The head of Myanmar’s military junta was accused on Wednesday of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor, in a blow to the war-torn country’s government.
The prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested an arrest warrant for Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who in 2017 led the country’s military on a deadly rampage against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority. During that violence, civilians were killed, women were raped and homes were razed.
Over one million Rohingya have been forced to flee violence in the country, the court said, and over the years many have sought sanctuary in refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh.
Mr. Khan said arrest warrants for more top Myanmar officials would follow. Here is what to know about General Min Aung Hlaing.
A heavy hand
General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021 that ousted the country’s ostensibly democratic government and thrust Myanmar into violence. He took on civilian titles, including prime minister, to go with his military rank.
Since then, the United Nations reports, over 5,000 civilians have been killed and over three million have been displaced. More than half of Myanmar’s population is now living in poverty.
The regime has cracked down violently on political opposition, imprisoning pro-democracy protesters and threatening punishment for civilians who refuse to join the military.
Among those imprisoned by the junta is Myanmar’s former civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate. She is serving a decades-long sentence that the U.N. condemned as “politically motivated.”
Since the coup, over 27,700 people have been arrested and over 21,000 remain detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), an organization that tallies detentions and uses Myanmar’s former name. Over 260 people have been tortured to death while detained, the organization reported, though it said the true number is likely much higher.
A bloody history
Before leading the coup, General Min Aung Hlaing was a career army officer who ascended the ranks and earned a reputation for attacks on ethnic groups.
He graduated from the country’s Defense Services Academy in 1977, where he had a reputation for bullying other students. Then he started his bloody military career as an infantry officer.
He has been Myanmar’s commander in chief since 2011, a position that reports to no civilian authority — including the president — under the country’s 2008 Constitution.
In 2019, the U.S. imposed travel sanctions on the general and other officials, citing their complicity in human rights violations.
“We remain concerned that the Burmese government has taken no actions to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses, and there are continued reports of the Burmese military committing human rights violations and abuses throughout the country,” said Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state at the time.
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