations call on your authority
to urge the international community, especially the European
Union, to act to establish a United Nations-mandated Commission
of Inquiry into international crimes committed in Burma.
In the past 20 years, the UN
General Assembly has made 18 calls on the Burmese government
to fully and promptly investigate gross human rights abuses,
some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These calls have been consistently ignored as serious violations
of international humanitarian law and human rights law continue
up to this day, gravely undermining lasting peace and political
dialogue.
The abuses documented by UN
institutions and procedures and their description in past General
Assembly resolutions provide prima facie evidence that points
to the commission of numerous different types of war crimes
and crimes against humanity. These includes the use of sexual
violence as a weapon of war, forced labour, deliberate targeting
of civilians, use of torture, forced displacement, recruitment
of child soldiers, imprisonment of almost 2,000 political opponents,
and persecution of ethnic minorities. Recognizing the lack of
accountability for such abuses over many years, the UN Special
Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma has called
on the UN to consider the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry
since March 2010.
The EU is responsible for drafting
this year’s General Assembly resolution on Burma. FIDH,
LDH, Altsean-Burma, Info-Birmanie and BLC call on France to
mobilize all EU Member States to fully support the inclusion
in the resolution of a request to set up a Commission of Inquiry.
We believe it is high time that the international community
recognize and confront the unwillingness of the Burmese authorities
to end impunity for international crimes which continue unabated
after the sham elections in November 2010.
Our organizations believe that
a Commission should have a mandate to:
- Investigate and verify the allegations of serious abuses perpetrated
by the Burmese government and its State security forces, brought
forward by various UN procedures and institutions and non-governmental
organizations;
- Determine whether these human rights violations constitute
crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law;
- Document whether measures have been undertaken by the authorities
to prevent the crimes, investigate and prosecute the perpetrators,
and provide justice for victims; and
- Make recommendations on remedies, accountability, and rule
of law reforms and reparations measures to adequately address
these crimes.
While recognizing that serious
abuses have been perpetrated throughout the country, our organizations
consider that those that may amount to crimes against humanity
and war crimes have been perpetrated on a larger scale in particular
regions of Burma, including Arakan, Chin, Kachin, Shan, Karenni,
Karen, and Mon States. The temporal scope of a Commission of
Inquiry should be determined in consultation with human rights
organizations which have been documenting these crimes and be
sufficiently wide enough to reflect the gravity and persistence
of the crimes over many decades.
Our organizations consider
a UN Commission of Inquiry to be an effective tool of restorative
transitional justice to ensure that victims of crimes have access
to the truth, protection, justice and reparation under international
law. There is an increasing urgency to deter new crimes due
to increased military attacks on civilians in recent months,
especially in Kachin, Shan, and Karen States. The work of a
Commission of Inquiry provides an important basis for inclusive
tripartite dialogue among the democratic opposition, ethnic
nationalities, and the government, essential to genuine national
reconciliation and democratic transition. Peace, national reconciliation,
and democratic transition will remain elusive if justice is
sacrificed for political expediency.
It would be a serious misjudgment
to think that ignoring the need for accountability and avoiding
a Commission of Inquiry would somehow encourage the government
to be more open to dialogue and cease human rights violations;
far from it, shying away from accountability would only serve
to abet the further commission of serious crimes and push Burma
further away from genuine and lasting reconciliation.
In his latest report on the
“role of regional and sub-regional arrangements in implementing
the responsibility to protect,” UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon emphasized that the “responsibility to protect
is a universal principle” and that this responsibility
“requires accountability.” [1] Accountability requires,
as a first step, credible investigation. The Secretary-General
further stated that the responsibility to protect “relies
on the whole range of policy instruments,” including “the
tools of investigation, fact-finding […] and conflict
resolution laid out in Chapters VI and VIII” of the UN
Charter.
The EU, as a key stakeholder,
has both the moral leadership and imperative to heed the calls
of the UN and uphold their responsibility to protect the people
of Burma from international crimes. The EU has also traditionally
supported efforts for accountability around the world. It is
therefore time for the EU to demonstrate political will and
leadership in establishing a Commission of Inquiry through a
UNGA resolution. As far as ASEAN is concerned, it is only sensible
for it to stop being complicit in prolonging impunity in Burma,
since it has been dealing with the regional consequences of
international crimes committed there. Once established, a Commission
of Inquiry and Burma’s cooperation with it will assist
ASEAN in determining whether Burma is appropriately qualified
to chair ASEAN, and in evaluating Burma’s commitment to
democracy.
FIDH, LDH, Altsean-Burma, Info-Birmanie
and BLC would like to stress that after 23 years of brutal repression
and crimes against its own people, the Burmese government and
its military continue to attack, kill, and rape with total impunity,
as witnessed in the recent offensives against ethnic areas in
Shan, Kachin, and Karen States. Our organizations therefore
intend to echo, as expressed by all our Burmese partner organizations,
the wish of the people of Burma to see that the democratic aspirations
with which they annually mark the 8 August anniversary will
be matched by resolute action of the international community
to create a Commission of Inquiry as a first step towards ending
impunity, so that one day they will be able to celebrate this
date in genuine peace and freedom.
Thank you for your consideration
of our concerns and recommendations. We are at your disposal
should you have any questions.
Sincerely yours,
- Souhayr Belhassen, President
of FIDH
- Pierre Tartakowsky, President of LDH
- Frédéric Debomy, President of Info-Birmanie
- Debbie Stothard, Coordinator of Altsean-Burma, Deputy Secretary-General
of FIDH
- U Thein Oo, Chairman of BLC