The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday (November 27) applied for an arrest warrant for Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
He said that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the junta leader was involved in crimes against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
A panel of three judges will now decide whether to issue the warrant.
What else do we know about the ICC warrant request?
Khan said that deportation and persecution were among the alleged crimes.
He said that they were committed by Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, supported by the national and border police as well as non-Rohingya citizens of Myanmar.
“This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official,” the prosecutor said, vowing that “more will follow”.
Over 730,000 Rohingya people fled to neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine state during the 2016-2017 period when the crimes were allegedly committed.
Myanmar is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, but 2018 and 2019 rulings found that the court had jurisdiction over alleged crimes that partially took place in Bangladesh, which is an ICC member.
The announcement comes several days after the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defence chief Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Application a ‘critical moment in Myanmar history’
Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister in Myanmar’s in-exile National Unity Government, said that the arrest warrant application “represents a critical moment in Myanmar history.”
“He must be held fully accountable for every innocent lives he has destroyed and the families he has torn apart,” she said on X, adding that she called on the judges to “swiftly issue the warrant and the governments to act and enforce this warrant to uphold justice and international law”.
Speaking to Reuters, Mohammed Zubair, whom the news agency described as a researcher and Rohingya refugee living in exile in Bangladesh, said that the Myanmar military under Min Aung Hlaing’s command “killed thousands of Rohingya and subjected countless women and girls to horrific acts of sexual violence”.
“As the primary perpetrator of these atrocities, Min Aung Hlaing must be held accountable … The ICC and ICJ [International Court of Justice] must take decisive action to ensure justice for the Rohingya community and to prevent such crimes from happening again,” he said.
The news agency also quoted Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, as saying the application was “an important step towards justice for the Rohingya”.
“But it is disappointing to see another arrest warrant request with no genocide crimes. The Rohingya case is undoubtedly genocide … They drove the Rohingya across the border into conditions of starvation and disease, with a lack of healthcare, including for women pregnant with rape babies,” she was also quoted as saying.
What is the situation in Myanmar?
While Myanmar has been grappling with insurgencies by militias representing various ethnic groups for decades, the conflict intensified in 2021 after the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Rebel groups have succeeded in taking control of large swathes of territory in offensives in the war.
Rights groups have reported renewed attacks on Rohingya since the outbreak of Myanmar’s civil war in 2021.
Rohingya people traditionally inhabit the northwestern Rakhine state, which is also home to the largely Buddhist Rakhine people. The Arakan Army rebel group controls much of the state and is mostly made up of ethnic Rakhine.
The Rohingya have for decades faced widespread discrimination in Myanmar and most of them have been denied citizenship.
With inputs from DW.
