I can’t recall ever seeing the Burmese junta taking legal action against one of its own soldiers in order to punish high-profile human-rights abuses. Yet, that’s what it appears might just happen in response to a shooting in Pegu. According to the government-run New Light of Myanmar, a lawsuit will be filed against the soldiers who shot two residents dead after a dispute. The junta still blames pro-democracy elements for inciting the incident, but is suggesting that the soldiers deserve to be subjected to legal scrutiny (of course, whether it results in conviction is another story). This type of response is very rare – indeed, I can’t recall seeing anything like it before. I’ll make sure to follow the case, and what it might imply about the military courts under the new constitution. (Irrawaddy has more details on the story).
Category Archives: Burma
Updates, updates
No, Rule by Hukum is not dead. I’ve merely been busy preparing to begin my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan. Here are two interesting articles from Burma and Philippines:
First, Irrawaddy has an op-ed piece discussing Suu Kyi’s recent lawsuits against the SPDC under the election laws. It’s an intelligent piece that raises several concerns about the litigious approach to political protest in the current context. In particular, it mentions the possibility that the NLD’s lawsuit might get bogged down in court procedure and legalisms, rather than fomenting political change.
Second, I thought readers might be interested in an update from the Philippines, where the biggest justice-related news is the impeachment proceedings against the Ombudsman for allegedly stalling inquiries into Arroyo’s corruption and human rights abuses. The Ombudsman’s case isn’t helped much by the fact that she was a classmate of Mikey Arroyo. However, one of the leaders of the impeachment proceedings has a conflict of interest, notably a case pending before the Ombudsman. It’s one of those exciting soap operas so common amongst the Philippine elite. You can read more here and here.
I probably won’t be making as many posts now that my Ph.D. program has started, but I’ll try to write once a week and share some of the most important legal news from the region. Of course, when I begin my research, I’ll share that as well.
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Filed under Burma, Philippines
Do war crimes pay?
According to the Washington Post, the Obama administration will support a U.N. commission of inquiry into the Burmese junta’s war crimes. The administration hopes that the probe would be a way to discredit Than Shwe and encourage younger officers to oust him (for more on Than Shwe, check out Benedict Rogers’ upcoming biography).
Will it work? Well, let’s recall our old “friend,” Omar-al Bashir. A while ago, I wrote about how the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for President Bashir might expose the impotence of the international criminal system. I recall people who knew Sudan well making the same arguments about Sudan’s ruling party that Burma activists are now making about the tatmadaw – namely, that the elites care too much about their survival to let the head honcho drag them down. However, (as the comic from Pazambuka News below shows), Bashir remains at large and, if anything, Sudan seems to have fallen from the international radar screen.
Oddly enough, so far I haven’t seen anybody mention Bashir in the context of the proposed Burma commission of inquiry. In fact, it’s not clear what form the commission of inquiry would take (it seems separate and distinct from the ICC, which in itself is an odd choice). However, the parallels are striking and suggest that a commission of inquiry without other forms of political pressure will do little to resolve Burma’s political impasse. If anything, it might worry younger officers, who probably also have dirtied their hands while rising through the ranks…
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Filed under Burma, International Criminal Court, Myanmar
A (denied) glimpse into Burma’s justice system
Burma’s justice system remains amongst the most opaque in Southeast Asia. While the law nominally mandates open trials, the judge can order a closed trial at his or her discretion. Yesterday, according to Democratic Voice of Burma, there was an interesting case of a judge apparently allowing the defendant’s family to attend trial, only for the family to be blocked by Military Intelligence. The entire article is worth a read as it provides a brief glimpse into the Burmese criminal justice system.
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Filed under Burma, criminal procedure
Book Review: Stormier than Fiction
I’ve published a book review of Emma Larkin’s new book, Everything is Broken, in Irrawaddy. I highly recommend both this book and Larkin’s previous book, Finding George Orwell in Burma.
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Filed under Burma, Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar
Dominic J. Nardi, Jr. 
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