ICC warrant out for Myanmar junta chief

THE HAGUE:

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor on Wednesday asked judges to grant an arrest warrant for Myanmar's junta chief Min Aung Hlaing over alleged crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya Muslims.

Karim Khan's request to the court's Hague-based judges is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official in connection with abuses against the Rohingya people.

"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 … bears criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity," Khan said in a statement.

This included crimes of deportation and persecution, allegedly committed between 25 August and 31 December 2017, Khan said.

A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ICC prosecutor in 2019 opened a probe into suspected crimes committed against the Rohingya in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017, that prompted the exodus of 750,000 of the Muslim minority in the southeast Asian country to neighbouring Bangladesh.

About one million Rohingya now live in sprawling camps near the Bangladesh border city of Cox's Bazaar. Many of those who left accuse the Myanmar military of mass killings and rapes.

Khan said the alleged crimes were committed by Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw, supported by the national and border police "as well as non-Rohingya citizens."

"This is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official," Khan said.

Myanmar has been racked by conflict between the military and various armed groups opposed to its rule since the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in February 2021.