In a rare departure, the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday publicly slammed Burma’s military junta for human rights abuses that it said had caused “immense suffering” to civilians and prisoners. Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC president, denounced the military regime for violating international humanitarian law by murdering civilians, forcing prisoners to serve as army “porters” in combat areas strewn with landmines and destroying village food stocks.
The abuses – recounted in thousands of interviews between 2000 and 2005 – occurred mainly in eastern Burma along the Thai border, where the military has spent decades battling ethnic minority insurgents, including the Karen National Union.
The Geneva-based ICRC normally expresses concern about humanitarian violations confidentially to governments, hoping quiet dialogue will lead to improvements.
In the past two decades, its sparing public criticism has been restricted to the Iran-Iraq war in 1987; Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992; Rwanda in 1994; and Israel in 2004 over the route of the West Bank barrier.
But Mr Kellenberger said Burma’s military junta has “consistently refused to enter into a serious discussion of these abuses with a view towards putting a stop to them”, prompting the agency’s rare public denunciation.
The military’s actions have “helped to create a climate of constant fear among the population and have forced thousands of people to join the ranks of the internally displaced, or to flee abroad”, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the “institutionalised and widespread practice” of forcing prisoners to carry army supplies in the landmine littered conflict zone has subjected detainees to “the dangers of armed conflict”. Along with malnutrition and exhaustion, prisoners used as porters had suffered abuse, degrading treatment, while “some had been murdered”.
The ICRC’s statement – which is likely to heighten international concern over a little-seen conflict – comes days after Eric John, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, met Burmese cabinet ministers in Beijing where he pressed for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning democracy leader, and other political prisoners.