Nobel winner Suu Kyi defends Myanmar on Rohingya genocide charges at UN court

Bloomberg

When Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she was hailed as an imprisoned martyr dedicated to bringing democracy and human rights to a country that for decades had withered under a brutal military junta. Now as Myanmar’s de facto leader she is set to face her European peers, defending her country in The Hague on the charge of genocide.
On Tuesday, the International Court of Justice began hearings on only the third genocide case heard by it since World War II. In it, Myanmar stands accused of carrying out the systematic rape, torture and murder of thousands of Rohingya Muslims that forced more than 740,000 people to flee across the border to Bangladesh where they now live unwanted and in squalor.
Suu Kyi in her capacity as state counselor leads a team to defend Myanmar against the accusations largely directed at the same military apparatus that for 14 years kept her under house arrest until her release in 2010. The decision to appear before the court comes despite overwhelming evidence of guilt, while Suu Kyi herself is accused by UN investigators of “complicity” in the atrocities.
The trial marks a low point for the reputation of a democracy icon who during her political rise in Myanmar’s 2015 elections was often compared to the likes of Nelson Mandela.
Filed in November by the small Muslim-majority African nation of Gambia, the case argues Myanmar is in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide after security forces engaged in widespread “clearance operations” in Rohingya villages that began in earnest in August 2017. Myanmar has been a member of the convention since 1956.
“Many thousands of people have already died as a direct result of Myanmar’s genocidal acts,” Abubacarr Tambadou, Gambia’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, said in opening remarks just steps away from Suu Kyi. “In excess of biblical proportions.”
”All that we seek from you is that you tell Myanmar to give the Rohingya a chance to live a decent and dignified life in freedom and peace,” he added.
Suu Kyi listened as Gambia’s lawyers graphically described instances of rape and murder against women and girls throughout Rakhine State by the country’s security forces. Myanmar will get its chance to formally respond on Wednesday morning.