UN court orders Myanmar to act to prevent genocide

THE HAGUE: The UN’s top court ordered Myanmar yesterday to take “all measures within its power” to prevent alleged genocide against Rohingya Muslims.

The International Court of Justice granted a series of emergency steps requested by the mainly Muslim African state of The Gambia under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Presiding judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said Myanmar must “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts” described by the convention.

These included “killing members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The court based in The Hague ordered Myanmar to report back within four months, and then every six months after that.

The small West African country had launched the lawsuit at the UN’s highest body for disputes between states in November.

The accusations refer to a 2017 military crackdown by Myanmar which resulted in around 740,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, bringing allegations of widespread rape, arson and mass killings.

Gambia had also asked for a series of protective measures, the equivalent of a restraining order for states, including an immediate stop to the violence. It has also called on judges to order Myanmar to grant access to UN bodies investigating alleged crimes against Rohingya.

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military-led crackdown in 2017 and were forced into squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. UN investigators concluded the military campaign was executed with “genocidal intent”.

At Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp, hopes were running high for a ruling in their favour after years of persecution.

“The entire Rohingya community is praying for justice,” said Dil Mohammad, 52, a Rohingya community leader. “We expect that it will deliver a fair judgment.”

During a week of hearings last month, Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi asked the 17-judge panel to drop the case.

While she conceded that disproportionate military force may have been used and civilians killed, she said the acts did not constitute genocide.

REUTERS Rohingya refugees pray as they gather to mark the second anniversary of the exodus at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh last year.