By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A committee of civilian lawmakers deposed in Myanmar is considering whether to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate any crimes against humanity committed after the February 1 military coup, Myanmar’s UN envoy said. On thursday.
Kyaw Moe Tun said the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Representative Committee (CRPH), which is trying to restore civilian government and displace the military, is exploring ways to hold people accountable for violence after the coup.
“The ICC is one of them,” said Kyaw Moe Tun at an event with Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. “We are not a state party to the ICC, but we need to … explore the ways and means of bringing the case to the ICC.”
Myanmar has been in crisis since the army overthrew the government of leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup, citing a November election he called fraudulent. He detained her and officials from his National League for Democracy party and created a board of ruling generals.
Security forces have used increasingly violent tactics to crack down on daily demonstrations and thousands of people have been arrested. About 217 people were killed, according to the activist group Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners.
United Nations independent human rights investigator Thomas Andrews told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last week that the Myanmar military has committed murders, torture and persecution that could constitute crimes against humanity.
A spokesman for the military junta said security forces used force only when necessary.
Myanmar is not a member of the ICC. However, CRPH has been closely examining Article 12.3 of the Rome Statute that created the court, said Kyaw Moe Tun. According to that article, Myanmar could submit a statement to the court clerk to “accept the court’s exercise of jurisdiction over the crime in question”.
Such a move would likely generate a debate about who is internationally recognized as the government of Myanmar.
Kyaw Moe Tun, who publicly broke with the junta in a speech at the UN General Assembly last month, and the UN special envoy in Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said that no country should recognize or legitimize the Myanmar junta.
The UN Security Council can also refer situations to the ICC, based in The Hague, although the veto powers of Russia and China are unlikely to support such a move against Myanmar.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, edited by Rosalba O’Brien)