Seeking Justice in Burma

The following is an excerpt from Seeking Justice for Burma, a report authored by PILPG's strategic partner at Vanderbilt University.  The full report can be found here.

    On 2 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Burma, destroying everything in its path and killing thousands. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) knew it was coming and failed to issue an adequate warning to the people in harm's way. Civilized people were shocked in subsequent days by the countless accounts of official interference and outright obstruction of the international efforts to aid survivors. Stories of documented instances of aid being contingent on bribes, forced labor, misappropriated supplies, starving refugees, and diseases from contaminated water filtered through the misanthropic government's blockades. The world stood ready and waiting to help, but its aid was left rotting on docks and airstrips.

    These actions constitute crimes against humanity. The failure to warn and the withholding and abuse of humanitarian aid, both of which substantially increased the death toll, amount to the crime against humanity of murder. The widespread withholding of supplies and obstruction of aid workers, which created a man-made catastrophe in the wake of a natural disaster, undoubtedly fall under the crime against humanity of extermination. The SPDC's removal of refugees from aid shelters and its compulsory return of these people to dangerous areas constitute the crime against humanity of forced transfer. Finally, all of these actions, as well as the distribution of tainted supplies and the conditioning of aid allocation on votes, pledging military service, and forced labor rise to the crime against humanity of inhumane acts. This deplorable conduct by the SPDC when its people were in need must not be tolerated.

    Hugo Grotius once concluded that a state cannot conduct “atrocities against its subjects which no just man can approve.” No just man, looking at the conduct of the military government in Burma could approve or allow such behavior. The international community must act when a purported government abuses its power and condemns its own people.

    A crucial first step in righting the numerous wrongs in Burma is the rejection of the credentials of the military junta's representatives to the U.N. General Assembly. The legitimate and democratically-elected government, comprised of the Members of Parliament Union (MPU) and the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), should represent the people of Burma before the nations of the world.