Killings during uprising: Bangladesh can file complaint with ICC

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim AA Khan has said Bangladesh can file a complaint at the International Criminal Court against those who committed a massacre during the July-August uprising.
He said this in response to a query from Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus regarding the process of filing a case at the ICC against the perpetrators of the massacre on charges of committing crimes against humanity.
The ICC chief prosecutor called on Yunus on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday.
The student-led mass uprising led to the ouster of Shiekh Hasina on August 5. Atrocities carried out by the law enforcers and activists of Hasina-led Awami League and its associate bodies left at least 700 people dead and more than 20,000 injured.
During the meeting, Karim apprised the chief adviser of the latest developments on the investigation, launched by the ICC in 2019, into the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Karim said he would visit Bangladesh by the end of this year. He also praised Yunus’s three-point proposal to give a new momentum to resolve the Rohingya crisis.
The chief adviser put forward the proposals at a meeting at the UN Headquarters on Wednesday. The proposals included an urgent conference hosted by the UN chief to review the overall situation and suggest way outs, an energised joint response plan for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis and serious international efforts to support justice and accountability to address the genocidal crimes committed in Rakhine in 2017.
“The three points are perfect,” Karim said.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION CHIEF MEETS YUNUS
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has assured Chief Adviser Yunus that Bangladesh can count on Europe’s support in its reform drive, reports UNB.
“We also remain your partner for steady growth and infrastructure development under Global Gateway,” she said during a meeting with Yunus on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
“Let’s make the best out of our €400 million Bangladesh Renewable Energy Facility,” said the European Commission president.
Yunus also held meetings with the chiefs of the UN refugee agency and the International Labour Organisation at a New York hotel on the same day.
The high commissioner of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, discussed the Rohingya crisis with the chief adviser.
He called for a new approach to the crisis, saying that the international communities should do more to end the miseries of more than one million Rohingya in Bangladesh.
Grandi said the assumption of Professor Yunus as the new leader of Bangladesh has increased global interest in the Rohingya crisis. He hoped there will be more funding for the Rohingya humanitarian responses.
“The 700 million dollars from the World Bank is a good starting point,” he said, adding that the UN stands ready to support more for the education of the Rohingya children.
Yunus stressed the need for finding a quick solution to the crisis and doing more for the future of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya children growing up in the camps in Bangladesh.
“We have to resolve this before it is too late. We have to find a solution,” the chief adviser said.
Gilbert Houngbo, the director general of the International Labour Organisation, offered the UN labour agency’s support for the interim government’s move to implement ILO conventions in Bangladesh.
“We are at your disposal,” he said, adding the ILO would respond to the chief adviser’s call if and when he needed it.
Yunus said labour reforms are a top priority of his government as it sees the issue as a key to turning Bangladesh into a world class manufacturing hub.