Guest contributor
By James Shwe
On February 25, 2026 Myanmar’s military-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered Elisio do Rosario de Sousa, the Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of Timor-Leste, to leave the country within seven days.
The junta invoked Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, framing the expulsion as a response to what it called Timor-Leste’s “blatant violation” of ASEAN principles.
But a careful reading of the facts reveals something quite different: a junta lashing out at one of the few countries brave enough to pursue justice for its crimes.
This is not the first time the junta has expelled a Timorese diplomat. In August 2023, it ordered the previous Chargé d’Affaires out of Myanmar for Timor-Leste’s engagement with the National Unity Government.
That Timor-Leste returned to the table — only to face expulsion again — speaks volumes about the junta’s intolerance for any government that takes the side of Myanmar’s people over its generals.
What actually happened?
On January 12, 2026 representatives of the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), supported by the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Dili.
The complaint documented a pattern of atrocities against the ethnic Chin people — including the gang rape of a pregnant woman, the massacre of ten civilians (one of them a 13-year-old boy who was among eight people who had their throats slit), the deliberate killing of a Christian pastor and three deacons, an indiscriminate aerial attack on a hospital that killed four medical staff and four patients, and a series of targeted attacks on Christian churches.
Two days later, on January 14, 2026 Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta — himself a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who lived through 24 years of Indonesian occupation — received the CHRO delegation.
Earlier this month, Timor-Leste’s judicial authorities accepted the case and appointed a senior prosecutor to examine the file, making it the first ASEAN member state to open war-crimes proceedings against the Myanmar junta under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
The junta responded with escalating fury. It summoned the Timor-Leste diplomat on January 16, issued a public condemnation two days later, protested again at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Cebu on January 29, and finally ordered the expulsion by February 20.
The junta’s legal claims do not hold up
The expulsion letter rests on two central arguments: that Timor-Leste violated the ASEAN Charter’s non-interference principles, and that CHRO is an “unlawful organization.” Neither claim withstands scrutiny.
CHRO is not unlawful. It is a long-established human rights organization that has operated openly for decades, documenting abuses against the Chin people.
It is not designated as a terrorist or criminal organization by the United Nations, ASEAN, or any country other than Myanmar’s junta.
The unlawful label is the regime’s own political invention — a tool it applies to any organization that exposes its crimes.
The ASEAN Charter does not prohibit what Timor-Leste did.
The junta selectively cites Articles 2(2)(a), 2(2)(e), and 2(2)(k) of the Charter, which address sovereignty and non-interference. But the very same Charter also commits all ASEAN members to “adherence to the rule of law, good governance, the principles of democracy and constitutional government” and to the “promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
There is nothing in the Charter or the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation that forbids a head of state from meeting a human rights organization, or that prohibits an independent judiciary from exercising universal jurisdiction over war crimes.
The junta’s reading of the Charter is not just selective; it is cynical. It demands that sovereignty shield its leaders from accountability for mass atrocities, while ignoring the Charter’s equal insistence on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
Why Timor-Leste, and why it matters
Timor-Leste is the youngest nation in Southeast Asia. Between 1975 and 1999, approximately 200,000 Timorese were killed during Indonesia’s military occupation — nearly a third of the population.
The country won its independence through a U.N.-supervised referendum, endured scorched-earth violence by Indonesian-backed militias, and built a democratic state from the ashes.
When CHRO filed its complaint in Dili, Executive Director Salai Za Uk explicitly invoked this shared history: “Timor-Leste’s journey from oppression to a thriving democracy — rooted in the rule of law, an independent judiciary and constitutional respect for universal human rights — reflects a shared struggle against military repression.”
Timor-Leste knows what it means to live under military boots. Its willingness to accept this case is not interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs. It is an act of solidarity with the people of Myanmar — and a recognition that when international institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC) are unable to act swiftly enough, other avenues of justice must be explored.
What the junta is really afraid of
The junta’s furious response tells us more than its legal arguments do. The junta is not worried about a violation of ASEAN protocol. It is worried about the precedent it sets.
If Timor-Leste can open a universal jurisdiction case against Min Aung Hlaing and other senior commanders, then so can other countries. The evidence base is vast: the U.N. Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) holds a large body of verified evidence that can be made available to any national authority willing to act.
The ICC’s own chief prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing in November 2024, and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights have publicly commended Timor-Leste’s initiative as consistent with regional accountability efforts.
By expelling the Timorese diplomat, the junta aims to punish and deter — to send a message to every other ASEAN government: cooperate with human rights groups at your peril. It also seeks to re-center ASEAN discourse on the non-interference principle while stripping away the Charter’s parallel commitments to democracy and human rights.
And it continues its relentless campaign to present itself as “the Government of Myanmar,” conflating the state with the military leadership accused of mass atrocities and branding any opposition as “terrorist” or “unlawful.”
A message to the people of Myanmar
To the people of Myanmar: the junta expelled Timor-Leste’s diplomat not because Timor-Leste attacked Myanmar, but because it supported you.
The criminal case in Dili is about holding specific military commanders accountable for specific crimes — rape, massacre, bombing hospitals, destroying churches. These are not acts committed in Myanmar’s name. They are crimes committed against Myanmar’s people.
The junta wants you to believe that international accountability efforts are an insult to national sovereignty. The opposite is true. Sovereignty belongs to the people, not to generals who seized power by annulling a democratic election.
Every nation that pursues justice for the crimes committed against you is standing with Myanmar — the real Myanmar, not the one the generals claim to represent.
A call to the international community
Timor-Leste — a small nation of 1.3 million people — has shown more courage on Myanmar accountability than most of the world’s major powers combined. Its government has publicly condemned the expulsion and reaffirmed its solidarity with the Myanmar people.
Minister Agio Pereira stated that “Timor-Leste remains firm in its conviction that only through dialogue and respect for the will of the people can a peaceful and lasting solution to the crisis in Myanmar be achieved.”
ASEAN and the broader international community now face a choice. They can allow the junta to punish and isolate any member state that dares to pursue justice, thereby rewarding impunity and hollowing out ASEAN’s own Charter commitments.
Or they can stand with Timor-Leste, support universal jurisdiction as a legitimate tool for accountability, and make clear that the non-interference principle was never designed to be a shield for war criminals.
The people of Myanmar deserve justice. Timor-Leste understood that. The rest of the world should follow its lead.
James Shwe is a Myanmar-born democracy advocate and independent political analyst based in the United States.
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