Hawzah News Agency - (New York - America) - The International Court of Justice on Thursday ordered Myanmar to take urgent measures to protect its Rohingya Muslim population from persecution and atrocities, and preserve evidence of crimes against them.

In a unanimous ruling by a panel of 17 judges, the court said Myanmar must now take all steps within its power to prevent serious harm to Rohingya , and report back within four months.

The court’s president, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, said the ICJ was “of the opinion that the Rohingya in Myanmar remain extremely vulnerable”.

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after a military-led crackdown in 2017, and were forced into squalid camps across the border in Bangladesh. United Nations investigators concluded that the military campaign had been executed with “genocidal intent”.

Mostly Muslim Gambia launched a lawsuit in November at the UN’s highest body for disputes between states, accusing Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya in violation of a 1948 convention.

At public hearings last month, lawyers for Myanmar’s accusers used maps, satellite images and graphic photos to detail what they call a campaign of murder, rape and destruction amounting to genocide perpetrated by Myanmar’s military.

The hearings drew intense scrutiny as Myanmar’s former pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi defended the campaign by military forces that once held her under house arrest for 15 years.