Bangladesh welcomes ICJ judgement over Rohingya genocide

NEWS DESK

Bangladesh welcomed the judgment delivered by the International Court of Justice on Friday on the preliminary objections of Myanmar concerning the admissibility of the Genocide Convention in the case between the Gambia and Myanmar.

The ministry of foreign affairs welcomed the judgement in a statement hours after it was delivered in The Hague.

The ICJ Judgment rejected all four preliminary objections of Myanmar on legal and procedural grounds.

‘Bangladesh maintains that the question of international justice and accountability will be critical in finding a durable solution to the Rohingya crisis, and would also prove to be a confidence-building measure for the sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya to their homes in Myanmar with their legitimate rights restored,’ the statement said.

The ICJ threw out all of Myanmar’s objections to a case filed by the Gambia in 2019.

The decision paved the way for full hearings at the court on allegations over Myanmar’s bloody 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya.

ICJ president Joan Donoghue said the tribunal ‘finds that it has jurisdiction… to entertain the application filed by the Republic of the Gambia, and that the said application is admissible’.

Hundreds of thousands of minority Rohingya fled Myanmar during the operation five years ago, bringing with them harrowing reports of murder, rape and arson.

More than one million Rohingyas are languishing in camps in Bangladesh while another 600,000 Rohingyas remain in Myanmar’s south-western Rakhine state.