The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor asked judges on Wednesday to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar's military regime for alleged crimes committed against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who took power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya between 25 August and 31 December 2017.
"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," the court's top prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement.
UN investigators have said the campaign, which caused 750,000 to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, was carried out with "genocidal intent".
About one million now live in sprawling camps near the Bangladesh border city of Cox's Bazaar. Many of those who left accuse the Myanmar military of mass killings and rapes.
Rohingya Muslim people who remain in Myanmar are denied citizenship and access to healthcare and require permission to travel outside their townships.
General Min Aung Hlaing — who was head of the army during the crackdown — has dismissed the term Rohingya as "imaginary".
Buddhist majority Myanmar denies accusations of genocide and has always maintained it does not target civilians, saying it has carried out military operations against terrorists.
Mr 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".
He added that he intends 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.
Warrant still to be issued
A panel of three judges will now decide if they agree there are "reasonable grounds" to believe general Min Aung Hlaing bears criminal responsibility for the deportation and persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
There is no set time frame for their decision but it generally takes around three months to rule on issuing an arrest warrant.
Myanmar's ruling junta told Reuters on Wednesday the country was not a member of the International Criminal Court and did not recognise its statements.
The ministry of information in an emailed response to Reuters also said Myanmar had a free and unbiased foreign policy and peacefully coexisted with other countries.
The prosecutor's step marked a rare day of celebration for the Rohingya, said Tun Khin, president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK.
"We have finally taken another step towards justice and accountability," he said.
Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister for Myanmar's shadow, National Unity Government, called the application a critical moment in history.
"He must be held fully accountable for every innocent life he has destroyed and the families he has torn apart," she said in a social media post.
Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Mr Khan's decision to seek an arrest warrant "comes amid renewed atrocities against Rohingya civilians that echo those suffered seven years ago."
"The ICC's action is an important step toward breaking the cycle of abuses and impunity that has long been a key factor in fuelling the military's mass violations," she said.
"ICC member countries should recognise this action as a reminder of the court's critical role when other doors to justice are closed."
The ICC has been investigating crimes against the Rohingya for nearly five years.
The ICC prosecutor opened a probe in 2019 into suspected crimes committed against Rohingya Muslim people in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017.
Its investigation has not only been hampered by a lack of access to the country but also because Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, sparking a resistance movement that began as peaceful protests and later evolved into an armed rebellion on multiple fronts.
Myanmar is not a member of the treaty-based ICC, but in 2018 and 2019 rulings judges said the court had jurisdiction over alleged cross-border crimes that partially took place in neighbouring ICC member Bangladesh — and said prosecutors could open a formal investigation.
If the warrant is granted, the 124 members of the ICC would theoretically be obliged to arrest the junta chief if he travelled to their country.
China, a major ally and arms supplier of Myanmar's ruling junta, is not an ICC member.
ABC/wires
