Lawyers look to Rohingya case in court bid to stop Gaza war

N MENA
Tim Stickings
Jan 10, 2024

South Africa's lawsuit against Israel in The Hague draws on 2020 verdict against Myanmar 

Palestinians search the rubble of destroyed buildings after an Israeli attack on Rafah. AFP

 

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

Lawyers seeking to halt Israel’s offensive in Gaza hope tactics that swayed judges on Myanmar's alleged genocide of Rohingya Muslims will prevail again as the Middle East conflict enters court in The Hague.

UN resolution offers a glimmer of hope for Rohingya?

Pakistan Today

OPINION
By Dr Arpita
November 24, 2022

Since the overwhelming exodus of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh in 2017, the Rohingya problem has gained attention. To continue housing more than 1.1 million refugees in Bangladesh, however, is proving to be an incredibly challenging endeavor given the recent emergence of other national and international challenges.

A ray of light is provided, nonetheless, by the recent Rohingya resolution passed by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee. The resolution was jointly introduced on November 18 by members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the European Union (EU), who all agreed that it was urgent to confront Myanmar’s reprehensible treatment of the Rohingya people and other minorities.

Armed groups now a threat to Rohingya refugees

THE NEW STRAIT TIMES
October 28, 2021

Rohingya refugees gathering behind a barbed-wire fence in a temporary settlement setup in a "no man's land" border zone between Myanmar and Bangladesh. -AFP PIC

LETTERS: We condemn the heinous murder of six people in a madrasah in an attack at a Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, last Friday.

We abhor the sudden killing sprees in the camps as the authorities could have detected that there were signs of violent groups operating inside.

Geopolitics and the uncertain future of Rohingyas

prothomalo

Opinion
M Sakhawat Hossain
Published: 14 Jun 2021, 

Rohingya exodus from their homeland, making their way to Bangladesh Reuters

After the military coup in Myanmar, there had been talk of taking back the 1.1 million (11 lakh) or so Rohingyas who had been driven out of Rakhine (Arakan) and had taken shelter in Bangladesh. Such sentiment is no longer being heard. In fact, the military junta in Myanmar is speaking in quite the opposite tone. Their spokesperson recently said that the Rohingya issue is not on their priority list. This is because of pressure from the Rakhine nationalist leaders there.

Glaring glimpse into Myanmar military’s self-delusion

ASIA TIMES

By DAVID SCOTT MATHIESON
APRIL 29, 2021

Junta report presented to ASEAN on Myanmar's political situation revealed a tortured relationship with the bloody truth

Myanmar's commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and his wife Kyu Kyu Hla leaves after visiting a Muslim Free Hospital and Medical Relief Society in Yangon, September 17, 2019. Photo: Sai Aung Main/AFP

Myanmar’s junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing arrived at the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta with justifications for his February 1 coup compiled in a neat document entitled “The Current Political Situation in Myanmar.”

Written in a first-person account redolent of a court case defense summation, the 118-page paper outlines the alleged fraud and corruption at last November’s elections that motivated the coup and subsequent responses by the military, or Tatmadaw.

What message did we get from Kerry about Myanmar

M Sakhawat Hossain
Published: 13 Apr 2021,

Obama government's former secretary of state Kerry is now climate change affairs special envoy to US president Joe Biden. He is at state guest house Padma in Dhaka on 9 April.File photo

John Kerry came to Dhaka for a few hours. The Obama government's former secretary of state Kerry is now the climate change affairs special envoy to US president Joe Biden. He had earlier visited Dhaka as secretary of state. He is fully aware of Bangladesh's leadership, politics and diplomacy.

He came to Dhaka to invite prime minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the climate change summit. Joe Biden is returning to the climate deal through this summit of world leaders. Former president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal. John Kerry said an initiative has been taken to create a fund of USD 100 billion to assist the countries affected by the climate change and to reduce the pollution worldwide. He also mentioned that his trip will strengthen ties between two countries.

OPINION - Political calculations to settle Myanmar crisis

AA

Ramdhan Muhaimin
JAKARTA, Indonesia
06.04.2021

Myanmar’s military coup has put Association of Southeast Asian Nation at crossroads

The writer teaches at the Center for Peace and Defense Studies (PSPP), University of Al-Azhar Indonesia.

Since the military forcibly seized control and forced the exit of the National League for Democracy (NLD) from the government on Feb. 1, the socio-political conditions in Southeast Asian nation Myanmar have again moved towards uncertainty.

The coup, led by the head of Tatmadaw -- the national armed forces – Gen. Min Aung Hlaing shortly after Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD won the election, has become a nightmare for people in the country.

BURMA: STICK TO NON-VIOLENCE

KASHMIR TIMES

Gwynne Dyer. 

Dated: 4/2/2021

“Federalism is the ultimate political heresy in Burma. The army’s self-assigned task ever since independence has been maintaining the hegemony of the ethnic Bamar majority (about two-thirds of the country’s 54 million people) over the Karen, Shan, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Rakhine, Rohingya and Karenni minorities.”

The non-violent democratic resistance in Burma (or Myanmar, as the army renamed it in 1989) is living through terrible times, but statistics are on its side: most non-violent movements eventually win. But it’s hard to stay non-violent when you are up against a force as ruthless and brutal as the Tatmadaw.

Japan just talks the talk on Myanmar

ASIA TIME

By TEPPEI KASAI
MARCH 15, 2021

Tokyo's passive diplomacy will only embolden the Tatmadaw, which continues to commit grave abuses with impunity.

Myanmar people living in Japan and others protest near Shibuya Station in Tokyo on February 28, 2021. Protesters demanded the release of the nation's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and others. Photo: Taketo Oishi / The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP

Since the Myanmar military seized power on February 1, the Japanese government has expressed its “grave concerns” over the coup. It has called on the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, to “swiftly restore Myanmar’s democratic political system,” and demanded the release of National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all others arbitrarily detained.

Japan also expressed condolences for protesters killed by security forces, while “strongly” condemning the “violence against civilians.”

Such statements are important, but when compared with the concrete actions taken by other Group of Seven democracies, it’s clear that Japan is not yet using its full weight to pressure the Myanmar military. It has in effect taken a “wait and see” approach.

OPINION - Leading UN member-states fail to end Rohingya abuse

 AA

Maung Zarni
LONDON
20.01.2021

China-brokered tripartite meeting will bring no solution for either Bangladesh or Rohingya refugees

With an air of renewed optimism, Bangladesh side has widely reported on the Beijing-brokered meeting yesterday to resuscitate the repatriation process of 1 million Rohingya.

In sharp contrast, today's [Wednesday's] Global New Light of Myanmar, Naypyidaw's official mouthpiece, completely downplayed the significance of this resumed virtual meeting by sticking the news of the "Tripartite Informal Vice Ministerial Meeting" on page 6, under "National" news and allocating less a quarter of a page, at the bottom.

Editorial: Time for Aung San Suu Kyi to start acting like the Nobel winner she is

Los Angeles Times

Opinion 
The Times Editorial Board
Nov. 11, 2020

 

Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in 2017.

(Aung Shine Oo / Associated Press)

 

While much of the world has been fixated on the electoral drama in the U.S., another fraught election took place this past weekend in a country racked by violence and human rights abuses.

For only the second time since it transitioned from a military dictatorship into a fledgling democracy in 2015, voters in the South Asian country of Myanmar went to the polls to elect members of its parliament. The ruling National League of Democracy, the party of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Sui Kyi, has reportedly won in a bigger landslide than it did five years ago. Just as in the U.S., masses of voters turned out, enduring long lines despite a surge of coronavirus cases.

OPINION - What solidarity means for Rohingya survivors of Myanmar Genocide?

AA
Maung Zarni
27.08.2020

Past 3 years, Rohingya are defined not by victimhood, but by incredible ability to survive, revive, rejuvenate as people

 The writer is a Burmese academic and coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition and a fellow at the Genocide Documentation Center in Cambodia.

 

LONDON

The third anniversary of Myanmar’s largest wave of the genocidal purge of the Rohingya community in western Rakhine province on Aug. 25 was marked by the memories of massacres, rapes, and displacement of 750,000 people from nearly 400 villages.

Due to both the COVID-19 lockdown and the nearly one-year-long internet ban imposed by Bangladesh, survivors of Myanmar genocide in the camps could only engage in “silent commemorative events” in their little huts made of plastic sheets.

'Safe Zones' in northern Rakhine: Best option to protect Rohingya

Prothum Alo------ 

Md Shahidul Haque
Opinion
2020.08.28

Weary Rohingya trudging from Myanmar's Rakhine state to Ukhia, BangladeshSyful Islam

In the wake of the mass exodus of the Rohingyas from the Northern Rakhine State of Myanmar from 25 August 2017, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while opening the border for them, made a call to the international community to create UN supervised ‘safe zones’ inside Myanmar for protection of all civilians irrespective of religion and ethnicity.

Displaced Rohingyas and ICJ ruling

ORF
 OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Commentaries
Jun 10 2020

As nations around the world work to find a way to lift the lock down measures, the focus continues to remain on controlling the number of rising cases, enhancement of health capacities as well as recuperating economic activities. Amidst this, Myanmar last month submitted the most anticipated first report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The report is regarding steps the nation has taken towards preventing further acts of genocide against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority as well as preserving evidence of the genocidal campaign seen in recent years.

Bangladesh should file intervention under Article 62 of ICJ Statute

dailyobserver
Iffat Sariya Rahman
Saturday, 15 February, 2020

Bangladesh should file intervention under Article 62 of ICJ Statute

The meeting on 4 February 2020 at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was interesting for the people who are following what is happening with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the Rohingya. 

OPINION – A hard look into the genesis of Myanmar’s genocide

Brinkwire
February 14, 2020
LONDON

 

The writer is a Burmese coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition and a fellow of the Genocide Documentation Center in Cambodia.

The International Court of Justice’s Jan. 23 interim order in a case filed by Gambia against Myanmar is designed to protect the Rohingya and preserve the crime sites. It has brought a sense of vindication to several million Rohingya victims – in the diaspora, inside Myanmar, and in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

To keep the Rohingya alive

NEWAGE 

Feb 01,2020
JB Gerald

Rohingyas from Myanmar make their way through the rice field after crossing the border in Palang Khali in Bangladesh in October 2017. — Reuters

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

— Article 1. The Genocide Convention

ON NOVEMBER 11, 2019, The Gambia filed at the International Court of Justice an application of proceedings against Myanmar, which alleged violations of the Genocide Convention committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya people. January 23, 2020, the International Court of Justice in a unanimous ruling rejected Myanmar’s attempts to dismiss the case and granted The Gambia’s request for provisional measures to protect the Rohingya people, demanding the government of Myanmar cease its acts of atrocity against the Rohingya.

OPINION - Aung San Suu Kyi drives final nail in Myanmar’s moral coffin

Maung Zarni

LONDON

10.12.2019 

Once seen as saintly human rights advocate as daughter of Burma's revered founder, Aung San Suu Kyi now defends genocide

 Wearing a shawl that resembles the flag of the Netherlands, Aung San Suu Kyi arrived at Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam, flanked with her senior deputies including the Minister for the State Counsellor Office, Kyaw Tint Swe, and the Minister for International Cooperation, Kyaw Tint. I can not help thinking what might be going through the Myanmar leader’s mind. But I can speculate that she may be deluding herself as the daughter journeying in her father's footsteps. Her father, Gen. Aung San was considered by the majority of Burmese to be the founder of modern Myanmar.

Suu Kyi gears up for genocide hearing

Bangkok Post

Larry Jagan 

Opinion 

02/12/2019

There has been strong reaction in Myanmar to Aung San Suu Kyi's decision to appear at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend the country against charges of genocide. While Western diplomats have tried to persuade the civilian leader that she was embarking on a high-risk strategy, and should reconsider. Attitudes amongst the intellectuals, politicians, MPs and civil society range from animated support to more measured approaches.

Myanmar's civilian government and its military leaders are accused of crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide towards its Muslim population in the strife-torn western Rakhine state during the last three years of military operations. These "clearance campaigns" forced nearly a million Muslims -- or Rohingya as they call themselves -- to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh for safety.

Myanmar’s judicial defense of the indefensible

ASIATIMES

By Phelim Kine

November 28, 2019

Opinion

Next month, Myanmar’s government will get the first taste of what it has fought hard to prevent for more than two years: international accountability for widespread and systematic violence against its Muslim Rohingya minority.

Between December 10 and 12, Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will lead this first phase of her government’s defense at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague against The Gambia’s official complaint against Myanmar for violations of the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention. That complaint hinges on abuses inflicted by Myanmar security forces against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine state in 2017. Suu Kyi will not face Myanmar’s accusers alone. Myanmar has already warned that it will deploy unidentified “prominent international lawyers” to challenge The Gambia’s complaint. Myanmar has not shared what its legal strategy at The Hague will entail beyond “defending the national interest.” What’s certain is that Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s lawyers face an uphill battle in challenging the extensively documented campaign of mass murder, gang rape, and mutilation targeted at Rohingya civilians.