About 200 Myanmar nationals living in Europe, Canada and Australia will rally in The Hague to support Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday and Thursday, says its organiser.
The crowd plans to chant “May Daw Aung San Suu Kyi be healthy” and “Long live Daw Aung San Suu Kyi” as the leader enters the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to contest allegations of genocide brought against Myanmar.
Poe Phyu Thant, a London-based strategic analyst who was raised in Yangon, said she organised the rally because only the State Counsellor has the ability to “solve the sensitive and complicated politics” of her country.
“This rally is to honour her integrity, bravery, and contributions, and effort for Myanmar’s democracy, human rights and rule of law and also to state our belief in her will never be changed and we will always follow her leadership,” Poe Phyu Thant wrote in an email to Myanmar Mix.
Aung San Suu Kyi is widely revered by Myanmar and its diaspora as the Nobel Peace laureate who made deep personal sacrifices in her decades-long battle to wrest power from the military in the name of democracy.
Since her office announced she would personally lead her country’s defence in the ICJ case, little domestic attention has been paid to the substance of the accusations. Instead, the focus is on Suu Kyi and national unity.
But the leader’s defence of the Myanmar Army’s brutal campaign against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state has driven her international reputation to its nadir.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and thousands were allegedly raped and murdered in 2017. The government, army and many people in Myanmar consider the Rohingya as Bengali interlopers.
The government justified the crackdown by saying Tatmadaw troops were responding to attacks on a border post, carried out by an insurgency known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
West African country The Gambia filed a case on November 11 on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation accusing Myanmar of violating the Genocide Convention 1948.
Poe Phyu Thant said compatriots have offered about 60 demonstrators accommodation around the Netherlands. She expects counter protests in the Dutch city supporting the ICJ case.
“Most foreigners have an incomplete snapshot of Myanmar in mind,” she said. “Their perception is mainly driven by a narrative produced by mainstream medias that left out many of the important details. If you have ever been to Myanmar, you would have discovered that we are a friendly people from a beautiful land.”
With conflict between the Myanmar army and ethnic armed groups threatening people in the borderlands, she hopes the case will show her country also needs support in other areas.
“For a country divided on all fronts, Aung San Suu Kyi is our only hope since she is almost universally respected in Myanmar. But the roots of my country's problems run deeper than you can imagine,” she said.
“I can understand that some people are getting impatient, but I think she is still our best bet. That's why we are here today to show our support. And we would be very grateful if our foreign friends could understand the complexity of the situation and be a little more patient.”
