Global Campaign for Justice in Burma

Global Campaign for Justice in Burma (Myanmar)

To: The Secretary-General of United Nations cc. All Member Nations of the United Nations Security Council

His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon Secretary-General of the United Nations New York 10017 USA Dated: 10. November 2007

Dear Secretary General,

We, the undersigned members of the global community submit this appeal to take the first and necessary step to bring justice to the victims of the Burmese military junta. This global community consists of various organizations and individuals, including but not limited to, scholars, politicians, students, artists, representatives of all religions and others from all walks of life. The political developments in Burma of August, September and October 2007 have made salient the necessity for a new approach in solving Burma's chronic political problems. We are of the opinion that it is time to bring justice to the victims of the untold brutalities exercised by the military junta in the Union of Burma (Myanmar) and induce truth, national reconciliation and long term peace to the country.

Genocide: Committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, Killing members of the group, Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. These crimes have been committed by the military junta regularly inside Burma;

Crimes against humanity: Murder (Attack directed against any civilian population), Extermination (intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population), Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of International Law, Torture, Rape or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, Enforced disappearance of persons, Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health etc. These crimes have been committed by the military junta regularly inside Burma.

War crimes: Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health, Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, Taking of hostages, Committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, Committing rape or any other form of sexual violence also constituting a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions, Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities, Committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment. These crimes are committed by the military junta regularly inside Burma.

We appreciate your Excellency's recent efforts to collect a consensus among the members of the UN Security Council by issuing a Presidential Statement on Burma. However, torture of political dissidents and other untold human miseries continue to occur even as your envoy visits the country with its UNSC mandate. We are wholly convinced that the above crimes as well as other serious attacks on human dignity and crimes such as rape, grave humiliation of religious clergies are happening, in an unprecedented scale, throughout the whole country.

We, herewith, recommend that your Excellency create an Appropriate Transitional Justice Mechanism that will investigate and compile evidence and proof of violations of international humanitarian laws as mentioned above.

We look forward to you, as well as all the world leaders, to seriously consider this appeal to prevent further bloodshed and human misery in Burma. We believe that establishing such a mechanism will help Burma enter a national reconciliation process and move toward peace, democracy, rule of law and respect for individual and collective human rights.