Nizam Ahmed: Ongoing atrocities being inflicted by Myanmar on Rohingya Muslims community for more than seven decades, have been acknowledged by the world conscience through a landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued at its centre in The Hague on January 23 last. The ruling is also recognition to the Rohingyas as the most persecuted community of the world. Most countries of the world and their people either were not aware or ignored the past exodus of Rohingyas from Myanmar in 1991-92 and earlier in 1978 when hundreds and thousands of Rohingyas fleeing atrocities in their ancestral homes in Rakhine State (formerly Arakan)  had taken refuge in Bangladesh.

All the 200,000 Rohingyas who had crossed over to Bangladesh in 1978 were repatriated a year later with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Before the repatriation began some 12,000 refugees reportedly died due to malnutrition and lack of medicare.

The repatriation of some 250,000 Rohingyas who crossed over in late 1991 and early 1992, was concluded in end-1998. But more than 31,000 refugees, refused to return fearing recurrence of persecution in the mainly Buddhist dominated Myanmar.

However, the repatriation did not change the lot of Rohingyas as the Myanmar authorities and the Buddhist community in Rakhine continued to curtail basic human rights of the Muslim returnees, whose nationality remained cancelled and rights to education, employment and franchise remained blocked. As a result they have become stateless and were made targets of frequent sectarian commotion which intensified by 2012, forcing many of them to flee to Bangladesh.

Since 2012 some 300,000 Rohingyas took shelter in Bangladesh ahead of the 2017 influx which brought in fresh 750,000 to Bangladesh until end 2019.  As of now Bangladesh has been sheltering some 1.1 million Rohingyas, who have settled on government lands destroying some 3,000 hectares of forests including crucial elephant passes.

These two exodus of Rohingyas occurred in a span of some 13 years passed almost unnoticed as the Bangladesh authorities were shy of internationalising the matter. But this time the influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh from Myanmar was massive and the camp where the forcibly evicted people have been sheltered has been labelled as the largest refugee camp of the world. The incumbent Bangladesh authorities also undertook a massive diplomatic effort to successfully project the issue as a serious humanitarian crisis.

In the ruling the ICJ ordered Myanmar authorities to take urgent measures to protect its Muslim Rohingya population from persecution and atrocities, and preserve evidence of alleged crimes against them. Currently, some 600,000 Rohingyas are living in concentration camps following sectarian mayhem in 2012 and crackdown in Rakhine following deadly attacks on police outposts by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in 2017. The residents of the concentration camp of internally displaced Rohingyas, are deprived of adequate food, healthcare and minimum amenities. Due to lack of security and threat on life Rohingyas try to flee Myanmar through sea routes in small vessels unworthy to take maritime voyage. Many meet watery graves or court arrest to coast guards of different Southeast Asian countries.

It is the first time in nearly 70 years that the plight of Rohingyas has been brought into international focus. The Rohingya community started facing persecution even much before the independence of Buddhist majority Burma (now Myanmar) from Britain in 1948.

To get rid of the perennial persecution, Rohingya Muslim leaders in 1946 led a mission to the head of All India Muslim League Mohammad Ali Jinnah who spearheaded a movement to curve out an Independent state for the Muslims of the Indian Sub-Continent. The Rohingya leaders urged Jinnah to include Arakan with his movement so that the Muslim majority areas of Arakan could join East Pakistan. But Jinnah who was seeking an independent Pakistan for the Muslims, decline to heed the Rohingya leaders fearing backlash from the then Burma which was also struggling to get independence from Britain.

Also this is the first time that Myanmar has faced justice over the 2017 military crackdown against the Rohingya militants. In the guise of hunting militants, Myanmar security forces resorted to killing scores of unarmed Rohingya people including the children.  Besides many women were raped and their villages were burned to ashes. According to a United Nations report more than 1,000 Rohingyas have been killed and scores raped in the first two weeks crackdown since August 25, 2017.

The unanimous ruling by a panel of 17 judges of the ICJ said Myanmar must now take all steps within its power to prevent serious harm to Rohingya, and submit reports on the development to the ICJ within next 4 months and every 6 months thereon. However, the rulings issued by the ICJ are final and no appeals against the rulings are accepted, but it has no real way of enforcing them. The defiant Myanmar forces continued to kill Rohingyas even after ICJ ruling. At least two people weed killed when shells were hurled on Rohingya village on January 25 last, two days after the issuance of the ICJ ruling, which dealt only with preliminary measures, asking Myanmar to stop persecution on Rohingyas immediately. The court is expected to give a final verdict with years.

The ruling came after the African mostly Muslim country Gambia launched a lawsuit in November accusing Myanmar of genocide against Rohingyas at the United Nations` highest court ICJ that settles disputes between countries. Though Bangladesh has been hit directly by the exodus of the forcibly evicted Rohingyas from Myanmar, it opted to pursue repatriation of the refugees through bilateral diplomatic arbitration. At the same time Bangladesh also wanted to avoid any sort of military encounter with Myanmar over the issue, despite provocations from Myanmar on regular intervals in the last couple of years.

Ahead of the Ruling Myanmar`s defacto leaderState Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in her article published in the Financial Times of England admitted that war crimes may have been committed against Rohingya Muslims but that refugees had exaggerated the abuses against them. However, during a week of hearings in December, Suu Kyi asked the judges to drop the case. But the court refused to entertain the Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi, who has been widely criticised for supporting genocidal intent of Myanmar military who had detained her for decades in the past.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abul Momen hailing the ruling said: "A victory for humanity, a milestone for human rights activists across all nations. A victory for Gambia, OIC, the Rohingya and of course, for Bangladesh and its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina."

But the concerned quarter believe, Myanmar won`t change its stance on Rohingyas without the pressure from its biggest allies like China, Russia, India and Japan, who are also said to be the friends of Bangladesh. Myanmar is more important to the aforesaid countries, than Bangladesh, which has smaller business stakes with them compared to the former. They advise Bangladesh to undertake diplomatic drives to convince the common allies to create pressure on Myanmar to take back the Rohingyas from Bangladesh ensuring them all the basic human rights.

The Gambia`s Ministry of Justice hailed the verdict saying: "The ICJ unanimously grants essential Provisional Measures requested by the Gambia against Myanmar. Major step towards holding Myanmar accountable for alleged acts of genocide against the Rohingya".

To help the Gambian government keep up its stance against Myanmar and continue the legal battle at the ICJ, Bangladesh, OIC, the European Union must forge a strong bond to help Gambia to bear cost of the case and continue struggle until the achievement of the final verdict from the international court.