Junta urged to act against rights violators

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:15 Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s military rulers were taken to task by a campaign group on Monday for failing to take effective action against rights violators saying it encourages soldiers and others to continue violating with impunity.

The London-based Burma Campaign UK, a group advocating for human rights and democracy in Burma, asked the Burmese authorities to take effective action against a soldier, who reportedly killed a farmer in Kachin State in December.

“Rights violations are continuing on a large scale, particularly by the junta’s soldiers, because the perpetrators are not punished. And this encourages rights violations to continue,” Nang Seng, the Campaigns Officer of the BCUK, told Mizzima.

The BCUK's statement released on Monday, said Burmese soldiers from the Phakant-based Army Artillery Battalion No. 298, on December 19, attacked a Christian Church in Nawng Mi village, and allegedly murdered a local farmer while injuring a few others.

Lahpai Naw Seng, a local farmer, according to the BCUK, was stabbed with a knife during the attack led by Sergeant Kyaw Myint. He died about 15 minutes after the attack, in which another villager was also badly injured, the BCUK said.

While the Sergeant confessed to having murdered the villager, he was not arrested and or charged. Instead, the Deputy Commander of Danai Military Region, Col. Aung Kyaw Htun, who came the next day to investigate the case, offered family members of Lahpai Naw Seng Kyat 500,000 (USD 500) as compensation, the group added.

“Police and local ward peace and development council leaders dare not take action against the perpetrator as he is a soldier. When Col Aung Kyaw Tun arrived in Phakant and interrogated the Sergeant, he confessed that he had stabbed Lahpai Naw Seng. So far there is no action against the perpetrator and now villagers said Kyaw Myint had disappeared from the village,” Nang Seng said.

“Though the ‘Tatmadaw’ (military) claims that they are protectors of the people and consider themselves as the father and mother of the nation, I see them as perpetrators of rights violations, who enjoy torturing people,” the BCUK quoted a local villager as saying.

Nawng Mi village is a small Kachin village located n Phakant Township, with approximately 300 households.

Following the incident, locals and church leaders earlier this month, submitted a petition to the Burmese junta’s Northern Division commander Maj-Gen Soe Win to take action against the perpetrators.

However, their appeal has so far not yielded any result and seems to have fallen on deaf ears, the BCUK said.

Burma’s military rulers have been widely reported to carry out systematic abuses against its own citizens, particularly in remote areas where ethnic minorities live.

The BCUK also said, about 15 schoolchildren and young men were attacked, assaulted and severely injured by a group of Burmese Army soldiers in Mayan village in Moegawng district of Kachin State but no action was taken by the authorities.

"This is another example of impunity, where no action is taken against Burmese soldiers, who commit human rights violations. It is shameful that the international community is still silent and has failed to take action on widespread and systematic human rights violations in Burma", Nang Seng said in the statement.

The BCUK also urged the international community to take effective action against the Burmese junta’s continued rights violations and to pressure it to immediately stop all forms of violations.

Though campaign and advocacy groups often called on the international community including the United Nations to take effective action against the junta, the international community is divided in their stand against the Burmese regime.

While Western countries including the United States and European Union have taken a stronger stand by imposing sanctions against the junta, regional countries including members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Burma’s giant neighbours China and India continue to provide support to the junta in exchange for business opportunities in the resource-rich country.

In early December, more than 140 British Members of Parliament called on the UK government to urge the UN to establish a Commission of Inquiry for crimes committed by the military regime in Burma.

“The UN has strong evidence of the Burmese junta’s rights violations but they are still unable to take effective action. Failing to take action continues to encourage the military regime to continue perpetrating rights violations,” Nang Seng said.