UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor office today said they launched investigations into the “alleged crimes” against Myanmar’s minority Rohingya Muslims to expose to justice the perpetrators of what is said to be “genocide”.
“It (investigation) is (actually) already underway . . . ultimately justice will be done,” Director of Jurisdiction of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) Phakiso Mochochoko told a media briefing in the capital.
He said their investigation findings were expected to expose to justice the individual perpetrator of violence, ranging from an ordinary soldier to general or anybody else, for their crimes committed in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, the Rohingyas’ homeland.
The ICC prosecutor’s office, known as OPT as well, the announcement came two weeks after International Court of Justice (ICJ), dubbed as UN-backed world’s top court, delivered its verdict after a detailed hearing ordering Myanmar to take “all measures within its power” to prevent genocide.
All the judges of the 17-member ICJ panel unanimously observed that the Rohingyas still remained exposed to “serious risk” of genocide.
ICJ is mandated to settle issues among states while ICC is empowered to try individuals for international crimes and hand them down as high as life term imprisonment.
During the media briefing today, the ICC prosecutor’s office director, however, hinted that the investigation process could be “long, hard and challenging” and “it may take one year, two years, (or) three years (or more) “.
