The National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which was Myanmar’s democratically-elected government ousted in the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, urged Argentina to reconsider arrest warrants for jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Htin Kyaw.
“The court argued that beyond the discussion about whether or not the civilian government had control over the military during the ethnic cleansing operation, the reality is that the Rohingyas were being discriminated [against] in Rakhine State,” said Tomas Quintana, the former U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar and the legal representative for the case in Argentina brought by the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK).
“[Rohingya faced] a pattern of systematic discrimination that the civilian government had a lot of resources under their [administration] to stop [but didn’t],” added Quintana.
The two civilian leaders are among 25, including military generals Min Aung Hlaing and Soe Win, who have had arrest warrants issued against them by the Argentine court under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction on allegations of genocide against the Rohingya.
“This is a historic step towards justice for [the] Rohingya and everyone in Burma suffering under the Burmese military,” said Tun Khin, the BROUK president, in a press release on Feb. 14 after the 25 arrest warrants were announced in Argentina.
“This brings a ray of hope to Rohingya who have suffered through decades of genocide, watching their families and culture be destroyed with impunity,” he added.
The case, opened in 2021, is based on a 2019 petition by BROUK which requested Argentina examine the role of Myanmar’s military leaders in genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State in 2017.
The NLD stated that the Argentine court failed to consider the military’s autonomy under Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution, which allowed it to operate independently of the civilian NLD administration, which governed Myanmar from 2016 up to the coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
Quintana told DVB that the court in Argentina brought up the fact that Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi traveled to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the U.N. high court at The Hague, to defend the military from The Gambia’s case under the genocide convention. This case is still ongoing.
The National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar, a civilian-led administration and alternative to the regime in Naypyidaw, called on the court in Argentina to withdraw the warrants against Aung San Suu Kyi and Htin Kyaw, calling them “a misguided and erroneous legal accusation” in its press release on Feb 18.
“This is just a warrant, not a judgement. No one can ask [the court] to withdraw arrest warrants,” Kyi Myint, a veteran lawyer from Myanmar, told DVB.
The NLD pledged to establish the “Justice Seeking Committee for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Htin Kyaw” to advocate for the removal of their names from the 25 arrest warrants issued by the Argentine court on Feb. 14.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado by the regime since it staged the coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Htin Kyaw’s current whereabouts are unknown.
