"The backdrop of a Security Council referral under Chapter VII to the ICC are the ongoing systematic crimes against the people of Burma, including but not limited to extrajudicial killings, rape and other forms of sexual violence persistently carried out by members of the military regime. These crimes have been documented in all 31 United Nations Resolutions on Burma and in the reports of all 8 United Nations Envoys, which called upon the regime to end impunity. Yet, the military regime has ignored United Nations recommendations most of which include a call for an independent investigation of crimes such as the Depayin massacre, the monks killed in October 2007, the rapes by the military of ethnic women and have called for an end to the arbitrary jailing of Aung San Sui Kyi. Further, because the people of Burma have no access to a suitable judicial system, the ICC is the only avenue for bringing offenders to justice. In Burma there is no separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches of government. In fact, the junta uses the judiciary as one of its key weapons to commit crimes. For example, in November 2008, certain judges acting under the orders of Chief Justice U Aung Toe and Senior General Than Shwe convicted 280 political activists and issued sentences ranging from 4 to 104 years in prison.i The judges did not allow defendants to question prosecution witnesses, many defendants did not have legal representation and those that did were not permitted to meet with their lawyers in private. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana said in reference to these convictions that, ?There is no independent and impartial judiciary system [in Burma].”ii The ICC was created to intervene in situations when the countries themselves are unable or unwilling to investigate or prosecute. Under the current conditions in Burma, one would be hard pressed to argue that the judiciary is at all capable of prosecuting those responsible for the atrocities perpetrated by the regime..."