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Indonesia’s Muslim groups split over Myanmar genocide trial
Faced with the trial of Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, Indonesia's Muslim population, the largest in the world, is split between demanding accountability and supporting the Buddhist-majority country in resolving a complex web of horizontal conflict within its borders.
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Faced with the trial of Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, Indonesia's Muslim population, the largest in the world, is split between demanding accountability and supporting the Buddhist-majority country in resolving a complex web of horizontal conflict within its borders. (The Daily Star/Asia News Network)
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ndonesia's two largest Muslim groups have mixed views about bringing Myanmar to the World Court over allegations of genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority, a move that was backed by the rest of the Muslim world.
The Gambia, a small Muslim country in West Africa, filed a case last month at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which it alleged Myanmar was responsible for “an ongoing genocide” of the Rohingya, a stateless community largely residing in the country’s western province of Rakhine, where a military crackdown in 2017 drove out upwards of 740,000 into neighboring Bangladesh.
A three-day hearing at the ICJ in The Hague, the Netherlands, commenced on Dec. 10, featuring Myanmar State Counsellor and former human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who took the stand to defend her government and the military generals who had once jailed her.
FORUM-ASIA, a collective of 81 human rights groups from across Asia, condemned the continuous denials by Myanmar’s leaders over apparent human rights violations, saying there was “an urgency for international action to put an end to the violence and ensure accountability”.
At the end of the hearing, Myanmar called on the ICJ judges to dismiss the genocide accusation, with Suu Kyi demanding that her country’s justice system be given the chance to work.
The Indonesian Ulema Council’s (MUI) director of international affairs, Muhyiddin Junaidi, said on Saturday that the council fully supported The Gambia’s decision, which had also won support from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
“[It] has to be supported by Indonesia and the international community in order to uphold the dignity of 2 billion Muslims around the world,” he told The Jakarta Post.
