Mizzima
Despite cases moving against the Myanmar junta in international courts more political will and resources are needed to bring the junta to justice, according to advocacy group, Progressive Voice
It said that the processes around international accountability for the crimes committed by the Myanmar military inched forward in the past week, as Argentina’s judiciary moves closer to issuing arrest warrants under universal jurisdiction for those responsible for the Rohingya genocide in 2017. Additionally, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) approved seven countries to join the genocide case against Myanmar.
Progressive Voice believes that while such processes have the unique potential to give a form of justice to victims and survivors, not just of the Rohingya genocide but of the plethora of crimes committed by the military against the people of Myanmar, more political will and resources are needed for such mechanisms to really work for those who need it most and end impunity for good.
Following the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) petitioning Argentine courts in 2019 to open an investigation into genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, and the Argentine judiciary opening a case in 2021, the Argentine Prosecutor has petitioned the Argentine Court to issue arrest warrants for numerous Myanmar military and government figures.
Welcoming the latest development, BROUK President Tun Khin stated, “Today we are one more step closer to finally seeing the first ever arrest warrants for Min Aung Hlaing and senior members of the Burmese military.”
However, the Prosecutor’s petition for arrest warrants has a broader scope than BROUK’s recent request of predominantly Myanmar military personnel, to include civilian leaders Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and then-President U Htin Kyaw.
BROUK has therefore called on the Argentine Court to consider “whether issuing arrest warrants for Aung San Suu Kyi and Htin Kyaw serves the best interests of justice at this time.” The Argentine Court will now decide whether and how many of these arrest warrants will be issued.
Adding to the developments in Argentina is the ICJ’s decision on 3 July 2024 to allow the Maldives, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK to join the case against the State of Myanmar for genocide, originally brought by The Gambia in 2019. This ruling allows these countries to submit observations and interventions in the ongoing ICJ case.
Such incremental developments may not bring immediate justice to the Rohingya, but they are a step forward in establishing publicly and symbolically the culpability of the military in some of the most horrific crimes committed in Myanmar, according to Progressive Voice.
It added that it is important to note that such mechanisms are not just for the Rohingya. Indeed, the UN-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar’s 2018 report—a foundational document for many of these accountability processes—recommended that the generals of the Myanmar military be investigated not just for genocide committed against the Rohingya.
It also recommended investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the military against other ethnic communities in Rakhine State, including the ethnic Rakhine, as well as in Kachin and northern Shan States.
Myanmar’s rights-based civil society groups, including Progressive Voice and partners, were at the forefront advocating to the United Nations for the establishment of these mechanisms, and also engaged and collaborated with the mechanism thereafter.
Advocacy and campaigns to hold the Myanmar military to account under international law are therefore not new.
Prior to the military-led pseudo-democratic transition that began in 2011, border-based democracy and human rights groups campaigned for the establishment of a commission of inquiry for the systematic human rights violations and international crimes by the Myanmar military throughout the country. The campaign was supported by international allies, such as then-Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomás Quintana and two of his predecessors.
In 1997 and again in 2022, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) established Commissions of Inquiry (COIs) that found the military had engaged in “widespread and systematic use of forced labour” and heavily imposed “far-reaching restrictions…of basic civil liberties and trade union rights.”
Such international moves towards accountability show that there is a will to address the systematic human rights violations and violence that affect the whole population of Myanmar. Ensuring justice for the Rohingya who have been victims to one of the most serious of international crimes—genocide—will also mean securing justice for all peoples of Myanmar who have suffered from heinous international crimes by the same perpetrators, the Myanmar military, according to Progressive Voice.
It says that there is no denying that international accountability mechanisms are slow, riven by politics, and face legitimate criticisms of hypocrisy given that powerful nations and their allies that commit war crimes are rarely brought to account in such courts.
Yet Progressive Voice believes that their power in establishing truth when domestic accountability is completely impossible, and in pressuring the international community to take more effective and rightful action, such as coordinated targeted sanctions or diplomatic isolation, has value.
International accountability mechanisms also add momentum to people’s legitimate movements to end dictatorship and seek justice and accountability such as Myanmar’s Spring Revolution. The prospect of arrest warrants being issued against Min Aung Hlaing or INTERPOL issuing a Red Notice for him brings a sense of justice for people.
Moreover, it becomes that much harder for international entities to partner with a military that has been convicted of genocide under international law, as their involvement with this military would mean being complicit in or aiding and abetting its crimes.
Progressive Voice says that ultimately, the Myanmar people’s revolution will be won on the ground, by the hundreds of thousands of men and women, young and old, who have made huge and sometimes the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
It will not be won by a remote court in the Netherlands or Argentina.
Yet these processes to achieve justice can give an extra dimension of pressure on the military junta, as well as the sense that its violently constructed world is caving in, all the while catalyzing discourse and policy on ending impunity.
Progressive Voice believes it is important therefore that the international community provides political, technical, and financial support to the universal jurisdiction case in Argentina; States Parties to the Rome Statute refer the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court under Article 14; and more countries join the ICJ case.
These processes are a significant component of the multi-faceted movement for federal democracy in Myanmar and one path to finally end the impunity that military has enjoyed for so long and prevent recurrence of mass atrocities.