Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) -- and it's the same with Myanmar, however, Bangladesh is a member -- which would have granted the body automatic jurisdiction to investigate crimes committed by Russia during the ongoing invasion.
Despite that fact, on March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of its investigation. If a country is not a member of the ICC only the UN Security Council (UNSC) can refer the crimes of that country to the ICC for investigation, but in this case the UNSC was unable to do so.
However, in 2014 Ukraine made a limited declaration to accept the ICC's jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory. Furthermore, the ICC has an independent prosecutor, whose team is responsible for undertaking investigations and deciding which individuals to charge with crimes. The ICC prosecutor has led the biggest investigation team to Ukraine, comprising 42 members, and within one year of Russia's invasion the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against Putin.
The ICC does not prosecute states, governments. or political parties. It can investigate and prosecute persons of 18 years and above who have committed crimes. Vladimir Putin was not personally involved in committing crimes in Ukraine but he is prosecuted for his “command responsibility.”
In the last 15 years or so, about 36 people have been indicted with various crimes by the ICC, of which 35 are from Africa and the other being Vladimir Putin, many of them are ex presidents and some are even current presidents, mostly political leaders or leaders of armed groups. In most cases it's because of their command responsibility.
Are crimes against humanity, murder, pillaging, attacks against personnel, civilians, women, and children only committed in Africa? What about such crimes in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Xinjiang, Kashmir, Myanmar?
There are discussions if Vladimir Putin has an arrest warrant being a sitting President and rightly so, but then what about George Bush Jr, Tony Blair, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld (posthumous), Condoleeza Rice, Netanyahu, Barack Obama, Ming Aung Hlaing, Aung San Suu Kyi?
In fact, Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, eight months in office for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
He did not stop the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan, instead he chose to reinforce it only offering a throwaway line where he said, “Iraq was a big mistake and we cannot get away with it.” We must remember that this Nobel laureate ordered targeted assassinations by personally authorizing drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and beyond.
Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her “non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.” This supposed mother of human rights and democracy did not even denounce the severe human rights violations committed by her administration and her country's military on the minority Rohingya community when the UN declared the Rohingya atrocities as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and termed them the most persecuted community in the world.
More so, when Gambia went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the Myanmar Military for committing crimes against humanity vis a vis the Rohingya crisis Aung San Suu Kyi personally visited the Hague on December 11, 2019 to defend the actions of the Myanmar Military.
Just like Barack Obama, Aung San Suu Kyi still retains her Nobel Peace Prize.
Bangladesh has been looking at the ICC for quite some time regarding the Rohingya crisis. It has been over five years since the abhorrent crime against humanity was committed by Aung San Suu Kyi's administration in general and the Tatmadaw in particular. We are eagerly waiting for the ICC independent prosecutor to look at Rohingya genocide the way he was so pro-active in the case of Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Senior General Min Aung Hla, the chief of defence at Myanmar, who was primarily responsible for Rohingya genocide is still at large and freely carrying out state visits.
The point I am trying to make is that if institutions like the ICC and the Nobel Peace Prize committee are politically motivated or used as a matter of convenience then these systems will lose their credibility. If that's not a matter of shame, I don't know what is.
Lt Gen (Retd) Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman is the outgoing Principal Staff Officer, Armed Forces Division.
