TRANSPARENCY International Bangladesh (TIB) on Tuesday stated that the government should extend all possible support, including observations and evidences, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide if it had jurisdiction to open an investigation into the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
Bangladesh’s cooperation, especially in terms of providing the ICC with first-hand evidence to launch an all-out investigation into the maltreatment by Myanmar military in Rakhine State as well as creating international pressure on the Myanmar authorities is vital. That said – evidence acquired from Google satellite images, verbal accounts of refugees, photos of torching villages, beating up of refugees and clear marks of physical torture and rapes are all there. Also, it is easily understandable that proof or evidence of the first degree are vital preconditions before commencing any form of trial, especially trials relating to grave crimes against humanity.
Now it’s up to the government to decide how quickly it wants to pursue the legal course of action. However, what appeared rather baffling last month in the wake of the ICC’s demand for investigation – a number of our local international relations experts and diplomats said that Bangladesh government should not be a party to encourage the ICC to exercise jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the crime of deporting Rohingyas. They fear that the trial might put the repatriation process in jeopardy and also enable Myanmar to blackmail the entire process.
From our side we expect to see both Rohingyas to be lawfully repatriated with citizenship rights and we also want justice to be delivered to them. Why should a big-scale humanitarian crime committed against more than a million helpless Muslim minorities escape the global consciousness?
Punishing the members of Myanmar’s military junta must be put on trial in the ICC because an international crime against humanity has been committed. The responsibility to punish the crime against humanity is a universal demand and it must be done. The immediate victims are the Rohingya Muslims but the crime is international.
