Ahead of the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 26 February, 102 Parliamentarians across parties have signed a letter urging the Foreign Secretary to publicly support and campaign for his EU counterparts to back a UN Security Council referral of Myanmar General Min Aung Hlaing to the International Criminal Court.

The United Nations has now documented more than 688,000 Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh since the Myanmar military began their offensive against Rohingya civilians in August 2017. Médecins Sans Frontières have recently documented almost 7,000 Rohingya civilians were killed in just one month last year, including 730 children.

On 11^th September UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein described the military’s security operations as “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” On 18^th December he went a step further and described the military campaign as one in which “you cannot rule out the possibility that acts of genocide have been committed.”

In the letter, the Parliamentarians say:

“We welcome the diplomatic leadership the United Kingdom has shown so far in response to this crisis by securing a statement from the UN Security Council, and building international consensus on steps needed to be undertaken by the government of Myanmar.  We also welcome the £59 million in UK aid that has been donated so far. However, the demands of the UN Security Council have largely been ignored. Now it is time to go further.”

“It is time for the British government to unequivocally state that the situation in Myanmar should be referred to the International Criminal Court”

“The British government should also work to secure agreement that the European Union bans the supply of all equipment to the Myanmar military, not just arms, and ends all military training and co-operation programmes.”

You can read the letter here.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:
1) For further information or comment please contact Rushanara Ali MP’s Office on 020 7219 7200 or email [email protected]

2) You can find more information on Rushanara’s work in Parliament here:

3) Following the Foreign Secretary’s recent visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh where he saw the scale of destruction of Rohingya villages and met refugees, Rushanara published an article in the Guardian on the urgent need for an ICC referral. You can read that article here.

4) You can read a recent article by Human Rights Watch on the case behind an ICC referral here.