THE HAGUE, Jan 30 — Rohingya survivors of the 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar expect the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, to rule that the country committed genocide against them, they said on Friday.
A judgment is expected in three to six months following three weeks of hearings at the court in The Hague, also known as the World Court.
The outcome of the case will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, including its potential impact on South Africa’s genocide case at the court against Israel over the war in Gaza.
GAMBIA BROUGHT THE CASE
In their final submissions this week, lawyers for Gambia — a mainly Muslim country that brought the case — told the court that the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from Myanmar’s conduct is that it intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group.
Myanmar has denied accusations of genocide and said the 2017 offensive, which forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes into neighbouring Bangladesh, was a legitimate counterterrorism operation.
Speaking on Friday on the sidelines of a meeting of survivors of mass atrocities, Yousuf Ali, a 52-year-old Rohingya refugee who says he was tortured by the Myanmar military, said he believed the court would declare that genocide had been committed.
“The world has witnessed us suffering for so many years (…) how we were deported, how our homes were destroyed and we were killed,” he said.
At the international court, Myanmar’s lawyers argued that the fact-finding mission was biased and that its conclusions did not meet the standard of proof required for a genocide ruling.
A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded that the offensive included “genocidal acts,” with survivors recounting killings, mass rape, and arson.
Gambia’s Justice Minister, Dawda Jallow, asked the court to reject Myanmar’s arguments, stating that a judgment declaring genocide would help break Myanmar’s “cycle of atrocities and impunities.”
