Dear TIME,

Your article for this year's 100 most influential people contains an individual by the name of Min Aung Hlaing, submitted by your East Asia correspondent Charlie Campbell. To the common knowledge of the people of Myanmar and the international community, Min Aung Hlaing is a despot and war criminal who has been committing a string of mass atrocities since his coup d'etat on February 2021. His most recent one? A village in northwestern Myanmar was heavily bombed in an airstrike just days before the Burmese New Year, mutilating and killing over 150 people, including children, students, and women. 

The people of Myanmar, the Burmese diaspora, and our allies do not regard Min Aung Hlaing as ‘influential’ in the slightest, and for your correspondent to blatantly ignore that fact and include him on your list is a direct insult to everyone affected by his regime. To put his name under the Leaders category and allow him to share the same space as Russian journalist Evan Gershkovich and Iranians Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who have been included in the list for reporting on their respective regimes, is a double insult and reeks of hypocrisy.  

According to your former editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs, “the people on the list, each in their own way, have lessons to teach”. We are aware of your history of putting despots on your list and your morally neutral stance, but by granting Min Aung Hlaing the title of ‘100 most influential’, you are being complicit in the cover-up of his crimes against the people of Myanmar. Know that any future blood spilled will be on the hands of every single individual who has participated in this selection process, for your team has elevated Min Aung Hlaing’s ego enough for him to justify his actions and legitimize his tyranny. 

We ask your editorial team to re-evaluate this ignorant submission and take immediate action in removing Min Aung Hlaing from your list. 

Yours sincerely,

the people of Myanmar