Burma / United Nations

UN Should Consider Investigating Burma for War Crimes, Lawyer Says
By Richard Lloyd
The Times, March 12, 2010
"The United Nations should consider investigating Burma’s military dictatorship for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a UN report has urged, raising the possibility of an international tribunal like those for Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Tomas Ojea Quintana, an Argentine lawyer who is UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, described 'gross and systematic' human rights abuses which appear to be perpetrated with the connivance of the Burmese authorities. They include mass arrests of peaceful dissidents, the torture and killing of prisoners, denial of the right to free assembly, freedom of worship and freedom of expression, and forced labour. 'Some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the ... International Criminal Court,' Mr. Quintana said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, published on Thursday. [...]"