Myanmar war crimes survivors look to Denmark for justice

Forty homes. That is how many a woman, now living in Denmark, watched burn in her village in Chin State, western Myanmar. Family members and friends were killed or left permanently disabled by landmines planted by the junta. Like tens of thousands of others from Chin State, she was driven across the border into India.On Monday, October 26, she is asking the Danish authorities to investigate the men responsible.She has filed a criminal complaint in Copenhagen against members of the Myanmar junta. For her safety she cannot be named. The crimes in the complaint include deliberate killing, mass arson, and the forced displacement of tens of thousands of people.This is possible because of a change in Danish law. Legislation that came into force last year specifically criminalises war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. It gives Danish prosecutors a route that did not exist before.Her lawyer, Copenhagen-based Eddie Omar Rosenberg Khawaja, puts it plainly. “Under the new Danish legislation it no longer matters where the crimes took place, or the nationality of the perpetrators or the victims,” he says. “Victims living in Denmark can request that Danish authorities hold commanders under whose watch atrocities against them occurred responsible.”That matters because there is nowhere else to go. Myanmar’s courts are controlled by the generals. The Security Council has failed to act. International courts in the Hague, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, have also been slow. For the people of Chin State, a Danish police station may be one of the few doors that open.It also fits Denmark’s own history. Tracy Bawi Hlei, chair of Myanmar Action Group Denmark (MAGD), which supports the case, says: “Denmark has a history of aligning itself with the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar since before the 1990s, through development aid, support of activists, bypassing the military government, and standing in solidarity with human rights movements.”She sees this case as the next step. “Now, Myanmar people and Danish activists who are part of communities and movements in Denmark are taking a stand for accountability and the international rule of law.” Survivors and crucial evidence, she explains, were identified within Denmark through a collaboration of civil society groups, including MAGD and the Chin Community Denmark (CCDK), which also supports the case.I run the Myanmar Accountability Project, which supports cases against the junta in Southeast Asia and Europe. I believe the basis for a Danish case is strong.The Danish government has said so itself. In a statement to the UN on September 30, 2025, Denmark said, as a matter of public record, that Myanmar suffers from a lack of accountability and continued impunity. This complaint invites Denmark to act on that.The timing is pointed. The Danish foreign ministry is closing its embassy in Myanmar. This case allows the Danish government to send a signal that it remains engaged with issues of justice and accountability, and that the rightful aspirations of the people of Myanmar to a just, peaceful and dignified life must be respected.Meanwhile the junta is seeking legitimacy. Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led the coup, is now president after sham elections that offered the people of Myanmar no real choice. Those who lived through his campaigns of burning and killing are expected to accept this as normal. They do not.The country’s condition leaves no room for complacency. According to the latest UN report, more than 16 million people need aid, and the junta is blocking humanitarian access to vast areas where the need is greatest. Nearly 3.8 million people are estimated to be displaced, many of them several times. A UN Development Programme report published last month found that two thirds of the population are living in poverty or at immediate risk of falling into it.The violence is on a scale that few outside the region grasp. More than 100,000 people have died in conflict-related violence since the coup. That makes Myanmar the fourth most deadly conflict in the world. This is not a frozen conflict. It is a war on civilians, and state-wide repression compounds the inhuman levels of killing, which makes justice and accountability even more important.What the complainant seeks is limited. She is not asking Denmark to end a war. She is asking its police to open an investigation and its prosecutors to take her evidence seriously. She is asking that the commanders responsible be held accountable.Denmark has said impunity in Myanmar must end. Its new law now gives it a way to act on that. She has come forward, at a risk to herself that most of us will never face. It is now for Danish authorities to decide whether the law means what it says.Chris Gunness is founder and director of the Myanmar Accountability Project.

Myanmar war crimes survivors look to Denmark for justice

A change in Danish law opens a new door for victims of atrocities in Myanmar to seek accountability from the country’s military rulers

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