This tiny African country got the U.N.’s top court to investigate Myanmar for genocide

The Washington Post  
Analysis
By Oumar Ba
Jan. 29, 2020

Why would Gambia step up for the Muslim minority Rohingya thousands of miles away?

Rohingya walk through a paddy field after crossing into Bangladesh in 2017. (Bernat Armangue/AP)


On Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a unanimous ruling that ordered Myanmar to “take all measures within its power” to protect its ethnic minority Rohingya population from genocide. The case — against which Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, argued unsuccessfully — ended up in front of the ICJ because of a tiny African country thousands of miles away. Here’s what you need to know about this story.

Myanmar Is on Trial for Its Rohingya Campaign. Here’s Why

The Washington Post

By Philip J. Heijmans | Bloomberg 

Jan. 25, 2020 

Analysis

Since 2017, some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh. The mass exodus was provoked, in the words of United Nations investigators, by security forces practicing “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity” with “genocidal intent.” Now two international tribunals are investigating Myanmar for atrocities committed against the Rohingya, who have lived uneasily among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority since the country’s independence from British rule seven decades ago.