Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland is urging Myanmar’s military to work alongside leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stop the ongoing persecution of that country’s Rohingya minority.
“Appreciating their shared responsibility to lead the fledgling democracy of Myanmar, Canada firmly reminds State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the military leadership of their duty to work together and act responsibly in the face of the current humanitarian crisis,” Freeland said in a statement Thursday.
The Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority, have long faced persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma.
“The violence must end now,” Freeland said. “The Rohingya should be respected and recognized in the country. To deny their rightful place in Myanmar only weakens the democratic vision Aung San Suu Kyi has fought so hard for throughout her life.”
According to the United Nations, 164,000 Rohingya have fled from western Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since Aug. 25, after attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security posts sparked brutal military “clearance operations” that have left an estimated 400 people dead. In this ongoing humanitarian crisis, the refugees join tens of thousands more who fled their homes in Myanmar following a wave of violence in 2012.
Because of her years as an outspoken human rights activist, Suu Kyi has come under intense international fire for failing to defend the Rohingya.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of six honorary Canadian citizens, became Myanmar’s de facto leader following a 2015 general election that ended decades of military rule in the Southeast Asian nation. Myanmar’s constitution, penned in 2008 by its then military leaders, however, bars the former opposition leader from assuming the country’s presidency. Moreover, the constitution puts the powerful military, which has been blamed for perpetrating much of the violence against the Rohingya alongside Buddhist mobs, beyond the control of the country’s civilian government.
The Conservatives had earlier slammed the Liberal government for not directly admonishing Suu Kyi for the violence perpetrated against the Rohingya.
“I have raised the plight of the Rohingya people thirteen times in the Commons,” Deputy Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Garnett Genuis said in a prepared statement released Thursday. “The Liberal Government has consistently failed to adequately address this issue vis-à-vis the Government of Burma and its head, Aung San Suu Kyi, an honorary Canadian citizen.”
“Rohingya Muslims face escalating violence in Rakhine State and elsewhere in Burma, and yet not only has the government of Aung San Suu Kyi not stopped the violence, but our Prime Minister has failed to publicly call on her to do so,” Genuis wrote. “The violence has gone on for far too long, and Canada should be a leader when it comes to standing up for freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout the world.”
Canada announced Thursday that it had sent $1 million to assist humanitarian efforts in the region. But speaking to reporters on Thursday following a two-day Liberal caucus retreat in Kelowna, B.C., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau avoided answering questions about whether Suu Kyi’s silence regarding the Rohingya should be condemned and whether or not her honorary Canadian citizenship should be revoked.
“The situation in Myanmar is extremely preoccupying to us, to Canadians,” Trudeau said. “The minorities that have been attacked and affected and are fleeing for their lives need to be defended and supported. When Aung San Suu Kyi was in Ottawa [in June], I expressed our deep concern for the situation the Rohingya were in then and we continue to put pressure on the Myanmar government and all authorities to take concrete action to deescalate this terrible conflict and to help those who are fleeing this terrible humanitarian conflict.”
With files from CTV National News Ottawa correspondent Omar Sachedina and The Associated Press
