Aung San Suu Kyi’s appearance before the International Court of Justice showed what the “banality of evil” looks like

By Fareed Khan

Many have heard the term “the banality of evil".  It was coined by Hannah Arendt, a German Jew who fled Nazi Germany as Hitler rose to power, and it was the title of her 1963 book about the trial of Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann. Her premise was that not just fanatics or sociopaths commit acts of extreme evil.

The banality of evil is what the world witnessed as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi tried to justify her nation’s crimes against the Rohingya before the International Court of Justice in The Hague on December 11th and 12th.  Her lack of reaction or expressions of remorse as the genocidal crimes were described by Gambia’s representatives, and her defense of what Myanmar did, epitomized Arendt’s hypothesis in practice.

This theory is also evident in how national leaders respond to acts of evil.  In the case of Canada, the US and other Western nations, the banality of evil was present in the lack of action by the international community to halt the Rohingya genocide.  The fact that no nations took action to halt the atrocities, particularly Western nations that claim to be defenders of human rights and the rule of law, is evidence to support Arendt’s views.

Eventually it was the small African nation of Gambia that decided to hold Myanmar accountable for its crimes by filing a case at the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention.  Why it was left to a nation with limited legal resources to launch the genocide case against Myanmar is a question that needs answering, especially since Rohingya rights activists in North American and Europe have repeatedly called for a genocide case to be filed against Myanmar at the ICJ since early 2018.

The West’s failure to prevent genocide when there was sufficient warning it was going to occur, the failure to stop it when it was happening, and the failure to act to prosecute the perpetrators when ample evidence is available, means that Western claims to be defenders of the rule of law and the international order are disingenuous.

To see other examples of the banality of evil in the world today we need look no further than China’s genocide against the Uyghurs, India’s human rights atrocities and violence targeting Kashmiris and other Muslim minority communities in that nation, and the more than 50 years of oppression, atrocities, mass murder and Apartheid committed by Israel against Palestinians.  In addition, it is evident in the international community’s lack of urgent action to these egregious criminal violations of international law, and the public's unwillingness to hold governments accountable for not standing up for the values we claim to uphold, that we are collectively complicit in the crimes.

These are just a few examples which show that humanity seems to be reliving the dark parts of history, particularly the rise in the ideology of hate, that led up to the horrors of World War 2.  Yet Justin Trudeau and other world leaders do little or nothing to keep it from recurring. It is like being on the Titanic, knowing it will hit an iceberg, but the captain does nothing to change the deadly outcome.

Around the world political leaders are getting away with committing acts of evil with impunity.  People like Aung San Suu Kyi, China's Xi Jinping, India's Narendra Modi, and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu epitomize the banality of evil because they see nothing wrong  when the governments they lead commit crimes against humanity, mass murder, and even genocide. 

Yet Trudeau, and leaders of other nations claiming to defend international human rights and the rule of law, are willing to ignore these monstrous crimes, and only pay lip service to calls for justice for the victims.  Witnessing this is not only hard to believe but also infuriating, particularly given the annual public displays of “remorse” by politicians on occasions like Victims of Genocide Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Martin Luther King Jr. said the greatest sin of our time is not the destruction of the good around us by the few but the apathy of the vast majority who do nothing to stop it as it happens.  By this measure Trudeau, along with other leaders of nations claiming to be defenders of human rights, committed sins on an unimaginable scale.  

We should remember this as we come to end of the Christmas season, the season of “Peace on Earth” and showing goodwill.  And for the New Year let’s wish for a future that is far less banal, and work towards achieving it. 

© 2019 The View From Here.  © 2019 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.

Canada gave hope to the Rohingya, then failed them by not acting to stop genocide. But there’s a chance for redemption

By Fareed Khan

One of the gravest human rights issues of the past two years has been the genocide of the Rohingya at the hands of the Myanmar government.  As Canada marked Victims of Genocide Day on December 9th and Human Rights Day on December 10th, Canadians need to examine how the Canada first gave hope to the Rohingya, then cruelly failed them, and how it can now redeem itself.

 

The world was aghast in the fall of 2017 when the atrocities committed by Myanmar against its Rohingya minority came to light – acts which were labeled "ethnic cleansing", "crimes against humanity," and ultimately "genocide".  Myanmar’s crimes against the Rohingya included the mass murder of thousands of unarmed civilians, the gang rape of tens of thousands of women, and the destruction of more almost 400 villages, which caused an exodus of Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh creating the world’s largest refugee camp.

In 2017 and 2018 Canada took international leadership in the Rohingya crisis through some key initiatives.  Canada was among the first nations to condemn Myanmar's atrocities.  In November 2017 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Bob Rae as a Special Envoy to Myanmar to look into the crisis, report back, and recommend a course of action.  Following the release of Rae's final report in April 2018, Canada committed $300 million over three years for humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees (but ignored the majority of the remaining 17 recommendations).

As host of the G7 summit in 2018 Canada put the Rohingya issue on the agenda, and raised it in other international forums.  In addition, Canada used Magnitsky Act sanctions against a number of Myanmar's military officials, and supported the work of Canadian human rights jurists and organizations who filed legal briefs at the International Criminal Court in The Hague regarding the crime of forced deportation of Rohingya.

In the fall of 2018 Canada's Parliament passed two unanimously supported motions which officially acknowledged the atrocities committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya as "genocide" (the first nation in the world to do so).  Subsequently, Parliament also revoked the honourary Canadian citizenship conferred on Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2008, and expressed its opposition to the repatriation of any Rohingya back to Myanmar without guarantees of safety and security.

But that is where Canada's leadership on the Rohingya crisis ended.

Despite repeated calls by the Rohingya Human Rights Network and other human rights organizations, Canada took no action at the United Nations to protect the more than 500,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar still being subjected to genocide.  Most importantly, since the beginning of 2018, Canada has been deaf to the many Canadian human rights voices, calling on the government to live up to its international treaty obligations by filing a complaint against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, despite the support shown for this action in a petition signed by more than 75,000 people.

For more than a year and a half the Canadian government has refused to live up to its international legal obligations by filing a genocide case against Myanmar at the ICJ, notwithstanding that this proposed action has the support of a third of the Senate, MPs from all parties, and human rights and civil society organizations.

The small West African country of Gambia has taken the lead in seeking justice for the Rohingya by filing a case for genocide against Myanmar at the ICJ.  The opening statements were made by the legal team from Gambia on December 11th.  The same day, disgraced Nobel Peace Prize laureate made an opening statement on behalf of Myanmar by trying to refute allegations that her nation committed genocide against the Rohingya, despite the overwhelming evidence available to prove otherwise.

Rohingya from around the world travelled to The Hague to be present on this historic occasion, to say thank you to Gambia, to stand in solidarity with that nation for taking on the genocide case against Myanmar, and to stand in defiance of Aung San Suu Kyi who has transformed from a human rights defender into someone complicit in genocide.  Rohingya were in The Hague to show her and the world that they will not be silenced, they will not be intimidated, or forgotten, despite the horrors and atrocities that have been inflicted on them by the Myanmar government, recently and over the past four decades.

There are also Rohingya Canadians who traveled to The Hague to stand shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters.  They did this to send a signal to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that if Canada wants to be a “rule of law” nation and defender of human rights, as he and former Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland have so often stated, then they should take lessons from Gambia, which is living up to its legal responsibilities under the genocide convention, and defending the human rights of the Rohingya.  Where Canada has offered platitudes and slogans with no actions behind the words, Gambia is offering a real hope for justice.

However, Canada does have a path to redemption.  If the prime minister wants to show that Canada is truly a defender of the rules-based international order and human rights, then he needs to instruct Canadian officials to take actions which will allow Canada to become a party to Gambia’s genocide case.  All those who have been lobbying the government to stop the genocide in Myanmar, which continues to this day, still want Canada to participate in the genocide case, and put its legal expertise and international weight behind this prosecution in a substantive way. 

Words of support for the Rohingya are cheap, and Rohingya activists and their allies have heard far too many words from the Canadian government followed by too little action.  It is actions that matter.  Especially when it comes to helping those Rohingya who have survived genocide, and those who continue to be subjected to it. 

Sitting on the sidelines is not an option.  Canada needs to show leadership and join Gambia in prosecuting the Rohingya genocide at the ICJ.  Because to be a leader on the international stage requires action, and now is the moment to act and demonstrate Canadian leadership in a case where justice for survivors of genocide is the goal.  Words are important, but actions always matter more.

© 2019 The View From Here.  All Rights Reserved.