Myanmar has ordered today the head of ASEAN member state East Timor’s diplomatic mission to leave the country within seven days.
This came a month after Myanmar’s Chin state Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) filed a complaint with the justice department of East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, alleging that the Myanmar junta had carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity since the 2021 coup.
CHRO filed the complaint in East Timor as it was seeking an ASEAN member with an independent judiciary to pursue action against Myanmar, which is also an ASEAN member.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s foreign ministry said East Timor’s acceptance of the case and the country’s appointment of a prosecutor to look into it resulted in setting an unprecedented practice, negative interpretation and escalation of (public) resentments.
The ministry said that such unconstructive engagement by a Head of State of one ASEAN Member State with an unlawful organisation opposing another ASEAN Member State is totally unacceptable.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021, when the military ousted the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a wave of anti-junta protests that have morphed into a nationwide civil war.
