Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Sept. 21st, 2017

[Matthew Smith]

Thank you.

We had a high level of hope when Mr. Annan publicized his final recommendations of the commission he was heading. They are comprehensive and they cover everything from freedom of movement to recommendations to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations. Mr. Annan referred to the situation as a human rights crisis before this latest round of attacks, and so we do feel there is value.

It should be noted, however, that the Government of Myanmar, and actually, Aung San Suu Kyi's spokesperson, said publicly that they were using the Annan commission as a shield—he used that term, “shield”—and he said that whenever the government faces pressure on Rakhine State, they can invoke the Annan commission as a way to attempt to alleviate that pressure. In other words, to us it's a suggestion that they're just using this and have no intention of actually acting on it. We hope that's not the case.

Those recommendations are sound. I think the international community has some strong content there to work with in terms of moving forward. The 1982 citizenship law is a problem. The Annan commission does recommend that the government revisit it . We would go far further and suggest the Government of Myanmar really needs to amend the citizenship law. There are a number of reasons why that law is problematic, which I won't get into now, but suffice it to say that the Rohingya are effectively denied citizenship. They were collectively stripped of citizenship, and that is a root problem.

[Ahmed Ramadan]

I don't really have much to add to what Mr. Smith said, but I will say that they have been using this as a shield. I think one of the problems was that, because of what happened in October, there was no accountability. This was one thing about the Kofi Annan report, that he really was not given the mandate to deal with accountability specifically. This is something that needs to be addressed, because without that it will keep happening.

What happened was that from October to the few months after that, there was no accountability from the international community. The situation just continued as is. They rejected the UN fact-finding mission. Nothing happened to them and they became emboldened. Although all these countries' presidents are releasing statements, they're realizing that nothing is going to happen and that nothing has happened in terms of real action. From what I see, the Myanmar government has said that nobody's going to hold them accountable, so they'll do whatever they want. And that's what it looks like they're doing. It's actually made it worse, in some respects, and it's been undermined also....

It's really odd; we know that the government and the military are in complete control of the Rohingya areas. The Rohingya community itself, the leadership, and all the people inside the Rohingya, even Mr. Arkani here and the community that he represents, have entirely rejected violence even until now, and this group is killing Rohingyas in order to get members onto it. It is just very suspicious that there has to be that much force to get Rohingyas to join a group. They appear to show up when their best chance to move forward, the Kofi Annan commission, comes out. That's when they choose to do their attacks. It's very bizarre. The crackdown now has completely undermined what is going on, especially the Kofi Annan commission. It's basically just thrown it off its rails. It's very suspicious in terms of whose purpose this group is really serving. We obviously can't say for sure and for real, but these are questions we have to ask. We can't just take it at face value.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Do I have time for one more question?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

You're over time, but you can ask one if it's brief.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Well, actually, it's not brief, so I will pass. Thank you.

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

I do have one quick question that hasn't been mentioned.

How is the Bangladesh government responding in all this?

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

That was my question.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

There you go. So this is actually Ms. Khalid's question.

Mr. Smith.

[Matthew Smith]

The Government of Bangladesh right now is responding in a better way. When the attacks first started, we saw the government essentially preventing Rohingyas from entering Bangladesh. We documented some preventable deaths because of that. Some people who essentially were waiting and were without food for several days died. Some infant children died.

They are allowing people in. I did see, on the ground, Bangladesh border guards assisting Rohingyas to get to places of safety. I also witnessed average Bangladeshi citizens assisting Rohingyas who were coming and who needed help. I think moving forward, though, there are some concerns. The Government of Bangladesh and the military have announced that they will construct a refugee camp and that the Rohingyas will be denied freedom of movement. This would essentially be an internment camp. I think it's unconscionable that the authorities in Bangladesh would consider interning Rohingyas after they've survived these massacres and atrocities. I think there will need to be pressure put on the Bangladesh authorities to recognize refugee rights and to recognize the fact that refugees have rights.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much, Mr. Smith.

Mr. Ramadan, just quickly.

[Ahmed Ramadan]

The Bangladesh border was being sealed off prior to August 25, while the Myanmar military was building up troops in the area. I just wanted to point that out, because it appears that both the Bangladeshi side and the Myanmar government were aware and were planning something that was coming. We did actually send out letters to the Canadian government and other governments as well.

I know that they've opened it up now, but they were prepared for what was going on. This was not just a reaction to the coordinated attacks, as they are calling it.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Arkani, Mr. Ramadan, and Mr. Smith, thank you very much for your testimony. We greatly appreciate it.

Colleagues, forgive me. We are about two minutes over.

Enjoy question period.

The meeting is adjourned.