Myanmar Leader Denies Charges Of Genocide In Rakhine, Admits Possible Excessive Force

Myanmar Leader Denies Charges of Genocide in Rakhine, Admits Possible Excessive Force

Myanmar State Counselor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday pushed back against accusations of genocide allegedly committed by the country's armed forces during the conflict with Rohingya Muslim militants in the state of Rakhine in a statement for the International Court of Justice in the Hague

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) Myanmar State Counselor and Nobel Peace prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday pushed back against accusations of genocide allegedly committed by the country's armed forces during the conflict with Rohingya Muslim militants in the state of Rakhine in a statement for the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

On November 11, The Gambia initiated proceedings at the International Court of Justice against Myanmar accusing it of committing atrocities on massive scale against the Rohingya Muslims residing within its territory.

"It cannot be ruled out that disproportionate force was used by members of the Defense Services in some cases in disregard of international humanitarian law, or that they did not distinguish clearly enough between ARSA [Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army] fighters and civilians. There may also have been failures to prevent civilians from looting or destroying property after fighting or in abandoned villages. But there are determinations to be made in the due course of the criminal justice process, not by any individual in the Myanmar Government," the councilor said.

She asked the court to approach the accusations against her country calmly and dispassionately.

"Regrettably, The Gambia has placed before the Court an incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation in Rakhine State in Myanmar. Yet, it is of the utmost importance that the Court assess the situation obtaining on the ground in Rakhine dispassionately and accurately," she stated.

Aung San Suu Kyi described the ongoing situation in Myanmar as a domestic military conflict rather than a genocide.

"The Applicant has brought a case based on the Genocide Convention. We are, however, dealing with an internal armed conflict, started by coordinated and comprehensive attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), to which Myanmar's defence services responded. Tragically, this armed conflict led to the exodus of several hundred thousand Muslims from the three northernmost townships of Rakhine into Bangladesh," she said.

At the same time, she promised that all members of the country's military involved in war crimes would be prosecuted per the Myanmar constitution.

According to the United Nations, more than 700,000 Rohingya have either fled or have been driven out of Myanmar by the military since the beginning of a large-scale campaign against the Muslim minority since 2017.

In 2018, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar issued a report, accusing the Myanmar leadership of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been widely respected for her non-violent struggle for democratic governance against the military junta that ruled Myanmar until 2011, which won her a Nobel Peace Prize in the year of 1991.