Hearing on Rohingya genocide case set for February at World Court

Representatives of Myanmar’s junta are expected to challenge the jurisdiction of the World Court to hear allegations the country committed genocide against its Rohingya minority in a fresh round of hearings from February 21, reports Reuters on Friday citing the attorney general of the Gambia, which brought the case.

“A hybrid hearing is set to commence on the 21st of February, 2022,” Gambian Attorney General Dawda Jallow said. He added that Aung San Suu Kyi, who led Myanmar’s defence at the first public hearings in 2019 but has since been deposed by the military, had been formally replaced as its top representative in the case.

A hybrid hearing is a procedure where some of the participants are present in person and others participate online due to COVID-19 measures.

Over 1 million Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military-led crackdown in 2017 and were forced into squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. UN investigators concluded that the military campaign had been executed with genocidal intent.

An ICJ spokesperson declined to confirm dates for a new hearing had been scheduled.

In December 2019 Nobel peace prize laureate Suu Kyi, then Myanmar’s civilian leader, personally attended hearings at The Hague to ask judges to dismiss the case.

She was deposed in a 2021 coup and has since been sentenced to six years in detention and faces a slew of further charges. The army takeover of the democratically elected government led to widespread protests.

The military government has been fighting for international recognition and could be eager for the opportunity to show themselves as Myanmar’s legitimate representatives at the UN’s top court.

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