Melbourne, Australia – Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister of Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG), has urged the world to hold the military accountable for possible war crimes since she took power more than two years ago .
Visiting Australia, where he met with advocacy groups and NGOs, and spoke at universities, the minister also sought to win support for the civilian government’s movement to topple the military regime.
Since the military removed Myanmar’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) party from government in February 2021, the ethnically diverse country has been torn apart by numerous civil conflicts, exacerbating unrest that, in some areas, had been buzzing for decades.
In a shift from ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s stance on nonviolence, the NUG has entered the fray by establishing the so-called People’s Defense Force (PDF) of civilians, sometimes training and fighting alongside armed groups established ethnic groups.
The various civil conflicts are peppered by worsening human rights abuses by the military, including the alleged shelling of civilians, which the minister described as “crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
“We are not only highlighting what is happening in the country, but we are calling for international accountability by all possible means in the international judicial system,” Aung Myo Min told Al Jazeera.
Last month, Cyclone Mocha ravaged low-lying areas of northwestern Rakhine state, destroying camps where many Rohingya have lived for more than a decade, raising concerns about military control of humanitarian aid in the country which is rapidly fragmenting.
The NUG, formed from the ashes of Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD, has maintained diplomatic relations with foreign governments, but has yet to gain official recognition, coveted also by the generals who led the takeover.
The trip to Australia by NUG Human Rights Minister Aung Myo Min was planned to bolster support among the Myanmar community there and build momentum for recognition. [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]
On this occasion, the first for any NUG representative in Australia, Aung Myo Min, also met with Foreign Affairs Minister’s Advisor, Penny Wong.
“We must do everything possible to get the recognition of the NUG as the legitimate government because we are the legitimate government,” he said.
NUG PDF groups have also been accused of some human rights abuses, with three members facing allegations of extrajudicial killing and rape of suspected military sympathizers in Chaung-U Township, central Sagaing, last August.
The alleged perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice.
In response, the minister told Al Jazeera that the case was “in the process of legal action” and that the NUG was “doing a lot to prevent this kind of thing”. [from happening] adopting the military code of conduct that applies to every member of the People’s Defense Forces: obey and respect”.
Bamar domination
The diversity of ethnic groups that make up Myanmar, many of whom fought the military long before the last coup, further complicates the NUG’s efforts to build sustainable support.
Officially, there are more than 135 ethnic groups in the country of more than 55 million people, which – formerly known as Burma and part of British India – was established at the end of British colonization in 1948. The Rohingya mostly Muslims are not counted among ethnic minorities because successive Myanmar governments have described them as “intruders” from Bangladesh. They were stripped of their citizenship under a 1982 law.
Despite the nation’s diversity, the majority ethnic Bamar (also known as Burmese) have dominated both the military and major parties, such as the NLD, exacerbating ongoing ethnic tensions.
But the human rights minister told Al Jazeera it was vital that the leadership included other ethnic groups, both in civil society and ethnic armed groups (EAGs).
“The NUG is a composition of the various stakeholders, including members of Parliament for the 2020 elections, and also representatives from ethnic backgrounds,” he said.
“It is important to provide confidence, and also to prove that the NUG [is] collaborating with the different ethnic groups”.
NUG Human Rights Minister Aung Myo Min speaks to Myanmar’s diaspora in Melbourne amid concerns over his commitment to ethnic minorities [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]
In the Al Jazeera interview, Aung Myo Min acknowledged the failure of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been jailed by the military, to adequately address the 2017 military crackdown that forced nearly a million Rohingya into the south from Bangladesh.
Many, including the Rohingya, had thought the Nobel Peace Prize winner would be their champion. Instead, in December 2019, while still de facto leader of the country, he went to the international court in The Hague to defend the military against genocide charges.
“The first thing [the NUG] was to acknowledge and recognize the crimes that are taking place against the Rohingya people. This is no longer a hidden agenda”, he insisted.
“We strongly recommend and are committed to bringing[ing] justice for the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities who suffer many forms of crimes at the hands of the military.”
Rual Thang, from the predominantly Christian state of Chin in western Myanmar over Rakhine, now lives in Australia and met the minister during his trip.
He told Al Jazeera that it was vital for the NUG to successfully interact with various ethnic groups, not only in Myanmar but in the international diaspora.
“Engagement with the various tribal and ethnic communities is necessary,” he said. “Otherwise, their legitimacy among the people, especially for ethnic minorities, could be affected.”
Rual Thang, who temporarily migrated to Australia in 2019 to study, is now reluctant to return due to escalating fighting since the 2021 coup and a crackdown on political activists like himself.
Armed groups such as the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) and the Chin National Defense Force (CNDF) have emerged since the coup and are allied with the Chin National Army (CNA), which was established after of a great political uprising in 1988.
Rual Thang told Al Jazeera that in his view, the Chin did not want to separate from Myanmar, but to be equally represented in a federal cabinet.
“The Chin people have their own political agenda. The first priority is [a] federal state But not necessarily succession [or] disintegration of mainland Burma. This is not the political goal of the Chin people,” he said.
While he acknowledged the minister’s efforts to create unity among ethnic groups, he was also skeptical of the NUG’s claims of diversity and believed that the NUG continued to represent the Bamar-dominated NLD.
“From my perspective, the NUG is a shadow government in exile that basically represents the NLD party, not necessarily all ethnic communities,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Right now, the objective is how to overthrow the military dictatorship. We need coordination between the different ethnic groups[ies] as well as strong coordination with the NUG. But I think we haven’t seen much between the NUG and the leaders of the ethnic community.”
Rual Thang, who is originally from Chin State, says the NUG and ethnic groups need to improve coordination to topple the military regime. [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]
Habiburahman, a Rohingya in exile, says he wonders if the NUG is sincere in its intentions [Ali MC/Al Jazeera]
As an indication of potential differences, representatives of more than 170 PDFs in Sagaing that are not aligned with the NUG held a two-day strategic meeting in late May without inviting NUG officials, Radio Free Asia’s Myanmar service reported this week.
Need for alliances of trust
Some Rohingya are also skeptical about the NUG’s motives.
“[The NUG] they have not let any Rohingya representative get involved in their political administration,” Habiburahman, who lives in exile in Australia, told Al Jazeera.
“We don’t know if [the NUG] are they using us as a political scapegoat or if they are genuine and sincere.”
Also exacerbating the complex situation in Rakhine state, where most of the country’s remaining Rohingya live, is the separatist Arakan Army (AA), which Habiburahman believes controls about 70 percent of the area.
Caught between the military, the AA and the NUG, Habiburahman told Al Jazeera that the situation was a waiting game to see who would take control of the area.
“We [the Rohingya] I don’t know if the NUG will succeed or [if] the AA will succeed,” he said.
Still, some analysts argue that the NUG has made progress.
The NUG has “a deliberately diverse cabinet, compared to the blatantly Burmese-dominated NLD,” Nick Cheesman of the Myanmar Research Center at the Australian National University told Al Jazeera.
“The NUG cabinet has many non-Burmese members, including its acting president [from Kachin]and acting PM [from Pwo Karen]Minister of the Federal Union [from Chin]Minister of Labor [from Mon]Minister of Women’s Affairs [from S’gaw Karen]Minister of International Cooperation [from Chin] and Minister of Natural Resources [from Kachin],” he said, adding that even if there is no Rohingya minister or deputy, the Human Rights Minister has promised that there will be.
Cheesman also acknowledges the immense challenges the NUG faces in terms of building trust and uniting the diverse aspirations of ethnic groups.
“There is no way the NUG can or will unite all armed groups against the Myanmar army. Different groups have different interests,” he said.
“The NUG needs reliable alliances with militarily and politically formidable groups. Mainly, you need to be able to form your own command structure from the PDFs. Since many of them do not want to take orders and the NUG cannot offer them much, if anything, in the way of support, this is a difficult task.”
