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US lawmakers push Obama on Burma inquiry
Irrawaddy - May 4, 2011
Lalit K Jha, Washington – A bipartisan group of more than 30 eminent lawmakers on Tuesday urged US President Barack Obama to redouble his administration's efforts to establish an international Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Burma.
"With 16 countries, including the United States, already pledging support for a Commission, we believe the time has come to once and for all make this happen. We strongly urge you to redouble United States efforts, at the highest level, to establish the Commission," the congressmen said.
The letter, dated April 28 and released to the press on Tuesday, was signed by, among others, Donald Manzullo, the chairman of House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific; Howard Berman, the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; and Frank Wolf and James McGovern, the co-chairs of the Tom Lantos' Human Rights Commission.
There was no immediate reaction to the letter from the White House.
Noting that numerous recent reports from Burma have brought to light serious, ongoing atrocities committed against civilians by the Burmese authorities, the lawmakers urged Obama to push for the establishment of a United Nations CoI into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.
"For too many years, the military in Burma has carried out with impunity acts which unambiguously constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. These abuses include a scorched-earth military campaign against ethnic minorities that has resulted in widespread rapes, summary executions, conscription of child soldiers, forced labor and over one million people fleeing their homes as refugees and internally displaced," they said.
In expressing their demand for Obama's leadership on this issue, members of the House of Representatives joined with their counterparts in the Senate. Washington-based US Campaign for Burma (USCB) welcomed the letter.
"US leadership will make a critical difference in this effort. Recently, the United States effectively organized the members of the United Nations to establish such an investigative commission in Libya. We want President Obama to make a similar effort for Burma as well," said Aung Din of the USCB.
The letter to Obama comes after more than a dozen eminent American nongovernmental organizations sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to lead the effort to create such a commission at the June session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"Effective diplomacy by the United States in Geneva over the past year on issues such as Iran and freedom of association and assembly shows that leadership makes a difference," said the letter, which was dated April 25 and released to the press last week.
"Now is the time to make a difference on Burma and actively lead other members of the United Nations to support the creation of a Commission of Inquiry," said the group in the letter, which was signed by officials from Institute for Asian Democracy, the US Campaign for Burma, the Democracy Coalition Project, the Open Society Foundation, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Citizens for Global Solutions, Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, the Brookings Institution, Carter Center, Freedom House and Human Rights First.
"We strongly urge you to follow through on your decision last fall to back the creation of an International Commission of Inquiry for Burma and lead the effort to create such a commission at the June session of the UN Human Rights Council," the letter said.
The UN Human Rights Council will convene its 17th Session in Geneva from May 30 to June 17, 2011.
Noting that global support for an investigation into ongoing human rights violations in Burma has been growing steadily since March 2010, when the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, recommended the creation of a CoI, the 13 NGOs said 16 countries, including the US, have publicly endorsed that recommendation.
Quintana told to the UN Human Rights Council, "It is essential for investigations of human rights violations to be conducted in an independent, impartial and credible manner, without delay."
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