UN TEAM URGES WHISTLEBLOWERS TO REPORT OF CRIMES COMMITTED IN MYANMAR

Thu 18 March 2021:

A United Nations-backed team of investigators urges people in Myanmar who receive orders to commit acts against international law to come forward with evidence that can be use to prosecute leaders.

Nicholas Koumjian, the head of the United Nations Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, in a statement on Wednesday encouraged people with information that persons in high leadership positions in the country have been committing serious international crimes to contact the nechanism.

According to the statement, the mechanism follows closely events since military coup in Myanmar on February 1 and collects evidence regarding arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances and the use of force against people peacefully protesting the seizure of power.

“The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions,” says Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, in a statement.

“They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed,” says Koumjian, who handled cases including senior Khmer Rouge leaders. “To prove their responsibility requires evidence of reports received, orders given and how policies were set.”

The investigators urge whistleblowers who provide evidence “do so safely and with an abundance of caution,” according to the statement.

The Independent Investigative Mechanism is mandated to build case files that could back criminal proceedings in national, regional or international courts to hold individuals responsible for serious international crimes.

On Tuesday, the United Nations said at least 149 peaceful protesters have been killed since the military coup in Myanmar as a result of actions by security forces.

Newspapers out of print

Five privately run newspapers in Myanmar are now out of print, the result of a combination of tighter government controls on the flow of information and concerns about the safety of delivery workers.

They include The Standard Time Daily, which halted publication on Tuesday, saying it would resume once transportation conditions improved. Its decision comes after martial law was imposed in some areas of Yangon.

These newspapers, which also include 7Day News and The Myanmar Times, became a symbol of the country’s experiment with democracy in the decade before the Feb. 1 coup.