By Sulayman Waan
The Gambia Attorney General and Minister of Justice has disclosed that the reason behind genocide against the minority Rohingya Muslims, Myamar, is due to their religious and racial differences they have with their perpetrators.
Speaking at the celebration of the International Human Right Day at Sir Dawda Jawara’s International Conference hall, Bijilo, Dawda Jallow stated that the Rohingya minority has suffered the barbarity of mass killing, mass rape, and burning of children in sanctuary of their homes and places of worship.
He stated further the destruction of their homes and properties or in an attempt to exterminate them for the simple reason that they were born in a different race and religion from those who kill and rape them.
According to him, the consent of the world should be awaken to the incident of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar as everyone has rights to enjoy human rights saying “they are inherent to all human beings to everywhere in the world.”
The Gambia and Myanmar, he said, are signatories to the1948 Genocide Convention which compelled all members to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
“On the 23rd of January a unanimous decision by the ICJ in Haiti ordering provisional measures to prevent further acts of genocide from occurring in Myanmar was made by the Court. The Court’s decision was historic and was celebrated by human rights defenders all over the world, drawing global attention and actions on the Rohingya crisis,” he reminded the gathering.
According to the 2014 Myanmar Census, 87.9% of the population identifies as Buddhists. Theravada Buddhism is the most widespread. There are some 500,000 Buddhist monks and 75,000 nuns in this country of 54 million.
He went on that other religions are practiced largely without obstruction, with the notable exception of some religious minorities such as the Rohingya people, who have continued to have their citizenship status denied and treated as illegal immigrants instead.
The Justice Minister went further that the Myanmar 2014 census further stated that 6.2% of the population identifies as Christian; 4.3% as Muslim; 0.8% as followers of tribal religions; 0.5% as Hindus; 0.2% as followers of other religions; and 0.1% follow no religion.
The Minister continued that the Rohingya have been leaving the Rakhine State by boat in search of jobs in Malaysia these recent years. Often, the boats are very small and dangerous on the open seas.
An estimated 100,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar in the last two years in fear of persecution and violence.
They have been fleeing to Thailand, Malaysia, or even Australia for refuge. Over 200 have died in recent years and over 7,000 have been held in detention centers even after surviving the boat trip.
Further to that he said starting in late 2016, Myanmar’s military and police started large-scale persecutions of Rohingya peoples in Rakhine state.
This has driven over 742,000 Rohingya to cross the border to overloaded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Widespread violence, including evidence of indiscriminate killings and ethnic cleansing, has been reported. The International Criminal Court has authorized a criminal prosecution of Myanmar under the Rome Statute.
In November 2019 the Organization of Islamic Corporation (OIC) backed The Gambia to file a legal case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the case of application of convention on the prevention and punishment of crime of genocide.
