Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi urged UN judges on Thursday to throw out a genocide case against Myanmar, warning it risked reigniting the crisis that forced nearly three quarters of a million Rohingya Muslims from their homes.
"I pray that the decision you make with the wisdom and vision of justice will help us to create unity out of diversity," said Suu Kyi, who wore traditional Burmese dress and flowers in her hair. Dozens of her supporters gathered outside the court in The Hague and nosily chanted"We stand with you Aung San Suu Kyi" as she arrived to give her speech.The small African, mainly Muslim state of Gambia has taken majority-Muslim Myanmar to the UN's top court in The Hague accusing it of breaching the 1948 UN genocide convention.
Suu Kyi told the court in her opening statement on Wednesday that there was no proof of"genocidal intent" and said the army operation was in response to attacks by Rohingya militants. "The word 'rape' did not once pass the lips of the agent," Sands added, as Suu Kyi sat impassively in the courtroom.Paul Reichler, another of The Gambia's lawyers, dismissed Suu Kyi's insistence that Myanmar's military should be left to probe the allegations itself.