Criminal Charges Against Myanmar's Military Junta Generals In Court

The victims of Myanmar's military are turning to the german judicial system for assistance. Criminal charges against Myanmar's generals: military junta in court. They use universal jurisdiction when dealing with serious crimes.

Bangkok in February 2021: Protest against the military dictatorship in Myanmar Image: Peerapon Boonyakiat/imago BANGKOK taz | The international human rights organization Fortify Rights and 16 individual complainants from various ethnic groups in Myanmar have filed criminal charges against members of the military junta in the Southeast Asian nation with the German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office. The complaints to the Federal Court of Justice are meant to ensure that the generals who led the coup on February 1, 2021, are held accountable for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

When the generals staged a coup on February 1, 2021, Matthew Smith, the CEO of Fortify Rights, told journalists in Bangkok, Thailand, that his organization was preparing a complaint against Myanmar's military leadership for genocide in the displacement of roughly 750,000 Rohingya. Now, the 215-page complaint was added to the coup and delivered to the German Attorney General last Friday, just in time for the coup's second anniversay.

The advertisement's text is not available to the general public. Six women and ten men from seven different ethnic groups made up the 16 complainants, who were not all able to be identified in the 1,000-page appendix due to security concerns.

Fortify Rights claims that half of the complainants were Rohingya people who had been violently ejected from their homes; the remaining individuals either became the targets of military violence after the coup or were present when it occurred. It's time to put an end to military impunity, Nickey Diamond, a complainant who was connected via video, said. "We trust that Germany will investigate the cases and bring justice.".

He currently resides in exile in southern Germany and is a member of the Fortify Rights board. "It's time to put an end to the military's impunity.

The universal jurisdiction for serious crimes theory was used by Fortify Rights to support their complaint in Germany. According to Smith, "regardless of where the crimes are committed or where the survivors are," the German legal principle of universal jurisdiction serves as a model for countries around the world in the fight against the worst crimes' impunity.

A state can prosecute international crimes even if they weren't committed on its soil, by any of its citizens, or against any of them thanks to universal jurisdiction. The International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, two United Nations tribunals, are also looking into trials against Myanmar generals.

Additionally, British activists have filed court cases in Argentina accusing junta members of crimes. The german judicial system is looking into allegations of torture in Syrian prisons and Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

Estimating the chances of success for the advertisements currently being submitted in Germany is difficult. The Attorney General opted not to comment at the request of the AP, a British news organization.

The trials will most likely exert greater political pressure on Myanmar's military and keep their crimes from fading into international obscurity in light of other ongoing conflicts, which is of utmost importance. A million Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live in Bangladesh, its neighbor, in increasing desperation with no hope of ever going home.

A civil war has broken out in Myanmar as a result of the coup and the brutal suppression of peaceful protests.

Bangkok in February 2021: Protest against the military dictatorship in Myanmar Image: Peerapon Boonyakiat/imago BANGKOK taz | The international human rights organization Fortify Rights and 16 individual complainants from various ethnic groups in Myanmar have filed criminal charges against members of the military junta in the Southeast Asian nation with the German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office.