The world is anxiously waiting for a verdict on whether Myanmar committed genocide against its marginalised Muslim Rohingya minority.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is scheduled to convene on Thursday.
Rohingya activists say the pending judgement should haunt the minds of ASEAN leaders when they meet in the Philippines starting Sunday.
“We are waiting to see what the outcome will be on that day, the judgement for everything we have been experiencing for generations,” said a 25-year-old Yangon-based Rohingya activist who requested anonymity for security reasons.
“If they welcome people who lack basic humanity and destroyed our lives, our futures and our possessions, we will be very let down,” he added.
The Hague case dates back to 2017, when Myanmar is accused of breaching the United Nations Genocide Convention by brutalising the Rohingya.
The judgement due Thursday will weigh state culpability, not individual guilt.
Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing led the military as it spearheaded the mass killings, rape and arson targeting the Rohingya and driving nearly 750,000 into Bangladesh as refugees.
In April, Min Aung Hlaing was installed as president after elections.
ASEAN bloc members are carefully waiting for the ICJ ruling which could change their relations with Myanmar.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are scheduled to meet on Sunday(Nov15-17) in the Philippines.
On the summit agenda delegates will debate a policy of freezing Myanmar out of summits since a 2021 putsch.
