Canada to support UN inquiry on Burma abuses

Friday, 03 September 2010 19:14 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Canada’s Conservative government led by Stephen Harper will join the growing list of Western nations that have called on the United Nations to launch a commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in Burma, a Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon had faced increasing domestic and international pressure to endorse a Burma inquiry following the Obama administration’s mid-August announcement that it would do so.

“Canada supports both the UN special rapporteur’s work on human rights abuses in Burma, and the idea of a UN commission of inquiry into human rights abuses by the Burmese regime,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Catherine Loubier said, quoting Cannon, who was referring to the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana.

“We will work with our allies in the international community to develop a common approach to support the recommendations that the rapporteur will present to an upcoming session of the UN General Assembly,” she added.

In March, Quintana, reported to the UN Human Rights Council that in Burma there existed a pattern of “gross and systematic” human rights abuses that suggested the abuses were state policy that involved authorities at all levels of the executive, military and judiciary. It also said the “possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the Statute of the International Criminal Court”.

He urged the UN to look further into rights abuses committed by the Burmese regime and consider launching a “commission of inquiry with a specific fact-finding mandate to address the question of international crimes”.

Each of the three opposition parties represented in the Canadian federal parliament issued press releases over the past 10 days demanding that Canada back such an inquiry. On August 25, a crowd of Burma supporters led by Zoya Phan of the Burma Campaign UK gathered in front of the Canadian embassy (officially known as the High Commission) in London to protest Ottawa’s tardiness in endorsing such an inquiry.

Heralding the Canadian government’s decision, Tin Maung Htoo executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB), in a statement thanked everyone who followed the CFOB’s request and pushed the Harper government into coming out in favour of an inquiry. “I would like to thank all supporters across Canada and around the world who worked together to make this happen,” he said.

In addition to Canada, the list of countries that have stated support for a UN inquiry on Burma are the United States, Britain, Slovakia, Australia and the Czech Republic.

Amnesty International adds voice to calls for UN Burma inquiry

The respected international human rights group Amnesty International in a statement yesterday also called on the UN General Assembly to launch a Burma inquiry. Amnesty said a Burma inquiry should examine reports of “widespread and systematic persecution of civilian populations by government security forces, especially against the largely Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority in Rakhine [Arakan] State; the ethnic minority Shan in Shan State; and the ethnic minority Karen in eastern Myanmar [Burma]”.

“The commission should also investigate reports of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by armed groups in the Shan State and in eastern Myanmar [Burma],” Amnesty said.