Following their decision to take no action on the Rohingya Crisis when they met on October 16th, EU Foreign Ministers met again yesterday and discussed the crisis, and again decided not to do anything.
“The worst human rights crisis in Burma in decades has been met by the weakest EU response in decades,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “First they did nothing as repression of the Rohingya increased, now they are doing nothing even in the face of ethnic cleansing.”
Burma Campaign UK is calling on the EU to implement the following measures:
- Officially support the establishment of a UN mandated global arms embargo (The EU currently has its own arms embargo).
- Implement a visa ban on members of the Burmese military entering the EU.
- Ban the supply of any equipment to the military, not just arms.
- End all military training and co-operation programmes.
- Ban investment and business dealings with military owned companies.
- Support a referral of the situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court.
- Explore options for the application of universal jurisdiction relating to violations of international law in Burma.
- Review co-operation and support with the government of Burma in light of its denial of human rights violations and continuation of policies of repression against the Rohingya.
The only measure taken so far by the EU is to suspend invitations for senior military officers to visit the EU. It’s not even a full visa ban.
“There is no shortage of things that can be done, only a lack of political will to do them,” said Mark Farmaner. “In a normal workplace people who fail to do their job would lose their job. When EU ministers don’t do their job Rohingya people lose their lives.”