UN court urged not to let junta act for Myanmar in genocide case

THE UN has been urged by Myanmar’s ousted government not to allow the military junta to represent the country in court in a genocide case.

Gambia brought Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2019, accusing the predominantly Buddhist country of genocide against the

Rohingya Muslim minority after a bloody 2017 military crackdown.

When the case opened in December 2019 Aung San Suu Kyi represented Myanmar at the ICJ in The Hague, but she was ousted as the country’s civilian leader in a military coup last year.

The Nobel Peace laureate, who faced criticism from rights groups for her involvement in the case, is now under house arrest and on trial by the same generals she defended in The Hague.

Ahead of the hearing, the shadow “National Unity Government”(nug) dominated by lawmakers from Suu Kyi’s ousted party said it, not the junta, “is the proper representative of Myanmar at the ICJ in the case”.

The NUG holds no territory and has not been recognised by any foreign government, and has been declared a “terrorist” organisation by the junta.

The junta yesterday sought to have the proceedings dropped, arguing that the UN’S highest court does not have the jurisdiction because the case was not brought by two states.

Christopher Staker, a lawyer for Myanmar, accused Gambia of “not acting in it own rights... but stepping in on behalf... of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),” referring to the 57-member body that was set up in 1969 to represent global Muslim interests.

Mr Staker said Gambia only agreed to commence the legal challenge after the OIC proposed the case. “The OIC is an international organisation, not a state,” Mr Staker pointed out.

The ICJ made a provisional order in

January 2020 that Myanmar must take “all measures” to prevent the alleged genocide of the Rohingya while the years-long proceedings are under way.

Gambia will make its counter-arguments tomorrow.

Around 850,000 Rohingya are in camps in Bangladesh while another 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar’s south-western Rakhine state.