UPDATE - Top UN court orders Myanmar prevent Rohingya genocide

CHANGES INTRO, ADDS DETAILS

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Recognizing the suffering of Rohingya community, the top UN court on Thursday ordered Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against genocide of the persecuted community.

Delivering its verdict on the case filed last month by Gambia, International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf declared a four-month deadline for Myanmar to take preventive measures and ensure that Rohingya in the country would not be harmed.

Yusuf said persecuted Rohingya members were a protected group inside Myanmar under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, adding that the decision in no way "prejudges the merits of the actual case on whether Myanmar is responsible for genocide."

The court asked Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of "killing members of the [Rohingya] group, causing physical or mental harm to them, implementing measures [to stop] designs to destroy the group."

"Myanmar must ensure that its military or any irregular organizations or groups subject to its control do not commit any acts in first point or acts of conspiracy to commit genocide, to commit genocide or attempt or of complicity in genocide," said the nearly hour-long verdict read by the top judge.

It added that Myanmar must take effective measures to "prevent the destruction of evidence of genocide."

Myanmar is further required to submit a report of implementation of the preventive measures as issued by the UN court in four months, the verdict said.

The ICJ also asked Myanmar to give a copy of the report to Gambia so it may submit its comments.

"Following its first report -- submitted after four months of the issuance of this verdict -- Myanmar will present a report of its measures taken after every six months," the court ordered.

- 'Extremely vulnerable'

The ICJ observed that Rohingya in Myanmar remain “extremely vulnerable”.

“Steps Myanmar says it is taking for repatriation of Rohingya are not enough to prevent a case under genocide convention,” the court observed.

With reference to several UN reports and UN General Assembly resolutions on the Rohingya issue, the ICJ noted that Myanmar has not taken any concrete measures for protection of Rohingya.

“Therefore the court finds real risk and prejudice,” the top judge said.

Admitting the case filed by Gambia was “plausible”, the ICJ said: “The court right now does not need to decide whether genocide has happened [but] just whether the accusations are plausible to decide whether to implement preventative measures.”

The ICJ president also noted that Myanmar's lack of response to a diplomatic note from Gambia accusing Myanmar of failing its commitments under genocide convention “may indicate dispute between the two nations”.

The case was filed on Nov. 11, 2019 and hearings were held for three days in December of that year at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Aboubacar Tambadou, Gambia’s attorney general and justice minister, is representing the Rohingya. Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi defended the actions of her country’s army.

Since Myanmar is signatory to UN's 1948 Prevention of Genocide Convention, Myanmar is obliged to adhere to preventive measures issued by the ICJ. However, the ICJ order does in no way prejudges merits of the case or its admissibility.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled Myanmar and crossed to 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.