Arakan News Agency
Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Special Envoy to Myanmar Bob Rae are expected to visit the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar early May, reports Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail yesterday.
They are scheduled to visit a Rohingya refugee camp and witness firsthand the effects of the displacement of nearly 700,000 Rohingya, who have fled army atrocities in Myanmar’s Arakan state into Bangladesh since late August last year.
The anticipated visit comes after Bob Rae, also a former Ontario premier and Liberal MP, published a report on the Rohingya crisis earlier this month where he called on Canada to lead an international effort to investigate “clear evidence” that crimes against humanity were committed against the minority group.
Rae said the crisis bears the hallmarks of genocide, and that the investigation should not exclude any Myanmar officials — even Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been globally criticised for her silence on the crisis, reports The Globe and Mail.
Rae also urged the Canadian government to push for the Rohingya crisis to be addressed at multiple international forums, including the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) foreign ministers’ meeting in Dhaka in early May and during Canada’s presidency of the G7. Canada is playing host to G7 foreign affairs and security ministers in Toronto until today, ahead of the leaders’ summit in Charlevoix, Que this June.
In response to the crackdown against the Rohingya, Canada targeted Major General Maung Maung Soe — the former head of the Myanmar army’s Western Command who allegedly led a clearance effort in Arakan state — under its new “Magnitsky” sanctions law aimed at human rights abusers. Canada has also provided more than $45 million in humanitarian assistance for Myanmar and Bangladesh.
