UN court rebuffs Myanmar challenge to genocide case
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The decision opens the way for full hearings at the court on allegations relating to Myanmar's majority-Buddhist government's bloody crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017.
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Around 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighboring Bangladesh (AFP)
The United Nations' highest court ruled Friday that a landmark case accusing military-ruled Myanmar of genocide against minority Rohingya Muslims could proceed.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague dismissed all of Myanmar's objections to a case filed by the Republic of Gambia in 2019.
The decision opens the way for full hearings at the court on allegations relating to Myanmar's majority-Buddhist government's bloody crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017.
On his account, ICJ president Joan Donoghue said that "the court finds that it has jurisdiction... to entertain the application filed by the Republic of the Gambia and that the application is admissible."
Hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya fled the Southeast Asian country five years ago during the operation, bringing with them horrific reports of murder, rape, and arson.
Around 850,000 Rohingya are stranded in camps in neighboring Bangladesh, with another 600,000 in Myanmar's southwestern Rakhine state.
Dawda Jallow, the Gambian Justice Minister, told reporters outside the court that he was "very pleased that the court has delivered justice."
Meanwhile, several dozen Rohingya activists protested outside the court as the verdict was read aloud.
It is also worth noting that the International Criminal Court, a war crimes tribunal based in The Hague, has also opened an investigation into the attacks on the Rohingya.
Earlier Friday, Myanmar junta troops killed at least 10 people and set fire to hundreds of houses during a raid on a village in a hotspot of opposition to the coup, according to locals and media reports.
Since the coup last year, the Northwest Sagaing region has seen fierce fighting and bloody retaliation, with junta troops struggling to crush resistance by the local "People's Defence Force" (PDF).
