ICC Note: Recently a large number of gross human rights violation has been reported by a U.N. fact-finding mission. Th conflict between Burma and Kachin began decades ago, partly because the county’s leader at the time wanted to declare Buddhism as the state religion but was resisted by the Kachin’s predominantly Christian community. Even after the ceasefire of 1994, human rights violations including religious discrimination continued.

09/08/2018 Burma (CatholicHerald) – While the world watched – but failed to prevent – the genocide of Burma’s Muslim Rohingyas, further crimes against humanity have been perpetrated elsewhere in the country, away from the international spotlight. Burma’s generals have intensified their assault against the predominantly Christian Kachin, as well as the Buddhist Shan ethnic groups, in northern Burma, with devastating consequences.

Last week, the veil was finally lifted on Burma’s catalogue of gross human rights violations in an interim report by a United Nations fact-finding mission, instigated by the UN Human Rights Council.

While the inquiry accuses the generals of genocide against the Rohingyas, it also concludes that abuses committed against the Kachin and Shan “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”. These crimes include murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, rape, sexual violence, persecution and enslavement.

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