War Crimes Case Against Myanmar Dictator Moves Forward in Timor-Leste, says MAP

Mizzima

The Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP) reports that a war crimes case against the Myanmar junta leader is progressing, in a statement issued 4 May.

The following is the statement:

A criminal file accusing Myanmar dictator, Min Aung Hlaing, of war crimes and crimes against humanity has been formally submitted to the Court of First Instance in Dili for judicial review, following the opening of proceedings in February.

This is the next phase in the case initiated in January by the Director of the Chin Human Rights Organisation, Salai Za Uk. He alleges that Min Aung Hlaing has command and control responsibility for a series of atrocity crimes in Myanmar’s north-western Chin State.

These include the gang rape of a seven-month-pregnant woman in front of her husband, the massacre of ten people including a journalist and a 13-year-old boy, who was among eight people who had their hands tied behind their backs and their throats slit, the deliberate killing of a Christian Pastor and three Deacons, a disproportionate and indiscriminate aerial attack on a hospital which killed four medical staff and four patients, and a series of attacks on Christian churches, civilian infrastructure protected under international law.

“I urge the Timorese authorities to take the simple step of opening an investigation against war criminal, Min Aung Hlaing, who is already under investigation by the International Criminal Court in the Hague”, said Salai Za Uk. “The Chin People, against whom the junta is committing gross human rights violations on an industrial scale look for support to the people of Timor-Leste who have a shared history of atrocity crimes such as rape, massacres and indiscriminate attacks on civilians”.

Jose Teixeira, the lead lawyers in the case, from the Timorese law firm Da Silva Teixeira & Associados, said “there is a legal obligation to open an investigation and we believe the court will make this determination. To be clear, such an investigation will place little pressure on the judiciary system in Timor-Leste given that organisations such as the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, the IIMM in Geneva, have been investigating Min Aung Hlaing and stand ready to support these proceedings as they move forward”.

According to Chris Gunness, Director of the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), “this case lays bare the absurdity of the situation in Myanmar. Despot Min Aung Hlaing is attempting to fool the world that he is the rightful leader of Myanmar, following sham elections which he fixed, and is asking governments to normalize relations with his illegitimate junta. The reality”, said Gunness “is that Min Aung Hlaing is a wanted war criminal. Cases against him are piling up in multiple jurisdictions around the world such as Argentina, Turkey, the Philippines and Timor-Leste. There are also cases against him in the world’s two international courts in the Hague: the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Myanmar, under his leadership, stands accused of violating the Genocide Convention for its actions against the Rohingya People”.

“Adding to all these cases, earlier this month, in an unprecedented move, the Indonesian authorities formally accepted a criminal file under the country’s new penal code, in which a Rohingya genocide survivor, Yasmin Ullah, and ten leading Indonesian public figures, accused Min Aung Hlaing, of genocide. This dictator should be in prison, not the presidential palace”, Gunness concluded.