Rangoon (AFP) - Burma 's ruling military junta on Saturday expressed its disappointment over the decision of the United Nations' highest court to give the go-ahead to proceed with a case linked to allegations of genocide against members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice in The Hague rejected all Burma's objections to a case brought by the West African Republic of The Gambia in 2019.

The decision paves the way for full court hearings on charges related to the bloody 2017 security crackdown carried out by Buddhist-majority Burma's authorities against the Rohingya.

"Burma is disappointed that its initial protests were rejected," said a statement on the Foreign Ministry's Facebook page.

He added that the military council saw that its objections were legally strong, noting that a judge had expressed an opposing opinion on one issue.

In its protest, Burma insisted that the court does not have jurisdiction that gives it the right to hear the case, and that it should dismiss the case in the early stages of the case.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled the Southeast Asian country five years ago, amid horrific reports of killings, rape and burnings.

Gambia, which is predominantly Muslim, has filed a lawsuit arguing that Burma's treatment of the Rohingya is in breach of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

About 850,000 Rohingya remain in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in March that the Burmese army's violence against the Rohingya amounted to genocide.