MEDIA RELEASE / AVIS AUX MÉDIAS
UN’s call for genocide charges to be laid against Myanmar generals welcomed by Canadian Rohingya rights group. Now Canada needs to act under Canadian laws and charge Aung San Suu Kyi with complicity in genocide
Ottawa, August 27, 2018 – The Rohingya Human Rights Network (RHRN), a Canadian Rohingya rights organization, welcomed the announcement in a report released today by the United Nations that genocide charges should be laid against Myanmar's generals, including Myanmar commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing.
Fareed Khan, Director of Advocacy and Media Relations for the RHRN, said "Our organization and other human rights organizations have been calling for genocide charges to be laid against Myanmar's civilian and military leaders since last fall. And while this decision by the UN is a welcome development it is long overdue." He added that "Since the UN has now taken the lead on the issue of genocide the Canadian government can no longer equivocate on how it will respond to the crimes committed by Myanmar's leadership and the role of Myanmar's defacto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in those crimes."
The UN report is based on a fact-finding mission by UN investigators which took more than a year and comes on the heels of "Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day" demonstrations which were co-organized by the RHRN and other human rights and civil society groups in major cities across Canada this past weekend. "Those who spoke at the demonstrations across the country were calling on the Canadian government to be a leader on this issue and invoke the UN Genocide Convention given all the evidence available to support charges under that treaty. However, now that the UN has released its findings and called for genocide charges we and our allies will step up pressure on the Canadian government to fully support the UN report’s recommendations, as well as call on Canada to use the ‘Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act' to charge honourary Canadian Aung San Suu Kyi for complicity in the crimes which happened under her watch," said Khan.
He also noted that criminal charges against the Nobel laureate are now closer to reality since the UN blamed Suu Kyi for failing to use her "moral authority" to protect civilians, and the fact that her government "contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes" by letting hate speech thrive, destroying documents and failing to shield minorities from crimes against humanity and war crimes. "If 'a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian' as the prime minister has often said, then as a Canadian Aung San Suu Kyi needs to be charged under Canadian law," declared Khan.
The UN report was also critical of the role that social media giant Facebook played in the genocide. The UN noted that the Facebook platform was used to incite violence and hatred against the Rohingya. Facebook's response to the UN report has been to block 20 Myanmar officials and organizations identified by the UN.
Khan observed that "While Myanmar's civilian and military leaders were the ones who oversaw and directed the atrocities, Facebook also has blood on its hands and therefore Facebook executives also need to be brought to justice for the role their company played in the deaths of tens of thousands of Rohingya and the destruction of Rohingya society in Myanmar. In the face of such horrific crimes all those who were involved either directly or indirectly, including Facebook, need to be held accountable."
Since the plight of the Rohingya came to the world's attention a year ago this week more than 40,000 Rohingya civilians (including children and babies) were killed by Myanmar's miltiary, over 80,000 Rohingya women and girls were systematically gang raped, more than 40,000 Rohingya children were orphaned, over 360 Rohingya villages were completely destroyed, and more than 720,000 Rohingya became refugees and are now crammed into the largest refugee camp in the world in neighbouring Bangladesh.
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