With the world’s attention focussed
on other international crises, it seems like the plight of the Rohingya no longer
matters to nations like Canada which claim to be defenders of the so-called “international
legal order.”
In September
2018 Canada took leadership on the world stage when it became the first country to recognize Myanmar’s
atrocities against the Rohingya minority in that country as genocide. As violence
against the Rohingya continued in Myanmar, Canada was thanked by Rohingya around the
world for showing leadership, and there was hope that the federal Liberal government
of Justin Trudeau would play a leading role on the world stage to help prevent further
genocidal atrocities against the minority.
But as Rohingya world wide marked
the seventh anniversary of Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day on August 25 this year,
Canada has not only demonstrated hypocrisy around its frequent claims to being a
“rule of law” nation and defender
of international human rights, it has also demonstrated its abject failure to defend
those rights by doing little of substance to address any of the underlying issues
around the Rohingya genocide despite promises to do so on multiple occasions since
2017.
Seven years
after the most recent genocidal violence experienced by the Rohingya, something
which is the culmination of genocidal policies implemented over
the past four decades, Canada has shown that it is not interested in addressing
the root causes of genocide.
The inaction
of Canadian leaders gives the impression that they seem to care little that more
than 400 Rohingya villages were destroyed, thousands of Rohingya women were gang raped, or that thousands
of men, women and children were butchered by the Myanmar military.
Seven years of
genocide
Since 2017, the political situation
in that region of the world has changed. The military is back in control in Myanmar
after a 2021 coup, while the Rohingya
in the remaining villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are being subjected to new atrocities.
Recently approximately
200 people were killed by drone strikes as they tried to flee on boats in the Bay of
Bengal. Also, over the preceding months dozens of Rohingya villages
were destroyed as Buthidaung township became a battleground for the Myanmar
military and a rebel group called the Arakan Army, with the Rohingya
caught in between the two forces, and many being forced to flee for their safety.
The situation
in Bangladesh is also different given the recent regime change that ousted former
prime minister Sheikh Hasina. But this means little for the more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees
who are wasting away in the largest refugee camp in the world in that country, with
little prospect of returning
to their homeland.
With the world’s attention focussed
on other international crises, it seems like the plight of the Rohingya no longer
matters to nations like Canada which claim to be defenders of the so-called “international
legal order.”
The ‘rule of
law’ hypocrisy
Canada and its allies have shown
that the international rule of law matters little where it doesn’t serve the political agendas of the West. When they had the opportunity to uphold the foundations
of the United Nations – the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the Genocide Convention – they chose
to do as little as possible or nothing at all where the people facing danger were
racialized.
Another example of Canadian hypocrisy
and failure to act is related to the genocide case filed by Gambia against Myanmar in November
2019. Despite past calls by Rohingya activists
and Canadian human rights organizations for Canada to file a case against Myanmar
at the International Court of Justice it was the tiny African nation of Gambia that
stepped up and took leadership on the issue.
Since then
Canada’s foreign affairs minister has issued media statements on three separate
occasions saying it would support Gambia’s case but has failed to follow through each time. To Canadian
Rohingya activists it appears that this nation’s
leaders are more interested in getting good PR on the international stage than helping
to prosecute Myanmar for its genocidal crimes.
Canada’s disinterest
in preventing or stopping genocide has become very evident over the years with its
unwillingness to take action against China in the genocide of its
Uyghur minority, its failure to take action or at a minimum condemn the 10-month-long
genocide of Palestinians by Israel, as well as Canada’s failure in the 1990s to do anything to help prevent the Rwandan Genocide
or the genocide of Muslims in the Balkans. Judging from the inaction of Canadian
leaders it seems Canada is more interested in showing humanity and expressing sympathy
for genocide victims after the fact than preventing or stopping crimes from taking
place.
By relegating the Rohingya genocide
to the back burner of Canada’s foreign affairs agenda this nation’s leaders have
failed again to serve the cause of human rights and international rule of law, as
they have so many times in the past, and continue to do in the face of the Palestinian
genocide.
In doing so
they demonstrate the racism of Canada’s foreign policy, and that preventing or prosecuting
genocide is not really a priority for this country.
FAREED KHAN
Fareed Khan is
the founder of Canadians United Against Hate and has written and commented extensively
about issues around racism and human rights. More by Fareed Khan
RAISS TINMAUNG
Raiss
Tinmaung is a Canadian Rohingya activist and co-founder of the Rohingya Human
Rights Network. More by Raiss Tinmaung
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