{"id":149571,"date":"2019-12-16T12:01:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T12:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=149571"},"modified":"2019-12-26T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T10:48:00","slug":"aung-san-suu-kyi-defends-myanmar-from-accusations-of-genocide-at-top-un-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/12\/aung-san-suu-kyi-defends-myanmar-from-accusations-of-genocide-at-top-un-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Aung San Suu Kyi Defends Myanmar from Accusations of Genocide, at Top UN Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

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11 Dec 2019 – Myanmar will have \u201cno tolerance\u201d for human rights abuses committed in Rakhine state and will prosecute the military, if war crimes have been committed there, Aung San Suu Kyi told the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN\u2019s main judicial body, today.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms. Suu Kyi was testifying in defence of her country, which is facing charges of genocide committed against the mainly-Muslim Rohingya minority group, brought by The Gambia, on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.<\/p>\n

The de facto leader of Myanmar, who was placed under house arrest by the country\u2019s then military rulers off and on over more than 20 years, is not on trial at the ICJ<\/a>, which settles disputes between countries. The International Criminal Court<\/a> (ICC) has the responsibility of trying individuals, and in November, the ICC authorized its own investigation into alleged crimes against humanity, namely deportation, committed against the Rohingya.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf war crimes have been committed, they will be prosecuted within our military justice system\u201d, the Nobel peace laureate Ms. Suu Kyi said in court, during the second day of preliminary proceedings at the ICJ.<\/p>\n

In her opening statement in front of judges in The Hague, Ms. Suu Kyi outlined decades of tensions between Rakhine\u2019s mainly Rohingya Muslim community and their Buddhist neighbours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf war crimes have been committed, they will be prosecuted within our military justice system.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\n— Myanmar State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These boiled over on 25 August 2017, when the country\u2019s military \u2013 often referred to as the Tatmadaw – carried out a sweeping crackdown against Rohingya communities, in response to deadly attacks on police and security posts by separatists known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation\u00a0Army.<\/p>\n

The result was the exodus of more than 700,000 people to neighbouring Bangladesh, many of whom told UN-appointed independent investigators that they had witnessed targeted violence of extreme brutality.<\/p>\n

Numerous alleged human rights abuses took place, with the then UN human rights chief describing it as bearing all the hallmarks of a \u201ctextbook example of ethnic cleansing\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 11 December 2019.
ICJ\/Frank van Beek<\/p><\/div>\n

Genocidal intent \u2018cannot be only possibility\u2019: Suu Kyi<\/strong><\/p>\n

It could not be ruled out that the Tatmadaw had used disproportionate force, Ms. Suu Kyi told the Netherlands-based court, while also suggesting that \u201csurely, under the circumstances, genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis\u201d \u2013 the same phraseology used around a 2019 UN report<\/a> by independent experts on the circumstances leading up to the Rakhine mass exodus.<\/p>\n

According to the report by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, the country\u2019s military were responsible for the \u201cwidespread and systematic killing of women and girls, the systematic selection of women and girls of reproductive ages for rape, attacks on pregnant women and on babies, the mutilation and other injuries to their reproductive organs, the physical branding of their bodies by bite marks on their cheeks, neck, breast and thigh, and so severely injuring victims that they may be unable to have sexual intercourse with their husbands or to conceive and leaving them concerned that they would no longer be able to have children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting that Myanmar\u2019s own military justice system \u201cmust\u201d be responsible for investigating and prosecuting allegations of possible war crimes by soldiers or officers in Rakhine, Ms. Suu Kyi regretted that the case brought against her country by The Gambia was \u201can incomplete and misleading factual picture in Rakhine state and Myanmar\u201d.<\/p>\n

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MULTIMEDIA: photos and videos of today's public hearings in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (#TheGambia<\/a> v. #Myanmar<\/a>) before the #ICJ<\/a> are available here https:\/\/t.co\/VCPBkFJ7ht<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/jBgCxZfTDX<\/a><\/p>\n

— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) December 10, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n