China halts Burma war crimes inquiry

[TruthSeeker]

China halts Burma war crimes inquiry

Colum Lynch, Washington, October 27, 2010

A DIPLOMATIC campaign by the Chinese government appears to have thwarted the Obama administration's plan for an international probe into possible war crimes by Burma's military rulers.

The US initiative was designed to raise the political costs to Burma's junta for failing to open its November 7 elections to the country's opposition.

But a senior US official was pessimistic about securing international support for a probe and made it clear Washington had no immediate plans to introduce such a proposal.
Advertisement: Story continues below

The Burmese junta has detained more than 2100 political prisoners, many of whom have endured torture, inadequate medical care and even death. The military has also imposed abuses on ethnic minorities, including the forced relocation of villages, forced labour and systematic human rights abuses, including ****.

''There is a pattern of gross and systematic violation of human rights which has been in place for many years and still continues,'' the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, wrote in a March report.

He said such crimes could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The US outlined its plan to support Mr Quintana's appeal for a war crimes inquiry against senior officials in August interviews with Foreign Policy magazine and The Washington Post. At the time, a senior US official said the effort could take years, comparing it with the decades-long struggle to pursue Khmer Rouge leaders.

But just days after the US signalled support for the war crimes commission, China's UN ambassador, Li Baodong, paid a confidential visit to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, to make his opposition clear on the grounds that it could undermine Burma's fragile political transition.

Liu Yutong, a spokesman for the Chinese mission at the UN, did not respond to a request for comment.

Tom Malinowski, the Washington-based director of advocacy for Human Rights Watch said: ''What we are seeing is the Chinese practising American-style diplomacy and the Americans practising Asian-style diplomacy.

''The Chinese are making it clear what they want, and they are using all the leverage at their disposal to get what they want.''

China halts Burma war crimes inquiry

 

[TruthSeeker]

China sabotaging UN war crimes probe

By DAN WITHERS, 26 October 2010

China is reportedly engaged in a covert diplomatic campaign to sabotage efforts to launch a United Nations probe into war crimes in Burma.

The Chinese have for two months been lobbying European and Asian states at the highest level to neutralise support for the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), the Washington Post reported Monday, claiming that the campaign had “taken the steam” out of the initiative.

China’s opposition to the investigation is well known, and experts were unsurprised at the revelations. Professor Ian Holliday, a specialist in China-Burma relations at the University of Hong Kong, said the move was “very much in line with China’s strategic position over the years.”

Since the crushing of pro-democracy protests in Burma in 1988 and at Tiananmen Square in China in 1989, China has supported its neighbour in insisting human rights issues were strictly a domestic concern, Holliday said.

“They themselves are an authoritarian regime that has human rights abuse on its hands. And so if this movement of international jurisdiction took off then one day it might seriously threaten the Communist Party in China itself… The core concern is not to allow anybody to stick their nose into China,” he said.

The CoI, which would investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity by the junta and Burmese ethnic armies, was first proposed officially in March by UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana. Quintana said there was evidence of “gross and systematic” abuses which indicated “a state policy that involves authorities in the executive, military and judiciary at all levels.”

In August, just days after the US expressed its support for the investigation, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, Li Baodong, visited Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff to impress on him China’s opposition to the inquiry, calling it “dangerous and counterproductive”, according to the Washington Post.

Benjamin Zawacki, Burma researcher for Amnesty International, said that in its response to the Quintana report, China had gone further than merely expressing its own reservations. The Chinese “went out of their way” to say that the inquiry was the wrong signal to send to developing countries and that those countries “would also be well advised to think seriously about whether or not to support that,” he said.

“Amnesty read the Chinese response as being a very thinly veiled instruction to other developing countries and to other countries that are like-minded, that they would rather not see them in support of this commission of inquiry,” he said.

The US hoped the threat of an investigation would pressure the Burmese junta to allow democratic opposition to take part in this year’s general elections, set for 7 November. With the polls just two weeks away and some 2,200 political prisoners – including Aung San Suu Kyi – barred from participating, that effort appears to have failed.

The likelihood that the polls will preserve the status quo will not displease the Chinese, said Zawacki. “I think what they’d prefer is to keep the situation as it is, because as problematic as it is at least it’s a situation they’ve come to understand,” he said.

“They’re dealing with a set of actors they’ve come to know, whereas the elections, however orchestrated they may be, already introduce a small element of uncertainty. And they want to make sure, as does the government of Myanmar [Burma], that that level of uncertainty is kept to a bare minimum.”

Maung Zarni, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, said China would prefer to deal with a regime similar to itself. “The Chinese consider the Americans and the British – especially the Americans – their serious rivals who don’t want to see the Chinese come up the ladder, so I think any democratic regime that comes to power is logically going to be more in tune with the Americans than the Communists or the pseudo-Communists in Beijing,” he said.

“Butchers don’t feel comfortable in monasteries. The Chinese are in no position to enlighten the Burmese or teach the Burmese how they should behave,” he added.

The commission of inquiry has been given public support by 13 nations: Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic, UK, Slovakia, Hungary, Netherlands, Ireland, France, Australia, USA, Canada and New Zealand. It has also been backed by numerous human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

In a recent interview with DVB, Aung Htoo, who heads the Burma Lawyers’ Council, expressed his hope that international pressure could convince the Chinese to back the move. “If the majority of the international community consistently highlights the situation of Burma from the aspect of commission of heinous crimes, China may exercise similar practice by taking a position of ‘abstention’ if there is a motion in the UN Security Council, as was the case for Sudan,” he said. This week’s revelations make such hopes look increasingly desperate.

China sabotaging UN war crimes probe | Democratic Voice of Burma

 

[Patriot]

I don't think US has any moral authority to criticize China for using veto power because U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel

 

[TruthSeeker]

I don't think US has any moral authority to criticize China for using veto power because U.S. Vetoes of UN Resolutions Critical of Israel

Yes, the US is wrong in its total support for Israel. BUT, China is also wrong to help genocidal regimes like the Sudan and Myanmar.

 

[CardSharp]

Yes, the US is wrong in its total support for Israel. BUT, China is also wrong to help genocidal regimes like the Sudan and Myanmar.

You got it pal. It's called a double standard, every country has one. Now go shake your cane at someone who cares.

 

[Patriot]

Hypocrisy is part of International Politics.I mean look at Dick Obama blocking supplies to Pakistan Army units for supposedly some extra judicial killings and then wikileaks leaks Pentagon reports which state that 60k+ Civilians were killed by US Forces in Iraq.This is from internal Pentagon Memo and President Obama chose to stay silent and he also did not release torture pictures.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Now go shake your cane at someone who cares.

Very intelligent debating style. Congratulations for your wonderful way with words .....

 

[TruthSeeker]

Hypocrcy is part of International Politics.

So, given this reasoning, and that of CardSharp, why have any discussion of international politics at all? If everyone who has dirty hands is not allowed to speak, and everyone has dirty hands, only silence is permitted?

 

[CardSharp]

Very intelligent debating style. Congratulations for your wonderful way with words .....

I know right? I'll treat you with the same respect you show us, you and your constant sh!t kicking antics. Ask yourself what your motivation for posting crap like this here?


If you need a way of keeping yourself entertained in your twilight year, I'd suggest

 

[TruthSeeker]

Ask yourself what your motivation for posting crap like this here?

It isn't crap. That you think that it is tells us a lot about your values.

 

[CardSharp]

It isn't crap. That you think that it is tells us a lot about your values.

Please do tell me about my values.... it's laughable to think that your real motivation for posting here are a defence of those values.

So again wood burning kit

 

[TruthSeeker]

Please do tell me about my values....

You are telling me about your values, with every post.

 

[CardSharp]

You are telling me about your values, with every post.

I guess snappy zingers are for us young folks only.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I guess snappy zingers are for us young folks only.

You flatter yourself. More of your values ... ego.....

 

[below_freezing]

It isn't crap. That you think that it is tells us a lot about your values.

American values:

conducting genocide of the natives

defending israeli genocide

abducting citizens of other countries through lies because they have insufficient evidence to get an arrest warrant from that country

removing democratically elected leaders in Iran, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, etc. with dictators and kings

supporting the feudal monarchy in saudi arabia who executes women for holding having s* or not wearing a veil

extraterritorial rights for occupation soldiers in japan, south korea and phillipines

aggressive war on afghanistan and iraq with a fake reason

bombing the embassy of another power

spying on every other nation and crying about them spying on it.