Rohingya 'happy' at ICC request for Myanmar junta chief arrest warrant

For Rohingya refugees who fled brutal violence in Myanmar, the announcement on Wednesday that the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor was seeking an arrest warrant for the junta chief sparked celebrations.

"We are happy to hear about ICC issuing an arrest warrant against the Myanmar military commander Min Aung Hlaing," said Rohingya civil society leader Sayod Alam, living in the cramped refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh. "It's a success for us."

Around a million members of the stateless and persecuted Muslim minority live in a sprawling patchwork of Bangladeshi relief camps of Cox's Bazar, after fleeing killings in their homeland next door in Myanmar.

Min Aung Hlaing — who was head of the army during the 2017 crackdown, now the subject of a UN genocide investigation — has dismissed the term Rohingya as "imaginary."

The Rohingya endured decades of discrimination in Myanmar, where successive governments classified them as illegal immigrants despite their long history in the country.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Wednesday requested the court's Hague-based judges to grant an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing for alleged crimes against humanity committed against Rohingya.

Shariat Ullah, a newly arrived Rohingya refugee, and members of his family pose for a picture inside a shelter at a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Reuters

Rohingya community school teacher Senoara Khatun said she was "happy." "The Rohingya were waiting for this," she said. "I hope every criminal will be brought to justice by the ICC under the law... to take more steps to make them accountable and punish them."

It is the first application for an arrest warrant against a high-level Myanmar government official in connection with abuses against the Rohingya people.

'Still not safe'

"Issuing an arrest warrant is good news for us," said Maung Sayodullah, leader of a civil rights organisation in Cox's Bazar. "He is the key perpetrator of the 2017 genocide against the Rohingya people." But Sayodullah said the violence continued in his original home of Rakhine state, riven by war between Arakan Army (AA) forces and the junta troops.

The region is spiralling towards famine, according to the United Nations. "We are still not safe in our homeland, Rakhine," he said, calling for action to stop fighting.

ICC judges must now decide whether to grant the arrest warrants. If granted, the 124 members of the ICC would theoretically be obliged to arrest the junta chief if he travelled to their country.

Alam, the civil society activist has more immediate concerns than the slow grinding cogs of international justice. "We want to go back home," he said. "The international community should work to return us to our home country, Myanmar... for our repatriation, security, and dignity."

Agence France-Presse