Sleeping in the face of genocide

"appalling situation" faces Burma's ethnic minorities. He said he understood "why the honourable gentleman raises the matter. The descriptions that he has given us are appalling, but he must know that the term 'genocide' has a precise meaning in international law. To be frank, under international law and all the rights and re spon si bil i t ies that hind one under that law, genocide is difli cult to prove. I understand the point that the honourable gentleman makes and I can assure him that we will keep looking at this point, but genocide is a legal term and has a particular definition. I know that he does not use the word loosely. Defining the acts of the Burmese regime is important to him and to what he hopes that the Government and the international community can do. I assure him that we have noted what he has said and will continue to monitor the situation closely."
While I welcome the British Government's apparent willingness to give further consideration to initiating genocide charges, I hope that they will give sincere and urgent consideration to this matter and not simply ignore it while appearing to show concern. It has already been two years since the Jubilee Campaign and 1 first drew the attention of the British Foreign Office to this genocide. How much longer do they need to deliberate over this point? The situ
ation facing the ethnic minorities is horrific, with thousands of them dying and internally displaced.
AS EDWARD Leigh rightly pointed out during the debate, "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."
The British Government cannot claim to be doing all it can to stop the atrocities against the minorities so long as it refuses to acknowledge the genocide, fails to lobby at the UN Security Council for the setting up of an international tribunal to try Burma's military regime for this crime and refuse to follow the US example of banning all new investment by British companies in Burma.
It is painfully obvious that what is happening to the Karen. Karenni and Shan is genocide. These minorities face a long list of atrocities such as rape, torture, murder, forced relocations, forced labour, destruction of their villages, food stores, crops and livestock. Since 1993 alone, over 30,000 Karen civilians have died as a result of Burmese military action.
Over 300,000 Karen are internally displaced, many of them hiding without food in the jungle from the Burmese army and are shot on sight when discovered. Altogether, about two million people have been internally displaced.
There is no shortage of evidence. The Jubilee Campaign, Karen Human Rights Group, Amnesty International and the Shan Human Rights Foundation are just some of the groups which have documented the atrocities. The UN Special Rapporteur on Burma has acknowledged that the atrocities are organised, resulting from the Burmese regime's policy "at the highest level, entailing political and legal responsibility". Documentaries have been made about the plight of the minorities and film and photographic evidence of the atrocities are plentiful.
If what I have described is not genocide then it's hard to imagine what is. Yet the British Government is slow to recognise the obvious. The difficulty is not fitting the facts, which are well documented, within the legal definition of genocide, which is broad. Furthermore, there are at least 120,000 Karen refugees in Thailand who Can testify to the Burmese army's atrocities. The real difficulty is not lack of evidence but lack of political will. The British Government currently lacks the political will to recognise that what is happening to the Karen, Karenni and Shan is genocide. One reason is that such recognition would place the British Government under immense pressure to take stronger measures against the Burmese regime including economic sanctions and lobbying at the UN Security Council for the setting up of a tribunal to try the Burmese regime for this serious crime. Acknowledging genocide forces the British Government to move from human rights rhetoric to stronger action.
It would be unconscionable for our government to ignore genocide simply because it is convenient to do so. The British Government has a moral and historical responsibility to Burma and especially to the Karen. Britain was the colonial power in Burma and the Karen were the most loyal allies of the British during the war against the Japanese, Many Karen were tortured and killed for refusing to reveal the whereabouts of British officers infiltrated behind Japanese lines. Oral promises by the British of independence for the Karen were never fulfilled. Contrast our actions against Serbian and Bosnian warlords with our actions in Burma. Why should a life in South East Asia be worth less than a life in South East Europe?
I hope that the British Government will swiftly acknowledge the genocide and not betray the Karen for a second time.
David Alton is an independent crossbench peer Professor of Citizenship at Liverpool John Moore 'a University and one of the founders of the Jubilee Campaign