EXPLAINED: Why is a group in Myanmar seeking to try the junta in the Philippines?

An ethnic Chin minority human rights group on Monday said it planned to appeal a rejection by the Department of Justice in the Philippines of its complaint alleging war crimes against civilians by Myanmar’s ruling junta.

The complaint, submitted by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) and five Chin people in October, was brought against 10 senior junta officials – including junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing – for war crimes they say were committed in Chin state’s Thantlang township since 2021 when the military seized power in a coup d’etat. 

It alleges that the junta killed people, destroyed their bodies, burned down hundreds of civilian buildings and blocked access to humanitarian aid.

The CHRO said the Philippine Department of Justice rejected the complaint in May on the basis that the plaintiffs were not residents of the Philippines and that the crimes occurred outside of the country. But the group contends that the Philippines is compelled to take action under international humanitarian law, regardless of whether the events involved Philippines nationals or took place on Philippine soil.

Why go to the Philippines?

Myanmar’s judicial system has been disrupted by civil war. But even if the country’s courts were functioning regularly, they are controlled by the ruling junta, making a fair trial unlikely. 

The lawyers filing the complaint argue that a 2009 Philippine law protecting human rights obligates the country to prosecute war crimes based on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Universal jurisdiction is a legal principle enabling a state to prosecute individuals responsible for mass atrocity crimes regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the perpetrator or victims. The principle is typically applied for crimes deemed so severe that they represent offenses against the entire international community.

How effective is a third-party justice system?

Getting a domestic court to take on a case of universal jurisdiction can be difficult because it typically lacks the resources needed to handle an investigation into a complex foreign case, particularly when the alleged perpetrators of the crimes are not in custody. 

Furthermore, third governments are often reluctant to take foreign perpetrators into custody, even if they have the capacity to do so.

In November 2021, courts in Argentina agreed to investigate allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity against Myanmar’s leaders under the universal jurisdiction principle

In October 2023, Germany’s federal public prosecutor general refused to take up a similar complaint. While the federal prosecutor’s office did not publicly state the reason for the rejection, complainant Fortify Rights said that the decision “underscored the absence of Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and other named perpetrators in Germany as a decisive factor.”

What other efforts are under way?

The Chin complaint is the latest international effort to hold the junta accountable for atrocity crimes. Others include cases at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the universal jurisdiction case in Argentina for crimes committed against the Muslim Rohingya community during a 2017 military crackdown in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state – all brought in 2019.

In the latter case, eyewitnesses gave accounts to the court in June 2023, and lawyers involved in the case hope the court will make a decision this year.

In July 2023, the International Court of Justice at The Hague rejected all of Myanmar’s objections to a case brought against it by the Gambia that accuses the country of genocide against the Rohingya, clearing the way for the court to move on to the merits phase of the process and consider the factual evidence against Myanmar – a process that could take years.

In the meantime, Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government and armed opposition groups are compiling evidence of the junta’s crimes, which they say will be used to punish its leadership, should they remove the military regime and reestablish a federal democracy.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a news organization affiliated with BenarNews.