Staff Writer With AFP

International Court of Justice orders Myanmar to prevent Rohingya genocide

The U.N.’s top court said Thursday it has the authority to rule in an urgent case in which Myanmar is accused of genocide against Rohingya Muslims and ordered emergency measures to prevent further violence. “The court concludes that it has prima facie jurisdiction to rule in the case,” International Court of Justice presiding judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said in The Hague. The court ordered Myanmar to take “all measures within its power” to prevent genocide against Rohingya. Yusuf said that “the court was of the opinion that the Rohingya in Myanmar remain extremely vulnerable” and needed to be protected from further bloodshed. The court ordered Myanmar to report back within four months, and then every six months after that. It also told Myanmar to prevent the destruction of any evidence of crimes against the Rohingya. The January 23 ruling comes days after a Myanmar commission concluded that some soldiers likely committed war crimes against the minority group but that the military was not guilty of genocide. Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi traveled to The Hague in December to personally defend her Buddhist-majority country against the allegations over the bloody 2017 crackdown against the Rohingya. The mainly Muslim African …