Newly arrived Rohingya refugees cry on the beach after the local community decided to temporarily allow them to land for water and food in Ulee Madon, Aceh province, Indonesia, on November 16, 2023 .has been unable to return to Myanmar over fears of ethnic cleansing by a ruthless military junta which has gaineddeeply alarmed by reports of renewed violence & destruction in northern Rakhine state, resulting in displacement of potentially tens of thousands of civilians, mainly Rohingya.
Thousands of Rohingya displaced by conflict in Myanmar gather along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border near the Naf River, seeking refuge from ongoing clashes between junta forces and insurgent groupsMost critically, the world must pay attention to the renewed violence in Myanmar, which would once again spiral into further ethnic cleansing of an already battered population.
The International Criminal Court has ruled it does have jurisdiction over alleged crimes against humanity committed by Myanmar against Rohingya muslimsof the Rome Statute to ensure that countries such as Myanmar who are not party to the statute can be held accountable.to prosecute figureheads of regimes not party to the statute, such as the military, through the issuance of arrest warrants and criminal proceedings.
There is no guarantee that Myanmar - or Israel - would present themselves to the ICC to face criminal proceedings. After all, the Tatmadaw is as defiant as Tel Aviv on international prosecutions. But the court can still set an important precedent by taking into account the historical neglect of the Rohingya population with an affirmation that crimes against humanity will not go unaccounted for.Amid the history of persecutions, the scale of the genocide committed against them and their current plight in 2024, we should not forget them.