Myanmar’s Rohingya People Called ‘Muslim Dogs’ Before Attacks, ICJ Hears

From Gambia’s legal team, Jessica Jones highlighted how the Rohingya faced “longstanding denigration” and hate speech from senior and other members of the Myanmar military.

Ms. Jones also referred to a video posted on Facebook in August 2017 featuring a soldier displaying “clear encouragement of genocidal violence against the Rohingya” – actions that would be in clear breach of Myanmar’s obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

“He told them, and I quote, ‘We will clear the villages where those animals live. We have guns, we have bullets. That’s what we came with, with ammunition and the spirit to attack the animals, we have come here. If you can carry a sword, carry a sword. If you can carry a stick, then carry a stick. Carry whatever you can and bravely face these animals’.”

Gambia, a Muslim-majority nation, alleges that Myanmar’s military rulers committed brutal acts of genocide against the Rohingya people from 2016 to 2018 in northern Rakhine State.

These violations included mass executions, the indiscriminate killing of up to 10,000 civilians including women and children, widespread sexual violence and the deliberate burning of hundreds of villages.

- Author: Daniel Johnson, United Nations