Arrest warrant for Myanmar general revives Rohingya's justice fight

In a surprise move last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's military leader and chief architect of the 2017 genocide against Rohingya Muslims. Seven years after the ethnic cleansing campaign began, the move could offer cold comfort to a community locked out of its homeland.

Over a million Rohingya were forced to flee Myanmar in 2017 after the military burned down villages and conducted a campaign of mass slaughter, gang rape, and deportation against thousands of community members.

Min Aung Hlaing, who is charged with crimes against humanity, is accused of making it his mission to advance ethnic cleansing and keep it hidden from the public eye.

Tens of thousands were killed while survivors scattered across refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. Many remain trapped in overcrowded, underfunded facilities, enduring continued rights abuses.

Now as the general's military commits further atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine state, an ICC warrant is critical to challenging the junta's impunity.

The junta could argue that it is not an ICC member state, and isn't bound by its actions. But that doesn't change the fact that the ICC can investigate the military's cross-border crimes against Rohingya in neighbouring Bangladesh, including deportation. As such, the warrant ensures that the pursuit of justice remains alive.

Horrific atrocities

As the architect of the 2017 genocide, Min Aung Hlaing's arrest could mark a watershed moment in the pursuit of justice for the Rohingya people. For years, Myanmar's military has made every effort to put the genocide of the Rohingya on the backburner.

An arrest warrant is an important step toward piercing this shield of impunity. It was under the general's leadership that the military perpetuated heinous crimes, including widespread gender-based violence, including gang rape and sexual assault, as well as deporting the Rohingya from their homeland.

The absence of international accountability has allowed such crimes to persist unchecked, deeply scarring generations of Rohingya. Since 2017, the consequences of these atrocities have been stark.

Look no further than Bangladesh, where scores of Rohingya were forcibly displaced. Over a million remain confined in overcrowded refugee camps. For the displaced, the promise of safety remains an illusion, as they continue to struggle for recognition and the right to return home.

These harrowing realities are the direct outcome of Min Aung Hlaing's mass expulsion campaign. And so, his arrest would not only begin to address the years of injustice endured by the Rohingya, but also send a powerful message to other military officers complicit in the genocide that no one is beyond the reach of law.

Let's be clear. Global inaction has only emboldened Myanmar's military junta into advancing its brutalities. Min Aung Hlaing is currently reportedly overseeing an increase in mass Rohingya killings, and sustaining a system of apartheid that confines thousands of Rohingya to lives of systemic deprivation.

Seeking accountability

The failure of international bodies, including the United Nations Security Council, to exert meaningful pressure on the junta has left Rohingya leaders disillusioned and their demands for justice unfulfilled.

An ICC arrest warrant, however, provides a glimmer of accountability, offering a critical opportunity to disrupt the junta's pervasive impunity. Years of witness testimonies and documented evidence directly challenge Min Aung Hlaing's attempts to keep the 2017 pogrom unaccounted for.

His leadership spared no effort in systemically demonising the Rohingya minority, and fostering a climate where ultranationalist Buddhists coordinated mass murder with the military. The gravity of state-led atrocities was vastly underestimated for years, and by implication, Rohingyas' suffering was also greatly overlooked.

Human rights organisations can take comfort in the fact this warrant is a significant step toward applying pressure on the junta. Min Aung Hlaing's warrant could mark the most high-profile authorisation against a member of Myanmar's military government, raising the prospect of further warrants against subordinates involved in the genocide.

Enough is enough

On the ground, the ICC's announcement means little for those suffering in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

But Chief prosecutor Karim Khan has underscored the urgency of putting the brakes on the Myanmar military's raging genocide in Rakhine, revealing that additional warrants are in the pipeline. He has also reaffirmed that the Rohingya and their fight for justice "have not been forgotten."

Part of that struggle will mean ending all forms of persecution and brutality against some 630,000 Rohingya oppressed in Myanmar.

Evidence from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has shown that the Myanmar military is committed to staging indiscriminate attacks against community members, and has illegally recruited Rohingya men to serve the junta's wider war campaign in their native state.

Promises of justice and accountability remain a far cry when Min Aung Hlaing is able to maintain a climate of persecution that extends beyond 2017 and carries on to this day. This is important because the ICC is investigating crimes committed during the latter months of 2017.

But even as the threat of warrants looms large, little prevents the military from extending its genocide into next year.

Scores of Rohingya rights organisations say the ICC warrants must move beyond symbolic gestures to yield real action. The wait has been too long: activists, witnesses and survivors have spent years pushing for investigations to translate into convictions.

The process remains slow and fraught with challenges. The ICC may take up to 100 days to finalize a warrant against Min Aung Hlaing, and an actual prosecution could take years. Compounding this issue is the fact that Min Aung Hlaing rarely travels overseas. His presence in any of the 124 ICC member states is an important consideration for an arrest.

Nevertheless, the warrant is more than a procedural step. For a military regime that has systemically orchestrated murder, rape and the forced expulsion of the Rohingya, the ICC warrant is a meaningful attempt at long-overdue accountability.

Genocide survivors have long argued for a starting point that dents the military's shield of impunity. The warrant is that starting point – a signal to the world that the crimes against the Rohingya will not be ignored and that justice, though delayed, remains an achievable goal.