military government of Burma to improve its record on religious rights.
The UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) told BosNewsLife that it welcomes the "unprecedented move by the United Nations Security Council to formally add Burma to its agenda, pronouncing the country’s military regime a threat to international peace and security."
Calls for the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis in Burma gained momentum last year with the release of the report Threat to the Peace: A call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma , commissioned by Nobel Laureate and former Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu and former Czech President Vaclav Havel, CSW said.
The decision to put the situation in Burma on the Security Council agenda was reportedly supported by ten nations, including the United Kingdom and the United States.
“Human rights violations are rife in Burma and include widespread recruitment of child soldiers, rape, forced relocation of ethnic villages, forced labor, and human minesweepers,"said CSW which has been investigating the situation on the ground. There is especially concern over the treatment of predominantly Christian ethnic groups in Burma, BosNewsLife learned.
ABUSES
"A recent CSW fact-finding visit to Kachin State in Northern Burma , uncovered fresh evidence of these abuses. One former Burma Army Major told CSW that some child soldiers are so young ‘they still pee in the night,’" CSW claimed. Many Karen people are forced to flee their villages by an ongoing military offensive, BosNewsLife established during previous investigations.
Investigators also say that infant mortality rates and deaths from treatable diseases in Burma are among the worst in the world. The World Health Organization ranks Burma ’s health care 190th out of 191 states. Burma is also rated one of the worst violators of religious freedom.
The U.S. State Department’s latest Annual Report on International Religious Freedom was released last week and documents the restrictions placed on minority religions to publicly practice their faith or construct new places of worship, CSW recalled.
"DELIGHTED"
"CSW is [therefore] delighted that the UN Security Council is finally giving the crisis in Burma the attention it deserves. It is a long-overdue first step towards restoring freedom and democracy," said CSW Advocacy Director Tina Lambert.
"We call on the Security Council to turn words into action by passing a binding resolution calling for meaningful dialogue between the regime, the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the ethnic nationalities, assuring unhindered access to all areas of the country for international humanitarian organizations, and the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience in Burma," Lambert added.
There was no noticeable reaction from Burma’s military, but the government has in the past rejected claims of human rights abuses. (With reports from Burma).
