Myanmar's lawyer William Schabas today
claimed that the Gambia has failed to explain genocidal intent in the crimes
that took place in Rakhine state in 2017.
There is no chance for the applicant to
succeed in the case, he claimed while placing his argument at the UN top court
in The Haque, a day after the Gambia brought the allegation of genocide in
Rohingya villages in Rakhine of Myanmar.
Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi genocide denials
are 'deliberate, deceitful and dangerous' Read: https://lnkd.in/gJ_9j5J
Meanwhile, legal experts said the arguments
presented by the Gambia’s lawyers at the top UN court yesterday were extremely
strong and should convince the judges to issue “provisional measures” against
Myanmar to stop genocide against the Rohingyas.
Speaking in Myanmar's defense on the second
day of 3 days’ hearing at the UN's highest court today, Myanmar leader Aung San
Suu Kyi ruled out the allegation of ongoing genocide or genocidal intent at
Rohingya villages in Rakhine of Myanmar.
“How can there be an ongoing genocide or
genocidal intent as concrete steps are being taken in Rakhine? Rakhine today
suffers an internal arm conflict between the Buddhist Arakan army and Myanmar
defence forces. Muslims are not part of this conflict,” she told the court.
Rejecting the accusations of genocide
committed against Muslim Rohingya minority, she termed the Gambia’s claim as
"incomplete and misleading".
Myanmar has previously denied almost all
allegations made by refugees against its troops, including of mass rape,
killings and arson, and promised to punish any soldiers involved in what it
says were isolated cases of wrongdoing.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission in its 2018
report detailed the atrocities committed by the Myanmar Army during its
clearance operations against the Rohingyas.
****
Since 1982, Rohingyas were denied citizenship,
basic rights, including education, health, marriage, birth and freedom of
movements -- elements that carry intents of genocide.
UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of
Genocide, Adama Dieng, based on his own fact-finding activities, including
interviews with survivors who had fled to Bangladesh, stated: “Rohingya Muslims
have been killed, tortured, raped, burnt alive and humiliated, solely because
of who they are. All the information I
have received indicates that the intent of the perpetrators was to cleanse
northern Rakhine state of their existence, possibly even to destroy the
Rohingya as such, which, if proven, would constitute the crime of genocide.
What did the Gambia say in yesterday’s
hearing?
The Gambia yesterday unfolded the evident
genocide against Rohingyas on the first of three days of hearings at the
International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Rohingya people were killed, their children
were thrown into fire, women were raped, houses were burnt down, the Gambian
legal team told the judges adding that it was ethnic cleansing that stemmed
from unjustifiable intolerance.
*
Massacres of Tula Toli and Chut Pyin villages
The legal team representing The Gambia
presented the massacres of the villages of Tula Toli and Chut Pyin as an
example.
“The first round of shooting was like a rain
of bullets. The second round was slow as the soldiers killed the men
individually. They aimed a gun at each man and shot,” Lowenstein stated,
reading out descriptions of the Tula Toli massacre from the UN fact-finding
mission’s report.
“Soldiers then turned to the women and
children who, after being separated from the men, were forced to sit in a
lowered area on the shore. Some of the children were shot, some thrown into the
river, and others thrown onto a fire.”
*
How the women were gang-raped
He then continued to describe how the women
were gang-raped, locked inside their houses and the houses then set on fire.
The lawyer also presented satellite images
captured during the time when these villages were burning to prove how only
Rohingya homes were being set on fire, while Buddhist Rakhine homes were being
spared.
Myanmar’s genocidal intent is evident
“The fact that Myanmar has genocidal intent
is shown by its toleration for hate rhetoric and public hatred of the
Rohingya,” he said.
“The fact-finding mission also concluded that
Myanmar’s genocidal intent is evident in its lack of remorse. The Tatmadaw’s
actions are glorified.”
Another lawyer, Tafadzwa Pasipanodya,
presented how the Rohingyas placed in internment camps, long before the
violence of 2017.
Again citing the UN report, the lawyer
described how after the 2012 violence in the Rakhine State, the population was
cordoned off into military-controlled camps surrounded by barbed wires, and
they were not allowed freedom of movement.
*
Evidence is overwhelming
“We believe that the evidence is not just
sufficient, but it is overwhelming. The court has never had such comprehensive
or such compelling evidence of the commission of genocidal acts as it has
before it now,” commented Paul Reichler, the head of the legal team.
“The
genocide in Rwanda was a failure of humanity that can easily happen again. Mr
President, tragically, it has happened again, in Myanmar. The time to prevent
further genocide is now, because nothing less will protect the Rohingya from
further destruction as a group,” he concluded.
The UN fact-finding mission has already
described the brutal crackdown of Myanmar army as genocide.
*
Another genocide unfolding
Gambia’s Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou,
in his opening comments said, “Another genocide is unfolding right before our
eyes yet we do nothing to stop it.”
“This is a stain on our collective
conscience. It’s not only the state of Myanmar that is on trial here, it’s our
collective humanity that is being put on trial.”
“All that The Gambia asks is that you tell
Myanmar to stop these senseless killings,” he told the UN top court.
“I stand before you to awaken the conscience
of the world and arouse the voice of the international community,” said
Tambadou, a former prosecutor at the tribunal into Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
“In the words of Edmund Burke, ‘The only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.”
Tambadou went on, “Every day of inaction
means more people are being killed, more women are being raped and more
children are being burned alive. For what crime? Only that they were born
different.”
Source: The Daily Star