LONDON - British police have charged Myanmar’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom with trespassing on a diplomatic residence in London that he has refused to leave since being ousted for opposing the 2021 military coup in his home country.
Kyaw Zwar Minn, 66, was locked out of his embassy a few months after the February 2021 coup, and was later replaced by representatives of the military regime, after calling for the release of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Since his protest, praised by the British government at the time, Kyaw Zwar Minn has stayed at the northwest London ambassador’s residence, a mansion surrounded by razor wire and CCTV cameras. He has refused to hand it back to the embassy, which he says is now run by representatives of an illegitimate government.
London police said Kyaw Zwar Minn was charged last week with trespassing on a diplomatic premises. He must appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 30, they said.
Kyaw Zwar Minn declined to comment. The UK Foreign Office and the Myanmar embassy in London did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Britain has urged Kyaw Zwar Minn to leave the residence, citing pressure from the junta, Reuters has reported previously.
Chris Gunness of the rights group Myanmar Accountability Project urged Britain’s attorney general to intervene to stop the case.
“It is clearly not in our national interest to allow a junta which the UK has condemned and sanctioned to take over diplomatic property in London, not least because it undermines Britain’s policy of supporting democracy in Myanmar,” he said.
Britain is among several Western countries that have called for democracy to be restored in Myanmar and sanctioned members of Myanmar’s military and some of its business interests.
Most democratic nations, including Britain, have not formally recognised the junta.
But in July 2021, Myanmar’s junta appointed a new temporary head of its London embassy, a move that did not require the consent of the British government under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Kyaw Zwar Minn’s lawyer said after his client was questioned by police in 2023 that the residence remained the property of the Union of Myanmar.
“My client has always maintained that he is more than happy to hand over the keys to a representative of the democratically elected government of Myanmar,” he added.
