YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar’s government said on Friday it
“resolutely rejects” a ruling from the International Criminal Court (ICC) that
said the body has jurisdiction over alleged deportations of Rohingya Muslims to
Bangladesh as a possible crime against humanity.
A statement from the office of Myanmar’s President Win
Myint dismissed Thursday’s ICC ruling as “the result of faulty procedure and is
of dubious legal merit”.
“Furthermore, allegations consisting of charged
narratives of harrowing personal tragedies which have nothing to do with the
legal arguments in question were permitted, thereby putting emotional pressure
on the Court,” the statement said, referring to submissions requested by the
court.
An independent U.N. fact-finding mission in August
concluded that Myanmar’s military last year carried out mass killings and gang
rapes of Muslim Rohingya with “genocidal intent” and the commander-in-chief and
five generals should be prosecuted for orchestrating the gravest crimes under
law.
The decision from the Hague-based court opened the way
for its prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to further examine whether there is
sufficient evidence to file charges against any Myanmar officials, although she
has not done so yet.
About 700,000 Rohingya fled the crackdown, according to
U.N. agencies, and most are now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Although Myanmar is not a member of the Hague-based
court, Bangladesh is, and the cross-border nature of deportation was sufficient
for jurisdiction, the ICC said in Thursday’s ruling.
Myanmar has denied allegations of atrocities made against
its security forces by refugees, saying its military carried out justifiable
actions against militants.
In Friday’s statement, the Southeast Asian nation
repeated its position that, not being a party to the Rome Statute that set up
the ICC, it was under no obligation to respect its rulings.