Intercept: It's time to try Suu Kyi for the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims

It is time for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to formally indict Myanmar's state adviser Aung San Suu Kyi for war crimes and genocide against Rohingya Muslims in her country, according to an article by Intercept.

Mehdi Hassan, a contributing contributor to the site, wrote on Sunday to mark the two-year anniversary of the entry into Myanmar's western Rakhine state by waging a campaign of terror and violence against the oppressed Muslim minority.

According to the writer, the army and armed volunteers committed heinous crimes in which the bodies of men were cut to death, children burned alive, thousands of women and girls were raped, villages looted and flattened, and more than 700,000 Rohingya were driven from their homes.

He noted that the United Nations had called for the investigation and prosecution of Myanmar's top military commanders for heinous crimes against civilians under international law.

But the writer asks: What about the prosecution of Suu Chi, who has long been the most influential woman in the West and a hero in the eyes of liberals and conservatives alike, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991?

For the past two years, Myanmar's state chancellor - a post equivalent to the post of prime minister - has been defending the country's military militarily and brazenly underestimating the brutal crimes they commit.

Described by the author as a Buddhist nationalist, Suu Kyi has been fueling hatred against the besieged Muslim minority, and has long and in a bargain demonstrated hatred of Islam.

The author adds that on her recent visit to Hungary, she and her host, Prime Minister Victor Urban, conclude their "steady increase in the number of Muslims" in their countries.

In February 2018, UK News Channel 4 asked the UN special envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, could a criminal court ever convict Suu Kyi for crimes against humanity and even genocide?

"We cannot be held accountable. Collusion is part of the crime," said Yangi, who was previously denied entry to Myanmar for criticizing the state chancellor.

Fake pretexts
However, Intercept's article noted that international figures continued to defend Myanmar's leader, including its 1991 Nobel Peace Prize partner, East Timor's president, after it split from Indonesia's Jose Ramos-Horta, and US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The writers, Mehdi Hassan, say the defenders have with the Myanmar government a series of illusory pretexts they see as preventing Suu Kyi from being prosecuted for the ongoing violence and repression there.

One of these pretexts is that Myanmar is not a member of the ICC, and that Suu Kyi, as a civilian leader, had no say on the military and therefore could not be held responsible for the brutal attacks against the Rohingya. Its advocates also believe that any action against it would disrupt the delicate balance of power within Myanmar and threaten to bring power back to the military.

The author argues, however, that all these justifications are lying, and concludes that reluctance to punish or prosecute Suu Qi for her role in the extermination of the Muslim minority is not only an insult to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and other countries, but may expose other minorities. As Christians in northern Myanmar are at risk.