London, (UNA-OIC) – A committee of British lawmakers on Tuesday urged the UK government to build an effective alliance across the international community and work with allies to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
The British parliament’s cross-party International Development Committee released a report to suggest major policy changes in the government’s Burma [Myanmar] policy in the wake of atrocities against the country’s Muslim minority, known as the Rohingya Muslims.
In the face of the ethnic cleansing, some argue genocide, of the Rohingya by Myanmar’s authorities�and with a return to attacks against ethnic groups in the North East of Myanmar — it is time for the DFID [Department for International Development] once again to review its engagement with Burma, the report said.
The UK government should adopt a frame of reference for relating to Burma that reflects that country’s deliberate, state-sanctioned long-term, ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people which has resulted in huge costs, of all kinds, for the Rohingya, Bangladesh and the international community as well as potentially protracted and intractable displacement challenge on a huge scale, it added.
The report said in the face of atrocity crimes, ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and continuing attacks against other ethnic groups, the UK can no longer continue with ‘business as usual’ in its interactions with Burma.
It said the actions and language of the UK towards Burma need to change in response to a regime which has carried out deliberate, state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing with devastating consequences for the Rohingya, Bangladesh and the international community.
The committee called on the government and its allies to gather support on referring Burma to the International Criminal Court and to apply targeted financial sanctions at key figures.
In response to this report we would like the UK government to set out how its support for UK/Burma trade takes into account concerns about the Burmese military’s involvement in the economy and human rights abuses, the report said.
Burma must realize that there is a bill to pay for the actions of the Burmese army and the inaction of Burmese government and society, Stephen Twigg, Labour MP and the chair of the committee, said.
AG/UNA-OIC
Source: International Islamic News Agency
