Demonstrators at Yangon University called for Myanmar’s military leaders to face justice for crimes against civilians on Thursday, as a top lawyer hired to defend the generals against genocide charges gave a lecture there.
Professor William Schabas, who defended Myanmar at the UN’s highest court at The Hague in December, gave a talk to law students at the university’s Convocation Hall as about 20 protestors chanted and waved placards outside.
The Canadian genocide scholar, who once condemned Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya and compared their situation to that of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, has rejected calls to quit the defence team.
The demonstrators waved banners reading “Hell hounds still at large!” and describing State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi as “Madam Agent,” a reference to her role as agent during December’s hearing at The Hague.
Nyi Zaw, one of the protestors and chairman of the University of Yangon Students’ Union, said Schabas’s lecture was a bid by the government to spread its propaganda on campus.
Aung Phone Maw, the union’s education research officer, told reporters it was pointless the host a lecture about genocide while the military goes unpunished for grave crimes, such as the 2017 massacre at Inn Din.
Ten Rohingya men and boys were stabbed and shot to death by soldiers during the incident, which was uncovered by two Reuters reporters who were later jailed for their reporting.
“We need immediate justice,” Aung Phone Maw said. “We need action against these military leaders. Discussing genocide without taking action against them is to deny justice to people who lost their lives or homes in the killing fields.”
Pyae Sone Aung, another protestor, told Myanmar Now: “The Lady who stood against the military junta has become a military agent.”
The small African nation of The Gambia brought the case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, alleging the military committed genocide against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in 2017.
Several senior politicians attended Thursday’s lecture. They included education minister Myo Thein Gyi, minister for the office of the state counsellor Kyaw Tint Swe, and Yangon region parliamentary speaker Tin Maung Tun.
Reporters were not allowed inside.
