The
UN’s top court will deliver its decision on 23 January 2020 on whether there is
urgently needed measure to impose on Myanmar over alleged genocide against its
Rohingya Muslims, The Gambia government tweeted Wednesday.
In
a shock move, Myanmar’s civilian leader and Nobel peace laureate Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi travelled to The Hague last month to defend the bloody 2017 crackdown
by the Tatmadaw against the Rohingya.
Some
740,000 fled the border into Bangladesh, carrying accounts of widespread rape,
arson and mass killings, in violence UN investigators said amounted to
genocide.
The
Gambian Ministry of Justice announced on Twitter early Wednesday the ICJ would
deliver its decision on emergency measures on Thursday 23 January.
The
Gambia had brought a case against Buddhist-majority Myanmar to the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) with the backing of the Organisation for
Islamic Cooperation, Canada and the Netherlands.
At
the December hearing, The Gambia alleged Myanmar had breached the 1948 UN
Genocide Convention.
It
also said there was a “serious and imminent risk of genocide recurring” and
called for emergency measures to prevent Myanmar from committing any further
atrocities or erasing any evidence.
It
is not clear how specific the emergency measures would be, but enforcing them
would likely prove difficult.
If
the court rules in The Gambia’s favour, this would be just the first step in a
case likely to take years.
An
estimated 600,000 Rohingya still live in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State in
what Amnesty International has branded “apartheid” conditions.
Aung
San Suu Kyi admitted the army may have used excessive force against the
Rohingya, but said the case was based on “misleading and incomplete” claims,
calling for it to be dropped.
The
74-year-old, once regarded as a rights icon in the West, also said the case
risked reigniting the crisis.
ICJ
judges have only once before ruled that genocide was committed, in the 1995
Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
Aung
San Suu Kyi’s defence of the generals was widely condemned in the West but
proved popular at home with a public largely unsympathetic to the plight of the
Rohingya.
Myanmar
insists its own investigations will ensure accountability for any human rights
violations but critics deride the domestic panels as toothless and partial.
Myanmar
also faces other legal challenges over the Rohingya, including a probe by the
International Criminal Court, a separate war crimes tribunal, and a lawsuit in
Argentina which notably alleges Aung San Suu Kyi’s complicity.
Source:
Frontier
