ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief in connection with crimes against Rohingya minority

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday asked judges for an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing for alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya people. “After an extensive, independent and impartial investigation, my office has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Senior General and Acting President Min Aung Hlaing... bears criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity,” Karim Khan said in a statement. While welcoming the statement, Myanmar human rights advocate Khin Ohmar noted that referring to the junta chief by the self-ascribed title “acting president” was incorrect, in that the military junta seized power in a coup and is not a recognised, legal government of Myanmar. A Rohingya activist living in a Bangladeshi refugee camp, who requested anonymity, said she is also one of many who welcome the prosecutor’s warrant request, but remain fearful of the next potential wave of genocidal violence in Rakhine State. “I cannot be entirely happy because there is still a second and ongoing genocide in Arakan State,” she told Myanmar Now, referring to Rakhine State by an alternative name. She added that, while they were seeking the arrest warrant for one perpetrator, many remain unpunished. “Most importantly, we want peace and repatriation and to return home,” she added. Another Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, Mohammed Zonaid, remarked that the requested arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing will represent a step towards justice for the Rohingya, a persecuted religious and ethnic minority, most of whose surviving members have had to give up everything but their lives. “So, this is a small hope for the Rohingya,” he said, before adding, “Min Aung Hlaing was not alone in committing this crime. I want to know if they will issue arrest warrants for the others too.” “I think we have to continue our relentless effort so they issue the arrest warrant for the AA,” Zonaid added, referring to the anti-junta ethnic armed organisation in Rakhine State that has also been accused of targeting and massacring Rohingya civilians. According to Zonaid, many Rohingya feel that Myanmar’s former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi should also be held to account, believing her to have been complicit in the Myanmar military’s violence against the Rohingya. “She was also responsible for this crime along with the military,” Zonaid said, adding, “We Rohingya want the ICC to issue the warrant for her and other government officials.” The ICC prosecutor in 2019 opened a probe into suspected crimes committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017, that prompted the exodus of 750,000 of the mostly Muslim minority in the southeast Asian country to neighbouring Bangladesh. About one million Rohingya now live in sprawling camps near the Bangladeshi border city of Cox’s Bazar. Many of those who left accuse the Myanmar military of mass killings and rapes. Seeking a warrant on charges of deportation and persecution, Khan said the alleged crimes were committed by Myanmar’s armed forces, the Tatmadaw, supported by the national and border police “as well as non-Rohingya citizens.” “This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official,” Khan said. “More will follow,” warned the prosecutor, who is based in The Hague.

ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief in connection with crimes against Rohingya minority

Responding to the prosecutor’s statement about holding the regime’s top general accountable for anti-Rohingya atrocities, activists and refugees said Rohingya people are still the targets of growing violence in Myanmar and called for more to be done

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