The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague has begun a three-week hearing from today to determine whether Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. The case was filed by The Gambia in 2019, accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide during the 2017 crackdown.
Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are set to start a three-week hearing beginning today (12 Jan) on the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar. The case alleges Myanmar violated the 1948 Genocide Convention during its violent crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017.
Violence by Myanmar's military and Buddhist armed groups forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, bringing with them evidence and heartbreaking accounts of mass killings, rape, and village burnings. Currently, over 1.17 million Rohingya live crowded in temporary camps spanning 8,000 acres in Cox's Bazar.
Janifa Begum, a 37-year-old mother of two and refugee, told AFP, "I want to see whether the suffering we endured will be reflected in this hearing. We only seek justice and peace."
The case was initiated by former Gambian leadership, from a Muslim West African state, which filed the complaint at the ICJ in 2019, presenting evidence of inhumane killings that violate the conscience of the international community.
At that time, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi personally traveled to The Hague to defend Myanmar. She denied the allegations, stating The Gambia's information was "inaccurate and incomplete," and framed the events as an internal armed conflict responding to attacks by Rohingya armed groups on security forces that resulted in casualties.
In 2020, the ICJ issued a provisional order requiring Myanmar to take all measures to prevent genocide. Later, in 2022, the United States officially declared the events as genocide, aligning with United Nations reports.
The hearing will conclude on 30 January and represents the core of the case. Although the ICJ lacks direct enforcement mechanisms, a guilty verdict against Myanmar would significantly increase political pressure on the military government on the global stage.
Aung San Suu Kyi will not appear at this hearing, as she remains detained following the military coup in 2021. Besides this ICJ case, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's top leader, is under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, and there are ongoing cases in Argentina under universal jurisdiction.
/sourceAFP