At top U.N. court, Suu Kyi rejects charge of Rohingya genocide as "misleading"

[snoop1130]

At top U.N. court, Suu Kyi rejects charge of Rohingya genocide as "misleading"

By Shoon Lei Win Naing, Toby Sterling

 

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks on the second day of hearings in a case filed by Gambia against Myanmar alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

 

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday rejected accusations of genocide committed against her country’s Muslim Rohingya minority as “incomplete and misleading”, and said the case should not be heard by the U.N.’s highest court.

 

The Nobel Peace laureate, speaking during three days of hearings at the International Court of Justice, challenged allegations in a lawsuit brought by Gambia last month accusing Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.

 

Suu Kyi, once feted in the West as a heroine of democracy, spoke for about 30 minutes at the courtroom in The Hague in defence of the actions of the Myanmar military that for years had kept her under house arrest.

 

She said a military-led “clearance operation” in western Rakhine State in August 2017 was a counterterrorism response to coordinated Rohingya militant attacks against dozens of police stations.

 

“Gambia has placed an incomplete and misleading picture of the factual situation in Rakhine state in Myanmar,” she said as she opened Myanmar’s defence.

 

While Suu Kyi conceded that disproportionate military force may have been used and civilians killed, she said the acts did not constitute genocide.

 

“Surely, under the circumstances, genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis,” she told the panel of 17 judges. “Can there be genocidal intent on the part of a state that actively investigates, prosecutes and punishes soldiers and officers that are accused of wrong doing?”

 

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to Bangladesh after the military launched its crackdown.

 

Last year, Myanmar’s military announced that seven soldiers involved in a massacre of 10 Rohingya men and boys in the village of Inn Din in September 2017 had been sentenced to “10 years in prison with hard labour in a remote area”.

 

They were the only security personnel the military has said it has punished over the 2017 operation. They were granted early release after less than a year in the prison.

 

Late last month, the military said it had begun a court martial of an unspecified number of soldiers over events in another village, Gu Dar Pyin, the site of a second alleged massacre of 10 Rohingya.

 

HIGH LEGAL BAR

 

Suu Kyi had listened impassively on Tuesday as lawyers for Gambia detailed graphic testimony of suffering of Rohingya at the hands of the Myanmar security forces.

 

A photograph of Suu Kyi with three smiling generals who are also Myanmar government ministers - Lieutenant General Ye Aung, Lieutenant General Sein Win and Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe - was shown in the courtroom by Gambia’s legal team as evidence of what they said were her close ties to the military.

 

It brought widespread reaction from her supporters who denounced it on social media as an attempt to mock her.

 

Suu Kyi came to power in 2016 following a landslide election win, but a military-drafted constitution means she must share power with the army that ruled the Southeast Asian nation for decades.

 

In three days of hearings this week, judges are hearing the first phase of the case: Gambia’s request for “provisional measures” - the equivalent of a restraining order against Myanmar to protect the Rohingya population until the case is heard in full.

 

Gambia has argued it is every country’s duty under the convention to prevent a genocide from taking place. Gambia has political support from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Canada and the Netherlands.

 

The case is being followed closely across Rakhine state’s border in Bangladesh, where more than 1 million Rohingya are now crowded into the world’s biggest refugee camp.

 

On Wednesday, some refugees shouted “liar, liar, shame!”, as they watched Suu Kyi defend Myanmar’s case on television.

 

“She is a liar. A great liar, shame on her,” said Abdur Rahim, 52, while watching a live telecast of her testimony on a local news channel at a community centre in the Kutupalong camp.

 

The legal threshold for a finding of genocide is high. Just three cases have been recognised under international law since World War Two: In Cambodia in the late 1970s; In Rwanda in 1994; and at Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995.

 

Although a United Nations fact-finding mission found that “the gravest crimes under international law” had been committed in Myanmar and called for genocide trials, no court has weighed evidence and established a genocide in Myanmar.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-11

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[VincentRJ]

And what's totally bizarre about this is that Myanmar is a Buddhist country. True Buddhists feel guilty even if they kill an ant or a fly.

[klauskunkel]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“Surely, under the circumstances, genocidal intent cannot be the only hypothesis,”

There is also another hypothesis on something completely different, namely that:

Suu Kiy's waning global image as a democracy champion is being milked by her General-Bosses for it's last drops to give them the illusion of a credible government. She will be of no further use once these drops have run dry and her time at the trough will be over.

 

Now, which hypothesis is more likely to be true..., Suu Kiy?

 

[phantomfiddler]

What the newspapers always fail to mention is that the Rohingya started the discord with a coordinated attack on over a dozen police stations along the border, killing many Burmese. 

Wherever muslims go, trouble soon follows, and Aung San Suu Kyi in only looking after Burmese interests, and rightly so !

[tgw]

12 hours ago, VincentRJ said:

And what's totally bizarre about this is that Myanmar is a Buddhist country. True Buddhists feel guilty even if they kill an ant or a fly.

you certainly sound like you have a lot of experience with Buddhism is South East Asia.

[tgw]

16 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

What the newspapers always fail to mention is that the Rohingya started the discord with a coordinated attack on over a dozen police stations along the border, killing many Burmese. 

Wherever muslims go, trouble soon follows, and Aung San Suu Kyi in only looking after Burmese interests, and rightly so !

it's certainly a tricky issue at that court - the politically correct want to demonstrate that the world "cares for Muslims" but this involves throwing Burma under the bus.

[Baerboxer]

4 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

What the newspapers always fail to mention is that the Rohingya started the discord with a coordinated attack on over a dozen police stations along the border, killing many Burmese. 

Wherever muslims go, trouble soon follows, and Aung San Suu Kyi in only looking after Burmese interests, and rightly so !

 

Islam is followed by people from different countries and races. They are not all the same in culture and behavior.

 

The troublemakers seem to come from the Indian sub-continent - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan; several African countries and from second and subsequent generations living in non Muslin countries.

 

The Rohingya terrorist group certainly set this off and, probably as they planned, are now trying to cash in on the reaction. 

 

Why don't Muslim countries offer to take Rohingyas? They show little appetite, as they do for Muslim refugees in general. They don't want the trouble makers.

[Odysseus123]

They will go home with their tails between their legs.

 

Their country has been an abject failure since 1947 and continues that way.

 

In actual fact the ruling buddhist Burmese have virtually written the manual on "Abject Failure" and only a few Western clowns would deny otherwise.

[phuketrichard]

6 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

What the newspapers always fail to mention is that the Rohingya started the discord with a coordinated attack on over a dozen police stations along the border, killing many Burmese. 

Wherever muslims go, trouble soon follows, and Aung San Suu Kyi in only looking after Burmese interests, and rightly so !

TERRORISTS   attacked the police post, you cant lump it in as  Rohnigya's did it.

The Rohnigyas have been in Burma for decades and their problems go far back

Aung San knows who her followers are and what they expect her to say,

elections next year