12 January saw the beginning of the landmark case against the military regime in Myanmar for their involvement in the Rohingya genocide. Meanwhile, back in Myanmar, the sham election goes on.
Rohingya genocide hearings in the Hague
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began a fortnight of hearings in the case brought by Gambia, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya, a minority Muslim group in 2017.
It was reported on 12 January that when speaking at the United Nations top court in what is a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide, Gambia told judges that the military regime of Myanmar had targeted minority Rohingya for destruction, making their lives a nightmare.
Dawda Jallow, the Justice Minister and Attorney General of Gambia, attended the hearing at the Hague, along with attorney Arsalan Suleman. Ko Ko Hlaing, the Minister for the Ministry of the President’s Office in Myanmar was also said to be present at the hearing.
It was also noted that the case against Myanmar is the “first genocide case the International Court of Justice is hearing in full in more than a decade. The outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ against Israel over the war in Gaza”.
Jallow commented about the Rohingya minority: “They have been targeted for destruction. Myanmar has denied them their dream, in fact it turned their lives into a nightmare subjecting them to the most horrific violence and destruction one could imagine.”
The genocide of 2017
It has been noted that members of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar began to flee their homes on 25 August 2017 following Rohingya Arsa militants launching deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts.
Rohingya people who fled over the border reported they did so after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, attacked Rohingya civilians and burned villages.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have said that at least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the month after the violence broke out. Meanwhile the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women and girls, according to Amnesty International.
The BBC stated that they “saw the remains of burned villages on a tightly controlled government trip to Rakhine state”.
The Myanmar military regime stated that what they euphemistically called “clearance operations” against the militants, were completed on 5 September, but the BBC claims that their correspondents have “seen evidence that they continued after that date”.
Human Rights Watch were able to analyse satellite imagery of the area and found that at least 288 villages had been partially or totally destroyed by fire in the northern Rakhine state after August 2017.
It has since been recorded that the Myanmar military and some armed groups killed over 25,000 Rohingyas, while approximately 30-40% of Rohingya villages were destroyed in this crackdown.
Sexual violence was used as an intimidation tactic, with thousands of girls and women reported to be raped. Ultimately, over 700,000 Rohingyas fled the country, mostly to Bangladesh.
The sham elections continue
Meanwhile it has been reported that so-called ‘sham elections’ will continue. It was stated that voters in Myanmar had queued up on 11 January to “cast their ballots in the second stage of a military-run election, following low turnout in the initial round of polls that have been widely criticised as a tool to formalise junta rule”.
It was also noted that the Union Solidarity and Development Party, backed by the military, is leading by a huge margin after winning 90 of the 102 lower house seats contested in the first phase on 28 December, which “saw only 52.13% voter turnout, much lower than elections in 2020 and 2015”.
The winners of the election in 2015, Aung San Suu Kiyi’s National League for Democracy, have been barred from entering the present election.
The Burmese military have to defend themselves
In an email to supporters, Mark Farmaner, a director at Burma Campaign UK made the following comments regarding the genocide case going to the International Criminal Court at the Hague: “This week we are witnessing something that should have happened decades ago. Representatives of the Burmese military are in an international court.
“Hearings are being held at the International Court of Justice where a case is being heard that Burma has broken the Genocide Convention. For the next two weeks the court will hear evidence about the genocidal Burmese military offensives in 2016 and 2017, which forced around one million Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, half of them children.
“In the second week representatives of the Burmese military will attempt to defend their actions.
“We campaigned successfully for the British government to intervene in the case. A big thank you to everyone who took our campaign action to ask the UK to join this case.
As Tun Khin from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK put it: “After decades of violating international law, this case is the first time the Burmese military are in court having to defend themselves. It’s a big step forward on the long road to justice and accountability.””
The long road to justice
The Rohingya minority and indeed the people of Myanmar generally have been awaiting justice for nearly 64 years- since the military came to power in March 1962 under general Ne Win.
In that time, the people of Myanmar have suffered terrible oppression, while military leaders have stolen the resources of the country for themselves and their families. The people of Myanmar have been denied many of their basic human rights and kept in dire poverty.
This oppression reached its worst in August and September 2017, with the genocide against the Rohingya minority. It is hoped that, regardless of the result of the sham election, this case will be the beginning of a new Myanmar where the Rohingyas and the rest of the peoples of Myanmar gain justice and the human rights they deserve.
