'Voices being heard' Myanmar's military on trial in Rohingya genocide case at ICJ

Finally, I feel like our voices are being heard, and like something is going to happen that is positive for the community," says Monaira *.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent

She was forced to flee her home in 2017, when the military launched so-called clearance operations across Rohingya villages in Myanmar. Her brother was taken by soldiers who shot him dead and set his home on fire. "Children were thrown into the fire in front of my eyes," says Monaira, who was raped by military personnel.

She is among the survivors of the military's brutal crackdowns on Myanmar's Rohingya minority, many of whom are hoping to move closer to justice as a genocide case opened yesterday at the international court of justice (ICJ).

The case, which was filed by the Gambia, centres on operations in 2016 and 2017 that forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. "We demand justice," says Monaira, who travelled from Bangladesh to The Hague.

The proceedings are the first genocide case the UN's top court has heard at this level in more than a decade. The Gambia's justice minister told the court it was not "about esoteric issues of international law".