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The former icon of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi is in The Hague to defend Burma from Tuesday, December 10 before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The country is accused of "genocide" against the Rohingya.
Nearly a million people forced into exile, accusations of war crimes, rape, torture, summary executions ... Burma will have to justify the bloody crackdown by the army against the Rohingya since 2017 . And it is Aung San Suu Kyi, the former historical opponent of the Burmese junta, who makes the trip to The Hague to defend her country.
Icon of human rights for years, Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 , she now heads the civilian government in Burma. His decision to travel in person is considered incomprehensible by human rights activists, such as Chris Lewa. " She never used her moral authority to try to stop the situation and she continues to deny, denounces the activist, who has worked for 20 years with the Rohingya with the Arakan Project. She was rather quiet during the most serious part of the conflict, but there she even openly denied the violence that occurred. For activists, she tries to cover the military for supposedly defending Burma against countries, Western or otherwise, that would try to defame its reputation. "
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Gambia on the front line to defend this persecuted Muslim minority
At the forefront of these countries is The Gambia , which brought this case before the International Court of Justice. The Gambian government has seized the institution on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which brings together 57 Muslim countries.
The accusation is based on one text in particular: the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Gambia accuses the Burmese government of violating this convention, and of seeking to exterminate the Rohingya as an ethnic group , on a political and religious basis. An extermination conducted through forced population transfers, killings and systematic rape by the Burmese army.
Very serious accusations based in particular on investigations of the United Nations and those of Gambian lawyers, who collected more than 600 testimonies of Rohingyas in the refugee camps in Bangladesh .
The victims " told us their stories," Gambian Minister of Justice, Abubacarr Tambadou, told Reuters at the time of filing the complaint on December 2. Their helplessness in the face of mass killings, mass killings, rapes, mass torture. Stories of children burned alive. Stories that are all familiar to me. I already heard while I was a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda . I saw the genocide through all these stories. I spent about fifteen years interacting with the victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. And I can say that the testimonies collected today among the Rohingyas are very similar to the stories I heard in the past. So I thought it was not fair, that something had to be done. "
The Gambia has asked the International Court of Justice to record Burma's failure to comply with its legal obligations. It also demands reparations for the Rohingyas, in particular full Burmese citizenship - for the Rohingyas are stateless at the moment - and the right to return to Burmese soil without being disturbed.
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What line of defense for the Burmese authorities ?
No way for Burma to recognize any genocide. It will fight legally, for example by highlighting the repatriation agreement signed with Bangladesh . Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled to this border country, where they are crowded into overcrowded camps. Burma has pledged to allow their return to its soil, which serves as an argument to the Burmese delegation to the ICJ : when one wants to commit genocide, she says, one does not commit to resume on his soil the victims of this genocide.
A line of defense difficult to hold, given the overwhelming findings of the UN investigations into the military apparatus put in place by Burma to suppress the Rohingya.
Burma is also the subject of several other proceedings before various international bodies. In particular, it risks criminal proceedings before the International Criminal Court. This time, it is not Burma as a state that would be prosecuted, but the senior officials of the army, questioned by the United Nations. In this perspective, the decision of the International Court of Justice after the hearings could serve as a warning shot. It should be returned within 3 to 4 weeks.
►Also read: UN doubts Burma's willingness to work for Rohingya return
In Burma, rallies in support of Aung San Suu Kyi
Since the announcement of Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to the ICJ, demonstrations of support have multiplied in Burma. Described by the international community, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize remains very popular in her country, recalls our correspondent in Yangon, Sarah Bakaloglou . The majority of the population considers the Rohingyas to be illegal immigrants.
The choice to go in person to the International Court of Justice is not trivial for the leader. Aung San Suu Kyi hopes to gather the country behind her, while her leadership is being undermined by both armed ethnic groups and nationalists, supporters of the military . With one goal in mind: the general elections of 2020. " If things do not work in its direction, it can then be presented as a martyr, analyzes the Franco-Luxembourg historian Jacques Leider at the microphone of RFI. Or if not, capitalize on his performance. "
►Also read: [RFI survey] Burma: Rohingya children detained for wanting to escape poverty