G7 leaders must take action on Burma
As the G7 world leaders prepare to debate the tariffs imposed by the U.S. administration, the Rohingya in the refugee camps in Bangladesh brace for monsoons and mudslides, and those in the blockaded villages in Burma prepare for further starvation. An estimated 81,000 women in the refugee camps are pregnant, according to the Bangladeshi Health Ministry, in the aftermath of gang rapes by Burma’s military. While several governments have expressed concern about what is happening in Burma, none has taken concrete measures commensurate with the gravity of the situation.
As a host for the G7 summit, Canada has the opportunity to play a lead role in this effort. As suggested in a recent report by Ottawa’s special envoy to Burma, Bob Rae, the G7 nations can collectively form an independent impartial mechanism to document the crimes perpetrated by the Burma Armed Forces and take Burma to an international tribunal.
Members of the G7 that have ratified the Genocide Convention can invoke it upon Bur- ma, which is also a signatory to it. The G7 can collectively impose sanctions.
On the humanitarian front, world leaders can press Burma to allow aid to the blockaded villages in Rakhine that are in near-starvation conditions. They can pledge the $950 million that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has asked for in order to sustain the refugee camps. World leaders can assist Bangladesh in curbing sex-trafficking and the expansion of extremist movements in camps. Finally, world leaders can and must formulate a long-term strategy for the protected return of the Rohingya to a protected homeland.
The G7 summit provides an opportunity for short-term collective action today. A concrete set of actions can prevent the total elimination of the Rohingya in Burma, and possible genocide of other ethnic minorities in the country, that will certainly follow if no measures are taken. Raïss Tinmaung, Montreal, Rohingya Human Rights Network