NIAMEY, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An OIC fund raising campaign for The Gambia to support its legal battle seeking redressal of Rohingya genocide in International Court of Justice (ICJ) drew so far US$1.2 million while the West African nation said it urgently needed $5million to pay the lawyers.
Officials at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the grouping of 57 countries having large Muslim populations, General Secretariat said Bangladesh appeared to be the largest contributor to the fund donating half a million dollar of the US$ $1.2 million.
They said Saudi Arabia disbursed US$300,000, Turkey, Nigeria and Malaysia each deposited $100,000 while the remaining $100,000 came from Islamic Solidarity Fund, a special OIC fund.
The Gambia, on the other hand, said it immediately needed $5 million to pay a Washington-based law firm, which it engaged in the ICJ to fight the battle.
“We need $5 million right now to pay our international lawyers and support staffs,” Gambia’s Justice Minister Dawda A Jallow said in an interview on the sidelines of a OIC foreign ministers conference (CFM) last week in Niger.
The Gambian minister said his country so far managed to pay the firm only US$ 300,000, an amount which is less than 10 percent of the bill.
Jallow estimated that the eventual cost to run the legal battle was likely to be over $10 million until getting the final verdict at ICJ.
The CFM meeting witnessed both Gambia and Bangladesh making a strong plea to rally fellow OIC states financial support for the case while the general secretariat of the grouping opened a special account to receive contributions.
Bangladesh currently hosts over 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar district that borders Myanmar’s Rakhine state, their homeland which these forcibly displaced people fled since August 25, 2017 after the Buddhist-majority country’s military launched against them a ruthless crackdown.
In November last year, being backed by the OIC Gambia filed the case in ICJ accuse Myanmar of spearheading the genocide while Canada and the Netherlands stood by the West African nation at the court.
As its subsequent measures The Gambia submitted to the ICJ over 500 pages of legal and factual argumentation, supported by over 5,000 pages of annexed evidentiary materials as well as several video files, satellite imagery, maps and figures.
The Gambian justice minister said that his country gathered evidence from Tweeter and Facebook as part of its efforts to gather proof to support the case through two lawsuits in US courts.
The ICJ in The Hague on Jan 23 under unanimous decision ordered provisional measures to prevent further acts of genocide against the Rohingyas in Myanmar as the case was underway.
