Deutsche Welle :
It is rare for an international arrest warrant to be issued against a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and political prisoner whose release is demanded by both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. However, this is precisely what occurred in February this year, when an Argentinian court asked for the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The court’s decision applies to 25 Myanmar citizens wanted on charges linked to genocide and crimes against humanity. The list includes not only Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing, but also former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Htin Kyaw. Suu Kyi effectively served as Myanmar’s top civilian leader before the military staged a coup in February 2021. She has been imprisoned ever since.
The court in Argentina claims it has the jurisdiction to order a warrant for Suu Kyi’s arrest based on a legal principle that some serious crimes can be prosecuted regardless of where they were committed.
The specific case focuses on discrimination against Myanmar’s Rohingya ethnic minority. The Muslim Rohingya live predominantly in the western state of Rakhine, and their status as citizens and as an ethnic group recognized by the state of Myanmar has been disputed for decades.
Since 1988, Myanmar has seen an ongoing political conflict between the military and military-backed parties on one side and Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, on the other. In 2016, after many years of stalemate, the military and Aung San Suu Kyi reached a truce. A kind of dual government was established, with Aung San Suu Kyi heading the civilian branch and Min Aung Hlaing heading the military, which had constitutionally secured independence and far-reaching political rights.
On October 9, 2016, Rohingya insurgents attacked several border and police posts of the Myanmar security forces. In August 2017, the security forces launched so-called “clearance operations.” As a result, thousands of Rohingya were killed and around 700,000 fled to neighboring Bangladesh, with exact figures still unclear due to the nature of the ethnically-charged conflict.
While the military denied using excessive force, international watchdogs and the UN agree that Myanmar’s actions against the Rohingya constitute grave human rights violations. Still, two questions remain: First, did the offensive amount to genocide? Second, how much of it was the responsibility of Aung San Suu Kyi?
