The Burmese Rohingya Association of Japan (BRAJ) has urged Japan to back the establishment of an International Commission of Inquiry on Burma by supporting a resolution on Burma to be presented at the autumn session of the UN General Assembly, said BRAJ President Zaw Min Htut.

BRAJ members met senior officers at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on October 4 to appeal to the Japanese government to support the proposed commission.

“The Japanese government should publicly and officially support the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya and other ethnic minority people in Burma,” the group stated in a letter to Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.

A press release issued by BRAJ following the meeting in Tokyo said the group had also submitted documents to the foreign minister related to human rights violations and inhuman acts perpetrated against Rohingyas by the Burmese military, which amounted to crimes against humanity.

The BRAJ letter to Seiji Maehara outlined the growing support for an inquiry into human rights abuses by Burma’s ruling junta against Rohingya in Arakan State.

“These calls have strengthened following the March 2010 report of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, to the UN Human Rights Council, which recommended the UN to consider the possibility of establishing a Commission of Inquiry. Former UN special rapporteurs Paulo Sergio Pinheiro and Yozo Yokota, also support the establishment of an International Commission of Inquiry,” the letter stated.

“Establishing an International Commission of Inquiry would be a major step toward ending the cycle of human rights violations against Rohingyas and other ethnic minority peoples and end impunity in Burma,” said BRAJ’s Zaw Min Htut.

BRAJ has further urged Japan to join the growing numbers of nations that have expressed support for the commission, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Netherlands, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Burma has been ruled by an oppressive military regime since 1962 and has one of the worst human rights records in the world, according to numerous reports. Critics charge that the State Peace and Development Council has perpetrated numerous inhuman acts including rape, murder, torture, forced labour, forced relocation, forcible recruitment of child soldiers, the destruction of villages, and the expulsion of villagers from their homes.

Critics further charge that these acts are widespread throughout Burma as well as in northern Arakan State, where ethnic Rohingyas are concentrated.

A report titled “Crimes against Humanity in Western Burma: The Situation of the Rohingyas” from June 2010 by the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway stated that Rohingyas in western Burma have been the victim of human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity.

The report concluded that for decades the Rohingyas of northern Arakan State have suffered grave rights violations, which have prompted more men, women and children to flee Burma in the hope of finding peace and security elsewhere.

The Irish Centre for Human Rights said the report was based on extensive research conducted during fact-finding missions in Burma, Thailand and Bangladesh by experts in international criminal investigation.

On July 30, a bipartisan group of 32 US senators, led by Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire),  submitted a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for the US government “to support the establishment of a UN-led Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes” in Burma.

The previous month, nearly 60 members of the US House of Representatives wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to take action on Burma in the UN Security Council.

Since last May, the US Campaign for Burma has organized campaigns and rallied thousands of free Burma activists to send emails to President Obama urging him to support the UN-led commission of inquiry on Burma.

International support for the commission has continued to grow, according to the human rights NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

CSW wrote to the European Union foreign ministers to call on the EU to secure a recommendation for the commission of inquiry at the forthcoming UN General Assembly.

“We urge other governments and the EU to join the 10 countries in building an international coalition to establish a UN Commission of Inquiry,” said Benedict Rogers, CSW’s East Asia team leader and author of Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant.

“A full international legal investigation into the regime’s widespread and systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, forcible conscription of child soldiers, use of forced labour, torture, destruction of villages and killings is much-needed and long overdue. The crisis in eastern Burma is Asia’s Darfur and cannot be ignored any longer,” Rogers said.