BROUK petitions Argentine court to expand jurisdiction to cover alleged AA crimes
Mizzima
The Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) released a statement on 3 September announcing its formal petition to the Federal Court in Buenos Aires to broaden its universal jurisdiction case on the Rohingya genocide to also include alleged rights abuses by the Arakan Army (AA). BROUK hopes to secure arrest warrants for those in the AA’s chain of command, especially Commander-in-Chief Major General Twan Mrat Naing and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Brigadier General Nyo Twan Awng.
The BROUK announcement continues as follows.
For more than a year, the AA – an ethnic armed resistance group that is fighting the Myanmar military and currently controls much of Rakhine State – has led a brutal campaign of abuse against Rohingya civilians, including mass killings, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, and forced starvation. This campaign has intensified considerably in 2025.
In a report released on August 29, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, documented a wide range of atrocity crimes committed by the AA against Rohingya civilians, forcing many to flee their homes and villages. One of the most horrific incidents occurred on May 2, 2024, when AA fighters massacred hundreds of Rohingya in a single day in Htan Shauk Khan village (known locally as Hoinya Seeri) in Buthidaung Township, Rakhine State.
Witnesses described being stopped by Arakan Army elements, divided into three groups in nearby paddy fields, and then fired upon- leaving dozens dead. One survivor recalled the scene as “a river of blood… I saw shooting. I saw mass killing. It was a lot of guns; people were shot in the legs and chest.” Another recounted the killing of 20 relatives, including three children.
The INGO Fortify Rights has also documented a pattern of the AA torturing and “disappearing” captured Rohingya men in ad-hoc detention centres. Aid actors, meanwhile, have warned that these crimes are taking place in a context where Rohingya are increasingly at risk of starvation, in part due to onerous humanitarian access restrictions imposed by the Myanmar military.
“There is no question that these atrocities amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, who have already faced a decades-long state-sponsored genocide in Myanmar. The Arakan Army, as a non-state actor, has the same responsibility as Myanmar military to refrain from committing crimes against humanity and genocide,” said Tun Khin, President of BROUK.
The pioneering universal jurisdiction case, initiated by BROUK in 2019 and formally opened in 2021, saw the Buenos Aires Federal Court issue arrest warrants in February for 25 Myanmar officials implicated in the Rohingya genocide. In today’s filing, BROUK submitted further evidence and five witnesses ready to testify on recent Arakan Army atrocities. It will also seek arrest warrants of AA Commanders.
“As Rohingya – we wanted to unite with Rakhine and all ethnic and religious groups in Myanmar against our common enemy, the Myanmar military. Instead, we face the same horrific crimes from the Arakan Army as we do from the Myanmar military. We have privately and publicly called for an end to these crimes, but they have reached unspeakable levels. It is with frustration that we now initiate this case, as a prompt resort to try to prevent further atrocities from Arakan Army,” said Tun Khin.
BROUK believes it is impossible to view the AA’s crimes as separate from the wider pattern of violations facing the Rohingya. Rather, they are part of the same genocide and crimes against humanity the Rohingya have faced for decades.
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