[Myanmar will send a legal team led by Ms. Suu
Kyi to the International Court of Justice to contest an accusation of genocide.]
By
The Associated Press
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Aung
San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s state counselor and foreign minister, at an event
in
Myanmar in July.Credit...Ann Wang/Reuters
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RYANGON,
Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar’s
government announced on Wednesday that its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, will
head a legal team it will send to the International Court of Justice in the
Netherlands to contest a case of genocide filed against it.
The announcement was posted on the Facebook
page of the office of the state counselor, a position Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi
holds along with that of foreign minister. Myanmar’s government releases much
public information on Facebook.
The country’s military has been accused of
carrying out mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes during a
counterinsurgency campaign launched in western Myanmar in August 2017 after
rebel attacks.
The violence sent more than 700,000 members
of the Muslim Rohingya minority fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh. Myanmar’s
population is overwhelmingly Buddhist.
The case was filed by Gambia on behalf of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation. When filing the case, Gambia’s justice
minister and attorney general, Abubacarr Marie Tambadou, told The Associated
Press he wanted to “send a clear message to Myanmar and to the rest of the
international community that the world must not stand by and do nothing in the
face of terrible atrocities that are occurring around us. It is a shame for our
generation that we do nothing while genocide is unfolding right before our own
eyes.”
The head of a U.N. fact-finding mission on
Myanmar warned last month that “there is a serious risk of genocide recurring,”
and the mission also said in its final report in September that Myanmar should
be held responsible in international legal forums for alleged genocide against
the Rohingya.
Myanmar has strongly denied carrying out
organized human rights abuses. The brief announcement on Wednesday night on the
effort “to defend Myanmar’s national interest” did not specify that Gambia’s
application to the court involved genocide, but said it was “with regard to the
displaced persons from the Rakhine state,” the area from which the Rohingya
fled.
It said Myanmar has retained prominent
international lawyers to contest the case, and that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi will
lead the team in her capacity as foreign minister. The announcement did not
mention a date for the mission to the court, but the court said on Monday that
it would hold public hearings on Dec. 10-12.
On Friday, Myanmar’s government rejected the
International Criminal Court’s decision to allow prosecutors to open an
investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay said Myanmar stood by its position that the
Netherlands-based court has no jurisdiction over its actions because Myanmar
was not a party to the agreement establishing the court.
The court’s position is that because
Myanmar’s alleged atrocities sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to
Bangladesh for safety, it does have jurisdiction since Bangladesh is a party to
the court and the case may involve forced deportation.
The International Court of Justice settles
disputes between nations, while the International Criminal Court seeks to
convict individuals responsible for crimes. Member states of the United Nations
are automatically parties to the court, though they must also consent to its
jurisdiction. Both courts are based in The Hague.
Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the New
York-based Global Justice Center which promotes enforcement of international
laws protecting human rights and promoting gender equality, said Ms. Aung San Suu
Kyi and Myanmar’s civilian government “failed to act against genocide in
Rakhine State with any level of urgency and have taken no steps to hold the
military to account.”
The international community should no longer
have illusions where Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and the civilian government stand and
must act to support The Gambia and take other measures to hold Myanmar
accountable,” Radhakrishnan said in a statement.
