I Am A Rohingya Refugee. Today, We Seek Justice
Rohingya Muslims Image by Getty Images
Today, Myanmar will at last have to answer for genocide — one of the worst crimes known to humankind — at the International Court of Justice. This is a crucial step toward making amends to the families of men, women and children who were raped, tortured, murdered or displaced. A victory at this prestigious court would be a victory for all the innocent people who suffered under the country’s military, and all of us who are now refugees.
Yasmin Ullah, president of the Rohingya Human Rights Network, a human rights advocacy group. Image by Courtesy of the Author
I am one of those refugees — one of the fortunate ones. When I was a child, my family fled Myanmar to escape the violence against our people, an ethnic group that is mostly Muslim. The military ramped up the violence in 2017, years after we left.
Today, I will be at the Peace Palace in The Hague, to observe arguments in the court, the main judicial organ of the United Nations. I will be representing the many Rohingya Muslims who cannot travel there, including over 740,000 who fled after the 2017 violence, and are crammed into refugee camps in Bangladesh.
This won’t be an easy case. None other than Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is in The Hague leading the country’s defense team.Not long ago, she was celebrated inside and out of Myanmar as a Nobel Prize Laureate and beacon of hope for democracy — until she backed our country’s military in its ruthless persecution of ethnic and religious minorities.
We are grateful to The Gambia, the small African country that showed moral courage in bringing this case to the international court. Many other countries dithered because of trade with Myanmar or pure indifference.
And let’s be clear: This is not just our issue. It is time for the global community to show solidarity, to demonstrate that we are living in a world where every individual has dignity and human rights — where if one person’s basic rights are violated, our collective rights are violated. Other countries should support The Gambia to jointly bring forward this case at the ICJ.
As the court hears the arguments of Myanmar’s genocidal intent, questions regarding gender will come to the front. The Gambia’s legal team plans to explore the nature of the crimes perpetrated against Rohingya women. Women bore the brunt of this genocide. This is a delicate matter: We want to pursue this issue without re-traumatizing the survivors.
The Rohingya people are not seeking vengeance or retaliation. We are simply claiming our humanity. We want to ensure that Myanmar’s military stops persecuting other ethnic nationalities, such as the Rakhine, Kachin, Shan and Karen. My fellow activists and I will bear witness to the court proceedings this week to make sure that other countries look at the larger issue instead of simply focusing on the military malfeasance and body counts.
At the conclusion of this week’s hearing, the court can and must immediately order Myanmar to stop persecuting the 600,000 Rohingya remaining inside Myanmar, cease destroying any evidence of international crimes and prevent genocide from happening in the future. At the end of this long and difficult road for justice when Myanmar is found guilty of committing genocide, we must ensure that the country upholds its responsibilities under the Genocide Convention.
As the court makes its ruling, we want to feel human again. The trauma has seeped far deeper than the Rohingya’s body wounds. It is a trauma that you can’t see with your eyes. And now we want the world to acknowledge it.
Yasmin Ullah is president of the Rohingya Human Rights Network, a human rights advocacy group.
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