ABNA24 - A consortium of civil society organizations filed a genocide complaint in Indonesia against Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing, seeking to hold the newly elected leader personally liable for massacres, mass rape, and forced displacement of Rohingya Muslims.
The criminal case against Myanmar’s newly elected president was filed in Indonesia on April 6 by a group of civil society organizations, accusing him of acts of genocide against the Rohingya ethnic group.
Myanmar is a member of the ASEAN grouping, but relations have come under strain since a 2021 coup led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, resulting in civil war and a humanitarian crisis, with large numbers of Rohingya Muslims displaced and forced into refugee settlements.
Indonesia, which hosts ASEAN’s headquarters, is the biggest Muslim-majority country in the world, and is among the destinations for Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar or the refugee camps by boat.
Myanmar’s armed forces, under then junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, launched an offensive in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape and arson.
The complaint to Indonesia’s Attorney-General’s office was filed by Ms Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya who fled Myanmar, and several Indonesian figures, including a former attorney-general and the chairman of Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia’s biggest Muslim groups, they said in a statement on April 6.
They said they would present evidence of forced displacement of the Rohingya, the world’s largest stateless population, as well as killings by the junta, adding that the case had been accepted by the Indonesian prosecutors.
“It is the first time under Indonesia’s new penal code that a case has been officially received, and I warmly welcome this historic development as a milestone for all Rohingya people on their long march to justice and accountability,” Yasmin Ullah said.
The claimants said Indonesia’s penal code allows for “universal jurisdiction” when certain crimes are considered so serious that they can be processed regardless of victim nationalities or where the crime was committed.
Indonesia’s Attorney-General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another predominantly Muslim country, Gambia, told judges in January at the United Nations’ top court that Myanmar targeted minority Muslim Rohingya for destruction and made their lives a nightmare, in a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide.
Myanmar has always denied the accusation. The junta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on April 6.
Gen Min Aung Hlaing was elected president through a parliamentary vote last week after an army-backed party won the December 2025 and January election in what has been described as a sham, formalizing his grip on political power. The 2021 coup has led to widespread protests and nationwide resistance ever since.
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