The Gambia, the Muslim-majority African country that took Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi to international court over genocide allegations, is slamming the leader for her silence toward the victims of the atrocity. Suu Kyi has said the genocide allegations are not the reality of the situation, and that the Burmese military (called the Tatmawdaw) was simply responding to threats of extremist violence within the small Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s Alleged Genocide
Allegations of genocide began circulating back in 2016 when the Burmese military attacked the Rohingya community, forcing nearly one million citizens to flee the country, seeking refuge in places like neighboring Bangladesh. But whether or not the country’s military acted with intent to wipe out the population in full remains unclear and hard to prove.
Aung San Suu Kyi represented the country in International Court with the United Nations in The Hague, Netherlands earlier this week by request of The Gambia. The African country alleges that Suu Kyi ignored blatant attempts at genocide and mass murder against an entire ethnic minority.
In Buddhist Myanmar, the small Muslim Rohingya population represent a group of marginalized people. The United Nations has described the attacks on the Rohingya as “textbook ethnic cleansing,” but proof that the military acted with intent to wipe out the population remains impossible to prove.
The Court Case
In court, Suu Kyi claimed that the case is incorrect, standing behind the Burmese military that its attacks against the Rohingya were only in response to threats of extremism. In court, however, Suu Kyi avoided using the term “genocide” at all—as well as other terms like “rape” and “murder,” which have been used to describe the acts of violence on the Rohingya by the Burmese government.
Suu Kyi also urged the International Court to drop its genocide case completely, as it was under a separate criminal investigation over the allegations. If found to be true, Myanmar would be charged with violating an agreement called the 1948 Genocide Convention. “In the alternative (the court should) reject the request for provisional measures submitted by the Gambia,” said Suu Kyi on the third day of the trial, according to Reuters.
According to the lawyers representing The Gambia in court, Myanmar’s leader did not deny the allegations against the country, but urged the court to drop the case instead.
