Rohingya To Give First Testimony In Push For Myanmar Army Probe

Yangon, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Aug, 2021 ) :Rohingya refugees expelled from Myanmar in a bloody crackdown are to testify in court for the first time Tuesday to urge a full judicial investigation into allegations of war crimes committed against them.

A military campaign in Myanmar in 2017 is believed to have killed thousands and forced some 750,000 members of the Muslim minority to flee to refugee camps in Bangladesh, bringing accounts of rape, murder and arson.

The witnesses will testify remotely to a court in Argentina, which is considering invoking the principle of "universal jurisdiction" to bring a case against Myanmar's leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The legal premise holds that some acts -- including war crimes and crimes against humanity -- are so horrific they are not specific to one nation and can be tried anywhere.

Argentina's courts have taken up other universal jurisdiction cases in the past, including in relation to ex-dictator Francisco Franco's rule in Spain and the Falun Gong movement in China.

Proceedings against Myanmar and its leaders are already under way at the International Criminal Court and the UN's International Court of Justice.

But Tuesday's hearing "will be the first time... that the Rohingya will have the opportunity to tell a court of all the atrocities they suffered", former UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tomas Ojea told AFP.