JUDGES at the United Nations’ highest court have thrown out preliminary objections by Myanmar to a case alleging the country is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya population.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that a landmark case filed by Gambia, accusing the Southeast Asian country of genocide against the minority Rohingya Muslims, can go ahead.
Head of the ICJ, Judge Joan Donoghue, said the tribunal “finds that it has jurisdiction… to entertain the application filed by the Republic of the Gambia.”
The decision paves the way for full hearings at the court regarding allegations against majority-Buddhist Myanmar’s bloody 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled the country during the operation, where they would later share their traumatic experiences of murder, rape and arson with humanitarian groups.
