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Canada must do more for the Rohingya
Although the Rohingya are not combatants in the fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA, they are purposely manipulated and deliberately targeted by both sides. (File Photo: United to End Genocide/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Seven years ago, one of the world’s deadliest humanitarian crises began. It rapidly expanded this year and Canada has a role to play in helping the victims.
In 2017, the Myanmar military carried out a deadly crackdown against the Rohingya people in the country’s Rakhine State, killing at least 10,000.
Another 770,000 were forced to flee to Bangladesh where more than one million now shelter in refugee camps, including thousands who have been there since the 1990s. These survivors of attempted genocide have little prospect of returning to Myanmar, where the military solidified its power in a February 2021 coup.
An estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar. They are now caught in the crossfire of fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), a predominantly Buddhist and ethnically Rakhine rebel militia seeking autonomy in Rakhine State. On Sept. 2, the Myanmar military deemed the AA a terrorist group.
In October 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Bob Rae as special envoy to Myanmar to address the Rohingya crisis. His 2018 report offered 17 recommendations for Canadian action.
There’s been little action
Not much has happened since then but the federal government can still play a key role in protecting the Rohingya with four steps: resettling refugees in Canada; advancing international investigations into crimes by the Myanmar military and the AA; creating a Rohingya working group as recommended by Rae; and naming a new special envoy.
Although the Rohingya are not combatants in the fighting between the Myanmar military and the AA, they are purposely manipulated and deliberately targeted by both sides.
Historically, the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist Rakhine have coexisted in the region known as Arakan, now Rakhine State. This coexistence has been shaped by their understanding, respect and friendship, with both communities contributing to the shared heritage of the region.
Recently, the AA has made significant gains against the military in areas of Rakhine State where the remaining Rohingya are concentrated. It has opted for violence and hostility towards the Rohingya, instead of rebuilding cohesion and harmony.
AA commander Twan Mrat Naing has been spreading hostility against the Rohingya. In March he wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Nothing is wrong with calling Bengalis ‘Bengalis’.”
Those words are reminiscent of the Myanmar military’s language, implying the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh rather than an indigenous ethnic group with legitimate roots in the region.
For its part, the military has inflamed tensions between the Rohingya and Rakhine communities, including the recent forced recruitment of Rohingya men and boys to fight against the AA.
On May 17, an AA arson attack devastated central Buthidaung, the largest remaining Rohingya settlement. At least 24 Rohingya were killed and more than 150,000 displaced.
Myanmar’s crimes, fallout in Canada
My wife’s aunt’s home was one of many destroyed in the fire. She and her four young children have escaped to the southern part of the area, where they face daily threats from the AA.
Buthidaung, once a vibrant Rohingya city, is now devoid of its Rohingya inhabitants. The father of Abdullah, a Canadian Rohingya who lives in Kitchener, Ont., is among those who were subjected to the arbitrary arrests and detention of educated Rohingya and community leaders by the AA. Agonizingly, Abdullah knows nothing of his father’s fate.
On Aug. 5, my hometown of Maungdaw was attacked. Reports indicated the AA carried out multiple drone strikes, killing at least 400 Rohingya civilians who were attempting to cross the Naf River to neighbouring Bangladesh.
My close friend Mohammed Salim, a Rohingya humanitarian worker, tragically lost his four children when a drone strike hit the boat carrying his family. although thousands of other Rohingya did manage to reach safety in Bangladesh.
There are still thousands of Rohingya in the areas of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, now controlled by the AA which is also reportedly using Rohingya men and boys as forced labour. They face starvation due to food shortages amid the ongoing fighting.
Canada has officially recognized the crimes of the Myanmar military against the Rohingya as constituting genocide but the International Court of Justice has not finalized its decision on the issue.
Many Rohingya advocates describe the current situation as “worse than in 2017” when the military first launched a campaign against them.
The AA seems intent on finishing what was initiated by the military. The recent wave of extrajudicial killings, arson attacks and mass displacement constitutes war crimes, as well as crimes against humanity, and therefore requires independent investigation and accountability.
Appoint a new envoy
Canada has the expertise and resources to play a leading role in addressing this crisis. Given the scale of what is happening, Canada should double its support for the Rohingya. Here are four steps that the Trudeau government should take.
First, Canada must immediately appoint a replacement for Bob Rae as special envoy. Establishing that role in 2017 had enormous substantive and symbolic importance.
At a time when international action on behalf of the Rohingya has waned, a new Canadian special envoy could catalyze attention and action globally.
One obvious area where such a special envoy could lead would be in developing concrete proposals for ways to advance investigations of ongoing crimes by the Myanmar military and the recent crimes by the Arakan Army, with a particular focus on the preservation of evidence.
Second, Canada should take a leading role in referring the Arakan Army’s crimes to the International Criminal Court, as part of the court’s ongoing investigation into crimes against the Rohingya by the Myanmar military.
There are jurisdictional limitations, given that Myanmar has not ratified the ICC’s Rome Statute, but Canada could make a convincing case that the current ICC investigation – which is linked to Bangladesh being a party to the statute as well as the home of so many Rohingya refugee camps – provides an appropriate forum to consider AA crimes.
Accelerate Rohingya resettlement
Next, Ottawa should establish a program to facilitate the resettlement of Rohingya refugees to Canada, similar to what it has done for people fleeing conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
For many years it was impossible to resettle Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to any country, despite the size of the refugee population and the overcrowded conditions in the camps.
The Bangladeshi government was opposed to doing so because it was convinced that if the country became a resettlement transit point, greater numbers of refugees would come to Bangladesh. That policy is gone, so this is an opportune time for Canada to institute a serious resettlement program and press other countries to do the same.
Finally, with an eye to more effective co-ordination, Canada should establish a Rohingya working group across government, as recommended by Rae in his report six years ago.
Advancing constructive policies and programs that will make a meaningful contribution to addressing this crisis should involve at a minimum government officials working in the diplomatic, humanitarian and refugee protection spheres. There are also economic, security and military aspects.
Therefore, there needs to be a means of ensuring that a coherent agenda is developed and delivered across those departments.
The world faces many human rights and humanitarian challenges but as this crisis continues to deepen, the Rohingya cannot be forgotten. That has been their plight for far too long. It cannot continue.
This article first appeared on Policy Options and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
