Rights groups urge UK to join Rohingya case at ICJ

ANKARA

International human rights organizations on Friday urged the UK to support the genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

“In September, the Netherlands and Canada said they were planning to make a formal intervention in the case. We now urge the British government to also throw its weight behind the case,” said the statement issued by the human rights groups including the European Rohingya Council and Free Rohingya Coalition.

The groups added that it was becoming clear that the Myanmar government has no intention to follow the provisional measures set out by the court.

“More pressure from the international community is needed to end the ongoing genocide, and to assure accountability for the gravest of international crimes,” it added.

In November 2019, Gambia filed the petition at the ICJ against Myanmar for failing to prevent or punish acts of genocide against Rohingya Muslims.

Earlier in January, the ICJ issued its “provisional measures” to Myanmar which required the Buddhist-majority country to prevent genocidal acts, ensure military and police forces do not commit genocidal acts, preserve all evidence of genocidal acts, and report on compliance with these provisional measures.

Myanmar is supposed to file the reports to the court after every six months. The first one was filed in May.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women, and children fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were thrown into fires, over 114,000 more were beaten, and as many as 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police said the OIDA report, titled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.

Over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and some 113,000 others vandalized, the report added.