Ruling on Civil-Military Dictatorship of Myanmar

Case 02-2015: Myanmar

Ruling on Civil-Military Dictatorship of Myanmar

December 11, 2017

As a result of a recent military report from Myanmar, absurdly exonerating itself and denying the massive atrocities committed against the Rohingya People, the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights issues the following independent and neutral Ruling where it is renewed the condemnation of the civil-military government of Myanmar for the charges of Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Crimes against humanity and High Crimes against Peace. This Ruling is necessary from the recent worsening of the circumstances of the Rohingya People, which has been subjected to mass murders and sexual abuses organized by the government, especially against women and children, creating living conditions that have recently forced more than 600,000 people to flee desperately to Bangladesh, where they are not welcomed as well. For the de facto leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar is only fighting terrorists and these deaths are not from innocent people, coming to the point to consider genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity denounced by international organizations as nothing but fake news.

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights agrees with Amnesty International that the government-supported military systematically enter neighborhoods of the Rohingya People where they illegally execute men and boys, rape girls and women, and then burn down all houses with elderly and babies inside, repeating this pattern in many areas of Myanmar. These murders and massacres that have annihilated thousands of people, mostly minors, along with systematic and widespread torture and sexual abuse with the purpose of traumatizing, exterminating and expelling the Rohingya People, constitute irrefutable proof of crimes against humanity, violating the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights criticizes the civil-military dictatorship of Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing for having carried out a real coup d'état against the constitutional rights of the People of Myanmar, instead of respecting its sovereign and democratic will. This authoritarian, dictatorial and criminal alliance by Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing, supported even by the Vatican, has had terrible consequences, since it has not only maintained laws restricting freedom of expression and keep political prisoners incarcerated, but they have also plotted together to give total impunity to serious violations of the International Human Rights Law such as mass murders, which has even been criticized by Katina Adams of the US Department of State. In this sense, US Congressmen such as the Republican Steve Chabot and the Democrat Joseph Crowley have tried to carried out economic sanctions against the military regime of Myanmar, trying to send a clear message that there is no excuse for cruel and extensive deportations of civilians, although it is undoubtedly very difficult to issue economic sanctions to a country that during a genocide receives the papal support of the Holy See. In a position totally opposed to such complicity, organizations such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights have publicly denounced the genocide that is happening in Myanmar against the Rohingya People.

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights recalls that Myanmar was formerly a country member of the Buddhist Civilization, so that the Buddhist Law system still has an enormous political and cultural importance in this country. In this way, it is confirmed that the civil-military dictatorship of Myanmar, through an ongoing genocidal behavior that has been described as ethnic cleansing by Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN, and by Secretary Rex Tillerson of the USA, has been violating all the ethical and humanitarian principles of the Buddhist Law. At the same time, Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, has recently stated the same position that the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights has had since its creation in 2015, denouncing that the Myanmar Army should be judged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for using sexual abuse as an act and weapon of genocide, in addition to using torture and burning houses as tools of persecution against children and women in order to forcibly leave the country. This public request for Myanmar to be judged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) has also been driven by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation, which has additionally required economic sanctions from the UN. Not only has Human Rights Watch organization agreed that impunity for the systematic and widespread crimes committed by the Myanmar army should be ended, but even President Trump himself has stated that the brutal atrocities committed require accountability.

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights, because it has a moral obligation to defend the natural rights of all sentient beings and never tolerate injustice, rules that the de facto leaders of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing, are not only responsible for Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Crimes against humanity and High Crimes against Peace, but also for VIOLATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW and VIOLATION OF BUDDHIST LAW.

Always with a reconciling spirit,

Master Maitreya Samyaksambuddha

President and Judge of the International Buddhist Ethics Committee & Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights