DAKAR/THE HAGUE – Myanmar’s junta representatives are likely to contest the World Court’s jurisdiction to hear claims that the country perpetrated genocide against the Rohingya population. The hearings will begin on February 21st, according to the Attorney General of Gambia.

Gambian Attorney-General Dawda Jallow announced that “a hybrid hearing” was set to start on the 21st February 2022. Aung San Suu Kyi who led Myanmar’s defense at the 2019 first public hearings, but was later deposed by military forces, has been officially replaced as the top representative of the court.

Hybrid hearings are where participants can be present in person but some will participate online through COVID-19.

After a 2017 military crackdown, more than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar and were forced to flee into Bangladeshi squalid camps. U.N. investigators found that the military campaign was carried out with “genocidal intention”.

A spokesperson for the ICJ declined to confirm that new hearing dates had been set.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi attended the hearings at The Hague in December 2019, asking judges to drop her case.

After being deposed by a coup in 2021 she was sentenced to six year imprisonment and facing a number of additional charges. Popular protests followed the military takeover of democratically elected governments. [L1N2TQ09N]

The military government is fighting to get international recognition. They could be keen for an opportunity to represent Myanmar at the U.N. top court.

Sources familiar with the matter claim that the junta cooperated with the court in submitting six-monthly court-ordered updates on the Rohingya situation. They are not made public.

Myanmar will challenge the court’s authority as the next stage in ICJ proceedings. In later hearings, the issue of whether genocide occurred in Myanmar will also be addressed.