The International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for an arrest warrant to be filed against Min Aung Hlaing with the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1 on Wednesday. He’s in Bangladesh this week to continue his investigation of alleged crimes committed during the 2016-2017 violence in northern Arakan State and the subsequent mass displacement of Rohingya from Burma into Bangladesh.
“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, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services, bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh,” stated Khan on Nov. 27.
Khan previously met with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to gather evidence for the ICC investigation into its case of alleged forced deportations from Burma into Bangladesh from July 4-7, 2023. The ICC authorized a petition from its chief prosecutor’s office in 2019 to investigate alleged crimes committed by the military against the Rohingya. In 2022, the U.S. government labeled the attacks on the Rohingya as genocide.
