BURMESE STUDENTS MAKE 3 DEMANDS TO

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Subject: BURMESE STUDENTS MAKE 3 DEMANDS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SPDC

BURMESE STUDENTS  MAKE 3 DEMANDS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SPDC

Will the members of the SPDC be on trial?
***************************************************
SPDC IS DETERMINED TO HOLD ON TO POWER. SO ARE THE STUDENTS TO HOLD ON
TO
THEIR BELIEFS TO BRING FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY TO BURMA
 
Reported By Julien Moe
New York City, 20th August 199.Two  student groups  led by the 1988
generation have demanded the SPDC to release Min Ko Naing, an
internationally recognised Burmese student leader who has been detained
since the coup d'etat. The dissident groups have also demanded the
regime to
recognise the CRPP, the people's representative committee formed by NLD,
the
people's party led by Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The third
demand
was to stop launching arbitary arrests of the student activists and the
NLD
members on the conspiracy theory of instigating to create a 9/9/99
uprising.
If the regime refuse the students' demands, these  student groups based
in
the United States are  going to call for a seminar where, initiations to
ask
the International Criminal Court  to prosecute the members of the regime
as
war criminals, will be made. In that case, the members of the regime
will
have to face what the war criminal Vinko Martinovic  is facing today.

The groups' leaders are determined to accomplish what they have
projected .
Whether the regime accedes to the demands,  the two groups will go ahead
and
tell the ICC to prosecute  the SPDC for the war crimes they have
committed
during the decade. The groups are  also going to lobby the U.S.
administration to cut diplomatic ties with SPDC. These are the demands
that
will force the regime to ponder twice about the capabilities of the
students
abroad and the regime will not dare to underestimate the 1988 student
generation. Such a threat as to prosecute the members of the regime of
war
crimes has neber been cast by any Burmese dissident group. The demands
are
harsh and radical but they mean business to the students and their
cause.
Individuals involved in this project  to prosecute the regime are now
doing
research through and through and await  a response from the regime.

As far as the United States is concerned, President Clinton has
authorized
the Defense Department to provide $5 million in "commodities and
services"
to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
at
The Hague. President Clinton decided to provide this aid pursuant to
section
552(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, 22 U.S.C.
2348a
(the "Act"), of up to $5 million in commodities and services from the
inventory and resources of the Department of Defense for the United
Nations
War Crimes Tribunal established with regard to the former Yugoslavia by
the
United Nations Security Council, without regard to the ceiling
limitation
contained in section 552(c)(2) of the Act.

Charges regarding genocide and other violations of international
humanitarian law will be filed by these student groups who will push
human
rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and 
NGOs
to support  the project. These students claim that they  do have records
and
evidence that they will use to accomplish  their objectives. The members
of
the regime could be charged on several  counts of crimes against
humanity
(Article 5 of the Statute), namely, persecutions on political, racial
and
religious grounds; inhumane acts; murder; torture,  grave breaches of
the
Geneva Conventions (Article 3 of the Statute), namely, cruel treatment;
unlawful labour; murder; wanton destruction not justified by military
necessity; plunder of public or private property; seizure, destruction
or
wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, and 
violations of
the laws or customs of war (Article 2 of the Statute), namely, inhuman
treatment; wilful killing; torture; wilfully causing great suffering or
serious injury to body or health; unlawful transfer of a civilian;
extensive
destruction of private property.

On 17 July 1998 in Rome, 160 nations decided to establish a permanent
International Criminal Court to try individuals for the most serious
offences of global concern, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes
against
humanity. 

The regime is determined to hold on to power. So are the students to
hold on
to their beliefs and objectives  to be achieved to bring freedom and
democracy to Burma, their motherland. The regime will name them as
enemies
of the state but they are true sons and true daughters of the
motherland.