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Argentine court hears allegations of genocide against Myanmar leaders

June 7, 2023/in News

Universal jurisdiction case to review accounts of rape and slaughter of Rohingya. Updated at 10:30 p.m. EDT on June 7, 2023. An Argentine court is hearing testimony about allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by senior Myanmar officials against Rohingya Muslims in a landmark case. The hearing is being held in Argentina under […]

Myanmar military is stepping up attacks on schools ahead of school year

June 7, 2023/in News

The attacks are seen as a warning to families whose children attend non-junta schools. Myanmar’s military has stepped up attacks on schools run by anti-junta paramilitaries and ethnic armed groups, according to a Thai-based NGO, in what an aid worker says is a bid to force children to study under its education system. While the […]

Argentine court hears allegations of genocide against Myanmar leaders

June 7, 2023/in News

Myanmar military is stepping up attacks on schools ahead of school year

June 7, 2023/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Argentine court hears allegations of genocide against Myanmar leaders

June 7, 2023/in News

Universal jurisdiction case to review accounts of rape and slaughter of Rohingya.

Updated at 10:30 p.m. EDT on June 7, 2023.

An Argentine court is hearing testimony about allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by senior Myanmar officials against Rohingya Muslims in a landmark case.

The hearing is being held in Argentina under the principle of “universal jurisdiction” enshrined in the country’s constitution, which holds that some crimes are so heinous that alleged perpetrators thousands of miles away can be tried.

“This is a historic fight for justice,” said Tun Khin, president of the London-based advocacy group Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, or BROUK, which filed the complaint with the Federal Criminal Correctional Court in Buenos Aires in 2019.

“Holding the military accountable for genocide of the Rohingya will benefit everyone in Burma,” he said.

The week-long hearing will call witnesses to testify before federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, who is gathering evidence in the case.

Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK with Argentine human rights lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana outside a federal court in Buenos Aires on Dec. 16, 2021. In a hearing that opened Wednesday in Argentina, Rohingya Muslims appeared in person in a court of law for the first time to provide eyewitness testimony about alleged crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity committed by senior Myanmar officials.Credit: Juan Mabromata/AFP

The 46-page criminal complaint centers on violence in 2012 and 2018 that drove about 1 million Rohingyas from Myanmar, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, where many live in squalid refugee camps to this day.

In harrowing detail, the document describes rapes, beheadings and the slaughter of Rohingya civilians committed by Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, and their civilian supporters.

It describes “the gang rape of women, girls and boys” and includes “the virtually total destruction of their towns and villages by intentionally setting them on fire.”

Goal: Arrest or extradition

Ultimately, the complaint calls for the perpetrators to be identified “and the necessary measures be adopted” for them to be interrogated by a judge, “including their arrest and/or extradition if necessary.”

“The idea is that someone will be caught and brought trial. It forms part of a longer arc of accountability and truth-telling,” said Akila Radhakrisan, head of the New York-based Global Justice Center, a group specializing in human rights and sexual violence against women.

Rohingya refugees stand in lines to collect food aid near Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, Sept. 19, 2017. Credit: Dar Yasin/AP

But cases like these can take decades to be resolved, Radhakrisan said.

For example, it was only on May 23 that a key fugitive in the 1994 Rwandan massacre was found in South Africa and arrested following a warrant issued by the United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

The public shaming and a pending arrest warrant for perpetrators in Myanmar could limit their travel, and also deter others around the world that might engage in similar human rights abuses, officials said.

Prosecutor Marijuan is technically still in the phase of collection of evidence.

Aside from the courtroom testimony, evidence includes detailed information collected by a 2017-2019 UN-backed Independent International Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar, which interviewed hundreds of witnesses in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

A Rohingya refugee carries an elderly woman after they crossed the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar, in Teknaf, Bangladesh Sept. 29, 2017. Credit: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

Those named in the accusation include Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of Myanmar’s armed forces and the ruling junta, which overthrew the civilian government in a coup two years ago, senior officials in the police and border guard, and radical Buddhist monks including Ashin Wirathu.The accusation also names pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto head of Myanmar’s civilian government between 2016 and 2021, as being complicit in the genocide. Removed from power in the coup, she is now serving a lengthy prison term in Myanmar on charges that supporters say are politically motivated.Anonymous testimonyFearing retaliation from agents of Myanmar’s military government, witnesses coming to court have taken strict measures to remain anonymous. The hearings are being held behind closed doors. The Rohingya are represented in court by Tomas Ojea Quintana, an Argentine attorney who has served as U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar between 2008 and 2014.Argentina has held previous cases about alleged crimes committed elsewhere.A 2010 case examined crimes committed in Spain during 1939-1975 fascist rule of Francisco Franco; a 2014 case against Israeli authorities for crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip; and a 2018 case against Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman for crimes against humanity committed in Yemen.

RFA News

Myanmar military is stepping up attacks on schools ahead of school year

June 7, 2023/in News

The attacks are seen as a warning to families whose children attend non-junta schools.

Myanmar’s military has stepped up attacks on schools run by anti-junta paramilitaries and ethnic armed groups, according to a Thai-based NGO, in what an aid worker says is a bid to force children to study under its education system.

While the military began using airstrikes against schools following its successful coup d’etat in February 2021, the number of attacks increased ahead of the start of this year’s school season on June 1, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in a statement.

Several of the airstrikes took place in Kani and Kale townships in Sagaing region, as well as in Tanintharyi region – two hotbeds of anti-junta resistance since the takeover – the June 5 statement said, labeling such attacks “war crimes.”

“The junta has definitely been committing war crimes like these – everyday they violate what the International community has prohibited,” said an AAPP official, speaking to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

“The schools they attacked are in areas controlled by the [People’s Defense Force] and other revolutionary forces where they have no authority.”

Among the attacks was one by military helicopters on a school in Kale’s Shu Khin Thar village on June 5 that a local PDF group known as the CNO Upper Chindwin Region said took place while village elders were holding a meeting. The attack killed one person and injured four others, the group said in a statement, adding that the junta has ordered such strikes to “threaten families” who send their children to village schools run by anti-junta groups.

The AAPP said it had also documented a June 5 attack by a junta Mi-35 helicopter on a school in Sagaing’s Kani township that injured two children and damaged the building, as well as nearby homes. There was no fighting or military activities taking place at the time.

And early in the morning of June 6, military fighter jets dropped bombs on San Pha Lar village in Kayin state’s Kawkareik, destroying the village school and four houses. Local media reported that teachers and students in the village are now too frightened to go to school.

Damage to the wall of a school in Shu Khin Thar village, Kale township, Sagaing region is seen after an attack by Myanmar junta forces, May 5, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist

A resident of Kani township who is aware of the incident but declined to be named called the junta’s deliberate targeting of schools “a heinous act.”

“Children are entitled to freedom of education,” the resident said. “School buildings can never be military targets.”

In the months of April and May alone, the AAPP said the military carried out 31 airstrikes and fired 184 barrages of heavy artillery into areas controlled by the rebel Karen National Union’s 6th Brigade, damaging three schools, a monastery, two Christian churches, two clinics and 387 civilian homes. The attacks forced 23,021 civilians to flee, according to the KNU.

Targeting non-junta schools

Japan Gyi, co-chair of the Relief Group for People Displaced by Conflict (Kale), told RFA that the military regime is intentionally targeting schools that are not under its control.

“Their education system is a complete failure and the people know it very well,” he said. “But, just as all dictators, they are forcing people to study under their system and live under their management.”

Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the school attacks went unanswered on Wednesday.

Residents of Sagaing and Magway regions and Chin and Kayin states have told RFA that they are being forced to build bomb shelters at schools because of the threat of airstrikes and urged the international community to intervene.

Armed resistance groups and NGOs have called for a ban on companies that sell jet fuel to Myanmar’s military, but the junta continues to carry out airstrikes across the country.

Displaced residents in Myanmar’s Sagaing region flee raiding military troops on April 21, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist

In a statement earlier this week, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government said that junta forces killed 129 civilians in the month of May alone, including 19 children. The civilians were killed by junta airstrikes, artillery or while in detention, the statement said, in Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Mon and Shan states, as well as Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway and Bago regions.

An information official in Sagaing’s Khin-U township who declined to be named told RFA that civilian deaths have increased there and other regions as anti-junta forces have become better armed and more successful in ground engagements with the military.

“Due to junta aggression, innocent civilians including the elderly, pregnant women, mothers with newborn babies and children have had to flee their homes when fighting breaks out,” the official said. Many elderly residents have died while trying to flee or were burned to death in military arson attacks, he added.

According to the AAPP, authorities have killed at least 3,622 civilians since the coup.

RFA News

Spring Revolution

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GenocideSeptember 2, 2025 - 9:42 am
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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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