Application for a warrant of arrest filed in ICC for Myanmar Acting President Min Aung Hlaing

Nearly a million people were forced into neighbouring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes

The International Criminal Court has reached the conclusion after an “extensive, independent and impartial investigation” that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the Acting President of Myanmar is criminally responsible for “crimes against humanity” against the Rohingya community of Rakhine. Based on its finding ICC Prosecutor’s office has filed an “application for a warrant of arrest” before the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court, a statement from the ICC declared on Wednesday, November 27, 2024.

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“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, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services, bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar and in part in Bangladesh,” declared a statement from the ICC on Wednesday, November 27, 2024.

This is the first time that the Acting President Min Aung Hlaing has drawn such sharp and definite observations from the International Criminal Court since the beginning of the Rohingya crisis. ICC said the application “draws upon a wide variety of evidence from numerous sources such as witness testimonies, including from a number of insider witnesses, documentary evidence and authenticated scientific, photographic and video materials.”

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Myanmar’s Ethnic Armed Organisations and the rebel National Unity Government have held a round of meetings in New Delhi earlier this month as internal conflict has created difficult humanitarian situation for most the provinces and regions.

The Rohingya crisis started in the monsoon of 2017 with the eviction of more than a million Rohingya citizens of Myanmar who were forced to seek refuge across the boundary in Bangladesh’s Chittagong.

Published - November 27, 2024 05:21 pm IST