Members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority testified in person for the first time on Wednesday in Buenos Aires, as part of an Argentine judicial investigation into alleged crimes by the Burmese military, a campaigner said.
The hearing, behind closed doors, was “a historic day for everyone in Burma,” as Myanmar is also known, UK-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK president Maung Tun Khin said.
“Finally in-person hearings are taking place and strong evidence” is being produced in a court of law, he said.
Photo: AP
He did not specify the identity or the number of “survivors” who had testified, nor the facts concerned, for “security reasons.”
The hearings of half a dozen people are expected to continue through Tuesday next week, a source familiar with the case said.
In 2021, Argentina’s justice system, responding to a complaint, announced that it was opening an investigation into alleged crimes by Burmese soldiers against the Rohingya, under the principle of universal jurisdiction enshrined in the constitution.
That same year, six Rohingya women, living as refugees in Bangladesh, had participated in a virtual hearing before an Argentine court, citing sexual assaults and the death of relatives as a result of regime repression.
“In-person hearings of survivors continue, very important evidence is being produced,” Maung Tun Khin said.
Argentina’s courts have previously agreed to examine overseas cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, in particular crimes committed under the fascist regime of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
The principle makes it possible to prosecute the alleged perpetrators of some of the most serious crimes, regardless of their nationality or where the crimes were committed.
About 750,000 members of the Rohingya community fled to Bangladesh in 2017 from a crackdown by the Burmese military, which is the subject of separate proceedings before the International Criminal Court and for “acts of genocide” before the International Court of Justice.
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