Military regime overrides judiciary: ALRC

by Salai Pi Pi
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 21:04

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) said Burma’s military rulers are using the institutionalized justice system to deny fundamental rights to people and urged the United Nations to probe it.

In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, the ALRC said the Burmese ‘injustice system’ is a case of institutionalized denial of the fundamental rights of the people and the junta is further laying the foundations to legalize the abuses with their planned 2010 elections, which will infuse life into the 2008 constitution.

Basil Fernando, executive director of the ALRC said the international community, particularly the UN, should probe into the legal system and highlight the points in the 2008 constitution that will allow the junta to use the justice system for abuses, instead of going in for rhetorical outcry over individual abuses.

“The UN and others should take up this issue, because the entire population is without rights and without any protection of the law, so rigorously, that they should take action against the military regime,” Fernando told Mizzima on Wednesday.

But he said, in order to do so, the UN should undertake a careful study of the nature of abuses and look at them in an institutionalized context.

“There is not enough understanding of what is happening in Burma. There is not enough outside pressure on the Burmese military regime,” he added.

Fernando also said, though China and India, the two giant neighbours of Burma, are in a good position to leverage and press the military regime to respect human rights and rule of law, sadly both the countries choose to remain silent.

“They should also take up the issue as they can do many things,” he said.

ALRC in the statement, which was submitted to the Human Rights Council (HRC) on Tuesday, said the sentencing of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in August was in many respects typical of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others in recent years.

“Judges are just namesakes. Judges are just working on behalf of the government. They read out the punishment or take action according to the way they [Junta] want,” he added.

Fernando said Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial is a great illustration of the institutionalized denial of fundamental human rights through Burma’s “injustice system.”

Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, after facing months of trial, was handed down 18 months of suspended sentence on charges of violating her previous detention terms.

“The charges against the defendants were inapplicable as the order against Aung San Suu Kyi did not include anything to prohibit her from communicating with someone already in her house,’ said ALRC in the statement.

The ALRC said the regime controlled court had violated the basic criminal procedure during the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi by using judges from two districts, who heard the case against her.

“There is no provision of law for mixing judges of different jurisdictions,” the statement said.

ALRC also highlighted that the junta’s 2008 constitution does not guarantee fundamental rights but lays the foundations for the legal system to exploit the rights of the people.

The 2008 constitution, which will come into effect after the 2010 election, provides several provisions to override the constitution by the military and in condemning these facts, the international community should highlight the points that are needed to be changed in the constitution, ALRC said.

“The international community needs to use cases and issues arising in the present day… to probe, critique and explore the institutional features of abuse and how they will be reconfigured under the planned new arrangements for government after an election of some sort, rather than simply criticize individual cases of prominent persons,” the ALRC said.