Myanmar submits second Rohingya report to top UN court

Myanmar has submitted a second report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in compliance with its order to protect Rohingya community.

The report was filed by a representative of the Myanmar government on Monday in compliance with the court’s order to protect Rohingya from genocide. However, the report will not be made public at this time, a US-based rights group Global Justice Center said in a statement.

In November 2019, Gambia opened the case 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.

Grant Shubin, legal director of Global Justice Center, said: “We welcome Myanmar’s second report, but merely meeting the court’s technical deadlines is not enough.”

“Since the provisional measures order was issued, Myanmar has done nothing to address the root causes of discrimination and impunity that give rise to the ongoing risk of genocide against the Rohingya,” he said.

The second report was filed by Myanmar amid allegations that the minority Rohingya community was excluded from the country’s second general elections held early this month.

“In fact, the government has ramped up discrimination with this month’s election that disenfranchised Rohingya voters and blocked Rohingya candidates from running for office. Meaningful compliance with the order requires comprehensive legal reform to dismantle systemic discrimination against the Rohingya and to strip the military of its supremacy and autonomy,” said Shubin.

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.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday said his country is set to initiate a fund mobilization campaign to support The Gambia’s legal battle against Myanmar at the ICJ.

Dhaka will ask the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to stand by the West African nation with financial assistance during the 47th session of 57-member OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers in Niger on Nov. 27-28.

“We will disburse our fund to the OIC for supporting The Gambia to run the case in the ICJ as they need financial support after appointing lawyer for the case,” Momen told the country's state-run news agency BSS before departing for Niger.

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, it added.

*SM Najmus Sakib from Bangladesh contributed to this story.