ICC to open offices in Dhaka, Cox’s Bazar

The UN International Criminal Court (ICC) will open offices in Dhaka and Cox's Bazaar to start the investigation into crimes against humanity and persecution like mass murder, rape, and genocidal acts in Myanmar's bloody 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingyas.
"Following the ICC's decision on November 14, ICC representatives visited
Dhaka and signed an agreement with us to open offices here to start the procedures," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily observer on Thursday. Hopefully it (ICC) will start its job between 10 and 15 December, according to him.
 "It is the outcome of mounting legal pressure worldwide over the treatment of the minority ethnic group in Rakhine State.
A 46-page application was submitted to the international court of justice by the Gambia, alleging that Myanmar had carried out mass murder, rape and destruction of communities there."
Public hearings are set to begin in December making this the first international legal challenge against Myanmar, which Gambia accused of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention by carrying out 'mass murder, rape, and genocidal acts', he added.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has vehemently rejected UN investigators' conclusions that it committed genocide, arguing they had carried out a legitimate operation against an armed Rohingya group called ARSA, a 'terrorist'...but this time Myanmar is to face accusations of genocide at the UN's highest court over its treatment of Rohingya Muslims, official said.
"This decision marks an important step in the fight for justice and accountability in Myanmar. It sends a strong message to the orchestrators of atrocities against Rohingya that their days of impunity are numbered," Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southeast Asia said.
It will be the first time the UN Court in Hague investigated genocide claims on its own without relying on the findings of other tribunals, such as the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which it consulted for claims against Serbia and Croatia.
"Initially there was a problem in failing the case, but it is now clear that under the rules of the ICJ, the application argues, member states can bring actions against other member states over disputes alleging breaches of international law - in this case the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide�..," another official said.
Now, the Nobel peace laureate faces an attempt to have her imprisoned for supporting them.
Myanmar's media report said Myanmar's leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung Aan Suu Kyi will head a delegation to the United Nations' top court to argue against a case accusing the mainly Buddhist country of genocide against the Rohingya. More than 730,000 Rohingyas, most of them Muslims, fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar's military, which UN investigators said was carried out with 'genocidal intent'.
"We repeatedly urged the Myanmar government to take back their citizens but unfortunately we failed, the official said.
"Even they did not care about the signed agreements between the two countries where they committed that the repatriation would start in November 2017.
"We are still hopeful to see a peaceful repatriation and urged the international community to stand beside us in this regard," the official said.