According to the International Criminal Court ( ICC), the country’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing has been the subject of a police report demanding an arrest warrant for his crimes against humanity against the Rohingya Muslims.
Karim Khan claimed that there are valid grounds to believe that Min Aung Hlaing is accountable for the Rohingya’s oppression and deportation to neighboring Bangladesh.
In 2017 a large number of Rohingya refugees eluded a military operation known as “genocide” launched by the Burmese war.
But Myanmar’s state has denied this, saying it was only carrying out a plan against Rohingya militants.
In 2017, Rohingya militants launched fatal episodes on more than 30 police stations in Myanmar.
They said soldiers responded to this by burning their settlements, and attacking and killing civilians.
At least 6, 700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières ( MSF).
According to Amnesty International, Myanmar’s military exploited and raped Rohingya women and girls as well.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the then-Burmese leader, refused to sue her generals, which sparked an international outcry and calls for accountability.
Since Myanmar does not participate in the International Criminal Court, it seemed difficult to file a case there at first.
But, ICC prosecutors after argued that as some of the reported crimes, generally imprisonment, also occurred in Bangladesh- which is a signatory- there were grounds for an indictment.
The deputy counsel claims he has sufficient proof to obtain an international arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing after five decades of inquiry.
A board of three ICC judges had then act on the lawyer’s demand.
The International Court of Justice is hearing a case involving a defense murder.
Human rights companies welcomed reports of Min Aung Hlaing’s arrest permit, with one calling it a “day of event”.
According to Maria Elena Vignoli, older international justice lawyers at Human Rights Watch,” the ICC attorney’s demand for this arrest permit is a strong warning to Myanmar’s aggressive military leaders that they are not out of the reach of the law.”
” This is a rare moment of event for the Rohingya”, Tun Khin, chairman of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation in the UK, told Reuters news agency. ” Now we have finally taken another step towards justice and accountability”.
The army of Min Aung Hlaing is already at the height of a civil war in Myanmar.
In a coup led by Min Aung Hlaing against the elected Aung Sang Suu Kyi authorities, Min Aung Hlaing took control of the country in 2021.
Since launching his tragic coup, he has become a leper on a global scale, and he has few trips to The Hague.
This situation may at least demonstrate that the hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas who are imprisoned in Bangladeshi tents are not forgotten.