Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the government that has been accused of crimes against humanity in the cruelties perpetrated on the Rohingya population of the country, is in the Hague to defend her government before the International Court of Justice [ICJ] against the most serious allegations of genocide that have been formally leveled against her government and the country by Gambia. There is substantial evidence to believe her government has committed, aided, abetted and or sanctioned organised military and civilian attacks against its Rohingya minority population forcing hundreds of thousands to flee into Bangladesh and India to escape murder, rape and mutilation. The Rohingya who still remain in Mayanmar are in alleged to be suffocating in horrible subhuman conditions in camps behind barbed wire.
As she appears in the Hague, it would be most appropriate for any fair-minded citizens of the Netherlands to examine their laws to determine if at all any local legal process or principle such as universal jurisdiction of the courts could be invoked to issue and execute an arrest warrant against Suu Kyi who has clearly been an accomplice, aider and abettor of the Military Junta whose civilian regime she heads. It would be heartening as well to see demonstrations against Suu Kyi’s presence in the country.
Prominent persons of peace in the world including Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama have condemned the unspeakable atrocities committed and/or sanctioned against the Rohingya by Suu Kyi’s government. Unfortunately most countries have been deafeningly silent. The United Nations Security Council [UNSC] has had ample time to invoke its jurisdiction to refer the Rohingya matter to the International Criminal Court [ICC] which would have enabled the ICC to expand its jurisdiction to launch a full investigation and possible prosecution of Suu Kyi and her murderous accomplices who have been complicit in the genocide of the Rohingya of Mayanmar.
The Nobel Committee too has been in a coma about the Nobel for peace it had handed Aung San Suu Kyi years ago, long before she became the head of the Mayanmar government that now stands accused of genocide before the ICJ and ICC. It has been making inane excuses about its inability to strip her of the award despite the fact she has lost any moral right to hold on to it. The Nobel committee says it has no way of recalling the award once bestowed. The Nobel Committee controls the awards that tend to deify the recipients, perhaps rightly so. The Committee deified Suu Kyi. She has now proven to be at least a monstrous abettor and accomplice in the terrorising and butchering of Mayanmar’s Rohingya. Having deified Suu Kyi with the Nobel before the entire world the Committee can’t now be heard to plead impotence. If the Nobel Committee fails to recall, rescind or nullify Suu Kyi’s Nobel, The Nobel for Peace shall forever stand tarnished and the Committee shall have forfeited the moral right to ever bestow another Nobel for Peace on anyone.
Gambia’s proceeding before the ICJ isn’t the only case implicating Suu Kyi government in crimes against the Rohingya. According to news reports the London based group Burmese Rohingya in United Kingdom [BROUK] has commenced proceedings in Buenos Aires, Argentina relying on the court’s universal jurisdiction. The universal jurisdiction means any court can try the crime regardless of where it took place.
Bangladesh has also approached the ICC and the latter’s prosecutors have commenced an investigation into the treatment of Rohingya by the Mayanmar government. It has been suggested if sufficient evidence of criminal wrong doing against Suu Kyi is found she could be subpoenaed to personally appear before the ICC. The complaint by Bangladesh is somewhat hobbled by the fact the Mayanmar isn’t a party to ICC statute. The UNSC could remedy that deficiency by referring the plight of the Rohingya to the ICC. Such referral would instantly empower the ICC to treat Mayanmar as if it were a party to its statute. That such Security Council referral of the genocidal crimes against the Rohingya hasn’t happened remains an ugly stain on all nations of the world, especially the five veto powers at the Security Council.
It shall be our enduring collective shame that as Suu Kyi defiantly struts across the world stage in The Hague, The Netherlands and much of the rest of the world yawns, looks the other way.
@ujjaldosanjh
