The International Criminal Court said Thursday it had jurisdiction to probe the forced deportation of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar’s military as a possible crime against humanity.
Some 700,000 people from the stateless Muslim minority have fled Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since August last year to escape a bloody military crackdown.
The ICC’s “pre-trial chamber… decided by majority the court may exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportations of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh”, the Hague-based tribunal said in a statement.
The ruling offers “a glimmer of hope for justice” for Rohingyas who “continue to suffer in Bangladesh as a result of this serious crime,” Adilur Rahman Khan, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights, said in a statement.
The Myanmar government on Thursday declined to comment on the announcement when contacted by AFP.
The move comes days after UN investigators called for an international investigation and prosecution of Myanmar’s army chief and five other top military commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Rohingya.
The violence has left a trail of torched villages in its wake, amid allegations of murder and rape at the hands of troops and vigilantes.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has said that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed between August and September last year in an army crackdown the UN has called “ethnic cleansing” containing “elements of genocide”.
