Myanmar junta set to answer Rohingya genocide charges at UN court

Deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not be attending second round of preliminary hearings in The Hague

Aung San Suu Kyi addresses judges of the International Court of Justice in 2019 during preliminary hearings on alleged genocide against Myanmar's Rohingya minority. AP

Myanmar’s junta will answer charges of genocide against Rohingya Muslims at the UN's top court on Monday without deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on its legal panel.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, presented her country’s arguments at the International Court of Justice when the case was first heard in December 2019, but was ousted as civilian leader in a military coup last February.

She is now under house arrest by the same generals she defended in The Hague.

In its “preliminary objections” on Monday, Myanmar is expected to argue that the court has no jurisdiction over the case and seek to have it dismissed.

Myanmar media said the junta's new team will be led by International Co-operation Minister Ko Ko Hlaing and Thida Oo, the attorney general, who will attend virtually.

Both have been sanctioned by the US over the coup.

There are questions over whether Myanmar's military rulers should even be allowed to represent the South-east Asian nation.

The case brought by Gambia, a Muslim African nation, accuses predominantly Buddhist Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN genocide convention in the violent military purge of the Rohingya in 2017.

About 850,000 Rohingya are languishing in camps in neighbouring Bangladesh while another 600,000 remain in Myanmar's south-western Rakhine state.

Gambia's case is backed by the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, as well as Canada and the Netherlands. It is expected to present its counterargument on Wednesday.

The ICJ was set up after the Second World War to rule on disputes between UN member states. Its judgments are binding but it has no real means to enforce them.

The coup that ousted Ms Suu Kyi and her civilian government has complicated the Rohingya case at the ICJ.

Mohamad Husein, a Rohingya from Myanmar, wipes tears from his eyes as he talks to reporters at his hostel on the outskirts of Alor Setar, Kedah, North Malaysia. After his village in Myanmar's northwest Rakhine had been destroyed in a fire set by a Buddhist mob, he and his younger sister became separated from their family. AP Photo/Vincent Thian

Senwara Begum, right, is helped by her foster father, hamsul bin Sayed,to use Skype to talk to her family members in Myanmar from their temporary shelter in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. "I'm fine," Senwara says, trying to sound upbeat. "I'm with a family that is taking good care of me. They love me. I'm learning things, English and religion." Her father reminds her to be a good girl. He is desperate to see his children again, but believes they are better off far away. AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

Senwara Begum cries at a temporary shelter in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia after making a phone call to her family in Myanmar. AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

Mohamad Husein, right, from Myanmar, eats dinner at his hostel with his compatriots on the outskirts of Alor Setar, Kedah, northern Malaysia. For many fleeing Rohingya, Malaysia, is the preferred destination. Around 33,000 are registered there and an equal number are undocumented, according to the Rohingya Society of Malaysia. Those numbers have swelled with the violence in Myanmar. AP Photo/Vincent Thian

Members of Senwara Begum's family watch her video interview at the Ohn Taw refugee camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, Myanmar. AP Photo/Kaung Htet

Tawhera Begum, sister of Senwara, cries as she watches a video interview of her sister. After their village was attacked and the family split up, Senwara fled by boat and ended up in Indonesia. Tawhera is with her parents in the Ohn Taw refugee camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, Myanmar. AP Photo/Kaung Htet

Senwara Begum watches her friends play in the rain outside their temporary shelter in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

Sisters of Senwara Begum prepare a meal for the family at the Ohn Taw refugee camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, Myanmar. AP Photo/Kaung Htet

Senwara Begum from Myanmar attends an English class at her temporary shelter in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Although sympathetic to the Rohingya, Indonesia only allows the refugees to stay until they can be resettled elsewhere, which can take years. AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara

Before the hearing, the shadow National Unity Government dominated by members of Ms Suu Kyi's ousted party said it, not the junta, was “the proper representative of Myanmar at the ICJ in the case".

It also rejects Myanmar's preliminary objections and says the hearings for these should be cancelled and the court in the Netherlands should quickly get down to the hearing of the substantive case.

The NUG holds no territory, has not been recognised by any foreign government, and has been declared a terrorist organisation by the junta.

Ms Suu Kyi herself now faces trial in Myanmar on a string of charges that could lead to a jail sentence of more than 150 years.

More than 1,500 civilians have died in the military's repression of mass protests against the coup, a local monitoring group has said.