Outwardly, the British government has praised Kyaw Zwar Minn’s “brave stand in support of democracy” and a foreign office spokesman told Reuters Britain had provided “significant support” to him to build a life for his family in the UK.
But private foreign office correspondence dating back to October last year repeatedly urges him to leave the house, saying his presence there poses legal problems for Britain and risks to its staff in Myanmar.
The Telegraph contacted the Foreign Office and the former Myanmar ambassador for comment. Myanmar’s junta has not made any statement on the matter.
The battle over the house is a symbol of Myanmar’s junta quest to obtain international recognition and install their own envoys after seizing power from their country’s democratically elected leaders.
Last year, international lawyers told the Telegraph that the UK had boosted the international legitimacy of the brutal military regime by not standing up to orders to remove Kyaw Zwar Minn.
Britain claimed it was obliged under Article 43 of the Vienna Convention to accept the move after receiving formal diplomatic notification.
But multiple lawyers said this was a political, not a purely legal judgement, and that the UK had no obligation to accept his dismissal if it had first made the decision not to recognise the military junta as the legitimate government.
The ambassador has not been without controversy and has been accused by human rights activists of previously defending the military’s vicious ethnic cleansing campaign against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, many of whom were forced to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017.
Mark Farmaner, the director of London-based NGO Burma Campaign UK, said that his past behaviour “should not detract from the fact that he is the legitimately appointed ambassador for Myanmar and has a right to stay in the residence and the Embassy.”
“The argument over the residence has important symbolism but the root of this problem is the terrible decision by the Foreign Office last year to accept the right of the military to fire the ambassador,” he said.
“The Foreign Office should have deported the defence attaché who locked the ambassador out of the embassy last year, rather than going along with it. The defence attaché is still living and working in luxury homes in Wimbledon.”
