Call for UN Commission of Inquiry on Burma

EU foreign ministers, who are meeting this weekend, are being urged to call for a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma in the annual resolution on Burma at the United Nations General Assembly.
After his visit this month to Burma, which is called Myanmar by its military-backed government, the UN Special Rapporteur on the country highlighted how serious human rights abuses are continuing.
“For almost 20 years [the UN Special Rapporteur] have been reporting on human rights abuses, which are so serious they could break international law,” said Mark Farmaner, chairman of Burma Campaign UK. “Out of sight, in the jungles and mountains of eastern Burma, you have the Burmese army using gang-rape as a weapon of war, mortar bombing villages, torturing and executing – crucifying and beheading – people.”
“The abuses there are very, very serious,” Farmaner told Vatican Radio. “The regime has come to know it can get away with this, it has been doing it for so long. We think an initial benefit of having an Inquiry will be for the first time there will be a sense that the cannot necessarily get away with these abuses.”
Listen to full interview by Charles Collins with Mark Farmaner: