NZ Backs UN Inquiry on Burma



This week New Zealand joined the growing call for a UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Burmese military junta. New Zealand is the ninth country to officially support a CoI. Other supporting countries are Australia, UK, Czech Republic, Slovakia, US, Canada, Hungary and the Netherlands.

Naing Ko, a former political prisoner and now spokesperson for Burma Campaign New Zealand, said, “It's great to see the New Zealand government is willing to stand in solidarity with the people of Burma. It's a necessary first step to ending impunity, and bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

He said that there is no doubt that the Burmese military junta is one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Torture, sexual violence, forced labour, recruitment of child soldiers and the killing of civilians in ethnic areas are widespread and systematic, according to human rights groups.

In March, the UN Special Rrapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, issued a report to the UN Human Rights Council. He stated that, in Burma, there existed a pattern of “gross and systematic” human rights abuses, and 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.

ENDS

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