An application for indictment has been filed in Timor-Leste over war crimes committed by the junta in Myanmar, including the brutal massacre of 10 people, among them a Khonumthung News reporter and a child.

The application was filed on January 12, 2026, at the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, over the junta’s brutal killing of 10 people in Matupi Township, Chin State, in January 2022.

The application was submitted by Salai Za Uk, Executive Director of the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), with the support of the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), and was assisted by José Teixeira and Nuno Marazes, lawyers from the Timor-Leste–based law firm Da Silva Teixeira & Associados Lda.

On January 6, 2022, during an operation on the Matupi–Paletwa Road in Chin State, the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 140 (LIB 140) abducted civilians it encountered along the road and used them as human shields. Three days later, the victims were found dead with their hands tied behind their backs, most bearing slash wounds to the neck and stab wounds.

“The charges include the gang rape of a pregnant woman by junta troops, the killing of 10 people, 8 of whom had their throats slashed, and the deliberate killing of a Christian pastor and three deacons. Other cases involve an airstrike on a hospital that killed four health workers and four patients, as well as the targeted destruction of Christian churches. We have also submitted evidence to support these accusations,” said Salai Za Uk.

“We decided to file the charges in Timor-Leste under the principle of universal jurisdiction. This principle allows a country to hear and prosecute serious crimes regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators or the victims. Lawyers José Teixeira and Nuno Marazes filed the case without placing a burden on Timor-Leste’s judicial system, submitting evidence documented by the CHRO along with concrete information available to the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM),” he added.

The complaint mainly focused on the systematic and widespread crimes committed by the junta in Chin State, where the majority of the population is Christian, he explained.

According to CHRO figures, nearly 1,000 airstrikes had been carried out in Chin State since July 2022, destroying more than 4,600 homes, killing 478 civilians including 91 women and 79 children, and damaging or destroying 19 hospitals, 25 schools, and 127 religious buildings including 78 churches.

At the national level, as of March 31, 2025, the junta had killed 6,473 civilians including 1,487 women and 748 children, and arrested more than 30,000 people, according to the UN.

To date, 22,000 people remain imprisoned by the junta, with nearly 2,000 having died in its notorious interrogation centers. The CHRO’s indictment application also noted that 172 people are awaiting death sentences handed down by junta-controlled courts.

In a situation where more than 3.5 million people, which is around 5 percent of the population, have been displaced and nearly 20 million are in need of assistance in Myanmar, the junta has continued to block humanitarian aid, failing to ease restrictions even after a deadly earthquake struck on March 28, 2025. With over 1 million people fleeing across the border in search of safety, Myanmar has become the source of a major refugee crisis in the region.

“We hope this case will earn the sympathy of the people of Timor-Leste because of the parallels between their history and what is happening in Myanmar today. The junta in Myanmar is brutally killing innocent civilians, just as in the Santa Cruz Massacre in Dili in 1991, when over 250 people were killed,” said Salai Za Uk.

Chris Gunness, director of the Myanmar Accountability Project, also said that if Timor-Leste launches an investigation, it will send a strong message to the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that the situation in Myanmar is no longer tolerable and will highlight the urgent need for practical change.

Salai Za Uk has called on civil society organizations, the Catholic Church, and the people of Timor-Leste to uphold and support their call for justice.