Myanmar's Suu Kyi back in U.N. court for final day of genocide hearing

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi returned to the International Court of Justice on Thursday to defend Myanmar against accusations it has committed genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority population.

Gambia, which brought the suit at the U.N.’s top court under the 1948 Genocide Convention, has asked judges to order “provisional measures” that would act as a kind of restraining order for the Myanmar military until the case is heard in full.

At Thursday’s hearing each side will have a chance to counter arguments put forward by the other over the past two days, starting with Gambia, a small west African country that is supported by the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation.

On Tuesday, Gambia’s legal team outlined graphic testimony of bloody excesses alleged committed by Myanmar’s military since 2016 in a campaign that has seen more than 730,000 Rohingya driven across the border from Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh. U.N. investigators estimated 10,000 people may have been killed.

Suu Kyi on Wednesday argued the tribunal, also known as the World Court, should not have jurisdiction. She said even if there had been violations of humanitarian law during what she described as an “internal conflict”, they did not rise to the level of genocide and are not covered by the Convention.