Rohingya fury at Aung San Suu Kyi’s genocide denial to world court
Muslim victims of Myanmar ‘clearances’ voice outrage as peace prize winner dismisses atrocity charges
Muslim victims of Myanmar ‘clearances’ voice outrage as peace prize winner dismisses atrocity charges
When Aung San Suu Kyi rose to denounce genocide charges against her country at the “world court” last week, three victims of Myanmar’s ethnic violence were sitting close behind the Nobel peace prize winner – disbelieving and seething with anger.
Hamida Khatun, Yousuf Ali and Hasina Begum had travelled from the sprawling Kutupalong refugee camp outside Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to sit on the legal delegation attending the International Court of Justice’s emergency hearing in The Hague, in the Netherlands.
Only lawyers were allowed to address the 17 judges during the three-day session in the United Nations’ highest tribunal. The exiled Rohingya Muslims had to sit in silence, stifling their emotions.
Khatun, 50, and Ali, 46, voted for Aung San Suu Kyi in 2010 when, after 15 years of house arrest, she represented a figure of democratic hope defying the military dictatorship.
In the 2017 Myanmar military “clearance operations” targeting the Rohingya, however, Khatun’s husband disappeared and her friends were murdered; Ali was tortured and sexually assaulted by police officers he knew.
