The Hague (AFP) - Myanmar deliberately targeted the Rohingya minority with “horrific violence” in a bid to destroy the community, Gambia’s justice minister told the International Court of Justice Monday at the start of a genocide hearing.

“It is not about esoteric issues of international law. It is about real people, real stories and a real group of human beings. The Rohingya of Myanmar. They have been targeted for destruction,” Dawda Jallow told ICJ judges.

The Gambia brought the case accusing Myanmar of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention during a crackdown in 2017.

Legal experts are watching closely as it could give clues for how the court will handle similar accusations against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, in a case brought to the ICJ by South Africa.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled violence by the Myanmar army and Buddhist militias, escaping to neighbouring Bangladesh and bringing harrowing accounts of mass rape, arson and murder.

They were subjected to “the most horrific violence and destruction one could imagine”, said Jallow.

Paul Reichler, a lawyer representing The Gambia, laid out searing allegations from witnesses, including gang rapes, sexual mutilation, and infants being burned alive.

Today, 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed into dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

From there, mother-of-two Janifa Begum, 37, told AFP: “I want to see whether the suffering we endured is reflected during the hearing.”

“We want justice and peace,” she said.

A final decision could take months or even years, and while the ICJ has no means of enforcing its decisions, a ruling in favour of The Gambia would heap more political pressure on Myanmar.

“We did not bring this case lightly,” said Jallow.

“We brought this case after reviewing credible reports of the most brutal and vicious violations imaginable inflicted upon a vulnerable group that had been dehumanised and persecuted for many years,” added the minister.

- ‘Senseless killings’ -

The Gambia, a Muslim-majority country in west Africa, brought the case in 2019 to the ICJ, which rules in disputes between states.

Under the Genocide Convention, any country can file a case at the ICJ against any other it believes is in breach of the treaty.

In a landmark moment at the Peace Palace courthouse in The Hague, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi appeared herself in 2019 to defend her country.

She dismissed Banjul’s argument as a “misleading and incomplete factual picture” of what she said was an “internal armed conflict”.

Myanmar has always maintained the crackdown by its armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents after a series of attacks left a dozen security personnel dead.

Suu Kyi will not be revisiting the Peace Palace. She has been detained since a 2021 coup, on charges rights groups say were politically motivated.

Myanmar’s junta spokesman could not be reached for comment by AFP on Monday.

- ‘Physical destruction’ -

In 2020, the ICJ said Myanmar must take “all measures within its power” to halt any acts prohibited in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

These acts included “killing members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

The United States officially declared that the violence amounted to genocide in 2022, three years after a UN team said Myanmar harboured “genocidal intent” towards the Rohingya.

The ICJ hearings wrap up on January 29.

“When the court considers… all of the evidence taken together, the only reasonable conclusion to reach is that a genocidal intent permeated and informed Myanmar’s myriad of state-led actions against the Rohingya,” said Philippe Sands, arguing for The Gambia.

The ICJ is not the only court looking into possible genocide against the Rohingya – other cases are underway at the International Criminal Court and in Argentina under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Outside the court, Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, told AFP: “We have been waiting for justice for many years.”

“What’s happening to the Rohingya is genocide, intentionally destroying our community. And we want to get justice. And when justice is done, we want to go back to our homeland with all our rights. And we want compensation,” he added.