Media Release From The Office of Rushanara Ali MP
MPs call for Myanmar Military referral to International Criminal Court
Following the UN fact finding mission, over 160 Parliamentarians call for justice over the Rohingya crisis.
Over 160 Parliamentarians across parties have signed a letter urging PM Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP to refer the Myanmar military to the International Criminal Court. This is ahead of the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Myanmar later this month.
This follows the UN independent international fact finding mission report in August 2018 which found patterns of gross human rights violations and abuses committed in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States that “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”, principally by Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, but also by other security forces.
The United Nations has now documented more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh since the Myanmar military began their offensive against Rohingya civilians in August 2017.
In the letter, the Parliamentarians say:
“We are writing to you regarding the Rohingya crisis, which the United Nations fact-finding mission has concluded constitutes intent to commit genocide. This is the most serious of all possible violations of international law. We must do everything within our power to hold those responsible to account. Therefore, we request that you support all of the recommendations of the fact finding mission, including a referral of Burma to the International Criminal Court.”
“We can be proud of the leadership role that Britain has played so far in the humanitarian response to the crisis. We have led the world in providing humanitarian aid and mobilising others to do the same.”
“Yet, UN Security Council requests for action on issues such as justice and accountability, on creating the conditions for safe return of refugees, on humanitarian action, and on implementation of the Rakhine Advisory Commission recommendations, have all either been ignored, or agreements have not been honoured, by the government of Burma.”
You can read the letter in full here.
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Notes to Editors:
1) For further information or comment please contact Rushanara Ali MP’s Office.
2) You can find more information on Rushanara’s work in Parliament here.
3) Following Rushanara’s recent visit to Bangladesh, where she saw the scale of destruction of Rohingya villages and met refugees, Rushanara published an article in the Guardian on the urgent need for an ICC referral. You can read that article here.