Burmese refugee: I'm a war criminal

Htoo Htoo Han says he was responsible for at least 24 murders and involved in 100 other executions. Photo / AAP

A Burmese activist's claims to have been a secret government assassin responsible for at least 24 murders has again focused attention on alleged war criminals living in Australia.

Htoo Htoo Han, a refugee who is now an Australian citizen, told the news agency AAP that he had been an undercover intelligence agent between 1987 and 1988, leading a team of killers eliminating opponents of Burma's military junta.

Han said his team had posed as protesters to infiltrate student groups and during the 1988 uprising had shot 24 activists in the back of the head.

As leader of the assassination squad, Han said he was indirectly involved in at least 100 other executions.

Some of the assassins had tortured their victims before their deaths, including a number who had been buried alive, although Han said he had not taken part in such killings.

Now 44 and a father of three children, Han said he had decided to confess to the media to ensure his story gained publicity, and because he could no longer live with the guilt of his former life.

"I did it, I am a war criminal," he said. "For so long I have lived like an animal.

"Now I want to release what I carry inside for 20 years. I want to say sorry to the mothers and fathers of the people I killed."

Burma's military rulers have been brutal in repressing dissent.

Last year a report by the Physicians for Human Rights detailed atrocities in the western Chin state, including killings, disappearances, beatings, torture, intimidation, rape of women, children and men by soldiers, and forced labour.

Amnesty International claims the military killed more than 140,000 ethnic Karen civilians between 2005 and 2008.

Han said he had escaped an attempt on his life after he turned against the junta and had earlier claimed to have been jailed and beaten for threeyears.

He has led campaigns against the Burmese regime since arriving in Australia.

He was the subject of a 2003 SBS TV documentary, and later gained wide publicity by walking shackled through the centre of Brisbane.

The Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, said Han's "extremely serious" claims would be assessed by the Australian Federal Police, and that Australia had a strong framework to investigate and prosecute war crimes.

But legal experts have questioned Australia's ability and will to deal with war criminals.

A 1986 federal review uncovered 27 former Nazis it believed guilty of atrocities during World War II, but who had escaped prosecution for want of sufficient evidence.

A special unit set up to investigate the allegations unsuccessfully charged three men with war crimes. The unit was disbanded in 1992.

A decade later, a war crimes screening unit was established to weed out suspected war criminals among refugees fleeing modern conflicts in the Middle East and Balkans, aided by a special task force that investigated 82 cases before also being disbanded.

A Lowy Institute study said Australia had never extradited anyone to face trial for alleged war crimes, and no war criminal had ever been stripped of Australian citizenship.

In April, after allegations that a Sri Lankan man holding dual Australian citizenship had helped murder three surrendering rebel Tamil Tigers, Monash University international law expert Gideon Boas said Australia's position on the prosecution of residents accused of war crimes remained unclear.

In an article written for the Age, Boas said that while such cases were complex, Australia's reluctance to act went far beyond purely legal considerations.

"We have a great anxiety about the resources involved in such prosecutions," he wrote, "and an even greater anxiety that the Australian public does not really support prosecuting people who committed crimes - even war crimes - in other countries."