The incumbent military government of Myanmar has announced a new legal team to represent the country in the ongoing Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This move does not appear to have any immediate practical ramifications, but it once again highlights the crimes of the regime and gives a political opening to the opposition national unity government. Even as the domestic turmoil continues unabated in Myanmar following the illegitimate coup in February and the growing civilian resistance to the military takeover, the country has not escaped liability for its recent crimes against humanity. The case brought by the Gambia before the ICJ in 2019 is ongoing and the new regime inherits the obligation to represent itself before the court. Of course, this is especially appropriate from a moral point of view, since the instigators and perpetrators of that genocide are alleged to be the very people who went on to orchestrate the February coup — the top of the military hierarchy of the army of Myanmar. And, it is worth noting, that when the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi went before the court, it also did so with the explicit consent of the military, which even at the time retained sovereign control over the foreign affairs of Myanmar. Even with all that, however, we may still find ourselves in an awkward if amusing situation from a legal point of view, because the ICJ currently does not recognize the junta as the legitimate government of Myanmar. And so it is not clear whether it can, or whether it would be minded to, allow the military to make any changes to the official legal representation of the country before the court. However, this procedural headache, once worked through, should not really affect any of the concrete outcomes of the court. But as the chaos draws international attention to the human rights abuses of the junta of Myanmar, the situation does present a substantial opportunity for the national unity government to gain more international recognition, potentially even substantial de jure recognition as the legitimate government of Myanmar within the UN system. One of the main pillars of the national unity government is the democratically elected government that was ousted by the coup in February. This is to say that, if its leaders petitioned the court through that link, it may gain the legal right to speak for the country of Myanmar in the legal proceedings. If this is granted by the court, it would also constitute the first official recognition of the national unity government as the legal government of Myanmar under international law. Furthermore, regardless of whether it gains this recognition, the situation gives the national unity government the opportunity to well and truly put the boot into the military government politically. It is now free to provide to the court all the evidence it possesses as to exactly what happened, because what happened is that the military instigated, coordinated and executed a deliberate genocide. It could potentially gain substantial de jure recognition as the country’s legitimate government within the UN system. Dr. Azeem Ibrahim For the national unity government to go for full transparency at the ICJ is of course the morally correct thing to do. The only reticence it might have is that those among its ranks who participated in the civilian government of Myanmar since 2015 are also at least part complicit with the actions of the military over the course of the genocide. But complicity through silence in a situation where the military could dictate policy with impunity is not the same as actually carrying out the crime. Some of the older leaders of the previous democratic government will look bad and may even bear some legal liability. But overall, even those leaders should recognize that assuming responsibility for their past mistakes is at the same time the moral thing to do, the politically advantageous thing to do for their cause, and the best thing they can do for their country at this pivotal moment in its history. There is simply no excuse for personal shame to stand in the way of such an obviously good move. So, as things stand, this is an open goal for the national unity government. It now has the opportunity to draw a line under the previous government and the mistakes it made. It can announce its newest efforts to bring the Rohingya back into the national fold with something like a truth and reconciliation system, and demonstrate it is ready to govern, while also putting the junta in an internationally untenable position. Now is the time for the national unity government to be bold and seize the day. Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is a director at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington and research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute US Army War College. Twitter: @AzeemIbrahim Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view