Court to rule in case accusing Myanmar of Rohingya genocide

United Nations’ highest court is set to rule Thursday on wher to order Myanmar to halt what has been described as a gecidal campaign against country’s Rohingya Muslim mirity.

International Court of Justice decision comes in a case brought by African nation of Gambia on behalf of an organization of Muslim nations that accuses Myanmar of gecide in its crackdown on Rohingya.

At public hearings last month, lawyers for Myanmar’s accusers used maps, satellite ims and graphic photos to detail what y call a campaign of murder, rape and destruction amounting to gecide perpetrated by Myanmar’s military.

hearings drew intense scrutiny from around world as Myanmar’s former pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi defended campaign by military forces that once held her under house arrest for 15 years.

Suu Kyi, who as Myanmar’s state counselor w holds an office similar to prime minister, was awarded 1991 bel Peace Prize for championing democracy and human rights under Myanmar’s n-ruling junta.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has long considered Rohingya to be “Bengalis” from Banglesh even though ir families have lived in country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering m stateless. y are also denied freedom of movement and or basic rights.

In August 2017, Myanmar’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in rrn Rakhine State in response to an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. campaign forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Banglesh and led to accusations that security forces committed mass rapes, killings and burned thousands of homes.

Suu Kyi told world court judges in December that exodus was a tragic consequence of military’s response to “coordinated and comprehensive armed attacks” by Rohingya insurgents.

She urged judges to drop gecide case and allow Myanmar’s military justice system to deal with any abuses.

Thursday’s ruling comes two days after an independent commission established by Myanmar’s government concluded re are reasons to believe security forces committed war crimes in counterinsurgency operations against Rohingya, but that re is evidence supporting charges that gecide was planned or carried out.

report drew criticism from rights activists. Pending release of full report, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said panel’s findings were “what would have been expected from a n-transparent investigation by a politically skewed set of commissioners working closely with Myanmar government.”

At December’s public hearings, Paul Reichler, a lawyer for Gambia, cited a U.N. fact-finding mission report at hearings last month that said military “clearance operations” in Myanmar’s rrn Rakhine state spared body. “Mors, infants, pregnant women, old and infirm. y all fell victim to this ruthless campaign,” he said.

Gambia’s Justice Minister Aboubacarr Tambou urged world court to act immediately and “tell Myanmar to stop se senseless killings, to stop se acts of barbarity that continue to shock our collective conscience, to stop this gecide of its own people.”

world court’s orders are legally binding but it relies on United Nations to d political pressure, if necessary, to enforce m.

court is expected to take years to issue a final ruling in case.

(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)