THE HAGUE — 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 crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the persecution of the Rohingya.
Nearly a million people were forced into neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
From a refugee camp in Bangladesh, the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement that he intended 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.
The allegations stem from a counterinsurgency campaign that Myanmar’s military began in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the Myanmar Defense Services, is said to have directed the armed forces of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as the national police to attack Rohingya civilians.
Khan was in Bangladesh where he met with members of the displaced Rohingya population. About 1 million of the predominately Muslim Rohingya live in Bangladesh as refugees from Myanmar, including about 740,000 who fled in 2017.
Rohingya face widespread discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with most denied citizenship. Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 lawful ethnic minorities, instead calling them Bengalis, with the implication that their native land is in Bangladesh and they are illegally settled in Myanmar.
Human rights groups applauded the decision to seek a warrant. The dire situation of the Rohingya has received less attention as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have grabbed headlines. “The ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek a warrant against Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing 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,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.
Zin Mar Aung, foreign minister for Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government, established by elected lawmakers barred from taking their seats in 2021, said on the social media platform X that ICC judges should “swiftly issue the warrant” and that governments should “act and enforce this warrant to uphold justice and international law.” She posted that the ICC action “represents a critical moment in Myanmar history.”
Myanmar’s military regime issued a short statement rejecting the proceedings, noting it was not party to the ICC and insisting the country’s leadership practiced a policy of “peaceful coexistence.”
