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15:57 GMT
GENEVA, March 15 (KUNA) -- The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of
Human Rights in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana said Monday that the Muslim
community in a state in the North is subject to serious discrimination.
He added, in a news briefing today, that the discriminatory acts against
the Muslim minority in Myanmar represents essential human rights violations.
Tomas Ojea Quintana said that those acts by the Government of Myanmar are
against the principle of non-discrimination and called upon the government to
address them and allow the Muslims in the Northern state to enjoy all human
rights as they enjoyed political rights when voting for the 2008 referendum.
He called for a commission of enquiry to address the gross human rights
violations in Myanmar in general and that its mandate be under that of any UN
body, noting that some of the acts against the people in Myanmar may entail
crimes against humanity.
Tomas Ojea Quintana said that it is now the time for the Government of
Myanmar to assume its responsibility to undertake steps in the direction of
eradicating those gross human rights violations because this year is an
election year there.
While the Special Rapportuer on the Situation of Human Rights in the
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn
suggested that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could be used as a tool
for accountability because the Security Council can refer cases to the ICC
when a country is not signatory to the ICC statute.
He stressed that the UN must lend a helping hand for the protection of the
people, and that the totality of the UN system must be used including the
Security Council.
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn called for specific measures, among them, to
ensure the effective provision of and access to food and other basic
necessities for those in need of assistance and to rectify the distorted
pattern of food distribution and that money must be spent on food and not on
the nuclearization of the country.
Both UN Special Rapporteurs submitted today their reports to the Human
Rights Council. (end)
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