Pope urges respect for prostitutes at crowded Bangkok mass

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine MARCIANO, Jenny VAUGHAN, November 21, 2019

Pope Francis arrived at the stadium in a golden robe woven for him from Thai silk
(AFP Photo/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

Bangkok (AFP) - Pope Francis led an impassioned mass for tens of thousands of emotional worshippers at a packed Bangkok stadium Thursday, urging respect for prostitutes and trafficking victims in a part of the world where sex work is rampant.

The remarks came at the end of a whirlwind day of meetings for Pope Francis, who is on his first trip to Buddhist-majority Thailand where he is carrying a message of religious harmony and peace.

He heads to Japan next, visiting the twin atomic bombs sites of Nagasaki and Hiroshima where he will seek a ban on "immoral" nuclear weapons.

The 82-year-old arrived at the stadium in a golden robe woven for him from Thai silk, greeting crowds of flag-waving faithful, some wiping tears from their faces at the sight of the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics.

An estimated 60,000 worshippers gathered for the mass (AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)

An estimated 60,000 worshippers gathered for the mass, some pouring into a nearby stadium to watch the hymn-filled service on large screens.

Known for his down-to-earth style, the Pope did not shy away from difficult topics.

He focused on the importance of helping vulnerable children and women "who are victims of prostitution and human trafficking, humiliated in their essential human dignity".

He also referred to drug addicts, migrants and "exploited sinners and bypassed beggars".

"All of them are part of our family. They are our mothers, our brothers and sisters. Let us not deprive our communities of seeing their faces, their wounds, their smiles and their lives," said the Pope, after leading prayers.

Performers dance after a Holy Mass led by Pope Francis (AFP Photo/Lillian

SUWANRUMPHA)

The remarks were delivered in a region beloved by tourists but infamous for a thriving sex trade and unchecked human trafficking.

Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, home to at least 300,000 sex workers -- some four percent of whom are believed to be trafficked, according to official estimates.

Many women are drawn to the work because they can earn up to 10 times more than the minimum wage, and critics say some corrupt Thai authorities turn a blind eye to the thriving trade.

Earlier, the Pope praised Thailand's efforts to stamp out the "scourge" of exploitation and enslavement of women and children, urging a "dignified" future for vulnerable youth.

The Catholic Church has been shaken by child sex abuse scandals itself in recent years, with many high-profile cases brought against clergy.

Known for his down-to-earth style, the Pope did not shy away from difficult topics 

at the mass (AFP Photo/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

'Gift from God'

Thailand has not had a visit from a pontiff since John Paul II in 1984, and the small but spirited Catholic community was thrilled ahead of the mass.

Just over 0.5 percent of the population is Catholic but the community has been here for centuries.

For Pimrapat Panyawattanatikul, the service was her second shot at seeing a pope after John Paul II touched her head some 35 years ago.

Now she's hoping her mother will get a similar honour, with the pair sitting right on the track Francis was set to drive past in his Popemobile.

Francis paid a visit to the supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha 

Muneewong at one of Bangkok's famed gilded temples (AFP Photo/Handout)

"It's a miracle we got these seats. It's my mom's dream to see the pope and to go to Italy. This is a gift from God," Pimrapat told AFP, her mother next to her clutching a rosary.

The Pope's colourful mass capped a packed schedule on the first full day of Thailand where he was welcomed Wednesday by cheering worshippers in Bangkok eager for a glimpse of his motorcade.

On Thursday Francis followed in the footsteps of John Paul II, paying a visit to the supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at one of Bangkok's famed gilded temples.

The pair sat before a brilliant gold Buddha statue inside the ornate temple, built 150 years ago by the former Thai King -- the supreme patriarch barefoot and draped in orange robes as they spoke.

Thailand has not had a visit from a pontiff since John Paul II in 1984 (AFP Photo/

Vincenzo PINTO)

The Pope reciprocated the gesture, removing his shoes for part of the tete-a-tete.

In an earlier speech, the Pope said the meeting was "a sign of the importance and urgency of promoting friendship and inter-religious dialogue".

Nuclear ban

This visit coincides with the 350th anniversary of the founding of the "Mission de Siam", marking the first papal mission from Europe in the 17th century.

Though Christianity's first visitors were initially met with scepticism, today Thailand's nearly 400,000 Catholics face little discrimination.

Pope Francis heads to Japan next (AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO)

The Pope also paid a visit to Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and King Maha Vajiralongkorn, gifting the top royal a colourful mosaic of a papal blessing in Vatican City's Saint Peter's Square.

On Friday the pontiff will host another mass, this one for young people, and meet with religious leaders in the city.

He jets to Japan Saturday, where he will visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both devastated when the US dropped atomic bombs at the end of World War II in 1945.

The pope, who years ago had hoped to be a missionary in Japan, has made strong calls for a ban on nuclear weapons.

Pope lands in Thailand to kick off two-country Asian tour

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine MARCIANO, November 20, 2019

The pontiff landed at Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport, on
his third trip to Asia (AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO)

Pope Francis arrived in Thailand on Wednesday greeted by cheering faithful, on the first leg of an Asian tour that will sweep in Japan and carry a message of interreligious dialogue and nuclear disarmament.

The pontiff landed just after midday (0500 GMT) at Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport, where he stepped off the plane and was met by his missionary cousin Sister Ana Rosa, who has lived in Thailand for decades.

"I am happy to see you and that you are able to be my translator," he told her, as dozens waved Thai and Vatican flags.

The welcome party included Thailand's deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak and children in traditional ethnic minority dress, one of whom Francis stopped to hug.

This will be the pope's third trip to Asia -- and his 32nd abroad -- taking him to two Buddhist-majority countries with minority Catholic populations both evangelised by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.

Map showing the route and dates of Pope Francis' Asia visit, 

Nov 19-26 (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU)

Francis is the first pontiff in nearly four decades to visit Thailand where the nearly 400,000-strong Catholic community makes up a little more than 0.5 percent of the population.

The last visit from a pontiff came in 1984 by Pope John Paul II.

Before his departure, Francis praised the Southeast Asian country as a "multi-ethnic nation", and hoped his trip would strengthen the Catholic community's bonds of friendship with "many Buddhist brothers and sisters".

"I trust that my visit will help to highlight the importance of inter-religious dialogue, mutual understanding and fraternal cooperation," the Pope said in the video marking his November 20-23 visit.

'Sawadee!'

Francis' visit has stirred excitement among Thailand's Catholic community, who made a strong show of force on Wednesday waiting for his motorcade near the Vatican City embassy in Bangkok.

A costumed mascot and children yelling 'Sawadee Pa! (Hello Father)' 

greeted Pope Francis in Bangkok (AFP Photo/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

They included a costumed mascot made to resemble Francis and children yelling "Sawadee Pa! (Hello Father)".

Sister Ana Rosa told AFP she did not have time to catch up with her cousin after his arrival as the 82-year-old pontiff was resting following the long overnight flight from Rome.

"I am happy for all the Thai people" to witness his visit, she said.

On Thursday, he will meet with the 20th Supreme Patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong -- the head of Thailand's Buddhist clergy.

He will also have meetings with Thailand's prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

His day will end with a holy mass at the national stadium, where tens of thousands are expected to attend from many walks of life, including ethnic Karen Christians from northern Thailand, Vietnamese Catholic refugees living in Bangkok, and faithful from all over Southeast Asia.

Pope Francis is the first pontiff in nearly four decades 

to visit Thailand (AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO)

On Friday, the pope's day will be filled meeting with priests and bishops of Thailand, and it will end with a youth-oriented mass at a cathedral.

On Saturday, the pontiff will fly to Japan where he will visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities devastated when the US dropped atomic bombs at the end of World War II in 1945.

More than 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima, while the port city of Nagasaki suffered a death toll of 74,000.

The pope, who years ago had hoped to be a missionary in Japan, has made strong calls for the ban of the "immoral" use of nuclear weapons.

Since Francis' election six years ago, he has made two trips to Asia, visiting the Philippines and Sri Lanka in 2014, followed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017.

Related Article:

Pope to visit Hiroshima on anti-nuclear weapon mission

Pope Francis had hoped years ago to be a missionary in Japan, a country

the pontiff is to visit this week as he seeks a ban on nuclear weapons

(AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO)

Aung San Suu Kyi to lead Myanmar defence against ICJ case

Yahoo – AFP, November 20, 2019

Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi will personally lead a team to
The Hague, her office said (AFP Photo/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

Myanmar's civilian leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will head up a delegation to the UN’s top court to defend a case accusing the mainly Buddhist country of genocide against Rohingya Muslims, the government said Wednesday, a decision that blind-sided observers.

West African nation Gambia is due to open its case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December on behalf of the 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

The complaint accuses Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through its brutal military campaign in 2017, which targeted the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

In the opening hearings, the small, majority-Muslim African country is expected to ask the court to make an emergency injunction to protect the Rohingya, pending a decision on whether to deal with the wider case.

But Suu Kyi will personally lead a team to The Hague to "defend the national interest of Myanmar," her office said.

Myanmar has also retained prominent international lawyers, it added.

The country has repeatedly justified the crackdown on the Rohingya as necessary to stamp out militants and insists its own committees are adequate to investigate allegations of abuse.

Some 740,000 Rohingya were forced to flee into sprawling camps in Bangladesh after the brutal 2017 military crackdown, in violence that United Nations investigators concluded amounted to genocide.

'Never ever surrender'

The case will be the first international legal attempt to bring Myanmar to justice over the Rohingya crisis, and is a rare example of a country suing another over an issue to which it is not directly a party.

The ICJ was set up in 1946 after World War II to adjudicate in disputes between UN member states.

Myanmar's 2017 military campaign targeted the Rohingya minority (AFP Photo/

Ye Aung THU)

Gambia's effort is one of several legal challenges mounting against Myanmar.

The International Criminal Court -- another Hague-based court set up in 2002 to probe war crimes -- last week authorised its chief prosecutor to launch a full investigation into the persecution of the Rohingya.

Myanmar has not signed up to the ICC and therefore rejects its authority.

But the probe says it can be held responsible for crimes that affect neighbouring Bangladesh, which has signed up to the court.

Rights groups have meanwhile filed a separate lawsuit over the Rohingya in Argentina in which Myanmar's former democracy icon Sun Kyi was personally named.

This is under "universal jurisdiction", a legal principle which holds that some crimes are so horrific, they can be tried anywhere.

Independent Yangon-based analyst David Mathieson said the decision for Suu Kyi to lead the defence team personally was certainly a shock but he thought it "could potentially be positive".

"(She) should use the trip to absorb this information, not just denounce accountability measures as undue pressure on Myanmar," he said.

The former rights champion, widely condemned in the West for failing to stand up for the Rohingya, still enjoys overwhelming support at home where many buy the official line that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants.

Wednesday’s announcement is also likely to further rally people to her side as the country heads into an election next year.

As the news spread, outpourings of praise were posted on Facebook.

"Bravo!" congratulated Mg Khin. "She (Suu Kyi) will never ever surrender."

Gay Saudi journalists detained in Australia after asylum bid

Yahoo – AFP, November 20, 2019

Homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia (AFP Photo/OZAN KOSE)

Two gay Saudi journalists who sought asylum in Australia after being threatened at home over their relationship have been held for weeks at an immigration detention centre, their lawyer said Wednesday.

The couple arrived in Australia in mid-October on tourist visas but was singled out by airport customs officials -- then taken into detention -- when they admitted plans to seek asylum, lawyer Alison Battisson told AFP.

"Australia being very well known for being... a safe place for LGBTI people, they were incredibly surprised and distressed," she said.

One of the men -- who worked for Saudi Arabia's media ministry and regularly assisted visiting international news organisations -- said they came under pressure from authorities after a dissident leaked sensitive documents to foreign media.

"I was called into a prison on the outskirts of Riyadh by the state security," he told ABC, adding they "hinted that they realised I was in a relationship with my partner and that I should stop working with the foreign media".

Battisson said the men had not leaked any documents, but were swept up in a wider crackdown by Saudi authorities in the wake of Khashoggi's murder.

In August, one of the men received a phone call from a relative warning they knew of their gay relationship and if it it wasn't ended his partner would be killed.

Police followed that up with separate calls asking them to come in for questioning, which led to their decision to flee.

Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia and punishable by death.

Battisson says the two men have been separated in detention as one is receiving medical treatment, while the other is housed with convicted criminals awaiting deportation.

She said poor conditions in the centre and the uncertainty surrounding their case have proved "psychologically very difficult".

"Them speaking up is actually their right -- there's no reason we should remain silent about human rights abuses in Australia," she said.

The home affairs department, which oversees immigration matters, and the Australian Border Force did not respond to requests for comment.

Pope to visit Hiroshima on anti-nuclear weapon mission

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine MARCIANO with Ursula HYZY in Tokyo, November 18, 2019

Pope Francis had hoped years ago to be a missionary in Japan, a country
the pontiff is to visit this week as he seeks a ban on nuclear weapons
(AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO)

Pope Francis, who years ago hoped to be a missionary in Japan, travels to the sites of the world's only atomic attacks this week seeking a ban on nuclear weapons.

The Argentine pontiff, 82, flies to Asia on Tuesday, where he will first visit Thailand and then Japan, including the two cities destroyed by devastating US nuclear attacks during the Second World War.

Despite both countries having less than 0.6 percent Catholic populations, Francis is thirsty for interreligious dialogue with them.

He will arrive in Thailand on Wednesday before flying on to Japan on Saturday, where he will stay until November 26.

Sunday is set to be a marathon day with visits to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where at least 74,000 people and 140,000 people respectively were killed by the atomic bombs attacks.

The August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and of Nagasaki three days later contributed to Japan's surrender and the end of the Second World War on August 15, months after Nazi Germany capitulated.

Father Yoshio Kajiyama, director of the Jesuit social centre in Tokyo, was born in Hiroshima shortly after the war and is eagerly awaiting the pope's anti-nuclear speech.

"My grandfather died the day of the bomb in Hiroshima, I never knew him. Four days later my aunt died when she was 15 years old," said the 64-year-old.

"If you grow up in Hiroshima, you can't forget the bomb."

No nukes message

The pope will make "as vigorous an appeal as possible in favour of concerted measures to completely eliminate nuclear weapons," Vatican number two Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the United Nations in September.

"Using atomic energy to wage war is immoral," the head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics told Japanese television in September.

A previous member of Japan's diplomatic mission to the Vatican, Shigeru Tokuyasu, said he hopes the visit will pull the world back from "the globalisation of indifference" over nuclear weapons.

But, said Tokuyasu, the pope should avoid discussing the politically sensitive issue of nuclear energy.

Francis is als to meet victims of the devastating 2011 earthquake that struck northeastern Japan and the subsequent tsunami that between them killed 18,500 people and sparked the nuclear power catastrophe at Fukushima.

Fear of nuclear war

Francis is used to railing against countries that make money from weapons and has already voiced his fear of a nuclear war.

In January last year, he printed cards with a photo of a Nagasaki bomb victim, inscribing the words "the fruit of war" above his signature.

The 1945 photo, captured by American photographer Joe O'Donnell, showed a small boy standing ramrod straight carrying his dead younger brother on his back while waiting for his turn at a cremation site.

The late pope John Paul II visited Japan in 1981, where at Hiroshima's peace monument he pointed to war as "the work of man".

In August, the city of Hiroshima called on Japan to sign the UN treaty calling for a ban on nuclear weapons, something that all the world's nuclear powers have refused to do.

Japan, with its pacifist post-war constitution, adhered in 1967 to the principle of "not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory," despite counting on the US nuclear umbrella for protection.

Multiethnic Thailand

Before arriving in Thailand on Wednesday, the pope praised the "multiethnic nation" which "has worked to promote harmony and peaceful coexistence, not only among its habitants but throughout Southeast Asia."

In a video message to the Thai people, the pope said he hoped to "strengthen ties of friendship" with Buddhists.

SinceFrancis' election six years ago, he has made two trips to Asia, visiting the Philippines and Sri Lanka in 2014, followed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017.

On Thursday in Bangkok, the pontiff is to pay a visit to supreme patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at a Buddhist temple.

Leaked China documents reveal 'no mercy' in Xinjiang: NYT

Yahoo - AFP, November 17, 2019

China has been accused of rounding up more than a million Uighurs and mostly
Muslim minorities in Xinjiang (AFP Photo/WANG Zhao)

Beijing (AFP) - A rare and huge leak of Chinese government documents has shed new light on a security crackdown on Muslims in China's Xinjiang region, where President Xi Jinping ordered officials to act with "absolutely no mercy" against separatism and extremism, The New York Times reported.

Human rights groups and outside experts say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been rounded up in a network of internment camps across the far-western region.

The 403 pages of internal papers obtained by the Times provide an unprecedented look into the highly-secretive Communist Party's controversial crackdown, which has come under increasing international criticism, especially from the United States.

The documents include previously unpublished speeches by Xi as well as directives and reports on the surveillance and control of the Uighur population, the newspaper said on the weekend.

The leak also suggests that there has been some discontent within the party about the crackdown.

The documents were leaked by an unnamed member of the Chinese political establishment who expressed hope that the disclosure would prevent the leadership, including Xi, from "escaping culpability for the mass detentions", the Times said.

In a 2014 speech to officials made after militants from the Uighur minority killed 31 people in a train station in southwestern China, Xi called for an all-out "struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism" using the "organs of dictatorship," and showing "absolutely no mercy", according to the daily.

The internment camps expanded rapidly following the appointment in 2016 of a new party chief in Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo.

Chen, according to the Times, distributed Xi's speeches to justify the crackdown and urged officials to "round up everyone who should be rounded up".

Reputed within the party for his handling of minority groups, Chen earlier led iron-fisted policies aimed at crushing dissent in Tibet.

The trove of leaked documents included a guide to answering questions from students who had returned home to Xinjiang to find their families missing or detained in camps.

Officials were instructed to say the students' family members had been infected with the "virus" of extremist thinking and needed to be treated before "a small illness becomes a serious one".

China's foreign ministry and the Xinjiang regional government did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment.

'Black and white' confirmation

The documents also shed light on the party's punishment of one official, Wang Yongzhi, who was investigated from 2017 to 2018 for disobeying party orders.

Wang released on his own initiative more than 7,000 people from camps in Xinjiang, and feared that "rounding up so many people would knowingly fan conflict and deepen resentment", according to a confession by Wang leaked to the Times.

China, after initially denying the camps, has described them as vocational schools aimed at dampening the allure of Islamist extremism and violence through education and job training.

But rights groups and foreign media, including AFP, have reported that official documents and satellite images show the facilities are equipped and run like prisons.

The leak "confirms in black and white, in the party's own words, its conscious and systematic extrajudicial mass internment of Muslims in Xinjiang," said James Leibold, an expert on ethnic relations in China and a professor at Melbourne's La Trobe University.

The documents show that "there was resistance on a local level" with local officials who disagreed with the policy facing punishment or being purged, Leibold told AFP.

Additionally, he said, the fact that the documents were leaked is "a significant indicator that there are many inside the party who think this is an unwise policy and wish to hold Xi Jinping and Chen Quanguo accountable".

Japan scraps cherry blossom party amid Abe cronyism criticism

Yahoo – AFP, November 13, 2019

The annual cherry blossom party has drawn an increasingly large
number of guests (AFP Photo/Toru YAMANAKA)

The Japanese government said Wednesday it would scrap next year's annual cherry blossom party after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came under fire amid claims he invited too many of his own supporters.

The publicly funded event has taken place in a Tokyo park since 1952 to honour people for their achievements, with the great and the good of Japanese political life mingling under the world-famous cherry blossom trees.

But opposition politicians have taken aim at Abe, claiming he brought along 850 supporters from his local constituency for the festival reportedly costing around 55 million yen ($504,000) from the public purse.

In a surprise announcement, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the government had "listened to various opinions" and as a result decided to shelve next year's party.

Suga also pledged the government would "clarify the criteria for inviting guests and make the invitation process transparent."

The number of guests invited to the event is steadily increasing and so is the budget.

Local news agency Kyodo News said about 18,000 people took part this year -- up from between 7,000 and 10,000 from before Abe came to power in 2012.

The 55 million yen spent last year is also nearly double the budget from 2014, Kyodo added.

Japan's cherry blossom ("sakura") season is eagerly anticipated by locals and visitors alike.

The season is traditionally celebrated with "hanami", or viewing parties, in cherry blossom hotspots, with picnics organised beneath the trees.

In general, blooms begin as early as March in the southern island of Kyushu and appear as late as May in northernmost Hokkaido.

Uighur researchers say China running more camps than known

Yahoo – AFP, Shaun TANDON, November 12, 2019

Two women decorate a grave in a Uighur graveyard on the outskirts of Hotan
in China's northwestern Xinjiang region in May 2019 (AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

Uighur activists said Tuesday they have documented nearly 500 camps and prisons run by China to detain the ethnic group, alleging that China could be holding far more than the commonly cited figure of one million people.

The East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, a Washington-based group that seeks independence for the mostly Muslim region known to China as Xinjiang, gave the geographic coordinates of 182 suspected "concentration camps" where Uighurs are allegedly pressured to renounce their culture.

Researching imagery from Google Earth, the group said it also spotted 209 suspected prisons and 74 suspected labor camps for which it would share details later.

"In large part these have not been previously identified, so we could be talking about far greater numbers" of people detained, said Kyle Olbert, the director of operations for the movement.

"If anything, we are concerned that there may be more facilities that we have not been able to identify," he told a news conference in suburban Washington.

Anders Corr, an analyst who formerly worked in US intelligence and who advised the group, said that around 40 percent of the sites had not been previously reported.

Rights advocates have generally estimated that China is detaining more than one million Uighurs and members of other predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnicities.

But Randall Schriver, the top Pentagon official for Asia, said in May that the figure was "likely closer to three million citizens" -- an extraordinary number in a region of 10 million people.

Olbert said that archive imagery from alleged camp sites showed consistent patterns -- steel and concrete construction over the past four years along with security perimeters.

He said that the group tried to verify the nature of each site with on-the-ground accounts but declined greater detail, citing the need to protect sources.

A Uighur man carries chicken from an underground oven at a restaurant in Hotan

in China's northwest Xinjiang region in May 2019 (AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

'Like boiling a frog'

Activists and witnesses say China is using torture to forcibly integrate Uighurs into the Han majority, including pressuring Muslims to give up tenets of their faith such as praying and abstaining from pork and alcohol.

Olbert described China's policy as "genocide by incarceration," fearing that Uighurs would be held indefinitely.

"It's like boiling a frog. If they were to kill 10,000 people a day, the world might take notice," he said.

"But if they were just to keep everyone imprisoned and let them die off naturally, perhaps the world might not notice. I think that's what China is banking on," he said.

China has justified its policy after first denying the camps, saying that it is providing vocational training and coaxing Muslims away from extremism. Hundreds died in 2009 riots in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi that largely targeted Han Chinese.

The United States has likened China's treatment of Uighurs to Nazi Germany's concentration camps but an increasingly strong Beijing has faced limited criticism outside the West.

China last month secured a statement at the United Nations by nations including Russia, Pakistan and Egypt -- which have all faced criticism of their own records -- that praised Beijing's "remarkable achievements in the field of human rights."

The Uighur activist group said it periodically added data including on the destruction of cemeteries in Xinjiang, which was documented in an investigation last month by AFP using satellite imagery.

The movement said it had unsuccessfully asked the State Department for satellite data in hopes of improving its information sources.

Myanmar faces genocide lawsuit at top UN court

Yahoo – AFP, November 11, 2019

Gambia has filed a lawsuit against Myanmar to force it "to cease and desist
from its genocidal acts" against Royingya victims (AFP Photo/MUNIR UZ ZAMAN)

The Hague (AFP) - Myanmar faced accusations of genocide in a landmark lawsuit filed by Gambia at the UN's top court on Monday over the Southeast Asian nation's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, Gambia's government said.

Gambia said it was acting on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in bringing the case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

The lawsuit accuses mainly Buddhist Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through a brutal military campaign targeting the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

The 2017 crackdown forced 740,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh, in violence that United Nations investigators say amounts to "genocide".

"The Gambia is taking this action to seek justice and accountability for the genocide being committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya," Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said in a statement.

The court is expected to hold its first hearings in December on Gambia's request for urgent interim measures "to protect the Rohingya against further harm", Gambia's lawyers Foley Hoag said in a statement, describing the case as "historic".

Human Rights Watch hailed the move by the tiny west African state, saying it was the "first judicial scrutiny" of Myanmar's alleged crimes against the Rohingya.

Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at HRW, said the court's "prompt adoption of provisional measures could help stop the worst ongoing abuses" in Myanmar.

The lawsuit asks the ICJ to "order Myanmar to cease and desist from its genocidal acts, to punish the perpetrators, and to provide reparations for the Rohingya victims," Gambia's justice ministry said.

It said Myanmar had failed to meet its obligations to prevent and to punish genocide, accusing it of "wanton acts of violence and malicious degradation with the specific intent of state actors to destroy the Rohingya as a group".

'Stepped up'

Mainly-Muslim Gambia said it had "stepped up" to file the case on behalf of the rest of the OIC. Tambadou is a former genocide prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and has visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.

Other legal attempts to bring Myanmar to justice over allegations of crimes against the Rohingya have so far stalled.

The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court -- a separate tribunal from the ICJ that investigates war crimes -- launched a preliminary investigation into Myanmar in 2018 but no charges have been filed yet.

UN investigators have also called on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the Hague-based ICC or to set up a tribunal, like for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but again no action has yet been taken.

The ICJ was set up in 1946 after World War II to adjudicate in disputes between UN member states.

It normally deals with issues of international law such as border disputes, but sometimes rules on alleged breaches of UN conventions such as those on terrorism or genocide.

The ICJ previously dealt with a genocide case when Bosnia brought a lawsuit against Serbia over the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

That case ended in 2007 with Serbia being held to have failed to prevent genocide during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and of failing to cooperate with war crimes tribunals.