Women’s groups urge Security Council to act on Burma

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Women activists the world over on Friday urged Ban Ki-moon United Nations Secretary General to push the Security Council to form a Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.

The 64 groups representing various women’s groups across the globe, in a letter written to Ban Ki-moon, said Burma’s military rulers led by Snr Gen Than Shwe have been committing crimes against humanity, particularly on women folk, with impunity.

“We are calling on the UN Secretary General to push for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate into the crimes against humanity committed by the ruling junta at the least, and we are demanding that the UNSC refer Snr. Gen Than Shwe to the International Criminal Court,” Thin Thin Aung, a presidium board member of the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella Burmese women’s group, said.

Among many forms of violations, rape and sexual violence have been long used as a tool to intimidate ethnic women in remote areas of the country by the junta’s army and most of the time, the perpetrator goes unpunished, Thin Thin Aung said.

The call came as the 15 members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Friday were set to hold an informal debate on the Secretary General’s report on the situation of women across the globe.

In the report, submitted on July 15 to the Council, Ban acknowledged that discrimination against women in areas where minority communities reside are rampant, and the prevalence of sexual violence against rural women from the ethnic groups including Shan, Mon, Karen, Palaung and Chin by members of the junta’s armed forces.

In relevance to Ban Ki-moon’s report to the UN Security Council resolution 1820, the women’s groups urged the Secretary General to invoke the Right to Protect (R2P) and conduct a humanitarian intervention, as the ruling junta, despite the amount of evidence of their crimes, will resist any form of UN intervention.

“The UNSC is the highest body internationally and their referral to the ICC is the only way to force Than Shwe to justice because the junta will not agree to any UN intervention,” Thin Thin Aung said.

“In Myanmar [Burma], women and girls are afraid of working in the fields or travelling unaccompanied, given regular military checkpoints where they are often subjected to sexual harassment,” Ban said in his report to the Council.

WLB, since 2008, has begun a campaign to push the Security Council to refer Than Shwe to the ICC, and during the open debate on its resolution 1820, members of the WLB will also meet member states of the Council and will urge to endorse their call.

In their letter to the Secretary General, the women’s groups said, reports of past violations, continued systematic repression, and an incapacitated judicial system stand as solid witness to the need for  strong international intervention.