By Kantarawaddy Times
Karenni police officers who joined the protest movement against the Burmese dictatorship are demanding that the regime be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its crimes against humanity.
“The military junta must be indicted for its human rights violations against the country’s civilian population,” said Karenni State police officer Bo Bo. Together with the Karenni State Consultative Council (KSCC) and Human Rights Department of the National Unity Government (NUG), they’ll try bring the regime to justice, he said.
Bo Bo explained that they have collected evidence of the junta’s war crimes and hopes to present it to the ICC.
Next month, the regime will deliver its preliminary objections at the International Court of Justice in The Hague against Gambia’s genocide charges related with the army’s 2017 clearance campaign against the Rohingya in Rakhine State.
On Monday, January 17, the military killed two Karenni girls, ages 12 and 15, and a 52-year-old man and injured three other women in an airstrike on the Rekeebu camp for internally displaced persons in Hpruso Township. The day before, the military killed volunteers Maung John Ahko Steno, 14, Maung Ree Chek, 16, and Maung Bossko 17, in another airstrike in Nam Maekhong in western Demawso Township where many have fled the fighting.
Most people from Rekeebu camp fled fighting in the Mo So area, where the army murdered at least 35 villagers and burned their bodies as they tried to escape violence near the village on Christmas Eve.
According to the Karenni Civil Society Network, more than 170,000 people have been uprooted by the military’s offensives and fighting with civilian resistance groups in Karenni State and southern Shan State. The regime has killed at least 182 civilians since overthrowing the government in a bloodless coup last February.
Since mid-January, the military has blocked the delivery of food and other essential rations to Loikaw. This raises fears that the remaining residents of the besieged capital of Karenni State will soon starve if the situation continues.
“We call on international non-governmental organisations and humanitarian aid agencies to immediately start relief efforts for Karenni State,” Aung San Myint, second secretary of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) told Kantarawaddy Times. KNPP is the political wing of the Karenni Army that is fighting the military.
Local aid groups can provide only one-third of the rations needed by those affected by the conflict, said Banyar from KSCC. ”If we do not get help from UN, our people will definitely face a humanitarian crisis,” he said. The committee was formed by political parties, armed groups, and civil groups opposed to the regime and allied with NUG.
The Karenni Human Rights Group said the regime has continuously violated the Geneva Conventions, which Burma ratified in 1992, by committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during its war against Karenni resistance groups and the people of Karenni and Shan states.
