Today, my Office is filing an
application for a warrant of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the
International Criminal Court in the Situation
in Bangladesh/Myanmar.
Since 14 November 2019, we have
been investigating alleged crimes committed during the 2016 and 2017
waves of violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar, and the subsequent exodus
of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
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.
My Office alleges that these crimes
were committed between 25 August 2017 and 31 December 2017 by the armed
forces of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw, supported by the national police, the
border guard police, as well as non-Rohingya civilians.
This is the first application for
an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official that
my Office is filing. More will follow.
Today’s 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.
In collecting this evidence, the
Office has benefitted from the crucial support of States, civil society
partners and international organisations. In particular, the
cooperation, the confidence and the steadfast commitment from the
Rohingya community, the support of the Government of Bangladesh, and
excellent cooperation from the United Nations Independent Investigative
Mechanism for Myanmar have been essential to advancing this
investigation.
I wish in particular to express my
deep, profound gratitude to the Rohingya. More than a million members
of their community have been forced to flee violence in Myanmar. We are
grateful to all those who provided testimony and support to my Office,
those that have shared their stories, those that have given us
information and material.
In my visits
to the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar over the last three years, including just yesterday, I met with
Rohingya women who spoke with clarity and purpose about the need for
accountability. I sat with youth activists who wanted to play their own
role in seeking justice. And I spoke with men of all ages including the
old and the sick, who were united in demanding to be seen and to have
accountability for what befell them. Our work, the work of the
International Criminal Court, seeks to vindicate their resilience and
their hope in the power of the law.
It is now for the judges of the
International Criminal Court to determine whether this application
meets the necessary standard for the issuance of an arrest warrant. In
the event that the independent judges of the ICC issue the requested
warrant, we will coordinate closely with the Registrar of the Court in
all efforts to arrest the named individual.
When I first
travelled to Bangladesh,
I announced that we would seek to accelerate our investigations, and we
committed to providing additional resources in that effort. Since then,
we have reinvigorated our activities in line with that promise. Today
marks a culmination of this renewed focus in relation to this
situation.
We will continue this focus in the
coming weeks and months as we submit additional applications in this
situation.
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.
More information
ICC
Prosecutor, Karim A. A. Khan QC, concludes first visit to Bangladesh,
underlines commitment to advance investigations into alleged atrocity
crimes against the Rohingya
ICC
Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan KC concludes second visit to Bangladesh:
“The Rohingya must not be forgotten. Together, we can deliver on their
legitimate expectations of justice.”
ICC
judges authorise opening of an investigation into the situation in
Bangladesh/Myanmar
Situation
in Bangladesh/Myanmar
Office
of the Prosecutor
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