Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 47: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he supports the recent recommendation of the UN special Rapporteur on Burma that an official UN commission of inquiry be established to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. [24898/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland fully supports the suggestion of the UN Special Rapporteur on Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, that United Nations institutions consider the possibility of establishing a commission of inquiry with a specific fact-finding mandate to address the question of international crimes in that State. In addition to the evident systematic repression of political dissent and expression throughout the country, we are deeply concerned about the allegations that have been made by a number of ethnic groups that they have been subjected to grave breaches of international humanitarian law by the Burmese regime and we feel that such allegations should be formally investigated.

Given our very deep concerns about the situation faced by Burma's ethnic groups, my Department commissioned the Human Rights Centre at the National University of Ireland Galway to undertake independent research into the treatment of Burma's Rohingya ethnic group, one of the most ill-treated of all the ethnic groups, who are a minority within a minority. That study, which I will be launching next week, provides accounts of systematic persecution of, and discrimination against the Rohingyas. As a result of the actions against them by the regime, which include a denial of their right to citizenship, the Rohingyas are being forced over the border into Bangladesh or to flee out to sea, where they end up in appalling conditions in refugee camps or detention centres in neighbouring countries, if they do not perish at sea.

I shall, of course, be providing copies of the Report also to all members of the Oireachtas, to Irish NGOs and to the Irish media on its publication, and copies will also be made available to all UN Members, relevant UN bodies themselves and to international human rights NGOs. Besides the Rohingya, a range of other ethnic groups have presented allegations and evidence of serious and systematic humanitarian abuses in the course of military offensives and other actions against them by the Burmese military regime. Despite widespread calls for decisive action for such allegations to be formally investigated, I very much regret that there seems little chance that an official UN Commission of Inquiry will be set up any time in the near future. Sadly, I do not believe that there is currently sufficient international consensus to facilitate the instigation of a formal international legal process against the Burmese regime. This was very much in evidence in the wake of the appalling events of September 2007 - when the regime launched a ruthless crack-down on monks and other peaceful protestors, killing large numbers of them, and wounding and/or detaining many others – when efforts at that time to gain Security Council action and the initiation of a formal Inquiry failed due to insufficient international support, particularly among some of Burma's neighbours and friends.

On my own part, and that of the Government more broadly, we will continue, as we have long done, to work pro-actively - bilaterally, through the EU and at the international level - in support of the cause of democracy and justice for the people of Burma, for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, for elections later this year that are free, fair and inclusive, for the horrific crimes against the ethnic peoples of Burma to end, and for the perpetrators of the many crimes against the Burmese people to be brought to justice.