Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing posed in a suit – it should have been a prison uniform

Seeing the architect of so many of Myanmar’s ills welcomed in Bangkok beggars belief, writes Benedict Rogers. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is not a world leader befitting such ceremony but a wanted criminal

Arguably, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s military dictator, belongs in the dock in The Hague and not at summits shaking hands with other world leaders. Yet, a week after the devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck his country, causing a death toll that has exceeded 3,000 and continues to rise, the head of the illegal military regime was welcomed in Bangkok for a regional economic summit.

This man who, four years ago, overthrew the legitimate civilian government, has plunged Myanmar into a brutal civil war that has displaced over 3.5 million civilians. He has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, and he leads a regime that continues to bomb civilians even after the earthquake struck. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is not a world leader. He is a wanted criminal.

While, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the junta made a rare appeal for international assistance, it very quickly reverted to type by refusing, restricting, misappropriating, politicising or weaponising aid. Foreign journalists have been banned from Myanmar, and Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams were rejected, presumably to avoid angering the junta’s major allies in Beijing.

And yet, it is not even adept at keeping its few friends on side. Last week, its troops shot at a Chinese Red Cross convoy carrying aid to earthquake victims – not a wise move, given that Beijing is its major provider of economic, political, and military life support.

In the days following the earthquake, the UN reported that the military conducted over 60 attacks on civilians. These include airstrikes and ground offensives, with reports of the junta’s planes bombing from the sky and its troops on a rampage of looting and burning through villages. As if a natural disaster were not enough to destroy lives and livelihoods, its barbarity and inhumanity add to the tragedy.

‘In Bangkok, Min Aung Hlaing may have posed in a suit and tie, instead of his usual army uniform bedecked with unearned medals, but he merits a convict’s attire’ (Thailand's Foreign Affairs Ministry)

This litany of horror only adds to the atrocities witnessed in Myanmar in recent years. According to the United Nations and respected international human rights organisations, including the human rights NGO Fortify Rights where I am Senior Director, the junta has perpetrated atrocities that include mass killings, beheadings, sexual violence, and torture.

Approximately 20,000 political prisoners languish in jail, including Myanmar’s democratically-elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and thousands have been killed – executed, tortured to death or denied adequate medical treatment. Thousands more civilians have been killed in Myanmar’s ongoing war in ethnic states.

In Bangkok, Min Aung Hlaing may have posed in a suit and tie, instead of his usual army uniform bedecked with unearned medals, but he merits a convict’s attire. Likewise, he may seek to cloak himself in some semblance of legitimacy by calling new elections, but the world should know that they are a sham.

Last month, his regime announced that fresh elections will be held between December and January. But as things stand, one can be certain that they will not be free and fair but rather designed to deliver the military’s desired outcome.

Aung San Suu Kyi is serving multiple sentences that amount to over 27 years. She turns 80 in June. If she serves her full term, she will likely die in jail. Other senior leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party are also imprisoned. Several have already died. The NLD is now banned and disbanded, and key opposition leaders who are not behind bars are in hiding, in the jungle or in exile, with treason charges on their heads.

The country’s ethnic leaders are also treated as criminals by the junta. Without the participation of the NLD, the National Unity Government (NUG), which consists of Parliamentarians elected in the last election in November 2020, and representatives of Myanmar’s ethnic nationalities, or other legitimate democratic political parties, and with the continuing civil war, any election will be a sham. It will be a “selection” under rigged rules. Rather than a general election, it will be an election of generals.

The international community cannot and must not accept this. On the contrary, while international donors must do everything possible to deliver aid to the victims of the earthquake through local humanitarian groups, it must do nothing to legitimise or recognise the junta.

Instead, the perpetrators of mass atrocities before, during and after the earthquake must be brought to justice. Impunity must not prevail.

On 1 April, a court in Argentina officially sent notice to Interpol of their arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing. The Argentinian court requested that if the dictator was found in any Interpol member state, he should be arrested and extradited. Other jurisdictions should follow Argentina’s example.

Member states which are party to the International Criminal Court should refer the situation in Myanmar to the Chief Prosecutor under Article 14 of the Rome Statute, encouraging him to investigate all atrocities in the country.

Min Aung Hlaing, the mass murderer, should not be legitimised through the disaster wrought by the earthquake. Instead, he should be treated as the pariah and criminal that he is – and, above all, brought to justice for his regime’s crimes.

Benedict Rogers is Senior Director at Fortify Rights and author of three books on Myanmar, including Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads (Penguin Random House).