“On Monday, January 12, the International Court of Justice of the United Nations will start hearing the case in which Myanmar is accused of the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: Reuters
Details: This is the first genocide case that the UN court will hear in its entirety in ten years.
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The hearings will begin at 11:00 a.m. Kyiv time and will last three weeks. For the first time, the international court will hear testimony from victims of alleged atrocities, but for security and confidentiality reasons, the hearings will be closed to the public and the press.
“This case is likely to set important precedents regarding the definition of genocide, ways of proving it and eliminating violations,” said the head of the UN’s independent investigative mechanism in the case of Myanmar, Nicholas Kumjian.
Gambia, a predominantly Muslim country in West Africa, filed a lawsuit against Myanmar back in 2019. She accused the Myanmar authorities of exterminating the Rohingya people in the western state of Rakhine.
Myanmar’s government, now represented by a military junta, categorically denies the allegations. Back in 2019, at a preliminary hearing, the then leader of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi, called the actions of the military a “legitimate anti-terrorist operation.”
Prehistory:
- In 2017, Myanmar’s armed forces (known as the Tatmadaw) launched a large-scale punitive operation in Rakhine State. According to the UN, this led to mass murders, rapes and the burning of settlements.
- As a result of the violence, at least 730,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh, where they still live in refugee camps. The UN fact-finding mission qualified these actions as “acts of genocide”.