Rights group reports human rights abuses and calls for investigation in Myanmar News
Rights group reports human rights abuses and calls for investigation in Myanmar
Photo source or description

[JURIST] The human rights group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) [advocacy website] released a report [PHP report, text; press release] Wednesday detailing human rights abuses in Myanmar. The report revealed eight violations that fall under the purview of the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] and may be classified as crimes against humanity. The report presented the first quantitative data of human rights violations in Western Myanmar. The data reveals that government and military officials in Myanmar have perpetrated human rights violations against the Chin ethnic nationality. PHR’s research suggests that the charges meet the necessary elements for the ICC to conduct an investigation. PHR Deputy Director Richard Sollom [official profile] stated:

This report reveals extraordinary levels of state and military violence against civilian populations, and many of the violations that we surveyed may constitute crimes against humanity. . .These findings demand not only attention, but action by all who are concerned with Burma’s peoples, their well-being, and Burma’s future.

PHR recommends a full investigation into alleged crimes against humanity and the creation of a judicial system that will allow for offenders to be prosecuted.

PHR’s report comes after heavy criticism of Myanmar by both international organizations and human rights groups. In December 2010, a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] expert urged [JURIST report] Myanmar’s military government to release 2,202 political prisoners. The UN official called for the release of the “prisoners of conscience,” claiming many of them suffered from health problems as a result of the harsh detention conditions. In September 2010, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] the government of Myanmar to release all political prisoners ahead of the nation’s November elections. Prior to the country’s elections, opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] was placed under house arrest. Her detention and previous exclusion from the election drew criticism from the UN and various rights groups.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Tojo and other Japanese WWII leaders executed for war crimes

On December 23, 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed for war crimes in Tokyo.

Learn more about the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

Terry Nichols convicted for Oklahoma City bombing

On December 23, 1997, Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for assisting Timothy McVeigh in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was later sentenced to life in prison. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a truck bomb that gutted the building and killed 168 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack on US. soil until the attacks of September 11, 2001. McVeigh was convicted for his role before Nichols on June 2, 1997. Learn more about the trials of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.