UN ‘considers’ Burmese rebels in India

by peacerunning

UN ‘considers’ Burmese rebels in India

Nov 13, 2009 (DVB)–A United Nations body is to finally ‘consider’ granting refugee status to 34 Burmese men appearing in an Indian court on charges of gun smuggling, 11 years after they were arrested.

A lawyer for the group, comprising 10 members of the Karen National Union (KNU) and 24 from the National Union Party of Arakan (NUPA), criticized the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for its slow response to the case.
“The role of the international community, and especially the UNHCR, is a bit sad. If the UNHCR had stepped in it certainly would have helped,” said the lawyer, Nandita Haksar.
Officials at India’s intelligence agency had in 1998 promised the men a base on Landfall Island in the Indian Andaman Islands. When they arrived, however, six of the group were murdered and the survivors detained by the Indian military.
Haksar has accused Indian intelligence of adopting “dilatory tactics” in the trial, with the courts not issuing a charge sheet until six years after the men were first detained.
One lawyer for the defence has died in mysterious circumstances, while two of the defendants have disappeared and are believed to have died.


Furthermore, according to Haksar, one of the men murdered on Landfall Island “was a recognized refugee of the UNHCR so they had a responsibility that one of their refugees has been killed, and they did nothing.” Furthermore, according to Haksar, one of the men murdered on Landfall Island “was a recognized refugee of the UNHCR so they had a responsibility that one of their refugees has been killed, and they did nothing.”