YANGON: Myanmar’s ruling junta criticized an Argentine court on Saturday for issuing an arrest warrant for its top leader over alleged “genocide and crimes against humanity” toward the Rohingya minority.
The Rohingyas are a predominantly Muslim community from Buddhist-majority Myanmar where, according to Amnesty International, they have been subjected to apartheid conditions.
This week an Argentine court issued warrants for military and civilian officials including junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, ex-president Htin Kyaw, and former elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The ruling, seen by AFP on Friday, was issued in response to a complaint filed in Argentina by a Rohingya advocacy group.
In response, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said: “Does Argentina know Myanmar? The Myanmar government does know Argentina.”
“We like to suggest Argentina to appoint their needed and vacant judge positions firstly for their domestic judiciary if they want to criticize Myanmar according to the law,” he told journalists in a message on Saturday.
Zaw Min Tun’s comments appear to reference reports in December that Buenos Aires needed to name 150 judges across all levels of the judiciary.
The legal complaint was filed 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.
Of those subject to arrest warrants, Aung San Suu Kyi is named over her role as state counsellor from 2016 to 2021, when she was ousted in a coup.
She has been accused by detractors of doing little to stop the abuse of Rohingya during that time.
Min Aung Hlaing is also under investigation by the International Criminal Court, while the International Court of Justice — the UN’s highest tribunal — is examining a complaint of “genocide” against Myanmar.
Many Rohingya have been forced to flee persecution and violence to refugee camps in Bangladesh or risk their lives on perilous sea journeys to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia through Thailand.
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 Defense Forces” now battling the junta.
Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK, welcomed the latest ruling as an “historic step toward justice for Rohingya and everyone in Burma suffering under the Burmese military.”
It was “also a victory for international justice at a time of growing violations of international law worldwide,” he said in a statement released Friday.
