The following media release was sent out in response to the deal announced between Bangladesh and Myanmar to repatriate Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh. ***************** MEDIA RELEASE BANGLADESH-MYANMAR REPATRIATION DEAL ENDANGERS THE ROHINGYA November 23, 2017 – Fareed Khan, a human rights activist who sponsored a petition calling on the Canadian government to strip Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honourary Canadian citizenship expressed apprehension about the deal announced by Bangladesh and Myanmar to repatriate the more than 600,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar over the past few months in the face of a Myanmar military campaign against the Rohingya that resulted in the destruction of over 300 villages, mass murder of Rohingya men, women and children, and gang rapes of Rohingya women by Myanmar soldiers. This agreement was reached without the involvement of any members of the international community and therefore should be suspect. “Since Bangladesh doesn’t have the means to host over a million Rohingya refugees in their country repatriating them to Myanmar as quickly as possible is in their interest,” Mr. Khan noted. He added that “no details of the agreement have been made public and so there is no indication whether the safety and security of the Rohingya has been guaranteed or whether there is a path to full citizenship for the Rohingya who were stripped of their citizenship by the Myanmar government in 1982.” “Since Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi refused to use the word ‘Rohingya’ in her statement about the repatriation deal it is evident that this agreement is an effort by Myanmar to stem the tide of international condemnation by trying to make the problem go away without dealing with the root cause of this crisis which is a policy of genocide against the Rohingya orchestrated at the highest levels of the Myanmar government,” said Mr. Khan. Canadian activists who have been lobbying the Canadian government to take action to help the Rohingya since atrocities first came to light in September have made it clear in meetings with MPs and Senators that Canada needs to designate what is happening in Myanmar a genocide since this would mean that provisions of international treaties would come into force that would compel Canada and other members of the international community to act. “What is happening in Myanmar is no different than the processes that the Nazi’s used to commit genocide against Jews in Germany and Europe in World War 2,” said Mr. Khan whose late wife’s father was a Holocaust survivor. Mr. Khan is a government relations and communications consultant based in the Ottawa-Gatineau region and part of a Canadian network supporting the Rohingya cause. The petition which he sponsored called on the Canadian government to take decisive action to help the Rohingya, including: * unequivocally condemning the atrocities committed by Myanmar's military and nationalist groups who have been responsible for crimes against humanity and genocide; * working with international partners and agencies to bring the perpetrators of the crimes (both military and civilian) to justice; * taking leadership in the United Nations and on the international stage to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar; * working with international partners to create a safe haven for the Rohingya in their homeland under the U.N. protocol of “Responsibility to Protect”; and * working with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and leaders of other nations to address the humanitarian crisis, and work to facilitate efforts to help those refugees who choose to settle in other countries. Mr. Khan’s petition, which has received over 45,000 signatures to date, was presented to Parliament on October 17th, but has yet to receive a formal response from the government.