The Gambia sues Myanmar for genocide on behalf of Muslim nations

Paris: An arsenal of international laws has failed to confront the impunity of Myanmar's government and security forces for their deadly purge of the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee a campaign of rape, arson and killing.

But on Monday, New York time, The Gambia filed a lawsuit accusing Myanmar of genocide, summoning the case before the United Nations' highest court in an effort to open a legal path against the country's authorities.

Representatives of the Rohingya community and The Gambia's Justice Minister Aboubacarr Tambadou, left, listen to testimony during a press conference in The Hague.Credit: AP

In the suit, filed at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Gambia requested that the court condemn Myanmar for violating the Genocide Convention with its campaign of ethnic violence.

The Gambia, a small West African country with a largely Muslim population, was chosen to file the suit on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which is also paying for the team of top international law experts handling the case. The 50-year-old organisation is headquartered in Saudi Arabia.

The filing amounts to a last-ditch effort to impose an international ruling against Myanmar. Despite a wide outcry over cruelty to the Rohingya, no other court has jurisdiction to pursue a genocide case against the country.

The Gambia's delegation with Justice Minister Aboubacarr Tambadou, centre, leaves the Peace Palace which houses the International Court in The Hague, Netherlands.Credit: AP

The Gambia also requested that the International Court of Justice issue an urgent temporary injunction ordering Myanmar to halt all actions that could aggravate or expand the existing situation. That could mean a demand to stop further extrajudicial killings, rape, hate speech, or levelling of the homes where Rohingya once lived in Rakhine state.

"It is clear that Myanmar has no intention of ending these genocidal acts and continues to pursue the destruction of the group within its territory," the lawsuit said, adding that the government "is deliberately destroying evidence of its wrongdoings to cover up the crimes.''

The court's 15 judges rarely deal with genocide. Based in the stately Peace Palace in The Hague, the Court of Justice was set up by the United Nations to rule on disputes between nations. It acts more like a court of appeal, focusing on questions of international law, such as disputes over borders or disagreements over international conventions.

But that can also include disputes arising from the Convention for the Punishment and Prevention of Genocide, established in an earlier case when Bosnia sued Serbia for genocide. The convention covers "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.''

Some of the Rohingya Muslim women who said they were raped by members of Myanmar's armed forces. Credit: AP

In its suit, The Gambia claims that applies to Myanmar. The novelty in this case, though, is that The Gambia is not at war with Myanmar, as Bosnia and Serbia were. But the Genocide Convention treaty does establish a mandate for member nations to act against genocide, wherever they are.

Experts say that if the court accepts the case, whatever the outcome, it will draw renewed attention to the immense suffering of the Rohingya people, most of whom fled to Bangladesh and now live in refugee camps there.

It is not clear how Myanmar, which has always denied accusations of ethnic violence and genocide and argues that it was defending itself against an insurgency, will respond to the case.

"Myanmar will ignore this at its peril,'' said John Packer, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa who has long studied the Rohingya's plight. If the court hears the case, he said, "there will be a sort of public truth-finding exercise. Myanmar's simple denials will not stand up to scrutiny.''

Rohingya children play in a downpour at the world's largest refugee camp at Cox's Bazar last year.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Paul Reichler, the lead lawyer on The Gambia's team, said he hoped that the court would issue an injunction against Myanmar as soon as possible.

"We are confident that genocide has been committed in this case, and we are very confident in the fairness of the court.''

Men carry goods through Kutupalong Camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh, home to some 900,000 Rohingya refugees.Credit: Kate Geraghty

A different body, the International Criminal Court, was specifically created to prosecute genocide and other atrocities. But that court has no jurisdiction over cases in Myanmar because the country has not signed on to the court's treaty. (Neither have the United States, China, India, Israel and several other countries.)

But the ICC did set itself up to at least partly take up the case against Myanmar last year, when it ruled that it could prosecute for "deportation" and associated crimes against Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh, which is a court member. But judges have not yet approved a criminal investigation by the court's prosecutor.

The New York Times