Bangkok, Paris, The Hague, 28 November 2024. FIDH and its member organisations welcome the OTP’s announcement that it is seeking an arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in the situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar. In its request, submitted to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I following an independent investigation, the OTP concluded that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that Min Aung Hlaing bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya committed in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
"The ICC OTP has shown audacity and determination in pursuing accountability for the highest-ranking military officials accused of international crimes, despite the immense pressures the Court faces as an institution. This application shows that the OTP will not be deterred even in situations where discriminatory violence occurs primarily on the territory of a non-member State of the ICC", said FIDH International Justice Desk Director Ilya Nuzov.
"The application for an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor against Min Aung Hlaing is a key advancement in criminal accountability for Rohingya victims and survivors who have been waiting for so long. It will signal to perpetrators that they cannot get away from the mass atrocities that they have committed, and are now committing in Myanmar, including Rakhine. The international community must support the application while taking further steps to bring justice and accountability for the atrocities that have been committed, in order to ensure lasting peace, equality, and coexistence in the country", said WPN Executive Director Wai Wai Nu.
This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar official filed by the OTP, which declared that "more will follow". ICC judges will now have to determine whether this application meets the necessary standard for the issuance of an arrest warrant.
"This should be a wake-up call to ASEAN and the rest of Asia, that they should stop allowing international criminals to continue their atrocity crimes in our front yard. Governments in this region should be shunning Min Aung Hlaing and his accomplices instead of welcoming them at meetings", said ALTSEAN-Burma Coordinator Debbie Stothard.
The OTP’s request arises from the investigation that the Pre-Trial Chamber authorized on 14 November 2019 into alleged international crimes committed between 25 August 2017 and 31 December 2017 by Myanmar’s military and police forces and non-Rohingya civilians against Rohingya in Rakhine State, and the subsequent exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Although these alleged crimes began on the territory of Myanmar, the Pre-Trial Chamber previously determined that an essential part of the crimes occurred in Bangladesh, paving the way for the Court to exercise jurisdiction, and the OTP’s announcement.