Forty-one citizens of the country on Sunday urged the government to respond to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber’s request for observations and support the view of the Prosecutor that the Court may assert jurisdiction against Myanmar.
The call came as the government remains ‘undecided’ whether to respond to the International Criminal Court (ICC) request.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Wednesday said they are yet to take any decision on responding to the ICC. “We’re looking into it what could be done.”
In a joint statement on Sunday, the 41 citizens said, “This will be an important first step towards ensuring justice for the victims of the crimes against humanity that have occurred in Myanmar and a significant action for us to take as a people and a nation that has suffered horrific war crimes during our liberation war of 1971, which went unaddressed for too long.”
The statement, among others, is endorsed by Dr Shahdeen Malik, Dr Shahidul Alam, Dr Shahnaz Huda, Khushi Kabir, Ayesha Khanum, Dr Maleka Begum, Dr Hameeda Hossain, Dr Sumaiya Khair, Dr Asif Nazrul, Dr Badiul Alam Majumdar, Farida Akhter, Dr Iftekhar Zaman, Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, Lubna Marium, Barrister Manzoor Hasan OBE, Md. Nur Khan, Muktasree Chakma Sathi, Reza Lenin, Dr Ali Riaz, Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, Dr Lamia Karim, Mahrukh Mohiuddin, Farah Kabir and Shireen P Huq.
The statement was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh on Sunday.
Bangladesh ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2010.
Bangladesh has repeatedly drawn the attention of the international community to the crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya people in Myanmar since August 2017.
“As Bangladeshi individuals and organisations engaged in seeking justice for those subjected to violations of rights, we welcome the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor for a ruling by ICC judges on whether the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate the deportation of Rohingya people from Myanmar from 25 August 2017 onwards,” they said.
The citizens called on the government to respond to the invitation from ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I to Bangladesh authorities to submit, by June 11, 2018, observations on the question and to support the Prosecutor’s request.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision of May 7 has been made in response to the April 9 request by the ICC Prosecutor, seeking a ruling on whether the Court has jurisdiction over the deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar as a crime against humanity.
In her request, the Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda submitted that the ICC has territorial jurisdiction under Article 12(2) (a) of the Rome Statute, based on the deportation of persons from the territory of a State which is not a party to the Statute (Myanmar) directly into the territory of a State Party (Bangladesh).
She further submitted that the Court may exercise jurisdiction because an essential legal element of the crime of deportation, namely ‘crossing an international border’, occurred on the territory of Bangladesh.
“It’s our considered view that Bangladesh as a state party to the Rome Statute and a country which has its own history of having suffered war crimes and bringing those responsible to justice, must respond to this request,” reads the statement.
“We believe the government of Bangladesh should provide the Court with all information in its possession about the circumstances surrounding the presence of the Rohingya on its territory, as invited by the Pre-Trial Chamber.”
They said it needs to do so as a matter of principle because Bangladesh, as a State Party to the ICC, has committed itself to promoting accountability for mass atrocities.
As disclosed by the Bangladesh Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP), over 700,000 of the 1 million Rohingyas who have been registered entered Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar since 25 August 2017 (see reports of 19th meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2018).
Bangladesh has been compelled to address the humanitarian consequences of the deportation, and as such has an interest in providing information to ICC.
Due to the limited scope for international action, this crisis is yet to be addressed. Myanmar is not a State Party to the Rome Statute and the UN Security Council has not as yet referred the situation in Myanmar to the ICC.
No significant action has been taken within Myanmar to address the alleged crimes. Against this background, the ICC Prosecutor submitted a Request to the ICC under Articles 19(3) and 42 of the Rome Statute seeking a rule of the Court on its jurisdiction over the deportation of Rohingya from Myanmar to Bangladesh, which could be a milestone in addressing this crisis.
The current request, even if results in a ruling that the Court has jurisdiction, would not relate to the alleged crimes of murder, rape, arson committed in their entirety in Myanmar territory as these cannot be brought as individual charges.
