The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor in The Hague asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya.
Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya.
Nearly a million people were forced into neighbouring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
From a refugee camp in Bangladesh, the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement on Wednesday that he intended to request more warrants for Myanmar’s leaders soon.
“In doing so, we will be demonstrating, together with all of our partners, that the Rohingya have not been forgotten.
“That they, like all people around the world, are entitled to the protection of the law,” the British barrister said.
The allegations stem from a counterinsurgency campaign that Myanmar’s military began in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack.
Hlaing, who heads the Myanmar Defence Services, is said to have directed the armed forces of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as the national police to attack Rohingya civilians.
Karim was in Bangladesh where he met with members of the displaced Rohingya population.
About one million of the predominately Muslim Rohingya live in Bangladesh as refugees from Myanmar, including about 740,000 who fled in 2017.
Rohingya face widespread discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with most denied citizenship.
Myanmar’s government refuses to recognise the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 lawful ethnic minorities, instead calling them Bengalis, with the implication that their native land is in Bangladesh and they are illegally settled in Myanmar. — AP
