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New Burmese government urged to end abuses
Irrawaddy - March 15, 2011
Lalit K Jha, Washington – Expressing serious concern over continuing human rights violations in Burma, a top UN official has urged the country's new government to take immediate steps to end all abuses and adopt a genuine human rights agenda.
Addressing a special session of the UN Human Rights Council, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, urged the Burmese government elected last November to seek genuine national reconciliation through an inclusive process, without which the democratic transition would be incomplete.
Without national reconciliation, the people of Burma will continue to face the same uncertainty and militarization that have drained the country's resources for decades, he argued, expressing a viewpoint that was supported by a majority of the speakers, except for the Burmese representative and a few others.
"The positive political developments and changes vividly showed the commitment of the Myanmar [Burmese] government, not only in fulfilling the aspirations of its people but also in responding to the wishes of the international community who wanted to see Myanmar as a democratic, stable and prosperous State," said Thant Kyaw of Burma in defense of his country.
Quintana in his remarks urged the Burmese government to immediately release political prisoners. He also recommended reforming the armed forces. The new authorities must take a decision to usher in reform so that civilians' rights are not compromised in conflict zones, he added.
Amnesty International representative Peter Splinter urged all UN member states to support the renewal of Quintana's mandate and called on Burma to accept additional visits by the special rapporteur. He also urged the country to permit the establishment of an international Commission of Inquiry to investigate credible allegations of grave crimes in Burma. Julie De Rivero of Human Rights Watch noted that tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced into Thailand as a result of the post-election military offensive in Karen State.
Regretting that the special rapporteur has not been allowed in the country since 2010, Radka Patalova of the European Union urged the Burmese military junta to immediately release all prisoners of conscience and embark on a process of inclusive national reconciliation.
Patalova also expressed strong regret that last year's elections were not free, fair, transparent or inclusive, and called on the government to recognize the opposition National League for Democracy's pre-election registration status and lift restrictions on its representatives and on other political and civil society actors.
Peter Gooderham of Britain agreed with the Quintana's assessment that the 2010 elections were not credible. Japan's Kenichi Suganuma said that it was unfortunate that the recent general elections did not take place in a free and fair manner and urged Burma to release the thousands of prisoners of conscience who had been detained for opposing the current regime.
Noting that the elections were held in conditions that could not be considered free and democratic, the French representative Jean Baptiste Mattei asked Quintana about the prospects for a genuine democratic transition. He also argued that the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after the elections should not make the international community forget that thousands of other political prisoners remain imprisoned in Burma in inhumane conditions and suffer torture and degrading treatment.
Canada's Alison Leclaire Christoe expressed disappointment that the special rapporteur had still not received an invitation to visit Burma despite repeated requests over the past year.
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