AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked it to rule on whether it had jurisdiction over the deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, a possible war crime, according to a filing published on Monday.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in the filing that doubt over jurisidiction arises because Bangladesh is a member of the court but Myanmar is not.

Bensouda argued that, given the cross-border nature of the crime of deportation, a ruling in favor of ICC jurisdiction would be in line with established principles of criminal law.</s>AMSTERDAM, April 9 (Reuters) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked it to rule on whether it had jurisdiction over the deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh, a possible war crime, according to a filing published on Monday.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in the filing that doubt over jurisidiction arises because Bangladesh is a member of the court but Myanmar is not.

Bensouda argued that, given the cross-border nature of the crime of deportation, a ruling in favour of ICC jurisdiction would be in line with established principles of criminal law. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Andrew Roche)</s>YANGON (Reuters) - Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to “10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area” for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in northwestern Rakhine state last September, the army said on Tuesday.

The military said in a statement published on Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s office Facebook page that seven soldiers have had “action taken against them” for “contributing and participating in murder”.

The massacre was being investigated by two Reuters journalists - Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 - who were subsequently arrested in December and are still behind bars facing charges of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

The authorities told Reuters in February the military opened an internal investigation independently and that it is unrelated to the Reuters reporters who are accused of obtaining unrelated secret government papers.

The Rohingya men from the northern Rakhine village of Inn Din were buried in a mass grave in early September after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbours and soldiers. Reuters published its story on the murder in February.

The murders were part of a larger army crackdown on the Rohingya, beset by allegations of murder, rape, arson and looting, unleashed in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces in late August. The United Nations and the United States described it as ethnic cleansing - an accusation which Myanmar denies.

“Four officers were denounced and permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labour at a prison in a remote area. Three soldiers of other rank were demoted to the rank of ‘private’, permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labour at a prison in a remote area,” read the military statement.

It added that legal proceedings against the police personnel and civilians “involved in the crime” are still under way.

On Jan. 10, the military said the 10 Rohingya men belonged to a group of 200 militants who had attacked security forces. Buddhist villagers attacked some of them with swords and soldiers shot the others dead, the military had said.

The military’s version of events is contradicted by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses published in the February story.

Buddhist villagers reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and crossed into southern Bangladesh since August, creating one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether the two Reuters reporters will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

On Wednesday, the judge will rule on a motion by defence lawyers for dismissal of the case.</s>BANGKOK -- Myanmar's military on Tuesday sentenced seven personnel to 10 years in prison and hard labour as alleged accomplices in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in troubled Rakhine state, where the country's security forces carried out a brutal crackdown against the minority group, officials said.

The military personnel also were permanently expelled from the army, according to a statement released by the army chief on an official Facebook page.

The army in January made a rare admission that its soldiers had killed 10 Rohingya villagers who were captured and accused of being "terrorists" during insurgent attacks last year in Inn Din village in northern Rakhine. The military said its soldiers confessed to carrying out the slayings.

The army's statement Tuesday said an investigative group under the military had interrogated 21 military personnel, three police officers, 13 security forces, six civil servants and six Inn Din villagers. It said the investigation proved that the soldiers violated the law by killing the villagers.

"For the military personnel under the Military Act 71, four military personnel and three soldiers will be sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour and to be permanently expelled from the army," the statement said.

Myanmar's security forces launched brutal counterattacks against Rohingya Muslims after a Rohingya insurgent group attacked police outposts on Aug. 25. The military called it a "clearance operation" against the terrorists, but the U.S. and the United Nations branded it an "ethnic cleansing" after the army's operation drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh.

The military said in a statement on Dec. 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies of "Bengali terrorists" had been found on the outskirts of Inn Din village in northern Rakhine's Maungdaw region. Local authorities and the military have carried out an investigation since.

The government usually refers to Rohingya Muslims as "Bengalis," a term that denies they belong to Buddhist-majority Myanmar and implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

At least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September during the crackdown, international aid group Doctors Without Borders said in December after conducting a field survey.

Little or no information has been revealed because the Myanmar government has denied humanitarian workers and independent media access to northern Rakhine.</s>Seven Myanmar soldiers were sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years hard labor at a "prison in a remote area" after being found guilty of the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men.

According to a statement by a Myanmar military chief, the seven soldiers, among them four officers, were sentenced under section 71 of the country's military act as the Rohingya victims "were not arrested and punished according to procedures."

Myanmar's government admitted in January that troops, along with Buddhist villagers in Rakhine State, killed 10 Rohingya Muslim men in the village of Inn Dinn back in September.

The incident came as part of the Myanmar military's brutal crackdown against the country's Muslim minority, which sent almost 700,000 Rohingya people fleeing across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

Rights groups, however, maintain that the 10 deaths are just the tip of the iceberg of alleged murders, rapes and arson attacks carried out by Myanmar security forces. The UN has labelled the crackdown on the Rohingya as "ethnic cleansing." However, the Inn Dinn incident is the only atrocity the military has admitted so far.

Read more: UN: Rohingya subjected to forced starvation by Myanmar authorities

Despite the Myanmar military's admission over the bloody Inn Dinn incident, two Myanmar Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, remain in custody for possessing confidential documentation related to the massacre.

The report is believed to describe how troops and Buddhist villagers killed the 10 Rohingya men before dumping their bodies in a mass grave. It also included photos of the victims, hands bounds and kneeling on the floor before being executed, as well as of their bodies afterwards.

The arrest of the journalists has provoked a global outcry. The sentencing of the soldiers, however, could see the court rule on their defense lawyer's request to throw out the prosecution's case as early as Wednesday.

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague late on Monday asked judges whether she could launch a probe into the mass deportations of Rohingya people from Myanmar into Bangladesh.

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda contended that "consistent and credible reports ... indicate that since August 2017 more than 670,000 Rohingya, lawfully present in Myanmar, have been intentionally deported across the international border into Bangladesh."

Opening a preliminary enquiry into the plight of the Rohingya communities could prove a complicated task for the ICC, however, since Myanmar is not a member of the international court and is unlikely to co-operate.

Bangladesh, however, is a member of the court, and, given the cross-border nature of the issue, Bensouda argued that a ruling in favor off ICC jurisdiction would be in line with its legal principles.

"This is not an abstract question but a concrete one, affecting whether the Court may exercise jurisdiction ... to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute," she said in her filing.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.</s>Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to "10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area" for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in northwestern Rakhine state last September, the army said on Tuesday.

The military said in a statement published on Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing's office Facebook page that seven soldiers have had "action taken against them" for"contributing and participating in murder".

The massacre was being investigated by two Reuters journalists - Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 - who were subsequently arrested in December and are still behind bars facing charges of violating the country's Official Secrets Act.

The authorities told Reuters in February the military opened an internal investigation independently and that it is unrelated to the Reuters reporters who are accused of obtaining unrelated secret government papers.

The Rohingya men from the northern Rakhine village of Inn Din were buried in a mass grave in early September after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbours and soldiers. Reuters published its story on the murder in February.

The murders were part of a larger army crackdown on the Rohingya, beset by allegations of murder, rape, arson and looting, unleashed in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces in late August. The United Nations and the United States described it as ethnic cleansing - an accusation which Myanmar denies.

"Four officers were denounced and permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labour at a prison in a remote area. Three soldiers of other rank were demoted to the rank of 'private', permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labour at a prison in a remote area," read the military statement.

It added that legal proceedings against the police personnel and civilians "involved in the crime" are still under way.

On Jan. 10, the military said the 10 Rohingya men belonged to a group of 200 militants who had attacked security forces. Buddhist villagers attacked some of them with swords and soldiers shot the others dead, the military had said.

The military’s version of events is contradicted by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses published in the February story.

Buddhist villagers reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and crossed into southern Bangladesh since August, creating one of the world's largest refugee camps.

A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether the two Reuters reporters will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

On Wednesday, the judge will rule on a motion by defense lawyers for dismissal of the case.</s>Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to jail with hard labour for their part in the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya Muslim men last year, according to a Facebook post by the army chief late on Tuesday.

The bloody incident in Inn Din village on 2 September is the only atrocity to which the military has admitted during its violent crackdown in northern Rakhine state, which has forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into Bangladesh since August last year.

Two Reuters journalists, Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were investigating the massacre when they were arrested in December on the outskirts of Yangon for possessing classified documents that could land them up to 14 years in jail if convicted.

A month after their detention, the military issued a statement in a rare admission of wrongdoing that some of its security forces had been involved in the killing and pledging to take action against those responsible.

However, the army has repeatedly claimed the Rohingya men were "terrorists", but has not presented any evidence to back up the allegation.

"Four officers have been purged (from the army) and given a 10 year prison sentence with hard labour. A further three soldiers were purged and given a 10 year prison sentence with hard labour in a criminal prison," read the post from Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The tribunal took place behind closed doors, ignoring international calls for an independent inquiry.

The arrest of the Reuters journalists has provoked global outrage with calls for the pair’s release echoing around the world as they wait to hear whether the court will throw out their case on Wednesday.

Their report, based on testimony from Buddhist villagers, security officers and relatives of the slain men, described how Myanmar troops and Buddhist villagers executed the 10 men before dumping their bodies into a mass grave.

It included photographs of the victims, hands bound and kneeling on the floor prior to the killing -- and of their bodies in a pit afterwards.

Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed the army admission as a "positive step".

The country's military has a grim track record of rights abuses over 50 years of rule.

Many had hoped Suu Kyi’s new democratic government that swept to power in 2016 would see the army step back from its notorious "scorched earth" approach to rebellion and conflict, but the crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state banished those hopes.

Amnesty International called the summary killings at Inn Din "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of atrocities carried out since August and has repeatedly urged a wider, impartial probe.

The UN has accused Myanmar's army of ethnic cleansing, saying there are even possible "hallmarks of genocide" with refugees bringing with them consistent testimony of murder, rape and arson.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) estimate that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the military crackdown alone.

Myanmar denies the allegations, justifying its campaign in Rakhine as a legitimate response to Rohingya militants and blaming the international media and aid agencies for spreading false information fuelled by a pro-Rohingya bias.

After decades of discrimination and propaganda against them, the Rohingya are widely viewed as "Bengalis" — or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh — in the Buddhist-majority country.

Northern Rakhine state has largely been in lockdown since the campaign began eight months ago with access to media, observers and most aid groups tightly controlled.</s>Myanmar’s military on Tuesday sentenced seven personnel to 10 years in prison and hard labor as alleged accomplices in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in troubled Rakhine state, where the country’s security forces carried out a brutal crackdown against the minority group, officials said.

The military personnel also were permanently expelled from the army, according to a statement released by the army chief on an official Facebook page.

The army in January made a rare admission that its soldiers had killed 10 Rohingya villagers who were captured and accused of being “terrorists” during insurgent attacks last year in Inn Din village in northern Rakhine. The military said its soldiers confessed to carrying out the slayings.

The army’s statement Tuesday said an investigative group under the military had interrogated 21 military personnel, three police officers, 13 security forces, six civil servants and six Inn Din villagers. It said the investigation proved that the soldiers violated the law by killing the villagers.

“For the military personnel under the Military Act 71, four military personnel and three soldiers will be sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor and to be permanently expelled from the army,” the statement said.

Myanmar’s security forces launched brutal counterattacks against Rohingya Muslims after a Rohingya insurgent group attacked police outposts on Aug. 25. The military called it a “clearance operation” against the terrorists, but the U.S. and the United Nations branded it an “ethnic cleansing” after the army’s operation drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.

The military said in a statement on Dec. 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies of “Bengali terrorists” had been found on the outskirts of Inn Din village in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw region. Local authorities and the military have carried out an investigation since.

The government usually refers to Rohingya Muslims as “Bengalis,” a term that denies they belong to Buddhist-majority Myanmar and implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

At least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September during the crackdown, international aid group Doctors Without Borders said in December after conducting a field survey.

Little or no information has been revealed because the Myanmar government has denied humanitarian workers and independent media access to northern Rakhine.</s>YANGON (Reuters) - Seven Myanmar soldiers have been sentenced to “10 years in prison with hard labor in a remote area” for participating in a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in a village in northwestern Rakhine state last September, the army said on Tuesday.

The military said in a statement published on Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s office Facebook page that seven soldiers have had “action taken against them” for “contributing and participating in murder”.

The massacre was being investigated by two Reuters journalists - Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28 - who were subsequently arrested in December and are still behind bars facing charges of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act.

The authorities told Reuters in February the military opened an internal investigation independently and that it is unrelated to the Reuters reporters who are accused of obtaining unrelated secret government papers.

The Rohingya men from the northern Rakhine village of Inn Din were buried in a mass grave in early September after being hacked to death or shot by Buddhist neighbors and soldiers. Reuters published its story on the murder in February.

The murders were part of a larger army crackdown on the Rohingya, beset by allegations of murder, rape, arson and looting, unleashed in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces in late August. The United Nations and the United States described it as ethnic cleansing - an accusation which Myanmar denies.

“Four officers were denounced and permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labor at a prison in a remote area. Three soldiers of other rank were demoted to the rank of ‘private’, permanently dismissed from the military and sentenced to 10 years with hard labor at a prison in a remote area,” read the military statement.

It added that legal proceedings against the police personnel and civilians “involved in the crime” are still under way.

On Jan. 10, the military said the 10 Rohingya men belonged to a group of 200 militants who had attacked security forces. Buddhist villagers attacked some of them with swords and soldiers shot the others dead, the military had said.

The military’s version of events is contradicted by accounts given to Reuters by Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim witnesses published in the February story.

Buddhist villagers reported no attack by a large number of insurgents on security forces in Inn Din. And Rohingya witnesses told Reuters that soldiers plucked the 10 from among hundreds of men, women and children who had sought safety on a nearby beach.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state and crossed into southern Bangladesh since August, creating one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether the two Reuters reporters will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

On Wednesday, the judge will rule on a motion by defense lawyers for dismissal of the case.</s>Myanmar's military on Tuesday sentenced seven personnel to 10 years in prison and hard labor as alleged accomplices in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in troubled Rakhine state, where the country's security forces carried out a brutal crackdown against the minority group, officials said.

The military personnel also were permanently expelled from the army, according to a statement released by the army chief on an official Facebook page.

The army in January made a rare admission that its soldiers had killed 10 Rohingya villagers who were captured and accused of being "terrorists" during insurgent attacks last year in Inn Din village in northern Rakhine. The military said its soldiers confessed to carrying out the slayings.

The army's statement Tuesday said an investigative group under the military had interrogated 21 military personnel, three police officers, 13 security forces, six civil servants and six Inn Din villagers. It said the investigation proved that the soldiers violated the law by killing the villagers.

"For the military personnel under the Military Act 71, four military personnel and three soldiers will be sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor and to be permanently expelled from the army," the statement said.

Myanmar's security forces launched brutal counterattacks against Rohingya Muslims after a Rohingya insurgent group attacked police outposts on Aug. 25. The military called it a "clearance operation" against the terrorists, but the U.S. and the United Nations branded it an "ethnic cleansing" after the army's operation drove nearly 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.

The military said in a statement on Dec. 18 that a mass grave containing 10 bodies of "Bengali terrorists" had been found on the outskirts of Inn Din village in northern Rakhine's Maungdaw region. Local authorities and the military have carried out an investigation since.

The government usually refers to Rohingya Muslims as "Bengalis," a term that denies they belong to Buddhist-majority Myanmar and implying they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

At least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September during the crackdown, international aid group Doctors Without Borders said in December after conducting a field survey.

Little or no information has been revealed because the Myanmar government has denied humanitarian workers and independent media access to northern Rakhine.
A prosecutor asks the International Criminal Court to decide if it has jurisdiction over Rohingya deportations from Myanmar to Bangladesh, saying they may constitute a crime against humanity.