About 700 people rallied Sunday to show support for Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as she prepares to defend the country against charges of genocide at the U.N.’s highest court.
The case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague relates to a harsh counterinsurgency campaign waged by Myanmar’s military against members of the country’s Muslim Rohingya community in August 2017 in response to an militant attack.
More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving killings and the torching of homes.
The head of a U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned recently that “there is a serious risk of genocide recurring.”
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will lead the delegation to The Hague in her capacity as foreign minister.
Hearings are due to start on Dec. 10. The case is expected to last several years.
