Myanmar’s military government has ordered East Timor’s top representative to leave the country within a week, escalating a diplomatic rift after a rights group said Dili had opened a war-crimes case against the junta under universal jurisdiction.
In a statement, the junta said East Timor’s reported appointment of a prosecutor to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity was a “great disappointment.” It said the charge d’affaires — currently East Timor’s most senior official posted in Myanmar — was summoned Friday and told to depart within seven days.
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The move follows a claim this month by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) that East Timor had initiated legal action targeting Myanmar’s military leadership. CHRO said the complaint, lodged under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows domestic courts to try grave international offenses, includes “irrefutable evidence” of gang rape, a massacre of 10 people, the killing of religious officials and an air strike on a hospital.
Myanmar’s armed forces seized power in a 2021 coup and have long faced accusations of systematic abuses against ethnic minorities and political opponents. The country is currently defending itself at the International Court of Justice against allegations of genocide over a brutal campaign against the mostly Muslim Rohingya.
The junta framed East Timor’s reported legal move as a violation of regional norms, accusing Dili of breaching Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) charter provisions that emphasize respect for sovereignty and noninterference. The row places two ASEAN members at odds: East Timor joined the bloc in October 2025 as its 11th member.
The latest expulsion order is not the first time relations have ruptured. The junta previously ejected East Timor’s top diplomat in August 2023 after Dili hosted representatives of a banned shadow administration formed in the aftermath of the coup.
The clash underscores widening legal and diplomatic pressure on Myanmar’s generals. While international courts focus on state responsibility and genocide allegations, universal jurisdiction cases — when admissible — can target individuals for crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, potentially complicating travel and assets for suspects and raising the stakes for countries engaging the junta.
Rights groups and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly documented reports of scorched-earth tactics, sexual violence and indiscriminate air strikes since the coup, allegations the military has routinely denied. CHRO’s filing, if pursued by East Timor’s courts, would mark a rare Southeast Asian effort to test universal jurisdiction within the region, where deference to the ASEAN noninterference principle has often constrained public responses to Myanmar’s conflict.
It was not immediately clear what charges, if any, East Timor’s prosecutor has formally registered or whether arrest warrants may follow. The junta’s statement did not indicate whether further diplomatic or economic measures against Dili were under consideration, beyond the expulsion order.
The dispute adds strain to ASEAN’s already fraught handling of Myanmar since 2021, a period marked by intermittent violence, mass displacement and stuttering regional diplomacy. With Myanmar’s generals denouncing Dili’s legal initiative and East Timor facing the diplomatic cost of pushing accountability in the region, the standoff signals fresh turbulence for Southeast Asia’s consensus-driven bloc.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
