Defectors want Kim Jong-Il to be tried for crimes against humanity
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
Special From East-Asia-Intel.com
A group of civic activists and North Korean defectors have urged an international tribunal to investigate alleged human rights abuses in the Stalinist country and put dictator Kim Jong-Il on trial.
About 150 defectors signed a petition calling for the International Criminal Court to investigate reports of human rights violations in the North, such as extreme torture, sexual slavery and prison brutality. The group visited the Hague, Netherlands, this week to file its petition with the court.
"We were subjected to reduced food rations so extreme that we literally saw scores of our fellow prisoners die of malnutrition, starvation and disease," the petition said.
The letter was also sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
"North Korea's crimes against humanity are no less serious than Sudan's," said Ha Tae-Keung, who leads the group. In March, the court charged Sudan's President Omar Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur Ñ its first such action against a sitting head of state.
"We are also urging the United Nations to set up a panel to investigate human tights abuses in North Korea," Ha said, representing some 100 civic groups including defector organizations.
The Kim Jong-Il regime has long been accused of violating human rights. The North's gulag and labor camps are estimated to hold 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners, according to South KoreaÕs government reports.
The Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported this month that a number of North Koreans had been arrested and could face execution for leaking information on Kim Jong-Il's movements to South Korean news media.
Many North Korean residents in the northeastern border city of Hoeryong have been charged with espionage, the newspaper said, citing sources in the communist state.
The North has denied any human rights violations. It recently lashed out at South Korea's move to introduce a law regarding human rights abuses in the North, calling it an "unpardonable and grave hostile act."