Rohingyas see a ray of hope
The Rohingyas, who have been facing rights abuses in Myanmar for decades, now see a ray of hope of getting justice following a lawsuit with the highest UN court and the ICC’s approval to probe crimes against them.
Leaders of the persecuted community believe the steps will help mount pressure on Myanmar to grant them citizenship and other rights.
On November 11, the Gambia filed a case with the UN’sInternational Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingyas.
Two days later, several rights bodies filed a lawsuit with an Argentine court against Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and several top Myanmar officials over crimes against the Rohingyas.
On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) approved a full investigation into Myanmar’s alleged crimes against the persecuted community.
“We see a new hope of getting justice. It’s a big victory for us…
We have been facing genocidal crimes for decades,” said Nay Say Lwin, media coordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition, a global Rohingya organisation.
“Now Myanmar will be obliged to amend laws to grant us citizenship, and compensate the Rohingyas, including the women who were violated by the Myanmar army especially in 2017,” he told this newspaper over phone from Germany on Thursday.
In a statement yesterday, Amnesty International Director for East and Southeast Asia Nicholas Bequelin said the ICC decision marks an important step in the fight for justice and accountability in Myanmar and sends a strong message to the orchestrators of atrocities that their days of impunity are numbered.
He, however, mentioned that the ICC decision allows investigation into only some of the Myanmar military’s many crimes against ethnic minorities in that country. It remains essential that the UN Security Council refers the situation in the entire country to the ICC.
The Rohingyas were denied citizenship by Myanmar through a 1982 citizenship law. They have also been deprived of basic rights, including freedom of movement, health services and government jobs, since then.
Over the last four decades, waves of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State led hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Since August 2017, some 750,000 Rohingyas fled a brutal military campaign and took shelter in Bangladesh, joining some 300,000 others who had fled earlier waves of violence.
According to a report of the Ontario International Development Agency, Myanmar state forces killed nearly 24,000 Rohingyas and raped thousands of women and girls since August 2017. Their houses in Rakhine were burnt to ashes.
The UN termed the atrocities a classic example of ethnic cleansing, while UN independent investigators found elements of genocide in it. Yet, the UN Security Council took no concrete actions against Myanmar mainly because of opposition from China and Russia that have veto powers.
