In 1962, the junta seized power in Burma. During the night of the coup against the democratically-elected government armed soldiers, answerable to General Ne Win, marched into my wife’s family home, rounded up the family and seized her grandfather, U-Raschid, at gunpoint and dragged him off to prison.

Her grandfather was one of Burma’s leading intellectuals, a barrister, and with Aung San (the father of Aung San Suu Kyi), one of the leaders in Burma’s independence movement, a cabinet member and a minister for labour and mines.

U-Raschid, Aung San and others had developed their thinking about a modern independent Burma as students at Rangoon University. Like many of the founding fathers and intellectuals in the subcontinent he studied and practised law and developed strong ties with the English Bar. Among the barristers were Mahatma Gandhi (India), Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Pakistan), Jawaharlal Nehru (India).

The international legal community, which once provided the inspiration for Burma’s founders, must voice its strong support to underpin the movement for democracy, and the long road to freedom under the rule of law. If we do not, yet another generation will be sacrificed while we are turning our attention to obtaining legal business from, and developing lucrative lawyerly ties with, China and Russia.

U-Raschid, Aung San and others formed a movement in Rangoon known as the Thakin Movement. The Second World War brought a cruel interruption, and in U-Raschid’s case, because of his and the family’s Indian background, the family evacuated to India to escape the Japanese invasion where he lived alongside the Nehru-Gandhi family.

They, with others, negotiated the independence of Burma from the British and set Burma on the path of democracy after the war.

Between the war and the 1962 coup, Burmese students were able to study freely inside Burma. They also travelled abroad and brought the benefits of their learning back to Burma. My father-in-law studied architecture and practised in Rangoon. Others in the extended family became doctors, teachers and engineers. Burma was the “rice bowl” of Asia. It was (and still should be) rich in oil, minerals, gems and wood, particularly teak. Before the junta tightened its noose around the country, Burma was Asia’s most literate country. It is now the least literate, and the most impoverished.

General Ne Win and the henchmen who continue his genocidal, bloody, grip on power, stripped Burma of her intellectuals and her educated. They have closed the universities. They nationalised businesses. They plundered her natural wealth. They caused intellectuals to be stripped of positions. Many left the country. Many of those that remained and who took part in the movement for democracy were murdered. If they were lucky they were driven out of their homes, and fled into the jungle and across borders as refugees into Thailand or elsewhere.

U-Raschid was held without trial for seven years — for much of it in solitary confinement. Once released he began to make speeches in an attempt to obtain support against the junta. He was re-imprisoned and released two years later when the junta knew that he was dying of cancer. In 1969 the family who had been unable to work or thrive were told they could leave Burma: with one suitcase each.

U-Raschid, lawyer, statesman and intellectual, died in exile in Pakistan of the untreated cancer he had developed in a Burmese prison. The family moved again and the children were educated in the UK, America and Canada. This story has been repeated time and time again in Burmese families.

In 1988-9 the movement for democracy had its all-too-brief flowering before the junta’s murderers set to again. My father-in-law was appointed Ambassador to the UN by the democrats briefly elected. He has never been able to take up the post.

Thousands were murdered. Countless more driven out of their homes. Where had the junta obtained its weaponry to murder its citizens? From China. A lucrative trade in weapons, teak and oil developed between the junta and the Chinese. The trade has extended to Russia. Apparently, a French oil company has joined in.

It has taken nearly 20 years for the peaceful Burmese to be driven to rise en-masse, and, peacefully, again. The Buddhist monks live chaste and impoverished lives. They are supported by the wider community. Monks do not protest about “oil price rises”. They protest about something much deeper: the impoverishment and suffering that has stretched Burma’s people to breaking point.

So far lawyers have said virtually nothing about this crisis. We have started a process in London with today’s letter to The Times, and we in the international legal community must join together to make it clear that:

* Burma must establish and comply with internationally recognised standards for the rule of law

* Every time a soldier in Burma obeys an order to fire on and kill an unarmed civilian the soldier and the person giving the orders are committing murder

* Such criminals will be tried before courts for their crimes

* We will provide judges, lawyers and advocates to assist the Burmese to re-establish the rule of law

* We will continue to provide that support for as long as is necessary

* All countries, and in particular those such as China and Russia, must support the UN Security Council in the imposition of sanctions on the Burmese military junta.

What we see in newspapers and on our television screens of the suffering in Burma is a tiny portion. This regime performs its murders and torture away from the cameras. The legal community must start to make its voice heard — and heard loudly.

The author is a barrister at Fountain Court in The Temple and his wife practices at the Criminal Bar

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