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In a debate in Parliament today, the genocide by the Burmese military regime against the Karen, Karenni and Shan ethnic minority peoples was discussed in the House of Commons for the first time ever and attracted widespread cross-party support for urgent action to stop the atrocities.
The Jubilee Campaign had been working for several weeks with Edward Leigh MP, Andrew Miller MP and Rev. Martin Smyth MP to try and secure this Parliamentary debate.
Edward Leigh MP (Conservative), who led the one and a half hour adjournment debate, called on the British government to use its permanent seat at the U.N Security Council to lobby for the setting up of an international tribunal to try Burma's military regime - the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), for genocide. He also urged the British government to push for Security Council resolutions calling on the SPDC to end the genocide against the Karen, Shan and Karenni peoples and instituting global economic sanctions, including a universal arms embargo against Burma.
Mr. Leigh described a long list of atrocities by the Burmese military against ethnic minorities in Burma, including widespread and systematic torture, extrajudicial executions, rape, forced labour, forced portering and destruction of villages, crops and food stores. Over 300,000 Karen had been internally displaced by the Burmese army and since 1993 alone, more than 30,000 Karen had died as a direct or indirect result of Burmese military action.
As an example, Mr. Leigh described a massacre on July 27th 1999 when 22 internally displaced Karen people, including a baby and 2 children, aged 2 and 8 were killed by SPDC soldiers from Infantry Battalion 101 at Kawei and Hpway Plaw villages in Mergui district. Many of the victims were beaten to death with rice pounders. He also described how civilian porters were forced to act as human minesweepers, triggering landmines with their own bodies.
Citing the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Mr. Leigh, who is also a Barrister, stressed that what is happening to the Karen, Shan and Karenni minorities in Burma today clearly fits within the international legal definition of genocide in Article 2 of the Convention. He said, " It would be tragic and irresponsible if governments continue to wallow in indecision and ignore the plight of the Karen, Shan and Karenni peoples. If there is one lesson which the world ought to have learnt from the tragedies of the 20th Century, it is that the only way to deter genocide is to respond to it swiftly and firmly, otherwise this century may prove to be even more bloody than the previous one."
During the debate, Andrew Miller MP (Labour), Rev Martin Smyth MP (Ulster Unionist), and Front Bench Spokespersons on Foreign Affairs, Cheryl Gillan MP (Conservative) and Mark Oaten MP (Liberal Democrat) supported Edward Leigh's calls for the Burmese military regime to be tried for genocide. Andrew Miller MP cited examples of intercepted Burmese military orders as evidence of their extensive involvement in atrocities.
Speaking for the Conservatives, Cheryl Gillan MP described the widespread rape of ethnic minority women by Burmese soldiers, citing an example of 2 women asked to show Burmese soldiers the way to a military camp and who were raped and killed, one being shot and the other having her throat cut. Mrs. Gillan said that what was happening to the minorities was a "forgotten act of genocide". She stressed that what was taking place in Burma was unique, with hundreds of thousands of minority peoples forced to hide in the jungle and hunted and killed like animals by the Burmese army. With about 2 million people internally displaced by the Burmese army, it had one of the worst problems of displacement in the world.
Representing the Liberal Democrats, Mark Oaten MP said that it was appropriate to look back at the way the Karen had fought loyally alongside the British in Burma during the Second World War and observed that instead of getting the independent state they had been promised, the Karen have been blatantly abused. He said, "In my judgement, what's happening to the ethnic minorities falls within the legal definition of genocide." He urged a greater use of sanctions against Burma by the British government.
Keith Vaz MP, the Foreign Office Minister responding on behalf of the British government, said he had rarely observed such unanimity of feeling at Parliamentary debates. He agreed that it was an "appalling situation" facing the Karen and other of Burma's ethnic minorities. He said that the British government was determined to keep up the pressure on the Burmese regime on every front and were helping Burma's ethnic minorities through direct humanitarian assistance, work on repatriation issues and safeguarding the security of refugees.
When pressed by Edward Leigh and Cheryl Gillan on whether the Foreign Office would acknowledge that ethnic minorities in Burma were facing genocide, Mr. Vaz appeared reluctant to commit himself at this stage, but left the matter open, saying that the British government would continue to look at this point and monitor it and said that they had noted the concerns expressed about genocide.
Edward Leigh MP says, "What is happening to the Karen, Karenni and Shan is an appalling human tragedy. Every bit of international pressure can help save lives. Our own problems pale into insignificance when one hears of these dreadful events. I hope that the British government will attempt to end the genocide against the Karen, who were our most loyal allies in Burma during the Second World War. We do have a historic responsibility."
Andrew Miller MP says, "I welcome the British government's commitment to examine the case that we are making in respect of the genocide against the Karen, Karenni and Shan. However, establishing this case should not divert us from our attempts to build up a worldwide coalition aimed at bringing about an end to the appalling atrocities.
"In my view the facts demonstrate that the Burmese regime stand condemned as the worst abusers of human rights in the world and it's time for the international community to act."