Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a statement by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC that his office has applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, Head of the Burmese military.
The Prosecutor stated that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Min Aung Hlaing “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh.”
The Prosecutor also stated that more applications for arrest warrants will follow.
The crimes relate to the Burmese military offensive against Rohingya civilians which began on 25th August 2017, which forced around 800,000 Rohingya to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Although Burma is not a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Bangladesh is, and the ICC ruled that it has jurisdiction relating to the crime of deportation as this happened in an ICC member state.
Violations of international law being committed by the Burmese military in the rest of the country are not being investigated by the ICC.
Judges at the ICC will now have to assess the evidence and decide whether to issue an international arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing.
“The application for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing is long overdue and will be celebrated across Burma”, said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK. “For decades the Burmese military has been allowed to get away with violating international law without facing consequences. Justice is slowly closing in on the generals, but there is still a long way to go. We can expect bluster and defiance from the Burmese military in response to the application for an arrest warrant, but in truth it will send shockwaves through the military, because their sense of impunity is finally being eroded.”