Aung San Suu Kyi said the case painted a "misleading and incomplete picture" of the situation in Rakhine state. AFP
By Danny Kemp and Jan Hennop | AFP
ON THE WEB, 11 December 2019
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi rejected allegations of genocide against Myanmar in the UN’s top court Wednesday, despite admitting the army may have used excessive force against Rohingya Muslims.
Suu Kyi denied “misleading and incomplete” claims by The Gambia that a 2017 military operation had attempted to exterminate the Rohingya, in a rare address by a state leader to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Once hailed worldwide as a rights icon for her defiance of the same generals she is now defending, Suu Kyi also warned the Hague-based court that its involvement in the case risked “feeding the flames of extreme polarisation”.
Nearly three-quarters of a million Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after the Myanmar military launched a huge offensive that it said was in response to attacks by local militants.
“Regrettably, The Gambia has placed before the court a misleading and incomplete factual picture of the situation in Rakhine state,” said Suu Kyi, wearing traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair.
Brushing off international criticism, the 74-year-old civilian leader said Buddhist-majority Myanmar was dealing with an “internal armed conflict” and that troubles in the area go back centuries.
“Please bear in mind this complex situation and the challenge to sovereignty and security in our country,” she said.
“Surely under the circumstances genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis.”
Lawyers for Myanmar argued that to prove genocide, international law required concrete proof of the intention to destroy a race of people.
ICJ judges have only once before ruled that genocide was committed, in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
Bluntly lying
UN investigators last year concluded that Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya amounted to genocide.
The Gambia, a small west African state that is mainly Muslim, claims Myanmar breached the 1948 genocide convention and wants the court to take emergency measures to stop further violence.
It has the backing of the 57-nation Organisation for Islamic Cooperation plus Canada and the Netherlands.
The case is being closely watched by the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya still in Bangladesh.
“Suu Kyi was our hope. But since she came out of imprisonment, she shattered it. How does she deny Myanmar army’s atrocities?” Mohammad Yunus, Rohingya imam at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp, told AFP after hearing Suu Kyi speak.
Robi Ullah, another Rohingya, said: “She is bluntly lying in front of the highest court. Such a shame!”
In The Hague, former war crimes prosecutor Stephen Rapp told a panel discussion organised by pro-Rohingya activists “we see echoes of the Holocaust and Rwanda” in Myanmar’s persecution of the minority group.
“This was a genocide… and I am profoundly disappointed that Aung San Suu Kyi presented these arguments,” said Rapp, who was also a former US ambassador-at-large for global justice under the administration of former US president Barack Obama.
But Suu Kyi’s decision to personally lead her country’s case at the court has proved popular at home, where the Rohingya are widely regarded as illegal immigrants.
Around 250 pro-Myanmar protesters gathered in front of the ICJ on Wednesday, carrying placards with Aung San Suu Kyi’s face reading “We stand with you”.
“These allegations against Myanmar and Suu Kyi are rubbish,” said Chomar Oosterhof, 53, a Burmese woman living in the Netherlands.
Flag-waving supporters joined rallies in support of Suu Kyi in several Myanmar cities on Tuesday. Huge billboards of Suu Kyi and three smiling generals have also appeared around the country.
No tolerance for abuses
A day after sitting through hours of graphic accounts of violence read out by The Gambia’s lawyers, Suu Kyi admitted there may have been civilian casualties including some killed when a helicopter opened fire.
But she argued these were an inevitable part of the conflict.
“It cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the defence services… or that they did not distinguish clearly enough between fighters and civilians,” she said.
Myanmar was leading its own investigation and “if war crimes have been committed”, then its justice system would deal with them, she added.
“There will be no tolerance of human rights violations in Myanmar,” she added.
Aung San Suu Kyi was once mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, having won the Nobel Prize in 1991 for her resistance to Myanmar’s junta, which ran the country for nearly half a century.
The military’s rule was characterised by brutal civil conflicts, biting poverty and isolation.
After 15 years under house arrest, Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 and led her party to victory in elections in 2015.
But her defence of the same military that once kept her locked up has since caused international condemnation.
Myanmar meanwhile faces a number of legal challenges over the fate of the Rohingya, including a probe by the International Criminal Court — a separate war crimes tribunal in The Hague — and a lawsuit in Argentina personally mentioning Suu Kyi.
When I see the face of Aung San Suu Kyi, I feel a sense of sadness. She has had a very difficult life. She was treated atrociously by the generals and then the West put her on a pedestal just to irritate her tormentors.
When the Rohingyas were expelled after they launched an insurgency against the Burmese police, killing some, the West went on the offensive and even stripped her of some of the awards that were given to her. She was seen to be acquiescing to the onslaught of the military and the West branded the atrocities against the Rohingyas as genocide.
It is absolutely true that the Rohingyas have suffered immensely and they deserve to be treated as citizens of Burma and not mistreated as they have been since 2017. As always, the real culprit in this tragedy is the British who conquered Burma in 1824 who invited them. It seems a small Muslim population lived in Arakan State when it was conquered by the Burmese Empire in 1784. Whatever the historical claims, it would be in the interest of the Rohingyas and the Burmese Government that they be repatriated and given Burmese citizenship and allowed to live as they wish.
However, I don’t subscribe to the allegations of genocide being committed by Burma. The hypocrisy of the IOC is breathtaking when it has not uttered a single world about the Uyghur Muslims persecuted by Communist China. If there is a case for genocide in modern times, it’s in occupied Tibet by the CCP. The trouble with the ICJ and ICC is they cherry-pick weak defenceless countries and try them, but they DON’T DARE to take on the real abusers like China. This totally compromises the work of the these courts and they are seen as nothing more than tools for western powers to boost their vanity.
I have relinquished my pen name “Tibet Bhu” to prevent mistaken identity.
True, there is a group of Muslims whose ancestors settled in Burma some centuries ago. This group has integrated well with the rest of the country.
The second and third wave of arrivals who call themselves Rohingyas are the ones being persecuted. No one seems to want them.
Perhaps the OIC feels that Gambia is the ONLY morally-fit nation from that long list to initiate this lawsuit against Myanmar.
The Rohingyas have been treated terribly, but an accusation of full-scale genocide???
And why is Saudi Arabia deporting (after treating them like dirt) Rohingya refugees? This very rich kingdom is known for a certain kind of generosity — flushing lots and lots of money to sustain all kinds of terror-related groups to either secure the safety of their kingdom or destabilize others.
Nelson Mandela said, “Leader takes the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” Aung San Suu Kyi is best leader today and she will continue to defend her country as long as it takes. Many people admire her courage, strength and her patriotism.
Gambia probably received cash incentives from the OIC led by the Saudis to file this lawsuit.
Myanmar has accused this very body the OIC of supporting the ARSA terrorist attacks in Rakhine state. That has been the OIC political agenda all these years.
The displaced people are ethnically people from present day Bangladesh. Burma was part of British India during their Raj and millions of Bengalis from East Bengal were moved to present Myanmar for cheap labour.
What a superficial exercise. We all know what the cancer is here. The West was Aung San Suu Kyi’s friend and admirer as long as she did what they wanted. The minute she stood up for what is best for her country and people the West became her enemy. They would care less if Myanmar divided or became a failed state as long as she toed their line. She did not sacrifice her whole life and family for that. She will persist.
China has a concentration camp for the Uyghurs, but the world and the UN will do nothing because China is powerful and rich. If they consider the Rohingya issue as genocide then the Chinese continued brutalities on Tibetans and Uyghurs — what would that be classified as? And what about what happened to the Chakmas and Buddhists of Bangladesh? The Kashmiri pandit genocide in the 90s by the Muslim majority, killed and driven out from their homeland and made refugees in their own country?
The brainwashed Western and leftist media is ignorant and will destroy nations in this manner.
57 Muslim countries plus 2 against an emerging Budddhist majority Myanmar nation seems overkill in terms of influence wielding, but hopefully Aung San Suu Kyi can use the global attention to break free of the generals who control the military, police, etc.
As I mentioned before: over-population and over-pollution are leading the horrors of the extinction of species and human inhabitants.
In this situation the people of the Book believe in making as many babies as possible and forcibly expanding to conquer infidels like Buddhists and Hindus.
I regard Communism as an offshoot of Monotheism.