UN top court greenlights probe into Rohingya genocide as military junta fumes
The United Nations’ top court has ruled in favor of launching a landmark investigation into accusations that Myanmar military committed genocide against the country’s minority Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Friday threw out all of Myanmar's objections to the case that was filed by the West African nation of Gambia in 2019.
Myanmar’s ruling junta’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted on Saturday by saying, "Myanmar is disappointed that its preliminary objections were rejected," arguing that the objections were legally strong.
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims were killed, raped, tortured, or arrested by the junta forces, according to the United Nations, which has described the community in Myanmar's western Rakhine State as the most persecuted minority in the world.
Around 850,000 Rohingya refugees remain stuck in squalid, crowded conditions in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh after members of the Muslim minority were forced to flee their homes in 2017.
Myanmar had argued on several grounds that the court has no jurisdiction in the matter, and should dismiss the case while it is still in its early stages.
The Myanmar government of former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which was ousted by the military in a coup on February 1, supported the military crackdown against the Rohingya Muslims. She even traveled to The Hague in December 2019 to defend the military's atrocities.
Mainly-Muslim Gambia filed the case alleging that Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. The case, which is aimed at holding Myanmar accountable and preventing further bloodshed, was backed by the 57-nation Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Myanmar argued that Gambia had no standing to do so at the top UN court. However, ICJ's presiding judge, Joan Donoghue, said all states that had signed the 1948 Genocide Convention could and must act to prevent genocide, and the court had jurisdiction in the case.
In a 2020 provisional decision, the ICJ ordered Myanmar to protect the Rohingya from harm. However Rohingya rights groups and activists say there has been no meaningful attempt to end their systemic persecution.
Rohingya are still denied citizenship and freedom of movement in Myanmar. Tens of thousands have now been confined to squalid displacement camps for a decade.
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