Terrified Rohingya Muslims await chance to enter Bangladesh

The scene has played out with heartbreaking regularity as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled persecution in Myanmar and escaped to neighboring Bangladesh: terrified knots of men, women and children crossing the swollen Naf river and waiting along the border for permission to cross.

A Rohingya child sleeps inside a basket in which he was carried as a group of Rohingya fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017.  (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rohingya Muslims cross over the border into Bangladesh from Myanmar, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A Rohingya Muslim helps an elderly as they cross over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017.  (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

On Wednesday at least 2,000 exhausted and starving people waited in rice paddy fields at one border crossing for Bangladesh border guards to let them enter. Evening fell, with no permission granted.

Rohingya Muslims help another after crossing the Naf river near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rohingya women carry children and belongings and walk after having just crossed the Naf river near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

So they waited, crouched in the muddy fields. The children carried younger siblings. The elderly were helped along by relatives.

All of them were hungry and exhausted as they waited. Some collapsed. Others wept as they clung to their children.

The exodus of Rohingya Muslims started Aug. 25 when insurgents attacked dozens of police posts in Myanmar.

Rohingya Muslims cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rohingya Muslims cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rohingya Muslim children stay close to elders as they cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017.  (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

The retribution from Myanmar's authorities was swift and brutal.

Hundreds of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state have been set on fire. Fleeing Rohingya have told stories of arson and rape and shootings by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs.

The violence, which the U.N. describes as ethnic cleansing, has pushed more than 600,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Rohingya Muslims cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A Rohingya Muslim woman carries an infant child and walks with a group after crossing the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rohingya Muslims cross the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Rohingya Muslims crowd an embankment after crossing the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

An exhausted Rohingya lies on the muddy ground after crossing over from the Myanmar border into Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Groups of Rohingya Muslims cross the Naf river at the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, near Palong Khali, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Nov. 1 2017. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Myanmar heard accusations that it is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority at the top court of the United Nations, as long-awaited hearings began on Monday.

The West African country of Gambia first filed the case at the International Court of Justice in 2019, arguing a so-called “clearance operation” by Myanmar’s military in 2017 violated the 1948 Genocide Convention.

The Southeast Asian country, which has since been taken over by the military, has denied the allegations.

In his opening statements, Gambian Justice Minister Dawda Jallow said his country brought the case out of “a sense of responsibility” after its own experience with a military government. “We must use our moral voice in condemnation of oppression, of crimes against individuals, and of groups, wherever and whenever they occur,” he said, addressing a full courtroom in The Hague.

Jallow then asked about a dozen members of the Rohingya who had made the long journey to the the Great Hall of Justice to stand to be seen by the judges. They rose silently.

Myanmar launched the campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. Security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes as more than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh.

Now, some 1.2 million members of this persecuted minority are languishing in chaotic, overcrowded camps, where armed groups recruit children and girls as young as 12 are forced into prostitution. The sudden and severe foreign aid cuts imposed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump shuttered thousands of the camps’ schools and have caused children to starve to death.

“We don't have anything that human beings should have,” Yousuf Ali, who traveled from a refugee camp in Bangladesh to the Netherlands for the proceedings, told The Associated Press ahead of the hearings.

Myanmar was initially represented at the court by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who denied her country’s armed forces committed genocide, telling the ICJ in 2019 that the mass exodus of Rohingya people from the country she led was the unfortunate result of a battle with insurgents.

The pro-democracy icon is now in prison after being convicted of what her supporters call trumped-up charges after a military takeover of power.

Myanmar contested the court’s jurisdiction, saying Gambia was not directly involved in the conflict and therefore could not initiate a case. Both countries are signatories to the genocide convention, signed in the wake of World War II, and in 2022, judges rejected the argument, allowing the case to move forward.

The decision opened the door for South Africa to bring a case accusing Israel of genocide. Israel strongly denies the allegation and accuses Pretoria of providing political cover for Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Whatever the court ultimately decides in the Myanmar case will impact the South African case, Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia, told The Associated Press. “The legal test for genocide is very strict but it is possible the judges broaden the definition,” she said.

A finding of genocide would bolster the ongoing investigation and another court based in The Hague, the International Criminal Court. In 2024, the court’s chief prosecutor asked judges to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against the Rohingya. That request is still pending.

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2017, file photo, smoke rises from a burned house in Gawdu Zara village, northern Rakhine state, where the vast majority of the country's 1.1 million Rohingya lived, Myanmar. (AP Photo, File)