Throughout the hearing, there were no real displays of emotion from Aung San Suu Kyi despite listening to victim accounts of mass rape, people’s throats being slit, and mothers who were forced to watch their children die.
Throughout the hearing, there were no real displays of emotion from Aung San Suu Kyi despite listening to victim accounts of mass rape, people’s throats being slit, and mothers who were forced to watch their children die.
On December 10th to 12th 2019, Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi defended the cruel actions of her armed forces at the UN International Court of Justice.
The historic case was bought forward by The Gambia on November 11 2019, after the country made a promise at the UN General Assembly. It was done with the support and funding from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which consists of 57 member states.
The ICJ proceedings began on Tuesday the 10th in The Hague. Attorney General and Justice Minister of The Gambia Abubacarr Marie Tambadou urged the ICJ to impose provisional measures immediately to protect the Rohingya against further harm.
The Gambia’s application alleges that Myanmar has is guilty because of its “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcible transfers, are genocidal in character because they are intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part.” All of these atrocities have violated the UN Genocide Convention.
Aung San Suu Kyi said the allegations are “incomplete and misleading”, despite overwhelming evidence from August 25th, 2017 as 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fled violent persecution from Myanmar into Bangladesh. The systematic campaign involved mass rape, murder, and the burning down of people’s homes.
During the hearing, Aung San Suu Kyi still refused to give Rohingya Muslims an identity, which is one of the major issues these innocent groups of people face, as they are denied citizenship. Professor Gregory Stanton, who is President of Genocide Watch, states that “the last stage of genocide is not the annihilation of the targeted groups but denial”.
Aung San Suu Kyi also stated that efforts were being made to “ensure that all communities enjoy the same fundamental rights”, and “to expedite citizenship verification and application” – but there has been very little evidence of this. And many Rohingya Muslims have rejected repatriation back to Myanmar for fear of further persecution.
Interviews with Rohingya refugees who had endured rape were read out as evidence during the ICJ hearing. Human rights organisation Legal Action Worldwide Director, Antonia Mulvey, who was a part of the UN’s fact-finding mission on Myanmar said that: “Aung San Suu Kyi and her lawyers were silent about the use of sexual violence…They will never be able to justify widespread rapes as part of a military campaign.”
Paul Reichler, one of The Gambia’s lawyers, said Myanmar hadn’t tried to deny accusations of extreme violence. Reichler dismissed Myanmar’s insistence that it would try to prosecute soldiers who had committed wrongdoing: “How could anyone possibly expect the Tatmadaw [military] to hold itself accountable for genocidal acts against the Rohingya, when six of its top generals including the commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, have all been accused of genocide by the UN fact-finding mission and recommended for criminal prosecution?’’
Throughout the hearing, there were no real displays of emotion from Aung San Suu Kyi despite listening to victim accounts of mass rape, people’s throats being slit, and mothers who were forced to watch their children die.
In her closing remarks, Aung San Suu Kyi said that: “We pray the [ICJ] to refrain from taking any action that might aggravate the ongoing armed conflict and peace and security in Rakhine.”
The rest of the international community needs to publically condemn Myanmar’s actions and Aung San Suu Kyi needs to be held responsible so that this “aggravation” is not permitted to continue. This genocide is not just a crime against Rohingya Muslims, it is a crime against humanity.
