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The Gambia dismissed arguments by the Myanmar army’s authorized group, which claimed that the Worldwide Court docket of Justice doesn’t have jurisdiction to rule on allegations of genocide towards the Rohingya.
By AFP
The Gambia insisted Wednesday that allegations it introduced earlier than the UN’s prime courtroom alleging genocide towards Rohingya Muslims had been legit, after the Myanmar army tried to get them dismissed.
Banjul dragged Myanmar earlier than the Worldwide Court docket of Justice in 2019, accusing it of genocide towards the Rohingya Muslim minority following a bloody 2017 army crackdown.
“We search to guard not solely the rights of the Rohingya, however our personal rights as a state social gathering to the genocide conference,” The Gambia’s legal professional basic Mr Dawda Jallow instructed the courtroom.
They had been doing that “by holding Myanmar to its… obligation to not commit genocide, to not incite genocide and to forestall unpunished genocide,” he added.
“These violations of the genocide conference are a stain on our collective conscience and it could be irresponsible to faux that it’s not our enterprise,” the Gambian lawyer instructed judges.
In courtroom on Monday, Myanmar struck out at The Gambia for having introduced the case earlier than the Hague-based ICJ, arrange after World Conflict Two to rule in disputes between nations.
Its legal professionals accused Banjul of not performing as a “nation in its personal proper”, however as a proxy for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member physique arrange in 1969 to signify international Muslim pursuits.
Lengthy-running proceedings
Jallow dismissed that argument.
“That is very a lot a dispute between The Gambia and Myanmar,” he stated.
“We make it our enterprise once we, as civilised nations dedicated ourselves to the pact underneath the 1948 Genocide Conference,” Jallow added.
When the case opened in December 2019, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi personally represented Myanmar on the ICJ, however she was ousted because the nation’s civilian chief in a army coup final yr.
The Nobel peace laureate, who confronted criticism from rights teams for her involvement within the case, is now in detention and on trial by the identical generals she defended in The Hague.
Round 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh whereas one other 600,000 Rohingya stay in Myanmar’s southwestern Rakhine state.
The Gambia’s legal professionals, quoting latest human rights organisation experiences, stated the Rohingya remained susceptible.
“The Rohingya stay at grave threat of mass atrocity crimes,” one lawyer, Mr Paul S. Reichler, warned the courtroom.
The Rohingya case on the ICJ has been sophisticated by the coup, which triggered mass protests and a bloody army crackdown.
Greater than 1,500 civilians have been killed, in line with an area monitoring group.
The ICJ made a provisional order in January 2020 that Myanmar should take “all measures” to forestall the alleged genocide of the Rohingya whereas the years-long proceedings are underneath means.
However the European Union on Monday heaped extra sanctions on Myanmar officers, saying it was “deeply involved by the persevering with escalation of violence in Myanmar and the evolution in direction of a protracted battle with regional implications.”
The bloc added 22 junta officers, for a complete of 65 on the sanctions listing, and 4 corporations tied to the regime, making 10 general.
Amongst these focused had been the junta-appointed ministers for funding, business and data, officers on the election fee and senior members of the army.
The ICJ judges should now determine whether or not the courtroom has the jurisdiction to listen to the case. If that’s the case the case may nonetheless take a number of years.
Choices by its judges are closing and can’t be appealed, though the courtroom has restricted technique of imposing them.
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