Myanmar: In race against time, experts collect evidence of rights violations 

Working retired of Geneva, determination are experts in gender violence and crimes against children; analysts with acquisition in international justice; specialists in open source evidence; and investigators working with sophisticated accusation systems.  

The team of professionals are formally known arsenic the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, (IIMM) or Myanmar Mechanism, and was created successful 2018 by the Human Rights Council. 

The Mechanism was established aft an  Independent International Fact-Finding Mission found “clear patterns” of violations by the military, known arsenic the Tatmadaw, and insisted that the perpetrators of the “gross quality rights violations”, including those against the Rohingya, must not spell unpunished. 

The IIMM is not a court, neither does it have the powerfulness to prosecute. The anticipation is that all the information that could otherwise beryllium lost, is preserved, and then shared with national, regional or planetary courts.  

In an extended interrogation with UN News, the caput of the Mechanism, Nicholas Koumjian, explains the value of preserving this evidence before it is perchance lost.  

“Crime scenes get disturbed, bodies decompose, wounds tin heal, people’s memories tin fade, witnesses with accusation tin walk away”, he explains. “So it’s precise important to cod the accusation portion you can.” 

The interrogation has been edited for clarity and length. 

UN News: You and your colleagues have been working for over two years. What has been your focus? What has been achieved so far? 

Nicholas Koumjian: We started 2 years ago, in July of 2019, and we've been gathering up the Mechanism, acquiring all of the expertise that we judge would beryllium necessary.  

We have those with expertise successful International Criminal law, in things similar sex violence, probe of crimes against children, probe of intersexual assaults, analysts with acquisition in very analyzable planetary cases. 

We person those with experience in using open source evidence and precise sophisticated and secure information systems, so that the accusation that we cod and preserve, is held confidentially and nary 1 has entree to it, and that also allows america to analyse the very immense quantities of information that we person collected. 

We're now looking astatine the grounds that we've collected, over two million pieces, and analysing that successful assorted situations, that we judge person the imaginable to magnitude to transgression cases against individuals liable for those offences. 

UN News: Are determination immoderate preliminary conclusions? Can you stock any? 

Nicholas Koumjian: What's different astir our mechanics is that we're not truly a reporting mechanism. We're not a court oregon prosecution service. We're collecting the grounds and preparing files to stock them with those courts that might, oregon judicial authorities that mightiness person the authority, and the willingness, to clasp just proceedings to clasp individuals to account.  

We've specifically been asked to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which has an probe related to Rakhine State [home to galore of those mostly-Rohingya Muslims who person fled to neighbouring Bangladesh], and we're doing that. 

We besides person been asked by the parties astatine the International Court of Justice to stock evidence, and we looked astatine that situation. We privation to assistance the judges in that lawsuit scope the champion decision, and truthful we've agreed to look for applicable grounds that we tin share, with the support of those that provided it to us.

Nicolas Koumjian, Head of the Independant Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar., by UN Photo/ Jean Marc Ferré

 🎧 Listen to the interrogation with Mr. Koumjian.

UN News: Can you tell me how you're conducting this work without having entree to the country?  

Nicholas Koumjian: It's unfortunate that we don't person access. The Human Rights Council specifically asked Myanmar to cooperate with america and we've reached retired to them and we volition proceed to scope retired and question practice and entree to the country, to the transgression scenes, and to witnesses wrong Myanmar erstwhile we tin bash truthful safely. 

UN News: Do you person immoderate anticipation that it tin hap at any time soon? 

Nicholas Koumjian: I don't deliberation there's an contiguous imaginable of that happening. But what I've learned is, in International Criminal law, and mostly successful history, it's precise hard to foretell the future. Things tin alteration overmuch quicker than we imagined, so we volition proceed to scope retired and anticipation that things bash alteration and that we volition yet person access. 

UN News: Regarding the subject coup successful in February, has it impacted your work? If so, in what ways? 

Nicholas Koumjian: We said, when the coup archetypal happened, that the alteration of authorities itself, the overthrow of the law authority, the question of fair elections and antiauthoritarian process, is not wrong our mandate, which is constricted to the astir superior planetary crimes and violations of planetary law. 

But we said that we were precise concerned, given the past of Myanmar, of truthful galore crimes against civilians occurring successful governmental conflicts, that we would beryllium watching the concern closely.  

What we've seen since past is, unfortunately, that it appears that precise superior crimes person been happening, throughout the country, successful antithetic regions, systematically and connected a wide basis. So, we're collecting that information. 

Many antithetic sources person been voluntarily reaching retired to america to supply america with information. 

Others we person contacted. I judge we received implicit 200,000 communications conscionable successful the archetypal fewer months aft the coup, so it's accrued the load connected us, but it's besides fixed us the opportunity to have much individuals and organizations consenting to talk to us, more opportunities to speech to those who person accusation astir what is happening oregon has happened successful the past successful Myanmar. And this has created immoderate opportunities for investigations. 

Conditions person 'worsened' successful Myanmar pursuing a subject coup successful February 2021, according to a UN quality rights rapporteur., by Asian Development Bank

UN News: Is it close to accidental that immoderate of these investigations, some of the accusation you're collecting, wouldn't otherwise happen, or be collected, if your mechanism didn't exist? 

Nicholas Koumjian: Yes, I judge that it is absolutely fair to say that. 

I've worked connected antithetic warfare transgression tribunals, antithetic processes to question accountability, and 1 of the things that we've seen successful different conflicts is the value of preserving accusation portion it's inactive fresh, portion you can, because, of course, crime scenes get disturbed, bodies decompose, wounds tin heal, people’s memories tin fade, witnesses with accusation tin die, tin walk distant without that accusation being collected. 

So, it's precise important to cod the accusation portion you can, due to the fact that unluckily planetary justness often is simply a agelong process. 

I came to the Myanmar mechanics from being the co-prosecutor astatine the Extraordinary Chambers for the courts successful Cambodia, different known arsenic the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which was looking into crimes committed betwixt 1975 to 1979. 

Even successful 2019, 40 years aft those crimes were committed, that process was ongoing, and the grounds was being used. Fortunately, a batch of the grounds that was utilized determination had been collected by a civilian nine organization, DC-Cam, in the 1990s, and that was precise adjuvant to us. 

So we deliberation what we're doing present is precise important, to sphere the grounds truthful that someday – and we anticipation it surely volition beryllium overmuch sooner than 40 years –  this evidence tin beryllium utilized successful courts that tin clasp those liable for crimes accountable.  

UN NEWS: When you speech astir accusation and evidence, what are you talking about? Electronic communications? Forensic evidence?  

Nicholas Koumjian: It's a wide class of information. We volition beryllium collecting accusation from individuals, sometimes interviewing individuals, collecting accusation that antithetic organizations person antecedently collected, consolidating that, and analysing it. 

Kutupalong exile campy successful Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, is 1 of the largest successful the world. and hosts hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who fled unit successful Myanmar., by © UNOCHA/Vincent Tremeau

Looking astatine integer information, looking astatine photographic and video information, analysing that with the astir modern accusation technologies. We tin find wherever videos were taken and place the duplicates, because we're getting truthful galore thousands and thousands of videos and photographs, this is precise important for america to do.  

UN NEWS: And you're getting those from civilian nine organizations? People successful the country? 

Nicholas Koumjian: We're getting it from a wide scope of antithetic sources, and of people 1 of the basal premises of our enactment is that we don't name the individuals oregon organizations that we received the accusation from. But I would accidental from a precise wide scope of antithetic types, organizations, businesses, individuals, galore antithetic types of sources. 

UN NEWS: You spoke astir having justice. What does it look similar successful this case? 

Nicholas Koumjian: I deliberation in Myanmar, arsenic successful galore different conflicts astir the world, many, galore radical person suffered. Some of them proceed to suffer. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees living outside of their homes, either wrong Myanmar or outside the borders of the country, wanting to spell home. 

Unfortunately, the crimes that they fled from proceed to hap successful immoderate way or another, truthful they don't consciousness it's harmless to spell home. 

Part of justness is assuring that those who committed crimes antecedently with impunity volition present beryllium held responsible, so that hopefully that volition deter aboriginal crimes from occurring, and that the radical of Myanmar who suffered tin person immoderate anticipation that these crimes volition extremity and that they volition person immoderate justness for what happened to themselves oregon to their household members.