The military dictator will one day have his day in court, as the wanted criminal that he is
By Benedict Rogers in the UCA news
A week ago, on Good Friday, Myanmar’s military dictator General Min Aung Hlaing was confirmed as the country’s new president. He officially stepped down as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, handing that role over to the former intelligence chief General Ye Win Oo. This week, Min Aung Hlaing appointed ministers in his “new” government.
But the truth is, there is nothing new about this so-called government. The changes amount to reshuffling the deck, with some former soldiers — including Min Aung Hlaing — swapping their army uniforms for civilian dress. It is nothing more than a rebranding exercise.
Min Aung Hlaing’s government was formed following sham elections earlier this year. At least 40 political parties were banned, almost all pro-democracy politicians are in jail, in hiding, or in exile, and independent media and civil society have been driven underground.
Crucially, most of the population was disenfranchised because voting only took place in areas under the military regime’s direct control. Voter lists were compiled in only 145 out of Myanmar’s 330 townships, and the entire Rohingya population was entirely excluded.
The military’s tactic was to ban opponents, bomb the people, rig the ballot, and create a climate of terror in which those who went to the polling stations did so out of fear rather than enthusiasm.
So, Min Aung Hlaing is a sham president, leading a sham government, nominated by a sham parliament, formed by a sham election. None of this cruel charade deserves any credibility or legitimacy at all, and it should not receive any.
But not only is Min Aung Hlaing a sham president. He is also a war criminal and a genocidaire. And so it was apposite that three days after he was nominated president, civil society groups filed a universal jurisdiction case against him in Indonesia, on charges of genocide.
The unprecedented move was made under Indonesia’s new penal law, which allows for universal jurisdiction in cases involving serious international crimes, including genocide.
According to Yasmin Ullah, executive director of the Rohingya Women Collaborative, “It is the first time under Indonesia’s new penal code that a case filed under universal jurisdiction has been officially received.”
This action sends a clear message. That, as Yasmin Ullah puts it, “the architect of our extermination and other mass atrocities across Myanmar cannot be allowed to sit comfortably in the presidential palace without facing the consequences of his heinous crimes.”
And the Indonesia case is by far from the only one. Indeed, the charges against Min Aung Hlaing are mounting. In Argentina, a judge issued arrest warrants in 2025 in a universal jurisdiction case also focused on the genocide of the Rohingya. In Timor-Leste, judicial authorities accepted an application for proceedings concerning mass atrocity crimes in Chin State earlier this year.
And at an international level, the International Court of Justice in The Hague is considering a case of genocide brought by The Gambia and supported by several other countries, while the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has sought an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing. So he is a wanted criminal.
But while the genocide of the Rohingya is the most egregious crime, the charge sheet against Min Aung Hlaing does not stop there. He is responsible for a litany of grave violations of human rights, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity across Myanmar.
Even before the coup on Feb. 1, 2021, he commanded Myanmar’s armed forces in committing mass atrocities against the country’s ethnic groups, and since the coup, in which he overthrew the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, he has overseen the mass murder of thousands of pro-democracy protesters.
As Amnesty International said this week, holding the presidency must not shield Min Aung Hlaing from being held accountable for his crimes.
Over the past five years under his reign of terror, it is reported that over 7,000 civilians have been killed. The real figure is likely to be much higher.
At least 22,000 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are in jail, and many have either died from mistreatment or been executed. Almost 4 million people are now displaced by Min Aung Hlaing’s daily airstrikes against civilian homes, schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Nearly a third of the population is in need of humanitarian aid, facing severe hunger and disease.
Torture and rape by the military are widespread. As the outgoing United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, put it in his recent report, victims of Min Aung Hlaing’s regime have been “beheaded, dismembered, disembowelled” and sometimes “burned alive.”
And Min Aung Hlaing has led a brutal intensification both in the scale and type of military attacks on civilians. For almost eighty years, Myanmar has been in civil war, with the military attacking the country’s ethnic groups who struggle for autonomy and federal democracy. But over the past five years, since he seized power in the coup, Min Aung Hlaing has accelerated the assault on his people, resorting to airstrikes on a daily basis using fighter jets, drones, and, more recently, paramotors and gyrocopters — as Fortify Rights and others have reported — targeting churches, clinics, weddings, and music festivals.
So be in no doubt: Min Aung Hlaing’s transition to the ‘presidency’ changes nothing. It merely entrenches his illegitimate hold on power. It is perhaps no coincidence that the man who has crucified his country over the past five years was named president on Good Friday. But readers will know that the crucifixion is not the last word.
Myanmar will one day have its resurrection, and Min Aung Hlaing will one day have his day in court, as the wanted criminal that he is.
This article was originally published in the UCA news.