Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. A Voice for Justice for Rohingyas, Rwandans and Gambians Carol Guensburg Protecting vulnerable people "is a question of our humanity, over and above anything else,"AbubacarrTambadousays. That beliefmotivatedTambadou, as attorney general and justice minister ofthe Gambia since early 2017, to set up an ongoing commission to investigate crimes allegedly linked toformer presidentYahya Jammeh.Ithas alsoled him to spend more than adecadeprosecutingatrocitiesinthe1994 Rwandan genocide. And last November, it prompted him -- onbehalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation --tofile a case with theInternational Court of JusticeaccusingBuddhist-majorityMyanmar ofattempting to commitgenocide against its ethnic Rohingya Muslim population.The Asian country Friday filed its first court-mandated report onits government's and military's efforts to comply with emergency provisional measuresto protectRohingyas,preserveevidence of any crimes against them, and to facilitate their repatriation. The 47-year-oldTambadou, speaking to VOA Sunday from his residence in Gambia's capital, Banjul, called the filing "a positive development that Myanmar continues to engage with the court on this matter." He said it demonstrates that the government "is acting as a responsible member of the international community." History of persecution Excluded from citizenshipin 1982, Rohingya Muslims have facedpersecution andspasms of violence for decades. But in August 2017, more than 700,000Rohingyafledfrom Rakhine stateacross the border to Bangladesh,bringingwith themaccounts of massacres, extrajudicial killings, gang rapes and villages set on fire by Burmese military and civilianmilitants.Myanmarcharacterized itscrackdownas aresponse to insurgent attacks on security posts. The Gambia's legal teamhad sought the emergency measures to protect the estimated 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in Myanmar,goaded by a September 2019 [1]U.N.report that found "a serious risk that genocidal actions may occur or recur." In January, theICJ-- the United Nations' top court -- granted the request, requiring Myanmar to file periodic reports on its efforts to comply. The court'sfinal decision in the case could take years. Tambadousaid he and his legal team -- led by the Washington firm Foley Hoag -- have received a copyof the filing.Myanmar andtheICJcoulddetermine whether to revealthe report'scontents before the genocide case goes to trial, he said. Myanmar's foreign ministry said the report is confidential, VOA's Burmese Service reported Sunday. The country has at least overtly suggested new safeguards.In April, the Myanmar governmentissued presidential directives ordering "all ministries and all regions and state governments" to ensure against acts of genocide and to preserve evidence. Friday,Myanmar Army spokesmanBrigadier GeneralZawMin Tun said at a news conferencethatthe militarywas cooperating with the government-formed Independent Commission of Inquiry's recommendations to share information on investigations and to set up transparent courts martial of security forces alleged to have committed crimes.The commission had found no evidence of genocide. A chancevisit Tambadou'sinvolvement in the Rohingya case was a matter of happenstance. A committee of the OIC, which represents 57 countries with significant Muslim populations, had been contemplating action against Myanmar since 2018. It choseTambadouas its chair after he had filled in at the last minute for the Gambia's foreign minister on anOIC delegation visit to Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar district in southeastern Bangladesh. "When I visited the refugee camps in Bangladesh, in talking with witnesses, I was convinced that what I was hearingwas genocide,"Tambadousaid of his May 2018 trip. Following the U.N. fact-finding report in September 2019, the committee decided the Gambia should file the case. LikeTambadou, Simon Adams, theexecutive director of the Global Centrefor the [2]Responsibility to Protect, toldVOA he also saw Myanmar's filing as "a very positive thing. Butwe'vestill got a long way to go. Those discriminatory laws and policies are still in place. There's still 1 million Rohingya refugees sheltering in nearby Bangladesh who want to come home." Adams praisedTambadouand his country forsupporting the Rohingyas. "Look, any state that is a signatory to the[1948] GenocideConvention could have brought this case forward, but they didn't. It took tiny Gambia, the smallest country in Africa," he said."'¦ There's so few states who actually have the intestinal fortitude, the political vision and the determination to take a case like this forward." Measures at home Tambadou, who studied law in Britain,also is engaged in areckoning at homein the Gambia. Its independent [3]Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission began publicly televisedhearings last year into alleged crimes committed under Jammeh, president fromlate1996 into January 2017. As [4]Human Rights Watch notes, Jammeh is accused of ordering the torture and killing of political opponents, the murders of 56 West African migrants, andthedetention of hundreds of women. He also is suspected of raping some women brought to him. Tambadouspokeaboutthe ICJ case on the Rohingyas, therecentarrest of a long-sought fugitive alleged to have financed the Rwandan genocide, the Gambia's commission -- and the human rights issues that tie them together. His comments have been edited for length and clarity. What are you looking for in Myanmar's report to the ICJ? Three key things.We are looking for a demonstration by Myanmar of action it has taken to prevent the commission of genocide;demonstration that it has refrained from committing genocide;and [an account]of what measures it has taken to preserve evidence. Is the Gambia legal team also monitoring the ground situation in Myanmar? We are doing so through a variety of sources.And hopefully we will have a basis to confirm what Myanmar has just submitted to the court. To what extent is the COVID-19 pandemic an issue in the case? Does itadd any urgency? COVID-19 is a serious matter. It has not only impacted our ability to prepare fully for submission within the deadline given to us by the court.[The ICJ has granted three-month extensions to both Myanmar's and the Gambia's legal teams.]But we are thinking about the potential devastating consequences it could have on the Rohingyas both in Myanmar and in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. How has your experience as a prosecutor with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda shaped your understanding of the signs of genocide? I have spenta decade and a half as a prosecutor at thetribunal. I have been involved in the cases of accused persons, including the former chief of staff of the Rwandan Army General AugustinBizimungu. I have met hundreds if not thousands of witnesses, including perpetrators and victims. The fact that there was a historical dehumanization of the Rohingya, the fact that there was prejudice, there was suspicion, there was mistrust-- allof those are signs of genocidal intent. And then when you matchthat rhetoric with action on the ground,the modus operandi,the collaboration between the military and civilians, the torching of houses, the burning of little children, the sexual violence against women, the execution of unarmed civilian men --all of these point strongly to the fact that the authorities in Myanmar did want to destroy in whole or in part the Rohingya. What does theMay 16arrest of Rwandan fugitive Felicien Kabuga in France mean to you? This is a triumph of international justice and accountability mechanisms that have been put in place by the United Nations.This is good news for both the international community and the victims of the Rwanda genocide. Kabuga will have his day in court. The Gambia's Truth,Reconciliation and Reparations Commission is in its second year of public hearingson alleged crimes during the military junta. What is your role? The commission was established to first ensure that there is an accurate historical account of events '¦ during former president Jammeh's rule but also to identify for prosecution those who bear the greatest responsibility for these crimes. This is the first truth commission around the world with such a mandate. The proceedings have also been interrupted by COVID-19. Butwe'rehoping that this is going to be the final year. '¦ AndI'mhappy that the victims are finding answers and closure to several questions that they've had about the disappearance of their loved ones. I am the minister responsible for the truth commission process. Why do you -- and, by extension, the Gambia -- care aboutwhat'shappening to the Rohingya? Why should anyoneelsecare? This is about our humanity. What is happening to the Rohingya is horrendous.It'sappalling. The international community failed in Rwanda back in 1994, leading to at least 800,000 deaths. We are again failing in today's world as we see what is going on in Myanmar against the Rohingya and we do nothing to stop it. I thinkit'sour moral obligation.It'sour human obligation to do something about it.Andthere'sno better way to condemn what is going on in Myanmar than to go to the world's highest court. VOA's Burmese Service and Jason Patinkin ofVOA's English to Africa Service contributed to this report. References 1. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1046442 2. https://www.globalr2p.org/ 3. http://www.trrc.gm/ 4. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/04/gambia-commission-uncovers-ex-dictators-alleged-crimes .