Rohingya Muslims: ‘The Hague court verdict means so much to us’

In this file photo, Rohingya refugees who fled from Myanmar were standing outside Bangladeshi border guards after crossing the border in Palang Khali, Bangladesh October 9, 2017. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 03 February 2020
Follow

Rohingya Muslims: ‘The Hague court verdict means so much to us’

  • Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, presiding judge of the ICJ panel, gave Myanmar four months to report back on how it was implementing the ruling
  • Young people realize Myanmar will not change unless they keep resisting and demanding a free and fair society, says Rohingya activist Yasmin Ullah

DHAKA, Bangladesh: The UN’s top court has ordered Myanmar to do all it can to prevent genocide against the country’s ethnic Muslim Rohingya minority.

A 17-judge panel at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) said its order for so-called provisional measures meant to protect the Rohingya was binding “and creates international legal obligations” on Myanmar.

Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya activist who was in the court on Jan. 23, described the ruling, which warns that genocidal actions could recur, as historic.

“Today, having the judges unanimously agree on the protection of Rohingya means so much to us because we’re now allowed to exist and it’s legally binding,” she said, adding that she did not think Myanmar would comply with the order.

Indeed, Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the order presented a “distorted picture of the situation.”

Yasmin Ullah was born in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, and her family fled the country after the massacres of Rohingya Muslims in the 1990s.

After arriving in Thailand in 1995, the Ullahs lived there without any legal protection and basic rights for 16 years.

FASTFACTS

The Rohingya are Myanmar’s largest Muslim community.

The majority live in northern Rakhine state.

Government denies them citizenship, claiming they are illegal immigrants.

Persecuted Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in waves.

Latest crisis erupted in 2017 after Rohingya militants attacked police posts.

She is now based in Canada where she is pursuing a degree in political science. In addition, she serves as the President of the Rohingya Human Rights Network (RHRN) and works as a coordinator at the Free Rohingya Coalition.

In an email interview with Arab News, she described the current human-rights situation in Myanmar as “strange.”

Human rights violations are still rampant, and disproportionately instigated by the members of government authority, military, and law enforcement against innocent civilians, she said.

“This is especially true in the area populated by ethnic nationalities, including Rakhine state from where I come.”

On the other hand, she pointed out, Myanmar was still perceived as the country of Nobel Peace Prize winner and a human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the current civilian ruler (state counsellor).

The ICJ ruling came despite appeals last month by her for the judges to drop the case, and denials by Aung San Suu Kyi that the armed forces, which once held her under house arrest for 15 years, had committed genocide.

“Internationally, Myanmar was very promising to investors as a country transforming into a liberal democracy primed for the free market, and thus, human rights violations that have been taking place are often dismissed in favor of the big picture,” Yasmin Ullah said.

“Structurally, the country is made of a small percentage that controls most of the country’s resources, a very small sliver of the middle class and the vast majority living under the poverty line as wage workers, farmers and other low-paying positions.




Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya Muslim girl, currently based in Canada, has been travelling around the world to tell the stories of the ongoing atrocities on her community in Myanmar. (Supplied)

“The years of propaganda by the military regime has carved Myanmar into an intolerant society and emphasized the idea of one acceptable monolithic identity.

“Hence, any departure from the Buddhist identity or what is accepted as a good Burmese is almost frowned upon.”

According to Yasmin Ullah: “Expressing any dissenting views of the government or the military’s policies will at least get those who speak up monitored, profiled, and at times, kidnapped and disappeared.”

She said many minority groups within the country decided long ago to take up arms and fight back.

The majority of those living in ethnic states are innocent civilians, but they are often the ones to bear the brunt of the battles between the military and the ethnic armed groups, Yasmin Ullah said.

“Women frequently suffer the worst of it all due to the military strategic plans to incite fear of the ethnic communities by way of mass rape as well as sexual and gender-based violence,” she said.

“Once the community is fearful enough, the people often leave their homes and lands, and comply with the even worse living conditions enforced by the military, such as internment camps that can be found in various areas in Shan, Rakhine and other states.”

A common denominator in all of this is that Myanmar’s authorities have enjoyed impunity for the last several decades.

Thousands of Rohingya perished and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017.

Since the so-called clearance operation, the military has not stopped dismissing the fact that it has murdered, tortured and raped large members of Rohingya, she said.

“To this day, the remaining Rohingya in Rakhine are restricted in their freedom of movement, from speaking up against the military as well as Myanmar’s government in general, and from accessing the very basics needed to sustain themselves.”

Although there is a mounting pressure internationally, the country remains defiant over any investigation or international probe triggered by the various UN conventions.

In July 2019, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the International Cyber Policy Centre released a report outlining the reality on the ground since 2017.

“The satellite images show that there has been no effort by the Myanmar government in reconstructing any houses razed to the ground in over 300 Rohingya villages,” Yasmin Ullah said.

“In addition, there are six military bases expanded or newly built on our previous homes, 45 internment camps newly built for any returnees or displaced people, and more homes and settlements destroyed since 2018.

“My family still live in Rakhine state. They can attest to the harsh reality of living conditions imposed by the oppressive and unjustified laws against Rohingya.

“Military raids and demolition of Rohingya villages in many areas of Rakhine continues even under the international community’s close watch.”

Moreover, as the fight between the military and the largest insurgent group in Rakhine state, the Arakan Army, intensifies, Rohingya and other ethnic groups are caught in the crossfire.




A Rohingya refugee camp on Bhasan Char island. (Gallo Images)

“More of our people become displaced — and left with no means of sustaining themselves and their families,” Yasmin Ullah said.

“Hundreds of Rohingya, including children, have been incarcerated for traveling without a travel permit which is a rule that is disproportionately imposed upon Rohingya and it is directly tied to the stripping of our legal status as Myanmar citizen back in 1982.

“Rohingya in Myanmar are still subjected to no less persecution, arbitrary arrests and restrictive living conditions and frequent human rights violations than before August 2017.”

Asked about the idea of engagement with the government to lift the restrictions on access to Rakhine, Yasmin Ullah said negotiation only works when there is a balance in the power dynamic.

“In our case, Rohingya are branded as illegal aliens; therefore, our voices or our complaints don’t really matter. That’s the justification that the military has successfully sold the Myanmar public,” she said.

“More of us are now living in exile and only 600,000 of us are left in the very volatile situation in Rakhine state. The military managed to drive out over 740,000 of us in the last two years, and there is a clear message in all of this.”

She said even as pressure builds at the international level on the government, it continues to oppress Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in pursuit of economic development that only benefits the military and its cronies.

The measures imposed by the ICJ are binding and not subject to appeal. Although the court has no way of enforcing them, Ullah said there is anxiety in Myanmar over the case, as reflected in the arrangements for a delegation to meet Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in December 2019.

“The state counsellor (Aung San Suu Kyi) mentioned in front of the judges that Myanmar is trying to pursue justice within its own judicial system,” she said.

“Although she whitewashed and dismissed most of the allegations of genocide, she acknowledged there were wrongdoings.

“This will, and already has, created room for activists and good Samaritans to put the emphasis on accountability and the need to scrutinize absolute power.”

As recently as after the hearing in the Hague, youth activists in Myanmar from groups Youth for a New Society and Doa-A-Yae, organized a solidarity campaign standing up against the Rohingya genocide, according to Yasmin Ullah.

“These brave young people realize that Myanmar will not change unless they keep resisting — and demand a free and fair society.”


Venezuela police arrest suspect in TikTok user’s murder

Updated 2 sec ago
Follow

Venezuela police arrest suspect in TikTok user’s murder

CARACAS: Venezuelan police have arrested an alleged accomplice in the murder of a TikTok influencer who was killed during a livestream after denouncing members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang and allegedly corrupt police officers.
Jesus Sarmiento, who had more than 77,000 followers on the social media platform, was broadcasting live when armed men entered the residence where he was staying and shot him.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced Sunday on Instagram the arrest of Pierina Uribarri, whom he described as the partner of Adrian Romero, the alleged gunman.
Prosecutors charged Uribarri with intentional homicide, criminal association and terrorism.
Arrest warrants had been issued for Romero and two other alleged perpetrators, Wilbert Gonzalez and Gerald Nieto.
In Sarmiento’s final broadcast, banging on a door and a woman’s screams for “help” can be heard in the background.
“They shot me, they shot me,” Sarmiento is heard saying before blood appears on the floor. Two armed men are visible before the broadcast ends.
Sarmiento had spoken in his TikTok posts about the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero, who is one of Venezuela’s most wanted criminals, known by the alias “Nino Guerrero.”
He also posted photos and videos of alleged gang members and denounced extortion by police officers.
The government has maintained that the Tren de Aragua — which the United States considers a “terrorist” organization — has already been dismantled and denies its existence.
In May, a young Mexican influencer was murdered during a live stream in Jalisco state.

Judges to decide if UK can supply parts for Israeli warplanes

Updated 37 min 27 sec ago
Follow

Judges to decide if UK can supply parts for Israeli warplanes

  • The UK government suspended some export licenses for military equipment after concluding there was a risk Israel could be breaching international humanitarian law

LONDON: British judges will rule on Monday on a legal challenge brought by a Palestinian human rights organization seeking to block the UK from supplying components for Israeli F-35 fighter jets.

Israel has used the jets to devastating effect in its bombardment of Gaza, with both sides being accused of atrocities during a conflict that has killed tens of thousands — mostly Palestinian civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

The UK government suspended some export licenses for military equipment after concluding there was a risk Israel could be breaching international humanitarian law, but made an exemption for some parts for Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth jets.

In its claim to the High Court, rights group Al-Haq said the “carve out” was unlawful, alleging the government had misunderstood the applicable rules of international law — a claim denied by ministers.

The UK contributes components to an international defense program that produces and maintains the F-35s.

Defense Secretary John Healey said a suspension would impact the “whole F-35 program” and have a “profound impact on international peace and security.”

The London court is due to give its ruling at 0930 GMT.

Al-Haq, which is supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and others in its case, is seeking a court order to stop the supply of UK-made parts for the US warplanes.

Lawyers for Al-Haq said the government had known there was a “clear risk” Israel would use the jet parts to commit violations of international law.

But government lawyer James Eadie said the UK’s trade department had acted lawfully.

He added the court was not placed to rule on the legality of Israel’s actions, and that attempting to do so could have a “potentially deleterious” effect on “foreign relations with a friendly state, namely Israel.”

In September 2024, the new Labour government announced it was suspending around 30 of 350 export licenses following a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.

But the partial ban did not cover British-made F-35 parts, which include refueling probes, laser targeting systems, tires and ejector seats, according to Oxfam.

Healey has previously said suspending F-35 licenses would “undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO” but lawyers for Al-Haq have described the exemption as a “loophole.”

UK-based NGO Campaign Against Arms Trade has said that licensing figures showed the government had made a “shocking increase in military exports to Israel” in the months after its September 2024 announcement of partial suspensions.

It said the figures showed the UK approved £127.6 million ($170 million) in military equipment to Israel in single-issue licenses from October to December 2024, saying this was more than for the period from 2020 to 2023 combined.

Most of the licenses were for military radars, components and software, as well as targeting equipment, according to the NGO, which was involved in the case against the government.


Azerbaijan cancels Russian events over the deaths of Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg

Updated 55 min 49 sec ago
Follow

Azerbaijan cancels Russian events over the deaths of Azerbaijanis in Yekaterinburg

  • According to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Russian law enforcement raided homes of Azerbaijani residents in the industrial city in Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday
  • The Azerbaijani government also announced the cancelation of a planned visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk

Azerbaijan has canceled all cultural events planned by Russian state and private institutions in protest over the deaths of two Azerbaijanis after police raids in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, Azerbaijani officials said Sunday.
Azerbaijan’s Culture Ministry wrote on X that concerts, exhibitions, festivals and performances were canceled on account of “the demonstrative targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed by Russian law enforcement agencies against Azerbaijanis on ethnic grounds in Yekaterinburg.”
According to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Russian law enforcement raided homes of Azerbaijani residents in the industrial city in Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday. Two Azerbaijanis were killed, it said, along with several others seriously injured and nine detained.
The ministry on Saturday summoned the Russian Embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Baku, Pyotr Volokovykh, demanding a full investigation and prosecution of those responsible.
The victims were identified as Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, both around 60 years old. Their brother, Sayfaddin Huseynli, told Azerbaijani public broadcaster ITV that the men were tortured to death “without any trial or investigation, despite their innocence.” He described the raids as “savagery,” claiming that others were beaten and subjected to electric shocks.
“The so-called Russian law enforcement agencies broke into houses in the middle of the night, beat and took people away like animals,” Huseynli said.
The Azerbaijani government also announced the cancelation of a planned visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk. “The government of Azerbaijan does not consider it appropriate under the current circumstances for Overchuk or any other official representative of Russia to visit the country,” state media reported.
In a statement, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said it expected “that the matter will be investigated and all perpetrators of violence brought to justice as soon as possible.”
Without commenting on the reported deaths, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday that the raids formed part of an investigation into previously committed crimes. Zakharova said raids and detentions targeted Russian citizens of Azerbaijani descent.
Ties between the two countries have been strained for months. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declined an invitation to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow in May. In contrast, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha visited Baku later that month, signaling closer ties between Baku and Kyiv.
Relations between Moscow and Baku cooled after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed in Kazakhstan in December, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Aliyev said it was shot down over Russia, albeit unintentionally, and rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. He accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the incident for several days. Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility.


German FM visits Kyiv, pledges continued support for Ukraine

Updated 36 min 39 sec ago
Follow

German FM visits Kyiv, pledges continued support for Ukraine

  • Germany has been Ukraine’s second-largest military backer after the United States

KYIV: German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, in a show of continuing support for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russia’s invasion as US-led international peace efforts fail to make progress.

Wadephul was due to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Wadephul said in a statement that Germany will help Ukraine “continue to defend itself successfully — with modern air defense and other weapons, with humanitarian and economic aid.”

Germany has been Ukraine’s second-largest military backer after the United States, whose continuing support is in doubt.

However, Berlin has balked at granting Zelensky’s request to provide Ukraine with powerful German- and Swedish-made Taurus long-range missiles. That’s due to fears that such a move could enrage the Kremlin and end up drawing NATO into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

Instead, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged in May to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets.

Wadephul was accompanied on his trip to Kyiv by German defense industry representatives.

Russia’s invasion shows no sign of letting up. Its grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and long-range strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine have killed thousands of troops and civilians.

The Russian effort to capture more Ukrainian territory has been costly in terms of casualties and damaged armor. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire and hasn’t budged from his war goals.

Putin “doesn’t want negotiations, but (Ukrainian) capitulation,” Wadephul said in his statement.

Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine at the weekend, Ukrainian officials said, in its escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts.


UN conference seeks boost for aid as US cuts bite

Updated 30 June 2025
Follow

UN conference seeks boost for aid as US cuts bite

  • UN sustainable development goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach just as the world’s wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programs

SEVILLE: A UN conference aiming to rally fresh support for development aid began in Spain on Monday with the sector in crisis as US-led funding cuts jeopardize the fight against poverty.
At least 50 world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenya’s William Ruto, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and UN head Antonio Guterres are gathering in the city of Seville for the June 30-July 3 meeting.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, Angolan leader Joao Lourenco and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan also joined more than 4,000 delegates from businesses, civil society and financial institutions.
But the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change.
A blistering heatwave that is scorching southern Europe welcomed the delegates to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, an example of the extreme weather that scientists say human-driven climate change is fueling.
UN sustainable development goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach just as the world’s wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programs.
US President Donald Trump’s gutting of his country’s development agency USAID is the standout example, but Germany, Britain and France are also making cuts as they boost spending in areas such as defense.
International charity Oxfam says the cuts to development aid are the largest since 1960 and the United Nations puts the growing gap in annual development finance at $4 trillion.
More than 800 million people live on less than $3 a day, according to the World Bank, with rising extreme poverty affecting sub-Saharan Africa in particular.
Disruption to global trade from Trump’s tariffs and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have dealt further blows to the diplomatic cohesion necessary for concentrating efforts on helping countries escape poverty.


Among the key topics up for discussion is reforming international finance to help poorer countries shrug off a growing debt burden that inhibits their capacity to achieve progress in health and education.
The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UN data.
Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for reform to improve their representation of the Global South.
Painstaking talks in New York in June produced a common declaration to be adopted in Seville that only went ahead after the United States walked out.
The document reaffirms commitment to the UN development goals such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, reforming tax systems and international financial institutions.
The text also calls on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urges lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion.
Coalitions of countries will seek to spearhead initiatives in addition to the so-called “Seville Commitment,” which is not legally binding.
But campaigners have criticized the text for lacking ambition and have rung alarm bells about rising global inequality.
“Global development is desperately failing because... the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else,” said Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International.
Hundreds of demonstrators braved the sizzling heat in Seville on Sunday to demand change in international tax, debt and aid policies.
“Global south countries will never be able to decide how they want to do development if they are bound to the new colonial debt,” protester Ilan Henzler, 28, told AFP.
“We are here to fight for the abolition of this illegitimate debt.”