The following from the US Campaign for Burma tells one way you can help!
 |
|
For years, Burma’s military regime has carried out brutal human rights abuses against its own civilians. Their abuses include the conscription of tens of thousands of child soldiers, the destruction and forced displacement of over 3,300 ethnic minority villages, widespread rape of Burmese women, the killing of civilians, and forcing hundreds of thousands of Burmese people into forced labor, what some call modern-day slavery.
These are not simply human rights abuses — they are mass atrocities called “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes,” meaning that they are illegal under international law such as the Geneva Conventions and Rome Statute.
In the past, the United Nations Security Council has voted to create a “Commission of Inquiry” to investigate abuses of a major magnitude
— such as in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and the Darfur region of Sudan. The Commission of Inquiry then makes recommendations to the U.N. Security Council for action. However, no such Commission of Inquiry been created for Burma.
Now, two leading members of the U.S. Congress, Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Don Manzullo (R-IL) have organized a letter to President Obama asking him to press the U.N. Security Council to create a Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Burma’s military regime. They are circulating a letter in Congress and asking other Congressmembers to sign-on. They want as many members as possible to sign the letter, which will then be sent to President Obama.
We need your help to get more members of Congress to sign. When members of Congress organize letters like this they are called “Dear Colleague” letters. We want you to call your member of Congress and ask them to sign this “Dear Colleague” letter.
Every American is represented in the U.S. Congress by one member of the U.S. House of Representatives. We would like you to call your Congressional office to urge your member of the U.S. House of Representatives (NOT the U.S. Senate) to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter along with Congressman Crowley and Manzullo. You do not have to be a citizen; just live or work in your Congressperson’s district. Below are specific instructions on how you can do this.
|
Click here for the rest of the instructions…….
Jewels in the Ashes 