28 January 2016•Update: 28 January 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
NAY PYI TAW
Myanmar's parliament squeezed in a bill Thursday that will shield former presidents from prosecution for crimes committed during their terms of office.
The five-chapter bill, which stipulates that no legal action or penalty can be carried out against a former head of state for his or her actions in the line of duty, was approved by the ruling party-dominated parliament.
The parliament is to stand down Friday, to make way for an opposition dominated house.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is due to take power March 31 following last year's landslide election victory.
It was the first general election since outgoing President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government replaced military rule in 2011 -- a vote widely seen as a referendum on the country's unsteady reform process.
The bill introduced Thursday has proved controversial for its granting of blanket immunity for any actions of a former president conducted while in office, except in the case of a successful impeachment vote.
Thein Sein is already protected from prosecution under the provisions of the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.
Article 445 of the charter grants immunity to all members of the junta-era State Peace and Development Council, the supreme decision-making body of the military regime of which Thein Sein was a senior member.
The bill has been strongly criticized by local and international rights groups.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called last month for the immunity provision to be “stripped from the proposed law so that President Thein Sein and future Burmese [Myanmar] presidents remain accountable for any crimes they commit”.
“The proposed provision on presidential immunity suggests that the military and USDP [the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party] want to ensure that their leaders cannot be prosecuted for past criminal offenses,” the New York-based organization cautioned.
“The Former Presidents Security Bill is a brazen attempt to shoehorn immunity from prosecution into the president’s retirement package,” said Robertson.
NLD leader Suu Kyi is immune from prosecution as she is unable to become president due to a constitutional clause -- that many suspect is aimed solely at her -- banning anyone with foreign relatives becoming the country's leader.
Suu Kyi's two sons are both British citizens.
