Argentine court issues warrants for Myanmar officials accused of Rohingya ‘genocide’

BUENOS AIRES - An Argentine court has issued arrest warrants for the head of Myanmar’s military junta and other former officials including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi over alleged “genocide and crimes against humanity” that targeted the Rohingya minority group.

The court ruling, seen by AFP on Feb 14, was issued in response to a complaint filed in Argentina by a Rohingya advocacy group.

It was filed there under the principle of “universal jurisdiction” by which countries can prosecute crimes regardless of where they occurred if, like genocide or war crimes, they are considered sufficiently serious.

Warrants were issued for military and civilian officials including current junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, ex-president Htin Kyaw, and former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in her capacity as “state counselor” from 2016 to 2021, when she was ousted in a coup.

Hlaing is also

under investigation

by the International Criminal Court.

The Rohingyas, mainly Muslims, are originally from Buddhist-majority Myanmar where, according to Amnesty International, they have been

subjected to a regime akin to apartheid

.

Beginning in 2017, many have been forced to flee persecution and violence to richer and predominantly Muslim Malaysia, or to refugee camps in Bangladesh, where about a million of them live.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the 2021 coup that sparked renewed clashes with ethnic rebels and saw the formation of dozens of “People’s Defence Forces” now battling the junta.

In her ruling issued Thursday, Judge Maria Servini said the allegations listed in the complaint “constitute crimes that violate human rights recognised in various international criminal law instruments, subscribed to by most countries in the world.”

They included “internationally known crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity, committed by the political and military authorities in power in that country,” she added. AFP