Owen Bowcott - Aung San Suu Kyi criticised in court over 'silence' on Myanmar rape claims

By Dilip -
Aung San Suu Kyi has been told her silence over allegations of sexual violence and rape carried out against Rohingya people in Myanmar “says far more than your words”, on the third day of the international court of justice’s hearing into accusations of genocide. Prof Philippe Sands QC told the court in The Hague: “Not a word [has been said by Aung San Suu Kyi] about the women and girls of Myanmar who have been subjected to these awful serial violations. Madame Agent [her status in court], your silence says far more than your words.”

Myanmar has not disputed at the ICJ hearing reports that 392 villages were destroyed in military clearance operations, or commented on widespread allegations of organised sexual violence and rape, the court was told. Sands was speaking for the Gambia, which has brought the charge that Myanmar’s military carried out mass murder, rape and destruction of Rohingya Muslim communities.

It alleges there have been “extrajudicial killings … sexual violence, burning of homes and destruction of livestock … calculated to bring about a destruction of the Rohingya group in whole or in part”. Sands told the tribunal that one of the lawyers representing Myanmar - Prof William Schabas, of Middlesex University – said during an interview with al-Jazeera in 2013 that the situation in Myanmar was approaching genocide. Sands read from Schabas’s interview, in which he said: “We are moving into a zone where the word [genocide] can be used in the case of the Rohingya.”...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/12/myanmar-military-incapable-of-looking-into-abuses-court-told

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