Every action taken by the United Nations for Myanmar is being questioned both internally and externally as a displeased and unsatisfied situation. The United Nations has not been able to take effective action for Myanmar until 2nd anniversary of the coup by the Myanmar Military.
With the coup process in Myanmar, the crises are gradually increasing. As the power struggle between the National Unity Government (NUG) and the SAC Military continues, the country’s economic crisis and insecurity have not been less.
Some of the UN’s subsidiary organizations for the conflicts in Myanmar are also continuing their activities at a rapid pace from the last few years to more than 2 years of the current coup period. However, there are still questions about how they take actions.
As in the years before the coup, the Myanmar people are more interested and be aware of the ICJ and ICC relate to Myanmar affairs. On November 11, 2019, the Gambia filed a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with the support of 57 member countries of the Islamic Cooperation, for the brutality of the Myanmar Military.
In addition, on 14th November 2019, Pre-Trial Court (No. 3) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) had assigned the power to the ICC prosecutor to continue to investigate the situation in Myanmar or Bangladesh.
Through these circumstances, efforts to take the Myanmar Military accountable for their actions continues to forward, but there were no major impacts. In that situation, the independent investigation mechanism of Myanmar, namely IIMM, had been set up.
That mechanism was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in September in 2018. It was assigned the power to collect, integrate, keep, analysis and evaluate the evidence related to the most serious international crimes and violations of international law that had been committed by the Military in Myanmar since 2011.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the main judicial body of the United Nations, and it deals with cases of disputes between “State to State” of its member States.
Then the International Criminal Court (ICC) is also investigating the crimes based on the information from Bangladesh related to Myanmar affairs, but it also has many limitations. It depends on the decision of the United Nations Security Council, although the relevant individual must testify for the crime.
In the ICC case, it is conducting through Bangladesh, a member State, for Myanmar, which is not a member of its Rome treaty.
The decisions of the UN depend on the voting results of the rotating ten countries and five permanent countries in the United Nations Security Council, and in this situation, the powerful countries such as Russia and China are like an obstacle to Myanmar’s affairs. So, in that situation, the United Nations did not state anything more than a statement of concern for Myanmar.
The independent investigation mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), has received a lot of information about Myanmar affairs till the present from the day it was established. While the SAC continues to commit their crimes without returning back, on the other hand, IIMM is keeping a watchful eye on all the SAC’s activities and actions.
The IIMM is conducting to systematically record all events in Myanmar. As early as last August 2022, the IIMM had reported that rape and other forms of sexual violence were occurring in Myanmar, especially women and children being the most affected.
In addition, among the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar, women and children are severely affected, and the conditions that they are being held as hostages are increasing badly. At the time, the IIMM team had announced that after more than three years of research, they had been able to collect more than three million pieces of information from more than 200 resources.
Although such evidence is collected, the IIMM informed that it will share its collected evidences to only courts and tribunals that are not defined and are not be able to judicial power of the death imprisonment.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) has sent evidence of war crimes and genocide committed in Myanmar to international courts and is working hard to bring the alleged offenders to the court. Until now, it is still in the process of gathering information and taking action to identify and prosecute those who committed crimes.
The IIMM is an independent body although it is an organization under UN. Not only the actions of the SAC Military are being investigated and recorded, but the actions of all armed organizations in Myanmar are being recorded. It does not receive support from the United Nations, but it does receive support from some countries. However, its records and evidences are reported to the United Nations General Assembly.
On September 21, 2022, the United States had announced that it would donate one million dollars to the UN’s Independent Investigation Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). It was announced at the time that such assistance is to support victims and witnesses who were tortured by the Myanmar Military.
Until now, this organization is still recording and compiling information on the actions of the SAC Military in cooperation with some local organizations in Myanmar. It must be said that it is conducting step by step to bring the SAC Military to courts with no ground to escape from crimes, but it is a situation that will continue only with limitations according to the powers of the organizations.
Nicholas Koumjian, the head of the IIMM organization, has informed that “any offender committed war crime must be punished in any way.” It will have to wait and see whether at some point, the time that the SAC Military will have to accountable for every single action they have taken, will come to near or not.
In 2023, due to the above activities, it remains interesting to see what we can expect from the UN and some of its subsidiary organizations regarding Myanmar affairs and whether their focus on Myanmar affairs will be more intense than in previous years.