British MPs for referring Myanmar to ICC

The UK must support efforts to refer Myanmar's regime to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over evidence of state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing of Rohingya and human rights abuses, said British MPs on the international development select committee, reports The Guardian.

They also called for a complete review of UK aid to Myanmar, which is worth £100m in 2018, saying the sums were agreed at the time it appeared the country was on a transition to democracy.

The committee observed that no such transition, or any genuine peace process, is under way, adding they were barred from visiting the country to visit UK aid projects when visas were denied by Myanmar authorities at the highest level at the last minute.

The idea of collective action against the Myanmar regime has been stalled at the UN due to opposition from China, a veto power of the Security Council.

The MP committee says the UK and allies should still seek to gather “support for the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the ICC and to apply targeted financial sanctions at all identifiable key figures”. Myanmar is not a signatory to the ICC.

It welcomes a move by the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to seek a ruling whether she can investigate the deportation of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.

Some 700,000 Rohingya fled atrocities in Rakhine following a military crackdown late August 2017.

The Guardian wrote there has been a tension within the UK's Foreign Office over the degree to which Britain should give Myanmar's state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, further leeway due to her need to appease a military junta that still runs foreign policy and defence.