What happened in Burma during the Saffron Revolution of 2007 showed the world about the level of cruelty Burmese Generals can commit; actually, what the world saw last week was just the tip of an iceberg of the crimes against humanity and attempted genocide committed, and still being committed more and more, inside Burma by the military regime.
In 1988 the regime came to power killing up to 3000 innocent pro-democracy student demonstrators. In 1996 many more student activists were killed, injured, arrested and tortured during their second uprising against the regime. In 2003 about five hundred followers of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi were brutally beaten to death by regime’s plain-clothed soldiers and thugs during Depayin Massacre. Many thousands of political prisoners detained during those uprisings are still in jail suffering ill-treatments.
And now again, hundreds of peaceful Buddhist Monks and their devotees, who dared to speak out about people’s poverty inside the country, have been shot dead on the spot during their demonstrations, and also bludgeoned to death during the raids on Buddhist Temples and Monasteries by soldiers. Many Monasteries and the Buddha statues inside have been destroyed. Thousands of Monks and their devotees are now in detention centres, and many of them are being tortured everyday.
And in ethnic minority areas, Burmese army has been burning down villages, uprooting ethnic tribes, raping their women and girls, killing and torturing their sons and husbands, looting their crops, using them all frequently as forced labourers, porters and human mine-sweepers.
Previously, because no reporter is allowed into Burma, the world failed to get a glimpse of what was really happening, and so the regime could hide evidences of their heinous crimes. But recently, as mobile phones, digital cameras and email become available, civilian journalists, albeit amateur, start effectively spreading out information and photo and video evidence of regime’s cruelties to the outside world. During last week’s crisis, unprecedented large volume of photographic records of regime’s bloody crack down on peaceful Buddhist Monks came to world’s attention.
The civilian journalists run a very dangerous risk in capturing and sending out these photographic records of regime’s crimes against humanity. They did it with a hope that the outside world will do something to stop such inhumanities happening again in Burma, and else where. So, we need to systematically archive and compile them and prepare a case of crimes against humanity to indict Burmese SPDC military regime in International Criminal Court.
Even in South Africa, people are bringing justice now to those responsible Apartheid regime leaders. Also in Cambodia, the justice has come to Khmer Rogue leaders for human rights crimes they committed in the past. Justice had also been done on Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. Justice has also been done on Serbian genocide war criminals. The Nazi and Fascist leaders were also brought to justice for their crimes after world war II. Now, former dictators like Pinochet, Charles Taylor and Fuji Moiré have all been indicted for their crimes. So why not justice be brought upon Burmese military dictators? Are Burmese people a race so inferior than other people that they do not deserve a justice?
Here we need to consider three points.
The first point is that a fair and legal justice is not a revenge. It serves two important purposes of giving a sense of justice in general, as well as a deterrence for all would-be-dictators.
The second point is that it takes time and a tremendous international effort to bring dictators to justice. But eventually dictators must face justice under the international law in International Criminal Court. It’s a MUST.
The third point is that without an eventual justice a permanent peace will not be established. Say, for example, if opposition politicians get a power sharing agreement with the regime in Burma, they may be quite eager to forgive regime Generals, as they get what they want “The POWER”. But in such a situation can former victims of regime’s cruelties be perfectly happy? Without a proper justice, ethnic minority victims of regime’s attempted genocide will still be hating majority Burmans, leading to frequent clashes in the future. Without justice being done, generations upon coming generations of students may feel a grudge against generations upon coming generations of soldiers and military personnel in Burma. Without a proper justice, the recent victims of regime’s latest crack down on Buddhist religion will not be very much satisfied. They will have feelings of a serious lack of justice.
Without proper justice being done, a complete and permanent peace will not be possible.
So, here, we urge international community to start taking serious efforts to indict Burmese military regime, for their attempted genocide on ethnic minorities in Burma and for their human rights crimes on pro-democracy activists, students, Monks and Buddhist devotees, at the International Criminal Court.
