Burmese activists and alleged victims of abuse have filed a criminal complaint with the German judiciary against senior Burmese Army generals, accusing them of instigating genocide against the Rohingya community since the military coup two years ago.
The indictment is a new effort to try to hold Burma’s armed forces accountable for alleged atrocities against the country’s Rohingya minority by human rights groups, the Fortify Rights organization told CNA news agency.
«The complaint provides new evidence proving that the Burma Army systematically killed, raped, tortured, imprisoned, disappeared, persecuted and committed other acts amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,» Fortify Rights Executive Director Matthew Smith told a press conference in Bangkok.
The association said it chose Germany to file the complaint because of its recognition of the principle of «universal jurisdiction,» which holds that a national court can try people accused of serious international crimes.
In this regard, Fortify Rights has shared its hope that German authorities will heed the complaint and initiate an investigation, as last year a German court imprisoned a former Syrian intelligence officer for murder, rape and crimes against humanity, according to the aforementioned agency.
The complainants, a total of 16 people, include members of the Rohingya minority as well as others who survived or witnessed crimes in Burma since the coup, the organization said.
The Rohingya are an ethnic minority of Muslim faith concentrated in Burma’s Rajine (or Arakan, as the Rohingya call it) state. Burma considers them to be descendants of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and does not recognize them as citizens, thus depriving them of basic rights.
The Burmese authorities are being investigated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) this year after Gambia filed a complaint for alleged genocide of the Rohingya population in the Asian country.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
