Nobel laureate defends Burma ‘genocide’ case

NOBEL peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has testified before the highest court of the UN, defending the military regime she was awarded the 1991 prize for campaigning against.

The African nation of Gambia, acting on behalf of a large group of Muslim countries, requested the International Court of Justice hearings and insists there is an ongoing and deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide – including the killing of civilians, raping of women and torching of houses – that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Lawyer Paul Reicher said: “Everyone was a target and no-one was spared. Mothers, infants, pregnant women, the old and infirm. They all fell victim to this ruthless campaign.”

Although Myanmar (Burma) denies the existence of any mass graves of Rohingyas, Reicher insisted that “at least” five had been found.

Suu Kyi said Gambia’s legal representatives had painted “an incomplete and misleading factual picture” of what happened in Burma’s northern Rakhine state in August 2017.

The Nobel laureate testified that the allegations of genocide and other crimes stemmed from “an internal armed conflict started by co-ordinated and comprehensive armed attacks ... to which [Burma’s] defence services responded” adding that the exodus of Rohingya was brought about by hostilities that their own side had initiated.

Gambia wants the UN court to take “all measures within its power to prevent all acts that amount to or contribute to the crime of genocide” and holds that Suu Kyi chose to ignore “unspeakable” crimes targeting Muslim civilians.