Bangladesh’s interim government intends to pursue charges of crimes against humanity against the Sheikh Hasina regime at the International Criminal Court for mass killings during July and August as well as thousands of cases of enforced disappearances during her nearly 16 years of stay in power, Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus has told ICC Prosecutor Karim AA Khan.
Khan called on Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna in Dhaka on Wednesday, the chief adviser’s officer said in a Facebook post.
The prosecutor said the ICC would like to extend cooperation to Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, which has issued an arrest warrant for Sheikh Hasina and several top-ranking members of her Awami League party.
Other than justice and accountability for the atrocities committed during the July-August uprising, the two also discussed the Rohingya crisis, the situation in Myanmar and humanitarian efforts for the Rohingyas.
Khan informed Yunus that his office had formally sought an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of Myanmar’s military government, for crimes against humanity regarding the treatment of Rohingyas.
The prosecutor backed the chief adviser's call to hold a special global conference on the Rohingya crisis.
The UN General Assembly has agreed to hold the conference in 2025, and Khan said he hoped a new direction towards a sustainable resolution to the crisis would be found from the conference.
The chief adviser said the conference would bring all international stakeholders together to seek a durable solution to the crisis.
"We have to make sure that it does not explode," Yunus said, referring to the young people growing up without hope in the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
The chief adviser reiterated his recent call for a safe zone inside Rakhine State, Myanmar, to aid displaced people and address the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
"The safety of the zone should be guaranteed by the UN. When the fighting stops, people who live in the safe zone can easily return to their localities," he said.
