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The International Criminal Court has stated that it has jurisdiction to investigate acts of violence perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, with potential charges of crimes against humanity.
The Hague-based tribunal's decision adds to the growing international pressure on the Myanmar authorities over the purges that began last year and led 700,000 Rohingya to cross the border to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on military officials who they believe are responsible for the violence, and diplomatic efforts are being made to open genocide investigations against those involved.
However, a lawsuit was considered difficult. The Myanmar government has refused to cooperate with the ICC, to which it is not a party. Efforts to persuade the UN Security Council to return Myanmar to the ICC also seem condemned because China, which has a veto over such a decision, has largely supported Myanmar.
In a decision shared on Thursday, ICC judges said the court was competent to investigate Rohingya violence, as some of the crimes – expulsion of civilians – had taken place in Bangladesh, a party to the court.
Any charges laid may take years. The prosecutor must now consider whether a trial is in the interests of the victims, whether serious local investigations are ongoing and whether the seriousness of the crimes warrants the initiation of a formal investigation. ICC judges must then decide on this.
Even if a case arises, the court does not have the power to execute an arrest warrant or summons against Myanmar officials and relies on member states to bring those responsible to The Hague to justice.
Last week, a US report on violence recommended that the Myanmar army chief and other top commanders be prosecuted for genocide. The three-member investigative mission estimated that 10,000 people had been killed, a figure they called conservative.
Their report also criticized de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, for failing to do enough to prevent military operations in Rakhine State.
Speaking in Singapore in August, she said that the army had reacted to the terrorist attacks and that she had good relations with Myanmar's generals.
For the ICC, which has laid genocide charges against people in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and the Darfur region of Sudan, the case comes as the court's authority is in question.
This year, the Philippines decided to leave the court while some African leaders in 2016 threatened to do so beyond what they saw as unfair targeting of the continent. The United States and Russia have never ratified their accession.
-James Hookway
contributed to this article.
Write to Laurence Norman at [email protected]
