Argentina: Rohingya testify in investigation into alleged crimes of the Burmese army

Members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority testified in person for the first time on Wednesday (June 7th) in Buenos Aires, as part of an Argentine judicial investigation into alleged crimes by the Burmese military.

Rohingya refugees cross the Burma-Bangladesh border in Cox's Bazar on September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

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The hearing, behind closed doors, is "a historic day for everyone in Burma. In-person hearings are finally taking place, and strong evidence is being produced in a courtroom," Maung Tun Khin, president of the London-based Burmese Rohingya Organization of the United Kingdom (BROUK), told RFI's international service Heike Schmidt.

« This is very important, you know that in Burma, the Rohingya and all other minorities are suffering brutal repression by the military. The Rohingya have so far been victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The military killed thousands of members of our community in 2017. But we have been suffering under the brutal regime of the army for several decades. It is very important that justice be done. We must send a signal to the junta that it will not be able to escape justice, neither here nor elsewhere in the world, all the way to Latin America. We can see that the so-called superpowers are not interested in supporting us in this quest for justice. »

The spokesman did not specify the identity, the number of "witnesses" heard, or the facts concerned, "for security reasons", during the hearings which are expected to continue over several days.

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Principle of "universal justice"

In 2021, the Argentine judiciary, seized of a complaint, announced the opening of an investigation into accusations of crimes by Burmese military on the Rohingya minority, under the principle of "universal justice", enshrined in the Argentine Constitution. That same year, six Burmese Rohingya women who had taken refuge in Bangladesh took part in a virtual hearing before the Argentine court, citing sexual assaults and the death of relatives as a result of the crackdown.

The procedure, "at the investigation stage", focuses on facts "such as murders, mass killings, rapes and gender violence", contributing to a "serious and trying" court atmosphere, a source close to the procedure told AFP. "The court takes the testimony seriously."

The Argentine judiciary has, in the past, already agreed to examine distant cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, including crimes committed under the Franco regime in Spain. This principle makes it possible to prosecute alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes, regardless of their nationality and where the acts were committed.

An estimated 750,000 members of the Rohingya community fled to Bangladesh in 2017 as a separate prosecution by the Burmese military before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and for "acts of genocide" before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Among these procedures, "the one in Argentina is important in that it constitutes another avenue for potential arrest warrants for senior or intermediate command in the Burmese army", helping to reduce "the breach of impunity" for those responsible, said a source from the plaintiffs' camp.

(

and with AFP)

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• Rohingya
• Burma
• Argentina
• International justice