Rohingya genocide case at world court awaits judgment
After three weeks of hearings, the genocide case brought against Burma over the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya people has been submitted for judgment at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The proceedings mark a significant moment in international justice: this is the first time a state not directly affected by the alleged crimes has taken another state to court over accusations of genocide. A ruling is not expected for at least six months.
The case was filed in 2019 by the small west African state of the Gambia, acting on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The Gambian state argues that Burma has breached its obligations under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention to prevent and punish acts of genocide committed against the Rohingya in Rakhine state, where this people is largely concentrated. The application accuses the Burmese authorities of carrying out mass killings, rape and the destruction of entire Rohingya communities since October 2016.
In 2017, the Burmese military killed thousands of Rohingya and forced around three-quarters of a million people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Those who remained in Burma were left facing persecution and dispossession. According to the Gambia’s submission, these events point to genocidal intent, as they indicate a desire to destroy the Rohingya as a people, in whole or in part. One of the Gambia’s lawyers, Paul Reichler, told the ICJ judges that the Burmese government had gone so far as to describe the Rohingya as an “impure and subhuman race”.
The judges also heard direct testimony, in closed session, from Rohingya survivors from several villages in Rakhine, who described the atrocities committed against their community. These abuses have been extensively documented by the United Nations, leading human rights organisations and a wide body of journalistic and academic research.
The ICJ rules on the responsibility of states, and its judgments are legally binding within the UN system, of which it is one of the six principal organs. The court, however, does not try individuals and has no independent means of enforcing its rulings, lacking coercive enforcement mechanisms of its own.
A conflict over territory
Successive Burmese governments have long regarded the presence of the Rohingya in Rakhine (also known as Arakan) as illegitimate, arguing that the state’s traditional indigenous population is the Rakhine, who are predominantly Buddhist. The Rohingya, who are Muslim, are descendants of migrants who arrived from what is now Bangladesh from the 19th century onwards, during the period of British colonial rule. The Rohingya, for their part, maintain that Rakhine has been their ancestral homeland for some two centuries and that they have no other now.
Beyond this identity-based narrative, which carries considerable weight in Burmese politics, there are other factors that help explain why successive governments—both military and civilian—have systematically marginalised the Rohingya. One is the fear of political fragmentation in a country made up of more than a hundred linguistic and cultural groups, at least a dozen of which see themselves as distinct nations and maintain armed organisations seeking far-reaching autonomy or even independence. Another is Rakhine’s strategic importance, including Burma’s maritime access to the Bay of Bengal and the energy corridor linking the port of Kyaukphyu to Kunming, in south-western China.
The Rohingya issue has also been repeatedly instrumentalised by successive governments to divert attention from other domestic crises and to foster cohesion among Buddhist Burmese by rallying them against an enemy portrayed as external. Finally, the exclusion of the Rohingya has enabled the authorities to dispossess them of land they have occupied for generations: having denied them citizenship—particularly under the 1982 citizenship law—, the state can declare their land abandoned or state-owned and redistribute it at will.
Burma has experienced intermittent armed conflict since 1948, when it gained independence from the UK. In the current phase, which began with the military coup of 2021, dozens of armed groups are contesting control of the country with the junta led by Min Aung Hlaing. Rakhine is one of the main theatres of this conflict. Much of the territory is controlled by the Arakan Army, a rebel group made up primarily of ethnic Rakhine, which several Rohingya organisations have accused of carrying out massacres against their community. In this context, Rohingya civilians are trapped between the junta’s armed forces and the Arakan Army and, in many cases, are at the mercy of both sides. While a Rohingya armed group has emerged in response to years of persecution, its military capacity remains very limited compared with those of the two dominant actors.
https://www.nationalia.info/new/11740/rohingya-genocide-case-at-world-court-awaits-judgment
