{"id":153917,"date":"2020-02-17T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=153917"},"modified":"2020-02-24T10:58:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T10:58:16","slug":"what-does-the-myanmar-provisional-measures-order-by-the-international-court-of-justice-mean-for-asean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/02\/what-does-the-myanmar-provisional-measures-order-by-the-international-court-of-justice-mean-for-asean\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Myanmar Provisional Measures Order by the International Court of Justice Mean for ASEAN?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is long overdue for ASEAN to sync its policies towards Myanmar with international opinion, legal and human rights, and the global public.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

12 Feb 2020 – <\/em>On January 23, 2020, the International Court of Justice, the UN\u2019s highest judicial authority which handles legal disputes among the member states, announced its decision to proceed with The Gambia vs Myanmar and issued the provisional measures aimed at preventing (further) genocidal acts against Myanmar\u2019s Rohingya people and at protecting the evidence of the past atrocities which Myanmar troops committed against the ethnic minority community in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n

This is the 3rd application of the international treaty known as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide or Genocide Convention since the Convention was first adopted in 1948, following the Nazi Genocide.<\/p>\n

Damningly, this twofold decision was unanimous among the 17-judges.\u00a0It was also extraordinary in that the German judge, handpicked by Myanmar as its ad hoc judge, and the Chinese judge whose position was unsure \u2013 Beijing\u2019s approach is to treat the Rohingya crisis as merely a bilateral humanitarian issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar \u00ad\u2013 cast their votes with the rest of the judges.<\/p>\n

Malaysia: ASEAN\u2019s Principled Voice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the two bouts of organised violence in Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine in 2012, ASEAN on its part has adopted a similarly humanitarian perspective to what has increasingly come to be viewed legally as international crimes against Rohingyas by Myanmar. In this, Malaysia has emerged as a principled and compassionate voice for the persecuted minority, notwithstanding certain policy shortcomings, (for instance, denial of educational access), as the single largest ASEAN host of Rohingyas \u2013 over 100,000.<\/p>\n

The international human rights community \u2013 and the Rohingyas themselves \u2013 view ASEAN\u2019s exclusively \u201chumanitarian\u201d approach to the crimes of Myanmar as nothing short of a whitewash for the well-documented and solemn crimes in international law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Rakhine.<\/p>\n

The ICJ\u2019s decision last month to proceed with the case despite Myanmar Agent Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s official request to dismiss it was based significantly on the weight of the evidence which prima farci led the judges to conclude unanimously <\/em>that there is a real plausibility<\/em> that the court will in due course find that Myanmar commissioned the crime of genocide or certain acts of genocide when the merits of the case are examined.<\/p>\n

Non-Interference Stands in Tatters<\/strong><\/p>\n

The above-mentioned genocide plausibility established by the world\u2019s highest court and the court\u2019s order to institute the periodic reporting regime solely targeted at Myanmar while the case proceeds, and the issue of Myanmar\u2019s compliance are issues which frontally challenge ASEAN\u2019s policy orthodoxy of \u201cNon-interference\u201d.\u00a0 It calls into question the business-as-usual approach by the group as a bloc as well as respective policies of the individual member states.<\/p>\n

Worse still, ASEAN states such as Singapore have taken advantage of this founding principle by investing most heavily in Myanmar \u2013 the city-state is now the largest foreign investor in Myanmar \u2013 while in effect serving as Myanmar\u2019s public relations platform for genocide denials by its senior most leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi. As a matter of fact, Singapore\u2019s role in propping up and defending the criminal Burmese leadership predated the genocidal purge of 2016 and 2017. Myanmar\u2019s former chief of military intelligence and Prime Minister ex-general Khin Nyunt thanked the late Lee Kwan Yew for the strategic advice the latter offered on how to improve the Myanmar regime\u2019s negative image, in the 40-minutes Al Jazeera English documentary Exiled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u201cThey are forced to lead sub-human lives, with no freedom of movement, no prospect for third country resettlement, no Internet, no electricity, no proper schooling or livelihood opportunities.\u201d Daily life of Rohingya refugees at Balukhali Camp in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh on February 02, 2019.
Photo: Sk Hasan Ali \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Deplorable Living Conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rohingya survivors in deplorable subhuman conditions in the camps in Bangladesh \u2013 estimated at 1 million including both the new arrivals from the 2016 and 2017 waves, and the generation left from the earlier waves between 1992 and 1995 \u2013 continue their attempts to reach third countries, particularly Malaysia.\u00a0As recently as this week, a Malaysia-bound boat carrying 125 Rohingya refugees including women and children capsized in the Bay of Bengal killing at least 16<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Myanmar\u2019s persecution of Rohingya people is not a product of the country\u2019s democratic transition nor is it a \u201ccommunal violence or conflict\u201d between the Buddhists in Rakhine and primarily Muslim Rohingya community.\u00a0These early spins to help cover up the systematic and intentional destruction of the Rohingyas have been proven to be untrue by the turn of events over the last 8 years.<\/p>\n

Myanmar\u2019s disenfranchisement, denial of their right to a nationality, displacement and large-scale deportation of the Rohingya minority are now a well-documented institutionalised policy of ethnic group persecution.\u00a0The policy has resulted in a devastating impact on the Rohingya community, which the ICJ explicitly stated in its 28-page decision last month as a protected group under the Genocide Convention.<\/p>\n

Danger Remains<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its final report to the United Nations in 2019, the UN-mandated International Independent Fact-Finding Mission officially warned against the possibility of recurring genocide against the group.\u00a0There are an estimated half-million Rohingyas trapped inside Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine state where 100,000 have remained locked up in the so-called Internally Displaced Persons camps since 2012, ostensibly for their own protection. It bears pointing out that the Nazis rounded up their Jewish victims and put them in camps and ghettos under the banner of \u201cprotective custody\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rest of the Rohingyas \u2013 about 400,000 to 500,000 \u2013 are languishing in the apartheid conditions in what Rohingya residents themselves describe as \u201cvast open prisons\u201d, not unlike the conditions of the Palestinians trapped in Gaza and West Bank.<\/p>\n

As ordered by the ICJ, Myanmar will be submitting the initial report in the last week of May \u2013 4 months from the date of the ICJ order on 23 January.\u00a0It is widely expected that Myanmar will not <\/em>comply with the court\u2019s order in good faith<\/em>: it will manipulate the absence of specificities in the ICJ order in terms of protecting Rohingyas and preventing genocidal acts, for instance, incitement to further attacks.<\/p>\n

Concurrently, the International Criminal Court has officially embarked on the full investigation of Myanmar\u2019s crimes against Rohingyas.\u00a0And the Myanmar government of Aung San Suu Kyi has remained defiant against the ICC\u2019s calls for cooperation over the criminal court\u2019s official investigation.<\/p>\n

States Must Step-Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

In light of these ground-breaking developments within the international accountability mechanisms at both the ICJ and ICC, concerned states within the ASEAN region \u2013 particularly Malaysia need to provide the much-needed push for the bloc to discuss the implications of the ICJ ruling. Even Myanmar leadership evidently knows that the blanket denial of the international crimes has zero credibility when it made a rare admission of its crimes a week before the ICJ ruling. Suu Kyi Government\u2019s official Independent Commission of Enquiry revealed its new legal and media narrative:\u00a0yes, war crimes may have been committed by Myanmar against Rohingyas but no evidence of genocide was found.<\/p>\n

The January 23 ICJ order was anchored in the court\u2019s unanimous opinion about the genocide plausibility in Myanmar.\u00a0It is, in effect. a blow to ASEAN\u2019s sacrosanct principle of \u201cnon-interference\u201d and the disingenuous framing of the persecution and destruction of Rohingya.<\/p>\n

In addition, ASEAN ought to be concerned about a parallel development within the global accountability space.\u00a0The International Criminal Court has embarked on its full investigation of crimes against humanity and other associated crimes plausibly committed by Myanmar. Although Myanmar is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which midwifed the ICC and has repeatedly dismissed any claim of ICC\u2019s juridical authority over its conduct, the ICC has established the extended jurisdiction over Myanmar\u2019s violent treatment of Rohingyas, 730,000 that were deported in 2017 alone onto the soil of a state that is a party to the Rome Statute.<\/p>\n

Malaysia has also felt the direct impact of Myanmar\u2019s crimes as it is forced to host over 100,000 Rohingya refugees with no prospect for third country resettlement or repatriation back to their homeland of Western Myanmar.<\/p>\n

Act Now ASEAN!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is long overdue for ASEAN to sync its policies towards Myanmar with the international opinion, legal, human rights and global public.<\/p>\n

ASEAN needs to prove that it is a part of the solution, rather than being a Bystander in yet another genocide in its backyard after Khmer Rouge genocide four decades ago.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>A Buddhist humanist from Burma, Maung Zarni is <\/em>a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, <\/em>former Visiting Lecturer with Harvard Medical School, specializing in racism and violence in Burma and Sri Lanka, and Non-resident Scholar in Genocide Studies with Documentation Center \u2013 Cambodia.\u00a0<\/em>Zarni is coordinator for Strategic Affairs for Free Rohingya Coalition and an adviser to the European Centre for the Study of Extremism, Cambridge, UK.<\/em><\/strong> His analyses have appeared in leading newspapers including the <\/em>New York Times, The Guardian and<\/em> the Times. Among his academic publications on Rohingya genocide are <\/em>The Slow-Burning Genocide of Myanmar\u2019s Rohingyas (Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal), <\/em>An Evolution of Rohingya Persecution in Myanmar: From Strategic Embrace to Genocide, (Middle East Institute, American University), and <\/em>Myanmar\u2019s State-directed Persecution of Rohingyas and Other Muslims (Brown World Affairs Journal). He co-authored, with Natalie Brinham, <\/em>Essays on Myanmar Genocide. Zarni holds a PhD (U Wisconsin at Madison) and a MA (U California), and has held various teaching, research and visiting fellowships at the universities in Asia, Europe and USA including Oxford, LSE, UCL Institute of Education) , National-Louis, Malaya, and Brunei. He is the recipient of the “Cultivation of Harmony” award from the Parliament of the World’s Religions (2015).<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 forsea.co<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Feb 2020 – It is long overdue for ASEAN to sync its policies towards Myanmar with international opinion, legal and human rights, and the global public. It needs to prove that it is a part of the solution, rather than being a Bystander in yet another genocide in its backyard after Khmer Rouge genocide four decades ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,677],"tags":[240,1692,1688,1198,526,101,100,1199,1782,865,260,487,1644,651,1417,103,107,527,985,99,124],"class_list":["post-153917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","category-asia-updates-on-myanmar-rohingya-genocide","tag-asia","tag-aung-san-suu-kyi","tag-bangladesh","tag-buddhism","tag-burma-myanmar","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-free-rohingya-coalition","tag-genocide","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-international-court-of-justice-icj","tag-justice","tag-maung-zarni","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-rohingya","tag-social-justice","tag-structural-violence","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}