Myanmar's Rohingya minority was deliberately targeted by the country's military in a bid to destroy the community, the International Court of Justice was told Monday, as it began a genocide hearing.
"It is not about esoteric issues of international law. It is about real people, real stories and a real group of human beings. The Rohingya of Myanmar. They have been targeted for destruction," Gambia's Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told the ICJ judges.
The Gambia brought the case accusing Myanmar of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention during a crackdown in 2017.
Legal experts are watching closely as it could give clues for how the court will handle similar accusations against Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza, a case brought to the ICJ by South Africa.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled violence by the Myanmar army and Buddhist militias, escaping to neighboring Bangladesh and bringing harrowing accounts of mass rape, arson and murder.
They were subjected to "the most horrific violence and destruction one could imagine," said Jallow.
Today, 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed into dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.
From there, mother-of-two Janifa Begum told AFP: "I want to see whether the suffering we endured is reflected during the hearing."
"We want justice and peace," said the 37-year-old.
A final decision could take months or even years, and while the ICJ has no means of enforcing its decisions, a ruling in favour of The Gambia would heap more political pressure on Myanmar.
"We did not bring this case lightly," said Jallow.
"We brought this case after reviewing credible reports of the most brutal and vicious violations imaginable inflicted upon a vulnerable group that had been dehumanised and persecuted for many years," added the minister.
The Gambia, a Muslim-majority country in West Africa, brought the case in 2019 to the ICJ, which rules in disputes between states.
Under the Genocide Convention, any country can file a case at the ICJ against any other it believes is in breach of the treaty.
In a landmark moment at the Peace Palace courthouse in The Hague, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in 2019 to defend her country.
She dismissed Banjul's argument as a "misleading and incomplete factual picture" of what she said was an "internal armed conflict."
Myanmar has always maintained that the crackdown by its armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents after a series of attacks left a dozen security personnel dead.
Suu Kyi will not be revisiting the Peace Palace. She has been detained since a 2021 coup, on charges rights groups say were politically motivated.
The ICJ initially sided with The Gambia, which had asked judges for "provisional measures" to halt the violence while the case was being considered.
The ICJ in 2020 said Myanmar must take "all measures within its power" to halt any acts prohibited in the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention.
These acts included "killing members of the group" and "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
The United States officially declared that the violence amounted to genocide in 2022, three years after a U.N. team said Myanmar harboured "genocidal intent" towards the Rohingya.
The hearings, which wrap up on Jan. 29, represent the heart of the case.
The ICJ is not the only court looking into possible genocide against the Rohingya.
The International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, is investigating military chief Min Aung Hlaing for suspected crimes against humanity.
Another case is being heard in Argentina under the principle of universal jurisdiction, the idea that some crimes are so heinous they can be heard in any court.
Outside the court, Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation U.K., told AFP: "We have been waiting for justice for many years."
"What's happening to the Rohingya is genocide, intentionally destroying our community. And we want to get justice. And when justice is done, we want to go back to our homeland with all our rights. And we want compensation," he added.
