A number of Indonesian legal figures, including former Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, along with a member of a Rohingya activist network, filed a criminal case of suspected genocide in April against Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing in Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office.
The Rohingyas are the one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world, according to the United Nations. Since 1982, they have mostly been denied Myanmar citizenship and millions have become refugees in many parts of the world, including Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, which is currently hosting at least 2,500 Rohingya refugees according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
Marzuki Darusman was the chair of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.
Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya refugee now residing in Canada, said that she and fellow activists have pushed for a legal case in Canada against the alleged perpetrators of violence against the Rohingya Community. In 2017, the country’s parliament declared that the Rohingyas are victims of genocide by the Myanmar military.
According to Ullah, it is time to bring back the advocacy to the region of Southeast Asia.
"We must aim high enough to believe that justice can be achieved in this region. After all, the fact is, if we don't press forward, we won't reach our goal." she said.
While Ullah and other members of the Rohingya Maiyafuinor Collaborative network have visited Indonesia multiple times for humanitarian and networking purposes, on one occasion they came across a representative of the Myanmar Accountability Project, which was collaborating with the law firm Themis Indonesia.
Callista Adani Chendra from Themis Indonesia said that the law firm had been researching about Indonesia’s new criminal code, which implementation began in 2026 and incorporates the principle of Universal jurisdiction, thus making it possible for them to file the case. They then reached out to Ullah to inquire whether she was willing to be an eyewitness and a reporter of alleged genocide.
“Thank God, she [Ullah] was willing,” Callista said.
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