Bangladesh has strongly condemned Myanmar’s legal arguments at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Naypyidaw of deliberately misrepresenting the Rohingya people in an attempt to justify past atrocities and evade accountability for genocide. In an official statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka, Bangladesh criticised Myanmar’s continued use of the term “Bengalis” to describe the Rohingya during the ongoing ICJ proceedings. The ministry said the terminology was intended to portray the Rohingya as illegal immigrants and security threats, rather than as an indigenous ethnic community of Myanmar. The genocide case against Myanmar, filed by The Gambia in November 2019, resumed public hearings earlier this month and is scheduled to continue until January 29. During the hearings, The Gambia’s legal team presented evidence that Myanmar military officials used dehumanising hate speech, referring to Rohingya as “Muslim dogs” and calling for their extermination.