In East Timor, Myanmar’s Chin minority is taking the military junta to court
A human rights organisation has filed a complaint in Dili against Myanmar’s military junta for crimes against humanity. The choice of East Timor, a recent ASEAN member with its own history of occupation and violence, opens a new legal front in Southeast Asia. Myanmar’s military have responded with a diplomatic protest, accusing East Timor of violating the principle of non-interference enshrined in the ASEAN Charter.
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Yangon (AsiaNews) – For victims of military repression in Myanmar, East Timor (Timor-Leste) has become a new battleground. Not an armed one, but one involving the law.
A human rights organisation representing Myanmar’s ethnic Chin minority has lodged a complaint in Dili against the country’s military junta, accusing it of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The lawsuit was filed last Monday at the Public Prosecutor's Office in Dili, the capital of the last country to become a full member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last October.
The young country, marked by a long military occupation and serious human rights violations, is perceived as possessing special moral authority in the region.
According to various reports, however, before joining ASEAN, East Timor had to agree to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other member states.
In this context, the East Timorese foreign minister had declared that he would not "allow the activities of illegal organizations" on his territory, which is how Myanmar’s junta describes the opposition.
The case was presented by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), accompanied by several victims of violence.
The documentation handed over to East Timorese authorities aims to hold the leaders of the military junta in Naypyidaw accountable for the atrocities committed in Chin State, a predominantly Christian area in western Myanmar, after the 2021 coup.
“We have come to Timor-Leste because its people understand what it means to suffer under a brutal military occupation and to fight for justice against all odds,” said a spokesperson for the Chin delegation in Dili.
“Now, as a full member of ASEAN, Timor-Leste has a powerful voice. We are asking them to use their laws and their standing to help end the impunity enjoyed by the terrorists in Naypyidaw," they added, referring to the military leaders involved in the civil war against armed anti-junta resistance groups.
The lawsuit describes a long series of abuses attributed to Myanmar’s military, including the gang rape of a pregnant woman, the massacre of ten civilians – including a journalist and a 13-year-old boy, and the deliberate destruction of dozens of churches, schools, and health facilities through repeated aerial bombardments.
According to the CHRO, the violence has forced nearly half of Chin State's population to flee.
The organisation's initiative in East Timor is not an isolated one, but is part of an increasingly complex legal strategy against Myanmar’s military junta, as the civil war enters its fifth year.
At the international level, in 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor requested an arrest warrant against the junta's leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, for crimes against humanity related to the persecution of the Rohingya community in 2017.
Even without considering the crimes committed after the 2021 coup, the request was interpreted by human rights organisations as a major breach in the wall of impunity built by the military.
At the same time, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations tribunal responsible for settling disputes between states, is examining the appeal filed by Gambia against Myanmar, accusing it of violating the Genocide Convention.
The Court had already imposed interim measures to prevent further genocidal acts, but many observers say they remain largely unheeded as violence continues in Rakhine State, home to the Rohingya population.
Along with international tribunals, there is also growing recourse to the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to prosecute the most serious crimes regardless of where they are committed.
In Argentina, a court has already ordered the questioning of senior Myanmar army officers for crimes against the Rohingya.
Similar complaints have also been explored or filed in Germany, Turkey, and Indonesia, often thanks to the work of the CHRO and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), the UN body responsible for collecting and preserving evidence.
The opening of a judicial front in Southeast Asia itself, with the case in East Timor, represents a particularly symbolic and delicate step.
The junta has lodged a formal diplomatic protest against East Timor over President José Ramos-Horta's meeting with Chin representatives, arguing that it violates the "non-interference" principle under the ASEAN Charter.
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20/07/2022 15:40
