Rohingya genocide trial: What happens today at The Hague

A momentous legal confrontation will take place at The Hague on Tuesday when the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will defend Myanmar's actions against the Rohingya Muslims.

Myanmar has consistently ignored reports from the United Nations claiming that since 2017, its military has abused, assassinated and murdered Rohingyas, forcing over 740,000 to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Now, that Gambia has brought allegations of genocide on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, Myanmar has to face the accusations at the International Court of Justice – UN's highest court.

The hearings will be live streamed and they begin on December 10 at 10 am (3pm Bangladesh time).

On the first day, Abubacarr Marie Tambadou will present The Gambia's case. Tambadou is the country's attorney general and justice minister, who also served with distinction as a special assistant to the prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda.

The three-day hearing in the neo-Renaissance-style Peace Palace is what is known as a provisional measures procedure. The Gambia will ask the court to make an urgent declaration that Myanmar must stop the ongoing genocide and the court must determine whether it has jurisdiction and whether a plausible case can be addressed, reports the Guardian.

The Gambia, as a state party to the Genocide Convention, has requested the court to indicate certain provisional measures.

Firstly, Myanmar shall immediately take all measures to stop all actions that amounts or contributes to genocide, in compliance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948.

This includes: extrajudicial killings or physical abuse; rape or other forms of sexual violence; burning of homes or villages; land and livestock destruction; deprivation of food and other necessities of life; or any other deliberate infliction of living conditions calculated to result in the physical destruction of the Rohingya group in whole or in part.

Secondly, Myanmar shall ensure that the army, paramilitary or irregular armed units which it may command or assist, as well as any organisations and persons subject to its control, direction or influence, do not commit any act of genocide, conspire or incite the public to commit genocide against the Rohingya community.

Thirdly, Myanmar shall not destroy or render inaccessible any evidence related to the events. 

Fourthly, Myanmar and Gambia shall take no action that can aggravate or expand the current conflict or render it more difficult to resolve.

And finally, Myanmar and The Gambia shall each provide a report to the court on all measures taken to give effect to this order for provisional measures, no later than four months from its issuance.

Closing submission by both parties will take place on Thursday. However, it is possible that any decision by the 15 judges hearing the case could take years, reports the Quartz.