Staff Reporter :
Twenty-six Bangladeshi non-government representatives have submitted Amicus Curiae observations to the International Criminal Court (ICC), demanding territorial jurisdiction for investigation into the forcible deportation of the Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh.
Upon approval from the Hague-based ICC on June 14, Barrister Manzoor Hasan, Executive Director at the Centre for Peace and Justice of BRAC University and Prof Perween Hasan, Vice-Chancellor of Central Women’s University, submitted the observations to the ICC on June 18 on behalf of the 26 Bangladeshi citizens.
The 40-page observations included three aspects: context of the Rohingya’s flight and the situation thereafter; deportation of the Rohingyas from Myanmar and crimes committed against them, and details of the relevant Bangladeshi laws.
It also contained reports of various human rights organisations and witness accounts of killings, rapes, brutality and burning of Rohingya houses in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August 25 last year.
Over 700,000 Rohingya fled the military crackdown.
“Taking into account the observations, ICC is expected to approve the jurisdiction of investigations,” said a press statement yesterday.
Earlier on April 7, ICC Prosecution sought ICC opinion over its jurisdiction to investigate the forcible deportation of the Rohingyas.
On May 9, ICC wrote a letter to Bangladesh seeking its observations on its jurisdiction over the deportation of the Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh and possible crimes against humanity.
Bangladesh authorities responded to the ICC request.
“We have responded to the request of ICC and provided all the information they asked for and everything that we know from our own experience,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam told The Daily Star on June 7, but did not elaborate on when Dhaka sent its observation.
The other Bangladeshi non-government representatives in the Amicus Curiae are legal expert Shahdeen Malik, photographer Shahidul Alam, human rights activist Hameeda Hossain, Dhaka University’s law professors Shahnaz Huda, Sumaiya Khair, Asif Nazrul and Ridwanul Hoque, Sujon’s Badiul Alam Majumdar, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman, human rights activist Nur Khan, women’s rights activist Muktasree Chakma, Eastern University faculty Rezaur Rahman Lenin, Nagorik Uddyog Executive Director Zakir Hossain, Supreme Court lawyer Cynthia Farid, photographer Mahmud Rahman, human rights and cultural activist Asif Munier, Prof Naila Z Khan, Gonoshasthaya Kendra trustee Zafrullah Chowdhury, The University Press Limited’s Mahrukh Mohiuddin, ActionAid’s Country Director Farah Kabir, Gonoshasthaya Kendra Chief Executive Manzur Kadir Ahmed, COAST Trust Executive Director Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, women rights activist Maheen Sultan and student of Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
Quazi Omar Foysal.
In April, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked the court’s judges to rule on whether the ICC “can exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh.”
Earlier in May, the ICC asked Bangladesh for its observations on the matter, saying the country had been “affected by the events concerning the alleged deportation of Rohingya people from Myanmar.”
The ICC requested the Bangladesh government to submit written observations on the issue by June 11. Bangladesh has yet to respond.
Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, international relations expert and director, Centre for Genocide Studies, suggested that Bangladesh respond positively to the ICC, adding that doing so would not impact the Bangladesh-Myanmar bilateral relations.
