The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) is proving a force to be reckoned with. For having already turned her attention to jurisdictional remit vis-à-vis the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for possible war crimes probes — Fatou Bensouda now has Myanmar in her sights. At the heart of the matter is the forced deportation of the beleaguered Rohingya community to Bangladesh. Indeed, since August 2017, more than 670,000 ethnic Muslims have been ‘nudged’ across the border in this way. Bensouda has approached the ICC to see if it has the authority to investigate the Yangon government for crimes against humanity. This request is the first of its kind to be filed before the Court and the outcome remains unclear given that Myanmar is not party to the ICC. Be that as it may, the fact that the application is pending puts renewed pressure on the regime. This can only be a good thing. The Rohingya are described as the world’s most persecuted minority. They are overwhelmingly Muslim and account for 1.1 million of the total Buddhist-majority nation. Since 1982, this group has been denied citizenship; effectively rendering them stateless. That the latest spate of violence kicked off on Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung Suu Kyi’s watch is even more perturbing. Yangon blamed the killing of nine border police two years ago on an armed Rohingya group in Rakhine State. The end result being military aggression and charges of gross human rights abuses, including: extrajudicial killing, rape and arson. The UN has used the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ to describe the military operations against this already vulnerable group. Though this has not stopped Suu Kyi from denying such allegations. Thus this week’s jailing of seven Myanmar soldiers over their involvement in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men last year is rendered all the more significant. However, it makes it all the harder to understand how two Reuters journalists covering the massacre remain behind bars; possibly facing a 14-year-prison sentence each. The time has come for mass mobilisation; at least in terms of global consciousness. For the prevailing international system must be called out when it continues to dress in democracy’s borrowed robes. From the Palestinians. To the Kashmiris. To the Rohingya. How much longer will the world be willing to turn the other cheek? When will it realise that this silent complicity in the systematic subjugation of entire peoples is what ultimately makes us all go blind? * Published in Daily Times, April 12th 2018.