Rohingya crisis: Myanmar submits compliance report to int’l court

The Daily Star/Asia News Network

DHAKA — Myanmar authorities claimed to have submitted a compliance report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Turkey-based Anadolu Agency reported.

The report highlighted the steps taken by the Myanmar authorities on preventing further acts of genocide against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority as well as preserving evidence of the genocidal campaign seen in recent years.

Earlier in January, the top UN court issued a provisional order asking Myanmar to implement certain preventive measures against the genocide of the Rohingya community in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.

“We submitted it to the ICJ today,” a foreign ministry official of Myanmar on Saturday told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.

The official also said the report was based on three directives issued by the Myanmar president’s office this April in response to the ICJ order.

Myanmar President Win Myint had ordered the regional government and military not to remove or destroy evidence of a genocide while it must prevent anyone and all groups from committing genocidal acts as well as prevent incitement and hate speech against the Rohingya, the official told Anadolu Agency.

“What I know is that the report was based on what we done and what we are doing regarding these three directives,” the official added.

The Rohingyas are described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into neighboring Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a brutal crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.