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

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

Rohingya refugees gather to mark the seventh anniversary of their fleeing from neighbouring Myanmar to escape a military crackdown in 2017, during heavy monsoon rains in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2024. Reuters

"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.

A man sells balloons to Rohingya children at a refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 27, 2024. Reuters

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.

Arrest warrant requested

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.

Myanmar's junta chief Min Aung Hlaing ousted elected government in 2021 coup 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.

"Issuing an arrest warrant is good news for us," said Maung Sayodullah, leader of a civil rights organization in Cox's Bazar. "He is the key perpetrator of the 2017 genocide against the Rohingya people."

A Rohingya child walks on the bamboo made bridge at a refugee camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 30, 2024. File/Reuters

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.

Looking ahead

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."