ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By VIOLET CHO : Encouraged by the UN Security Council resolution condemning sexual violence against women, international women’s associations, including Burmese groups, have urged the world body to arraign Burma’s junta before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The appeal came from the Women’s League of Burma, the Burma Lawyers’ Council and the New York-based Global Justice Center, which works closely with international women’s organizations.

The Burmese women’s groups welcomed the UN Security Council adoption of its resolution on sexual violence on 19 June 2008, saying they believed it gave hope to women around the world, and in Burma in particular, for justice.

Lway Aye Nang, a leading member of Burma’s Palaung Women's Organization, said the Security Council should use its powers to bring the military junta before the ICC.

A statement by the Burmese women’s groups named the three members of the ruling junta—Snr-Gen Than Shwe, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen Thura Shwe Mann—and said they should be made answerable for the systematic sexual violence occurring under their rule.

“Rapes and crimes against women are common in Burma, especially in ethnic minority groups. Although the military government knows that its soldiers are committing crimes against women it has ignored them and failed to take action,” she said.

“It is now time for us to use international laws to bring justice for women who have suffered under the military regime.”

The Burmese women groups said there was adequate documentation of sexual violence used by the military junta against women of ethnic nationalities in order to consolidate military rule and destroy ethnic communities.

Rape had been used for many years as a weapon in the war against ethnic nationalities, as a means of demonstrating the army's absolute power to retaliate against those who resisted it, the women’s groups said.

Women were also being forced to work as porters for the army and to perform sexual services for soldiers at night, they charged. Many women and their family members had been killed to eliminate evidence of these crimes.

None of the perpetrators has yet been brought to justice, they complained.