Honolulu:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw her support behind an international human rights probe in Myanmar amid growing US frustration with polls planned by the military regime.
Activists have long sought an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in the country formerly known as Burma, with which President Barack Obama's administration initiated dialogue last year.
Clinton, delivering a speech in Hawaii at the start of a two-week trip across Asia, offered the most explicit US backing yet for a probe, which could lead to international warrants for junta leaders.
"I would like to underscore the United States' commitment to seek accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international Commission of Inquiry through close consultations with our friends, allies and other partners at the United Nations," Clinton said yesterday at the East-West Center in Honolulu.
Human rights groups say Myanmar has one of the world's worst human rights records, with the regime detaining thousands of opponents, systematically destroying ethnic minority villages and using rape as a weapon of war.
Several other countries, including Australia and Britain, also support a UN commission, which could follow the lines of a probe on Darfur that triggered an arrest warrant on genocide
charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Activists have long sought an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in the country formerly known as Burma, with which President Barack Obama's administration initiated dialogue last year.
Clinton, delivering a speech in Hawaii at the start of a two-week trip across Asia, offered the most explicit US backing yet for a probe, which could lead to international warrants for junta leaders.
"I would like to underscore the United States' commitment to seek accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international Commission of Inquiry through close consultations with our friends, allies and other partners at the United Nations," Clinton said yesterday at the East-West Center in Honolulu.
Human rights groups say Myanmar has one of the world's worst human rights records, with the regime detaining thousands of opponents, systematically destroying ethnic minority villages and using rape as a weapon of war.
Several other countries, including Australia and Britain, also support a UN commission, which could follow the lines of a probe on Darfur that triggered an arrest warrant on genocide
charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
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