Rohingya group demands Myanmar military leaders’ arrest

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands

A Dutch-based Rohingya advocacy group has called for international arrest warrants for Myanmar military leaders involved in violence against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

Hla Kyaw, president of European Rohingya Council (ERC), told Anadolu Agency the International Criminal Court's (ICC) approval of opening an investigation into crimes committed against Rohingya was a "positive development".

On Thursday, judges at the ICC approved a prosecution request to investigate crimes against Rohingya.

Kyaw said the court's approval should have come long before.

"International community has failed to stop genocide against Rohingya. Next step must be swift issuance of international arrest warrants for Myanmar military leaders involved in the genocide," he stressed.

Kyaw said the court's decision will certainly put pressure on Myanmar regime and military leaders. "However, there will be no immediate relief in Rohingya sufferings, I believe," he said.

Kyaw said the situation in Bangladesh is “getting worse and worse” and Rohingya refugees are living in fear of relocation to a remote island -- called Bhasan Char.

"In Myanmar, the situation has not improved in any aspect," he added.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, titled "Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience."

Some 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police and over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and 113,000 others vandalized, it added.

* Writing by Fatih Hafiz Mehmet in Ankara.