The UN’s highest court on Friday ruled that a landmark case accusing military-ruled Myanmar of genocide against minority Rohingya Muslims can go ahead.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague threw out all of Myanmar’s objections to a case filed by the west African nation of the Gambia in 2019.
The decision paves the way for full hearings at the court on allegations over a bloody 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya by majority-Buddhist Myanmar.
Photo: Reuters
“The court finds that it has jurisdiction ... to entertain the application filed by the republic of the Gambia, and that the application is admissible,” ICJ President Joan Donoghue said.
Hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya fled during the operation five years ago, bringing with them harrowing reports of murder, rape and arson.
About 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighboring Bangladesh, while another 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar’s southwestern Rakhine State.
Photo: Reuters
Gambian Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow told reporters outside the court he was “very pleased that the court has delivered justice.”
Several dozen Rohingya activists demonstrated outside the court while the judgement was read out.
“This decision is a great moment for justice for Rohingya, and for all people of Burma,” Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK president Tun Khin said, referring to the country by its former name. “We are pleased that this landmark genocide trial can now finally begin in earnest.”
Attorney-General Thida Oo, who was representing Myanmar, said her country was now “looking forward to finding the best way to protect our people and our country.”
The Gambia filed the case in November 2019 alleging that Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Myanmar was originally represented at the ICJ by then-Burmese state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was ousted in a coup last year and is now in detention.
Myanmar had argued on several grounds that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter, and should dismiss the case while it is still in its preliminary stages.
However, judges unanimously rejected Myanmar’s argument that Gambia was acting as a “proxy” of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the case.
Only states, and not organizations, are allowed to file cases at the ICJ, which has ruled on disputes between countries since just after World War II.
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